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墨書 Inktalez
“Lai San is not someone who can be caught easily. Now, we should talk about your situation,” Captain Shao gently placed Lai San's file on the table and picked up his old teacup before continuing, “I told you that as long as you help me solve this case, I would get you out of the mental hospital. Now you are free.”
Gu Chen and Mary stood on either side of Captain Shao, both looking at me. Xiao Liu had just learned my identity and exclaimed, “Wow, you're a mental patient!”
“You can leave now,” Captain Shao said. “You are free.”
Before I could respond, I heard Mary say, “Shao Shilin, this is where you're wrong. It's not like you to abandon someone after using them. This crazy person might be annoying at times, but he has really helped us a lot. Without him, we wouldn’t have found the Murderer so quickly.”
“So I think,” Mary plopped down on Captain Shao's desk and continued, “he’s worth keeping around as a temporary worker. If anything happens in the future, we can use him as a scapegoat.”
I had previously made a bet with Mary that if I could find Lin Shu, she would speak well of me in front of Captain Shao. It seemed that Mary was indeed keeping her word.
Captain Shao lightly tapped his teacup. “How long has it been? And you two are already so close?”
Mary snatched the teacup from Captain Shao. “What do you mean by ‘close’?”
Captain Shao shrugged and pulled out another file from his drawer, the words clearly written in black ink—Wu Meng.
This was a file about me.
“Wu Meng was found abandoned at the entrance of Qingcheng Prison when he was one year old. When the Warden discovered you, you were already frozen purple. A heavy snow had blocked the roads, and it was obviously too late to send you to the hospital. The doctor in the prison was not available that day, and the Warden didn’t know how to handle it; they could only cover you with thick blankets and watch you die.”
“But later, an inmate told the Warden she had a way.” Captain Shao looked at me as he slowly recounted my story. “She had the Warden bring several water bottles filled with hot water and placed them under your armpits and in your groin area.”
“The female inmate treated it like a last-ditch effort; she wasn’t a doctor but had seen something similar on TV. She knew that if someone was severely frostbitten, warming them with hot water wouldn’t work; this was the only method she knew.” Captain Shao continued, “All the guards and inmates thought you wouldn’t survive that winter.”
"The snow fell heavily that year, and the cold wind howled."
"But miraculously, you survived."
"Prisons have always been places filled with death, yet in this gloomy and lifeless environment, a life managed to endure. The guards and inmates inexplicably felt a sense of joy. The Warden allowed everyone to stay up all night watching television, a privilege usually reserved for the Spring Festival."
"As the Warden sighed in relief, he found a note in your clothes. It read: 'The child is yours; I can’t wait for you any longer. I named the child Wu Meng. Ever since you went in, I've been plagued by nightmares. I hope to never dream again.'"
"Clearly, you were the son of a Criminal, but in reality, your mother had mistaken the prison. There were indeed inmates with the surname Wu, but none had ever married. Later, the Prison Doctor conducted DNA tests on all male inmates, and none turned out to be your father."
"The Warden was troubled; in such a vast China, where could he possibly find your father? Looking into your pitiful eyes, this forty-year-old childless Warden took you in as his own. He taught you to read and sent you to school. Your childhood revolved around two points: school and prison."
"Your presence brought a different kind of vitality to the dreary prison. You chatted with the inmates, calling them mom and dad. They gazed out the window countless times, crying at night, saying: 'My son should be this age too.' You became the son of them all."
"Your life was forever tied to the word Criminal; your father was a Criminal, your savior was a Criminal, and the milk you drank came from female inmates who raised you little by little alongside the prisoners. They taught you things ordinary people would never encounter in their lives."
"You learned how to make Drugs, how to pick locks and sneak through doors. You knew how to dismember a body safely after a murder and how to evade police investigations. The stories of your childhood were not about three little pigs or Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs or Cinderella. The stories you heard were about murder and dismemberment, about rape and incest, about street shootouts."
"As you grew day by day, the Warden feared that if you continued mingling with these criminals, you would inevitably become one of the most cunning, most skilled, hardest-to-catch Criminals. So he recommended you to the local Police Force as an external staff member."
"You understood many criminal tactics; you knew how Criminals thought. With this knowledge, you frequently assisted the police in solving cases. But by then, signs of schizophrenia had begun to appear—self-blame delusion. You often saw yourself as a Criminal; each time a Criminal was caught, your self-blame delusion grew stronger."
"Finally, during one case, you were ensnared by a series of puzzles set by a Murderer. Unable to find the Murderer, you ended up seeing yourself as one instead. You turned yourself in at the police station and claimed everything was your doing. Yet all evidence proved otherwise."
"After psychological testing by the police, it was determined that you suffered from schizophrenia and were sent to Qingcheng Psychiatric Hospital. Until we found you in that mental hospital, I must tell you honestly: if it weren't for us, you might have spent your entire life there."
Xiao Liu muttered from the side, "Isn't that just kicking someone when they're down?"
Captain Shao ignored Xiao Liu's complaints and continued, "During your time as an auxiliary officer, you always hoped that one day you could become a full-fledged officer, wear the uniform, and be a real police officer. But in reality, due to your unique background and your mental health situation, you can never become a police officer."
"Is there really no possibility at all?" I looked at Captain Shao with a glimmer of hope, wishing for an answer I desired. But deep down, I knew it was an impossible dream. My identity and my condition made it clear that such a day would never come.
"Impossible," Captain Shao said firmly.
Seeing my spirits dampened, Captain Shao asked, "There's a question I've asked you before: why do you want to be a police officer?"
"I don't know," I replied honestly.
There are always things that one is fervently passionate about, even if they are unclear about the ultimate reason behind it. Perhaps time would provide an answer; perhaps it wouldn't.
"Then why are you trying to find him?" Mary seemed a bit angry. "You might as well let him rot in the mental hospital."
I knew Mary was speaking sarcastically and was standing up for me. However, since Captain Shao had brought me out, it couldn't be as simple as that. To be honest, Captain Shao's interest in me might only be partly due to my special talents; the rest was likely more complicated.
"Mary, since Captain Shao could pull me out of the mental hospital, it proves that my role must be more significant than just this. Even without me, Captain Shao could quickly find the murderer of Ye Zi. This case might just be a way to see if I've met his standards. Am I right, Captain Shao?"
I slowly expressed my thoughts.
Captain Shao shook his head, reclaimed the teacup from Mary's hands, and said, "Mary, you've been following me on cases for nearly ten years now; you should see things more clearly than Wu Meng. If I were only looking for Wu Meng to solve this case, then I really shouldn't be the head of the Special Cases Unit."
Mary asked in confusion, "Then what exactly do you want with Wu Meng? Could it be...?"
Captain Shao nodded and gestured for Xiao Liu to close the door before speaking again. "A few months ago, Wu Meng was sent to the mental hospital after struggling to solve a Locked Room Murder Case that was too difficult. This case then fell into my hands. After some investigation, I discovered that our old friend is likely behind this."
"Old friend?" I didn't understand.
"Do you remember when I told you about a criminal genius?" Captain Shao said.
I recalled that he had indeed mentioned it earlier in the car. I nodded and replied, "Wasn't he sent to prison? Could it be that he did this?"
Captain Shao shook his head. "It's not him, but this person has a close connection to him. When we arrested him years ago, one of his subordinates escaped. I suspect that the Locked Room Murder Case was carried out by her. I know her methods, but I can't figure out her motive."
I had been involved in the Locked Room Murder Case. Yet, I couldn't picture what the murderer might look like or why they would commit murder, which had cost me dearly. Hearing this news from Captain Shao made me realize that perhaps there was more to this than I initially thought.
"But I've faced her too many times," Captain Shao said, looking at the teacup in his hand. "She has basically figured out my tactics, which is why I came to you."
"Why me?" I pointed to myself.
Captain Shao placed the teacup heavily on the table. "That's right, it's you. You possess strong reasoning skills and keen observation, very much like me ten years ago. But in reality, the Deputy Director doesn't agree with having a mentally unstable person handle this matter."
"How did you convince him?" I asked.
Captain Shao smiled. "I told him that if we don't keep you under our control, you'd likely become the second criminal genius."
"You want me to investigate this person?" I asked. "Who is she?"
"Zhao Mingkun," Captain Shao replied. "A cunning woman."
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