Miss Forensics – Chapter 5
by Little PandaPart One
Confrontation
As a forensic doctor, this question is a bit too unprofessional.
Song Yuhang gave the door two light knocks. Only when she heard a resonant “Come in” from inside did she push the door open, stepping inside to place the case closure report on the desk.
Feng Jianguo was buried in official documents. Next to his hand sat a large enamel mug printed with the bold characters “Serve the People1.” Word had it that it was a reward from when he first started working and earned a third-class merit, and he had used it ever since.
Seeing that she neither spoke nor moved, he looked up at her with some surprise. “What’s wrong?”
Song Yuhang’s lips parted slightly.
As if understanding something, he capped his pen. “I heard you had a bit of a clash on the road this morning with that new Forensic Examiner Lin?”
Noticing his gaze falling on her arm, Song Yuhang glanced down at it. “It’s nothing. Just scraped some skin.”
“Years back when you were hunting down a killer across provincial lines, you fought the suspect tooth and nail for half an hour and I didn’t see you end up looking like this,” Bureau Chief Feng teased. Mild-mannered and wearing glasses, he was smiling warmly.
Song Yuhang lowered her head and remained silent, but Feng Jianguo already knew what she was thinking. “You want to ask why we let someone like Lin Yan join our municipal bureau, don’t you?”
A meeting had been held that morning, and an injury assessment had come in. Lin Yan had sent Duan Cheng to handle it; she was only interested in the dead, not the living.
While everyone else was busy to the point of flying, this young heiress was nestled in her office drinking the coffee Fang Xin had brewed for her. A soothing melody played from her computer as she lay back in her chair with her feet propped up on the desk, a sheet mask draped over her face.
According to her, it was time for her midday skincare routine.
“You didn’t even let me know you were coming back so I could pick you up.”
A slow, amused voice came through the receiver.
Lin Yan spoke in a muffled, nasal tone while carefully pressing down the edges of the sheet mask around her nose to keep it from peeling off.
“Oh, please. Your work is so busy, how would you have the time to pick me up?”
On the other end of the line, the man, dressed in a white lab coat, stood outside his consultation room and chuckled softly. “I can always find time to pick you up.”
Lin Yan shuddered. “Ugh, gross. Speak like a normal person.”
The man couldn’t help but laugh out loud, drawing sidelong glances from passing nurses. He cleared his throat to regain his composure. “Alright. When are you coming to my place for dinner?”
“That old bastard Lin Youyuan made you call me again, didn’t he?”
“Don’t talk about Uncle Lin like that. After all⦔
Just hearing that name irritated Lin Yan. She pulled the phone away from her ear. “Forget it. If that’s what this is about, we have nothing to talk about.”
“Don’t, don’t hang up! Even if you won’t do it for Uncle Lin’s sake, do it for my mom’s. After all, she’s always worrying about you.”
When she was first brought back to the Lin family home by Lin Youyuan, she had been constantly bullied by Lin Cheng, who even threatened to run away if she stayed. Left with no choice, Lin Youyuan had sent his newly returned daughter to be fostered at Lin Ge’s house.
She ended up staying there for two years. It was only when she reached school age that the Lin family butler finally brought her back.
In terms of family hierarchy, Lin Ge was her older cousin. However, because they had run wild together as children, terms like gege or meimei never sat right on their tongues. Instead, they simply called each other by name: “Lin Ge” and “Lin Yan.”
She had cut ties completely with the Lin family after her gaokao2. She only kept in sporadic touch with Lin Ge. For all these years, her relationship with her nominal father had remained lukewarm at best; his existence was felt only in the mysterious sums of money that appeared in her bank account every month.
She fell silent for a moment, letting out a quiet breath. “No, I won’t go to your place. I’ll treat you to dinner separately some other day.”
“Sure, but you’ll need to book me in advance. I’m not sure if I’ll be free.”
“What’s going on with you?” Lin Yan teased.
“Nothing really. I’m just listening to my mom and going on blind dates3. We have to meet up every now and then to keep things going.”
“Oh? Looks like you’re taking it seriously this time.” The young heiress let out a soft whistle.
Lin Ge was seven years older than her. He had spent years studying abroad, and upon finally returning to China, he had turned down the job Lin Youyuan arranged for him. Instead, he founded his own dental hospital, where he currently served as both president and chief of dental services.
Just as his career was soaring, his mother’s desperation to hold a grandchild was reaching new heights as well.
He let out a long sigh on the other end. “I wouldn’t say I’m taking it seriously. We’re just treating each other as friends for now. I expect she feels the same way.”
“What about you? You’re not getting any younger either. Isn’t it time to start thinking about settling down?”
“Get the fuck out with that ‘not getting any younger’ crap, this queen is thirty and in her prime!”
The moment the forensic doctor finished shouting in a huff, the air froze for two seconds. The music ground to a sudden halt.
She felt a gaze fall upon her.
Looking up, she saw Officer Song standing at the doorway. With the light behind her, her expression was hard to read, but from the looks of it, she had been standing there for quite some time.
Did this woman walk without making a sound?
The young heiress rolled her eyes. “Forget it, someone’s here. I’ll talk to you later.”
“Um, excuse me. Do you have any gauze, rubbing alcohol, or anything similar?”
Lin Yan scrolled through the contacts on her phone, looking for a date for that evening, without even raising her eyelids.
“No idea. Fang Xin.”
Fang Xin raised her head from a mountain of documents and books, pushing up her glasses. “Ah? What’s wrong, Lin-jie?”
Song Yuhang repeated, “Rubbing alcohol, gauze.”
As if worried they wouldn’t understand, she added, “I need to clean my wound.”
Fang Xin scrambled to her feet. “Yes, yes, we have some! They’re in the cabinet inside the autopsy room. I’ll go get them for you.”
The forensic autopsy room was just on the other side of the wall. Fang Xin brought them out and handed them over. “Let me help you, Captain Song.”
“It’s fine.”
With that, Song Yuhang pulled up a random chair and sat down. She rolled her sleeve up past her shoulder, holding an alcohol-soaked cotton swab in one hand as she awkwardly tried to pick out the tiny grains of sand embedded in her skin.
Fang Xin couldn’t bear to look at such bloody, raw sights, her little face turning pale. Yet the other woman seemed entirely numb to pain, remaining stubbornly silent throughout.
Typing away to her date for the night, Lin Yan remarked in a flat, indifferent tone, “Some people wouldn’t have any of these problems if they didn’t insist on playing the hero.”
This was a bit uncalled for. Fang Xin watched the two of them with a tense expression, terrified that a fight would break out at any moment.
To her surprise, Captain Song made no unnecessary movements. She finished treating the wound on her own, tossed the used cotton swabs and gauze into the trash can, screwed the cap back onto the alcohol bottle, and handed it back to her.
“Thank you.”
In the short time it took Fang Xin to return the items to the next room, the two were already locked in a silent stare-down when she walked back in.
With the sheet mask still plastered to her face, Lin Yan looked up suddenly and almost shrieked like a ghost in fright.
Song Yuhang remained as unperturbed as ever. She always looked at everything with a detached, indifferent air. Had she been born in ancient times, she probably would have been a legendary wulin4 master clad in white, sword on her back, drifting in and out of shadows, completely indifferent to fame and wealth.
But in a setting like this, it was just a little creepy.
To be stared down by such an expressionless face.
“Is there something on my face?”
Song Yuhang leaned forward.
She was already a head taller than Lin Yan. As the distance between them closed, a faint scent of laundry detergent wafted over.
Lin Yan kicked the desk, forcing her wheeled chair back several steps. “Captain Song, looking at me with such tender affection in the office is a bit inappropriate, don’t you think?”
Song Yuhang straightened up. Her arm was already bandaged. She slipped a hand into her trouser pocket and looked at her. “According to Article Seven, Subsection Three of the γRegulations on the Management of Uniforms for People’s Police of Public Security Organsγ, police uniforms shall not be draped over shoulders, unbuttoned, have sleeves rolled up, or trousers cuffed.”
Lin Yan looked at her uniform jacket draped over the chair next to her, then lowered her gaze to the two undone buttons at her collar and her rolled-up trouser cuffs. A slow, silent question mark formed in her mind.
Fang Xin quickly patted down her own police uniform and smoothed her hair to ensure she looked presentable.
“Except for work requirements and special circumstances, standard-issue leather shoes, rubber shoes, or black leather shoes must be worn. The heel height for female police officers shall not exceed four centimeters.”
Lin Yan’s seven-centimeter rhinestone-encrusted sky-high heels were bright enough to blind Fang Xin’s dog eyes.
The young heiress looked completely flabbergasted, as if she were staring at an alien.
Song Yuhang took a step back. “Furthermore, painting fingernails, dyeing hair unnatural colors, and wearing jewelry are strictly prohibited.”
“??? Song Yuhang, are you human? No, wait, are you even a woman?”
Captain Song did indeed seem to wear her uniform year-round. No one had ever seen her dye her hair any other color; her medium-length black hair was always tied back, fully revealing her sharp, distinct features.
As for jewelry, it was entirely out of the questionβshe likely found such things to be a cumbersome nuisance.
“From both physiological and psychological perspectives, yes, I am. As a forensic doctor, that question is a bit too unprofessional.”
Lin Yan felt a rush of blood catch in her throat, nearly choking to death on a mouthful of blood stuck in her throat.
This was the first time she had ever met someone who could leave her completely speechless.
She really wanted to crack open her skull and see if there was nothing but rules and regulations inside.
The woman clearly didn’t look much older than her, yet she acted and spoke with such pedantic stiffness.
“First of all, what I wear and how I wear it is my own freedom. Even the police have no right to interfere with that.”
“Yes. But on the force, you must follow our rules.”
Lin Yan sneered and stood up to face her. The sheet mask slid off her face; she deliberately balled it up and tossed it, letting it pelt against Song Yuhang’s shoulder.
Her eyes were filled with a wild, defiant playfulness and malicious mockery.
“And what if I don’t follow them? What are you going to do about it? Are you going to beat me or report me? Let me tell you, the municipal government still owes my Lin family for construction projects. Do you have any idea how many public servants in Binhai Province our Lin family keeps fed? Just try laying a single finger on me!”
The mask fell to the floor by her feet.
The air fell into a dead silence.
Fang Xin was too terrified to even breathe. For a moment, the only sounds were their quiet breathing and the steady ticking of the clock on the wall.
Song Yuhang took a quiet step forward.
Lin Yan didn’t back down, glaring right back at her.
Just as Song Yuhang was about to take another step, she was grabbed tightly by someone.
The young, green-behind-the-ears girl had an expression of heroic martyrdom, ready to charge to a certain death. “Captain Song, don’t! Stop, please!”
Lin Yan swallowed imperceptibly.
Yet the woman opposite her curled her lips slightly in a smile so fleeting Lin Yan thought she had hallucinated it.
“Don’t worry, I’m not going to hit you. I just think that since your heart isn’t in it, you should yield the position to someone else who actually needs it.”
The remark made the young heiress blow her top again. “Who’s nervous?! Who’s nervous?! Which of your eyes saw me get nervous?!”
After her outburst, a pin-drop silence filled the room. Even Fang Xin couldn’t help but let out a snicker, quickly clapping a hand over her mouth.
“You just swallowed. Your right hand clenched into a fist, your toes were pointed outward, your body was completely tense, and your masseter muscles were twitching slightly. It’s a defensive stance. If I had made a move, you would have retaliated, but because you weren’t certain you could beat me, you didn’t strike first.”
“You motherfucker, I⦔ Lin Yan was so angry her eyes rolled back, smoke practically puffing from her ears. Sputtering incoherently, just short of foaming at the mouth, she snatched up a copy of γForensic Medicineγ and lunged forward.
Fang Xin held her back with all her might. “Don’tβ¦ Lin-jie, don’t! You can’t beat her! Captain Song ranks first in the grand training drills every single year!”
Items clattered and scattered all over the desk. Song Yuhang took a step back, completely unscathed.
She pulled a stack of cash wrapped in A4 paper from her pocket and placed it on the desk. “This is yours. I’m returning it to you. Don’t speed in the city area anymore.”
“Iβ” Lin Yan snatched up another book and hurled it.
Song Yuhang tilted her head slightly, letting the book graze past her cheek. Without another word, she turned and left.
Lin Yan made to give chase but was held back by Fang Xin’s desperate grip.
She had never endured such humiliation in her entire life. Headstrong and wild as a child, she had beaten Lin Cheng so hard he was left searching for his teeth on the ground when she was only six years old. Although she was subsequently punished by her stepmother, as a member of the Lin family, she was born with an innate halo of superiority. Who would ever dare tell her she was in the wrong?
They either kept a respectful distance or hovered around to flatter her.
For the first time in her life, she felt a sense of defeat from another woman. The last time she had felt this way was nearly twenty years ago.
Once Song Yuhang was gone, Fang Xin gingerly brought her a cup of coffee. “Lin-jie, please don’t be mad at Captain Song. She’s a bit rigid sometimes, but she’s actually a really good person⦔
“There’s a reason she’s like this. I haven’t been in the Technical Investigation Division for long, but I heard that the late Chief Medical Examiner was her partner for many years, as well as her old classmate. Sheβ¦ she died at her post.”
“Even though she doesn’t say anything and goes about her work as usual, she must be hurting more than anyone else inside.”
“Iβ” Lin Yan was about to speak, but her eyes fell on the desk in front of her. The modestly sized desk was covered with traces of its former occupant.
Forensics books lay scattered everywhere, several sticky notes clung to the computer monitor, and there was a yellowed, old photo.
It was a Polaroid, the resolution somewhat blurry. Two young people stood side by side in the picture; one of them was the very woman who had just quarreled with her.
She had been young back then, dressed in a brand-new uniform, her features relaxed and bright, a faint smile resting on the corners of her lips. Two four-pointed star flowers5 adorned her shoulders.
Those were the golden days of youth.
Lin Yan pursed her lips. “Whatever. This queen is magnanimous; I won’t lower myself to her level.”
Having stepped outside, Song Yuhang slowly exhaled, recalling what Bureau Chief Feng had just said to her.
“Someone like Lin Yan is self-opinionated and has no regard for discipline. If she didn’t have some real talent, she wouldn’t have been admitted to our municipal bureau in the first place. Just treat her as an external contractor. She probably won’t respond to our usual rules anyway. I know you’ve always been someone who cannot tolerate sand in your eyes6, but don’t take it too hard.”
For some reason, she felt that when Bureau Chief Feng mentioned Lin Yan, there was a faint, almost imperceptible trace of indulgence and helplessness in his voice.
Perhaps she was overthinking it.
She shook her head, turned, and strode away.
Footnotes
- 'Serve the People' (WΓ¨i RΓ©nmΓn FΓΊwΓΉ) is a famous political slogan initiated by Mao Zedong in 1944, which became a core guiding principle for the Chinese Communist Party and public servants.
- The National College Entrance Examination (gΔokΗo), a highly competitive and grueling academic exam held annually in China.
- A traditional method of introducing potential romantic partners in China, often arranged by parents or matchmakers to help busy professionals find suitable marriage partners.
- A term referring to the community of martial artists in Chinese fiction (wΗlΓn), often associated with chivalry, honor, and wandering swordsmen.
- Four-pointed star flowers (sΓ¬jiΗo xΔ«nghuΔ) are rank insignia used on Chinese police epaulets, indicating the officer's specific rank within the police hierarchy.
- A Chinese idiom meaning to be highly principled and unable to tolerate flaws, wrongdoing, or injustice. The literal translation is 'cannot tolerate sand in one's eyes' (yΗn lΗ rΓ³u bΓΉ dΓ© shΔ zi).
Ly: I hate my family
Ly also: brings in her family name to defend herself π
Ly: I hate my family
Ly also: brings in her family name to defend herself 😂
How old are the characters supposed to be? Some parts say SYH is just 30 and LY is 31 or 32 but this chapter mentions that SYH is older than LY?
Chapter 3 did mention this, “At that time, Song Yuhang had already passed the age of thirty”. But it was never specified what age exactly, maybe she’s the same or around the age as Lin Ge?
Chapter 3 did mention this, “At that time, Song Yuhang had already passed the age of thirty”. But it was never specified what age exactly, maybe she’s the same or around the age as Lin Ge?
How old are the characters supposed to be? Some parts say SYH is just 30 and LY is 31 or 32 but this chapter mentions that SYH is older than LY?
We know the mc is 32 years old since itβs been mentioned here and there with the officers who searched her up being the most likely evidence. For the female lead (SYH) we only know sheβs passed her thirties but we donβt know the specifics yet mainly speculations from mc saying (SYH) looks only a bit few years older than her