Monday, September 27, 2010

Qindao City.

Qidong County.

It was raining.

Raindrops beat against the concrete, occasionally splashing up bits of sand and soil.

Zhou Ning quickened his pace, dashing into a two-story building entwined with green vines. He shook off the splattered sand and rainwater from his feet and, seeing someone descending the stairs, promptly stepped aside, smiling and nodding even though they were strangers.

He made his way to the easternmost office on the second floor and used his key to open the door to a shabby office. As the door closed behind him, the smile on Zhou Ning's face also faded away.

Glancing at the mop by the door and then at the rain outside the window, Zhou Ning decided to turn on the air conditioner and settled at the desk in the corner.

He opened the "Bone Age Identification - Chinese Adolescents Skeletal X-Ray Atlas" on the bulky monitor, which had a copy of "Grave Robbery Notes" tucked inside. Finding the spot where he had left off, Zhou Ning finally let out a satisfied sigh.

Zhou Ning was the new forensic doctor in Qidong County.

Handsome and tall, he had graduated from a master's program.

Everyone said Zhou Ning was lucky.

After all, he was recruited into the Qidong County Criminal Police Squad's forensic department in the first year of public service exams, becoming the envy of many as a civil servant.

But...

How could outsiders know that his professional grades were poor, with a consistent record of failing two courses each year, struggling just to graduate?

Had it not been for witnessing an incident he wasn't supposed to see, which made his advisor apprehensive, with his nonsensical thesis, his advisor would have never signed off on it.

As for the civil service exam, it was his last resort after a year of aimless wandering in the big cities, until he heard his second uncle mention that Qidong County was recruiting a forensic doctor. Being the only one in his field, he didn't even have the chance to stand out before being haphazardly accepted.

Moreover, the so-called Criminal Police Squad's forensic department consisted of only two people—himself and his mentor, Doctor Liu Yongxin.

Half a month had passed, and he hadn't seen even a single corpse.

Doctor Liu was a good person, but he was older and in poor health, frequently visiting the hospital.

Every afternoon, Zhou Ning would be left alone in the office, but there hadn't been any cases these days, and he wondered why Doctor Liu hadn't shown up today.

With a push of his glasses, he sighed softly, his expression filled with worry, unable to concentrate on his book.

There was something he hadn't told anyone: whenever Zhou Ning pushed up his glasses, a transparent display screen would appear before him with a line of green text, "System Loading: 99%."

It had been like this since graduation day, but initially, it was "System Loading: 1%." Over a year had passed, and it had only reached 99%.

Zhou Ning didn't understand what this thing was all about.

He had even tried changing glasses and wearing contact lenses, but the display screen would still appear whenever he made a gesture near his head or pretended to push his glasses up, and no one else could see it.

From the initial panic and sleepless nights of worry, Zhou Ning had come to accept its existence and even felt a bit of anticipation, since he didn't know what this thing really was.

As he thought about this...

The landline on the desk started ringing.

Startled, Zhou Ning quickly got up and grabbed the receiver.

"Hello, this is the forensic department."

"Hello? Uh... Zhou, right? Where's Doctor Liu?"

Zhou Ning recognized the voice; it belonged to Xu Dayuan, the captain of Qidong County's Criminal Police Squad. They had met once when Zhou Ning reported for duty, Xu's booming voice leaving a lasting impression.

"Xu Da, Doctor Liu hasn't arrived yet. Should I call his mobile to check?"

There was a pause on the other end.

"Never mind; his phone is off. Come downstairs, there's a case. Follow them and take a look."

The call ended abruptly, and Zhou Ning felt some excitement mixed with a hint of nervousness.

Shit, after half a month, there was finally a case.

He pocketed his mobile phone, grabbed the survey box on his side, and the SLR camera from the cabinet, and rushed out of the office.

Downstairs, he saw Xu Dayuan standing in the yard, waving at a few detectives.

"Get in the car, we're heading straight to the scene. Doctor Zhou, you're with me."

Everyone got into their vehicles, and Zhou Ning, holding the survey box, took the passenger seat next to Xu Da. As the siren wailed and the car took a sharp turn, speeding away...

Zhou Ning's body swayed, and he hurriedly grabbed the handle above the car door to keep his balance. This rush filled him with a shiver of anticipation.

"What's the case, Xu Da?"

Xu Dayuan glanced at him but didn't answer Zhou Ning's question.

"Doctor Zhou, did you handle any cases during your internship?"

Zhou Ning cleared his throat, trying to calm himself down.

"During my internship, I worked on three cases, one was a dismemberment case that lasted three months, which was solved, and another..."

Before Zhou Ning could finish recalling, Xu Dayuan interrupted him.

"Okay, having experienced a dismemberment case is not bad, your psychological quality is quite good. When we get to the scene, if you can make any observations, just take a look. The traffic police department said they found a body by the roadside and are retrieving surveillance footage."

"Huh?"

Zhou Ning was startled.

He suddenly had a bad premonition; had he set his starting point too high just now?

"Uh, Xu Da, shouldn't we wait for my mentor?"

"The case can't wait, we need to handle this quickly, there are lots of onlookers."

Zhou Ning panicked.

Xu Dayuan's words revealed too much information -- a lot of onlookers meant the case wasn't out in the wilderness, and if the case couldn't wait, it indicated the scene was gruesome and needed to be dealt with rapidly.

As he was thinking, the car had already stopped.

The intersection was cordoned off with yellow police tape, and outside the tape, a dense crowd of people.

Being a local, Zhou Ning recognized the area with a quick glance, realizing this was the intersection by the North Outer Ring Overpass. On either side of the ring road, one side was an industrial park, the other, villages at the urban-rural fringe.

Xu Dayuan had already gotten out of the car, and it was too late for Zhou Ning to say anything. There was no turning back, so he had to grab his inspection kit and, with a stiff resolve, follow suit.

Xu Dayuan waved his hand at the criminal police behind him, his brows furrowed as he ordered:

"Hurry up and clear out the onlookers. What's going on, don't you know to protect the scene?"

A shout proved effective.

The crowd of onlookers, gathered for the spectacle, dispersed significantly; even the stubborn few stepped back a dozen meters or simply stood on various high locations across the road, looking over.

"Doctor Zhou, do you have a mask? Distribute them."

Zhou Ning came to his senses, quickly opened his inspection kit, and handed a pack of masks to a criminal police officer who came over. The officer distributed the masks.

Zhou Ning looked up again; there weren't many people around the intersection, but there was no sign of the body, nor any indication of what these people were gathered to look at.

He mindlessly put on his mask and latex gloves, trying to calm himself down, but with his heart beating uncontrollably fast. He took a deep breath, lifted the police tape with his inspection kit, and walked over to Xu Dayuan.

"Xu Da, where's the body?"

Xu Dayuan placed a hand on Zhou Ning's shoulder and pointed to a nearby plane tree.

"See that, the body is hanging from the tree."

Zhou Ning followed the direction of Xu Dayuan's finger, moved forward two steps to look, and saw on one of the main branches of a plane tree beside them, approximately one and a half meters above the ground, a fair leg hanging.

From that angle, he could only see the victim's leg, the slender ankle, the straight calf, and the foot wearing dark blue Converse canvas shoes, with white socks stained with purple-black blood.

Zhou Ning stood as if frozen, his breathing temporarily halted.

It wasn't fear, but rather the visual impact that filled his chest with a suffocating emotion.

He raised his hand and pushed his glasses up.

Just then, the transparent display screen before his eyes appeared again, this time the loading progress had reached 100%, and a voice filled his ears.

"Beep, the system has finished loading and is now starting."

Several lines of text appeared on the display screen.

Forensic Doctor Training System.

Bound person: Zhou Ning

Age: 26

Forensic Doctor Level: -2

Overall Evaluation: ...

Mission Issued: Approach the body and perform an external examination.

Completion Reward: Random reward based on performance.

Zhou Ning was stunned. After more than a year of loading, he hadn't expected this thing to finish just as he was looking at a corpse. But what did the forensic doctor level of -2 mean?

Doubting Zhou Ning's abilities?

Zhou Ning gritted his teeth. Okay, fair enough, the evaluation was neither overblown nor disparaging, but what was with the six dots for the overall evaluation?

Speechless, am I?

I, to think I was being mocked by a system...