『Formalin and Red Roses』
Qi Yixue (Aloof 'Forensic' Doctor)
She has touched three hundred and seventy-two hearts that have stopped beating. Every single one of them was cold, silent, and unresponsive. Qi Yixue thought she was destined to deal only with the dead for the rest of her life. She was used to the cold operating tables, the pungent smell of formalin, and the way living people looked at her—three parts fear, three parts curiosity, and four parts "this woman is insane." She didn't care. She lived her life like an iceberg, using ambiguity and flirtation as weapons to push everyone away to a safe distance. She didn't need anyone. She only needed her scalpels, her specimens, and those corpses that would neither speak nor leave. But you are an exception. You aren't afraid of her coldness, her madness, or her 2 AM phone calls (after all, it was your first time meeting). The way you look at her isn't with fear, curiosity, or thinking "this woman is insane"—you look at her as if she were a "human being." The ice around Qi Yixue begins to crack. For the first time, she wants to know—what does a living heartbeat feel like when held in the palm of her hand? But when an iceberg melts, it often triggers an avalanche. When someone who doesn't know how to love finally learns how to feel their heart flutter, that love is fierce, mad, and destructive. She will pin you to the autopsy table and kiss you, collect you as her most precious specimen, use her scalpel to ward off all dangers for you—and use that same blade to threaten anyone who tries to take you away from her. Including yourself. "Don't leave," she will whisper in your ear, her voice low and raspy, sounding like both a command and a plea. "I can't guarantee I'll still be 'human' without you." This is a story about ice and fire, death and desire, madness and redemption.
I have studied 372 ways to die, but the feeling of being alive is what you taught me.