The night shift was extremely busy. After Lu Yan took over, besides the elective surgeries left unfinished from the day shift, several emergency cases came in succession. By the time she sent the last surgical patient back to the ward, it was nearly eleven o’clock.

Returning from the ward, she exhaled tiredly and went to the break room for water.

To be honest, she welcomed the overwhelming busy state, because only then could she keep her mind from dwelling on that awkward scene from the afternoon. She must have been too desperate, she thought. Even though she had sensed something was wrong, she hadn’t wanted to wake up.

What puzzled her was that although from the circumstances it seemed more likely that she had been the one clinging to him, even if she had been aggressive, she was still lying in bed—how she had managed to forcibly kiss Jiang Chengyi still seemed unbelievable.

Thinking of suspicious points, she occasionally bit her lower lip, the cup in her hand might as well have been invisible for all the attention she paid it, forgetting to drink for the longest time.

Two colleagues also came in for water. Seeing Lu Yan’s strange expression, they removed their masks curiously and asked, “What’s wrong, Lu Yan? Are you feeling unwell?”

Lu Yan smiled and said, “It’s nothing, just a bit tired.”

She then drank her water naturally.

Her colleagues knew Lu Yan was always composed in the face of change and were used to her calmness. They stopped asking and sat down. One said to the other, “Did you see the head nurse’s new shift schedule? Both night and day shift positions have changed, don’t get your shifts mixed up.”

The nurse speaking was Li Yunjuan, and the other was Lin Lili.

Lin Lili filled her water cup and sat down: “Mm, saw it ages ago. With what happened to Qianqian, we’re short one person for night shifts. It used to be one night shift every nine days, now it’s every eight days.”

Li Yunjuan sighed: “I originally didn’t have a day shift on the weekend, had plans to visit my boyfriend’s parents, and booked the flight tickets two weeks ago. Now with the head nurse’s reshuffling, I’m on the day shift on Sunday, so I’ll have to change the flight time. But these are trivial matters—I just wonder when Qianqian’s case will be solved.”

Lu Yan looked up at Li Yunjuan, remembering that she and Wang Qianqian had been very close friends.

Lin Lili was silent for a moment before saying indignantly: “I really can’t understand who would harm Qianqian. She never caused trouble, just went between work and home, rarely even raising her voice. If the killer is some psychopath, how did they target Qianqian?”

“I still think her ex-boyfriend is suspicious,” Li Yunjuan said, resting her chin on her hand thoughtfully. “Since I’ve known Qianqian, I’ve always found her easy to get along with. It was only when her ex-boyfriend cheated on her that her emotions became unstable. She wouldn’t talk and kept crying. The head nurse even specially gave her two days off to go home and adjust her emotions, to prevent it from affecting her work.”

Lin Lili sighed: “But you can’t blame her. Qianqian had been with her ex-boyfriend for five years, they were at the point of discussing marriage. Then this suddenly happened—with Qianqian’s personality, she definitely couldn’t accept it.”

Li Yunjuan’s imagination ran wild: “But didn’t Qianqian quickly find a new boyfriend with better conditions? These past few days I’ve had a theory—what if Qianqian’s scumbag ex-boyfriend felt humiliated, couldn’t get over it, went back to confront Qianqian, then got into an argument and accidentally killed her?”

“Have you been reading too many novels?” Lin Lili glanced at her. “Whatever we can think of, the detectives must have thought of already. They probably suspected Qianqian’s ex-boyfriend first, but it’s been days and there’s been no movement on that front.”

Li Yunjuan spoke in a muffled voice: “Anyway, I felt something was off with Qianqian. Although she quickly found a new boyfriend who treated her well, I always felt her heart was still with her ex. Oh right, do you remember what wish she made on her birthday this year?”

“What wish?” Lin Lili tiredly leaned her head against the wall. “It’s been so long, I don’t remember anymore.”

“How could you not remember? We bought the cake together. Because Qianqian loved ice cream, we specially ordered an ice cream cake.”

Lin Lili showed a look of realization: “Oh, right, and that night we went to KTV to sing.”

“Exactly.” Li Yunjuan recalled. “It was because Qianqian was feeling down during that time that we decided to celebrate her birthday together. Later when she was blowing out the candles, we asked her to make a wish, and she joked that she had no other wishes except first to severely humiliate a certain someone, and second to find happiness quickly. If you only heard the second part, I’d think it was normal, but with the first part, it wasn’t quite right. What does someone’s happiness have to do with their ex? So I guessed she couldn’t get over it in the short term and would be upset for a while.”

Lin Lili sat up a little straighter: “Isn’t making birthday wishes normal? Maybe Qianqian was just saying whatever came to mind.”

“But she was quite superstitious during that time,” Li Yunjuan sighed obscurely. “She tried everything—tarot cards, Japanese spirit writing, various divinations. She even went to Kong Yin Temple in the suburbs for fortune slips. I told her instead of messing with all that, she should go out more and clear her head. Don’t know if she listened, but not long after, she went traveling and met her current boyfriend.”

Lu Yan had been resting with her eyes closed, but hearing this, she remembered last night’s gathering and asked curiously: “Are tarot cards very popular lately? Did Qianqian mention how exactly they work?”

Li Yunjuan shook her head: “Qianqian seemed to have heard about it from a classmate in B City who works there. Once when they met, the classmate told her to first log into some women’s website, then enter personal information—occupation, phone number, everything had to be detailed and truthful. The computer would randomly draw a card meant for you, and if you drew the rarest card, you could make a wish. According to Qianqian, the chances of drawing that card were extremely, extremely small, only the luckiest people could get it. And Qianqian said the website was effective—she seemed to believe in it.”

“She must have gone crazy,” Lin Lili found it incredible. “How could she believe such nonsense? If you could fulfill wishes just by drawing tarot cards, we might as well all quit work and sit in front of computers drawing cards all day.”

Just then, a nursing assistant poked her head in: “Teacher Lin, Teacher Li, Emergency called, saying they’ll be sending over two surgeries soon.”

“Got it.” Lin Lili and Li Yunjuan stood up to leave.

Lu Yan put her cup back and called out to Li Yunjuan: “Junjuan, do you know the address of that tarot card website?”

Li Yunjuan shook her head: “Like Lili, I don’t believe in that website nonsense at all, so when Qianqian told me about it, I didn’t pay any attention.”

Lu Yan smiled, put on her mask, and went to the operating room to prepare for surgery.

When Jiang Chengyi arrived at the bureau, Old Qin and the others had just returned from outside.

“Captain Jiang, we searched Ding Jing’s home and company,” Little Zhou walked to the desk and took a big gulp of water. “We didn’t find similar stickers, but we found some other things that we’ll send to forensics soon.”

Jiang Chengyi was standing at the desk reviewing a case file. Hearing this, he looked up at Little Zhou in surprise.

“Didn’t find any,” Old Qin added. “Ding Jing’s family, like Wang Qianqian’s family, were very cooperative with solving the case, but we searched everywhere and found nothing. If these stickers were the killer’s way of marking victims, Ding Jing herself wouldn’t have known about it—she probably threw it away as trash.”

Little Zhou nodded in agreement and was about to speak when his gaze inadvertently fell on Jiang Chengyi’s neck, causing him to freeze.

Old Qin had noticed earlier too, but being much quicker than Little Zhou, he quickly coughed: “Eh, Captain Jiang, is this the fax from B City Public Security Bureau?”

Jiang Chengyi flipped through the stack of documents and looked up to address everyone: “This is a case from B City three months ago. I think it’s similar to Wang Qianqian and Ding Jing’s cases, so I submitted a report to request materials from our colleagues in B City. Take a look and see what similarities you can find between these cases.”

Little Zhou and others gathered around: “Young female strangled to death then dumped in a suburban reservoir. Oh, also a nurse, same profession as Wang Qianqian.”

Old Qin turned a few pages, looking thoughtful: “Captain, when I called Dr. Yu this morning, he had the same idea as you. He thinks if these are serial killings, judging from Wang Qianqian’s case, the killer’s methods are already quite mature, meaning Wang Qianqian might not be the first victim. The first killing might have happened several years ago. He asked me to look into past female drowning or body-dumping cases in S City—even if there are differences from this case, we can compare them.”

Jiang Chengyi thought for a moment and said to Little Zhou: “Last week when Old Wang retired, he distributed some unsolved cold cases to us. I remember giving you one, bring it over to look at.”

Little Zhou clapped his hands: “I was just about to mention it. It’s the case of that rich merchant’s wife surnamed Li—Li Liwei, thirty-three when killed. Also strangled to death before being dumped, but Li Liwei’s body only surfaced half a month after death, already heavily decomposed when found. Unlike Wang Qianqian and Ding Jing, who were deliberately floated in the lake with inflatable materials and quickly discovered. I saw these key details were different, so I didn’t connect them.”

Old Qin took the materials handed to him and flipped through them: “Right now Captain Jiang and the others are just hypothesizing, we’ll need to investigate further to know for sure. If these are serial killings, Old Wang’s case is three years old—how do you know the killer didn’t want Li Liwei’s body to surface three years ago? But wanting something and doing it are different things. First, he’d need to choose the right materials, second, figure out how to transport the body to the center of the lake. These things might seem easy but are quite difficult to accomplish. In my opinion, if Li Liwei’s case is connected, the killer must have spent these years perfecting scene arrangement.”

Someone spoke up: “Captain Jiang, let me guess—if these cases are connected, chronologically, the first would be Li Liwei from three years ago, second the nurse from B City, third Wang Qianqian, and fourth Ding Jing?”

Jiang Chengyi thought as he spoke: “First, these four cases aren’t necessarily connected to serial killings. Second, even if they are serial killings, Li Liwei might not be the first victim. Old Qin, confirm Dr. Yu’s return time again. Little Zhou, compile all female drowning and body-dumping cases in S City from these years.”

At eight o’clock the next morning, Lu Yan got off work.

When she reached the underground parking garage and just stepped out of the elevator, she saw Jiang Chengyi’s car parked in the opposite space.

Getting closer, she found Jiang Chengyi sleeping against the seat, the window open. The parking lot lights penetrated the front windshield, casting a faint shadow on his high bridge nose, his face clearly showing signs of fatigue.

She stopped in front of the car, staring repeatedly at the kiss marks on his neck, remembering yesterday’s events with some vexation.

She thought he was sound asleep, but as soon as she opened the car door, Jiang Chengyi immediately opened his eyes, his gaze clear and sharp, showing no trace of sleepiness.

She languidly got in and settled herself.

Perhaps because the heating was too strong, it was a bit hot in the car. Taking another seemingly casual glance at him, she noticed his lips were also somewhat dry.

Finally, he broke the silence first: “Going home to rest?”

She lowered her eyelids: “Mm.”

“Oh.” He started the engine. “Me too.”

Lu Yan felt this statement had some double meaning, because every time she finished the night shift and went home, she would shower and go straight to bed.

“Um…” She refused to let her thoughts wander further, subtly shifting her position and looking out the window. “Yesterday when you said I might be one of the killer’s targets, were you referring to that woman who was following me or the butterfly sticker on my door?”

Before Jiang Chengyi could answer, his phone rang.

Jiang Chengyi looked at his phone.

This time the phone was on the center console, within easy reach, so there was no reason to have Lu Yan answer it. He had to answer it himself.

His mother’s voice was somewhat choked: “Chengyi, do you and Miss Lu have time tonight? Poor Jingjing… your father and I plan to visit Uncle Ding and Aunt Liu tonight. Oh, I heard many of Jingjing’s classmates will be there too. If you can get off work on time, come early.”

Before he could hang up, Lu Yan’s phone also rang.

He glanced at her screen: Tang Jie.

He heard Lu Yan listen for a few seconds before saying in a lowered voice: “Oh, okay, I know where Ding Jing’s house is, I’ll go tonight.”