Temporary advisor.
"signature."
Fan Jinci slammed the transfer documents onto Yu Yan's desk with such force that a few drops of liquid spilled from the coffee cup. He was unusually dressed in a full suit today; the pure black fabric made his skin appear even paler, and the butterfly scar on his right wrist was perfectly concealed by custom-made cufflinks.
Yu Yan slowly wiped away the coffee stains, his gaze sweeping over the documents: "'Temporary consultant'? I thought we had agreed on a formal transfer."
"Either this or none." Fan Jinci's voice was colder than the metal drawer of a morgue. "Decision in three seconds."
Yu Yan smiled, picked up his pen, and signed his name on the document: "Welcome to the Criminal Investigation Team, Advisor Fan."
Fan Jinci snatched the documents back and turned to leave, but bumped into Jiang Zhaoyan, who was rushing over at the door. The latter wasn't wearing his police uniform today; he was dressed casually like a college student, and was holding two cups of coffee.
"Good morning, Dr. Fan!" Jiang Zhaoyan handed over a cup of coffee with a bright smile. "Double espresso, no sugar, 90 degrees Celsius, just like your ruthless treatment of criminals—"
"Get out of the way." Fan Jinci didn't even glance at him.
Jiang Zhaoyan wasn't annoyed at all. As he stepped aside to let him pass, he deliberately leaned closer to sniff the perfume: "A new fragrance? The base notes of bitter orange and cedarwood are perfect for someone like you—"
His response was to Fan Jinci's heavily closed office door.
"He seems to be in a good mood today." Jiang Zhaoyan placed another cup of coffee on Yu Yan's table. "Have you looked at the new case? A female student from S University was murdered, and her body was found this morning behind the laboratory building."
Yu Yan had already stood up and grabbed his coat: "The prime suspect?"
"The deceased's boyfriend was a genius graduate student in physics, and last year's top science student in the country." Jiang Zhaoyan flipped through the information. "His name was Qi Lin, and he was said to have an IQ over 160. He was withdrawn and had mild antisocial tendencies..."
"Sounds like a younger version of a forensic pathologist." Yu Yan raised an eyebrow.
Jiang Zhaoyan suddenly lowered his voice: "Why did Dr. Fan agree to the transfer? What methods did you use?"
Yu Yan paused in adjusting his cuffs, recalling the two-hour standoff outside Fan Jinci's apartment last night. The only bargaining chip he could ultimately offer to sway the other party was—
"I promised him I could have direct access to the suspect," Yu Yan said, picking up his car keys, "instead of going through those 'stupid interrogation videos.'"
The campus of S University was completely surrounded by police cars. Outside the police cordon, students and reporters were everywhere, and flashes of light were constantly going off. As soon as Yu Yan got out of the car, he saw Fan Jinci standing next to the body—he had arrived at some point, had changed into a white coat, and was squatting down next to the body to conduct a preliminary examination.
"The time of death was between 11 p.m. last night and 1 a.m. this morning," Fan Jinci said without looking up. "There were strangulation marks on the neck, but that's the cause of death." He gently lifted the deceased's right wrist, revealing a tiny needle mark. "Death by injection; the poison is suspected to be tetrodotoxin."
Yu Yan crouched down and noticed that the deceased was a very beautiful young girl with long, flowing hair; even death hadn't completely taken away her beauty. Her expression was peaceful, even with a slight smile, as if she were asleep.
"No signs of struggle?"
"He was drugged." Fan Jinci used tweezers to pick out a small amount of white powder from under the victim's fingernails. "The preliminary assessment is midazolam, a potent sedative." He suddenly frowned, brought the sample bottle close to his nose, and sniffed it. "Something else was mixed in..."
Jiang Zhaoyan walked over with a tall, thin boy: "This is Qi Lin, the deceased's boyfriend. He was the first person the dorm supervisor called in this morning to identify the body."
Qi Lin appeared to be in his early twenties, tall and slender, wearing black-rimmed glasses whose eyes behind the lenses were frighteningly calm. He glanced at the corpse, his expression completely unwavering: "Lin Wei said last night she was going to the lab to process data, and we agreed to meet at the West Gate at one o'clock this morning. She didn't come; I thought she forgot."
Yu Yan noticed that when Qi Lin was speaking, Fan Jinci suddenly raised his head, his gray-blue eyes narrowing slightly.
"You studied physics?" Fan Jinci suddenly asked.
Qi Lin turned to him: "Theoretical physics, first-year doctoral student."
Do you know the lethal mechanism of tetrodotoxin?
"Selective blocking of sodium ion channels leads to respiratory muscle paralysis." Qi Lin adjusted his glasses. "0.5 milligrams is enough to kill an adult, and it's difficult to detect."
Fan Jinci stood up, his height almost the same as Qi Lin's: "You know very well."
"Just common sense." Qi Lin's lips curled up slightly. "Just as you surely know, midazolam degrades into benzodiazepine derivatives in alkaline environments, altering its odor characteristics."
The scene suddenly fell silent. Yu Yan and Jiang Zhaoyan exchanged a glance—this wasn't the reaction a typical college student should have when faced with a deceased person.
"Take him back to the station for questioning," Yu Yan ordered, then lowered his voice and said to Fan Jinci, "What did you figure out?"
Fan Jinci removed his gloves: "The powder under your fingernails has a bitter almond taste; it's not pure midazolam." He glanced at Qi Lin, who was being taken away. "He's showing off."
In the interrogation room, Qi Lin sat upright, his hands resting flat on the table, as attentive as if he were in class. Behind the one-way mirror, Fan Jinci stood with his arms crossed, his gaze sharp as a knife.
"Aren't you going to interrogate them yourself?" Jiang Zhaoyan asked curiously.
"Wait a little longer," Fan Jinci said softly. "Let him deal with the regular interrogators first, to tire him out."
Yu Yan raised an eyebrow: "You're using him as a guinea pig?"
"Highly intelligent criminals are often arrogant," Fan Jinci sneered. "They enjoy the confusion of ordinary police officers, and then when the real adversary appears..." Before he could finish speaking, Qi Lin's voice suddenly rang out from the interrogation room:
"Dr. Fan, how long do you plan to stand by and watch?"
Everyone was stunned. Qi Lin was smiling at the one-way glass, as if he could see Fan Jinci through it: "Or should I call you Dr. Fan Jinci of the 'Reverse Butterfly Project'? I've read your paper in the journal *Neurotoxicology*."
Fan Jinci's expression instantly froze. Yu Yan noticed that his right hand unconsciously touched the scar on his wrist, then forcibly put it down.
"I'll go meet him." Fan Jinci strode towards the interrogation room door.
Inside the interrogation room, Qi Lin's eyes lit up when he saw Fan Jinci: "It really was you. That 2018 study on tetrodotoxin and synaptic plasticity was simply perfect, it's a pity you suddenly stopped publishing it afterwards."
Fan Jinci pulled out a chair and sat down: "Where were you between 10 PM last night and 2 AM this morning?"
"The dormitory. But no one can prove it."
Why kill Lin Wei?
Qi Lin smiled. "I didn't kill her. But if you ask about the motive... she stole my research data and sold it to a foreign lab." He tapped his fingers lightly on the table. "You should understand, the thing a genius can't tolerate most is betrayal."
"Where's the evidence?"
"She has my unpublished quantum field theory calculations on her USB drive; the password is her birthday." Qi Lin leaned forward. "But you don't care about that, right? What you really want to know is how I recognized you."
Fan Jinci said expressionlessly, "I'm waiting for you to explain the almond flavor from under your fingernails."
Qi Lin's smile widened: "Ah, you noticed. Yes, I improved the midazolam formula, adding a trace amount of amygdalin as a marker. But that's not the point..." He suddenly lowered his voice, "The point is, you and I are the same kind of people, so why help them?"
Yu Yan, behind the glass, suddenly stood up straight. Jiang Zhaoyan frowned: "What riddle is this kid playing?"
Inside the interrogation room, Fan Jinci slowly stood up. "The only thing we have in common is that neither of us likes to waste words." He turned and walked towards the door, then stopped. "By the way, your improved formula has a fatal flaw—amygdalae releases hydrogen cyanide in an alkaline environment. A trace amount, but enough to leave a mark on a nail."
For the first time, a crack appeared in Qi Lin's expression.
Fan Jinci walked out of the interrogation room and said directly to Yu Yan, "Search his dormitory, focusing on pH test strips and bitter almond extract. Also..." He glanced at Qi Lin, who had regained his composure in the interrogation room, "Check the deceased's communication records for the last three months, especially international calls."
"Are you sure it's him?" Yu Yan asked.
Fan Jinci shook his head: "Not sure. But he knows too much he shouldn't know." His eyes deepened. "About me."
Just then, Situ Jin rushed over: "Dr. Fan, there's a new discovery from the autopsy! There's a tiny injection mark on the deceased's lower back, with an extremely fine needle, like a medical nanoneedle."
Fan Jinci immediately strode towards the dissection room. Yu Yan followed closely behind, and couldn't help but ask in the corridor, "What is that 'Reverse Butterfly Project'? How did Qi Lin know about it?"
"Shut up, get on with the case," Fan Jinci said without turning his head, but Yu Yan could clearly see the muscles in the back of his neck tense up.
In the autopsy room, the deceased Lin Wei had been placed on a stainless steel table. Fan Jinci deftly turned her over and, sure enough, found an almost invisible red dot on her lower back.
"This isn't a regular injection." Fan Jinci's voice suddenly tightened. "This is an experimental nanoneedle, used for drug delivery through the blood-brain barrier." He abruptly looked up at Yu Yan. "Check Qi Lin's mentor, and the list of equipment that was recently lost from their lab."
Yu Yan immediately made a phone call to assign tasks. When he hung up, he noticed that Fan Jinci was staring blankly at the deceased's face.
"What's wrong?"
Fan Jinci gently smoothed a stray lock of the deceased's hair: "21 years old, a theoretical physics genius, published a paper in a Nature sub-journal during his undergraduate studies." His voice, unusually, carried a hint of emotion. "Those who waste their talent... are the most unforgivable."
Yu Yan suddenly realized something: "You were also..."
"Shut up and get to work." Fan Jinci had regained his indifference, but Yu Yan clearly saw his left hand unconsciously stroking the butterfly scar on his right wrist.
Outside the window, the campus clock tower struck twelve. The case had only just begun, but Yu Yan already sensed that it would be a feast of high-IQ competition—and what he had to do was ensure that Fan Jinci, this wounded butterfly, would not fall again in this storm.
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