Night fell, and the search party was still tracking Xie Lin’s whereabouts near the distant suburbs.
“We’ve asked everyone, and they all say they haven’t seen him. No one knows who prepared a hiding place for him either…”
The police lights rotated endlessly, filling the air with a constant wail of “wee-woo wee-woo” sirens.
The police dogs kept their heads down, sniffing the muddy country roads and barking frantically toward certain directions from time to time.
Inside the police station.
Public tips were coming in one after another. Su Xiaolan had been answering calls all day. Most of the callers were girls, but they rarely provided any truly useful information: “I know Xie Lin. I even used to pursue him before, but thinking back now, there was definitely something wrong with him. When we did dissections in biology class, he wasn’t scared at all…”
Su Xiaolan pressed her temples: “Alright, thank you. Do you have any other clues?”
The girl on the other end seemed unable to believe it: “Did he really commit murder? He killed someone?”
“I’m sorry, it’s not convenient to disclose specific details.”
Su Xiaolan hung up the phone and asked Jiang Yu exhaustedly: “Tell me, do you think Xie Lin really killed him?”
Jiang Yu replied: “Even if it wasn’t Consultant Xie, the time of death is hard to explain. It almost perfectly matches the time Consultant Xie was seen entering the building on surveillance—”
Before Su Xiaolan could even sigh, another call rang through quickly: “Hello, Officer. I’m a convenience store clerk. That gentleman on the television came to our store that night.”
However, all of this felt very far away from Xie Lin himself. He was currently in a room with nothing but a computer and an extremely dangerous “friend.”
Xie Lin felt around the desk and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. He rarely smoked, but staying in this room for too long made it hard to resist.
Holding the cigarette between his fingertips, he squinted his slightly raised eyes through the exhaled smoke, rewinding time back to the night Guo Xingchang died. That night, the man surnamed Guo had originally agreed to meet him to reveal everything that had happened ten years ago.
Guo Xingchang had not lived a good life over the past decade. He had lost his child, divorced his wife… and even betrayed his own faith.
Although he had made an appointment with Xie Lin, he quickly realized he lacked the courage to face him. As the agreed time drew closer, he sat in the chair by the window, growing more and more silent.
Just as ten years had passed, he still lacked the courage to face the person he was a decade ago.
Whenever Guo Xingchang closed his eyes, the voice of Xie Feng from over ten years ago would echo in his ears—that year, the young man who had just been promoted to the General Bureau was righteous, intelligent, and gentle. He would call him “Brother Chang.”
“This is Old Guo, Guo Xingchang,” someone had introduced as they brought Xie Feng to him. “If there’s anything you don’t understand, you can ask him.”
That was their first meeting.
Xie Feng had called out to him somewhat bashfully: “Brother Chang.”
The two of them used to play chess frequently, and Xie Feng would always discreetly throw the game to let him win.
“My skills are just inferior to yours.”
Xie Feng always remembered his son’s birthday. Every year on the child’s birthday, Guo Xingchang would receive a gift prepared in advance—sometimes a toy car, sometimes a popular children’s character figurine from a newly released movie. Guo Xingchang himself was always too busy to take his child to the movies, nor did he have the time to care about what animations were currently trending.
Upon seeing the figurine, his son would be ecstatic: “Brother Xie Feng, how did you know I wanted this! Did you watch Zootopia too?”
Xie Feng had leaned down and rubbed the child’s head.
Afterward, Guo Xingchang asked him: “You’ve been so busy lately, how did you find the time to watch a movie?”
“How could I have time to watch it?” Xie Feng said with a smile. “I just looked up what the popular cartoons were on the internet a while ago.”
This kid was incredibly meticulous.
And only he could be that meticulous.
Meticulous to the point where… Guo Xingchang once suspected that Xie Feng had noticed something before the operation back then.
He had noticed that the killer had approached Guo, and he had noticed his abnormal behavior during that period. This abnormality wasn’t just because Guo’s own child was among the victims. Xie Feng had likely discovered it long ago, because right before the operation that day, Xie Feng had patted his shoulder and suddenly called out to him.
Yet, Xie Feng didn’t say anything. Just like when they first met, he gave that same smile and used the same address: “Brother Chang.”
Guo Xingchang had no way to face Xie Lin, but he thought to himself: I must give him an explanation.
Over the years, Guo Xingchang still kept in touch with one or two old friends. The Church Incident had caused quite a stir among the public, with various versions circulating. Because of his background as a criminal investigator, he possessed a natural curiosity and sharpness toward such cases.
During a gathering of old colleagues, a criminal detective who was involved in the case drank too much and said: “This case is too bizarre. They only found a single cassette tape on the church victim’s body.”
Guo Xingchang pinched his wine glass and asked: “A cassette tape?”
“A children’s song, ‘Looking for a Friend,’” the detective sang a line, imitating the tune, before shaking his flushed head. “Tell me, isn’t that bizarre?”
An instigator of crime. Looking for a friend. A cassette tape.
That Guo Xingchang was able to enter the General Bureau back then spoke volumes about his exceptional capability.
Sitting at the liquor table, he recalled a question he had asked Xie Lin when the young man first confronted him: “Who told you about this?”
At that time, Xie Lin had not answered.
Xie Lin was no longer the school-uniform-wearing teenager from when Guo worked at the police station ten years ago. The boy had grown taller than him, and his presence felt far more dangerous than in his youth. Upon entering the door, Xie Lin had grabbed his collar and thrown a punch without a word, yet his eyes were still smiling. He smiled and asked him: “Does my brother’s death have anything to do with you?”
Looking for a friend…
Was it a mere coincidence that Xie Lin suddenly came looking for him at this specific time?
Suicide was actually something Guo Xingchang had contemplated for a very long time.
When a person has nothing left to hold onto, living day in and day out in self-reproach and guilt, they naturally lose any anticipation for staying alive. But he thought… perhaps his death could do something for Xie Lin.
What could he do?
……
The smoke drifted and curled.
Xie Lin finished his cigarette expressionlessly. The images in his mind halted at the night he arrived at Guo Xingchang’s house. He had pushed open the door to find the room dead silent. Guo Xingchang sat in the chair by the window, peacefully still, as if he had fallen asleep.
On the nearby telephone, there was a recorded message left by the Director.
After confirming Guo Xingchang was dead, Xie Lin pressed the redial button: “Guo Xingchang is dead.”
The Director fell silent on the other end of the line.
And so, an impromptu plan began.
“How can you be sure ‘he’ will come looking for you?” the Director had asked.
“I have a company,” Xie Lin replied. “If he wants to find me, it will be very easy to get ahold of my business contact information.”
It turned out exactly as Xie Lin had anticipated.
On the day the news broadcasted, making every citizen in Huanan City aware that he was a “wanted fugitive,” a new email appeared in his business inbox.
The sender was: Z.
The content of the email was very simple, containing only a string of numbers.
Attached was an audio file, inside of which was still that same children’s song. However, this time, the one singing the song was an adult with a raspy voice. He sang in a bizarre tone: “Looking for a friend, looking for a friend, finding a good friend…” Halfway through, he laughed eccentrically and repeated the words in song, “Finding a good friend.”
On the first day he connected with “Z,” they didn’t exchange many words.
Z didn’t initiate messages often, so after waiting for half the day, Xie Lin sent one over: You should know who I am.
After a short while.
Z replied: Then what about you?
Z: Can you guess who I am?
L: I think I can.
Z: Haha.
The two chatted sporadically. The counterparty was likely afraid that Xie Lin would deduce certain information based on his online patterns, so the times he initiated contact were completely random.
Sometimes it was in the morning; sometimes it was late at night.
The content of their chats mostly revolved around “that person” talking about his memories of killing.
Z: Is this your first time killing someone?
Z: How does it feel?
L: To be honest?
L: Nothing special.
Z: Do you know when I killed someone for the first time?
L: When?
Z: When I was thirteen years old.
Z: Thinking about it now, I can still completely recall the expression on that person’s face when they died. Does this count as a “virgin complex”? The first person I killed is still quite special in my heart.
L: Thirteen. You were in school at the time.
Z: Yes, he was my classmate, hahaha. He was too unlucky. He was assigned to the same group as me for a project, and he even treated me like a friend. To me, that kind of person doesn’t count as my friend at all.
Z: Know how I killed him?
Z: Strangled him. With my hands.
Z: I could feel his Adam’s apple trembling out of fear. He wanted to call for help at the top of his lungs, but all his words vanished down his throat, unable to make a sound as my fingers tightened bit by bit. His eyes rolled wider and wider, like a fish, and then he gradually stopped moving.
L: Was it at school?
Z: Of course.
Z: When I strangled him to death, the temperature of the skin in my palm was still warm, but later on, there wasn’t a single trace of warmth left on his body. You can clearly feel a person’s life vanishing from your hands.
Z: I hold the power over others’ life and death.
When “making friends” with such a person, Xie Lin would occasionally fall into a daze.
He had to truly adopt the perspective of a fellow “friend” to handle the other party’s words. Consequently, he clearly detected another Xie Lin speaking to him from the depths of his heart: “You are the same type of person as him, Xie Lin. You are just like him.”
Xie Lin dreamed of this sentence during countless midnight awakenings.
Yet in those dreams, there was also another voice. That voice was very cold, but to his ears, it felt exceptionally intimate. That voice said: “You are different from him.”
After waking up late this night, Xie Lin remained awake for a very long time.
He stared open-eyed until dawn, twisting the ring between his fingers.
At 6:30 AM, the computer screen lit up.
“Beep beep.”
Z: Morning.
Z: I want to kill someone.
Xie Lin lit another cigarette, offering no comment on this psychopath who wanted to kill someone first thing in the morning.
L: ?
Z: Ah, you’re awake.
Z: It’s nothing special, really. I’ve just found this person an eyesore for a long time.
Z: Oh, right. I kept forgetting to mention that I have very strict requirements for friends. My friend can only be friends with me.
Z: You know this person too. Want to guess who he is?
The lighter in Xie Lin’s hand failed to catch fire. The cigarette tip brushed past the spark without igniting.
My friend can only be friends with me.
You know him too.
Who is he?
……
The answer required no thought; it was staring him right in the face.
Two minutes later.
Z sent the final message of the day. After sending it, Z’s avatar went dark, and the user status changed to offline.
Z: How strange. He didn’t wear gloves when he went out today.
