Fang Qing and An Yan find Ke Qian and discover what actually happened that night. However, something bigger is afoot, and no one will be spared . . .
Warning: This chapter contains descriptions of blood and (implied) violence, which can be disturbing. Please avoid the section marked with a line of asterisks before and after if you would rather not read such a description. A short summary will be provided below the section, in italics.
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Chapter 51
The night sky was black like a deep well, the light from the lamps lining the walkway were like faint fires in the well, rendering layer upon layer of dim lustre.
Fang Qing drove the car, An Yan was in the passenger seat, they were in the very front, the other backup teams were also rushing from different direction towards here.
From far away, one could already see Ke Qian's lonely little cabin. Behind it was a great big piece of farmland. The cabin faced the Animation Park across a long distance, like a lonely traveller, standing there to keep watch.
Ke Ai's car was also parked by the door of the cabin.
He already had nowhere to go.
Fang Qing turned off the engine, got out of the car, and told An Yan in a low voice, "Doesn't the signal from his cellphone indicate that he is right here? Call him first to see if he'll pick up."
An Yan nodded, making the call. After the phone rung for five-six times, someone actually picked up.
There was a panting sound, a choked sound. Constrained yet obscured. He didn't say anything.
Fang Qing grabbed the phone from An Yan, and said, "Ke Qian, I am Officer Fang. I am outside your cabin right now, you should come out, go back with us, get some proper sleep, and properly tell us what happened. It's all finished, alright? We're just outside waiting for you."
Perhaps his tone of voice was overtly gentle, on the other end Ke Qian all of a sudden began sobbing, "Officer Fang…. Officer Fang, I don't want to die, I only want to live on for Ke Ai……"
Fang Qing and An Yan were all silent.
"Your sister……" Fang Qing gradually began, "she was kind, rational, smart, sensible, had a sense of responsibility, and was loyal. So when your entrepreneurship ran into trouble, she took all of her savings and scholarship money and gave them to you, right? So now it is your turn to be a bit braver, to become a responsible man that she would admire, right? You've already gotten revenge for her, her spirit in the heavens now has no more regrets."
An Yan listened with astonishment, silently giving Fang Qing a big thumbs up.
On the other end of the line, Ke Qian choked up for a long while, then said, "Ke Ai came to find me last year around November. The me at that time was happy and carefree like a bird in the sky. I was so stupid, so stupid, having Ke Ai was enough. Why did I need to still deal with those people whose hearts were so dirty and selfish? I should have seen it clearly early on…."
Fang Qing didn't think that he would, at this time, begin to reminisce about the past, maybe it was because his emotions were on the verge of crumbling at the cracks. And so, he gave An Yan a look, and the two men, one on the left and the other on the right, pulled out their guns, and slowly moved towards the little cabin.
"Her academic schedule was really busy, while I had nothing to do all day, but I went to Qingdu University everyday, waiting for her to finish class. It didn't matter how long I waited, my heart was always so happy. I was afraid that my existence would cause her to be looked down upon by her classmates, so I wouldn't let her mention me to anyone……." Ke Qian sobbed.
Fang Qing quietly comforted, "You're thinking too much. She wouldn't have cared about these things." The two men already reached the lawn near the door of the little cabin.
"Ha ha ha…." Ke Qian laughed, shrilly and shakily, "Ah, yes, perhaps it is only when a person has an experience of rebirth that they can understand some realities. That night, she came to see me. We only wanted to play around, only wanted to play around……. Perhaps, it was because Ke Ai wanted to encourage me in my career pursuits, she dressed up in my cosplay attire, put on makeup, and became me."
He began sobbing loudly.
Fang Qing quietly asked, "And then?"
In the second that Ke Qian began to speak again, Fang Qing very quietly pushed at cabin's door; it was not locked.
"I……only left for a short time to buy her a bottle of water, walked to the closest convenience store, it was only half an hour. When I came back, I saw those people……. Their cars, all parked there." The speed of Ke Qian's speech began to increase, becoming a bit incoherent, "I was very nervous, I didn't know what they came to do, so I just stood outside the window and looked inside…. And I ended up seeing Ke Ai dead! She was killed by them! Her entire body was bloody! Her entire body was bloody!"
Not only through the cellphone, but also from within the cabin, the sound of Ke Qian's howls could be clearly heard. Fang Qing's steps came to a stop, and he exchanged a glance with An Yan, indicating that as soon as he pushed the door open, he should enter as quick as lightning and subdue Ke Qian as soon as possible.
An Yan simply yet forcefully nodded his head.
The cellphone in Fang Qing's hand also begun to slowly fall, yet Ke Qian's chaotic words kept on coming through:
"I saw them carrying Ke Ai into the forest, saw them discussing how to divide the money in the cabin! Saw them burying her, saw them wash themselves clean of all the blood as if nothing had happened, how could they be so disgusting? How could they!
So I dressed up as Ke Ai, dressed up as the two of us. All of a sudden, I no longer felt panicked, no longer scared. I think that Ke Ai's spirit in the heavens, her soul, it was also in my body.
I very quickly familiarized with every medicine in her lab, and when I saw ******, I knew that I could use this to kill people.
Jiang Xuenan, he deserved to die! The most evil one is him! He always looked down on me. He was also the one who came up with the idea of burying Ke Ai! So I used the cosplay attire he hated the most, my clothes, to dress him up, and let him die!"
But I didn't think that you guys would find me so quickly, find Ke Ai. Ha….. just like you had investigated, I designed mechanisms, I dressed up as Ke Qian to kill Xu Sheng. The rest, whether I killed them or not, didn't matter anymore, but like this, I had a perfect alibi…..
I'm wrong, I know I am wrong. These are all of the crimes I have committed, I pray for forgiveness…. Pray….." he started crying again, "to receive forgiveness….. save me, save me……"
This kind of deeply sorrowful, yet frightened tone gave Fang Qing quite a start.
Something didn't feel right, yet he couldn't think of it at the moment.
But it was already too late to hesitate, because the door had already been pushed open by him.
The inside of the cabin was very quiet and dark. There was only a bit of light from the outside that was shining through the window.
Everything was maintained in the same way that they had seen when they had come here last time to investigate, there was no one inside the room.
The two of them carefully and quietly walked further inside.
It was only at that moment when they were going towards the inner door that Fang Qing suddenly gave a start.
He knew what didn't feel right.
Ke Qian had to be released from the police station after they couldn't find enough evidence to hold him for longer than 24 hours. However, he hadn't been released for too long, how could he have found out so quickly that the police had found the mechanisms, that they had found Ke Ai?
There was an indescribable chill that he felt in his heart. Fang Qing lifted his head, yet the scene before their eyes was one that neither he nor An Yan could have imagined.
The scene was extremely eerie and gory.
********* Graphic description starts here **********
Ke Qian was right in front of their eyes, he had been nailed onto the wall.
That's right, nailed. The inner room had a very dark and soft light by the head of the bed, which allowed Fang Qing and An Yan to see Ke Qian's appearance very clearly.
The long and silver nails, at least 20, were nailed through his shoulders, his palms, his thighs, his ankles…. onto the wall behind him. Innumerable blood trails trickled down his body. The Ke Qian at this moment wore a white gauze outfit, his favourite white gauze outfit, with a red beauty mark between his eyebrows, like a red bat in the night, so demon-like and so terrifying.
********* Graphic description ends here **********
(summary of description: Ke Qian has been nailed to the wall, dressed in his favourite cosplay outfit)
And in his right hand, he was holding a phone that had been connected. It went without saying that it had been stuffed into his hand by someone else.
Fang Qing and An Yan were shocked speechless, they both froze.
Ke Qian lifted his head to look at them and also gave a start. The odd thing was, his facial features didn't seem to indicate that he was in a lot of pain, his eyes were half closed, his expression seemed absent-minded. Thus, Fang Qing immediately made the realisation - he had been drugged.
"What happened? Ke Qian!" Fang Qing urgently asked, at the same time, he vigilantly raised his gun to survey the area, however, there was nary a shadow of a person in the room; outside the room, it was pitch black so it was hard to make out anything.
A tear rolled down Ke Qian's face, and as if the action spent the rest of his energy, he shouted, "Officer, leave, quickly get out…. Run!"
Fang Qing and An Yan simultaneously gave a start.
It were as if time stopped at that very moment.
Ke Qian's pained yet frightened face was right in front of their eyes. Along with the sound of his voice, Fang Qing seemed to faintly hear within the room, a sound of "beep, beep" that counted down time.
While An Yan was still muddled as to what was going on, Fang Qing used all of his energy, reflexes as quick as lightning, and grabbed An Yan, running toward the closest window, and shoved his way out!
The skies shook and the earth opened up, the sound of explosion could be heard.
Translator: Clue
Editor/ Proofreader: Anks