Chapter 157: Searching for the Target

Fatty Lu asked the man for specific details about the woman, but the man claimed he knew no more. Seeing the cigarette butt dangling and turning in my hand, the man grew even more nervous, insisting he wasn't lying to us. He said the woman was quite pretty, and he had even pursued her for a while in the past. However, upon discovering she was merely a high school student, he lost interest.

According to the man, the woman lived in the residential compound near the dance hall, though he didn't know her exact apartment number. I grabbed the man by the collar and dragged him outside, pulling him straight into the car. After following us out, Fatty Lu immediately dispatched his men to investigate other entertainment venues to see if they could uncover any other suspected targets.

Just as I was about to get into the car, Fatty Lu grabbed my wrist. He stared at me for a moment and suddenly chuckled, "Kid, I've noticed your methods are getting increasingly ruthless. Doing things this way isn't good."

I yanked my hand back. "Deputy Captain Lu, I've said it many times. I'm not a police officer. The standard operating procedures you police use take far too much time. By the time you manage to extract any information, another necrophilia-related case might have already occurred."

Fatty Lu didn't argue with my words. He just let out a couple of dry chuckles and got into the car first. Suddenly, I felt that his laughter carried a profound and ambiguous meaning. We switched to a different vehicle, abandoning the police cruiser because Fatty Lu feared that if Zhang Wen was lurking near the residential compound, a police car would alert the enemy and scare him off.

As the car arrived outside the compound, we sought out the property management staff and asked if any families there had high school students who were day-boarders. The management staff immediately flipped through their directory and rattled off several names, telling us there were over a dozen households with high school day-boarders.

I tossed the directory in front of the man and told him to rack his brain and recall the high school girl's name. With a bitter, distressed expression, the man admitted he had indeed asked for her name back then, but so much time had passed, and once he lost interest, he never gave her another thought. Now, he didn't have the slightest trace of a memory left.

He wrung his brains dry, but in the end, he remembered nothing. Frowning, I asked which middle school she attended. This time, a memory finally stirred. He recalled accompanying the woman to the outskirts of her school, which left an impression. Once he gave us the name of the middle school, Fatty Lu immediately found a way to contact the school's principal.

It was already late at night, but upon learning of the emergency, the principal contacted the student records administrator. Cross-referencing the data, out of the dozen or so households in the compound, only three families had high schoolers enrolled in that specific school. The search radius instantly shrank down to these three households. To be safe, Fatty Lu decided to implement protection measures for all dozen households to prevent any misjudgment that could lead to irreversible consequences.

However, Fatty Lu placed his primary focus on those three households. Through the night, he dispatched plainclothes officers to lay in ambush outside the compound, ready to capture Zhang Wen the moment he appeared. Additionally, he arranged for numerous officers to conceal themselves in the apartments directly adjacent to the target households, keeping a constant watch on any movement inside.

Fatty Lu was quite shrewd. Fearing that Zhang Wen might still be lurking somewhere near the compound, he ordered the police officers to enter the area strictly one by one. The operation was so covert that ordinary people would find it nearly impossible to detect. Moreover, he began deploying personnel to monitor real-time conditions both inside and outside the compound, though no trace of Zhang Wen had been found thus far.

In truth, my hypothesis differed from Fatty Lu's. I didn't believe Zhang Wen was hiding anywhere near this neighborhood. Since he was a homeless transient, he must have found a deeply concealed spot to hole up in. Furthermore, having taken Wang Yazhou hostage to provoke judicial authority, he couldn't possibly leave her alone for extended periods, nor could he drag her around the streets indefinitely.

Leaving Wang Yazhou unattended for too long would make her vulnerable to discovery and rescue, and I was certain Zhang Wen would avoid taking that risk. A necrophilic ritual only required around two hours, leading me to believe he would only leave Wang Yazhou secured during that window of time, setting off alone to commit his crime.

By the time all the deployments were completed, it was already three o'clock in the morning.

The officers investigating other entertainment venues also transmitted their reports back. They confirmed that while Zhang Wen was indeed a frequent visitor to several clubs, numerous people who recognized him stated they had never seen him strike up a conversation with any woman or engage in prolonged chats with anyone.

Fatty Lu let out a sigh of relief. He admitted his biggest fear had been an overwhelming number of potential targets, which would have stretched the police force too thin, leaving them clueless about which one to protect or where to lay their traps for Zhang Wen.

"Then again, while Chongqing is vast, it's also compact in its own way. If there were truly a massive number of people who worshiped necrophilia as some special hobby, the city would have gone completely upside down long ago," Fatty Lu remarked to me.

I shook my head in response. "I sincerely wish Zhang Wen had only found this handful of targets, but people with warped psychology are everywhere. After dropping out of school, it took him a little over a year to identify at least two targets. If given more time, he would find many more kindred spirits, and the consequences by then would be unimaginable."

Due to the nature of necrophilia-related crimes, both the perpetrator and the victim act voluntarily—meaning the victim often provides immense cooperation to the assailant, making it exceptionally difficult for the police to make an arrest. Zhang Wen had completely lost faith in this world. In his eyes, conventional romance was likely filthy, whereas acts like necrophilia and corpse desecration were noble.

His crimes were meant to embolden all those perverted kindred spirits to step forward, voice their existence to the world, and declare war on conventional morality and societal norms.

Fatty Lu suddenly smiled. "If they channeled that energy into normal behavior, they might still be heroes—people who yearn for freedom."

"Unfortunately, they aren't," my voice dropped, turning somber. "Their hearts are tainted. Everything such people do can never be tolerated by this world, let alone understood."

Fatty Lu nodded slowly and patted my shoulder. "Kid, you're a good person. I hope you always remain a good person. There are far too many things in this world that can blind a person's eyes, and countless good people have strayed onto the wrong path simply due to a momentary lapse in judgment."

My heart gave a slight shudder. I felt as though Fatty Lu's words carried a hidden meaning.

In a deep voice, I asked, "What do you mean?"

Fatty Lu shrugged. "What could I mean? Whether it's Zhang Wen or Qiu Xiao, they were both good people once, with bright futures stretching endlessly before them. Yet, a single lapse in judgment led them onto the path of crime."

I stared at Fatty Lu for a moment and said nothing more.

Dawn was rapidly approaching. Fatty Lu asked which household I planned to stake out. I reviewed the name list and pointed to one of them. When he asked why I chose that particular one, I explained that while he was busy coordinating the deployment, I had called the homeroom teachers of the three high schoolers and, through careful inquiry, identified the one with the most introverted personality.

People enduring psychological oppression generally exhibit one of two extreme reactions: either extreme rebellion—proclaiming their uniqueness to everyone around them—or silent withdrawal, much like Zhang Wen.

Worshiping necrophilia is far beyond ordinary non-conformity; it blatantly defies both law and morality. Therefore, true devotees of necrophilia are unlikely to be wildly rebellious or eager to broadcast their desires.

The high schooler from this particular household had ordinary looks, was already an adult, disliked interacting with others at school, and maintained mediocre grades. Her parents were traveling sales representatives whose work was unstable; sometimes they both went on business trips together, while other times they stayed home for days on end. This exact pattern aligned seamlessly with the time windows the killer required for his crimes.

I suspected this high schooler was the killer's next target, and since her parents were scheduled to leave the house early this morning, it would provide both the killer and the victim with the necessary window to commit the act. That was precisely why the killer had declared that the next crime would take place today.

I urged Fatty Lu to have his men closely monitor the perimeter of the compound and start dispatching teams to search remote, isolated locations as well. Perhaps, through thorough investigation, we might rescue Wang Yazhou ahead of time.

Fatty Lu had no intention of laying in ambush inside the compound itself, offering the excuse that he needed to command the overall situation. However, I could distinctly detect a trace of cowardice on his face.

I did not press him further.

"Deputy Captain Lu, you can only make your move if you are entirely confident you can capture Zhang Wen. If you aren't sure, it's better to let him escape than to bungle a direct confrontation. Given his personality, if he slips away, he will inevitably seek bloody revenge against the police—and Wang Yazhou would be his prime target," I warned him, voicing the deepest fear in my heart.