Chapter 760: Chapter 760: Emotional Murder Case
“Everyone participated in the competition as virtual identities, so you need to create a virtual image for yourself too,” Liuli Cat said after helping Han Fei complete the application, pulling him to her usual singing practice spot.
“Virtual image?”
“Yes, you can think of it as a mask. No one knows what face or what kind of person lies behind the mask. That is also why the singing competition can attract nationwide participation,” Liuli Cat seed very happy. “There are no backdoor deals, no underhanded manipulations; everything is judged solely by the singing.”
When they opened the virtual image generator, Liuli Cat herself appeared as a girl with cat ears, as she also worked as a virtual idol and was quite familiar with these matters.
“I’m not fussy about the virtual image; anything that looks human will do,” Han Fei casually chose a very ordinary male image. “You should be able to get through the preliminaries by yourself; I won’t mix in. When it’s ti for the finals, I’ll co over.”
“Okay, I’ll have one of my friends stand in for you first,” Liuli Cat nodded.
“You have friends?” Han Fei was a bit surprised, as he viewed Liuli Cat as even more reclusive than himself.
“Of course,” Liuli Cat opened her communicator and chose a na from the sparse list.
A mont later, the door to the virtual singing room opened, and a “figure” with a long, big tail—a red snow leopard—walked in.
“Kitty, did you need sothing from …?” She started out cheerful but beca visibly uncomfortable upon seeing soone other than Liuli Cat, a clear sign of severe social anxiety.
“Caibao, my friend and I want to join the singing competition held by Deep Space Technology, but he doesn’t have ti right now. Could you possibly stand in for him?” Liuli Cat grabbed the snow leopard’s hand. “During the preliminaries, you don’t have to sing; just play the maraca in the background.”
“Are you sure?” Caibao’s big tail waved back and forth. “Won’t that expose us?”
She hugged her own tail and looked towards Han Fei, her eyes widening as she stared more and more until she stiffened completely: “Han Fei? Han Fei!”
“It’s ,” Han Fei said with a professional sunny smile. “I’m participating in the singing competition mainly to capture a criminal. While you stand on stage in my place, I will devise a way to legally apprehend the criminal from the shadows.”
“You’re chasing a murderer!” Caibao’s expression completely changed, feeling like she was a part of sothing significant. “Alright! I will do my best to stand in for you!”
“Thank you, and may I ask how I should address you?” Han Fei hadn’t expected to be so well-known that basically any netizen would recognize him.
“My persona is a seal who has lived for three hundred million years—no, no, a snow leopard—because of a natural anomaly, my tribe decided to execute , and that day my fur was soaked red with blood…”
Caibao hugged her tail, sharing her cringe-inducing virtual idol backstory.
After patiently listening, Han Fei then told her about the role she would be playing—the Sunshine Boy.
“When you stand in for , don’t try too hard. Just maintaining an optimistic and cheerful deanor is enough,” Han Fei coached Caibao on so basic acting skills. He wanted to remind her of a few things, but his real-life phone started ringing, so he had to leave the virtual singing room.
Upon answering the call, he learned from Li Xue that they had found Bu Kaixin’s mother, who was currently residing in the Xinhu Muxiang ntal Care Center.
After contacting the facility and obtaining permission, Han Fei hurried there without delay.
The Muxiang ntal Care Center in Xinhu was a private hospital specially designed for elderly patients with ntal illnesses. So said it was backed by Eternal Life Pharmaceutical, while others claid the hospital’s boss was a madman himself who had created the hospital for his own needs.
Taking a taxi, Han Fei arrived near the North Suburb Ecological Protection Zone, the hospital built halfway between North Suburb and the Old City District, supposedly for its quiet and refreshingly beautiful environnt.
Only upon arriving did Han Fei realize just how desolate the surroundings were—during the day, not a single car could be seen on the road.
“Is this a treatnt center, or a prison cut off from human society?”
Since he had called ahead, a nurse imdiately t Han Fei when he arrived and led him to the rehabilitation area.
“That elderly lady in the red sweater is the Aunt May you’re looking for, but as far as we know, she only had one child nad Bu Ming, not twins,” the nurse inford, holding a dical record book and leading Han Fei towards the lounge where the patients were gathered.
Aunt May was sitting in front of an turned-off TV, staring at the dark screen. She alternated between giggling stupidly and displaying a very frightened expression as if she were conversing with sothing invisible.
“Has the old lady’s condition improved?”
“Much better than before. When she first ca here, she dared not sleep alone, always afraid soone was out to kill her. Going to the bathroom was as if it was taking her life, requiring soone to accompany her.”
“Always felt soone was out to kill her?” Han Fei casually glanced around. Apart from Aunt May, other patients were wandering around in the area, most of whom were mild cases that would typically not attack people. “May I talk to her?”
“You can, but she probably won’t respond. We’ve tried various kinds of conversations, and she doesn’t react to any. Nowadays, she barely rembers her own child’s na,” the nurse did not stop Han Fei.
Moving alone into the hall, Han Fei also took a mont to soak in the atmosphere—it was very clean, and there were no odd slls. However, compared to ordinary hospitals, there was an indescribable numbness, as if entering and later leaving would change a person from who they once were.
Approaching the corner where Aunt May was, Han Fei did not start querying right away. He waited until there were no other patients nearby before he softly spoke, “Aunt May, I am a friend of Bu Kaixin. He sent to check on you and to let you know he is doing well, so you don’t need to worry.”
No matter what Han Fei said, Aunt May showed no reaction, just blankly gazing at the unturned television. Her head bobbed back and forth, her hands rubbing against each other, mumbling sothing repeatedly.
Seeing no urgency, Han Fei sat beside the elderly woman and listened attentively for a long while. Suddenly, his pupils narrowed.
The old lady kept mumbling, “Soone wants to kill , soone is killing …”
But after repeating it five or six tis, the old lady suddenly said, “Patient 1064 wants to kill .”
“1064?”
The old woman looked delirious, and the way she clearly uttered the number 1064 from her mouth, it definitely signified so problem; she seed to be calling for help.
Han Fei pretended not to understand, and as he stood up, preparing to find a nurse to explain the situation, he casually scanned the surroundings.
The patient in patient gown number 1064 was sitting at the entrance; she seed to be daydreaming, but her position allowed her a clear view of Aunt May.
“She is monitoring Aunt May.” Han Fei was unsure whether the dical staff were in cahoots with her, so he could only slowly find out more.
With the nurse’s help, Han Fei found Aunt May’s attending physician, a very young-looking doctor.
From his appearance alone, he would have guessed him to be eighteen, but the surrounding nurses respected him greatly.
“This is Doctor Bai, the best-rated doctor in our hospital; he has healed many patients, and he was initially responsible for Aunt May as well.” With the door closed, only Han Fei and Doctor Bai were left sitting on opposite sides of the table in the office.
“Have we t sowhere before?”
“Maybe it’s because I have a common face.” Doctor Bai smiled gently, calmly organizing the dical reports on the table, occasionally tapping on the keyboard.
“From the mont I ca in until now, you have made five completely pointless movents, as if intentionally masking the panic inside yourself,” Han Fei stared into his eyes and asserted confidently, “The most crucial thing is, I sense a similar vibe from you; you and I are the sa kind of person.”
“The sa kind of person?” Doctor Bai raised his head, still maintaining his smile, “The biggest difference between humans and animals is that we don’t just rely on feelings to judge things. You are a superstar with millions of fans, a rising star living in the spotlight, and I am just an ordinary doctor, how could we possibly be similar?”
Shaking his head, Doctor Bai sipped from the cold tea on the desk, “You didn’t co to just to say this, did you?”
“Before seeing you, I indeed wanted to ask you so things. But after seeing you, I already knew what I had to do.” Han Fei left the office and imdiately called Li Xue to have the police assist in moving Bu Kaixin’s mother away, as the mbers of the Murder Club might act at any mont, and the old lady was in great danger here.
Initially, the police refused Han Fei, but after his assurance, Li Xue asked her superiors to intervene, which finally persuaded the hospital to agree; they transferred Aunt May to another care facility.
Throughout the process, Han Fei was constantly with Aunt May, never letting her out of his sight.
Interestingly, the usually delirious old lady was very quiet when she was by Han Fei’s side, as if a child who had found her ho.
Upon arriving at the new care facility, Han Fei paid out of his pocket for the doctors to examine the old lady, who indeed suffered from mild delusional disorder and aphasia, but these conditions seed to arise from improper treatnt.
After she had settled down completely, the elderly woman’s condition improved, and for the first ti, she said sothing different: “Thank you for rescuing from that place.”
“Aunt May, I am a friend of Bu Kaixin. He asked to co help you, but I heard the doctor say that your child seems to be nad Bu Ming?” Han Fei sat in front of Aunt May, respectfully as if she were his own relative.
Aunt May did not speak for a long ti. Finally, with a shaky hand, she extended a finger: “I only have one child, nad Bu Ming. He is filial, obedient, and honest—at least, that’s how he is in front of .”
Leaning against the wall, as soon as the old lady ntioned her son, tears uncontrollably started falling, and her emotions beca agitated: “I heard from neighbors that he is a murderer, killed five people, skinned them, and cut the bodies into over a dozen pieces, but he never showed any sign of that at ho; he even scared of handling live shrimp. He is just my child.”
The old woman told Han Fei about Bu Ming’s past; the boy had been quite ordinary until he disappeared for a whole night while doing a delivery job at Dolphin Bay far out in the suburbs when he was eighteen.
The next day Aunt May was about to report him missing when Bu Ming returned ho carrying a heavy parcel, the contents of which the elderly woman still did not know.
As she recalled the past, the old woman’s emotions started to spiral out of control, she found it hard to breathe, and Han Fei quickly called the doctor.
While the doctor was treating the old woman, Li Xue and her colleagues hurried to the nursing ho.
“Han Fei, did you make so kind of deal with the God of Death?” Li Xue’s colleague entered with a very strange expression on his face.
“What happened?”
“A patient from the hospital where Aunt May was previously situated had an accident, shortly after she was taken away by us. A lady from room 1064 sneaked out of the ward and jumped from the sixth floor.” Li Xue said seriously, “The institution blas us for taking her and not securing the door properly, leading to the accident, but we think it was murder.”
“The first ti I t Aunt May, she told that the patient in room 1064 wanted to kill her,” Han Fei imdiately said. “It must have been to silence her. There’s probably still a big fish hiding in that hospital. I think you should look into Aunt May’s primary doctor; I got a weird feeling from him, like he was also present at the Sunday Night School gathering a few days ago.”
“Okay, we will follow this lead. Moreover, I have sothing else to tell you.” Li Xue called Han Fei out of the sickroom and took out her phone, letting Han Fei read a docunt: “This is about the case committed by Aunt May’s son. The guy often talks to himself, seemingly naming each of his emotions. He selects targets who have distinct personalities, and with every person he kills, he takes a part of their body.”
“Like a split personality?”
“Not quite, he is fully aware of each personality and can switch between them to handle different situations.” Li Xue’s remark caught Han Fei’s attention. He wanted to imdiately return to the Deep World to further study the soul of Bu Kaixin.
“The Bu Kaixin you asked to investigate appears to be one of his emotions. I suggest you keep your distance from him. That guy was once a high-level mber of the Murder Club, and his emotional murder case was supposedly an assessnt for advancing to a core mber. That madman killed five people just for a test; he truly lacks any humanity.”
“Did he eventually beco a core mber?”
“No idea, after the emotional murder case, he disappeared. In recent years, like him, many murderers have appeared in the suburbs, committing vicious cris and then vanishing without a trace, as if evaporated from the mortal world and gone to another world.”
After obtaining crucial information from Li Xue, Han Fei imdiately prepared to go ho and log into the ga, as the flower nad Bu Kaixin still harbored other secrets.
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