“150 million!”
Ten minutes later.
“180 million!”
Five minutes later.
“Two hundred million! Xiao Fen’s personal live stream viewer count broke through three hundred million!”
“No, the viewer count was still rising sharply! It hadn’t been long, yet it was almost at five hundred million!”
On Weibo, YouTube, Brain Book, Little Blue Book, WA, IS, TT, group chats… Within half an hour, the hashtag #XiaoFenCatchesTheCulprit topped the hot search charts on the most popular social apps across more than a dozen countries around the world.
The Program Crew staff cheered excitedly.
Countless guests’ and Vice Squad Officers’ live stream viewers flooded into Xiao Fen’s live stream one after another, and the first thing they saw was a skinny man being kicked to the ground like a sandbag.
【Why is it this guy?】
Lü Siming, who had just finished his evening shower, picked up his phone and lounged comfortably on the sofa. He subconsciously opened the live stream and immediately stood up.
The first thought that flashed through his mind was the same question.
But right after, he realized it all made sense.
However, how exactly had Xiao Fen deduced, step by step from those suspects, that the culprit was him?
This left Lü Siming, a criminal investigation professor, utterly baffled.
What criminal investigators needed most was that final thread—the one that connected a pile of known clues, peeling them apart layer by layer, to the known suspects.
He held an online video conference overnight, calling in a few of his prized students. The moment the call connected, he unleashed a torrent of scolding.
“Wasting your talents on frivolities! Look at Xiao Fen—he’s already caught the culprit. Tonight, buckle down and study the clues. Watch Xiao Fen’s live stream recording from start to finish multiple times. No sleep until you figure out how he cracked the case!”
“Professor, if we had Brother Fen’s brain, we’d have graduated from under you ages ago.”
“Who was it that said they wanted to compete with Xiao Fen? And now you’re slacking off while he’s already caught the guy!”
“We haven’t had a wink of rest these past few days. We’ve been dreaming about this.”
“Yeah, we really haven’t been slacking. We’ve even been more serious than with the theses you assigned.”
“Then think about it— he’s a celebrity by trade, and you lot are professionals, yet a celebrity outdid you. Don’t you feel ashamed!”
“So, Professor, have you figured it out?”
Lü Siming’s face stiffened. After typing out a furious rant, he hung up directly.
If he had figured it out, why would he need these little punks under him?
If in the warm-up and First Episode, Xiao Fen’s fake crimes seemed like flashy tricks to grab eyeballs, then in this episode, the abilities he displayed in a real case had exceeded Lü Siming’s expectations.
A talent this impressive shouldn’t be wandering around out there. He stroked his chin thoughtfully.
He watched a bit more, just in case it was a wrongful arrest.
He picked up his phone and opened his personal live stream. Among the viewers, a bunch of holier-than-thou types mixing in foreign languages had started their sanctimonious sermons about human rights for criminals and such.
Hadn’t nine years of compulsory education reached the whole world?
Whatever. There were plenty of idiots domestically too.
And trash who couldn’t stand seeing others succeed, deliberately stirring up trouble.
The culprit had been beaten until he trembled all over, grimacing in pain at the corners of his mouth, struggling repeatedly to retreat until he curled up in the corner.
His face remained the most intact, showing no visible external injuries.
Wang Ze arrived late with a few staff members and earnestly advised, “Teacher Xiao, this guy’s from Y Country. If he’s guilty, Y Country’s laws will judge him. What you’re doing could spark an international incident. We’re still live streaming—live!”
“Help, help…” The culprit seemed to see his savior.
Xiao Fen slapped his forehead. “Oh right, I forgot. We’re still live. So why don’t you ask the live stream viewers: for someone who brutally murdered five people, do they support sending him to jail for a few days of room and board, going through some trial processes, getting cheers from a few fans, and then dying painlessly from an injection? Or support me giving him some physical repentance before he dies?”
【What! Five people!】
【I’ve been glued to Brother Fen’s live stream 24/7—how did I not know about this?】
【Guo Dongying, Lu Kaiyu, plus the shaman whose fate is unknown—that’s barely three. Who’s the other two?】
【The fake shaman lying on the ground? That’s four. Who’s the fifth?】
【No, look at that guy’s complexion—he’s not dead, right?】
【Regardless, murdering five people, skinning and dumping the bodies—as long as this culprit isn’t dead, I don’t know how he got those injuries, and I didn’t see it.】
【I didn’t see it either.】
【Must’ve been him tripping himself. Tsk, such a clumsy culprit.】
【You guys actually believe Xiao Fen’s bull? Saying five died just like that? It’s all excuses for his sadistic nature.】
【Isn’t this forcing a confession and slandering him?】
【Upstairs, if you don’t need your eyes, donate them. That guy’s lying right there huge as life, crime tools right beside him—caught red-handed with evidence. And you say Brother Fen’s slandering?】
The more people, the more arguments.
“Where’d the five people come from?” Wang Ze said. “Teacher Xiao, don’t spout nonsense.”
Xiao Fen slapped his forehead again. “I forgot again—your live stream has a delay. How about you come back in thirty to forty minutes, after tallying which side has more supporters?”
How could Wang Ze dare leave? If he returned in forty minutes, he wouldn’t even know if the culprit was still breathing.
“Relax, I won’t kill anyone. A fight like this would get me two days in detention back home at most. Wait, no—this minor violation happened abroad. A little skinned knee? No big deal—domestic authorities won’t even file it. I’m innocent.”
With that, he celebrated with a slap to the culprit’s face.
“Teacher Xiao…” Wang Ze heard the crisp smack of the slap and nearly knelt down. “Go easy!”
Couldn’t he see the culprit’s eyes were rolling back?
Xiao Fen grabbed the culprit’s collar with one hand and dragged him a few steps like a rag.
“This time you forgot, Director Wang,” he said with a mild smile. “Right now, I’m role-playing a criminal. If I don’t do something illegal, how can I face the live stream audience?”
Wang Ze backed up two steps as he approached.
Though a smile hung at the corners of his mouth, the light in those fox-like eyes was icy cold, as if not looking at a living person.
Xiao Fen hoisted the culprit up like a chick and casually slapped his face again. “Culprit Bro, stop playing dead. Cooperate with my performance a bit. My acting skills aren’t great, but I can’t let you ruin my acting career.”
Even he, so tolerant of the original host’s performances, had to cringe at them.
Under the culprit’s terrified and bewildered gaze, he seemed to remember something.
“Look at me—I just realized that because of you, I won’t be able to eat or sleep with Mr. Black Cat for the next few days. Got a bit triggered. Burst into performance mode the moment I entered the room and forgot the procedure.”
“Let me introduce myself.” He flashed two little tiger teeth in a smile.
“I’m Xiao Fen, a serial killer.”
“What a coincidence. Same here.”
“Right.” Xiao Fen took a deep breath. When he opened his eyes again, they brimmed with cold intent, guilt, and regret.
He said to Wang Ze behind him, “Remember to blur it out. I’m continuing the act.”
————
October 28th.
Day 10 of the escape.
Fourth day since discovering Guo Dongying’s body.
Fang Si Ting stared at the empty opposite bed, his expression grave.
Xiao Fen had not returned all night.
He had sent messages, but got no reply.
He had gone to Sister-in-law Jinlan’s House himself and learned that Xiao Fen had taken his luggage and left.
Both Ou Yu and Sister-in-law Jinlan thought Xiao Fen had gone to his place.
But he hadn’t.
Fang Si Ting knew he was skilled, with negligible chance of harm, and carrying a body cam. If anything happened, the Program Crew and audience wouldn’t ignore it.
Yet his heart raced uncontrollably with anxiety.
Outside the window, the light drizzle gradually turned to heavy rain, then back to light rain. Finally, sparrows chirped and hopped onto the windowsill.
The sky began to brighten faintly.
He had lain awake on the bed all night with his eyes open.
He glanced at the watch shed on the bedside—only 5 a.m.
Fang Si Ting simply got up, washed up, and went downstairs to punch the bag.
The morning sun slowly climbed the courtyard wall.
The sky had cleared.
Emerging drenched in sweat, he instantly felt the morning coolness and the scorching sun on his skin.
After the typhoon, the ground temperature had dropped a bit, but Y Country’s sun was harsher than the southernmost islands of H Country. The slight drop in temperature didn’t help much.
Fang Si Ting predicted the perceived temperature would be even higher than when they first arrived in the coming days.
Who knew where Xiao Fen had gone to amuse himself.
Not afraid of the sun at all.
“Boss, Boss.” Bai Zhu rushed into the Vice Squad Officers’ dorms in a panic. Seeing the man who had just stepped out, he breathed a slight sigh of relief.
Then his face turned solemn. “We found Du Yutong’s body.”
“A new victim?” Fang Si Ting halted.
“No, she’s been dead a long time,” Bai Zhu took a deep breath. “Remember that task Xiao Fen posted in the Fake Group? The one the Program Crew assigned to the Criminal Guest—trafficking a kid.”
Fang Si Ting’s hand tightened on the towel.
“It was that family’s eldest daughter. She was murdered.”
————
The stretch of road from Tengcha Town to Purple Gold Village was called Yellow Springs Road.
The name sounded eerie, not because it was particularly dangerous, but because it wound around mountains with sparse vegetation on the slopes. Every rainy season, rainwater mixed with yellow soil turned into muddy waterfalls, gushing down from the hills. And since the base of the mountain there bordered the Guiwu Forest, rife with weird rumors, locals called it the Yellow Springs Road to hell.
The body was buried in the mountainside by the road.
Days of torrential rain had washed away the loosened soil, blocking half the road. A villager heading out that morning spotted the gruesome scene.
“Du Yutong, 11 years old, from Purple Gold Village. On September 5th, her family reported her missing to the Tengcha Town Inspection Office after she didn’t return from school. They searched for three days without finding her and concluded she’d been trafficked.” Peng Xiaoxiao said. “They made that judgment because a neighbor working in the fields near the village entrance saw the child leaving with a man. But it was too far away, and the sun had set, so it was dim—they couldn’t make out the face, but confirmed the man was skinny.”
The girl’s face at the scene had rotted beyond recognition. She wore a red-and-white dress and sat in a depression in the roadside embankment. Pulling back the skirt revealed, amid the nauseating rotten flesh, that the skin from her shoulders and collarbone to her thighs, from front chest to back, was entirely gone.
Beside the body stood a Yellow Earth Terracotta Figure about a meter tall, crudely made, vaguely resembling an ancient man with hands clasped in front as if bowing, the overlapped hands forming a hole.
And those hands encircled the girl’s waist.
“It’s an Incense Holder.” Tang Shen concluded after examination. “During major festivals, locals burn those super thick incense sticks at their doorways—one light lasts a day. This thing goes at the entrance; the hole in the hands is for sticking in those extra-large incense sticks.”
“Captain Bai, take some men and ask around which household around here lost one of these terracotta figures,” Fang Si Ting said.
“Got it.” Bai Zhu waved a hand and called over a dozen people to head out.
Corpse fluids flowed everywhere; the stench within ten meters rivaled a chemical weapon. Even outside the cordon, few lingered.
“This is that girl’s School ID Card, with the school name and her name on it. We’ve verified the hair clip and clothes with the family—it’s definitely the trafficked child from the rumors,” Tang Shen said gravely.
“Test the DNA,” Fang Si Ting ordered.
That was the surest way.
“Based on the decomposition, at least a month and a half dead. No signs of violation, same as before—skin peeled off. Can’t tell yet if ante- or post-mortem. Wounds match the weapon used on Guo Dongying and Lu Kaiyu,” Qin Wensu stood, loosening her mask calmly. “Also, this isn’t her first burial.”
“You mean she was buried before?” Peng Xiaoxiao asked in surprise.
“Exactly,” Tang Shen said. “I noticed too—the soil around the body differs from here, but matches the stuff Brother Fen found on the clinic windowsill. Similar elemental composition and type, but none like it nearby.”
He could tell just with the naked eye.
Outside the cordon line came the girl’s mother’s heart-wrenching screams and wails.
The girl’s father seemed not good with words, his eyes full of grief and his hands trembling, but he steadily held his wife to keep her from collapsing on the ground.
“Take it back first,” Fang Si Ting said.
The Vice Squad Officers transported the shapeless corpse bones, along with the surrounding soil, back with them.
The small insects, microorganisms, and maggots around the soil could help them gather some clues, such as accurately determining the time of death.
Ou Yu had already been waiting at the Inspection Office. When he saw them return, he hurried over.
“Little Fen didn’t go with you?”
Fang Si Ting shook his head.
“Where did he go?” Ou Yu asked, puzzled.
The corpse’s strong odor assaulted his nose and brain. He retreated a few steps, endured the dizziness, and asked Tang Shen nearby about the case.
Tang Shen gave a brief rundown, then suddenly remembered something. “Speaking of Xiao Fen, yesterday he had you smell the soil left on the window at Guo Dongying’s body storage spot. He said you might notice something.”
“Soil? There are mountains everywhere around here—how would I know which soil it was?” Ou Yu replied with a wry smile.
He followed him to the office and, half-believingly, took the evidence bag. He opened it and sniffed. He looked puzzled at first.
Suddenly, he froze.
“Guiwu Forest.”
His hands trembled.
“The killer went to Guiwu Forest! This is soil he brought from there.” That rotten, decaying smell bred in the darkness, along with the Upside-Down Man—he would never forget it for the rest of his life.
“That forest from the legends, the one with ghosts?” Fang Si Ting exchanged glances with those around him.
“Just based on how superstitious the townspeople are, they wouldn’t go there,” Peng Xiaoxiao said. “What would the killer go there for?”
“The wooden cabin.” Ou Yu’s words almost couldn’t come out.
Because he had thought of something terrifying.
A sentence that none of the adults had paid attention to at the time.
The little boy who had been “trafficked” once told them that he saw his sister.
Before passing out from the shock, what had the boy seen behind the wooden cabin?
There was only a pole, with a sheet of skin hanging from the top.
