Miss Forensics – Chapter 37.2

Encounter

One of the companions among the group took a glance at the pitch-black room and shivered uncontrollably. “Have you watched too many damn horror movies?”

A few others grumbled and were about to turn back.

Lin Yan let out a sigh of relief.

But before she could fully relax, the person who had initially spoken returned. “No, I still need to go in and take a look to be sure.”

As they spoke, they began to enter the room, preparing to enter the electronic passcode on the airtight door lock.

Listening to the dripping sound so close by, Lin Yan broke out in a cold sweat. She could feel that Song Yuhang had tightened her hold on her a bit.

Next to her ears was her heavy breathing, and the warmth gently brushed against her earlobes, causing an untimely itch. Lin Yan was unable to speak, her lips tasted like the palm of her hand.

There was a hint of sweat, and that sunny scent from her body.

Lin Yan squinted her eyes slightly, and Song Yuhang knew she was up to mischief again.

Sure enough, the next moment, a sharp pain shot through her tiger’s mouth, and she almost cried out in front of these security guards.

Lin Yan was ruthless, not holding back at all, treating it all as if it were gristle to be chewed.

Little wolf cub.

When this phrase popped into Song Yuhang’s mind, the airtight door swung open.

Several flashlight beams pierced through the swirling mist, casting straight into the room.

Song Yuhang instantly tensed her body. She and Lin Yan stood in the shadow behind the backlit door, and as long as they took one more step forward, one step…

She struggled to swallow her saliva, and the breath and heartbeat of the two of them were almost synchronized.

Strangely, in such a tense moment, she even had the distraction to feel the peculiar sensation caused by Lin Yan’s tongue lightly sweeping across her tiger’s mouth.

This sensation was too novel.

So novel that even someone who was usually composed and self-possessed like her felt the sweat bead on her forehead slipping down in an instant.

Perhaps it was because of the frequent swallowing of saliva, but Song Yuhang inexplicably felt a dryness in her throat.

The faint floral fragrance enveloping her became even more intense, and Song Yuhang almost buried her head in Lin Yan’s neck.

There was a piece of fabric there that pricked her eyes deeply. If it weren’t for the fact that the guards hadn’t left yet, she might have immediately removed that piece of fabric to investigate.

Her curiosity about Lin Yan was evident.

With every inch Song Yuhang got closer to her, Lin Yan bit down harder, as if they were mutually retaliating, neither giving in to the other.

The door drew nearer to them, and the flashlight beams illuminated the floor, inching forward until they projected onto the wall beside them. Just one more step.

The chaotic footsteps in the corridor echoed, “What are you all doing here?! Opening the morgue’s door in the middle of the night, letting all the cold air out. Quickly close it! Don’t you know the control room’s circuit breaker is malfunctioning? Get it fixed right away!”

The beam of light was withdrawn, and several people nodded and bowed, then closed the airtight door.

“Yes, yes, you’re right. We’ll do that, right away.”

The world plunged back into darkness, and Lin Yan let out a sigh of relief. When she couldn’t hear the footsteps anymore, her tongue had already tasted a hint of blood.

She felt somewhat drained, her jaw ached, and she was the first to let go.

Song Yuhang also withdrew her hand.

Lin Yan took a few deep breaths of fresh, cool air and shivered. “Hey, can we—”

She raised her gaze to meet the person’s eyes, and the rest of her words got stuck in her throat.

It was an expression she had never seen on Song Yuhang’s face before, one that contained pity, compassion, regret, self-blame, and a trace of possessiveness that she herself wasn’t even aware of.

That last one, Lin Yan was all too familiar with. Almost every man and woman who had ever been intimate with her had displayed this expression on their faces.

Lin Yan’s heart skipped a beat, but she kept her composure, shifting her gaze away and adopting a different tone. “What’s this, Officer Song? Do you want us to embrace each other in the morgue until the end of time?”

She was accustomed to using humor to conceal her unease.

Song Yuhang didn’t mind; she just kept her eyes fixed on Lin Yan’s face and said, word by word, “You’ve gotten thinner.”

Lin Yan impatiently raised an eyebrow. They were too close for her liking, and she didn’t appreciate it.

In such a situation, any normal conversation would tend to take on an ambiguous direction.

It’s not so much that Lin Yan didn’t like Song Yuhang’s proximity, but rather that she didn’t like anything heading in a direction she couldn’t control.

Song Yuhang was an unexpected occurrence, a series of them in fact.

“Is it a problem that I’ve gotten thinner? Can’t I go on a diet?”

“You call that a diet? It’s more like… it’s more like starving!” Song Yuhang lowered her voice and shouted this into Lin Yan’s ear. The moment she had embraced her, she realized that Lin Yan had become too thin, almost skin and bones.

The current Lin Yan was just a facade, unable to withstand a few moves from her.

Lin Yan heard the trembling in her voice, and what was initially a casual glance revealed the shimmering moisture in Song Yuhang’s eyes. Lin Yan’s heart quivered, and she bit her lip, choosing not to speak further.

“You want me not to die… yet you seek your own death. Lin Yan, does that make any sense?” She finally called out Lin Yan’s name in its entirety, no longer calling her “Forensic Doctor Lin” as usual, but in this particular situation.

“You said He Miao should not have died in vain. But what about you? You’re only 32, exceptionally talented, so young with limitless prospects ahead! Are you… content with this?”

Lin Yan finally lifted her head to meet her gaze, but it was filled with disdain, sarcasm, and utter disregard.

She lightly tapped her chest with the hand that could still move and spoke clearly, “The real Lin Yan died when I was 6 years old. What stands before you now is just a shell, a demon.”

She had briefly lived too, pulled from the abyss by someone. She had chased that ray of sunlight, wanting to become a better version of herself, but reality had mercilessly dragged her deeper into a colder swamp.

Lin Yan had died, and “she” had lived.

She had undergone a complete transformation, donning a different, ruthless mask.

Wearing the mask for so long, she had almost forgotten what her original self was like.

“I refuse to accept it! Whether it’s a shell or a demon! All I know is that you are Lin Yan, Lin Yan, the forensic doctor from the Jiangcheng City Bureau’s Technical Investigation Division. The living, breathing Lin Yan standing right in front of me, my comrade in arms, Lin Yan!”

The terms “comrade in arms” and “together in life and death” were so beautiful.

They were almost beautiful enough to make one think of brilliant sunshine.

A corner of Lin Yan’s somber heart was gently blown open by the wind as she gazed at the young police officer’s face.

She was so full of vitality and youthful vigor, and when she was calm, she was like the slow, flowing blue sky and white clouds in the distance.

She wasn’t anxious or impatient, nor did she engage in pointless arguments or competition. She could stay in the same position for years without complaint.

But she also harbored a deep-seated resentment for evil. Even if her beliefs clashed with Lin Yan’s, she was willing to uncover the truth in her own way.

When she moved, it was like lightning, carrying the force of a thunderstorm. Her fists swung like a fierce wind, smashing into the enemy’s face, creating an escape route for her with her own flesh and blood.

She was full of righteousness and unwavering loyalty.

She didn’t care which “Lin Yan” she was, she only cared that she was Lin Yan, the one standing in front of her, the Lin Yan who had lived and faced life and death together with her.

It was as if they had exchanged glances in the past.

In the darkness, they locked eyes for a long time, in a silence broken only by their breaths. Even the humming of the cold air in the morgue was no longer audible.

Lin Yan’s lips twitched slightly, and she turned her head, only to be pulled into someone’s embrace. Song Yuhang held her head, almost pressing her tightly against her chest. Her voice was both restrained and pleading.

“Don’t die… please don’t die.”

She finally said these words.

Lin Yan closed her eyes, and a subtle movement could be seen in her less pronounced Adam’s apple. She raised her hand as if to hug her back, but it eventually fell weakly.

“I’m sorry… I can’t promise you.”

Her fate had been predetermined from the beginning. She would continue to fight for the truth with unwavering determination throughout her life, even if it meant sacrificing her own life.

“It’s okay, you don’t have to answer me now. I just hope that someday in the future, in a moment when you might want to end your life, you’ll remember me, remember what I said today, and think about it again, take it slowly.”

“Lin Yan, there are people in this world who hope for your continued existence. You have the right to choose, but once you press the switch of death, it means starting from scratch. The game is over forever, and you won’t have the chance to start over.”

Song Yuhang didn’t finish saying what she wanted to say, but she sensed Lin Yan’s body tensing up and felt her silent resistance.

She still thought that the next words might be a bit abrupt if spoken now, but she understood it herself.

If there really came a time in the future, she would seize that moment when Lin Yan hesitated and pull her back from the grasp of the Grim Reaper, back to her side.

It wasn’t just Lin Yan; it was the same for anyone attempting suicide in front of her. She always believed that living required more courage than dying.

And by living, one would always see the sun rise tomorrow, and good things would eventually happen, wouldn’t they?

Lin Yan had never imagined that she and Song Yuhang would have a day of shaking hands and making amends, let alone a day of embracing each other. What was even more unexpected was that their first meaningful embrace happened in a morgue.

It was both absurd and ridiculous, yet it undeniably happened.

Feeling the small hand clutching the fabric on her back, Song Yuhang’s lips curled upward in triumph. “Let me see the wound on your neck.”

As she said this, she attempted to lift the fabric covering Lin Yan’s neck. Lin Yan tried to stop her but ended up having her hands pushed over her head.

Lin Yan was both embarrassed and angry, and she bent her knee in response.

Song Yuhang’s face turned green as she retreated several steps, clutching her groin, her face contorted in pain. She stammered, unable to speak, while pointing at Lin Yan.

Miss Lin swung her backpack onto her shoulder, and with a smug expression, she blew a strand of hair that had fallen into her eyes. “Give me some trouble, and I’ll set up a dyeing workshop. Do you know roses have thorns?”

Song Yuhang watched her as she walked towards the refrigerated compartment where bodies were stored, and she limped along behind her. “You… you’re ruthless! Just you wait for me! You… gah…”