At two in the afternoon, we began the interrogation. Xiaotao assigned two officers to test the waters, and sure enough, the Imitator repeated one of them throughout the entire interrogation. Seeing how livid the officers were, Xiaotao told them to stop.
"How is this an interrogation room?” Xiaotao laughed. “I think it’s turned into a psych ward. Song Yang, are you ready?"
I nodded, "Let's go in and meet the man!"
When we entered the interrogation room, the Imitator stood up abruptly and sat back down again after us. It seemed his performance had started again.
"Tell me your name, age, and occupation!" barked Xiaotao.
Using Xiaotao's manner of speech, the Imitator repeated, "Tell me your name, age, and occupation!"
Instead of being worked up, Xiaotao smiled and winked at me. "He’s actually quite good!"
The Imitator smiled and winked, "He’s actually quite good!"
"Do you think I can’t do anything to you?"
"Do you think I can’t do anything to you?"
Xiaotao took out a recording pen, "My name is Wang Er and I’m 34 years old. I am a professional hitman."
"My name is Wang Er and I’m 34 years old. I’m a professional hitman."
Xiaotao waved the recording pen, "You said it yourself. Since you’re planning to repeat after me, I might as well get you to make some incriminating statements!"
The Imitator shook his nonexistent recording pen, "You said it yourself. Since you’re planning to repeat after me, I might as well get you to make some incriminating statements!"
Xiaotao’s plan wasn’t working. The Imitator didn't care at all and simply enjoyed mimicking others.
Xiaotao burst out in expletives and spread her hands, "I give up!"
The Imitator yelled the same expletive and copied her movements. "I give up!"
Watching the Imitator learn Xiaotao's movement and body language, I felt an irrepressible bubble of laughter.
"How dare you laugh, you little heartless thing!" pouted Xiaotao.
To her utter surprise, the Imitator didn’t repeat after her this time.
"Hmm, has he stopped?" pondered Xiaotao.
Thus, Xiaotao continued with the serious talk but the Imitator replied haughtily, "I didn't kill anyone. I’m an active policeman. You have no right to question me."
"You? A policeman?! Shut up!" snapped Xiaotao.
Why did the Imitator’s expression seem so familiar to me? I suddenly cried, "He has become you! This is his impersonation of you."
The Imitator cocked his head and smiled at me with admiration, "Why hadn’t I noticed how smart you are?"
He spoke in the exact manner and intonation Xiaotao usually would! This man was born to be an actor. Actually, scratch that; even an actor carried his own feelings but the Imitator was an empty shell that could transform into anyone from inside out.
Completely out of solutions, Xiaotao sat there holding her head, looking rather depressed.
I pointed to my eyes and then at him. "Do you want to try it again?"
The Imitator shook his hands in horror. "Song Yang, what are you planning to do to me?"
I motioned for Xiaotao to handcuff him. The Imitator fixed his gaze at me, body quaking like a leaf. I concentrated and activated the Eyes of Yama, causing the Imitator to scream in agony as if his eyes had been punctured by two bradawls.
He begged for mercy, "Yi Qianren will speak! Yi Qianren will confess!"
After a short three seconds of using the Eyes of Yama, the discomfort was relatively mild to my relief.
"What is your name?" demanded Xiaotao.
"Yi Qianren! Yi Qianren is Yi Qianren!" he answered.
Xiaotao and I exchanged a meaningful glance. It turned out that the Imitator had no self-identity and didn’t use the word "I.”
Although the entire interrogation was strange, he didn’t hesitate to come clean, as if he were referring to someone else’s life.
Yi Qianren was born in a poor family with parents who had great hopes for their son. Despite their financial status, his parents scrimped and saved to send him to the best school. Naturally, he became the target of discrimination and ostracism. However, he yearned for a sense of belonging so he began to imitate the popular students.
Of course, this sort of imitation failed to bring him the popularity he so desired. Instead, he became even more marginalized. But the strange thing was, he derived great pleasure from imitating others!
He began to observe everyone around him and mimicked them to the point where he no longer needed to speculate on their private thoughts. All he had to do was perfectly copy his target’s words and behaviors to “transform” into that person. This was his unique talent.
Without self-identity, he chose someone else's personality to live out most of the time. Upon reaching adulthood, he lived alone and happened to notice a woman suffering from prolonged domestic in the apartment opposite of his.
He began to imitate the woman and gradually felt the pain and despair she had hidden inside. So he decided to kill her husband on her behalf. When the police investigated the case, they fixed their suspicions on the woman and arrested her.
Yet Yi Qianren felt no guilt about this because his so-called assistance wasn’t born of goodwill, but the woman's secret desire realized by him!
Soon, he found it an interesting game and started framing others for his crimes. He usually chose families with intensified contradictions and succeeded every time. By chance, he met a gang member who took a fancy to his skill and hired him to kill.
Without a second thought, Yi Qianren agreed and began on the path of a hitman. His methods were very clever so he was able to get away with it every time and pin the blame on someone else.
But if you play with fire, you’ll eventually get burned. So in one of his murders, he was seen and severely injured. In a panic, he ran for his life and bumped into a woman on the night shift who saved him and brought him to her home.
While recovering from his injury, Yi Qianren accidentally discovered an old diary written by a boy. With little to do, he began imitating the boy to pass the time.
When the woman witnessed this scene, she was astonished and cried out, "Is it really you?" before rushing towards him and embracing him.
This was the first time Yi Qianren felt the warmth of love—he had always been regarded as a freak and a tool to be used by others. Although the one she loved was the boy he impersonated, he was the object of her affection.
Love can change a person, even a cold, heartless one!
As they spent more time together, Yi Qianren learned of the woman’s tragic past– namely the bullying and the abuse. One night, the four bullies robbed her of her cell phone and texted her boyfriend, lying that she was ill. As a result, her boyfriend died in an accident on his way to her.
After the incident, these girls muttered a few words of apology and the matter was suppressed by the school. Hence, the helpless girl was forced to suffer in silence.
Yi Qianren decided to murder the four girls and destroy their families as a gift to his sweetheart.
Upon hearing this, Xiaotao and I looked at each other. "Four girls? So Lin Xiaolan was also a bully."
The realization suddenly dawned upon me. "Not only did Lin Xiaolan participate in the bullying, but she also used the victim's experience for her novels and drew attention to herself. No wonder she hated Lin Xiaolan so much!"
"What's her name?" I asked.
Yi Qianren calmly replied, "Yi Qianren never asked. Her name isn’t important. All that matters is Yi Qianren loves her!"