By the time Xiao Fen came out toweling his hair, Fang Si Ting was still wearing that soaked suit, deftly brushing his shoes on the balcony.
The word “househusband-like” instantly popped into his mind.
“Why haven’t you gone to wash up yet?” he said. “I can do these myself.”
“It’s already done.”
Fang Si Ting turned off the faucet. His distinctively knuckled fingers hooked the sneakers to pour out the water inside, then he placed them into the dryer.
“You even prepared this?”
“Borrowed it from Forensic Doctor Qin. She’s the only one in the entire Inspection Office who has one.”
“Hasn’t she come back yet?” Xiao Fen said.
“I have the key to her room.”
The smile on Xiao Fen’s face faded a bit.
Fang Si Ting tossed his clothes into the washing machine before grabbing a set of pajamas and heading into the bathroom.
When he came out again, Xiao Fen was sprawled on the bed opposite his, arms raised above his head still holding a phone in landscape mode. The game screen flickered with gray light.
Because his arms were raised, his pajama top had ridden up, exposing a section of lean, narrow waist that dipped smoothly along the side and back lines.
Bones slender and even, covered in thin muscle, pale enough to dazzle the eyes.
He bent down and touched his hair—it was still damp.
His hand reached past his body to pull over the blanket, and water droplets from the tips of his hair swayed before falling into the dimple at his waist.
Fang Si Ting glanced over, reached out, and deliberately lightened his touch to wipe away the water droplet.
The rough pad of his finger brushed across, and the snow-white skin immediately quivered.
Xiao Fen let out a soft whimper and mumbled something, burying his head deeper into his arms.
Fang Si Ting watched for a moment before turning off the phone, lowering the arms that had been raised overhead back to his sides, grabbing the hairdryer from nearby. His fingers threaded through the soft, messy strands and blow-dried his hair.
They said people with soft hair had gentle tempers, but this guy had a fiery one—exploding at the drop of a hat.
Like a startled little fox.
Full of wild ideas and schemes. When doing something bad, he’d pretend not to know, quietly wait for you to step into the trap, then rub it in your face while standing on it.
So naughty it left one helpless.
Xiao Fen woke up soon after and felt a thin blanket draped over him at some point.
The hairdryer hummed softly as it blew. He yawned, shifting his upper body bit by bit until his chin knocked against Fang Si Ting’s thigh, where he stayed put.
A rumble rose from his throat, eventually turning into a comfortable sigh.
Fang Si Ting chuckled.
If this guy had a tail, it would’ve been wagging like crazy by now.
Best if it was big and fluffy, softly brushing across his cheek.
Xiao Fen’s head tilted, his right cheek pressing against Fang Si Ting’s thigh, squishing out a patch of pale flesh. He hazily opened his eyes and was met with a startling sight.
Fang Si Ting was only wearing black underwear.
His eyes, nose, mouth—all less than five centimeters from his crotch! He could even feel the damp heat emanating from beneath the black fabric with the tip of his nose!
He scrambled up in a panic. “Uh… I was too sleepy.”
Don’t look where you shouldn’t! Don’t gaze where you shouldn’t! Don’t sniff where you shouldn’t!
They used the same shampoo, the same body wash.
The scents wafting from their bodies blended together as if fused like milk and water.
It was like smelling his own scent, yet also like smelling the other’s.
Fang Si Ting reached over and placed a hand on his shoulder.
Xiao Fen instantly tensed up all over, unable to move a muscle.
These arm and neck lines so close at hand!
These full pecs!
These tight abs!
These strong, sturdy long legs!
Those V-lines!
Even the gunshot, knife, and axe scars on his shoulders and waist sides were full of wild allure!
He’d always known this guy hid his depths, but he never imagined it’d be this tantalizingly vivid!
His index finger twitched with the urge to touch, but he couldn’t.
Xiao Fen’s face stiffened a bit.
He felt a large palm clamp onto the back of his head, rubbing it firmly.
Feeling guilty, he didn’t dare look up, but Fang Si Ting’s gaze hung low, fixed on him.
“Your hair’s dry now.”
“Oh.”
Xiao Fen’s mind blanked out, filled instead with a jumble of useless junk.
The other guy probably couldn’t tell he liked men, right?
“You can sleep now.” The low, magnetic voice from above carried a hint of huskiness.
The hand on his shoulder, palm gripping the back of his head—neither budged an inch.
Just a bit more force, and that palm could yank his hair, forcing Xiao Fen to tilt his head back.
Fang Si Ting’s eyes darkened with shifting light, showing no intention of letting go.
Xiao Fen suddenly ducked his head, fussing with the blanket on him in a poor attempt to cover it up as he twisted free from the hand on the back of his head.
Fang Si Ting gave him a deep look before withdrawing his hand, coiling up the hairdryer’s cord, and smoothly rising from the bed’s edge.
By the time he looked again, Xiao Fen had lain down with eyes closed, wrapped head to toe in the blanket, curled into a ball facing away from him.
【He took off his pants, and all you let me see is this?】
【Even my offhand comments are lewder than this.】
【What the hell was I even expecting?】
【You’re in the same room already—why sleep separately? So distant.】
【No way, Brother Fen. This high-attack, low-defense vibe? You flirt people’s legs to jelly on the daily, but chicken out in the real deal?】
【On clear days he wears those ratty long-sleeve long-pants to bed—had me thinking Fang was already living the retiree life. What’s this today? Down to just undies? Did Tengcha pour lava on you or something?】
【Don’t ask. It’s just an old man’s ploy.】
【Kinda cute for no reason—got reverse-flirted into hiding with just his little fluffy head poking out.】
【See if he dares zap Fang Yama with those eyes again.】
【Wahhh, Fang Yama’s aura must be too strong and scared Fen Treasure.】
【You think Brother Fen’s that weak?】
【They fought tooth and nail before, now teamed up as temp partners—just blow-drying hair and y’all are losing it? Their private beef’s probably worse.】
【Admin, boot him.】
【Yeah, like we don’t know their deal? Quit ruining the mood with your yapping.】
【So anxious—how to ship this pair?】
The Live Stream Chat was full of rotten ideas, and on Weibo they were sneakily urging Xiao Fen and Fang Si Ting to watch the recording after the show and drop some fan service.
The fans were breaking their hearts over it.
For that bit of sugar, they hoped the two mains would sell it more on stream, interact a little, and give some solace to the Vanishing CP fans.
A forced melon isn’t sweet, but it quenches thirst.
————
Xiao Fen woke up at 8 a.m. the next morning.
The rain outside was still heavy, the windows bulging with each gust, occasionally pierced by the howl of the typhoon. He pulled the blanket over his head for two minutes before sluggishly getting up.
Fang Si Ting had left him a note: He went to Wang Wenfang and Zhong Houwang’s places in the morning; eat breakfast when he woke.
Several breakfast items sat on the dorm table, along with a thermos. He opened it to find steaming soy milk.
Before he finished eating, he got a message from Fang Si Ting telling him to check on Guo Dongying’s body.
Ten minutes later, he arrived at the morgue in the clinic.
What they called a morgue was really just a first-floor office temporarily converted. Since the autopsy was on hold, they’d frozen the body for now.
Yesterday’s autopsy on Guo Dongying had wrapped up, so they’d placed him here.
Seeing him arrive, Qin Wensu finally relaxed and said, “Guo Dongying’s skin got peeled too.”
She pulled back the white sheet, revealing the dark red muscles on the body’s torso.
“It was thawed, skinned, then refrozen. The body’s position is a bit different before and after.”
“Any other clues?”
Qin Wensu shook her head.
“I’ll get the clinic staff list.”
Xiao Fen not only requested the clinic staff list but also the pharmacy surveillance, hoping it caught some suspicious person.
Unfortunately, the footage showed nothing.
Yesterday the Shaman had said to watch Guo Dongying’s body closely, as if he’d foreseen this.
This morning, Qin Wensu discovered the human skin was gone.
She’d pulled an all-nighter on Lu Kaiyu’s autopsy results and was planning to deliver them this morning to store with Guo Dongying’s.
They opened the room and saw the skinless corpse.
According to the two Vice Squad Officers on guard duty last night, they’d never left the door—even meals and bathroom breaks were tag-teamed.
“I remember a doctor came in once,” one on-duty Vice Squad Officer said. “Since it was his office we borrowed temporarily, he came for files and to use the computer for patient records. I peeked inside when he entered—no issues, no bags, just a white coat and mask. In and out in under a minute. Impossible to skin in that time.”
“Even a pro needs nearly twenty minutes to skin,” Zhang Jian said. “My dad skinned deer back in the day. I wanted to learn, but then I enlisted.”
“Why do I feel like your dad’s sounding more suspicious the more you talk?” Xiao Fen shot him a sly glance.
“Huh?” Zhang Jian blinked dumbly. “Why would my perfectly fine dad kill anyone? Besides, us country folk pick up crafts easy—tons in town can do it.”
“Who’s the best skinner in your town?”
“Probably Wild Boar Guy on Sukun Road. He can skin tough wild boar hides—strong and skilled. Used to do it for folks, tanning leather too.”
“And now?”
“Mayor Guo started preaching that hunting wild game is illegal, full of germs and bad for you. Folks stopped going to Wild Boar Guy as much. He switched to slaughtering pigs, but with all the pork sellers around, business sucks.”
“Mayor Guo offended another one.” Xiao Fen listened to him ramble on about old times, eyes scanning the office for clues.
The body was frozen rock-hard—no way to skin it directly. Qin Wensu said it had been thawed then refrozen. Thaw time plus skinning would’ve taken hours.
Did that doctor secretly cut the office power under the guise of grabbing files to skin it?
But the timing didn’t match—minutes weren’t enough for a full skinning.
Plus, per the door guards’ statements, they checked the two freezers inside both when the doctor entered and left, and everything was powered on and running fine.
Xiao Fen inspected closely. There seemed to be water marks on the floor—dried without disturbance, with imprints on top.
Looked like footprints leading to the window.
He pushed the window—it was locked. Opening it, a few bits of dirt rolled out from under the track groove.
He rattled the security bars—solid.
But like the Valley Bank jewelry theft, these windows were side-screwed. Someone could unscrew from outside, drop the bars, and climb in.
These Vice Squad Officers really didn’t learn.
The dirt on the sill was fresh, but outside was concrete with a few trees—the soil under them was a different color.
Last night’s downpour had washed all traces clean again.
He bagged the dirt for evidence. No lab in town—they’d helicopter it to the city for testing.
“What time did that doctor come?”
“Uh…” The two Vice Squad Officers thought back. “Around 8 a.m. yesterday. He wasn’t happy, griped about using his remote office for corpses.”
“Did you check if the window was locked?”
“Of course. We inspected before putting the bodies in and locked them.”
“After the doctor?”
“Didn’t notice.” The officer hesitated.
It was an old sliding window—left one had a switch to pop it open, right one too. If cracked slightly, the edges aligned almost perfectly with the frame—invisible from the door.
“So the killer came to open the window. Short process—you blink and it’s done. Then entered via window, took the body out to skin, brought it back refrozen, and closed the window.”
“But over such a long gap, we stood to stretch sometimes and could see the bodies through the door window. If gone that long, we’d know.”
“You never went in to check?”
The two shook their heads. “Door window was convenient enough.” Why bother entering unless something odd happened?
Xiao Fen looked in through the window and could only vaguely make out the side of the corpse’s face and chest in the freezer.
Qin Wensu suddenly thought of something.
Xiao Fen happened to look at her as well.
“Lu Kaiyu!”
————
The gale had been blowing for ages, enough that even a bit of rain soaked people’s clothes.
When Xiao Fen and Zhang Jian returned to the Inspection Office, they happened to see Fang Si Ting and Ou Yu coming back from outside as well.
He was stunned for a moment, not expecting these two to run into each other.
“What’s the situation on your side?” Fang Si Ting folded his long-handled umbrella, tipping the end outward under the eaves. Rainwater dripped down the umbrella’s surface for a good while until only sporadic drops were falling, at which point he slipped it into the plastic cover.
Hearing this, Zhang Jian said in horror, “That ghostly skinner who comes and goes without a trace struck again—he peeled off Guo Dongying’s skin.”
“Are you having a chuunibyou episode?” Xiao Fen retorted.
“Don’t give him any titles that sound thrilling or impressive.” Fang Si Ting’s expression was so serious that he reprimanded him in a critical tone.
Zhang Jian was puzzled. “But don’t news outlets call them that all the time?”
Xiao Fen stood beside Fang Si Ting. “Without sensationalism to grab eyeballs, it wouldn’t be news—but we can’t do that. It’s too easy to incite worship. What our Program Crew puts on is fake in the end. It looks exaggerated and attention-grabbing, but in real life, it’s completely impractical. Just take the autopsy results—they’re entirely up to the criminal guest, making such a key step seem utterly childish.
“This case is different. Look at real criminals abroad—even after they’re caught, there are always ignorant masses who blindly worship serial killers, even following and imitating them by committing copycat crimes. That’s seriously pathological. We’re live streaming, so we absolutely can’t start that kind of trend.”
“Crime is crime. It’s not some display of power and strength—it’s a despicable act that tramples on other people’s lives and dignity. It should be despised by all,” Fang Si Ting said.
Seeing how serious they both were, Zhang Jian felt a bit intimidated and nodded. “I was thoughtless.”
“The purpose of our program is that no matter how complex or difficult the case, no matter how bizarre the crime method, it can ultimately be cracked. The law is vast and inescapable.” Fang Si Ting’s gaze unconsciously flicked toward the man beside him. “Also, no matter how smart or skilled the fugitive is—even if they flee to the ends of the earth—they will eventually be brought to justice and pay the price they deserve.”
Xiao Fen secretly rolled his eyes at him. He had no intention of falling into his hands.
【I get it—this isn’t Approaching Science; this is Walking into the Law!】
【Never thought legal education would enter my brain like this one day, and I’d stay up all night binge-watching it with zero regrets.】
【I’ve seen some foreign cases too. Gotta say, overseas media excels at “deifying” killers to incite worship and fandom, or exploiting bits of the perp’s backstory for sympathy and clicks to boost their traffic and sales. But that “god” is like a malevolent spirit—an evil entity—and they’re lost in fanatic worship without even realizing it.】
The live stream chat filled with sighs. They also ditched the so-called “skinner” title for the killer, simply calling the guy “the murderer.”
Utterly ordinary, lost among petty crimes like catching chickens and dogs.
