The Forensic Big Shot's Psychic Darling - Chapter 12
Chapter 12
Qin Zhan looked at the scattered cinnabar on the table.
“Last time you wanted hair and blood, and this time you want to hold hands. Are your rules made up on the spot depending on the situation?”
“Drawing talismans for ordinary people doesn’t require this.”
Lin Yaoyao pointed with the tip of her brush at the ruined smudge of cinnabar. “Your fate chart is special; your yang energy repels external spiritual power. I have to borrow your energy to stabilize the talisman lines, otherwise no matter how many sheets I draw, they’ll scatter.”
“How do you borrow it?”
“Just let me touch you.”
She spoke earnestly, though the tips of her ears quietly turned red. To prove she had no ulterior motives, she first set down the talisman brush and clasped Qin Zhan’s wrist through his sleeve.
A scorching warmth surged into her palm along her fingertips.
The bronze coin hanging in front of Lin Yaoyao’s chest grew faintly warm, and even the cinnabar on the table quieted down along with it.
“See? It really works.”
Qin Zhan lowered his gaze to look at her hand. “This only proves that after you touched me, the cinnabar temporarily stopped moving.”
“That is the effect.”
“What if it still fails?”
“If it fails, I’ll redraw it, and the cost of materials is on me.”
Qin Zhan didn’t pull his hand back. “Begin.”
Lin Yaoyao dipped her brush fully in cinnabar once more. Her right hand brought the brush down while her left hand remained clasped around his wrist.
The first talisman line pressed smoothly onto the yellow paper.
Her heart eased slightly, and her wrist followed through downward. However, when she reached a turn in the stroke, Qin Zhan’s fingertips twitched slightly, causing his originally steady aura to shift along with it.
The tip of the brush immediately veered off the edge of the paper.
Looking at the second ruined sheet of yellow paper, Lin Yaoyao’s brows furrowed tightly in heartache.
“Don’t move.”
“I didn’t move.”
“Your fingers moved.”
“Normal physiological movements cannot be completely avoided. Holding wrists itself isn’t a stable method of operation.”
Qin Zhan pulled out a third sheet of yellow paper. “Is there another method?”
Lin Yaoyao thought for a moment, then turned his hand over so his palm faced upward.
“I’ll hold on a bit tighter.”
Her five fingers clasped around his wrist, her thumb landing right over his pulse. Thump after thump beat against the pad of her thumb, slightly faster than usual.
Noticing her movement, the color in Qin Zhan’s eyes darkened a shade.
“Is that good enough?”
“It should be.”
“Draw.”
The third brushstroke went much more smoothly than before.
Lin Yaoyao held her breath as the tip of the brush moved slowly along the talisman’s core. The patterns of a protective talisman were more complex than those of an ordinary charm; every single turn required channeling Qin Zhan’s yang energy without letting the power become too overwhelming and tear through the yellow paper.
Halfway through drawing, a fine sheen of sweat broke out on her forehead.
Qin Zhan lowered his eyes to watch her.
Ordinarily, the girl was timid and prone to crying—seeing even a tiny bit of blood would make her face turn pale and hide behind him. Yet the moment she genuinely picked up a talisman brush, her entire demeanor transformed, leaving nothing in the depths of her eyes except pure concentration.
The cinnabar on the talisman paper lit up bit by bit.
Lin Yaoyao’s grip on his hand grew tighter and tighter as well. Her fingers were already slender to begin with, and now fully clasped around his wrist, they barely exerted any noticeable strength.
Yet for some reason, Qin Zhan felt no urge to rush her.
As the brush tip was about to enter the final turn, Lin Yaoyao’s arm began to ache. She barely managed to keep the tip steady, while her elbow sank downward uncontrollably.
Qin Zhan reached out his other hand and supported her elbow.
“Steady.”
Pulled forward half a step by his movement, Lin Yaoyao shifted closer.
The two were already standing very close to each other, so this small movement pressed them nearly flush together. Her shoulder rested against Qin Zhan’s chest, the tip of her nose filled entirely with the crisp, clean scent of disinfectant.
Qin Zhan’s palm cradled her elbow, his warmth transferring through the fabric of her sleeve.
“Don’t get distracted.”
His cool voice dropped down from above her head.
Lin Yaoyao hastily collected her thoughts and continued drawing the talisman.
Right at that moment, the door to the room was pushed open from the outside.
Walking in with a report in hand, Zhao Gang looked up only to see the two of them standing by the table with their hands overlapping.
Lin Yaoyao was holding Qin Zhan’s wrist, while Qin Zhan was supporting her elbow. Their bodies were pressed extraordinarily close together; from a distance, it looked as though Qin Zhan had wrapped his arms around her in an embrace from behind.
Zhao Gang’s footsteps came to a halt.
“Looks like I came too early.”
Lin Yaoyao’s hand trembled, and the tip of her brush nearly slipped askew once again.
The hand Qin Zhan used to support her elbow immediately tightened, and he said coldly, “Get out.”
“I’m just dropping off a report.”
“Leave it by the door.”
Zhao Gang didn’t leave right away; instead, he craned his neck to peer at the tabletop. “Is that the highest-grade safety talisman? When are you drawing mine?”
Qin Zhan lifted his eyes, his gaze chillingly intimidating.
“Does the Criminal Investigation Team have no work today?”
“We do, but that doesn’t stop me from caring about my colleagues.”
“If you don’t get out right now, I’ll double all your autopsy liaison work for this week.”
Zhao Gang decisively placed the report beside the door.
“You two carry on. I didn’t see a thing.”
The door closed once more, and suppressed laughter soon drifted in from outside.
Lin Yaoyao’s cheeks burned hot. “Did Captain Zhao misunderstand something?”
“Focus on drawing.”
“But the look in his eyes just now…”
“If you mess up the final stroke, the cost of materials gets deducted from your salary.”
Lin Yaoyao immediately shut her mouth.
Adjusting her breathing, she returned all of her attention to the talisman paper. Qin Zhan continued supporting her elbow, his potent yang energy surging into the tip of the brush along the point where they touched.
The final talisman line slowly closed in, connecting with the drop of blood in the center to form a complete talisman core.
The cinnabar flared faintly with light before sinking into the yellow paper.
Lin Yaoyao let out a long sigh of relief, her legs feeling somewhat weak.
“It’s done.”
She released Qin Zhan’s wrist and fetched the red cord she had braided ahead of time. The yellow paper was folded along the talisman lines into a narrow triangle, then wrapped on the outside with a layer of waterproof red cloth.
Qin Zhan rubbed his wrist, which had been squeezed until red marks appeared.
“How long does this thing last?”
“As long as the talisman core isn’t broken, it can protect you indefinitely.”
Having threaded the red cord through, Lin Yaoyao suddenly remembered that he usually wore button-down shirts, making it inconvenient to wear around his neck. She held the safety talisman up to gauge the placement a couple of times before finally slipping it into his breast pocket.
“Keeping it close to your body works best. Remember to take it out before washing your clothes.”
Qin Zhan lowered his gaze to glance at it. “It can’t touch water?”
“Since it’s wrapped in waterproof cloth on the outside, a small amount of water is fine. However, the talisman paper can’t be soaked for long periods, nor can it be taken away by someone else.”
“Troublesome.”
“You were the one who insisted on the highest grade.”
Lin Yaoyao tidied up the remaining materials, still muttering under her breath in distress over those two ruined sheets of yellow paper. She had just put the lid back on the cinnabar jar when the soul-pacifying bronze coin on her chest suddenly grew warm.
An exceedingly faint wisp of yin energy drifted over from behind her.
Her movements froze, and she turned her head to look at Qin Zhan’s chest.
On the surface of the red-cloth-wrapped talisman, a hairline black streak had materialized at some unknown moment. That black streak crept slowly from the corner of the talisman toward its center, as if something were corroding the talisman’s core straight through the red cloth.
Lin Yaoyao reached out and pressed her hand over the safety talisman, every trace of relaxation vanishing completely from her face.
“This is a mark of yin corrosion.”
Qin Zhan looked at her. “What does that mean?”
“The safety talisman is issuing a warning on behalf of its master.”
She lifted her head, keeping her voice very low.
“You are definitely going to come into contact with a place where the dead linger in the very near future.”
