AD | Chapter 1

The word love, in Latin amor, begins with adoration and ends with death. But before that, it is endless melancholy, sorrow, weeping, deception, sin, and regret. — “Ode to Love”

Rongzhou City, 9:30 PM.

“What happened? Why are there so many police officers at Taining Mountain today!”

“Tsk, you don’t know yet? Over there… a woman died!”

“What?!”

Late at night, Taining Mountain was shrouded in a circle of red and blue police lights. Onlookers stood outside the yellow caution tape, discussing among themselves, creating a constant buzz of noise.

A black Hummer SUV stopped not far from the crowd. The car door opened, and a black combat boot stepped out.

Looking up, the owner of the boots had messy black hair and wore a black short-sleeved shirt, revealing two muscular arms with clear, smooth lines. Contrasting with this rugged appearance, he was chewing gum with a somewhat childish air and gave a rather decadent yawn, his eyes sleepy. After casually scanning the area, he leisurely walked toward the gap with the fewest onlookers.

“No, seriously, what’s the situation up front?! Can any bros take a photo so we can see?”

“Ouch! It’s crushing me, stop pushing me!”

“Damn! This is my first time encountering something like this, let me go in and take a look!”

With one hand in his pocket, the man listened to the noisy chatter of the crowd ahead. Suddenly, he shouted, “Hey, who dropped a hundred yuan bill?”

“What?! Where is the hundred?”

“It must be mine!”

Instantly, the previously crowding people turned their heads, scattering to look for the hundred yuan bill on the ground.

The man raised an eyebrow, chuckled lightly, and slipped into the gap in the crowd like a fish entering water, moving inward.

Inside the yellow caution tape, officers from the trace evidence section were holding cameras, taking photos everywhere, with flashes going off continuously. A few people were standing around, discussing something with serious expressions.

The man lifted the caution tape, took a pair of white gloves out of his pocket, and put them on.

Among the group standing there, a somewhat young officer noticed him and hurriedly jogged over. “Captain Lu!”

Lu Qingfeng acknowledged him, unable to resist another yawn, and asked lazily, “What’s the situation at the scene? Have you taken the statement from the person who reported the case?”

“Around 7:30 this evening, the bureau received a report. A pedestrian walking here found a female corpse on Taining Mountain. She appears to be in her twenties, cause of death unknown, and more clues are currently being investigated. Also, the state of her death… is somewhat eerie.” Tao Yu paused here, as if recalling something terrifying, before continuing, “They are still taking the statement from the person who reported the case.”

Lu Qingfeng glanced lightly at the person beside him, then continued asking, “Where is the forensic doctor? Have they examined the body?”

“Xia-jie was borrowed by the neighboring city last week. The municipal bureau doesn’t have any extra forensic doctors, so Director Zhang assigned us a new one. Since it’s a new colleague, they might be arriving a bit slowly,” Tao Yu said.

Lu Qingfeng looked somewhat displeased. He clicked his tongue and said, “Alright, understood. Let’s not wait for him. Let’s go take a look.”

As he spoke, he walked up to the corpse.

Unsure of his boss’s thoughts, Tao Yu could only follow behind him.

The corpse remained in the position it was found in. Personnel from the technical investigation department were collecting photos nearby. Lu Qingfeng squatted down and took a brief look at the corpse in front of him, frowning involuntarily.

Lu Qingfeng had seen many strange corpses before, but this time… this corpse was indeed as Tao Yu had said, with an indescribably eerie appearance.

The deceased was female, appearing to be in her twenties.

She was wearing only underwear, lying on her back, with a layer of thick, semi-transparent plastic sheeting spread beneath her. There was a fresh incision on her abdomen, which had been stitched up with thread of an unknown material.

Moreover, her limbs and hair had some filamentous substances wrapped around them, and the twisted angles of her limbs were positions impossible for an ordinary person to achieve. The entire corpse now looked like it was baring its fangs and brandishing its claws, resembling a giant spider, silently ferocious in the deep night of Taining Mountain.

Lu Qingfeng frowned, about to say something, when he heard a male voice from beside him: “It’s truly strange. It’s one thing for the killer to turn the deceased into a puppet, but why replace the deceased’s eyes with puppet eyeballs? Isn’t that unnecessary?”

He was slightly startled by these words, his frown deepening. “Are you saying… the killer replaced the deceased’s eyeballs with puppet ones?”

“Yes, Captain Lu. You’ve been looking here for so long, surely you didn’t miss this point?” the male voice replied calmly.

“The doubt you mentioned is indeed strange. It was my oversight. However, I am not a forensic doctor, and…” Lu Qingfeng’s words trailed off halfway. Suddenly, he realized something. He turned his head, and by the faint light of the flashlight, he finally saw clearly the person in front of him, someone incredibly familiar.

His ex-boyfriend—Lin Shuyao.

Lu Qingfeng’s temples throbbed. Looking at the person he hadn’t seen in seven years, his voice unconsciously lowered. “Lin Shuyao? Why are you here?”

Before Lin Shuyao could speak, Tao Yu jumped in to answer, “Ah, Captain Lu, this is the forensic doctor Director Zhang sent. He’s a famous top student from A University. I heard Director Zhang went through great trouble to get him to come.”

However, as soon as he finished speaking, Tao Yu regretted it.

Because he could clearly feel that the moment the words left his mouth, the atmosphere between the two people opposite him instantly became strange.

Tao Yu felt like crying without tears, cursing himself internally for being too talkative. Fortunately, Lu Qingfeng did not respond to his comment. Instead, he changed the subject. “Tao Yu, how is the statement coming along? What did the person who reported the case say?”

Tao Yu paused for two seconds before quickly answering, “The people who reported the case are an elderly couple living nearby. They came up the mountain for a walk after dinner and then discovered the body.”

After listening, Lu Qingfeng fell into thought. “Coming to this mountain for a walk? Hiss… quite unique.”

Tao Yu added, “I heard it was because the air on the mountain is better or something. I haven’t had time to ask in detail yet.”

Lu Qingfeng nodded, then turned to ask Lin Shuyao, “Since you’ve seen the body, what have you found?”

“There are findings, of course,” Lin Shuyao said with a faint smile, gesturing for Lu Qingfeng to look at the corpse’s face. He pointed to the wide-open eyes of the female corpse.

“Judging from the corpse’s wide-open eyes and lips, the preliminary judgment is that the cause of death was likely suffocation. However, there are no signs of mechanical injury on the neck. The specific cause will need to be determined after the autopsy.”

“Furthermore, the corpse was wearing only a set of underwear. But it rained all night on the mountain yesterday. If the deceased had been killed last night, there should be some mud on her body. However, her body is clean.”

“When I arrived at the scene just now, I also roughly checked the surrounding environment. Except for some footprints in the front area, there were no shoe prints in the back part. It rained here last night. If this were the primary crime scene, the corpse’s body could not be this clean. Therefore, I suspect that this is likely not the primary crime scene.”

Lu Qingfeng nodded, then turned to Tao Yu and instructed, “Xiao Tao, you and Xiao Jiang find people to canvass the area. Look into the deceased’s social connections, or see if anyone recognizes her. Then, have someone bring the body back to the municipal bureau. Doctor Lin and I will go check with the people who reported the case first.”

“Understood, Captain Lu. I’ll go right away.” After hearing Lu Qingfeng’s instructions, Tao Yu quickly slipped away.

In an instant, only Lu Qingfeng and Lin Shuyao remained beside the corpse, and the atmosphere became awkward again.

Before Lu Qingfeng could say anything, Lin Shuyao raised an eyebrow and said, “Captain Lu, why are you standing there staring at me? Didn’t you say you were going to question the people who reported the case? Are we going or not?”

“You, all these years… Forget it, let’s go.” Distracted by Lin Shuyao, Lu Qingfeng suppressed the questions he originally wanted to ask.

Seeing his hesitation, Lin Shuyao smiled at him.

“I know what you want to ask, but let’s wait until this case is solved. Regardless, I am your colleague this time. No matter what, I wouldn’t disappear without a reason.”