"What? I don't want to work with him!"

Yao protested, slamming his hands on Ludwig's desk, making the German roll his eyes as he saw his piles of paper fall on the ground because of the impact.

"Stop being so childish, detective Wang".

The smaller male widened his eyes, was Ludwig even being serious? They both knew that he didn't do the partner thing, he was a lone wolf, everyone knew that by now.

"Me? Childish? I'm older than you!"

The chief shook his head in disapproval, Yao acted like he was the boss but he wasn't. It wasn't about age. Sure, he respected the Chinese man for his experience but he was given an order and the Asian was going to follow it, whether he liked it or not.

"Detective Wang, please. I know that you avoid working in a team because of what happened to your last partner, but this is an order, from your chief".

The detective was silent for a few seconds, Ludwig didn't know shit about him or what happened to his old partner. The German had been working in the station for only 2 years while he had been there like almost 6. Yao had sworn to never work in a team ever again after the incident, and he had done very well working alone, all of his cases were solved. Working with the new guy would only slow him down and ruin his record, as well as his reputation at the station.

"He's a newbie! I don't think he has ever been to a crime scene before, I can't work with him".

The German was getting tired of this discussion, the decision had been made already but Yao was reluctant to obey. He wasn't asking for anything impossible, it was just to share the case with Ivan Braginski, who recently started working in the station.

"Don't underestimate him because of his age, I wouldn't have hired him if he didn't have the qualities we look for here".

Yao tried to hold back his laughter, was that really Ludwig's argument? The chief had hired a lot of people that Yao didn't approve of, but that could be because of his general dislike for people. Still, he wasn't willing to team up with a beginner detective.

"Really? Does Feliciano qualify to work here?"

Ludwig tried to hold back the need of wanting to punch the Chinese man on the face, this had gone too far. The Italian may not be the brightest in the station but he was kind-hearted, trustworthy, honest, and had an approach with victims that no other officer had. Feliciano was charismatic and emphatic, he was a key member in the station like any other officer and Ludwig would not tolerate Yao putting Feli or any other officers down.

"That's enough now, don't bring officer Vargas into this".

Yao crossed his arms, maybe he had gone a bit too far by messing with the little Italian. He didn't hate Feliciano because he would always make coffee for everyone and apparently a lot of people in town liked him.

"Fine, but I'm not going to work with a wanna be homicide detective, entitled brat that barely graduated from the police academy, I simply won't!"

Then the door of the office opened up slightly, it was officer Vargas along a tall pale male standing by the door. The German stared at Feliciano blankly, the timing was just so wrong, Ivan must have heard the yelling and whining from Yao.

"Did we interrupt something?"

Officer Vargas asked, with a small nervous grin, they had overheard the shouting coming from the office, perhaps the entire station heard about it, the walls were awfully thin.

"No, not at all, detective Wang was just going to look for you, detective Braginski".

Ludwig said casually, maybe this was just what he needed to get rid of Yao and his protesting once and for all. He did feel a bit bad for Ivan that he had to work with the easily angered Asian that clearly disliked newbies. However, he was sure that the Russian could learn a lot from the Asian who was very experienced in the field.

"One case only, just this one".

Yao hissed at the chief, he had no choice but to work with the new guy but it would be only for a case. He could resist working with someone for just one case, and after they finished he was sure that Ivan would probably resign or ask to be transferred. He was determined to make Ivan's life miserable while they work on the case, for no reason really. The Asian was just petty and was angry that things didn't come out his way, but also because he didn't want to repeat the same experience that happened with his old partner.

"Good luck, detective Braginski".

The German nodded at the Russian who remained standing by the door side. That poor Russian had no idea what he was going to go through.

Ivan nodded back at the chief as the Italian waved goodbye to him. Then the Chinese man stood up from his chair and quickly left the office, and he followed, like an obedient puppy. The new detective was pretty frightened, if being honest, of his partner for the case. Yao clearly disliked him, despite that they barely met. He didn't want to have a bad start with the detective he would be working closely with for who knows how long, so he hoped that they could at least tolerate each other while working.

"Detective Wang, where are we-".

The Russian was interrupted by shushing coming from the smaller male who hopped into the boxy car and Ivan went inside as well. The car was a bit small from his taste, he had to lower his head so he wouldn't bump on the ceiling, not very comfortable for sure.

"First, don't talk to me unless it's necessary, we're working, alright? We're not best friends going for a smoothie, we're going to investigate a crime scene, so shut it".

Ivan remained silent and quietly nodded, this was a terrible start. Why did Yao even dislike him that much? He didn't do anything, it was the chief who suggested the pairing. However, he would do whatever Yao indicated to not anger the detective anymore, even though he hadn't done anything wrong. His violet eyes were fixed on the road, he was new in town so he didn't know the place very well, he wanted to ask Yao again where they were going but he was most likely going to get shut down again. The Russian pressed the radio button, turning it on as "Break My Stride" blasted in the cop car.

"What the hell? Do not ever touch a Chinese man's radio!"

Yao shouted, and Ivan immediately reached his hand out to turn it off but Yao slapped it away as the Russian stared at him in confusion.

"I like that song".

Detective Braginski made a mental note to remember the song since Yao liked it. He had never heard the song before because music wasn't much his thing, but this song wasn't bad. He glanced at the Asian was shaking his head from right to left along with the beat. Perhaps it hadn't been such a bad move to turn on the radio, even if he got slapped on the hand. After a few more minutes of driving, detective Wang stopped the car and both of them got down.

Ivan noticed that they were in the rich neighborhood, in a luxury apartment building to be precise, there were already many police cars and other officers surrounding the area. Yao walked through the crowd with his badge in hand, and he simply followed behind detective Wang. Soon, they were in the elevator of the building going towards the basement, where the body was.

"Alright, get out of here at once".

The Chinese man commanded and the crime scene investigators and technicians all took a step back, they all knew how temperamental Yao could be when working. Ivan noticed that a lot of people were staring at him, making him feel quite uncomfortable, but it was probably because detective Wang was always seen alone.

Then the Russian and Yao walked towards where the body of the woman lay on the ground to the side. She was a blonde woman, wearing a blueish suit. Ivan could tell that she was rich, her clothes seemed brand new and she had accessorized gloves, heels, a headband, and diamond earrings. He quickly noticed the ligature on her neck, clearly, she had been strangled with a rope or a wire. Then the bullet wound on her chest that had formed a pool of blood on the ground. Her eyes were wide opened as well, he had never seen a corpse like that before. Yao was starting to walk around the body, watching it from every angle and Ivan followed him, naturally.

"Where's the murder weapon?"

The Asian rolled his eyes, why was Ivan making the stupidest questions? He really was an amateur.

"The killer is not dumb enough to leave the gun behind, and why would they even leave it here when she was clearly killed somewhere else?"

The Russian was now confused, did he mean that the body was planted? Because it didn't seem like it to him. Ivan pulled out a cigarette from his pocket and lighted it up as Yao slipped on some gloves to not contaminate the evidence.

"There's too little blood here for a gunshot on the chest, she was left here, in the basement of her own house...what are you doing?!"

Yao freaked out after seeing Ivan smoking in the crime scene and immediately snatched the cigarette from the Russian's hand to throw it on the ground and step on it.

"We don't smoke in crime scenes, have more respect for the victim, also smoking will kill you, do you want to die, detective Braginski?"

Ivan watched how his vice was taken out of his hand and smashed on the ground, no one had ever done that to him, and if being honest he was surprised, so surprised in fact that he just shook his head and continued looking at the crime scene.

"Now, you see that her socks are torn and ripped, how do you think that happened?"

The Russian kneeled to have a better look at the ripped blue sock. It definitely wasn't scratched by hand, so she might have gotten stuck somewhere for it to get torn. Ivan looked even closer and he saw a tiny splinter stuck on her leg.

"This is an urban area, there are not many trees or bushes here".

Ivan mumbled and Yao nodded before getting down and pointing at the splinter they were looking at.

"Correct, the nearest place would be the jungle".

Detective Wang made air quotes when he mentioned the place, which only intrigued Ivan more.

"The jungle?"

He asked, getting up from the ground and scratching his head while Yao got up too to begin walking in circles,

"It's a hill not far from here, we'll send the team to go ask locals if they have seen or heard anything and if they can find the missing cloth from the sock. Perhaps even her personal belongings. A woman like her would never leave without a purse, don't you think?"

Ivan agreed, although he still was confused about why she was left in the basement of her apartment. That just seemed off to him, the killer must have wanted someone to discover the body or they could have left her in the jungle in the first place.

"Come on, let's go talk to the security guard who found her this morning at 6 when doing his patrol".

Yao began making his way to the security guard that had a shock blanket over his head while some other officers asked him questions, but as soon as they saw Yao, they all moved to the side.

"Wait, is he the same guard from the night when we assume she was left here?"

The Russian asked, watching the other officers glancing at him and talking amongst each other, was it that weird to see detective Wang with a partner?

"Guess we'll find out".

The Chinese man reached his hand out to the shocked Dannishman in security uniform that took Yao's hand and shook it lightly.

"Hello Matthias, I'm detective Wang and this here is…".

Yao paused for a few seconds and inhaled sharply before continuing his sentence.

"My partner, detective Braginski".