Chapter 147 — The Long-Awaited...

Only after the drivers had all stepped out did Xia Xue let out a long breath and lick her lips—a gesture that was rather sexy, enticing under the dim light, and with the uniform she wore, it was nothing short of a uniform fetish.

Yang Ce felt a itch in his heart. Had he not just been through that ambiguous scene, he might not have been so impulsive, but now every seemingly sexy move Xia Xue made stirred Yang Moyi's desire.

Xia Xue noticed nothing unusual about Yang Juehuan. She smoothed the hair from her forehead with her hand and said, "Perfect timing. I was just worrying about what to eat later, and here you deliver yourself to my door."

Xia Xue was utterly ruthless when it came to fleecing Yang Ce. Though a little ambiguity had sprung up between them, it did not stop her from holding him to his promise of a lifetime of free meals.

But then again, when Xia Xue had first said those words, she had meant nothing by them. It was only after what happened with Yan that she grew a little sensitive, and when she carefully replayed the tone and wording she had used with Yan, it really did sound no different from lovers. Still, considering she had nearly gone through with something as crazy as reverse pursuit, those earlier words hardly counted for anything.

"I was dragged here, you know," Yang Ce said, breaking into a sweat. Why did Xia Xue act like she had been reborn as a starving ghost? By any reasonable reckoning, Xia Xue was single now, and with her position her salary was more than enough for her—she could not even spend it all—and her regular bonuses were surely considerable too. So why was she so keen on extorting a meal from him?

"Dragged here so I could educate you on traffic safety," Xia Xue said, entirely unconcerned. "Though it seems this map is of no use to you." She was still nursing a grudge over losing that contest to Yan last time.

Yang Ce had not bothered to look at the map closely. As far as he could see, these stretches were not T-junctions or other dangerous roads, so how could the accident rate be so high? If it was, there could only be one explanation, and Yang Ce immediately connected it to the earlier haunting case.

That was right—that case had been Xia Xue's responsibility. Could these road sections be the places where the "hauntings" occurred most often? The more Yang Ce thought about it, the more likely it seemed. Otherwise, traffic publicity should be the traffic police's job; no matter how short-staffed they were, it would never fall to Xia Xue to handle it personally.

"Captain Xia, you two talk. I'll get out and take a look around." Xiao Liao could see that Yang Ce and Xia Xue were close, and that Xia Xue had even asked Yang Ce to treat her to a meal, so he naturally took Yang Ce for Xia Xue's boyfriend. Xiao Liao was not about to be the annoying third wheel, so he found an excuse and got out of the car.

Xia Xue gave a startled "Ah," about to explain something, then decided there was no need—she was a leader now, did she have to explain herself to her subordinates? So she nodded and said, "Pack up. Our shift's ending anyway. Captain Li will be here with people to relieve us soon."

"All right." Xiao Liao checked his watch, thinking that at last he could get off duty. Things had been so busy lately—working day and night without a break—and still not a single clue. To this day no one had figured out what that ghost business was really about.

Originally, the haunting had been dismissed by most people as sheer nonsense. Even after Xia Xue took on the case, the criminal investigation team had not thought much of it. But recently, as traffic accidents multiplied and some survivors gave statements saying they had seen a ghost, the team began to take the matter seriously.

For this was no longer a prank—it had risen to the level of a serious criminal case. Even as Chen Fei had Xia Xue continue to follow up, he also told Deputy Captain Li to set aside his current work and join Xia Xue in cracking the "haunting case."

As the matter grew, panic spread among the citizens, and there was no end to the rumors—some said corpses had risen from the hospital morgue, some said a zombie king had been dug up from a construction site, others said one of the corpse drivers from northwestern Hunan had escaped while transporting bodies, and some even claimed aliens had invaded Earth.

Though the authorities repeatedly refuted the rumors, the tide of public opinion was invincible. Many taxi drivers no longer dared to drive at night, bringing great inconvenience to the normal travel of Songjiang's citizens.

The city took it very seriously and ordered Chen Fei to solve the case as quickly as possible and bring the criminal mastermind behind the "haunting case" to justice. But under the pressure of having not a single clue, and to reduce the accident rate, Xia Xue gathered the several sites of the earlier hauntings and had some maps printed in haste, falsely claiming that these were areas where slippery roads made traffic accidents frequent. She distributed the maps to drivers coming into Songjiang, urging them to avoid those places as much as possible.

To be continued

899. Case Analysis

"Wait for me a moment," Xia Xue said to Yang Yanzhou. "I'm about to get off duty."

Yang Yuting nodded. What else could he do? Since he had already made that boast, he could hardly refuse.

Sure enough, before long Yang Ce saw Deputy Captain Li, whom he had met once at the hospital, arrive with several detectives to take over the shift.

"Xia, thanks for your hard work," Deputy Captain Li said with a nod to Xia Xue after getting into the car. "Haven't eaten yet, have you?"

Although Xia Xue was already a deputy captain, she was rather young, so colleagues of Deputy Captain Li's rank, who were on the same level as her, simply called her "Xia"—it sounded friendlier that way.

"Brother Li, a friend of mine is here. We're going to eat together in a bit." Xia Xue pointed at Yang Ce and smiled.

"Heh, then hurry along. It's getting late. We all ate before coming over." Deputy Captain Li glanced at Yang Puqi, somewhat puzzled. Last time at the hospital he had seen Yang Ce arrive with Captain Chen's family—he seemed to be Captain Chen's daughter's boyfriend. How had he ended up with Xia Xue? Strange as it was, he did not think much of it; perhaps the two had some business to discuss. Years of investigative work had trained him to the belief that without evidence, suspicion was useless.

Getting out of the Iveco with Xia Xue, he was met by a gust of cold wind, and Xia Xue could not help but shiver. Winter nights in Songjiang were bitterly cold, a world of ice and snow; this northern city was probably one of the coldest in the country.

"Where's your car?" Xia Xue looked around. Apart from a few standard police vehicles, the other official cars also belonged to the force, and she did not see Yang Juehuan's car anywhere.

"There it is, parked over there." Yang Puqi pointed at the Dongfeng heavy truck parked by the roadside not far away.

"What?" Xia Xue was struck dumb, staring in disbelief at the enormous truck, then back at Yang Ce. "You can't be serious. That thing is yours?"

"It's mine. What do you think—pretty cool, huh?" Yang Hengye said.

"Don't tell me you watched Transformers and lost your mind, went and got yourself an Optimus Prime to drive." Xia Xue was speechless, unable to imagine where Yang Ce had gotten such a vehicle.

"Ran a long-haul trip for a friend, delivered some goods." Yang Shuoxuan stopped teasing Xia Xue and told her the truth.

"I see." Xia Xue nodded in sudden understanding. "Still, you really do get around—delivering people and goods for others."

"No helping it. Couldn't refuse." Yang Duoran would never tell Xia Xue the details of the company dispute, so he only gave a vague account.

"I've never ridden in one of these. Perfect chance to try it out." Xia Xue volunteered and climbed into the driver's cab.