Chapter 55: Senior

That morning, Li Zhong called Yan Tuo into the office to introduce the newcomer. “This is your new colleague—a top graduate with a master’s in psychology and an undergrad degree in fine arts. He can do offender profiling and sketch portraits. I pulled strings at the provincial headquarters to get him back here, and now he’s yours. No more bothering Dr. Zhao Tao, right? You’d better prioritize that old house burial case in the Xincheng Development Zone. The media coverage is already turning ugly.”

The young officer standing beside the director’s desk was only three or four centimeters shorter than Yan Tuo. His crisp uniform gave him a sharp, energetic look, and his chiseled features framed a pair of thick brows and bright eyes—the picture of a sunny, handsome guy.

As soon as Li Zhong finished speaking, the young man snapped a crisp salute and boomed out, “Captain Yan, Qi Yuyang reporting for duty!”

His posture was textbook perfect, executed with clean efficiency that instantly put everyone at ease.

Yan Tuo clapped him on the shoulder with a grin. “Welcome aboard! Talk about perfect timing. Old Cao was scheming to rope in Dr. Zhao again just yesterday, and now we’ve got a gem dropped right into our laps.”

After some brief small talk, Yan Tuo led him up to the second floor and called in Sun Lei. He instructed her to handle the new hire’s onboarding paperwork and set up his workstation with all the necessary equipment.

Sun Lei’s eyes lit up the moment she saw him. Her usual brash demeanor softened noticeably as she introduced herself in a gentle tone, then happily escorted him out.

Yan Tuo’s smile lingered as he turned to find his little dumpling. The kid was staring openmouthed at the departing figure, murmuring under his breath, “Senior?”

The corners of its beak seemed to stiffen suddenly. Yan Tuo widened his smile into something warm and inviting, like a gentle spring breeze, and asked softly, “What senior?”

Charmed by the expression, Bai Yiyi answered honestly. “Just… the one I wrote that letter to before, the one I never sent? That senior. Is he Qi Yuyang? It’s been over two years, but I don’t think I’ve got the wrong guy.”

“Oh, Qi Yuyang, huh? Good eyes—you nailed it. Makes sense for a first love. How could you mix that up?”

? … !

The jealousy rolled off him in waves, nearly blinding the little bird. Bai Yiyi finally caught the scent of it.

No way was that a first love! How could a cop be so imprecise?

At best, it had been a hopeless crush, a confession that never even happened.

His owner’s jealousy was off the charts—like an ancient jar of vinegar aged over three autumns. Where was that main consort poise?

Of course, these gripes stayed locked firmly in Bai Yiyi’s head. He wouldn’t dare let a hint slip out.

Instead, he cooed placatingly, “That doesn’t count at all. You’re my first love.”

Yan Tuo let out a noncommittal hum. Thinking of the kid’s tendencies, he couldn’t help muttering under his breath, “Like the uniform that much? You were totally zoned out.”

Bai Yiyi played dumb. “Huh? What was that? What’d you say?”

Yan Tuo didn’t respond. He walked to the storage cabinet, shrugged on a uniform jacket with casual ease, then returned to his desk with perfect posture, letting the matter drop for now.

The timing and setting weren’t right. Once the little rascal shifted back to human form, they’d have a proper talk.

He turned back to his phone and scrolled through it a few times. The nagging messages he’d sent Lu Renjia over the past couple of days had only gotten vague stalls in response—excuses about not being able to take leave or head back home. He still hadn’t recovered the diary.

What a lame excuse. Five million in cash on the table, and his job was just watching the school gates. That wasn’t worth skipping a day or two of work? Or maybe he thought the previous night’s offer had been too low and was backing out?

Yan Tuo set the phone down and forced down his rising impatience, channeling his focus into the urgent buried-bones case.

Since its establishment in 2015, J City’s Xincheng Development Zone had seen its share of incidents amid the waves of demolition and redevelopment. But a case involving thirty-three bodies? That was unprecedented.

Word had spread like wildfire, drawing intense scrutiny from across the nation—likely even more explosive than the Silver serial killer case years back.

The burial site was an abandoned rural courtyard, long neglected. Tracing the owners led to a family that had emigrated in the 1980s after inheriting property from overseas relatives. No connection whatsoever to the crimes.

The victims were all the vulnerable: elderly, women, and children. The oldest was sixty-nine; the youngest, just five. The earliest remains dated back twenty years, while the most recent hadn’t fully skeletonized—death around mid-March of the previous year.

There were no clear links between the victims, no patterns, no common threads. The methods of killing varied wildly, as if the perpetrator simply grabbed whoever was handy on a whim, heedless of reason or restraint.

Many were vagrants, so identities remained incomplete. Of the dozen or so confirmed, only three had missing persons reports on file.

For two decades, this monster had lurked among them, snuffing out innocent lives time and again. Yet through caution and the victims’ marginal social ties, it had stayed utterly silent.

Cases like this—with no leads and evidence long decayed by time—were the toughest to crack. It had been nearly a week since they’d opened the file, and progress was at a standstill.

That afternoon, Yan Tuo gathered the Major Crimes Unit One and the Technical Group for a briefing. Cao Yiman arrived with two team members, and sure enough, the brand-new recruit Qi Yuyang was among them.

Yan Tuo’s hunch had been spot-on: in half a day, the guy had already become Old Cao’s prized protégé.

Once the team leads had summarized their findings and theories, a heavy silence settled over the room.

Yan Tuo was about to speak when Qi Yuyang quietly raised his hand to signal he had something to say.

Cao Yiman slapped his shoulder. “Spit it out! No need to raise your hand like it’s a classroom pop quiz. Captain Yan doesn’t stand on ceremony.”

Yan Tuo shot him a cold glance before turning back with a warmer smile and a friendly tone. “Go ahead, Yuyang.”

Qi Yuyang hesitated for a split second, then stated flatly, “I think the killer’s a woman.”

The team had tossed around theories on the perpetrator’s gender before. Given the victims’ frailty, a female suspect wasn’t off the table. But such firm certainty piqued everyone’s interest, and all eyes locked on the rookie—who’d been on the job less than a day—waiting to see what he’d bring to the table.

“The killer isn’t after money. Personal items on the bodies included not just cash, but keys, IDs, jewelry—even phones. Whoever it is was extremely careful, determined not to leave a single trace.

“But take the last victim, the twenty-seven-year-old married woman Group Leader mentioned. There were clear marks on her right ring finger from long-term ring wear, and her family confirmed she’d been wearing it when she went missing. Where’s the ring?

“Someone so meticulous and disinterested in valuables would only fixate on a wedding ring like that—breaking their own habits to keep it—if it stemmed from personal marital obsession. Only a woman, one chronically diminished in her marriage, develops that kind of fixation. Pair that with victims who were all elderly, children, or women—no able-bodied men—and I’d peg the killer as female, aged roughly forty to sixty.”

Yan Tuo set aside his personal biases and had to admit the kid had chops. The points lined up almost perfectly with his own thoughts.

He nodded approvingly. “I agree—and I’d add one more thing. The burial site went undetected for years, which means the surface work was flawless. Digging and refilling day after day—who could remember the exact spots from ten or twenty years ago?

“This one could. In that tiny ten-or-so-square-meter courtyard, the graves overlap in neat layers, precisely spaced. That’s not just memory; it takes digging skill and real strength. If it’s a woman, we should start expanding suspect profiles from farming, cleaning, or landscaping work.”

Their back-to-back insights finally charted a rough path forward. Next came the grind: sifting through the masses, starting with the immediate area around the development zone and radiating outward.

Once the meeting broke up and everyone had filed out, Qi Yuyang knocked and stepped back in, holding a sheet of A4 paper with a rough sketch of a woman’s outline.

“Captain Yan, I threw together a basic framework. We don’t have much on the facial features yet, but she’s probably short-haired. Unhappy marriage means prominent frown lines between the brows. Shoulders broader than average for a woman. She’s been operating here for twenty years without relocating, so likely a local—common traits like wider nose wings and developed jaw muscles…”

As he spoke, he leaned over the desk to add a few deft strokes. In mere lines, the image sprang to life in Yan Tuo’s mind, a testament to his skill.

Yan Tuo didn’t skimp on praise. Nodding, he said, “That’s excellent work. Very impressive.”

Flattered by the boss’s approval, Qi Yuyang demurred modestly. “I did my undergrad at C Province Art Academy. This is just basic stuff.”

Then, as if remembering something, he added, “I’ve got this close junior from elementary school who takes first prize in the campus contests every year. Now that’s real talent.”

Yan Tuo’s tongue pressed against his molars as he fought the urge to glance at his little dumpling. Forcing a smile, he replied, “I know you went there. I’ve heard of you.”

Qi Yuyang’s eyes went wide with surprise. “You… have?”

“Yeah, the school anniversary event. You were the student rep who gave that speech—came out to thousands of people in grand style?”

The handsome face flushed crimson in an instant. He’d never imagined his heat-of-the-moment impulse would reach the neighboring province… or his new boss.

He stammered, fumbling for words as he tried to explain. “No, I’m actually not… well, it’s not quite that either. I just… my junior brother was down there, and I really only wanted to help him out, give him a little encouragement.”

Yan Tuo didn’t even need to turn his head. He’d already spotted his own little dumpling. The little guy gazed at him in shock, having unconsciously flitted onto the table and drawn close, staring wide-eyed at the senior.

Yan Tuo sighed to himself. Something about the wording here felt off.

But seeing how Bai Yiyi clearly wanted to uncover the truth, he went along with it and asked, “Oh? Why’s that?”