Tang Dynasty
“Doctor Ran, the investigation report has been printed, please sign it.”
Inside the office was a gentle and handsome man dressed in a white lab coat. He had a clean face. The pair of black-rimmed glasses sitting on his high nose bridge took away from his handsome appearance giving him a more mild-tempered and capable look.
After a pause, there was still no reply. But the man could almost tell that Doctor Ran is there. He knocked on her door a few times and raises his voice to call-out her name again.
“Good, just leave it here.” Behind the work desk piled full of documents replied a female voice.
“Doctor Ran, Captain Li from the police department has already rushed this a few times. If possible, please hurry.” The man carefully cleared a part of the full work desk to set down the document. Afterwards, as if not reassured, set an antique ink stone that was on the table over the document to keep it in place.
The man sighed, if it’s submitted again without a signature, Captain Li will probably kill someone.
Thinking about Captain Li’s fierce personality, the man reminded again, “Doctor Ran, I put the document under the ink stone, please sign-off on it as soon as possible.”
In the midst of a thick pile of documents, she lifted her delicate face that is as delicate as a porcelain doll. Wrinkling her pretty brows she said in a level tone, “I understand, tomorrow morning I will bring over the documents myself.”
Upon hearing her clear response, Assistant Zhang acknowledged her response and left. Truthfully, he wasn’t sure if he felt sorry for her or admired her. People say there are three types of people on this earth: men, women, and females with doctorate degrees. People like Doctor Ran with double doctorate degrees should be the fighter aircraft in the category of females with doctorate degrees. It’s a pity that her delicate and exquisite face has seen so many corpses that it seems rather apathetic. It also seems that she does not have female hormone secretions. This is all to say that, up to now, there are no suitors showing interest for this principled woman.
In the office, Ran Yan worked late into the night before sighing in relief. She stood up to make a cup of tea and saw the autopsy report under the ink stone. Putting down her cup, she returned to her desk and started looking at the report.
There were five deceased in this case – a family. According to the Autopsy Report, they were tortured. Two of the females were even sexually assaulted… Ran Yan furrowed her brows, looking at the last two bodies the fatal wound were 1.3 cm x 7 cm knife wounds?
Did someone re-conduct the postmortem examination, or did someone change the Autopsy Report?
Ran Yan put down the report, picked up the landline phone, and dialed an extension. Ring—ring—came from the line, after a long while, there was still no response. Ran Yan glanced at the clock on the wall; it was 11:40 pm. Other than the security officer, there was no one else left at work.
Although she suspected that someone altered the autopsy report, her forensic doctor group had some self-proclaimed veterans who were stubborn – so re-conducting the autopsy cannot be definitively eliminated. Ran Yan has always been scrupulous when it came to her job so she knew that she had to re-conduct the autopsy. Grabbing the white lab coat on the door, she quickly put it on and took out gloves and a facemask to prepare for the morgue.
But as she got to the door, she suddenly stopped, turned around, and made a copy of the Autopsy Report to put under the ink stone. She put the original in her safe.
After doing all this, she headed to the morgue once more. As she walked, she inwardly analyzed the motive for tampering with the Autopsy Report. The report needed her to sign off as evidence so such obvious tampering would definitely be recognized by her…
“Damn it.” Ran Yan muttered. Loosening her finger on the elevator button, she quickly turned and made a run for outside. If the person knew that she would be able to see through the tampering, and still did it, then there is a high likelihood that it was done to lure her to re-conduct the autopsy! Then—the murderer’s target is her!
However, before she could run more than two steps, a breeze came from behind. Thump, her head was smashed ruthlessly by a hard and sharp object.
Ran Yan felt that there was a warm sensation flowing down behind her head onto her neck and back. She gave up yelling for help because this was lower level morgue with top quality sound-proofing and insulation. It was also in the middle of the night so her chances of being rescued were probably zero.
Bam! The object that hit her was broken into pieces as it hit the ground. She instinctively wanted to turn around to see the killer’s face but her neck was held in place from behind.
Ran Yan could feel that the person was wearing rubber lab gloves. Looks like he is an expert at committing crimes. The average person cannot get into the morgue, so this person could be another forensic doctor from their group.
“Originally, my plan had no flaws, but who would have thought you would find clues in the wounds. I had no choice but to be ruthless!” A frosty voice coolly sounded from behind.
His voice was familiar, confirming her suspicions that it was her assistant.
Ran Yan smiled coolly. Ignoring the pain and dazed sensation, she put together her thoughts with great effort, “Assistant Zhang, you… underestimated me. Because I was careless, I died in your hands… But, you cannot escape.”
A snapping sound, perhaps a cervical vertebrate broken, Ran Yan could no longer feel anything but pain. She remembered that when she fell, she saw pieces of ancient ink stone—a present from her mom who is an expert archaeologist.
Early mornings at the beginning of June in Su Zhou are enveloped in a misty drizzle. In the midst of dense fog there are pavilion eaves strewn at different heights. Once in a while there are rising house corners breaking through the fog. Roof tiles, white walls, limestone alleys, are sometimes deep and sometimes shallow. Sometimes far and sometimes close, forming a picture of a breathtaking painting as the shore meets the willow leaves.
However, compared to the city, four to five kilometers south the atmosphere is entirely different.
Foliage surround the foot of the mountains. At the center of a big spread of farmland is a village with around forty families. Smoke spirals upwards from the misty visage. All around roads are connected and livestock intermingle. Here, the houses are small and broken. At its center, there are only two lofty and refined buildings similar to the ones seen in the streets of the nearby town. Here in the small village, the two buildings are prominent in comparison to the surrounding houses. One building is the village’s ancestral hall, the other is an estate that belongs to the Ran family.
The halls of the Ran Estate were vast, the doors were intricately carved, the courtyard was not very big. Wind could weave directly into the main room. The wooden floor inside the room seemed damp making the whole room exceedingly cold. The curtain appeared as if it were immersed in water giving off a heavy atmosphere.
Confused, Ran Yan lay on a woven mat. Her eyes widened as she took in the immediate situation: An antique room she was lying on a wooden table that was elevated above the ground. A thin but dense bamboo curtain surrounded the sleep area. Beside her were several thick woven mats layered on top each other. She was covered by a pink silk quilt embroidered with peonies—elegant and beautiful.
She remembered herself, as she headed to the morgue to examine a body, she was…… murdered! And her C3/4 vertebrae broke, so even if she was lucky and did not die, she would be paralyzed……
The scene was like a quickly changing filmstrip with too much information influx giving her a splitting headache. This caused her recently supported body to collapse back onto the mat.
Clenching her teeth, she endured for a while. Pain ebbed away like the tide causing Ran Yan to let out a groan.
Her memories were so very confusing. But even so, she focused her mind on the ancient memories that were stored in her brain—Ran family’s Shi Qi (seventeenth) daughter with the same name as her, is also called Ran Yan. Due to her lingering illness that left her bedridden even after many treatments, she was sent to the estate to recover.
They say to recover, but “sent into exile” was a more fitting description.
“This can’t be true……” Ran Yan muttered to herself, but she was obviously in ancient times.
She had been an atheist through and through. Regarding time-travel and the likes, her diagnosis is: Accidentally saw a time-travel drama a few days ago! When her brain went into a deep-sleep state, it unconsciously made up this absurd dream.
Ran Yan kept her eyes closed for a long time but sleep was not coming. The perilous waves of emotion flooding through her did not resemble her calm façade. Many years of experience supported her disbelief in the supernatural, but everything in front of her eyes, the feel of the soft silk on her body…… is this really a dream?
Supporting her weak body on the bed beneath her, she quickly stood.
Head heavy, feet light, some vertigo. Standing in the same place, she adjusted for a moment and felt a bit better. Ran Yan then started to carefully size up the surrounding environment.
Through the bamboo curtains she could faintly see the layers of satin and silk drapery, pink and creamy, all giving a delicate and feminine feel. Inside the room there were only a few small tables. Although they were simply arranged they gave off an elegant feel.
Ran Yan brushed aside the curtains, the realness she felt on her hand almost took her breath away.
Beyond the curtains were the small tables she saw before, but the table at the foot of the wall had a mirror the size of the opening of a basin. In the mirror was a blurry and slim figure, dressed in a yellow jacket, black hair loose reaching the waist.
At a distance, although only a blurry shadow, Ran Yan knew she was not herself! In a daze, she looked down at her delicate hands that were fair to the point she could not tell there was blood flow. Hearing a hum in her head, her body stumbled and became weak as she fell to the ground.
Being as educated about the human body as she was, according to the size of the palm and the characteristics of the skin and bones, she could determine that she “herself” was now only about fifteen or sixteen years old.
As Ran Yan was still in a state of shock, sounds of a quarrel came from the outer room. Those sounds came from far and near, amongst them was a sharp, penetrating female voice that stood out, “Shi Qi’s chronic condition has kept her bedridden, mother is well-intentioned. You guys seem to await her death!”
This young lady did not filter what she was saying and even put an emphasis on the word “death”, making it sound like she was cursing her instead of wishing her well.
Involuntarily, a name appeared in Ran Yan’s mind: Ran Mei Yu.