Gift

When the Peeping Tom said I had answered correctly, I felt no trace of triumph—on the contrary, the heaviness in my heart only deepened. This meant we were veering off course, treading a path that the Peeping Tom had set for us, using the police to help him track down Liu Snake.

What truly left me terrified was that this impostor, pretending to be Liu Qinglong, had gone so far as to cut off his own face to mislead the police, and in the end, he even blew out his own brains. That was horrifying. How could he have followed the Peeping Tom’s orders so willingly?

And just before he died, he told me he did all this for me. Was this something they had planned out as a script from the very beginning?

At that moment, Jin Ze turned to me and asked, “Chen Mu, what are you doing? Who are you texting?”

I explained the situation to him as concisely as possible and then asked, “Jin Ze, was the scene you just responded to related to a lead on Liu Snake?”

Jin Ze nodded. “That’s right. After a day of investigations, we finally found some clues about Liu Snake. To those who knew him, he’d gone to Guangzhou years ago to get into the seafood business and never returned. But in reality, with our population database and the cooperation of several departments, we quickly locked onto his whereabouts. He’s been living in this city all along, but he’s completely changed his identity—not just his name, but his face, too, after several rounds of plastic surgery. If it weren’t for us stumbling onto two of his old blood test reports, we’d never have linked the two identities. He now goes by Zhang Hu and runs a large mastiff kennel in the suburbs. Because he owns so many aggressive dogs, it’s extremely dangerous, so we sent a large team to apprehend him. But Liu Snake is a cunning fox—even with meticulous planning, we didn’t catch him. He wasn’t at the kennel, probably sensed the danger and fled beforehand. This seems to confirm we have a mole in the precinct—someone must have tipped him off.”

Hearing this, I quickly said, “That makes sense. If Liu Snake is so skilled at hiding his identity that even his close friends had no idea he’d been living in this city under a new face, then even the Peeping Tom might not be able to track him down. That’s why he used the police to find him—after all, his resources are limited compared to the police. But wait, if there really is a mole in the police working with the killer, why tip off Liu Snake and let him escape?”

Jin Ze replied, “Chen Mu, your thinking is unique, but not yet mature. The killer wants to identify Liu Snake, but there’s no way he’d let Liu Snake fall into police hands. All he needed was to uncover Liu Snake’s current identity—once he knew that, he could move to the next step: hunting him down.”

I was stunned. “Wait, are you saying Liu Snake is part of the S Organization?”

Jin Ze nodded. “Most likely. We found corpse-oil perfume in his room at the kennel.”

Suddenly, Jin Ze’s eyes lit up. “I understand now. All of this was a grand scheme, laid out from the start. I was so entangled that I couldn’t see the truth. The killer began setting the trap the moment we discovered that Fang Lin’s mutilated, transgendered corpse was actually Chen Mengying. He knew I’d expect him to leave us clues and that I’d return to Fang Lin’s home. So, he hid Fang Lin’s adoptive father’s mummified corpse in the attic and drugged Fang Lin, leaving her in the coffin there—making it seem as though he’d tried to kill and dismember Fang Lin in an act of revenge, and that we had interrupted him, forcing him to flee. But in reality, he wanted us to catch him in the act; he never intended to kill. Then, using the little girl, he led you to the cabinet under the bed, where we found Fang Lin’s diary. With the corpse upstairs and the diary, it was easy for us to conclude that the killer was avenging Fang Lin’s adoptive father. At this point, he introduced the faceless impostor Liu Qinglong, who drew police attention and was captured. Normally, I’d never believe such a psychopath would allow himself to be caught so easily, but with all the setup, I fell for it. We followed the Liu Qinglong lead, which, naturally, led us to Liu Snake. And that played right into the killer’s hands—we became his pawns. He cleverly used all our police resources to track down his next target.”

Listening to Jin Ze’s analysis, my confusion cleared in an instant. I was shaking all over, more frightened than witnessing any murder scene—the Peeping Tom’s insanity had reached unimaginable heights. Was he even human?

Then I noticed Jin Ze’s eyes narrowing, a fierce determination flashing within them. He said, “Don’t be afraid, Chen Mu. The killer is a high-IQ psychopath, but he’s not omnipotent. If he needs to use the police to find his quarry, then his abilities are limited. We’re working on several fronts: we’re secretly monitoring Liu Snake, and if the killer tries to murder him, he’ll expose himself. We’re also tracking Zhang Wentong’s phone and the Peeping Tom’s account with the tightest surveillance. If he resurfaces, we’ll launch a city-wide manhunt. The case has been escalated—higher-ups have authorized us to act without restraint. Our top priority is to solve this case as quickly as possible.”

After a pause, Jin Ze continued, “There’s something crucial: from the current evidence, after Liu Qinglong had his face cut off by that organization, he eventually joined the S Organization. Both Liu Qinglong and Liu Snake—father and son—are members. Aside from that elevator operator, all the victims have been S Organization members involved with corpse-oil perfume. Our initial assessment was correct: the killer, twisted as he is, has a code. He’s exacting revenge on S Organization, not killing indiscriminately. That relieves some pressure on us and helps prevent mass panic.”

At that moment, Jin Ze’s phone rang. After answering, his expression darkened as if he’d received very bad news. He was about to speak when the phone rang again; he answered, spoke briefly, then hung up.

Jin Ze turned to me urgently. “Bad news. Officers sent to pick up Miaomiao found something had happened to her. Chen Mu, did you visit apartment 303 before you left the complex?”

My heart dropped into my stomach. I’d been so preoccupied with Liu Qinglong, I’d completely forgotten about Miaomiao until Jin Ze mentioned her.

I blurted out, “Oh no, I did go to 303, but I didn’t go in—there was a woman’s corpse stuck to the door. I was so scared I nearly pissed myself, tried calling you but you didn’t answer, so I just left. Wait, was the headless body Big Butt—no, was it Miaomiao?”

Jin Ze’s reply let me breathe easier. “No, that wasn’t Miaomiao, it was probably Chen Mengying’s body. But Miaomiao is missing—she’s likely been abducted by the killer.”

No sooner had Jin Ze finished speaking than my phone vibrated again—it was a text from the killer, sent from Zhang Wentong’s phone: “Chen Mu, why haven’t you gone to collect your present? If you’re late, you might regret it for the rest of your life.”

I immediately told Jin Ze to have someone cut open the impostor Liu Qinglong’s stomach—the killer had said the present was inside him.

Jin Ze quickly summoned a forensic pathologist, then left; since the killer had just texted me, the police had pinpointed his location and were moving to apprehend him. With Miaomiao’s life at stake, they couldn’t afford to be careless.

The forensic doctor soon dissected the impostor’s stomach and retrieved a wax pellet from his stomach. Inside the wax ball was a slip of paper with an address: “Ziweihuayuan, Building 3, code 447382.”

Seeing the note, I immediately realized it was an address—probably a high-end villa complex—and the code was surely the door password. Entering it would let me in.

But why did the killer want me to go there?

Because of past experiences, I didn’t dare go alone. I took out my phone to call Jin Ze, but before I could dial, my phone buzzed with another message from that maniac: “Hurry up and go, but remember—you must come alone. If you bring the police, Miaomiao will die a horrible death!”

My heart skipped a beat. Damn, he really had Miaomiao. I didn’t dare contact Jin Ze anymore, and anyway, the police were already out hunting the Peeping Tom. I figured if I could stall him, maybe Jin Ze would catch him. My priority now was to do as he said.

I left the precinct, caught a cab to Ziweihuayuan, and soon arrived at a luxurious villa. I entered the code, and the door opened.

As soon as I stepped inside, I was struck by an ambiguous scent.

On a round table in the villa, several candles were lit and a dish was set out, as if prepared for a romantic dinner.

I hurried to the table and saw the dish was shaped like a heart, looking like a bowl of tofu pudding, but it gave off a strange odor. Instinct told me, no matter how nice it looked, this wasn’t something good.

Suddenly, my phone buzzed again. Another message from the maniac: “Chen Mu, this is your reward—a chilled human brain. Eat it, and you’ll become a hero who saves the beauty. Miaomiao will live.”

Even as I finished reading, I heard muffled sobs. I looked up sharply.

What I saw made my blood run cold. In the depths of the villa, Miaomiao was lying on the ground, her mouth sealed with tape, bound to the base of a guillotine. A gleaming blade hung above her, ready to drop at any moment and claim her head.