Netherworld Investigator

Director-General Cheng shouted angrily into the night sky, "Long Bangguo, what on earth do you want? If you want revenge, then do it like a man. Don't hide in the shadows and play these sort of dirty tricks."

"Are you trying to provoke me?” he laughed mockingly. “Don't worry, you’ll get your turn. In fact, I’ve saved you for last!"

Xiaotao and I did a double take and glanced in Director-General Cheng’s direction. It turned out that he too was on Long Bangguo's revenge list! Perhaps he had sensed it himself which explained the unloaded gun.

The voice continued, "Officer Xun, Officer Luo and Prosecutor Cheng, I will never forget how you pushed me into a pit of despair and destroyed my life. In the past twenty years, I’ve imagined this moment in my head over and over again. Ah... the taste of revenge is truly intoxicating. The pleasure of watching you suffer is better than anything else in this world. It makes me want to take my time. For now, I’ve other things to deal with before killing the three of you. So don’t worry, the fun’s just beginning!"

"Search the surrounding area for a man about fifty years old with a xun made out of a human skull!" ordered Xiaotao.

The officers dispersed and went out looking for any suspicious characters. Xiaotao and I walked to another street which was sparsely populated late at night. We bumped into a young man, shorter than me, with his face hidden under his cap. 

"Hello, have you seen a fifty-year-old man nearby?" I asked.

"No," said the young man.

His face was pale, almost bloodless, with huge dark circles under his eyes, lending a morbid disposition to his appearance. At the time, I didn't think much of the man. I assumed he was another night owl out to play online games at an internet cafe but I never imagined that we would actually meet again!

When we regrouped, none of the officers reported having found anything. "Call the fire department and the traffic police to come deal with the scene,” instructed Director-General Cheng. “The rest of you will help the injured."

The gravity of the situation had finally dawned upon Officer Xun. "Xiao Cheng, it looks like the music can really kill. Even Lao Zhang with his strong character couldn’t fight it. I think the three of us are disasters waiting to happen so it’s not safe to stay put either. Why don't we throw caution to the wind and search for Long Bangguo? Perhaps we’d be able to avoid more innocent deaths."

"Lao Xun is right,” echoed Officer Luo. “This old enmity should come to an end. The devil we created should be sent away by us!"

"Excuse me sirs, I’d like to have a word," I interrupted.

Thus, the four of us gathered in the empty conference room. “The deadly music can be resisted,” I began. “Xiaotao and I both heard part of the tune earlier. She fired a gunshot so we couldn’t hear the rest of it which is why we escaped its influence."

"Consultant Song, are you suggesting that plugging our ears will block out the music?" asked Officer Luo.

"That’s not going to work,” refuted Officer Xun. “It’s impossible to wear headphones twenty-four hours a day. Maybe if we ruptured our eardrums..."

I shook my head, indicating that even perforated eardrums were useless. The average person might assume the loss of eardrums constituted complete deafness, but in fact, a little sound could still be heard through the ossicles. 

"Gentlemen, right now, we’re just sitting ducks waiting to be hunted by a madman. We might as well take the initiative to attack!" I suggested.

"I'm all ears if you have any ideas!" said Director-General Cheng.

“Then, please kill yourselves!" I stated, enunciating each word.

My words had them raising their eyebrows in disbelief but soon their doubts were cleared by my detailed description of the plan–we would purposely create a flaw so Long Bangguo "succeeds,” though in actual fact, their ears were blocked. Then, the three officers’ fake suicide would hoodwink the man. After all, he had no way of personally confirming their deaths. 

Once they were "dead,” we could launch a counteroffensive but the success of the plan lay in its believability. In order to garner the right reaction from our colleagues, it had to be kept secret from everyone else.

"As expected of a great detective who has solved numerous crimes!” praised Officer Xun. “What a clever diversionary tactic! Alright then, we’ll take your commands from now on."

Director-General Cheng raised a question, "Long Bangguo said he had other things to deal with. Is there anyone else on his revenge list?"

"Could it be the gangsters from back then?" I deduced.

"That’s impossible,” refuted Officer Xun. “The crackdown in ‘97 was very thorough. Almost all the gang members were killed. Only a few of the small fry at the bottom were sentenced to twenty years... Wait, twenty years! They just got out of jail!"

"You’re right,” nodded Director-General Cheng. “Long Bangguo's target is these men."

"Not necessarily,” I argued, shaking my head. “I’m inclined to think it’s their families."

"That makes sense as well,” responded Director-General Cheng. “Anyway, it's already late. Let's all have a good rest and talk about it tomorrow!"

With that, Officer Xun and Officer Luo left the room but Director-General Cheng seemed to have something else to say to me. I happened to have something on my mind as well. When we finally had some privacy, I asked, "Why did you think you were on his revenge list? Is that why you removed the bullets in your gun?"

A sad smile rose to his lips. "Your observation is very sharp indeed,” remarked the man. “Yes, I was the prosecutor back then. If Long Bangguo is retaliating against me, then the entire judicial department isn’t safe either. In fact, he and I share another connection. We once pursued the same girl!"

"Is it the one who was killed?" I asked in consternation.

Director-General Cheng nodded wordlessly, taking a moment before he added, "Her death was also a heavy blow to me! After Long Bangguo was imprisoned, I went to visit him. He called me a coward and said that of all the people, I was the one who should’ve helped him the most. Yet I did the opposite; I fought ruthlessly against every statement made by his defense lawyer in court. But at the time, when I looked at the angry Long Bangguo sitting at the defendant's table across the room, my heart was bleeding. After the case, I resigned from my job, disheartened by what I had done."

As he narrated the past, a veil of melancholy descended upon Director-General Cheng. "You were a prosecutor,” I said. “Defending the law was your duty. You shouldn’t blame yourself for that."

"If everyone behaved reasonably, there would be no crime in this world,” his lips curled into a bitter smile. “Song Yang, in all my years as a police officer, I’ve learned to understand one thing–the law depicts an ideal world in perfect order but reality will always fall short. In truth, the world we live in has its own rules that sometimes even conflicts with the law. If you are ever faced with a choice between the law and your principles, the best you can hope for is a clear conscience. Any choice you make will inevitably leave you with regrets. That’s just life."

Perhaps the loss of his old friends had prompted these heartfelt words from Director-General Cheng. I assured him, "I’ll keep that in mind."

After exiting the conference room, I met Bingxin and Dali on their way out of the lab. Bingxin had conducted a CT scan on the bodies and found that two areas of the brains of both victims were in an extremely excited state. One was the auditory pathway and the other was the pain center that controlled negative emotions such as sadness, depression and melancholy. Her findings confirmed my guess that the murder weapon induced great mental pain that could only be relieved by suicide.

Both Bingxin and Dali were still in the dark about the events that followed Officer Ouyang's death, including the commotion outside earlier. 

"Bingxin, you don't have to participate in the case,” I said. “Go home. You can take two days off work!"

Bingxin pursed her lips in displeasure, "Song Yang-gege, you always tell me to hide whenever there’s danger. But do you know how much I worry about you each time?"

I didn't know how to appease her so I patted her on the head and said, "Listen to me, won’t you?"

Bingxin shyly lowered her head and muttered, "Alright. Make sure you and Xiaotao-jiejie watch out for yourselves. When this case is over, will you come visit me at my place?"

"Of course!" I promised.