You Mingxu’s heart trembled as she bit her lip and said, “Yin Feng, pull back from the brink! What you’re doing is already criminal. Let me go, and things won’t become irreparable. Did you hear me?”

But Yin Feng acted as if he hadn’t heard. Those deep black eyes just stared at her, then slowly curved into a smile as he said, “Ah Xu, you’ve discovered my most deeply buried secret. I need to know the result—would you still be willing to stay with me?”

You Mingxu remained silent.

She watched as the gleam in Yin Feng’s eyes gradually darkened.

“So in the end… I still can’t have it?” he said softly. “For thirty years, I’ve never gotten anything I truly wanted.”

He stood to leave.

“Stop right there!” You Mingxu called out.

He halted.

You Mingxu said, “How long do you plan to keep me here? Yin Feng, don’t sink any deeper! Don’t go any further! If you release me now, I promise… I won’t press charges. We can let this go. But if you continue to keep me here, there really will be no turning back!”

Yin Feng turned his head, wearing a bitter, sardonic smile: “You want to charge me? Do you think we can’t make evidence disappear? There would be nothing but your testimony. I’ve already had them arrange it—tonight, ‘Luo Yu’s men’ will break into your home, set it on fire, and kidnap you. The police will spend some effort before finding evidence pointing to him. After all, he’s always had improper intentions toward you. And while Luo Yu denies it, you’ll be missing for a while. Then two months later, the police will find all the evidence proving you died in an accident.”

You Mingxu could hardly believe her ears. She shouted, “Yin Feng, you’re insane! You madman! You are crazy! You beast!”

Yin Feng roared back, “Don’t call me a beast! You provoked me, you fell in love with me, you promised not to leave me, and now you call me a beast? Just because I was born a psychopath? How is that my crime? I’ve always been restraining myself, controlling myself—that sword has been hanging over my head for thirty years, and I never knew when it would fall. But I never killed anyone, never committed crimes. I even used my talents to prevent crimes. But you look at me with those eyes—you know I’m a deviant, so you can’t accept it anymore, right? Because you’re a police officer, you could never be with someone born to commit crimes. You like men like Jing Ping, upright criminal investigators who live in the light like you, right? But you’re mine now, you’ve already become mine. I’ve never truly owned anything, so you won’t be a criminal investigator anymore. You’ll be with me forever—ten years, twenty years, thirty years. I will be your world, I will be your everything. Ah Xu, it will feel so good—you’ll have only me, and I’ll have only you. We’ll be together every day.”

You Mingxu listened with chills running down her spine, staring at his reddened eyes and the veins bulging on his forehead, muttering, “Madman… madman… don’t come closer, don’t touch me…”

Yin Feng’s face darkened as he slowly walked back to her side.

“You’d better not say such things,” he said slowly. “‘Don’t’ and ‘Don’t touch me’… I don’t like hearing them.”

He pulled back the blanket and pounced on her.

You Mingxu was pinned down firmly under him, writhing futilely beneath his weight. But her resistance seemed to excite him more—his hands slid under her clothes, roaming and pinching everywhere, while his mouth buried itself in her collar, biting frantically. You Mingxu let out painful, unbearable gasps, crying and cursing. Their bodies were tightly entangled together.

Although Yin Feng’s body was almost completely covered and pressed down on You Mingxu, such a scene would undoubtedly make anyone’s blood boil.

It was love, it was sin, it was plunder, it was destruction—it was an increasingly dark and unrestrained descent into depravity.

Behind them, in an almost lightless corner, in the most concealed position possible, a pair of eyes watched the scene greedily. The owner of those eyes also felt deadly excitement and delight. He raised his phone, having already silenced it completely, and pressed the capture button, recording all the scenes that followed, recording the more cruel crimes that were about to occur in this basement on this night.

—

The basement was rather cold. After tormenting You Mingxu for a while, Yin Feng pulled up the blanket to cover them both and slid underneath. Though the blanket blocked the view, his movements were obvious—his body moved downward, about to remove You Mingxu’s undergarments.

The sudden change happened at that moment.

You Mingxu had probably been stretched to her limit. As he approached, she suddenly jerked her head up, and their heads collided violently. Yin Feng’s body swayed, and seeing the hatred in her eyes, his heart grew more oppressed. A resounding slap landed on her face. The force appeared extreme—You Mingxu’s head was knocked to one side, and she couldn’t turn it back for half a moment.

“Don’t resist!” Yin Feng shouted. “Don’t you dare resist!”

He gripped her chin, his hand covering most of her face, but heard her laugh coldly: “Yin Feng, you’re truly laughable, truly.”

“Shut up!”

“All these years, you thought you were protecting justice, even leading those former criminals—did you think you were some savior? But really, you’re nothing! The real you is selfish, cowardly, and timid, afraid of losing everything, so you never dared to possess anything. Among them all, you’re the most perverted, the most disgusting, the most hypocritical! You’ve been living in your imagination, living as a false version of yourself!”

Yin Feng: “Shut up! I said shut up!” His hand instinctively moved to her throat, pressing down hard, trying to silence her.

But You Mingxu’s eyes were bloodshot, her entire being utterly defiant. Even with her throat in pain, she shouted, “You’re finished, you’re beyond salvation! Your crimes begin with me, begin today. I did love you, but now you’ve become the kind of person I hate most! I despise you, I will never look at you again. Spend a lifetime together? Hah, you want to spend a lifetime with me?”

“Stop talking!” Yin Feng’s emotions seemed completely out of control.

But You Mingxu acted as if she hadn’t heard, or perhaps because this man had truly been her heart’s beloved, her eyes now showed devastating hatred: “I will never love you again, even if you keep me locked up, even if you make me disappear. In my eyes, you’re nothing but a dog. I don’t love you, and you’ll never have me again! You have nothing, Yin Feng, you’ll never have anything but your sins, you…”

Her remaining words never came out.

Because they were all strangled in her throat by Yin Feng.

The basement fell into an eerie silence.

Yin Feng’s hands remained locked around You Mingxu’s neck, growing tighter and tighter, time seeming to freeze at that moment. Her struggling movements gradually faded. Finally, she stopped moving.

But Yin Feng’s hands still gripped her neck. Several minutes passed before he slowly removed them. He stared at the motionless woman lying on the bed, and after a while, buried his face in his hands, remaining that way for a long time without looking up.

…

About ten minutes later, Yin Feng’s phone made a soft “ding” sound. Only then did he lower his hands, glance at the message on his phone, then turn his head to pinch the face of the person on the bed, saying softly, “Alright, he’s gone? Now he won’t be able to escape.”