Xiaotao said she suspected that Kong Hui might be related to several murder cases. By that, she didn’t mean that he was the murderer, but he was the one who helped the real murderers escape by performing plastic surgery.

At that point it was all a conjecture, and she hadn’t gathered much evidence to back up her claim yet.

Upon hearing this, I murmured, “Don’t tell me that the criminals we caught…”

“Oh, don’t worry about that,” Xiaotao interjected. “I’ve verified the identities of all the people we caught.”

“Captain Lin caught wind of the bullet letters we received,” Xiaotao added, “and he ordered me to stop the investigation and let the counterterrorist squad handle it. I didn’t promise him anything though.”

At that moment, another player who was ten ranks above Xiaotao came up from behind and slashed Xiaotao’s avatar to death. She had to wait a few seconds to be ‘resurrected,’ and when she returned, she screamed, “Asshole! What kind of village is this? You can’t even stand around here chatting without getting killed! Ugh, now I need more coins to buy more equipment!”

“Who’s the other player?” I asked.

The player who just ‘killed’ Xiaotao was named Zhang Kangmei. Xiaotao asked the player a few questions and discovered that it was Yuanchao.

“You did that on purpose because you don’t like me bossing you around, don’t you?” Xiaotao accused.

“Sorry, my hand slipped,” replied Yuanchao.

“Anyway, what did you find?” asked Xiaotao.

While Xiaotao was checking Kong Hui’s background these few days, Yuanchao was investigating the murder of Xu Xiaohui.

“I talked to one of Kong Hui’s classmates,” said Yuanchao. “He saw Kong Hui trying to chat up with Xu Xiaohui that day, but she ignored him. He told me that the expressions on Kong Hui’s face after that changed drastically and he’d never seen him like that before.”

“Is that it?” asked Xiaotao.

“Yeah.”

“Well, it is a simple case, really,” I said. “Kong Hui always had an inferiority complex, but he felt that he was no longer that pitiable boy that he was in the past. He now has a successful career, lots of money, and he’s even handsome now. He must’ve thought that he was finally good enough for Xu Xiaohui. But to his surprise, her feelings remained unchanged. This must’ve caused a huge blow to his ego.”

“So he killed her just for that?” asked Xiaotao.

“It might sound like it’s not a big deal,” I replied, “but this is evidently something that’s been troubling him all these years! Think about it. What kind of message could he be trying to convey by turning the beautiful Xu Xiaohui into a pig? He must’ve wanted her to die as an ugly beast, without any dignity and grace.”

“What a prick!” cursed Xiaotao.

“He must have another private operating room,” I conjectured. “Another place where he could operate on those gang members. That’s probably where he operated on the victim too.”

Xiaotao typed three exclamation marks and added, “You’re quick-minded as usual, Song Yang! Now all we have to do is find that operating room, and we’d have enough evidence to arrest him!”

“But everyone is being watched closely now,” said Yuanchao. “What can we do?”

“Where was Xu Xiaohui found by the farmer again?” I asked.

“Near a highway,” replied Yuanchao.

“Right!” I said. “Then let’s start from there! I’ve got a plan!”

“Great!” exclaimed Xiaotao. “We’ll meet there at midnight. Don’t contact each other before that. Just remember to do something to distract those people watching us.”

After that, Xiaotao’s mood must’ve improved, because she tried to attack Yuanchao with ten consecutive attacks as revenge for what he did earlier. But Yuanchao’s avatar was a warrior with a thick armor and high strength level, so he didn’t even budge.

“Bastard!” spat Xiaotao. “How did you get so good at this game?”

Yuanchao said nothing in reply. He merely slashed her once, killing her in one move again. I quickly quit the game myself.

Dali noticed the game on my computer screen and asked me, “What’s gotten into you today? You’re playing an online game? Is it good?”

“Nah,” I replied. “It’s terrible. I’m going to the library for a while.”

I didn’t want Dali to get involved in the investigation. We could be in real danger this time, after all.

“I’ll go with you!” said Dali. “I met a hot librarian recently. Maybe I’ll see her again!”

We both then walked to the library together. The hot librarian was nowhere to be found, so instead Dali took a bunch of Gu Long’s[1] books off the shelves and read them. I was a little surprised by that since Dali was never much of a bookworm.

After spending the whole afternoon in the library, we then went to the cafeteria for dinner. At around ten o’clock, I told Dali I was going out.

“Another murder?” Dali asked.

“No,” I replied. “I’m going on a date with Bingxin. Don’t tell Xiaotao, okay?”

“What?” cried Dali. “I never thought you’d be a cheating bastard!”

I then snuck out of college and took a cab to the agreed place. I had to walk through a wasteland next to the highway for a long time after getting off the cab. After a while, I saw Xiaotao and Yuanchao at a distance.

“You’re early!” cried Xiaotao. “Shall we begin?”

Before I could answer her, I heard a voice calling my name. I turned around and saw the idiot Dali. He was almost out of breath from running after me.

“So you really are investigating a case!” he yelled. “How could you lie to me, Song Yang? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“What the hell are you doing here?!” I snapped.

“I’m your trusty assistant, remember?” he proudly answered. “You need me!”

“Did anybody follow you?” asked Xiaotao, scanning the surroundings.

Dali looked around too and answered, “I don’t think so!”

I took out a small vial from my bag which contained a potion that I had just prepared recently. I never thought that it would come in handy so soon.

I told everyone to step away from me, because I might look a bit scary in a few minutes. I dipped a silver needle into the potion, took a deep breath, and pierced it into my neck. At first, I felt nothing but pain. Then, my sense of smell was overwhelmed by a heady stench, and my vision began to distort. I collapsed to my knees. Drool streamed down my mouth and my whole body twitched violently.

“What’s going on, Song Yang?” asked Xiaotao with concern.

I was drenched in cold sweat by that time. I mustered up all the strength that I had to say, “I’m fine. My body is just getting used to it.”

This ‘potion’ was actually a medicine formulated with bee venom and several other traditional Chinese medicinal herbs. When the needle was pierced at a specific acupoint, it would stimulate the olfactory center in the brain and make it a thousand times more sensitive than usual. This meant that my sense of smell was now far better than a police dog’s. This trick was called the Heavenly Dog Tracking Technique. It worked by directly entering into the nervous system, which made it very risky and it could have a serious negative side effect, so it was considered one of Song family’s forbidden techniques and must only be used when absolutely necessary. For the first few minutes, it would make you drool uncontrollably, you would feel dizzy and lose your sense of balance, causing you to fall to your knees like a dog—hence the name.

After the nose was activated, I could sense the surrounding smell of gasoline, dirt, and grass very clearly. The smell was so heavy that my nose ached, almost as if my nose was swollen.

It took me five minutes to get used to it, but eventually, I managed to get up.

“What exactly are you doing, Song Yang?” asked Xiaotao. “You scared me to death!”

“I’m tracking the trail left by Xu Xiaohui,” I said. “All of you, please don’t move, and Uncle Wang, no smoking!”

“Roger!” they nodded.

I took a deep breath. Instantly, I detected a rancid smell coming from Dali.

I suddenly realized one thing—Dali had been acting weird today. He’d been following me all day as if he was monitoring me. Apart from that, I noticed that there was something off about his speech and behavior today.

I activated my Cave Vision and observed his face closely, and noticed that there was a seam on his hairline!

Dali noticed my behavior and asked, “Why are you staring at me, dude?”

“Because you’re handsome.”

I pretended to be following a trail and went to Yuanchao. I faced away from Dali and made a few hand gestures to Yuanchao, making sure that Dali couldn’t see it.

Yuanchao nodded. He walked towards Dali, then suddenly the sound of a gunshot pierced my ears like a thunderclap, and the strong smell of gunpowder filled my nostrils. I turned around and saw Yuanchao holding his gun firmly in his hand while Dali was on the ground, his two hands holding one of his legs.

“What the fuck are you doing, Yuanchao?!” shouted Xiaotao.

“He’s not Dali!”

1. Chinese novelist, best known for wuxia novels and serials.