Pristine Darkness

The final straw that broke the camel’s back was the rumour about Nie Shijun from her old hometown that reached Chen Jin’s ears . When she was in high school, a girl killed herself because of her . The person sharing the rumour had made it sound highly plausible, that Nie Shijun had encouraged the girl, incited her to kill herself, and then had withdrawn from her .

Chen Jin had finally found the reason, the reason compelling him to take action . Nie Shijun had already made it clear that she intended to enmesh herself in Feng Yuexi’s life for her entire lifetime! What would happen if her love turned to hatred and she made threats against Feng Yuexi’s life? This was highly likely . A lifetime was so long, it would be better to deal with this problem at some stage!

Otherwise, this would become the blemish in his life . He could have had a perfect family . A beautiful and fashionable wife who respected and adored him . Then, they would have had two outstanding children, just as outstanding as he was . . .

“Why a b.u.t.terfly?” Fang Qing asked .

Behind the dark gla.s.s separating them from the interrogation room, Bo Jinyan and Jian Yao also waited for his response .

Chen Jin fell silent for a heartbeat before replying, “Because . . . I like it . ”

When did it start? From his youth, when he had seen a b.u.t.terfly fluttering freely in the mountains? Chen Jin could no longer remember clearly . He only knew that he was fascinated by the b.u.t.terfly’s pitch-black, merciless compound eyes . He always felt that the depths of those pitch-black eyes hid a secret which no one could know about, a secret belonging to another world .

So, that day, he also saw a b.u.t.terfly, in his monstrous and multicoloured dream . He saw a youth, standing, wielding a knife, a b.u.t.terfly landing on his shoulder . That scene was so familiar, and he always felt that he had seen it before . Was it in a past life, or a sign from heaven?

When he awoke, he was struck by a sudden realisation . He was almost crazily excited about his intelligence and creativity .

A b.u.t.terfly killer; he should disguise himself as a b.u.t.terfly killer . The relationship between Nie Shijun and Feng Yuexi was hidden so deeply, no one would know about it . He only needed to pretend to be a serial killer, like those commonly seen on television . In that way, he could evade police attention .

This plan was indeed perfect, he thought .

This world, this life, were all too perfect .

——

Compared to Chen Jin, the other male lead in this story, Shi Peng, was much quieter . He had gained permission to smoke a cigarette in the interrogation room . After a long silence, he said, “I never thought that they would come to this . I totally didn’t expect Chen Jin to kill someone!”

Fang QIng asked, “Did you know about the relationship between Feng Yuexi and Nie Shijun beforehand?”

Shi Peng shook his head . “In the past few years, I’ve been very busy at work . Initially, I actually thought something was a little off about Nie Shijun, and I did talk to Chen Jin to try to figure it out, but I didn’t really think deeply about it . ”

Fang Qing asked, “What’s your relationship with Feng Yuexi been like in the past few years?”

Shi Peng pressed his hand against his forehead and replied, “Nothing good to speak of . It’s true that I’ve liked her for many years; this is something all of our friends are aware of . However, I felt that she was changing bit by bit . She was -how do I put it – money-mad . Actually, Chen Jin doesn’t know it, but I kissed Feng Yuexi in high school, and she liked me a lot as well . If I had wanted to, I might have succeeded in pursuing her . But, I went to work in the factory, and she gradually drifted apart from me . I was also very busy then . Slowly, I achieved some success, and she also graduated and came back, so we met each other more often .

“She regularly received gifts from Nie Shijun?”

Shi Peng paused momentarily before nodding . “Yes . Sometimes, when she was with us, she would even take out the items to look at, and say who had given her this ring, this bag . . . ”

It was from this time that he started to feel this love was a little shallow .

“I felt she wasn’t doing the right thing, and even told her so several times . However, she never seemed to take my words to heart . ” Shi Peng continued, “In fact, I still like her very much . After all, it’s been so many years . She was the G.o.ddess a lot of people worshipped when we were young . However, I slowly became less interested . After all, relationships between people are controlled by fate . But, I really don’t understand how they could kill people over something like this! Even killing innocent people to cover up the truth! That’s a crime, that’s murder! I feel like I don’t know them anymore; how on earth is this happening?

……

Fang Qing asked, “Chen Jin said he always saw b.u.t.terflies in his younger days when he was on the mountain in your old hometown . It was also during this time that he started to obsess over b.u.t.terflies . From your observation, is this the way it was?” Jian Yao had given him the privilege of asking this question .

He handed several of the photographs of the crime scene to Shi Peng .

These photographs had never been made public, and Shi Peng’s eyes grew wide as he looked at them . As he looked at the ice-cold body lying in the middle of the b.u.t.terfly design, he felt his eyes bulging out of their sockets and his entire body shivering uncontrollably .

“It . . . seems so,” he murmured .

——

The office in the afternoon was silent and still . The coffee machine that An Yan had brought from the villa gurgled away, filling the room with the fragrance of coffee .

Bo Jinyan sat ramrod straight, the reader in his hand once again going through the interrogation transcripts of Chen Jin and Shi Peng . When the mechanical voice of the reader stopped, he took off the device and said, in a voice that expressed both regret and interest, “This is an interesting phenomenon, fully confirming the conclusions on childhood education in relation to criminal psychology . ”

Jian Yao, who was sitting by the table, looked up at him . Only the two of them were in the room at the moment . As if confident of her interest, he continued to speak, straightforwardly and with a.s.surance . “Shi Peng’s life was not smooth-sailing . His grades were not good, he failed the college entrance examinations, he liked to fight and provoke trouble, and he graduated to become a resoundingly ordinary worker . However, step by step, he started on the right path, changed his life and became an engineer . In addition, he held the correct ‘three views’ of life* and the right perspective in choosing a life partner, he handled his affairs calmly, and he was psychologically stable .

*T/N 三观 (san guan) – lit . three views . This refers to one’s world view (what do you think of this world?), one’s outlook on life (what do you think people are alive for?), and one’s values (what do you think is the most meaningful?) . In choosing a mate, it is generally held that one’s ‘three views’ should align with the other person’s, but we all know real life doesn’t necessarily work that way . An interesting article here .

From a young age, Chen Jin had always been a good student, the shining role model everyone looked to . He almost never allowed himself to make a mistake, and in the major issues of life: going to school, looking for a job . . . he also seemed to have never erred . Thus, when he encountered setbacks – the sense of emptiness and disappointment at work, as well as his love being rebuffed – he had absolutely no way to overcome them . These long-held notions of him being ‘outstanding’ and ‘never making a mistake’ led to his long-term repression . He loves b.u.t.terflies because they symbolise ‘freedom’ and ‘desire’ . In the end, after many rounds of conflict and provocation between him and Nie Shijun, he burst out and killed others .

It can be seen that the elite education system in our country needs to be reviewed . I have heard that many parents nowadays place great demands on their children, insisting that they excel in every aspect . But, people always make mistakes . Based on this, someone who has made small mistakes has a stronger capability to overcome the effects of setbacks . On the other hand, a person who has never made mistakes is dangerous . This means he completely lacks the experience and resolve to face setbacks . Although Chen Jin is a murderer due to pa.s.sion, he is also a typical example of the failure of children’s education .

I think that you and I should not be this kind of parent in the future . We must allow our Bo Jian or Bo Yao to make mistakes as they grow up, then they will be able to live a truly robust life . ”

Bo Jian and Bo Yao – these were the names for their eventual children which they had come up with during a conversation before they were married . Jian Yao did not expect him to mention them out of the blue like this . She looked at his profile and noticed how tranquil he looked beneath his sungla.s.ses, like a person to whom nothing had ever happened . It was as if they were still at home, having an absolutely ordinary conversation . And, they had never been separated .

Jian Yao suddenly felt a faint sadness twinge through her and did not speak .