Fan Mingming looked at Yan Qing with reddened eyes. “You can’t understand it — that feeling of wishing you were dead. Right now, I have no regrets at all. If I were given the chance to choose again, I still wouldn’t change my decision.”

“Have you thought about your maternal grandparents?” Yan Qing’s gaze was sharp. “Your grandmother has already been hospitalized because of the sudden death of her daughter and son-in-law, and I hear she has not yet regained consciousness. Your grandfather is bearing his grief and staying behind to take care of you. If they were to find out that the one who killed their daughter was the granddaughter they love most — do you think they could survive another blow like this?”

Fan Mingming’s pupils dilated sharply. She stared at Yan Qing, then shot to her feet in agitation: “Don’t tell them — you can’t tell them…”

Her emotions spiraling out of control, Fan Mingming strained wildly against the interrogation chair’s restraints. Old Fan, seeing this, had barely begun to call out for someone to protect Instructor Yan when someone else had already beaten him to it.

“Good grief, Captain Shi, how did he get in there so fast? Did he walk through the walls?” Old Fan’s mouth twitched.

Shi Ting pulled Yan Qing up from her seat and said, “You step out first.”

Yan Qing did not feel frightened at all. She could sense that Fan Mingming was simply overcome with anxiety about her grandparents — she would not harm anyone. And besides, the solid four-sided restraint of the interrogation chair was still holding her. But the swiftness with which Shi Ting had appeared still warmed her heart.

“Then I’ll step out,” Yan Qing said. “You carry on.”

What followed was within Shi Ting and his team’s purview. Now that Fan Mingming had spoken, the case could move into the next stage of proceedings.

Yan Qing returned to the forensics lab, but she felt no sense of relief. On the contrary, as she replayed her conversation with Fan Mingming in her mind, all she was left with was an overwhelming sense of lament.

What could drive a girl to raise her hand against her own parents? When she gripped that cleaver and struck at the bodies of parents who were already dead, what she was releasing was a hatred compressed deep within her heart — a hatred that had surpassed blood ties, that had surpassed the reason that separates life from death.

When she stripped those two people of their lives, the freedom she imagined she’d obtained was in truth only the prison that awaited her. Her impulsiveness and cruelty had plunged four people who loved her into a bottomless abyss.

From a model student of excellent character and scholarship, to a criminal who hired killers to commit murder — Fan Mingming was undeniably at fault, and yet what had warped her into this? What had shaped her distorted personality?

When all was said and done, Fan Mingming was nothing more than a pitiable girl who had grown up in a twisted environment. She would pay the price for what she had done — but would there be a Zhao Mingming, a Zhang Mingming after her? Who would be willing to offer them a little more genuine love and compassion, and change the course of their lives?

Yan Qing closed her eyes and let out a quiet sigh.

“Mentor, mentor.” Hulu’s voice drifted into her ears. “Old Fan said tonight there’s a welcome dinner for Captain Shi to also celebrate solving the case. He wants to know if you’re going.”

“I’ll pass,” Yan Qing said. “I want to go home and shower.”

“Come on, mentor,” Hulu sidled over. “You’re the one Old Fan mainly invited — I’m just your plus-one. If you don’t go and I show up alone as a plus-one, that’s just awkward.”

“You’re a member of the forensics team too. What’s awkward about it? The case was solved, and you had a hand in it too.”

“Mentor, I’ll be straight with you.” Hulu’s face fell. “Dapeng has teamed up with Xiao Bai and the others to get me drunk. If you don’t come to keep order, just wait to autopsy your apprentice’s body tomorrow.”

“Is it really that serious?”

“Honestly, Dapeng and I have something of a personal score to settle. He’s looking for a chance to get back at me.”

Yan Qing raised an eyebrow. “What score do you two have?”

“He asked me to buy him a double beef burger once. I saw it had three patties in there, figured he’d never know, and quietly pulled one out and ate it.”

Yan Qing: “……”

“Mentor, please save me. With you there, they absolutely won’t dare pull anything.”

Under Hulu’s relentless coaxing, Yan Qing finally agreed to go to the celebratory dinner — not because she truly intended to keep order for Hulu, but because as a colleague, it was only right that she welcome Shi Ting, the new unit chief, properly.

That evening, Old Fan had already chosen a venue well in advance.

Old Fan said the bill this time would be on Commissioner Liu. Though the commissioner was still away at a conference, he had already called in advance to say: his person wouldn’t be there, but the money certainly would.

“Brother Fan, the dishes you ordered are quite lavish,” Dapeng said, staring at a table full of delicacies and struggling to rein in his salivating.

“It’s Commissioner Liu’s money anyway — might as well not hold back.” Old Fan snapped the menu shut. “Everyone gets a serving of Buddha Jumps Over the Wall. That’s the starter — order more if it’s not enough.”

“How come Instructor Yan and Hulu aren’t here yet?”

“I just called — they’re downstairs already.”

As the words were spoken, Yan Qing and Hulu pushed through the door together. Everyone greeted them warmly.

Hulu took a seat beside Xiao Bai, leaving only one spot at the table — to the right of Shi Ting.

“Instructor Yan, there’s a spot over by Captain Shi.” Old Fan spotted it immediately and gestured.

Yan Qing walked over, gave Shi Ting a brief nod, then sat down.

“Instructor Yan, I’ve ordered bird’s nest soup for you.” Old Fan announced this with smug satisfaction.

Yan Qing smiled. “That extravagant?”

“Commissioner Liu is paying. If not now, when? Besides, this case was cracked so fast — the commissioner was delighted when he heard. He was grinning from ear to ear. Never mind the cost of a meal; he’d happily treat us every day for a month.”

Old Fan turned to Shi Ting. “Captain Shi deserves the most credit this time. Come, the dishes haven’t arrived yet, but let’s toast the captain first.”

“I’ll stick to tea,” Shi Ting said. “We can’t all be drinking — if there’s a call tomorrow, that’s a disciplinary violation.” He raised his teacup. “I offer tea in place of wine, to everyone. I’ll be relying on all of you for guidance going forward.”

“Captain Shi is being too modest. Since he’s come, the whole unit’s morale has surged. We’ll work with the captain to solve every case and make every criminal out there tremble at the name of the Pujiang Branch Criminal Investigation Unit.” Old Fan raised his glass. “Come, bottoms up.”

Yan Qing couldn’t drink alcohol — she had a soft drink instead.

Just as she raised her glass with everyone else, Shi Ting gently clinked his cup against hers: “We cracked this case in large part thanks to Instructor Yan. There will be many more times I’ll need to trouble you in the future.”

“Captain Shi is too formal. Our forensics team exists to serve the entire police force — it’s simply what we do.”

Shi Ting didn’t drink, but that didn’t stop the others from merrily clinking glasses. Hulu was “ruthlessly” pulled aside by Dapeng; though he sent Yan Qing several desperate looks pleading for rescue, she paid him no attention.

“Your apprentice is quite interesting,” Shi Ting said to Yan Qing, who sat beside him amid the lively atmosphere. “He gets along very well with our team.”

“Hulu has an outgoing personality, very easy to like.” Yan Qing said. “Sometimes I feel he doesn’t quite belong in forensics — he’d fit right into your criminal investigation unit.”

“I haven’t had a chance to ask yet — how did things go with your aunt-by-marriage?”

“I told her you were my new colleague, and she went off to call my uncle. The precinct’s been busy these past few days — she knows that, so she hasn’t come to find me.” Yan Qing thought about it and felt a slight headache coming on. “My aunt’s speed at finding blind date candidates is nothing short of astonishing. I have no idea where she tracks them all down from. I expect the moment this case wraps up, she’ll be arranging the next one.”

Shi Ting listened, apparently lost in thought.

“What about you? Has your family been pressing you again?”

“No.”

“A promising young man like you — it’s only that you haven’t had the time to look. If you were willing, who knows how many women would be chasing after you.” Yan Qing sighed. “People in our line of work are like this — our time is never our own. The moment a case comes in we’re run ragged. Forensics has it a bit easier, but you criminal investigators — if you go out on a mission, you can vanish for days. What girlfriend wouldn’t end up feeling neglected and leaving?”

There was no shortage of single men in the criminal investigation unit. Looking around, apart from Old Fan, who was married with children already well grown, everyone else was without exception single.

Dapeng had been with a girlfriend for a while, but not long after they started dating, he went out on a field investigation and spent three days and nights with no sleep staking out a suspect. By the time they brought the suspect in, he found that his girlfriend had moved on to someone else.

Everyone consoled Dapeng by saying a woman like that wasn’t worth keeping, but Dapeng still looked visibly pained, and it took him a full week to recover.

“Captain Shi, why are you just chatting with Instructor Yan?” Old Fan complained from the side, like a neglected spouse. “Here, pour the captain a cola — Captain Shi, you may not be drinking, but for every beer we drink, you match us with a cola.”

The proposal drew immediate unanimous agreement. Shi Ting didn’t refuse — he agreed without hesitation.

After dinner, the whole group moved on together to a karaoke parlor.

Xiao Bai and Jian Zhigang were microphone tyrants — the mic never left their hands, and they belted out songs ranging from heartfelt ballads to rousing tributes to the splendors of the motherland.

“All right, you two, that’s enough — Captain Shi hasn’t sung yet.” Old Fan swayed with a beer bottle in hand. “You two have been howling like wolves all evening. Anyone who didn’t know better would think they’d walked into a primeval forest.”

“That’s right, that’s right — the captain hasn’t sung yet. Let the captain show us what he’s got.”

The microphone was quickly passed to Shi Ting, but he looked toward Yan Qing, who had been an audience member all along. “Instructor Yan hasn’t sung either. How about we go together?”

Yan Qing was in the middle of cracking open some pistachios when she heard his suggestion and paused.

“Mentor, they call you the Little Queen of the Pujiang singing scene,” Hulu called out eagerly from the side. “If you hadn’t gone into forensics first, who knows — by now you might be famous across the music world.”

Yan Qing pelted him with one of the pistachios in her hand. Simultaneously, the microphone was passed to her.

“Captain Shi, I’ll pick the song for you two.” Hulu trotted over to the song selection console, and when the music began, Yan Qing nearly choked — he had chosen an unmistakably romantic duet.

If a look could kill, Hulu would already be a corpse.

Just as Yan Qing was starting to feel a little awkward, Shi Ting had already raised his microphone. Seeing him so at ease, Yan Qing could hardly squirm — she had no choice but to pick up the microphone and join him.

—