Chapter 37: A Rare Genetic Disease (1/2)

Early next morning, I was woken up by the ring of the alarm clock, but getting out of bed turned out to be a pain in the ass. I got dressed and shouted at Dali to wake the hell up, but he covered his head with a pillow and adamantly refused to get up.

“Can’t you just let me sleep for a bit longer, dude?” he complained. “Why should a college senior like me live like a high school student? I don’t wanna go to that meeting!”

“Suit yourself,” I said. “But don’t expect to get a share in the bonus!”

Dali suddenly sat up in his bed, “Hey, wait a minute!”

We soon got dressed and called a cab outside the main gate of the college.

“You’re both college students, aren’t you?” asked the cab driver. “Haven’t you heard the news about the dead prostitute last night? I hear she died a really horrible death!”

“How did you know?” Dali asked.

“Haha, you can’t beat us cab drivers when it comes to the news,” he said. “Last night, the hotel owner took a cab. He told the driver that the hotel operated without a license, and now that this happened there’s nothing he could do but to close it down. Oh, and he said something about a college student invited by the police to help them with the case. He said the kid was cool and good-looking, and that he could quickly notice details that no one else could see…”

“Seriously?” I asked, feigning surprise.

“Can’t the police solve the case themselves?” asked Dali. “Why did they need to invite this college student?”

“It sounds like he’s no ordinary college kid,” said the driver. “Wasn’t there a murder with a headless body in the college recently? I heard that it was this very kid who solved the case. Ah, to think that my son who’s probably the same age just spends the whole day playing video games!”

“Mister, you really are up-to-date with your news!” I praised.

“Of course!” he said unironically. “By the way, what are you doing going to the police station so early in the morning? You’re not helping the police solve a case, aren’t you?”

“No,” I said. “We’ve just got some personal business to settle.”

“Hahaha, and I thought that maybe I got lucky and one of you turns out to be that detective kid!” he said. “If that happened, I would’ve given you a free ride! Hahaha!”

Soon we arrived at the police station, and as we were paying the fare for the cab, Huang Xiaotao walked out of the parking lot and saw us. She greeted us, “Hey, Song Yang! Dali! You’re on time! The meeting is on the third floor!”

The driver’s eyes widened. He pointed at me and said, “So you really are the detective kid?”

“Yup,” I said with a smile.

“By the way, didn’t you say you were gonna give us a free ride?”

“What are you guys talking about?” asked Huang Xiaotao.

When turned back to the cab, all we saw was dust and car exhaust, as the cab driver had sped away as fast as he could. Dali tried to chase him but it was too late.

“Come back!” shouted Dali. “You greedy, dishonest scum!”

“Did he trick you or something?” Huang Xiaotao asked. “I can help you call the traffic division and drag him back here!”

“No, no,” I said. “It’s nothing. We were only joking around.”

“Have you eaten breakfast?” she asked.

“Nope!” I shook my head.

Huang Xiaotao pulled out her phone and dialed a number.

“Hello? Yes, two more sets of the same breakfast, please. The same address, yes, third floor conference room.”