On the way back, Zhang vividly described to Mu Mian and Fang Rui the process of rescuing them.
"At first, we spotted the suspicious vehicle, a silver van, but it disappeared into a blind spot in the surveillance. When we tracked it down again, the driver had been switched. You have no idea how cunning Zhou Junwei and his accomplices were. They called for a substitute driver and had him drive the car to the suburbs. We spent half a day investigating and almost came up empty-handed. Fortunately, Captain Sun had assigned very detailed tasks, so when one lead went cold, we had others to follow up on."
"We finally managed to pinpoint an abandoned, unfinished warehouse area. It was full of makeshift shelters made of sheet metal. We were dumbfounded – if we had to search them one by one, you would have surely perished by then. Luckily, Miss Shen and Lin Consultant found a small crumpled paper on the ground. When we unfolded it, it had the words 'corpse' written on it."
Zhang paused for a moment, "We knew this must be a clue left by Forensic Pathologist Mu. We followed the path and found several more small paper balls, with the words 'Fang Rui', 'I voluntarily', 'donate' written on them in sequence. Following these paper clues, we finally found you, but—"
Mu Mian looked at the ground sheepishly, pretending not to hear Zhang's teasing. She urged, "Officer Zhang, please go tell Chen Xue that I'm alright now."
"I've already told her," Zhang continued, "Forensic Pathologist Mu, I can't believe you carry a body donation agreement with you... Who carries that kind of thing around? But it's a good thing you did, otherwise we wouldn't have had props to leave clues for us."
Zhang imagined Mu Mian secretly crumpling paper balls and found it a bit amusing.
Fang Rui, who was driving, warned Zhang, "Zhang Qiang, I'm the victim here and I have no complaints, so what are you grumbling about?"
"Boss, please don't use my full name!"
Zhang felt something was off. The boss used to favor Mu Mian before, but not so blatantly.
Could it be that after being tormented by that psycho Zhou Junwei, Fang Rui finally realized he had fallen for Forensic Pathologist Mu?
"Boss, you guys managed to escape successfully this time, thanks to Lin Consultant and the Bureau Chief. You should really thank them properly."
Zhang waited for Fang Rui to ask why, but Fang Rui ignored his words and instead said to Mu Mian, "Mu Mian, my heart is fine, you don't need to check it every ten minutes."
"It's safer to check. Although you were wearing insulating shoes, what if some electric current still passed through your body?" Mu Mian felt Fang Rui's heart area, and only withdrew her hand after confirming its beating frequency was normal.
Zhang couldn't help but try to make his presence known: "Zhou Junwei couldn't possibly have electrocuted you guys. Lin Consultant asked the Bureau Chief for help, who in turn asked the power company for assistance, and they cut off electricity to the entire North City District for half an hour. So, Boss, you'll be fine, you weren't actually electrocuted at all."
Fang Rui had a sudden realization. He had wondered how these hundred-yuan insulating shoes could be of such good quality that they could protect him from such high voltage without any discomfort. It turned out there was no electricity at all.
Fang Rui suddenly remembered that when he regained consciousness, he noticed the equipment didn't have any red lights on. He had found it strange at the time, but now he realized they simply hadn't been activated.
Zhou Junwei's laptop and that button didn't need to be connected to a power source, and at the time, Zhou Junwei's attention was focused on Mu Mian and him, which is why he didn't notice the power was already cut.
It seems they owe Lin Sen a big thank you.
However, he had just seen Lin Sen and Shen Xiyin leave in the same car. If he wasn't mistaken, Lin Sen should be the one thanking them instead. If Mu Mian hadn't been kidnapped, their relationship would probably have remained stagnant forever—like throwing something into a still pond, causing a slight ripple, but ultimately returning to calmness.
"Forensic Pathologist Mu, you almost got the Boss's corpse. How did that feel? More excited or more sad?"
"Officer Zhang, please be quiet, you're very noisy!" Mu Mian complained, "Don't mention the word 'corpse' in front of me anymore. Chen Xue says it's very unlucky."
"Didn't Chen Xue tell you that a long, long time ago?"
Goodness, is this still the same Forensic Pathologist Mu? Shouldn't she be excited at the mention of corpses? Could Zhou Junwei's electric shock experiment have altered her thinking? Did he somehow remove Mu Mian's love for corpses?
Fang Rui was also a bit surprised. He felt that Mu Mian finally cared a bit about him as a person, rather than just his potential corpse.
After returning to the bureau, Fang Rui and Sun Guangtian took statements from Zhou Junwei and Zhang Ming.
Although there was already evidence proving that Zhang Ming had committed murder and disposed of bodies, they weren't very clear on some details of the case. They also needed to determine who was the main culprit and who was the accomplice.
They interrogated Zhang Ming first.
"I did everything. I liked Zhou Junwei, so I dragged him into this and forced him to help me." Zhang Ming voluntarily took all the blame upon himself.
"You're saying you're the mastermind?" Sun Guangtian asked.
"Yes. I planned all the cases. I came up with the killing methods too. Zhou Junwei is gay, and he currently has a respectable job. His parents are both university professors and wouldn't allow their son to be gay, so I used this to manipulate him, make him have a relationship with me, and help me do things."
Zhang Ming began to confess his crimes voluntarily.
"When I was in Linzhou, I met Zhou Junwei and fell in love with him. But he didn't like me, so I kept pestering him. Later, I discovered that it wasn't that Zhou Junwei didn't like me, he just didn't dare admit he was gay.
To prove the falsity of heterosexual love, I kidnapped the first couple. They worked in the factory area next to the zoo where I worked, and they were a particularly loving married couple. But I knew their love was just a facade. So I made them play that game, watching them reveal their ugly sides as they tried to avoid electric shocks, blaming and cursing each other. I successfully made Zhou Junwei despise heterosexuality."
Zhang Ming licked his dry lips and continued his confession, "I kidnapped the second couple to prove the beauty of homosexual love. The second couple loved each other very much and had overcome societal obstacles to be together. I thought they would pass the game. Zhang Yawen loved Tian Xin so much that she never pressed the button, passively waiting for Tian Xin to make a choice. Tian Xin chose to shock Zhang Yawen all four times."
Zhang Ming showed a disdainful smile: "A traitor like Tian Xin who betrayed her lover doesn't deserve to live. So I took out a sharp knife and stabbed her to death, one stab at a time. Each stab avoided vital areas; I wanted her to die slowly, to avenge the devoted Zhang Yawen."
"Kidnapping the third couple was to prove to Zhou Junwei that love during student years is the most childish and laughable. Because Zhou Junwei's first love got married and invited him, Zhou Junwei was upset and started reminiscing about his youth.
I felt I needed to stop him from continuing to reminisce. I wanted to kill that immature feeling.
So I kidnapped a couple known for their public displays of affection at Jiangzhou University. They were the most ridiculous when playing this game, they seemed to truly treat it as a game, competing with each other for the chance to choose. In the end, they died by each other's choices. Zhou Junwei finally let go of his nostalgia for youth."
Zhang Ming continued to confess: "As for how I disposed of the bodies, you should be quite clear about that already. Although my game revealed the hypocrisy and ridiculousness of their love, I still dressed them in couple outfits and placed roses symbolizing love in their hands, continuing to maintain the illusion of their love. I suppose this was my reward to them for playing my game."
Fang Rui asked, "Was the game your idea too?"
"Of course it was. Why do you look so surprised? You think someone like me, who dropped out of high school, couldn't come up with such a sophisticated game?" Zhang Ming's face showed a mocking smile, "The internet is so advanced now, you can learn anything by yourself. You don't need to be so shocked."
Fang Rui caught his slip: "Why did you use brain-computer interface equipment to collect the victims' brain wave data?"
