“There’s one thing that not only did you not expect,” Huang Xiaotao said, “it was something that none of us could ever imagine at all.”
“What is it?” I asked.
“Bai Yue’s motivation for killing people had nothing to do with the hatred he had for his mother!” said Huang Xiaotao.
Bai Yue said in his confession that his mother often had extreme mood swings, sometimes she would humiliate and swear at him, yet sometimes she was gentle and loving like a doting mother. Because Bai Yue was both a burden to his mother, and at the same the only family she had, the way she treated him was often contradicting and ambivalent.
Naturally, the feelings Bai Yue had for his mother was also that of both love and hate!
Because of his inability to consume normal food, his mother bought some chickens and ducks to let him suck their blood. He had been sucking blood ever since childhood, and over time, his pair of fangs grew sharp and long, and when they closed their mouths, they could see one from their lips. In other words, he looked just like a vampire.
His mother kept him in the house all day, perhaps out of shame, and never let any outsiders know of his existence. Such a childhood made Bai Yue socially inept and unable to hold a normal moral concept that most people did, and he was completely indifferent to the concept of life and death!
One day, his mother was treated very badly by her ‘client’. After returning home, she vented this anger and frustration to Bai Yue. They ended up in a quarrel, and in the heat of the moment Bai Yue’s animalistic instinct was triggered, and he ended up biting his mother’s neck. He said that he just wanted to tell her to shut up and make her stop saying those ugly words. The mother struggled, and then after a while she stopped moving. Her body slowly became cold, but Bai Yue didn’t know that it was because she was dead. He even curled up in his mother’s arms for a night.
When he bit his mother, Bai Yue tasted her blood and thought that it was inexplicably delicious. He could never forget how good his mother’s blood tasted for the rest of his life, and that was why he bit the nun at the orphanage—he wanted to taste that sweet, delicious blood again. But alas, no one else tasted as good as his mother.
And so, when he grew up, he targeted women who were like his mother, just so he could taste their delicious blood!
“When he told us that during the questioning,” said Huang Xiaotao, “he said it with a terrible smile on his face, he even licked his lower lip and scared us all! I don’t think he should be sent to prison, but to the mental hospital instead!”
“Holy shit, that’s abominable!” Dali blurted out. “His heart has totally been distorted, he’s barely human!”
Huang Xiaotao gave Dali a look.
“Song Yang, does human blood really taste different from person to person?” Huang Xiaotao asked.
“The composition of the blood is the same, with very little variation, so I think this is mainly psychological,” I said.
As for what kind of psychological reason? In Bai Yue’s whole childhood, his mother was the only member of opposite sex that he knew. Over time, he developed a perverted attachment to his mother, the so-called ‘Oedipus Complex.’ When he embraced his mother’s neck, it was like taking possession of her, which greatly satisfied an urge that grew out of the Oedipus Complex, which made him feel that he just tasted the most delicious blood.
I kept my analysis to myself, of course, otherwise I couldn’t imagine what kind of nonsense Dali would say afterwards.
“Bai Yue was called a vampire by other children in the orphanage,” Huang Xiaotao added. He then learned from books what a vampire is. From then on, he thought that he was actually a descendant of Cain and believed that he was different from other ordinary people.”
“His life was actually very tragic,” I said. “He was born into an abnormal family. He was regarded as a monster from an early age. Don’t people say that hateful people often have sad beginnings?”
“Yes, that’s true,” agreed Huang Xiaotao. “Come on, let’s not talk about this anymore. Let’s celebrate an end to the case instead! Let’s all have a drink, all three of us.”
Huang Xiaotao then poured three glasses of juice. We clinked our glasses before drinking. Then, Huang Xiaotao leaned over to me and whispered into my ear.
“By the way,” she said, the warm breath that was brushing my ear made me feel all funny, “wait for me in Room 1204 upstairs after the party. You’re in for a pleasant surprise…”
My face reddened instantly and looked at Huang Xiaotao with surprise. She winked naughtily at me and said, “But don't tell anyone! It’s a secret!” Then she got up and went back to her table.
“What did Xiaotao-jiejie tell you, dude?” asked Dali.
“N-Nothing…”
“What the hell? Why are you keeping secrets from me? Aren’t we friends?”
“It’s really nothing!” I said, blushing. “She was just teasing you.”
The food at the celebration feast was luxurious and delicious, but the Huang Xiaotao’s words completely ruined my appetite.
What was the pleasant surprise that she was referring to? She even booked a room for me. These words were spoken by a glamorous and sexy policewoman, hell, how could you expect a virgin who’d never even held a girl’s hand like me to not take off with my imaginations?
At the end of the meal, I told Dali I had to go to the toilet. At this time, he was already drunk, and he was beginning to call police officers that he didn’t know brothers and sisters.
“Go ahead,” said Dali, waving his hand.
I arrived at the door of Room 1204 with a restless heart. The door was closed; I hesitated to knock on the door. At that moment, Huang Xiaotao came over from behind and said, “Why didn't you go in? Waiting for me?”
“B-But I thought you were inside!” I said, completely confused.
“What are you talking about?” she asked. “Why would I need to book a room just to talk to you? No, there are other people waiting for you inside. I’m just a messenger tasked to bring you here.”
She then knocked on the door, and it was immediately answered by a male voice saying, “Come in!”
That voice sounded very familiar…
Huang Xiaotao pushed the door open, then she saluted and said in a respectful tone, “Sir, I’ve brought Song Yang here.”
“Bring him in!”
As soon as I heard this voice clearly, I knew who it was. It turned out to be Sun Tiger. I wanted to curse him so bad. Why did he need to book a room just to speak to me! He even led me to get carried away with my imagination and I lost my appetite because of that.
But when I entered the room, I realized that there were two other people there besides the Sun Tiger. One was Captain Lin who I met last time. I didn’t know the other person. He was about fifty years old. His face looked cold and expressionless, he had thick caterpillar eyebrows and two deep wrinkles down the sides of his mouth, which made him look angry, and a pair of glasses rested atop the bridge of his nose. Overall, it was difficult to read this person’s expressions. One wouldn’t know what to make of him.
We were in a tea room, and the three people sat on the sofa tasting tea. Sun Tiger was on the left, Captain Lin sat on the right, they seemed to be accompanying the third person. It seemed that this man was a high official. It’s no wonder that I sensed such an authoritative aura around him!
Sun Tiger greeted me and patted me on the shoulder.
“I haven't seen you for a long time, kiddo!” he said with a smile. “You’ve grown into a man now! Come here, let me introduce you, this is Captain Lin, and this is the Chief of the Provincial Public Security Department, Director-General Cheng.”
Director-General Cheng poured tea into a cup and said, “Have a seat, Song Yang. Don’t be so formal, just call me Old Cheng.”
I’d never presume to do that, of course.
“It’s an honor to meet you, Director-General,” I said. “What can I do for you?”
Director-General Cheng looked me up and down and smiled, “You’re a nice-looking young man, and a great talent too! Sit down and have a taste of this Longjing tea.”
I sat down and took a sip of the tea. Although I wasn’t much of a tea connoisseur, I was pleasantly surprised by the taste of the tea, which was sweet and fragrant. It was the best cup of tea I had ever had.
I noticed that there were three thick files under the glass coffee table. Director-General Cheng took them into his hands and tapped on them. “Song Yang, I’ve read the reports of the two cases that you solved, and you did it beautifully. Just like your grandfather did many years ago!”
I was speechless for a while.
“Director-General, do you know my grandfather?” I asked.
He smiled and said, “I used to cooperate with your grandfather in several cases. I heard that he was killed three years ago. The news hit me very hard. I was really afraid that his death meant all the knowledge passed down since the time of Song Ci would be lost forever. Fortunately, it turns out that he had a successor. And from what I’ve seen, you have the potential to be even greater than your grandfather!”
People who are in high positions were usually good at flattery. I didn’t know how much the Director-General knew my grandfather, but I knew that what he said was simply a compliment made out of good manners.
“You’re too kind, Director-General,” I said.
“Song Yang,” he said. “You could probably guess why I’ve deliberately come to see you today.” He pulled out the file at the bottom of the stack and handed it to me. He said, “I have a case here, and the twenty-two experts under my command could do nothing to solve it. It seems that I’d have to rely on one of Song Ci’s descendants again!”
I opened the file and scanned through it quickly. A family of four died in a bizarre and unexplainable fashion. There were a few photos of the crime scene, and the best way to describe it was bloody.
But a messy and bloody crime scene didn’t necessarily mean that the case was difficult to solve. Jiangbei Daggers, for example, did his job so cleanly that it seemed his victims were only sleeping. Most of the time, the simpler the crime appeared at first glance, the harder it was to solve.
“What is special about this case?” I asked.
“As expected from an expert,” said Director-General Cheng, “You hit the nail on the head with your first question. At first glance, this case looked simple. But after some investigation, we hit a dead end, because it is simply a case that cannot be solved!”
“Why not?” I asked.
“Because there is no murderer in this case!” Director-General Cheng replied.
My eyes widened.
“A family of four killed each other in a room that was completely sealed,” explained Director-General Cheng. “We thought it was just an ordinary family tragedy, but the same thing happened again three days ago! If the exact same thing happened twice, wouldn’t you find it to be too bizarre to credit it to coincidence? Song Yang, apart from asking for your help, I could think of no other solution to solve this case. But, of course, if you don’t think you can solve it, then just say so, I won’t force you.”
I looked at the photos on my hand. This would be a challenging case to solve. However, I had confidence in myself. I believed that I could do it.
“You can trust me, Director-General,” I said, “I will definitely solve this case!”