As night fell, the Food Street lit up with rows of colorful signs. This street was famous for its barbecue, and over time, it developed its own unique street culture. The air was filled with the aroma of charcoal and cumin. Many down-to-earth tables and chairs were set up by the roadside, with disposable tablecloths spread over the tables.

Even though this street was quite old, many people still drove over under the cover of night, willing to wait in line just to get a taste of the most authentic local barbecue.

Gu Yuan stood next to a trash can, glancing at the countless bamboo skewers and used disposable bowls and chopsticks inside. The ground beneath his feet was coated with a layer of black grease, but what suffocated Gu Yuan the most wasn’t this—it was the endless, dense crowd of people.

Suppressing the bad mood that could erupt at any moment, he carried a silver inspection box and walked into an old barbecue shop.

A police officer stood outside the barbecue shop, questioning, “What were you doing at the time of the incident?”

The laoban niang’s makeup was smeared from crying, and her tied-up hair was messily scattered over her shoulders. She looked exhausted, with a look of utter despair.

Seeing that his wife was in no mood to answer, the laoban had to respond, “At the time, my wife and I were outside grilling barbecue. The shop was full of customers, and we were extremely busy, so we asked our daughter to keep an eye on the child. She was doing her homework upstairs, and we don’t know how the child ended up on the first floor…”

The laoban’s hands were burned, with large blisters on the backs of his hands. Although he didn’t cry out in pain, it was clear that he was deeply distressed.

Beside the couple stood a small, thin girl, quietly watching the police in the room. Her eyes were brimming with tears, and she was trembling all over, clearly frightened.

Two newly served plates of crayfish in the shop still emitted a fragrant aroma, and a half-drunk beer sat quietly on the table, its foam yet to dissipate.

The dining customers had already been asked to leave by the police. Inside, only the police taking photos for evidence and the trace detection team remained.

“The person who called the police was a dining customer. At the time, the customer was looking for the restroom and accidentally entered the kitchen. They saw something frying in the electric oil tank, with oil splattering everywhere, so they went out to inform the laoban. The laoban went into the kitchen to check and found his youngest son lying inside. The commotion while retrieving the child was so big that a customer noticed and immediately called the police.”

Li Meng roughly described the scene at the time.

Gu Yuan looked at the ground, where the body was covered with a white cloth. Judging by the outline, it seemed to be a small child.

Lifting the white cloth revealed the body of a child around two years old, scalded by hot oil. The normal structure of the skin had disappeared, and the soft tissues were fused into one, making it hard to look at.

Beside the body was an electric oil tank, filled two-thirds with hot oil.

The entire kitchen was spacious, with white tiles on the walls. The opposite wall had been built into a rectangular pool, with three rusty faucets above it, one of which was dripping water continuously.

Deep in the kitchen, there was a corridor, with large shelves on either side. One shelf was filled with miscellaneous seasonings, and the other was piled with many disposable utensils.

At the end of the corridor was a door, leading to the stairs to the second floor, where the laoban’s family lived.

“The deceased was the laoban and laoban niang’s youngest son, less than two years old, a lively child. The laoban and laoban niang were usually busy with business and didn’t have much time to watch him, so he often played with toys in a corner by himself.

They have an older daughter, 12 years old, who just started middle school and helps take care of the child after school.

Gu Yuan stared at the body on the ground for a long time, unable to come back to his senses.

“Doctor Gu, are you okay?”

Li Meng called out to him, puzzled. Gu Yuan was usually very calm, not even frowning when faced with highly decomposed bodies. What was wrong with him today? Was he in a bad mood?

Mo Lin, standing at the door, noticed something was off with Gu Yuan and walked straight to him. “Do you need me to help you open the box?”

When Mo Lin reached for the inspection box in his hand, he accidentally touched Gu Yuan’s hand, causing Gu Yuan to shiver suddenly and snap back to reality.

His reaction startled the surrounding police officers.

Gu Yuan came back to his senses and looked again at the small body on the ground. His memory involuntarily drifted back to 15 years ago, overlapping the body in front of him with the charred body of his sister in his memory…

Mo Lin leaned down and whispered softly in his ear, “Don’t be nervous, it’s just a body…”

Gu Yuan frowned slightly. Why did it feel like Mo Lin knew him so well?

Could there really be mind-reading in this world?

He steadied himself, quickly put on gloves, opened the inspection box, and crouched down to examine the body.

“After the father retrieved the child, he found the child was already dead. At the time, there was no one else in the kitchen, only the daughter upstairs doing her homework.”

His fingers touched the sticky flesh, covered in old oil from fried skewers, emitting a suffocating smell. The oil’s temperature was already low, but Gu Yuan couldn’t determine the time of death from the body’s temperature.

The skin and joint structure of the body were destroyed, making it impossible to determine the time of death from the degree of livor mortis and rigor mortis.

His hand moved over the deceased’s head, where the fontanelle hadn’t fully closed (the fontanelle closes 12-18 months after a child is born). At this age, a child’s head is extremely fragile.

“How old did you say the child was?” Gu Yuan asked.

“One and a half,” Li Meng replied.

Gu Yuan noticed an indentation on the fontanelle above the forehead, with a large amount of black coagulated material wrapped under the scalp, even though it had been fried in oil. He could recognize it as a blood clot.

The deceased’s lips were stuck together. After separating them with a blunt instrument and opening the mouth, there was something resembling vomit inside. Gu Yuan extracted some for testing.

No obvious damage was found on the neck and other parts of the body. The skeleton was intact, with no abnormalities.

“Is it an accident or a criminal case?” Li Meng asked.

Gu Yuan’s hand left the body. “Criminal case, take it back for autopsy.”

Back at the police station, Mo Lin handed him a bottle of mineral water. “When you encounter unpleasant things, think of me more. Maybe it’ll make you feel better.”

“Really?” Gu Yuan took a sip of water and put it back on the table. “When I do the autopsy, can you come in?”

“Hmm? Need my help?”

“Yeah… help me tie the autopsy gown.”

“Can I leave after tying it?”

“No.”

“Got it…”

Gu Yuan usually didn’t like asking for help, but today’s body kept reminding him of his deceased sister. Earlier in the shop, knowing Mo Lin was standing behind him, his heart felt a bit calmer.

Gu Yuan put on the autopsy gown and stood in front of the autopsy table. Mo Lin, standing behind him, suddenly smiled, slowly approached, and whispered gently, “Stand still, don’t move.”

Feeling Mo Lin’s hand touch his clothing, Gu Yuan suddenly recalled the feeling of his fingers on his ankle that day on the beach.

Mo Lin looked down at Gu Yuan, who only reached his nose in height. Even though he was wearing an autopsy gown, the back of his neck was still exposed to the air, and the temperature there seemed a bit high, causing the skin to turn slightly red.

His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down as he asked, “Is the temperature in the autopsy room too high today?”

“It must be your imagination.”

Gu Yuan said as he put on gloves. He picked up a scalpel and made an incision on the body’s chest.

To determine the child’s time of death, Gu Yuan cut open the child’s stomach, which was filled with a large amount of food.

“The child had dinner not long before death, with no gastric emptying. Judging by the mixing of gastric juices, the incident occurred about an hour after eating. There was vomit in the esophagus, and the trachea was blocked by food. The real cause of death should be asphyxiation.”

Li Meng was very surprised upon receiving the autopsy report. “You mean the child didn’t fall into the electric oil tank by accident, but suffocated because the trachea was blocked?”

“That’s right. To be precise, the head was first struck, causing a brief fainting. The intracranial pressure increased, leading to vomiting. The vomit entered the trachea, causing asphyxiation,” Gu Yuan explained while packing up to go home and shower. “You should focus on checking the scene for vomit.”

“Got it. I’ll notify you if I have any news.” Li Meng knew he was going home to shower and checked his watch. “It’s getting late. I’ll handle the rest. Go home and rest well. We’ll talk about anything else in the morning.”

As Gu Yuan passed through the office corridor with his backpack, he saw Mo Lin leaning against the office door with a cup of coffee. The second button of his shirt was undone, revealing a large area of collarbone, and the lines of his neck muscles were highlighted by the incandescent light.

Standing there, he distracted the night shift female officers, who couldn’t focus on their work, occasionally glancing at him.

“Heading home?”

“Yeah.”

Mo Lin turned around, put down the coffee, and picked up his jacket. “Perfect, let’s go together.”

Gu Yuan thought to himself: We don’t seem to be on the same route.

The “not on the same route” Mo Lin dropped Gu Yuan off by the roadside, pretending to buy a pack of cigarettes, then returned to the garage to drive…

*

After showering and lying in bed, the sound of passing cars was constant. Gu Yuan put on earplugs and an eye mask, but whenever he closed his eyes, the image of his sister’s charred body appeared.

Almost helplessly, he removed the eye mask and stared at the dark ceiling, when a sentence suddenly popped into his mind: When you encounter unpleasant things, think of me more. Maybe it’ll make you feel better…

He wondered if he was under a spell or if that guy had hypnotized him unintentionally.

Checking the time on his phone, it was already 1 a.m.

Just as he was about to turn off his phone, a message popped up on the screen.

Mo Lin: [Are you asleep?]

Gu Yuan: [No, what’s up?]

Mo Lin: [Nothing, just heard a nice song and wanted to share it with you.]

A playback interface appeared on the phone screen. Gu Yuan removed the earplugs, put on headphones, and pressed play.

The background music was the sound of waves crashing on the beach. Gradually, the soothing and melodious cello music began in the left ear, slowly sliding to the right ear…

It felt like being on a sunny beach…

Gu Yuan saved the music, set it to sleep mode, and ten minutes later, the music stopped, and even breathing filled the room…