The clock hand slowly turned, soon sweeping through a little more than half a circle, and the sky outside gradually darkened.
Chi Qing lay with his eyes closed on the bed until deep into the night. Just as he was on the verge of falling asleep, the household downstairs with the inheritance dispute brought up the old matter again.
The distorted voice of a woman was strained and resentful. She was probably looking at the man beside her, fast asleep, and inwardly gritting her teeth as she thought: You’re sleeping soundly, aren’t you? So this has nothing to do with you, is that it? I’m the only one worrying about it.
“…”
Chi Qing opened his eyes and very much wanted to go over with a knife and say hello: since you can’t sleep, why not come out and talk?
At this hour it was already 3:00 a.m.
On the other side of the wall, Xie Lin was sitting in his study. Only one dim yellow reading lamp was on, but that color did not make the room feel warm at all, because the computer in front of him was displaying several horrifying photos.
These were the electronic versions of the dismemberment photos he had brought back last time. At the time, Ren Qin had accidentally seen them and been terrified half to death.
And yet now, those same photos that could make anyone bolt from the room were enlarged on the computer screen. The details were magnified several times, and after enlargement, the severed flesh and tissue looked far clearer than they had in the original photos.
From the speakerphone beside him came Wu Zhibin’s voice: “This body was dumped in a garbage bin behind a fresh food market. A homeless man nearby thought it was raw meat that the stall owner had thrown away and was about to pick it up and eat it. The plastic bag tore by accident, and a human hand poked out from the bottom of the bag. The homeless man was scared, and that’s when he reported it.”
Xie Lin looked at the photos and had only one question: “Where is his face?”
In a normal dismemberment case, even if the body had been sawed into a state of utter disfigurement, the head would still allow the victim’s appearance to be reconstructed. But in this case, it was unclear whether the camera angle had been bad or the perpetrator had deliberately hacked the face so badly that the true identity of the body could not be recognized. There was not even a shred of skin tissue left on the face.
“At the moment the victim’s identity still can’t be confirmed. We compared the DNA against missing-person reports and haven’t found a match yet. Another reason is the one you mentioned,” Wu Zhibin paused for two seconds before continuing, “…What’s really strange is that this corpse has no face.”
Wu Zhibin was also shocked by how brutal this case was. “The forensic report indicates that the suspicion is someone literally peeled the victim’s facial skin off while he was still alive.”
This was undoubtedly another difficult case.
A victim whose identity was hard to determine, and an unexpected method of killing.
Before this, Xie Lin had mainly been focused on the tenant case. That case had put enormous pressure on everyone and could not be delayed any longer, so only the scene photos had been shown to him. This case was still being handled by the task force.
Wu Zhibin briefly explained the situation to Xie Lin, then glanced at the time and saw it was already deep into the night. “It’s this late already. I won’t keep talking. Go to bed early… Don’t always sleep so late.”
The reason Wu Zhibin had the impression that Xie Lin slept very late mainly came from the fact that every time he called Xie Lin in the middle of the night, Xie Lin always answered immediately. The same was true whenever Chi Qing looked for him for “treatment.”
As he said that, Wu Zhibin found it strange again. “What do you even do every night at this hour if you don’t sleep? Don’t tell me work. Aren’t your family’s businesses all being managed by other people now?”
“Not every day,” Xie Lin said with a smile. “All right, go sleep. You’re old enough to be aging by the day, so your body definitely isn’t as good as mine. Sleep less, take care of yourself more.”
Wu Zhibin: “You brat…”
After hanging up, Xie Lin’s gaze still remained on the crime-scene photos.
He looked at them for a long time, studying each one carefully, not missing a single detail. Then he leaned back, tilted his head, closed his eyes, and thought: Why did you kill him? When you killed him, what were you thinking?
As he thought that, it felt as if he had followed those questions into the crime scene. Half-asleep and half-awake, he pushed open a door and slowly walked into a small, pitch-black room filled with a strong smell of blood.
Inside the small room was an iron bed. In the photo, there were traces of rust on the corpse’s back. The corpse’s arms and legs had been tightly bound with chains. He could even hear the grinding sound of the chains sliding against a saw.
The dream was so vivid that when Xie Lin approached and saw the killer’s back in a black coat, he shouted, “Stop!”
But the black figure paused slightly, then slowly turned around. A man whose face could not be seen emerged from the shadows. The already meager light source was completely blocked by him. When the man came closer, he revealed a face identical to Xie Lin’s.
…
“You should know where the killer’s first cut starts, right?” the “Xie Lin” standing in the darkness said with a saw in hand and a smile. “You even know why the killer uses a saw. No one understands it better than you do.”
That “Xie Lin” walked up to him. The smile on his face looked painted on, stiff and unnatural, like him and yet not like him. “Why are you looking at me like that? I am you.”
In the dark basement, the furnishings were disordered. Several iron tools standing casually in the corner were covered with rust. The dried blood on the floor showed a color even darker than black in that darkness. The only source of light came from the incandescent bulb in the center of the basement.
That little bit of light was extremely weak.
The power connection was poor, and the wire was exposed directly to the air. The light flickered on and off.
Xie Lin faced “him” without speaking.
He stood there, trying hard to recall the sound of Xie Feng’s voice, and the words Xie Feng had once said: “I will always believe you.”
But the dream was so strange that he kept failing to remember Xie Feng’s voice. Perhaps ten years was simply too long, or perhaps the dream contained no setting for Xie Feng at all. Only “he” stood opposite him, continuing to stare with a chilling smile.
Until a knock from the real world sounded by his ear — thud.
…
Thud, thud, thud.
The soft knocking was not loud. The person outside seemed a little hesitant, only testing whether he was asleep.
But Xie Lin heard it. He suddenly opened his eyes.
“I haven’t sobered up yet.”
“Although it sounds hard to believe, my alcohol tolerance is just that bad.”
After knocking, Chi Qing leaned by the elevator entrance and muttered out his rehearsal for an excuse.
He lowered his head, staring at the hallway tiles, and expressionlessly evaluated the terrible excuse he had just come up with: “This explanation has zero credibility. If someone used this excuse to knock on my door at 3:00 a.m….” He thought seriously for a moment, then said, “I’d make him go into the kitchen and choose his favorite knife, then let him come in vertically and go out horizontally.”
“…”
Chi Qing had been lying in bed until late and just couldn’t lie there anymore. He didn’t know whether Xie Lin had fallen asleep, but at this hour a normal person would already be asleep. However, Xie Lin was not an ordinary person to begin with. If the door really did open, he’d need a reason.
He continued staring at the tile and said, “I’m dizzy. Do you have any medicine?”
Chi Qing quickly rejected that excuse too, sharply mocking himself: “There’s a 24-hour pharmacy nearby. If you’re so dizzy you can’t even walk, you can use a delivery app and have someone bring it over.”
“…”
He had blocked off every road himself.
Chi Qing lifted a hand and pushed back the long hair hanging over his forehead. For a moment, he couldn’t quite sort out what he was thinking. If it were his usual habit, he would at least have been able to keep to himself at home for more than a week. Unless he truly couldn’t stand it anymore, he wouldn’t easily come knocking. Maybe the previous round of treatment had worked.
Once you’ve experienced quiet, it becomes difficult to tolerate noise and clamor again.
Just when he thought Xie Lin had fallen asleep, hadn’t heard him, and would not open the door, the door in front of him suddenly opened.
Xie Lin stood at the doorway looking at him. “You’re not feeling well?”
Chi Qing had no time to think and chose the worst excuse of all: “I can’t sleep. I’m bored.”
“…”
Fortunately, Xie Lin didn’t say much. He smiled and let Chi Qing in. “What a coincidence. I can’t sleep either.”
When Xie Lin opened the door, Chi Qing could already sense that something was off about him. But asking him to specify what was off would be too hard for a person with emotional impairment, and Xie Lin was someone whose emotions were usually unreadable even when one looked at him. That brief sense of wrongness quickly vanished from him. By the time he spoke, he had returned to normal, and one sentence dissolved the awkwardness.
This time, what Xie Lin poured for him was not bottled water but a cup of hot milk. “Take it. Hot milk helps with sleep, and it can also sober you up. Although very few people need sobering from a single piece of liquor-filled chocolate, your alcohol tolerance… probably still needs to be handled.”
Xie Lin even explained very considerately, “It’s a new cup. Since I bought it, only you have used it.”
Chi Qing held the cup of milk and looked at Xie Lin’s hand hanging by his side. Before he could organize his words, Xie Lin seemed to know exactly what he wanted to do. “Since we’re both bored anyway, why not try treatment again?”
The hand in front of him and the hot milk were both more effective than sleeping pills. Chi Qing leaned against the sofa, and just as he was almost asleep, he caught sight of Xie Lin’s hand out of the corner of his eye. Then he thought of the way Xie Lin had held a pen while writing on the note, and then, for no reason at all, he thought of the words on that note.
For the first time in his life, he reflected on whether the evaluation he had written that day was too harsh.
This person was not that bad.
So when Xie Lin thought Chi Qing had already fallen asleep, he suddenly felt the fingers in his palm move a little stiffly in an uncomfortable way. Then he heard Chi Qing’s always emotionless voice by his ear: “That paper from daytime…”
Chi Qing opened his eyes, but he didn’t look at him as he went on, “I didn’t write it seriously.”
Hearing him bring it up on his own, Xie Lin was clearly surprised.
Chi Qing continued with some difficulty: “Actually, you still have a few strengths.”
Xie Lin suddenly smiled. “Thank you. If your wording could be a little more affirmative, I’d be even happier.”
Chi Qing answered with silence, making it clear he couldn’t do that. Xie Lin did not give up easily. “For example? Say a few. I helped treat you in the middle of the night — I should at least get some payment.”
Chi Qing simply closed his eyes again.
“…”
“That’s cold,” Xie Lin said. “You only say half and then run.”
Chi Qing was worried that Xie Lin might become the only source of noise in his quiet world, so he still said a few things: “Not bad-looking, and your IQ is okay.” He paused, then added, “Very good at solving cases.”
Chi Qing didn’t know why, but when he said the last point, Xie Lin’s palm tightened a little.
Then he heard Xie Lin ask something inexplicable: “Being good at solving cases counts as a strength?”
“?”
Chi Qing didn’t understand. “Speak human.”
“But don’t you think,” Xie Lin said, his smile fading, even though reason told him he should not ask such a question, “that understanding a killer is a very dangerous trait?”
“…No.”
“Why not?”
Chi Qing was actually almost asleep, so when he answered Xie Lin at that moment, it was entirely on instinct and subconscious alone.
Without thinking, he said: “Because you would never choose to do the same things the killer does.”
