Chapter 83

"Is Chen Yuan'an currently in Dongzhou, and did he recently get married?" Fang Rui asked.

"Yes, how do you know?" Teacher Chen was a bit surprised. "He should be doing well now, right? He was my most promising student."

"Zhou Junwei attended Chen Yuan'an's wedding. If what you're saying is true, how could he have been invited to the wedding?" Fang Rui noticed a hole in his story.

"How would I know? I guess Zhou Junwei probably insisted on going, uninvited. That guy is very abnormal."

Zhang couldn't help but correct him: "Teacher Chen, you're an educator after all. It's not right to criticize your students like this. What era are we living in? Homosexuality has been declassified as a mental illness for over a decade. It's not good to discriminate like this."

Zhang's cousin had been bullied by classmates and teachers for being gay. Fortunately, his cousin was mentally strong and wasn't crushed by public opinion. Instead, he got into a good university and later studied abroad.

"He also abused small animals," Teacher Chen retorted. "What normal student would dissect a live rabbit in the classroom? Someone like him will eventually harm society."

Zhang fell silent. That was indeed a bit too abnormal.

"At that time, wasn't Zhou Junwei dating the class monitor?" Fang Rui asked.

Teacher Chen raised his voice: "Of course not. Chen Yuan'an personally reported to me that Zhou Junwei had sexually harassed him. Otherwise, I wouldn't have asked his parents to send him to a correction school for behavioral modification."

Fang Rui suspected that it was probably the class monitor's betrayal that twisted Zhou Junwei's psychology.

"Do you know Zhang Ming?" Fang Rui continued to ask.

"Zhang Ming?" Teacher Chen squinted, thought for a moment, then said, "I think he was in the same grade as Zhou Junwei. He was also a problem student. He was addicted to online games, always skipping classes, with terrible grades. He had been asked to leave school several times, but his mother kept making a fuss at the school, so he wasn't expelled. I heard that to get money for internet cafes, he chased his father with a knife for several blocks. The matter even ended up at the police station. This student will probably be a parasite on society too."

"Did they later transfer to Linzhou City?"

"I don't know. In the second semester of their second year of high school, Zhang Ming and Zhou Junwei were sent to a behavioral correction school. Zhou Junwei needed to change his abnormal sexual orientation and his morbid behavior of killing small animals, while Zhang Ming needed to overcome his internet addiction. After the behavioral correction, Zhou Junwei seems to have transferred to a high school in Linzhou City. I don't know about Zhang Ming, he might have dropped out. Zhang Ming's parents didn't care much about him."

"What was the name of that behavioral correction school?"

"Green Sprout Psychological Correction School. It's been closed for many years now."

After leaving the school, Fang Rui searched for information about this school online.

"My God, boss, this is too cruel," Zhang was also reading related reports. "Was this a legitimate school? They actually shocked students with electricity and fed them disgusting things. They called this aversion therapy? Could it be that Zhang Ming and Zhou Junwei became psychologically disturbed because of the abuse at this school?"

After reading those reports, Fang Rui also felt that this school was extremely cruel. The school was run like a military camp, with students only allowed in but not out, and parents were not allowed to visit. A large number of internet-addicted teenagers and students with behavioral problems were sent to this school for correction.

Most of the teachers there had no professional qualifications. Under the guise of psychological treatment, they abused students through electric shocks and forcing them to eat disgusting food, forcibly trying to correct students' bad behaviors.

Although this method achieved some results, such as many internet-addicted teenagers never wanting to touch a computer again after being sent to this school, many of these students developed severe psychological disorders, and some even committed suicide.

Later, a brave undercover journalist exposed the atrocities of this school, which led to its closure and legal punishment for the relevant personnel.

Zhang said, "Boss, it seems the killers must be Zhang Ming and Zhou Junwei. Zhou Junwei comes up with the ideas, and Zhang Ming is responsible for kidnapping the victims and disposing of the bodies."

Back at the bureau, Fang Rui immediately went to the task force's office, intending to report his findings to Captain Sun.

Sun Guangtian was arranging for Song Haiyang to bring Zhang Ming in for a thorough interrogation.

"Captain Sun, we suspect there are two killers..."

Sun Guangtian interrupted him: "Wait until I finish interrogating Zhang Ming, then you can report to me."

At this moment, Fang Rui suddenly received a call from the dispatcher.

"Captain Fang, it's not good. Two students from Jiangzhou Institute of Technology have been missing for a day. Because they are also a couple, their counselor is worried they might have been taken by the 'Couple Killer' that's been spreading online, so they quickly reported it to the police."

Sun Guangtian paused upon hearing the phone conversation. What's going on? Zhang Ming was already under his surveillance, how could he kidnap a couple?

Fang Rui contacted Old Zhang, who was tailing Zhou Junwei. Old Zhang reported that Zhou Junwei hadn't shown any unusual behavior in the past few days, so it was impossible for him to have kidnapped a couple.

Sun Guangtian also quickly contacted the officer tailing Zhang Ming, who stated that Zhang Ming had been going to and from work on time and returning home on time in the evenings. It seemed impossible for him to have kidnapped a couple right under their noses.

Fang Rui, Sun Guangtian, Zhang, and the others went to Jiangzhou Institute of Technology to investigate. This school was very close to Jiangzhou University.

The missing student couple was named Qin Lanlan and Li Dongguang. They had left in the morning yesterday and hadn't returned since. They hadn't asked for leave, nor had they told their roommates where they were going. Their phones were unreachable, and all their social media accounts were unresponsive. They were completely out of contact.

Fang Rui checked the school's surveillance footage. Like Wang Jie and Zhang Shuochen, they had also gotten into a taxi at the school gate. Based on the taxi's license plate number, they found the driver.

"I remember these two college students. They weren't quite right in the head. They asked me to take them to the foot of a mountain, then they just walked off with their backpacks. It was in the middle of nowhere, I don't know what they were going to do there."

"Didn't they say what they were going to do?"

"No. They were on their phones the whole time. They didn't talk. I even asked, but they ignored me, so I stopped trying to chat with them."

Fang Rui felt a headache coming on. Both suspects were under their surveillance, so how did this couple go missing? Could there be a copycat killer?

They had no choice but to allocate a large amount of police force to this missing persons case. The police even sent out a large number of personnel to search the mountains, determined to find this couple.

They couldn't allow any more victims! Otherwise, many people would be held accountable.

After a busy day with no results, Fang Rui returned to the police station around 10 PM. He found that Mu Mian hadn't left work yet and was having an academic discussion with Forensic Doctor Cheng. Fang Rui noticed that the two of them seemed to be getting along well.

Seeing Fang Rui, Mu Mian yawned and said to Forensic Doctor Cheng, "Doctor Cheng, I'm tired. I'm going home to sleep."

"Alright, goodbye." Forensic Doctor Cheng glanced at Fang Rui with an "I understand" expression.

Fang Rui had originally planned to stay and work overtime, but seeing Mu Mian, he decided to send her home first and then come back to work.

He wouldn't be able to sleep anyway until they found that couple.

Fang Rui drove Mu Mian home. As they were passing through a secluded stretch of road, his phone rang. He asked Mu Mian to answer it for him.

On the other end was Captain Li. Usually calm in temperament, his tone was now angry:

"Fang Rui, we found that couple. I'm about to explode with anger. Guess where they were? They were camping on the mountaintop! Think of how much police resources we wasted. We asked them why they didn't answer their phones, and guess what they said? They said they wanted to quietly enjoy the beauty of nature, so they put their phones on airplane mode. My God, what a waste! They even had the audacity to say we were making a big deal out of nothing. If someone hadn't held me back, I would have given them a good thrashing!"

"It's good that they've been found," Fang Rui sighed in relief. "Take everyone out for a late-night snack. Everyone must be tired and hungry after being so busy."

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Mu Mian hung up the phone for Fang Rui.

At this moment, the right front tire suddenly blew out. Fang Rui pulled over to the side of the road and got out to check.

The tire had been punctured by a broken bottle. As Fang Rui pulled out the shard of green glass, he found it strange. How could there be broken bottle pieces on a main road?