Case Files Chapter 37: Angel of Death (17)

Translated by Vivian of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Addis

 

Through the one-way mirror, Guan Jin looked at Yu Meng, who was shrinking in the seat. He asked, “Since he’s so scared, why would he keep taking risks? Does he have a mental illness?”

“No, he’s just antisocial, which is a personality state in between a mental illness and normal people. He can function fully, but his personality deviates from a normal state, which leads to maladaptive behavior and forms some specific behavior different from normal people. There were a few errors in my previous analysis. Yu Meng has a typical schizoid personality disorder, a little paranoia, and lacks emotional experience. His low self-esteem comes from himself, not other people’s comments. He’s indifferent to others, and he avoids social interactions. He lives in his own world, often confusing his imagination with reality. When he was caught, more of his shock came from his imagined world suddenly collapsing, not fear of being punished by the legal system.”

Inside, Chen QiaoYu and Gu Xiang had already interrogated him for a long time, but Yu Meng still refused to say anything. Chen QiaoYu stormed out and swore.

“Let me go talk to him.” Lu YunYang didn’t wait for Wen JingHan to nod before going in.

“Here, drink some water, it’s warm.” Lu YunYang pushed a cup towards him.

Yu Meng looked up a little but didn’t move.

“A few weeks later, it’s going to be your grandfather’s death day, right? This time, you probably won’t be able to go visit and mourn him.”

Yu Meng lifted his head abruptly, looking straight at Lu YunYang. After a while, he looked back down again.

“Last week, when you tried to kill that girl, you were interrupted, so she didn’t die. She recovered and returned to the hospital to continue working, giving patients medicine, giving them IV infusions…”

Yu Meng’s breathing quickened, and he began to mutter vaguely, “How come she died, how come she didn’t die, died, didn’t die…”

“Died,” Lu YunYang suddenly said.

“Who died?!” Yu Meng suddenly asked, wide awake.

“You tell me, who died?”

“Who? That woman died, she died.” Yu Meng began to repeatedly mutter again.

“Was that woman your mother?” Lu YunYang’s words put an abrupt stop to Yu Meng’s mumbling. 

“Three years ago, you wandered back to City S from elsewhere, and you suddenly wanted to go see your mother, whom you hadn’t seen for many years. You wanted to ask her why she treated you so unfairly and forced you to live a miserable life, struggling everyday just for food and clothing. But when you secretly returned home and saw the front door that was covered in dust, you finally found out that she had already died, and you wouldn’t ever get the chance to question her, take revenge on her, and hurt her.” Lu YunYang talked as if he was recalling things. “You were angry and wanted to dig her out of her grave so you could loudly curse at her, but you didn’t even know where her grave was. Thus, you could only leave resentfully, and when you saw Du XiaoYue scolding a patient, you found a way to vent your hatred. You felt that she should die, just like your mother…”

Yu Meng clutched the edge of the table, trembling a little. “That woman was just like her, scolding people, scolding me, scolding grandpa, giving grandpa injections, grandpa didn’t want them…”

“Your grandpa loved you very much, right? But he got sick, so your mom had to give him injections.”

“She scolded grandpa, scolding him for not dying, and then grandpa died, he hung himself with the tube, the tube was what I used to change the water for the fish tank…” Yu Meng suddenly slapped the table. “She scolded me, scolded grandpa, she should die, should die!”

“Yu Meng!” shouted Lu YunYang. “Wake up, these people were not your mother, they’re nurses that save people! They’re angels that took care of patients when they’re sick. They also had their own parents, siblings, and grandparents!” He poked the photos that were spread across the table.

Yu Meng shook his head vigorously. “No, the ones I killed weren’t them, no… I covered their faces. When grandpa died, his face was also covered, the others said that the faces of dead people should be covered.”

“Yu Meng, your mother is already dead, and she’s buried in the public cemetery. No matter how many more people you kill, there’s no use. Think about it carefully, do you really only hate her? In your childhood, she made good food for you, took you to nursery school, bought you toys. She may have scolded you for your bad grades, but she still stitched your clothes up after fights… Yu Meng, if you didn’t angrily run away from home, perhaps she’d still be alive, and you wouldn’t be sitting here. Do you really hate her? Or, perhaps you actually hate yourself for not returning home earlier.”

Then, Lu YunYang stood up and walked out. Inside the room, Yu Meng was already slumped over in the chair, and seemed to have aged by a lot.

“Later, you guys can ask him about other things. He should have temporarily woken up from his mental hallucinations,” said Lu YunYang.

“Great immortal! I’ve decided to become a brain-impaired fan ¹ of yours!” Ding Ding said excitedly.

“Brain-impaired people near me have all either been cured by me, or have already been sent to a mental hospital. Are you sure you want to be one?”

“…I’ve decided that I’ll remain loyal to my original idol, Yan Qing.”

“This Yu Meng is really pitiful.” Guan Jin crossed his arms. “In your opinion, don’t all murderers like him have inner weaknesses?”

“They’re not weaknesses. Everyone has yearning and memories of happiness, but too many negative emotions have hidden them.”

Guan Jin didn’t reply and he went back to his seat. Lu YunYang silently watched him leave.

“Guan Jin is just too stifled. The police station is also the place with the most negative information, so why don’t you enlighten him at a suitable time?” Gu Xiang said lightly to Lu YunYang.

Lu YunYang grinned. “You’re wrong, I’m afraid that Little Jin is the only one here that doesn’t need psychological counseling.”

“It turns out that when Yu Meng was working elsewhere, he met Li GuangSheng, but later, Li GuangSheng died from a terminal illness. Yu Meng secretly buried him and fraudulently used his ID card. Because Li GuangSheng had a letter of introduction from someone else, he was able to come to City S to work in Hospital Three,” said Chen QiaoYu, looking at her notes. “Because Yu Meng’s mother had a heavy family burden, and her father-in-law was seriously ill, she became ill-tempered and would often scold Yu Meng and his grandfather. And, she was often working shifts at the hospital, so she would lock Yu Meng in the house. When Yu Meng’s grandfather hung himself, the first person to discover him was Yu Meng. You can imagine how shocking that was for a child.”

“Detestable people are also pitiful.” Zheng Fei sighed.

“Unfortunately, we’re not a charity. Get the material ready to give to the court.” Wen JingHan walked out of the chief of police’s office, and he seemed to be in a good mood.

Guan Jin began to gloomily sort the case files. Who had invented this type of work, didn’t they feel that it was very annoying?

“I’ll help.” Lu YunYang sat down, uninvited.

“Organize the photos!” Guan Jin said bluntly. Why wouldn’t he use someone who was offering to help? If it wasn’t for Wen JingHan, he definitely would’ve given all the work to this idiot.

Lu YunYang obediently organized the photos. Guan Jin glanced at him. “Does every person have a personality disorder?”

“How’s that possible? Personality disorders are already a pretty serious psychological problem.”

“Then… do you think anyone in our office has a psychological problem?” Guan Jin’s curiosity was piqued.

“Well,” Lu YunYang lowered his voice, “the police is a very dangerous career in itself, since they’re always dealing with the dark side of humanity, especially you guys. You always deal with serious, violent crimes or large-scale, organized crimes, and if it weren’t for being naturally optimistic, strong self-control, and being good at emotionally distancing yourselves from the situation, it would be very hard to survive here. Most of you have these qualities, without a doubt.”

“Most?” Guan Jin glanced at Lu YunYang.

“Wen JingHan’s personality seems to change often, but in reality, he has very firm personal values and standards. As long as this baseline isn’t crossed, he can accept anything. Thus, these cases don’t affect him at all. And, I believe that he has experienced things that ordinary people can’t even conceive of, which made him invulnerable. 

“Ding Ding’s and Little Bai’s personalities are very pure, and they’re optimists. There’s no gloominess in their worlds, and even though they deal with these dark realities, to them, it’s as if they’re watching a movie, which is why these things don’t really resonate with them. Thus, even though their self-control and mental quality isn’t the best, they won’t be affected that much. 

“Zheng Fei has a background in the SWAT team, and he’s very impulsive and bold, so it’s very hard for average things to invade his world. Chen QiaoYu is a very strong, mature woman, and she has a very strong acceptance and tolerance level of things. She’s compassionate, but she is also very good at emotionally distancing herself from things. 

“Gu Xiang has a delicate personality, and he’s very good at reasoning. He uses a more theoretical perspective to look at everything that happens, so although he’ll have some emotional responses, he can suppress them very quickly. Le Fan… He can even handle corpses without batting an eye, so I reckon that he’s immune to these things. However, he is very sensitive towards the people or things he values.”

“…I have a feeling that Wen JingHan led a wolf into the team.” Guan Jin looked at the people in the office who were oblivious to having themselves been seen through.

“You seem to be gloating, aren’t you also one of the pitiful sheep?” Lu YunYang rested his chin in his hand.

The sheep, Guan Jin, turned around and looked at the big bad wolf. “Then why don’t you do an analysis of me?”

“Well, as for you, I’m really not that sure. I’m very limited in the area of clinical pathological case studies, especially people who have a change in personality after losing their memory, since I rarely deal with them. But the current you is filled with curiosity and confusion towards the world, and you cautiously observe everything that happens around you. You have pure emotions, kind of like a child, which is very much in line with the characteristics of someone with amnesia. 

“However, there are a few strange points. You’re very indifferent to all of the cases, and the criminals’ dark sides don’t affect you at all. This isn’t optimism, you simply don’t take these things that seriously. You’re confused but not scared, reticent but not withdrawn, indifferent but not scornful. You’re like a person who killed and cleared an entire path for yourself to climb to the top of the human pyramid. 

“You respect life, but you don’t fear it. You’re young, but you always seem like you’ve been through many vicissitudes in your life. You’re inexplicably hostile towards me, and although I’m not sure when I upset you, I’ve been thinking recently about whether it’s because——”

“Stop!” Guan Jin could feel his head buzzing. “Although you were saying really contradictory things at the beginning, this last one doesn’t make sense at all!”

“I also think that it doesn’t make sense. Look, I have a good education, good family, good temper, good appearance, and good income. I follow you around and do things for you, and I’ve also saved your life, so why do you still dislike me?” Lu YunYang gazed at Guan Jin sincerely.

Guan Jin’s brain seemed to get knotted. There didn’t seem to be any bad parts…

“I’m not opposed to office romances, but it’s best if you two don’t flirt during work hours.” Wen JingHan walked up to them.

“Office romances?” Guan Jin froze.

“Just then, wasn’t Professor Lu recommending himself to you?” Wen JingHan raised an eyebrow.

“Re-recommending himself for what…?”

“Actually, Lu YunYang’s conditions are already pretty good. You shouldn’t be so picky, or else you’ll never be able to find a spouse,” Wen JingHan said sincerely.

Thus, another violent crime was almost acted out on the spot, in which the twisted police officer assaulted his superior who was only looking out for his subordinate.

Guan Jin, who was fuming, and with the help of Lu YunYang, who was still disliked, finally finished organizing the files right before they got off work. Guan Jin picked up the big red seal and stamped it onto the dark blue cover. He put the case files into the filing cabinet; another case had ended. Since he had come here, he had unexpectedly helped solve two cases.

“After work, do you want to eat dinner together?” Lu YunYang smiled at Guan Jin, who was staring off into space.

“No need, I have to go home to cook.” Guan Jin locked the cabinet.

“I’ve never heard you say that you were going to cook before.”

“Well, now I have another mouth to feed, so of course I have to go home to cook.” Guan Jin shrugged and left without even saying goodbye.

 

Lu YunYang frowned slightly. Another mouth?