Fan Shuhua smiled slightly and said, “No one can predict what might happen three years later, but planting a time bomb next to you was certainly an interesting thing to do.”

Despite her still-gentle tone, Yin Feng felt the person before him becoming increasingly unfamiliar.

“Oh? What about using Ding Xiongwei? Was that also because it was interesting?” Yin Feng smiled. “He seems utterly devoted to you.”

Fan Shuhua’s expression remained calm: “It’s not about using him. I happened to visit him at the police station, he happened to want to question me about a case from twenty years ago because I was the sketch artist, and you happened to be alone next door, that’s all.”

Yin Feng asked, “Was it difficult to hypnotize me?”

Fan Shuhua smiled: “Very easy. I understand you. In your heart, your desires are too strong.”

Yin Feng fell silent for a moment. That afternoon, he had gone alone to the police station to review case files from 20 years ago. Memories of that time—Ding Xiongwei’s smile when mentioning a visitor, footsteps in the hallway, the clock on the wall, time passing unnoticed…

“That night at the hospital,” Yin Feng said, “if I hadn’t chased after Chen Feng, wouldn’t your plan have failed?”

Fan Shuhua answered: “It wouldn’t have failed. If you hadn’t gone, Chen Feng would have successfully killed Li Mingdi, and you still wouldn’t have been able to escape involvement. I could have found another opportunity to hypnotize you again. What was surprising was that you went, allowing me to complete the shaping of your memory and identity. Everything flowed naturally! You truly are a good child.”

“So the person who lured me over in the hallway was you?” Yin Feng said. “You had already hypnotized me in that corner room.”

A detail from that night flashed in Yin Feng’s mind: he had chased that familiar figure to the corridor corner, but found no one there. When he opened the storage room door, he saw only darkness. It was at that moment.

“Yes.”

Outside the window, the flickering lights grew more frequent, and the footsteps became increasingly obvious. Many people were infiltrating this house. Yet the two inside seemed not to hear.

“Why, Teacher?” Yin Feng asked. “Why do you believe in ‘all good is dead, all evil shall be done’? Can’t you see what the Punishers are doing? They act arbitrarily, hunting fugitives. What right do they have to do this? Not only that, they cultivate criminals and train more Punishers. Behind this cultivation are innocent lives. Such ‘punishment of evil’ has already become distorted. Evil gives birth to even more evil. Can’t you see that? Why do you persist in this misguided path?”

Faced with Yin Feng’s cold questioning, Fan Shuhua remained calm. She said: “The implementation of a new idea, a new way of social existence, naturally comes with a price. Survival or death doesn’t matter. Exploring the truth is what matters most.”

Yin Feng shook his head: “No, life itself is what matters most.”

Fan Shuhua suddenly burst into laughter, showing such intense emotion for the first time since Yin Feng had entered the room. While laughing, she said: “What am I hearing? A child born with psychopathy is telling me that life itself matters most? Aren’t you the one who feels nothing for many things and many people? Aren’t you the one who remains unmoved even when seeing the most cruel crime scenes? What are you trying to do now, become a godfather of goodness? Unfortunately, goodness only makes people weak; evil is what protects us.”

“But I’m still trying to love people!” Yin Feng stated firmly. “And people are willing to love me. Teacher, what about you? What has your life experience been? You keep talking about faith and truth. But where does your truth come from? Human psychology always has causes—this simple principle needs no reminder from me. So what has your life suffered that made you determine that life is no longer important? You say my heart is full of desire, but aren’t you the same? You’re so eager to prove your so-called truth because the original beliefs of your life have been destroyed, haven’t they?”

Fan Shuhua stared at him coldly.

Her face, previously as calm as ice, finally showed a cracking expression.

She didn’t believe his words. He was her student; everything he had learned was taught by her. How could he lecture her? So many years had passed; childhood events had become as distant as cosmic dust, unable to stir even the slightest ripple in her heart. She believed herself long healed, long overcome. Did he think she was a first-year psychology student? That her beliefs stemmed from childhood trauma?

Yet when Yin Feng questioned her this way, her first thought was still of those events. Her mother’s crying and weakness, abduction by strangers, and her father’s indifference. The corpses on the ground, the blood everywhere. In truth, each time she recalled these memories, strange feelings would arise. She was only two or three years old then, couldn’t remember everything clearly, and had no impression of what had happened. Yet as she grew older—at 5, 6, 10 years old—the image of that child standing foolishly in a pool of blood, even the shapes of the corpses, the bloody hole in her mother’s chest, her father’s grotesque face in death, all appeared more and more clearly in her memory. Eventually, she couldn’t distinguish whether these images originated from memory or were additions from her imagination.

…

“Enough,” Fan Shuhua said, her face darker than Yin Feng had ever seen. “They’re about to come in and make the arrest, aren’t they? It seems you’ve collected enough evidence. Did Ding Xiongwei send you here?”

Yin Feng answered: “I proposed coming, and he didn’t object. The evidence is indeed as you see. For those three critical hypnosis sessions, we found surveillance videos showing you at the crime scenes. These past few days, I also had your calls monitored and recorded the content of your conversation with Yin Chen.”

Fan Shuhua revealed a slight smile: “Planning thoroughly before acting—that’s my style. If you had been willing to join the Punishers, why would I have settled for Yin Chen as a second choice? And what business would the police have had in all this?”

Yin Feng sighed: “You’re still obstinate.”

Fan Shuhua smiled. She turned to look out the window, through the light and darkness, as if gazing at another place.

Yin Feng said, “They should have taken action by now.”

Tears welled up in Fan Shuhua’s eyes: “They… what a pity.”

Behind them, footsteps grew closer; someone had already arrived at the study door.

Yin Feng stood up, bowed deeply, and said: “Teacher, you were truly wrong.”

Fan Shuhua seemed not to hear.

Yin Feng turned to leave and saw someone standing at the door. Unprecedentedly, he patted that person’s shoulder. The person remained silent as a mountain.

Suddenly, Fan Shuhua yanked open a drawer and grabbed something, throwing it toward her mouth. Before anyone could react, Ding Xiongwei at the door lunged forward and, at the critical moment, grabbed her hand and gripped her jaw. Ding Xiongwei glared at her and knocked the object from her hand. Fan Shuhua’s face turned pale as she said, “Old Ding, let me save some face.”

Ding Xiongwei took a deep breath, pulled out handcuffs, cuffed her, and said: “Fan Shuhua, you’re under arrest.”

Many police officers rushed into the house as Yin Feng walked out alone.

You Mingxu stood at the yard gate.

He went over and, without hesitation, pulled her into his arms, like a mountain in the cold night leaning down toward her.

You Mingxu asked: “Feeling terrible?”

Yin Feng chuckled: “A bit. I always saw her as an elder. She gave me feelings of… warmth and strength, like you. I’ve never seen her so distorted.”

You Mingxu said: “You still have me, you still have many others.”

Yin Feng raised his eyes to look at her, shadows moving in his gaze.

“I still have you, I still have many others,” he slowly repeated her words, his arms tightening until You Mingxu felt somewhat uncomfortable.

Xu Mengshan and another police officer escorted Fan Shuhua out. Under everyone’s gaze, she kept her head down, not looking at anyone, and got into a police car.

Ding Xiongwei stood at the doorway, watching.

At this moment, a police officer ran to the door and said: “We’ve found something!”