Miss Forensics – Chapter 2

Part One

Taking the Stand

A murderer kills the body, but you… you kill the heart.

“Miss Lin, what is your state of mind testifying on behalf of a suspect this time?”

            

“Miss Lin, are you confident that your autopsy results will sway the judge and influence the verdict?”

“Rumor has it that the suspect’s father is the boss of Xinye Company, and that the Lin Group has business dealings with them. Is this true?”

“Miss Lin, word is that you and Chairman Zhang of Zhongcheng Group will soon be tying the knot…”

            

As soon as she stepped out of the car, the media swarmed her, sealing off any escape. Flashbulbs went off in a blinding frenzy as all sorts of long and short lenses¹ were thrust into her face.

The butler shielded her as they moved forward, with bodyguards clearing a path ahead. Yet the woman at the very center of the storm maintained an unfazed expression. She didn’t so much as twitch an eyebrow at the barrage of tricky, bizarre questions.

That was, until—

            

Lin Yan took off her sunglasses. A playful smile touched the corners of her lips as she looked at the banners and memorial wreaths arrayed at the bottom of the High Court’s steps.

“Unscrupulous forensic doctor testifying for a murderer will die a horrible death!”

“Deranged, immoral, black-hearted forensic doctor get out of the justice system!”

            

“Miss—” The butler stepped forward, ready to intervene.

Lin Yan simply put her sunglasses back on and even whistled an upbeat tune. “Use a better-looking photo next time.”

The black-and-white portrait resting on the wreath showed a woman with high, sharp brows and prominent cheekbones. It was far from the gentle, soft beauty favored by traditional aesthetics. The gaze captured in the photo was perpetually aloof, and the slight, pulling smile on her lips seemed to mock this absurd and ridiculous world.

            

In the lull before the trial began, Lin Yan changed into the Institute’s uniform. She wore a white lab coat over a striped button-down shirt. Unlike the red cross armbands and chest badges of ordinary doctors, her chest bore the English acronym of Fa University’s Institute of Forensic Science, alongside a logo designed like a dark blue pyramid.

With everything ready, the defense lawyer walked and talked with her. “The opposing counsel came prepared this time. Is the evidence you have enough to support his acquittal?”

Lin Yan shrugged, feigning helplessness. “Whether he’s acquitted or not is up to the judge. I take money to do a job; my only responsibility is to provide evidence in his favor. The rest has nothing to do with me.”

            

The trial commenced. A tug-of-war lasting over two hours between the opposing lawyers left Lin Yan drowsy. However, the moment the judge called her name, those usually careless eyes snapped open, flashing with a fleeting, razor-sharp edge.

She stood up slowly and made her way to the witness stand.

The prosecution lawyer quietly drew in a sharp breath. He instinctively glanced at his own witness—another highly experienced forensic doctor.

            

The other man also looked as though he were facing a formidable enemy. They exchanged a look, both carrying a sense of breaking the cauldrons and sinking the boats².

“The semen and DNA of the suspect, Jin Weixin, were detected on the deceased’s underwear and in her vaginal swabs respectively. What do you have to say about this?”

The prosecution lawyer fired off first.

            

Lin Yan didn’t even furrow her brow. “I have nothing to say.”

Sitting below in handcuffs, the suspect grew agitated and was quickly forced down by the bailiffs.

Miss Lin, who treated her words like gold, shot him a glance and finally added one more sentence: “But this only proves that he had sexual relations with the deceased. It does not prove that he killed her.”

            

The opposing lawyer’s lips curved into a faint smile. “According to the police investigation, at around ten o’clock on the night of April 18, 2007, the deceased, the suspect, and the suspect’s friends entered a KTV private room together. This is the surveillance footage from the hallway.”

The lawyer’s assistant opened a laptop and hit play. Lin Yan’s gaze shifted to the screen. The footage showed Jin Weixin intimately wrapping his arm around the victim, Wang Li. He stumbled as he walked, clearly drunk.

As they passed directly beneath a camera, the footage caught a fleeting flash of Wang Li’s impatient, yet forcefully suppressed, expression.

            

The timestamp on the surveillance video read 10:15 PM. Two hours later, Jin Weixin ran out of the private room alone, looking panicked. About ten minutes after that, he returned, dragging a luggage case back into the room.

That luggage case was the tool he used to dispose of the body. Such behavior was inherently suspicious, but since he was the boss, the employees naturally didn’t dare say a word. Furthermore, it was already past midnight; everyone was exhausted, and he actually managed to slip away. Surveillance cameras in the parking lot also captured his vehicle’s movements. He had a motive, he had committed the crime, and the autopsy results were irrefutable proof. Even with zero confessions, he could be convicted.

Sitting in the defendant’s chair, the handcuffed Jin Weixin’s eyes darted evasively. His hands unconsciously wrung together—a clear sign of nerves.

            

“According to the testimony of an eyewitness who was drinking in the private room that night, the suspect began groping the deceased shortly after sitting down. Coerced by the fact that he was her boss, she had no choice but to feign compliance³, right until the suspect—” The lawyer paused, casting a cold glare at Jin Weixin.

“—ordered the deceased to use her mouth to pick up a playing card that had fallen in his crotch.”

“Pick it up. Why aren’t you picking it up? Use your mouth to pick it up for this daddy, and all this money is yours.” Jin Weixin slapped the face of the girl kneeling beside him with a wad of cash.

            

The woman was dressed scantily in a crop top and ultra-short shorts. Seeing her refuse to move, the man simply shoved the money straight down her low-cut neckline.

“Pick it up! Pick it up for this daddy! If you can’t pick it up, you can stop working here!” He pressed her head down as he spoke. Tears welled up in the girl’s eyes.

A chorus of boos erupted from the public gallery.

            

The judge banged his gavel. “Order in the court!”

Lin Yan shook her head and let out a mocking laugh, suddenly interrupting the lawyer’s grandstanding. “I have no interest in what happened between them, nor is there any need to recount it to me. I am only here to state the results of my forensic appraisal—”

The prosecution’s witness stood up to speak. “The deceased died of massive hemorrhage caused by a single-edged sharp weapon. The murder weapon is this fruit knife.”

            

The lawyer held up the evidence bag, and the prosecution’s forensic doctor continued, “The weapon is ten centimeters long and reaches a maximum width of three centimeters, which matches the sharp-force trauma on the deceased’s body. Furthermore, the victim’s blood and the suspect’s fingerprints were found on this knife. What do you have to say about this?”

The question was directed at Lin Yan.

Having stood for quite a while, the young heiress leaned carelessly against the table. “Lawyer, present Exhibit B, Number Four.”

            

With the court’s permission, her lawyer opened his laptop and projected a slideshow onto the large screen.

“This is a bruise found on the deceased’s lower back—”

“Objection! This evidence is irrelevant to the case!” the opposing lawyer immediately raised his hand.

            

The judge glanced at him, then returned his gaze to the large screen.

“Overruled.”

Lin Yan’s lips curved upward slightly. “The second autopsy revealed that this bruise, approximately three centimeters in size, was the only one on the deceased’s entire body. As everyone knows, contusions are caused by the rupture and seeping of blood vessels. Therefore, blood must be flowing for a bruise to form.”

            

“Once a person dies, the heart stops beating and blood ceases to circulate. Coagulation occurs within just a few minutes, which naturally means bruises can no longer form.”

“That doesn’t prove anything. It’s just a bruise. It isn’t fatal. She could have bumped into something or been hit during the struggle,” the opposing forensic doctor countered.

Lin Yan snapped her fingers. “Exactly right. Next, present Exhibit B, Number Two.”

            

An image of the KTV private room’s interior appeared on the screen, taken by the police at the crime scene.

The table was a total mess, beer bottles scattered haphazardly. A pool of blood stained the floor, and spatter marks dotted the legs of the sofa.

“Zoom in. Look at the shape of the table corners.”

            

The crowd was utterly baffled.

Lin Yan lowered her brow and smiled, looking over at the ‘highly experienced’ forensic doctor.

Though she was smiling, the light in her eyes was distinctly derisive.

            

A thin layer of sweat broke out on the man’s forehead.

“Amateurs might not understand, but an experienced forensic doctor can tell at a glance exactly how this contusion was formed. The private room is furnished entirely with round tables. No matter how wildly two people struggled, they could never hit a curve and produce a wound like this.”

The bruise was only the size of a fingernail—small in area, but deep, with purple-blue discoloration bleeding outward from the center.

            

A round table truly couldn’t leave such a mark.

“At most, this only proves that the deceased suffered the injury while she was still alive. The murder weapon still bears the murderer’s fingerprints. That is an ironclad fact.”

Lin Yan shot back, “Who said the cause of death was hemorrhagic shock from a sharp-force injury?”

            

If the cause of death didn’t hold up, then the presence of Jin Weixin’s fingerprints on the weapon became a paradox.

An uproar swept through the gallery.

The judge once again demanded order.

            

“Then tell us, what was the cause of death?”

“It was poisoning, caused by digitalis⁴.”

Hearing her state this cause, the opposing forensic doctor visibly breathed a sigh of relief. “During the follow-up investigation, the police found that the deceased had a history of heart disease and regularly took digitalis-based medication. We also ran a blood toxicology test; the levels were within the normal range and were not fatal.”

            

Lin Yan sneered. “Is that so?”

Her assistant knowingly opened the laptop.

“During the second autopsy, we tested the deceased’s liver tissue and bile, thereby deducing the peak concentration of the drug in her blood. That peak occurred exactly one hour before her death, and the dosage—”

            

She paused, then said slowly, “—was fatal.”

Beads of sweat the size of soybeans sprang up on the opposing lawyer’s forehead. The forensic doctor was entirely dumbfounded, nervously licking his lips.

The courtroom fell as silent as winter cicadas⁵. Only the criminal suspect slowly raised his handcuffed hands to cradle his head.

            

It was already afternoon. The fading dusk light slipped away from the desk and stretched across the floor, leaving the spot where she stood devoid of illumination, as if she had cast herself into the dark.

Lin Yan’s lips curved, revealing a breathtakingly captivating smile.

It would have been fine if she hadn’t smiled, but the moment she did, it carried an indescribable, biting mockery.

            

“Even if the blood had largely metabolized the toxins, traces would still remain in the liver and bile. Furthermore, forensic appraisal has never relied on just a single technical method. So, we proceeded to extract fluid from the deceased’s vitreous humor. The test results still confirmed a fatal overdose of digitalis. The appraisal report will be submitted to the court shortly.”

The prosecution lawyer whipped his head around to glare at his forensic doctor. The man’s forehead was drenched in cold sweat. His lips moved open and shut, but he didn’t dare utter another sound.

Testing the vitreous humor of the eye was an unconventional autopsy method. Anyone whose first sight of a corpse was a fruit knife wedged in the chest and blood pooled everywhere would naturally assume the cause of death was massive hemorrhage.

            

This Lin Yan truly did not follow the beaten path.

Having delivered such a long speech, the young heiress licked her rather chapped lips and returned to her seat.

Her first thought was: Fuck⁶, I didn’t put on enough lip balm this morning.

            

Police investigations relied on evidence, but court sentencing placed an even greater emphasis on a complete chain of evidence. It was now inevitable that this case would be sent back for supplementary investigation.

As the handcuffed Jin Weixin was escorted down the steps by the bailiffs, he passed by her side. His throat bobbed, and with a hoarse, dry voice, he quietly uttered two words: “Thank you.”

Lin Yan raised an eyebrow, her face remaining devoid of expression. She hadn’t even taken two steps before she was mobbed once again by the media reporters swarming outside the courtroom.

            

“Miss Lin, Miss Lin, did you testify for him because of your father’s connections?”

“Miss Lin, even if the suspect Jin Weixin’s murder charge doesn’t hold, he still committed the crime of rape. As a fellow woman, what do you have to say about this?”

“Miss Lin, you’ve testified for quite a few criminal suspects in recent years, many of whom successfully escaped conviction. For example, the ‘South City Dismemberment Case’ sentenced last month went from the death penalty to a suspended death sentence, and then to life imprisonment. Rumor has it that you’ve been listed as ‘Public Enemy Number One’ by the Binhai Province judicial system. Is this true?”

            

The questions hurled at her grew sharper and sharper. Surrounded by her bodyguards and her assistant, the target of their interrogation kept walking, looking straight ahead without uttering a single word.

“Make way, make way! Miss Lin, sitting on immense family wealth, why did you choose this job as a forensic doctor?”

A young reporter, who looked like he had just graduated from university, held his microphone high, sweating profusely as he struggled to squeeze his way right in front of her.

            

This question seemingly had nothing to do with the case, yet Lin Yan’s footsteps paused. Under the glare of the cameras, a subtle shift appeared on her face.

However, it lasted for only a split second. Lin Yan stepped forward and continued walking, as her assistant and bodyguards shoved the young reporter aside.

“Hey—Miss Lin!” Seeing that she was about to step out of the courthouse lobby, the media horde surged forward once more.

            

Someone shouted at the top of their lungs, “Miss Lin, on what grounds do you believe Jin Weixin isn’t the murderer?!”

Lin Yan finally came to a halt. The corners of her lips pulled into a half-smile. She casually yanked a reporter’s microphone toward herself and retorted, “And on what grounds do you believe he absolutely is the murderer?”

“This… according to the police investigation results…”

            

“Based on a few crime scene photos, a heavily spliced surveillance video, or the fingerprints left on the knife handle?”

She fired back with biting sarcasm. Flashbulbs went off wildly, but the crowd was left utterly speechless. Her gaze did not waver or hide; she met all their varied stares head-on.

“When it comes down to it, it’s none of those things. It’s just wishful conjecture. In your eyes, the poor are all worthy of sympathy and pity, while the rich are all heartless, heinous, and utterly ruthless.”

            

“And a woman shouldn’t be a forensic doctor. A murderer takes a life, but you all…”

She lifted her head and stared directly into the cameras. The woman had beautiful eyes, with pupils that were pitch-black and bottomless, yet showing slightly more white than an average person. At first glance, it was stunning, but a second look revealed something chilling.

“…condemn the soul⁷.”

            

Her voice was chillingly clear, yet it struck with resounding force.

Not only were the reporters stunned, but even the cameramen took a long moment to recover before they began frantically mashing their shutter buttons.

By this point, Lin Yan was almost out the High Court’s main doors. A relentless pack of reporters trailed behind her, while a thick crowd of onlookers blocked the way ahead. Suddenly, an unidentified voice shrieked, “Lin Yan, testifying for a murderer! Have you even thought about what the victim’s family is going through?! You don’t deserve to be a forensic doctor! Go die!”

            

It happened in a flash. A gap was torn through the media mob, and someone lunged unsteadily toward her.

The bodyguards had been scattered by the surging crowd and couldn’t block him in time. With her high heels, Lin Yan took a light step backward. Without a second thought, she grabbed her assistant by the collar and yanked him directly in front of her.

Before the one-point-eight-meter-tall man could even process what was happening, he was drenched from head to toe in a foul torrent of feces.

            

The reporters immediately pinched their noses and scrambled back. Bailiffs rushed out and pinned the assailant to the ground.

Lin Yan frowned in profound disgust and stepped further away. Only then did her bodyguards find an opening to close ranks around her again. “Miss, are you alright?”

“I’m fine.” Lin Yan stripped off her white lab coat and handed it over. “Throw it away.”

            

“Yes, Miss.”

Thanks to the assailant, no one dared step anywhere near her, terrified they might be the next one splashed with excrement.

Watching her drift further and further away, the young man wanted to cry but had no tears left. His eyes were red, his entire body reeked to high heaven, and he looked like an absolute wreck.

            

He was on the verge of sobbing. “Forensic Examiner Lin…”

Lin Yan didn’t turn around. “You don’t need to come to work starting tomorrow.”

Night had fallen. The black Benz drove quietly down the road. Lin Yan sat in the back seat, eyes closed as if resting her mind. The city lights bled across the car window, casting heavy, shadowed strokes across her face.

            

The butler turned around and spoke in a low voice. “Miss, the usual routine?”

She gave a noncommittal, “Mhm.”

The butler was an old servant of the Lin family. Having served her father, he had been assigned to take care of her, practically watching her grow up. Seeing the weariness on her face, he subtly gestured for the driver to head straight home.

            

Lin Yan opened her eyes. “No, I’m going to see someone.”

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