Profiling

April 5th, Qingming Festival.

Puddles on the road reflected the sign for Funing Garden on Taipei Road, ripples blooming where raindrops fell. Occasionally, a passing vehicle would crush through them, sending shards of water spraying in every direction.

It was a Friday, just past seven-thirty in the morning. The streets were already bustling, and the small shops along the roadside were opening for business.

Beside the guardrail, a teenager stood under a tree, yawning.

He looked no older than seventeen. A mop of black hair fell in a messy sprawl, partially obscuring his eyes. His features were sharp and well-defined, as if sculpted, and he was strikingly handsome.

"Thirty, lawyer."

"Forty-two, coal boss."

"Fifty-seven, surgeon."

"Twenty-five, dance streamer."

"Twenty-one... duck!"

Gu Jianlin was lost in his own world, his peripheral vision sweeping over the passing pedestrians to kill time.

Though his words seemed devoid of logic, the passersby cast him looks of bewilderment.

Some found him inexplicable, others wore expressions as if they had encountered a lunatic, and a small minority looked at him with suspicion. The last one, a flashy, overdressed handsome man, looked both shocked and furious; he spat lightly and hurried away.

"Crazy."

Gu Jianlin didn't care in the slightest, as if the insult hadn't been directed at him at all.

He checked the time. The cemetery would be opening soon, so he picked up his bags and prepared to leave.

Just then, his phone chimed with a WeChat message.

"Xiao Lin, your Uncle Su and I are heading back to our hometown in Jiaoxi today. I've transferred a thousand yuan to your WeChat. Don't forget to visit your dad's grave, and don't buy flowers in the park; they're expensive as hell. Alright, Mom has to board the bus now. You just got out of the hospital, so go home and rest early."

A woman's voice played through the audio message. With a thud, it cut off abruptly.

"I didn't expect Mom to remember."

Gu Jianlin said softly.

He put his phone away, nodded and smiled at the security guard at the gate, and entered the park.

The guard watched the boy. He was wearing the uniform of Fengcheng No. 2 High School, carrying a large backpack, a suitcase in his left hand, and several large bags of offerings in his right. He was clearly a boarding student.

A typhoon had hit last night, paralyzing the city's traffic. For safety reasons, the school certainly wouldn't have let students out.

Fengcheng No. 2 High School was the best in the city with top-tier education, but it was over thirty kilometers away. For the boy to arrive this early, he must have snuck out of school at the crack of dawn.

The guard felt a pang of emotion.

He had been a guard at this park for over a decade, witnessing the shifting of eras.

The more the times progressed, the thinner human sentiment became.

Nowadays, fewer and fewer young people came to the cemetery to visit their ancestors. Of course, one couldn't blame them; life was hard enough as it was. People were busy with the 996 or 007 grind, leaving early and returning late. When they finally got a holiday, they should be resting at home, even if it was just playing games.

In over ten years, this was the first time he had seen a child come to visit his family's grave all by himself. It was truly rare.

Gu Jianlin didn't know what the guard was thinking; he was simply in the habit of doing things properly.

Years ago, his father would bring him to this place to pay respects to their ancestors every Qingming. It was always at this time. If they arrived even a little late, the streets would be jammed solid, and the park entrance would be packed with people, forcing them to inch forward bit by bit.

That was why his father would wake him up before six every time, back when he was still reluctant to go.

Now his father was gone, and his mother had long since started a new family. He was the only one left in his own household.

When his parents divorced, the relationship had turned quite bitter.

He had assumed that after his father's accident, his mother would throw herself into her new life and quickly forget about her ex-husband.

He hadn't expected her to remind him about the grave visit.

Gu Jianlin shook his head with a faint smile, climbing the hillside along the path in his memory. There were many cemeteries in this park; his father's tomb was in West District No. 13, right next to a small fountain. It was easy to recognize.

A black Mercedes was parked at the entrance of the cemetery. The driver's side window rolled down, revealing a face with dark circles under the eyes.

It was a middle-aged man in his forties, wearing a police uniform. He smoked silently in the car, then waved at the window and yawned. "Xiao Gu, over here."

Gu Jianlin was stunned. "Detective Zhou? Why are you here?"

In the backseat of the car sat two young detectives, holding fresh flowers.

His father had been a profiler specially hired by the police station. Aside from work, he hadn't had many social connections. If anyone were to visit him after his death, it would only be these colleagues of his.

So-called profiling involved analyzing the modus operandi, crime scene layout, and criminal characteristics to sketch out the perpetrator's mindset.

From there, one could further paint a portrait of their race, gender, age, professional background, physical appearance, and personality traits, and predict their next move.

Profiling was very helpful for solving cases, which was why his father was highly respected at the station.

"How many times do I have to say it? Just call me Uncle Zhou."

Zhou Ze leaned against the car window, smoking, and sighed. "I've known your dad for over twenty years. Many of the cases I took on were solved thanks to his profiling. Besides, whenever you had a holiday lately, you'd always be squatting at the station looking for me, so I figured I might as well come to you."

"Here, these are the young detectives your dad used to mentor."

He pointed behind him. "You should know them, right?"

"Xiao Gu is so filial, running to the station every day for Professor Gu's sake. It'd be hard not to know him."

The two young detectives said with a smile.

Gu Jianlin nodded slightly, acknowledging them.

Detective Zhou was the captain of the Fengcheng Police Station, a high-ranking official with a busy schedule. He could go half a month without being able to return home, so it was unexpected that he would make a special trip.

"Sorry, I've been causing you trouble lately."

Gu Jianlin thought about how he had been bothering them at the station every day and felt a bit apologetic. "If you're really busy, you don't have to come. You two were so close, my dad wouldn't blame you."

"It's no trouble at all."

Zhou Ze shrugged, pushed the car door open, and stepped out, stubbing out his cigarette. "I still had to come see you, didn't I? He only had one son; I have to make sure you're taken care of. Speaking of which, how is your recovery going?"

Gu Jianlin touched his forehead and replied, "It's alright. The doctor said I was fine when I was discharged."

"That's good. When we found you two, your dad was already gone, and you were covered in blood, unconscious."

Zhou Ze studied his face, feeling slightly relieved, and sighed. "The doctor said even if you survived, there was a chance of brain trauma. So you need to rest more. Stay home during the holiday, and stop running to the police station."

"I know."

Gu Jianlin recalled the car accident four months ago and the hazy, confused experience of the past few months.

It felt like a nightmare, one he still hadn't woken up from.

Zhou Ze patted his shoulder comfortingly and said softly, "Let's go, don't just stand here. Let's go see your dad and the others. No need to wait in line for flowers; I had someone bring some for you."

Gu Jianlin pursed his lips and nodded slightly.

He used to hear older people sigh about the impermanence of the world, how meetings and partings were always too hurried, and how, upon reuniting, things were often no longer the same as time slipped away silently.

He hadn't felt anything about it back then, as he was still young.

But now he understood.

Because Gu Jianlin never imagined that, four months later, when he finally saw his father again, the grass on his grave would be half a meter high.

·

·

There were five tombstones in the cemetery, arranged neatly from left to right.

Grandfather, grandmother, second uncle, third uncle, father.

The portraits on the tombstones looked peaceful.

It was fortunate that his mother was still alive, otherwise, he would have started his life as an orphan.

The whole family sacrificed to the heavens, their power boundless.

Gu Jianlin glanced at the small empty space at the very end, feeling as if it had been reserved just for him.

When he kicked the bucket one day, he would be buried right here.

The whole family, neat and tidy.

Gu Jianlin put down his suitcase and, following the process in his memory, took the flowers and offerings out of the bags, placed them one by one on the tombstones, and then knelt on the ground with his hands pressed together in mourning.

It seemed as if everything was no different from previous Qingming festivals.

Except for the addition of a new tombstone this time.

There was one more bouquet of flowers to buy.

And one more person to miss.

Zhou Ze lit a cigarette silently; his best brother had died young, and his heart was heavy.

The two young detectives also felt a sense of regret. After all, Professor Gu had been the most brilliant profiler in Fengcheng, helping to solve many major cases over the years, only to die so young.

The only consolation was that Professor Gu had left behind a filial son.

However, in the next second, they suddenly heard the teenager whispering to himself.

"You're a psychology professor, yet you chose to be a police profiler instead of taking a high-paying job. The pay was low, you were always traveling, and wherever there was a case, there you were. What was the point?"

"In the end, you didn't save much money, and you're gone. Mom was right back then—other than being good-looking, you didn't seem to have any merits. But I didn't expect that when I grew up, I'd turn out the same way."

"When you started this job, I told you to buy more insurance. It's too easy to offend people, and it's easy to have a bad end. If you'd bought more insurance, my life would be easier if you were gone. But you had to be superstitious about that nonsense from Sun the Half-Immortal downstairs, thinking you'd live past eighty. And look what happened? You had an accident at forty."

"Later, I went to confront that Sun the Half-Immortal and asked for a refund. He said he was only a 'half-immortal,' so he could only get half the fortune-telling right. I asked him which half he got right? He said he got half of the lifespan right, so if I wanted a refund, I could only get half back."

"If you're really dead, hurry up and show some spirit—take that Sun the Half-Immortal downstairs with you. I've already made a deal with his son to buy him some high-value insurance. Once he's down there, we'll split the payout fifty-fifty."

"You were such a superstitious person, you wouldn't want no one to burn paper for you after you died, right?"

When Gu Jianlin placed the offerings, he usually did it in portions, but it was different for his father.

He took out an apple, took a bite, and then placed it down.

He pulled out a bun, bit off half, and tossed it up there too.

There was also a grilled fish, which he had gnawed down to the skeleton, and he placed that up there as well.

The detectives stared blankly at the kid frantically stealing his own father's offerings at the graveside. It was truly "filial" to the point of death.

Zhou Ze couldn't help but retort, "Xiao Gu, we're all here to visit graves, so why is your style so different from everyone else's?"

Gu Jianlin looked up. It was already past eight o'clock, and several groups of people had trickled into the cemetery.

His ears were filled with their weeping, and everywhere he looked were silent faces.

At first glance, they all seemed like grieving people.

"And what would be considered normal?"

Gu Jianlin glanced at a woman sobbing uncontrollably over a tombstone nearby and said flatly, "Like that?"

Zhou Ze followed his gaze and sighed, "She's crying so sadly. Every family has its own troubles."

It was a tombstone built like a rockery. A woman in the prime of her life was kneeling in front of it, clutching the portrait and crying her heart out. Her family stood behind her, watching silently, their expressions numb or sorrowful.

"Sad?"

Gu Jianlin said calmly, "But I think she's smiling quite happily."

Zhou Ze was stunned. "Smiling? When did she smile?"

This was the Qingming Festival; no one with a normal brain would smile at someone else's grave unless they were looking for a beating.

"My dad often said that you shouldn't just look at the surface; sadness can be faked."

Gu Jianlin glanced over there again and shook his head. "The one in the grave is her husband. The tombstone says he was born in 1970, so he's fifty-two this year. But this woman is at most twenty-four. She's here to visit the grave, yet she's dressed so exquisitely, wearing such heavy makeup, and covered in designer brands—that bag alone is worth eighty thousand."

He paused. "The man in the grave was rich and married a young wife. This woman doesn't love him; his death is a good thing for her."

Because there was a massive fortune to be divided.

Zhou Ze was taken aback and laughed. "So you're still studying your dad's profiling? Profiling requires a wealth of life experience and knowledge; how could you learn it so quickly? Besides, your reasoning is flawed. What if this woman is his daughter?"

Gu Jianlin didn't say anything; he had many reasons.

For instance, the men standing behind her had all called out "Dad" at the tombstone; they were clearly the deceased's sons.

But the problem was, the woman looked nothing like them.

Furthermore, the way those men looked at the woman was full of hatred and disdain; it was obvious their relationship was poor.

The woman had a ring indentation on her ring finger, but she wasn't wearing a wedding ring today.

The scent of perfume drifting on the wind, the brands of her clothes and bag, the way she walked earlier, her seductive demeanor...

Of course, these details weren't the main point, nor were they absolutely convincing.

The reason Gu Jianlin said the woman was smiling was because he had actually seen it.

In his eyes, the woman clutching the tombstone was trembling, the corners of her mouth spreading bit by bit, suppressing a triumphant laugh. She was laughing so hard she was swaying back and forth. Despite having a beautiful face, she looked like a fanged female ghost when she laughed.

"Ha."

"Hahaha!"

"Hahaha... hahahahaha!"

The laughter was truly grating.

Logically, if she were laughing so hysterically, it should have alerted the people around her.

However, the reality was that neither the family members behind her nor the people around them seemed to notice her abnormality.

Gu Jianlin, on the other hand, was already used to this.

Of course they couldn't see it.

Because this was a scene he had profiled.

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