Chapter 36: Title

Ms. Ye couldn't help but feel that Zhou Suirong's words carried a deeper meaning; it sounded less like he was smoothing things over and more like he was making a veiled jab. She felt an urgent need to defend herself, yet when she opened her mouth, she found herself at a loss for words.

In those few seconds of silence, humiliation and resentment welled up inside her, making her skin burn as if she had been dragged out to bake under the sun. She gripped her cup tightly, taking frequent sips to steady herself as she walked over to the water cooler to refill it.

As she straightened up, her frozen thoughts found an opening, and a torrent of complaints spilled out: "His father is a strange man. I’ve called him, but he never answers. Even when he does, he just gives a perfunctory reply and hangs up in a hurry. He doesn't care one bit about how his son is doing at school."

"His hand was slashed so deeply; when he was first injured, he couldn't even hold a pen. Who knows what kind of long-term damage that might leave? Any normal father would be worried sick, wouldn't he? But his father is colder than a stranger. He didn't make a single arrangement; he just dumped the boy at school and washed his hands of him. In the end, it was the school teacher who took time out to take him to the hospital to get the stitches removed..."

Her voice tightened, warping in pitch, and the muscles in her neck bulged like stones, making even the vibration of her vocal cords an agonizing effort. She instinctively tried to shirk responsibility, but as she continued, the topic seemed to circle back to the starting point.

That student, whose name she couldn't even remember, was just a minor in his early teens. All his indignities were ironclad proof of an adult's negligence.

Ms. Ye paused, looking up to meet the two gazes fixed upon her, and fell silent once more. A throbbing pain pulsed at her temples, bringing with it a dizzying sensation, and the veins in her head twitched in sync with her heartbeat, as if the surging blood amplified the silence around her.

She forced herself to take two steps forward under their scrutiny. No matter how much water she drank, her throat remained parched. She curled her tongue and forced a sound from her chest, determined to keep her statement free of any ill-timed hesitation or wavering: "He said he accidentally bumped his hand, but I suspect it was mostly his father who hit him. His father is a carpenter; his income shouldn't be low, but he doesn't have a cent to his name. His son can't even afford a few dozen yuan for class fees, yet he has money to smoke Zhonghua cigarettes. When he gets angry, he’s like a savage beast—roaring, face turning red, losing his mind. One wrong word and he’s hitting, kicking, throwing, and smashing things, venting his rage without a care for whether he kills someone."

At this point, she shuddered, still haunted by the memory: "In such a toxic home environment, it’s no wonder that child later dared to blind Liang Yizheng."

Zhou Suirong could not comment; given his position, he could not utter a single pleasant word. His fingers, resting on his lap, curled into a fist before he picked up the camera on the table as a distraction.

"Oh..." Fang Qingzhou lowered her eyelids and said softly, "Is that so? You think he is the one who is abnormal."

Fang Qingzhou stood up, handed over her phone, and asked, "Have you ever seen this man? His height is between 1.85 and 1.90 meters."

Ms. Ye took only a glance before saying decisively, "No."

Perhaps realizing she had been too uncomposed and had spoken too harshly, she adjusted her tone, trying to move past the subject: "If I had seen this person, I would definitely remember. He isn't a graduate of our school too, is he?"

From the tilted screen, Zhou Suirong caught a glimpse of Yan Jianyuan's face—right there on the locked screen saver—and his eyes widened in an instant.

??
Hm?

His excellent memory instinctively began to redraw and adjust the image he had caught in that hasty glance.
The background lighting was daylight.
Hair slightly long, black suit.
The constant was that arrogant, high-and-mighty expression.
...It wasn't taken last night.

Fang Qingzhou had been keeping a photo of that "high-legged rooster" on her phone, even setting it as her wallpaper.
That face was so smug, as if someone owed him a few hundred million. Wasn't it bad luck to keep that in her photo album?

Zhou Suirong's attention was instantly diverted. His molars felt as if they had been soaked in carbonated soda, the bubbles gnawing at his teeth until they ached and itched. He could only take turns pressing on his knuckles, listening to the crisp "crack" sounds to suppress the urge to grind his teeth.

Fang Qingzhou took back her phone, the screen going dark. She tapped her thumb lightly and asked with confusion, "You don't recognize him? I thought he was that student."

The water cup in Ms. Ye's hand wobbled, splashing water all over her. She frantically grabbed tissues from the table to wipe it off, repeating the same mechanical motion.

"So surprised?" Fang Qingzhou leaned against the desk, the edge of her phone clicking against the wood, her words carrying a sharp, unveiled aggression, "I suppose so, because you never really looked at him—just like how you’ve taken hundreds of photos of students but never once got a proper shot of his face. Isn't that right?"

·

Team Leader Feng held the photo in his hand, his sharp, piercing gaze darting back and forth between the portrait and the man in front of him.

The person in the photo was gaunt, with prominent cheekbones, dark skin, and dusky lips. The suspect on the hospital bed was slightly heavier, his cheeks less sunken, and his hair shaved into a buzz cut. Other than that, there was no difference.

Team Leader Feng squeezed the photo until it deformed. He lifted his chin, his skeptical, rugged demeanor coming across to others as haughty arrogance: "You say you are Xu Yuan?"

The man on the hospital bed asked with a strange tone: "What is there for you not to believe?"

Team Leader Feng lowered his hand, shoved the photo into his pocket, and said calmly, "Mostly because it doesn't look like you. This face looks at least forty years old."

The man's smile was sinister, his face wrinkling up as he did: "Officer, if you had lived the life I've lived, you'd age fast too."

"Alright then, Xu Yuan." Team Leader Feng pulled over a round stool and sat down. "After leaving B City, where did you go?"

Xu Yuan sneered: "Hiding here and there. That’s a long story. Are you police officers really interested in listening?"

Team Leader Feng’s tall, muscular frame looked somewhat cramped on the folding chair. He crossed his legs casually, striking a "Thinker" pose, and asked with genuine curiosity: "Why are you running? You weren't even 12 years old when you blinded Liang Yizheng, right? The law couldn't convict you."

"What’s kept me from living was never the law; it was them never giving me a way to live." Xu Yuan grew agitated as he spoke, jerking his handcuffs until they clattered against the bed frame. "What right do you have to stop me! Didn't Liang Yizheng deserve to die? I was only a hair's breadth away from killing him!"

Team Leader Feng asked, "You came back after all these years just to kill him? Don't you think this behavior is strange?"

"What's strange about it? I had already moved far away from B City; I thought everything could be left in the past. But when I opened my phone and saw that animal Liang Yizheng's face again, I knew it couldn't be left behind! He's getting married! He actually claims to be a victim! How much money has he made off that persona? Why can he be so happy? What does that make the decades I spent running like a rat in the gutter! Twenty-some years later, he still won't let me go, still stabbing this knife into me! Why?!"

Xu Yuan's voice grew louder, his face reddening as he roared. Ignoring the red welts forming on his wrists, he looked like a rabid wolf trying to leap off the bed, breathing foul, rancid air as he shouted his resentment and hatred: "So what if I kill him? Have you ever given me fairness? You police only know how to force me to forgive! Forgive! I've lived my whole life like a dog, and I still have to forgive him? Am I born lowly, only fit to be his stepping stone? Then everyone might as well die together! I won't let him live either!"

Ji He stood by the wall with his arms crossed, listening as the man began to spew a string of unspeakable insults. That frantic hatred was so vivid, a grudge etched into the marrow of his bones. He asked, full of doubt: "Is such intense emotion also artificially implanted?"

Lu Shengxing shook his head from the side, saying, "No, no, [Anomaly Determination] cannot implant emotions; it can only modify cognition to a certain extent. He truly believes that if he were Xu Yuan, having experienced the same things, he would wish for these people to die."

Team Leader Feng ran through a litany of curses from parents to ancestors, yet he couldn't stop Xu Yuan's tirade. He wiped his face, turned around, and asked: "Why are you still here, kid? Didn't I give you an assignment?"

Lu Shengxing puffed out his chest: "I'm very capable, okay? A bunch of laymen like you would be stumbling in the dark in a situation like this; I have to analyze it for you! I can tell in a heartbeat which parts of his reactions are real and which are fake."

Team Leader Feng asked humbly: "How do you test it?"

Lu Shengxing thought for a moment and said: "Their way of thinking is as straightforward as a machine, isn't it?"

Team Leader Feng asked: "How is it like a machine?"

Lu Shengxing pointed at Xu Yuan and said: "Like him."

Xu Yuan’s cursing came to an abrupt halt. He was confused, but his instinct told him it wasn't a compliment. He asked: "What's wrong with me?"

Lu Shengxing said in unison with him: "What's wrong with me?"

Xu Yuan froze for a second. Lu Shengxing spoke again at the same time: "What do you mean?"

"See?" Lu Shengxing shrugged. "Their own way of thinking is incredibly unoriginal, like a pure little boy."

Hearing this assessment from him, Xu Yuan felt deeply insulted.

He lunged forward in a rage, his struggle causing the hospital bed to move, creating a short, jarring noise as it scraped against the floor: "You look down on me! You're making a joke out of me!"

Team Leader Feng scolded: "Don't provoke the suspect!"

Worried that Xu Yuan might actually break his own bones and then accuse the police of torture, Team Leader Feng immediately signaled his colleagues to step forward and pin him firmly to the bed.

Blood rushed to Xu Yuan's head, his neck and face turning bright red. His eyes bulged with bloodthirsty ferocity as he glared at them, spewing curses once more.

Team Leader Feng pulled out the photo from his pocket, held it right in front of Xu Yuan, and asked: "Do you know this person?"

Xu Yuan fell silent for a moment. Upon seeing the photo, he roared: "Of course I know him! If I hadn't been unable to find him, he would be the first animal I'd kill! Let go of me!"