Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The scene of the woman’s corpse hidden in the cabinet spread all over the internet, causing an extremely severe public backlash. The higher-ups took it very seriously and ordered the bureau to solve the case within a set deadline.

The pressure crashed down on every member of the Major Crimes Unit like an avalanche.

My suggestion was this: “I recommend taking the show offline first. If the killer doesn’t get the response he wants, he’ll send us more information.”

Otherwise, he would look for a new victim.

After careful deliberation, the Major Crimes Unit accepted the proposal.

Sure enough, on the very day the program was taken down,

the production team received a handwritten letter.

Compared to the first one, this handwriting was sloppier. The pressure varied unevenly from character to character, and the corners of the strokes were harsh and jagged, proving that the killer was emotionally agitated and prone to anger.

His demands were:

First, put the show back online and stream it across the entire internet.

Second, he specifically demanded that Fang Ningsheng and I continue livestreaming the investigation.

That surprised me. A criminal psychologist analyzed it this way:

“You represent the police, authority itself, while Fang Ningsheng is the biggest star on the show, the artist with the greatest influence. Choosing the two of you is an outward expression of the killer’s desire for attention. But he’d already stopped killing for thirteen years. What stimulated him? What made him intensify his need for a sense of existence? That’s a breakthrough point.”

I looked at the crime scene photos from back then in the case file, at the mottled, dilapidated streetlamp outside the balcony.

It had already been confirmed that the lamp had originally been broken.

But on the night of the murder thirteen years ago, someone saw it lit.

That meant the killer had repaired the light before the murder so he could better savor the victim’s pain before death.

I raised my head and said, word by word,

“Or maybe Fang Ningsheng guessed exactly what he was thinking.”

I volunteered to go persuade Fang Ningsheng.

His manager nearly fainted when he heard. “No way. Have you all gone crazy? This is too dangerous. What if the killer sets his sights on Ningsheng? Did you forget what happened before…?”

“Before?” I caught the keyword immediately.

“Did something happen to you before?”

The manager complained, “A stalker fan followed Ningsheng around. Later, something happened, and it caused him a lot of trouble.”

Fang Ningsheng said evenly, “That’s all in the past. There’s no need to say more. Cooperating with the police investigation is what we’re supposed to do anyway.”

For our protection, the police required Fang Ningsheng to move into a designated hotel so he could stay with the rest of us.

The day we helped him move, it happened to be pouring rain.

I hate rainy days. The days my little sister went missing had weather just like this.

I ran through the streets, turning over every trash bag like a madman. The onlookers all held umbrellas, pointing at me, whispering among themselves.

I couldn’t make out their faces.

And I had no way of knowing whether the devil was hiding beneath one of those umbrellas.

Fang Ningsheng’s detached villa sat halfway up the mountain, secluded and extremely private. Its cold-toned, minimalist interior was so immaculate it looked like a model home.

There was barely anything in the rooms that bore any personal mark.

When Fang Ningsheng went inside to get something, he left his phone on the table.

The moment he was gone, I unlocked it at once.

My fingers moved fast as I planted a hidden surveillance program.

When the progress bar had crawled to 90%, Fang Ningsheng’s voice suddenly rang out behind me:

“What are you doing?”