The Wealthy Family Can All Hear My Thoughts

As the nation's top forensic pathologist, I was brought back to the Harper family.

They looked at my face, but recoiled at the smell of disinfectant clinging to me.

The adopted daughter, Violet Snow, wearing a two-hundred-thousand-dollar princess dress, gently urged me: Raven, Dad bought you new clothes. You should change out of those---they're bad luck.

I glanced at her coldly.

[What an act. Too bad for her---the last person who pulled this kind of stunt is still soaking in my specimen cabinet. I even sawed her skull open.]

[Then again, forget it. Even if someone peeled off her skin and gave her to me as a gift, I wouldn't want her.]

"Crash!" My CEO father, Maxwell Harper, dropped his antique teapot. It shattered across the floor.

My older brother, Cameron Harper, jumped up from the sofa like he'd been electrocuted.

He pointed at me, his lips turning purple.

[What are you staring at? I heard he's a doctor too. If I get the chance, I'll have someone send him my way.]

My mother's eyes rolled back, and she fainted on the spot.

The entire family went weak in the knees, nearly collapsing to the floor.

My mother came to after someone pressed her acupressure point. The moment she saw me, her whole body started trembling.

My brother Cameron clung to the wall to keep from falling.

The adopted daughter, Violet, glided over gracefully, trying to take my hand.

I sidestepped to avoid her.

She awkwardly withdrew her hand, her face still maintaining that perfect, delicate expression. "I've already prepared your room, Raven. Come see if you like it."

I followed her and glanced at the room.

Pink girly dcor, right next to Violet's room. The air was thick with a sickeningly sweet perfume smell.

I frowned. "I won't be staying here. I don't like this style."

Cameron was about to scold me for being ungrateful when he heard my thoughts.

[What is this mess? When blood splatters on the walls, pink shows every stain. It'll be impossible to clean.]

[I need to find somewhere more secluded. The storage room looks perfect---no windows, far from everyone else's rooms. It'll be easier to dissect bodies without being discovered.]

Cameron 's face went from flushed red to deathly pale in an instant.

My father Maxwell's voice carried a tremor. "Then... you can stay in the storage room for now. I'll have the servants help you clean it..."

I cut him off. "No need. I'll clean it myself. Just have someone install a shower for me."

[Just make sure the drainage system is good. It'll make it easier to dispose of body parts. Don't want the drains getting clogged.]

My father felt his vision go dark. His body swayed, but he forced himself to nod in agreement.

Violet didn't notice the strange reactions from everyone else. A flash of triumph crossed her eyes. She thought I'd angered Maxwell, which was why I was being deliberately assigned to that garbage-filled storage room.

I ignored them all. I walked straight toward the storage room tucked away in a corner of the first floor and pushed open the door.

A musty smell of years-old mildew hit me in the face.

I knocked on the wall with satisfaction. [The soundproofing seems decent too. The noise from processing bodies at night shouldn't disturb their sleep.]

Outside the door, my mother had just been helped up by Cameron and was barely recovering her senses. When she heard that thought, her eyes rolled back again, and she collapsed straight to the floor.

The atmosphere at dinner was as dead silent as a morgue.

The long dining table was covered with exquisite dishes, but no one dared touch their utensils.

The family sat stiffly in their seats.

The TV was playing a news segment. "...Today, police discovered a dismembered male corpse in the suburbs. The methods were extremely brutal. Police are working to apprehend the killer..."

On screen, the body was heavily pixelated, but the scattered outline was still horrifying.

Violet pretended to be frightened, covering her eyes and leaning weakly against my mother. "How scary. These criminals are so cruel nowadays."

I stared at the news footage, my brow furrowed. [Huh? Isn't that the one I processed a while back? They're only releasing the information now?]

[The police department's efficiency is terrible these days. Even their case notifications are half a beat behind.]

[That guy really suffered before he died though. They dismembered him piece by piece while he was still alive, and he was injected with nerve stimulants to stay conscious the whole time. He watched himself get sliced into pieces.]

Cameron, being a doctor, immediately visualized that scene. His stomach churned violently. He couldn't hold it in anymore. Face pale, he rushed to the bathroom and started vomiting.

My mother was startled by the commotion. Her head lolled to the side, and she fainted again.

The dining room erupted into chaos.

Only Violet still looked confused, not understanding when everyone in the family had become so timid that they could get this scared just watching the news.

My father Maxwell tried to maintain his composure, reaching for his water glass with a trembling hand.

Just then, a loud, piercing siren suddenly rang out in the silent dining room. "Wee-oo---wee-oo---"

Everyone in the family, including Cameron who'd just emerged from the bathroom, jumped in their seats.

I calmly pulled my phone from my pocket. "It's my phone," I explained.

My father's mind was already in turmoil. He thought I'd become so brazen that I dared to use a police siren as my ringtone while doing these things---clearly showing no fear of the police at all!

I didn't know what he was thinking. I answered the call on my own.

An anxious voice came from the other end. "Hello? What's up? Mm, another assignment?"

I listened to the phone, my brow slightly furrowed. "This time it's blunt force trauma to the skull? Alright, I'll be right there. Keep an eye on him for me."

I hung up, wiped my mouth with a napkin, and stood up.

"Stop right there!" My father slammed the table and shot to his feet. "Raven! Where are you going this late at night!" Veins bulged on his forehead. "I'll give you money! However much you want! Just... just stop doing this!"

[Give me money?]

[Is this about money? I've got an assignment from above. If I don't go, what if someone else takes the job?]

My father heard this thought, and the anger on his face instantly froze, replaced by a deeper despair.

He and Cameron exchanged glances. Both their faces drained of color. "She... she has accomplices..." Cameron muttered.

My father collapsed back into his chair in despair.

I just thought this family was acting bizarre, then turned and walked out.

This assignment was a bit tricky.

One was a high-altitude fall that hit a glass canopy, then fell again.

The other had been in water too long and had become a highly decomposed corpse with adipocere formation.

By the time I finished processing these two bodies, it was already dawn.

A thunderstorm had started outside. Fat raindrops hammered against the car windows with a pattering sound.

I drove home, dragging my exhausted body back to the Harper mansion.

The living room lights were still blazing.

The moment I pushed open the door, a heavy smell of formalin mixed with a faint odor of decay instantly dispersed the luxurious living room's original aromatherapy scent.

On the sofa, the Harper family members sat in a neat row. They'd clearly been waiting for me.

The adopted daughter Violet saw me and immediately covered her nose dramatically, a flash of undisguised disgust in her eyes.

But the next second, she switched to a concerned, worried expression and hurried over. "Raven, why are you back so late? What's that smell on you?"

Without waiting for my answer, she reached out to grab the evidence case I was carrying. "Let me help you with that. You look really tired."

Her movements were quick and urgent. I didn't react in time, and she actually snatched it from me.

Then, she "accidentally" stumbled. "Ah!" "Crash!"

The metal evidence case hit the polished marble floor hard. The lock popped open, and the case sprang wide.

Several organ specimens preserved in formalin rolled out.

Among them, a section of intestine with uncleaned matter still attached fell wetly onto the carpet.

"Raven, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..." The instant she saw what was on the floor, her pretty face went deathly pale. The rest of her sentence stuck in her throat. Her stomach churned. She bent over and vomited on the spot.

[Serves you right for playing tricks. Serves you right for being nosy.]

[Happy now? I wasn't planning to expose this, but you forced my hand.]

[Since you like looking so much, take a good look.]

[Now... I need to figure out how to deal with all of you.]

I put on the latex gloves I always carried and bent down expressionlessly to pick up the slippery section of intestine.

Then I straightened up, walked over to Violet who was vomiting her guts out, and held that section of intestine directly in front of her face. "Didn't you want to see?"

She looked up in horror, met my eyes, then saw that thing right in front of her. Her eyes rolled back, and she fainted from fright.

[Such a small courage, yet she dares to cause trouble. She brought this on herself!]

I held the intestine and slowly turned around.

"Boom!" Outside the window, lightning split the night sky. The living room chandelier flickered in response, alternating between light and dark.

In the shifting shadows, my father, mother, and brother saw me holding an intestine, standing next to Violet's collapsed body.

That image---the horror factor was off the charts.

The three of them didn't even manage to scream before their eyes rolled back simultaneously and they fainted together.

The entire living room was littered with collapsed bodies.

I shook my head. "Well, a family should be together."

I expended some effort first carefully cleaning up the traces on the floor and putting my "treasures" back in the case.

Then I dragged them one by one back to their respective rooms and arranged them neatly on their beds.

After finishing all this, I returned to my storage room and went to sleep, completely satisfied.

After that night, the house was quiet for several days.

There were no cases, and I was happy to have the free time to organize my tools and materials in my storage room.

I just didn't understand why my parents seemed so on edge. They saw me like mice seeing a cat, taking detours to avoid me.

Cameron even took several days off, not daring to go to the hospital. He locked himself in his room all day.

This eerie atmosphere continued until my birthday, when it finally improved a bit.

My father Maxwell saw that I'd been well-behaved for these past days and hadn't actually "processed" them, so he finally relaxed a little.

He decided to throw me a grand birthday party to publicly announce my identity as the real daughter and introduce me to his business partners.

He assigned the task of preparing the dress to Violet.

But because of what happened that night, Violet both feared and hated me. A huge shadow had already taken root in her heart.

Plus, she wanted to humiliate me in front of everyone, so she didn't tell me about this at all.

On the day of the birthday party, I'd just returned from the lab.

I hadn't even had time to change out of my work clothes before the servants rushed me to the banquet hall.

My clothes gave off a smell of corpses that outsiders found unbearable.

I dealt with corpses every day and was long used to it, so I didn't pay attention.

When I pushed open the banquet hall doors, it instantly fell silent.

All eyes focused on me simultaneously.

Several ladies near me even instinctively stepped back and dramatically fanned their noses with their hands.

Whispers arose. "This is the daughter the Harper family just found? Why did she come dressed like that? She looks so shabby."

"More than shabby---can you smell that? What a strange odor. Just looking at her is bad luck."

Violet ran over to me with fake concern. "Raven, why did you come dressed like this? Didn't Dad ask you to dress up?"

She pretended to be anxious. "Oh no, did I forget to tell you where the dressing room was? I have lots of new dresses in my closet. Why didn't you tell me?"

Just then, a mocking voice rang out.

It was my father's rival, President Quincy from Quincy Corporation.

He walked over with a wine glass, pot-bellied, pointing at me with utter contempt. "Well, well, Maxwell, where did you dig up this daughter of yours? From some graveyard? Just looking at her gives me the creeps!"

My father Maxwell's face turned iron blue.

I raised my head and looked coldly at that foul-mouthed President Quincy.

[This guy---I think his name is Quincy Sterling?]

[The higher-ups told me to keep an eye on him. I haven't even gone looking for him yet, and he's delivered himself to my door.]

[I doubt he'll be jumping around much longer. Still so arrogant when death is at his doorstep. I don't mind working overtime to send him off early.]

The moment my thoughts fell.

"Ahhh---!" President Quincy suddenly clutched his head and let out a piercing scream.

His eyes bulged. His whole body fell straight backward.

"Thud!" His corpulent body crashed to the floor. Blood began flowing uncontrollably from his nose and mouth.

The entire venue fell deathly silent.

Everyone looked at me in terror, as if looking at a witch.

My father Maxwell pointed at me with a trembling hand, his lips quivering, unable to utter a single word. "...It was you... you did this?"

I looked at President Quincy twitching on the ground and curved my lips into a cold smile. [Work's here. This old bastard was so arrogant, and now he's fallen into my hands anyway.]