What had President Yalan just said?
…He was taking her home?
Uneasy, Lu Yi asked, “President, if you take me home, won’t it waste your time…?”
Yalan stared at her lips as they moved, unable to understand why her skin looked so pale and fragile, yet her lips were so red—so red that they always reminded him of the silver-haired female from the video.
In the video, the woman’s figure was breathtaking, like a seductive demon…
But the appearances of the two had no similarities at all, and even their temperaments were worlds apart.
Only Yalan’s instincts kept screaming for him to get closer.
He stopped his wandering thoughts and said to Lu Yi,
“District P9 is very dangerous right now. There’s no guarantee that monster won’t appear again and bite through your neck when you least expect it.”
He stood up, leaving no room for refusal.
“Go change your clothes. I’ll wait in the parking lot.”
Lu Yi did not dare argue further and could only hurriedly follow him.
Five minutes later, Lu Yi got into Yalan’s car. To avoid making Yalan look like a personal driver, she intentionally sat in the passenger seat out of respect.
“President, I’ll send you my address.”
“No need.”
Yalan started the car, and Lu Yi’s home address immediately appeared clearly on display.
Nervousness surged through Lu Yi once more.
The car remained silent for a while before Yalan spoke first.
“The silver-haired female killed the male beastman at 10:26 PM.”
“If you got off work at 10:30 and passed by this unavoidable route, you should have smelled something, right?”
The car slowly stopped at the alley from that night.
“Like blood, for example.”
Yalan sounded as though he were interrogating a criminal.
“The time difference between you and the monster wouldn’t exceed twenty minutes… what’s strange is that you noticed nothing at all?”
“I… I was very tired from overtime.”
Yalan: …
“Lu Yi.”
Yalan suddenly turned toward her, leaning slightly closer.
“There were no active surveillance cameras on this road, only patrol robots.”
“Mm.”
“If we want to investigate now, we can only question the nearby residents.”
“Mm.”
“You are the only person who might have seen that monster.”
Yalan even softened his tone slightly, afraid of frightening this timid intern too much.
“So… think carefully again?”
Plop.
A tear fell onto her pants, spreading into a dark circle.
Lu Yi cried.
“President…”
Her voice was full of grievance.
“That day, I originally wanted to take sick leave.”
But not only had her leave request failed, she had also been forced to work overtime until midnight, encountered a dangerous beastman in heat, transformed, and bitten him to death…
Lu Yi truly felt wronged.
Her desire to go home and find her mother reached its peak.
“You were sick, and they still made you work overtime?”
Seeing her like this, Yalan no longer intended to pressure her further.
Although the black wolf’s instincts vaguely urged him to connect Lu Yi with the silver-haired female, without sufficient evidence, he could not force the issue.
The current situation already counted as Yalan breaking regulations.
After crying for a while, Lu Yi sniffled and removed the glasses blurred by tears. Turning her head, she wanted to see why Yalan had suddenly gone silent.
But the moment she looked up, she realized Yalan was less than a fist’s distance away from her.
That sharp yet handsome face was right before her eyes, and within those cold gray eyes, she unexpectedly caught a trace of helplessness.
In his hand was a plain white handkerchief, seemingly prepared to hand it over to her.
The atmosphere froze.
Yalan himself did not know what he was doing, nor why he was suddenly so close to Lu Yi.
Close enough to be inappropriate.
Tears clung to the girl’s curled eyelashes, her face full of innocence. On the slightly raised curve of her neck was a light brown mole in just the perfect spot.
Her faded T-shirt clung to her skin, and the bead of sweat on her collarbone slowly slid downward, causing Yalan’s gaze to unconsciously follow—
Compared to the oversized work uniform, this casual T-shirt unintentionally outlined the curves of her upper body.
Yalan subconsciously looked away and stuffed the handkerchief into her hand.
In his mind, the two images overlapped once again.
The beautiful curves of the silver-haired female merged together with Lu Yi, bringing Yalan an enormous shock.
No… perhaps instincts could make mistakes too.
Yalan pulled back.
“Wipe your tears.”
As soon as he spoke, he restarted the car.
Lu Yi blinked her swollen eyes and stared at the plain white handkerchief in her hand.
As the car drove away from the crime scene, Lu Yi suddenly felt a chill along the side of her neck. Looking up at the rearview mirror, she vaguely thought she saw a snake…
But after blinking, the snake disappeared.
She was truly too nervous, to the point of imagining such horrifying hallucinations…
Lu Yi’s home was an old small villa that looked at least a hundred years old, hidden deep within narrow alleys where parking was difficult. If not for Yalan’s driving skills, his beloved car would definitely have been scratched tonight.
“You can stop here. I can go in by myself.”
Lu Yi pressed against Yalan’s arm before he could continue farther inside.
“President, you can just reverse the car from here.”
“Mm.”
Yalan tilted his head slightly and glanced at the arm she had touched, as though he could still feel the warmth she left behind.
“Then I’ll watch you go inside.”
Lu Yi: …
The overhead light switched on. Yalan glanced at Lu Yi as she unfastened her seatbelt. Her eyes looked faintly flushed pink, and her pale little face finally carried some color.
And he was the one who had bullied her into it.
Tsk…
The car door opened. Carrying her canvas bag, Lu Yi politely nodded toward him.
“Thank you for bringing me home.”
Yalan lifted his chin slightly, looking somewhat arrogant.
“I should be thanking you for not being angry with me.”
“I’m not angry…”
Lu Yi pursed her lips, countless emotions clogging her chest. Worry and grievance had already taken over her thoughts.
In Yalan’s eyes, she looked exactly like someone constantly bullied.
Soft personality, afraid to resist, only capable of crying when pushed too far—unable even to hit or curse at others…
And yet his damned instincts actually thought Lu Yi had some unavoidable connection to the silver-haired female!
Tonight was simply absurd!
Yalan pinched the bridge of his tired nose and watched Lu Yi enter the house.
The suspicion born from his instincts faded away once more.
He started driving away, but his optical brain suddenly received an encrypted message.
The message forcibly broke through Yalan’s encryption protocols, practically shoving itself into his mailbox.
Such invasive technology…
Yalan opened it and, unsurprisingly, saw a cat-ear symbol attached to the message prefix.
This was the exclusive mark of the top interstellar detective, Hermoke.
“How interesting… even Hermoke wants to apply for a joint investigation?”
Unfortunately for him, applications from private detectives were not accepted.
He opened the message. Inside was a graduation group photo and a short paragraph—
【President Yalan, requesting information exchange.】
【Lu Yi, an employee of the Paranormal Association living in District P9, supposedly had a class party on Tuesday night.】
【According to my investigation, the party was fake.】
【Someone sent her false information and deliberately sold her out to the prey who was bitten to death.】