The Amber Part 1
Do you believe that humans can be tamed?
On Monday, Yang Man fell asleep on her office desk first thing in the morning, slacking on her job in a grand display. Sheng Yao pa.s.sed by, pointing at the unconscious beautiful Lady Yang and looked at Shen Yexi in astonishment. Shen Yexi turned his head to the side to laugh, whispering, "What else could it be? She was probably forced by her mother to matchmake again last night and didn"t have a proper sleep. Look at that pair of high-heels on her feet. Not her usual style, right? How pitiful."
Sheng Yao made a face, expressing sympathy, but in actuality, he was enjoying her suffering. But even so, his deeply-rooted habits made him unable to bear looking at a beautiful woman sleep like this. So he lightly took his jacket hanging at the side to drape on Yang Man.
Jiang Hu asked, "What do you do when you "matchmake"?"
Shen Yexi had a mouthful of tea in his mouth and he nearly spat it out. Sheng Yao mimed hitting the table.
Su Junzi sighed, pulling out the patience used for his daughter in kindergarten to educate him about general affairs in life, "Matchmaking is a type of activity, where, under their parents" arrangement, single men and women who are initially strangers will get to know each other, have a meal or interact with each other for a period of time and then decide if they should have a romantic relationship with each other with the precondition of getting married."
Look at this person"s definition. So professional that it was like it was from the women"s a.s.sociation. Jiang Hu nodded his head in a way that seemed like he did or did not understand. He pointed at Yang Man and asked in a whisper, "Just a meal and interacting with each other for a while? Then why would Yang-jie be this tired?"
The other three men"s gazes land on Yang Man, carrying an unexplainable compa.s.sion. Finally, the involved party"s gloomy voice came from beyond her arms. "Because last night alone, I saw four matchmaking candidates."
Yang Man"s eyes were unfocused as she sat up, uncaring of her appearance as she yawned. She hugged Sheng Yao"s jacket in her arms as she rubbed against it. "Sheng-gongzi, allow this servant comfort her little wounded heart with your scent and warmth— Mamma mia, the fourth one last night was even a night owl who twisted facts around. He invited me to meet at the bar in the middle of the night—at midnight—and said that he was an author. That the night can give him his muse."
"People at this time and location are all so unreliable. You really went?" Shen Yexi asked.
"I didn"t want to go. I was in the middle of sleeping when my mother banged on my door with a slipper as though she was demanding me to pay my debt." Yang Man sighed melancholically. "She grabbed me by my ear, dragged me to the washroom and pushed me into the basin and nearly drowned me. And then, she threw the clothes and cosmetics at me, and also valiantly and gallantly shoved me into a taxi!"
The few people present shuddered. Actually… This matter of the beautiful great Lady Yang being unable to marry, half of it was due to the efforts of this abnormally valiant mother, right?
Sheng Yao sat down beside her. "What about his calibre? How was his calibre?"
"Calibre?" Yang Man still felt that her eyelids were a little heavy, so she vigorously blinked before yawning yet again. "That brother was quite high-spirited. At midnight, he went from Friedrich Nietzsche"s life philosophy[1] to his new novel. After drinking high, he started reciting modern poems. Something about sheep and goats and the gra.s.sy fields. I think, eight in ten, he was the one who directed the Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf. Luckily, the bar closed at 2:30. How was he so talkative? He nearly made me drown to death from his saliva spluttering everywhere."
Sheng Yao made fun of her. "How very profound. You can just put up with him."
Yang Man rolled her eyes. "No, no. I"m only a common person and I can"t take such a fulfilling and profound life. Moreover, that one looked like he got hit by a door and still hadn"t recovered yet. It was truly terrifying looking at him in the pitch-black darkness, making it impossible to even have some alcohol to numb my senses."
The people couldn"t help snickering. Although the degree of destruction from Yang-jie"s mouth couldn"t be compared to An Yining"s, but in a situation where she was disgusted to the point of erupting in anger, it would perform beyond its usual standard and was also rather useful to lift everyone"s boredom.
"The modern tale of the Beauty and the Beast." Sheng Yao critiqued.
Jiang Hu laughed. "I just read this story yesterday."
The people looked at Jiang Hu with a gaze used to look at a pitiful child unable to go to school. Jiang Hu added, "Really, since it was still the weekend yesterday, I volunteered in a program for a children"s hospital advertised on the net and read the story in their activity room."
"What in the world did you do when you were young?"
Jiang Hu"s brows slightly furrowed before immediately smoothing out. It was so quick that it was barely noticeable, and they returned to the expression with unreadable emotions. "When I was young, I enrolled in school earlier than normal, so I didn"t really read much stories for children."
Yet another unlucky child who had their childhood ruined because of the so-called "early education for gifted children".
Yang Man lay on the table, telling Jiang Hu, "My heart is aching, my heart is aching so badly, little cutie! Right, do you have a girlfriend? Would you consider jiejie here?"
Jiang Hu, who was suddenly called, seemed to be a little unused to the quickness of the change in topic, looking at Yang Man with a face full of innocence. Shen Yexi laughed, helping him get out of it. "Yang-jie, how can your heart bear with bullying kids?"
Yang Man didn"t relent. "I"ve seen thousands of unreliable ones and I still like honest kids like our little cutie." She winked at Jiang Hu. "You don"t think jiejie is too old right?"
Jiang Hu actually lowered his head in seriousness to think about it for a while. Just as everyone were all waiting to laugh at him, he suddenly raised his head to say, "Yang-jie, you"re actually joking, right?"
Sheng Yao"s hand supporting his chin fell on the table as he looked at Jiang Hu in blankness. Shen Yexi"s head was already lowered, shoulders shaking suspiciously. Su Junzi shook his head as he laughed. Yang Man took a moment before beginning to hit the table.
At this time, the door was fiercely slammed open. An Yining carried a stack of files in her arms as she threw them on Shen Yexi"s office desk in a bad mood. Yang Man"s eyes were still br.i.m.m.i.n.g with tears of laughter. "Ningning, why were you in the Chief"s office for such a long time?"
"s.h.i.tty old head, using official business to publicly interfere with my personal affairs." An Yining"s face looked utterly terrific, mimicking him eccentrically, "You have to mind your image as civil police. Don"t go around with shady people at odds with society. Pah, who didn"t mind their image as the civil police? Someone like him, practically an experienced gangster who sneaked into the police force, didn"t even think about…" Exactly who was the one still colluding with the underground!
An Yining still bit her tongue from saying the latter half of the sentence in the end. After all, the content was discordant, not quite suitable to be spread among all the people.
Su Junzi and Shen Yexi shared a glance, knowing that this meant that the fact that An Yining"s boyfriend was from the underground was exposed. It probably made her father voice out and interfere.
"Alright, I won"t talk about it anymore. Once I do, I"ll get irritated." An Yining waved her hand, pointing at the files on Shen Yexi"s desk. "Just now, after the old head finished nagging, he threw another case at me. Head Shen, take a look."
Shen Yexi"s expression turned solemn. "What"s wrong?"
The few people held back their joking mood and moved closer. An Yining said, "Do you still remember that when our group just formed, we caught someone, the Amber Killer, called Wu Ju?"
"That s.a.d.i.s.t?" Su Junzi furrowed his brows.
Shen Yexi told Jiang Hu, "It"s a case from three years ago. A perverse s.a.d.i.s.t. Violated and killed six young boys and girls."
Jiang Hu nodded. "I know."
…If you knew, why didn"t you say earlier. Made me waste my saliva.
"Wu Ju liked the sweet-looking kind of long-haired girls or tall and clean-looking young boys. Every time he killed someone, he"ll eviscerate their organs and eat them. Then, he"ll st.i.tch their bodies back before soaking them in formalin to preserve them, believing that this would allow them to remain for eternity." Sheng Yao said, making a disgusted expression before asking again, "What"s the matter with this degenerate?"
An Yining opened a file folder, taking out a few photographs. They were all young teenage girls, and she arranged them on the desk photograph by photograph. "These girls were first reported missing in the past year. A total of four people. The local police put it in the records and had been helping with the search, but there were no clues until a few days ago. A construction worker didn"t want to take the long way to the public washroom and happened to spot an abandoned warehouse at the side. He thought it was on the way so he went in and in the end, he found a few huge gla.s.s tanks containing human corpses soaking inside."
An Yining paused for a while, seeming quite unused to it. "Naked, organs cut out, bodies were st.i.tched back and soaked in formalin…"
"A worshipper? Mimicking his murders?" Yang Man asked.
An Yining took out another photograph. There was only a patch of naked, pale white skin of the stomach. Rows and rows of dense st.i.tches that could even be called delicate were on the skin. The people were stunned.
That skill in st.i.tching skin was exactly the same as the corpses they s.n.a.t.c.hed from Wu Ju"s hands.
Su Junzi felt his throat was a little dry. "But Wu Ju has already been convicted… And his death penalty was already executed two years ago."
An Yining nodded. "An ordinary missing and abducted case thus turned into a serial case and was pa.s.sed into our hands. A small reporter—who knows how—heard a word or two and wrote a commentary, t.i.tled "A revived killer, or a s.a.d.i.s.tic inheritor". Humph, anyway, the old head is now in a complete bad mood. Whenever he encounters th.o.r.n.y problems, his temper would be bad and would vent it all on me."
Shen Yexi then said, the moment he woke up today, his eyelids started twitching, and sure enough, there was no good news. He sighed and stood up. "Sheng Yao, and also Junzi, the two of you, work a little harder. Go to Shinan prison, see what kind of people that old man, Wu Ju, came into contact with when he was in prison. Yang-jie, you and Yining can stay in the office first and review the case back then. Then, collect the information of these new victims and compare them. Jiang Hu, the abandoned warehouse. Let"s go."
Yang Man had an objection then. "I say, Leader, why is it that in the recent fieldwork, you always like to bring our little Jiang? Running left and right and working hard isn"t even in his job scope. My heart that was tormented by my mother hasn"t even been comforted yet."
Shen Yexi didn"t even turn his head. "It"s fine. You can put your heart aside first. We"ll talk about it when the case is closed. After all, no one wants to eat it."
The people made disgusted noises in unison.
Translator Note:
[1]: Do note that while in 2013, there was a book t.i.tled Friedrich Nietzsche"s Life Philosophy published in Chinese, since this novel was written and completed in 2010, it"s clear that priest didn"t mean the book per se but his actual philosophy.