Song Rongjiang’s parents were less than 20 years old when he was born. The two youngsters were not ready for the birth.

His father did not take responsibility, and his mother regarded him as a burden.

His mother was weak and incompetent, like a dodder flower that couldn’t stand on its own. She couldn’t survive without men. She always brought her new boyfriends back and lived off these men’s help and some odd jobs.

Song Rongjiang was very smart. Although his family was not rich, he received a complete education. From primary school to junior high school to senior high school, in school, his grades had always been above average.

When no one was around, Song Rongjiang was quiet and withdrawn. Once he came into contact with people, they would finally realize that he was actually quite arrogant at heart. He looked down on many people and felt that he had no talent. He believed that he could not succeed because he did not have good parents.

Song Rongjiang also lived with his mother when he became an adult. His mother always took care of his daily life.

After his mother became old and decrepit, she turned to rely on him and needed him to support her.

He had looked for several jobs, but had run into difficulties everywhere and was unable to integrate.

Later, Song Rongjiang became a taxi driver, driving night shifts. He slept during the day and avoided normal communication with other people. During his breaks, he would go to the bookstore to buy books, and then copy some poems. He would also leave some literary microblogs on the Internet and would complain like ordinary young people.

In the interrogation room of Huadu’s Baihu Mountain Prison, the interrogation continued.

Su Hui’s voice was very low and a little hoarse. He was more often listening and would only occasionally ask some questions. Song Rongjiang felt that facing him was totally different from facing journalists, policemen and judges.

Su Hui looked back at him indifferently which involuntarily made him calm.

Teacher Su didn’t seem to consider him an abnormal person. He didn’t regard him as an alien. His tone towards him held no criticism. This kind of environment allowed Song Rongjiang to unrestrainedly open his heart.

“My mother probably regrets having me as a son now, but how could I have been born without her?” Song Rongjiang bowed his head and said, “I still remember when I was young, if my mother and her friends wanted to do something in the room, her boyfriend would give me a few yuan to go downstairs.”

The interrogation room was narrow and poorly ventilated. The smell of smoke was too unpleasant. Su Hui coughed again for a while to steady his voice. He continued to ask him, “What would you do downstairs then?”

“There was a bookstore downstairs. Of course, it has become a coffee shop for a long time. When I was young, there were many novels, cartoons, some famous stories, and poetry anthologies in the bookstore. There was an old sofa in it, and I would sit on it for a long time. You may not be able to imagine it but I was a very good child when I was young.”

“Is that when you formed the habit of copying those sentences?”

“At first, the teacher said that adding some sentences like that in the composition can add points to the results. Later, for a period of time, I felt that adult life was very meaningless, and I could not find a purpose.”

Song Rongjiang flicked the cigarette ash as he said this. His expression was a little vicissitude: “I realized that no matter how hard I worked to earn money, I could not afford to buy a new house in this city. No matter how busy I was, no woman loved me. I might be this mediocre for the rest of my life. Then I occasionally opened a book of poems I had read when I was a child, and I read those verses that I had recited and forgotten. At that moment, I suddenly felt that what was said in the poem was right… Human feelings are universal, regardless of the country, regardless of the time. Many things have never changed for thousands of years. “

Su Hui looked at the person across from him. There might be many confused people like him in this city, but those people did not follow the path of crime. He was just trying to find justification for his evil.

Song Rongjiang paused and recited a poem: “The brilliance of childhood, youth, friendship and first love all disappeared like a dream, making you sad.”

Su Hui recalled for a moment, and naturally said the poem’s name: “William Wordsworth” (English romantic poet)

Song Rongjiang smiled, “Teacher Su, sure enough, you’re different from those mediocre people.”

Su Hui looked at this serial killer who liked poetry and said, “Now, let’s talk about the victims.”

He took out the photo of the first victim. The woman in the photo had short, shoulder-length hair. Her death time was last winter when she was 24 years old.

“Last winter, on December 18, at two o’clock in the morning that night, she got into your car, and then what happened?”

Song Rongjiang took a puff of the cigarette and flicked the butt with his finger. He had already smoked four cigarettes in a row as if hoping to be poisoned by the nicotine so that he could avoid the death penalty.

“That woman came out to sell!” Song Rongjiang’s expression was full of scorn. He recalled that winter night, it was very cold. The snow had just melted a few days prior, and some ice was frozen on the roadside. He was lying in the car alone. He dared not turn on the air conditioner in order to save fuel. Then a woman came over and knocked on his window

“The time she took a taxi that day was about one o’clock in the morning. When she was in the car, she called her friends and talked about those clients *shamelessly. I couldn’t bear listening to her. I asked her to stop once but she didn’t exercise the slightest degree of restraint.”

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*Si wu ji dian – lit: absolutely unrestrained/ without the slightest scruple

“When she got off the car, I looked back and found something red like blood on the cushion of the back seat. So, I got off the car and asked her if she had soiled my seat.”

“Instead of explaining, she said that I was *making trouble for no reason and wanted to extort money. Later, she began to scold me, beat me with a bag, and kicked me with high-heeled shoes. She said that she would report me to the taxi company so that I could not drive anymore. I was angry, so I dragged her back into the car, pressed her on the back seat, and took her clothes off…”

Show/Hide Note

*to make trouble without reason (idiom) – to be deliberately provocative

The whole interrogation room was filled with smoke. Song Rongjiang kept recalling that the woman was wearing thick elastic warm socks, with a leather skirt covering her hips. The woman wore long tassels earrings. Her body had a smell of cheap perfume. She was a street girl living in the lower level of the city.

Then Song Rongjiang’s expression changed, it was a nauseating sight.

Su Hui looked up and asked him, “When you took off her clothes, you ought to have realized that you were wrong.”

The autopsy report of the forensic investigator afterward showed that the woman was not on her menstrual period, and she was forced to have sex by Song Rongjiang, who then killed her cruelly.

Song Rongjiang held the cigarette in his hand and said: “Maybe I was wrong. The next day, I saw clearly that the red spot on the seat was not blood. It could be the juice mark left by some unknown customer, or it could be the lipstick mark left by her. However, it didn’t matter. That woman deserved to die. She kept abusing me, kicking me and hitting me. She was a dirty □ □, a lowly woman, like a crazy bitch…”

He kept insulting the woman who died at his hands with all kinds of words he knew.

Song Rongjiang took another smoke and said, “At first, I didn’t want to kill her. I only wanted to frighten her.”

Su Hui replied, “Her words enraged you…”

Song Rongjiang was silent for a moment then nodded.

He put out the cigarette in his hand, drew another from the cigarette box and lit it.

Su Hui asked, “Were you afraid after the first murder?”

“On the contrary, I wasn’t too scared.” Song Rongjiang’s hand trembled a little, and when the conversation came to this point, he finally revealed a trace of remorse.

However, Su Hui sensitively deduced that this regret was not for the victims who died under his hands.

“Were you afraid your mother will find out?” Su Hui asked tentatively.

Song Rongjiang was silent for a moment and said, “I’m sorry for my mother…”

There was no doubt that men’s views on women are influenced by their mothers. He and his mother were *interdependent ever since he was young. He had some Oedipus complex. He was dependent on her, but because his mother had had many boyfriends, he was disgusted with her, and he thought she was dirty.

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*Mutually dependent for life (idiom) – to rely upon one another for survival

Show/Hide Note

Oedipus Complex – a psychoanalytic theory developed by Sigmund Freud describing the complex of emotions aroused in a young child, typically around the age of four, by an unconscious sexual desire for the parent of the opposite sex and wish to exclude the parent of the same sex. (The term was originally applied to boys, the equivalent in girls being called the Electra complex .). 

He could not imagine that he was born out of such a dirty body, and he hated himself.

His childhood experience made him already afraid of normal sex life. The first murder happened accidentally, he *ate the marrow and became aware of the taste.

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*Eat the marrow and taste- he experienced what it felt like to do such a thing, and it became irresistible

“Let’s talk about the second victim.” Su Hui pushed another picture toward him.

The girl in the photo had a sweet smile, which formed a sharp contrast with the postmortem photos.

It was a 23-year-old female bank employee. When the bank inventory was busiest, she worked overtime until 11:00 one night. Then she went downstairs and waited for a while before taking a taxi. Since then, no one had seen her. Soon after, the girl’s body was found in a dry well outside the city.

“It was her bad luck.” Song Rongjiang opened his mouth and said, “That night, I drove my car to a remote place. I told her that the car was broken and asked her to wait in the car. Later, I got out of the car, pretended to repair it, and took out tools from the trunk. She was playing mobile games in the car. I opened the back door of the car and effortlessly controlled her.”

Song Rongjiang still remembered that the woman’s voice was not small. She had been screaming and shouting loudly, so he hurriedly covered her mouth, kept bumping her against the door, and hammered her head with a wrench.

She was injured and her hands were full of blood. The girl hopelessly lay on the window, leaving a bloody palm print on it.

This crime was committed one month after the first one. If we say that the first one was accidental, then the second one was premeditated.

The first time, the target of the crime was a woman in the service industry. Song Rongjiang also happened to have quarreled with the other party but this time, he decided that the target of the crime would be an innocent girl, and there was no conflict in advance.

The girl was unprepared and didn’t tell her friends about the taxi, which made it difficult to track.

Fortunately, the Major Crimes Unit linked the two cases together. They followed up all the way according to *clues and soon found Song Rongjiang.

Show/Hide Note

*Zhu si ma ji. Lit: spider’s thread and horse track – tiny hints/clues

Later, the police found ropes, some tapes, knives, and other tools in Song Rongjiang’s car. They checked the blood of the second victim through tests and found a match. The chain of evidence was complete, proving that he was the murderer.

Su Hui stared at the devil in front of him. After the first crime, he realized very clearly that he could not escape the law and began to change the pattern of murder.

Before, he was picking up and dropping off passengers, getting money, working, and living.

After the first case, he became a hunter.

He was constantly looking for his prey in the city and regards hunting as his party before the end of the day.

Song Rongjiang targeted young girls who took a taxi alone late at night. He would use words to test them. When he found that they were not wary, he would wait for an opportunity to attack them.

Su Hui asked him, “How do you feel about this second crime?”

“Feeling? I feel very good.” Song Rongjiang said this and smiled. A few minutes ago, his little guilt had disappeared. He looked at Su Hui and said, “I feel that she really belongs to me. When I do this, I seem to suddenly find my purpose in life.”

The expression on the man’s face made people feel cold. The devil in his heart was completely released because of these two experiences. He began to go all out killing people, just like a loose rope, suddenly excited and tense.

Killing brought him pleasure. He could not live well without killing.

A serial killer was born through these two murders.

Such a course of events made people fearful, Su Hui feel even more disgusted.

“What else do you want to know?” Song Rongjiang asked on his own initiative when Su Hui was silent for a while.

Su Hui turned his head to cover his mouth and coughed a few times. He asked him, “Do you remember the name, Pei Weiwei?”

“The third victim the police suspect?” Song Rongjiang narrowed his eyes intently at Su Hui, he suddenly looked like a ferocious beast.

Pei Weiwei, a girl who disappeared after Song Rongjiang committed the second crime, was a female college student who was only 20 years old and studying at a famous university.

Pei Weiwei’s family lived in this city. She often took a taxi home on weekends.

She disappeared just over three months ago after a school reunion.

According to Pei Weiwei’s classmates, they finished dinner that day, talked for a while, and left a little late. Finally, they watched her get into a taxi. The taxi driver was a man.

At that time, everyone drank too much, and no one remembered the license plate of the taxi.

In the taxi, Pei Weiwei sent a message to her mother: “I got on the cab, and I will be home later.”

At that time, everyone felt that such a thing was ordinary, too ordinary. It was a metropolis with tens of millions of people, and this scene was staged every day in every corner of the city.

But no one thought that the girl would disappear after that, and the message became the last sentence of the girl. She never appeared again since then…

The police called for an investigation, but they could not get a picture of her getting in the car, nor did they find out which taxi it was.

Late at night, taxi, young girl.

The police naturally linked this case with the two previous cases, which also seemed to be the continuous crimes of the same serial killer.

Later, the Major Crimes Unit intervened, and Song Rongjiang was arrested. He quickly confessed to the previous two murders.

But he had always denied that he killed Pei Weiwei.

The police found traces of the first two cases in the car but did not find traces related to the third case. Under their constant questioning, Song Rongjiang had not let up.

Until the final trial of the case, the police had not found any new evidence.

In the end, Song Rongjiang was sentenced for killing the first two victims, and Pei Weiwei’s disappearance became an unresolved case.

“Why did you ask me?” Song Rongjiang stared at Su Hui and retorted. He had obviously seen the news reports and was already familiar with the name.

Su Hui did not speak.

Song Rongjiang frowned, shook his head in displeasure, and denied, “I don’t know where she went. I only killed two people, not three. There are so many murderers in this city, why are you trying to pin this on me?”

Sensing Song Rongjiang’s resistance, Su Hui politely nodded his head and naturally turned the topic away.

However, Song Rongjiang’s reaction just now attracted Su Hui’s attention. He was like a leopard whose tail had been trampled on. He was hurt. He was eager to argue and could not be calm anymore. He was also like a cheating husband, who was eager to cover up when asked about loyalty.

This kind of sensitive reaction was definitely not the impatience of being asked too many times or the anger of being unjustifiably accused, but a manifestation of psychological guilt.

Although there were many murderers in the city, each murderer had his own scope of activity and behavior.

And different murderers have different necessary prerequisites to choosing victims. According to the victims, you could see the preferences of the murderers.

When the three girls are arranged together, some similarities would be found. Short hair, tall, white complexion, slightly collapsed nose, small eyes, and thin body. This was not a beauty in the traditional sense, but it conformed to Song Rongjiang’s aesthetics.

In particular, the police noticed that Pei Weiwei was once a member of the school literature club, and had also participated in the performances of some school clubs.

Pei Weiwei finally got into a taxi by herself, which happened to be in Song Rongjiang’s daily route.

According to the eyewitness’s description, the car and its driver were very similar to Song Rongjiang.

Song Rongjiang’s income was very small that night, and he could not explain Pei Weiwei’s whereabouts either.

Based on various clues, Song Rongjiang was very likely to be the murderer, and he had been listed as the first suspect in this case.

However, it was strange that Song Rongjiang who was a dying criminal, whether he’d killed two or three people would not change the result, was still persistent in his denial. When describing the first two victims, he was even complacent and unrepentant, but he always denied it in this case.

If Song Rongjiang was the murderer of Pei Weiwei, why did he lie on this issue?

Su Hui thought and asked some other questions. The conversation had been going on for two hours.

A box of cigarettes, smoked to the last one.

Song Rongjiang exhaled the last puff of white smoke before he was done.

The conversation was finally over.

Su Hui gathered the materials and said, “Thank you for your cooperation. That’s all for today.” He took out the photos of the dry well in the second case, handed them over, and said, “Here is the photo for you as a souvenir.”

He must give the cruel murderer some “sweet” so that he can get more information from him.

Su Hui recalled the forensic information he had seen. The forensic investigator judged that the second victim might have still been alive when she was thrown into the dry well. They found traces of the girl’s fingers scratching in the well. She once shouted to try to save herself. Seriously injured, she was alone in the cold winter. In this dry well, her blood drained and she gradually died.

No one heard the girl’s cry, what would she have been thinking at that time, how helpless she must have been..

It was a dry well in winter. The entire picture was only gray, surrounded by fallen dead grass. The picture revealed a sense of sadness and despair.

Song Rongjiang took the photo as if he had gotten some treasure. He twisted the cigarette butt and said, “Teacher Su, I enjoyed talking with you.” He paused and said, “I haven’t been so happy for a long time. It’s like seeing a friend I haven’t seen for a long time.”

Su Hui looked at him, he couldn’t see the expression on Song Rongjiang’s face, but by the tone of voice, he should be smiling.

He had no such friends.

For one moment, Su Hui hoped that ghosts existed in the world. If the girl’s soul was still there, he hoped that she could climb out of the well in the picture and punish the man.

He thought so in his heart, but his face was expressionless: “I will visit again in a few days.”

***IF YOU COME ACROSS NEXT OR PREVIOUS LINKS THAT DON’T WORK KINDLY INFORM ME IN THE COMMENTS.***

The author has something to say:

The brilliance of childhood, youth, friendship and first love all fade away like a dream, making you miserable—— To Wordsworth Shelley

The translator has something to say:

Hello everyone! Welcome🥳. This story had been on my mind for the longest time and I decided to try translating it. But when I tried adding it on NU I found it already registered. I decided to give it up since someone else was already doing it and I’m no underhanded sniper. But alas, it seems that it’s been a minute since the last update. Like a loooong minute. So lo and behold, here I am donning my Fujoshi cape and saving this absolute treasure from the evil lair of abandonment. I couldn’t get in contact with the previous translator regarding this matter, so I just went with NU rules that state a novel is free for pickup if it’s been inactive for at least 3 months. And since it’s already been 9!!, with no contact or update from the OG, I’m not being a sniper. I do hope that the previous translator ICYLYN is okay and if they decide they want to pick the story up again I’ll relinquish the rights to my custody. Consider me an adoptive parent and then the biological one. I hope you enjoy this story that will have you questioning everything you know about human beings. Here’s the link to the previous chapters. I wanted to start from the 1st chapter but decided to just continue since I didn’t want to delay the progress of those who’d started it any further. Updates will be on Fridays, weekly unless otherwise stated. Happy reading.