Hanging up the phone, Lu Bai looked toward Tong Shujuan and found that she was also looking at him.
The content of the phone notification was probably more or less the same.
Lu Bai simply asked: “Head back to the bureau together?”
Tong Shujuan naturally wouldn’t refuse, but she clenched her small fist with some resentment: “They actually killed so many innocent people.”
If it were just one or two murder cases, it would be fine, but nearly a hundred occurred overnight, which was really too abnormal. As soon as anyone knew about the parasitic organism matter, their first reaction would be to think the parasitic organism was behind it.
Lu Bai was well aware of this. He knew the parasitic organism was being blamed for the death fighters, but he had no need to explain.
On the contrary, he planned to actively strive for the qualification to investigate these cases.
“You guys are in for a busy time.” Yao Yi half-lay on the hospital bed, with a slight hint of schadenfreude.
Hearing this, Tong Shujuan immediately retorted sarcastically: “You’ve been hospitalized for two days now. Looking at you, you seem fine. Why not hurry back to the bureau to help?”
“Let’s go, back to the bureau. You take good care of your injury, no need to rush.”
His second sentence was directed at Yao Yi, intentionally or not emphasizing the words “take care of your injury.”
After saying goodbye, Yao Yi watched the two leave the hospital room together.
The hospital room quieted down again.
Confirming he was alone, he sighed, reached out and pressed hard on his chest until red marks appeared, then dejectedly released.
Earlier during breakfast, to disperse the smell, Tong Shujuan had opened a row of slits in the hospital room’s blinds, and hadn’t closed them when leaving.
Morning sunlight pierced through the gaps in the blinds, sprinkling on the wall, appearing stark white.
……
It was worth mentioning that the Jiangyu City Special Affairs Bureau currently had no independent office venue, and the entire department was temporarily working in facilities under the Jiangyu City Public Security Bureau.
So even though it wasn’t Lu Bai’s first time, he still couldn’t get in on face alone and had to show his identification.
The waiting area in the hall was filled with ordinary civilians, either witnesses to parasitic organisms or victims of parasitic organism attacks, all there to accept inquiries.
Staff in professional attire hurried back and forth through the hall.
A LCD screen on one wall scrolled subtitles, coordinated with the broadcast, to maintain order in the hall.
Busy.
Seeing this scene, the first word Lu Bai thought of was busy.
And it was getting busier.
When he first came to the Special Affairs Bureau, everyone was quite idle, far from this busy.
“Lu Bai?”
A staff member in a black suit noticed Lu Bai and quickly waved him over: “Bureau Chief Xu is waiting for you in the office. Follow me.”
After greeting Tong Shujuan, Lu Bai followed this staff member to the bureau chief’s office on the second floor.
After bringing him there, the staff member immediately left considerately, conveniently closing the office door on the way out.
Lu Bai familiarly sat down on the guest chair: “You don’t seem very anxious.”
“Not anxious?”
Xu Qiang let out a cold laugh without amusement: “Nearly a hundred murder cases in one night, with numerous witnesses. Don’t you know how big this is?”
He crossed his arms over his chest and continued: “The higher-ups gave me a good scolding and ordered us to catch the murderer as soon as possible.”
“Say something useful.” Lu Bai poured himself a cup of tea without asking.
Over this time, he had some understanding of this bureau chief’s personality and knew the other wouldn’t mind such details.
“Parasitic organisms can take on the appearance of normal people. After one night, they’re not that easy to find.”
Xu Qiang curled his lip: “Take that as just words. The Third External Affairs Team is short a team leader. You temporarily take over for a while. Take this. Promoted too quickly doesn’t follow the rules, so the highest position I can give you is deputy group leader. No problem?”
As Xu Qiang spoke, he took a brand-new set of identification from the drawer and placed it on the desk.
Lu Bai didn’t look closely and directly put it away.
“Got it, old Xu.” Position level didn’t matter to Lu Bai anyway; he just needed this official identity.
“Use titles at work.”
Xu Qiang slapped the table to emphasize, then said: “The Third Team’s manpower should be at the Heping Branch Road area right now. Though I don’t expect you to investigate anything… just hurry to the crime scene. Don’t hang around here.”
……
Heping Branch Road, this road had many row villas, barely qualifying as a rich area.
Several police cars were parked in front of one of the villas.
Police isolation tape had been set up, forming a ring at the gate.
After all, the Special Affairs Bureau’s external personnel weren’t enough to cover nearly a hundred crime scenes, so many cases were still under police control at the scene.
To avoid destroying potential evidence, police officers walked on the laid-out rapid transit boards.
Criminal technology team personnel moved back and forth at the crime scene, photographing the overall situation, checking fingerprints, footprints, and other suspicious traces at the crime scene, collecting blood and various biological tissues, etc., extremely busy.
As a veteran detective, Pu Guangrong was long accustomed to the chaos at scenes. He inspected the crime scene environment as if no one else was there.
From indoors, slowly to the small courtyard outdoors.
Soon, he noticed footprints on the lawn under the wall. He was about to go over for a close observation when a noisy sound suddenly came from outside the villa.
Looking over, he saw a team of special affairs personnel filing in through the gate.
“Again?” Pu Guangrong frowned.
During this time, the criminal investigation team had more than once had work snatched by these people claiming to be from the Special Affairs Bureau. He reported to superiors, but the response was always to ignore it.
What exactly were the higher-ups concealing?
No matter how Pu Guangrong looked at it, he had a déjà vu sense of a storm brewing.
Suddenly, he sharply noticed that one person in the special affairs team seemed very familiar.
“I’m Deputy Group Leader Lu Bai of the Jiangyu City Special Affairs Bureau Third External Affairs Team.”
Lu Bai first showed his identification to Pu Guangrong, then gave a friendly smile: “Officer Pu, we meet again.”
Pu Guangrong blurted out: “How did you…”
He looked baffled. Clearly only a week had passed, how had he gone from crime suspect to deputy group leader?
“You’re probably used to it by now. As per convention, the Special Affairs Bureau will take over next.”
“No, little brother.”
Officer Pu seemed troubled. Seeing Lu Bai looked easy to talk to, he couldn’t help asking: “Team Leader Lu, what exactly does your Special Affairs Bureau do? Why do you keep taking our criminal investigation team’s work?”
Lu Bai patted his shoulder as comfort.
“You can completely close the case. Just say the victims committed suicide.”