Three years ago, Lin Mo drew a portrait. The person he drew died three days later, and he was kicked out of the provincial department.
Three years later, the Municipal Public Security Bureau begs him to come back and draw another portrait. He draws a missing auxiliary police officer. The next day, the officer's twin brother is found dead in an alley. He draws a witness. That night, the witness is found with their throat slit.
Someone circles the people in his portraits in red, turning them into a death list. Someone is using his textbooks to train killers. Someone is reconstructing his methods, page by page, from the ashes of the lesson plans he burned.
Lin Mo says, "I'm done drawing." The other person says, "Whoever you draw, I'll kill."
Lin Mo tosses his charcoal pencil into the trash, opens his work ledger, and writes three lines:
Scope of work: behavioral analysis. No portraits. Whoever I draw dies. That rule stays. But the flowers still need watering.
