When Gong Sun walked into the SCI office with the autopsy report, he felt that the atmosphere was a little strange. Everyone was bowing their heads and minding their own business, as if they were a little restrained and uncomfortable, unlike the past when they used to talk and laugh. Gong Sun went in and asked Zhao Hu who was near the entrance, "What are you doing?"
Benjamin, who sat not far away from Zhao Hu and was casually flipping through a magazine, puckered his lips.
Gong Sun turned to look at him while Benjamin looked up, and they looked at each other. Gong Sun always hated foreigners in military uniform, so he directly looked away and ignored him.
"Do you have the test results for those bones?" Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao came out of the room.
"Mm-hmm." Gong Sun nodded. "They are a bit strange."
"What's strange?" Everyone stared at him.
"There are bite marks on the bones..." Before Gong Sun had finished speaking, he saw everyone take a breath of cold air.
Gong Sun waved his hand and said, "Don't imagine weird things. It wasn't bitten by a human."
"Whew..." Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. "What had bitten the bones?"
"...Canines, probably a wolf." Gong Sun shrugged. "That's how corpses in the wild are often treated."
"What about the fatal wound on the skull?" Zhan Zhao asked.
Gong Sun nodded, "This is the interesting thing I mentioned." He waved at everyone, motioning them to follow him.
When they walked into the medical examiner's room, Benjamin followed curiously. He saw several skeletons that had been put together on the autopsy table, two of which belonged to humans while the rest belonged to animals.
"Look at these two skulls." Gong Sun pointed to the two skulls, then picked up a bone that was sharpened at one end, and said, "These two scars are caused by this one bone."
Bai Yutang took the bone and looked at it. "Did someone nail this bone into the head of the deceased?"
Gong Sun nodded. "This is a human thigh bone, but..." Gong Sun pointed to the two complete human skeletons and said, "It doesn't belong to these two."
Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao looked at each other. Zhan Zhao then asked Gong Sun, "How long have these two been dead?"
"About a year." Gong Sun said, "A man and a woman, both are very young, between the ages of 25 and 30. They are both Asian."
"What about these animal bones?" Asked Zhao Hu.
"They are all the same." Gong Sun said, taking the skulls of a few animals. "Look, the scars on the top of their skulls are the same."
Everyone was silent. Zhan Zhao seemed to be interested in the sharpened bone as he kept looking at it.
"This is TVA's execution ceremony." Benjamin, who stood on the side, suddenly opened his mouth.
Everyone looked at him and waited for him to continue.
"TVA's symbol is a wolf," Ben briefly introduced to everyone. "It is said that Karula has Indian lineage, so he worships jackals. That's why he keeps a lot of wolves in captivity. When someone betrays him or he catches people who deserves to die, he will feed them to the wolves.
Bai Yutang nodded and looked at the heads of the bodies. Zhan Zhao put the bones back on the autopsy table and said, "It is the custom of the Indians to pay tribute to the wolf gods by nailing the skull with a sharpened bone, because the jackals like to suck on the brain. However, it is troublesome to bite and break the skull, so the Indians helped the wolf gods break the skulls."
"Oh..." Everyone nodded. "So it's like that."
Benjamin smiled reluctantly and nodded to Zhan Zhao. "You are very knowledgeable."
Gong Sun was stunned and looked at Luo Tian next to him--Why is this man so bitter?
Luo Tian smiled helplessly and looked at Bai Yutang.
Gong Sun raised eyebrows and looked at Zhan Zhao--A love rival?
Zhan Zhao glanced angrily at Bai Yutang.
Bai Yutang wanted to say that he was innocent.
"Then...This case is solved?" Bai Chi suddenly said, "It's two killer organizations testing the waters. Karula used the leftover bones from his wolves' food to make props?"
Everyone looked at each other. It indeed seemed to be like that.
Bai Yutang nodded and looked at Zhan Zhao next to him, who seemed to be confused about something.
When they returned to the office, Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao were called over by Bao Zheng.
"How's the case going?" Bao Zheng asked.
Bai Yutang told him about the results of the investigation. Bao Zheng frowned and said, "Leave the Karula matter for now. I don't think he will make a move here."
"Bao Sir, how do you know?" Bai Yutang was curious, "Do you have inside information?"
"What inside information?" Bao Zheng glared at him and said, "If you want to investigate this case, I'll get in touch with Interpol. You guys can investigate other cases first."
"There have been no other cases recently." Zhan Zhao whispered.
"Isn't that a good thing?" Bao Zheng smiled. "If there is no case, then seize this opportunity to be lazy." With that, he sent them out.
Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang left the office and went to the meeting room. Bai Yutang asked, "Cat, do you still have a problem with that case?"
Zhan Zhao frowned slightly and said, "...Don't you think that if they wanted to test the waters, it is unnecessary for Karula to come here himself and use so many bones?"
Bai Yutang nodded and said, "Also, Gong Sun said just now that those human bones belonged to Asians."
Zhan Zhao touched his chin and said, "Mm-hmm...It is a bit suspicious." While they were talking, they had already reached the entrance of SCI when suddenly a small figure rushed out, hugged Zhan Zhao, put his arms around his waist and shouted, "Uncle Zhang!"
Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were stunned. Wasn't this little Luo Yang?
"Yang Yang, you're back?" Zhan Zhao reached out and touched Luo Yang's head. "Was military training interesting? You are so tanned."
"It was interesting!" Luo Yang, who had never participated in any sports since he was young, was overjoyed to participate in the summer military training camp organized by the school for the first time. He even met many kids of the same age.
Bai Yutang reached out and patted Luo Yang. "Damn kid, you only greet cat and not me!"
Luo Yang hurriedly approached with a smile and said, "Hehe, Uncle Bai."
"I bought you guys presents." Like giving a treasure, Luo Yang took out a small pendant from his bag. It was made of ceramic. Yang Yang looked in his bag and took out two for Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang.
When Bai Yutang looked at it, he saw that his was a little mouse made of white porcelain, with the word 'Tang' written on its belly. While Zhan Zhao's was a little cat with the word 'Zhao' written on its belly.
"Everyone has one!" Luo Yang happily gave Bai Chi a little rabbit, and a baby dragon with the word 'Zhen' written on it, saying, "This is for Uncle Zhen. I have already performed the trick he taught me last time for my classmates. It was awesome." With that, he found another white lion cub. "This is for Li Siben."
Gong Sun also leaned over and said, "Do I have one?"
"Yes." Yang Yang nodded and dug out another pile, giving two to Gong Sun. It was a little fox with the word "Ce" and a puppy with "Jin" written on it.
"Pft..." Bai Yutang couldn't help but laugh as he asked Luo Yang, "Is this puppy for my brother?"
"Mm-hmm." Luo Yang nodded and took out two identical little raccoons. "These two are for Big Ding and Little Ding!"
As Luo Yang distributed the gifts, everyone had all gathered around. Zhao Hu got a little tiger and Ma Han got a pony. They were all images of cute little animals. In the end, there was still a little black bear left.
"This..." Everyone laughed and said, "Is it for Bao Sir?"
Luo Yang nodded, "Isn't it cute?"
Bao Zheng sneezed loudly in his office.
Although they were cheap little things, it could be seen that the little guy was very attentive. At the thought of Yang Yang squatting next to the stall looking for small pendants that fit the images of everyone at SCI, they all imagined this scene at the same time and thought--So cute!
While the atmosphere was lively, Bai Yutang's phone rang. He picked it up and saw that it was Bai Jintang calling.
"Hello, Big Brother?" While answering the phone, Bai Yutang looked at Gong Sun, as if to ask--How come he called me and not you?
Gong Sun rolled his eyes and continued to admire the puppy.
"Oh." After listening for a bit, Bai Yutang asked Bai Chi, "Chi Chi, has Zhao Zhen's wounds healed?"
Bai Chi nodded. "The wounds are pretty much healed. The doctor said to take the medication for a period of time and get a check-up done every half a month. He will be completely cured."
"Oh," Bai Yutang replied. "He's pretty much healed."
"Ah...Okay." Bai Yutang nodded and asked everyone, "Are you guys free tonight?"
Everyone nodded and said, "Yes, of course." It seemed that Bai's brother had something to discuss, so of course everyone was free.
Bai Yutang said to Bai Chi, "Ask Zhao Zhen to join us."
"Where are we going?" Zhan Zhao was curious.
"Brother said that he had opened a new restaurant and had hired a very famous chef. They recently received a batch of good giant yellow croakers*. Brother said that we haven't had a get-together for a while, so he asked us all to go."
"Gian yellow croakers?" Zhan Zhao was excited as soon as he heard this.
Jiang Ping also said, "This fish is good stuff that you can only come across by chance."
"In that case, everyone is going!" Although Bai Yutang was asking, he had used an affirmative tone.
Everyone nodded with smiles on their faces.
Bai Yutang replied on the phone. "Hello? Brother, all of us will attend." While he spoke, he counted the number of people. Then, he saw Benjamin sitting not far away, and was slightly stunned...Bai Yutang was in a bit of a dilemma, as he did not know whether to count him or not.
Zhan Zhao, who was next to Bai Yutang, helped him to ask, "Ben, are you going?"
Ben smiled and asked, "What kind of event is it?"
Zhan Zhao said, "Yutang's older brother is inviting everyone for dinner."
Before Benjamin could speak, he heard Gong Sun say, "Yes, everyone going are from the Bai family."
Everyone stuck out their tongues. Gong Sun was not polite. It seemed that he was defending Zhan Zhao.
Ben nodded knowingly and said, "It's not convenient for me to go as you all know each other. Bai, take me back to my hotel later."
Bai Yutang nodded and said to Bai Jintang, "Brother, there are 12 of us."
Bai Jintang said, "Okay. There are just me and the twins here, so it's a total of 15 people, exactly enough for one table. Also, tell Zhao Zhen to bring Li Siben as well. I have prepared good beef."
"Okay." Bai Yutang smiled and hung up the phone. Everyone was in high spirits, as they got ready to have a big meal after work.
Bai Yutang looked at his watch and saw that it was almost time. So, he said to Ben, "Let's take you back to the hotel first."
Ben nodded and stood up. Bai Yutang said to Zhan Zhao, "Cat, you wait downstairs with Ben. I'll get the car."
"Mm-hmm." Zhan Zhao nodded.
"Um..." Benjamin smiled. "Bai, you don't need to bother Dr. Zhan, just send me yourself.
However, Bai Yutang had already ran out of the office. It was unknown whether he had heard Benjamin's remark or not.
Zhan Zhao put his hands in his pockets and walked in the direction of the elevator while saying to Ben, "We still have some things to do later."
Benjamin nodded and helplessly followed Zhan Zhao into the elevator.
"I'm going too." Bai Chi followed them in. "Brother, please take me to Zhao Zhen. I need to tell him that he can't use his mobile phone these days."
"He can't even use his phone?" Zhan Zhao was surprised.
"Mm-hmm." Bai Chi nodded. "The set of machines at his house that checks his lung function is very advanced, so the mobile phone radiation will affect the results."
Zhan Zhao nodded.
When the elevator went down, Benjamin suddenly smiled and said, "The way you guys get along with each other is interesting."
Zhan Zhao turned to look at him. "Why is it interesting?"
Benjamin thought for a moment and said, "Well, like what the medical examiner said, you guys are like a family."
Bai Chi smiled foolishly. "Yes, we are a family. Captain Bai and Dr. Zhan are the parents."
Benjamin stared at the innocent smile on Bai Chi's face, as his expression changed slightly.
Zhan Zhao did not know whether to laugh or cry. Benjamin was probably thinking too much. Bai Chi was not pretending to be pure. He really was pure, it's just...The purer a person was, the more hurtful they were.
When the three men arrived downstairs, Bai Yutang's car pulled out of the parking lot and picked them up. Out of politeness, the good boy Bai Chi opened the door of the back seat and let Benjamin go in first. "Ben, you go first." Bai Chi said.
Zhan Zhao felt helpless. Little Bai Chi was sometimes unspeakably cute.
The car started and then drove to the hotel where Benjamin stayed. Along the way, Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao were discussing about the giant yellow croaker. Bai Chi also leaned on the back of their seats, as they talked enthusiastically. From time to time, Bai Chi would chat with Benjamin.
Soon, the car arrived outside the hotel.
Benjamin got out of the car, and the three people in the car said goodbye to him. Then, Benjamin suddenly thought of something and said, "By the way, Bai, tell me your mobile number."
Bai Yutang gave him a number. Benjamin saved it on his mobile phone and pressed the dial button. Bai Yutang's phone rang. Ben said, "This is mine."
Bai Yutang nodded, took out his phone and entered Ben's name to save it. Benjamin saw clearly that there was a mobile phone charm on the Bai Yutang's phone, which was given to him by Luo Yang earlier. However, the one Bai Yutang had was not a mouse, but rather a round kitten with the word 'Zhao' on its belly. Its originally cute expression had an unspeakable cunning to it.
Bai Yutang closed his flip phone, said goodbye to Ben and drove away.
Ben, who was stood outside the hotel, saw the screen of Bai Yutang's phone when he had closed it. The screen had a photo of him and Zhan Zhao.
Ben was a little disappointed as he turned around and walked slowly into the hotel. He listlessly opened the door of his hotel room, then suddenly someone inside said, "So, did you go meet the man of your dreams?"
Ben looked up and saw a man sitting on the sofa watching TV.
"You..." Ben opened his mouth wide in surprise, then quickly closed the door and glared at the man. "You're crazy. If they find out we know each other, we will both be screwed!"
The man smiled indifferently and said, "Speaking of which, I saw the man of your dreams in the showers earlier today. He is indeed amazing...But he seems to have a lover already."
Ben poured a glass of spirit and drank it. "I knew that years ago."
The man smiled indifferently. "Don't get distracted and ruin our matter."
Ben sighed and said, "I know."
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Translator's Notes:
*Giant yellow croaker – It is also known as Chinese bahaba, and is a type of large fish.