Miss Forensics – Chapter 32

by Little Panda

Part One

Release

Little cutie, living is painful, isn’t it? But don’t worry, I’ll help you find release.

While Lin Yan slept fully clothed, the scavenger had also arrived at her final stop of the day—the entrance of a late-night bar. It was a place frequented by drunks, and the easiest spot to find beer bottles, which were worth far more than plastic ones.

The girl crouched on the street corner for a while, watching a drunk set a beer bottle down on the steps before staggering to his feet and lurching away.

She ran over, picked it up, and emptied the remaining liquid. Just as she was about to toss it into her basket, a hand clamped around her wrist.

She looked up in terror. It was the same drunk, returned at some unknown point. He gripped her wrist, hauled her up, shoved her against the wall, and pressed his booze-soaked mouth close to her face.

“Hey, little sister… you’re real pretty… come have a drink with your big brother…”

“Get lost… get away from me… if you don’t leave… I-I’ll scream!” The girl was on the verge of tears, pushing at him with both hands, but the difference in strength was too great. He took plenty of liberties.

She cried and screamed for help, but the people lingering around the bar entrance just burst out laughing.

The man grew even more brazen, groping her up and down. “Little sister… come with your big brother and you’ll eat well and drink fine…”

The girl bit down on her lower lip and turned her face away, tears falling freely. Just as she was about to bite her own tongue, the weight lifted off her—the man had been forcefully shoved away.

The drunk scrambled up from the ground, bellowing: “Fuck… fuck your mother… who the hell are you… daring to hit this daddy…”

The man standing before her had a tall, broad-shouldered silhouette. He wore an ordinary jacket and a baseball cap. In the darkness, his expression was unreadable—only his voice carried, low and slightly hoarse.

“Get lost.”

The face hidden beneath the cap’s shadow revealed only a stubble-covered chin. The drunk swallowed hard, then charged at him in stubborn disbelief—only to be flattened in three quick moves, doubled over on the ground, clutching his stomach and groaning.

The man picked up the beer bottle that had rolled on the ground and walked toward her. The girl swallowed and backed away.

“Here.”

The footsteps stopped. A shadow fell over her. The extended arm was muscular, and on the inner wrist there seemed to be a tattoo, but the moonlight was too faint to make out the design.

The girl was still shaken and didn’t dare reach out to take it.

The man stepped back, set the bottle on the ground, and turned to leave.

The girl seemed to snap out of a dream and chased after him a couple of steps. “Hey… th-thank you…”

The man’s pace briefly paused, but he didn’t stop.

“M-mister…” She hesitated, but still called out. “What… what’s your name? I… I’ll repay you…”

The man turned his head. She thought she saw the corner of his lips curl slightly beneath the cap. His voice was still hoarse.

“Call me a kind-hearted man¹. We’ll meet again.”

He left behind that baffling remark and strode off. The girl stood stunned for a long moment, then picked up the beer bottle, tossed it into her basket, and ran home in a hurry, afraid of running into another pervert.

“Meow—” The kind-hearted man stopped not far away, studying the adorable cat before him. It was a little orange tabby, clearly stray for some time—its fur dirty, its body gaunt from hunger. It lay on the pavement tiles, mewing weakly.

The man bent down, scooped up the pitiful little cat, and gently stroked its head. “Poor little thing. Let me help you.”

The hand that had been gripping the scruff of its neck wrapped around the entire throat and suddenly squeezed. The kitten struggled, letting out a pitiful shriek, its four paws clawing futilely at the air—until its tongue protruded from its mouth and it went completely still, crushed to death while still alive.

The man cradled it, kissed its cold forehead again and again, then gently set it down.

“Little cutie, living is painful, isn’t it? But don’t worry, I’ll help you find release.”

The car was cramped. The temperature had plummeted after dark, the engine wouldn’t start, and the heater had quit. Lin Yan slept fitfully, her brow furrowed even in her dreams.

“Hey, Jie, did you make it to the hospital?” Song Yuhang stood outside the car on the phone.

Ji Jingxing held Xiaowei in one arm while the doctor administered an IV, listening to the phone with her other hand. “We’re here… thank you, Yuhang…”

“That’s good, as long as you’re there.” Song Yuhang slipped one hand into her pocket, reassured by her words. She glanced toward the car—Lin Yan was still sleeping.

“That person earlier… was that your colleague?” Two young men in suits had knocked on her door late at night, which had rattled her. It wasn’t until they gave Song Yuhang’s name and said they’d been sent by “the young lady” to take them to the hospital that she’d half-believingly, half-doubtingly carried Xiaowei downstairs, where a Mercedes van was already waiting by the curb.

The whole way there, the two young men and the driver had been unfailingly courteous, even helping connect them with a pediatric specialist. Ji Jingxing was still in a daze, unable to process it all.

Since when did she know someone this rich and powerful?

Song Yuhang switched the phone to her other hand and murmured, “Yeah, it’s my colleague. We’re heading to the provincial capital for a case and the car broke down. We’re stuck halfway…”

Ji Jingxing let out a subtle breath of relief. “In the dead of night, too—you all work so hard. Yuhang, pass along my thanks to your colleague.”

Song Yuhang smiled faintly at that. “Will do. She’s blunt and quick-tongued—don’t take anything she said earlier to heart.”

Ji Jingxing nodded. The doctor asked them to go do a blood test. She stood up with Xiaowei in her arms—it was time to end the call.

“All right, then… be careful on the road.”

“Mm, don’t worry, Jie. Let me know if anything changes with Xiaowei. Bye.”

After hanging up, Song Yuhang pulled open the door and got in. Cold wind rushed in, and Lin Yan instantly curled up, hugging her arms. The jacket Song Yuhang had thrown at her earlier had fallen onto the floor of the car.

Song Yuhang glanced back, reached for it, tried several times but couldn’t get it. She had to get out again and open the rear door, leaning in slightly to pick it up.

Lin Yan slept with her head tilted back, one hand cushioning it, the other arm wrapped around herself. Her sleeping posture was far from graceful—her camisole had ridden up, exposing her navel and the defined lines of her abs. One leg rested on the floor, stepping right on the fallen clothing.

Song Yuhang couldn’t move forward or back. Lin Yan mumbled again, “Cold…”

She decided to lean in anyway, planning to slide the jacket free. Halfway through, Lin Yan seemed to sense something and grunted impatiently, turning her face away—but pressed her foot down even tighter.

Song Yuhang pressed a hand to her forehead. She hadn’t brought a jacket herself—just a short-sleeved shirt. If she gave Lin Yan hers, what would she wear?

Besides, Lin Yan was still recovering from illness. Letting her freeze wasn’t an option—who knew what complications might arise? She was the one who’d brought her out here, after all.

Song Yuhang thought it over, her gaze dropping to Lin Yan’s slender ankle. In the moonlight, it looked as if glazed with a fine ceramic sheen—delicate and captivating.

The thin straps of her high heels had loosened and coiled around it. Song Yuhang meant to undo them and grab the jacket at the same time. Acting on the thought, she raised her hand and clasped Lin Yan’s ankle. The skin was warm and smooth as fine mutton-fat jade—she almost couldn’t keep her grip.

In the quiet, their breathing intermingled. Lin Yan slept with closed eyes, but a nameless shame crept over Song Yuhang, as if she’d seen something she shouldn’t have, touched something she shouldn’t have.

Song Yuhang hastily looked away, steadied her breathing, and leaned down to retrieve the clothing. But Lin Yan was a light sleeper—especially after the door had been opened and closed repeatedly. Half-conscious, she felt someone touching her leg and kicked without thinking, catching Song Yuhang square in the knee.

Caught completely off guard, Song Yuhang lost her footing, tilted sideways, and toppled straight onto her.

She tried to brace herself up but it was too late. Lin Yan had taken up the entire seat. In her panic, she meant to push against Lin Yan’s shoulder to avoid intimate contact—but in pitch darkness, how could you calibrate force and placement?

Her hand landed and something felt wrong immediately. All five fingers sank into something soft. The sensation was so overwhelmingly pleasant that a strange jolt shot to the top of her skull, paralyzing her completely.

Poor Lin Yan saw stars from the impact. When she finally came to, she slowly looked down, her gaze falling on Song Yuhang’s hand, and ground her teeth.

“Song. Yu. Hang.”

Smack—slap. Song Yuhang backed out of the car clutching her face. Lin Yan had slapped her from both sides with perfectly even force. Her whole face stung. She irritably tossed the jacket at her and slammed the driver’s-side door.

“Kindness thrown right back in my face.”

Lin Yan draped the jacket over her shoulders and sat up with a ghostly air. “Captain Song, you should be grateful you’re not a man. Otherwise, you’d be paralyzed from the waist down by now.”

Song Yuhang gave a cold snort, fished out Lin Yan’s cigarettes from the storage compartment, and clicked the lighter with a snap. Luckily there was a seat between them, so Lin Yan couldn’t see the flush on her face.

“Oh, really? Forensic Examiner Lin, who juggles five boyfriends at once, still minds this?”

Her tone was noncommittal. She cracked the window, letting in a breath of cool night air.

“Dating is dating—that’s mutual and consensual. But out here in the middle of nowhere, if Captain Song really wanted to do something to me, I’m afraid I wouldn’t be able to resist.”

She kept her voice low, still tinged with the lazy huskiness of not being fully awake. From the back seat came a rustling sound—who knew what she was doing down there, buckling her heel straps or getting dressed. The invisibility only made it more provocative.

Song Yuhang felt stifled but didn’t dare look back. The cigarette burned her fingers before she stubbed it out in the ashtray and finally spoke.

“So in Forensic Examiner Lin’s eyes, that’s the kind of person I am?”

Lin Yan rested her chin on her hand and gazed over with shimmering eyes. “Who’s to say you aren’t? After all, it’s not the first or second time you’ve torn off my clothes.”

Even without turning around, she could feel that gaze glued to her. She could imagine exactly how alluring Lin Yan’s expression was as she said it—and how feeble her own explanations sounded.

“That… that was an accident.”

Lin Yan giggled. More rustling from the back seat, then she rose and leaned over the front seat, tilting her head to look at her.

“Hey, don’t tell me you’re still a virgin? Is it really that hard to admit you have desires?”

The topic was far too direct. Song Yuhang was no saint—she had the same physiological impulses as any adult woman. But she either channeled her excess energy into boxing or handled it herself. She’d honestly never imagined having a conversation this blunt with anyone. And the further she followed the thought, the colder she went, the blood in her veins running cold.

She looked up and met her gaze. “I do. But never with a woman.”

Lin Yan froze for a moment, then laughed even more freely. “Did I say anything about a woman? Or perhaps…”

Her gaze flicked sideways, a playful smile curving her lips.

“The moment I mention desire, the first person Captain Song thinks of is—”

Before the word “me” could leave her mouth, Song Yuhang dropped a cold “I’m going to fix the car” and pushed the door open, giving her no chance to finish.

Lin Yan watched her lift the hood, the smile on her lips growing more and more meaningful.

She yawned and lay back down, thinking to herself that teasing Song Yuhang was actually quite fun. What she didn’t know was that Song Yuhang’s warning about playing with fire and getting burned would one day prove prophetic.

“Why are you only here now? There’s half an hour left before the shift change.” The woman opened a side door next to the corridor, avoiding the hallway cameras, and let him in.

The man was tall, ducking his head slightly. He carried an oversized travel pack on his back, his voice low.

“No rush. Half an hour is enough.”

The body that should have been cremated lay still on a morgue bed. The girl’s face was pale, bloodless, no more than a dozen years old, her frame evenly proportioned.

The man circled the bed, gazing at her remains with something close to obsession. His fingers brushed the girl’s cold skin, every hair on his body standing on end.

He couldn’t help but sigh. “What a work of art.”

“When will the DNA comparison results come back?”

Since He Miao’s death had been ruled out as a homicide, the primary purpose of this trip for her and Lin Yan was to submit biological samples for testing and collect He Miao’s uncle’s DNA for comparison.

During the routine questioning, the man hadn’t been evasive. He was slight and wiry, shrinking into his chair with a cup of tea in his hands. His hands were rough, covered in scars large and small—the unmistakable marks of years of woodworking.

He displayed the ordinary nervousness any citizen would show under police questioning, so he hadn’t particularly drawn Song Yuhang’s attention.

And he had an alibi. In three months, he’d only been home once, with train ticket stubs to prove it—arriving in the morning and leaving by evening, at a time when He Miao would still have been at school.

He had no window of opportunity.

“24 hours at the earliest.”

Song Yuhang nodded. “All right. Thank you for your trouble.”

“Not at all. Captain Song is a rare visitor—seldom comes to the provincial capital. Aren’t you going to look up Director Zhao and catch up?”

She’d been to the Binhai Provincial Public Security Department’s Criminal Investigation General Detachment quite a few times. They were all familiar faces.

Song Yuhang smiled. “I’m on a case right now. It won’t be too late to visit Director Zhao after we’ve wrapped things up.”

After exchanging pleasantries with several familiar colleagues, she walked out of the main hall and pressed the micro-mic at her ear.

“He’s out.”

At the newsstand on the street corner, Lin Yan handed money to the vendor. “Just this one.”

Folding the newspaper, she casually fell into step behind the man ahead.

Lin Yan lowered her voice, barely moving her lips. “You said he had an alibi. Why are we still tailing him?”

Song Yuhang stood on the street buying breakfast. “When I mentioned He Miao’s death, he wasn’t surprised at all—the same cold indifference as Wang Xiuzhen. But when I brought up the pregnancy, he seemed startled. Most people would move past it in a flash, but he kept rubbing his hands together. That’s a classic self-soothing behavior.”

Lin Yan clicked her tongue in admiration. “So I’m tailing him—what are you doing?”

Song Yuhang took the soy milk from the breakfast vendor and took a sip. “Me? I’m going to check out a few markets nearby where migrant workers gather.”

“So the muscle work all falls to me, is that it?”

Listening to the shouts of “Steamed buns! Steamed dumplings! Fried dough sticks!” coming from Song Yuhang’s end, Lin Yan itched with resentment.

Song Yuhang’s lips curved slightly. “You’re the one who insisted on coming along. Follow the leader’s arrangements.”

Lin Yan nearly swore out loud.

The man ahead suddenly looked back. She pivoted and leaned against a willow tree, instantly pulling out her phone and speaking loudly into it.

“Darling~~~”

The man scanned his surroundings and saw no one suspicious. In the crowd, there was only an attractive young woman on her phone, apparently talking to her boyfriend, laughing with a silvery, crystalline voice.

Her figure and features were exceptionally striking. The man couldn’t help but take a second look before turning and walking on.

Lin Yan instantly dropped the smile, thinking that the Jiangcheng City Public Security Bureau should simultaneously award her the Most Dedicated Police Officer of the Year and the Best Drama Queen of the Year.

Song Yuhang had listened to the whole performance, struggling to hold back laughter. “You see, this is exactly why you’re the one doing the tailing.”

First, in terms of appearance, Lin Yan was far less threatening than she was. Second, Lin Yan’s ability to think on her feet was no weaker than her own.

Lin Yan ground her teeth and kept walking. “Unbelievable. Once this case is solved, you and I are settling accounts, Officer. Song.”

The author has something to say:

Life is hard. I didn’t catch a cold in Yunnan, but I caught one after coming back. Last night my throat hurt so badly at four in the morning that the pain woke me up. I tossed and turned until dawn before finally falling asleep. I took cold medicine today and have been drowsy all day—feeling terrible. I’ll go sleep after posting this. Good night, everyone. Love you, mwah.

Thank you for reading.