Overly Intense [Criminal Investigation] 20

Chapter 20: She’s Starting to Get Too Intense

She looked at it.

At the shadow that had been growing inside her since she was nine. It had just disappeared for twelve minutes.

Shen Yiyi took a sip of mineral water, then twisted the cap a couple of times, wiped it, and put it back on the table.

She felt it wasn’t wiped well enough, so she picked it up again, took another sip, and meticulously twisted the cap a couple of times, then wiped it again and put it back.

Still not right…

But Shen Yiyi forced herself to look away, her outstretched hand gripping the bottle tightly.

She even squeezed the plastic bottle until it was distorted, her fingertips trembling, in an attempt to suppress the compulsive behavior. The iron cage above her head was closing in. She was imprisoned in danger, in the same room as a bloody shadow.

Her thoughts were being coerced by fear.

She didn’t want to drink water, but the bottle wasn’t tightly closed, and it looked dirty…

But if she didn’t pick it up, tighten the cap, and wipe it clean, if she didn’t perform a rescuing action, then her body was about to face a disaster.

And it would be a huge disaster, one that would seep into every corner of her body.

Shen Yiyi forced herself to pause in this action. The shadow beside her urged her again and again to take another drink.

Ever since her mother’s death, she had been accustomed to its twenty-plus years of driving her, as if she were fighting for her life in a mini-arena. She lost every time, so she surrendered every time, washing her hands, wiping, and arranging things.

“Alright.”

Shen Yiyi even said it out loud, reminding it to stop, but it didn’t work. The shadow began to slowly bleed around her, so she picked up the water bottle and took a third sip.

“You shouldn’t have answered that call.”

The name her aunt had uttered was too powerful. Even at thirty-something, she still couldn’t handle it. Paopao was no longer her nickname, but had become some ugly Dementor, attacking her incessantly, an seemingly unstoppable invasion.

“You shouldn’t have interacted with Qin Luo today.”
“You should have kept your distance from her sooner.”

If she had kept her distance, the pain of the knife being pulled out and stabbed back in wouldn’t be so intense. It had always been there. It was Qin Luo who had made it flicker.

Shen Yiyi closed her eyes and began to recall Qin Luo at the Japanese restaurant. That day, she had worn a nice suit, no glasses, an earring in her right ear, and her watch had knocked against the wooden chair when she sat down… She hoped these good thoughts could wash away and expel these negative intrusions.

Unfortunately, it failed again.

The shadow whispered sweet nothings in her ear again:

“Qin Luo is still in this building. She hasn’t left. She’ll disappear when I come.”

Tempted, Shen Yiyi threw the water bottle aside, grabbed her phone, and quickly dialed the missed call.

The other party answered almost instantly.

Seeing the “A110” contact name, Qin Luo’s voice was surprised. “Yiyi, what’s wrong?”

“You didn’t give me the key card to the meeting room, and now I need to go to the restroom.”

This was the first time since their reunion that Qin Luo had heard Shen Yiyi speak at eight times the normal speed.

She could hear the urgency in her voice… but it didn’t sound like she was desperate to pee, but more like her OCD was about to act up and she couldn’t help but go wash her hands.

But as long as Shen Yiyi kept the door open, she shouldn’t need a card to wash her hands.

Besides, if she was really in a hurry, she could have asked for the password, not the card.

Qin Luo paused for two seconds. “Then wait for me for two minutes. I’m in the next building. It’ll take me a little while to walk back.”

No response from the other end.

Qin Luo was puzzled again, but she still tried to find a solution. “How about you go to the restroom first, and I’ll come back and open the door for you? Or I can call the production assistant. She’s right next door to you. I’ll have her send you a card!”

The phone was silent for a few dozen seconds.

“Yiyi?”

The terrible and absurd excuse forced Shen Yiyi to bend over, a tide of regret washing over her. Her adrenaline plummeted and then surged.

Why had she compromised with comfort so quickly?
Why had she made this call to Qin Luo?

“…Mm.”

But at this moment, the voice on the other end was the same as in the past, like a shot of morphine, relieving her immediate crisis.

The entanglement of fear was successfully transferred. Her thoughts slowly moved toward Qin Luo, shifting. The tense nerves in her brain found a moment of peace, her guilt compensated.

Qin Luo always had this ability. It was the same sixteen years ago, and it was the same now.

Shen Yiyi tried to calm down. “Then have the assistant send me a key card to the meeting room. Thanks, sorry to trouble you.”

…

Qin Luo, who had just run out the door, stopped in her tracks.

What the hell? She doesn’t want me to bring it now?

The midday sun was beating down, with little shade around. Qin Luo shielded her head from the harsh light with her hand. She laughed at herself for thinking her solution was so clever for chasing someone. “Okay, I’ll call her now.”

“Thanks.”

Shen Yiyi hung up the phone, stuffed her computer into her bag, and walked out.

She rushed into the restroom, stood at the sink, and held her laptop bag between her legs, washing her hands frantically. When she came out of the restroom, the production assistant had been waiting at the door for nearly five minutes.

“Director Shen, Screenwriter Qin asked me to give you this card.”

The young assistant held out her palm, the card wrapped in a tissue. “Sister Qin said I should wipe the card first.”

Shen Yiyi didn’t take it. “Thanks, but I don’t need it anymore.”

The assistant observed the forensic pathologist’s expression. It was normal, her tone friendly, with no hint of blame. She silently took the card back and smiled respectfully. “Then let me know if you need it. You have my WeChat. You can just call me directly next time.”

Shen Yiyi nodded. “Okay, thank you for your trouble.”

“Then why don’t you go sit in the training room for a while?”

“Mm.”

Shen Yiyi sat in the training room for a long time before the actors came for their class. She continued the workplace stories she hadn’t finished in the morning.

Before the class ended, all the actors were amused by her dark humor, especially Sun Jingyi, who was diligently taking notes in her notebook.

At three in the afternoon, Shen Yiyi finished on time.

She packed up her laptop bag and left, hailing a taxi to go back to the station. But on the way, she received a call from Li Siting.

“Hey! Just to let you know, we caught that pervert. But this guy hired a lawyer and is being difficult with us. It’s not good to interrogate him here, so we’ll be back tomorrow. You hurry up and get your people to issue the evidence identification report. I’ve already drafted the pre-trial interrogation record.”

Li Siting was in a good mood. They had caught the guy in less than two weeks, which saved a lot on travel expenses. He chewed his gum while bragging about his achievements to Dr. Shen.

“Okay, I’ll push them.”

Hearing her tone, Li Siting felt that Dr. Shen’s mood was off. He stopped chewing his gum.

“You sound really down. Did you pull another all-nighter on a case? You… don’t worry about my side. Just don’t let Old Geng’s little apprentice mess things up for me.”

Shen Yiyi forced a smile. “I just finished with the production. I’ll push them for you in a bit.”

Li Siting said, “Thanks, Director Shen! I’ll hang up now.”

The call ended abruptly, and WeChat immediately chimed with a notification. She looked down and saw it was another message from the family group chat. Her uncle had arrived in Shanghai and had checked into a hotel with his niece.

The inside of the ride-sharing car was stuffy. The uncleaned air conditioner filter emitted a strange smell, a mix of tobacco and sweat. For some reason, Shen Yiyi felt the oxygen concentration in front of her nose suddenly drop. Her chest was tight, and she couldn’t breathe.

“Don’t make a fuss. You’re a forensic pathologist.”

Right, she was a forensic pathologist. She had smelled all kinds of corpse odors, seen all kinds of murder scenes, and had even witnessed her own mother’s death. It was Li Siting who was too lucky, so lucky that even a deep breath smelled sour.

She fumbled with her phone. “Driver, I need to change my destination.”

The driver stopped at the Tianhai residential complex.

Shen Yiyi got out with her bag. Although the temperature outside was close to 39 degrees, she didn’t have time to find her keys. She took out a bottle of alcohol from her pocket and sprayed it all over her clothes and bag.

If she had sprayed it a few seconds later, the smell of blood would have come for her.

After spraying, she walked toward her dorm, calling Lin Puping on the way.

Lin Puping was on duty and answered the phone quickly. “Director Shen, go ahead.”

“When can the biological and trace evidence reports for case 718 be ready? It’s been almost two weeks,” Shen Yiyi asked calmly.

“The DNA comparison and CT images are already done… I’ll check on the trace evidence.” Lin Puping operated the backend system, typing a couple of lines on the keyboard. “We’re still missing the comparison of the weapon and the document examination. It should be ready next week.”

He remembered something. “Did Captain Li and the others catch the guy?”

Shen Yiyi smiled. “Yes.”

“Okay, I’ll go push them right away. Should I send the ones that are already done to the case group chat first, or wait for you to come and sign them tonight?”

“Send them to me first,” Shen Yiyi said.

Lin Puping said, “I’ll take care of it right away.”

When Shen Yiyi hung up the phone, she had just opened the door to her home.

She hadn’t been back in three days, but her roommate had kept the place very clean. She scanned the living room with her eyes, but called out her roommate’s name.

No one answered.

Right, her roommate was still at work, on the road to catching a killer.

There was no one here, no one to see.

Shen Yiyi didn’t bother to disinfect her laptop bag, nor did she have time to wash her hands. She could finally rest. She squatted down on the floor, and her shadow quietly squatted down with her, their movements identical, like twins, moving as one.

It spoke again, repeating the words Shen Yiyi hadn’t said to Li Siting.

“He’s so lucky.”
“He’s enviable.”

It even sighed:

“If only he had been the investigating officer back then.”
“If only you could remember what I look like.”

Shen Yiyi didn’t care about the bacteria on the floor. She supported herself with her hands and knelt down powerlessly, in the same position she had knelt in the pool of blood all those years ago.

She wanted to kill it with a saw, to cut it out of her head. She wanted to cry and scream at it, even beg for mercy, as long as it materialized in front of her, so they could go to the underworld together. But she had tried everything and still couldn’t separate from it.

The voice of hope was buried alive by time, and her despair could no longer startle anyone. As long as her mother’s case remained unsolved, she would have to coexist with it. Struggling would only make the shadow’s outline clearer.

That shadow had no face.

Its body shape was no different from her own, but its face was blurry, illusory and blank. It was like a headless monster floating before her eyes. With a casual opening of its mouth, it could devour her consciousness.

It had been twenty-four years. Why couldn’t she remember?

Even though she had cut open countless bodies, seen the same pools of blood and mangled flesh, why did she have no memory of what happened that day?

But she had clearly looked the killer in the eye, seen his strange smile. He had acted like a madman, smearing blood on his own face. He had even waved goodbye to her.

Why! Why! Why couldn’t she remember anything?

If only she could remember the killer’s gait, his voice, or a single detail in the corner, even a tiny thread would do. At least it would give her a chance to breathe, to survive.

Why did she always remember her mother’s death?

She was kneeling on the floor, feeling the blood smeared on her cheeks again. Her mother’s voice was right beside her ear, her dying breaths, the hot blood gushing from the corner of her mouth, the steam rising from the ground, and the headphone cord that had been pulled taut in fear, choking her. The continuous anger was traveling along her veins to the deepest, narrowest, and sharpest part of her mind. Her mouth and nose were sprayed with undiluted alcohol, as if even breathing was painful.

No one could see the wave that was drowning her, just as she couldn’t see that killer.

“Was he taller than your mother, or shorter?” The gray-haired police officer was questioning her by her ear again. Shen Yiyi stared at the floor, her thoughts as if they had been sucked away. And so the shadow came to comfort her again.

“He’s dead. He died of cancer last year.”
“He deserved to die. He couldn’t find anything.”

“How could you forget the person who killed your mom!!!!” Her uncle’s cries cut open her pulse again. Shen Yiyi knelt, not knowing for how long.

It wasn’t until Lin Puping sent a text saying the identification report had been sent that Shen Yiyi pulled herself together.

She comforted herself. Since she had endured it for over twenty years, she could endure it tomorrow too. Today was an isolated incident, just a clash between luck and regret. As long as she got through it, it would be fine. She had to hurry up and finish reading the 718 report. She wanted that killer to have nothing to say. She wanted him to be sentenced to death.

She climbed to her feet and checked the evidence identification report on her phone screen.

The report stated: The mechanism of the wound marks is consistent with the use of the tool. The wear and tear of the tool is consistent with the characteristics of the marks. It is confirmed that the tool FHJ7182 caused the 12 open wounds on the body. It is confirmed as the murder weapon.

No reversal, a successful match.

A piece of evidence in case 718 was tightly stitched up.

“She’s so lucky.”

A mocking remark from the shadow threw her just-calmed emotions into turmoil.

Shen Yiyi finally realized that no matter how severe a sentence he received, it would not bring her salvation. Instead, it became a humiliation, making her look utterly ridiculous.

Her chest was tightly constricted, her adrenaline plummeted, and her whole body was so cold it was painful. This pain was further purified, crystallizing at the tip of her heart.

Tears inexplicably streamed down her face. It was a physiological reaction, even though she had been holding them back since she walked in the door.

Shen Yoyi chose to let herself go, letting the tears fall.

But not crying out loud was her last shred of dignity. She could only bite her lip and hold it in, pressing her dirty hands to her throat, holding on tightly, trying to suppress the violence that was about to erupt.

Crying or screaming would only make her more ridiculous. She didn’t want to become a clown performing pain. She couldn’t even remember what the killer looked like. She had no right to be in pain.

Shen Yiyi trembled. She had rarely cried like this since she entered the police academy. She hadn’t even shed a tear when she visited her mother’s grave. So she predicted that tonight would be very difficult.

Maybe she would have to take several showers, let the shadow cut her a few times in her head, or suffer from insomnia, and finally break down and cry until she was exhausted. But Lu Shimao would be home after work, and she didn’t want anyone to see this wound for the time being.

At this thought, she fumbled with her phone.

She stared at the number with no name, as if it were a lifeline, for two seconds, and finally, with a trembling hand, she dialed it.

…

The call was waiting to be connected.

A busy signal buzzed in her ear, second after second, pausing and then starting again.

Shen Yiyi’s tears fell on the back of her hand. The fingertips pressed to her throat could feel her pulse. Her heartbeat spasmed along with the busy signal. Hope was being re-examined in the waiting.

Qin Luo wasn’t answering.

Perhaps having learned from the morning’s rejection, the shadow instantly fell silent at the sound of Qin Luo’s name. But when it heard the busy signal, it emerged again, laughing at her cowardice, fanning the flames of her despair. It made no secret of its mockery: no one can save you, unless you remember me, no one can save you, unless you remember me.

Still a busy signal…

The phone was pressed to her ear, tears streaming down her thumb to her wrist. The disgusting feeling of being soaked in water brought Shen Yiyi back to her senses.

What was she doing?

Why was she calling Qin Luo? She was so absurd. She regretted it even more than she had at noon. This act of drinking poison to quench her thirst looked so foolish.

She shouldn’t have called Qin Luo.

Shen Yiyi wiped the tears from her face and brought the phone to her eyes. Her fingertips were still wet. She hurried to press the hang-up button, but just as her finger touched the screen.

A woman’s gentle voice suddenly came from the phone.

“Hello?”