El agente insensato

Capítulo 18

"So, from the beginning, we determined that there was a connection between them. Because the scale was so large, the places involved were so many, and they were all in the southern provinces and cities, the higher-ups even suspected that it was sabotage carried out by the other side of the strait, with a deeper political motive. However, as more and more criminals were arrested, and each criminal was investigated very thoroughly, we could not find any connection between them at all."

"Really no connection at all?" I asked, frowning.

After hearing what Wang Maoyuan said, everyone would feel that there must be a connection between them.

Wang Maoyuan gave a bitter smile: "Our criminal investigators refused to believe there was no connection, conducting interrogations again and again, trying to break through psychological barriers from every angle. But in the end, there was nothing to break through, so naturally, they got nothing. From their professions and family backgrounds to the people they might have come into contact with, there were basically no points of intersection. Let alone ordinary people who hadn't received counter-investigation training, even if they were highly trained spies, even if they refused to confess, it was impossible not to leave suspicious traces. Moreover, it wasn't just one or two; there were hundreds in Shanghai alone, and the total number of suspects across all locations reached four figures. Organizing so many people couldn't have been done without leaving clues; that's not something a human could do. In the end, we could only admit that it was all just a coincidence."

"Coincidence?" I thought to myself, but Liu Er said exactly what I was thinking: "Many things are concluded to be coincidences only because the hidden connections haven't been found yet."

Although I agreed with Liu Er in my heart, his words were incredibly disrespectful to my master. I glared at him and said, "Don't talk nonsense. If even professional criminal investigators can't find any clues, it's probably just a coincidence. There are many coincidences in this world."

Wang Maoyuan laughed and said, "If I hadn't had doubts, I wouldn't have held onto this for so many years. At that time, although the investigation results came out, many people still couldn't believe it, so they specially transferred me, who does psychological analysis, into the task force to study the psychology of the perpetrators, hoping to find a breakthrough in this area."

"Has your research yielded any breakthroughs?" I asked, though I didn't really have high hopes. Wang Maoyuan himself had said that he still hadn't found the answers to the questions surrounding this matter.

Sure enough, Wang Maoyuan shook his head and said, "I haven't found the answer, but I have more and more doubts. Take Zhang Jinlong, whom you are looking for, for example. He is a serious criminal, and I have also studied him. Before you came, I even found my old notes."

He took out a very ordinary yellowed workbook, the pages of which were already slightly yellowed.

One page of the notebook had a small folded corner. Wang Maoyuan turned to that page and handed it over.

Liu Er took the notebook. I turned my head; it was densely covered with writing—Zhang Jinlong was born in 1958, and his performance in school was outstanding. He was excellent in both character and academics, and his high school teachers had a deep impression of him. By the standards of that time, his character was very sound. In 1977, Zhang Jinlong was a senior in high school and took the reinstated college entrance examination, gaining admission to the architecture department of a prestigious university in Shanghai. During his university years, he began a relationship with Wang, a high school classmate studying history at a university in Beijing. They corresponded regularly, and their relationship developed steadily. Unexpectedly, at the end of May 1981, just before his graduation, he suddenly went berserk, raping two students, Guo and You, on the university campus before fleeing. He was arrested a month later. During this period, he committed seventeen rapes and three attempted rapes.

Liu Er, who was struggling to decipher the handwriting in the notebook, suddenly looked up at Wang Maoyuan and asked, "What's the name of that female student, You, who was raped?"

"Well, even though so many years have passed, according to regulations, we cannot disclose the victim's specific name."

"Is her name You Fang?"

“Mr. Wang, my friend’s mother is very likely a victim of Zhang Jinlong’s rape case. Her name is You Fang,” I added.

“Oh… I can’t remember anymore, but I can check with the station later. All I can remember is that the two girls who were raped dropped out of school soon after.” Wang Maoyuan glanced at Liu Er and sighed, “What a tragedy. But this Zhang Jinlong, we can’t find any motive for his crimes. Shortly before he committed the crimes, he had arranged a job for his girlfriend of four years in Shanghai so they could reunite. The two girls he raped were a first-year and a second-year student, they didn’t know each other before, let alone had any connection or conflict. From any perspective, he had no reason to do this. Moreover, he committed so many crimes while on the run, which is beyond madness and is completely different from his behavior over the years. And Zhang Jinlong is just one of many criminals. Most of the other criminals also had no reason to commit their crimes. The notebook you are looking at now contains some of my conversations with Zhang Jinlong, which have been organized and are relatively complete.”

I turned my gaze back to the notebook. The contents of this conversation, written more than twenty years ago, looked quite strange.

"I don't know what's wrong with me, it's like I'm possessed. I actually did such a thing. I don't dare to think about my parents now, and I don't dare to think about her at all."

"What were you thinking when you committed your first crime? Did you have any pent-up emotions?"

Feeling unhappy?

"I didn't think much about it. It's like there's a demon inside me. About a year ago, my desires started to get stronger. I tried to control myself for a long time, but I couldn't take it anymore. When I saw that girl, I felt dizzy. And then..."

What kind of desire?

"Yeah, I'm so pent up, I want a woman." "Want to assault a complete stranger? Did you have any adolescent turmoil before?"

What exactly was that burning desire? Where did it come from? Everyone possesses some animalistic instinct to some degree, but as normal people living in civilized society, our environment and education suppress these instincts. The desire that Zhang Jinlong described as capable of breaching the dam of reason is very rare, especially considering Zhang Jinlong's past experiences; his rational defenses should be quite strong.

Wang Maoyuan waved the workbook that Liu Er had handed him at us: "These should have been very isolated cases, but they have appeared in large numbers. The vast majority of the arrested rapists mentioned experiencing this uncontrollable urge. You should know that most of them are people like Zhang Jinlong, with clean backgrounds and no motive for committing the crime."

"Could this be interpreted as sexual perversion?" I asked.

"It can be described as sexual perversion, but it is a sexual perversion for which no reason can be found. This perversion seems to appear at night and expand rapidly in a short period of time. However, there is no external cause during this period."

"So you did find the connection between these cases, didn't you?" I said.

"That's not wrong, but it's actually useless. From a psychoanalytic point of view, I can't explain how such a large-scale, intense sexual impulse could have arisen. I believe there must be a reason, but we haven't found it after so many years, and there haven't been any similar cases before or since. There are many veteran criminal investigators like me who have questions about the '4'23' rape gang case, but in the end we had to give up. The perpetrators were caught, but in a sense, it's an unsolved case."

For some reason, listening to Wang Maoyuan recount the story so slowly gave me a chill down my spine. This was a case from over twenty years ago, not a particularly heinous murder, but perhaps it was its sheer bizarre nature that gave me the goosebumps. This case involved far more than just thousands of criminals; just think about how many crimes these four-digit rapists committed, how many young girls' lives they ruined, how many families they affected—how can one not be horrified! The lives of hundreds of thousands of people were completely changed, but the cause remains a mystery to this day.

The perpetrators in this case were originally people like me who had never had any criminal thoughts. What triggered their bestiality?

For a moment, neither Liu Er nor I spoke, silently processing the shock brought about by this enormous unsolved case.

"Let alone you guys, even now when I talk about this incident again, I still feel a strange feeling. This is one of the two strange things that have left the deepest impression on me," Wang Maoyuan said.

"And what's the other thing?" I asked immediately. As soon as I asked, I realized I'd been a bit presumptuous; it had nothing to do with why we were here today.

“That one…” Wang Maoyuan’s expression became a little strange. “It’s alright to tell you. It happened around the same time as the ‘4.23’ case, and its nature is exactly the opposite of the ‘4.23’ case.”

"Exactly the opposite?" Wang Maoyuan's words piqued my interest.

“I have a friend who is a gynecologist and also studies female sexual psychology. She told me about this. In 1981 and 1982, a considerable number of women came to see me because of sudden frigidity. She initially thought it was a psychological problem, but couldn't find the cause. Some women who used to enjoy sex suddenly became averse to it. Even more outrageous, a small number of women even experienced atrophy of their reproductive system, with no pathological cause, as if it had atrophied naturally.”

"Um……"

Wang Maoyuan glanced at me and said, "Listening to this, doesn't it seem less bizarre than the 'April 23' rape case?"

I nodded, but Wang Maoyuan's question meant there was something he hadn't said.

Sure enough, Wang Maoyuan said, "But what if I told you that besides some women in Shanghai experiencing this, there are other provinces as well?"

While Wang Maoyuan was speaking, I was already stunned. By the time he finished reciting a string of province names, my mouth was agape in an "O" shape.

Seeing my expression, Wang Maoyuan smiled with satisfaction and said, "The location of the onset of the disease completely overlaps with the '4.23' case."

Six Ears was also shocked and said, "Such a thing actually happened?!"

"This can only be considered a coincidence. After 1982, the number of people suffering from this disease decreased significantly. When my friend told me about this, we were both shocked when we compared places. But the two things are completely unrelated, so we had to keep it to ourselves. Okay, that's the end of the story. I wonder if you still want to look at the case file? I think I've explained it in enough detail because it's based on my personal experience, and some things may not even be in the case file."

I glanced at Liu Er; I couldn't make this decision for him.

"Then no need, thank you. But could you please help me check on that college student surnamed You? If her name isn't You Fang, then see if there's anyone with that name among the victims in Zhang Jinlong's rape case."

Liu Er said.

Wang Maoyuan nodded, then suddenly remembered something, raised his gray eyebrows, and said, "By the way, after this case was closed, I left some souvenirs. You two wait a moment, I'll see if there are any of Zhang Jinlong's belongings. If there are, I'll give them to you."

Liu Er and I exchanged a glance; this was indeed an unexpected discovery.

Wang Maoyuan walked out of the study, and after a while, he brought in a rather large wooden box.

He opened the wooden box and placed the contents one by one on the table.

It contained all sorts of odds and ends, including pens, pencils, paper scraps, bowls, notebooks, and so on.

“These are items used by some serious criminals in prison. I kept them after they were executed, as a way of commemorating this unsolved case. I’ve marked all these items. Let me see if any belong to Zhang Jinlong.”

Each item had a piece of adhesive tape with a name written on it in ballpoint pen. Now the writing is blurred and faded, making it difficult to read.

“Every time I encounter a major case, I keep some things behind, thinking that they will be a kind of memory when I get old. But now I’m old, and I haven’t taken them out to look at much. Instead, the house is full of clutter, and my wife has told me many times that I can’t bear to throw them away,” Wang Maoyuan said as he searched.

"Oh, I've got it, this is it. Zhang Jinlong, Zhang Jinlong's prison uniform." Wang Maoyuan stared at the adhesive bandage on a shirt for a long time before finally smiling and saying.

Liu Er took the garment, his movements a little stiff. I imagine he must have been overwhelmed with mixed feelings at that moment. It was a blue, coarse cloth vest. The fabric was quite sturdy, but it was badly worn, especially the front, where it was noticeably frayed and thinned in many places, and there were some holes.

Liu Er held the clothes in his hands and stared at them. This extremely ordinary vest seemed to possess a magic that could firmly attract him.

Judging from Liu Er's appearance, he probably won't be able to recover for a while. I picked up the other items to examine them more closely.

These are all very ordinary daily necessities. I don't have Wang Maoyuan's experience, so I don't feel much when I see these things. But thinking about the kind of people who use these things makes me feel a little uncomfortable.

When I picked up a pen to look at it, I couldn't help but let out a "Huh?"

This is a homemade ballpoint pen. The pen body is a thin steel tube with one end open. I don't know what it was originally used for. Now I've inserted a plastic ballpoint pen refill, wrapped it with adhesive tape to hold it in place, and now it can write.

What I find strange is not the pen's simplicity, but the steel tube that forms the pen's body.

"What's wrong?" Wang Maoyuan asked.

Liu Er also turned his head around.

While wondering if I was making a mountain out of a molehill, I pointed out my discovery to them: "I'm wondering why this place is so worn out."

At the end of the pen, where the steel tube is sealed, it appears to have been carefully polished; the rounded edges have been smoothed out, making it appear smaller. Due to the significant amount of material removed, a small hole has even been created in one spot, allowing a glimpse of the pen refill inside.

"This is, this is..." Wang Maoyuan stammered, snatched the pen away, and examined it over and over.

"It's like that person doesn't write with the tip of the pen, but always with the end; he'll probably just hold it around and rub it here and there when he has nothing to do," I said.

As soon as I finished speaking, Liu Er and Wang Maoyuan both looked up at me.

"What are you doing?" I was a little confused.

Bang! Wang Maoyuan slammed his fist on the table: "I actually missed such an important clue!"

So, the owner of this pen may have secretly carved something while in prison?

Wang Maoyuan looked at me and said, "I'm really ashamed. I'm a criminal investigator, yet I can't even match your eyesight."

I quickly shook my head: "No, didn't you say you didn't pay much attention to this box? Because you took detailed notes of the conversation, this box has no practical value to you, so you accidentally overlooked it."

Wang Maoyuan touched the adhesive tape on the label and sighed, "Wu Yuzhu, Wu Yuzhu. Why didn't I notice this when I put it on back then? If I had noticed it then, things might have been different."

"Actually, this may not be a clue at all, and what that person drew may not be related to this case."

Wang Maoyuan looked deeply troubled and shook his head. Suddenly remembering something, he slapped his thigh and said, "Hmm, the cells where they're being held are being cleared out for renovations right now, so maybe there's still time."

Wang Maoyuan acted on his idea immediately. He picked up the phone, dialed a number, inquired about the progress of the renovation project, and beamed with joy. He immediately agreed to go in and take a look first thing tomorrow morning.

"Can we go and take a look?" Wang Maoyuan asked Liu Er as soon as he hung up the phone.

“Okay.” Wang Maoyuan readily agreed. “Anyway, there’s construction going on inside, and no prisoners. With my connections, it’s no problem to take two people to take a look.”

"To be honest, how did you know that pile of books was going to fall when you first arrived at the Wang family's house?" I asked Liu Er on the way back, remembering the matter.

"I've already told you, it's intuition."

"Tch!" I scoffed, but then I noticed that Liu Er's expression was quite serious.

"Really, it's just a feeling. Or rather, a clearer one than ordinary intuition. When I saw that pile of books, I knew it was going to fall down soon, and I even knew the direction it would fall. Believe it or not, that's how it is."

"Is that so?" I looked at him suspiciously.

"Do you remember that time after we came out of the Civil Affairs Bureau, I suddenly exclaimed 'Huh?'" Liu Er said.

"Well, I only saw a child squatting down and crying."

"The child was hit on the head by a falling twig, and I had a vague premonition a few seconds before that. It was the first time I had ever had that feeling, so I was quite surprised to see that my intuition had actually come true."

I tried to recall, and it seemed that there were some tree branches next to the child that day.

“Actually, ever since you reminded me at the Civil Affairs Bureau that I can see things much faster than you, I’ve started paying attention. Indeed, my memory and observation skills have improved significantly compared to before. At the funeral home, I didn’t pay attention to the cremation records before and after Zhang Jinlong’s cremation, but when Lao Lu asked, I naturally remembered them. Also, do you think I’m always distracted, so you asked me if I’m hiding something from you?”

"Are you willing to talk now?"

“I’ve discovered that if I focus my attention on something, I can intuitively sense its state after a certain period of time, so I keep training myself. But to you, I always seem to be daydreaming. When I entered Wang Maoyuan’s study, my eyes swept over that pile of books and I felt something was wrong. Upon closer inspection, I realized the books were about to fall over. I was about to tell you about my situation, but I was afraid you wouldn’t believe me, so I’m reminding you to pay attention as a way of verifying it.”

"So now you've become a prophet?" I asked him in surprise.

"Not quite. I can just sense things that are unstable in advance, like a flowerpot that's about to fall over, or a bicycle that's about to hit a pedestrian. And it's not 100% accurate, but my prediction success rate is always over 90%."

"A long time ago, I had a guess about so-called human intuition. Would you like to hear it?" I recalled one of my hypotheses. As someone with boundless curiosity about the world, I've made many such assumptions.

"Of course, this must be related to my current state, right?"

"Intuition is actually just a judgment made by the human subconscious."