The Lost Rose

Unless my head rolls to the feet of the one I love, it remains but a weary burden upon my shoulders.

The cold, fastidious forensic doctor who feigns indifference and harbors a profound disdain for the living (Gong) x “Then I simply won’t live,” dangerously beautiful, chaotic, and unhinged madman (Shou).

Forensic doctor Pei Yu has spent his life avoiding dealings with the living. 

Every day, he works with meticulous dedication, pouring his brilliance and passion into the corpses at his station. 

If someone were to tell him that one day, he would fall so desperately in love with a living soul that he would discard his pride and dignity entirely, he would surely brandish his scalpel and demand their name…

No nameless ghost dies beneath Dr. Pei’s blade. 

With a single willow-leaf scalpel, he can make the dead speak and silence the living forever. 

The living gain justice while the dead find their voice, as the cold flash of steel overturns buried grievances. 

Honor and infamy, loyalty and treachery, are all weighed by the edge of his blade; good and evil, life and death, balance upon its tip.

Shen Xingchen’s obsession with Dr. Pei was rooted in far more than just a handsome face. 

Yet, possessing nothing to his name—to the point where even the flowers he gifted were mere paper folds—he felt compelled to offer his own bones and blood as a sacrificial confession. 

Most gratifyingly, it was exactly what the other desired. 

Rose petals are crimson, and so, too, is the blood of a lover.

Pei Yu × Shen Xingchen

Postscript:

1. One case per volume, featuring a collaborative investigative format.

2. Neither the gong nor the shou are particularly sane individuals.

3. The author is not a forensic doctor. While every effort is made to maintain professional rigor, any inaccuracies should be considered creative liberties taken for the sake of the narrative.

4. The text in grey is cited from the thirteenth-century Persian poet, Rumi.