Chapter 56: The Transformation of Identity

After he finished speaking, Qin Ruonan’s expression had already darkened, and even Lu Xiangdong frowned.

They had discussed the possibility of prior cases before, so they were not entirely unprepared. The fact that Fang Wan and You Xiaoyang were likely doomed was cruel, but they had at least mentally braced themselves for it. Nor was it unexpected that the perpetrator in the earlier case had never been apprehended. Yet when those three points were combined with the crucial fact that the boy murdered two years earlier had been abused and sexually assaulted, the situation became startling.

The previous victim’s appearance had matched Fang Wan and You Xiaoyang’s exactly. He had been the same type of boy. His disappearance had likewise been inexplicable, with no sign of kidnapping for ransom. All of this made one possibility increasingly clear: if the perpetrator of that case was indeed the same person involved this time, then the question was no longer merely whether Fang Wan and You Xiaoyang were alive. It also concerned whether they had already suffered, or were currently suffering, the same torture and abuse.

Lu Xiangdong looked over the report again, his brows never relaxing. After a long while, he slowly sighed and sat back down in the seat An Changpu had vacated, his face thoughtful.

An Changpu motioned for Qin Ruonan to return to her seat as well. Based on his past experience dealing with Lu Xiangdong, the man’s current expression meant that he was thinking—and that he would soon arrive at some conclusions.

As it turned out, his experience was accurate. Lu Xiangdong remained silent for a while before finally speaking.

“A moment ago, I said there wasn’t enough information to make a judgment about the criminal. But now that we have this report, I do have a rough idea.” He addressed An Changpu and Qin Ruonan, who were seated across from him. “Taking into account what you told me about the lives of the two missing boys, as well as the details of the similar case from two years ago, I believe the killer lures teenage boys, abuses and assaults them, and ultimately murders them. This person must also have suffered similar torment during childhood and must himself have been a victim of sexual abuse.”

His conclusion sounded explosive and almost unbelievable to An Changpu and Qin Ruonan. It was especially so for Qin Ruonan. An Changpu had perhaps witnessed many of Lu Xiangdong’s startling pronouncements, and time and again they had been proven correct. Qin Ruonan, however, clearly knew nothing of this. She was left staring at him in astonishment, momentarily unsure how to respond.

Seeing her shocked expression, Lu Xiangdong added, “Criminal statistics show that among male victims of childhood sexual abuse, a significant proportion later become perpetrators because of the psychological trauma they carry into adulthood. Of course, this is more common in Western countries. The proportion is much lower here, but lower does not mean nonexistent. What you have encountered may be a particularly rare case.”

“Are you certain of that conclusion?” Qin Ruonan asked hurriedly.

She was already considering whether, if Lu Xiangdong’s deduction was sufficiently accurate, they could begin by investigating adult men who had suffered sexual abuse or mistreatment during childhood. According to him, such victims were relatively uncommon in this country. Using the process of elimination, the field would not be especially broad.

Lu Xiangdong seemed to have guessed that his words would lead her to such a line of thought. Calmly, he said, “Nothing in this world is absolute. My conclusions are based on broad investigations and statistical patterns, but no matter how accurate the pattern may be, there can always be exceptions. No analysis can ever be one hundred percent accurate. However, if I were you—or rather, if I were in your position—I would not immediately begin the investigation by focusing on men who suffered sexual abuse during adolescence.”

“Why?” Qin Ruonan asked, greatly surprised.

She was now even more convinced that this seemingly unruffled man, whose eyes held a sharpness of their own, truly had a way of reading other people’s thoughts and seeing through their minds.

“The reason is simple. Even among female victims of sexual assault, some choose to hide what happened and avoid legal action because they fear the judgment and criticism of those around them. The situation is even worse for men. Men are traditionally viewed as strong, as members of the sexually dominant group, or even as the ones who commit sexual assault. So when a man becomes the victim in such a case, he may not receive more sympathy or care. Instead, he may face ridicule, mockery, or even abuse. If you were in that position, would you report it?”

Lu Xiangdong directed the final question at An Changpu. As a man, he would find it easier to imagine himself in such circumstances.

An Changpu looked somewhat embarrassed. He scratched his head and gave a dry, lopsided laugh.

“Dr. Lu, you’re right.”

After hearing him out, Qin Ruonan seemed to understand as well. She nodded gratefully at Lu Xiangdong.

“Thank you for pointing that out. It may save us from taking a lot of unnecessary detours.”

“Dr. Lu, is there anything else?” An Changpu asked.

“There is one more point, based on what you told me earlier. One of the two boys, Fang Wan, was neglected because his father was busy with work and his stepmother could not be bothered with him. The other, You Xiaoyang, was rarely supervised because his parents trusted him too much. I think the killer chooses boys like these for two reasons.

“First, when the killer attempts to approach such children, their families are less likely to become suspicious or take notice. If the boys later disappear, their families may not detect anything unusual right away.

“Second, as you mentioned, both boys possessed expensive items beyond their means—whether model toys or prepaid gaming cards—and those things happened to appeal directly to their interests. This tells us something. The killer’s chosen victims are probably greedy for small advantages and easily enticed by material things. I suspect the killer himself may once have been the same type of child. He suffered harm when he was young, and because his family ignored him and failed to provide care, the trauma in his heart was never properly soothed or guided. Eventually, the roles were reversed, and he began taking revenge on boys who resembled him.”

“The victim murdered two years ago was in the first year of junior high, so he would have been between twelve and fourteen. That matches Fang Wan and You Xiaoyang’s age group. Does that mean the killer was also harmed at around that age?” An Changpu asked, following Lu Xiangdong’s chain of reasoning.

Lu Xiangdong did not answer.

Qin Ruonan, however, offered a different view. “I don’t think age is the key. The key is that all three boys were small and thin. I believe the killer’s choice of such boys was influenced by age mainly because children in that stage are beginning to rebel. They are no longer as transparent with their families as they were when they were younger, and they have far more freedom of movement than children below the age of eleven. As for their small stature, that is important because boys between ten and fifteen who are tall and strongly built would generally also have greater physical strength. From the standpoint of control, thin, undersized boys are easier to overpower.”

“That’s true,” Lu Xiangdong said with a nod. He turned to An Changpu. “And comparatively speaking, thin, weak adolescents between ten and fifteen are actually easier to control than children under ten. The younger a child is, the more difficult he often is to restrain.”

After all this discussion, Lu Xiangdong had little more to offer based on the information and clues currently available. Before long, other teachers began returning to the office after class to take a break. An Changpu and Qin Ruonan naturally could not continue disturbing him, so they rose, thanked Lu Xiangdong for his help, and left J College.

Over the following days, they devoted most of their time to investigating and collecting information on similar cases from the past. Tian Yang had other work on his hands, but since none of it was urgent, he set it aside for the time being and joined them in dealing with this case.

Cheng Feng had already helped contact several sister departments. Before long, information began coming back. Fortunately, the responses—whether early or late—allowed them to establish at least one fact: no case of this type had occurred within the city’s jurisdiction in recent years. In other words, what had happened to Fang Wan and You Xiaoyang was the first such case in the city.

“Perhaps the killer moved here from somewhere else, or came here while fleeing from one place to another,” Tian Yang suggested after compiling the responses. The three of them had carefully screened and cross-checked the materials many times, afraid that they might overlook something.

An Changpu shook his head. “Hard to say. It could be as you suggested: he committed crimes elsewhere and then fled here to evade capture. Or he may originally be from here and have returned to his hometown after committing crimes in another place.”

“Wonderful. It seems there’s no way to narrow the investigation by deciding whether he’s local or an outsider.” Tian Yang lightly slapped his forehead, clearly troubled. “Once this case is linked to previously unsolved cases, the nature of the matter changes completely.”

“I only hope there aren’t too many similar cases,” An Changpu said with a sigh.

Unfortunately, that hope did not become reality. Not long afterward, they received another report through the interdepartmental investigation network: in a small city in a neighboring province, not far from their own, there had been similar cases—two of them in total. Both had occurred eight years earlier, and in both cases, the killer had never been brought to justice.