Chapter 36

"So, Niu Yinzhu meant that someone should have come to Nancheng to pick her up to go to Hai City, right?!" Wu Shanqiu's reaction was quick.

"Exactly. The key is that Pan Ting clearly didn't know about this arrangement, but Niu Yinzhu on the other side thought it was arranged by Pan Ting."

"Whoa! This sounds more like a parallel universe. Brother Fei, why do I feel like this is Zhong Kui's area of expertise!"

"You, this belongs to pure path dependency. How can we rely on a shaman to solve a case?" Qi Fei said to Wu Shanqiu, his tone revealing a bit of doting, then focused back on the case, saying, "A parallel universe is impossible. I think it's highly probable that someone is interfering."

"Someone is impersonating Pan Ting to coordinate the business trip with Niu Yinzhu?" Wu Shanqiu said in surprise.

"There's another problem. The last time Niu Yinzhu asked Pan Ting for the location, it was a message. It was because of this signal that we always thought she went missing on the way to Hai City and searched along the route for a long time. If she was waiting for someone to pick her up in Nancheng, and this person was someone impersonating Pan Ting to deceive her... could she have never left Nancheng at all?"

"In other words, the person who sent the second message to Pan Ting was likely not Niu Yinzhu," Wu Shanqiu immediately thought.

"This person took the car to Hai City in place of Niu Yinzhu. Judging from the location of the sent message, it was only an hour's drive from Nancheng. In this time gap, we don't know what happened between the person who came to pick up Niu Yinzhu and the person who came to pick her up."

"An hour, a project manager like Niu Yinzhu couldn't have not made a single phone call, right? Do we have any signal of her location?"

"Sigh, have you been reading the files carefully? The most bizarre thing is that during this time, Niu Yinzhu was indeed still replying to work messages. Isn't it amazing? She seemed completely unaware of the abnormality, even though things were already wrong from the moment she set off," Qi Fei said, puzzled.

"But who could this person who impersonated Pan Ting's subordinate to pick up Niu Yinzhu be?"

"Do you know what's even more troublesome?"

"What?"

"Don't forget, this is a case from three years ago. At that time, the suspect from our previous case, Xu Wei, was not yet dead. The same monster pattern was found at the scene, so we cannot rule out Xu Wei's suspicion."

"That's really true. If you say it's Xu Wei, it's reasonable. Niu Yinzhu didn't know him at all, so him saying he was from Pan Ting's company is perfectly plausible. However, didn't we analyze that Xu Wei's initial motive for murder was the death of his first love, Yao Leilei? This Niu Yinzhu disappearance happened completely before Yao Leilei's incident. The timeline is misaligned again. It's too strange," Wu Shanqiu muttered. "I feel like my CPU is about to burn out."

As the two were talking, the sound of high heels came from the corridor outside. In the police station, the sound of high heels wasn't often heard, and recently it could only be attributed to one person—Zhong Kui had arrived.

Sure enough, Zhong Kui appeared at the door of their office, dressed to the nines. However, she wasn't alone this time. Accompanying her was an unexpected person—Qi Fei's direct superior, the captain of the Criminal Police Brigade, Liu Tong. Liu Tong was said to be Qi Fei's leader, but he wasn't actually very old. He came from a background of writing and was one of the few who had traded the pen for the sword. He wore glasses and had a baby face; if no one told you, you really wouldn't associate him with being the captain of the Criminal Police Brigade.

"Everyone, stop what you're doing." Liu Tong clapped his hands with a smile to attract everyone's attention. "Let me introduce a new partner to everyone."

Qi Fei had a bad feeling. Could this so-called new partner be the enchanting and arrogant Zhong Kui, who was smoothing her hair beside him?

Sure enough, Liu Tong pointed at Zhong Kui and introduced: "This is Zhong Kui. I think our Major Crimes Unit is no stranger to her. Considering the difficulty of the recent cases and Zhong Kui's outstanding performance in the Chen Xiaojing case, with the approval of the leadership, Zhong Kui will join our team as a consultant. Everyone, welcome!"

The atmosphere was a bit awkward. The scene was quiet for a while, and it was Wu Shanqiu who took the lead in applauding, while others followed sparsely.

Qi Fei didn't applaud. He looked puzzled and kept winking at Liu Tong, but Liu Tong just pretended not to see.

Zhong Kui really didn't care about other people's gazes and threw a flirtatious wink at Qi Fei regardless: "Officer Qi, please take care of me in the future!"

This caused a burst of snickering at the scene. Qi Fei felt his face was already so hot it was about to smoke.

Liu Tong remained calm, still smiling: "It seems everyone can get along very happily. Qi Fei, you take Zhong Kui to get to know everyone. I'm going to a meeting."

He turned and left as he spoke.

"Captain Liu!" Qi Fei hurriedly followed him with two or three steps. "No, you should consider this matter carefully. Zhong Kui's identity is unclear, and it's inappropriate to put her in our police station, not to mention letting her access case information."

Liu Tong walked forward calmly: "This matter has already been decided. You should just cooperate well with her."

"Cooperate? How can I cooperate with a shaman?" Before Qi Fei could finish, Liu Tong had already quickened his pace and walked away.

When Qi Fei returned to the office, the scene was already out of control.

Zhong Kui was pinching the palm of a young man on the team, speaking eloquently about the palm lines: "Starting from the side of the thumb, winding down, its momentum is like a dragon. You have a long lifespan and abundant energy. Although you encounter wind and waves on the way, you will eventually be able to turn danger into safety."

The young man listened with great interest, but Qi Fei ruthlessly punctured it from the side: "Listening to your words is like listening to your words. Everyone, disperse! Why aren't you going to work yet!"

After saying that, he grabbed Zhong Kui's arm and walked out.

"What the hell are you doing? What kind of love potion did you give our Captain Liu to make him bring you in?" Qi Fei asked with a barrage of questions.

Zhong Kui wasn't in a hurry and blinked innocently at Qi Fei: "It was Liu Tong who invited me! If it weren't for the decent consultant fee, I wouldn't have bothered to run all the way here!"

"Nonsense, Captain Liu is a very wise person. If you hadn't hypnotized Captain Liu, he wouldn't have done such a boring thing!" Qi Fei didn't believe a word of it.

Zhong Kui curled her lips: "Liu Tong has a much more stable core than you. He's not so easily hypnotized. Is it possible that he is just very wise and saw that my ability can help you?"

"Do you fortune tellers also talk about whether the core is stable or not?"

"Fortune tellers talk about everything, nothing is taboo." Zhong Kui smiled, "Have you found your Niu Yinzhu?"

"Anyway, she's not in Hai City. You can communicate with spirits, so use your specialty and help see where she is?"

Qi Fei said this clearly to make things difficult for Zhong Kui.