Chapter 1

Chapter 1

My best friend, Jiang Ning, stumbled upon a murder scene while out at a night market.

According to her, the market was bustling and packed with people, and the atmosphere had been great.

Suddenly, a girl covered in blood burst through the crowd, sending terrified bystanders scrambling backward.

“I saw it when she opened her mouth to scream for help… her tongue was gone…”

Then, she collapsed and died.

It wasn’t until the girl went down and Jiang Ning stepped closer that she realized the victim was completely naked. There were so many wounds that the sheer amount of blood had masked the color of her skin.

Most sickening of all, a single word had been carved into her buttock: “bitch”.

As a result of that trauma, poor Jiang Ning spent the entire night trapped in a nightmare.

The next day, she was just starting to feel a bit better when she went online to check the news.

Someone had already doxxed the girl, identifying her as a student from a vocational high school who was supposedly “unsettled” and “wild.”

They pointed out that she’d had a boyfriend at such a young age and usually dressed in revealing clothes.

Jiang Ning was furious. Unable to take it anymore, she posted a comment: “She was only a teenager! Besides, wearing revealing clothes isn’t a reason to be murdered!”

The result? She was mocked by a mob.

“Oh look, what time is it? Still making time for feminism? Don’t shout at us-go shout at the killer.”

“To defend your rights, I support you going out for a stroll in something revealing too.”

This was followed by a set of photos featuring suggestive, skimpy outfits.

It was like she’d poked a hornet’s nest of creeps.

Soon, the thread was flooded with repulsive images of clothing.

“+1. We can crowdfund to buy you some clothes.”

“Do you have the guts to defend your freedom of dress with your life?”

“…”

Someone even posted a photo of her at the scene. She had been caught on camera covering the deceased with a piece of her own clothing.

“You better watch out. Don’t let the killer set his sights on you.”

Jiang Ning nearly had a breakdown from this wave of inexplicable cyberbullying.

She immediately deleted all her photos from social media and came over to my place to cry her eyes out.

“Are they even human? How can they be so excited about this…”

I was fiddling with my computer and glanced up at her.

I didn’t know how to comfort her… so I figured I’d give her something to do instead.

“I’m hungry. I want some rice noodles.”

Jiang Ning sniffled. “Oh. Okay.”

She went off to cook the noodles for me, still sobbing.

I was looking at photos of the scene-uncensored versions I’d saved before the platforms could take them down.

The girl’s body was covered in a crisscross of wounds, all mechanical injuries. They were concentrated on her upper body, mostly signs of torture and abuse.

Surprisingly, the condition of her lower body was relatively better; there weren’t even any marks suggesting she had been bound.

Cause of death… looking at the blood covering the ground, it wasn’t hard to guess. It was most likely hemorrhagic shock from excessive blood loss.

What kind of killer binds the hands but not the feet? Did he leave her feet free so she could run?

“She might not have escaped on her own…” I murmured to myself.

Jiang Ning turned around, her voice thick with tears. “Huh?”

“These venous incisions are relatively fresh. It looks like someone specifically cut her open to bleed her out, then let her run…”

Jiang Ning’s hand trembled. “What?!”

I curled my lips into a slight smile. “This might be a body disposal site. It’s just that the method he chose is rather unique.”

A true genius. He used this method to prolong the act of killing, maximizing the pleasure derived from the slaughter.

The victim clearly thought she had a chance to escape.

However, the state of massive blood loss meant she was doomed to die.

This process-the prey moving from hope to utter despair-undoubtedly added to his sense of satisfaction.

He really knew how to please himself.

Jiang Ning finished the noodles and brought them over. “Then… can Officer Xue catch the killer?”

Officer Xue was my brother, Xue Cangsong.

He was the heavy hitter of the Municipal Bureau Criminal Technology Division and the lead forensic technician on this case.

“It’s going to be a tough battle for them.”

This kind of killer was incredibly confident.

While others would dispose of a body in secret, he made a grand spectacle of it.

It showed he was obsessed with law enforcement; he must have set up many stages to toy with the police.

To put it bluntly, the police were likely just another part of his ‘play’.

Jiang Ning started crying again. “That kind of person…”

I reached out and patted the back of her neck. “Hey, stop crying. They’ll catch him for sure.”