Miss Forensics – Chapter 1
by Little PandaPart One
Old Dreams
I’m not the murderer, so why should I hide?
“Chunan…”
The girl stood in the rain, holding an umbrella. She watched her from three to five paces away, her face blurred beyond recognition by the rain and mist.
Lin Yan’s heart tightened. Terrified that this was just another dream, she stretched out her hand, trembling with uncertain caution.
“Lin Yan, what are you spacing out for? Hurry up and follow me, you’re coming to my house for dinner.” The crowd around them began to surge, pushing her forward.
The girl grabbed her wrist and pulled her under the umbrella. With her free hand, she readjusted the slipping strap of Lin Yan’s backpack. A hint of playful chiding colored her voice.
“How many times have I told you to bring an umbrella when it rains? Why can’t you ever fix this bad habit of yours of liking to walk in the rain? Midterms are right around the corner. What are you going to do if you catch a cold…”
The girl nagged endlessly, her chatter flowing without pause.
Lin Yan should have been annoyed, but a sudden, inexplicable heat pricked her eyes. She let her fingers trail down that fair, slender hand and locked her grip around the girl’s wrist.
The girl was slightly taller than her. Lin Yan pulled gently, looking up with a glimmer of expectation. “Chunan… are you… back?”
The girl in the pristine white school uniform lowered her eyes toward the sound. Her face remained exactly as it had been in the past, a faint smile hanging on her lips.
But those eyes—which should have been studded with a sky full of stars—were gone. In their place were two pitch-black, hollow sockets, fresh blood burbling out of them in a steady stream.
Contrasted against that excessively pale face, the smile grew ever more grotesque. The skin beneath Lin Yan’s fingertips felt icy and greasy, exactly like the countless corpses she had dissected.
A blast of cold air shot straight up from the soles of her feet.
“Chunan!” Lin Yan screamed.
She flipped upright in bed, gasping for air. Lowering her eyes, she pressed a hand to her forehead and sighed inwardly. Another nightmare.
On the nightstand, the flip clock emitted a weak fluorescent glow in the darkness. The hour hand had just crossed four in the morning.
Lin Yan stretched out an arm, fumbling across the table for her water glass, and pulled open a drawer. She yanked it too hard, scattering its contents all over the floor.
She picked up a white pill bottle, tipped two capsules into her palm, and swallowed them in one gulp, washing them down with the now-cold water that had been sitting out in the air-conditioned room all night.
She drank fast and hard, as if desperate to quell some restless anxiety churning inside her.
Beads of water rolled down her long, graceful neck, soaking the fabric of her tight camisole.
She reached up to wipe her mouth, but someone had already pressed a handkerchief into her palm. “Use this to wipe.”
The voice was terrifyingly familiar.
Goosebumps erupted across Lin Yan’s skin.
She stared at the figure with a mix of raw tension and extreme caution, terrified of startling away whatever this was. “Chunan…”
The moment their eyes met, Lin Yan’s heart leaped into her throat. But the girl was just smiling warmly, exactly as she always had. Seeing Lin Yan frozen in place, the girl simply took the handkerchief back and carefully dabbed away the residual water clinging to the corners of Lin Yan’s mouth.
“Another nightmare?”
“No…” Lin Yan instinctively tried to deny it, but like she was possessed by some unseen force, she reached her hand out, desperate to prove something.
The girl considerately offered her own hand in return. Lin Yan hooked her pinky finger around the girl’s. The touch was warm and soft, carrying the temperature and vitality of a living person.
Lin Yan gripped her hand tightly, clinging to it like a lifeline. Lin Yan possessed a naturally striking beauty—the corners of her eyes angled sharply upward toward her brows in a long phoenix slant, paired with a tall, straight nose. Even a casual glance from her held a thousand kinds of charm, let alone now, when she was hovering on the verge of tears.
The girl patted the back of her hand to comfort her. “There, there, I’m back.”
It was the same gentle, doting tone as always.
An abrupt, sharp sting hit Lin Yan’s nose, shattering the last of her restraint. She crushed the girl in a desperate embrace. “Thank god. Chunan, thank god you’re back… Chunan, I missed you so much… All these years… where… where did you go?”
“I…” The girl frowned, her face contorting with pain. Even though they were indoors, her clothes were slowly becoming drenched.
“I… I don’t know… It hurts… it hurts so much… Lin Yan… save me… save me…”
An icy chill seeped into the skin of Lin Yan’s neck. The girl’s sobs tore at her heart. Instantly, Lin Yan’s fists clenched, a look of sheer madness creeping across her face.
Those eyes, usually so indifferent, turned a violent, bloodshot red.
“Who is it?! Who?! Chunan, tell me?! Who! Who did this to you!”
“It’s… it’s…”
Lin Yan shook her shoulders. Suddenly, the girl could no longer speak. Her voice reduced to an obscure, hoarse croak laced with a bizarre static, like a midnight radio broadcast that had abruptly cut off.
Lin Yan felt as though her internal organs were twisting in agony. She gritted her teeth until the taste of blood flooded her tongue, forcing the tears that threatened to spill from her eyes back down.
She gently cupped the girl’s cheek. The skin was slightly cold beneath her fingertips. Thinking the girl was crying, a fresh pang of pity softened Lin Yan’s heart. “Chunan, don’t be afraid. Tell me. No matter who it is, I won’t let them off.”
The moment the words left her mouth, the person in front of her suddenly began to giggle. The sound was sharp and vicious, like fingernails scraping violently across a blackboard.
A chill crawled up Lin Yan’s spine like maggots clinging to the bone1.
Lin Yan suddenly found she couldn’t breathe.
Outside the window, the night was deep and thick as splashed ink. The swaying tree shadows warped into demonic shapes.
A violent gust of wind tore into the room, billowing the curtains. The weak glow of the nightlight died instantly.
She watched as those hands became mottled with lividity. The cold, greasy sensation shifted into the horrifying slide of peeling fat as rotting, putrid blue veins bulged to the surface.
Lin Yan’s eyes widened in suffocation. She stretched out her arms in a futile attempt to reach her. “Chu… Chunan…”
“It’s… it’s you… it’s you…” Accompanying her harsh, shrieking voice, the skin on her face sloughed off inch by inch. Within seconds, bare white bone was exposed. The eyeballs tumbled completely out of their sockets, leaving only two black, hollow abysses locked dead onto her.
A nauseating stench of rotting flesh hit Lin Yan in the face.
“NO!!!” Lin Yan roared, violently tearing the girl’s hands away.
In that exact instant, her hands passed straight through the body, grasping nothing but empty air. A pile of minced flesh collapsed onto the bedsheets.
Thick, foul-smelling blood poured off the edge of the mattress, staining the wildly expensive wool rug a brilliant red.
“Ringgg—”
The alarm clock shrieked like a death warrant2. Lin Yan jerked upright, drenched in a cold sweat. Outside the window, the sky was already bright with broad daylight.
A gentle morning breeze ruffled the sheer curtains. The hands on the bedside clock marched forward in slow, quiet rhythm, and the warm scent of toasted bread drifted up from downstairs.
Lin Yan slapped the alarm off and looked around. Total calm. It was just another perfectly ordinary workday morning.
She threw back the covers, slipped her feet into her shoes, and stood. As her weight settled onto the rug, the fabric sank slightly beneath her. She lowered her gaze. At the edge of the bed, a dark stain remained embedded in the fibers of the dark rug—vividly red, just like blood.
Her throat worked.
Lin Yan closed her eyes, forcing her breathing to steady.
A moment later, the butler knocked at the door. “Miss, breakfast is ready.”
After washing up, Lin Yan drifted downstairs wrapped in her bathrobe. The fleeting panic that had cracked her composure during last night’s nightmare had vanished without a trace. In its place was her usual lazy expression, radiating a careless, bone-deep weariness.
“Where is the driver?”
“Waiting outside.”
The Lin family villa was massive, but this great-aunt3 possessed a notoriously bad temper and despised living under the same roof as the servants. Therefore, whether it was the butler or the maids, they all rushed over early in the morning, waited late into the night until she had gone to sleep, and only then commuted back to their own homes.
Even so, the butler didn’t dare show a hint of negligence, answering with perfect respect.
Lin Yan was satisfied. The assistant was also waiting downstairs. Seeing her descend, he hurriedly jumped up from the sofa and offered a slight bow. “Forensic Examiner Lin.”
Lin Yan glanced at him. The diligent young man stood beside a massive stack of materials prepared for today’s court appearance.
Last night’s dream had ruined her mood from the moment she opened her eyes. Consequently, she offered no nod, no acknowledgment, and simply walked past him without a second glance.
Since Lin Yan hadn’t acknowledged him, the rest of the staff in the house naturally treated him like air.
The young man stood there, awkwardly unsure of what to do. From the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of her elegant silhouette crossing the grand hall, passing through the beautifully decorated partition, and taking a seat in the dining room.
She hadn’t even made a sound pulling out her chair.
The Lin family chefs were exceptionally skilled. They had prepared both Chinese and Western dishes—not an overwhelming spread, but every single item was inventive, flawless in color, aroma, and taste.
Yet she took merely two bites before dropping her spoon. Having lost all appetite, she pressed a napkin to the corners of her lips and pushed back from the table.
No one dared to urge her to eat more. The butler stepped in at exactly the right moment to clear away the tableware, and Lin Yan rose to head for her walk-in closet.
She had a tall frame, certainly not short by women’s standards, but her slenderness gave her a delicate, willowy appearance. Her gait was light and graceful, like a Persian cat pacing across a luxurious rug.
As if suddenly recalling something, Lin Yan stopped. “Oh, right—”
The old butler remained at absolute attention. “Please instruct, Miss.”
“Throw away the rug in my bedroom.”
That rug in her room had been won at a London auction just last week. It was reportedly a diplomatic gift presented by the Safavid Persian dynasty to the Ottoman Turks, with a market value already exceeding a million.
She tossed it out without even blinking an eye.
The butler was thoroughly accustomed to this great-aunt’s erratic moods and her habit of throwing money away like dirt. He bowed. “Yes, Miss. Shall I prepare a new one for you?”
“No need.”
The cold response drifted out from the walk-in closet. Though termed a closet, its floor space rivaled the master bedroom upstairs, entirely stuffed with clothes, shoes, and accessories Lin Yan had amassed from all over the world.
Today, the closet’s master was clearly lacking in enthusiasm. She randomly plucked a shirt off the display, pulled it on, and stood before the mirror, buttoning it up piece by piece. She left the top two buttons undone, folding the collar back to reveal just the right amount of collarbone and tantalizing skin.
She twisted the cap off her lipstick, pressed her upper and lower lips together, and wiped away a tiny smudge of excess color with her pinky. Facing the mirror, she lifted her chin slightly.
Her complexion carried the pale cast of someone who rarely saw sunlight, but accented by those blazing red lips, sweeping brows, and the slight curl of her mouth, her face could effortlessly rival that of a Fashion Week runway model. It bore a faint trace of arrogance, yet as her gaze swept across the glass, it carried a thousand kinds of charm.
She was stunning, undeniably, but she was just as deeply cold.
Lin Yan pulled her lips into a thin, shallow smile, grabbed her suit jacket, and walked out the door.
The driver pulled the car door open for her. Lin Yan slid inside, and the assistant hurried in after her, clutching his massive pile of files. “Forensic Examiner Lin, the death autopsy reports and the rest of the forensic testing materials prepared for today’s court appearance are all here.”
The distinct scent of male sweat, mixed with a faint hint of foot odor, wafted into her nasal cavity. A forensic doctor’s nose was always unfortunately sensitive.
Lin Yan, who had been leaning back against the leather seat with her eyes closed in rest, snapped them open. “Get your ass in the back.”
The Mercedes-Benz van was spacious. The assistant froze. Looking down at her spotless, pristine high heels, he felt as though he could see the reflection of his slightly stained trouser cuffs, along with his own fragile self-esteem.
The young man slowly backed out of the middle row, sweating profusely, and climbed into the very back seat of the van. He didn’t dare make another sound.
“Butler.”
“Miss.” The butler shut her door, climbed into the front passenger seat, and immediately turned back to face her.
“Have a different car pick me up this afternoon. Give this one to Auntie Liu so she can use it to go grocery shopping.”
“Yes, Miss.”
“As for you.” She tapped her finger against the face of her expensive quartz watch, letting the sharp, biting words roll slowly off her tongue.
“Are you in such a rush to reincarnate by coming out this early? If you want to die, the autopsy room is a much better fit. Dressing like that for court, aren’t you afraid the defense attorney will accuse you of murder?”
Every word pierced the man’s self-esteem until nothing was left intact. Sitting in the back row, he gripped his files tightly. He gave no answer and didn’t dare utter a peep.
The car started moving. Thankfully, someone broke the suffocating silence. “Miss, would you like to listen to the news?”
Lin Yan gave a noncommittal “Hmph” through her nose.
The driver turned on the radio, and a female anchor’s sweet voice flooded the cabin.
“Prosecutors charge defendant Jin with the April 18, 2007 rape and murder of his KTV employee Wang, before dumping her body in the wilderness. The evidence is conclusive. He has been charged with the crime of rape, intentional homicide, and insulting a corpse, among other offenses, causing severe negative social impact. The first instance court sentenced him to death with a two-year reprieve. Dissatisfied with the verdict, Jin has filed an appeal. The appellate trial will be held publicly today at 10:00 AM at the Binhai Provincial High People’s Court. At that time, Professor Lin Yan, the young forensic scholar from Fa University’s Institute of Forensic Science, will also appear as a defense witness to present new forensic findings…”
The anchor’s delivery was impassioned, her cadence rising and falling with dramatic flair. After speeding through the case details at double speed, she immediately pivoted to discussing the witness’s biography and tabloid gossip.
Lin Yan was dozing off. She caught a few fragments, which amounted to nothing more than: “Speaking of forensic scholars, Professor Lin is truly an outstanding talent among the younger generation. She completed her undergraduate studies at Fudan University’s medical school and earned her master’s and doctorate from Boston University’s Department of Forensic Science. It’s said that in her ten-plus years of practice, she has performed autopsies on over five thousand corpses, possessing immensely rich judicial autopsy experience…”
Followed closely by: “As the only daughter of the Lin family, Professor Lin’s net worth has long exceeded tens of millions. Recently, she has been intimately linked with Chairman Zhang of the Zhongcheng Group. The media even captured photos of the two kissing passionately on the street. Could good news be approaching?”
Chairman Zhang?
Which Chairman Zhang?
Lin Yan furrowed her brows. A parade of different faces flashed through her mind, but she couldn’t match a single one to the name. It was likely just another fabrication concocted by some media outlet.
In this day and age, whether it was a photo, a video, or an audio recording, anything could be spliced together.
“Miss, do you need us to…” The butler turned back to look at her.
“Mmhmm.” The arrogant Miss Lin nodded. “Which station is this from?”
“Daily News.” The butler secretly committed the name to memory.
Outside the car window, towering skyscrapers blurred past. Soon, the vehicle turned onto a tree-lined avenue. The High People’s Court sat just ahead, bordering the plaza.
A massive crowd had already gathered in the square. Because today was a public trial, major media outlets and a significant number of ordinary citizens had come to spectate. The moment the Lin family’s car pulled up, camera flashes erupted along the curb in a blinding frenzy.
Lin Yan maintained her lazy, half-asleep demeanor. “Go tell them that my most recent lover is definitely not that Zhang from Zhongcheng Group… Zhang what was his name again?”
“Chairman Zhang,” the butler smoothly supplied.
“Oh, right. The media really is too unprofessional. Calling themselves ‘Daily News’? They might as well rename it ‘Yesterday’s News’.”
She let out a soft sneer, laced with indescribable mockery.
The driver brought the car to a steady halt. “Miss, we’ve arrived.”
The butler glanced outside. Quite a few protestors were squatting by the courthouse entrance, holding up large banners. Seeing their car approach, the crowd clearly grew agitated, standing up in groups of twos and threes.
The butler hesitated. “Miss… perhaps we should take you in through the back door?”
Lin Yan let out a cold laugh and pushed the car door open herself. “I’m not the murderer, so why should I hide?”
Footnotes
- 'Maggots clinging to the bone' (fūgǔzhīqū) is a Chinese idiom describing an inescapable affliction, lingering dread, or something stubbornly persistent that cannot be shaken off.
- A 'life-claiming talisman' (cuīmìngfú) refers to a Daoist paper charm used by the underworld to summon a soul whose time is up; colloquially, it means a death warrant or a relentlessly urgent summons.
- Literally 'great-aunt' (gūnǎinai). In modern slang, it is used to describe a demanding, imperious, and pampered young woman whom everyone else is forced to coddle and accommodate.
Hello translator! This is my 3rd time reading the of the best GL. With the hardwork of the author and smooth translation like yours it made more popular!
And let me tell you you are one of my favourite translator!
I have a request, will you plz make more translation like this type of story or like ancient type of story (of course gl) ?? I have seen you translating gl’s which are transmigration/ cultivation types. Somehow I can not feel this type of genra… I will be very happy if you grant my request….
Sorry for the long comment….
Thank you so much! I’m glad you enjoy my translations~
As for what novels I translate, I usually create a poll for everyone to choose what novels get translated next!
Thank you for the reply!🥹❤️
May I ask where can I find the poll?
Previous polls have ended but I’ll be creating one after a couple of days~
Hmm how interesting of a start is this