241 Challenges

 

I had been moving for ten minutes in the sewer already. If Sister Mao had followed my instructions, then the police would have arrived already.

240 Changing Path

 

The siren wailed. The other vehicles parted for us. In less than ten minutes, we came to the nearest hospital. The cruiser had five people, including me. When we arrived, one officer went to register for me while the rest watched over me. I pulled on the arm of one officer, “I need to use the toilet.”

The officer looked at me and said coldly, “Hold it in.”

239 Escape Plan

 

For a case like mine, the court proceeding would take long. The jurisdiction would be made after all the evidence had been taken into account. Normally, we would use two factors to decide whether the suspect was a criminal. They were external and internal factors.

238 Right and Wrong

 

It felt awful to be wronged because I really hadn’t done these things. But hearing this officer speak, the discussion in the crowd grew louder. Words like animals, stain to the badge, deserve to die entered my ears. My head pained and spun. One split second, I even felt I was the killer. I pulled on my hair until my scalp numbed. I had never explained this habit to others before. I did this to use surface pain to counter the pain in my mind. Whenever there was a headache, I would do this. But now, it was useless.

Was it possible that I had murdered the officer when I wasn’t myself? Was it possible that there was another Wu Meng living inside me like the killer? I resisted that possibility. I couldn’t face it. Am I a sinner? Have I killed?

237 Court

 

I looked at the officers who were as young as I was. I saw his brows slowly relax like he had the leg on me. He looked at me. “Fine, since you like to play with logic so much, then I’ll entertain you.” He raised two fingers. “1, you’re lying; 2, the gun manager is lying. You agree, yes?”

Clearly, the man was trying to lead me into a trap. Even though I knew that I could only follow his lead. “Yes, but I am not lying. Because of my mental history, if I need to carry a gun, I need to put in a request. Everyone in the special task force knows that.”

“Special task force?” The officer laughed. “Based on my knowledge, this unit is not even official. Other than Zhao Silin, no one is official with law enforcement. Of the three members, you’ve killed someone, Guan Zhenglin is missing, and Zhao Silin is facing his superior’s wrath. Who do you think can save you?”

236 Interrogation

 

I nodded and said, “Some other forces are mixed up in this. If I’m not mistaken, peace won’t last in Dong Xing City for long. However, since these people kidnapped Guan Zhenglin, they must want something from her, so temporarily she should be safe.” But that was only temporary. What did these people want? I guess we would know soon enough.

235 Arrested

 

The gunshot felt like a punch had landed on my heart. It stopped before it started to palpitate again. I ran madly ahead, not knowing what had happened. The runner had disappeared, and I had no idea who opened fire.

234 Underground Maze

 

Not long after that, Gu Chen’s phone call came again. I was glad when I saw that, but then my heart sank again. The call meant that Gu Chen had found something, but whether it was a good or bad discovery, I couldn’t tell. There were only two possibilities, Guan Zhenglin was fine; Guan Zhenglin was dead.

233 Threats

 

We just came back from Xing Dong Village, but we were heading back there again. I was not familiar with the officers in the car. They joined the forces after we left, so they were Xiao Liu’s people. Xiao Liu purposely had them follow me, so I knew his intention. Along the way, we didn’t say anything. The killer looked out the window and said nothing either.

232 Where

 

Xiao Liu led me outside, my footsteps echoing in the empty underground. This appeared to be an abandoned underground warehouse, but I couldn’t care less at the moment. I just wanted to get out. Being disconnected fully from the world was very great pressure. After moving through the winding path, we finally exited the underground space, and a ray of sunlight shot in from the entrance. The dawning sun shone weakly. The chilling winds blew, and I shivered.

231 Blinded

 

I looked at the sharp glass piece beside my leg, and I had the urge to plunge the glass piece into the killer’s neck. I could see the killer’s blood squirt out to dye my eyes red. My heart raced. I only had two things in my eyes, the murder weapon and a dead person. At that moment, the world lost meaning to me. Everything was moving towards destruction. If I didn’t move too slow and discovered the killer too late, the nine people wouldn’t have died. I killed those nine people. Yes, since I had killed those nine people, what mattered with one more?

230 Secrets

 

I was filled with sadness, despair, anger but the underlying emotion was helplessness. As a hermaphrodite, when the killer was born, she was hidden by her mother at home because she was a walking shame. Her father knew the truth, so he didn’t like her. Possibly, his father blamed himself for switching the babies. If not, he would have a normal child as his son. Only Wu Xiufang, this woman who was not her biological mother, loved her. However, I couldn’t imagine what Wu Xiufang would feel when she found out the child that she had sacrificed everything to save was not even hers.

And inversely, once Wu Xiufen knew the child that she wouldn’t spare her money to save was her own child, what would she feel?

229 Innocent?

 

The suppressed voice exploded. The cackle appeared hollow in the underground. The killer slowly stood up, but he still faced away from me. His voice was like shredded fabric. “What I want is this body!”

228 What I Want

 

Then tears poured out from the killer’s eyes, and it was not a tear of sadness but a tear of joy. These 12 bowls were rough and the painting of the Zodiac sings wasn’t that nice but for them, eight people had died. And when they died, they didn’t even know why.

227 What They Want

 

The killer continued, and from the voice, I knew it was the middle-aged man again, “I knew there are tracers in the bowls. I’ve already checked all four bowls when you are unconscious. I can’t remove the tracers because that will definitely break the bowls.” I frowned. “But we are currently underground, so the signal won’t get released. The police will need time to find this place, and that will be enough time for us to escape.” The man smiled at me. “But we’re running out of time also. Do you get me?”

I looked at the killer, and the killer looked at me. In this unknown location, the air around us froze. He looked at me, but I had no idea who it was that was looking at me. I saw hope and sadness in this person’s eyes.

226 Familiar Face

 

I could never imagine that a gentle-looking girl could exude so much strength. At that moment, I also understood that when a persona changed, the same body could utter different languages. I looked at the expression on the man’s face. He had a soundless wicked grin. I had no suspicion that he would kill me. I believed that my face had turned white, a visage of fear and panic. Yama said he would appear whenever the other persona had the intention to kill. In other words, when I tried to summon the little girl, the young woman already wanted to kill me.

225 Yama

 

When I heard this request, I was not afraid of indecent exposure but of how the killer would feel when he discovered the tracer on the bowls. “Remember, other than the bag and the bowls inside, do not bring anything. Of course, except this phone.” The killer ordered, “When you arrive, I will contact you. That’s all.” Then the killer hung up. I looked at the phone with a frown. This was an old phone. Other than calling and messaging, it had no other function. I tried to use this phone to call my number, and I realized it couldn’t connect. I understood then this phone couldn’t connect to the outside world.

224 Instructions

 

Hanging on the rope ladder, the copter flew to Dong Xing City. I climbed up the ladder. The rotors almost shattered my eardrums. Now I understood why helicopter pilots wore headphones. I had to scream to be heard.

412 Blood Paper Doll

 

Blood fell all over his eyes. Until now Han Fei couldn’t tell if the world had been dyed red in that moment or his eyes were leaking blood. While his consciousness descended, Han Fei could feel something approaching him from behind but he couldn’t turn around to look. He tried his best and only saw a bloody arm.

223 Coincidence

 

Certain people belong to the darkness. As people who walk in the light, we would naturally ignore the things underneath us. The living dead, they belong underground. So I was confirmed that the killer was underneath Xing Dong City. He might just be below us.

“It’s 3 am.” Gu Chen said. I looked at my watch. It was indeed 3 am. In other words, the killer was going to contact us through the internet soon. When the second needle passed 12, my phone rang. Mary sent me the killer’s request. We hurried to look.