Volume One: First Scroll
Darkness
Her world had plunged into eternal darkness; light would ultimately abandon her.
A chaotic stream of static came from the earphones, Song Yuhang shouted her name loudly.
“Lin Yan… Lin Yan?!”
Lin Yan clenched her jaw, a taste of blood on the tip of her tongue. She blinked a few times, her long lashes trembling. Song Yuhang’s voice, coming from far to near, pulled her back from the brink of collapse.
Only then did she feel a dull ache in her palm. Spreading it open, she saw that because she had gripped the scalpel too tightly, the blade had cut through her glove, and crimson blood was gushing out.
Duan Cheng, holding a device in one hand, snatched gauze from the tray with the other and pressed it against her wound, “Lin-jie!”
Occupational exposure could be a major or minor issue. Bai Ling hadn’t undergone various checks yet; if there was any blood-borne infectious disease, she would be in serious trouble!
Song Yuhang, hearing his exclamation on the other end, felt her heart leap into her throat.
“Lin Yan, what’s wrong with you?!”
Lin Yan snapped back to her senses, threw the soiled gloves into the medical waste bin, brushed Duan Cheng aside, poured half a bottle of povidone-iodine on the wound herself to disinfect it, then pressed gauze on it to stop the bleeding and wrapped it tightly.
“It’s nothing, I just accidentally scraped myself with the scalpel.”
Song Yuhang finally managed to breathe a sigh of relief, only to become even more anxious: “Are you done with the autopsy? If you’re done, go to the hospital for a check-up.”
Lin Yan gave a wry smile, using her teeth to tie a knot in the gauze: “No……I’ll continue working.”
“Okay.”
This wasn’t the time for affairs of the heart1; Song Yuhang was also preparing to hang up the phone when she heard Lin Yan call her name again in a low voice.
“Song Yuhang……”
“En? What’s wrong?” Song Yuhang thought she was about to say something, turned her back, and covered the receiver tightly, not wanting others to hear.
Lin Yan paused, then bent her fingertips to rub her bandaged palm. That sharp, piercing pain traveled to her heart.
Her eyes grew hot, and she bit her lower lip. After a long while, she still couldn’t bring herself to say it: “It’s nothing……You……be careful.”
Song Yuhang smiled faintly; her voice showed fatigue, but her tone was exceptionally light.
“Okay, don’t worry ba.”
Lin Yan hung up the phone, gestured for Duan Cheng to take it, then put on a pair of clean gloves and continued the autopsy.
Another assistant forensic examiner, busy working with her, tsked twice: “Let alone Forensic Examiner Lin, even I haven’t seen a case like this! Most of the internal organs in the whole body have been hollowed out. How could one not be scared ma? I’ve also accidentally been cut by a scalpel before. Seeing as this young lady is still young, it shouldn’t be a big problem. Occupational exposure isn’t scary; early detection and early treatment, ma.”
He had meant it as words of comfort, but Lin Yan suddenly lifted her head, her eyes as dark and sinister as maggots clinging to bones2, filled with a chilling hatred.
The assistant forensic examiner met her gaze, and a chill ran down his spine.
But Lin Yan quickly lowered her head and continued working, as if what had just happened was merely his illusion.
Who said she hadn’t seen it before? As early as fourteen years ago, when she had just come of age, she had already witnessed such a corpse, and had also witnessed the murderer’s cruelty and utter depravity3.
From that day on, her world had plunged into eternal darkness; light would ultimately abandon her.
Lin Yan’s autopsy speed had always been very fast, so no one noticed her abnormality.
After finishing most of the preliminary work, she, as usual, tossed the suturing task to the assistant forensic examiner, took off her gloves and hat herself, and walked out.
She didn’t go to take a shower, but instead turned on the faucet and placed her injured right hand under the stream of water. More than half an hour had passed, and the wound was still seeping blood; pale red water flowed into the drain.
Lin Yan scooped up water and splashed it hard onto her face several times. Her temple hair was completely wet, water droplets trickled down her chin, and a large patch of her clothes on her chest was soaked.
She leaned on the sink, looking at herself in the mirror. Her eyes, washed by tears, appeared even brighter.
As she kept looking, she felt that the person in the mirror didn’t look like herself, but rather like a monster whose face had been twisted by hatred.
In her eyes was a ferocity, gloominess, and horror that was exactly like the murderer’s4.
For a moment, she didn’t know if she was looking at the murderer or someone else.
The taut thread was about to snap; she panted slightly.
Until her phone vibrated lightly. She took it out and saw it was a message from Song Yuhang.
Not many words, just an embrace emoticon sent.
Lin Yan felt as if she could hear her saying in her ear: “Trust me, Lin Yan, you are no longer fighting a lone battle5.”
For a fleeting moment, she had the impulse to reveal everything about the autopsy results6, but after hesitating repeatedly, she held back, turned off the screen, and clutched the phone in her palm, pressing it tightly against her wound.
Lin Yan gritted her teeth, her long lashes trembling. When she opened her eyes, she had made a difficult decision.
I’m sorry, Song Yuhang. You trust me, but I am ultimately going to let you down.
The truth she wanted, she could only obtain herself. Similarly, the murderer who harmed Chunan, only she could kill.
She would not give that scum the chance to stand in the dock. Absolutely not.
He. Is. Not. Worthy.
Lin Yan mulled over these words, feeling as if the hatred filling her chest was about to burst from her eyes. She tilted her head back, swallowed the bitter fruit, then patted her face again and walked out with her phone.
She lowered her voice and made a call: “Hello, send Song Yuhang’s location to my phone.”
In the Municipal Public Security Bureau, bustling with people coming and going, chaotic as a pot of porridge7, no one noticed that she had quietly disappeared from her post.
In the Jiangcheng City Public Security system, several hundred people, plus some special police officers, were divided into several small groups, searching hospitals in the suburbs.
Static came through the earpiece: “Captain Song, Target Five has been searched, no suspect found.”
Song Yuhang made a mark on the map with a pen: “Okay, proceed to the next target point.”
The person in charge of the special police was also by her side; the police lights on the command vehicle were constantly flashing, ready to depart at any moment.
“Captain Song, this won’t work if we continue like this. The suburban area is too large; we need a more targeted search…”
Song Yuhang rubbed the space between her eyebrows, pacing back and forth, dressed in a black training uniform, tall and elegant.
She abruptly stopped, as if she had thought of something, pressed the communicator, and called Zheng Chengrui over.
“Check how Li Hai died back then.”
Zheng Chengrui nodded, put on his headphones, his fingertips flying across the keyboard. The search results on the internal network showed nothing.
He glanced back at Song Yuhang.
“Li Hai’s death back then might not have been classified as a criminal case. If it were to be investigated, it would have been done long ago, why wait until today? The murderer and Wei Lihong must have concealed many truths and cleaned up the scene flawlessly8. Check online for gossip news, strange anecdotes, that sort of thing.”
Zheng Chengrui changed the search terms and entered them again. While waiting, he lightly bit his finger, a thin layer of sweat seeping out on his forehead.
Everyone was burning with anxiety.
He quickly scrolled the mouse, then his eyes lit up: “Got it! Captain Song, come quick and see if this is it…”
Song Yuhang dashed over in a single bound.
It was a scandalous news item titled: “Famous Female Internet Celebrity and Boyfriend Die from Asphyxiation Due to Overexcitement During Seaside Tryst.”
Zheng Chengrui scrolled the mouse. They barely looked at the specific descriptions in the first half, their gazes focused only on the identities of the male and female protagonists in the latter half.
According to the report, the woman was an internet celebrity who had appeared on several TV dating shows, and the man was a well-known local doctor, surnamed Li.
The place where their incident occurred was a certain seaside bathing beach within Jiangcheng City.
Li Hai, Li Yang—lived by the sea, and died by the sea. It really did fit the name.
Song Yuhang turned abruptly, a bullet chambered: “All units, proceed to Target Point Ten, the seaside bathing beach!”
The glowing dot on the map moved again.
Lin Yan slammed on the brakes, the tires screeching a white line on the asphalt road. She pulled over to the side of the road, took off her gloves, tapped the screen, and planned the nearest route.
The seaside bathing beach, ma?
It’s really not far from Fenyang Pier, then.
Lin Yan gritted her teeth, put on her gloves, revved the engine to full throttle, and shot out like an arrow released from its bow.
Her brown hair danced in the air, her entire body tensed into a streamlined form.
Tucked close to her body in her jacket pocket was a photograph. Lin Yan released her left hand from the handlebar and tapped her heart.
Chunan, bless me so I can kill him with my own hands and avenge you.
This was an abandoned hospital, standing quietly isolated beside the seaside bathing beach.
Since a murder case occurred there, the bathing beach had been deserted, desolate and unfrequented9, and overgrown with weeds.
Night descended, enveloping them.
A young girl with a nasogastric tube sat on the bed, connected to an ECG monitor beside her. Although it was old equipment from many years ago, it was still barely usable.
The man stroked her head, which had a bluish stubble: “Are you scared?”
The girl shook her head. After so many years of living as a fugitive10, she no longer knew what fear was.
Just a short while ago, she had personally given a drink containing a large amount of gamma-hydroxybutyrate to that girl named Bai Ling.
She fell into a deep sleep quickly and had all her organs removed without much suffering.
The blood recovery machine beside her was continuously transfusing fresh blood back into her body.
She even had a feeling that she was about to fly.
The man saw her excitement and stroked her head again: “I know you’re very excited right now, but we still need to complete one last thing.”
“What is it?” The girl looked up, gazing at him with her large, innocent eyes.
“Get rid of the little tail following us.”
“Is this also a task given to you by that man?”
The girl asked in return. The man shook his head, squatted down, and took her hand: “No, this is for you, my princess. I don’t want anyone to disturb us when we’re halfway through.”
“Then what about you? After the surgery is done, will you just……”
More than twenty years of a hard, wandering life11 had added the marks of hardship and lines to his originally handsome face.
The man smiled, a hint of world-weariness in his coldness: “Yes, I was already a dead man. After avenging and repaying debts of gratitude, it’s time for me to go.”
The girl clutched the bedsheet beneath her tightly. The man sensed her nervousness and turned the IV drip speed to maximum.
“Alright, go to sleep ba. When you wake up, I’ll be back.”
Lin Yan took the nearest shortcut, leaping directly from the mountain road, clearing the guardrail. Rocks tumbled down as the motorcycle scraped against the steep cliff. Below was a low-lying fishing village.
Some villagers were startled and scattered in all directions. The motorcycle was about to crash into an old man sitting and enjoying the cool air at the entrance of a house.
Lin Yan managed to lift the front of the bike in mid-air, twisted her body while gripping the handlebars, tracing a beautiful parabola, narrowly avoiding the crowd. The tires screeched a white line on the ground, and with a weng12 sound, she accelerated away.
Wearing her helmet, she caught a glimpse in the rearview mirror of the old man collapsing onto the ground, and the corner of her lips curled up slightly.
The next moment, she saw a white light reflect from the second floor of a residential building behind her.
Her instinctive awareness of impending danger made her quickly turn the handlebars to the left. The right rearview mirror was shattered by a bullet that followed closely, fragments grazing the corner of her eye.
Lin Yan felt a pain on her face; a warm liquid was already flowing down.
A scream erupted from the crowd.
Bullets hit the ground and struck the bike’s body, sending out golden sparks.
The rear tire burst with a peng13! Lin Yan slammed on the brakes, and in the instant she executed a 180-degree drift to turn around, she drew her gun from her lower back, aimed in the direction of the sound, and pulled the trigger, giving the opponent no chance to breathe.
The motorcycle was already out of control, crashing into a nearby residential building and shattering the glass at the shop entrance into smithereens.
Lin Yan climbed out from the glass shards, her legs, face, and hands cut in several places. Fortunately, the helmet protected her head, so she didn’t suffer any fatal injuries.
Gritting her teeth, she hadn’t even steadied herself when a muzzle flash flickered in the darkness. Lin Yan lunged away; dust splashed up where she had been, and several deep bullet craters were left on the ground.
This time she saw it. Lin Yan, her back against the ground, raised her hand and fired a shot. The opponent dodged into a corner, tiles flying.
She quickly got up and, dragging her injured leg, limped forward. Engaging in urban combat in an open area was not a wise move; she had to find cover quickly, or she would be a living target.
The sound of a child crying came from behind her, and Lin Yan’s movements froze.
“Mommy……Mommy……Where are you?”
The boy’s tender voice was infinitely amplified amidst the dust and smoke.
She hastily turned her head and saw the person in black raising a gun at her, while the boy stood on the same horizontal line as her.
He was still very young, about seven or eight years old, standing in the darkness crying helplessly. He must have gotten separated from his family in the recent chaos.
Whether the person in black fired or she fired, it was inevitable that the child might be accidentally injured.
Lin Yan’s pupils contracted; her exceptional eyesight already saw him pulling the trigger.
In that instant, her body moved. It was very strange; her body and soul seemed to have split apart.
Reason told her not to bother, to quickly find a place to hide.
But her body had already lunged towards the young child; it was too late.
Lin Yan closed her eyes, pressed the child into her embrace, and lunged towards the ground.
The anticipated pain didn’t come from behind, but rather……
“Ke ke14……” Lin Yan choked out blood foam from the corner of her lips, looking in disbelief as the knife in the boy’s hand was embedded in her shoulder.
He let out a xixi15 laugh, took a step back, and broke free from her embrace.
“Thank you, Big Sister! Big Sister is such a kind person, you know. But big brother said, good people don’t necessarily get good rewards, you see.”
Lin Yan’s vision began to blur. She tried hard to see his face clearly, but it was futile.
She knew the boy wasn’t very strong, and the stab wasn’t in a vital spot, but what was fatal was that the knife had been smeared with something.
Otherwise, she wouldn’t have become so weak in her limbs so quickly, without a shred of strength. She clutched her wound, gritted her teeth, and crawled forward a few steps on her knees; the increased blood circulation accelerated the drug’s effect.
The boy clapped his hands: “One, two, three.”
As soon as his voice fell, Lin Yan fell headfirst to the ground with a putong16, still clutching her phone tightly in her hand.
The call had already been dialed, the screen flashing with light.
The boy ran over, stepped on her wrist, stomped hard a few times, then took the phone out and pressed to hang up.
Song Yuhang’s phone rang twice. She took it out and saw it was Lin Yan. Just as she was about to answer, the other party hung up.
She hesitated for a moment, then called her back.
Before the call could connect, a team member from the front reported: “Captain Song, we’ve arrived.”
She had no choice but to put her phone back in her pocket and jump out of the car with them.
The man held up the black-clad person’s arm; the shot that had just been aimed at Lin Yan had fired into empty air.
The two were at a stalemate. The black-clad person’s wrist ached from being gripped by him.
He gritted his teeth: “What on earth are you trying to do? You want me to kill her, yet you come all this way to save her.”
“I’m not saving her. I told you, I just want to play a game, that’s all. After all, if the chess piece dies, the game isn’t fun anymore, is it ma?”
The man beckoned, and the little boy obediently ran to his side with the phone, pouting.
“I was still too slow; she already managed to make the distress call.”
“It’s okay, you did very well.” A rare gentle expression appeared on the man’s face.
The black-clad person watched their interaction, feeling that being labeled a “madman” was truly an insult to the word.
Although he was deranged17, he hadn’t reached the point of making a seven or eight-year-old child kill someone.
“Alright, you should go back now.” The man released him. His seemingly frail body contained a power as heavy as a thousand jun18.
A red mark was imprinted on the black-clad person’s wrist from the grip.
He shook his arm, flexing it: “Four hours. Help me hold off the police for four hours.”
The man’s gaze swept over Lin Yan lying on the sandy ground, a smile playing on his lips. He spread his hands: “I can’t guarantee that. How long I can stall depends on the other party. But ma, I’m also very curious, you know.”
LP: Re-translated on May 18, 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!
Lin Yan, don’t do anything stupid
Lin Yan, don’t do anything stupid
Lin Yan don’t end up in prison again challenge
Lin Yan don’t end up in prison again challenge
Lin Yan better not end up in prison