Chapter 14 – Outcry

Warning: description of child harm, there’s mentions of blood but nothing too explicit.

Li Guangfu hadn’t even realized what he touched when he saw Xie Lin come over to protect him. By the time he was pushed down by Ji Mingrui who rushed over, he finally caught a glimpse of the man with slightly long hair covering his forehead sitting to the side.

They met last time in the police station.

Li Guangfu remembered clearly, last time it was this person who figured out that the phone was an old phone that was given to Xiao Kang after he used it.

He actually couldn’t read the man’s eyes clearly. Through those pitless black eyes, it was hard to guess at what the man was thinking. He could only see his slightly pursed bright red lips.

Ji Mingrui pressed Li Guangfu against the table, Li Guangfu’s upper body pressed against the desk. The documents on the table were scattered across the floor. Although Ji Mingrui reacted slower, his physique was extraordinary, leaving no room for resistance under the pressure: “Last time we didn’t look for your son…… I’m afraid we have to thoroughly interrogate your son this time.”

He raised his voice again: “Jiang Yu, call his home first, ask around.”

The other party was still a child. Without any definite evidence, following the usual interrogation method, asking him whether or not he stole from the convenience store and whether or not the cats were killed by him, might have a negative impact on the child’s mindset.

So they usually took some tactful measures first.

Jiang Yu understood: “I’ll go right away.”

Xie Lin noticed that Chi Qing was still staring at his hand, so he let go of Chi Qing’s hand: “Sorry, I wasn’t thinking too much, you’re fine right.”

Chi Qing didn’t scold him this time as he used to: You also know not to randomly touch things, so what did you randomly touch.

Because regardless of how he rejected him, he couldn’t deny one thing— Xie Lin had actually helped him just now.

The moment the man appeared, the distorted voice stopped.

Li Guangfu’s low, eerie, nightmarish voice, which still carried the local accent despite being distorted, disappeared from his ears, as if someone had pulled him out of another world and back to reality.

He had never thought that Xie Lin’s unreadable characteristic could play such a role.

Seeing that he didn’t say anything, Xie Lin wasn’t used to it: “You don’t have to bear with it, if you want to wash your hands just go, if not for the fact that I didn’t say anything before touching your hand just now……”

Before Xie Lin finished speaking, he heard Chi Qing say “thank you” before washing his hands.

Xie Lin: “What?”

Chi Qing: “I said thank you.”

“You’re welcome, I actually heard it,” Xie Lin said, “I just wanted to hear you say it again.”

“……”

“I didn’t think that someone like you could speak reasonably.” Xie Lin then said.

Chi Qing: “……”

Some people just can’t leave things be, they just have to make unneeded comments.

By the time Chi Qing came back after washing his hands, Jiang Yu had also just hung up.

“I said I was the property owner. What happened earlier definitely had an impact on the residents, he shouldn’t be afraid, just let us know if there are any clues…… But he reacted calmly. He said he didn’t have any clues.”

After Jiang Yu hung up, he recalled the reaction of the boy named “Xiao Kang” over the phone. The husky voice unique to boys during puberty was flat, with virtually no ups or downs.

“It sounded a little weird, he seemed to be in a hurry to hang up.”

At the time, Jiang Yu didn’t think too much of it, but through the receiver, he could hear the sound of a baby crying. The crying sounded weak and distant, as if it came from a half closed door.

Jiang Yu asked: “Is someone crying?”

The boy’s husky voice calmly said: “It’s nothing. It’s too noisy upstairs…… So my brother is crying.”

“……He only said that it was too noisy upstairs so his brother was crying.”

Based off the information he had so far, Jiang Yu didn’t think that there was any other meaning behind those words, but he saw Chi Qing and Xie Lin’s expressions suddenly change—

Jiang Yu felt as if there may have been some unexpected changes in the situations, causing him to feel flustered: “Is there something wrong with that statement?”

Xie Lin: “Give me his address.”

Jiang Yu: “Building 12, 5……506.”

After Jiang Yu gave Li Guangfu’s address, he watched as Chi Qing and Xie Lin, both of whom clearly didn’t communicate anything, did the same thing at the same time. They followed after each other, pushing open the door and rushing outside.

On the highway.

Xie Lin drove very quickly; he didn’t seem to think about speeding fines or any penalties.

Chi Qing sat in the passenger’s seat of the car for the second time, although he and Xie Lin have changed drastically from opponents to “teammates.”

He originally wanted to use other methods to knock Ji Mingrui onto this path, such as asking him to investigate Li Guangfu’s familial relationships more. There isn’t substantial evidence for the others, so it’s hard to tell. However, what the boy said on the phone and the sound of the baby crying couldn’t help but make him think more.

Although he didn’t know why Xie Lin came out with him.

The driver in the next lane saw a black Maybach constantly overtaking him, complaining “this is a highway, what kind of car is so violent, doesn’t want to live anymore.” After complaining, he lifted his eyes up and couldn’t even see the car exhaust.

The night scenery on both sides of the road flashed by, the rows of afterimages of street lights rushing past at an alarming speed.

Xie Lin rushed down from the highway, so he was forced to slow down a little, speaking while turning the corner: “When looking for a ‘substitute’ to practice with, the key point to consider is the characteristics, rather than the availability of the ‘substitute.’ In other words, there must be some kind of similarity between the cats and the person he actually wants to murder. It’s the same as how the victims of many serial killer cases have something in common. The common trait of the victims of the 809 serial killer case was that they’re ‘beautiful,’ and it was later proven that the murderer did have a complex about beautiful women because of someone.”

As Xie Lin spoke, the taillights of the car in front of them illuminated his face through the windshield, the strong light casted a shadow on his face, covering his light brown, perpetually smiling eyes.

He continued to speak: “I think our thoughts are roughly the same. Do you also think…… The size of a cat is similar to that of a baby?”

“……”

Now Chi Qing knew why he rushed out with him.

Compared to his surprise at Xie Lin’s keenness, Chi Qing was even more surprised by his line of thinking. If not for him accidentally touching Li Guangfu’s hand, he would have never connected the cats to the baby no matter what.

People who can come up with this idea are no less dangerous than the event itself.

Chi Qing didn’t have time to dwell on this fact.

Haimao was just across the next street, what to do in a moment was the most important thing right now.

“You can’t enter before figuring out what the situation is inside,” Xie Lin connected all the pieces together in a short amount of time, suddenly saying: “Do you know how to pretend to be the property owner.”

Chi Qing: “?”

Xie Lin: “You can just say ‘Hello, I’m the property owner, I called you just now,’ say it once to try.”

“Hello,” Chi Qing shoved his hands in his coat pockets, not even lifting his eyelids, showing off his acting skills that were slowly sinking in the entertainment circle, and said flatly, “I’m the property owner.”

“…………”

Xie Lin was speechless.

Chi Qing: “Is there an issue?”

“Nevermind, those who don’t know would think you’re his father,” Xie Lin commented fittingly, “Leave this job to me. Stand on the side later, just don’t let him notice you.”

Chi Qing: “……”

Haimao Community.

Building 12, Floor 5.

The brick-red door was shut tightly, with old couplets pasted on the sides of the door. Since many years had passed, all four corners of the couplets had rolled up.

The furniture in the house had been arranged a few years ago, with obvious traces of life in the room.

There were two bedrooms and one living room in the house. The living room was not only a place for activity, but also a study room for the children to do their homework.

One room was manually divided by a screen, where a baby who was only half a year old was lying. At the moment, the baby was crying loudly. He seemed to sense that there was danger approaching him. His entire body was red from crying, his little hands clenched into fists as they waved wildly in the air.

“Wahhhhh—”

The baby cried for a while.

But the boy standing next to the crib watching silently had no reaction.

The boy was still wearing the uniform of a nearby junior high school. Although the crib hid what was below his waist, a silver light could be seen vaguely through the few wooden railings.

In the boy’s hand, he held a new serrated knife tightly.

He stared at the baby’s delicate neck, his gaze slowly drifting lower, finally landing on the baby’s heaving chest, between the 2nd and 5th ribs.

As he lifted his wrist, slicing open his younger brother’s soft and delicate flesh bit by bit, the blood slowly gushed out, staining the sharp, interlaced knife teeth.

Through the distinctive feeling, the boy could feel that this wasn’t a cat, but human flesh. His wrist trembled with excitement, but just as the knife cut through skin, the doorbell suddenly rang.

He waited for a moment, but the people outside the door seemed to know that he was home, and the doorbell rang for a while without stopping.

“Hello?” He walked to the door with the knife.

“Property owner,” the man outside the door’s voice sounded rather carefree, “I received a complaint, you guys think it’s too noisy upstairs.”

The boy opened the door a crack, meeting a pair of smiling eyes.

The man continued: “I just spoke with the residents upstairs. They said it might be a sound insulation problem, they’ll pay attention to it in the future……” The man paused once he said this, “Is your brother still crying?”

The sound of the baby crying was very clear.

The boy slowly clenched the knife behind his back. After the phone call just now, there was no doubt, he anxiously wanted to close the door: “He might be hungry.”

Just as the door was about to close, Xie Lin’s hand reached into the gap between the door and the door frame, his fingers suddenly tightening, pressed against the gap firmly.

While he was pushing through the gap, Chi Qing, who could only stand on the side because he wasn’t qualified to act as the property owner, simply lifted his foot and kicked the door open— when he kicked open the door, his hands were still in his pockets and the expression on his face didn’t change at all.

Chi Qing looked like someone who had come to the door with a younger brother to pick a fight, urging a cold tone after kicking the door: “Hurry up.”

Because of Chi Qing’s one move, Xie Lin had room to move around, immediately entering the room.

Compared with a grown man, a twelve or thirteen year old boy did not have the advantage of strength.

It took the boy a few seconds to realize that he still had a knife in his hand after he was thrown to the ground, but by the time he realized, his wrist had been held down firmly by Xie Lin.

Xie Lin took the blood-stained knife out of the boy’s hand, and after confirming the baby’s injuries, he finally had time to respond to Chi Qing’s urging: “……What I just said was not precise enough. You’re not like his father, you’re like a debt collector.”

The author has something to say:

……Yesterday’s reflection wasn’t deep enough.

I will continue to reflect ORZ