On a stormy night, suspense writer Lin Zhixia dies in a locked study. The coroner estimates her time of death as sometime between eight and ten that evening. Yet at 8:47 p.m., her account automatically comes online, with the cursor still blinking at the end of her unfinished manuscript.
When forensic evidence consultant Su Yan arrives, she spots three things that don't add up: the air conditioner is set to an unusually low 18 degrees, a brown fingerprint beside the coffee cup looks like an “S” or half a radical, and the computer log shows that no one touched the keyboard. A scheduled task woke the computer.
The time of death is overturned: Lin Zhixia had actually been dead for an entire day.
As the investigation deepens, a clue buried for ten years comes to light: medical trial S-17, the mysterious death of a test subject, a falling-out between two close friends, and a cardiology department director with a perfect alibi. Whom was the victim trying to identify with that half-written stroke she left behind?
Someone predicted her death, and also predicted the exact second people would discover that she was “alive” after she died.
At 8:47 p.m., she came online for the last time. But the coroner says she had already been dead for an entire day.
This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.
