At the end of April, spring was deepening over Shun Cheng, and the few cherry blossom trees in the back courtyard of the nursing girls’ school were competing in brilliant bloom.

Sitting inside the classroom, every so often a gentle breeze would carry in a few cherry blossom petals, lightly fragrant, quietly carrying the colors of spring.

Yan Qing had caught a chill recently and had been laid up at home for a few days before recovering, and when she returned to school, Jing Lan held onto her as though they hadn’t seen each other in years.

Yan Qing had brought peach blossom shortbread to share with Jing Lan. The two friends sat by the classroom window, chatting as they enjoyed the pastries.

Jing Lan hadn’t had much of an appetite lately, so Yan Qing had specially prepared foods that were easy to digest — not only delicious but beneficial to the stomach.

“Look, aren’t those military police officers?” Jing Lan still had half a piece of pastry in her mouth, and her words came out muffled.

Yan Qing looked in the direction she was pointing. Sure enough, she spotted several familiar uniforms — and among them, an all-too-familiar face.

Shi Ting? What was he doing here too?

“Has someone at our school broken the law?” Jing Lan swallowed the pastry. “Still, that wouldn’t require the military police, would it?”

“Someone’s dead, someone’s dead!” Behind them, a girl suddenly let out a sharp cry. “Someone died in Room 104!”

At the words “Room 104,” Yan Qing’s heart gave a sudden lurch. Ever since the ghost shadow incident, those three digits had lingered in her mind like an unsolved mystery. Her forensic instinct told her something was going to happen — and now, it seemed, that instinct had been proven right.

“Jing Lan, wheel me over to take a look.” The moment she heard it was a case, something in Yan Qing shifted entirely.

Jing Lan hurriedly swallowed the rest of the pastry with a hard gulp. “Alright.”

The girl who had just screamed grew even more dramatic: “A ghost killed someone — the female ghost of Room 104 killed someone!”

Yan Qing had barely left the classroom when she nearly ran straight into Shi Ting, who was coming from the opposite direction. He saw her and seemed unsurprised. “Feeling better?”

“Much better.” The reply came automatically. It was only a moment later that she caught herself — how did Shi Ting know she had been ill?

But now was not the time to dwell on that. She fell in behind him and followed to the scene.

Room 104 was surrounded three layers deep, a dark press of heads — all students who had come to watch. These young women, who could barely muster the strength to lift a hand during physical education class, turned out to have more nerve than most when it came to standing near a corpse.

Bai Jin had his people holding the students back behind the cordon. When he saw Yan Qing, he broke into a wide grin that showed all his white teeth. “Sixth Miss — long time no see.”

“Who died?” Yan Qing leaned forward to look.

“Come in and see for yourself.” Bai Jin lifted the cordon tape. “Seventh Brother said to let you in.”

Bai Jin had clearly received Shi Ting’s permission before daring to allow her through. Yan Qing didn’t stand on ceremony either, and wheeled herself into Room 104.

The room had already been fitted with investigative footboards to prevent the scene from being damaged by the examiners as they worked. Bai Jin was crouching on the floor, a magnifying glass in hand, his fine eyes nearly pressed right against it.

Shi Ting stood in the middle of the room, his tall frame conspicuous among the toppled and scattered desks and chairs. Before him sat a glass tank approximately one meter long and eighty centimeters high.

A female student in a school uniform was submerged inside the tank. Her long black hair floated on the water’s surface like seaweed, and her waterlogged clothes had puffed up around her, like sails swollen with wind.

Pressed flat against one side of the tank was her pale face, and ten gaunt fingers clung to the glass wall. The eyes, drifting in the water, looked as though they might open at any moment. The tank was just barely large enough to contain a person — and she lay inside it like a specimen preserved on display.

More than half the water in the tank had spilled over the edges, soaking the floor. For Bai Jin, trying to find any trace of the perpetrator in a scene so thoroughly compromised would be no easy task.

“Mentor, you’re here.” E’Yuan, who had been preparing to retrieve the body, looked up with eyes full of admiration the moment he spotted Yan Qing.

At the word “mentor,” Shi Ting raised his head and glanced at him, then lowered his gaze again to study the glass tank — as though he had found something of interest in it, something that made his sharp eyes gather a gleam of intensity.