"...When the corpse was cut open, the stench of pig sewage permeated out. This woman smelled fragrant when she was alive, and she was as clean as a crystal handicraft that had just been wiped with silk. It's hard to believe that her insides were so dirty and pungent. Human beings are really strange creatures. Killing a person and then dismembering her created an astonishing pleasure of possession, as if she had become something of mine, allowing me to control her how I liked. The bathroom was full of pleasure and even the smell was fragrant. Looking at the red meat, I thought about the best premium beef. I wonder what it tastes like if it was fried. When I was a child, I had a rabbit and fed it using the best carrots every day. One day, it died. The taste was something you wouldn’t forget in this lifetime. Human beings eat the highest quality ingredients. Presumably, their meat is also very delicious. I had a desire to try it. Haha, it’s no wonder that police can’t find all the missing pieces when a psychotic murderer kills someone and dismembers them. Especially the meat on the legs and abdomen..."

Picking out a random paragraph of the text in the notebook caused shivers to run down Chen Shi and Lin Dongxue’s spine. This was absolutely psychopathic. At the same time, it was written so well. It was far better than Xin Bai's online novel.

The entire notebook contained disgusting and explicit content. It recorded the mental journey of a murderer. Lin Dongxue said, "I’m going to have nightmares after reading this. Can this book convict him?"

"Are these true? He’s an author. An author’s profession is creating fiction." Chen Shi expressed doubt.

"From a certain point of view, writers are also the best at lying and acting. They will act like different characters from their works. You’ve said that professions would alienate a part of a person. People who write these things for a long time wouldn’t be psychologically normal, right? These skills extend to reality. Presumably, his lying skills are also at a MAX[1], so the private lives of some writers are extremely chaotic."

"Haha, you’ve forcefully explained everything. I don’t think writing these things will make people turn bad. If we use this rationale, would people soar up into the sky in broad daylight if they were to write cultivation novels? The deterioration can only be due to personal reasons. No serious profession can make a person bad." Chen Shi looked at the notebook in his hands. "This should be debated. Don't think so arbitrarily that this is evidence of a crime."

"Oh. Let's head back!"

Before leaving, Chen Shi took one last look around the place. Lin Dongxue asked him what he was looking for. Chen Shi replied, "Where’s the camera? Xin Bai showed great resistance to the camera. It wasn’t an act. The place where he lives should have a camera."

"It must be fake, right? I think he’s acting. Who would install a camera at home? It’s not like he’s being imprisoned.”

"Imprisoned?!" The speaker said it unintentionally, but the listener found intention. Chen Shi thought of Xin Bai's various abnormalities. In his works he sought for help, then there were his injuries, and the master he mentioned. Was he imprisoned by someone?

Back at the bureau, the interrogation continued, but there was no progress. The two looked at the interrogation room from the surveillance window and saw Xin Bai moving around, gesticulating something. His eyes were spirited and extremely excited. Lin Qiupu and Old Zhang looked tortured. How could a normal person endure longer than a madman?

The interrogation ended, and it was already getting late. Xin Bai was taken away by the police to the detention room. The others went home to rest first.

The next day, Lin Qiupu held a simple case-discussion meeting and assigned tasks to everyone to visit the deceased’s house, take the surveillance footage from the intersections to see where Xin Bai’s car came from, and to verify the content of that psychopathic notebook.

After the meeting was adjourned, Chen Shi and Lin Dongxue went to the detention room to visit Xin Bai, only to see him curled up on the bed, covering his head with a blanket. His body was trembling as if it was very cold.

"Hey, did you get sick?" Chen Shi asked.

"Don't let that thing face me!" Xin Bai said tremblingly.

"What?"

"That, that..." Xin Bai pointed behind them.

Chen Shi looked back and there was a security camera on the wall facing him. He said, "Should I find something to block it?"

"Thanks, thanks!"

"This is against the regulations." Lin Dongxue whispered.

"I'm not a policeman. Look at him. He’s already sick to his core due to his fear of cameras. How can we talk if we don’t cooperate?”

"What’s the point in talking? It’s just crazy talk."

Chen Shi found a piece of paper, folded it, and covered the camera. Xin Bai took a look from under the blanket before standing up. His complexion had improved a little because Peng Sijue gave him a shot of Dexamethasone and a calming agent last night in addition to some rest overnight. The negative side effects of the illegal drug had already been weakened.

Chen Shi said, "Your readers really care about you. You haven't updated since last night and everyone is wondering if you were in a car accident, kidnapped, or sexually assaulted by a pervert."

"Hehe, just let them be anxious. This bunch of impatient people only ever know to complain and add more chapters all day long. I wasn’t even allowed to take leave when my dad died, saying I was lying. My dad would die over a decade later anyway, so how is that considered a lie?" Xin Bai was actually a little proud.

"You’d lose fans from saying that, you know?"

"If they leave, then leave. I have 100,000 fans. Would fans who really love me care about little things like this?" At this point, Xin Bai's expression changed, as if thinking of something.

Chen Shi caught the signs and said, "The deceased in your car is a UP host who criticized your novels. Of course, he was also a fan. I found that he’s quite knowledgeable about your affairs and he interpreted what you wrote within a chapter. It was the signal for help. I had an idea last night. Could he have gone to find you, but happened on one of your secrets, causing him to be murdered to prevent him from talking?”

Chen Shi said it very vaguely without mentioning who killed him. He intentionally left room for the other party to answer.

Xin Bai's eyebrows were twisted towards the center. "He... his name is Old B.[2] He did come to find me, but I didn't kill him. I was just in charge of... in charge of dismembering the corpse."

"Responsible for dismembering the corpse? Then, who killed him?"

"It was... It was master!"

Lin Dongxue was shocked. This guy actually told the truth. She hurriedly said, "I'll call my brother."

"Don't!" Chen Shi turned on his phone's recording function. He was afraid that when Lin Qiupu came, this guy wouldn’t say anything again. Xin Bai seemed to only relax his vigilance in front of him.

"Who is your so-called master? Is it the person who imprisoned you?"

"Imprisoned? Imprisoned!" Xin Bai knelt down, covering his face and crying, "He beat me, burned me with a cigarette butt, humiliated me, forced me to write... Ah, I'm sorry master! I didn't say anything bad about you. I didn’t!"

Xin Bai suddenly retracted into the blanket, trembling. Chen Shi and Lin Dongxue looked at each other in surprise. Looking back, it turned out that the wind blowing in the corridor had blown off the paper covering the camera.

Exposed under the camera, Xin Bai's attitude immediately changed 360 degrees...

1. The author wrote this in English using capital letters.

2. B can also be used as slang to mean “cunt”.