The office door was pushed open with a bang.

"Lin Fan!"

Qin Feng moved swiftly, his large hand grabbing the little ghost and throwing it fiercely against the wall, eliciting a piercing scream.

Outside, police officers with guns rushed in. "Captain Qin?"

Qin Feng quickly lifted Lin Fan, who suddenly gasped for fresh air, coughing violently. "How are you?"

Lin Fan coughed until her lungs felt like they would burst, watching as the little ghost rolled on the ground, then crawled and tumbled out of the window, fleeing into the distance. "He ran away."

"Who?" Officer Xiao Wang, holding two guns, scanned the room. "If the murderer dares to cause trouble at the police station, they don't want to live."

Qin Feng hadn't seen the ghostly figure; he just seemed to grasp at the air as if catching something.

"I'll take her to the hospital; you guys continue," Qin Feng said, carrying Lin Fan out. Lin Fan held her neck, blood trickling through her fingers.

The hospital wasn't far from here. Qin Feng hastily rummaged through the box in the car, found a roll of gauze, and wrapped it around Lin Fan's neck. "Still that little ghost?"

Lin Fan nodded, feeling uncomfortably close to Qin Feng, whose tobacco scent mixed with heat, invading her nostrils.

Qin Feng frowned, his face not looking very good. He realized that if he had been a bit late, Lin Fan might have been killed.

"That little ghost is quite formidable."

After a simple bandage, Lin Fan didn't want to go to the hospital. "If it's not bleeding, I won't go to the hospital, to avoid wasting your time."

Qin Feng drove the car, heading straight for the hospital, ignoring Lin Fan's words.

Lin Fan's wound was cleaned, dressed, and she received an injection. Qin Feng even considered having her vaccinated against rabies; he didn't know what that ghostly thing was and whether it could transmit diseases.

The sky had darkened, shrouded in twilight.

Lin Fan followed Qin Feng out and said, "Then I'll go back first."

Qin Feng lit a cigarette, his deep black eyes gazing into the distance, the tip of the cigarette glowing crimson in the wind.

"Will that ghost still follow you?" Lin Fan asked.

"I don't know," she replied.

"Come back to the station with me. After the meeting, you can stay at my place tonight."

Lin Fan widened her eyes. "Huh?"

Qin Feng strode towards the parking lot. "Come."

Lin Fan hadn't encountered many kind people; she had been solitary since childhood. She didn't have much of a concept of dealing with outsiders, but Qin Feng treated her like a normal person, without discrimination. Therefore, she felt Qin Feng was a good person.

Qin Feng's words had never been wrong.

After hesitating for a few seconds, she caught up with him. "Sorry for the trouble."

For a moment, Qin Feng didn't know what to say. He stopped and looked back at Lin Fan.

"What's wrong?" Lin Fan stared at him with clear eyes. Qin Feng paused, then smiled. He had a handsome face, and when he smiled, the sternness about him diminished. He extinguished his cigarette and tossed it into the nearby trash can.

"Let's go, kiddo. I'll be done with the meeting at around nine."

Lin Fan, with a bandage around her neck, ran over and opened the car door.

Qin Feng first took Lin Fan to see the body. Su Ran was a beautiful woman, even in death. Lin Fan carefully examined her body but couldn't discern any abnormalities, except for the lingering sickly sweet scent that made her nauseous.

"You stay with Old Liu. I'll come pick you up at half past nine," Qin Feng said, checking his wristwatch. "The ghost's body is also here. Call me if anything happens."

Lin Fan was also intrigued by the black corpse on another autopsy table. She was allowed in here as an exception, but she couldn't touch anything. However, she could observe. The child emitted the stench of death, similar to the black ashes inside the exorcism talisman.

The body of Su Ran was wheeled away by the assistant coroner, and Liu, the forensic doctor, came over to examine the dead child. He glanced at Lin Fan. "Can you see the soul of the victim?"

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Lin Fan shook her head, then turned to Liu. "This child has been dead for a long time, hasn't he?"

"Seems like it."

"How could it end up like this?"

"It's said to be a combination of life and death." Coroner Liu pried open the curled-up body of the child, its flesh tightly adhering to the bones. Its eyes were open, with an extremely fierce expression.

"What's the purpose of combining life and death?"

"You study medicine, and when you become a coroner, I'll tell you."

Lin Fan's mouth twitched as Coroner Liu cut off a small piece of the child's skin and handed it to the assistant for analysis. He continued dissecting the body, then suddenly exclaimed.

Lin Fan leaned in. "What's wrong?"

Coroner Liu forcefully opened the child's chest cavity and clicked his tongue.

The child was barely larger than a palm. Initially, some thought it was a doll because of its small size, much smaller than an ordinary baby.

"It's delusional to expect blessings for advancement and wealth after such cruel treatment," Coroner Liu said with an unpleasant expression. The child's internal organs had been hollowed out, leaving only a skin-made mummy, soaked in corpse oil, resembling a doll.

Lin Fan also noticed. She wrinkled her nose. "Is that corpse oil on the outside?"

"Yes," Coroner Liu frowned. "It's said that some secret method is used to trap the soul inside the body forever. How can they expect good fortune after treating them so maliciously?"

"How old do you think it is?"

"Probably just born, may not have had a chance to see the world."

Lin Fan remembered the gossip she had found about raising little ghosts on the road and said, "I looked up some related gossip. It seems that those who haven't seen the sky are more sincere. Could someone really kill newborn babies?"

"Maybe." The child had been dead for too long; the cause of death couldn't be determined. "Did you see this little ghost?"

Lin Fan looked up at Coroner Liu for a moment and nodded. "Yes."

"What happened to your neck?" Only now did Coroner Liu notice the injury on Lin Fan's neck, genuinely surprised. "What happened?"

"This little ghost scratched me," Lin Fan admitted.

Coroner Liu shook his head. "It seems it's become quite formidable. Impressive."

What are you so proud of? Lin Fan swallowed the rest of her words silently, staying in the forensic office until ten o'clock. Qin Feng still hadn't arrived.

Coroner Liu took off his lab coat, changed clothes, and left. "Are you going with Qin Feng tonight?"

"Yeah."

"I'll take you to find him."

Lin Fan didn't want to wait for Qin Feng now. Perhaps he had already beaten that little ghost to a pulp and it wouldn't bother her anymore. Looking at the deep night outside the window, Lin Fan suppressed this sense of relief; the feeling of being on the brink of death was uncomfortable.

"After the little ghost's body is cremated, will it be able to leave?"

"I don't know." Coroner Liu left. "Are you leaving?"

Lin Fan hurriedly followed him.

Qin Feng had just come out of the smoky special case office and was explaining something to Xiao Wang nearby. When he looked up and saw Lin Fan, he checked his wristwatch and walked over quickly.

"Old Liu."

"I'm handing her over to you." Coroner Liu yawned. "How's it going?"

Qin Feng frowned, lit another cigarette, took a deep drag, and wrinkled his brow. "Quite unfortunate. The surveillance on the twelfth floor was down that day."

"But there's surveillance in the elevator."

"But you can also take the stairs, where there's no surveillance." Qin Feng pinched his brow. This case was too clean; it made him grind his teeth. "Damn it!"

Coroner Liu patted Qin Feng's shoulder. "There can't be no clues at all. The wolf will eventually show its tail."

"I'm leaving now, see you tomorrow."

Qin Feng hadn't handled the case well, and he had brought disaster to Lin Fan. He didn't know what was going on with that little ghost either.

After bidding farewell to Coroner Liu, Qin Feng extinguished his cigarette. The two of them walked towards the parking lot together.

Under the streetlights, their shadows stretched long.

"Qin, can I ask you something?"

"Yeah?" Qin Feng was thinking about something else, his response absent-minded.

"I want to go to the old building."

Qin Feng was about to respond when he suddenly stopped and turned back. "What?"

"Can you accompany me?" Lin Fan looked into his eyes, a pleading expression in hers.

Qin Feng paused for a moment. "Now?"

"Yeah."

"Alright, get in the car."

An hour later, they arrived at the old building. There were no streetlights, no moonlight, and the entire neighborhood was plunged into darkness. It seemed like a monster that could devour everything.

Qin Feng turned on the flashlight on his phone and grabbed Lin Fan's arm. "What are you suspicious of?"

"I can't say until I see something," Lin Fan replied.

As they reached the staircase, Lin Fan took out her phone and also turned on the flashlight. "Can you wait for me here for five minutes?"

"Are you sure?" Qin Feng asked.

Lin Fan nodded. "If I'm in danger, can I call for you?"

Ghosts feared Qin Feng; he would scare them away.

He looked at Lin Fan for a moment, then instructed, "Be smart."

Lin Fan nodded and was about to enter the corridor when Qin Feng still felt uneasy. "Wait a moment." He turned around and picked up a wooden stick from the bushes, handing it to Lin Fan. "For self-defense."

Lin Fan smiled, revealing her small tiger teeth. "Okay."

It was the first time Qin Feng noticed her tiger teeth; he hadn't paid attention before.

"Go ahead."

With her phone in hand, Lin Fan ascended the stairs. The staircase smelled of damp mold, and Lin Fan's suppressed heart felt a bit relieved. She clenched her fingers tightly, step by step ascending the stairs.

The power was completely out, eerily silent, with only the sound of shoes on the ground.

Qin Feng saw the light reach the second floor. He took out a cigarette from his pocket and lit it. Before he could put the lighter away, he heard a scream from upstairs. He turned and ran upstairs, but Lin Fan shouted from the second floor, "Don't come up yet."

Qin Feng stopped. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

Lin Fan looked at the ghost in front of her. It was beautiful but also eerie. She wore a white bathrobe, blending with her pale face, and her large dark eyes stared at Lin Fan.

They confronted each other for about a minute. She scrutinized Lin Fan, her gaze disdainful. "Who are you? Where am I? How much money do you want?"

The beautiful face became less charming because of these words. Lin Fan thought for a moment. "Do you know you're dead?"

"You just died?" Su Ran sneered. "You better let me go, or you'll be in big trouble, believe me."

"No one is holding you here; you can leave anytime." Lin Fan stepped aside, still looking at Su Ran. "But, you're really dead. You were killed."

Su Ran frowned, almost wanting to slap Lin Fan. "Nonsense!"

"When did you come to this building?" Lin Fan continued to ask. "Who killed you? Who was the last person you met before you died?"

Su Ran stopped speaking, staring at Lin Fan gloomily.

Lin Fan pressed on, "Who killed you? Who was the last person you met before you died?"

Su Ran stared at Lin Fan and suddenly pushed her aside, rushing downstairs. "Help me!"

Lin Fan's mouth twitched.