I'm late.
At 3:17 a.m., the lights at the provincial forensic center were still on.
Fan Jinci stood before the spectrometer, his pale face almost transparent in the blue light of the screen. He had been working continuously for thirty-eight hours, and the butterfly scar on his right wrist had taken on an unnatural red hue from the frequent use of the equipment. Seven empty coffee cups were neatly arranged on the table like soldiers, and the eighth cup trembled slightly in his hand.
"Found it." He suddenly spoke, his voice hoarse like sandpaper scraping.
Situ Jin immediately put down the documents in her hand and leaned over. A complex set of molecular structure diagrams was rotating on the screen, with the matching rate displayed next to it: 98.7%.
"This is..."
"Military-grade preservative, codenamed 'Eternity-7'." Fan Jinci's fingertip lightly touched the screen, zooming in on one of the molecular chains. "Production ceased in 2005 because..." A dead smile tugged at the corner of his mouth, "...it caused uncontrollable aggression in test subjects."
Situ Jin gasped, "Similar to Zhou Lin's case?"
"No." Fan Jinci turned off the screen, turned and walked to the whiteboard. "Zhou Lin used 'Eternal-5,' which is a newer generation." He picked up a marker and drew a timeline on the whiteboard. "The murderer has a military background, access to sealed experimental materials, and is familiar with Zhou Lin's methods but with more advanced technology..."
His pen suddenly stopped at a certain point, and his gray-blue pupils contracted slightly.
"What's wrong?" Situ Jin asked.
Fan Jinci didn't answer, but instead grabbed his coat and rushed towards the door: "Tell Yu Yan to go to 'Amber' Restaurant. Now!"
"But Brother Fan, what's wrong with you—"
The door had been slammed shut.
Meanwhile, in the underground wine cellar of the "Amber" restaurant.
Yu Yan's temples throbbed, and a dull ache throbbed from the back of his head. He tried to move his hands; the metal handcuffs clinked crisply against the pipes. In the dim light, he could see two corpses lying not far away—the drug warehouse manager who had been missing for several days.
"Awake?" A gentle male voice came from the shadows.
Zhou Lin's assistant, Xu Rui, a former special forces medic, slowly walked into the light. He was wearing a restaurant waiter's uniform and was playing with a silver device in his hand—a modified version of the "Morning Star" stun gun.
"Did you know?" Xu Rui smiled as he pressed a switch, blue arcs of electricity leaping between the electrodes. "The most successful experimental subject of the 'Butterfly Project' back then is now hunting me down the whole city." A morbid light gleamed in his eyes. "Fan Jinci, what a perfect creation... It's a pity that idiot Zhou Lin wasted it."
Yu Yan's muscles tensed: "You're the new murderer."
"The murderer?" Xu Rui exaggeratedly clutched his chest. "I was just finishing up what they hadn't done. These volunteers..." He kicked the body beside him, "...how glorious it is to sacrifice oneself for science."
"What kind of science is it to control people with drugs?"
"Control?" Xu Rui laughed. "No, no, no, it's 'liberation.'" He suddenly leaned closer, the stun gun almost touching Yu Yan's neck. "Do you know why I chose you? Because Fan Jinci cares about you. I want to see if that icy face of his will crumble when the person he cares about most becomes a killing machine?"
The buzzing of the stun gun amplified in his ears, and Yu Yan suddenly raised his leg and kicked Xu Rui in the abdomen. The other man staggered back, but quickly regained his balance, his eyes blazing with even greater anger.
"If you won't listen to reason, you'll have to suffer the consequences." Xu Rui pressed the full-power switch on the stun gun. "Perfect for testing the new formula—"
The cellar door suddenly burst open, and before Xu Rui could react, a sharp pain shot through his wrist—a scalpel had precisely pierced his right hand.
"Ah!" With a scream, the stun gun clattered to the ground.
Fan Jinci stood in the doorway, the hem of his long black trench coat still fluttering, his right hand poised in a throwing stance. His face was paler than a corpse, only his grey-blue eyes burned with icy fury.
"Xu Rui." He walked forward slowly, his voice eerily soft, "Ten years have passed, and you've improved—from a lab janitor to a serial killer?"
Xu Rui clutched his bleeding wrist, his expression contorted. "Teacher Fan...you're still so perfect." He stared at Fan Jinci with fascination. "Zhou Lin doesn't understand your value at all, but I do! Those inferior imitations don't deserve it—"
"Shut up." Fan Jinci stomped on the stun gun on the ground, crushing it. "Your 'Eternal-7' formula is wrong. Do you know why the test subjects all went insane?" He crouched down, looking Xu Rui in the eye, "Because you missed the most crucial neutralizing agent."
Xu Rui's eyes widened: "Impossible! I followed it exactly as—"
"The data Zhou Lin gave you is fake," Fan Jinci sneered. "He discovered you were peeking at the lab notes a long time ago and deliberately changed the numbers." He pulled a syringe from his pocket. "Want to know the real formula?"
Xu Rui stared at the syringe like a hungry wolf: "Give it to me!"
Fan Jinci suddenly threw the syringe to Yu Yan: "Give him the injection."
Yu Yan had already broken free of the handcuffs, and paused for a moment as he caught the syringe: "What's this?"
"The key to success," Fan Jinci said without turning his head.
Xu Rui suddenly lunged at Yu Yan, but the latter swiftly tackled him to the ground. The moment the needle pierced his carotid artery, Xu Rui let out a scream that was unlike anything in human form.
"What is this?!" he struggled, his pupils dilating rapidly.
"High-concentration saline solution." Fan Jinci coldly watched him convulse. "What your 'volunteers' felt before they died."
Police sirens wailed outside. When Jiang Zhaoyan led the SWAT team in, they saw Xu Rui foaming at the mouth and unconscious.
"Late?" Jiang Zhaoyan raised an eyebrow, his gaze sweeping back and forth between Yu Yan and Fan Jinci.
Fan Jinci had already approached the two corpses, put on gloves, and begun a preliminary examination: "Time of death no more than six hours ago, injected with a large dose of 'Eternity-7' before death..." His voice suddenly stopped as he took a small glass vial from one of the deceased's hands, "Found it."
Yu Yan leaned closer to examine the bottle; a small amount of blue liquid remained at the bottom. "What's this?"
"Neutralizing agent." Fan Jinci stood up. "The ingredient Xu Rui missed." He looked at Jiang Zhaoyan, "If your sister had used this back then, perhaps things wouldn't have..."
Jiang Zhaoyan's expression froze instantly. The three of them looked at each other in silence, a silent understanding flowing in the air.
"Is the case closed?" Yu Yan broke the silence.
Fan Jinci removed his blood-stained gloves: "The basic chain of evidence is complete. Xu Rui used his position at Jiang's Pharmaceuticals to steal experimental drugs, imitated Zhou Lin's methods to commit murder, and his purpose was..." He hesitated for a rare moment, "to recreate the 'Reverse Butterfly Project.'"
"Not only that." Jiang Zhaoyan kicked the unconscious Xu Rui. "The files on his computer show that he plans to announce his so-called 'achievements' at the international medical summit next month, showcasing you, Dr. Fan, as a 'success story.'"
Fan Jinci's body swayed almost imperceptibly. Yu Yan instinctively grabbed his shoulder, and this time the other did not push him away.
"Go home?" Yu Yan asked softly.
Fan Jinci glanced at him, then at Jiang Zhaoyan: "You two, tomorrow morning at eight o'clock, my office." He turned and walked towards the door. "Take the case closure report and coffee. No sugar."
Watching Fan Jinci's departing figure, Yu Yan and Jiang Zhaoyan both breathed a sigh of relief.
"He invited us for coffee?" Jiang Zhaoyan asked incredulously.
Yu Yan shook his head: "They want us to bring him coffee."
Is there a difference?
"The difference is significant." Yu Yan's lips curled into a slight smile. "It means we're allowed into his territory."
Jiang Zhaoyan whistled: "Looks like the hero-saves-the-damsel-in-distress tactic really works."
"Shut up." Yu Yan kicked him, but couldn't help looking in the direction where Fan Jinci had disappeared. That butterfly that couldn't fly might one day take flight again.
Morning light streamed into the wine cellar through the high windows. The dismemberment case was finally solved, but some more complex stories seemed to be just beginning.
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