CM | Chapter 6

Chen Feiyu’s incident was over.

But for the police force, what Chen Feiyu had blurted out on the rooftop that day directly led them toward several other cases.

Chen Feiyu had killed his own mother, and besides her there were other women too. Who were they, what method had been used, what had happened to them? Very quickly, the police force began investigating around those questions and pulled out the case files of missing women from the past few years for comparison.

In the days that followed, the police questioned Gu Yao many times, hoping she would continue helping solve the case.

Gu Yao told them everything in full detail about the other profiles she had made for Chen Feiyu, though there were still some things she could not be certain about.

The police soon launched a string of swift and decisive operations, confirming three women had been killed because of Chen Feiyu. All of the victims happened to be mothers.

The news also tracked and reported on it, drawing widespread public attention.

The internet erupted in a wave of curses, and netizens all came forward to condemn the killer, Chen Feiyu.

Fortunately, the police did not leak Gu Yao’s name, so outsiders did not know she had been involved that day. Instead, Wang Meng accepted several TV news interviews, and when reporters asked about the wound on the bridge of his nose, he skillfully misled them into thinking it had been caused by the killer’s violence.

After cursing Chen Feiyu, netizens also gave Wang Meng thumbs-up for rushing to the front line and ignoring his own safety. Some media companies even contacted Wang Meng, hoping to “recreate” the incident, with the possibility that it might one day make it to the big screen.

Only after the police contacted and “warned” Wang Meng did he begin refusing all interviews from that day on.

Gu Yao stayed very calm about everything that had happened over the past few days, displaying a kind of composure that Qin Song found utterly baffling, and Qin Song was worried.

Since the accident Gu Yao had suffered a year ago, Qin Song had been her counselor for the entire year. Gu Yao herself was also an expert, so the counseling sessions between the two of them went very smoothly.

Qin Song still remembered how anxious and lost Gu Yao had been during that period right after she woke up a year ago. Although her memory had been damaged, she still remembered the terrifying images from the instant the accident happened. She was afraid of loud noises, and even the slightest disturbance would startle her.

Back then she often hid under the bed or under the table, and no matter how many people tried to persuade her, she would not come out. She trusted no one and knew no one. She did not dare sleep, because whenever she fell asleep, she would have nightmares.

During that time, it was also thanks to her boyfriend Zhu Shengxi setting aside everything he had in hand and staying with her through the hardest period that she got through it. Only Zhu Shengxi could trick Gu Yao out from under the table and coax her into talking with Qin Song for a while.

According to the diagnosis Qin Song had made at the time, someone in Gu Yao’s condition would have a very long recovery period. Both her family and Gu Yao herself needed to be prepared for the long haul, and even the aftereffects of this PTSD might stay with her for life.

After Gu Yao’s parents and Zhu Shengxi saw the report, they discussed it for a long time. They all agreed that Gu Yao should no longer have any frontline work. If she was still interested in psychology, staying at the clinic and handling some simple cases would be fine.

They made this decision without telling Gu Yao. They only informed Qin Song, her colleague at the clinic, and her supervisor. The clinic also reassigned her work, giving Gu Yao only ordinary small cases to handle, while closely watching whether she was affected by the clients’ emotions.

From the accident to returning to work, Gu Yao spent eight months going through the process. Qin Song, as her colleague, friend, and counselor, witnessed the whole thing.

No one understood how difficult Gu Yao had it better than Qin Song. He also understood better than anyone how urgently she wanted to get back into frontline work. Even at the moment he helped Gu Yao submit the application, Qin Song was still silently hoping it would not be approved.

It could be said that everyone, Qin Song included, had been prepared to keep Gu Yao on ice for three years, five years, or even longer, until the sudden eruption of the Chen Feiyu incident.

Even now Qin Song still could not explain why he had not dragged Gu Yao away then. If he had to squeeze out a reason, it was probably because in that moment, Gu Yao seemed even better than she had a year ago.

All those PTSD symptoms seemed to disappear in that instant. She was not only calm and self-possessed, she grew stronger under pressure, and every ability in her was activated by Chen Feiyu like a switch. She could even stand there chatting and laughing.

It was also at that moment that Qin Song suddenly had the illusion that he did not know Gu Yao very well. Hey, he was Gu Yao’s counselor!

Because of the Chen Feiyu incident, Gu Yao was forced to take a long leave, but she still had to go to the clinic for her follow-up appointments on time. Qin Song did not tell Gu Yao’s family or Zhu Shengxi about that either.

Gu Yao and Qin Song had two counseling sessions, and both times they talked about the events of that day and Gu Yao’s feelings.

By the third session, Qin Song decided to go deeper and talk about the aftermath.

He first handed Gu Yao a document. Gu Yao took it, skimmed it, and could not help raising an eyebrow.

It was an official notice issued by the Association of Psychological Counselors, asking Gu Yao to go over as soon as possible for questioning.

Gu Yao set the document down and asked, “Wang Meng filed a complaint against me?”

Qin Song nodded. “There are two reasons. First, he said you acted without authorization that day, disrupted team coordination, and interfered with his work. As for the second point, it was your assault on him at the scene. Wang Meng went to the hospital for an examination. His nasal bone was bent and fractured, and he’ll need a minor surgery to fix it.”

Gu Yao sneered. “If he has the guts, he can sue me in court. While he’s at it, he can tell the media himself that the medal on his nose bridge wasn’t a wound from a thug, it was the price of his incompetence.”

Qin Song was a little helpless. “When we get to the association, you can’t say those things.”

Gu Yao said, “What are Wang Meng’s conditions?”

“Compensation for his medical expenses.”

“Fine, I’ll pay.”

“Also, you have to write a self-criticism for the association’s records and apologize to him in front of all the association’s leaders.”

“I refuse.”

The next day, Qin Song still took Gu Yao to the Association of Psychological Counselors.

Everyone seated in the small conference room was an important member of the association. At the head of the table sat Chairman Chen and two vice chairmen.

Wang Meng, with his injury, sat in the middle with a dark face.

Not long after Gu Yao and Qin Song entered, the meeting began.

The first segment was Wang Meng’s statement. He produced the diagnosis report and asked the chairman to approve his request for Gu Yao to apologize to him.

During those ten minutes, Wang Meng used every vicious word he had to describe Gu Yao’s behavior. Qin Song frowned several times as he listened, while keeping a close eye on Gu Yao’s reaction, afraid she would flip the table.

But Gu Yao not only sat steady as a mountain, she was terrifyingly calm. When she heard certain words, such as “rough,” “rude,” and “lawless,” she even showed a faint smile.

Only after the chairman approved Gu Yao’s statement did the first question come up, which was why Gu Yao had assaulted Wang Meng that day.

Gu Yao stood up quietly, looked around the room, and finally let her gaze settle on Wang Meng’s nose.

“If there had been any other way that was more direct, more effective, and faster than breaking his nose to make him shut up, I definitely would not have punched him.”

Chairman Chen: “…”

Qin Song: “…”

Everyone: “…”

Wang Meng: “What… you… did everyone hear that? She admitted it, she did it on purpose! Gu Yao, do you have even a shred of organizational discipline? This is outrageous!”

Chairman Chen coughed twice to calm Wang Meng down, then turned to Gu Yao and said, “According to Wang Meng, you had previously submitted an application requesting frontline work, but it was rejected.”

A trace of teasing flashed through Gu Yao’s eyes as she looked straight at Chairman Chen. “So everyone thinks I did it out of resentment and took the chance to get revenge?”

Chairman Chen said, “We hope you can provide a written explanation. As long as it’s reasonable and you apologize to Wang Meng, this matter can be considered settled. Xiao Gu, this is for your own good too. If you want to apply for frontline work again in the future, as long as you pass the review, you will still have a chance.”

Gu Yao glanced at Wang Meng, then looked at Chairman Chen, her expression utterly calm.

“Regarding Wang Meng’s rejection of my application, I completely agree.”

As soon as she said that, Qin Song froze, Wang Meng froze, and even everyone else in the room was stunned.

Gu Yao said, “With my current ability, I really am not suitable for participating in frontline operations. After this incident, I have also gained a little clearer understanding myself. Operations like this are about organization, discipline, and teamwork. Although I do not think Wang Meng had the ability to save Chen Feiyu’s ex-wife’s life, I have to admit that what I did that day was indeed not good enough. So, I will not submit any more applications.”

The conference room fell silent. The atmosphere, which had just started to brighten a little, then went “clack” and fell into an ice cave.

Wang Meng slammed the table and stood up. “I warn you, Gu Yao, don’t get so arrogant. Who do you think you are? What gives you the right to question my ability? With the way you are now, even the job you have at the psychology clinic was bought by your parents and that boyfriend of yours. Otherwise, would that psychology clinic accept you, a PTSD patient?”

Chairman Chen immediately snapped, “Wang Meng!”

Wang Meng froze, only then realizing what he had let slip.

But it was too late.

Gu Yao’s gaze was fixed dead on his face.

The next second, Gu Yao left her seat and walked straight toward Wang Meng.

Everyone was stunned. Wang Meng, in particular, felt an inexplicable fear, but then he thought about it again. She was just a woman. The last time he got hit was because he had not been guarding against her. He did not believe Gu Yao would dare do anything to him in front of so many people!

Wang Meng forced himself to stay in his seat.

Until Gu Yao came to stand in front of him and gave a slight smile, a smile that made his scalp crawl.

Wang Meng swallowed.

Gu Yao asked softly, “What did you mean by that just now?”

Wang Meng stammered and could not get a single word out. Instinctively, he looked at Qin Song, signaling with his eyes.

Qin Song let out a soft sigh and stepped forward, trying to stop her. “Gu Yao, there is surveillance on site…”

But Gu Yao raised a hand to signal Qin Song not to speak.

Then she asked a question. “Wang Meng, do you know what is more terrifying than a criminal?”

Wang Meng choked, and the others looked at each other.

Gu Yao said, “Ignorance.”

Wang Meng’s face flushed red at once. “You, what do you mean!”

Gu Yao said, “Didn’t you want me to apologize? Fine, I’ll give you one. I, Gu Yao, did indeed cause Mr. Wang Meng’s nasal bone injury that day, because I really could not find any other way to make him shut up. In order to avoid further刺激 to the criminal Chen Feiyu, in that urgent moment I could only make an instinctive reaction. That was absolutely my mistake.”

Qin Song had already turned his face away.

Chairman Chen: “…”

Wang Meng: “…”

Everyone: “…”

Gu Yao said, “Please believe me, Mr. Wang Meng. If there is a next time, I definitely will not use this method. When I get back, I will also do a deep self-criticism and write an academic paper called ‘On What Other Methods Besides Fists Can Make an Asshole Shut Up,’ then we can all circulate it and encourage one another.”

After saying that, Gu Yao walked past Wang Meng and came to stand before Chairman Chen.

Chairman Chen froze, and then saw Gu Yao take a white envelope from her pocket and place it on the table in front of him. She then smiled with complete ease.

“To avoid causing the association any further trouble, this is my application to withdraw from membership. Please approve it.”

On the evening of the same day Gu Yao submitted her withdrawal application, it was approved.

That same day, inside one news channel, the front-page report on the “Chen Feiyu incident” had just been drafted when the deputy editor responsible for related affairs received a tip from an informant, saying that not long ago, right here in Jiang City, something extremely explosive had happened.

The deputy editor asked what it was, and the informant quickly sent over the preliminary materials. In summary, it was “a certain corporate executive died from an overdose of drugs, and it was suspected that before his death he was engaged in prostit|ution with a witness.”

After reading the materials, the deputy editor’s rising excitement immediately sank again. On the surface, the explosion point of this matter was not strong enough. The women allegedly involved in prostit|ution were not minors, and the drug the male deceased had taken was not any banned narcotic. Overall, it was nowhere near as impactful as the “Chen Feiyu incident.” Ordinary people would not care what sordid things the gold-drenched, wine-soaked elite were getting up to. What they cared about were crises that could happen around them at any time, like the hostage Chen Feiyu had taken, Liu Yu, who was just an ordinary person and had simply been chosen as a target because of bad luck and severe acrophobia.

After looking over the materials, the deputy editor ultimately only agreed to place it behind the “Chen Feiyu incident” in the reporting order, unless they could still dig up something bigger inside it.

The result was that not long after, the informant sent over something even bigger.

The deputy editor only had to look once before shouting, “Holy shit!”

As if a huge stone had been dropped into a lake whose outcome had already been set, the entire news channel instantly stirred up a thousand waves. The deputy editor immediately gave the order to change the front page and push the “Chen Feiyu incident” back!

Everyone was shocked, and then they all rushed into action without delay.

At that time, there were only ten minutes left until the news broadcast.

The image materials provided by the informant were extremely limited and blurry. Now they could only rely on communication techniques to blur both sight and sound, pushing this unclear footage to the extreme, teasing the public’s curiosity and giving it the mysterious, suspenseful air of a documentary shot on the scene.

Ten minutes later, the news aired as scheduled. In just two minutes of narration, paired with some highly suggestive visuals, Jiang City’s waters were quickly stirred muddy.

The news’s reference to a certain corporate executive was in fact one of the managers of the hugely popular company that had risen to prominence in recent years, Jiangcheng Gene.

The drug he had overdosed on to his death was not a blue pill either, but something like one of the new drugs Jiangcheng Gene had tested this year.

As for the woman who had been engaging in prostit|ution with the deceased, she was even less a so-called “prostitute.” After identity confirmation, she turned out to be a legal assistant at one of Jiang City’s top law firms!

As soon as the news aired, the inside of every other competing news channel instantly exploded into chaos. All the editors-in-chief, deputy editors, and producers went crazy.

“Damn it, where did this news come from? Why did they get it first? Why don’t we have it? Go investigate it now! Useless trash!”

“Wait, who is this informant? He definitely has more material! Quick, we have to find this person, give him triple the money, I want exclusive rights to everything that comes after!”

Almost at the same time, the supervisors at those competing news channels were all hopping around their offices, beating their chests and stomping their feet, then sending out every frontline reporting team they had, determined to dig Jiang City up from the ground!

And the crowd of bystanders sitting in front of their TVs and online, waiting for the follow-up on the “Chen Feiyu incident,” were also stunned. Very quickly they launched their own online manhunt, and the snowball only grew bigger and bigger.

…

At the same time, Li City, Xu Family Residence.

That night, Xu Shuo was very busy.

He had been messing around on the treadmill for two hours, and his clothes were already soaked through, but he did not care at all about the numbers on the treadmill panel. He simply propped his phone up there and watched short videos.

Xiao Chuan had hacked the internal network of the Association of Psychological Counselors and directly dug out the meeting record for him.

Xu Shuo watched with great interest. There were even two parts he replayed several times, the more he watched the funnier it got, and in the middle of all that he even took screenshots.

It was not until a WeChat message came in and interrupted Xu Shuo’s wicked little entertainment.

“Boss, the informant has already sent the message over. I’ll send you the materials to take a look.”

Very soon, another document appeared on WeChat.

Xu Shuo scanned it quickly. The smile on his face vanished instantly, and the thick brows slanting into his temples furrowed. Before long, he called the other person.

“Boss.”

On the other end was a woman’s tired voice.

Xu Shuo switched the treadmill to walking mode. “That’s not strong enough. Add more fuel.”

The woman froze. “You mean…”

Xu Shuo said, “Who, What, Why.”

The woman said, “Got it.”

The call ended, and the bombshell in the woman’s hands also quietly flowed out through the informant’s mouth.

Who, What, Why.

First, Who, who were the dead and the living. If all this pointed only to a vague corporate executive and a “prostitut|ion” case, then that identity had no appeal at all, equivalent in the media’s eyes to random passersby A and B.

But if it was one of Jiang City’s most watched company executives from Jiangcheng Gene and an assistant from one of the city’s top law firms, that was a different story.

Second, What, what happened. An overdose of drugs? What kind of drug was it? Narcotics, aphrodisiacs, or banned substances?

Oh, probably none of that could compare to some “miracle medicine” that had once been heavily promoted by the media as something that could rewrite the human genome.

Third, Why, why did this happen? Why did it happen to these two people together instead of someone else, and why did they take this drug?

These three key points would trigger wide discussion, and every media outlet paying attention to this would go digging. The curiosity of the general public was even stronger than the media’s, and their online manhunt abilities were also terrifyingly fierce. As for the third point, someone would naturally analyze and verify it during the digging process…

A few minutes later, Xu Shuo finished admiring the explosive news about the Jiangcheng Gene executive and the legal assistant, and only then stepped down from the treadmill.

He pulled off the tank top he was wearing and wiped a hand across his face.

Outside the window, there was a sudden loud boom. He turned his head and saw lightning flashing, thunder rolling, and a downpour about to begin.

Just then, his phone rang.

Xiao Chuan sent a message over, followed by a smiley face emoji: “Ge, Jiang City is changing weather.”

Xu Shuo curved his lips slightly. “Get ready. We’re going to Jiang City.”

Author’s note:

The two leads’ parallel lines are officially starting to converge~

Just a reminder, Who, What, Why, these three questions are asked whether the police are solving a case, a lawyer is sorting out their thoughts, or it is criminal psychology. The motive is hidden in those three questions.