Dr. Chi’s Mission: Seduce Officer Su - Chapter 40.1

“Just looking at you two irritates me. Get out and do what you’re supposed to be doing!”

BANG!

Ji Nanxing and Su Qiao were shooed out like ducks.

In silent agreement, they turned back to try and plead their case, only for Chief Zheng to slam the door shut right in their faces. Both nearly smashed their tall, straight noses against the wood.

The leadership floor was always sparsely populated. Walking side by side down the corridor, their moods soured, plunging the atmosphere into a deathly silence.

Su Qiao bit her lip, wondering how to apologize.

The thought of Ji Nanxing running around with her since early morning, gaining nothing from it and even getting inexplicably punished by association, weighed heavily on her conscience.

After just a few steps, Ji Nanxing, boiling with frustration, broke her usual composure and turned back abruptly. “This isn’t our fault to begin with. No… I have to go back and argue this out.”

“Hey, hey, hey, stop right there.” Su Qiao quickly raised an arm to block her. “You know his temper. Once he cools down, it’ll be nothing. Why poke the bear now?”

“Can’t you see? He’s not even really angry about the public opinion. He’s clearly comparing us to Jiang Cha, and because we came up short, he’s taking his embarrassment out on us.”

The usually taciturn Team Leader Ji lost her cool. The thought of Jiang Cha’s perpetually confident face only stoked her anger further.

“Hey, it’s rare for you to meet a decent rival. Shouldn’t you respect each other? Why the rivalry?” Su Qiao knew Ji Nanxing was also bothered by the comparison, so she wrapped an arm around her shoulder and steered her toward the stairs. “Sorry, I got you dragged into this.”

“Take your apology back! In our team, if anyone makes a mistake, I share the blame. There’s no ‘dragging into it.'”

Ji Nanxing didn’t care about docked bonuses or writing self-criticisms. As the leader, she had to have the leader’s magnanimity.

As long as no principles were violated, shielding her subordinates was as natural as protecting her own reputation.

Su Qiao froze for a moment, then a warm smile slowly spread across her lips, her eyes lighting up with a soft glow.

It felt so good, so reassuring.

Ji Nanxing didn’t like to smile; she always felt awkward contorting all the muscles in her face, imagining she must look like a blue-faced, fanged monster.

But it had been a long time since she’d seen Su Qiao smile so heartwarmingly, and the emotion was contagious. She stiffly tugged at the corners of her own lips.

Perhaps in that moment, they both silently recalled something from long ago.

Back then, they were still junior officers, working on their first major case together: busting a red-light district in the old part of the city.

They had disguised themselves as streetwalkers, standing on corners for half a month. Every night, they’d go out caked in heavy makeup, but neither could master the art of seduction. They didn’t attract a single customer, not even anyone to ask for prices.

Su Qiao laughed at Ji Nanxing’s poor makeup skills, saying the powder on her face would flake off in chunks with a gust of wind.

Ji Nanxing teased Su Qiao for her inability to affect a coquettish tone, scaring off all the lonely older men with her booming voice.

In the end, it was the old team leader who led them in plainclothes, guiding them to make connections and gather crucial evidence, finally rounding up the entire prostitution ring in one sweep.

Su Qiao pinched her throat and called out, “Meilan~ oh, don’t be mad. How about I treat you to a feast today, sis~”

“Jiaojiao, don’t you realize how nauseating your voice sounds?” How did Ji Nanxing manage to deliver such a coquettish remark with a completely straight face?

Meilan and Jiaojiao were the aliases they used during missions long ago.

For quite some time, their colleagues in the unit had addressed them that way, and hearing it always made them cringe.

As they chatted about embarrassing moments from past cases, their moods lightened slightly.

When they reached the third-floor stairwell, Ji Nanxing glanced toward a figure not far to her right.

Just two steps away from the break room, Jiang Cha stood leaning against the wall with her arms crossed. Sensing the gaze fixed on her, she looked up at Ji Nanxing, then flashed a fake smile and raised a finger to her lips in a shushing gesture.

Ji Nanxing’s smile faded, and she strode directly toward Jiang Cha, casually hooking an arm around Su Qiao’s shoulder to bring her along.

But just as they reached Jiang Cha, before they could even exchange greetings, a conversation from inside the break room cut her off.

“I told you she’s a jinx, but you all said I was exaggerating. She’s only been back for a short while, and she’s already causing trouble again.”

“Exactly. If headquarters deducts the year-end performance points for the Criminal Investigation Division because of this, won’t Liu and the others be furious?”

“If I were Su Qiao, I’d rather die than come back. A tree needs its bark, and a person needs their dignity.”

“With things blown up like this, why does Captain Ji still keep her around? In my opinion, Su Qiao belongs in the Traffic Police Division, she’s just not cut out for criminal investigation.”

“Tch, just wait for the show. Chief Zheng is definitely going to issue an internal reprimand. Want to bet on it?”

Jiang Cha had been eavesdropping at the door for a while and felt the two had missed too much of the juicy conversation. Clicking her tongue, she patted Ji Nanxing’s shoulder and strode off with a mocking grin.

Ji Nanxing’s face darkened, and she was about to storm into the break room to confront them when Su Qiao grabbed her arm.

Turning back, Ji Nanxing looked coldly at her close friend, the subject of the gossip, furrowing her brow slightly and tilting her head in confusion.

Not wanting to alert those inside, Su Qiao could only offer a helpless, resigned smile and shake her head, signaling Ji Nanxing to let it go. She didn’t want to stir up more trouble.

Stubbornly, Ji Nanxing pulled her arm back. She said nothing, but the exchange of glances between them said it all.

She had to put a stop to these rumors. If she didn’t stand up now, this break room would remain a toxic environment.

Instead of barging in directly, Ji Nanxing walked to the doorway and blocked the exit.

When the gossiping officers turned the corner to leave, they fell dead silent at the sight of her.

Ji Nanxing’s gaze was sinister, staring so intently that the officers shuddered.

Her 180cm frame radiated an intimidating aura as she sneered and retorted, “How do you want to bet? Why not include me in the wager?”

“Cap-Captain Ji…” the lead officer stammered. When he glanced behind Ji Nanxing and saw Su Qiao there too, he wilted, rubbing his nose and trying to shrink back.

“Is it appropriate to gossip about superiors behind their backs?” Ji Nanxing took a step forward, forcing the group to retreat several steps. Her interrogating tone grew even more intimidating. “Or do you have a major problem with Captain Su’s return?”

“N-no, that’s not what we meant…”

“Captain Ji, you’ve misunderstood. We were just joking…”

Suppressing her anger, Ji Nanxing scoffed. “If that’s not what you meant, then what did you mean? Joking? Is that how you joke? It’s the end of the year, you shouldn’t have this much free time. Seems I need to have a word with your supervisors.”

“We really mean no harm… Captain Su, we welcome you back…” The officers couldn’t explain themselves, only offering insincere welcomes that made them look even more ridiculous.

Ji Nanxing felt her ears were being dirtied just listening to them. She immediately pointed at them, raising her voice in anger: “I’m warning you, if I ever hear any more gossip about Captain Su, you’ll be the first ones I deal with. I mean what I say.”

Since someone was playing the bad cop, naturally someone had to play the good cop, this was the tacit understanding between Ji Nanxing and Su Qiao.

Su Qiao walked up behind her and patted her shoulder, calmly pulling her aside to make way. Then she ordered the officers: “All of you, get back to your offices now. Don’t let it happen again.”

Ji Nanxing sharply added a rebuke: “What are you standing around for? Get moving!”

After the troublesome group had left, she put her hands on her hips and glared at Su Qiao. “In the past, you would’ve at least chewed them out. When did you become so soft? People like that deserve to be called out and shamed, they hardly do any real work all day, just hide in the breakroom spreading rumors.”

“Enough now.” Su Qiao soothingly rubbed her back and shook her head helplessly. “Some things can’t be solved by shouting. We can’t make everyone understand us. Just treat it as background noise, it can enter your ears, but don’t let it enter your heart.”

“You’re pretty good at comforting yourself.” Ji Nanxing laughed bitterly, fully understanding what Su Qiao meant.

Some things no one could help her with, she could only save herself. Perhaps Su Qiao had already learned self-preservation, but the pain still refused to let her go.

“Let’s go back to the office. I don’t even know what to write in that two-thousand-word self-criticism. I need to figure out how to start admitting fault when I didn’t do anything wrong.” Ji Nanxing hated paperwork, case reports, annual summaries, new year plans, she had a pile of documents waiting. And now this self-criticism had been added to the mix. She seriously considered jumping out the window to end it all.

Mentioning this gave Su Qiao a headache too. The docked bonus was painful enough, but writing a self-criticism was worse than being assigned street duty. Clutching her head, she groaned miserably: “Ugh, what kind of mess is this!?”

…

Finally making it through the workday, Su Qiao refreshed her phone screen several times.

The cyber security division’s efficiency was visibly evident, all videos of her allegedly assaulting a patient’s family member had been scrubbed from the internet.

At noon, the child’s mother had actually come forward to admit fabricating the story. Following recusal principles, Ji Nanxing had handed the case to Ao Yu to handle.

Setting down her phone, Su Qiao leaned back and released a heavy sigh, suddenly realizing she hadn’t contacted Chi Jue all day.

As if struck by lightning, she bolted upright and began frantically organizing the documents on her desk.

Snatching up her handwritten draft, she immediately made a sour face.

After struggling all afternoon with the self-criticism, she’d only managed to write “Respected leaders and colleagues” before running out of ideas.

She hastily stuffed the draft into a document folder, determined to squeeze out at least a few hundred words after getting home tonight.

Before she could call Chi Jue, the person coming to demand answers beat her to it.

“Hello?” Su Qiao clamped the phone between her shoulder and ear while continuing to tidy her desk.

“Hello, Officer Su. I was wondering if my little bear has gotten off work yet? I don’t know if she’s finished for the day.”

Su Qiao was amused by that sweet and playful question, feeling that this woman was unfairly adorable.

She was quite surprised. Having not been in contact all day, she had expected Chi Jue to scold her over the phone, but instead, she was met with a soft, cooing murmur.

She could tell that her girlfriend was trying hard to suppress her longing and avoid disturbing her, which was why the call came right at the end of her workday.

Chi Jue always had a knack for effortlessly sweeping away Su Qiao’s gloom and unhappiness. With a radiant smile, Su Qiao replied, “I was just about to leave the Criminal Investigation Center. Where are you? Should I send Little Bear to pick you up?”

“No need for you to fetch me, I’ll deliver myself right to your doorstep~”

As soon as Chi Jue’s playful words ended, Su Qiao heard a few short, rhythmic honks from outside the window.

“Okay, I’ll be right down!” Fighting the urge to look outside, she hurriedly dashed out of her office.

When she rushed outside the Criminal Investigation Center, Su Qiao didn’t see the familiar Cadillac but instead, the flashy and eye-catching Ferrari.

The overly conspicuous luxury car made her heart skip a beat. She quickly glanced around furtively, relieved that she wasn’t in her police uniform today.

Chi Jue had pulled over with her hazard lights on, one arm resting on the car window as she leaned out slightly, raising an eyebrow teasingly. “Officer Su, what a coincidence! I just happened to be passing by. If it’s on your way, I can give you a ride~”

What kind of new flirting game was this?

After a brief moment of surprise, Su Qiao quickly got into character and played along, “Dr. Chi? What are you doing here? What a coincidence!”

Chi Jue didn’t respond but instead nodded politely with a smile toward someone behind Su Qiao.

Su Qiao turned to look and saw Liu Shisan with his arms around Ao Yu and Wen Ling. They seemed to be heading out for a casual meal and were now staring intently at her and Dr. Chi sitting in the sports car.

Su Qiao’s internal alarm bells went off, the gossip squad would arrive in five seconds.

She scrambled into the passenger seat, ducking her head as if trying to hide. “Let’s go, this is not a good place to linger.”

Chi Jue had wanted to give her a longing kiss but held back, knowing Little Bear would mind. She pouted and grumbled, “We’re dating openly, not sneaking around like thieves. What are you afraid of?”