After Becoming a Scummy Alpha, I Met the Reborn Omega - Chapter 35

Chen Lin had recently wrapped up her latest assignment. With some free time on her hands, she stayed in her small attic, where she kept all the materials from the sensational case that had shaken the city seven years ago.

As she looked at the evidence related to Lin Changsheng in the photographs, she noted again that only Lin Changsheng’s fingerprints had been found at the scene. In fact, it wasn’t just fingerprints—there were no other traces whatsoever apart from those belonging to Lin Changsheng.

Only Lin Changsheng’s testimony attested to the existence of another person.

Chen Lin, staring at the case files she had reviewed countless times, lit a cigarette. The smoke swirled around her, obscuring her face and making it impossible to see the expression in her eyes.

When had all that happened? Back then, she was still a rookie—newly appointed and eager to make her mark. Full of youthful ambition, she had hoped to solve a major case and earn her mentor’s recognition. At the time, her mentor had thought Chen Lin was too impulsive and had no intention of letting her handle a case alone.

That was, until that horrifying case surfaced—a family of three brutally murdered in their own home. The person who called the police was the sole survivor: the family’s eldest daughter.
Chen Lin, following her mentor, arrived at the scene—and it was utterly gruesome.

The front door was wide open. The first sight that greeted them was the male head of the household, collapsed on the sofa. He had been stabbed multiple times, and blood soaked the entire couch. Blood had splattered across the coffee table and the carpet, making the scene all the more horrifying.

Wearing shoe covers, Chen Lin carefully stepped into the crime scene, but blood was everywhere—it was difficult even to find a place to stand.
This was the first time in her career that she had encountered such a horrific crime scene. Although she had been determined to tackle a major case, now that one had landed before her, she found herself almost unable to handle it.
Perhaps it was the sheer brutality of the scene that made her feel nauseous.

She hurriedly ran outside to retch, but nothing came out. Her mentor, an experienced officer, merely sneered at her lack of composure and asked if she could still continue.

Forcing herself to adapt, Chen Lin reentered the scene.
This time, she examined the man’s body more carefully and realized that decomposition had already begun—the air was filled with a sickening stench.

The fatal wound was a stab to the neck. A bloody footprint trailed from beside the sofa toward the bedroom.
Following the prints, Chen Lin cautiously made her way toward the bedroom.

The door to the bedroom was ajar, and she couldn’t see inside clearly. Nervous, she swallowed hard.
The forensic team had already arrived.
Seeing her hesitation, one of the forensic officers sneered at the rookie and pushed the door open for her.

Directly across from the door was the bed—and Chen Lin found herself staring into a pair of wide-open eyes.
The woman’s empty gaze, filled with bloodshot terror, startled her.
The body of the woman—presumably the mother—was sitting upright on the bed, seemingly staring directly at Chen Lin, almost as if still alive.

A chill ran down Chen Lin’s spine.

Fortunately, the forensic and crime scene teams entered the room to conduct their examinations, which gave her some courage.
The bedroom floor was soaked in blood, and the bed was the bloodiest of all.
Despite the carnage, the woman’s corpse remained sitting up, leaning against the bed, in an unnaturally eerie position.

She too had been stabbed multiple times, with the fatal wound in her chest.
Death had come quickly, yet her expression was frozen in fear, confusion, and terror.

The bloody footprints ended at the bedroom, but a bloody trail continued from the bed toward the bathroom.

Chen Lin’s heart sank. Was there another body?

At that time, she had only known that a murder had occurred—but not how many had died.

Seeing the crib in the corner of the bedroom, a deep sense of unease rose within Chen Lin.
She followed the trail of blood toward the bathroom, still clinging to a sliver of hope.
But when she pushed open the door, she was met with a gruesome sight: a bathtub filled with bloodied water—and submerged in it, the lifeless body of an infant.

This time, Chen Lin could no longer hold back. She covered her mouth with her hand, trembling.
At some point, her mentor had quietly come up behind her and gave her a gentle pat on the back.
“Go take the survivor’s statement,” he said.

Perhaps out of consideration for Chen Lin’s state, he sent her away from the crime scene for the time being.
The survivor was the only member of the family still alive—their daughter, a young girl still in school.
When Chen Lin saw her, the girl was dressed in a blood-stained white shirt, her face and hair also smeared with blood.

She had delicate features, but her face was deathly pale, her eyes brimming with tears.
The sight filled Chen Lin with deep sympathy.
Such a young girl, suddenly subjected to such horror, having lost her entire family—if it were her, she thought, she would never have been able to endure it.

“Can you tell me what you saw?” Chen Lin asked gently.

The girl sobbed quietly.
Chen Lin handed her a tissue, and after a moment, she began to speak in a soft, trembling voice.

“Today, my dad had some errands to run, so at home it was just me, my mom, and my little brother.
After lunch, I got bored and suggested playing hide-and-seek with my mom. My brother was napping at the time.
Mom went to the living room to count, and I quietly hid in the big wardrobe in the bedroom.”

Chen Lin remembered that wardrobe—it was opposite the bed, right beside the bedroom door.

“But Mom never found me. I was about to come out when I suddenly heard a loud noise, like someone forcing their way into the house.
Mom, frightened, ran into the bedroom.
I peeked through a crack and saw a man wearing a black baseball cap, his face hidden.
He kicked the bedroom door open with one strong blow, holding a knife in his hand.

My brother, startled awake, began crying loudly.
The man grabbed my mom by the hair and pinned her to the bed, stabbing her several times.
She stopped moving very quickly.
I was so scared—I could only cover my mouth to keep from making a sound. I didn’t dare come out.”

Her voice trembled even more.

“I saw him walk over to the crib and stab it a few times.
My brother stopped crying after that.
Then he dragged my brother by the leg into the bathroom.
I heard the sound of running water.

Just then, I heard the sound of Dad coming home.
The man heard it too.
He grabbed the knife and rushed into the living room.
I heard a scuffle.
It was only then that I dared to come out.

When I got to the living room, Dad was already lying on the sofa, with the knife still lodged in his neck.
I screamed as loud as I could.
The man seemed shocked—Dad hadn’t closed the door when he came in, and with my screaming and the earlier noise from the fight, we must have alerted the neighbors.
The man fled immediately.”

Chen Lin glanced at the building’s layout.
There were two units per floor, with the elevator located in the middle of the hallway and a fire escape stairwell at the far end.
The crime scene was near the stairwell.
When the neighbors had opened their doors, they saw the girl standing in front of the bodies, crying and shouting for someone to catch the murderer.

However, the neighbors had not seen the perpetrator themselves; they had quickly helped call the police.

The girl continued, her voice barely audible.

“I was terrified. I saw the knife in Dad’s neck. I… I wanted to help him. Even though Dad was already not breathing, I couldn’t give up hope.
I pulled the knife out—and blood splattered all over me. I was so scared that I dropped the knife on the floor.”

Afterwards, she had gone to the bedroom to check on her mother—but sadly, she had already stopped breathing.

The neighbors, hearing her story, had rushed off to try to catch the escaping murderer, unaware of the full horror inside the apartment.

After taking the statement, Chen Lin comforted the girl and tried to reassure her.
“I’ll definitely catch the murderer,” she promised.

“Elder sister, you must catch him!” the girl pleaded.

Hearing the desperate plea in the girl’s voice, Chen Lin’s gaze became firm and resolute.
“Don’t worry. I may look young, but I’m a police officer,” she said with conviction.

The girl, however, couldn’t give a clear description of the intruder’s face—perhaps out of terror, or perhaps because the perpetrator had concealed himself too well.
Conveniently, the building’s surveillance cameras had broken down; it was possible the killer had known this when he planned his crime.
The brutality of the attack fueled Chen Lin’s determination: she would find this murderer, no matter what.

Looking into the girl’s red, tear-swollen eyes, Chen Lin’s belief in her mission as a police officer grew even stronger.

After investigating the scene, Chen Lin’s mentor reviewed her written report with a heavy expression.
After a moment’s thought, he decided to bring the girl back to the station for another, more detailed statement.

Chen Lin was puzzled.
She felt that her notes were already detailed enough.
The girl had just suffered a devastating trauma—surely she should rest, stay with relatives, and get some sleep?
Why insist on dragging her back to the station for another interview?

“Mentor, the statement is already quite detailed. Maybe we should let her—”

Her mentor cut her off with a sharp glare. Chen Lin immediately fell silent.

The girl was brought back to the station, and Chen Lin followed closely behind, listening as her mentor lectured her:
“We found only one set of fingerprints at the scene—hers.
There’s no trace of any other intruder.”

Chen Lin, still not understanding his implication, said hesitantly,
“Maybe the murderer was good at covering his tracks?”

Her mentor gave her a disapproving tap on the head.
“Don’t be fooled by appearances. Look again at the statement you took.”

Chen Lin flipped through her notes.
On the surface, everything seemed perfectly logical and fluent.
There were no inconsistencies.

But then a thought struck her like lightning.

A child who had just witnessed the brutal murder of her family—shouldn’t she have been stammering, confused, unable to clearly recount events?
Yet the girl had calmly and fluently described everything, without hesitation, as if she had rehearsed it a thousand times.

No… it couldn’t be.
The girl looked so young—barely a teenager—and the victims were her closest family.
The sheer brutality of the crime… and yet her cries and pitiful appearance still echoed vividly in Chen Lin’s mind.
She struggled to believe it.

“It’s fine, you’re still young,” her mentor said.
“I’ll handle her. You go back and reexamine the scene.”

Chen Lin stayed behind at the apartment.
She returned to the bedroom, inspecting the door carefully.
The lock turned smoothly.
There were no signs of forced entry or damage.

It didn’t match the girl’s story of someone violently breaking in.

Chen Lin turned toward the wardrobe where the girl had said she hid.
She climbed inside herself to recreate the perspective.

Through the gap in the wardrobe, she could see the bed clearly—but the bathroom was out of view.

“I saw him stab my little brother, then drag him toward the bathroom,” the girl had said.

A chilling suspicion crept into Chen Lin’s mind—but she kept pushing it down, refusing to accept it.

Just then, a phone call shattered the silence of the crime scene.
Chen Lin’s ears buzzed.

“The girl had a knife on her—she stabbed a police officer in the patrol car!
Whose statement was it?
Why didn’t anyone check her for concealed weapons…”

Chen Lin’s mind reeled.
That weak, pitiful girl…
Who would have thought she was carrying a weapon?

She watched as her mentor—his clothes soaked in blood—was rushed into surgery.

One moment of compassion.
One moment of naivety.
And she had made an irreversible mistake.

Though her mentor eventually survived, he had no choice but to retire early.

Later, all the evidence pointed directly at the girl. Traces of sedatives were found in the victims’ systems.
The motive?
Jealousy—anger that her parents no longer cared for her after her little brother was born.

The case left a deep scar on Chen Lin’s heart.
From that day on, she trusted only evidence—never again the words of others.

Until Lin Changsheng appeared.

All the evidence pointed to Lin Changsheng. She had been the only person at the crime scene.

No matter how hard Chen Lin interrogated her, no matter how desperately Lin Changsheng pleaded and insisted that someone else had been there, Chen Lin refused to believe it.
People could lie, she thought.

Even someone like Lin Changsheng—so polished, so outwardly delicate—could still be a monstrous killer inside.

Chen Lin trusted only evidence.

But in the end, the evidence wasn’t enough to convict Lin Changsheng.
Doubts began to gnaw at her. Could the murderer Lin Changsheng spoke of actually be real?

Support