Miss Forensics – Chapter 23
by Little PandaPart One
Rainy Night
By the time she returned to the villa after settling Auntie Chen, it was already late at night. The rain was falling endlessly. A bodyguard held an umbrella to shield her as he escorted her out of the car.
She had not expected anyone to still be waiting for her at this hour.
Through the heavy curtain of rain, the dim lights of the villa entrance cast her long, slender reflection in the puddles.
Song Yuhang stood quietly under her umbrella. Her face was as expressionless as ever, yet Lin Yan could sense a suffocating tension from her tightly pursed lips.
The visitor did not come with friendly intentions.1
Lin Yan had no desire to stay. Having no interest in greeting her in her current foul mood, she felt physically and mentally drained. Dealing with anything related to Chunan always exhausted her, to say nothing of today, which was a somewhat special day.
As the bodyguard escorted Lin Yan past her, Song Yuhang moved. Nobody expected her to strike so suddenly—it was a swift, brutal punch aimed straight at the vitals of her abdomen.
Lin Yan stumbled back a few steps before the bodyguard caught her. Bent double, she coughed a few times.
The two bodyguards in sharp suits immediately stepped in front to shield her. Song Yuhang shook her hand, looking as if she hadn’t had enough.
“Isn’t Forensic Examiner Lin’s combat skill supposed to be quite good? How could you fail to dodge a simple straight punch?” She cracked her knuckles, the joints popping with sharp clicks. “Or, call out the one who actually knows how to fight to play with me.”
The two bodyguards made to move, but Lin Yan straightened up and waved them back, handing over her coat at the same time.
“This is between her and me.”
The Lin family servants seemed to possess an instinctive obedience toward her. Even knowing the visitor had come with ill intent, they followed their mistress’s command and withdrew.
Suddenly, the world went dead silent, leaving only the crackling patter of rain pelting the trees and the heavy sound of their breathing.
The moment the umbrella in Song Yuhang’s hand hit the ground, she lunged!
The puddles in front reflected her form, agile as a leopard. She opened with a fierce, cunning left front snap kick that slammed directly into Lin Yan’s soft abdomen. Having taken consecutive blows to her vitals, Lin Yan grimaced in agony and spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva.
Before she could recover to defend herself, Song Yuhang leaped, her right leg driving straight down toward her face.
Lin Yan reflexively raised her elbow to block. If she hadn’t, the force of the ankle strike would have swept her to the ground, slamming her head violently against the concrete.
Even with the block, the immense impact forced her back several steps until she crashed against the villa’s iron gate with a loud clang. Her arm throbbed with a burning ache, bruised so deeply by the thick, heavy sole of the leather combat boot that she couldn’t even lift it.
Song Yuhang pressed in. Her strikes were rapid and chaotic, yet every punch landed heavily. Forced into passive defense, Lin Yan ducked and weaved, but a right hook caught her on the cheek, instantly bruising the corner of her eye.
Panting heavily, Song Yuhang grabbed Lin Yan by the collar. Rain trickled down her chin. Perhaps because the downpour was so heavy, a watery sheen also glistened in her eyes.
“Fight back!” Choking her, she lifted her slightly off the ground and pinned her against the iron gate. “If you don’t fight back, you’ll die!”
Lin Yan looked into those normally indifferent eyes, now completely bloodshot. Song Yuhang had arrived tonight completely stripped of her usual calm composure.
She suddenly burst into laughter. “Hahaha…”
The smile was both seductive and desperate.
Song Yuhang froze. Her hand around Lin Yan’s neck trembled slightly. Lin Yan clung to her like a maggot on a bone2, crawling up. “Then kill me. I’m guilty of the worst crimes, utterly irredeemable. If you kill me, you’ll avenge Li Shiping. You’ll be enforcing justice on behalf of Heaven3.”
She closed her eyes slightly, sighing as if in anticipation. “Do it already. I can’t wait.”
The rain pelted them relentlessly, soaking both of them to the bone. Song Yuhang had never felt so cold. Her teeth chattered, clicking together in a rapid rhythm. For a moment, she couldn’t tell if she was shivering or grinding her teeth in raw fury.
“You were the one who went to Li Shiping’s house that night.”
She remembered the used glass cup sitting on the kitchen counter.
“Ding Xue was your school junior.”
If she remembered correctly, Ding Xue was two years younger than Lin Yan. That day, when they drove to Jiangcheng No. 1 High School, Lin Yan’s familiarity with the roads had been no less than that of a local.
“So what if she was?” Lin Yan looked at her with a rogue, careless air, her lips curving into a smirk, completely unbothered by the grip tightening around her neck.
Song Yuhang squeezed harder, forcing Lin Yan to tilt her head back to gasp for air, leaving her toes dangling off the ground.
“You were the one who supplied every single clue from the very start of this case. What brilliant methods, Forensic Examiner Lin—you had us running in circles. You knew who the killer was all along.”
She spoke with absolute certainty. From Lin Yan’s perspective, the torrential rain washed over her face, making Song Yuhang’s features look even sharper.
Song Yuhang was completely drenched, her shirt clinging tightly to her skin as rain flowed from her chin down into her collar. The tensed muscles and protruding veins of her neck constantly radiated a raw, wild beauty.
Unlike a man, and even more unlike an ordinary woman.
She always seemed to be the special one, to the point where Lin Yan couldn’t fit her into any category.
The rain was so cold, yet the hand gripping her neck was burning hot. For some reason, she recalled the warmth of those lips pressing against her ear that night.
As she thought about it, she giggled. She knew exactly how to provoke her, just as Song Yuhang knew exactly how to step on her sore spots.
How did they know each other so well, when they’d only met a short while ago?
With her mind in a daze, she had already opened her mouth: “Yeah, I know. I know Ding Xue was drowned by Sun Xiangming, I know Li Shiping killed him, and I even know how Li Shiping died. Arsenic. A deadly poison.”
She giggled, cold and despairing. “Bleeding from all seven orifices, a swift death with barely any pain. Do you want to know what she said to me at the very end?”
“Shut up!” Song Yuhang’s fingers suddenly tightened, hoisting and slamming her. Lin Yan coughed violently, struggling to kick Song Yuhang’s knee with her right leg. Song Yuhang’s stance buckled, and the two of them tumbled together, crashing into the bushes beside the villa.
Branches snapped with a sharp crackle as rain and mud splattered all over them. The wrestling match between these two tall, long-legged women was a devastating blow to the ornamental landscaping.
Trading punches, both aimed straight for each other’s vitals. Grabbing her collar, Song Yuhang roared, “The black-clad figure was you!”
“Yes, it was me! So what?” Lin Yan delivered a vicious knee strike to send her flying back, then used the momentum to roll over, pin her down, and grab her throat in return.
She smiled with alluring, seductive grace, moisture glistening from the corners of her eyes to her brows.
“Go ahead and turn me in, Officer Song. Do you have proof? Will the Procuratorate believe you? Can you even get an arrest warrant? Talk about a coincidence—if you had arrived a step later, you might not have even found a whole corpse.”
Song Yuhang’s eyes turned blood-red. Feeling a rush of blood surge to her head, she drove her knee up without a second thought. At the same time, she grabbed the clothes on her back and, with a powerful heave, flipped her right over her head.
Lin Yan was thrown from the bushes directly onto the concrete, her head hitting the pavement first. It hurt like hell, making her feel as though all her internal organs were shaking apart.
The wounds on her hands, soaked in the water, seeped pale red blood.
Stumbling to her feet, Song Yuhang hauled Lin Yan out of the muddy water. Looking at this face so close to her own, it was incredibly beautiful, yet it also struck a chill into her heart.
“Since you knew Sun Xiangming was the killer and held the key evidence, why didn’t you tell me?!” She shook her by the collar, screaming at the top of her lungs. “I could have arrested him myself! I’d never let any beast who personally deprives another of their life off the hook!”
Lin Yan coughed repeatedly under the violent shaking. “cough… It’s useless… don’t you know?”
She suddenly raised her eyes, which were shimmering with wetness. “Long before the child was born, Ding Xue wanted a divorce. Sun Xiangming subjected her to domestic abuse. The most severe time, he beat her into the hospital with a ruptured spleen, and she stayed for a month.”
The hand shaking her froze. Lin Yan’s lips curled into another mocking smirk. “With Li Shiping’s encouragement, Ding Xue filed for divorce. Sun Xiangming refused. They took it to court. After three rounds of mediation, the court denied the divorce. It was right at that time that Ding Xue found out she was pregnant.”
Song Yuhang let go, and Lin Yan fell to the ground. The hair tie keeping her hair back had long since snapped, allowing her long tresses to spread out in the puddles like seaweed. Her face was marked with bloody scratches from branches and bruises from Song Yuhang’s blows, yet she was still breathtakingly beautiful.
It was a fractured beauty that made the heart skip a beat.
The prolonged confrontation had pushed both of them to the brink of absolute exhaustion. Lin Yan lay quietly on the ground, letting the rain wash over her body, too weak to even lift a finger. Yet she felt a sense of release, a strange satisfaction—as if the harder she was beaten, the lighter the heavy things weighed down in her heart would feel.
She could barely breathe. She often wondered: why did those beasts who harmed others get to live comfortable lives?
Why was she still alive and well?
Why did it have to be her Chunan?
So when Li Shiping proposed that deal, she didn’t refuse.
Lying on the ground, tears slipped from the corners of Lin Yan’s eyes. She had to thank the rain for preserving her last shred of dignity.
Song Yuhang looked into those eyes. They were completely lifeless, containing neither stars nor her own reflection.
Fueled by the alcohol, she had vented her feelings, but was she happy now? Not at all.
She couldn’t say exactly what she was feeling—anger, injustice, and a faint, lingering trace of disappointment.
She was angry that Lin Yan had abandoned professional ethics to pass clues to others, indirectly causing Sun Xiangming’s death. She was angry that she had used her expert knowledge to construct an airtight alibi, dancing on the very edge of the law.
She felt a sense of injustice—why should Lin Yan get to place herself above the law? Why did she show no remorse whatsoever? And why, even when beaten to the point where she couldn’t stand, did she still grit her teeth and refuse to admit she was wrong?
Lin Yan’s bones were truly unyielding.
Song Yuhang completely let go of her, collapsing into the muddy water, completely drained of strength. Perhaps the despondency in her eyes was too obvious, for Lin Yan turned her head slightly to look, her lips actually curling into a faint smirk.
“You’re probably wondering why someone like me, born with a silver spoon, with a wealthy and powerful family, wouldn’t just use that power to throw Sun Xiangming in prison if I wanted to deliver justice.”
Lin Yan’s gaze drifted into the empty void as bean-sized raindrops pelted her face, stinging slightly.
She said softly, “I don’t trust anyone but myself.”
Song Yuhang’s throat bobbed. In the dim light, she could no longer clearly read Lin Yan’s expression.
But Lin Yan seemed to know what she wanted to say. A twisted, ugly smile tugged at her lips. “Officer Song, don’t have any expectations of me. I’m capable of absolutely anything.”
“My name is Lin Yan. I was born to be an unlikable child.”
That tiny shred of hope was easily snuffed out.
Actually, that time at the Provincial Department wasn’t the first time Song Yuhang had watched an interview of her.
There were plenty of occasions where she could see her.
As long as she wanted to.
On television, in the news, in newspapers, gossip tabloids, and even at academic conferences.
She had seen her move through all kinds of settings like a fish in water—elegant, calm, poised, or sharp. One moment she would leave the pestering media utterly speechless in front of the cameras; the next, she would roll up her sleeves and shout curses in the middle of the street, or even boldly kiss her lover passionately right under the national emblem in front of the City Bureau.
She was different from Song Yuhang, whose life was so strictly bound by rules. She even felt a trace of envy toward her naturally free, unbridled soul.
She lived entirely as she pleased, never caring about what others thought.
The night of Ding Xue’s autopsy, that one minute she spent standing in silent tribute inside the autopsy room was the first time Song Yuhang had glimpsed the softness and kindness buried beneath her hard shell.
Yet she had to admit that Lin Yan was a liar—one of the highest caliber, whose deceptions were impossible to guard against.
“What about your motive? Tell me… why?” Song Yuhang wiped her face, wiping away the last trace of moisture from her eyes.
Lin Yan looked back at her. She stared up at the dark, greyish-black sky, staring so intently that she seemed to see that person waiting for her in the heavens.
“There is no motive. That’s just the kind of person I am.”
“Is that so?” Song Yuhang’s lips twitched slightly. “What were you looking for in the archive room that day? 1990. If I recall correctly, that was the year you turned eighteen and were in your senior year of high school…”
Before she could finish, Lin Yan snapped her head over. Her gaze changed instantly, turning teeth-grittingly fierce.
Propping herself up on her elbows, Lin Yan forced her upper body off the ground. “Shut up…”
Just hearing that year caused her a physiological, suffocating heartache.
Song Yuhang turned her head to look at her, her gaze deeply meaningful. “Skills and appearance can be faked, but temperament and personality can’t. You probably don’t know this, Forensic Examiner Lin, but you always use playful teasing to mask your guilt. And whenever I step on your sore spots, you bristle.”
“Look at you. This is exactly how you look right now.”
Lin Yan threw her head back, struggling to raise her upper body, but her arms simply refused to obey. Her fingers clawed uselessly at the ground before she fell back down, splashing muddy water onto Song Yuhang’s pants.
She watched her panting for breath, her gaze fierce. Her usually pale skin was flushed with agitation, and even the corners of her eyes were rimmed with red.
Her slender, vulnerable neck lay completely exposed before her eyes, like a wild beast exposing its softest fur.
Her wet clothes clung to her body, rising and falling with her breathing. Lin Yan was different from her after all. She was both fragile and resilient, like a Chinese trumpet creeper blooming on a cliffside, never ceasing to radiate her own beauty.
She couldn’t help but recall the softness she had felt during their intense struggle moments ago. She hadn’t thought much of it then, but now she realized that although Lin Yan was skilled, she relied mostly on leverage and technique—totally different from her own dense, trained muscle.
Song Yuhang’s throat bobbed. She slowly reached out her hand.
Only her fingers and head could move. Her brain was foggy and heavy, and she felt a bit cold.
The moment Song Yuhang’s fingers brushed against her clothes, Lin Yan suddenly shuddered. She realized what she was after—the tattoo!
Just as the buttons were half-undone, exposing a glimpse of that hidden area, Song Yuhang swallowed hard, planning to commit this design to memory. But at that exact moment, Lin Yan moved!
She hadn’t expected Lin Yan to still have any strength to fight back. Those seemingly soft legs wrapped around her neck in a flash. With a powerful kip-up from her core, Lin Yan not only broke free from her grasp but also locked her arm.
It was the classic submission move of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu4—the armbar5!
It happened in the blink of an eye, giving her no time to react, and Lin Yan certainly didn’t give her any. As Lin Yan fell sideways to the ground, her arm was already pressed against Lin Yan’s lower abdomen. Her right arm was pried straight, and the force was so immense that a sickening creak echoed from her muscle and bone. A wave of excruciating pain instantly caused bean-sized beads of sweat to erupt across Song Yuhang’s forehead.
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu was indeed the ultimate ground-fighting technique; once counter-controlled on the ground, escape was incredibly difficult.
But how long could she hold on in her current state?
Gritting her teeth against the pain, Song Yuhang let out a tight smirk. “A black belt or higher in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. I really misjudged you.”
“With all due respect… cough…” Lin Yan panted heavily, barely able to form a coherent sentence. “Your judgment has always been pretty poor.”
No wonder.
Lacking raw power but possessing immense agility, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu was a new school of mixed martial arts designed to let the weak overcome the strong, using gentleness to conquer force. It specialized in submissions and was known for grappling locks, which made it perfectly suited for her.
However, in the face of absolute strength—especially when Song Yuhang still held a massive advantage in stamina—while a fully healthy Lin Yan might have fought her to a draw, right now…
A cold gleam flashed through Song Yuhang’s eyes. Relying on her powerful upper body strength, she forced her free hand against the ground, attempting to roll over. As she struggled, her joints let out a sickening, bone-grinding sound as she wrenched her body into an awkward, unnatural angle.
Lin Yan was startled, cold sweat instantly drenching her forehead.
Is she crazy?! If she keeps thrashing like this, does she not want her right arm anymore?!
In that brief moment of distraction, Song Yuhang bent her right elbow and struck her in the abdomen. Lin Yan’s fingers slipped, and she fell heavily toward the concrete. She closed her eyes, expecting a hard impact, but the pain never came.
At the last possible second, Song Yuhang slid her palm beneath Lin Yan’s head, and the two of them tumbled into the standing water, locked in an embrace.
With a sharp riiiip, the thing she had tried so desperately to protect was laid bare to the world.
Lin Yan shook with rage. “Song Yuhang, fuck your mother! I… fuck…”
She couldn’t even manage a full sentence, spitting out the same few curses over and over as she gasped for breath and tried frantically to pull back. With her arms pinned back over her head, her slender neck was exposed to her gaze once again as she looked up.
Furthermore, the two of them were pressed so close together.
Song Yuhang could now be absolutely certain that the black clothing fragment belonged to her.
Just as a forensic examiner could identify the class of drug poisoning by smell alone, a criminal investigator could sniff out the scent of narcotics with their nose.
And humans always retained vivid memories when it came to smell.
She could forget that person, but she would absolutely never forget the scent on her.
That bright red tattoo looked like a birthmark. Song Yuhang raised her hand to gently stroke it, feeling the roughness and uneven, granular texture under her fingertips.
It was Lin Yan’s most painful, unbearable past.
This wasn’t a tattoo. This was… violently carved onto her with a knife!
Song Yuhang looked down in shock, meeting Lin Yan’s gaze. However, Lin Yan merely closed her eyes. Her throat bobbed as two lines of tears slipped from the corners of her eyes, as if she couldn’t bear to let the other woman see her in such a wretched state.
She turned her head away, biting her lower lip slightly, the corners of her eyes flushed red. “Have you seen enough? If you’ve seen enough, get off me.”
As if waking from a dream, Song Yuhang only now realized what she had done, and how inappropriate their current situation was.
On a night of pouring rain, pitch-black all around, she had pinned her hands over her head in an overwhelming victory, and had even…
Song Yuhang wanted nothing more than to slap herself twice.
Tonight, she wasn’t a cop; she was a criminal. Lin Yan indeed had a reason to cry, and those tears burned her too. Startled, Song Yuhang scrambled up in a hurry, wiping the rain from her face, her heart hammering like a drum.
She turned away, trying to see no evil6, but felt that this wasn’t right either, considering she was the one who had beaten her like this. Gritting her teeth, she turned back and offered her a hand.
“Get up.”
Lin Yan pushed her hand away. Supporting herself against the ground, she slowly pushed herself up into a sitting position, pulling her fallen clothes back over her shoulder.
Her entire body felt as though it was falling apart. Her head throbbed with a swollen ache, and her fingers trembled so much they wouldn’t obey, making her movements agonizingly slow.
The rain trickled down her chin, making her palm-sized face look even smaller. Song Yuhang couldn’t help but remember the way she had just cried, her heart turning aching and bitter.
This was a strange feeling, one she’d never had before, leaving her somewhat dazed.
But the rain was too heavy; she still wanted to see her back.
Song Yuhang squatted down slightly: “Lin…”
Lin Yan raised her eyes, her gaze empty and devoid of any light. Her lips trembled as she shrank back.
Song Yuhang sighed quietly in her heart. “Then wait here. I’ll go call someone over.”
Her family’s villa gate was not far away.
The butler came running with some servants, bringing her under an umbrella. They wrapped her in a blanket and, along with a few servants, supported her as they walked inside.
Song Yuhang watched her as she was about to disappear past the iron gates.
Lin Yan’s footsteps paused. As if sensing something, she turned back and stared at the puddle of standing water in front of her.
She spoke her final words of the night to her.
“Whether you believe it or not, I didn’t kill Sun Xiangming, and I didn’t kill Li Shiping. I was merely a witness, putting a less-than-perfect period to the love story between her and Ding Xue.”
Footnotes
- From the idiom laizhe bushan, meaning those who come do not have friendly intentions.
- Derived from the idiom fuguzhiqu (maggot on a bone), describing someone who clings tenaciously, deeply embedding themselves and proving impossible to shake off.
- From ti tian xing dao (enforcing justice on behalf of Heaven), a classic idiom referring to vigilante justice or taking the law into one's own hands.
- A martial arts discipline focusing on grappling and ground fighting.
- A standard armlock submission technique in grappling where the joint is hyperextended, known in Chinese as shizigu.
- From the idiom feili wushi (see no evil), referring to averting one's eyes from something private or improper to maintain decency.
Intricate rituals…
I can’t help but wonder what the servants are thinking as they stand to one side watching all this go down 😆
Intricate rituals…
I can’t help but wonder what the servants are thinking as they stand to one side watching all this go down 😆
The obsession, attraction and tension
The obsession, attraction and tension
OHOHOHHH THAT WAS STEAMING
thank you sm for translating!!
OHOHOHHH THAT WAS STEAMING
thank you sm for translating!!