Chapter 701: Xiao Daimao

After much effort, they finally managed to pull the woman out. Xin Bai’s eyelids were scratched, but thankfully his eyes were unharmed. He was taken to Peng Sijue for medical treatment.

Lin Qiupu learned that the pen had been taken from the lab by Xin Bai when he was passing through during an X-ray session. The careless policeman who left the pen lying around was ordered to submit a written self-criticism.

The woman was brought back to the interrogation room where she sobbed uncontrollably. Lin Qiupu knew she was overwhelmed; losing a husband who had been tortured and dismembered was unbearable for anyone. He wanted to rebuke her but all that came out was, “How could he do such a thing?”

“He killed my husband! He’s a psycho!” the woman gritted her teeth.

“Did your husband ever tell you anything?” Chen Shi speculated.

The woman nodded silently, then, after catching her breath, played a video on her phone. It was surreptitiously filmed from outside a window, showing a man kneeling bare-chested, whipping himself with a leather whip. Upon closer inspection, Lin Qiupu realized it was none other than Xin Bai.

The whip was made of leather with many strands at the end. He whipped himself hard, leaving several purple welts on his back. As he whipped and cried, he muttered something unintelligible.

At one point, a voice off-screen said, “Hey, honey, see that? What’s he doing? I heard him saying, ‘Is that enough? Is that enough?’ Is there someone else in the room? I can’t see from this angle.”

“That’s my husband’s voice,” the woman said tearfully.

The room was the same one they had just searched. Xin Bai started to take off his pants, prompting the voice off-screen to get excited, “Damn, what’s he about to do?”

Xin Bai then took out a small box from a cabinet. Inside was something black and square, about the size of a cigarette pack, with a thin, long metal wire protruding from it. He held his genitals and carefully inserted the wire inside, contorting his face in pain.

Lin Dongxue was stunned by the scene.

It was a tool for self-torture; inserting the metal wire into the urethra and then electrifying it, causing him to convulse on the floor and cry in a particularly sorrowful manner.

The video ended there. Chen Shi’s first thought was, “The apartment is on the third floor!”

“My husband climbed up to film… This was the last message he sent me. I was in the shower and missed the alert. When I saw it later, I sent him more than a dozen messages saying this person is a psycho, come back quickly. But there was no reply. You saw it too; he was alone there. My husband must have been killed by him, definitely!”

“Ma’am, there’s something I must tell you. There are cameras installed in that room…” Chen Shi glanced at Lin Qiupu, who didn’t object, so he continued, “All four corners of the room have cameras. Someone was monitoring and imprisoning him. He’s also a victim, so it’s highly likely that the person who killed your husband is someone else.”

“Can you catch him?” the woman asked.

“Don’t worry, we definitely will!”

“Wait, play the video again,” Lin Dongxue said.

The video replayed. Lin Dongxue pointed to a corner of the screen, saying, “Look, there’s a camera right in front of the window. Zhang Zhenlei was likely seen when he was filming. That person must have come over to kill and silence him.”

“If he could come over so quickly, it means he lives nearby!” Lin Qiupu said.

After seeing off the woman, Chen Shi suggested going to eat. Lin Qiupu said, “Let’s go to the canteen. The food outside isn’t clean.”

“I didn’t say that to you…” Chen Shi replied, “Alright, let’s eat together. We’ll go outside.”

“Let’s eat at the canteen!” Lin Qiupu insisted.

Seeing that Lin Qiupu was treating, Chen Shi didn’t insist any further. They went to the canteen. Chen Shi ordered braised chicken legs, sautéed spinach with garlic, and pan-fried tofu. Lin Dongxue said, “They have your favorite sweet and sour spare ribs.”

Lin Qiupu gave a slightly surprised look. Chen Shi joked, “I’m okay with it, switching up the taste today.”

After sitting down, Lin Dongxue said, “I think I understand the ins and outs of this case now. When Xin Bai was a child, he was bullied by a classmate named Lan Xiao. When he grew up and became a novelist, Lan Xiao found out that the person he used to bully had become famous, while he himself had become the big villain in the novel. He came to pick a fight, things escalated, and he ended up imprisoning and torturing Xin Bai, even forcing him to murder and dismember.”

“It’s so ironic. The antagonist from the novel ‘transcended’ into reality to torment the author,” Lin Qiupu sighed.

“But from what I read in the novel, this Lan Xiao character has always been causing trouble. In recent updates, his character hasn’t been whitewashed or glorified. If it really was Lan Xiao causing trouble, he would have glorified himself, wouldn’t he?” Chen Shi said.

“What kind of person is this Lan Xiao? We still don’t know,” Lin Qiupu said.

“If your name appeared in a novel and you weren’t portrayed as a good person, would you mind?” Chen Shi asked.

“Um…”

“Like being a perennial uke in a BL novel.”

“Don’t use me as an example!” Lin Qiupu exclaimed, standing up, “Dongxue, what does perennial uke mean? It can’t be anything good, right?”

Lin Dongxue covered her mouth and laughed. Chen Shi also chuckled, “Looks like you do mind.”

“Not everyone minds,” Lin Qiupu said.

“But someone who sees their name in a novel and comes looking for the original author to cause trouble, I think they must mind a lot,” Chen Shi said.

“Let’s not rush to conclusions about who Lan Xiao is. We need to investigate first. Of course, as a former school bully, his character is definitely not good,” Lin Qiupu said.

“Alright, let’s investigate Lan Xiao first! Oh, also check Xin Bai’s account expenditures,” Chen Shi said.

After dinner, Lin Qiupu got busy, while Peng Sijue’s autopsy results on the deceased hadn’t come out yet, indicating difficulties. Most of the police were investigating the identity of the deceased.

However, Chen Shi didn’t go anywhere, sitting at Lin Dongxue’s desk with a computer. Lin Dongxue brought two cups of coffee and asked, “Are we going out to investigate?”

“Close the door!” Chen Shi mysteriously said.

After closing the door, Chen Shi pulled Lin Dongxue over, sitting her on his lap. It turned out he was browsing the novel’s comment section. After not updating for a while, the readers had exploded, sending “warm” wishes to the lazy author.

“If Lan Xiao saw this novel, he might have left a comment below. I’m looking for…” as he spoke, Chen Shi’s wandering hand measured Lin Dongxue’s waist.

“Don’t many people read web novels for free?”

“Let’s start with the main website…”