Miss Forensics – Chapter 51.2

Old Person

After finishing cutting his nails, Song Yuhang splashed water on his face and combed his hair, which had stuck together.

Finally, she tidied up the bed sheets and covers. Song Yuhang opened the window, letting the sunlight in, and hung the blanket on the iron railing outside the window.

“Old man, you should let the blanket air out more. If you can’t do it yourself, let the caregiver help you.”

The old person continued to babble, unclear if he were listening.

Song Yuhang smiled, turned and walked away. After taking a few steps, she heard the old man clearly utter a word: “Ye… Ye…”

Song Yuhang shuddered, turned back, and knelt beside the old man, “Ye… Ye what? Do you know something about Yu Xinye?”

The old man waved his hand feebly, with incoherent speech, “Ye… Ye… Ye is not Ye…”

Song Yuhang was puzzled, but no matter how she asked, the old man couldn’t utter more words.

She stayed until it was dark, feeling somewhat disappointed, and left. As she walked out of the courtyard, she looked back at the window, feeling that something was amiss, with a faint sense of unease lingering in her heart.

On the other side of the building, Lin Yan gripped the rope tightly, her body forming a straight line in mid-air.

Thank goodness my reflexes are sharp.

She waited for the group of people to leave, then climbed up again. She leaped in through the window Song Yuhang had opened, grabbed the old man’s neck, covered his mouth, and dragged him into a shadowy corner where the moonlight couldn’t reach.

* * *

Walking out of the rehabilitation center’s gates, the police station chief was already waiting and offered a cigarette.

It’s still Zhonghua.

Song Yuhang felt troubled but didn’t refuse. She took it and let him light it for her.

“Is that distant relative from Yu Xinye’s family still alive? Could it be that…?” Song Yuhang took a couple of puffs, and even the familiar cigarette tasted bland. She strangely found herself missing the lady’s cigarette that Lin Yan had given her.

She couldn’t quite tell whether she missed the cigarette or the person who handed it to her.

“They’re alive, they’re alive. They came to the social welfare office just last month.”

Song Yuhang remained silent and gestured to indicate it was time to leave. The police station chief took a couple of steps to catch up, “Hey, hey, Captain Song, don’t be in a hurry. It’s over ten kilometers to Xiaohe Village, and the road isn’t paved yet. It’s all gravel, quite rough to travel. There are eighteen bends on the mountain road, and they just planted a ditch there for poverty alleviation this year. Wait until daybreak. I’ll find a few locals to accompany you. You’ve had a long and tiring day; you should rest a bit, take a break.”

* * *

Song Yuhang lay on the cold, hard wooden bed in the guesthouse, tossing and turning. It was a double room, and Fang Xin next to her had already fallen asleep, emitting a steady breathing sound.

She fished her phone out of her pocket, intending to send a message to Lin Yan. The chat interface was still paused on the picture Lin Yan had sent her.

Turning over, Song Yuhang looked at Lin Yan’s slender neck and exquisite figure, recalling the moment of intimacy in the car that day.

It seemed like she had never had such thoughts about anyone other than Lin Yan.

At that moment, she felt like she was going crazy.

Lin Yan clenched her own clothes, tilting her head slightly, breathing heavily, her hand on Song Yuhang’s shoulder was so weak and feeble.

She was not a weak girl with no strength. At a certain moment, Song Yuhang even felt that she was accommodating her.

The sensation was so beautiful that she went mad and fell into a trance, something she had never experienced in the first thirty-five years of her life.

She had always been a composed, self-disciplined, and self-respecting person, be it with cigarettes or alcohol, she knew her limits, never excessively indulging to the point of addiction.

But…

Song Yuhang rolled over and got up, taking a deep breath. She lifted the covers and headed to the bathroom to freshen up.

Just the thought of her would make me…

Song Yuhang turned on the tap and splashed water on her face. This is ridiculous, damn it! It must be because of the recent pressure from solving cases and the fact that it’s been so long since I’ve done any boxing, leaving me with excess energy and nowhere to release it.

Yes, that’s definitely it.

Song Yuhang took a few sips of cold water and rinsed her mouth, forcing herself to calm down. She walked out onto the corridor to get some fresh air.

She leaned against the wall, toying with a lighter, flipping it on and off, catching it steadily every time.

Her thoughts drifted aimlessly.

She even thought about her childhood, stumbling along behind her father and brother.

The ceremony of becoming a police officer, her older brother clapping for her enthusiastically in the crowd.

And then, the moment the criminal held a gun to her brother’s head…

Song Yuhang frowned as the tossed lighter wasn’t caught and fell to the ground with a thud.

She bent down to pick it up, and it was as if Lin Yan’s warning echoed in her ears: “You… be safe.”

Song Yuhang hesitated for a moment, then suddenly snapped out of her thoughts. She remembered her meeting with Li Bin in the afternoon and, like a lightning bolt through the chaos, a revelation hit her.

Ye… Ye… He had been repeating that word, homophonous with “night.” Could it be that he meant for her to meet him at night?

Song Yuhang picked up the lighter and quickly turned to run down the stairs.

* * *

“Don’t you damn well pretend to be dead. I know you’re not crazy,” Lin Yan used a dagger to tap his face, pressing on his neck to force him to look up at her.

“Do you recognize this person?”

The person in the photo was Chu Nan.

The old man’s mouth was blocked, so he could only produce hoarse monosyllabic sounds.

Lin Yan grew impatient, and with a slap, she smacked the photo onto his face.

“I know you conducted the autopsy for her,” she paced around the room with a touch of restlessness, her beautiful face losing its smile and appearing even more ominous in the darkness.

Lin Yan suddenly turned around, gnashing her teeth, “Why, after finally escaping from this remote place, do you voluntarily return to your hometown? Did you find something? Tell me! Tell me!”

She shouted in a low voice, shaking the old man’s shoulders.

An unpleasant odor rushed out, and Lin Yan looked down, suddenly startled.

The old man had rolled his eyes, convulsing all over, drenched in sweat.

Lin Yan put the dagger aside and removed the cloth covering his mouth, shaking his head, “Hey—”

Before she finished speaking, the old man’s head had already drooped to one side, barely breathing.

Lin Yan quickly untied the ropes binding him, lifted the man onto the bed, tore open his dirty clothes, and bent down to listen to his heartbeat. She also checked his neck for a pulse.

She muttered to herself, “This is bad.”

She rummaged around for the medications the old man usually used, yanked out a bottle of nitroglycerin from a drawer, placed it under his tongue, and then started performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

“Darn it, don’t die, please don’t die. If you die, my lead will be cut off, and Chu Nan will…” Lin Yan’s eyes welled up with tears, and her arms ached too much to lift. She leaned down to give mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

The old man’s chest slowly rose and fell, and after several repetitions, he began to breathe on his own, and his neck pulse returned.

Lin Yan, exhausted, took a few steps back, wiped the sweat from her forehead, and realized that her tank top was already soaked, even in the cool autumn night.

The old man’s cloudy eyes flickered, and his voice, like rough sandpaper, grated against the glass, “You… you didn’t come to kill me?”

“Nonsense,” Lin Yan took a few steps forward, retrieved a bottle of mineral water from the plastic bag Song Yuhang had brought, unscrewed the cap, and took a few big gulps.

For a while, she drank her fill, then wiped the droplets from her lips and said, “If I wanted to kill you, I would have attacked as soon as I entered. No need to wait until now.”

The old man’s gaze shifted back, and he appeared vacant again.

Lin Yan placed the mineral water bottle on the table, saying, “Hey, you’re quite an interesting person. When I wanted to kill you, you were willing to talk to me. Now that I’ve saved you, you’re silent again. Do you know what it means to repay a debt of kindness, to reciprocate a spring with a fountain?”

Li Bin didn’t pay her any attention. Lin Yan grew impatient, picked up the dagger, and pressed it against his neck. “Do you believe I’ll really kill you?”

The old man closed his eyes, signaling her to proceed.

Lin Yan was infuriated, and her wrist was trembling. She gritted her teeth, and a fierce look suddenly surged in her eyes. She raised the dagger high and thrust it fiercely toward the person on the bed.

A gust of wind swept across his face, Li Bin’s throat tightened, but the expected pain didn’t follow.

He opened his eyes to see the bright blade hovering above the pillow.

Lin Yan released her grip, stepped back, and bumped into the table across the room.

She covered her face with her hands, her voice choked, “I’m sorry. I just wanted to find the truth for my friend, seek vengeance, and ensure she didn’t die in vain.”

After Chu Nan’s death, her unusual cause of death made her a frequent topic in the newspapers for a period of time, becoming a common subject of post-meal conversations.

Everywhere Lin Yan went, she could hear comments like:

“Could it be that her private life wasn’t proper, and she offended someone? Otherwise, how could the other party have been so ruthless?”

“Oh, isn’t her dad a murderer? Isn’t this just karma coming full circle? Payback for the sins of the past?”

“Well, you know, people get what they deserve. If you lead a clean life and don’t have any guilty conscience, you won’t fear the night knocking on your door. But how come, in a city as big as Jiangcheng, they specifically targeted her?”

“You know, it’s all about… hehehe!”

……

Every time, Lin Yan would rush forward with clenched fists. Sometimes she could win the fight, but more often, she couldn’t.

She would get kicked to the ground, punched, and kicked mercilessly, her head bloodied.

“Darn it, whore, you bitch! Just because you have a little money?!”

“Playing with the daughter of a murderer, you’re no good either, bleh!”

The other person spat a wad of thick phlegm on her face and walked away with a smirk.

Lin Yan rolled in the muddy ground, rain pouring down on her, and a faint trace of blood oozed from her hairline. Her stiff fingers moved, and she found a brick.

She gritted her teeth and got up from the ground, shouting, “Hey—”

The other person turned around, and she swung the brick down hard, cursing, “Go to hell!”

Days like this, mired in confusion, went on for a long time. No, it could be said that her world had never been bright since she learned of Chu Nan’s tragic death.

The deceased had passed, leaving the living with endless regret and a sky full of rumors and gossip.

Lin Yan was in another street brawl when Mother Chen rushed over, wielding a rolling pin, and yelled, “Stop fighting, stop fighting!”

As she held Lin Yan in her arms, Lin Yan decided that for the rest of her life, no matter how difficult it might be, she would fight for the truth until her last breath.

This moment was no exception.

Lin Yan took two sniffs, turned her back to steady her emotions, not wanting anyone to see her in such a wretched state.

The old man looked at her, his throat moved, and he was about to speak, but it was followed by a series of coughs.

Lin Yan wiped her eye corner, turned back to check his condition, and said, “Don’t move. Do you have heart problems or any other conditions? Tell me.”

“You… are you a doctor?” The old man coughed while his face turned red.

“No, although I’m a forensic doctor, basic medicine is also a required course. Lie down and don’t move.”

“Forensic… doctor…” The old man chewed on these two words, and a glint suddenly appeared in his eyes. He tightly held her hand, as if he had something to say.

Lin Yan felt his pulse, which was very unstable. She didn’t have her phone with her, so she took another nitroglycerin tablet and gave it to him. “I know you’ve been a forensic doctor for most of your life. Don’t talk for now. I’ll go find a doctor. You’ll be okay. Wait until you’re better, then you can tell me slowly.”

She forced a smile, seemingly comforting the old man, but also soothing herself, saying, “You’re very important to me; I can’t let you die.”

The old man nodded, and Lin Yan withdrew.

Just as she stepped out of the room, a dark figure slipped in through the window, quietly closed the glass, approached the old man’s bed, and lowered their mask.

Li Bin’s pupils suddenly contracted, his face filled with fear and panic, and he couldn’t speak a word.

The person in black reached out and covered his mouth.

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