SFTD -Chapter 20 The Faceless Female Corpse (Final)

As he spoke, Captain Liu opened the door and rushed in first.

Zhou Hai opened his backpack, flipped open the first-aid kit, found an epinephrine auto-injector, and followed closely behind.

While the others were removing the handcuffs, Zhou Hai raised the injector and stabbed it into Wang Yu’s leg.

Captain Wang led his team in taking Wang Yu to the hospital.

Downstairs, Wang Yu’s mother stared blankly at her daughter being carried out, muttering in a daze,

“What…What happened? What happened?”

“She killed someone. Before being arrested, she ate peanuts to try to commit suicide and escape responsibility. Didn’t you know that?”

Zhou Hai asked coldly.

Wang Yu’s mother looked helplessly at everyone around her, shaking her head as tears streamed down her face.

That expression looked strikingly similar to Wang Yu’s former image as an obedient, well-behaved girl. It seemed that was exactly the persona Wang Yu had learned to imitate.

A police officer pulled her toward a patrol car and headed to the hospital as well.

Xu Biao glanced sideways at Zhou Hai.

“Doc— uh… Hai-zi, that life-saving thing just now was expensive, right?”

He had almost blurted out Zhou Hai’s nickname and instantly broke into a sweat.

“…”

Zhou Hai looked at him in confusion.

“Come on! That pen you pulled out earlier!”

Zhou Hai nodded slightly.

“Very expensive. More than three hundred U.S. dollars.”

Xu Biao smacked his lips.

“What a wasteful thing. That much money gone with one jab. Can the center reimburse that? I’m gonna go find someone to reimburse it! Captain Liu! Captain Liu, wait up!”

June 27th, 3:00 PM

Zhou Hai was holding a humerus bone, teaching Xiao Liang how to estimate age from skeletal features other than the pubic symphysis.

When the desk phone rang, he gestured for Xu Biao to answer it.

After finishing the explanation, Zhou Hai and Xu Biao stood in the courtyard smoking.

Xu Biao exhaled a ring of smoke and spoke heavily.

“Captain Wang called. Wang Yu is out of danger now. She confessed to everything in detail… much more thoroughly than before.”

It turned out that Wang Yu’s parents and Zhong Yishan’s parents were coworkers, all government officials from the Land Bureau and Construction Bureau.

However, Wang Yu’s father’s political career advanced rapidly. After several promotions, he became the second-highest-ranking official.

Success went to his head, and he became involved with several women in inappropriate relationships.

Unable to endure it any longer, Wang Yu’s mother divorced him two years earlier.

But to avoid affecting Wang Yu’s high school entrance exams, they never made the divorce public.

Whenever Wang Yu was home, they still acted like a happy family.

In reality, both had long since found new partners.

Wang Yu was highly sensitive and had discovered the truth long ago.

Perhaps inheriting her mother’s talent for masking emotions, she cooperated in maintaining the act.

Partly for the sake of appearances, she never exposed the truth.

Because once the illusion shattered, even that final layer of false happiness would disappear.

The parents of the five friends all had complicated relationships involving power and money, and Zhong Yishan’s parents were especially close to Wang Yu’s family.

At one gathering, Zhong Yishan had once casually asked Wang Yu, “Wang Yu, don’t you know your dad is pursuing a newly assigned college graduate at the Construction Bureau?”

Those whispered words deepened Wang Yu’s inferiority complex.

Looking at Zhong Yishan’s smiling, carefree face, the seeds of hatred slowly began to sprout in Wang Yu’s heart.

The three girls all liked Zhang Yang.

Ma Keke had practically been pressured by her parents into offering herself to him.

Zhang Yang didn’t particularly care for her, but since she was a free bed partner, why refuse?

As for Zhong Yishan, she was always the one Zhang Yang protected the most.

Perhaps, in Zhang Yang’s eyes, Zhong Yishan was his unattainable white moonlight.

Pure. Noble. Untouchable.

Yet outwardly, Zhong Yishan had never shown any sign of liking Zhang Yang.

That special treatment made her the universally acknowledged romantic rival among the girls at No. 1 High School.

Jealousy…was a terrifying thing.

Once it took root in the heart, it became deeply entrenched.

From the beginning of high school, Wang Yu believed Zhong Yishan and Ma Keke were constantly flaunting things in front of her: their happy families, doting parents, and their special places in Zhang Yang’s heart.

Meanwhile, when Wang Yu finally gathered the courage to confess her feelings to Zhang Yang, he merely laughed it off.

All of it became thorns lodged in Wang Yu’s heart, stabbing her again and again.

Then, at that very time,

Wang Yu became ill.

She was diagnosed with a peanut allergy, along with severe allergic reactions to over twenty other foods.

The physical suffering forced her to rest for over a month.

Her relationship with the other four gradually became more distant as a result.

And from then on, she began carefully planning Zhong Yishan’s murder.

In the end, she had even intended to die together with Zhang Yang.

June 22nd, 4:30 PM

Wang Yu told her family she wanted to visit Ma Keke’s apartment within the residential complex.

She slipped through a blind spot in the surveillance cameras, climbed out through a fence, and left the compound directly.

Then she had Ma Keke contact Zhong Yishan.

The excuse was that Wang Yu wanted to help persuade Zhong Yishan to stay away from Zhang Yang.

Ma Keke was delighted. It was rare enough for timid Wang Yu to volunteer for something like this, and Wang Yu was indeed the most suitable person to talk to Zhong Yishan.

So she contacted Zhong Yishan through QQ.

Meanwhile, worried her parents would discover she wasn’t heading straight to school, Zhong Yishan carried her luggage out first and stored it at a supermarket outside the residential complex.

At the east gate, she met up with Wang Yu, and the two took an illegal taxi toward the seaside.

Earlier, Wang Yu had hinted that since Zhong Yishan’s birthday was approaching, Zhang Yang and Chen Qiushi might be preparing a surprise for her.

So Zhong Yishan did not refuse and followed Wang Yu to the beach.

Wang Yu used a silk scarf to blindfold Zhong Yishan and had her hold onto a sky-blue ribbon.

Seeing how thoroughly Wang Yu had prepared everything—and how mysterious she was acting—Zhong Yishan didn’t resist.

Instead, she obediently followed Wang Yu into the woods.

At that moment, Wang Yu put on latex gloves, pulled a long knife from her backpack, and chatted casually while tying the blue ribbon around Zhong Yishan’s wrists.

Then Wang Yu suddenly turned, pushed Zhong Yishan down from behind, pressed her knee against her back, grabbed her wrists, and pinned them above her head.

Even then, Zhong Yishan still had no idea what was happening.

Just as she was about to ask why—Wang Yu’s blade came down.

The knife slashed across Zhong Yishan’s face, cutting through the ribbon at the same time.

The movement was so fast that Zhong Yishan felt no pain at first.

She only saw the blood spraying out, and began screaming in terror.

Wang Yu suddenly felt exhilarated.

Those screams seemed to soothe her soul.

Driven by survival instinct, Zhong Yishan desperately struggled to turn over and grab the knife, constantly asking Wang Yu:

“Why?”

Wang Yu screamed out all the jealousy and hatred she had harbored for years.

After that, no matter how Zhong Yishan begged for mercy,

Wang Yu never stopped.

Over the course of half an hour, she hacked Zhong Yishan 132 times, until she collapsed in a pool of blood, motionless.

Even then, Wang Yu still wasn’t reassured.

She used the knife to cut off Zhong Yishan’s clothes, threw her clothing and shoes deeper into the woods, then stabbed the knife into her groin.

Only after seeing no reaction at all did Wang Yu clean up the scene.

She took Zhong Yishan’s phone and wallet to stage the crime as a robbery.

Attracted by the smell of blood, stray dogs began gathering nearby.

After leaving the woods, Wang Yu changed clothes.

She burned the bloody shoes, gloves, and dress by the seaside, watching the ocean wash away the ashes.

For the first time in her life, Wang Yu felt utterly refreshed.

Everything seemed perfect.

Afterward, she retrieved the bicycle she had hidden earlier and rode home, taking a total of an hour and a half.

Her parents asked why she had been gone so long.

She replied that Ma Keke had struggled with a math problem, which delayed her.

Her family never suspected anything.

After all, Wang Yu’s obedient-girl image was deeply ingrained in their minds.

What Wang Yu hadn’t expected was that police would discover the body the very next day—and identify it as Zhong Yishan so quickly.

When Ma Keke learned the news, she became frantic.

Dragging Zhang Yang along, she rushed to the forensic center to confirm the identity.

Then she returned to school looking for Wang Yu, but Wang Yu was absent.

After being questioned by police the following day, Ma Keke confronted Wang Yu again that evening.

She demanded to know whether Wang Yu had hired someone to attack Zhong Yishan.

Wang Yu timidly told her to keep her voice down and suggested they meet at 4:00 AM in the woods west of the dormitory to discuss everything in detail.

June 25th, around 4:20 AM

The two arrived at the woods.

Ma Keke had no guard up around Wang Yu.

After all, Wang Yu was such a thin, timid, submissive-looking girl.

She merely suspected Wang Yu had gotten outside help to teach someone a lesson.

Wang Yu pointed timidly at Ma Keke’s feet and said ingratiatingly, “Keke, your shoelace is loose.”

Then she stuffed her phone into Ma Keke’s hand and asked her to hold the light while Wang Yu crouched down to tie the shoelace.

Ma Keke kept grumbling impatiently, but seeing Wang Yu acting like her usual meek self, she no longer knew whether she should really suspect her.

After waiting a while, Ma Keke urged, “Done yet?”

Wang Yu stood up.

“Yeah. See? Doesn’t it look prettier this way?”

The moment Ma Keke bent down to look at her shoe, Wang Yu suddenly looped the shoelace around her neck from behind.

Using all her strength, she pulled backward hard.

Ma Keke arched backward, her feet lifting off the ground as she lost support.

In less than two minutes, she stopped struggling.

Afterward, afraid she might still survive, Wang Yu adjusted her position and tightened the lace around her neck again.

Finally, she tied Ma Keke to a large tree in an M-shaped seated embrace posture, then pulled off the hair tie from her hair to cover the horrifying expression on her face.

Just as Wang Yu was about to ignite the dry branches nearby, a security guard suddenly shouted.

Startled, Wang Yu hurried to a low wall and hid there.

After Xu Biao finished recounting everything, the two men remained silent for a long time.

A girl in the prime of youth had murdered two people purely out of jealousy—and afterward remained calm enough to dispose of the bodies methodically.

Now, three families had been destroyed.

Who should bear the blame?

Modern education?

Her parents?

Or society’s worship of wealth and status?

But the two young lives were already gone forever.

Xu Biao crushed his cigarette beneath his foot.

“Wang Yu just turned sixteen last month. The murders were so brutal… she’ll probably get life imprisonment, right?”

Zhou Hai said nothing.

People must take responsibility for their actions.

If they had not uncovered her as the killer, both Zhang Yang and Wang Yu herself would likely have ended up dead as well.