Miss Forensics – Chapter 30

by Little Panda

Part One

Reluctance

“Is Captain Song really just cherishing talent, or is she simply reluctant to let me go?”

“He Miao…” After explaining their purpose to He Miao’s homeroom teacher, the rural school teacher, who was over fifty, took off his reading glasses, frowned, and thought for a long while before saying, “She was a good kid. Good grades, lived frugally, honest and trustworthy, loved to work…”

The teacher, perhaps having written too many end-of-term evaluations, spoke in what sounded like a template recitation, with nothing particularly noteworthy.

Song Yuhang took notes as she asked, “How much do you know about her family situation?”

“A little. I heard her family wasn’t well-off. Several times at parent-teacher meetings, no one showed up. At the last parent-teacher meeting of her third year, her aunt did come, but she immediately said she wanted to withdraw her from school. With the high school entrance exam just around the corner, we tried to persuade her, but it was no use.”

Song Yuhang looked up at the male teacher. “So, did she end up withdrawing?”

“Her aunt wanted to, but the kid was stubborn. She said she wanted to keep going to school no matter what, and that she’d find a way to pay for tuition and exam fees herself.”

“And then?”

A trace of embarrassment appeared on the male teacher’s face. “We didn’t hear anything after that.”

“How long ago was this?”

“About three months ago.”

“Did she have any close friends at school?”

“She didn’t talk much. Maybe she felt a bit inferior, after all…”

Song Yuhang nodded in understanding. “Could you take me to see her classroom?”

“Sure, this way, please.”

The school wasn’t big, just three stories. From top to bottom, they were the higher to lower grades. Each grade had five classes, and every classroom was packed with desks, the last row pressed right against the back wall.

The homeroom teacher led her up to the third floor and pushed open the door to the fifth classroom. It was break time, and her appearance immediately caused a stir.

“A cop, a cop! So He Miao really died?”

“I heard she died horribly. It was on the news. Didn’t you see it?”

“Tsk, with a family like hers, I’d have killed myself too.”

…

Song Yuhang’s expression remained unchanged as she walked to the desk the teacher had pointed out. A mountain of books and materials was piled on it. She picked up a few at random and flipped through them. There were textbooks and workbooks. He Miao seemed to like drawing; almost every book had doodles in the margins.

Song Yuhang skimmed through a few. The most common subjects were whales and dolphins.

She seemed to have a special fondness for the sea, yet her family had never mentioned it.

Song Yuhang took out her phone and photographed the pen-and-ink drawings.

“Is Captain Song back?” Early in the morning, Lin Yan’s entrance into the office caused a stir of surprise.

Zhang Jinhai, holding his tea cup and about to enter his own office, glanced at her, still hesitant. “Forensic Examiner Lin, are you okay? Your sudden fainting yesterday looked pretty serious. Captain Song’s face went white with fright. She picked you up and rushed you to the hospital. Work is important, but your health matters more.”

Face went white with fright? Picked her up and rushed to the hospital?

That didn’t sound like something Song Yuhang would do at all.

Lin Yan was startled for a moment, then gave a slight nod. “I’m fine.”

Just then, a colleague stood up and said, “Captain Song went to He Miao’s home and hasn’t come back yet.”

Lin Yan, holding her jacket, pivoted on her heel and headed toward the pathology lab. “Alright, I’ll go check if the DNA comparison results are out.”

The technician entered the comparison results into the database. The search returned: “No match.”

Lin Yan rubbed her brow. She had thought this might be a lead, but it had turned into another dead end.

The colleague beside her seemed to hesitate before speaking. “With all due respect, Forensic Examiner Lin, even if that girl’s pregnancy was what made her want to end her life, that’s only an indirect cause of death. And if she was forced, the perpetrator would only get three to five years at most. If she wasn’t… then there’s really…”

Before the words “no way” could leave his mouth, Lin Yan’s cold gaze fell on him. Unlike Song Yuhang, she usually wore a careless, roguish expression. The sudden seriousness was a bit frightening.

The technician was struck speechless by that look. Lin Yan’s thin lips curved into a deeply sarcastic smile.

“You know why Jiangcheng’s homicide clearance rate has never ranked nationally? It’s because scum like you are in the public security and judicial system. A fifteen-year-old girl in the flower of her youth dies tragically, and instead of investigating the cause and bringing the criminal to justice, you’re thinking about how to take the easy way out. How did taxpayer money raise something as worthless as you?”

The technician’s face flushed red, and he shot to his feet. “I… I was just stating the facts. How can you make personal attacks like that?”

“So what if I’m making personal attacks? Got a problem?” Lin Yan watched as his fists clenched tight, and her smile grew even more cheerful.

“Good. If you don’t like it, either get me kicked out of this position, or resign yourself.”

Lin Yan patted him lightly on the shoulder, leaned in, and said softly, then turned and left before he could react.

Back in the office, Lin Yan hung her uniform jacket on the coat rack, changed into plain clothes, took the mechanical baton from her drawer and tucked it into her waistband, pulled out a bottle of gum, shook two pellets into her palm, tossed them into her mouth, and chewed as she strolled out of the PSB’s main gate.

Her sports car could only make it to the mouth of the alley. Any further in, and the scraping against the walls on both sides would make a teeth-grinding sound. Lin Yan turned the wheel and backed up, wincing in pain as she looked at the squeezed rearview mirror.

Fucking hell. Ever since she started working at the Jiangcheng City PSB, she had stopped taking on autopsy commissions. Her income had dropped off a cliff. She was living off her stock dividends now. This was her new car, just picked up not long ago.

After backing out of the alley, she drove around the West District again and found that the parking lot near the Gelin Building, the scene of the incident, wasn’t fully built yet. There was a bumpy dirt path, and the car couldn’t get in either.

Lin Yan parked on the outskirts, felt the mechanical baton still at her waist, pushed open the car door, and got out to walk.

“Hello, have you seen this girl?”

“No, I haven’t.”

“Thanks.”

Song Yuhang put the photo away, glanced at her map, and headed to the next shop.

The alleys of the West District ran deep, hiding many massage parlors, karaoke bars, and barbecue stalls that only opened late at night. These were the most likely witnesses to have seen He Miao before her death.

From the West District alleys to the Gelin Building, there were two routes. One was a straight line, about 1.5 kilometers. The other wound through the streets and alleys, roughly the same distance, but with houses of varying heights along the way and a small ditch by the roadside. It was a nice view, and on holidays, young artists would come here to sketch.

A person determined to die probably wouldn’t care about the scenery. Song Yuhang pivoted on her heel and turned onto the other road.

“Have you seen this person?” Lin Yan held the photo out to a homeless man sitting on the ground, picking up cigarette butts others had discarded.

A whiff of perfume hit him. The homeless man looked up at her, his eyes turning green with a glint of greed and lechery.

It had been a long time since he’d touched a woman.

He licked his lips and reached out as if to take the photo, but his hand went straight for her wrist. No one saw how she moved, but the mechanical baton was already pressed against his throat.

“If you’re going to talk, talk. Keep your hands to yourself.”

Lin Yan’s gaze darkened, a flicker of killing intent swirling within.

The man tried to say something, but she jabbed the baton straight into his throat. The throat is a vital point. The homeless man fell on his backside. The pain was so intense he tried to scream, but his voice came out hoarse, and no sound would come out.

“Ah… ah…” The man knelt on the ground, clutching his throat, one hand reaching out to her in vain, his face twisted in pain.

Lin Yan kicked him over. “If you don’t want to talk, then don’t.”

Not far away, a little scavenger girl who had witnessed everything turned pale with fright and hurriedly backed away.

Lin Yan’s cold gaze swept over her. A scalp-tingling feeling of being stared down by a wild beast made the girl turn and run.

Lin Yan retracted her baton and followed.

She wasn’t in a hurry, because she knew the path ahead was a dead end.

The little girl carried a basket on her back, filled with some plastic bottles. When she suddenly saw the two-meter-high wall in front of her, she almost started crying.

The footsteps behind her grew closer.

The girl turned around, standing in Lin Yan’s shadow, her face pale, backing up step by step. As the whiff of perfume hit her face, she squeezed her eyes shut and covered her face with her hands. “Don’t hit me, don’t hit me. I… I’ve seen her…”

The person in front of her let out a soft laugh and casually plucked a small flower that was stuck to her temple.

The girl looked up to see her gently blow the petals from her palm to the ground. Her posture, her face, her expression—she was so beautiful, more beautiful than anyone she had ever seen on TV.

She was momentarily stunned, until Lin Yan’s voice sounded. “You said you’ve seen her. When?”

Only then did she manage to pull herself together and meet her gaze. She noticed that this person had a pair of eyes that seemed to hold affection, the kind that weren’t quite proper. Her mouth looked like it was smiling even when she wasn’t, and when she smiled, it looked like she was trying to seduce someone.

The girl didn’t know where to look, so she just stared down at her own cloth shoes, which had her toes poking out. She pressed herself nervously against the wall and spoke in a voice as faint as a mosquito’s.

“I… I’ve seen her… We used to pick up trash together.”

Lin Yan straightened up. “When was that?”

“About three months ago. She used to show up in the alley every day around four in the morning to pick up bottles, and she’d leave at six.”

“Every day?”

The girl nodded vigorously, as if afraid Lin Yan wouldn’t believe her. “Every day. One time there was a typhoon and a huge rainstorm, and I was about to go home, but she was still picking.”

“Did you see her on May 31st?”

The girl looked at the photo and shook her head very firmly. “No. She hasn’t been here for a long time.”

“About when did she stop coming?”

“About two months ago.”

“Were you close with her?”

The girl probably knew about He Miao’s death—it had spread all over the streets and alleys. She wasn’t sure who Lin Yan was, and after seeing how viciously she had beaten that man, she didn’t dare lie. She shook her head like a rattle.

“No… not close… She didn’t talk much… We only chatted occasionally…”

“What did you talk about?”

“About where there were more people, so we could find more plastic bottles…” Standing before the glamorous Lin Yan, the girl couldn’t help but feel inferior. She curled her toes nervously, trying to hide the exposed tips.

“Which recycling station paid a better price…”

She was actually quite pretty, but her skin was rough and dark from sun and rain. Her clothes were big and dirty, clearly hand-me-downs.

Lin Yan nodded. She knew there was nothing more to ask. She stepped aside. “Thanks.”

The girl, carrying her basket, looked at her. Lin Yan’s gaze was clear and bright, without the earlier sharpness, and without pity. It was as if she had just met a stranger, which preserved the girl’s fragile self-esteem.

She nodded slightly, then skirted around her and hurried away. As they passed each other, she felt the basket on her back grow heavier.

She didn’t dare think too much about it and hurried on.

It was only when she reached the mouth of the alley and wanted to get some water from her basket that she found several hundred-yuan bills inside.

Song Yuhang looked up at the last shop on the street corner—a pedicure parlor. The door was wide open, but there was no one inside. She walked in and knocked on the counter.

“Anyone here?”

A middle-aged woman, dressed in gaudy red and green, came out from the back room. Her eyes lit up when she saw Song Yuhang.

“Ooh, pedicure or massage? We have a special on massages.”

She winked as she spoke.

Song Yuhang shook her head. “Neither…”

The woman enthusiastically grabbed her arm. “Aiyo, don’t be shy. We have that kind of service too. As long as you pay, we can do it.”

Song Yuhang looked down at the woman holding her arm. The smell of makeup was overpowering, making her increasingly uncomfortable. She took a step back and pulled out her officer’s ID.

“Police. I have a few questions.”

“Pfft, boring.” The woman let go immediately, losing interest.

Cooperating with a police inquiry was a citizen’s duty, not a mandatory obligation.

Song Yuhang thought for a moment, then pulled a pack of cigarettes from her pocket and offered it to her. She rarely smoked, so keeping it was useless.

The woman’s eyes lit up at the sight of the soft-pack Zhonghua. She took it and lit one without any hesitation.

Song Yuhang took out the photo and showed it to her. “Have you seen her?”

The woman squinted, blew out a smoke ring, and said, “Yeah, that girl who died a few days ago.”

“When and where did you see her?”

Song Yuhang took out a pen and paper from her bag and started taking notes.

“On the night of May 31st, I had a pretty well-off client. He left around a little past four in the morning. I was seeing him out the door, and I saw that little girl walking this way all by herself, stumbling along.”

Song Yuhang seized on the key point. “Alone?”

The woman nodded. “Yeah, alone. I remember it clearly. The road is narrow, and she bumped into my sugar daddy. My boss had been drinking and was in a bad mood. He almost started a fight, but I talked him out of it.”

“I saw she was alone and told her to go home, but she didn’t even look at me. It was like she was possessed, just walking straight ahead. In the dead of night, it was pretty creepy.”

The madam blew out another smoke ring, clearly puzzled herself.

Song Yuhang put her notebook away, slung her bag over her shoulder, and walked toward the door. She stopped and turned back. “The perfume… it’s too strong.”

She couldn’t help but think of the faint, light floral scent that often lingered around her. She had once thought it was Lin Yan’s perfume. It wasn’t until that rainy night, when the rain had washed everything clean, and she had gotten close to her, that she realized it was her natural scent.

“This is the place.” Lin Yan picked her way through the potholed parking lot, stepping carefully. The vast construction site was empty. The police tape was still up downstairs. The road surface had dried, but the blood had already seeped into the dirt, a blackish-red patch.

Weeds grew all around. The broken railing on the rooftop swayed in the wind. The sun was starting to set. It was so quiet that there wasn’t even the sound of birds or insects.

Maybe it was psychological, but Lin Yan rubbed her arms and suddenly felt a little cold.

She whirled around to look back. The path she had come from was empty.

She took a few more steps. Just as she was about to reach the building’s entrance, she looked back again. Still empty.

Only the wind rustled the waist-high weeds.

For some reason, a faint unease lingered in her heart.

She felt like someone was watching her.

She hadn’t graduated from the police academy, but when she was abroad, she had scored high marks in courses on tracking and counter-surveillance.

Someone who could follow her in Jiangcheng without her noticing probably hadn’t been born yet.

Thinking this, she stubbornly took a few more steps, her hand on the stair railing, as if about to go upstairs. But then she suddenly spun around. In that instant, the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end.

Click—a sharp sound, and the mechanical baton was out of its sheath. Before she could even see who her opponent was, she had already struck by instinct.

Song Yuhang blocked the blow and said in a low voice, “It’s me.”

The strike had landed squarely on Song Yuhang’s hand, which was already swelling up, purple and black.

Lin Yan retracted the baton behind her back and gave a dry laugh. “Oh, Captain Song. Why do you always like standing behind people? It’s not very honorable.”

Song Yuhang flexed her wrist and looked at her. “You’re too paranoid.”

Lin Yan had withdrawn quickly, but Song Yuhang’s eyes were sharper. Seeing the mechanical baton reminded her of the fight outside Sun Xiangming’s home that day, and of Lin Yan leaping from the fifth floor with it. Her gaze darkened.

She sometimes had emotions about Lin Yan that she couldn’t explain to herself, but her reason told her that this person was not to be trusted, and certainly not to be fully trusted.

With this thought, her tone turned cold. “What are you doing here?”

Meeting her scrutinizing gaze, Lin Yan spread her hands. “Don’t get the wrong idea. I have nothing to do with this victim. I just think there are suspicious points about her death, so I’m taking a personal look at the scene.”

The sky was getting darker. The light was behind her, making it hard to read her expression in the doorway. Song Yuhang started walking up the stairs, a cold smile curling at the corner of her lips.

She didn’t believe Lin Yan’s explanation.

“Who knows if there’s a connection or not. After all, Forensic Examiner Lin is very resourceful.”

Lin Yan pretended not to hear the sarcasm in her voice and followed her up. “Not at all, not at all. Captain Song isn’t bad either.”

Most people who argued with Lin Yan came out the worse for it. Song Yuhang wisely chose not to respond.

She was walking fast, but she noticed Lin Yan was still dawdling, holding the railing. She glanced down and said casually, “I thought you weren’t being discharged until tomorrow.”

If she hadn’t brought it up, Lin Yan might not have thought of it. But now she remembered Zhang Jinhai’s words: “Captain Song’s face went white with fright” and “picked you up and rushed you to the hospital.”

And that night in the hospital, those ambiguous tests and conversations, as if they had pressed another switch between them. Song Yuhang had shown a gentleness she had never revealed before, and she had exposed a vulnerability she had never shown.

It was terrifying.

But it didn’t matter. Day and night were a dividing line for adults.

Just as Song Yuhang didn’t trust her and was on guard against her, Lin Yan had never truly believed in her either.

“Ah, the doctor said I’m pretty much recovered. Lying in bed is a waste of medical resources. I’m not going to compete with the critical patients for a bed. I’m being as considerate as I can be.” Lin Yan took a deep breath and walked a little faster.

Song Yuhang subtly slowed her pace to wait for her.

They reached a fork on the second floor.

Lin Yan pointed to the left. “I’ll go this way.”

Song Yuhang turned to the right. “I’ll go this way.”

As Lin Yan turned to leave, Song Yuhang looked back. “Don’t try anything. Once, twice, but not a third or fourth time¹. Whatever your reasons, you’d better not cross me again.”

Lin Yan also turned to look at her, a seductive smile curving at the corner of her lips. “Captain Song is so righteous. If that’s the case, why don’t you report me? It might not break my bones, but at least you could get me kicked out of this position. Or is it—”

Lin Yan took a step closer, and that faint floral scent wafted over again.

“Is Captain Song really just cherishing talent, or is she simply reluctant to let me go?”

The author has something to say:

Hello everyone, I’m back!

I had a great time in Yunnan, so much so that I’ve entered a kind of zen mode after returning… This chapter was written on the plane, so it’s a bit rough. I’ll revise it later when I’m in a better state.

Sorry for making you all wait so long. But starting today, I’m not going anywhere during the holiday. I’m going into a seven-day burst mode, after all, I owe 30,000 words on my list [cries]

Thank you again for taking the time to read my story. I love you all, mwah~