Xu Xiaodong had brought up this idea. Although it wasn’t the best thing to do, everyone thought it was still feasible.

So, the police officers immediately sent a phone call to Du Lei's parents to inform them of Du Lei's death. On the other end of the line, the sound of the husband and wife crying was piercing.

The policeman asked shyly, “We...We want to ask you to lie… Don't let the old lady know.”

Ten minutes later, the old lady’s screaming came from the door. “You took Lei Lei away... You dogs didn’t say anything to me... If there’s nothing wrong, then you should have just said so! Making me worry! It’s cold, give Lei Lei an added quilt at night. Getting a cold is not a joke... Remember to see Grandma in the New Year.”

At the end of the call, Xu Xiaodong breathed a sigh of relief. “It should be okay now.”

“Only for a while.” Lin Dongxue pointed out.

Leaving the unit, everyone was in a heavy mood. Lin Dongxue wanted to go to Wang Jinsong’s house to look at it, and so they went to the property manager to inquire about it. However, when they arrived at the Wang’s household, nobody answered when they knocked on the door.

“Do you want to ask their neighbors?” Xu Xiaodong suggested.

The two knocked on the door of the neighbor’s house, but the neighbors didn't know where they were. It was speculated that they might have gone out to eat.

Lin Dongxue stood in the corridor and waited. Xu Xiaodong asked, “Do you suspect this family?”

“I can't say that it’s suspicion per say...” Lin Dongxue couldn't tell. She really wished that Chen Shi was here right now to give her a clear path to walk.

But since she was the one betting with her brother this time, she needed to pull herself together and not ask for Chen Shi’s help.

They waited endlessly and the time gradually reached eight o'clock. Lin Dongxue was so cold that she was shifting her feet about. Xu Xiaodong kept trying to crack jokes in order to ease the atmosphere. Lin Dongxue smiled bitterly. “Don't talk. The more you talk, the colder it gets!”

At this time, the phone rang. It was Lin Qiupu. The first thing he asked was, “Sister, where are you?”

“Investigating!”

“Haha, still investigating? This teacher, the more we interrogate him, the more suspicious he gets. We asked the people in the school. They all mentioned that Li was usually too close with the students and that his performance evaluations were not very good.”

“But even if he molested children, why would he murder them?”

“We still have an important piece of evidence in our hands. Guess what it is. We found an imported aphrodisiac in the stomach of the deceased. It was incorporated into the Coke. Why would children eat that?”

Lin Dongxue was shocked. Yesterday, Chen Shi reminded them to test whether there was any medicine in the stomach yesterday and they actually found this type of thing.

She felt a wave of doubt, but immediately reminded herself to believe in Chen Shi and to believe in her own judgement.

Lin Qiupu was delighted. “Sister, don't blame me if I beat you. The interrogation is still happening. The guy is still not confessing, but we plan to struggle with him till the end. I believe the truth is just separated by a layer of window paper...[1] You don’t need to be too busy. You should head back soon!”

“You don't need to worry about that!” Lin Dongxue hung up the phone angrily.

She turned her head and found that Xu Xiaodong was very close, but she couldn’t be bothered to deal with him. “Get away from me.”

Xu Xiaodong heard the call and was shocked. “Fuck, their evidence is too strong. If they find the same medicine at Li's home, they can go to court directly.”

“It can't be that simple.” Lin Dongxue bit her finger. “No, he is only interested in little girls. Du Lei is obviously a little boy.”

“Pedophiles are all psychos. How would you know what they’re thinking?”

“Why would he kill the person though? And why would he throw the body downstairs from his dorm?”

“He may have been too nervous after killing someone for the first time and got flustered.”

“No, no!” All this seemed to be too convenient, but Lin Dongxue felt that something with it just doesn’t seem right.

Wang Jinsong’s family seemed like they wouldn’t return for quite a while. Lin Dongxue could only return home empty handed. When she got home, she searched online all night, wondering if pedophilia also had specific gender preferences.

The answers from Baidu’s[2] question and answer section weren’t helpful at all. She was so angry that she wanted to throw away her mouse. After continuous searching, she finally found a more reliable answer. It mentioned that pedophiles had gender preferences, but there were also those that were bisexual.

Lin Dongxue went to bed in frustration. The next morning, she was woken up by a message notification on her mobile phone. Xu Xiaodong told her to check Weibo.[3]

The news had already spread on Weibo. The irresponsible title of “The perverted teacher raped and killed a boy then dismembered the corpse” appeared in the headlines of all major marketing outlets, which led to the criticism of the netizens. Li’s previous “deeds” were all found and shared once again.

Lin Dongxue sent a message to Xu Xiaodong, “What happened?”

“I don't know, maybe the news was leaked! Today, Captain Lin is probably going to get really angry.”

Lin Dongxue went to the bureau. Lin Qiupu had already finished exploding in anger and was just fuming silently at this point. She said softly, “Brother, what happened?”

“You should have seen it too! It blew up on Weibo. I don't know which bastard leaked this, but now the whole world is saying...” Lin Qiupu looked out the window, and the outside was calm. He seemed to be worried about angry people coming over to the bureau to give Li a piece of their mind. “The chief saw the viral news and gave me a lecture. He told me to give the public an explanation as soon as possible.”

“Did your own people leak the info?”

“Definitely not. These online reports only spoke of a few truths. They all added salt and vinegar[4], but they didn’t have much actual information. It must have been leaked by someone from the school.” Lin Qiupu lit a cigarette solemnly and just left it in his mouth.

“That's good.” Lin Dongxue sighed with relief.

“But the problem is not too big. Li is still detained now, but he is very tight-lipped. He keeps trying to ask for a lawyer... Fine! He wants to go through the whole process? Well, we’ll go the mile with him. Murder and dismemberment, even Jesus can’t save him now... What about things on your side?”

“The progress is almost zero.”

“How about this? I’ll let you do the last rounds of interrogations on Li and I’ll call truce on our bet this time around.” Lin Qiupu laughed.

“Brother!” Lin Dongxue suddenly became serious. “I think Li is not the murderer! And I will prove it to you.” She declared before she left.

Lin Qiupu sighed. “What sort of curse has befallen this girl?”

Lin Dongxue was intent on going to meet Wang Jinsong's family. Xu Xiaodong naturally followed her and went to the complex. However, no matter how much they knocked on the door, no one answered.

Lin Dongxue proposed through gritted teeth, “Let’s go to the school. I refuse to believe that we can’t find the kid.”

She turned around and was about to leave, when the door behind her suddenly opened. Wang Jinsong’s father glanced at them wearing pajamas and a sleepy look on his face. He questioned, “Oh hey, officers. Looking for us?”

“You are at home? Why didn’t you open the door for half the day?”

“I am sorry. The children went to school, so a couple did what a couple naturally does... You know... Come in and sit!”

The two were permitted to go inside. Wang Jinsong’s mother came out of the bedroom and was full of confusion. Wang Jinsong’s father told her to make tea and cut up some fruit to serve the guests. Lin Dongxue declined, “No need, we’re just here to ask a few questions.”

Whilst she said this, she walked around the living room and pushed open a door. Inside was Wang Jinsong's bedroom. There was a computer on the writing desk. Even though Lin Dongxue didn’t know much about hardware and technology, even she could tell that this computer was definitely expensive.

There was a shelf near the wall, filled with little plastic figurines.

The other shelf was full of comic books and magazines. There was even a guitar hanging on the wall, covered in dust. There was also a football in the corner that looked like it hadn’t been moved for quite a while.

Noticing Lin Dongxue’s gaze, Wang’s father smiled and explained in embarrassment, “Our family does not know how to educate their children. They are usually spoiled because we buy anything they want... I hope you won’t laugh at us.”

1. The truth is near.

2. A Chinese multinational tech company specializing in Internet-related services, products and AI.

3. A Chinese microblogging website. One of the biggest social media platforms in China.

4. Spiced it up with exaggerations.