Chapter 40

Chapter 40

Nan Mu had indeed saved a child that year.

At the time, he was taking a shortcut back to A University of Science and Technology, passing through a nearby residential compound. A five-year-old boy was hanging outside a window, one hand gripping a metal laundry pole, his entire body suspended in mid-air.

It was a dire emergency. Although many people rushed home to grab quilts or searched the vicinity for something to cushion the child’s fall, there simply wasn’t enough time.

Only two minutes passed from the moment the boy was spotted to the moment he fell.

When Nan Mu saw the child falling, he didn’t even think before opening his arms and rushing forward. The child landed squarely in his embrace, and the sheer downward momentum slammed him into the ground along with the boy.

He was dazed almost instantly. He hadn’t even seen clearly who helped him call his parents. It wasn’t until after his parents took him to the hospital and mentioned it later that he learned the person seemed to be a female student.

His parents took him for an examination. The doctor said he had a comminuted fracture in his left hand, which caused his mother to burst into tears.

Everyone thought he was unlucky, but the doctor, after hearing the circumstances of his injury, insisted he was actually quite fortunate.

The child had fallen in a very specific way. If Nan Mu had been a bit further forward, the child might have landed directly on his torso, and that kind of force could have caused internal bleeding. If he had been a bit further back, the child might have hit his wrist; a fracture there would have been much more troublesome than his current injury.

So, compared to those possibilities, he was already incredibly lucky despite the misfortune.

To this day, whenever Nan Mu recalled the scene, he still felt he had been truly lucky. When he had rushed forward, it felt as if, by some mysterious providence, someone had tripped him, causing him to stumble and fall one step short. Otherwise, he really might have ended up like the doctor said-with the child crashing directly onto his body.

=

Nan Mu stood around the corner, waiting for the three of them to leave before quickly pressing the button for the elevator to return to his ward on the seventh floor.

As he passed the nurse’s station, Nurse Xiao Ai spotted him and gave him another scolding.

As soon as he got back to the ward, the rounding doctor arrived with a large group of people. They surrounded Nan Mu, performing examinations and conducting on-site teaching for a good while before finally leaving.

Not long after, Nurse Xiao Ai came by carrying IV fluids and medication.

“Why do I need an IV?” Nan Mu looked at the medicine on the table with a pained expression.

“The doctor prescribed these based on your condition.” Nurse Xiao Ai skillfully patted the back of Nan Mu’s hand, inserted the needle, and secured it with medical tape. She then nodded toward the medicine on the table. “The dosage and instructions are written on the boxes. Remember to take them.”

“Okay, thanks.” Nan Mu watched Nurse Xiao Ai leave, then slumped onto the bed, exhausted and unwilling to move a muscle. Whether it was the IV or the medication, his eyelids grew increasingly heavy, and he soon drifted off to sleep.

When he woke up, it was already past 3:00 PM.

The old lady in the neighboring bed saw him wake up and muttered kindly, “Young man, you sleep so soundly… You didn’t even know when the IV finished. Luckily, I called the nurse to pull the needle out for you.”

Nan Mu glanced at the back of his bare hand; the needle was indeed gone.

“Thank you, Grandma.”

The old lady waved her hand and lowered her head again, mumbling something as if she were reciting sutras.

Nan Mu got up to wash his face. When he returned, Wen Miao arrived, carrying several bags.

As soon as she saw Nan Mu, she asked, “Did you know? Gu Zhishu’s father, Professor Gu, was classmates with Xu Lei.”

Nan Mu knew, of course. That was precisely why he suspected Gu Zhishu’s death was connected to Wen Miao’s death.
But he didn’t say that. Instead, he asked with a hint of surprise, “How did you know?”

“Before we came, Wen Xin looked into Xu Lei’s background…” Wen Miao’s expression was grave. “Does Xu Lei have something to do with Gu Zhishu’s death? Why did you think before that Xu Lei was related to the person who attacked me?”

Nan Mu paused for a moment. “Xu Lei committed a crime later on. He killed a student from A University of Science and Technology…”

“No wonder.” Wen Miao nodded. “But Gu Zhishu wasn’t a student there… Does Xu Lei only kill students from A University of Science and Technology? Or does he target any student?”

Nan Mu had no choice but to bite the bullet and continue his lie. “It’s not certain exactly how many people he killed, but that was the only case that came to light during the investigation…”

“Then why did Xu Lei kill that student from A University of Science and Technology?”

“…I’m not sure…”

Wen Miao was somewhat speechless. Her gaze toward Nan Mu gradually became suspicious-suspicious of this future policeman’s investigative abilities.

She paused, then asked, “What was the MO?”

“Craniotomy… In the Biology Research Lab at A University of Science and Technology. It was like a biological dissection…”

Shock registered on Wen Miao’s face. She pondered for a moment. “Did the death of the student at A University of Science and Technology happen after Xiao Shu’s?”

“Yes.”

At this point, Nan Mu didn’t quite understand why Wen Miao had suddenly asked this. Since Wen Miao was a student at A University of Science and Technology herself, she would naturally know if any students had been murdered there. And since Xiao Shu had already gone missing, it was clearly before the case he had mentioned.

“That makes sense.”

Nan Mu watched as Wen Miao clapped her hands together with an “I see” expression.

“What makes sense?”

“Isn’t that how serial killers usually operate? Because it’s their first crime and they have no experience, they tend to choose victims and locations for disposing of bodies that they are relatively familiar with. The former is to reduce variables and make control easier; the latter is to hide the body longer and avoid early police intervention.”

Xu Lei and Professor Gu were classmates. He might have seen Xiao Shu while visiting Professor Gu; they might have even been quite well-acquainted, making it easy to ask Gu Zhishu to come out. Furthermore, Gu Zhishu had been bedridden for three or four years. With Xu Lei’s physique, supporting a frail patient would have been child’s play.

“If the first person Xu Lei killed was Xiao Shu, and Xiao Shu’s body went undiscovered for a long time, it would have given Xu Lei an inexplicable confidence in his methods. At that point, he would become relatively bolder in his choice of victims and disposal sites…”

Nan Mu suddenly seemed to think of something, and his whole body shuddered. Immediately after, he heard Wen Miao voice the realization he had just reached.

“Actually, it’s quite simple to verify if these two cases involve the same killer. Serial killers usually use similar methods when disposing of bodies, or they leave ‘signatures’ at the scene to satisfy certain psychological or emotional needs… After Xiao Shu’s body was found, were there any unusual findings?”

Nan Mu’s expression was heavy. “Because so much time had passed, only skeletal remains were found… but there were signs of trauma to Xiao Shu’s head… Not the kind of blow meant to knock someone unconscious, but a frenzied beating intended to shatter the skull.”

Although the student in the other case had been subjected to a craniotomy, and the methods seemed different, they essentially led to the same result…

It seemed the perpetrator had an extraordinary obsession with the victims’ heads.