Chapter Twenty-Five: The Young Surpass the Old Like Waves on the Yangtze River

"They’ve discovered me," the mysterious woman said. "They were trying to sneak out of the school by climbing over the wall and happened to find the underground tunnel. They even went inside and tried to steal my daughter. So I gave them a small lesson."

"Don’t you think that’s going too far?" I couldn’t hold back any longer, though an interrogation shouldn’t be colored by personal feelings. I forced down my anger. "You only needed to make them keep quiet."

"They blackmailed me," the woman replied without a trace of emotion. "So I killed them."

"Why did you take their wombs?"

"They killed my child, so I want to use their wombs to conceive my child anew," she answered with a chilling laugh.

"But the baby was already dead!"

"No," the woman insisted. "She’s still alive; I can feel her. She talks to me every day, keeps me company. How could you say she’s dead?"

"How did you kill those two college students?" I pressed.

"I didn’t kill them," she replied. "Song Chenhai and Lin Yunshan did."

"Why would they help you?" I readied my pen to record the key points.

She confessed, "I’ve always had a flirtatious relationship with them. In fact, that basement was secretly dug for me when they were building the land temple. I told them my child could bring them great fortune, so they did as I asked."

"What about the bloody handprints on the victims’ bodies?" Old Lin’s hand trembled as he sipped his tea.

With his other hand, he discreetly wrote a line on a slip of paper. I glanced at it: "She’s never killed anyone."

I was perplexed. What did Old Lin mean by that?

"It was my child’s," the mysterious woman replied. "My child needed to nurse, so I let her."

When the interrogation ended, I left with the transcript. Just as Old Lin had said, the mysterious woman had never directly killed a single person...

The following is an excerpt from the crucial case file, narrating the case in full:

The deceased, Li Yanran and Wang Fenfang, both students at the College of Finance and Economics, accidentally discovered the underground room of the suspect, Su Mengyao. Su Mengyao colluded with the laborers building the temple, Song Yuanhai and Lin Yunshan, to kill the two women, and in a most heinous manner, had a stillborn infant desecrate their bodies.

Song Yuanhai and Lin Yunshan firmly believed that the "ghost infant" would bring them luck. As instructed by Su Mengyao, Song Yuanhai swallowed one of the victims’ wombs whole. However, years of drinking had damaged his stomach lining, which couldn’t handle the organ, and it ruptured his stomach, resulting in his gruesome death.

Lin Yunshan, believing Su Mengyao’s words, coerced his daughter Lin Yu to perform a womb transplant for him, then placed the mummified infant inside his own body, attempting to "reincarnate" the child.

Having suffered years of sexual abuse at her father’s hands, Lin Yu seized the opportunity during the surgery to kill Lin Yunshan, eviscerating him in an act of calculated brutality.

Su Mengyao and Lin Yu, both with homosexual tendencies, had comforted each other for years. Lin Yu turned herself in, hoping to take the blame for Su Mengyao. But the law does not allow for such sentimentality.

The gatekeeper at the College of Finance and Economics also knew Su Mengyao’s secret. Because Su Mengyao resembled his first love, the gatekeeper concealed the truth and donated a thousand yuan from his monthly salary to her, which found its way to Song Yuanhai’s account.

The gatekeeper hanged himself in a psychiatric hospital, apparently to cover up Su Mengyao’s crimes.

Su Mengyao visited the suicide scene and tried to save him but was too late. She left a cryptic note, but I, as a police detective, saw through her ruse.

Throughout the investigation, Su Mengyao repeatedly tried to infiltrate the police force, leaving infant footprints in the forensics lab and even attempting to destroy surveillance footage, but fortunately, she was thwarted by Detective Tang Youyou.

Although Su Mengyao never directly killed anyone, she orchestrated the entire murder spree and deliberately destroyed evidence—a crime of the utmost severity. All five victims were closely connected to her. As such, she was sentenced to death for intentional homicide, incitement to murder, and destruction of evidence, with lifelong deprivation of political rights and a one-year reprieve.

Lin Yu was convicted of murdering her father and likewise sentenced to death, with lifelong deprivation of political rights and a one-year reprieve.

Song Yuanhai and Lin Yunshan committed egregious crimes, brutally killing two female students, but as they were deceased, they could not be prosecuted.

The above is an excerpt from key parts of the case file; many details are omitted here.

The phrase "fortunately discovered by Detective Tang Jingjing" was added at Chief Wang’s suggestion. Perhaps Chief Zhang felt some guilt for offsetting Tang Youyou’s merits with her mistakes, which is why her name was included.

A name may seem a small thing, but once submitted to police headquarters, it would be a tremendous honor for Tang Jingjing—almost as valuable as a second-class merit citation.

The case was closed, but none of us felt joy. A woman who had poured all her efforts into her dead child is worthy of respect as a mother, but she cannot be called a good person.

That afternoon, at Old Lin’s request, Li Hong escorted Su Mengyao with two armed police officers to a cemetery and personally buried the mummified infant.

When Li Hong returned, his eyes were swollen. I hurriedly asked Brother Jun what had happened. He said that if not for his special status, he would have helped Su Mengyao escape.

As it turned out, Su Mengyao cried for two hours while burying her child and finally coughed up blood, collapsing on the grave—such maternal love was indeed moving.

Only then did I learn that Li Hong had lost his mother at a young age and had grown up alone in the military.

With the case wrapped up, our major crimes unit finally had its own office. But I remained just a regular intern forensic specialist.

The two senior forensic doctors soon recovered and returned, but they immediately submitted their retirement papers.

Before retiring, they invited me to a meal. One bespectacled doctor patted my shoulder and said earnestly, "That Xia Feng girl has been an orphan since childhood, spends all day with corpses—it’s not easy for her. She’s dated three boyfriends already. You’re young and share her interests; you should seize the chance and make your move, understand?"

I forced a bitter smile, thinking to myself: forget it, a cool goddess like Xia Feng isn’t my type.

For quite some time after, everything was peaceful at the station. I finally realized our so-called "major crimes unit" was nothing of the sort—whenever there was another case, Chief Wang had us follow up in real time, under the guise of "training subordinates."

But who was he fooling? I’d seen so many bodies in the past few days that I couldn’t eat without picturing bloody corpses.

The one who complained most was Tang Youyou—Chief Wang made her use her "special abilities" every day. She was sick to death of smelling corpses.

One morning, I arrived at work as usual.

As soon as I came in, Chief Wang gave me a task: Aunt Wang’s dog had died; I was to test if it had been poisoned.

I looked at Chief Wang, torn, only to see Chief Zhang looking even more conflicted. "Just bear with it, Xiaoyang. It’s Aunt Wang from next door; she gives us a silk banner every year. It’d be rude to refuse."

Xiaoyang—that was Yu Mingxuan’s childhood nickname. Ever since they found out, everyone called him that!

I grumbled, "Chief Wang, I’m supposed to be in the major crimes unit, but all I do is autopsies. It’s not exciting at all."

Chief Wang just smiled at me mysteriously and said nothing.

Moments later, Tang Jingjing burst in, furious, glaring at me. "You bastard, what did you just say?"

I was baffled. "I didn’t say anything!"

"Not exciting enough? Well, you’re about to get excitement." With that, Tang Jingjing slammed a file onto my desk.

In bold, blood-red letters, it read: "The Midnight Bus on the Road to the Underworld Case!"