Beneath the Red Lantern [One Shot AU]

If someone had told Detective Ling that a stolen antique mirror would lead to an international smuggling investigation, several highly inconvenient ghosts, one mildly cursed royal crown, and an art historian capable of dismantling both ancient inscriptions and her emotional composure with equal efficiency, she would have requested evidence. Unfortunately, the evidence kept arriving.

What begins as a straightforward criminal investigation soon spirals into a world of haunted artefacts, forgotten promises, supernatural consequences, and increasingly poor decisions made in the vicinity of one Dr Orm.

Somewhere between the cursed mirror, the homicide investigation, and a cup of oolong that arrived exactly the way she liked it without her having to ask, Orm discovers something far more unsettling than any supernatural phenomenon they encounter: Detective Ling is becoming alarmingly, inconveniently, and undeniably interesting.

After all, criminals are predictable, curses have rules, but falling in love with the person beside you while outrunning both? That, as it turns out, is where things become truly dangerous.

---

#1/7: LINGORM - SEVEN DOORS, ONE THREAD [Series]
"The same two women. Seven different lives. Infinite possibilities."