You went on a blind date and presented an A-level wanted criminal as a meeting gift?

"Oh."

A sarcastic, gloating laugh rang out behind Lin Chen.

Li Mingyu had followed us there without us noticing. He crossed his arms and leaned against the doorframe of the forensic department, his eyes sweeping over Lin Chen and Jiang Tingxue with disdain.

"Even the forensic experts sent by the provincial department have determined that it was a suicide."

His voice wasn't loud, but it was just loud enough for everyone around him to hear clearly.

"Some people just have to show off, who do they think they are?"

"A detective?"

"What if they can't find out the truth and end up with a swollen face? That would be a laughing stock!"

These words were undoubtedly meant for Lin Chen.

Upon hearing this, the surrounding police officers all turned to look, their expressions varying.

Jiang Tingxue's pretty face, which was covered with tears, instantly turned frosty as she turned around and glared angrily at Li Mingyu.

"Li Mingyu! You..."

However, before she could finish speaking, Lin Chen gently pressed down on her shoulder.

Lin Chen didn't even turn his head.

He didn't even glance at Li Mingyu, as if that person were just a wisp of air that could make a sound.

He simply lowered his head, looking at Jiang Tingxue, who was sobbing in his arms, with that gentle yet firm gaze, and said softly:

"Let's go see Professor Qin."

After saying that, he put his arm around Jiang Tingxue's shoulder and walked straight toward the morgue.

ignore.

It is the highest form of contempt.

The smug smile on Li Mingyu's face froze instantly.

He felt as if he had punched with all his might, but it had landed squarely on cotton. The frustration of having nowhere to strike made his chest feel tight.

Watching Lin Chen and Jiang Tingxue walk away side by side, one tall and upright, the other pitiful and delicate, they somehow appeared damnably harmonious.

An uncontrollable surge of jealousy and anger welled up from the depths of Li Mingyu's heart!

His face was ashen, his teeth were grinding, and his fists were clenched so tightly at his sides that they cracked loudly!

……

The air conditioning in the underground morgue of the municipal bureau was running at full blast.

The chilling cold seemed to penetrate the skin and seep into the bone marrow.

The air was filled with a unique smell of formaldehyde mixed with disinfectant, cold and deathly.

"Squeak—"

The metal cabinet was slowly pulled open.

Professor Qin Shouren's body, covered with a white sheet, lay quietly on the cold dissection table.

When the white sheet was lifted, revealing Professor Qin's peaceful yet lifeless face, Jiang Tingxue's tears, which she had just stopped, burst forth again.

Her body swayed, she covered her mouth, and let out a suppressed sob, tears rolling down her cheeks like broken pearls.

He was swaying and about to faint.

A strong, powerful arm caught her slender waist and held her firmly in its embrace.

"I'm here."

Lin Chen's voice was not loud, but it carried a calming power.

At that very moment, all the gentleness and languor on his face vanished.

Instead, there is an absolute focus and sharpness.

His eyes suddenly became deep and sharp, as if they could see through life and death.

With the simultaneous activation of [God-level Insight] and [God-level Proficiency in Traditional Chinese Medicine], the entire world was instantly deconstructed and reorganized in his eyes, transforming into a torrent of countless pieces of information.

This cold corpse is no longer simply a victim of a fall, but a book waiting to be read, filled with the secrets of his final moments.

Comminuted skull fracture.

Multiple fractures in the cervical, thoracic, and lumbar vertebrae.

The limbs were irregularly twisted.

Extensive subcutaneous bleeding throughout the body...

Indeed, all the physical characteristics were exactly as described in the official report, typical of fatal injuries caused by a fall from a height.

There were no signs of struggle or restraint injuries on the body surface other than the fall injury.

Flawless.

Li Mingyu followed him in, leaning against the doorway with his arms crossed, a cold smile playing on his lips. He deliberately raised his voice and said:

"I'm here to supervise, so that no one will try to make things complicated and damage the body."

"Did you figure out what the trick was?"

"Detective Lin?"

His tone was full of sarcasm.

Lin Chen still ignored the buzzing fly.

Noise is automatically filtered out by the brain.

He bent down, focused his gaze, and brought his eyes close to the corpse's stiff right hand.

[God-level Sense of Smell], activated!

Instantly, the strong, pungent smell of formaldehyde in the air was quickly stripped away and diluted by his senses.

Countless even finer odor molecules are precisely captured, amplified, and analyzed by his olfactory nerves!

Amidst the mixed smells, Lin Chen detected a faint, almost imperceptible, peculiar scent.

The smell was faint, but it couldn't fool his nose, which had been enhanced by the system.

His gaze finally settled on the nail crease of Professor Qin's right index finger.

It looked clean and tidy there.

But in the vision of [God-level Insight], a red substance smaller than a speck of dust is quietly hidden deep inside the fingernail.

Lin Chen picked up a pair of sterile tweezers from the tray next to him, and with gentle and steady movements, carefully probed under his fingernails.

He precisely picked out the red fragment.

Seeing this, Li Mingyu also curiously came over and craned his neck to look.

"Tch, what is that?"

He curled his lip and said disdainfully:

"It's just a little bit of dead skin. As people get older, their metabolism slows down. What does that prove?"

Lin Chen finally raised his eyelids and gave him a cold glance.

"Shut up, you illiterate person."

Those four simple words were like four slaps to the face, instantly turning Li Mingyu's face a deep, liver-colored hue!

Lin Chen stopped looking at him, placed the tiny fragment under his nose, and took a gentle sniff.

A strange fragrance instantly bloomed in his mind—a scent that had the crispness of minerals, the freshness of pine resin, and the warmth of beeswax, like the door of a classical painting studio that had been sealed for a hundred years being quietly pushed open.

"This is not dandruff."

Lin Chen's voice was cold and resolute.

"It's cinnabar, mixed with beeswax and turpentine."

"This is the scent of Jupiter Red, a top-grade classical oil paint."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Tingxue, who was immersed in grief, suddenly stopped crying.

She raised her red, tear-filled eyes and looked at Lin Chen in surprise.

"Oil paints?"

She gasped in shock.

"My teacher loved classical oil paintings most of all, and he also collected many precious paints! But..."

Jiang Tingxue's tone became extremely confused.

"I've seen his studio in his apartment. Everything was neatly arranged and covered with dust cloths. There was no sign of it being disturbed recently."

He did not paint before he died.

Lin Chen did not answer.

His gaze shifted downwards again.

It landed on Professor Qin's fingers, which were slightly curled and stiff due to rigor mortis.