“What the police have to do is to use these traces of evidence to completely restore every detail of the incident, so that the guilty will be punished, and the wronged will not suffer injustice.”
Although the leader of the detention centre was obviously dissatisfied, it was not good to turn against Unit Deputy Yan. So he led the people from the city bureau to the infirmary dedicated to the administrative and staff members, which was separated from Li Yuxin by a different floor.
“The prisoner’s head injury was very serious, we had already sent an emergency report and transferred her to the hospital…”
“Don’t tell me this. I’m sure that she has something to do with the kidnapping that’s happening now. I have to ask her clearly!”
“We have our rules and regulations! Especially for the underage prisoners! Isn’t it embarrassing for you to do this in our detention centre!…”
………
A low-pitched but fierce dispute could be heard from outside through the hidden wooden door, it vaguely entered the medical room filled with the smell of disinfectant.
Jiang Ting was expressionless, watching his hands being repeatedly disinfected and wrapped in layers of white gauze.
“Be careful not to get it wet before healing, and change the dressing in time to prevent inflammation—and, the middle-aged female prison doctor said after hesitating, “pay attention to rest and supplement nutrition.”
Jiang Ting just nodded.
Yan Xie pushed the door and came in with a gloomy air around him, “How is it? Is it serious?”
What the female doctor wanted to say was interrupted by Jiang Ting before she could speak: “It’s okay, the bones are not broken — Li Yuxin was sent to the hospital?”
“Fuck,” Yan Xie cursed coldly, “That girl is evading interrogation on purpose. I have already called Director Lu and asked the Provincial Party Committee Liu Ting to come forward and put pressure on her. I have to bring her back into the interrogation room within two hours!”
Yan Xie picked up Jiang Ting’s left hand, dragged his fingertips, put the gauze on his joints in front of his nose, and smelled the medicine.
“What are you doing?” Jiang Ting pulled his hand back.
Yan Xie said, “Oh, I just casually smell it. How did you disinfect it? The blood hasn’t been washed clean.”
The female doctor was immediately unhappy: “I clearly…”
Jiang Ting did not let this inexplicable dispute continue.
“Li Yuxin’s evasion from the 712 kidnapping case does not seem to be a purely psychological problem, but she does feel a little self-deprecating. Her head banging is not an act, the self-harm is real; panic and fear are also real.
Jiang Ting took a breath and said, “Her behaviour makes me a little suspicious.”
“What did you suspect?” Yan Xie sat on the table with long legs, “I’m not surprised what kind of perverted things this kidnapper did. Maybe Li Yuxin was not only a ‘notary’, but was even coerced to participate in the execution process, that’s why she was so afraid of the police?”
“If the kidnappers forced Li Yuxin to participate in the process of killing He Liang in order to prevent Li Yuxin from calling the police, or stamped her fingerprints and blood on the murder weapon, she would have a feeling of ‘If He Liang’s body is found, no one will believe in my explanation.’ then it’s very possible.” Jiang paused and said, “But it still doesn’t explain our paradox: Why didn’t the kidnapper kill her directly?”
“Did the kidnapper have some kind of emotional connection with Li Yuxin?” Yan Xie said, “I just called the Jiangyang County Police Station and asked to screen whether the Li family has any relatives with criminal records.”
Jiang Ting said: “It is certain that there is an emotional connection, but not necessarily relatives. Otherwise, the kidnappers should also be relatives of Bu Wei…”
“No,” Yan Xie interrupted him somewhat contentedly.
“…?”
“Shen Xiaoqi and Bu Wei’s case is already the second. It is very common for serial criminals to deliberately imitate or even sublimate the details of the first crime in their subsequent crimes—even if the kidnappers have no kinship with Bu Wei, Bu Wei may also get the same treatment as Li Yuxin.”
Jiang Ting raised his head and glanced at Yan Xie.
“Why?” Yan Xie spread his hands, “Are you the only one who understands criminal psychology? I’m also the one who has hosted more than ten serial murder cases.”
Jiang Ting waved his hand to indicate that he didn’t think so, and then said to the female doctor:
“Sorry for the inconvenience, can you please ignore it.”
When he spoke, his tone was light, but there was always a sense of politeness, command, and irresistibility. The female doctor was fascinated at first, but when she heard the words, she went out immediately, a little embarrassed.
It wasn’t until only the two of them were left in the infirmary that Jiang Ting explained: “I didn’t mean to doubt your ability. On the contrary, your speculation just now made sense. But why did the kidnappers extort one million cash in the He Liang case? In the case of Shen Xiaoqi, the price was 200 million. I have doubts at the moment, which is exactly contrary to your speculation.”
“Ok?”
Jiang Ting sat in front of Yan Xie, his elbows resting on the armrests on both sides, and his body gently leaned back against the back of the chair. This action made him raise his chin slightly. His posture was quiet and contemplative, after a while he said:
“Maybe the ransom was not based on the boy’s family background, but the girl.”
“What?”
“…..”
“Girl?” Yan Xie was surprised: “Based on the appearance of a girl?”
——Bu Wei’s stunning face is truly unforgettable.
Unexpectedly, Jiang Ting did not answer immediately but remained silent for a long time.
The surroundings were unusually quiet. In the early morning inside the infirmary, the pale walls and beds, as well as the iron racks and medical equipment glowed with blue light, creating large chunks of cool-hued light and shadow in the early morning light.
“…I have been a police officer for more than ten years, and I solved many cases because of thinking, imagining, and even substituting myself according to the criminal’s perspective so that I can find a way to solve the case. But at the same time, as a law enforcement officer, I have always avoided understanding the criminal too much, to avoid deviations in my own emotions and behaviour because of empathy.”
Jiang Ting took a breath and shook his head gently: “It’s just that this case seems to always induce me to explore the inner world of the perpetrator. I have to keep thinking about what he wants to do, why he does it, or what kind of inner satisfaction he wants to achieve? This kind of feeling was like being dragged into a whirlpool, and it made me feel very uncomfortable.”
His words seemed to be just some kind of talk, but at the same time, it gave Yan Xie a strange feeling, as if he was being vaguely hinted at.
“…No, Jiang Ting.” After hesitating for a moment, he finally said, “Criminal investigators often overthink, this is a common phenomenon. But in fact, criminals will not deliberately induce psychological enticement against the police. Otherwise, this kind of crime will be too advanced…”
Jiang Ting said, “No, you don’t understand.”
He didn’t explain what Yan Xie didn’t understand. He only looked at the fine dust particles in the air; his eyes were black and white, and his gaze cold. After a while, he suddenly said:
“On the basis of looks, they both are fifteen or sixteen-year-old girls, and Bu Wei is likely to surpass Li Yuxin hundreds of times. Unless the two girls have other distinguishing characteristics apart from their looks. The chicken and eagle blood stains on their clothes also seem to be expressing this imagery.”
Yan Xie frowned.
“But,” Jiang Ting muttered, “What is the distinguishing characteristic?”
………
Early morning, on the mountains.
Birds and cicadas chirped intermittently from all directions. The first ray of morning light penetrated the dense canopy and reflected on the girl’s delicate and refined eyelashes, making them look like a meticulous painting. Her feather-like eyelashes trembled for a moment and then finally opened slowly.
“…Shen Xiaoqi…”
As soon as Bu Wei moved her lips, blood splattered from the corners of her dry and cracked lips due to lack of water, but she didn’t care about the pain. She staggered and stood up from under the tree: “Shen Xiaoqi!”
Not far away, Shen Xiaoqi was curled up in a stack of fallen leaves. His right arm was bloody and was twisted at a strange angle; it was obviously broken and was barely bound by two branches. His face was very red and his forehead was hot.
“Wake up, wake up…” Bu Wei shook him weakly, even though she was also feeling extremely weak.
After a long time, Shen Xiaoqi woke up in a daze, coughed a few times, and barely opened his eyes: “Bu Wei…”
There were countless blades of grass on the girl’s hair, and her fair face and hands were scratched with several bloodstains by the branches. Because of the lack of water, she couldn’t even shed tears.
“I dreamed that I was dead…” Shen Xiaoqi said hoarsely, his eyes staring blankly at the top of his head. Although, in the depths of the forest, the top of the head is covered by countless towering trees. The crisscrossing branches and aerial roots made the sky invisible: “I dreamed that I killed you too, if it wasn’t to save me… If you didn’t try your best to protect me…”
Bu Wei gasped: “You won’t die, I won’t let you die!”
The thin girl gritted her teeth and used all her strength to stand up. She even helped Shen Xiaoqi, whose height and weight was far greater than her own, to stand up and staggered forward:
“We must be able to live, we must be able to go out, must…”
Eight in the morning.
The boundless forest, like a huge mouth between heaven and earth, quickly engulfed their ant-like backs.
………
Jiangyang County People’s Hospital, the elevator in the inpatient department opened. Yan Xie took the lead through the corridor. As he walked forward, he took out his mobile phone and gave it to the head of the detention centre who stood outside the ward with an ugly face. The screen clearly displays the provincial party committee Liu Ting’s handwritten approval note.
Yan Xie pointed towards Li Yuxin through the glass window of the ward: “Can we go in?”
“Ha, it’s your city bureau that is still domineering!” The director snorted heavily from his nose: “This is the first time I saw this kind of thing in this remote and desolate county today, so it turns out that this is called ‘the first-level official crushes people to death’!…”
Yan Xie interrupted him unceremoniously: “Our entire Unit has been continuously working for 30 hours. If your prisoner didn’t explain anything, the hostage would die at 8:09 tonight.” Then without hesitation, he lifted his foot and entered the ward.
Jiang Ting was wearing sunglasses and a baseball cap. He followed Yan Xie in a low-key manner, but the director suddenly called out “hey”: “What’s the matter, didn’t the approval note say that only the Vice-captain of the Unit should be allowed in? You, you, Are you—”
Yan Xie pulled Jiang Ting’s arm and pointed at the director: “What are you doing? He is a criminal investigation expert that we specially invited from the OUHK. The appearance fee is 3,000 yuan per hour. Would I pay the money or you, If the time is delayed?”
“…” The director immediately hesitated, turning half of his face and muttering, “You Jianning City Bureau are rich, bah.”
The wound on Li Yuxin’s head had already been treated, and she was covered with thick bandages. Bloodstains could be clearly seen around the edges, which made her face look extremely pale.
Perhaps frightened by her madness, the detention centre police handcuffed her both hands to the iron frame on the edge of the hospital bed, and took away the sharp objects on the bedside, not even a ballpoint pen was left. A bare tabletop complemented her lifeless face, which made people feel unsettled.
Yan Xie motioned for the nurse to go out, and clicked the door shut until only the three of them were left in the room: “Li Yuxin.”
The girl’s vision was scattered, and she was staring straight in the air.
“Do you think we policemen are as useless as on the TV shows, and can only solve the case when we get fired?”
“…..”
“Let me tell you a story.” Yan Xie pulled a chair for Jiang to sit down and then sat beside the empty hospital bed next to her. Then he said, “Maybe your case has some similarities with the case of the rich businessman and his driver. A few years ago, a rich businessman was kidnapped together with his driver. The kidnappers killed the useless driver, but in order to completely control the rich businessman, the kidnapper coerced him into cutting off the driver’s head with the murder weapon. Then the rich businessman was released to go home to get the money. The kidnappers thought that the rich businessman who became a coordinated murderer would not have the courage to call the police, but to their surprise, the rich businessman turned himself in immediately after going out. Guess how the case ended?”
Li Yuxin’s mouth was still tightly closed, but anyone with eyes could easily see that her expression had undergone a subtle and complex change that could be called fear.
“The wealthy businessman was innocent and paid a sum of money as compensation to the victim’s family for humanitarian reasons. Do you know why he wasn’t sentenced?”
“…..”
The girl’s teeth were still clenched, but Yan Xie didn’t care.
“The police investigation, in addition to confessions, also needs a complete chain of evidence. A murder case must have complete links such as motive, physical evidence, written evidence, investigation, identification, etc., which are logically linked and cannot be overturned before they can be accepted by the Procuratorate. In the case of the murder of the wealthy businessman’s driver, the forensic doctor could clearly identify that there were many wounds on the neck of the corpse from where the head was cut off, which did not match up to an ordinary murder technique, which proved that the wealthy businessman was indeed coerced. Moreover, the victim’s windpipe didn’t show any spasm and the wound did not reflect life, indicating that the victim was already a corpse when he was beheaded. I was one of the criminal police officers who handled the case at that time. We fought hard for several months to collect evidence for this case; using all kinds of criminal investigation methods that you can’t imagine, and finally rescued the innocent.”
Yan Xie leaned forward, his hoarse voice was low and powerful from staying up late: “If we can save him, we can save you as well. No matter what you did at the crime scene, as long as it happened, it will leave traces. What the police have to do is to use these traces of evidence to completely restore every detail of the incident, so that the guilty will be punished, and the wronged will not suffer injustice.”
He paused and asked, “—do you feel remorseful?”
A long time later, Li Yuxin’s eyes moved. Like a stiff mechanical doll suddenly being injected with a trace of life, she turned her head slowly.
“…The guilty person…” she said softly.
“Why do you want to steal things?” Yan Xie asked while staring at her blank eyes.
“I don’t know,” Li Yuxin said in a small voice, “I don’t know, I can’t control…”
“You can’t control yourself because kleptomania is actually a will-control disorder, triggered by intense mental stimulation and persistent high pressure. It’s treatable with medication, which means you shouldn’t be in prison, you should go to the hospital.”
Yan Xie reached out and touched her hair. This move was very natural. It was not like a policeman treating a prisoner, but a bit like a brother facing a poor little girl, which made Li Yuxin wince visibly.
“Tell us who he is?,” Yan Xie said in a low voice, “A major meritorious performance can get you out of prison immediately, and I can also apply for a commendation for you. Trust me, the police will make the person who coerced you pay the price.”
Time passed by, but no one made a sound. Li Yuxin seemed to fall asleep with her eyes open, and her thin body seemed immersed in a nightmare.
Yan Xie waited patiently, and out of the corner of his eyes glanced at Jiang Ting. Unexpectedly, the latter met his line of sight, but for some reason, he avoided it gently.
“?”
A cloud of suspicion rose in Yan Xie’s heart, but before he could see it clearly, he heard Li Yuxin’s hazy voice: “…I don’t need anything…”
Yan Xie and Jiang Ting suddenly glanced at her at the same time.
“I just want to be alone,” Li Yuxin’s face was paler than the paper and full of numbness. Her lips were slightly open, and there was hardly any mouth shape when she spoke, not even the slightest fluctuation in her tone: “As long as I am alone… Leave me alone.”
She slowly bent her feet, buried her head in her knees, and didn’t move.
As if this pose was enough for her to resist the whole world with her thin body.
Yan Xie was stunned, not knowing how to react for a moment.
“Li Yuxin?” He frowned, “What are you thinking about?”
The girl is like an egg — fragile, helpless, futilely and firmly clinging to the small space of a few inches, maintaining a stupid but helpless silence.
Yan Xie’s mouth was full of irritation. When he looked at his watch, it was already 9:30 in the morning; the blood all over his body rushed to the top of his head: “Girl, think about those two innocent children who were kidnapped…”
“I’ll talk to her.,” he was suddenly interrupted by Jiang Ting.
Yan Xie looked up and saw Jiang Ting stand up.
“You……”
“Leave us alone for a while, Yan Xie.” Jiang Ting’s voice was very soft, with a strange calming power: “I’ll talk to her.”
At this time, there were only ten hours left before the execution time announced by the kidnappers. Yan Xie took a deep breath, his nose was full of hot air, he barely kept his calm and stood up. Then suddenly he hooked Jiang Ting’s shoulder and pulled him into his arms, hugging him hard:
“Be careful, call me at any time if there is a situation. I’m outside.”
Before Jiang Ting could react, Yan Xie turned around and strode out of the ward.
“…..” Jiang Ting involuntarily watched Yan Xie leave and only turned back to the hospital bed when his figure disappeared outside the door.
Li Yuxin seemed to have no sense of what was happening around her. She neither listened nor watched. She stubbornly resisted the outside world by closing her senses and thoughts, creating a transparent wall in front of everyone.
Jiang Ting looked down at her with pity, and with just one sentence, the invisible barrier around her instantly shattered into ashes:
“—How does it feel like to kill someone?”
Li Yuxin’s body stiffened as if struck by lightning!
Jiang Ting’s fingertips lifted her icy face inch by inch so that the girl’s trembling pupils had nothing to hide.
He asked softly, word by word, “How did he convince you to kill He Liang?”
“What the police have to do is to use these traces of evidence to completely restore every detail of the incident, so that the guilty will be punished, and the wronged will not suffer injustice.”
Although the leader of the detention centre was obviously dissatisfied, it was not good to turn against Unit Deputy Yan. So he led the people from the city bureau to the infirmary dedicated to the administrative and staff members, which was separated from Li Yuxin by a different floor.
“The prisoner’s head injury was very serious, we had already sent an emergency report and transferred her to the hospital…”
“Don’t tell me this. I’m sure that she has something to do with the kidnapping that’s happening now. I have to ask her clearly!”
“We have our rules and regulations! Especially for the underage prisoners! Isn’t it embarrassing for you to do this in our detention centre!…”
………
A low-pitched but fierce dispute could be heard from outside through the hidden wooden door, it vaguely entered the medical room filled with the smell of disinfectant.
Jiang Ting was expressionless, watching his hands being repeatedly disinfected and wrapped in layers of white gauze.
“Be careful not to get it wet before healing, and change the dressing in time to prevent inflammation—and, the middle-aged female prison doctor said after hesitating, “pay attention to rest and supplement nutrition.”
Jiang Ting just nodded.
Yan Xie pushed the door and came in with a gloomy air around him, “How is it? Is it serious?”
What the female doctor wanted to say was interrupted by Jiang Ting before she could speak: “It’s okay, the bones are not broken — Li Yuxin was sent to the hospital?”
“Fuck,” Yan Xie cursed coldly, “That girl is evading interrogation on purpose. I have already called Director Lu and asked the Provincial Party Committee Liu Ting to come forward and put pressure on her. I have to bring her back into the interrogation room within two hours!”
Yan Xie picked up Jiang Ting’s left hand, dragged his fingertips, put the gauze on his joints in front of his nose, and smelled the medicine.
“What are you doing?” Jiang Ting pulled his hand back.
Yan Xie said, “Oh, I just casually smell it. How did you disinfect it? The blood hasn’t been washed clean.”
The female doctor was immediately unhappy: “I clearly…”
Jiang Ting did not let this inexplicable dispute continue.
“Li Yuxin’s evasion from the 712 kidnapping case does not seem to be a purely psychological problem, but she does feel a little self-deprecating. Her head banging is not an act, the self-harm is real; panic and fear are also real.
Jiang Ting took a breath and said, “Her behaviour makes me a little suspicious.”
“What did you suspect?” Yan Xie sat on the table with long legs, “I’m not surprised what kind of perverted things this kidnapper did. Maybe Li Yuxin was not only a ‘notary’, but was even coerced to participate in the execution process, that’s why she was so afraid of the police?”
“If the kidnappers forced Li Yuxin to participate in the process of killing He Liang in order to prevent Li Yuxin from calling the police, or stamped her fingerprints and blood on the murder weapon, she would have a feeling of ‘If He Liang’s body is found, no one will believe in my explanation.’ then it’s very possible.” Jiang paused and said, “But it still doesn’t explain our paradox: Why didn’t the kidnapper kill her directly?”
“Did the kidnapper have some kind of emotional connection with Li Yuxin?” Yan Xie said, “I just called the Jiangyang County Police Station and asked to screen whether the Li family has any relatives with criminal records.”
Jiang Ting said: “It is certain that there is an emotional connection, but not necessarily relatives. Otherwise, the kidnappers should also be relatives of Bu Wei…”
“No,” Yan Xie interrupted him somewhat contentedly.
“…?”
“Shen Xiaoqi and Bu Wei’s case is already the second. It is very common for serial criminals to deliberately imitate or even sublimate the details of the first crime in their subsequent crimes—even if the kidnappers have no kinship with Bu Wei, Bu Wei may also get the same treatment as Li Yuxin.”
Jiang Ting raised his head and glanced at Yan Xie.
“Why?” Yan Xie spread his hands, “Are you the only one who understands criminal psychology? I’m also the one who has hosted more than ten serial murder cases.”
Jiang Ting waved his hand to indicate that he didn’t think so, and then said to the female doctor:
“Sorry for the inconvenience, can you please ignore it.”
When he spoke, his tone was light, but there was always a sense of politeness, command, and irresistibility. The female doctor was fascinated at first, but when she heard the words, she went out immediately, a little embarrassed.
It wasn’t until only the two of them were left in the infirmary that Jiang Ting explained: “I didn’t mean to doubt your ability. On the contrary, your speculation just now made sense. But why did the kidnappers extort one million cash in the He Liang case? In the case of Shen Xiaoqi, the price was 200 million. I have doubts at the moment, which is exactly contrary to your speculation.”
“Ok?”
Jiang Ting sat in front of Yan Xie, his elbows resting on the armrests on both sides, and his body gently leaned back against the back of the chair. This action made him raise his chin slightly. His posture was quiet and contemplative, after a while he said:
“Maybe the ransom was not based on the boy’s family background, but the girl.”
“What?”
“…..”
“Girl?” Yan Xie was surprised: “Based on the appearance of a girl?”
——Bu Wei’s stunning face is truly unforgettable.
Unexpectedly, Jiang Ting did not answer immediately but remained silent for a long time.
The surroundings were unusually quiet. In the early morning inside the infirmary, the pale walls and beds, as well as the iron racks and medical equipment glowed with blue light, creating large chunks of cool-hued light and shadow in the early morning light.
“…I have been a police officer for more than ten years, and I solved many cases because of thinking, imagining, and even substituting myself according to the criminal’s perspective so that I can find a way to solve the case. But at the same time, as a law enforcement officer, I have always avoided understanding the criminal too much, to avoid deviations in my own emotions and behaviour because of empathy.”
Jiang Ting took a breath and shook his head gently: “It’s just that this case seems to always induce me to explore the inner world of the perpetrator. I have to keep thinking about what he wants to do, why he does it, or what kind of inner satisfaction he wants to achieve? This kind of feeling was like being dragged into a whirlpool, and it made me feel very uncomfortable.”
His words seemed to be just some kind of talk, but at the same time, it gave Yan Xie a strange feeling, as if he was being vaguely hinted at.
“…No, Jiang Ting.” After hesitating for a moment, he finally said, “Criminal investigators often overthink, this is a common phenomenon. But in fact, criminals will not deliberately induce psychological enticement against the police. Otherwise, this kind of crime will be too advanced…”
Jiang Ting said, “No, you don’t understand.”
He didn’t explain what Yan Xie didn’t understand. He only looked at the fine dust particles in the air; his eyes were black and white, and his gaze cold. After a while, he suddenly said:
“On the basis of looks, they both are fifteen or sixteen-year-old girls, and Bu Wei is likely to surpass Li Yuxin hundreds of times. Unless the two girls have other distinguishing characteristics apart from their looks. The chicken and eagle blood stains on their clothes also seem to be expressing this imagery.”
Yan Xie frowned.
“But,” Jiang Ting muttered, “What is the distinguishing characteristic?”
………
Early morning, on the mountains.
Birds and cicadas chirped intermittently from all directions. The first ray of morning light penetrated the dense canopy and reflected on the girl’s delicate and refined eyelashes, making them look like a meticulous painting. Her feather-like eyelashes trembled for a moment and then finally opened slowly.
“…Shen Xiaoqi…”
As soon as Bu Wei moved her lips, blood splattered from the corners of her dry and cracked lips due to lack of water, but she didn’t care about the pain. She staggered and stood up from under the tree: “Shen Xiaoqi!”
Not far away, Shen Xiaoqi was curled up in a stack of fallen leaves. His right arm was bloody and was twisted at a strange angle; it was obviously broken and was barely bound by two branches. His face was very red and his forehead was hot.
“Wake up, wake up…” Bu Wei shook him weakly, even though she was also feeling extremely weak.
After a long time, Shen Xiaoqi woke up in a daze, coughed a few times, and barely opened his eyes: “Bu Wei…”
There were countless blades of grass on the girl’s hair, and her fair face and hands were scratched with several bloodstains by the branches. Because of the lack of water, she couldn’t even shed tears.
“I dreamed that I was dead…” Shen Xiaoqi said hoarsely, his eyes staring blankly at the top of his head. Although, in the depths of the forest, the top of the head is covered by countless towering trees. The crisscrossing branches and aerial roots made the sky invisible: “I dreamed that I killed you too, if it wasn’t to save me… If you didn’t try your best to protect me…”
Bu Wei gasped: “You won’t die, I won’t let you die!”
The thin girl gritted her teeth and used all her strength to stand up. She even helped Shen Xiaoqi, whose height and weight was far greater than her own, to stand up and staggered forward:
“We must be able to live, we must be able to go out, must…”
Eight in the morning.
The boundless forest, like a huge mouth between heaven and earth, quickly engulfed their ant-like backs.
………
Jiangyang County People’s Hospital, the elevator in the inpatient department opened. Yan Xie took the lead through the corridor. As he walked forward, he took out his mobile phone and gave it to the head of the detention centre who stood outside the ward with an ugly face. The screen clearly displays the provincial party committee Liu Ting’s handwritten approval note.
Yan Xie pointed towards Li Yuxin through the glass window of the ward: “Can we go in?”
“Ha, it’s your city bureau that is still domineering!” The director snorted heavily from his nose: “This is the first time I saw this kind of thing in this remote and desolate county today, so it turns out that this is called ‘the first-level official crushes people to death’!…”
Yan Xie interrupted him unceremoniously: “Our entire Unit has been continuously working for 30 hours. If your prisoner didn’t explain anything, the hostage would die at 8:09 tonight.” Then without hesitation, he lifted his foot and entered the ward.
Jiang Ting was wearing sunglasses and a baseball cap. He followed Yan Xie in a low-key manner, but the director suddenly called out “hey”: “What’s the matter, didn’t the approval note say that only the Vice-captain of the Unit should be allowed in? You, you, Are you—”
Yan Xie pulled Jiang Ting’s arm and pointed at the director: “What are you doing? He is a criminal investigation expert that we specially invited from the OUHK. The appearance fee is 3,000 yuan per hour. Would I pay the money or you, If the time is delayed?”
“…” The director immediately hesitated, turning half of his face and muttering, “You Jianning City Bureau are rich, bah.”
The wound on Li Yuxin’s head had already been treated, and she was covered with thick bandages. Bloodstains could be clearly seen around the edges, which made her face look extremely pale.
Perhaps frightened by her madness, the detention centre police handcuffed her both hands to the iron frame on the edge of the hospital bed, and took away the sharp objects on the bedside, not even a ballpoint pen was left. A bare tabletop complemented her lifeless face, which made people feel unsettled.
Yan Xie motioned for the nurse to go out, and clicked the door shut until only the three of them were left in the room: “Li Yuxin.”
The girl’s vision was scattered, and she was staring straight in the air.
“Do you think we policemen are as useless as on the TV shows, and can only solve the case when we get fired?”
“…..”
“Let me tell you a story.” Yan Xie pulled a chair for Jiang to sit down and then sat beside the empty hospital bed next to her. Then he said, “Maybe your case has some similarities with the case of the rich businessman and his driver. A few years ago, a rich businessman was kidnapped together with his driver. The kidnappers killed the useless driver, but in order to completely control the rich businessman, the kidnapper coerced him into cutting off the driver’s head with the murder weapon. Then the rich businessman was released to go home to get the money. The kidnappers thought that the rich businessman who became a coordinated murderer would not have the courage to call the police, but to their surprise, the rich businessman turned himself in immediately after going out. Guess how the case ended?”
Li Yuxin’s mouth was still tightly closed, but anyone with eyes could easily see that her expression had undergone a subtle and complex change that could be called fear.
“The wealthy businessman was innocent and paid a sum of money as compensation to the victim’s family for humanitarian reasons. Do you know why he wasn’t sentenced?”
“…..”
The girl’s teeth were still clenched, but Yan Xie didn’t care.
“The police investigation, in addition to confessions, also needs a complete chain of evidence. A murder case must have complete links such as motive, physical evidence, written evidence, investigation, identification, etc., which are logically linked and cannot be overturned before they can be accepted by the Procuratorate. In the case of the murder of the wealthy businessman’s driver, the forensic doctor could clearly identify that there were many wounds on the neck of the corpse from where the head was cut off, which did not match up to an ordinary murder technique, which proved that the wealthy businessman was indeed coerced. Moreover, the victim’s windpipe didn’t show any spasm and the wound did not reflect life, indicating that the victim was already a corpse when he was beheaded. I was one of the criminal police officers who handled the case at that time. We fought hard for several months to collect evidence for this case; using all kinds of criminal investigation methods that you can’t imagine, and finally rescued the innocent.”
Yan Xie leaned forward, his hoarse voice was low and powerful from staying up late: “If we can save him, we can save you as well. No matter what you did at the crime scene, as long as it happened, it will leave traces. What the police have to do is to use these traces of evidence to completely restore every detail of the incident, so that the guilty will be punished, and the wronged will not suffer injustice.”
He paused and asked, “—do you feel remorseful?”
A long time later, Li Yuxin’s eyes moved. Like a stiff mechanical doll suddenly being injected with a trace of life, she turned her head slowly.
“…The guilty person…” she said softly.
“Why do you want to steal things?” Yan Xie asked while staring at her blank eyes.
“I don’t know,” Li Yuxin said in a small voice, “I don’t know, I can’t control…”
“You can’t control yourself because kleptomania is actually a will-control disorder, triggered by intense mental stimulation and persistent high pressure. It’s treatable with medication, which means you shouldn’t be in prison, you should go to the hospital.”
Yan Xie reached out and touched her hair. This move was very natural. It was not like a policeman treating a prisoner, but a bit like a brother facing a poor little girl, which made Li Yuxin wince visibly.
“Tell us who he is?,” Yan Xie said in a low voice, “A major meritorious performance can get you out of prison immediately, and I can also apply for a commendation for you. Trust me, the police will make the person who coerced you pay the price.”
Time passed by, but no one made a sound. Li Yuxin seemed to fall asleep with her eyes open, and her thin body seemed immersed in a nightmare.
Yan Xie waited patiently, and out of the corner of his eyes glanced at Jiang Ting. Unexpectedly, the latter met his line of sight, but for some reason, he avoided it gently.
“?”
A cloud of suspicion rose in Yan Xie’s heart, but before he could see it clearly, he heard Li Yuxin’s hazy voice: “…I don’t need anything…”
Yan Xie and Jiang Ting suddenly glanced at her at the same time.
“I just want to be alone,” Li Yuxin’s face was paler than the paper and full of numbness. Her lips were slightly open, and there was hardly any mouth shape when she spoke, not even the slightest fluctuation in her tone: “As long as I am alone… Leave me alone.”
She slowly bent her feet, buried her head in her knees, and didn’t move.
As if this pose was enough for her to resist the whole world with her thin body.
Yan Xie was stunned, not knowing how to react for a moment.
“Li Yuxin?” He frowned, “What are you thinking about?”
The girl is like an egg — fragile, helpless, futilely and firmly clinging to the small space of a few inches, maintaining a stupid but helpless silence.
Yan Xie’s mouth was full of irritation. When he looked at his watch, it was already 9:30 in the morning; the blood all over his body rushed to the top of his head: “Girl, think about those two innocent children who were kidnapped…”
“I’ll talk to her.,” he was suddenly interrupted by Jiang Ting.
Yan Xie looked up and saw Jiang Ting stand up.
“You……”
“Leave us alone for a while, Yan Xie.” Jiang Ting’s voice was very soft, with a strange calming power: “I’ll talk to her.”
At this time, there were only ten hours left before the execution time announced by the kidnappers. Yan Xie took a deep breath, his nose was full of hot air, he barely kept his calm and stood up. Then suddenly he hooked Jiang Ting’s shoulder and pulled him into his arms, hugging him hard:
“Be careful, call me at any time if there is a situation. I’m outside.”
Before Jiang Ting could react, Yan Xie turned around and strode out of the ward.
“…..” Jiang Ting involuntarily watched Yan Xie leave and only turned back to the hospital bed when his figure disappeared outside the door.
Li Yuxin seemed to have no sense of what was happening around her. She neither listened nor watched. She stubbornly resisted the outside world by closing her senses and thoughts, creating a transparent wall in front of everyone.
Jiang Ting looked down at her with pity, and with just one sentence, the invisible barrier around her instantly shattered into ashes:
“—How does it feel like to kill someone?”
Li Yuxin’s body stiffened as if struck by lightning!
Jiang Ting’s fingertips lifted her icy face inch by inch so that the girl’s trembling pupils had nothing to hide.
He asked softly, word by word, “How did he convince you to kill He Liang?”
