Two cars sped along in the night, one behind the other, arriving at the Zhong family's old residence in less than twenty minutes. It was a small, one-story building with its own courtyard, nestled by the river. As soon as Hang Jiabai and his companions exited the car, another police car arrived. Four officers emerged, two of them unsheathed their guns, and two others raised their blast shields.
Wen Ying looked at the old house in the dark and listened to the barking of dogs. She felt complicated and could not describe it in words.
This is the old house of the Zhong family. Zhong Jiasheng and his sister were born and raised here.
Before Wen Ying married Zhong Jiasheng, her mother, who was still alive, used all her savings to renovate and decorate the house. Wen Ying was deeply moved at the time, and she happily embraced being Zhong Jiasheng's bride.
Wen Ying had lived a good life in this house, but it was so short, so short that it felt like a dream. Over the years, those happy memories had long been replaced. She no longer had any expectations or attachment to Zhong Jiasheng.
"Comrade police officer, here are the keys for you." She handed the keys to Hang Jiabai, who opened the gate. Several policemen, holding guns, moved forward, covering each other.
Lin Shuyue and the other two followed in last. Ye Xueyu followed them, protecting them at all times.
Lin Shuyue pulled the brick she carried from her bag. Aside from Wen Ying being surprise, the other officers were used to it. Within the Public Security Bureau, Lin Shuyue had a nickname she didn't know existed: the Brick God.
Over the past six months, the piles of red bricks in the corners of the police station have dwindled considerably. Instead of training on the horizontal bar, everyone's now opting for brick throwing. When the criminal was apprehended, Lin Shuyue's flying drill captured the hearts of countless police officers, especially the female officers. The more they practiced, the more they realized that bricks were truly powerful weapons. Whether it was a flat surface or a sharp corner, any contact would cause severe pain.
It can be used for both close combat and long-range attacks. When you're out without a gun, a red brick is incredibly handy. Just last month, a young policewoman from their unit encountered a gangster on her way home. She calmly pulled out a brick from her bag and struck the gangster in the head.
This incident caused a sensation in the entire public security system. It is said that most female police officers now carry a brick in their bags when they go out.
Everyone was armed, but Wen Ying didn't. She was very panicked, so when she entered, she pulled the tumbleweed broom by the door.
Lin Shuyue's good and evil radar system is always on, and now there is no evil value displayed on the radar.
The furniture in the living room was gone, and the room was empty. The only table, which used to hold a Buddhist shrine, was covered with a thick layer of dust. However, the floor was very clean and polished to a shine, without a single footprint left.
Wen Ying entered the living room and pointed to the room on the left, where Zhong Jiali had slept since she was a child. Hang Jiabai walked in and pushed the door, but it didn't budge. He took a step back, and with a loud bang, the door was kicked open. Hang Jiabai shone his flashlight inside.
The room was very clean. In the middle of the room, there was an old-fashioned wooden bed with nothing on it.
Hang Jiabai walked to the window and looked out. There was a wall outside the window. It was the house next door.
Jiangzhou stepped forward, put the gun behind him, and moved the bed away. Zhao Youcheng walked up and stepped on several beige floor tiles, finally stopping on the middle tile. He bent two fingers and knocked on it. The sound that came back from below was a little muffled. He knocked on another tile, and the sound feedback was completely different.
The floor tiles were of 80X80 specifications. Zhao Youcheng pulled out a military knife, drew a circle along the seams of the tiles, found the easiest place to pry them open, and with a click, he used his fingers instead of a knife to lift the floor tiles.
A black hole appeared before everyone's eyes. Shining their flashlights downward, they saw a pitch-black expanse of darkness, with only gray-black cement bricks visible. A staircase made of reinforced steel extended from the wall of the hole down.
Zhao Youcheng put the military knife back on his body and went down the stairs. Jiangzhou followed closely behind him. Soon, the voices of two people were heard from below. Two people were left upstairs to guard, and Hang Jiabai and others all went downstairs.
This is a basement about two meters underground. Judging from the direction, it is built directly under the yard, and the room inside is about 20 square meters in size.
Against the innermost wall stood an operating table, its mattress blackened by the color of blood. Hanging on the wall above the operating table were a variety of items: knives ranging from the largest bone-cutting knives to the smallest pedicure knives. Whips ranged from iron to leather, candles from large to small, from scented candles to wedding candles, and all manner of sexual paraphernalia designed to exacerbate suffering.
There is a cutting machine and an electric drill in the corner.
The air in the room circulated very slowly, carrying a rotten smell like foul blood.
A policeman had just come down and retched because he couldn't adapt.
"Take all these things back to Jiangzhou and inform the people who are watching Zhong Jiasheng to arrest him."
"Yes, Team Hangzhou." Jiangzhou responded in a deep voice.
Lin Shuyue and Wen Ying stood in the room, watching Hang Jiabai and the others move things out bit by bit.
Wen Ying's face turned pale: "Xiao Lin, tell me, if I had shown weakness at the beginning, would these things have been used on me?"
Because Zhong Jiali had this problem after returning from abroad, sometimes she came back covered in bruises, so she specifically learned about this group and gave them a bright, elegant English name, but in reality, it was abuse.
If it's consensual, that's fine. But if it's not, and it's forced training and domestication, then it's immoral, disgusting, and cruel.
The nuns in this kind of parent-child circle have no human rights in front of their masters.
Without waiting for Lin Shuyue to speak, she continued, "I remember the year Zhong Jiali and I had just started fighting, I told him about it, and he kept goading me into fighting and making trouble with her. I didn't listen to him. One reason was that Zhong Jiali was a student, and it was normal for her to feel stressed. The other reason was that I felt she was young, and there was no need for me to argue with her too much. My family education wouldn't allow it either."
"If I had listened to him at that time, I would have thought that he was supporting me and had a quarrel with Zhong Jiali. I would have been tamed by him step by step." This truth is actually not difficult to understand.
By asking Zhong Jiali to provoke her, Zhong Jiasheng was essentially suppressing her, crushing her pride, crushing her backbone. When someone lives in the illusion of being provoked and looked down upon for too long, even the most fiery temper will be blunted. She will go from being a confident, generous, and cheerful woman to a dodder clinging to Zhong Jiasheng.
When Zhong Jiasheng no longer supports her and stands by Zhong Jiali no matter what, just like he did before, what will she do when she is used to his support? Just thinking about it makes Wen Ying feel numb.
There was only one outcome: she would definitely compete with Zhong Jiali for his affection. To win his favor, she and Zhong Jiali would gradually lower their moral standards and self-esteem. In the end, would she end up like those "M" in the SM group, not only suffering all kinds of abuse but even being forced to eat feces?
When Wen Ying thought of this, she leaned against the wall and vomited. She hadn't eaten anything that night, and everything she vomited had a bitter taste.
Lin Shuyue felt that her analysis made sense. She patted her shoulder and said with great relief, "Yes, it's a good thing you didn't fall for it."
Zhao Youcheng walked past Lin Shuyue while carrying something. He heard their entire conversation and couldn't help but give her a thumbs up. "Yes, it's a good thing you didn't fall for it. That's great."
Wen Ying didn't want this kind of praise. She took the mineral water that Lin Shuyue brought and rinsed her mouth. Her voice became bitter and hoarse from vomiting. "Tell me, Zhong Jiali told me so many things because she envied me and thought I was another her."
Although she was asking Lin Shuyue, Wen Ying used an affirmative sentence.
"It must be." People are like this. What they most want to become is someone who is completely opposite to themselves.
Wen Ying remained tenacious in the face of Zhong Jiasheng's constant suppression. Although there were many reasons, the education she received since childhood and the support of her parents accounted for the majority, this did not prevent Zhong Jiali from wanting to be like her.
Perhaps, Zhong Jiali must have imagined herself as Wen Ying, just like the character in "The Road Not Taken" in Lin Shuyue's textbook when she was a child.
Zhong Jiasheng's threat was like a fork in the road of life. Zhong Jiali chose the path of surrender. On this path, she lost a lot of things and became a puppet living by the orders of others. She couldn't even take control of her own life and body.
Whether it was injury or damage, it was all up to others. Even whether medicine could be applied after the injury was not up to her.
When facing Zhong Jiasheng, Wen Ying chose to resist and ignore him, so she became the opposite of Zhong Jiali and became another kind of life that Zhong Jiali failed to live.
Perhaps Zhong Jiali often felt that Wen Ying was another version of herself, which is why she gave her last words to Wen Ying.
After moving everything, Lin Shuyue and the others went to the Public Security Bureau together. At the door of the bureau, they happened to meet Zhong Jiasheng who was brought in in handcuffs.
Zhong Jiasheng and Wen Ying looked at each other. Zhong Jiasheng was not panicked at all, and even smiled at Wen Ying.
After knowing what Zhong Jiasheng did to Zhong Jiali, Wen Ying couldn't help feeling cold.
After more than a decade of marriage, Wen Ying finally saw Zhong Jiasheng's true character for the first time. At that moment, everyone realized that, just like his tears that afternoon at the police station, his accusations and anger toward Wen Ying, and the vicious anger he displayed when Wen Ying returned his gift, were all facades he put on for show.
Now that he has been caught by the police, the person who remains calm and composed is the real him.
Ye Xueyu looked at his back as he was escorted in and took a deep breath: "This is a difficult character."
Lin Shuyue had noticed this too. She was certain that among the items found in the basement of the Zhong family's old house, there might not even be a trace of Zhong Jiasheng's DNA. The police had also surely noticed that their detention time was limited, and this time was actually within 24 hours.
In other words, within the next day, Hang Jiabai and his team must find evidence of Zhong Jiasheng's crime, otherwise, he will be released.
Lin Shuyue asked Ye Xueyu: "Did you find Bobby?"
"No, according to someone at his company, he lost his fight at the French headquarters and resigned and returned home. Ever since he posted about his flight back home on his social media blog, I haven't been able to contact him since."
Lin Shuyue's expression was serious: "He might have had an accident too."
"That's our analysis too. We've already called the people in France, and they've already rushed to Bobby's hometown. We should have news by midnight."
Ye Xueyu still has work to do, it's already past one o'clock
Lin Shuyue said goodbye to Ye Xueyu and left. Hang Jiabai took time out from the office to come and see her off. After sending her to the car, he earnestly reminded her: "It's late at night and you're tired. Drive slowly."
"Okay."
"Call me when you get home." Hang Jiabai was very worried. It was the first time that Lin Shuyue knew he was so clingy.
It's not like she hadn't gone back home in the middle of the night before, but Hang Jiabai back then wasn't as nagging as he is now. This thought flashed through her mind, but Lin Shuyue still felt warm in her heart.
She smiled and said, "I see. You should also make sure to rest. If you're not busy, take a nap. There's no end to the work, and not all the clues will emerge at once."
"Okay." Hang Jiabai responded and waved at her: "Go back."
Lin Shuyue drove away. Wen Ying saw from the rearview mirror that Hang Jiabai was still standing at the door of the Public Security Bureau, watching them leave. Suddenly, she remembered that in all the years she and Zhong Jiasheng had been together, starting from when they were in school, whenever they parted, Zhong Jiasheng was always the first to leave.
It turned out that there were already clues as to whether he loved her or not. She just didn't know it at the time.
"Reporter Lin, can you take me to the company? I'm going to see if Zhong Jiali left anything behind." Wen Ying wanted to send Zhong Jiasheng to jail. Even if it affected their child's future, she didn't mind.
She had lived a life of integrity, and she couldn't bring herself to conceal evidence of Zhong Jiasheng's crimes for the sake of her children's future. She had been taught from a young age that good and evil would be rewarded, and if Zhong Jiasheng remained unpunished, how could she be worthy of the innocent people who died because of him, and how could she be worthy of Zhong Jiali, who had protected her?
"Okay."
The car stopped downstairs at Dingsheng Building, and the two got out and walked inside. Dingsheng Building had a night shift security guard on duty. He must have been new, tall and handsome. Lin Shuyue had never seen him before, and Wenying was anxious to go upstairs. After showing their work badges, they went up the stairs.
Shengda Trading had already finished get off work, but there were still a few lights on in Lin Shuyue's office; they were the proofreaders on the night shift. Wen Ying opened the glass door of Shengda Trading and headed straight for Zhong Jiali's office.
As soon as they entered the door, they saw workstations arranged in rows. They walked through the corridor, passed through the offices of the company leaders, and came to the two innermost offices. One of these two offices was the general manager's office of Zhong Jiasheng, and the other was the deputy general manager's office of Zhong Jiali.
Wen Ying turned on the light on the wall, and an office full of girlish elements appeared in front of the two of them.
"Zhong Jiali loves these fancy things, and every one of them costs a lot of money. I really can't stand it. It's not that she can't buy them, but she shouldn't bring them to the company after she buy them. After all, the company is an office space, and it should be serious and formal."
"Now I hope these strange things of hers are of some use, and that she will be thoughtful enough to leave me something important."
After a pause, Wen Ying pointed at the bookcase and said, "Xiao Lin, I'll search the bookcase at the back while you search the desk. She definitely has more than two diaries. Turn on the computer while you're at it."
"Ok."
After the division of labor was completed, the two of them went their separate ways to search. Wen Ying became increasingly frustrated as she searched: "Xiao Lin, why am I like this? If only I had had a frank and calm conversation with her over the past decade or so, when no one knew about it, wouldn't things have been different?"
Wen Ying's tone was filled with countless regrets and self-blame, and Wen Ying knew that she would spend her whole life in self-blame.
People with high moral standards cannot forgive others, nor can they forgive themselves.
Lin Shuyue was talking when the light above her head suddenly went out and the whole office was plunged into darkness. Lin Shuyue stood up and looked out the window. The Xijiang Apartment opposite was brightly lit, the street lights on the roadside illuminated the road as if it were daytime, and neon lights flickered in the dark.
Only Dingsheng Building has a power outage!
As we all know, Dingsheng Building has had its own generator equipment since the day it was built, and there has never been a power outage in more than ten years.
How could this power outage happen so coincidentally? It happened right when they were looking for something? Lin Shuyue immediately dragged Wenying to the administration office next door. They squatted under the desk, and Lin Shuyue pulled a brick from her bag. Wen Ying also noticed something was wrong. They had chosen to rent an apartment in Dingsheng Building because there's no power outages happening at all.
She squatted with Lin Shuyue, her heart pounding so fast that it was deafening and seemed to jump out of her chest. She reached out and groped on the desk and took out a palm-sized paperweight. This was the favorite ornament of the Minister of Administration. She would take it out and polish it whenever she had time. She polished the ornament until it was pulped.
"Click." The glass door was pushed open.
"Da, da, da, da." A sound of footsteps came, getting closer and closer. Lin Shuyue clenched the brick and Wen Ying swallowed.
There was a sharp "crack" sound, which was the sound of a whip hitting the air.
A "person" with a good and evil value of up to 99% is slowly moving towards them.
"Wen Ying, Wen Ying, where are you? Zhong Jiali left something for you, do you want to see it?" A male voice sounded in the ears of the two. The voice was very gentle, like the whisper of a lover.
"Wen Ying, Wen Ying, didn't you just come to the company? Why haven't you come out yet? Why can't you be as obedient as your sister-in-law? People who don't behave well will be punished."
"Wen Ying, are you really not going to come out? Before she died, Zhong Jiali kept saying your name, saying that she wanted to be reborn as you in her next life. She also said that you were the person she envied the most and felt the most sorry for. Are you really not going to come out? Don't you want to know what she said then?"
"Wen Ying, Zhong Jiali really didn't deserve it. She sacrificed herself to protect you and your child for so many years. How could you be so ungrateful?"
"Wen Ying, are you playing hide-and-seek with me? I love this game! Let's make a deal. Wait a minute, and when I find you, will you give me your hand? Zhong Jiasheng said your hands are as white and slender as green onions, like a work of art. I've wanted to see them for a long time."
"Oh, and that kid, what are you? A police officer? A reporter? But it doesn't matter. I'll find you later. Will you be my 'M'? I'll give you the most wonderful taste in the world and make you feel comfortable like never before. Believe me, you will fall in love with me."
"But don't defect, like Zhong Jiali. She actually wanted to elope with Bobby. She actually thought I was not as good as Bobby. An 'M' actually wanted to change her master! This is treasonous. Don't learn from her."
"Follow me, and I will make you the happiest 'M', the one that everyone envies. Okay?"
"I heard that Zhong Jiasheng wanted to train you into a spiritual 'M', but he failed. Everything I know, I learned from him. Let me try and see if I, his disciple, can surpass him, okay?"
"You all have amazing looks. If I could train you guys, wow, that would be awesome! I can't wait."
"If you don't answer, it means you agree. Here I come~"
"I will give you a different life, believe me."