I went on to ask the cook a few questions. It was his first time being questioned by the police, so he was very nervous and kept nervously insisting that he had nothing to do with the murder.

According to him, Xiaoli was very self-conscious about her looks. She would always worry about her face looking too fat, her legs not being skinny enough or her hands looking too wrinkly. She would often spend a significant chunk of her money on beauty products.

But Xiaoli’s family was very poor. She had to work here part-time while she studied for the past two years. Once, the cook noticed that her face had become thinner and asked her what she had done. She proudly replied that she had found a ‘magic potion’—cheap Botox from the internet.

One vial of Botox sold online cost about two hundred yuan, while an injection at a plastic surgery clinic would cost thousands of yuan. Xiaoli was a medical student, so she could easily get herself an injection needle. The problem was, the habit of getting Botox injections became addictive, and she ended up spending most of her money on it and resorting to eating instant noodles every day. This worried the cook, and he would often set some food aside just for her and advised her not to get too carried away with the Botox. But Xiaoli merely laughed it off and quipped that he didn’t understand anything.

I kept observing the cook with my Cave Vision as he was speaking to make sure that he wasn’t lying.

Bingxin sighed.

“Usually,” she said, “when a woman goes to extreme lengths to beautify herself, chances are she’s head over heels in love with someone.”

“That person is definitely not me!” the cook quickly denied. “I have nothing to do with this!”

“Does she have a boyfriend?” I asked him.

“I don’t think so,” answered the cook.

“What about someone she likes?”

The cook contemplated about it for a while, then answered, “It did look like she had a crush on someone. I don’t know who it was, though. Maybe you can ask her classmates.”

“Sure,” I told him. “Thank you for your cooperation. I guess that’s all I have to ask you.”

“You’re welcome, Officer,” he replied. “By the way… Could you move the body out of here? You see, I still have some cooking to do…”

“You should probably go home for the day,” I said. “This is now a murder scene and it must be cordoned off for at least a few days. I’ll talk to the college administration later.”

The cook was elated when he heard that he could rest for the day and left straight away. This man clearly had nothing to do with the murder case, so there was no point in making him wait for the police to question him.

We then went outside and waited for the police to arrive. Our food had been cleared off from the table, so Bingxin ordered some light snacks for us, but none of us had any appetite, especially Dali who was still disturbed by the sight of the corpse.

Soon, the sound of sirens approached us. Xiaotao arrived with a group of police officers.

“What kept you so long, Xiaotao?” I asked. “I finished examining the dead body a long time ago.”

“We were working on another case when you suddenly called,” she answered. “Plus, traffic is terrible at this hour.”

Her eyes then turned to Bingxin, and she asked, “Who is she?”

Bingxin introduced herself, and Xiaotao’s eyes widened.

“You’re Director Sun’s daughter?” she asked.

“Don’t refer to me as ‘Director Sun’s daughter’!” Bingxin complained. “I’m my own person! I heard Song Yang-gege call you Xiaotao, so you must be the Huang Xiaotao that my dad always talks about. He often praises you for being a courageous officer and a good leader.”

“Ah… your father is too kind!” Xiaotao replied with a big grin on her face. It must be gratifying to learn that your superior officer often bragged about you.

I briefly summarized the circumstances of the case and the conclusion from my autopsy. Xiaotao smiled and told me, “Wow, you’ve saved us a lot of time! You know, I used to say you should be a police officer, but now I think it’s better that you aren’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because if you were, you’d put lots of other police officers out of work!”

We both laughed. Then Bingxin suddenly interjected, “Xiaotao-jiejie, are you in a relationship with Song Yang-gege?”

“No!” Xiaotao denied while frantically shaking her head. “We’re just… colleagues!”

“Oh,” Bingxin replied, her hand resting on her chest. “That’s okay then!”

Xiaotao furrowed her brows when she heard that.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“Um… nothing!” Bingxin blushed and evaded Xiaotao’s eye contact.

Xiaotao ordered a few police officers to collect the evidence on the scene and sent others to Xiaoli’s dorm to investigate further about the victim’s social interactions. Then she turned to me and commented, “I have a bad feeling about this. There have been three poisoning cases in a row in the past few days.”

I found out that the case that she was working on was a poisoning case too. The victim in that case was a young businesswoman. The poison used was cyanide. Xiaotao didn’t call for my help as it was a straightforward case and she was worried that I would not be interested in it. Nevertheless, the poisoning method used in that case was slightly more ‘ingenious.’

The victim of that case suffered from a digestive system ailment and she had to take medicine for it every day. The murderer tampered with her medicine and encased the poison in a thick capsule, which caused the victim to die of poisoning three hours after ingesting it.

She had just heard of the condom poisoning case led by Captain Xing. And now, I just encountered a case of Botox poisoning. That added up to three cases of poisoning in less than a week!

“Was the businesswoman beautiful?” I asked.

“Yeah,” she replied while staring at me with narrowed eyes. “She’s a long-haired beauty—exactly what your ideal woman would look like!”

As she said so, her eyes darted to Bingxin for a split second. Bingxin didn’t notice it, but she excitedly chirped, “Is that what you like, Song Yang-gege?”

“Don’t believe her!” I denied. “She’s talking nonsense!”

We went on to discuss the case further, and I finally concluded, “All three victims of these poisoning cases were young and beautiful women. I think we might be looking after the same murderer here.”

Xiaotao nodded in agreement.

“I’ve done a thorough investigation on the victim in my case and found that she had made no apparent enemies,” Xiaotao stated. “We might have a serial killer on our hands here. Nanjiang City has been calm for a while, but the tide is surging again. I’m going to go back to the station to establish a task force now. You should come too, Song Yang!”

“I want to go too! I want to go too!” Bingxin shouted excitedly.

“Miss Sun,” Xiaotao interrupted her, “let the police handle the case. You’re just a college student right now. You should leave it to us.”

“But isn’t Song Yang-gege a college student too?” Bingxin argued.

“He’s not just a college student,” Xiaotao shot back. “He’s our special consultant.”

“But I’m not just a college student either! My expertise is in toxicology, and I’m the best at drug testing in my class! I’ll be useful in the investigation!”

“Xiaowang, take her away. This student is causing trouble at the crime scene.”

An officer came over and tried to take Bingxin away, but she threatened, “Do you know who I am?”

The officer stuttered, “You’re… you’re Director Sun’s daughter.”

“Then go ahead and take me away if you dare!”

“Fine,” Xiaotao said. “I’ll take you away myself!”

Xiaotao grabbed Bingxin’s arm and pulled her out of the cafeteria. Bingxin turned around and shouted, “Song Yang-gege, what’s your number!”

I sighed and felt conflicted about what to do. Xiaotao seemed to be really angry this time.

She ordered the police at the police line not to let Bingxin enter. When she returned, she sneered at me saying, “I haven’t seen you in a couple of days and you’re already causing trouble!”

“Listen to me,” I told her. “We’re just friends! We knew each other since we were little. We’re like brother and sister, that’s all!”

Xiaotao snorted, “Judging by the way she calls you ‘Song Yang-gege’ every two minutes, I bet you two must be really close indeed!”

“Looks like someone’s jealous!” Dali whispered.

“Shut up!” Xiaotao snapped. “Do you want me to chase you out too?”

Dali clammed up immediately.

After all the evidence at the murder scene was collected, we returned to the police station. As we passed by the medical school, I wondered if I should find a way to give Bingxin my number, but I wouldn’t want to risk raising Xiaotao’s ire at the moment.

Xiaotao ignored me the entire way there, and the atmosphere in the car grew cold and tense. To our surprise, the first thing we saw when we reached the station was Bingxin stepping out of a police car.

“I’m back!” Bingxin exclaimed. “Aren’t you surprised?”

“Who brought her here?” Xiaotao shouted angrily.

“I called Uncle Wang to give me a ride to the police station!” Bingxin announced. The Uncle Wang she referred to was Wang Yuanchao, of course. “He’s known me since I was a little girl! Now you can’t get rid of me!”

Xiaotao gritted her teeth and muttered, “Let’s see about that. I’m calling Sun Tiger now!”