HL 10

In the dimly lit interrogation area, Officer Meng’s eyes lit up at the sight of Ying Yusheng’s tall figure, and he immediately walked over to greet him. “Professor Ying, you’re here.”

Ying Yusheng, dressed in a khaki trench coat with graceful bearing, politely shook hands with Officer Meng. “Captain Meng, long time no see. How’s the situation?”

Meng Zhao was in his mid-thirties, but his young-looking face made him appear to be a handsome man in his twenties.

“A major case—one we haven’t seen in years. Four killed indiscriminately, and during such a sensitive period.” Meng Zhao spoke pointedly, and Ying Yusheng nodded in understanding. “We’ve been at it for a week, but we can’t get him to talk. It wouldn’t matter if he didn’t confess—we have solid evidence—but the problem is… we can’t find the murder weapon.”

“Alright. I can only say I’ll try.”

“You’re too modest, Professor Ying.” Meng Zhao flattered. “If it weren’t for the profile you gave us, we’d still be searching like headless chickens.”

Ying Yusheng smiled without responding, instead asking: “Did he take the medicine I gave you?”

“Yes, mixed it into his food.”

“Three hours—should be taking effect about now.” Ying Yusheng glanced at his watch.

“Professor Ying.” Meng Zhao hesitated. “I fed it to the suspect, but what exactly is this drug…”

“Nothing to worry about—no side effects or aftereffects.” Ying Yusheng explained with a smile. “A new drug from a collaborative development. It temporarily suppresses prefrontal neural activity, which helps with subsequent hypnosis. I occasionally mix it into water for clients during psychological treatment too. I know it’s against protocol, but—extraordinary times…”

“Calls for extraordinary measures.” Meng Zhao completed the sentence, his gaze growing resolute. “Then we’ll leave it to you. Let’s go in.”

The moment he entered the interrogation room, Ying Yusheng abruptly shed his usual gentle, refined demeanor.

He strode over in a few steps, dropped heavily into the office chair, and kicked the table leg with displeasure. “They called me in for a small-timer like this? Can’t the police handle it themselves?”

He looked up with feigned contempt and saw that the suspect was indeed staring at him intently.

The suspect was different from what he’d imagined—small and thin, with a hunched back, appearing to be in his mid-twenties. He looked like the kind of reclusive student you’d see anywhere on campus—not someone who’d have four lives on his hands.

At the words “small-timer,” the suspect said nothing, but his nostrils flared rapidly twice.

Meng Zhao was quick-witted and had worked with Ying Yusheng many times. Though he didn’t know what angle Ying Yusheng was playing, he immediately went along with the act: “He is a small-timer, but dragging on for days is still a waste of time, so we wanted to wrap it up quickly.”

“Captain Meng, you’ve handled plenty of homicide cases. This one’s no different from the others—just a few more victims.” Ying Yusheng casually picked up a pen from the table and twirled it between his fingers. “Someone who can’t control their impulses, loses their head, and kills—just a pig with a malfunctioning prefrontal cortex.”

“No different?” Suddenly, the young man let out a sinister chuckle—his first words since entering the room.

“You’ve never handled a case this big in your lives, have you? You’re just waiting to get promoted off my back, right?”

“I said, no different means no different.” Ying Yusheng flipped open the file before him, leaned forward slightly, and looked him up and down casually. “Let me see…”

“Li Tai, 25, primary school education.”

The suspect frowned.

“Your parents have always worked away from home. You lived with your grandfather. He couldn’t see or hear well—feeling ignored no matter what you did must have been hard.”

“…”

“The scar on your face is old—not from a fall, looks like a blunt force injury. According to our investigation, there’s no history of school bullying, so did your grandfather leave that? You’re no stranger to the feeling of shouting and crying without anyone hearing. So when you tortured your victims, you gagged them—probably to make them feel what you felt.”

“…”

“The only survivor was a coal miner from the next village. Perhaps his smell reminded you of your own father, who was also a coal miner. On one hand, you wanted to attract attention, but when committing crimes, you avoided your parents—so cliché it’s boring.”

The suspect suddenly cut Ying Yusheng off. He tried to stay composed, but the muscles in his face had begun twitching involuntarily. “Wow, so impressive. Why don’t you guess where the knife is?”

Meng Zhao noticed with surprise that the suspect had broken out of his closed-off emotional state. Before, he’d seemed wrapped in a rubber shell, dissociating his consciousness, detached from everything—unmoved by any interrogation.

But now, his emotions were magnified exponentially—he was riddled with openings.

“I never mentioned a knife. How did you know?”

“!!!”

Ying Yusheng’s index finger tapped rhythmically on the table, like a pendulum’s swing—tap, tap, tap. “Of course I can guess the weapon’s location. I have a lot of experience with this.”

“You avoided the cameras, but no trace of you was found on the main roads, so you couldn’t have gone far. Ponds and rivers would obviously be the best targets…”

The suspect’s lips twitched slightly.

“Of course, that would be too unoriginal.” Ying Yusheng shifted his approach, watching the suspect’s micro-expressions the entire time. “It was probably buried somewhere.”

The suspect’s eyebrows rose almost imperceptibly—and Ying Yusheng knew he’d guessed right.

“In a wheat field… by the reservoir… or behind the mountain?”

Before the words had fully left his mouth, Ying Yusheng suddenly patted Meng Zhao’s shoulder, stood up, and walked toward the door. “Got it. Let’s go.”

“Got what?” Meng Zhao was completely confused.

Ying Yusheng didn’t look back, only his voice came through with a hint of a smile: “By the reservoir.”

Hours later, an axe and several boning knives were excavated from the embankment near the reservoir.

Meng Zhao let out a huge sigh of relief. After hanging up the excavation team’s call, he excitedly searched for Ying Yusheng. Finally, he found him at the police station entrance, taking a breather—staring up at the gray sky in a daze.

Meng Zhao walked over immediately, patted his shoulder, and offered a cigarette. “Found it. He can’t escape now.”

“I don’t smoke.” Ying Yusheng joked, “Glad it’s found. Congratulations, Captain Meng—or should I say, soon-to-be Director Meng.”

“Don’t tease me. This is all thanks to you.” Meng Zhao looked around, then lowered his voice. “Hey, after this case wraps up, the provincial department will probably send reporters for interviews. How about we do it together—”

But Ying Yusheng shook his head, cutting him off. “I’ll pass. I’m not someone worth celebrating. Better leave the spotlight to righteous people like Captain Meng.”

“You’re not a good person? Then who is?” Meng Zhao took a drag of his cigarette and muttered quietly. “You do all the work, and I take all the credit—I feel bad about it. Is there anything I can help you with?”

This was exactly what Ying Yusheng had been waiting for, but he remained composed, only saying casually: “Well, actually, there is something I’d like to ask of you, Captain Meng. Do you know Xu Nanxiao?”

“Xu Nanxiao?” Meng Zhao paused, then laughed helplessly. “I do know him. How did you—”

“He’s close with my student. It concerns me a bit.”

“Professor Ying, always caring so much about your students—so responsible.” Meng Zhao praised with undisguised admiration.

“You handled Xu Nanxiao’s case. Could you tell me more about it?”

“Which case are you referring to?”

“Hm?”

“I go way back with him. From the time he was sixteen—fights, relationship disputes, all the way to that accidental killing—I handled nearly every case of his. How many times did I try to talk sense into him? Never changed.”

At this, Meng Zhao sighed again. He took a deep drag of his cigarette, a pitying look on his face. “But if you knew about his family… you’d understand why Nanxiao turned out the way he did. If I’d known him a few years earlier… maybe I could have changed him.”

“Oh? Captain Meng thinks he could reform him?” Ying Yusheng smiled meaningfully.

“Of course. Everyone can be reformed—otherwise what’s the point of education? Nanxiao isn’t bad at heart. If I could have reached him earlier, cared about him more, he wouldn’t be like this.”

“Captain Meng is truly a good police officer.” Ying Yusheng said with a faint smile.

But inside, he was thinking: Staggering idealism.

“I have to disagree with you, though.” Ying Yusheng looked at him steadily, his gaze deep. “Not everyone can be reformed. Some apples are rotten to the core.”

For people like that, domestication and control are the only solution.

Xu Nanxiao sat in Ying Yusheng’s passenger seat with a sour expression.

Ying Yusheng smiled and negotiated: “Given that I specially drove you to work, could you not hiss at me?”

“I’m not hissing at anything. I said you didn’t have to drive me.” Xu Nanxiao replied testily.

“You came to me for treatment, and I happened to have nothing to do afterward. Is it wrong that I didn’t want you to get sunburned?” Ying Yusheng looked quite wronged.

“…”

After a moment of silence, Ying Yusheng leaned over again and asked tentatively: “Can I come see where you work?”

There it is. Xu Nanxiao’s temple veins throbbed.

This was exactly why he hadn’t wanted Ying Yusheng to drive him. Why did this guy always have to barge into his life uninvited? He’d added him on WeChat, knew where he lived, and now wanted to visit his workplace… what came next?

But Xu Nanxiao still needed Ying Yusheng, so he had to hold back from burning bridges.

“There’s nothing interesting about a boxing club—just a bunch of sweaty men.”

Ying Yusheng turned the steering wheel. “I actually quite like boxing. I watch the Golden Belt every year.”

Xu Nanxiao jolted, snapping his head toward him. “You—”

He’d wanted to ask, Did you watch my matches too? But if Ying Yusheng said yes, they’d inevitably end up talking about what happened back then—and Xu Nanxiao didn’t want to say a single word about it.

So the unspoken words died in his throat. Xu Nanxiao gave up resisting, his mood deflating as he said: “Fine, you can come to my workplace. Just don’t go chatting up my colleagues.”

Ying Yusheng’s eyes curved as he nodded. “Heh, okay.”

Ying Yusheng’s refined, scholarly aura was so unmistakably elite that he seemed completely out of place as someone Xu Nanxiao would know. Other coaches and trainees couldn’t help being curious and asked what their relationship was.

Xu Nanxiao answered casually: “A potential client. Wants to check out the place.”

He said it with such conviction that Ying Yusheng didn’t mind—he readily accepted the cover story. He greeted everyone warmly and won plenty of goodwill.

Still, Xu Nanxiao took his responsibility seriously and gave Ying Yusheng a tour of the club.

“This is the cafeteria. The cook’s decent.”

“Training area. Starts at eight every day.”

“Coaches’ dorms—I don’t stay here.”

“The boss’s office. He’s almost never there.”

…

Ying Yusheng asked all sorts of curious questions. Though Xu Nanxiao’s expression remained sour, he answered them earnestly.

Just as they stood side by side watching the trainees warm up, the club’s door was suddenly kicked open with a loud bang, and a man’s voice bellowed: “Xu Nanxiao! Where’s Xu Nanxiao?! Get out here!!”

Everyone’s attention snapped to the door.

Who else could it be but Old Liu?

Xu Nanxiao gritted his teeth, immediately stepping in front of Ying Yusheng to block his probing gaze, and said in a low voice: “This has nothing to do with you. Wait for me over there.”