The Forensic Big Shot's Psychic Darling - Chapter 7
Chapter 7
The footsteps of the duty officers drew closer and closer. With the veins on his forehead throbbing, Qin Zhan grabbed Lin Yaoyao by the waist and forcibly yanked her down off his body.
The moment her feet touched the floor, Lin Yaoyao immediately tried to dive right back into his arms.
“It’s still there!”
“Stand up straight.”
Qin Zhan pressed one hand firmly against her shoulder while using the other to grab his white coat nearby, completely wrapping her inside it. Turning around, he shielded her between himself and the evidence box, coldly looking toward the stairwell.
When the two duty officers came upstairs, this was the scene that greeted them:
Lin Yaoyao was cowering behind Qin Zhan, her fingers still holding a death grip on his shirt hem. A broom and yellow paper lay scattered across the floor, the seal on the old evidence box was half-peeled off, and several strange water marks remained on the tiles.
The duty police officer froze. “Dr. Qin, what’s going on here?”
“She worked excessive overtime. Her mental state is abnormal.”
After speaking, Qin Zhan looked down at Lin Yaoyao. “Can you walk?”
Lin Yaoyao sneaked a peek toward the wall.
The dark, malevolent energy surrounding the evil ghost surged, still guarding the side of the evidence box. With Qin Zhan standing in front, it didn’t dare draw close; it could only glare at her venomously with its pair of turbid, bloodshot eyes.
She instantly shook her head. “No.”
“Are your legs injured?”
“They’re like jelly.”
Clearly rejecting this answer, Qin Zhan grabbed her wrist and led her straight toward his office.
Forced to follow along, Lin Yaoyao couldn’t help looking back after taking a few steps. The evil ghost hadn’t pursued them, but its fingernails were digging deep into the cardboard box, repeating that exact same phrase over and over again.
“Give it back to me…”
Her pace slowed by a beat, and she nearly stepped right on Qin Zhan’s heel.
Qin Zhan turned his head. “If you drag your feet any longer, I’ll have them take you straight to the emergency psychiatric department.”
Tears welling in her eyes, Lin Yaoyao shot back, “I don’t have a mental illness!”
“A normal person wouldn’t engage in hand-to-hand combat with thin air using a broom.”
“You clearly saw the water marks too!”
“Water marks only prove that water was present.”
“Then what about the box?”
“The adhesive failed because the seal got damp.”
“Then how do you explain the scratches on the wall?”
Qin Zhan remained expressionless. “We’ll explain it after the lab techs test them.”
Stuck with no way to refute him, Lin Yaoyao could only tighten her grip on his sleeve. Passing the corner, a chill ran down her back, and she subconsciously edged closer to his side once more.
Qin Zhan didn’t shake her off, leading her straight into his office.
The moment the door shut, that icy, eerie atmosphere was instantly sealed outside.
Lin Yaoyao’s tense shoulders gradually relaxed.
Qin Zhan’s office wasn’t large, and its furnishings were simple. Aside from a desk, a filing cabinet, and a black couch, there were virtually no extra items.
Yet to her, this place was safer than anywhere else.
Abundant, vibrant yangqi saturated every single corner, clearing away even the cold yin energy gathering near the window. Standing by the door, Lin Yaoyao finally dared to let go of Qin Zhan’s sleeve.
Qin Zhan looked down at the severe wrinkles left on his shirt fabric, a nerve near his temple twitching violently.
“Sit down.”
“Can I take a look outside the door first?”
“No.”
“That ghost is guarding the evidence box. What if it hurts someone else?”
“So far, it has only hurt your imagination.”
Qin Zhan pressed her down onto the couch, turning toward his desk. “Stay right there. You’re not allowed to wander off.”
Lin Yaoyao nodded obediently.
As long as he didn’t throw her out, forget sitting—she would be perfectly fine sleeping on the floor here.
Qin Zhan booted up his computer and pulled up the surveillance footage for this floor. The old evidence area happened to sit right at the boundary between two security cameras; it could only capture the corridor entrance, failing to show the detailed condition around the box itself.
He rewound the footage by half an hour.
On screen, Lin Yaoyao emerged from the archives room holding her backpack, stopping briefly when she reached the stairwell entrance. As if lured by something, she turned and entered the old evidence area.
From the surveillance camera’s perspective, there was nothing unusual about the corridor.
Yet the further Lin Yaoyao walked, the more panicked she became, turning her head back multiple times along the way. Upon entering the camera’s blind spot, she vanished for seven whole minutes. When she reappeared, she was already in a state of utter panic and distress.
Qin Zhan slowed the playback down.
It looked as though she had been trapped inside a narrow, confined boundary, running back and forth three times. Every single time, she turned back from the exact same position—as if an invisible wall stood blocking her path ahead.
On the fourth attempt, she raised the broom and swung it fiercely against empty air.
Qin Zhan’s eyes darkened considerably.
A person experiencing extreme fear could indeed lose their sense of direction, but the office building’s corridor was straight and spacious. Under normal circumstances, no one should have taken a wrong turn three times in a row.
He continued watching the footage.
As Lin Yaoyao shrank into the corner, the lights along the ceiling began extinguishing one by one. It was not a simultaneous power outage, but a dark wave spreading outward from deep within the evidence storage area.
Immediately following that, he himself appeared on screen.
The moment he drew near Lin Yaoyao, the extinguished lights flickered back on in exact reverse order. The security feed flashed with a layer of dense static, taking three full seconds before returning to normal.
Qin Zhan replayed the segment twice.
A circuit failure could explain the lighting anomaly, and signal interference might cause video distortion. However, both occurring at the exact same moment was far too convenient a coincidence.
“Lin Yaoyao.”
There was no response from behind him.
Qin Zhan turned to look; the person on the couch had already slumped over to one side.
Lin Yaoyao was clutching his white coat in her arms, eyes tightly shut, her head resting against the back of the couch. Having cried so hard earlier, the corners of her eyes were still tinged with red, and a hint of moisture lingered on her eyelashes.
A few stray strands of hair clung to her cheek, rising and falling gently with her breathing.
Qin Zhan stared at her for a few seconds, his expression turning even colder.
A person who claimed to be hunted by a malicious ghost managed to fall asleep the instant she switched locations. With a psychological resilience like this, she didn’t look like someone who had just survived danger at all.
He walked over to the side of the couch, raising his hand to tap twice on the armrest.
“Get up.”
Lin Yaoyao wrinkled her nose, not waking up.
Qin Zhan sharpened his tone. “Lin Yaoyao.”
Dazedly, she opened her eyes. Upon recognizing the face in front of her, her tense nerves relaxed once again. Clutching the white coat, she shuffled over to make space and mumbled, “Don’t leave… I’ll just sleep for a little bit.”
Qin Zhan was almost amused by her take-it-for-granted tone.
“This is my office.”
“I know.”
“If you want to sleep, go home and sleep.”
“You’re not at my home.”
Overcome by sleepiness, Lin Yaoyao closed her eyes right after speaking.
Qin Zhan stood frozen in place, motionless for quite a while.
No matter how one heard it, that sentence sounded wrong—yet coming from her mouth, it clearly meant only one thing:
Her home didn’t have a walking Soul-Suppressing Talisman capable of warding off ghosts.
Qin Zhan reached out to pull his white coat back from her arms. Noticing her arms becoming empty, Lin Yaoyao instinctively leaned toward the familiar warmth and scent.
Sitting on the very edge of the couch, her body was already tilted, and this slight movement completely threw off her balance.
Before Qin Zhan could step back, she tumbled headfirst straight into his arms.
Her soft cheek pressed against his abdomen, while her hands instinctively wrapped around his waist.
Qin Zhan’s body snapped rigid in an instant.
The office fell so quiet that only the soft hum of the computer tower could be heard.
Through his thin shirt, he could clearly feel the warm breath of her intake. The girl seemed to have found the most comfortable position, her cheek even rubbing gently against him.
Without warning, Qin Zhan’s heart skipped a beat, its rhythm thrown completely out of order.
Thump. Thump. Each beat landed heavier than the last, causing his chest to feel tight and congested.
He looked down at Lin Yaoyao, his Adam’s apple bobbing slightly. Instantly grabbing her by the shoulders, he forcibly pressed her back down into the couch.
“If you’re going to sleep, sleep properly.”
Pushed into the cushions, Lin Yaoyao furrowed her brows in mild grievance, yet didn’t wake up.
Qin Zhan backed away two steps before his breathing finally stabilized.
Returning to his desk, he forced his gaze back toward the surveillance screen. The video frame was frozen at the exact moment the lights restored, where a dark, grayish-black shadow blurred faintly across the screen.
Qin Zhan zoomed in on the image as much as possible, yet it remained completely unrecognizable.
He turned his gaze back onto the deeply sleeping Lin Yaoyao.
This woman was terrified of blood, scared of ghosts, quick to cry, and possessed courage thinner than paper. Yet, she could accurately blurt out case details the police hadn’t even uncovered. Now, she had brought an unexplainable, bizarre incident right into the police bureau.
She was strange from top to bottom.
Qin Zhan picked up his phone and dialed Zhao Gang’s number.
After ringing several times, a sleepy complaint came through from the other end: “In the middle of the night… you better actually have urgent business.”
Qin Zhan looked at Lin Yaoyao on the couch, his voice cold and solemn.
“Pull up Lin Yaoyao’s entire background record, from childhood to present.”
Zhao Gang snapped slightly awake. “What are you investigating her for?”
Qin Zhan’s eyes turned deep and brooding, uttering just a single word:
“Investigate!”
