The Shadow Detective

* Mystery / Horror / Folklore / Battle-Scarred / Sickly

* Smiling, foxlike, beautiful-but-tragic professor x Tsundere detective with a ghost-attracting constitution

Folklore professor Tu Zhao was on an ocean research trip when, by a twist of fate, she became the sole witness to a murder. While fleeing her pursuers, she accidentally fell into the sea. When she woke, she could no longer remember what the killer looked like.

As the only survivor of a ghost ship, Tu Zhao became media bait. Reporters and fans swarmed her school and home, and one obsessive fan even climbed in through a window and hid under her bed.

Tu Zhao: Call in backup! I have to call in backup!

The night she agreed to assist the police investigation, a young woman appeared at her door and drove away all the unwelcome guests.

Then she barged into Tu Zhao's home, moved in, slept in her bed, and used her shower gel, all under the pretext of: "This is called close protection."

Before long, the woman assigned to protect her had seen so many ghosts she screamed herself hoarse.

Tu Zhao tugged her wrinkled sleeve free. "Officer Shen, which one of us is supposed to be protecting the other?"

-

After reading through the case files eight hundred times, detective Shen Yanzhen remained convinced that Tu Zhao was the killer.

Her superior asked why.

She replied, "My mom says pretty people are the biggest liars."

Her superior: "Get out of my sight."

Shen Yanzhen racked her brains but couldn't find any evidence. So when Tu Zhao requested protection, Shen volunteered: "There's no one more suitable than me."

Her superior worriedly replied, "And there's no detective more cowardly than you."

To find evidence that Tu Zhao was guilty and prove her suspicions right, Shen Yanzhen stayed by her side almost every moment.

She even woke Tu Zhao whenever she had to get up during the night.

"Come with me," she said, utterly unapologetic.

"A police officer is afraid of ghosts?" Tu Zhao grumbled.

After joining forces to investigate a string of cases and surviving life-and-death ordeals, Shen Yanzhen came around to Tu Zhao's way of thinking.

"You're right. People are scarier than ghosts." Then she abruptly changed the subject. "Tu Zhao, are you human or a ghost?"

For once, Tu Zhao fell silent instead of making light of things as she usually did.

Because at that moment, even reading lips had become difficult for her.

-

A month before she was due to die, Tu Zhao made herself a long bucket list. Every time she completed something, she secretly crossed it off.

1. Steal back the motorcycle keys.

2. Party with everyone for three days and nights.

3. Eat a colorful fruit tart and a sweet pudding boat.

4. Go to an amusement park with Shen Yanzhen.

98. Celebrate Shen Yanzhen's birthday with her.

99. Convince Shen Yanzhen that the curse has been lifted.

Reader's Note:

1) This is not a bad ending, it's a happy ending!

2) Daily updates at 7:30 p.m.

--- Blurb for the next book, Gray Accomplices ---

The year Guan Shan was chosen to go undercover, she had just passed the detective exam. With a heart full of passion and nowhere to put it, she agreed without hesitation. During the secret selection process, her exceptional ability to handle pressure and react on the fly made her stand out among the many undercover candidates.

After training ended, Guan Shan was dismissed from the police force and sent to Harbor City under a new identity.

Two years of living on the streets had earned her a little renown. She'd also figured out Harbor City's pecking order, and as luck would have it, the person at the very top was recruiting bodyguards.

Guan Shan wasn't about to let the opportunity pass her by.

She just hadn't expected being a bodyguard to be so hard.

Not only did she have to take slaps for her employer, she also had to take knives and bullets for her, come up with new stories to tell her, and...

Put the damn young lady to bed.

-

In the education Miao Huazhen received from childhood, money ranked just below herself. To her, people were cheap, disposable supplies that could simply be replaced when broken. Feelings were nothing but fleeting, worthless chemical reactions in the brain.

To hold on to her position of power, she schemed and resorted to any means necessary, even casting off her humanity.

She thought that even if she died, she would die here.

In the paradise she had created with her own hands.

But that woman's arrival destroyed everything.

And made her realize, all too clearly:

Paradise could also be hell.

-

After the undercover mission ended, Guan Shan resumed her real identity and returned to the police force.

After getting used to living on the edge, she found it hard to adjust to an ordinary life again. It took a long time.

Hardest of all was having to arrest Miao Huazhen with her own hands.

Theme: Believe, and it exists; disbelieve, and it doesn't.