Chapter 4

Chapter 4

We brought Jingjing’s body back to the dissection laboratory.

The fluorescent lights came on, bathing the orange cat’s emaciated body in a deathly pallor.

“Remember,” Xu Yan said. “Everything a person does leaves a trace. The more they do, the more chances they have to make a mistake.”

I put on sterile scrubs and rubber gloves.

Ten years had passed, yet the moment I took up the scalpel, my hand began to tremble.

Some things, however, had to be faced. I had to forge courage into armor before I could go to war.

“You can do this, He Tian,” Xu Yan said. “Trust yourself.”

I closed my eyes, drew a deep breath, and fought to steady my nerves.

Starting at the cat’s mouth, I cut carefully through layer after layer. I separated the muscles and exposed the esophagus and trachea while Xu Yan watched with a deep frown.

I followed the throat all the way to the stomach. Then my pupils contracted, and my breath stopped.

“What is it?” Xu Yan caught the change in me at once.

“The entire esophagus…” My scalpel froze in midair. A tremor passed through my gaze as I examined every inch of exposed tissue, and the hairs rose across my body.

“No mechanical obstruction. No corrosion from poison. No lesions in the smooth muscle.

“It’s exactly the same as my sister.”

“Ten years ago, the killer practiced on stray cats and dogs,” Xu Yan said grimly. “Once satisfied with the method, they moved on to a human victim.

“He Tian, you have a doctorate in criminal psychology. Use your training. Step outside yourself and view the case as an observer.

“Go back and examine every person around you. Spare no one.

“And don’t focus solely on your sister’s death, or you’ll miss too much. Investigate your mother’s suicide and your father’s madness as well.”

My fingers dug into the edge of the dissection table. Gooseflesh covered my skin. “Professor Xu… you think all of it was deliberate?”

For ten years, I had believed one angry sentence from me had destroyed my family. Now the chill of being watched by a silent venomous snake raced up my spine.

“If I’m right, that person has been beside you all along.” Xu Yan’s expression was unusually grave.

“Contact the officer who handled the original case and have him investigate two things immediately.

“First, map every person connected to your family—relatives, friends, neighbors, even your parents’ colleagues.

“Second, identify every acquaintance who appeared near your sister’s class or crossed paths with them on the day she disappeared. You should find something.”

He paused. “If anyone looks suspicious, don’t alert them. Come to me first. Remember that.”

Perhaps afraid I would act rashly, he added before I left, “You’ve waited ten years. Don’t lose patience now.”

On March 5, 2026, I took Xu Yan’s deductions to Officer Zhang, the detective who had overseen my sister’s case. He slapped his thigh.

“Back then, we focused our investigation on everyone within twenty kilometers of the scene. It never occurred to us to look at people she knew.

“Those two lines of Professor Xu’s will form a net, and whoever gets caught in it is our suspect.

“Don’t worry, He Tian. I will drag this person into the light!”

With the prospect of solving the case before him, Officer Zhang seemed to shed ten years in an instant and strode off with new energy.

On March 6, my sister’s death was formally reopened as a criminal case. Xu Yan joined the special task force as an investigative consultant.

That same day, I asked Officer Zhang for the past week’s surveillance footage from my residential complex. Using Jingjing’s photograph, I ran an AI-assisted reconstruction of the cat’s movements and quickly identified everyone she had encountered.

Nothing seemed unusual.

Then, on the fourth day, an old camera near a corner shop captured a blurred but familiar figure.

That day, I returned to the abandoned mine shaft on Lion Mountain and examined the scene again. As I studied the faint, weathered footprints that remained, a possibility struck me.

A chill shot from the soles of my feet, raced up my calves, and crawled all the way to my skull.

What if one of the three people who first found my sister had been the killer?

Once that person arrived with the search party, every earlier footprint they had left would appear legitimate—or could be blurred away in an “accidental” misstep.

Xu Yan had said the killer knew my sister. But how well?

I had to find out for myself.

Before I went, I saw Xu Yan again. After listening to my reconstruction of the footprints and what I had found on the surveillance footage, he gave me a single warning.

“He Tian, remember that you are a scholar of criminal psychology. Do not gaze into the abyss for too long. When it gazes back, do not let it take you.”