The Entomologist's Perfect Crime Chapter 1

During my lecture to the students,

Seeing their listless expressions, I was seized by a sudden impulse to tell them a story.

Due to the story's absurdity, yet its vivid details, the students were frightened.

The story also caught the attention of Detective Zhou Xun, who was auditing the class.

To calm their nerves, I repeatedly emphasized it was just a story.

However,

Zhou Xun still launched an investigation into me.

A month later,

The news reported a sensational nationwide criminal case.

My name is Ray Dorn. I'm forty-five years old, an orphan.

The orphanage director found me abandoned on the roadside as an infant, hence my name—a reminder of where I was found.

Because I've loved insects since childhood, I became an entomologist, teaching graduate students in toxicological entomology at the Provincial Institute of Entomology.

During my college years, I was inadvertently involved in a bizarre case. To clear my name, I assisted the police in solving it, and I've been helping them ever since.

Besides teaching and occasionally assisting police investigations, I have another hobby I've maintained for years.

Writing novels.

Stories come from life.

I take the bizarre events I've experienced and adapt them into stories, publishing them on the Orange Tree web fiction platform.

Some stories are too absurdly comical, some protagonists too foolishly ridiculous, some plots too outrageous.

In a word: illogical.

But, as I said.

Stories come from life.

That day, I was invited to lecture at the Police Academy to freshmen.

This was my first time lecturing to first-year police academy students, and they had their doubts about me.

After all, what does someone who studies bugs have to do with criminal investigation?

I walked to the podium and set down my thermos.

I noticed the students looked completely disengaged.

Some were sleeping with their heads on their desks, some were buried in mobile games, some were chatting with friends...

I heard someone whisper:

"I'm terrified of bugs. Do you think the teacher will suddenly pull one out of his pocket?"

The girl next to her shook her head:

"I don't know. I'm scared too."

I smiled:

"Don't worry, I don't have any bugs on me."

"Because I'm scared of them too."

The students were puzzled, whispering among themselves:

"Why? Aren't you an entomologist?"

"You work with bugs every day, and you're still afraid?"

"This is ridiculous! An entomology professor afraid of bugs!"

...

Outside the window, the scorching sun blazed and cicadas shrieked. Inside the classroom, chaos reigned.

My gaze swept across the entire classroom and landed on Detective Zhou Xun frowning in the corner.

After a moment's thought, I closed my teaching PowerPoint.

"Students, quiet down please."

I leaned my elbows on the podium, resting against the desk.

"You're all curious why I'm afraid of bugs, aren't you?"

"Yes!" came a chorus of voices from below.

I said with mock seriousness:

"Well then, let me tell you a story."

Hearing there was a story, some students sat up straight.

"Sure."

"Let's hear it."

I walked to the front of the podium, pulled over a stool, and smiled:

"The protagonist of this story is named Ray Dorn."

"Why is it your own name?"

"Is this your story?"

I smiled, neither confirming nor denying.