The Special Investigation Department was an elite team of police officers dealing with special cases.

Zhao Yunlan was their chief, a brilliant policeman who had made a career quickly until he was assigned to this team. Some people thought that it would be his end, because the S in SID meant that they dealt with the most difficult cases, the most dangerous ones, but they were all wrong.

Since his father was a higher-up he had the liberty to choose personally the people working for him, and he knew exactly what he was doing.

He solved case after case, earning a name for himself separate from his father.

When he had first joined the police, he had been 'Zhao’s son', but now at the age of 33 he was Zhao Yunlan, the youngest chief in the history of SID, the brilliant detective who was the nightmare of every criminal.

People sneered at his choices, they said his deputy was a young criminal and that his team consisted of a failed scientist, an old gangster, a beauty-contest winner and a scaredy-cat.

When someone mentioned it to him the first time, Zhao Yunlan had laughed and said, “Oh yes, that’s true."
And it was.
Every word.

His deputy was a young man named Da Qing, he used to be a little thief until he was caught. Yunlan had met him at the police station, and had taken a liking at the young scoundrel. He had helped him get out with a ridiculous sentence and they had become friends.

Da Qing was really good at following people without them noticing, mingling with students or passers-by, getting in places where other people couldn’t... it had been a stroke of bad luck if he had been caught after one of his ‘works’, or maybe it was good luck after all because he met Yunlan and his life changed.

Lin Jin was his specialist in everything related to computers and science - or, as Yunlan called it, magic.
He had been mocked for his inventions that never worked, but Yunlan had seen potential in him and had hired him.

Old Li had been a gang leader in his younger days, but after his son was born he found that he didn’t want that life for him. He had tried his best to raise him away from all that violence, but it was only thanks to Yunlan’s intervention that he had succeeded. He told Yunlan that he owed him everything, and Yunlan had given him an honest job.

He would do anything that was requested of him, from cleaning the office to field work, Yunlan only had to say a word.

Wang Zheng had been a very poor girl, but also very very pretty. She had won a beauty contest easily, nobody was as pretty as she was. There had been a prize in money, she took it and used it for her education, and Yunlan admired her because she was efficient, precise, she never lost a file, she was always at work on time, and she never forgot to remind him what he had to do, she was the perfect counterbalance to his messy self.

Zhao Yunlan was often considered a playboy, although he resented the term. He never played anyone, every time he had a story with someone he always tried his best to make it work.

It never did.

If he really was a playboy, he would have tried to win Wang Zheng over, but he could clearly see that there was no real interest in her eyes other than a slight admiration - he was very handsome and he knew it - and he respected her.

Then there was Guo ChangCheng who was indeed scared of everything, the sight of a corpse would make him faint on the spot, but he was the most kind-hearted person Yunlan had ever met, and he considered him his lucky charm, but that wasn't his only merit.

Guo looked harmless, so harmless that people tended to underestimate his importance. More than once Yunlan had solved a case thanks to the extremely detailed notes that Guo kept, writing down everything that people said to him.

A witness would be scared by Zhao’s presence, but not by Guo’s, and they talked to him easily, not just of what ‘they’ deemed important, but of everything that they could remember, and Guo wrote everything down. Little details whose importance only Yunlan noticed.

When there were no special cases, the SID team helped out solving normal crimes. It was Wang Zheng’s duty to receive all the information, sort through the files and bring to his attention what could be of their interest.

Currently they were working on a case that was special for its inhuman ferocity. Someone was killing young women in the most brutal way, the first had been found in the early morning outside a supermarket by a group of employee going to work. Men and women, they had screamed and called the police.

The second girl was found in the Dragon City University campus by a security guard. Zhao Yunlan was glad that the body hadn’t been found by a student, it was a terrible sight and examining it had proved a challenge even for him.

He had immediately given order that Guo wouldn’t be allowed anywhere near it, instead he sent the young lad to talk with the students.

Yunlan made a disgusted face watching over and over the information they had on this case. He despised every kind of violent criminal, but more than anything those who targeted easy preys like young women and children. He wondered if this piece of shit felt powerful when he killed this nineteen-year-old first-year student. He had read everything about profiling and serial-killers, but could never understand how this monsters were able to convince themselves that overpowering a defenceless girl or child made them look strong. He didn't choose to go after soldiers who were trained for combat, no, this lowlife had destroyed the life of a girl who wanted to become a doctor and help people. It was really an unjust world for those who didn’t have the means to fight for themselves.

Yunlan couldn’t wait to show these monsters what was in store for them once they were finally in his hands.

It was late now, though, and he still hadn’t eaten anything, so he told Wang to put everything in order and went out.

He was walking when he heard a scream, and saw a figure running away with an old woman’s handbag. This wasn’t the type of cases he usually dealt with, but he was a policeman after all and couldn’t just ignore it, so he ran after him.

He saw someone approaching and yelled “stop that man!” before he had the time to realise that it was a girl. She didn’t seem to have noticed that the guy was running towards her and was walking straight in front of him. He cursed and ran faster.