Miss Forensics – Chapter 20
by Little PandaPart One
Opponent
“S” can stand for Song, can stand for Sun, and of course, it can also stand for “Shi”!
By the time Lin Yan finished her cigarette, the cab arrived. She pulled open the door and got in, catching a glimpse in the rearview mirror of another car starting its engine not far behind.
“Where to, Miss?”
Lin Yan buckled her seatbelt. “I haven’t decided yet. Just drive for now, driver.”
After they had circled the city a few times, the car behind was still pursuing her relentlessly. The driver’s method of tailing her was clever—keeping a long distance, yet always managing to catch up just as she was about to slip away.
The corners of Lin Yan’s lips curled slightly. Interesting.
“Driver, take me to the City Public Security Bureau.”
Before dawn, a massive crowd of media reporters had already staked out the entrance of the City Bureau. The moment she stepped out of the car, she was surrounded. All kinds of telephoto lenses and flash units were thrust in front of her.
“Miss Lin, Miss Lin, we heard you did the forensic appraisal for this case as well!”
“Miss Lin, is the killer the victim’s husband, or is it someone else?”
“We heard the victim had a chaotic private life and was entangled with the principal of Jiangcheng No. 1 High School. Was that the killer’s reason for the murder?”
She didn’t say a word, reaching out to push her way through. Someone pursued her relentlessly from behind. “Miss Lin, Miss Lin, please tell us about the case…”
When they chased her to the lobby, they were blocked by the police officers who hurried over, allowing her to make a successful escape. Zhang Jinhai, who was currently receiving representatives from the procuratorate, looked up and beamed with joy when he saw her return, greeting her warmly.
“Oh, Forensic Examiner Lin is back! How is the case going?”
Lin Yan replied half-heartedly, “Ah, it’s probably a lost cause.”
Zhang Jinhai slapped his thigh and stood up, his face full of worry. “Sigh, just as I thought. This whole thing… what a mess. Even if we find evidence, we might not necessarily be able to…”
In front of the prosecutors, he swallowed the second half of his sentence. Seeing that Lin Yan didn’t look too pleased, he scrambled to curry favor. “It’s good that you’re back, it’s good that you’re back. Forensic Examiner Lin, you’ve worked hard this time. Go get some rest.”
That was exactly what she’d been waiting for.
Lin Yan nodded slightly. “Fine, I’ll go sleep for a bit. If any cases come in today, let another forensic doctor handle them.”
After she left, Zhang Jinhai sat back down and chatted animatedly with the prosecutors. “This is the newly hired Lin Yan, Forensic Examiner Lin, of our City Bureau. I don’t think she’s as cold and unreasonable as the rumors say…”
Wearing wet clothes was uncomfortable. Lin Yan took off her jacket as she walked, holding it in her hand while she subtly glanced behind her out of the corner of her eye.
The little tail following her had disappeared.
People were bustling back and forth in the corridors of the Jiangcheng City Public Security Bureau.
She pushed open the door of the duty room, tossed her jacket onto the sofa, threw herself onto the iron bunk bed, and began to rest and build up her strength.
Time passed second by second. People continuously entered and exited the duty room to retrieve things, but Lin Yan slept very soundly. She was truly exhausted; she hadn’t worked with such high intensity in a long time.
It wasn’t until the first ray of morning light filtered through the gaps in the curtains and spilled onto the bed that Lin Yan opened her eyes. Her exhaustion was swept away, replaced by a clear and sharp gaze.
“Sun Xiangming, the husband of the deceased female teacher from Jiangcheng No. 1 High School who was detained yesterday, has had his lawyer file an appeal. He was released this morning due to insufficient evidence. This is a live report from Jiangcheng City Television.”
The curtains in the room were pulled shut, keeping it pitch-black inside. The television remained on, the female anchor’s mouth babbling endlessly. The screen cut to show Sun Xiangming walking out, flanked by his parents and lawyer. He even bowed deeply to the surrounding media reporters and the public.
“Thank you all for your concern. I think we should show more understanding and support for the police’s work. After all, they’re also trying to solve the case and clear my wife’s name.”
As he spoke, his eyes reddened again. He wiped away his tears in full view of the public, his voice choking up until he could no longer speak. He could only wave his hand to signal the media to stop filming.
Afterward, he got into a taxi with his parents and vanished from the public eye.
With a sharp crack, the remote control flew through the air and struck the television screen. The noisy audio cut off, and the room plunged back into dead silence.
The person sitting in front of the television gritted her teeth, tearing at her hair with her hands as a low growl escaped from the depths of her throat. Her face, which was usually delicate and fair, gradually grew sinister and twisted.
Early morning was the busiest time at the City Bureau. Staff bustled back and forth, criminal investigators hurried about, and ordinary citizens came to handle various matters.
On top of that, with the situation regarding Sun Xiangming, they were utterly overwhelmed, having to deal with the media and the procuratorate’s demands for accountability.
Bureau Chief Feng paced back and forth in his office. “We still have to send a few people to monitor him. He’s absolutely not allowed to take a single step out of Jiangcheng. To think public opinion can interfere with judicial justice—laughable!”
When he said this, it inevitably reminded people of the legends that had circulated within the Jiangcheng police force years ago.
“Shoulder justice with iron shoulders; build the police soul with a loyal heart1”—this was the motto Zhao Junfeng had gifted him when Feng Jianguo took office as the Chief of the Jiangcheng City Public Security Bureau.
Though he was now getting on in years, had put on weight, and was no longer as agile as he used to be, in his youth, he had chased drug dealers across provincial lines, fought bandits on the borders, rescued hostages in split-second life-or-death situations, and even took a bullet during a raid on a drug manufacturing den, but still held onto the ringleader’s leg with a death grip until reinforcements arrived.
Feng Jianguo became famous overnight after that battle, paving the way for his steady rise through the ranks.
Over the years, he had stepped back from the frontlines, and his temper had gradually mellowed. Yet when he spoke those words, his naturally commanding presence made the young officer shudder. The officer immediately stood at attention, saluted, and barked out with full force, “Yes, Bureau Chief! I guarantee we’ll complete the mission. We won’t let Sun Xiangming out of our sight for a single second!”
As the officer turned to leave, Bureau Chief Feng turned back and asked, “Where is Song Yuhang?”
The young officer froze for a moment before answering, “She should be on her way back by now.”
Observing Bureau Chief Feng’s expression, the young officer anxiously closed the door behind him, thinking to himself: Captain Song is in deep trouble this time. She’ll at least receive a formal disciplinary warning.
Lost in thought, he accidentally bumped into a cleaning lady working in the corridor, causing her broom to clatter to the floor.
He bent down to pick it up and handed it back to her. “I’m sorry.”
The cleaning lady wore a standard-issue hat and a mask, her back hunched. She looked quite advanced in years, and her voice was exceptionally low and hoarse.
“It’s fine.”
With that, she resumed sweeping the dust along the tile lines of the corridor.
Clutching his file folder, the officer continued forward, but suddenly felt something was amiss. That cleaning lady looked so unfamiliar. Was she new?
He spun around to look, but the corridor was completely empty. Goosebumps immediately broke out all over his skin, and he cursed under his breath, “Damn it, I’m seeing ghosts in broad daylight.”
Song Yuhang leaned against the car door, blood dripping down from her fingertips. Her fingers had been cut to a bloody pulp by broken glass in the garbage landfill. Fang Xin brought over a pack of tissues, wanting to press them against the cuts.
Song Yuhang subtly avoided her. “It’s fine, just a minor injury. Tell the team to pack it up.”
The rain had stopped, but the sky remained gloomy. The low-hanging sheets of clouds looked as if they were brewing an even greater storm.
Having stayed awake all night, Song Yuhang’s eyes were bloodshot, her hair was a messy tangle, and her clothes reeked of trash. Everyone else was the same; the moment they got into the car, they collapsed onto their seats in silence. The atmosphere was heavy and stagnant, and before long, the sound of snoring filled the vehicle.
Duan Cheng yawned repeatedly, forcing himself to stay alert enough to drive. Song Yuhang leaned against the backrest, her tense lips relaxing. Her face was pale from staying up all night. She wasn’t made of iron, after all; only now did she let a trace of exhaustion show.
Everyone in the car was physically and mentally exhausted, and she was no exception. As a result, her usually clear and logical mind began to wander.
One moment, it was the face of the deceased Ding Xue.
The next, it was Sun Xiangming giving her a hair-raising grin through the iron gate.
The scene shifted to an endless expanse of white. She seemed to stand in a field of reeds, her fingers gently brushing past the reed flowers. The wind swept up into the sky, swirling before settling upon her brow.
She heard someone speak in a leisurely tone, “If he can’t afford a diamond ring, I’ll give you one.”
Another familiar female voice replied, “No need. If it’s from Forensic Examiner Lin, I wouldn’t even want a pull tab.”
She frowned in her sleep, following the sound of the voice, only to plunge into a freezing swamp.
They stared at each other like wild beasts, itching to pounce and snap each other’s necks.
“Since the law can’t give criminals their deserved punishment, what’s wrong with me enforcing justice on behalf of Heaven2?”
Enforcing justice on behalf of Heaven.
On behalf of whom, and what kind of justice?
Song Yuhang mulled over these words. Suddenly, she felt as if a bolt of lightning had split through the chaos. She bolted upright, her jacket slipping off her shoulders, her expression shifting unpredictably.
“Duan Cheng, change our route. We’re not going back to the City Bureau. Go straight to Sun Xiangming’s Home!”
Duan Cheng’s eyelids had been fighting to stay open. Startled out of his wits by her sudden shout, he stammered, “Wh—what’s wrong, Captain Song?”
“This case isn’t over yet. Hurry! Any later and it’ll be too late!”
Song Yuhang scrambled to fish her phone out of her pocket and began calling the officers on stakeout near Sun Xiangming’s Home.
In that split second of sudden enlightenment, she understood so much more.
When she and Lin Yan had first gone to the school to gather information, Li Shiping had chased after Lin Yan to ask about Ding Xue’s cause of death. It wasn’t out of curiosity at all, but out of concern for another person.
She also recalled her visit to Li Shiping’s Home. The walls were covered with numerous award certificates, all for first-place finishes in teaching competitions.
Song Yuhang had asked casually, “You teach chemistry?”
Li Shiping had taken a sip of her coffee. “Yes. I’ve been interested in it since junior high. I originally wanted to be a scientist, but by some twist of fate, I ended up as a teacher.”
Why would a chemistry teacher have so many original English works in her office?
The answer was self-evident.
And the excessively clean photographs in the display cabinet.
Along with that ring— “S” could stand for Song, it could stand for Sun, and of course, it could also stand for “Shi”!
She hadn’t necessarily missed the details Lin Yan had noticed. So, what exactly had clouded her vision?
Was she unwilling to believe such a love could exist in this world, or…
At the thought of this, a hidden dread crept up her entire body.
Song Yuhang bit her lower lip until it bled, the metallic taste of rust touching the tip of her tongue. She violently swept her hair back, brushing all the stray strands away from her forehead, her eyes bloodshot.
“Duan Cheng, drive faster!”
Too late.
“Hello, your food delivery is here.” A knock sounded at the door. Sun Xiangming, who had just finished taking a shower, walked out while drying his hair and peered through the peephole.
It was the food stall downstairs that he frequently ordered from. The delivery worker was wearing the stall’s uniform, holding the bag, and taking a step back as if preparing to call him.
“Coming, coming.” Placing his towel on the entryway cabinet, he opened the door slightly and reached out his arm to take the bag.
But the delivery worker didn’t hand it over. Instead, they said, “Sir, could you please give us a good review? Just a quick comment on how the food tastes. The boss is requiring it. Please do me a favor.”
Despite it being midsummer, the person in front of him wore a long-sleeved uniform and a peaked cap printed with the shop’s logo. For hygiene, they also wore a mask, leaving only their eyes exposed. A faint look of pleading lingered in those eyes, and a thin sheen of sweat beaded along the sideburns pressed under the cap.
Sun Xiangming impatiently took the paper and pen offered to him and began writing on the sticky note. As he wrote, he grumbled, “The stir-fried clams I ordered last time tasted alright, but they weren’t cleaned properly. I ate several mouthfuls of sand. Go back and tell your boss…”
Before he could finish, the delivery worker bowed and nodded. “Yes, yes, you’re absolutely right.”
A cold glint was faintly visible within the worker’s loose sleeve. Sun Xiangming suddenly sensed that something was wrong. He raised his eyes to look at the worker, who was still smiling at him.
For some reason, the person looked familiar, and his scalp began to tingle with dread.
Stopping halfway through, he refused to write anymore. He shoved the sticky note and pen back into the worker’s hands, grabbed the food, and prepared to shut the door. At that exact moment, Li Shiping moved.
Summoning strength from God knows where, she grabbed his arm and slammed the door repeatedly against his arm.
Sun Xiangming’s bones felt as if they were about to be crushed, and a heart-wrenching shriek tore from his throat.
Leaping up from the lightwell on the fourth floor, the black-clad figure slipped into the fire stairwell. The heavy iron door was pushed open, and a body immediately slumped down, limp.
His clothes, except for his underwear, had been stripped clean. Placing a finger against his carotid artery, the figure confirmed he was still breathing.
There was a tiny needle prick on his neck. He had likely been drugged.
Wasting no more time, the intruder ran up the fire stairwell. Just as the figure was about to push open the iron door to reach the fifth floor, a tall man stepped out of the adjacent restroom, a miniature earpiece clipped to his ear.
Plainclothes!
The intruder was slightly startled, but a ruthless glint immediately flared in her eyes.
The two of them grappled, tumbling into the apartment and knocking over the entryway cabinet. The food delivery spilled all over the floor. Sun Xiangming tried to scream, but the woman grabbed the towel from the floor to smother his mouth.
Ultimately, the disparity in strength between a man and a woman was too great. Once Sun Xiangming regained his bearings, he shoved her away with a kick, then lunged forward to pin her to the floor, squeezing her throat in a death grip.
The syringe hidden in her sleeve clattered onto the floor.
Li Shiping’s face gradually turned blue-gray. She struggled in vain, trying to pry his fingers open. Her head slowly lolled to one side, but when she caught sight of the syringe, an intense hatred suddenly flared in her eyes.
Driven by this force, she splayed her fingers and slowly, inch by inch, dragged the syringe into her hand. In this split second, she couldn’t help but recall the scene of her first meeting with Ding Xue.
She had known her far, far earlier than Sun Xiangming ever did.
Back then, she had been the teacher, and Ding Xue her student.
That day, she had just finished a fight with her husband and gone to the school to inspect the students on clean-up duty.
“Good morning, Teacher Li.”
“Morning.”
“Morning.”
…
The students entered the campus one after another. A young girl with her hair tied in a ponytail skipped along the long street. It was a splendid spring day; willow catkins danced in the air, and fine specks of dust floated in the air.
Though she was on the verge of being late, she would still pause to pluck a tiny flower, or try to catch a drifting willow catkin in the air.
Frowning, she saw the girl stop at the pancake stall near the school gate. “Hurry up! Don’t you know you’re about to be late?!”
Ding Xue turned around, reluctantly rubbing her stomach, but still placed her money into the pancake vendor’s metal tin. “Grandpa, please save it for me. I’ll come get it tomorrow morning.”
The old man chuckled. “Alright, run along, little girl. Don’t be late.”
Carrying her oversized backpack, she ran toward the campus just as the school bell rang. As she ran past Li Shiping, however, she stopped and offered her the freshly plucked rose.
The young girl’s eyes sparkled, her voice crisp and clear. “Teacher, your eyes are so red. Please don’t be sad. I promise I won’t be late tomorrow! This flower is for you. Smile more, okay~”
Who could help but love such an innocent, radiant youth?
Ding Xue burst into her life in such a sudden manner, and remained there for decades.
“Do you know what my biggest regret is?” Li Shiping said as she injected the very last drop of liquid from the syringe into his vein.
She spoke calmly, yet she began to tremble uncontrollably. The moment the syringe went empty, she fell to her knees, covered her face, and wept.
“It was me… I was the one who urged her to get married. It was me… I ruined her. If only I’d been braver back then, she would’ve never met this scum, Sun Xiangming, and we wouldn’t have ended up like this.”
Standing in the shadows of the doorway, the black-clad figure’s lips parted slightly, yet in the end, she said nothing.
Sun Xiangming lay silently on the floor, foaming at the mouth, completely lifeless.
He was dead.
Ding Xue was dead.
And now, Li Shiping followed them into death.
Li Shiping swallowed hard in the darkness, completely gulping down the pill she had been holding under her tongue. Then, she pulled her phone from her pocket. The passcode was her birthday. She wanted so desperately to look at her one last time, but her vision was gradually blurring. She thought it was tears, but what splashed onto the phone was blood.
She reached out to wipe the blood off the phone, revealing the warm, smiling face of a girl on the screen.
That was the first year Ding Xue had returned to teach at Jiangcheng No. 1 High School after graduating from university. In Lianchi Park, on that summer night with its gentle breeze and the fragrance of lotuses, she had confessed to the person she had secretly loved for years.
She still remembered how the refreshing breeze of that night had ruffled her hair, and how her own slightly flushed face and timid eyes had been reflected in Ding Xue’s pupils. Even though she was already an adult, she had been so nervous she was completely flustered.
Li Shiping hadn’t pulled away when Ding Xue leaned in to kiss her. In reality, her fingers had already been so tense she was squeezing the hem of her shirt.
Even as she smiled, Li Shiping began to cough, spraying blood across the screen. In a slight panic, she wiped the phone repeatedly against her clothes. Finally, she pressed her blood-stained lips to the screen in a final kiss, placed the phone over her chest, and slowly closed her eyes.
“Li Shiping!” The black-clad figure lunged forward and shook her shoulders, but it was already too late.
Police sirens wailed downstairs. Song Yuhang jumped out of the car, chambering a round. “Team One, take your men and surround Unit One! Don’t let a single fly escape! Team Two, follow me to break down the door and make the arrest! If you encounter violent resistance, open fire without hesitation!”
Though she could already hear the heavy thud of the criminal investigators’ combat boots ascending the stairwell, she still unhurriedly laid Li Shiping flat on the floor, pulled a pair of gloves from her pocket to put them on, and used a towel to methodically wipe down every surface she had touched—fingerprints, bloodstains, footprints, and even the doorknob.
While cleaning up everything swiftly and precisely, she even picked off two strands of hair from Li Shiping’s shoulder. Finally, she retreated cautiously to the entrance, set the air conditioner to sixteen degrees, and gently closed the door.
The moment she turned around, Song Yuhang was ascending the stairs. She drew her gun directly from the holster on her lower back. “Stop! Police! Don’t move, or I’ll shoot!”
Across a distance of about a dozen meters, the black-clad figure took off running. Bullets whizzed past the figure’s legs, leaving two bullet marks in the floor.
Song Yuhang darted forward like an agile leopard, not forgetting to command the other teams through her radio, “Target spotted! Target spotted! Hold the fire stairwell, don’t let him escape!”
Several criminal investigators instantly lunged out from the fire stairwell, their fists and kicks aimed straight at the figure’s face. The black-clad figure had no intention of lingering to fight, ducking beneath the blows. In the blink of an eye, the figure was rushing toward the edge of the balcony.
Just as the figure’s hands gripped the railing, a sharp pain struck the lower back. The figure was kicked down, rolling awkwardly on the ground to dodge Song Yuhang’s oncoming foot. Springing up with a swift kip-up3, the figure launched a tricky, vicious uppercut in response.
Fists collided, and both sides retreated a step. Song Yuhang shook out her hands and lunged forward again. In a flash, they traded several moves, completely evenly matched. She tried to tear off the mask on the other’s face, but her arm was locked in a hold. The two grappled, pinning each other in a deadlock. Catching sight of the exposed water pipes on the wall behind her with her peripheral vision, Song Yuhang surged with power in her legs. Using the momentum of the charge, her hands clamped like pincers onto the figure’s shoulders, slamming the intruder against the wall.
With a deafening crash, plaster and dust rained down from the wall.
With her ears ringing, an ordinary person might have been knocked unconscious on the spot by such a blow. Yet the black-clad figure had no less combat experience than Song Yuhang’s. Summoning every ounce of strength, the figure grabbed the protruding sections of the water pipes on either side, using the leverage to leap into the air and kick out fiercely with both feet.
The figure’s legwork was superb; this sudden, unexpected kick landed squarely on Song Yuhang’s vital abdominal area. Her fingers lost their grip, and she was sent flying backward, slamming into the opposite wall and coughing up a mouthful of bloody spit.
Seeing the two separate, the several investigators behind Song Yuhang drew their guns. The black-clad figure didn’t stay to fight, vaulting over the balcony railing, actually leaping straight down from the fifth floor into the lightwell.
Song Yuhang lunged forward, her upper body leaning far over the balcony. She only managed to tear away a fragment of the figure’s black clothing.
The figure plummeted through the air like a broken kite, but moved with swiftness and precision. With a loud clang, her black mechanical baton locked firmly onto the second-floor railing. After stabilizing her descent in midair, she executed a pull-up, flipped over the railing, and staggered out of sight down the corridor.
Song Yuhang slammed her fist against the railing. “Damn it! Chase them!”
The author has something to say:
Thank you for reading.
It will still be a while before these two let down their guards and “lay their cards on the table.” No rush, no rush.
Footnotes
- 铁肩担道义，丹心筑警魂 (tiě jiān dān dàoyì, dānxīn zhù jǐnghún): A classic Chinese law enforcement motto expressing a commitment to justice and duty, translated literally as 'Shoulder justice with iron shoulders; build the police soul with a loyal heart.'
- 替天行道 (tì tiān xíng dào): To act as a vigilante or bypass the law to deliver justice, literally 'enforcing justice on behalf of Heaven.'
- 鲤鱼打挺 (lǐ yú dǎ tǐng): Literally 'carp thrashing its back,' a classic Chinese martial arts and acrobatics maneuver where a person springs to their feet from a prone position.
I don’t understand… Why do they call it Lin Yan? … I read with the browser’s automatic translation, maybe that’s why I don’t understand anything… Usually the translation isn’t this bad
Hi! Might be my mistake. I’m currently re-translating this novel but it might take months before I re-translate the whole thing.
Okay, what the hell? Lin Yan is some super ninja now? There better be a good explanation for this
gah damn
what the….😲
i thought first cases are a warm up which often are simple. This is intense
what the….😲
i thought first cases are a warm up which often are simple. This is intense