Chapter 42

In Xue Jingming’s room, Song Wen surveyed the surroundings, cautioning, “Be careful; there may be traps in the house beyond this one.” After a moment of contemplation, he calmly reminded Zhang Dahai, “This person has taken several lives and is a fugitive. Call and issue a wanted notice.”

Zhang Dahai nodded and quickly made a phone call. Shortly after hanging up, he said, “I’ve informed the bureau to prepare for the wanted notice. We checked the system just now, but there’s no record of new ticket purchases under his name. Perhaps he took an illegal cab or chose another mode of transportation.”

As he was speaking, the young police officer, Xiao Meng, hurriedly entered. Observing his anxious state, Zhang Dahai urgently shouted, “Don’t touch the switch; there’s electricity.”

Xiao Meng acknowledged with a grunt and quickly reported, “I just met a villager, Liu Shanquan. He said that this morning, around ten o’clock, he saw Nine Fingers.”

Zhang Dahai furrowed his brow, “Quickly tell us the situation at that time.”

“At that time, Liu Shanquan had just entered the southern mountains to collect some mountain goods. When he was descending, he saw him. It seemed like Xue Jingming didn’t notice him, and after Liu greeted him, there was no response. He thought Xue Jingming was also going into the mountains to collect things and didn’t think much of it.”

These farmers make a living by gathering mountain products like wood ear mushrooms and wild vegetables. It’s a business with no investment; they can either consume the goods themselves or sell them for additional income.

Zhang Dahai sighed, “Ah, I remember when Officer Song arrived; he mentioned paying attention to entry and exit. Maybe this kid, Xue Jingming, felt the external checks were getting stricter, so he took the mountain route. This boy still has this habit; I remember when he was beaten by his mother, he would run into the mountains. We often had to gather villagers in the middle of the night to search for the child. Now, after committing murder, he’s still running into the mountains…”

Song Wen frowned slightly. Whether he hid in the mountains or planned to run to the neighboring village from there, these were entirely different concepts. The man left home around eight in the morning, entered the mountains around ten, and now, with it approaching eight in the evening, twelve hours have passed. Where could he possibly be now?

After listening to Zhang Dahai’s words, Lu Siyu lowered his head. He tried to put himself in Xue Jingming’s shoes and thought for a while before looking up and softly saying, “I think this person is only hiding in the mountains and won’t run out. He’s a twisted criminal, both self-loathing and arrogant. He’s not good at socializing, and the mountains are where he feels familiar and safe. It would give him a sense of security, and he’s confident that the police won’t find him immediately.”

Song Wen glanced at the map and nodded, “You make a valid point. After crossing these mountains, you’ll reach surrounding towns. Once out of the mountains, he’ll be easier to catch, but inside, it’s harder for us to capture him. His goal might be hiding rather than escaping.” After finishing his sentence, Song Wen turned to Zhang Dahai, “Where do the people who collect mountain goods usually stay?”

It was only then that Zhang Dahai thought of this, “There are a few places, like Luo Xian Peak and Gu Lao Chi; there are some caves there, and if they enter the mountains late, they might sleep there. Now that it’s dark… should we go up the mountain and take a look?”

Song Wen agreed, “Alright, I’ll request the deployment of police forces, and you find a few locals who often go into the mountains to guide us. We’ll go in together and search.”

In the time it took to prepare and have dinner, Zhang Dahai quickly gathered some villagers familiar with the roads and old hunters. Song Wen also called in auxiliary police from nearby villages, forming a hastily assembled team of about twenty people for the search.

Liu Shanquan was an elderly man who had been digging mountain goods in these mountains for a long time. The location where he had encountered Xue Jingming was called Yanque Mountain. Based on the road, they estimated Xue Jingming’s potential location and drew a simple distribution map of the mountains.

At this moment, Song Wen’s expertise came to the forefront. He had been the king of children since childhood, even summarizing experience theories when playing slingshots. Later, as the captain of the criminal police, he organized and executed various pursuit tasks. Song Wen was intelligent, daring, meticulous, and would never act recklessly. Moreover, his thinking was flexible, and his reaction speed was fast. He was extraordinarily sensitive to terrain and routes. He had a natural, trustworthy leadership quality, making him a born leader.

At this point, Song Wen divided the people into three teams based on the map. The first team, led by the police officer Xiao Meng, was tasked with creating disturbances, luring Xue Jingming out of hiding. Carrying torches, they roamed around the hills near Yanque Mountain, ensuring that Xue Jingming would notice them. The second team, led by Zhang Dahai, was positioned in advance in concealed locations to block the downhill path. The third team, led by Song Wen himself, awaited the discovery of Xue Jingming for the arrest operation. Although the three teams had different roles, they could coordinate with each other and provide support at any time.

Song Wen meticulously planned the entire strategy. After briefing the team leaders and members, they went through the details several times, ensuring foolproof execution, before initiating the deployment. Since they were heading into the mountains, various equipment was necessary. Fortunately, these hills were not too challenging to climb, requiring only basic gear.

Although this task seemed somewhat dangerous, each person’s assigned task was not overly complex. As long as Xue Jingming was near Yanque Mountain, capturing him would be a piece of cake.

Song Wen distributed ropes, flashlights, and some weapons to each person, finally reminding them, “Be cautious and carry torches carefully to avoid starting a mountain fire. If anyone else sees Xue Jingming, don’t confront him. Leave it to us. The man is desperate now, and we don’t know what he might do.”

At half-past eight in the evening, the entire team set out. They first drove to the foot of the mountain and then gradually climbed in the darkness.

Having experienced the incident in the afternoon, Song Wen originally didn’t want to bring Lu Siyu along. However, unexpectedly, Lu Siyu was quite stubborn and insisted on coming. In the end, Song Wen could only instruct him to stay close, take a break if he felt unwell, and not to push himself. Throughout the journey, Lu Siyu kept his lips sealed. Though his complexion wasn’t great, he closely followed behind Song Wen, never falling behind.

Following the plan, the team climbed the mountain road for over an hour and finally reached the predetermined location. The first team began lighting torches, making them particularly conspicuous in the silent night.

Liu Shanquan checked the nearby road and came back to report to Song Wen, “There are traces of someone going up the mountain here, and there are fresh footprints; it should be left by Xue Jingming!”

Meanwhile, Xue Jingming lay in a mountain cave, gazing at the dark hills opposite, listening to the wind rustling through the treetops.

He loved the mountains; only here was quiet, away from everyone else.

When he made mistakes as a child, he would run into the mountains. At that time, his mother couldn’t find him, and the villagers had to cross mountains and ridges to search for him. Later, everyone got used to it, and as he grew older, his mother stopped caring. Every time he argued with his mother, he would escape into the mountains, returning when he guessed his mother had calmed down.

The mountain wind was a bit harsh. At this moment, Xue Jingming recalled his mother again. In her youth, she was beautiful, but after falling ill, she became like a melting wax figure, increasingly ugly. In his memories, her appearance was somewhat blurred, but he still remembered his mother’s voice—a sharp tone with a malicious undertone. His mother’s most frequent words were, “Why are you so useless?” And he could only endure silently, clearing away the broken plates and bowls that his mother had shattered.

Days of hard work, coupled with taking care of the sick, kept him busy during the day, and he couldn’t sleep well at night.

Rather than scolding him, the woman seemed to be cursing the unfairness of fate. When she was lucid, she would cry out for her son, and in confusion, everything turned into wickedness.

“I gave birth to you in vain, the Xue family ends with you. You can’t even marry a wife, and the old Xue family line will be cut off because of you!”

When the woman was seriously ill, lying on the bed, she continued to curse him relentlessly. “Your father is dead, and I can only rely on you. Why can’t you earn money like other people’s children?”

Xue Jingming sneered on the side. Could he be blamed for these things? Wasn’t he a victim too? Money… all the money he earned went to her medical expenses.

During a woodworking job, Xue Jingming, due to lack of sleep the previous night, accidentally severed his own finger. After his finger was cut off, the piercing pain prompted the doctor at the health center to express regret, “Why didn’t you keep your finger? Perhaps it could have been reattached.”

In his heart, Xue Jingming thought, reattach his finger? Where would he get that much money?

When he returned home, the woman showed no sympathy, no comfort, just a round of scolding. At that time, Xue Jingming even thought about buying a bottle of poison and dying together with this woman.

Sometimes, Xue Jingming looked at Yang Li from afar, the woman who had almost become his wife. If he had married her, everything might have been different. The love and promises they made in their youth were genuine, but did she forget all about it so easily?

Except for a dowry, what did Zhou Chuguo have that he didn’t? He wasn’t as smart, not as handsome, conservative, and petty-minded. When he was in elementary school, he would wet his pants, stammering and stuttering when talking to girls. Such a person, even if he were asked to carry his shoes, Xue Jingming wouldn’t give him a second glance.

Zhou Chuguo only had an extra hundred thousand yuan in his family, how did he manage to marry the woman he loved?

Finally, the mother passed away, but her voice seemed to linger around Xue Jingming, never dissipating.

One day, Xue Jingming accidentally encountered Zhou Cong, the child with a round face, white and chubby, who looked exactly like he did in his childhood.

At that moment, Xue Jingming thought of some rumors he had heard before, and a thought crossed his mind. Could this be his son? Suddenly, he felt that Yang Li insisted on leaving him because she might have had a child; otherwise, how could she marry into the Zhou family and get pregnant so quickly?

Since that day, Xue Jingming felt that his life was different. He became obsessed with this assumption, as if living had gained meaning. Like a madman, he stuck to this belief, giving candy to Zhou Cong and then secretly watching him play with the other children by the village. He didn’t care about the truth; he seemed like a shadow, lurking in the distance, finding joy just by watching the child. Later, Yang Li discovered this, and she came to him once, asking him not to follow Zhou Cong. “That child has nothing to do with you. Since we have long had nothing to do with each other, don’t complicate things.”

Xue Jingming flatly refused, “I haven’t disturbed you. I just like children. Besides, what I want to do is my business.”

Later, Xue Jingming discovered that Zhou Cong had a wound on his face, and he gnashed his teeth angrily, “Who injured you?”

Zhou Cong lowered his head and whispered, “My dad.” Then he looked up at Xue Jingming somewhat fearfully, “My mom… doesn’t want me to talk to you.”

“Don’t believe them. They can’t stand to see you doing well. I just consider you a friend,” Xue Jingming said, handing the captured grasshoppers to Zhou Cong.

He couldn’t explain his current state of mind, but in his dim and desolate life, this child seemed to be his past self, his hope, and the emotional anchor. He was willing to give him all his best, even if he wasn’t truly his son, just the son of his former lover, with no blood relation.

He would buy milk for Zhou Cong, who liked sweet things but didn’t like milk. Xue Jingming even forced him to drink, saying, “You need to drink more milk to grow tall and strong in the future.”

Zhou Cong was a bit scared but felt instinctively that this adult should be doing it for his own good. Like a little hamster, he lowered his head and obediently drank the milk.

Unaware of it all, Xue Jingming’s feelings toward Zhou Cong had become somewhat unhealthy.

As time passed, Zhou Cong grew older, and more gossip spread in the village. Rumors circulated about Zhou Cong not resembling Zhou Chuguo and the close relationship between Xue Jingming and the child. Some were true, some were false, gradually spreading and fermenting.

One day, Xue Jingming came down from the mountain and saw Zhou Cong and Zhou Chuguo standing by the stream. Zhou Chuguo used a stick to hit Zhou Cong from behind, then held the child and placed him in the water.

Xue Jingming probably guessed what had happened. He wanted to call for help, but it was too late. He chased after them, running far away until he was out of breath, feeling like he was about to die.

The child’s body floated in the water, eyes half-open, softly drifting with the current. Then the child flipped over, and the nose and mouth submerged in the water. Thus, the last light in Xue Jingming’s life also disappeared.

Xue Jingming didn’t tell anyone what he saw that day. That night, he returned to his home, looked at the light on the ceiling, and made a decision.

He planned a murder to make everyone in the Zhou family die.

As Xue Jingming just recalled this, he heard a noisy sound, gradually approaching from afar and coming towards his direction. Xue Jingming leaned out, watching torches moving up from below the mountain. He didn’t expect those people to come looking for him in the mountains so quickly.

After hesitating for a moment, thinking of moving up the mountain to a more secluded place, he barely showed his head, and then he heard someone shouting.

“Found him! Over there, over there!”

“Quick, catch him! Don’t let him escape!”

Xue Jingming could only run desperately into the darkness. The once familiar mountains and forests now felt strange, like a wild beast opening its mouth, ready to devour him whole.

Song Wen followed the crowd, searching up the mountain. Concentrating, he looked up and indeed saw a black figure swiftly running amidst the night-covered mountains. It was a man fleeing in panic.

Although it was summer, the mountain nights were still chilly, and tonight, the wind was sharp, making eerie sounds as it cut through the branches. Twenty people may seem like a lot, but in these vast mountains, it was like scattered grains of sand with plenty of gaps to slip through. However, the previous arrangements made by Song Wen were effective. Thanks to a precise deployment, Zhang Dahai had already blocked off all the paths down the mountain with his team. The mountain paths resembled a chessboard, with all the crucial intersections already covered.

No matter which direction Xue Jingming chose, pursuers were there. By the time he realized it, he was like prey caught in a hunter’s net.

The way down the mountain was blocked, so the shadow could only run desperately uphill. Soon, he was cornered on the summit of Yanque Mountain. Thirty meters, twenty meters, ten meters… The distance between the crowd and Xue Jingming gradually closed in. Now, as they approached, Song Wen, aided by the faint moonlight, could see Xue Jingming’s face. The man was in his thirties, tall with a slight hunch, a high nose bridge, and a well-proportioned face. It was evident he had once been handsome, but time had worn away the edges, leaving behind a gloomy expression.

Exhausted, Xue Jingming turned his head when cornered at the dead end. He held a long knife used for chopping wood in his hand, looking fierce and ready to fight. Having taken three lives already, he didn’t care about killing a few more. Now, he was like a trapped beast, ready for a desperate struggle.

The villagers hesitated, and no one dared to approach.

Song Wen took out his gun, lowered the safety catch, aimed decisively, and fired using the light from the flashlight. A gunshot echoed through the mountain valley. Fighting against such a desperate fugitive wasn’t worth it. Song Wen was absolutely confident in his marksmanship.

Everything happened very quickly. Not far away, Xue Jingming’s body slumped, and there was the sound of trees breaking on the mountaintop. Then, everything fell silent.

After waiting for three or four minutes and making sure there was no sound from the mountain, the crowd approached. However, strange things happened. On the mountaintop, they didn’t see the injured Xue Jingming, and there was no sign of his body.

Scratching his head, Zhang Dahai couldn’t figure out what had happened. “Strange, did this guy grow wings and fly away? Why is there no trace at all?”

“Everyone, search the nearby areas as quickly as possible,” Song Wen said, frowning slightly. There was some distance and complexity between Xue Jingming and them just now, and with the darkness on the mountain, he disappeared without a trace.

Lu Siyu, looking down at the spot where Xue Jingming stood, touched the grass beside him. It was wet, still warm, a trace of blood. He rubbed his fingers and said in a low voice, “He’s hit; he’s injured.” After speaking, he looked down into the distance. Where could that man have gone?

Lu Siyu was about to lean forward to take a closer look when suddenly, he slipped, losing his balance. Someone pulled him back, and turning around, he saw it was the old policeman, Zhang Dahai.

Zhang Dahai grinned and said, “Officer Lu, be careful. This mountain is not like your city; it’s full of dangers. It’s dark now, so stay safe.”

Lu Siyu nodded in acknowledgment and steadied himself.

The group searched on the mountain for more than ten minutes, but Xue Jingming seemed to have vanished into thin air. The sky was now completely dark, and the terrain was complex, making the search difficult. Glancing at the time, Song Wen saw it was already past ten o’clock, and distant thunder rumbled through the sky, suggesting rain was imminent.

Zhang Dahai suggested, “Let’s call it a day for now. Thanks to the two police officers, finding the murderer is already a great achievement. Rest well tonight, and we’ll come back tomorrow for further investigation.”

With no other choice, Song Wen ordered everyone to wrap up for the day. Zhang Dahai and the others agreed to return to the mountains early the next morning.

While going up the mountain, Song Wen didn’t feel the chill, but as they descended, he keenly felt the mountain’s cold. He took off his coat and draped it over Lu Siyu.

Lu Siyu was walking ahead, and when he saw Song Wen silently handing him a coat, he turned around in confusion, instinctively wanting to refuse.

Song Wen said, “Put it on. You’re dressed too lightly. Stop defying orders all the time.”

This person, now asserting his team leader status again, Lu Siyu shook his head, deciding not to argue with him. However, once he put on the coat, he instantly felt warmer. Unable to resist, he tightened the coat around him, and as he lowered his head, he could still catch a whiff of Song Wen’s scent.

Rushing against time, everyone remained silent all the way. When they reached the foot of the mountain, they couldn’t escape the rain, drenching them thoroughly.

Song Wen and Lu Siyu arrived at the resort around 11:30 p.m., tired after hours of climbing the mountain and getting wet in the rain. As they entered, Lu Siyu swiped his room card, but Song Wen, trying twice, received no response.

“Damn! Is this door broken?” Standing outside, Song Wen was somewhat helpless. He took out the card prepared for Lin Xiuran, tried again, but the door remained unresponsive. Angrily, he said, “I’ll go to the front desk.”

With no other options, he ordered everyone to call it a night. Zhang Dahai and the others agreed to return to the mountain early the next morning.

Seeing Song Wen in a sorry state, Lu Siyu suddenly spoke, “My door is open. You can come over. It’s a big bed anyway. Why don’t you spend the night with me?”

Song Wen recalled what he had said earlier, “Aren’t you a light sleeper?”

Lu Siyu hesitated for a moment, lowered his head, and said softly, “If it’s Captain Song, it’s okay.” His voice was very low. Song Wen was slightly stunned, almost thinking he had misheard. Seeing Lu Siyu’s lack of reaction, he spoke, “If you find it inconvenient, just forget it.” After saying this, he acted as if he was about to close the door.

Song Wen reached out, pulled the door, and said, “No, thanks for taking me in.”

TN:

Not gonna lie, I feel kinda bad for Xue Jingming. And that bastard Zhou Chuguo deserved what he got! If you ask me, he deserved even worse. He killed the child because of his fuckin ego! He’s worse than XJ. Sometimes, justice is best served through a little electricity.