Volume One: First Scroll
Concern
Is the word “honesty” not in your life’s dictionary?
“Last night… really?”
“Could it be fake?”
“So tragic, a whole year’s worth of spicy sticks forfeited.”
…
In the canteen, people were chatting in small groups.
Lin Yan carried a bowl of plain congee outside and sat down to eat. It was true that she could be a social butterfly, adept at navigating complex situations1, and it was also true that she was reclusive and disliked joining in the bustle.
Song Yuhang watched her departing figure, took a flower roll from her plate, and followed her out.
“Here.”
Faced with her kindness, Lin Yan sipped her congee and didn’t reach out to take it. “I’m full.”
Song Yuhang had no choice but to dejectedly take it back. Before she could say anything more, the phone in her pocket vibrated. Regardless of whether Lin Yan wanted it or not, she thrust the flower roll into her hand and ran to the side to answer the call.
Lin Yan looked at her ramrod-straight posture and knew who she was talking to: either Director Feng or Chief Zhao.
The steamed bun thrust into her hand was still warm, emitting the fragrance of wheat. Lin Yan picked it up, took a bite, and pricked up her ears to listen to her speak.
Song Yuhang held the phone a little further away, waiting for him to finish roaring, “Director Feng…”
The other party roared directly: “Get the hell out, you little whelp2, bring Lin Yan back to me immediately! The local police stations have complained to the Discipline Inspection Commission3, do you know that?!!”
It was as if she could feel his spit flying onto her face through the screen. Song Yuhang, slightly disgusted, held the phone further away again. “A general in the field is not always bound by his sovereign’s commands…”4
There was silence on the other end for three seconds. Just as he was about to erupt in curses, Song Yuhang interjected, “Please, listen to me…”
She glanced at Lin Yan and turned her back. “Forensic Doctor Lin’s methods to solve the case might have been a bit radical, but she truly hasn’t done anything atrocious. If she had, why would I have bothered chasing that person in black? I could have just cuffed her on the spot, and that would have been the end of it.”
Feng Jianguo sneered, picked up his teacup, and took a sip to cool his temper. “Don’t I know you lot? Birds of a feather!5 Acting without organizational approval is unauthorized action! Who gave you the right to use unlawful punishment6 on a witness?! Do you know this is illegal?!”
Song Yuhang stood up straighter. “Reporting, Forensic Doctor Lin didn’t act without authorization. I asked her to come. As for unlawful punishment, it doesn’t quite qualify. At most, the interrogation methods were a bit excessive…”
She said it quite boldly and self-righteously.
Feng Jianguo slammed the teacup on the table with a pa, tea splashing everywhere, trembling with anger. “Song Yuhang, you listen, just listen! Are those even human words you’re speaking?”
Song Yuhang closed her eyes for a moment, as if making a momentous decision. She still hadn’t revealed Lin Yan’s true purpose for coming to Wuli Town.
“In any case, since I am the person in charge of criminal investigation and the head of the special task force, all of Lin Yan’s actions were authorized by me. When the ‘White Whale Case’ is closed, I am willing to accept any punishment from the organization.”
Song Yuhang hung up the phone. Lin Yan averted her gaze. A shadow fell on the muddy ground in front of her. Song Yuhang squatted down and looked at her.
“Is it good?”
Lin Yan hadn’t taken many bites of the flower roll in her hand, nor did she look up at her. “There’s no need for this.”
“There you go again. Didn’t I tell you last night?”
Lin Yan froze, lowering her eyes.
Song Yuhang wanted to reach out and pat her head, but there were too many people in the canteen, so she refrained.
“You still don’t trust me.”
Even a stone would have been warmed by now, but the other person was Lin Yan. Her wariness was stronger than anything; distrust was her instinct.
Song Yuhang looked a little dejected, but she still said nothing.
“Hurry up and eat. After you finish, I’ll take you to see Li Bin’s body.”
Only when Lin Yan heard this did she look up at her. Quickly and efficiently7, she stuffed the flower roll into her mouth, choking and coughing repeatedly until tears welled up in the corners of her eyes. Wiping her lips, she shot to her feet, stammering.
“I… I’m done eating.”
The town’s funeral home had no air conditioning; it was actually just a morgue.
As soon as Duan Cheng stepped inside, he pinched his nose and retreated, took a deep breath, put on another mask, and only then mustered the courage to enter.
Lin Yan had already put on gloves and was examining the corpse. Her left hand, wrapped in gauze, was not very convenient, so Song Yuhang held the examination lamp for her.
“When I burst in, he was about to escape through the window. We came face to face…”
As Song Yuhang spoke, Lin Yan lifted Li Bin’s forearm and pressed it gently, then pried open his eyelids. “Pinpoint hemorrhages in the conjunctiva, facial skin cyanotic.”
After examining the eyeballs, Lin Yan’s hand gently pried open his mouth. She leaned down slightly to observe. “Bleeding visible in the oral masseter muscles.”
Duan Cheng hurriedly jotted it down in his notebook.
When the examination lamp shone over, Lin Yan discovered a tiny clothing fiber on his loose, wobbly front tooth.
“Cotton swab.”
Song Yuhang handed it to her.
Lin Yan used the cotton swab to wipe off the thread and placed it in an evidence bag. “This is from the killer.”
The reason she was so sure was that although their confrontation last night was brief, she not only had a photographic memory8 but also astonishingly sharp eyesight. The killer wore gloves and was well-prepared; otherwise, how could they not find a single fingerprint of his at the scene?
Only after doing all this did she tear open Li Bin’s clothes and press her hand on his chest. Song Yuhang’s examination lamp followed.
“Systemic venous and capillary dilation. Preliminary cause of death confirmed as hypoxic asphyxiation.”
In other words, as people colloquially say, smothered to death while alive.
Lin Yan’s gaze upon him was somewhat pained; her hand, resting on the gurney, clenched into a fist.
Song Yuhang reached out and patted her shoulder. “Do you want to perform an autopsy?”
Lin Yan let out a heavy breath. “No. The cause of death is clear. No autopsy. Let the old man rest in peace.”9
After the group left the morgue, Song Yuhang asked the police station chief: “Does Li Bin have any other relatives?”
“None. He was a Five-Guarantee Household10 recipient. He divorced his wife over thirty years ago, and she took the son and daughter. After retiring, the government provided for all his basic needs.”
Song Yuhang nodded and handed him a cigarette. “Alright, let’s go to Li Bin’s former residence, and then to Xiaohe Village this afternoon. We’ll have to trouble you…”
The station chief, overwhelmed by the gesture11, hurriedly took it and lit it up. “Yes, yes, yes, Captain Song, you’re too kind, too kind! I’ll go make arrangements right away.”
Li Bin’s house wasn’t far from the police station, just a hundred or eighty meters away. It was flanked by farmland on both sides, and trucks carrying coal slag occasionally drove past on the road, kicking up dust.
The courtyard gate was tightly shut. Song Yuhang reached out, removed the padlock, and pushed the gate open. The courtyard was dilapidated, covered in withered leaves. A few vegetable plots sectioned off by a fence were barren, and a pear blossom tree in the corner had also withered, leaving only bare branches standing.
It was a typical two-story building found in southern rural areas. Song Yuhang surveyed the courtyard. Lin Yan, however, went straight into the main hall12 carrying the investigation kit. In the center of the main hall, there was an altar to Lord Guan Er13, but the incense offerings were sparse, and a thick layer of dust covered the altar table.
This investigation was unrelated to the “White Whale Case,” so Song Yuhang had deliberately sent the others away.
“Judging by how run-down this courtyard is, it must have been uninhabited for at least ten years.” She casually touched a piece of furniture, and her hand turned black.
Lin Yan finished examining the main hall, even checking the incense burner. “Don’t you find it strange? Li Bin was only in his fifties over ten years ago. Why would he go to a nursing home so early? He wasn’t at the stage of senile dementia yet, was he?”
Song Yuhang was taken aback and followed her into the inner room. “Are you saying someone forced him to feign madness and act foolishly?”
Lin Yan thought of how he had clutched her hand before he died, the sudden glint in his eyes when he heard her say she was a forensic doctor, and couldn’t help but feel a pang of sorrow.
“I don’t know. I’ve been investigating secretly on my own for so many years. Every time I feel like I’m making progress or about to make progress, I always feel an invisible force pushing me back to square one. I don’t know if this is fate or just a bizarre twist of fate.”14
“You’re a forensic doctor and received a Western education; you should be an unwavering materialist. Do you also believe in fate?”
As Song Yuhang spoke, she picked up a photo frame from the bedside table in the bedroom and gently blew the dust off it. The family of four in the photo was smiling very happily.
The photography technology at that time only produced black and white photos. She carefully examined the two men and two women in the picture. The man was probably Li Bin, the woman his wife, and the smaller ones his children.
Song Yuhang was about to put the photo frame down when she suddenly felt the little boy in the photo looked somewhat familiar. She called Lin Yan’s name.
“Come take a look, who does this look like?”
Lin Yan came over at the sound, picked up the photo, and looked at it for a long while, frowning. “Can’t recall. You must be mistaken.”
The little boy in the photo was only five or six years old, thin and small, with bright and piercing15 eyes, looking very delicate and clever. In Lin Yan’s impression, didn’t all good-looking little boys look like this?
Song Yuhang rubbed her nose; the pervasive dust made her throat a bit itchy, so she put it down.
“Alright then.”
After checking the two bedrooms, only the kitchen and bathroom remained. The rural dry toilet was connected to the pigsty, stinking to high heaven.16
Lin Yan was a bit disheartened. “Logically, an old forensic doctor who worked for decades shouldn’t have nothing in his house. Not to mention work records or anything, it’s too strange not to even have a diary.”
Song Yuhang pondered for a moment. “Let’s keep looking. If, as you said, Li Bin was feigning madness, even if he had something, he might have hidden it long ago.”
Song Yuhang even searched the woodpile behind the house. As she moved aside some dead branches, a thumb-thick, non-venomous snake17, startled, darted out like lightning. She couldn’t dodge in time; a sharp pain shot through her index finger, and she let out a soft hiss, the bundle of firewood in her hand falling to the ground.
Lin Yan heard the commotion and ran over, only to see the animal that had bitten someone dragging its long, patterned tail as it scurried into the field ridge.
Cold sweat instantly beaded on her forehead. She dashed over in a single bound. Song Yuhang had taken two steps back and was steadied by a hand.
“How could you be so careless?!”
“I…” Perhaps due to the pain, Song Yuhang’s face was a bit pale. Before she could finish speaking, she was stunned by Lin Yan’s actions.
Lin Yan forcefully squeezed the bruised blood from the side of her finger. Seeing that not much seeped out, she opened her mouth, took the finger in, and gently sucked on it.
A tingling itch instantly crawled up her spine from the spot her tongue had brushed.
Amidst the faint pain, there was also a trace of indescribable pleasure.
Song Yuhang’s throat moved slightly. For a moment, she forgot to react, staring blankly as Lin Yan sucked out the bruised blood and spat it on the ground, repeating this several times until the wound returned to its normal color.
Lin Yan breathed a sigh of relief and looked up, a speck of blood still on the corner of her lips. Her fair skin made her stunning features stand out even more.
Song Yuhang felt that trace of itchiness also creep into her heart, making her deeply concerned18 and restless, as if ants were crawling all over her limbs and body19, stirring restlessly20.
“It’s alright now. We’ll go down the mountain immediately and get an antiviral serum…” Lin Yan comforted her. Before she finished speaking, she met Song Yuhang’s slightly darkened gaze and froze abruptly.
She was too familiar with it; Song Yuhang had the same expression when their eyes met last night. Song Yuhang hadn’t yet figured out her feelings for her, but desire had already surfaced.
Lin Yan was anxious, angry, and annoyed all at once, and couldn’t help but burst out cursing, “Song Yuhang, what on earth are you thinking about all day?! A life is at stake21, don’t you know? Hurry up and…”
Seeing her flare up, Song Yuhang, on the contrary, let out a low chuckle, delight written all over her eyes and brows.
Lin Yan was worried about her.
“What are you laughing at?!!!” Young Miss Lin was on the verge of flying into a thunderous rage.
Song Yuhang pulled her into an embrace, her voice, tinged with a smile, sounding by Lin Yan’s ear, “I’m laughing at how you’re clearly concerned about me but still have to put on such a fierce act. Is the word ‘honesty’ not in your life’s dictionary?”
Seeing her stand for so long, talk so much, and still have the strength to hug her, Lin Yan finally came to her senses22—that snake wasn’t venomous at all!
Once she figured it out, she immediately gritted her teeth. “You knew that snake wasn’t venomous all along, and you still let me… let me…”
She was so angry she couldn’t speak. Her body had instinctively made her rush to save Song Yuhang without a second thought. Only when she came to her senses did she feel her face burning.
Song Yuhang cupped her face, looking at her. “Still say you don’t care about me? Telling me to get lost, to go die?”
She still remembered yesterday’s incident. When it came to holding grudges, Song Yuhang was truly unprecedented and unrepeatable.23
Feeling those fingertips about to touch her lips again, Lin Yan gave a smile that didn’t reach her eyes24 and stomped down hard on Song Yuhang’s shoe, even grinding her heel.
Song Yuhang hopped away on one foot. “Hiss… hiss… You…”
Lin Yan snorted coldly and turned to leave. “Incorrigible!25 Clean up that head full of yours, it’s full of dirty trash!”26
Song Yuhang limped after her. “No… listen to me… I figured out where it might be hidden…”
Song Yuhang, wearing gloves, scooped ashes from the earthen stove27. Lin Yan held a dustpan to catch them. Dust filled the air, and she could barely open her eyes.
“Cough, cough… Are you done yet?”
“Done, done,” Song Yuhang said. Supporting herself with one hand on the side of the stove, she stretched her arm as far in as she could. Her eyes lit up, and she forcefully pulled out half of a mostly burnt book.
“I saw firewood behind the house and thought, if it was something very important that Li Bin didn’t want found, maybe he had already destroyed it. So I came to the kitchen to try my luck. I didn’t expect to actually…”
As she spoke, she brushed the ash off the notebook and wiped it with her sleeve.
The notebook had a hardcover, but the pages inside were almost completely burnt.
Lin Yan flipped through it page by page. Most of it was incomplete. Slightly disappointed, she handed it back to her.
“After all that effort to find it, it’s useless.”
Song Yuhang took it and continued flipping. “Heaven does not disappoint the determined.”28
They didn’t find any valuable clues for Lin Yan’s case, but she keenly spotted the three characters for Yu Xinye29.
She pointed to a yellowed, burnt-cornered page for Lin Yan to see. “Look, it says here, ‘Deceased Yu Xinye’s blood type test does not match that of Yu Xinye’s family members. Suspected not to be the deceased herself.’ What does that mean?”
Lin Yan shuddered and took it back from her. At that time, DNA testing was not yet widespread, and blood type testing was a relatively accurate method for identifying deceased bodies, especially in large-scale disaster incidents.
“There are two possibilities. One, Yu Xinye didn’t die—a switcheroo30. Two, there was simply a problem with the blood type test.”
As soon as her voice fell, a draft blew eerily through the house, sending a chill down their spines even on that warm autumn afternoon.
As they set off for Xiaohe Village, Wuli Town, Qing’an County, and Jiangcheng City all launched roadblock interceptions on highways and investigations at major hospitals.
“Stop, stop! Routine check. Show your ID card and driver’s license.”
The driver got out of the car, grumbling, “I’m in a hurry to get home! How come you never check usually, but you’re checking today?”
“Less nonsense. Show them when you’re told to.”
Only then did the man reluctantly take out his documents. While the traffic police officer checked them, several other traffic police officers also walked around his car. Seeing no prohibited items, they let him go.
“Damn it, wasting my31 time.”
Although he was spewing profanities, the traffic police officer still took a step back, saluted apologetically, and watched him drive away.
Qing’an County.
“Police! Has your hospital recently admitted and treated any patients with gunshot wounds?”
The young nurse32 at the front desk, upon seeing several criminal police officers armed with loaded firearms33 walk in, immediately stood up and started flipping through the admission records. “No… no… all the patients admitted in the last week are here…”
The medical records were very detailed, recording everything from the patient’s name to the cause of illness, condition, and admission time. One criminal police officer stayed at the front desk, flipping through them, while the leader gestured, and the others headed towards the wards, spreading out.
At the end of the corridor, from a distance, two men saw the police.
One of them stepped back, plopped down on the steps, clutching his shoulder, panting heavily, his face pale.
His companion helped him up. “Let’s go. We’ll try the next hospital.”
Beads of sweat the size of peas34 trickled down the man’s forehead. Excessive blood loss combined with traveling all night had left him utterly exhausted35. He licked his somewhat chapped lips.
“No, the police are already suspicious. It’ll be the same no matter which hospital we go to.”
“Then your wound…”
“Let’s go. I’ll figure something out myself…”
LP: Re-translated on May 07, 2025
✨ Unlock Early Access to Chapters! ✨
Choose your perfect membership at bamboopandatl.net:
📚 Full Access ($4.99)
• Advanced chapters of ALL ongoing novels
• Access to complete finished novels
• Ad-free reading experience
📖 Single Novel Access ($1.49)
• Advanced chapters of ONE specific novel
• Ad-free reading for chosen novel
PayPal is the only current payment option!
thanks for the lovely read, my stack chapters need to be rebuild
thanks for the lovely read, my stack chapters need to be rebuild