Chapter 128: The Time Bomb

Sun Tiger examined the wounds I had marked on the body and said, "All of these were inflicted with the right hand. That hardly clears Huang Xiaotao of suspicion."

I shook my head. "At first glance, it does seem like the wounds were made with the right hand. But if you look closely at the angle, something feels off. Most of the gashes are angled upward—as if the knife was held like this…" I demonstrated by gripping a scalpel with the blade facing up. "Doesn't this strike you as awkward?"

Sun Tiger nodded thoughtfully. "You've got a point. Tell me what you're thinking."

I hesitated for a moment, then said, "After entering the room and stabbing the victim once in the abdomen, the killer must've turned around, locked the victim's head between their legs, and continued stabbing down toward the chest."

"Stabbed backward?" Sun Tiger exclaimed in disbelief.

"That would create the illusion of a right-handed attack, making it easier to frame Huang Xiaotao."

Just then, Xiao Zhou burst in. "The lab results are back. That fiber—we think it came from a wig."

That confirmed my theory. The figure in the surveillance footage had to be Li Wenjia. She'd disguised herself with Huang Xiaotao's clothes, a wig, and a hyper-realistic silicone mask—something you can actually have custom-made online.

…

Relief washed over Huang Xiaotao. "Thank god… she didn't hypnotize me!"

"The autopsy's done," I said. "Let's see what Lao Yao's found."

As we were heading out, several officers entered with suspects in custody. I quickly pulled Huang Xiaotao aside. The people being led in were the "puppets" who'd broken into her house. Apparently, the police had no trouble subduing them. When they arrived, they found Huang Xiaotao's front door wide open and five or six people standing motionless in the living room, weapons in hand, like wax figures in a museum. Even when officers waved their hands in front of their eyes, they didn't blink.

I warned Sun Tiger, "These people may seem dazed now, but the moment they see Huang Xiaotao, they'll become killing machines."

His eyes narrowed. "They messed with the wrong department. They'll pay for this."

"Uncle Sun, these people are victims," I urged. "Please don't press charges." I said it mostly for Wang Dali and Ye Shiwen's sake. They'd killed people, but they were under the same influence.

Sun Tiger got the message. "I know. The guilty must be held accountable—not the pawns. Once this is over, I'll get them the best psychological care available."

We found Lao Yao in a vacant conference room. The computer was on, but he was nowhere in sight. Suddenly, he lunged from behind and looped a belt around Huang Xiaotao's neck.

She gasped and clawed at the belt in panic. Lao Yao's eyes were hollow, and he pulled tighter and tighter.

Sun Tiger rushed to help, but even with both of us pulling, we couldn't pry him off.

"Let go or I'll shoot!" Sun Tiger bellowed.

"He's been hypnotized!" I shouted, grabbing a chair and smashing it against Lao Yao's back. I hit him over and over until the chair bent out of shape.

Then Sun Tiger picked up a heavy glass ashtray and slammed it into Lao Yao's head. The sound was sickening—Lao Yao collapsed immediately, unconscious.

Huang Xiaotao lay coughing on the floor, wheezing and wiping saliva from her lips. "This has got to be the unluckiest night of my life!"

Suddenly, Sun Tiger pulled out his phone, and both of us instinctively tensed up. He said, "How was your friend hypnotized? The suspect must be nearby."

"No. She's not here. It was the computer." I pointed.

But the screen was blank. I figured Li Wenjia had embedded subliminal cues into a video. Lao Yao, while watching, had unknowingly fallen under hypnosis. Her instructions had likely included both killing Huang Xiaotao and destroying evidence.

That was the real purpose of the video—to deliver a third time bomb right under our noses. We'd been running ourselves ragged all day, and none of us had expected her to strike like this.

Both of my friends had become victims. Fury churned in my gut. I swore to myself that I would catch that heartless woman.

I asked Sun Tiger if we could arrest Li Wenjia now. He shook his head. "No, but we can legally search her home. She's linked to the missing Wang Yuanchao and the three injured students. That's enough to classify her as a suspect and secure a warrant."

"Perfect. First thing in the morning—"

"No need to wait. We're going now. You tired?"

"Not a bit!" I declared.

He quickly assembled a team. I rode with Huang Xiaotao again—she looked visibly relieved and thanked me, but I said, "Don't mention it. This fight is far from over."

As our convoy of police cars roared through the quiet night, the lights in the campus faculty housing flicked on one by one.

We searched Li Wenjia's apartment top to bottom. Nothing.

I looked around and suddenly asked, "Wait. Where's the little fox?"

Just then, a man with glasses emerged from the next unit, holding her pet fox in his arms. "Did something happen to Miss Li?"

"You know her?" I asked.

"Not really. Just saw her around. She said she was going on a trip and asked me to take care of her pet."

Disappointed, we felt the trail go cold. Sun Tiger gritted his teeth. "There's no way she covered her tracks completely. Check her online shopping records. She bought that mask and wig, right? Even if her name isn't on the receipts, call the vendors. One by one!"

Officers immediately got to work. Sun Tiger wasn't a paper-pushing bureaucrat—he'd earned his title case by case, not drink by drink.

The man with the glasses, clearly rattled by the activity, tried to leave. I asked him if Li Wenjia had shown any unusual behavior recently, but he had nothing helpful to say. To the outside world, she was just a soft-spoken beauty. No one would ever suspect her of something like this.

I asked for his contact info in case she returned. Turned out he was one of my professors this semester—though I'd never once attended his class. I couldn't help but laugh at the irony.

Back at the station, someone rushed in with a report: since 6 p.m. yesterday, over a dozen people had gone missing across Nanjing City. No doubt Li Wenjia was behind it.

It was already 4 a.m. Everyone had been about to get some rest, but Sun Tiger ordered an emergency meeting. He had no patience for fatigue. Many officers grumbled under their breath—compared to him, Huang Xiaotao had led with a much gentler touch.

The room filled with cigarette smoke as bleary-eyed officers sipped bitter coffee and exchanged thoughts.

With Li Wenjia still at large, Sun Tiger turned to me. "Didn't your grandfather have a special method for finding where a criminal might be hiding?"