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墨書 Inktalez
Before discussing this case, I would like to share some real-life examples:
A fourteen-year-old girl committed murder and disposed of the body, stabbing the victim fifty times. The incident occurred when this fourteen-year-old girl and her twenty-three-year-old boyfriend attempted to rob an unlicensed taxi driver. When the driver refused to comply, the girl pulled out a spring knife she carried with her and stabbed the driver fifty times. After the driver died, they discarded his body in the wilderness. Once apprehended, the girl was not held criminally responsible due to her age.
In another case, a ten-year-old girl attacked a three-year-old boy in an elevator after he made faces at her, resulting in his death. To prevent anyone from discovering what happened, the girl hid the boy's body in a bush in the downstairs grass. When the boy's parents reported him missing and checked surveillance footage, they discovered the killer. Because the girl was under fourteen years old, she faced no legal consequences.
A thirteen-year-old boy, recalling how a classmate had bullied him, lured that classmate to a secluded public restroom with five-cent spicy strips. While tricking him into eating the spicy strips, he pushed him into a sewage pit. During the struggle, one of the classmate's shoes fell off. To avoid suspicion, the boy threw the shoe several kilometers away to divert police attention. Since he was under fourteen years old, he also bore no legal responsibility.
A fourteen-year-old boy obsessed with online pornography stalked a twenty-year-old woman. After knocking her unconscious with a brick, he attempted to rape her. When she regained consciousness and tried to resist, fearing exposure, he brutally killed her and stuffed her body into a woven bag before disposing of it in a pond.
These cases are all real incidents that have occurred around us. I once encountered something that still sends chills down my spine. One day while walking down the street, I suddenly came across a group of children aged around twelve or thirteen who were openly robbing people.
One child who appeared to be their leader said something that I still vividly remember and that fills me with dread: "I advise you to hand over your money; at our age and with so many of us here, killing you wouldn't be a big deal."
At that time, I was still in high school and had not yet become a police officer. Upon hearing those words, I immediately abandoned any thoughts of resistance because I knew he was telling the truth. If I hadn't handed over my money then, I might never have seen another sunrise.
Recently, juvenile crime has been on the rise, with many offenders acting without fear. Unlike minors from previous generations who were naive, today's youth are well-informed; sometimes they even see juvenile protection laws as shields for their crimes. Before committing offenses, they might search online for how to kill someone.
In an era where legal knowledge is widespread, these individuals exploit loopholes.
Of course, most minors commit offenses unintentionally; however, there are also many who deliberately take advantage of this situation.
In our country, Article 17 of the Criminal Law states: "Individuals aged sixteen or older are criminally responsible for their actions. Those aged fourteen but under sixteen are criminally responsible for intentional homicide, causing serious injury or death intentionally, rape, robbery, drug trafficking, arson, explosion, or poisoning." It further states that juveniles aged fourteen to eighteen should receive lighter or reduced penalties.
Thus, in our country, minors under fourteen do not bear criminal responsibility for their actions; those aged fourteen but under sixteen are only held accountable for eight serious crimes. Individuals aged sixteen or older are fully criminally responsible for all offenses committed; those between sixteen and eighteen may receive lighter or reduced sentences.
This means that if someone below fourteen commits murder, they will not face any consequences. Perhaps this murderer simply returns home after a brief inquiry and continues living their life as if nothing happened—playing games and sleeping soundly—while the victim's family endures endless grief watching the killer continue their life.
Currently, the harshest sentence for a minor is life imprisonment for a sixteen-year-old who raped and murdered multiple young girls. However, life imprisonment typically means at least thirteen years; generally speaking, it amounts to eighteen to twenty years. This means that when this sixteen-year-old is released from prison at thirty-six years old—having spent twenty years in prison—how can they adapt back into society? They will likely return to a life of crime sooner or later.
There are many such examples in reality; we know they will continue committing crimes upon release but feel powerless because that's how the law is structured.
For many criminals, society owes them a death penalty, as Hegel once said.
The reason for this lengthy discussion is that our mission this time is to capture a child. This boy should be sixteen years old this year, a minor and the mastermind behind a series of murders. The department is so resolute because this boy, at the age of thirteen, killed four women in their twenties using the same method.
Since he was under fourteen, he did not have to bear criminal responsibility, and now, this child has resurfaced.
Mary flipped through the file, and as we examined it one by one, we discovered that there was a devil residing in this child. His name is Guo Guoqing, named after the National Day since he was born on that date. His origins are unclear, but when he was caught, he was found on the belly of a prostitute, leading the police to suspect that perhaps an adult's soul had crossed into the body of a child.
He has no parents; to be precise, he killed his own parents. At the age of twelve, he witnessed his mother committing adultery, so he calmly took a knife from the kitchen and methodically killed both his mother and her lover on their bed. When his father returned home, he slit his throat as well, claiming that his father was too cowardly and did not act like a man.
Thus, he became an orphan of his own making. However, he inherited the family fortune—neither too much nor too little. After selling his house in a first-tier city for seven million, he became a millionaire at just twelve years old and began to wander the world.
At thirteen, for reasons unknown, he started killing, specifically targeting women for sexual assault and murder. With his cute face and youthful age of thirteen, those women were completely unguarded and only thought how adorable this little boy looked.
He exploited their sympathy by falsely claiming to be lost; although he knew the address, he pretended not to know how to get there and hoped those older sisters would take him home. Whenever he said this, Guo Guoqing would put on an innocent and pitiful expression to manipulate those women's compassion.
When they reached an isolated area, Guo Guoqing's true nature was revealed. He struck the women on the neck with bricks to knock them unconscious before taking control of them. After satisfying his base desires with these unsuspecting women, he would cruelly kill them.
His method involved cutting off their tongues and then stuffing them into their bodies. By the age of thirteen, he had committed four such crimes. When caught by the police, he casually said: "Wait a moment; I'm almost done."
After being apprehended, during those years when juvenile protection movements were flourishing under pressure, they had no choice but to release Guo Guoqing. Following his release, the police monitored him for half a month. However, during that time, he did nothing suspicious, prompting them to lift the surveillance. Thus began two years of peace until people had almost forgotten about Guo Guoqing when similar cases started again.
The Tianlan City police received a report about a woman's body found in a suburban shed. The corpse was completely naked with its mouth wide open. Upon inspection by the reporter, it was discovered that the woman had no tongue in her mouth; he was immediately horrified and quickly called the police.
According to the autopsy by the Tianlan City Police Department, her tongue was found inside her body. They immediately became alert and reported this case to their superiors; in turn, we were dispatched to investigate it right away. I had heard of this case before; it was once overseen by the Special Investigation Team back in the day.
After reading through the file, Mary frowned deeply and said: "If I hadn't seen this case myself, I truly wouldn't believe that such a child exists in this world. Killing seems like a game to him; he's so calm and collected. He knows he's a minor and understands that even if he kills someone, nothing will happen to him..."
Dezi remarked: "I think it's time for some changes in the law."
I shook my head and said, "Amending the law is not a simple matter; there are too many factors involved, and the implications are vast."
Juan Juan remarked, "Do you remember what I told you about the different levels of murder? Just like some people are born to be police officers, there are those who are born to be criminals. They possess a strong antisocial and inhumane disposition, which cannot be separated from their upbringing. However, genetically, it is predetermined that these individuals are natural criminals."
I sighed; the formulation of laws was beyond our consideration. What we could do was capture this inherent criminal, this fifteen-year-old child. The occurrence of such cases surely wasn't isolated. The last time he was caught, he had killed four people; this time, we didn't know how many more he would take.
Late at night, we were on a train heading to Tianlan City.
I addressed everyone, "I heard about this case when I was in Yuzhou City. The reason they managed to catch him wasn't due to any leads the police had—it's almost laughable. It was because someone reported illegal activities at a local hotel, prompting the police to investigate. By sheer coincidence, they found that the semen of the person they arrested matched that of the perpetrator, which is how Guo Guoqing ended up behind bars."
"But it still doesn't help much," Juan Juan continued.
"Now he's fourteen years old," I said. "Back then, they referred to Guo Guoqing as the Demon Boy."
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