Netherworld Investigator

When they were searching for Xiaotao and me earlier, the officers noticed a suspicious person lurking around the area, that is, the wanted criminal Wang Yizhou! Oddly enough, Wang Yizhou didn’t bother to put up any resistance and was now being held in the Bureau, though he was unwilling to say a word.

In order to replace the burn victim in the hospital, Wang Yizhou had murdered the boy. The body was hidden in the morgue and discovered by a nurse two hours ago.

I exchanged a look of surprise with Xiaotao. Wang Yizhou’s arrest was no accident. He had been pushed to his wits’ end by us.

"Let’s have a chat with him!" I said.

Back at the station, we came face to face with Wang Yizhou again in the interrogation room. Eyes wide, he stared at us in disbelief. "How did you escape?" he demanded.

I plopped into the seat in front of him. "Thanks to you, I almost lost my life!" I hissed.

The muscles on his face contorted. "That’s impossible! The mechanism I designed is perfect. No one can escape. At least, there’s no way you can both live! Someone must have rescued you!"

Wang Yizhou had a fair, almost childlike face. With the addition of glasses, he looked like an innocent teenager, but in my opinion, it was the face of the devil. In truth, we wanted nothing more than to lock the door and send him on his way to hell but we restrained the impulse.

"There’s no point in resisting now. You might as well confess!" I glowered.

Wang Yizhou cast an angry glare at me that lasted ten seconds before he sighed, as if frustrated, and began to narrate his story.

Ever since he was young, he was interested in machinery and had a knack for inventing all sorts of small devices. However, his talent brought nothing but disdain from the people around him who all regarded him as a freak. Wherever he went, he was always out of place.

He and Li Derong were flatmates who shared the rent. However, due to differences in personalities and living habits, they seldom spoke to each other unless absolutely necessary. He would be cooped up in his room, churning out new gadgets and reading up on mechanical books, day in, day out.

By chance, he had discovered that Li Derong was a small time streamer on a website called the In-depth Live Stream. Through him, he was able to catch a glimpse of this strange, online world. While he deemed the content on the website as mere trash, he was urged by Li Derong to give it a shot.

He eventually agreed and began constructing contraptions, experimenting with rabbits and mice. However, the response he received was lukewarm. The person in charge of the website personally contacted him and said that his little gadgets were too mild. What he needed was a shocking twist to his current program. He then asked if he had ever watched the movie "Saw,” suggesting he let go of his inhibitions and work with humans instead!

In the beginning, he refused, but Li Derong’s success with blowing up toilets and exploding dead pigs started to tempt him. He ended up signing a contract with the website, and found an abandoned air-raid shelter near his flat to build a torture room for the “Hell’s Judgment” series. However, an accident occured during his first live stream when the victim escaped.

At the time, Wang Yizhou was terrified. Fortunately, Li Derong was quick to act and ran out with a hook which he used to pierce the victim’s body. After he murdered the first victim, Li Derong even helped him dispose of the body.

Li Derong's loyalty had moved him so much that he proposed a cooperation between them. He would torture and murder their victims while Li Derong was in charge of destroying the body.

The two proceeded to cooperate on their next two victims but with the rise in Li Derong's popularity, the man’s ego began to inflate. Li Derong’s arrogance had grown so much he even dared to mess with the police, finally escalating to the point of a confrontation with the police! In the end, Wang Yizhou had no choice but to save him.

The person in charge explained that Li Derong's unauthorized actions would cause disaster to the entire website and ordered him to do away with Li Derong. Hence, Wang Yizhou hardened his resolve to kill his flatmate...

In another turn of events, Li Derong revealed their boss’ number before he died. At the time, an anxious Wang Yizhou hastily uploaded the video, his mind preoccupied with avoiding the police and little else. On one hand, he assumed we couldn't watch the video, and on the other hand, his pursuit for perfection and work ethics as a streamer made him feel that the trial process would be ruined if he deleted that last bit.

He had completely forgotten that the reason we were able to turn the tide was because we had access to the website! Thus, the result of his error resulted in the complete destruction of the site.

By the time Wang Yizhou responded, it was already too late. His final plan was to get rid of us and flee far away.

When he finished his story, Wang Yizhou spread out his arms and declared, "That's it!"

Both Xiaotao and I knew he was lying from the evasive look in his eyes. The persona he presented was completely different from the cruel and arrogant look he had right before he left us to die. It was obvious he was merely pretending to be an ignorant young man who was unwittingly led astray by the outside world.

"Were you the culprit behind the case ten years ago?" I asked.

Wang Yizhou was quick to deny, "No, how could such a poorly-designed mechanism come from me?"

"Did I mention which case it was?” I sneered. “But it looks like you know exactly what I mean."

A trace of panic flashed across his eyes. "Of course I know which case you're talking about,” he argued. “You’re talking about my professor, although that has nothing to do with me!"

I didn't expect him to continue lying about it. "Your professor, Qi Sheng, has been paying for your crime for ten years! Don't you feel guilty at all?" I accused.

"It had nothing to do with me,” he insisted, his expression cold and impassive. “Why should I admit to something I didn’t do?"

Every little microexpression of his told me that he was lying. But out of foolish pride, he was unwilling to admit that he was the real mastermind behind the case ten years ago and preferred to allow Qi Sheng to continue taking the blame for him.

No matter how we tried, Wang Yizhou repeated the same thing. Xiaotao and I were exhausted after a long day, and two other officers came in to take over the interrogation. 

"This guy is too slick! I don’t think further interrogation is going to do anything,” she said. “Anyway, we have plenty of physical evidence."

"But Qi Sheng's case must be clarified," I argued.

"I highly doubt that he will admit to it,” Xiaotao said, shaking her head. “We can only rely on physical evidence to overturn the case. I think it’s better you visit the old man."

"I guess that’s our only option!" I sighed.

The next day, Xiaotao and I headed to Mt. Leopard Prison. This time, I came to fulfill the promise I made in our last conversation. I brought the old man a pack of Chunghwa cigarettes to celebrate our arrest of Wang Yizhou. 

Staring at the pack of Chunghwa cigarettes in his hand, the old man asked, "Is he hurt?"

"No, your beloved student surrendered without any resistance," I replied.

The old man heaved a sigh of relief.

"There is one thing I hope you can clarify,” I started. “Ten years ago, you weren’t the murderer. So why did you take the blame for him? Now that he has been arrested, you don't have to keep up the lies..."

The old man gaped in disbelief at my discovery of the truth. A few moments of silence passed as he stared at me intently.

"Would you like a cigarette?" I asked.

He slipped a cigarette between his lips, waiting as I lit it for him. The old man took a deep breath and began narrating the incidents that happened that year.

Wang Yizhou was the most intelligent and gifted of all his students. His accomplishments in mechanics far surpassed those of Qi Sheng in his younger days, even overshadowing the rising engineers in the west. The two often enjoyed discussing mechanical problems together. Upon learning the tragic circumstances of Wang Yizhou’s childhood, Qi Sheng took him as his own and often invited him to his home for dinner.

In Wang Yizhou's third year of university, the dean plagiarized Qi Sheng's paper. In an angry fit, Qi Sheng barged into the dean’s office and threatened to sue him, but the dean didn't care at all. He claimed that with his position, he could even fire Qi Sheng.

At the time, Qi Sheng was undoubtedly furious. But before he could act on it, a bit of unexpected news emerged–the dean was dead and horribly murdered.

The police found the dean's bloody body in an abandoned bungalow near the school. He was placed on a homemade torture device, body mangled and mutilated beyond recognition. The first thought that came to Qi Sheng’s mind was his beloved student, Wang Yizhou.

He proceeded to meet up with Wang Yizhou to ask him why he did such a thing.

Wang Yizhou explained he had wreaked vengeance on his behalf, to which Qi Sheng sighed, "You silly child, this is murder! Once the police find out about it, your whole life will be ruined."

However, Wang Yizhou looked at him, lips curled in an uncanny smile that would forever be seared into Qi Sheng’s memory. 

He said, "Professor, is the mechanism I designed perfect?"