Chapter 327: A Desperate Cure for a Desperate Illness

“Boss, the victim’s awake,” Guo Qiang’s voice snapped Xiao Yu out of his thoughts.

“Awake? That’s pretty damn timely.”

He stood up, grabbed He Li, and headed straight for the hospital. As for Feng Xiuyun, she could stay put at the Criminal Investigation Brigade. If she actually managed to escape, the entire team of detectives might as well slit their own throats.

The police car sped through the streets, reaching the hospital in fifteen minutes.

The moment Xiao Yu stepped into the ward, the sound of screaming filled the air. A frail woman thrashed on the bed, held down by an elderly couple—her parents.

Nearby, the medical staff looked helpless and uneasy.

The woman was hysterical, like a mental patient in crisis.

Without hesitation, Xiao Yu strode forward.

His hand clamped around her throat, pinning her to the bed. His voice was ice-cold.

“Do you have any idea how worried sick your parents have been? All you think about is dying, running away from this world, but have you ever thought about the ones still alive? Why are you so damn selfish? You want to die? Fine. But tell me, what about your parents? How the hell are they supposed to go on without you? You’ve lived under their care all these years, have you ever repaid them? Even a damn dog knows to bark for its owner, what about you?”

Smack!

A sharp slap landed across the woman’s face.

Xiao Yu’s voice remained cold and unyielding.

“Wake up. I know you’re scared. I know you’re suffering. But if you’re in pain, then scream, then cry! And after that, let’s go find that bastard. Let’s rip him apart, piece by piece. And then, we move the hell on. How about that?”

Silence.

Everyone in the room was stunned. They stared at Xiao Yu, at the woman he had just slapped and scolded.

They couldn’t understand.

Hadn’t she suffered enough? Why was he yelling at her, hitting her?

Her parents’ faces were filled with rage and were just about to charge at him.

And then…

“Waaah!”

A heart-wrenching wail filled the room as the woman threw herself into Xiao Yu’s arms, sobbing uncontrollably.

“It’s okay now. It’s over.”

Xiao Yu didn’t push her away. He let her cry, his voice calm and steady.

“Don’t worry. As long as we’re here, no one will ever hurt you again. And not just that, we’ll find that bastard. When we do, I’ll make sure you see exactly what happens to him. I promise you, whether he ends up at the execution ground or not, his life will be worse than death.”

“Wu wu wu…”

The woman clung to Xiao Yu, her sobs continuing, as if finally releasing everything she had been holding in.

But anyone with eyes could see she was calmer now.

She was no longer hysterical, no longer trapped in the madness that had consumed her moments ago.

No one spoke.

They simply watched in silence, unwilling to interrupt. More than half an hour passed before she finally let go of Xiao Yu.

“Th-thank you… I feel much better now.”

Xiao Yu grinned. “So… you want to kill him?”

Her body trembled. Her hands clenched into fists. Then, with gritted teeth, she nodded fiercely.

“Yes!”

“That’s the spirit.” Xiao Yu’s expression turned ice-cold. “From now on, you answer everything I ask. When the doctors examine you, let them. Trust me, I’ll find that piece of trash. And when I do…” 

His eyes darkened. “We’ll make sure he pays.”

“Yes!”

A fierce light burned in her eyes. A light filled with hatred.

***

Two hours later.

He Li stepped out of the hospital room and spotted Xiao Yu standing by the window at the end of the corridor.

“Honestly, I’m starting to think I should study psychology.” She walked up to him, a hint of curiosity in her expression. “You yelled at her, berated her, even got rough, yet somehow, she’s snapped out of it. How did you do that?”

“Perception, emotion, willpower, cognition, personality, behavior…” Xiao Yu shifted his gaze from the setting sun outside and turned to He Li. “There are many ways to comfort someone. Gentleness isn’t the only method. A serious illness needs strong medicine. If I hadn’t shocked her awake, she wouldn’t have broken free from her demons. And once those demons shattered, she came back to herself.”

“I don’t understand a word of that,” He Li admitted with a grin, “But it sounds impressive.” 

Then, her smile faded. “She was definitely assaulted. The evidence is clear. The injuries are severe. She suffered extensive tearing down there. But that’s exactly what doesn’t make sense. First off, she’s not a virgin, which means under normal circumstances, this level of injury shouldn’t have happened. Even with sheer force, even with an unusually strong man… it still doesn’t add up.”

Xiao Yu frowned, immediately grasping what she meant. “You’re saying…”

He Li nodded, her expression puzzled. “Even if the perpetrator was foreign, it still wouldn’t explain the extent of the damage. Something’s very wrong here.”

Xiao Yu’s mind raced.

She was right.

Inflicting some tearing? Possible.

But this level of damage? A man alone couldn’t have done this.

Then what was used?

His thoughts shifted. His analysis deepened until he suddenly remembered the case from five years ago.

The one where police scoured surveillance footage and found nothing. Because back then, they had only been searching for men or men disguised as women. That was the logical assumption. Only a man could have assaulted the victims.

But now something didn’t add up.

Xiao Yu narrowed his eyes

“He Li, is it possible that the one who did this wasn’t a man at all but rather, an object?”

Who said assaulting a woman required a man?

Why couldn’t it have been a woman?

With the use of tools, the result could be almost identical. And those very tools could easily cause such severe tearing injuries.

“This…”

He Li hesitated, then, after a moment of thought, her expression shifted to shock. Still, she nodded. “It’s possible.”

Xiao Yu’s gaze sharpened.

Everything was starting to connect.

Back then, the police had focused solely on male suspects. That was why they found nothing. They never even considered the possibility that the perpetrator could be a woman.

Human thinking was predictable.

When the word assault came up, people immediately assumed male-on-female or male-on-male crimes.

Who the hell would think of female-on-female?

Who would ever suspect a woman of targeting three other women?

And that explained everything. It explained why the victims were blindfolded, and why the perpetrator never spoke. 

Because if their eyes weren’t covered and if they heard a single word they would’ve immediately realized the truth.

It was a woman.

A cold smile crept across Xiao Yu’s lips. And then, a figure flashed through his mind.

The woman in red.