Author: 长洱 / Chang’er

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 16

Xing Conglian thought, ‘Three years.’

For three years, Feng Peilin watched Lin Chen.

Whether rain or shine, Feng Peilin always sat quietly in front of this window, looking at the young man who was even quieter than him and worked in the dorms opposite here.

He probably watched Lin Chen reading and writing or Lin Chen talking with children.

Xing Conglian couldn’t help but shiver at the thought of this.

He returned to the police station with the book and the letter, with a handful of sand in hand.

The raw pleasantries were over, and the atmosphere was cold and collected.

Lin Chen slept lightly in a chair, covered by a police uniform.

The police uniform had silver stars sparkling on it. Inspector Huang was sitting next to him in just a white shirt. His legs were crossed as he flipped through the documents in his hand while holding a glass of warm water in his other hand.

Xing Conglian was stunned. There were so many chairs in the room, yet Huang Ze chose to sit next to Lin Chen.

Inspector Huang sat so naturally that it was as if he deserved to sit there.

Xing Conglian became unhappy.

Fu Hao had just walked around from behind Xing Conglian. When he saw the situation in the office, he hurriedly pulled the person that was frozen at the door into the room.

Lin Chen had just opened his eyes.

Seeing them return, he stood up and smoothly hung the clothes that covered him on the armrest and didn’t look at Huang Ze.

“I have a fever and need some antipyretics.”

Lin Chen’s tone was weak, but his request was blunt. His desire to leave the police station was all too obvious and unconcealed.

Huang Ze chuckled and put down the notebook.

Just when Xing Conglian thought Huang Ze was going to say something like, “Personal matters are forbidden during official business hours”, he instead heard, “Remember to buy aspirin. He’s allergic to most antibiotics.”

This made Xing Conglian even more angry.

……

Perhaps it was because the typhoon was about to make a landfall and the city was shrouded in the eye of the storm, but the rain had stopped.

Lin Chen’s footsteps were weak, but he still insisted on walking. Xing Conglian couldn’t convince him, so he had to walk by his side, while Fu Hao walked at the end feeling guilty.

The sound of their footsteps fell on the bluestone slab that was still wet from rain, kicking and stamping, sticky and greasy.

Although the questions in Xing Conglian’s heart were rolling up into a snowball, such as what was the relationship between Huang Ze and Lin Chen, and why did Huang Ze’s attitude towards him made a 180-degree turn, Xing Conglian didn’t ask about this kind of idle gossip. He took out the evidence bag from his arms and handed it to Lin Chen. “Feng Peilin left you a book and a letter with a handful of sand. What’s the relationship between you and him?”

Lin Chen was a little taken aback.

But for some reason, the astonishment wasn’t because Feng Peilin left him something, but because Xing Conglian didn’t ask him any questions related to Huang Ze.

In this world, there were too many people who loved to inquire about the privacy of others, and few could hold back their curiosity that was bubbling inside their hearts.

Lin Chen raised his head and looked at Xing Conglian and said sincerely, “Thank you.”

Xing Conglian shook his head and continued, “Looking out from the window of his desk, I can see your room.”

When Lin Chen heard this, he stood still for a moment.

“He’s watching me?”

“Should be.”

Because of the high fever, the fragments in his mind floated like a montage. The white sand in the sandbox, the eerie market, snow-white sheets, bright red bloodstains; these images were switching frame by frame, making a confusing jumble.

A long time had passed that it was enough to return all the pictures back to the very beginning and long enough that the raindrops on the eaves had all fallen off.

Lin Chen stuffed the evidence bag back into Xing Conglian’s hands and took a few steps.

Xing Conglian looked at Lin Chen’s back and narrowed his eyes slightly. Lin Chen’s appearance showed he was obviously thinking about something but didn’t want to say it.

Helpless, he could only speak to Lin Chen’s back. Although he didn’t want to, he had to pretend to be aggressive. “Yu Yanqing wrote to you, while Feng Peilin watched you every day. I can’t ask about your past, but you must be clear about everything that’s related to this case.”

His words were so straightforward that Lin Chen’s footsteps naturally paused. “What does Captain Xing need me to make clear?”

Lin Chen turned around and faced him.

“Do you know Feng Peilin?”

“No?”

“Then why did he leave this letter for you? What exactly does the white sand in the letter mean?”

“Simple. It’s because I have a sandbox in my room, and he wanted me to know that all the analysis I had done was nothing more than what he wanted me to see. He’s provoking me.”

“Why does he want to provoke you?”

“I don’t know?”

“You don’t know?” Xing Conglian was speechless. “For more than three years, he has been peeping on you every day, planning murders and provoking you, yet you don’t know why?”

Xing Conglian’s words were mocking. He was ready for Lin Chen to respond unceremoniously, yet Lin Chen turned around slightly and a smile appeared on his face.

It wasn’t one of mockery or a sneer, like if he was angry, but a very simple smile, as if the question Xing Conglian just asked was extremely interesting.

“Captain Xing, you may not know this, but in this world, whether they are psychopaths or high-IQ criminals, there are very, many, that want to provoke me. If I care about the motives behind every time this happens, then I should just stop living.”

This was a reasonable statement, and it left Xing Conglian dumbfounded.

“Why?” Was all he could say.

“Because I was once really, really famous.”

This was a proud statement, but coming from Lin Chen’s mouth, there was no boastful implication. Instead, it was more like an honest declaration, so much so that Xing Conglian found it cute.

If he was an ordinary person, he would probably have laughed out loud when he heard such a statement, but Xing Conglian was extraordinary, so he nodded and said solemnly, “I would guess so, seeing as I’ve never met anyone as smart as you.”

Xing Conglian’s eyes were beautiful. When he lowered it to stare at Lin Chen, it felt as if those lake-green eyes were as deep as the sea.

After all, this was a man with foreign blood, which gave him a special complementary racial advantage.

Lin Chen’s face unexpectedly blushed.

It was quite embarrassing. After all, for the first half, his tone was sharp, as if he was about to get into an argument with Xing Conglian, but then it was shortly followed by him blushing due to being praised. He was obviously too unfocused.

However, since it was he who brought up the topic, he could only blame himself. Lin Chen coughed lightly and asked, “Time is short. I think Feng Peilin is probably going to commit suicide.”

“Yu Yanqing committed suicide, and now Feng Peilin is doing the same?”

“Yu Yanqing is just a chess piece controlled by Feng Peilin. He’s probably just used her to perfect his ideas.”

“What idea?”

“People can overcome fear of death through training related to it. This was our previous inference.” Lin Chen paused, then said, “And the reason why I think Yu Yanqing isn’t the murderer is because she didn’t have sufficient motivation to commit the crime.”

“But Feng Peilin does?”

“Yes. Men have an oedipal complex*. If I’m not mistaken, Feng Peilin should have grown up in a single-parent home, single-handedly raised by his mother, Feng Xuejuan. As you know, children’s distortions are often inseparable from their family. If I didn’t guess wrong, Feng Xuejuan was probably extremely controlling and probably made her son act according to her will…”

*Concept in psychoanalytic theory introduced by Sigmund Freud. It is a purportedly universal phase in the life of a young boy in which he hates his father and wishes to have sex with his mother. These wishes may be unconscious.

“Speaking of which, one of the teachers at the school told me that Feng Peilin would call his mother every time at the prescribed time. This was probably at Feng Xuejuan’s behest?”

Lin Chen nodded. “Such control will lead to two results.”

“What results?”

“First, extreme rebellion. Second, extreme obedience. He regards his mother as a God and respects her words as if he respects God’s will.”

Xing Conglian couldn’t help shuddering.

Without waiting for Xing Conglian to indicate that this was too heavy, Lin Chen went on to ask, “If you were Feng Peilin and the tragic state of your Goddess fell and splattered to the ground into a pool of blood and was seen by others, what would you think?”

Although he wanted to vomit, Xing Conglian had to admit that if he was Feng Peilin and his mother, whom he revered as a God, died tragically in front of others, it would indeed give rise to the urge to kill.

“Even if Feng Peilin wanted to kill all the unrelated people who witnessed his mother’s death, why did he use Yu Yanqing and why design such meticulous steps to overcome death?”

“Of course it’s because he’s afraid of death.” Lin Chen gave Xing Conglian a look as if to say, “What an idiotic question”.

“Feng Peilin is having fun playing with the dead, yet he’s still afraid of death?”

“To be precise, Feng Peilin’s mother, Feng Xuejuan, is afraid of death,” After speaking so much, Lin Chen’s voice became hoarse, and the volume gradually got lighter. “Do you remember the ward Yu Yanqing was assigned to clean? It was the oncology department. Feng Xuejuan has stomach cancer, which is one of the most excruciatingly painful diseases, so much so that she committed suicide because she couldn’t stand it, but even more so because she couldn’t stand the thought of having to slowly die while experiencing it…”

“So he’s actually using Yu Yanqing to study how to make people feel less pain when facing death?” Xing Conglian responded quickly.

“It seems as if his research was successful,” Fu Hao couldn’t help but interject. “Yu Yanqing did commit suicide, willingly.”

“So what about Feng Peilin?” Xing Conglian asked.

“All his research is so he can face death calmly.” Lin Chen cast his gaze into the distance. “We previously thought that Yu Yanqing’s death training had four steps. Getting close to a corpse, observing a murder, killing someone with your own hands, and committing suicide, but if we change this to Feng Peilin, there’s a fifth step.”

“Get close to a corpse, observe a murder, kill with your own hands, help and watch Yu Yanqing commit suicide, then commit suicide?” Xing Conglian blurted out.

After speaking out, he felt there was a problem with this. “Who did Feng Peilin kill?”

“Check to see if there are any homicides missed by the police,” Lin Chen said indifferently.

If Lin Chen wanted you to believe in something, you would.

Of course, Xing Conglian trusted Lin Chen, so he quickly took out his cellphone and called Wang Chao. He asked him to investigate all homicides in recent days that had been missed and to check all surveillance videos where Feng Peilin might have appeared.

Then, he called the traffic division of the police department and asked them to set up city-wide blockades and hunt down Feng Peilin.

After a few phone calls, Xing Conglian fell behind them but was surprised to find Lin Chen was by his side and instead it was Fu Hao who had absent-mindedly walked in front of him.

Seeing that he had finally hung up the phone, Lin Chen asked, “How is it?”

“It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack. With the recent festival drawing in tourists, our forces are already limited. We need more time.”

“Actually, you don’t need to be so troublesome.” As if he had made up his mind about something, Lin Chen suddenly raised his head and said, “I can make him appear. You just need to decide the location.”

His voice was weak but terribly serious.

Much later on, Xing Conglian would reminisce about how if he could have discovered Lin Chen’s abnormality at that time, perhaps there wouldn’t be so many stories afterwards.

Unfortunately, Lin Chen didn’t give him such a chance to react.

“If you don’t believe me, let’s do an experiment. I want to eat at Tian Xing Ju at noon. Your treat,” Lin Chen whispered to Xing Conglian as he glanced at Fu Hao’s back. He then quickly walked to a small shop on the side of the road, went to the counter, and bought six planet cups for a yuan.

When Xing Conglian reached for the planet cups that Lin Chen handed over, he froze. He didn’t understand what Lin Chen wanted to do.

But then he saw Lin Chen take two quick steps to catch up to Fu Hao. He stuffed the remaining five planet cups into Fu Hao’s hands.

“Huh, shixiong?” Fu Hao looked at the small snacks in his hand in surprise.

“You’ve performed well recently, so this is a reward for you.”

Lin Chen blinked innocently. Seeing such a vivid expression on Lin Chen’s face, Fu Hao suddenly came to a realization.

“Don’t be like this, shixiong. You’re going to make me cry. I miss the old man too,” Fu Hao said as he tore open a planet cup. “How many did you buy for a yuan?”

“Six,” Lin Chen said, with a rare smile on his face. It was subtle, but under the sun, it made him look gorgeous.

Xing Conglian looked at them in a daze from behind. He couldn’t help but hook Fu Hao’s neck, leaned over, and asked, “Who is this old man? What’s with this stunt?”

“The old man is our mentor. He likes shixiong the most. Every time we write a good thesis, he would buy us planet cups as a reward, but the owner of the snack shop at our school bullies him because he’s old. Every time the old man would buy them, he would give him only five. The old man always thought he was taking advantage of the shopkeeper, but in fact, it was actually six for a yuan.” Fu Hao spoke with a smile on his face.

Lin Chen was still smiling, and the atmosphere had turned calm and relaxed. “Where do you want to go eat later?” he asked, seemingly inadvertently.

“Tian Xing Ju,” Fu Hao replied quickly.

His answer was easy, but when Xing Conglian heard this, he felt like he had been struck by lightning. He looked at Lin Chen in disbelief, poked Professor Fu’s head, and opened his mouth.

Lin Chen seemed to read his mind. He turned around and pointed to the bus stop they had just passed by. On the billboard of the station was a photo of a Chinese Restaurant. On the plaque of the restaurant were three ostentatious large characters: “Tian Xing Ju”.

“Our mentor is a loyal supporter of Tian Xing Ju. Every time we meet him, he always wants to eat there.”

“So you deliberately reminded Fu Hao of the old man just now?”

“I took the planet cups and dropped the hint to make Fu Hao remember our mentor. In addition, Fu Hao had just glanced at the advertisement for Tian Xing Ju. Subconsciously, this made him think of our mentor. When I asked him where he wanted to eat, with the advertisement for Tian Xing Ju still in place, it was the easiest thing for his mind to extract, so that was his first reaction.” Lin Chen was afraid that Xing Conglian wouldn’t understand, so he explained it to him seriously.

“You want to use this method to set a trap for Feng Peilin?” Xing Conglian express with doubt. “Would he really fall for it?”

“Trust me.”

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Kinky Thoughts:

Oedipus Complex is named after Oedipus. Freud expanded this concept further by saying boys experience castration anxiety while girls experience penis envy. This theory is not supported by empirical evidence, so take it with a grain of salt as to how it applies to this novel.

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