Love Me if You Dare: Pristine Darkness

They were back once again at the old Ke family residence.

Gazing at the dark yet clear and crystalline waters of the lake, Jiang Yao asked, “Why are we here?”

Bo Jinyan replied, “Ke Ai and Ke Qian were both approximately 175 cm in height, so it would not be easy to dispose of the body. However, Ke Ai had a second-hand car while in China, which would be convenient for transportation. Since Ke Qian was scheduled to leave China next week, the body must have been taken care of already. He had such a deep connection with  his older sister, he would not have carelessly discarded it, but he also couldn’t bury it in a public place. Cremation would have been hard to bear. Ke Qian places such great value on appearance, would he have been willing to burn his sister’s body beyond recognition, to reduce it to a pile of ash? He would not have been able to stomach that course of action.

Then, what would be a good place to hide the body? On looking at his life, the memories he shared with his sister, apart from recent period, would be from the time when they were young, and their parents were both around. However, their childhood home has been demolished, and only this lake remains unchanged.

What better way to remember her than to let her sink into the lake, so that she can gaze upon their home forever?”

An icy cold gripped Jian Yao’s heart upon hearing these words. She turned her head to look at Bo Jinyan. In the darkness, his profile was cold and stern, and his eyes were serenely fixed upon the lake in front of him.

“I can’t believe you actually understand him so well,” Jian Yao could not help but say. “It’s really like . . . like you are him.”

Bo Jinyan smiled slightly. “I will take that as a compliment. Dearest, to become a first-class criminal psychologist and expert profiler, I and the criminal mind must be as one.”

Jian Yao was somewhat taken aback.

Looking out over the lake, the local auxiliary police force had already started dredging operations. Fortunately, the lake was not very big, about a thousand square metres or so; they should be able to search the entire area thoroughly in one night. If Ke Ai was really there, after half a year, she should already have become nothing but bones.

It was still a long time before dawn. The two of them stood beside the lake for a while, and Jian Yao yawned. Bo Jinyan’s arm was across her shoulders, and he rubbed her neck gently. “Go and sleep.”

“What about you?” she asked.

“I should stay here and watch.”

“Ok, then I’ll sleep for a while and change places with you.”

Jian Yao crawled into the car, lay down on the back seat and pulled his coat over her. Watching her through the window, Bo Jinyan saw her curl up into a ball, and suddenly laughed.

Jian Yao asked softly, “What are you laughing at?”

“Nothing,” he replied.

Very quickly, Jian Yao fell asleep.

Bo Jinyan leaned against the car door and quietly looked into the distance.

On the horizon, a strip of white slowly appeared.

Jian Yao opened her eyes to discover that he was still standing outside the car. She hurriedly sat up and opened the car door to say, “Why didn’t you ask me to help you?”

There was a hint of laughter in his eyes as he replied, “It’s only one night. A man who is able to assume responsibility would not wake up a woman so that he himself can sleep.”

Jian Yao was speechless.

Ha, wanting to be the tough guy once in a while – this ‘defect’ certainly has not changed over the years!

She said softly, “Don’t be a hero; you haven’t slept well for the past two days! Even a god won’t be able to take it.”

Although his eyes were somewhat red and rimmed with dark circles, he still appeared to be in good spirits and clear-sighted. “The case will definitely be solved today, so I’ll sleep well when we get home.” He paused briefly and added in a low voice, “We’ll sleep together.”

Jian Yao could not hold back her smile.

A criminal investigator rushed over to them. “Professor Bo, Teacher Jian, we’ve dredged and searched the entire lake, but have not found anything.”

Jian Yao stared blankly.

Bo Jinyan pursed his lips soundlessly and walked forward to the water’s edge, lost in thought.

——

Fang Qing squatted on the floor. He didn’t know when it happened, but he unexpectedly fell asleep that way. It was only when his head abruptly jerked backwards and hit the table behind him that he started awake.

Looking up and out of the window, he saw that it was already bright. The forensic team was packing up, indicating that their work was almost done.

Fang Qing quickly stood up.

A criminal investigator at the side laughingly asked, “Team Leader Fang, you’ve been enduring hardship here and pondering over matters for half the night, did you manage to figure anything out?”

Although his thoughts were hardly clear at the moment, Fang Qing said profoundly, “The mysteries of heaven cannot be revealed.”

“Cheh!”

Seeing that it was time for the team to pack up, Fang Qing felt like he was stuck in a huge mess, and that the thread to unravel it all was just out of his reach. He lit a cigarette and followed the others out.

Qingdu University students were so diligent, there were several of them entering the laboratory building despite it being so early. Fang Qing walked past a student, then suddenly stood still. He turned his head and called, “Hey! Student!”

The student turned around in confusion. “What is it?”

Fang Qing stared at the black garbage bag in his hand, pointed at it and asked, “What’s that?”

“Experimental waste.”

“Where are you taking it?”

“The experimental waste dump on the first floor.”

Fang Qing started.

There was a rubbish bin in the room that Ke Qian had been in. The contents had been taken away by the forensic investigators, so Fang Qing had not thought of the dump. He took out his cell phone and called Zhu Momo straightaway.

“Student Zhu, I’d like to confirm something with you. When you were conducting the experiment yesterday afternoon, did you throw away the experimental waste? Was it in a big, black bag?”

Zhu Momo replied, “Yes, Ke Ai threw it away.”

“At what time?”

“4 something, almost 5.”

Fang Qing was gleeful. Good rascal, that’s about the right time. He told the other police officers, “You go back first.” Then, he headed for the first floor.

Soon, he arrived at the experimental waste dump that the student had spoken of. It was a room in the corner. Fang Qing stood at the door and took in the tall piles of black bags, each at least half a person’s height. He sighed, put on his gloves and a mask, and got to work.

At the same time, An Yan and Gu Fangfang were standing in the storeroom of her cosplay studio.

Before them was a dazzling array of costumes, as well as swords, axes, army banners . . . all kinds of props. An Yan started examining each costume while Gu Fangfang stood quietly behind him. After a while, he realised that many of the female costumes were extremely revealing.

Although he himself was quite familiar with the fantasy world of anime and had seen many such costumes, at the moment, the costumes in front of him, coupled with the girl standing behind him, caused him to suddenly feel as if the clothes he held were scorching his hand.

“Do you normally wear these?” An Yan asked out of the blue.

“Not so much,” Gu Fangfang replied. “I mostly cosplay in traditional costumes.”

“Oh.” An Yan took two steps forward and suddenly smiled slightly.

Gu Fangfang observed him from behind. A man in his early twenties, tall and thin, with a pale face, wearing a well-ironed shirt, as if he was the male protagonist of a book who had walked out of the pages. She had heard the other police officers saying that he was a deft hand at checking surveillance footage. Although it was a simple job and did not require much intelligence, it showed that he was diligent . . .

While her thoughts were circling aimlessly, her head abruptly bumped into An Yan’s back and she flushed. An Yan looked back and glanced at her wordlessly.

It turned out that he had suddenly stopped walking. He pointed at a row of objects lined up against the wall. “What are those?”

“Oh, those are mannequins,” Gu Fangfang replied.

An Yan fell silent and walked over with her to examine the puppets. There were four of them in total, each one about the size of an actual person, and all were female. From a distance, it looked as if four beautiful women were standing there gracefully. On closer inspection, though, the differences between the mannequins and actual people were discernible. The body consisted of several sections joined together, and the lines between the sections were obvious. However, the mannequins’ wigs were definitely made from human hair, black and soft. The mannequins’ skin was even paler than that of actual people, and shone with a lustrous radiance as it reflected the light. Their eyes quietly surveyed him, as if they would come to life at any moment. It was actually quite creepy.

An Yan looked carefully at each one. Gu Fangfang noticed his sombre expression and did not make a sound. When he reached the last mannequin, An Yan stood stock still. This one seemed to be somewhat different from the other three. The body had more joints, and there were really tiny holes in the back of the head, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees, ankles and other joints. Of course, these did not escape An Yan’s notice.

“What is this?” An Yan asked.

“Oh,” Gu Fangfang replied, “this is a marionette.”

Photo courtesy of Anks. Anyone recognise him?