Chapter 21

The stinging pain near her throat made Su Yan instinctively furrow her brows. She didn’t make a sound immediately. At that moment, the voice of her colleague came through the earpiece in her ear: “Su Yan, describe Pei Shasha’s specific route into the mountains. We’ve found several small paths at the foot of the mountain. Also, where are you?”

She instantly felt increased pressure from the blade against her throat. As if by instinct, she remained completely silent.

Pei Shasha seemed highly satisfied with her reaction. With her other hand—the one not holding the knife—she yanked off the communication device from Su Yan’s ear and collar and casually tossed it into the distance. The earpiece continued to transmit the increasingly tense and urgent male voice: “Su Yan? Su Yan?…”

“There, now it’s quiet.” Pei Shasha leaned close to her ear, whispering softly, her demeanor and tone now entirely different from before: “This… Officer Su? What grudge or grievance do you have against me? If you hadn’t chased after me, none of this would’ve happened.”

“You don’t have to do this. We originally just wanted to bring you back for questioning and evidence collection. There’s no conclusive proof of anything yet,” Su Yan spoke, though her slightly trembling body and the barely detectable quiver of suppressed tears in her voice betrayed her forced composure. “You’ve already injured one of my colleagues. Do you realize that when the others arrive, they’re authorized to shoot you on sight?”

From the moment Cai Chengji collapsed, the nature of this arrest operation had changed. Even without mentioning the multiple homicides tied to the suspect, the mere act of obstructing official duties and injuring a police officer was enough to land her in serious trouble.

“Trying to trick me?” Pei Shasha sneered. “But it doesn’t matter. The path we’re on is known to only a handful of villagers in Great Peace Village. By the time your colleagues find their way here, I’ll already be out of the mountains.” As she spoke, she tightened her grip on Su Yan’s arm with force. Hearing a stifled groan, she laughed with dark satisfaction. “What’s wrong, Officer Su? Weren’t you so eloquent that night by the stream, lecturing me about ‘assaulting a police officer’? Now I’m the one genuinely assaulting an officer—so where are the people coming to arrest me?”

“Ah—” Another wave of sharp pain shot through Su Yan’s restrained arm. A short cry escaped her lips, and fine beads of cold sweat began forming on her forehead. After taking a few quick, ragged breaths, she gritted her teeth and managed to speak: “Are you planning to throw caution to the wind now? You should know that killing me would mean admitting guilt to the eight homicides in Nancheng City, Jiangyuan City, Great Peace Village, and elsewhere! And then what? You’ll be wanted nationwide. With today’s public security technology, where do you think you can possibly hide?”

She paused briefly before continuing, “Leniency for those who confess, severity for those who resist. The law is not without compassion. If you surrender and cooperate with the investigation, I believe the legal system will give you a fair outcome.”

Her words carried the weight of earnest persuasion.

“I see you cops are only good at making sarcastic remarks, but not much else.” Pei Shasha sneered, clearly not taking any of this ‘nonsense’ to heart. “Whether I get caught in the future is none of your concern.” She had immense confidence in herself. With the vast expanse of the country, the chances of the police finding her if she disappeared into some remote village or big city were practically zero.  

“Goodbye, Officer Su.” Pei Shasha tightened her grip on the knife.  

Su Yan felt the sharp blade slice through the delicate skin of her neck, followed by the warm trickle of blood. The metallic scent of it even faintly reached her nose.  

“Cough… cough…” She coughed twice before letting out a mocking laugh. “I thought crude weapons weren’t your style. Don’t you prefer injecting air into people and watching the fear in their eyes as they wait for death? Or maybe, like how you killed your parents, throwing them into the water and watching them struggle, beg, and finally sink to the bottom with their eyes wide open?”  

“Tell me, which one do you prefer?”  

“What did you just say?!” Pei Shasha suddenly yanked her ponytail hard, forcing her head back. “What did you just say?!”  

Su Yan closed her eyes against the pain, but it was only to hide the certainty in her gaze. Just as she suspected—Li Yunxiang was the trigger. When she opened her eyes again, she met those bloodshot ones and continued calmly, “Your mother was your first real victim, wasn’t she? You must’ve been young then, so you got Zhang Liang to help you with the murder. Let me guess—Zhang Liang knocked Li Yunxiang unconscious, and the two of you dragged her to the stream? And then? Did you feel exhilarated watching your own mother helpless? What kind of monster feels pleasure seeing their mother drown?!”  

The word “monster” seemed to strike a nerve. Pei Shasha violently threw Su Yan to the ground and kicked her stomach repeatedly. The dull thuds of impact and Su Yan’s muffled groans filled the air.  

After over a dozen kicks, Pei Shasha began circling the woman on the ground, the knife still threateningly pointed at Su Yan, who was now curled up in pain. After a few rounds, she stopped and hissed, “Don’t mention that bitch!”  

“Hah…” Su Yan winced as her forearm throbbed. Though she had shielded her vital areas, her pampered body still ached terribly. “Why not? She’s the one who risked her life to bring you into this world, isn’t she?! Even if Pei An abused and tormented you as a child, even if she was too cowardly to stop him—she still loved you.”

“Abuse me? Torment me? Love me?” Pei Shasha seemed to have heard the funniest joke in the world: “She’s just a selfish, despicable bitch! Back then, for money, she married that beast the moment she turned eighteen. Even when he beat her to the point of broken bones while she was pregnant, she still wouldn’t leave him and chose to give birth to the child in her belly?! Then, when her daughter was six or seven years old, to avoid further beatings, she personally pushed her own daughter into that beast’s room?!”

“Do you know what it feels like to scream until your voice is hoarse, yet no one comes to save you? Do you understand the despair of lying there like a broken doll while your own mother dutifully cleans up the mess for that beast? Love me? Go to hell with that love!”

So, in Pei Shasha’s mind, all those victims were reflections of Li Yunxiang. It must have been some action or word that suddenly triggered her sensitive nerves, leading to their fatal ends.

Su Yan lay on the grass, turning her head to spit out a mouthful of saliva tinged with blood, then probed: “Alright, even if Pei An and Li Yunxiang had a hundred reasons to die in your eyes, what did Pei Ling ever do to you? From what we’ve gathered, she took care of you with food and shelter for so many years. How could that not earn even a shred of your gratitude?!”

“Her? She deserved to die even more.” Pei Shasha crouched down, tapping the flat side of the knife against Su Yan’s cheek. “I really did see her as family once, truly. But after she found out what Pei An had done to me, she called me a whore who climbed into her own father’s bed! Since she loved hurling insults so much, I made sure she’d never speak again. Haha, hahaha…” She burst into maniacal laughter, tears even welling up in the corners of her eyes.

“…” Su Yan had nothing left to say and struggled to stand up.

Pei Shasha swiftly reached out and grabbed her throat, slamming her back onto the ground. She then knelt on Su Yan’s chest with her knee to prevent any escape attempts.

“You know what? The expression people make when they’re suffocating is actually quite beautiful.” Pei Shasha’s expression grew intoxicated. “You’re right—a cold, lifeless knife really doesn’t suit me…” As she spoke, the pressure from her hands intensified. Watching the person beneath her turn red from lack of oxygen, her face twisted with excitement.

The sensation of blood rushing through her body was intoxicating. After tossing the knife aside, she brought her other hand to the slender neck.

At that moment! The seemingly “frail and powerless” Su Yan suddenly lifted her leg—*thud*—her right foot landed squarely on the back of Pei Shasha’s head. The force was unmistakably full-strength, as the woman pinning her down swayed dizzily, her grip loosening just enough.

Seizing the opportunity, Su Yan shoved the other’s arms away with both hands and locked her legs tightly around Pei Shasha’s waist. With a powerful twist, the two tumbled across the grass in a tangled heap.

The commotion startled a flock of birds from the trees.

In less than a minute, Pei Shasha found herself face-down on the ground, Su Yan pinning her from behind. No matter how she struggled, she couldn’t shake off the weight holding her down.

Su Yan casually dislocated one of her arms to prevent any unexpected incidents, then glanced around before settling her gaze on the waistband of the sweatpants the person beneath her was wearing. After pulling out the drawstring, she deftly bound Pei Shasha’s hands and finished with a tight knot that perfectly suited her own aesthetic.  

“You tricked me?!” Pei Shasha twisted her head around, her expression vicious, though the bits of grass stuck to her cheeks undermined any intimidation.  

“Tsk…” Su Yan reached up to touch the wound left by the knife, sucking in a sharp breath at the pain. Still kneeling on the other woman’s back, she leisurely pulled out her phone from her pocket. The screen showed a blinking red dot—recording still in progress—with the timer steadily climbing. After saving the recording, she smiled faintly. “I really hate trouble. Thanks for your cooperation, Miss Pei.”  

Pei Shasha: “…”  

……  

Soon, Great Peace Village was swarmed with police cars, two SWAT buses, and two ambulances. As Cai Chengji was being loaded into an ambulance, he caught sight of Jiang Li’s face and tried to speak, only to grimace in pain first.  

“How bad is it?” Jiang Li frowned.  

“Not too serious. The knife wound is only a centimeter deep and didn’t hit anything vital,” the accompanying medic replied. “We’ve done basic first aid, but he’ll need a thorough examination back at the hospital.”  

“Lucky I reacted fast and jerked back,” Cai Chengji cursed. “That bitch really went for it! … Oh, right, Jiang Dui! I just heard from Xiao Wang that Su Yan went missing while chasing Pei Shasha. The last update they got was that she said Pei Shasha had entered the mountains and she was heading down to meet them—but no one saw her after that.”  

“Yeah, I’ve already dispatched SWAT and local officers to comb the mountain. I’m heading there now too.” As Jiang Li spoke, his phone rang. He answered, and the voice on the other end said, “Jiang Dui? We’ve found Su Yan and Pei Shasha…”  

When the police arrived, they found Su Yan sitting atop the suspect, one hand pressed to her neck. The moment she spotted them, her eyes reddened as if seeing family.  

By the time Jiang Li arrived, Su Yan was perched on the trunk of a car, her neck bleeding, draped in someone’s thin jacket. His expression darkened as he approached, but in the end, all his words condensed into a single rebuke: “Reckless.”  

“I was about to come down—she was the one who ambushed me, really,” Su Yan explained, her nose red as she sniffled, looking utterly pitiful.  

Jiang Li wanted to believe her. But remembering the vow-like words she’d spoken the night Pei An died, he found her current explanation less than convincing.  

“Oh, and there’s this too.” Su Yan cheerfully handed over her phone.  

Jiang Li: “…”  

If he believed her now, he’d lose.  

Just as he was about to lecture her, two colleagues marched past with Pei Shasha in custody. The woman paused, glancing first at Su Yan’s “poor little victim” act, then at the phone in Jiang Li’s hand. With a sneer, she asked, “Aren’t you curious who helped me in Jiangyuan City?”  

Su Yan blinked. “Not really.”

What’s so curious about it? The three cases in Jiangyuan City, judging from the wounds on the back of the necks, showed the perpetrator had significantly less strength compared to Zhang Liang. Moreover, she had analyzed many pieces of evidence related to those three cases—from the dump sites to the cleanliness of the bodies—all signs strongly suggested that Pei Shasha had acted alone.

As if Zhang Liang were some common cabbage, and Pei Shasha had such incredible luck to stumble upon him so easily.

The virtual image she had crafted in front of Zhang Liang was merely to pry open his mouth.

Pei Shasha was stunned by her response, taking several seconds to recover, her expression far from pleasant. “Even if you’ve caught me, so what? I’m mentally ill.” These days, mental illness was like a get-out-of-jail-free card, something people could use as a scapegoat for anything.

“Don’t worry, you’re just a psychopath, not mentally ill.” Su Yan flashed a grin.

Pei Shasha: “…” So damn infuriating. Isn’t anyone going to do something about this?!

…

The high-profile Great Peace Village serial murder case was finally solved, but the related Great Peace Village voyeurism case remained a hot topic for quite some time. During this period, the Nan City government implemented multiple measures, and only after all the involved suspects were apprehended did the public interest gradually wane.

However, the trial of this case still garnered significant attention from netizens, as people sought nothing more than a satisfactory resolution. Moreover, public awareness of privacy safety while traveling was further heightened.

Shortly after Pei Shasha’s arrest, Su Yan completed her internship and returned to school, busy with graduation and other activities. Meanwhile, the Municipal Bureau Special Task Force remained as busy as ever.

One day, Xiang Yang and Cai Chengji were standing by the water cooler, cups in hand, chatting animatedly, but the moment they spotted the man entering, they clammed up like mice seeing a cat. Cai Chengji waved awkwardly. “Deputy Chief Xu, busy as always…”

Xu Yi shot them an exasperated look. “Indeed, busy! Unlike you two, who have time for tea and idle talk!”

Cai Chengji and Xiang Yang shrank back, wondering what had happened to put their deputy chief in such a foul mood.

Xu Yi ignored them and walked over to Jiang Li’s desk, rapping his knuckles on the corner to rouse him from his midday nap.

“Deputy Chief Xu.”

“Another female college student has gone missing—the third one this month.” Xu Yi’s frown was deep enough to crush a fly.

“When did it happen?” Jiang Li asked.

“The report came in about twenty minutes ago. The missing person is a junior at Nan City Foreign Language College. She hasn’t returned to her dorm or attended classes for two days, and none of her close friends or family have been able to reach her.” Xu Yi glared at the onlookers, Cai Chengji and Xiang Yang. “Get ready. We’re heading out to investigate!”

“Foreign Language College? That’s near the university district, right? The Police Academy is around there too,” Xiang Yang muttered under his breath.

“By the way, one more thing.” Xu Yi stopped and turned around, pointing at Jiang Li. “Don’t you always complain about being short-staffed? A new batch just passed the school exam, and I fought tooth and nail to secure one spot for your Special Task Force from the bureau chief—a fresh graduate from our city’s Police Academy. Normally, this recruit should undergo the standard six-month police training program at the municipal bureau, but given the urgency of this missing female college student case, I got the chief to make an exception. Go pick them up from the training center yourselves later!”

“Hey, Deputy Chief Xu, is it a man or a woman?” Cai Chengji asked eagerly.

“What’s their name?” Xiang Yang chimed in immediately.

Xu Yi glared at them. “Get your asses to the Foreign Language College right now! Immediately, move it!”