On his way to the interrogation room, Jiang Chengyi received a call from Old Liu.
“Captain Jiang, Zhou Zhicheng just woke up again, but he’s still very confused. When I asked if he knew Cheng Zhou, he nodded, but he doesn’t seem to know that Cheng Zhou was the one who called him that day. He’s even less aware that Cheng Zhou is connected to the events from back then. Though given Cheng Zhou’s usual pattern, I suspect Zhou Zhicheng probably never suspected Cheng Zhou all these years.”
“Did Zhou Zhicheng explain what he meant by ‘child falling into the well’?”
“I asked about that. He seems to have a deep impression of it. He explained fragmentedly that when they used to live in Water Dragon Pool, one night, he and some neighbors were returning home. As they passed by the pool, they found Cheng Zhou’s mother standing at the edge, completely motionless, as if paralyzed with fear. Zhou Zhicheng and the others sensed something was wrong, rushed over, and discovered Cheng Zhou had fallen into the pool, sinking with bubbles rising. He and the neighbors were terrified and scrambled to pull the child out. He also mentioned that the pool existed before Liberation, and that’s how Water Dragon Pool got its name. However, after the demolition, the government renovated the pool for environmental engineering, and the place stopped being called Water Dragon Pool.”
“Alright, when Zhou Zhicheng’s condition improves further, ask him more details about that phone call.”
Jiang Chengyi pushed open the door to the interrogation room.
Inside, only Yu Zheng’s voice could be heard speaking.
Officer Zhou was writing furiously, occasionally glancing at the silent Cheng Zhou.
Cheng Zhou’s face was expressionless. When Jiang Chengyi entered, he twisted his neck back and forth as if stiff from sitting too long. That self-assured composure had vanished from his face, replaced by hints of agitation.
By this point, Yu Zheng was more composed than Cheng Zhou. Despite going two nights without sleep, he showed no signs of fatigue, his speech remaining clear and rigorous.
Jiang Chengyi sat down and informed Yu Zheng about what Old Liu had learned.
After listening, Yu Zheng perked up, pondered for a moment, nodded, and continued with their previous topic.
“Let’s look at Lin Chunmei’s medical record from the Women’s and Children’s Hospital in 2000. According to the record, she was accompanied by her husband Zhou Zhicheng for an emergency obstetrics visit. The patient reported ‘being 13 weeks pregnant, slipping and falling an hour ago, followed by spotting symptoms, hence seeking medical attention.’
“However, after a detailed examination, doctors found that Lin Chunmei’s fetus had stopped developing two weeks prior. In other words, the fetus had already undergone a missed miscarriage two weeks before. Lin Chunmei’s spotting wasn’t from the fall but an inevitable miscarriage. The doctor recommended she complete her examinations and schedule a D&C procedure at the outpatient surgery department.
“Of course, this is just what’s recorded in the medical records. I had tried contacting Lin Chunmei’s parents several times, but they only returned from their trip yesterday. From them, I learned that after Lin Chunmei was discharged, she went to a neighbor’s house in a rage because an eight or nine-year-old child—you, Cheng Zhou—had caused her fall. As she was going downstairs, you were running up too fast and accidentally knocked her down.
“Although the doctor had informed Lin Chunmei that her embryo had stopped developing two weeks prior, Lin Chunmei was extreme in temperament and hot-tempered. Unable to accept the fact of her miscarriage, she repeatedly caused trouble for you, not only arguing with your mother multiple times but even slapping you in front of others.
“Though after Zhou Zhicheng’s persuasion and mediation, Lin Chunmei stopped coming to make trouble, she never managed to conceive again. Afterward, whenever she saw you in the complex, she would glare at you coldly or even curse at you openly.”
Yu Zheng placed photos of Zhou Zhicheng’s wife Lin Chunmei side by side with Li Xiaolan: “Although to outsiders, Lin Chunmei and your mother Li Xiaolan look nothing alike, in your eyes, Cheng Zhou, these two people were identical in build, personality, and their treatment of you. In other words, Lin Chunmei was another Li Xiaolan. By 2007, after enduring long-term cold treatment, your resentment toward them finally reached its peak. But since you were still a minor then, and Li Xiaolan, as your mother, remained the dominant force in your life, you could only satisfy your criminal impulses by punishing the other Li Xiaolan, which led to Lin Chunmei’s electric bicycle accident that year.
“After Lin Chunmei’s accident, her parents chose to report it to the police. However, from the police station’s investigation report, Lin Chunmei’s electric bicycle’s brake mechanism and disc showed no signs of tampering, and the police ultimately ruled out the possibility of human factors in Lin Chunmei’s accident.”
Cheng Zhou chuckled softly as if recalling something deeply pleasurable.
Yu Zheng stared at him intently: “Cheng Zhou, you’ve always used your intelligence to repeatedly escape legal punishment. To make Lin Chunmei’s ‘accident’ look like a genuine accident, I imagine you must have conducted many tests beforehand. Even though you were only fifteen at the time, you were already as methodical and experienced as a veteran. Unfortunately, while you had infinite patience in carrying out crimes, you soon encountered a more serious problem—you discovered that punishing Lin Chunmei alone couldn’t satisfy you. You still had a huge void inside, until two years later, in 2009, when another victim appeared—Deng Man—only then was your criminal desire truly relieved.”
“The two cases share similarities: both victims were of similar build, and both cases ruled out homicide. The key difference—Deng Man died in water.”
Yu Zheng fixed his gaze on Cheng Zhou: “Cheng Zhou, can you tell us why, after all these years, you’ve insisted on making one ‘Li Xiaolan’ after another die in water?”
Cheng Zhou stared at an empty point in space before him, expressionless for a long time.
This was a sign of the perpetrator’s psychological defenses crumbling.
Yu Zheng pressed on, standing to turn off the room’s lights, plunging the interrogation room into darkness where they could barely see each other.
He watched the numbers on Cheng Zhou’s vital signs monitor and spoke slowly: “That night was very dark. Your mother returned from work, perhaps having had a particularly unpleasant day. She was unprecedentedly furious, feeling that all her current life’s misfortunes were due to having you as a burden. She vented all her grievances on you but soon found that merely beating you wasn’t enough to calm her emotions. She suddenly remembered the pond behind the complex and conceived a terrible idea. Then she took you there, perhaps hesitated, perhaps didn’t hesitate at all, but ultimately, ignoring your crying, pushed you into the pond.”
The heart rate rapidly shot up to 145 beats per minute.
“The water quickly engulfed your body. You were terrified. As seconds and minutes passed, you drew closer to death. You were surrounded by cold water, pitch black, but in your eyes, you could only see your mother standing silently at the edge watching you. You couldn’t see her face, but moonlight outlined her figure with stark clarity. You didn’t know what you had done wrong, didn’t know why you deserved such punishment, didn’t know why you had to be thrown into the water. You struggled desperately, called for help, begged, but it was all useless. Finally, you could only helplessly die slowly in the water—”
Heavy breathing came from across the room, growing more and more rapid.
Officer Zhou’s heart jumped.
A few seconds later.
A low roar burst forth: “She deserved to die! She deserved to be thrown in the water! It was Li Xiaolan!”
Cheng Zhou completely lost control, howling like a trapped beast: “It was Li Xiaolan! Li Xiaolan!”
In the darkness, the cold mechanical sounds of the prisoner’s chair struggling mixed with Cheng Zhou’s hoarse, distorted roars, both jarring and chilling. Officer Zhou wanted to stand up to calm him but was stopped by Jiang Chengyi, forced to sit down, though secretly breaking into a cold sweat.
Yu Zheng’s voice was full of sympathy, though this time, he wasn’t intentionally displaying this emotion but rather acting on a basic human instinct for compassion. He said softly: “Yes, Li Xiaolan deserved to die, Li Xiaolan deserved to be thrown in the water, Li Xiaolan deserved to be punished. Her personality was fractured; she was completely unfit to be a mother, let alone the dominant force in your life. So in your later life, you repeatedly recreated that dark, cold night—repeatedly punishing ‘Li Xiaolan’ in your way.”
Cheng Zhou’s breathing was still heavy but at least no longer as hysterically torn as before.
Yu Zheng slowly spoke: “Whatever the case, you achieved what you wanted. So now, can you tell me how you managed to punish the first Li Xiaolan so perfectly? How did you do it?”
After a long silence, though Cheng Zhou’s expression couldn’t be seen, his hoarse laughter could be heard: “That was simple. She rode an electric bicycle every day. All I had to do was tamper with it a bit.”
“You must have done it flawlessly, that’s why the police never discovered anything.”
“They’re so stupid, what could they possibly discover?”
“Yes, you’re too clever. I can’t figure anything out.”
“Of course, you can’t guess. Hehe, I stuck something nice on one side of that woman’s electric bicycle mirror.”
“What nice thing?”
Cheng Zhou laughed smugly: “A kind of silver sticker that looked like a mirror but couldn’t reflect anything. The day I put it on, she hadn’t ridden far from the complex when a truck hit her. Many people gathered around. I watched her from the side—she was bleeding heavily. When no one was paying attention, I peeled off that sticker.”
“She bled a lot, she was in great pain, her life was draining away bit by bit, but the satisfaction you anticipated didn’t come. It was like scratching an itch through your boots—you weren’t satisfied with this method of punishment at all. And what you didn’t expect was that after this incident, your good friend Zhou Zhicheng showed genuine grief. He was too weak-willed, wasn’t he?”
Cheng Zhou sneered: “He was too unreasonable. Anyone who ends up with a wife like ‘Li Xiaolan’ is cursed with disaster. I was doing him a favor.”
“Yes, he wasn’t comparable to you in any way, but for a long time, he was your only friend. Because he was gentle-tempered and more than twenty years older than you, he was like both your big brother and father. So you often went to No. 7 Middle School to find him, and before long, you discovered the second Li Xiaolan there—Deng Man. What annoyed you was that this ‘Li Xiaolan’ was also close to your good friend Zhou Zhicheng. However, you didn’t immediately set about punishing Li Xiaolan. I guess you must have discovered someone more interesting at No. 7 Middle School. Who could this person be? They must have been far more interesting than the ordinary, unremarkable Zhou Zhicheng. Ah, let me guess—could it be Jiang Chengyi?”
Cheng Zhou chuckled darkly, not denying it.
“I imagine you must have discovered him on the basketball court or somewhere on campus because wherever he went, he was surrounded by friends. He was so fortunate, I heard his family background was good too, and both boys and girls liked him. You watched him from afar, like watching the North Star in the sky—unreachable. Most terribly, you discovered he had a good mother too. You observed him for a long time and found his life was perfectly flawless. He was extremely lucky, possessing many things you didn’t have. You felt an unprecedented sense of frustration. This feeling was awful, so for a while, you weren’t even interested in the new ‘Li Xiaolan’ around Zhou Zhicheng.
“But before long, you discovered that Jiang Chengyi also had something he desperately wanted—a girl. He seemed to like her very much, constantly trying to attract her attention and creating opportunities to meet her. But for some reason, the girl didn’t immediately accept Jiang Chengyi.
“Ah, so even Jiang Chengyi had moments of unfulfilled desire. You were extremely excited. This feeling diluted your sense of defeat and triggered your punishment mechanism. Most crucially, you discovered that the girl’s build was also similar to Li Xiaolan’s, so you began stalking her. If I’m not mistaken, you wanted her to become the second Li Xiaolan. This way, you could both punish Li Xiaolan and shatter Jiang Chengyi’s perfect world. If his world became as broken as yours, just thinking about it was thrilling.”
“Hmph, but that Li Xiaolan was too cunning. I originally wanted her to soak in water, preferably until she was bloated, then let Jiang Chengyi find her body. You don’t know, I had even stolen a video camera, just to capture his magnificent expression at that moment. But before I could act, ‘Li Xiaolan’ discovered I was following her, and then this news spread quickly. How could I proceed after that?” He sounded very regretful.
Jiang Chengyi seemed to show an emotional response, his chair making a slight sound.
Officer Zhou cast a sympathetic glance at the unusually silent Jiang Chengyi.