The Forensic Big Shot's Psychic Darling - Chapter 2
Chapter 2
“Let’s get one thing straight first—I’m not here to play along with your paranormal theories.”
Qin Zhan pulled open the passenger door and sat inside, his tone cold and unyielding. “The abandoned buildings in the southern district were already within our search perimeter. This operation is standard police procedure.”
Captain Zhao started the police cruiser and stole a amused glance at him, suppressing a smile.
“I haven’t even asked anything yet, and you’re already giving such a thorough explanation.”
The two detectives in the back seat exchanged a quick glance and dutifully lowered their heads to inspect their tools.
Qin Zhan didn’t bother responding. He pulled out a tablet and brought up the area map.
The abandoned project on Anping Road was named Jintai Plaza, which had stalled five years ago when the developer’s funding chain snapped. The entire development had six buildings in total. Among them, Building No. 3 had only its main frame completed, facing directly toward the eastern perimeter wall.
Half an hour later, the police cruiser pulled up outside the derelict construction site.
The enclosed iron gate was already rusted through, making the lock completely useless. Zhao Gang pushed the gate open, and a wave of damp, musty odor rushed out to meet them.
“Exterior wall, half-painted in yellow.”
One of the detectives raised his hand and pointed toward Building No. 3. “It really matches up.”
The yellow coating on the facade of Building No. 3 abruptly stopped at the fifth floor. Weeds grew rampant around the structure, and an old scholar tree leaned crookedly toward the wall, most of its trunk snapped by the wind.
The casual, teasing look on Zhao Gang’s face faded.
“There’s even a crooked scholar tree.”
Qin Zhan remained impassive.
“A tree growing near a building abandoned for five years is hardly a surprise.”
“What about the load-bearing wall, then?”
“Inspect first.”
The team put on gloves and shoe covers before stepping inside the building.
The first floor was littered with broken bricks, and dust blanketed every surface. The cement across different patches shared similar shades of gray, making it no easy task to spot where late repairs had been filled in.
Qin Zhan turned on his flashlight, moving its beam slowly along the eastern load-bearing wall.
The light swept across the surface and stopped at a height about a meter above the floor. There was an irregular gray patch—its edges rough, its tone noticeably darker than the surrounding area.
He crouched down to examine it, brushing his gloved fingertips gently across the outer layer.
Fine cement dust flaked off.
Zhao Gang leaned in close.
“Fresh patch?”
“The surface carbonation level is different, and so is the hardness. Once we sample and test it, we can confirm the exact timeframe of the work.”
Qin Zhan stood up, his gaze sweeping along the base of the wall.
In the loose soil beneath the gray patch lay a few dried, blackened specks. He used a cotton swab to sample them and sealed the specimen inside an evidence bag.
“Suspected bloodstains.”
The expressions of everyone present instantly turned grave.
Zhao Gang motioned to the officers behind him.
“Demolish it carefully. Mind whatever is inside.”
After using a sensor to confirm there was no rebar behind that section of the wall, an officer raised an electric jackhammer. The roar of the machinery echoed through the hollow, empty building as thick slabs of wall plaster peeled away.
Once the outer layer of cement was broken open, several hastily arranged hollow bricks were exposed behind it.
An indescribable stench of rot seeped out from the gap.
The detective handling the jackhammer immediately stopped.
“Captain Zhao, there’s something inside.”
Zhao Gang put on a second layer of face masks, took the hand mallet, and carefully cleared away the debris along the edges of the bricks piece by piece. As the last broken brick was pried loose, a bundle wrapped in a black plastic bag appeared deep within the recess of the wall.
Desiccated white insect shells crawled all over the plastic bag.
Dead silence fell over the room.
Qin Zhan gestured for everyone to step back. Using evidence forceps, he hooked the top of the bag and smoothly dragged the object out.
The bag landed on the laid-out evidence tarp, its shape stark and glaringly obvious.
Zhao Gang exhaled a long breath of stale air.
“Notify the forensics team to cordoning off the scene.”
The plastic bag was sliced open.
A severely decomposed human head was exposed to the air.
Matted residual hair clung to the skull, the severing cut at the neck was uneven, and a prominent chop trauma marked the right temporal bone. Even without a DNA match, the characteristics of the cut wound were enough for a preliminary assessment: it belonged to the same unidentified victim at the forensic lab.
Zhao Gang stared at the head, then looked back at the load-bearing wall.
“Anping Road, Building No. 3, east load-bearing wall. Every single detail matched.”
Qin Zhan offered no reply.
His gaze remained fixed on the trauma site on the skull. After a long pause, he adjusted his protective goggles, crouched down, and began conducting an on-site examination.
“Sharp-force trauma on the right temporoparietal bone. The wound angle is lower at the front and higher at the back, indicating the strike direction came from the rear-right toward the front-left. The victim suffered an attack from behind prior to death, and the weapon used had considerable weight.”
Zhao Gang caught the crucial detail.
“A left-handed strike?”
“Judging by the positioning and angle, the probability of the weapon being held in the left hand is much higher.”
Every single word Lin Yaoyao had spoken flooded back into Qin Zhan’s mind.
The victim was attacked from behind.
The first wound was on the right side of the skull.
The blade slanted downward.
The killer is left-handed.
These conclusions required a joint examination of both the complete head and the cut wounds on the body fragments to deduce. Yet that woman—who held those files and wept out of sheer terror—had only stood in the forensic lab for a few short minutes.
She hadn’t even stepped close to the autopsy table.
Zhao Gang crouched beside Qin Zhan, deliberately asking, “How does science explain this?”
“Someone leaked details of the case to her in advance, or perhaps she inadvertently came into contact with information about the scene beforehand.”
“The head was hidden inside a wall—even the killer might not have told a soul. Who could have leaked it to her in advance?”
Qin Zhan looked up.
“Which is precisely why we need to investigate, rather than using ghosts to explain the unknown.”
Zhao Gang nodded, choosing not to argue further.
He knew Qin Zhan well. The colder the man acted on the surface, the greater the shock he felt inside. Under normal circumstances, Qin Zhan wouldn’t have had the patience to explain himself a second time.
After the forensics team arrived, the scene was quickly cordoned off.
Following preliminary processing, half a bloody footprint was discovered inside the wall cavity. A smudged fingerprint was recovered from the surface of the plastic bag, along with a small strand of blue fiber at the opening.
More importantly, a relatively complete set of teeth remained intact inside the skull.
Through dental records, the victim’s identity was quickly confirmed.
Zhou Wenkang, male, thirty-seven years old, a local construction materials supplier who had been missing for twelve days. When his wife filed the missing person report, she stated that her husband’s last outing was to meet a client who owed him money.
On the way back to the police station, Zhao Gang received a call from the investigation team.
“Zhou Wenkang’s business partner is named Liu Haisheng. Five years ago, he was involved in supplying materials for Jintai Plaza. Liu Haisheng happens to be left-handed, and during questioning yesterday, he claimed he had never been to those abandoned buildings.”
Zhao Gang pressed the speakerphone button.
“Does he have a vehicle?”
“He owns a gray van—the exact same model as the fake-plated vehicle seen on surveillance. We are currently applying for a search warrant.”
The call ended, and silence fell inside the car.
The chain of evidence had not closed yet, but a primary suspect had already surfaced.
Zhao Gang tapped his fingers against the steering wheel.
“That girl, Lin Yaoyao, didn’t just guess one thing correctly. The location, the hidden corpse, the killer’s dominant hand—she didn’t get a single detail wrong.”
Qin Zhan flipped through the crime scene photos, his voice flat. “Correct clues do not equate to a correct explanation.”
“Then how do you plan to verify it?”
“By checking her background, her social circle, and her recent whereabouts.”
Zhao Gang let out a disbelieving laugh.
“The girl helped you find the head, and your immediate reaction is to investigate her as a suspect?”
“She possesses information unknown to the police; it is only proper that she undergoes an investigation.”
Qin Zhan closed his tablet, his eyes dark and deep.
“If I can’t find the source of her information, I will ask her myself.”
The moment the police car pulled to a stop, Qin Zhan pushed open the door and stepped out.
The archives room was located at the far end of the second floor of the office building, a place where people rarely ventured. As Qin Zhan walked over, he bypassed the formality of knocking and turned the door handle directly.
Lin Yaoyao was crouching on the floor, organizing old case files.
Hearing the commotion, she looked up, and the files in her hands dropped to the floor with a clatter.
Qin Zhan stood at the doorway, the dust from the construction site still clinging to his black coat, staring at her with a cold expression.
Lin Yaoyao’s knee-jerk reaction was to hide behind the desk.
“D-Dr. Qin, I didn’t go to the forensic lab today, nor did I disrupt your work!”
“Come out.”
“I still have three boxes of files left to organize…”
Qin Zhan walked over, looking down at her from across the desk.
“Do you need me to haul you out myself?”
Remembering his earlier threat to apply for her dismissal with HR, Lin Yaoyao felt her nose turn sour.
It was only her very first day on the job—was she really going to get fired?
“I can write a self-criticism letter, and I promise I won’t talk nonsense ever again!”
“Do you think this is something a self-criticism letter can solve?”
Qin Zhan reached across the edge of the desk, grabbed her wrist in one firm grip, and hauled her out from behind the pile of cardboard boxes.
Lin Yaoyao didn’t dare struggle, tears already welling up in her eyes.
“I wasn’t spreading feudal superstition, I just said it off the cuff! You can’t blame me just because you couldn’t find it… Can my salary at least be settled through today?”
Qin Zhan stopped in his tracks and turned to look at her.
“It was found.”
Lin Yaoyao froze.
“What?”
“The head. It was right inside the east load-bearing wall of Building No. 3, and the angle of the trauma matches a left-handed weapon.”
The fear in her eyes softened slightly, and she muttered under her breath, “I told you he wasn’t lying.”
A vein twitched at Qin Zhan’s temple.
Maintaining his grip on her wrist, he continued leading her outside, running straight into Xiao Chen, who was on his way to deliver a report.
Seeing the posture between the two, Xiao Chen hurriedly stepped aside to make way, though his eyes couldn’t help but dart toward Lin Yaoyao’s face.
Lin Yaoyao became even more convinced that she was about to be disciplined.
She was marched all the way into the office adjacent to the forensic lab. Qin Zhan released his grip, pulled a thick stack of homicide case files from the cabinet, and slammed them down heavily onto the desk.
A plume of dust kicked up into the air.
Lin Yaoyao stared at the case files, then looked up at him, pulling her shoulders inward, not daring to take a seat.
Qin Zhan pulled out a chair, his heavy, intense gaze locking onto her.
“Starting today, you are the special assistant to the forensic lab.”
He pushed the top file right in front of Lin Yaoyao.
“Take a look—where is the killer?”
