[11/ 26, 14:21, Haijing City Public Security Bureau Criminal Investigation Department]
The USB drive was found by a guard in the security room. The package was stuffed into the bars of the security window in a palm-sized box, very light, with no delivery slip on it, only the words “Criminal Investigation Unit” written in red marker. It was clear that it wasn’t delivered through regular channels.
The surveillance footage was pulled up, showing a tall woman in a trench coat and long skirt acting suspiciously. Taking advantage of the guard’s distraction, she quickly stuffed the box into the gap in the bars and then left quickly. She was wearing a mask and kept her head down the entire time. She appeared in the footage for only about 20 seconds, which made it much harder to identify her.
“Does Pang Daozi have women?” Li Changsheng asked, flipping through the documents in his hand.
“There are women among the hostages, but none this tall. Maybe someone paid to do it.”
The members of the Nanyi Criminal Investigation Unit thought back to that stormy night. They had chased someone through the fields for a long time, their feet sinking into the muddy ground, only to catch an unemployed vagrant. For a pack of cigarettes, the man had foolishly acted as a decoy for Zhao Chenghu, and he was still in the detention center.
For the moment, they set aside the matter of the woman who delivered the package and focused on the small box that had been sent. After a series of external checks to ensure there were no dangerous devices inside, an X-ray scan revealed a bunch of shock-absorbing foam and an oval-shaped object, long and flat, about 7 centimeters, with a small string attached to it and a square piece of paper that looked like a sticky note.
The two teams brainstormed, coming up with various guesses: lighter, laser pointer, keychain, pendant, and so on. One imaginative and spirited young man even speculated that it was some kind of adult toy, which earned him some teasing and sent him to the corner for self-reflection.
The box was opened by Zhang Rui. With a mix of curiosity and apprehension, they peeled away the shock-absorbing foam to reveal a light purple casing—a USB drive. The sticky note read “The Fifth Hostage,” which rekindled their excitement and set off another round of guessing games.
“Damn, based on my years of experience in handling cases, this might be a complete record of the hostage being harmed inside!”
“I wholeheartedly agree. Many twisted serial killers like to record their crimes to enjoy them later, reliving their experiences to satisfy their twisted desires.”
“And there are those who don’t dare to act themselves but like to watch, or people with a morbid curiosity for gruesome things, who actively seek out this stuff. Otherwise, where would the market for snuff films come from?”
“Stop it. I’m already feeling depressed. There are kids among the hostages, right? What if it’s a child…”
“That would be unforgivable. Hurting children, can such a person even be called human?”
Yi Shi stood at the edge of the crowd. The voices of discussion surrounding him sounded like surround sound, but they didn’t affect his thoughts at all. He didn’t have such worries or fears. No matter what was on the USB drive, he wouldn’t be burdened by it. Perhaps because he was naturally indifferent, he rarely felt fear. Even when he first saw a corpse, while his teammates were so scared their legs went weak, he remained unusually calm, put on gloves, examined it, and then called the team.
The first time he fired a gun, those with poor endurance might be sent for psychological counseling. Yi Shi never needed it. Instead, after shooting, he would go out for more target practice, feeling not satisfied enough.
Zhang Rui opened the computer, ready to connect the USB drive. No matter how much they resisted, it concerned the fifth hostage, so they had to open it to confirm its contents. The large office was unusually quiet, with multiple pairs of eyes fixed on the screen. After a safety scan, Zhang Rui’s breathing became slow and long as he moved the cursor to the USB folder and clicked to open it.
A window popped up, and indeed, it was an MP4 video. Song Ping turned her head and closed her eyes in pain, as if already seeing the scene of the hostage’s tragic death.
Zhang Rui felt the same, under great psychological pressure, unable to open it immediately. The large office was dead silent; the only audible breaths were heavy and sticky, and a sense of sorrowful doom gradually spread, enveloping the entire team.
Suddenly, a slender, fair hand reached out from behind, pushed aside Zhang Rui’s hand, grasped the still warm mouse, moved the cursor to the video, and decisively clicked it open.
Zhang Rui was somewhat stunned and glanced back to see Yi Shi’s calm face behind him. He instantly felt relieved: it was him, so no wonder. He had heard that this man was a cold-blooded animal, with little compassion and poor empathy.
On the computer screen, a brightly colored cartoon suddenly appeared. Amid the special sound effects of a children’s program, a child’s voice announced: “Next, enjoy the classic English nursery rhyme, ‘Humpty Dumpty’.”
“Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the King’s horses and all the King’s men, Couldn’t put Humpty together again…”
The cartoon protagonist on the screen was an egg with arms and legs, dressed in a gentleman’s suit. This egg hopped, jumped, walked, and ran, looking endearingly clumsy and comically funny—a cartoon character that children would love.
Everyone was dumbfounded, staring at the nursery rhyme playing—what was going on? The promised gruesome documentary had turned into a nursery rhyme?
Oh, you couldn’t put it that way. Pang Daozi never promised to deliver a grand gift. It was just their subjective assumption about the contents of the USB drive, unable to accept the stark contrast with the truth for the time being.
“A nursery rhyme? What’s going on?”
“Is there a mistake? Or maybe someone with nothing better to do sent a nursery rhyme to mock and ridicule us.”
“Mock what?”
“Heh, plenty. Like how we haven’t found the hostages or located the hideout of this gang of thugs, making us as incompetent as children.”
“Now that you mention it, that does make some sense.”
…
Amid the lively discussions, the core members of the criminal investigation unit remained silent, quietly watching the nursery rhyme until it finished playing. The 3-minute-05-second English nursery rhyme, with only four lines of lyrics repeated, ended, proving there was nothing extra—just a nursery rhyme on the USB drive.
“Send it to the tech team for frame-by-frame analysis,” Yu Xue said.
Yuan Kang quickly understood his meaning: “Captain Yu, you suspect there are inserted images or messages?”
Yu Xue nodded: “It’s possible it flashed by, invisible to the naked eye during playback, but we can find it through frame-by-frame analysis.”
Song Ping pulled out her phone and searched for the nursery rhyme: “This is from ‘Mother Goose Rhymes’, Humpty Dumpty refers to someone short and fat. A person falling from a wall wouldn’t break, but an egg would. So, the riddle’s answer is an egg, and the rhyme is also translated as ‘Mr. Egg’.”
“‘Mother Goose Rhymes’? The British nursery rhymes with many dark stories?” Ding Ju rubbed his arms, “I read that famous one, ‘Who Killed Cock Robin’, in school and had nightmares.”
“I know this one; I’ve read many detective novels and comics that reference it,” Li Changsheng said.
“It’s not just Cock Robin that’s famous. There’s also ‘Ten Little Indians’, ‘Lizzie Borden Took an Ax’, all very dark and scary!”
“Why are these stories called nursery rhymes? It’s hard to understand.”
Yi Shi, who had been silent, said lightly, “Because they aren’t from Mother Goose. Cock Robin is in ‘Tommy Thumb’s Pretty Song Book’, and Lizzie Borden was a 19th-century murder case.”
Whenever Yi Shi spoke, he attracted everyone’s attention. He was so silent and quiet, hardly speaking a word, that hearing him speak was rare. So, people were more curious about his actions than the content of his words.
Song Ping blinked: “You seem to know a lot. Have you studied this?”
Yi Shi didn’t answer. He copied the video, removed the USB drive, and handed it out casually.
Liu Chenyi felt awkward, staring at the fair hand in front of him, puzzled. He had never spoken to Yi Shi, yet Yi Shi handed the USB drive to him. Should he take it? If he did, should he keep it or do something with it?
Yuan Kang saw it and raised his chin: “Lao Liu, you take it.”
Usually efficient and thorough, Liu Chenyi was at a loss: “…Where to?”
“To forensics,” Yi Shi said.
Only then did Liu Chenyi remember that Captain Yu had mentioned sending it to forensics for frame-by-frame analysis. He took the USB drive, rolling his eyes at Yi Shi in secret.
Ever since the first day he met Yi Shi, he had felt a strange dislike for him, a deep-seated aversion. Yi Shi looked beautiful, fragile, and seemingly unable to withstand any pressure, not fitting the image of a people’s police officer. Furthermore, he had an aura of gloom about him that kept people at a distance. While he might make some young girls scream with excitement, thinking he was cool and aloof, to his male colleagues, he was the type they found most annoying.
So he couldn’t stand seeing Yi Shi get attention, always feeling that someone like him should blend into the crowd. As soon as Yi Shi spoke, all eyes would inevitably focus on him, as if he had a spotlight above his head, making him the center of attention.
He purposely handed the USB drive to him, clearly with bad intentions, Liu Chenyi thought bitterly.
This really wronged Yi Shi. He had pulled out the USB drive and handed it off casually, not caring who took it. As long as someone from Haijing took it to get the job done, he had no interest in who accepted it.
Yi Shi opened the copied video again, and Ding Ju, crowding beside him, also watched it. After watching it three times, when Yi Shi was about to start the fourth round, Ding Ju couldn’t help but ask, “…Have you found anything?”
“No.”
“Then how many more times will you watch it?”
“Until I find something.”
