The entire task force was working overtime at the police station, and when they heard Zhuang Zhen's stern and intense voice, they all looked up.
Liao Fang nervously asked, "Captain, what's wrong?"
Zhuang Zhen opened Fangaluo's Weibo and, staring at the three simple words that were nonetheless terrifying, shook his head, "Xiao Jin might be in trouble."
Liao Fang walked over to him, craned her neck to look at his phone, and her face turned deathly pale. The others gathered around to check the situation, once again feeling the fear evoked by Fangaluo's "three-word Weibo."
"Could the 'fifth one' be referring to Ruan Ye?" Liao Fang didn't harbor any suspicion of this Weibo at all.
"I just called the hospital, Ruan Ye is fine, under our protection." Zhuang Zhen hadn't finished speaking when his phone rang, and the warden of the detention center, with a quavering voice, said, "Captain, bring your team over to the detention center, Xiao Jin is dead."
Zhuang Zhen's tightly strung heart eventually broke. After four or five seconds of silence, he replied, "Okay."
"Xiao Jin is dead, bring the forensic team, let's go to the detention center together." He put on his coat and hurried to the parking lot.
Thirty minutes later, the entire task force was standing outside the small cell where Xiao Jin was held, their expressions grave. Liao Fang covered her mouth, unable to look anymore.
"Captain, it was a suicide." The forensic examiner carefully examined the body, with a touch of sorrow in his tone, "He was determined to die. Most people cannot bring themselves to cut their wrists with a knife, they usually leave some shallow trial wounds, but look at him," the forensic examiner pointed to the bloody and mangled left wrist of Xiao Jin, "he bit through his own arteries with his teeth, leaving a large chunk of flesh and skin torn off, as if he had no sense of pain. He even wrapped a blanket around the wound to conceal it from the prison guards, so as not to be rescued. The blanket had a very strong absorbent property, which sped up the bleeding. From the time he bit through the arteries to his death, the whole process took only ten minutes."
Zhuang Zhen stared at the body for a long time before speaking, "You can handle the scene, I'm going to check the surveillance videos."
"Okay," the forensic examiner nodded and hesitated for a moment before sighing, "It's really a pity."
"There's nothing to feel sorry about, he's definitely going to get the death penalty when he goes to court." Zhuang Zhen's tone was very firm and cold, but his eyes shone with an unwilling light.
The task force began to investigate the prison guards and the prisoners who were around Xiao Jin, but found no suspicious circumstances. The surveillance footage showed that Xiao Jin did indeed commit suicide, as no one had approached his cell at the time of the incident.
The members of the task force were all busy and silent.
After recording all the testimonies, Liao Fang walked to a corner where no one was around and dialed a number that she had been storing for a long time but had never dared to call. A gentle male voice, like a pool of clear spring water on a summer day, soothing to the heart, came through. However, it made her eyes inexplicably redder.
"Fangaluo, Xiao Jin is dead." With just one sentence, Liao Fang couldn't hold back her tears.
"Ah." Fangaluo responded briefly, and this response was utterly meaningless.
"You knew he would die, why didn't you say something earlier?" Liao Fang couldn't understand why Vanjaro's heart was so hard, as if it wouldn't be moved by anyone or anything.
"What would it accomplish if I did?" Vanjaro gently countered.
"If you had said something, you could have saved him!" Liao Fang's voice carried a hint of anger.
"I am not a god, I cannot save him." Vanjaro's slow voice sounded as if it came from another dimension, making it seem hollow. "He severed his own artery, didn't he? With such a strong will to die, who can stop it? Can you remove his mandible, knock out all his teeth? If not, one day he will choose the same path again. Every person living in this world will reap their own karma, their fate is always in their own hands, not in the hands of a god."
Liao Fang had no way to rebuke the other's words. Indeed, Xiao Jin chose the most tragic way to die, and he didn't even want to save himself. Who could stop his death? As for why Vanjaro would know about his manner of death, Liao Fang didn't want to ask anymore. He was a medium, he should know everything.
Vanjaro continued, "What he did to others will ultimately fall upon himself. All sins will return to dust, this is not just a Buddhist verse."
Liao Fang fell into a long silence, with only sobs responding to the person on the phone.
Vanjaro sighed deeply and ended the conversation.
Meanwhile, Zhuang Zhen found a secluded place to call Song Rui, "Xiao Jin committed suicide, didn't you predict it?" He kept recalling the day when Song Rui told Xiao Jin that Ruan Ye had gone mad. It was precisely at that moment that Xiao Jin, who had been full of resentment, found complete relief and left with a relieved laugh.
Based on previous cases, Song Rui had a very accurate grasp of the psychological state of criminal suspects, which could be described as almost godlike. As a psychological expert, he couldn't not know the impact his words would have on Xiao Jin. In other words, he indulged the development of the situation, coldly watching Xiao Jin go down a dead-end path.
Was this still the gentle, kind, knowledgeable Dr. Song that Zhuang Zhen knew?
Zhuang Zhen was feeling very unsettled, unable to accept the actions of his friend. It was only at this moment that he gradually realized that Vanjaro's evaluation of his friend seemed not to be groundless, but rather a keen insight.
Song Rui could only remain silent. He knew Zhuang Zhen wasn't foolish and wouldn't fail to connect the dots. He was indeed impulsive that day, and he also couldn't understand why he acted so out of character and did something unnecessary. But since it was done, he couldn't exactly say he regretted it.
"Sorry," he took off his glasses and slowly said, "I think, for Xiao Jin, the real culprit of Ruan Ye's death was never Ruan Ye, but himself. He didn't need public judgment, he had already judged himself. This day will come sooner or later, and none of us can stop it."
Zhuang Zhen gritted his teeth, sarcastically, "No one can replace the law, only the courts can make judgments! Song Rui, why do I feel like you've been brainwashed by Vanjaro! You, a dignified psychological expert, are you also being led astray by him?"
Song Rui's breath paused slightly, then he hung up the phone. He walked into the bathroom, knelt on the cold tiles, took a whip, and whipped his back severely until it was bloody. This wasn't out of guilt or self-blame, but to remind himself with pain: if you want to live recklessly and be above others, you must abide by those foolish rules, and the law is precisely one of those rules that cannot be touched. Even more dangerous is that there is someone who has seen through you and is watching you closely.
Zhuang Zhen didn't know what his friend was going through. He felt very angry and powerless to change the sudden tragedy. The matter had already happened, and it was meaningless to blame anyone now. Just as Xiao Rui ended her life, the people who had once cruelly abused her could wash away their guilt because of it. The word "justice" was so glorious yet so hard to find.
Zhuang Zhen tried to suppress his uneasiness, but unexpectedly, the chief called to inquire about Xiao Jin's suicide in detail.
"...This is difficult! Should this matter be made public?" the chief was in a quandary.
"It definitely has to be made public," Zhuang Zhen was more resolute than him, "Xiao Jin's timed Weibo has already brought this case to the forefront. Now everyone is paying attention to this matter and waiting for the final judgment. If we don't announce Xiao Jin's suicide, when it's exposed by the media, our sub-bureau will face the greatest scrutiny, because he died in our custody. What can be clarified now will become a pending case later, and the public will interpret it with the worst of intentions. By spreading it around, we will end up being blamed for causing Xiao Jin's death."
"Right, right, you're right. I'll have the publicity department release a statement immediately."
Not long after the chief hung up, the news of Xiao Jin's suicide spread all over the Internet. This time, the sub-bureau's official Weibo detailed the cause of his death, with no concealment. There were indeed fewer doubts and many voices expressing regret.
Xiao Jin was not the type of thug who did no good, and the tragedy of him and Xiao Rui was man-made and completely avoidable. In repentance, he took his own life. Therefore, there were far more people feeling sorrow and regret for him than those condemning him. What is good and what is evil, and how to define the two? This extraordinarily complicated issue continued to entwine in this tragic case, sparking mass contemplation and reflection from the public.
The Gao Yize falling case became the most talked-about event of the year, but Sunying, who had been riding the wave of Gao Yize's popularity, couldn't feel any joy. He was busy deleting Weibo posts mourning Gao Yize and censuring Vanjaro, while Cao Xiaofeng was holding a tablet, constantly monitoring the public opinion trends.
"Vanjaro has turned the tables! Now everyone is discussing whether he is actually a medium. His current reputation is even better than that of Liu the idol, it's really unexpected!" Cao Xiaofeng sighed with deep regret.
"Cao bro, could you stop playing with your tablet and help me write a press release, to distance ourselves from Gao Yize! My major fan groups have all declared dissolution!" Sunying was becoming increasingly distressed.
"Didn't you know you could call the public relations department to help you write? When you were riding the wave of popularity..." His voice was choked off, as if there were an invisible hand squeezing his neck. He couldn't speak, because he had just seen an extremely horrifying Weibo post:
A netizen named "Meteor Street Coder" left a message on Vanjaro's Weibo page: [Come and see, everyone, I will expose Vanjaro now! He's no medium, I'd say he's just like dog shit! Wait a moment, I'll post a long Weibo! There's evidence, guaranteed to be solid!]
"Meter Street Coder" disappeared after leaving this sentence, but everyone's attention was drawn to his words and they all clicked into his Weibo, followed him, and waited to see the evidence. Cao Xiaofeng was no exception.
Now, "Meteor Street Coder's" long Weibo had finally been published, with two additional pictures - one of the scene of Gao Yize's death, and one of Vanjaro's hand-drawn death sketch. It turned out that "Meteor Street Coder" happened to be at the scene when Gao Yize jumped off the building, and he took a photo of the body and then posted it on Weibo. After realizing it was too bloody, he deleted it.
Now, he posted it again to tell everyone that there were no mediums in the world, and no such thing as foretelling death. Everything Vanjaro had said was just nonsense, because anyone with eyes could see that the "death sketch" was clearly drawn based on the photo he had taken; from the angles to the details, there wasn't a single difference.
"Everyone see clearly now? After you've seen it, I'll delete it! I remember that this photo was the only one of the scene of Gao Yize's death that was ever posted online. Even though I only posted it for two minutes, it was enough for some people to download and save it. I have every reason to suspect that some people saw this photo and had the idea of pretending to be a medium. They copied my photo and then used it for hype. For the sake of becoming popular, they've gone to extremes! The picture was clearly taken after Gao Yize died, and the sketch was definitely done after that. How did it become a prediction of death? When some people are pretending to be gods, they don't think to cover up the evidence. Did they think I deleted the photo and couldn't retrieve it? Such low intelligence, why pretend to be a magician? Also, I'll ask him one last thing: Does Gao Yize's human blood steamed bun taste good?]
"Meteor Street Coder" significantly diminished Vanjaro's reputation, then deleted the photo.
Although Vanjaro's reputation had been reversed, there were still many blindly supporting him, so although this Weibo post caused a certain amount of attention, it didn’t have much impact on him. People had never believed he was a medium, so they quickly accepted the fact that the death sketch was a fake. Although the Weibo predicting Xiao Jin's suicide was a bit mysterious, it was still quite possible to guess accidentally.
However, there were still people jumping around and insulting Vanjaro, accusing him of using dead people for hype, and conducting himself in a despicable, morally bankrupt manner.
After reading this long Weibo post, Cao Xiaofeng was most shocked. He handed the tablet to Sunying and asked him to take a look, and then both of them went stiff.
Trembling, Sunying said, "Cao bro, I watched Vanjaro draw that sketch. At that time, our brother Yi was still alive and well, I didn't make a mistake, did I?"
"No, you didn't make a mistake. Brother Yize and you walked out of the stairwell together, and he was already holding that sketch in his hand. I remember it very clearly, there's no mistake." Cao Xiaofeng began to feel a chilling sensation in his bones. They, as people in the entertainment industry, were more likely to believe in supernatural things, so the scare they received was naturally more severe.
Previously, they hadn't taken the death sketch seriously because they felt that most bodies that died from jumping off a building looked the same, and a few strokes could pin the blame on anyone. The twisted limbs, large pools of blood, and the crowd of onlookers were the same at any high-rise falling scene. Vanjaro knew that Gao Yize would jump from a certain height and also knew the location, so he could draw the corresponding scene, and there was nothing strange about that.
But now, they carefully compared the picture and found that the death sketch had indeed been directly traced from the scene in the photo, with every angle and detail matching the photographer's perspective, as well as completely coinciding with the surrounding crowd. In other words, this sketch wasn't casually drawn by Vanjaro, but through the eyes of "Meter Street Coder," he had seen what was about to happen in the future.
A sketch a week before and a picture a week later completely matched, depicting the same death scene, how was this not foretelling? "Meteor Street Coder" had no idea that his long Weibo had revealed anything! This wasn't so-called evidence exposing Vanjaro's charade, but it was evidence that he indeed possessed a peculiar ability!
Vanjaro was truly a medium!
Realizing this, Sunying was completely panicked, and his lips trembled as he spoke, "Cao bro, Vanjaro really can see the future! He really saw it!"
"Lower your voice!" Cao Xiaofeng's voice was also trembling, "If we don't say anything, no one will know!"
"But Vanjaro can see the future! Will he know what we're doing behind his back? I climbed to my current position on his back; will he take revenge on me?" Sunying was completely scared, and any thoughts about seeking help from Vanjaro, having him speak up, or helping to rebuild his reputation were gone. He didn't even dare to think about it.
Cao Xiaofeng kept pacing in the office, his expression both tense and fearful. He finally realized what a terrifying person he had gotten involved with. How could he dare to stab Vanjaro behind his back? Maybe just as such thoughts arose in his heart, the other side already knew!
Now, Cao Xiaofeng truly envied the "Meteor Street Coder," because the other knew nothing and could boldly ridicule and even curse Vanjaro. Didn't the saying go, "Ignorance is bliss"? Maybe it was about him?
A feeling of being unable to escape washed over Cao Xiaofeng, making him want to hide in a dark place. Now, his attitude towards Vanjaro was not just regret, but fear.