Chapter 77: Clash of the Devils 3
Shoutout to nyanmaru for the commission!
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Di Da——
The electronic lock of the front door clicked open, and Chu Feng walked into the house.
The redwood floor of the living room was polished to a shine, reflecting the rippling waves of the river outside the floor-to-ceiling windows in the evening light.
The floating large-screen TV was broadcasting:
“Breaking news on the dismemberment case: according to reports, the police have made significant progress…”
Chu Feng’s father was lounging on the leather sofa, one leg crossed over the other, holding a newspaper in one hand and the remote control in the other.
Carrying his heavy school bag, Chu Feng silently walked up the stairs to the second floor. It was Thursday, and he had a lot of homework. He also had to practice piano at eight o’clock because his piano teacher was coming on Saturday…
There were three days left until he and Xie Shiyu would volunteer at the sports center on Sunday.
Thirteen-year-old Chu Feng sighed wearily, the weight of his school bag feeling like a thousand pounds on his shoulders, as he reached his bedroom door on the second floor.
Just as he was about to push the door open—
“Stop right there!”
His father’s stern voice called from the living room downstairs:
“You come home and don’t even say a word?”
Chu Feng’s father was in a foul mood today. The school’s promotion results had been announced, and as expected, he wasn’t selected. Instead, a senior colleague with more experience but fewer research achievements was promoted to full professor.
Vice-Professor Chu Feng’s father began scolding his son harshly:
“You’re almost grown up, and you can’t even greet your parents when you come home? What kind of behavior is this?”
Without looking at him, Chu Feng held the door handle to his bedroom and said perfunctorily:
“I’m home.”
With a click, Chu Feng entered his room, retreating like a snail into its shell.
Outside the shell:
“What’s wrong with you? You can’t even greet us properly? What do you mean by that? Who are you showing that face to? Do you think your parents owe you something? Come out here—”
Chu Feng curled up in the chair by his desk, and then—bang!
The bedroom door was flung open, breaking his snail shell. The small snail without its shell was grabbed:
“Get down here with your school bag on!”
His father ordered him.
Chu Feng: “I need to do my homework.”
“Homework? Get down here! If I don’t teach you a lesson, you’ll get worse and worse!”
His father returned to the sofa, gripping the remote. The TV displayed police cars and reporters:
“They say they’ve found the killer’s fingerprints. Is that true? Deputy Chief… please respond…”
Chu Feng, carrying his school bag, stood there stiff and numb.
“Get back to the door! Learn how to come home properly!”
Chu Feng, like a puppet, walked to the door step by step and repeated the process of coming home:
“I’m back.”
Father: “Get out and come back in properly!”
Di Da, Chu Feng opened the door lock, walked out of the house, and stood at the entrance again.
The electronic lock silently clicked shut.
The door was firmly closed.
He stared at the dark, high-tech door, suddenly not wanting to go back inside.
He wished he could curl up like a snail and be carried away by a bird, flying far, far away, never to return.
Di Da.
Thirteen-year-old Chu Feng pressed the lock open again, walked into the house with his school bag:
“I’m back.”
He forced a small smile for his father, like a happy child who had just swum in the sea of knowledge at school.
His father, still lounging with one leg crossed, didn’t even glance at him. Holding the newspaper, he nodded slightly, like a high-ranking official inspecting a workplace, and said somewhat satisfactorily:
“Alright, go do your homework.”
***
Solution:
∵OP=PD
Chu Feng had just written one line when the pen dried up. He shook it a couple of times to no avail. Opening the pen cap, he saw that the ink cartridge was completely empty, with only a layer of yellowish oil left.
With heavy coursework, his black gel pen needed a refill every three days.
19:50
“Chu Feng, Chu Feng! What are you doing? Hurry up, it’s time to practice piano!”
His mother didn’t knock, but pushed the door open directly, looking to see what he was doing.
Seeing her son diligently working on his homework, she felt a bit satisfied and softened her tone slightly:
“Remember to practice the piano later. The provincial competition is coming up, and you must not embarrass me.”
Chu Feng glanced at the time. He still had two math papers, one English paper, a politics unit paper, Chinese memorization and practice workbook, history, biology, chemistry, and physics homework…
“I have a lot of homework today. Can I skip piano practice…”
“No!”
His mother immediately interrupted him, “How can you not practice the piano? You’re only in the first year of junior school, how much homework can you have? What are you doing during school hours? You can do your homework between classes. Other top students finish their homework at school and have none left for home. Why do you have so much homework? Stop making excuses. You must practice the piano at eight!”
Chu Feng frowned.
His mother continued, “Why are you acting so unwilling? Am I forcing you to play the piano? Didn’t you choose to learn it out of interest when you were little?”
Chu Feng weakly argued, “When did I ever have an interest in piano? I don’t like playing the piano at all.”
His mother retorted, “You’re saying that now because you’ve grown up. But when you were three, you watched others play the piano with such envy, your eyes were glued to it. I asked if you wanted to learn, and you nodded! How can you say it’s not your interest, like I forced you into it?”
Chu Feng couldn’t recall any such thing happening when he was three. It might have never happened at all. His mother was using his poor memory to deceive him. Feeling repulsed, he said, “I don’t want to play anymore. Studying is already exhausting, and I don’t want to spend energy on piano practice. You signed me up for so many extracurricular classes when I was little, I’m tired of it. I have no interest in any of it!”
“How can you be tired at such a young age?” his mother shouted. “Attending a few extracurricular classes isn’t exhausting. You’re just playing, aren’t you? Playing badminton, drawing, calligraphy, singing with other kids… Isn’t that all fun? You had the happiest childhood with so many activities!”
Chu Feng wanted to laugh but couldn’t.
His mother continued, “After those classes, you didn’t even want to leave and wanted to play on the grass at the youth center with other kids. Weren’t you happy then? Now you’ve grown up and blame me. I worked so hard to nurture you, and you’re ungrateful. You should ask yourself, if Little Xie wanted to learn piano, could his family afford it? You’re already fortunate and don’t even realize it!”
Chu Feng fell completely silent.
His mother concluded, “Remember to practice the piano at eight. I’ll come and check on you!”
Bang—
His mother slammed the door as she left. Chu Feng sat alone in his bedroom, mechanically closing his workbook and capping his pen, then moved to sit at the piano.
Black and white keys stretched endlessly before him.
Chu Feng placed his fingers on the keys, muscle memory leading him to play a difficult piece: Chopin’s Revolutionary Etude.
His fingers flew over the keys, but his eyes weren’t on the piano or the sheet music. He stared at the wall behind the piano, where orange-red certificates were plastered like band-aids: Provincial First Prize, National Second Prize, School Student Council, Model Student…
Boring, boring, boring.
If this was happiness…
He wanted to tear them all to pieces!!
Clang—
Chu Feng deliberately pressed down hard on the keys, creating a cacophony of discordant noise.
“Chu Feng! Chu Feng—! What are you doing!!”
His mother’s voice called from downstairs.
Thud, thud, thud. Her hurried steps up the stairs.
Bang—
His mother burst into the room:
“What are you doing, Chu Feng!”
Her sharp eyes scanned the room, surprised to find her son diligently working at his desk, the piano lid closed as if it had never been opened.
Chu Feng, holding his pen, turned his head indifferently:
“What’s wrong?”
Mom: “What do you mean, ‘what’s wrong’? I clearly heard you banging on the piano just now! It sounded awful!”
“I didn’t,” Chu Feng said nonchalantly. “I’ve been doing my homework here the whole time.”
“How could that be? I definitely heard you banging on the piano…” Mom rushed over, scrutinizing the piano.
Chu Feng hadn’t left any evidence. He calmly repeated, “I wasn’t playing the piano.”
Mom: “Impossible! I definitely heard it!! Chu Zhenfeng, come see your son! Look at how he’s acting… Chu Zhenfeng?”
She suddenly remembered that her husband had a meeting tonight and was out. It was just her and Chu Feng at home.
Chu Feng looked innocent and said to his mom, “Maybe you misheard.”
“Impossible, impossible…” Mom muttered. “It definitely came from your room! You don’t want to play the piano, so you took it out on the piano, didn’t you? And now you won’t admit it!”
Chu Feng held his homework pen and put on an expression of helplessness, “I told you, I’ve been doing my homework. If you think I was playing the piano, I can’t help that.”
“You child…!”
Chu Feng ignored her and calmly continued his homework.
After a while, Mom began to doubt herself. She asked suspiciously, “It really wasn’t you making that noise?”
Chu Feng shook his head, his expression unchanging as he looked at his math problems, and suggested, “Maybe it was a sound from outside.”
Mom thought carefully, growing more uncertain. Did she really mishear? Or was she starting to get old, with hearing problems?
Looking at Chu Feng obediently doing his homework, she relented, “It’s eight o’clock now. Stop doing your homework and go practice the piano for an hour.”
“Okay.”
Chu Feng obediently put down his homework, went to the piano, sat down, and started playing Chopin’s “Revolutionary Étude.”
Mom sat for a while, listening to confirm that her son was practicing, then got up and left.
Click. The door to the bedroom closed.
Thirteen-year-old Chu Feng sat with his back to the door, the notes of the “Revolutionary Étude” flowing smoothly from his fingers. Like a mischievous child who had gotten away with a prank, he smiled at the keys.
***
“Look at this.”
Dismembered body parts, blood, English letters.
At the police station, an array of old, gruesome photos lay spread across the desk:
“California, USA. A serial dismemberment killer. Twelve victims so far, and the perpetrator still hasn’t been caught.”
“Look at these body parts. Just like this case, each piece tied off with a nylon rope.”
“And the killer adds one more dismemberment with each victim. By the time they reached twelve victims, there were thirty-six pieces. Now look at this latest case—”
Another row of new photos was added to the table, showing thirty-seven dismembered parts.
“This is the thirteenth victim, dismembered into thirty-seven pieces. This is an international serial dismemberment case, and we have the perpetrator’s fingerprints from this one!”
“Why would the killer come back to China to commit crimes after being in the USA? And there’s a six-year gap between the twelfth and thirteenth murders.”
“Maybe they came back to lay low, but couldn’t resist starting again.”
“Could it be a copycat?”
“Impossible. Look at the photos. When they killed the first person, the dismemberment was uneven, like they didn’t know what they were doing and were in a rush. By the second and third victims, the technique improved. By the twelfth victim, the cuts were clean and quick, with each piece roughly the same size. Now, look at the thirteenth—”
The officer examined the photos of the body parts, noting the perfectly smooth cuts, as if made with great precision, beyond human ability alone. These cleaned pieces resembled marbled slabs with human skin textures, giving off an eerie artistic vibe, like a macabre masterpiece.
“Everyone, stay focused. We need all available personnel from city and district bureaus, hospitals—everywhere fingerprints can be found—on this. We must catch this person!”
***
Ji Shiming had lived in this city for six years since moving.
At this moment, he was leisurely sitting in his spacious three-bedroom apartment, watching TV.
The news was currently covering a dismemberment case, which intrigued him. He thought it was amusing to see copycats. Someone must have heard about his exploits in the USA and decided to mimic his style.
Six years ago, an unemployed cat-abuser had mimicked him, creating a shoddy replica of his red nylon rope dismemberment case. Now, another fool was trying the same thing. The TV hadn’t shown images of the dismembered body parts, so Ji Shiming couldn’t compare.
Seeing the news report that the police had key evidence, he figured this copycat would be caught soon. Ji Shiming enjoyed watching the downfall of other criminals, especially seeing their despair in court when sentenced to death, a sight that always brought him joy.
Ring, ring—
The phone rang. Ji Shiming answered; it was the police station.
“Hello, your ID card is ready. You can pick it up tomorrow morning.”
Ji Shiming: “Can I come in the afternoon?”
“It’s Friday tomorrow, and we’re closed in the afternoon.”
Ji Shiming: “Okay, thank you.”
This time, the ID card he obtained was different from the old ones before. This new identity was obtained through legitimate channels, and the name on it is Lin Ming.
Having stayed in this city for long enough, Ji Shiming calculated that once he witnessed the tragic fate of the imitator, he would prepare to become “Lin Ming” and start living in the next city.
***
Friday, 8 o’clock in the morning.
The junior high school campus was quiet. Xie Shiyu, a poor student, sat drowsily at his desk. The first lesson was a hypnotic English class. The English teacher, wearing glasses and high heels, walked into the classroom with a clacking sound.
“Come on, students! Close your books and take out your quizzes!”
Rustling sounds filled the classroom as everyone prepared. Chu Feng took out his quiz book and sat quietly. Seeing that everyone was ready, the teacher began reading the first word.
Xie Shiyu held his pen, bored, and looked out the window. He hadn’t memorized a single word; anyway, he would fail the quiz, and the English teacher would make him sing as punishment. He had deliberately practiced an English love song just for this occasion, so he could sing it in front of the whole class.
And, he would sing it for Chu Feng.
Xie Shiyu’s gaze gradually shifted closer to Chu Feng’s face as he looked out the window. Chu Feng sat quietly, diligently writing, his beautiful English words flowing on the paper. The warm orange sunlight of early morning fell on his eyebrows and eyes. Sometimes, his eyelashes trembled gently in the light, like butterflies fluttering on flower buds.
After a while, Chu Feng seemed to sense something. He gave Xie Shiyu a disdainful glance, then subtly moved his quiz book closer to let him copy.
Xie Shiyu smiled inwardly. Chu Feng had misunderstood him, but it didn’t matter. At least now he had a legitimate reason to peek. Xie Shiyu pretended to copy Chu Feng’s words earnestly. Chu Feng glanced sideways, thinking that Xie Shiyu was copying his words seriously this time, so he was sure to pass the quiz.
Outside the window, the birds chirped on the branches, accompanied by the early cicadas, “zhile, zhile,” their voices blending into the green canopy.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the school, at the police station.
Ji Shiming walked in to pick up his new ID card.
“Hello, please scan your fingerprint.”
The staff member smiled kindly.
Ji Shiming was momentarily stunned. He jokingly asked, “Now… do we have to scan fingerprints to get an ID card? It wasn’t required before, right?”
“Yes, that’s right, it’s a new regulation that just came out.”
Ji Shiming quickly reviewed his past actions in his mind. He was absolutely certain that he had never left fingerprints behind, except for that blue ribbon. That thing was taken by the smuggling lady from Room 401, and he had already taken care of it.
He had left no room for error.
The staff member looked at him, puzzled by his hesitation. Before this strange situation could deepen, Ji Shiming put on a smile of an honest man:
[Beep—Fingerprint scan successful]
***
“All right! Group leaders—” The English teacher clapped her hands. “Collect your quizzes, no more writing, stop writing! Stop!”
Outside the window, on the branches, the birdsong and cicada chorus suddenly stopped.
Xie Shiyu looked up, and on a tree branch, the cicada was gone. The little yellow bird also stopped chirping, holding a green worm in its beak. There were remnants of green limbs in the bird’s beak, indicating it had eaten a mantis.
Xie Shiyu seemed to remember something. He smiled and casually doodled a clown on his English quiz book.
At the same time, a police siren sounded in the distance, passing by Xie Shiyu’s school and speeding towards the police station where Ji Shiming was…
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