In the photograph, the woman had an oval face with delicate features and a tall, slender figure—she was Li Xiulan, Cheng Zhou’s mother.

After staring at the photo for a few seconds, Jiang Chengyi turned to look at Cheng Zhou. “When you were three years old, in 1995, your father Cheng Zhong was imprisoned for assault. Your mother Li Xiulan had to work outside to make ends meet. But with only a middle school education, she couldn’t find satisfactory work and could only engage in service industries, making a very meager income. This situation continued until 1999—when your mother remarried, and only then did your family’s economic situation improve. Of course, this was all just on the surface.”

Speaking this, Jiang Chengyi walked back to the table, sat down, and pulled out a yellowed page from the case file.

“This is an anonymous report received by the Shuilongtan Police Station on December 20, 1996. The caller reported frequent sounds of crying children in Unit 4 of the residential complex, suspecting child abuse. Officer Chen immediately went to Unit 4 to investigate after receiving the report and finally identified Unit 501, where the household head was Li Xiulan—your mother.

“After entering the apartment, the police found multiple injuries on your body. Considering your mother’s unstable emotional state, the officer took you away that night and sent you to a nearby hospital. The hospital’s X-ray results showed mild hydrocephalus. After completing the examination, the doctor immediately informed Officer Chen of this result and reminded him: that this was not the first time the child had been abused.

“Officer Chen took this matter extremely seriously and reported it to his superiors immediately upon return. After discussion, the police station immediately contacted your relatives in the city. They quickly learned that your father was an only child whose parents had passed away, and your maternal grandparents didn’t live in the city. After weighing the pros and cons, the police station decided to contact your maternal grandfather, but when he received the call, he was very indifferent and showed no willingness to take you in.

“After discussion, the station had no choice but to return you to your mother’s care. Officer Chen was very responsible—after your external injuries healed, he severely criticized and educated your mother. Afterward, he regularly visited your home. Your mother’s behavior normalized after that, as she found a job at a supermarket and her emotions gradually stabilized, and she no longer abused you. Unfortunately, early the following year, that officer was transferred to a different district.

“The police station received no further related reports after that. However, in a second file, we learned that when you were in sixth grade, your homeroom teacher Ms. Liu accidentally discovered a small bruise on your back (approximately 5cm×7cm). Out of concern for you, she immediately conducted a home visit.

“Your mother had remarried by then. Ms. Liu found your mother at a mahjong parlor. Your mother denied ever abusing you and refused Ms. Liu’s suggestion to return home for a parent-teacher discussion. Surprisingly, while you were present during the teacher’s conversation with your mother, you showed extreme resistance and indifference. Afterward, Ms. Liu, still worried, chose to report it to the police. When the police came to investigate, your story matched your mother’s—both denied any abuse. Considering you were twelve years old at the time and had some capacity for judgment, the police could only criticize and educate your mother and stepfather, without taking further action.”

After reading through both police reports, Jiang Chengyi looked at Yu Zheng.

Yu Zheng understood and deliberately gave Cheng Zhou a look of sympathy and pity.

Under this prolonged sympathetic gaze, Cheng Zhou’s dead-water-like eyes finally showed movement. He slightly twisted his lips: “Why are you looking at me like that?”

Yu Zheng looked at the vital signs monitor—sure enough, the heart rate had changed again, from 80 bpm to 110 bpm.

He chuckled, calmly concluding: “Your heart rate has increased, but this time it’s not from excitement—it’s from anger. Cheng Zhou, you’re angry not because we brought up your family, but because I pity you.”

Cheng Zhou slowly withdrew his smile.

“Indeed, who in this world has the right to pity you? You, Cheng Zhou, are your own master, your god.” Yu Zheng smiled knowingly, closing the case file with a snap. “Everything I’m about to say isn’t recorded in the files, because the data in the files is too dry and rigid to truly reconstruct a person’s developmental trajectory. Since the formation of a criminal personality is closely related to genetic, physiological, and environmental factors, I need to set aside the paper documents and start with your neighbors, teachers, and classmates. Only this way can we trace your personality formation system bit by bit.

“Let’s start with your responsible homeroom teacher, Ms. Liu. Shortly after filing the report, she was hit by a small stone thrown from behind while walking home, causing a minor skull fracture. She nearly lost consciousness, and the moment she turned around, she saw a boy’s figure and recognized it was you. She was very surprised—even today, Ms. Liu still can’t understand: she was trying to help you then, why did it bring your hostility? Regarding this question, I can give an immediate answer: the help came too late!

“From age three to twelve, over nine years, your abnormal personality had already formed. By the time you were twelve, external expressions of warmth and help would only trigger your anger and violent impulses.

“We all know that ages zero to three are the first crucial stage in personality establishment. Unfortunately, when you were three, your father went to prison, and your mother, due to her personality defects, didn’t have sufficient mental capacity to adapt to these major life changes. Instead, she vented all her dissatisfaction with you. This maternal abuse caused a violent rupture in your second stage of personality development, becoming the first trigger for your personality’s sudden change and distortion.

“Of course, I’ll analyze your mother Li Xiulan’s personality later. Right now, I’m only interested in discussing you, Cheng Zhou. I guess when your mother was first warned by the police, she was very panicked—on the one hand, unable to control her urge to vent her life dissatisfaction through beating you, on the other hand constantly threatening you to avoid punishment. You were too young, and your mental and personality development was far from mature enough to judge whether these threats were reasonable. Out of survival instinct, for a very long time, you viewed Li Xiulan as the master of your life, instinctively obeying her.”

The heart rate on the monitor quickly shot up to 120 bpm, while breathing increased from 12 to 30 breaths per minute—these were signs of Cheng Zhou losing emotional control.

Xiao Zhou immediately noticed this and gave Yu Zheng an admiring look before lowering his head to continue taking notes.

“This abnormal living environment might have been enough to form such a complex personality in you, leading you to deliberately choose women with similar builds to your mother Li Xiulan for repeated crimes once you had the capability. But this still doesn’t explain your obsession with the criminal ritual. So I think that during the process of being abused by your mother Li Xiulan, you must have had at least one near-death experience. It was during that instance that you fell into extreme despair, and your mother’s grotesque face was violently branded into your deep consciousness. This impression still triggers your criminal impulses from time to time, impossible to shake off for life.”

Heart rate 140 bpm, accompanied by flaring nostrils and a heaving chest.

“Click.” Yu Zheng began to rotate his pen at an even, slow pace, speaking in an inducing, soft, and slow tone: “Tell me, what happened that time?”

Cheng Zhou had a moment of absent-mindedness.

Jiang Chengyi stared intently at Cheng Zhou.

Everyone fell silent.

The room became so quiet they could almost hear each other’s heartbeats.

Ten seconds.

Twenty seconds.

Forty seconds.

Cheng Zhou finally reacted, but only to slowly lower his head and say with a muffled laugh: “What are you talking about?”

Yu Zheng’s pen-spinning paused, and everyone’s expressions flashed with disappointment.

Jiang Chengyi discreetly checked his watch: one hour and twenty minutes left. Before beginning the interrogation, he had anticipated this would be a tough battle, so he worked to adjust his emotions and quickly regained composure.

To avoid drawing Cheng Zhou’s attention, he pretended to browse through the case files while keeping his focus on Yu Zheng beside him, ready at any moment to assist Yu Zheng in finding another entry point for a second psychological interrogation.

Doctor Yu maintained his smile while making eye contact with Cheng Zhou, while Xiao Zhou and the others remained tensely silent.

Through these several interactions, Xiao Zhou and the others knew Doctor Yu’s brain was racing at high speed. Facing such a cunning criminal, the first psychological breakthrough had failed—finding a second breakthrough point successfully would be no easy task.

Jiang Chengyi flipped through page after page of the case files, somewhat absentmindedly.

He paused when he noticed the character “Shuilongtan” for the third time, but the next moment he felt that ambiguous gaze from across the room. Suppressing his disgust, he quickly passed over that page and continued flipping forward.

After being safely escorted home by Xiao Zhou and the others, Lu Yan briefly washed up before going to bed.

She slept until six in the morning before waking up.

Jiang Chengyi hadn’t returned home, likely still interrogating the suspect through the night.

Thinking about how Jiang Chengyi hadn’t slept for two consecutive nights, she also lost her desire to sleep.

Getting up, she placed her phone on the washbasin while washing up.

There were no messages from Jiang Chengyi, and fearing she might disturb his work, she didn’t dare contact him first.

Opening several WeChat groups, she saw messages that had accumulated overnight. The most active was the Class 6 alumni group. After scrolling through the chat history for a while, she learned that last night the classmates had been unanimously discussing whether to visit Teacher Zhou in the hospital.

She had only learned about Teacher Zhou’s attack from Yu Zheng on their way back from the film base last night. She knew Teacher Zhou was currently in the ICU and had still not regained consciousness as of last night. It seemed that although the police had intentionally concealed news of Teacher Zhou’s hospitalization, it had still been spread by his neighbors.

The classmates were discussing which hospital Teacher Zhou might be in.

Finally, they suspected he had been sent to the First Affiliated Hospital, but didn’t know which department.

Lu Yan didn’t participate in the discussion. Ever since confirming Teacher Zhou’s romantic relationship with student Deng Man, she could no longer feel any goodwill toward him.

However, first considering that Teacher Zhou was also one of the victims, and second, thinking he might know quite a bit about Cheng Zhou that could help solve the case if he woke up, she hesitated for a few seconds before trying to send a message to her colleague in the ICU.

“Lu Yan, are you up? Who was on night shift yesterday?”

“Me. Lu Yan, why are you up so early? Haven’t seen you at the hospital lately—are you on leave?”

“Oh, I have a competition to prepare for, so I took a few days off. By the way, is my teacher Zhou Zhicheng staying in your department? How is he doing?”

“The one who had cardiac arrest from asphyxiation? His indicators aren’t great right now, but his myocardial enzymes and blood gas pH are much better than the past two days. Kidney function isn’t a major concern either. Overall, it’s relatively optimistic. I just ordered a head CT for him. We’ll check his cerebral edema situation later. If there’s no fluctuation, he might regain consciousness today, though it’s not certain.”

“Today…”

“Well, thank you. He was my high school homeroom teacher. Please take extra good care of him.”

“No problem. By the way, Lu Yan, is there something special about your homeroom teacher? The police were stationed outside our ICU for the past few days, checking his condition every half hour, acting very tense. Until midnight yesterday, one suddenly left, and now there’s only one police officer left. Though even that officer seems to have gone downstairs to buy breakfast—he’s not here now.”

“Left? Could it be because Cheng Zhou was caught, so the police thought it unnecessary to keep two people protecting Teacher Zhou and temporarily withdrew one?”

She paced around the room a few times, then remembering last night’s explosive news reports, she exited WeChat and opened a news app.

The feed was flooded with discussions about Zheng Xiaowen’s disappearance.

One moment showed fans collectively praying for Zheng Xiaowen, the next showed reporters doing live coverage outside the Anshan District Police Station. Clearly, despite most of the night having passed, Zheng Xiaowen and Wen Peng still hadn’t been found.

She guessed that at this moment, Jiang Chengyi was either at the search site or interrogating the suspect.

After some thought, she found Old Qin’s number that Tang Jie had helped her save earlier and called it.

Old Qin answered quickly. The background was chaotic, with occasional “thud-thud-thud” sounds, as if some large mechanical operation was underway.

“Dr. Lu, what’s the matter?”

“Officer Qin, sorry to disturb you. I just checked with my ICU colleague, and if things go well, Teacher Zhou might regain consciousness today. Since he knows the perpetrator, if we can interrogate him promptly, he should be able to provide some useful information.”

She didn’t know how far the search and rescue had progressed, but that officer outside the ICU should really stay there at all times because the patient could wake up at any moment, and patients who’ve undergone cardiopulmonary-cerebral resuscitation could fall back into unconsciousness at any time.

She was subtly reminding Old Qin: that opportunities are fleeting and may not come again.

There was a splashing sound on Old Qin’s end, and someone shouting from afar: “Nothing, we’ve practically turned over all the mud in the lake, still nothing.”

Old Qin acknowledged this, then turned back to Lu Yan: “Dr. Lu, thanks for the reminder. I’m a bit busy here, so I’ll hang up now. I’ll call my colleague at the hospital right away.”

Lu Yan felt relieved. Old Qin was very worldly and astute, quickly catching her subtle hint.

As soon as Old Qin hung up, he called Liao Qi: “Who’s guarding Zhou Zhicheng at the hospital?”

“Li Mao and Liu Qing, I think.” Liao Qi was busy too. “Oh no, just Liu Qing.”

“Who exactly? Be clear.”

“Liu Qing, Liu Qing. Li Mao was temporarily transferred to the suburbs to sweep Yanping Lake.”

Old Qin hurriedly called Liu Qing, hearing traffic sounds through the phone: “What are you doing, kid?”

Liu Qing’s scalp tightened as he hurriedly swallowed some noodles: “I haven’t eaten all night, came out to get some noodles at a late-night stand. What’s up, Teacher Qin?”

“Where’s Zhou Zhicheng?”

“Still hasn’t woken up.”

“Get back to the hospital and guard him right now. The doctor says he could wake up any minute. Cheng Zhou still won’t talk—if Zhou Zhicheng can provide any leads, contact Captain Jiang immediately.”

Knowing the gravity of the situation, Liu Qing quickly wiped his mouth stood up, paid, and ran toward the hospital. Because Zhou Zhicheng hadn’t woken up for so long, he had originally planned to stroll around downstairs for about ten minutes, but after Old Qin’s reminder, he realized if he didn’t get back quickly to guard the patient, he might miss the best opportunity to get a witness statement.

Arriving at the ICU entrance, all was dead quiet.

He felt both relieved and slightly disappointed.

Having guarded for a whole night, he was tired and took out a cigarette from his pack, squatting to the side.

Just as he was about to light it, he looked up and saw the “No Smoking” sign on the wall, and silently put it away.

He decided to stand up and pace back and forth in the empty corridor. Just as he reached the end of the hallway, the ICU door opened, and a chubby female doctor poked her head out: “Who’s here for Zhou Zhicheng? The patient is awake.”

Cheng Zhou still wouldn’t speak.

Jiang Chengyi had flipped through the entire case file, finally returning to the first page, staring at the three characters “Shuilongtan” under Cheng Zhou’s registered residence, his brows slightly furrowed.

His phone vibrated on the table. Glancing over, he saw it was Liu Qing calling and immediately answered.

He heard: “Captain Jiang, Zhou Zhicheng is awake.”

Jiang Chengyi’s eyes brightened slightly. He quickly turned to Old Liu beside him, who had extensive interrogation experience, leaning in and lowering his voice: “Old Liu, Zhou Zhicheng is awake. Hurry over there and try to get any leads about Cheng Zhou.”

Old Liu immediately understood and stood up without another word.

Cheng Zhou’s expression remained unchanged, but he couldn’t help watching their movements.

Fifteen minutes after Old Liu left, Yu Zheng finally broke the deadlock, saying lightly with a smile: “Why don’t we talk about your neighbors Zhou Zhicheng and Lin Chunmei?”

Cheng Zhou showed no reaction, just pursed his lips and shifted slightly.

Jiang Chengyi’s phone vibrated again. Seeing it was Old Liu’s number, his heart rate increased slightly as he answered, his gaze still fixed on Cheng Zhou.

“Captain, Zhou Zhicheng is still groggy, but when I asked if he knew Cheng Zhou, he just kept repeating: ‘That child fell into the well, save—save—'”

“Nothing else?” Jiang Chengyi felt vaguely disappointed.

“No. He immediately fell unconscious again, and then the doctor kicked us out.”

Beside him, Yu Zheng had already resumed the psychological interrogation.

But after hanging up, Jiang Chengyi still felt stifled in the room. Only forty minutes remained until Cheng Zhou’s deadline, and his attitude remained stubborn. If they couldn’t find a breakthrough quickly, Zheng Xiaowen and Wen Peng would have only one path: death.

He had to interrupt Yu Zheng, gesturing for him to come outside.

“You’re saying when Zhou Zhicheng woke up and heard Cheng Zhou’s name, he only said one thing: ‘That child fell into the well, save—save—'”

“Yes.”

“Well…” Yu Zheng fell into thought.

“Yes, well.” Jiang Chengyi paced the corridor with unprecedented anxiety.

“Child?” Yu Zheng pondered aloud. “If this statement refers to Cheng Zhou back then, it must have been when both families were living in Shuilongtan.”

The three characters “Shuilongtan” came up again, and Jiang Chengyi’s spine stiffened. He turned to look at Yu Zheng: “Doctor Yu, please repeat what you just said.”

Yu Zheng had also keenly caught something, repeating word by word: “I said if this statement refers to Cheng Zhou back then, it must have been when both families were living in Shuilongtan.”

“Right, Shuilongtan! Well!” A flash of joy crossed Jiang Chengyi’s face as he quickly called Old Qin. “Quick, check if there were any wells near the original Shuilongtan before it was demolished. Yes, wells or small ponds or anything like that. Look immediately and call me as soon as you find anything.”

Twenty minutes later, Old Qin called back, voice filled with wild joy: “Found them! Shuilongtan isn’t called Shuilongtan anymore—it’s Runwang Road. There is indeed a well, quite wide, somewhat like a pond, right behind the abandoned Plastic Factory No. 2. Zheng Xiaowen and Wen Peng were thrown into the well, bound!”

“Are they alive?” Jiang Chengyi’s heart skipped a beat.

“Alive! They’re alive!”