Chapter 15: A Tragedy Sparked by a Photograph

When they returned to Kang’an City, even if a few of them wanted to check on the interrogation, after several days of nonstop work, they were too exhausted to keep their eyes open and all collapsed asleep on their dorm beds.

This time, no one woke them up early to continue the investigation.

Cen Lian’s mind only returned to normal logical thinking around one o’clock the afternoon after he hurried back overnight.

It was ultimately his stomach, overwhelmed by hunger, that roused him with frantic growling.

Having been thrown into confusion by the reversed day and night, Cen Lian lay in bed, frozen in a twisted posture for a full minute before remembering he was in a single dorm room at the Criminal Investigation Division.

By the time he finished washing up and stepped outside, the entire floor was filled only with the steady rhythm of snoring.

At the office, Liang Xuan was already seated at her desk, filling out various forms.

“Liang, how’s the interrogation of Yang Xu going?” Cen Lian asked, the question most pressing on his mind.

Liang Xuan’s dark circles under her eyes seemed almost permanently etched onto her face. Hearing his voice, she lifted her gaze briefly.

“You’re up early,” she said, handing him a copy of the interrogation records. “Take a look yourself. He confessed to all the cases you suspected.”

“That straightforward?” Cen Lian was taken aback.

He had thought that even if Yang Xu admitted to the Chu Yulin case, he’d still resist on the others.

“Whether he admits it or not, it’s a death sentence. He knows the law well, so once we caught him, he just gave up,” Liang Xuan said, continuing to fill out papers. Clearly, much work remained for the case.

Cen Lian began reading Yang Xu’s statement, finally piecing together the full story behind the case.

“He started molesting students at the high school where he taught from age twenty-six. After retirement, unable to bear the loneliness, during a family visit he targeted a twelve-year-old left-behind boy named Ren Gui from the same village as his relative—the victim in the case from three years ago. After school, Yang Xu abducted and assaulted him, but the boy was strong. While trying to restrain him with an electric wire, he accidentally strangled him to death,” Liang Xuan, who had conducted the interrogation, set down her pen to explain the case to Cen Lian.

“Then, thinking the risk too great to target boys, he shifted his attention to middle school girls,” she pointed to two other case files on the desk, “the two cases you later found.”

“Why did he fixate on Chu Yulin this time?” Cen Lian asked, curious.

The old man must have been aware of his declining strength; he wouldn’t have been so reckless in his old age.

Liang Xuan’s expression suddenly grew grim.

“He lured victims online,” she gestured for him to flip through the interrogation records. “We checked his posts on internet platforms and found he’d posted in several game forums requiring facial recognition for minors. He claimed to offer free facial recognition services in exchange for photos. At first, he tricked kids wanting to play games into sending him nude photos, then blocked and deleted them—basically a one-way scam. This time, he couldn’t resist and planned to lure a child out for ‘fun.’”

Cen Lian was momentarily stunned; the case had taken an unexpectedly dark turn.

“So how did he trick the victim out?” Cen Lian wondered for the first time whether he was too old or too young to keep up.

“He had nude photos the victim sent earlier, then used the classic blackmail tactic like in sextortion—threatening to post the photos on the school forum,” Liang Xuan explained, and Cen Lian began to understand.

“The victim was only thirteen. No child could bear that.”

Cen Lian shook his head, disgusted by the method used on an underage child.

“Yes. He made the victim wait in a back alley behind the school, out of camera range, to see if his parents would come looking,” Liang Xuan sighed. “The kid’s parents were careless—when he didn’t return on time, they didn’t come out to search. Yang Xu watched for two hours, and when no one appeared, he told the victim to go to the industrial park as instructed.”

After that, the rest needed no explanation.

Terrified that his photos would be exposed to classmates, Chu Yulin unwittingly walked into Yang Xu’s carefully laid trap—and never returned.

“We overlooked the victim’s social media accounts,” Liang Xuan said, looking at the damaged, nonfunctional phone recovered from the crime scene. “We didn’t find a phone on the body and assumed, since he was only thirteen, that even if he had one, he wouldn’t be very active online. So we never considered his social accounts.”

Cen Lian hadn’t thought of that either.

“Whoever it was would have had trouble checking that direction first,” he admitted.

Only after reading the interrogation did Cen Lian realize his initial guess—that Yang Xu chose victims at random—was wrong.

Though he had stumbled onto the truth by accident, not a single member of the third squad had imagined the case would have such a backstory.

“This Yang teacher sure was a quick learner,” Cen Lian finally concluded about the 1022 murder case.

After Liang Xuan finished, the two sat in silence.

Cen Lian then took the initiative to help organize the files, watching as the other detectives, just waking and still somewhat excited, fell silent upon learning the full sequence of events.

After work that afternoon, Tang Hua pulled Cen Lian out for a meal.

“Why do I feel so unsettled even though we cracked the case?” Tang Hua said, unable to keep it in.

Cen Lian slumped in his chair.

“Tell me about it,” he recalled the photo of Chu Yulin from the autopsy report. “All for such a petty thing, and that old pervert killed him.”

“Forget it. Look on the bright side—at least that old bastard won’t live past next year,” Tang Hua perked up again. “By the way, you were the lead on this case and brought back a B-level fugitive for the team. Getting a third-class merit at year’s end shouldn’t be a problem.”

Cen Lian was indifferent.

“That’s trivial. But I have an idea,” he said, recalling how he could see speech bubbles in photos. “Once this case is wrapped up, I want to look into some old unsolved cases where there are lots of photos.”

“Photos?” Tang Hua was completely lost.

“I’ve noticed my sixth sense is pretty sharp. Maybe I can spot something from them,” Cen Lian half-joked, covering for his unusual ability.

Tang Hua was now quite impressed with Cen Lian’s skill and grew somewhat eager.

But before that, there might be one more thing to do.

Cen Lian glanced toward a corner of the food street, where, in the distance, another speech bubble drifted gently into his sight.

He silently cursed himself for choosing to eat in this mixed urban-rural area, crowded with all kinds of people.

“If I told you I see someone over there who looks like a criminal, would you believe me?” Cen Lian suddenly turned to Tang Hua.

Tang Hua blinked in surprise.