Lin Fan bumped Qin Feng's arm and hurried to catch up with him. "I think I saw a female ghost."

Qin Feng pulled Lin Fan over and pushed her in front of him, hanging the bag on her. "Pretend you didn't see anything, let's go."

Lin Fan felt a heavy chill on her body, and Qin Feng suspected that her fainting and seeing ghosts were related. Could it be that the ghostly aura was too strong? Qin Yu could also see ghosts, but he never communicated with them.

Thinking of Qin Yu, Qin Feng's gaze darkened.

In the taxi, Qin Feng sent a message to his classmates in City B, "Any recent unsolved murder cases in B City?"

"How recent?"

"In the past week."

"No."

Putting the phone back, Qin Feng closed his eyes and leaned back in his seat, while Lin Fan glanced at him. The air conditioning was on in the car, and she felt a bit cold, so she silently curled up by the window.

Fifty minutes later, they stopped in the city center. Qin Feng took Lin Fan to eat, and during the meal, his phone rang. Qin Feng went outside to take the call. When he returned, he saw the meal on the table was divided in half. Lin Fan had eaten very neatly, leaving him half.

"Are you full?"

Lin Fan nodded and turned her head to look out the window, feeling intrigued by her first visit to City B.

"Are you familiar with City B?"

"I went to university in City B."

As people bustled outside the window, Lin Fan squinted slightly. "Have you been to the Forbidden City?"

"Do you want to go?"

Lin Fan smiled, her eyes curved. "I've only seen it on TV."

"Then stay a few more days in City B."

Lin Fan retracted her gaze and looked at Qin Feng, pursing her lips.

In her world, her horizons were originally narrow, but after meeting Qin Feng, they had widened.

In the afternoon, Qin Feng took Lin Fan to the hospital. Due to the long queue, he handed her the top-up card and left first. With too many people, it took two hours for Lin Fan to only complete one examination. She looked at the number of people waiting on the display board with some despair. The hospital was air-conditioned, making it very cold, and she shivered as she went downstairs. Outside, the sun had disappeared behind the clouds, but the air was warm, which was slightly more comfortable.

Lin Fan walked around to the back courtyard of the outpatient building, where it was quiet. Her headache was severe, and her ears were buzzing. She sat down, and lightning streaked across the sky. Lin Fan didn't feel like moving and decided to wait until it rained before going back.

Someone sat down next to her, and Lin Fan turned her head to look. It was a young man in his twenties, very young with fair skin. He kept his head down, seemingly lost in thought.

Lin Fan felt the chill emanating from him and averted her gaze. Another lightning bolt flashed, making the sky seem to split apart. Lin Fan stood up to leave.

"Can you see me?"

Lin Fan stopped in her tracks. She didn't have a knife on her due to security checks, and she didn't have anything to defend herself with. Clenching her fingers, she paused for a few seconds before turning to look back, "I can see you."

The man wore a shirt, with the front buttons undone haphazardly. He had a pale face and empty eyes. "Are you a human or a ghost?"

"I'm human."

With the thunder intensifying, Lin Fan glanced at the distant horizon where dark clouds were rolling. It was terrifying, and Lin Fan rubbed her hands together.

"My name is Chen Lei."

Lin Fan felt that the name sounded familiar and thought about lifting her leg but then put it back down. She stared at him for a few seconds. "How did you die?"

"I was a journalist." Chen Lei said, "I was murdered, not suicide. Can you help me report it?"

Lin Fan finally remembered where she had seen this name before, on Weibo. She had just logged into Weibo and saw this news. Chen Lei, a small journalist who dared to expose the truth, died by suicide last night, which was lamentable.

He didn't commit suicide.

"Who killed you?"

"The boss of China Oil Food, Cai Yingfei, hired someone to kill me." After Chen Lei finished speaking, he frowned. "They can't see me. I've been trying to talk to them, but no one can hear me."

"Why did he kill you?"

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Chen Lei smiled. "I'm a journalist, my profession is to expose the dirty deeds within the industry. And China Oil Food is very dirty. Why did he kill me? Because I blocked his money-making path."

Lin Fan's spine chilled, and she quickly took out her phone to open Weibo and search for Chen Lei. The post about him had disappeared, and his Weibo account was also blocked.

Raindrops suddenly poured down without warning. Lin Fan hurriedly ran into the building. She was about to ask Chen Lei to come in from the rain too, but when she turned around, the courtyard was empty, with nothing there.

Chen Lei had disappeared. Lin Fan couldn't find any information about him on Weibo, so she resorted to searching on Baidu. There were only a few scattered pieces of information, among which was a major post from three years ago. The post described how Chen Lei was nearly beaten to death in his quest to expose a pharmaceutical company's fraud, but he survived and eventually exposed the company. This case was familiar to Lin Fan; she had seen it on TV. At that time, her grandmother had angrily cursed the fraudulent drug merchants and praised this brave young journalist.

Chen Lei was dead. Lin Fan felt heavy-hearted, furrowing her brow as she put her phone back in her pocket and went upstairs.

Because it was too late for the examination results, they would have to come back tomorrow to collect them. Lin Fan had just arrived at the outpatient hall when Qin Feng's phone rang. She picked up the call, slinging the bag over her shoulder.

"Qin Ge."

"Is it done?"

"Yes, where are you?"

"Outside, at the hospital's main entrance."

Lin Fan rushed out but didn't see Qin Feng. Just as she was about to call him, a horn sounded not far away, and Qin Feng got out of the car and waved. "Over here."

Lin Fan hurried over, and Qin Feng gestured for her to get in. They went around to the other side of the car. There were two other men in the front seats besides Qin Feng. Lin Fan had wanted to talk to Qin Feng about Chen Lei, but with others present, she hesitated.

The two men in the front smiled when they saw Lin Fan. "Old Qin, you've really come out of your shell."

"Don't talk nonsense. She's a friend's child." Qin Feng turned to look at Lin Fan. "Did you get the medical report? Is everything okay?"

"Come back tomorrow morning to collect it."

The car started, driving out. Lin Fan's mind was heavy, and she kept thinking about Chen Lei's case. After holding her phone for a while, she opened Weibo again to search for Chen Lei.

Qin Feng and the other two seemed to be classmates, chatting idly about recent cases in City B.

Qin Feng had good eyesight and caught sight of Lin Fan's phone screen. He reached over and took her phone. Lin Fan was startled and immediately looked up.

"I'll take a look." Qin Feng's gaze stuck to the phone screen. "Chen Lei is dead?"

"Who?" The man driving asked, "Who died?"

"Chen Lei, the journalist." Qin Feng handed Lin Fan's phone back, contemplating. "Do you guys remember the fake medicine case from a year or two ago? That journalist, is he dead now?"

"I don't know."

The man in the passenger seat, Liu Yi, spoke up. "I saw it on Weibo this morning, quite unexpected. A person like Chen Lei actually committed suicide. I heard he had depression."

"You didn't investigate?"

"A suicide case doesn't require the criminal investigation department's involvement."

Lin Fan pursed her lips, swallowing her saliva. "What if it's not suicide?"

Qin Feng's sharp gaze shot over, but he didn't say anything.

Lin Fan continued, "Was the cause of death confirmed by the forensic examination?"

"There's a standard procedure for this." Liu Yi explained, "For obvious suicide cases like this, there's usually no need for forensic examination. You can ask your old man Qin about it. That's how cases are handled."

Lin Fan felt that something was wrong with his explanation but couldn't react for a moment. She turned her head and met Qin Feng's deep, dark eyes. Her heart skipped a beat, but she didn't know what to say. After fidgeting with her phone for a while, she finally stuffed it back into her pocket. She couldn't say she had seen a ghost; how could she prove it? How could she report it? She had no relation to Chen Lei.

"Is the body still there?"

"Why? Are you interested?" Liu Yi asked.

Qin Feng nodded. "Yes, I am."

"Chen Lei isn't from City B, and his family seems quite far away. I heard his family hasn't arrived yet." Liu Yi said, "The body is at the municipal funeral home. If you want to see it, we can go another day—"

"Now it's gone," Qin Feng said. "You guys go to the hotel first, I'll go check it out."

Liu Yi laughed. "Come on, you can't just leave us behind on our turf. Let's go eat together. Lao Wei, let's go to the funeral home. Qin Ge won't let go of this matter without seeing the body today."

Wei Bin chuckled and shook his head, not saying anything.

Qin Feng was a workaholic, very serious about his work, especially when it came to special cases. He was well-known back in school for his excellent grades and strong professional knowledge. His only flaw was that he took things too seriously. Otherwise, he would have stayed in City B long ago; how could he have gone to the second-tier Jiangcheng?

The traffic in City B was terrible. They had only covered half the distance in forty minutes. Qin Feng rolled down the window to look outside for a while, then turned to Lin Fan and took out a piece of chocolate from his pocket to give to her.

The chocolate had been in his pocket for quite some time and had softened.

Lin Fan took the chocolate and smiled. "Thank you."

Qin Feng then turned away, and Liu Yi in the front seat handed over a pack of cigarettes. "Hmm?"

Qin Feng waved his hand and then pointed to Lin Fan. "The kid isn't feeling well."

Liu Yi had already put the cigarette in his mouth and, upon hearing this, stared at Qin Feng for a few seconds before taking it out, laughing jokingly, "How old is your kid at home?"

Lin Fan's face flushed, and she awkwardly held the soft chocolate, feeling embarrassed.

Qin Feng's dark gaze swept over Lin Fan, and his lips curled up.

They arrived at the funeral home close to eight o'clock. Liu Yi was the captain of the City B Criminal Investigation Brigade, and Wei Bin was relatively older. He currently served as the deputy director at a certain sub-bureau. They were both prominent figures in the industry.

Liu Yi presented his credentials and led them to view the body. Qin Feng pulled Lin Fan's arm and asked her to follow him. "Don't wander too far, stay with me."

Lin Fan nodded. The atmosphere here was heavy with Yin energy, but strangely, Lin Fan felt comfortable. The body was stored in a refrigerated storage unit. Lin Fan looked at the rows of cold cabinets and thought of her father's death.

The body was wheeled over. Victims of high falls usually had gruesome appearances. Before opening the bag, Liu Yi said, "Should we ask your kid to step aside? It's not very pleasant to see."

"It's okay, she's brave." Qin Feng said. "Go ahead, open it."

The white fluorescent light illuminated the body, casting a layer of coldness over it. The difference between the body and the soul was significant; the body was ghastly, while the soul still retained some semblance of humanity.

Liu Yi said, "Thirty stories high, falling from that height leaves no chance of survival. The ambulance arrived, but there was no chance of rescue. He died thoroughly."

Half of Chen Lei's head was missing, his belt was broken, revealing the edge of his underwear. His shirt buttons were all undone, his arms and legs were deformed, and his bones pierced through the flesh. His fingers were curled, as if grasping something.

Lin Fan wanted to touch the body, but Qin Feng stopped her and asked, "Do you have gloves?"

Do you have gloves?"