The bullet comments on Liu Chen's livestream page were constantly refreshing, with various question marks and exclamation points appearing alternately, like mushrooms sprouting on an online platform, scrambling to break through the screen and swarm over Chen Xiulian.

[Is this for real?]

[Liu Chen has really hit a new low just to get attention!]

[It's probably a gimmick.]

[Four people??? Didn't the news say three?]

"Make the screen bigger," Yan Junxun said to Jiang Lian.

Jiang Lian enlarged the light screen. Piao Lin, who was behind him, watched for a moment before Chen Xiulian could speak again. "She's on a rooftop near the old water tower in the Old District," he said, pointing at the blurry vertical shadow behind Chen Xiulian. "The Supervisory Bureau has wanted to demolish that tower since after the war. I've seen it in a report. It's a 20-minute drive from us."

"Drive over there," Jiang Lian said, redialing the number. "All units, listen up! Converge on the Old District water tower."

Chen Xiulian didn't seem to be in a good mental state. 'She wants to do something she won't regret,' Yan Junxun thought.

Chen Xiulian raised a hand to the camera, pointed into the distance, and said, "My old home is in a small rural district near the Docking Area. Before the war, the Supervisory Bureau said they would merge my hometown into the Docking Area, but it still hasn't happened." The hair on her forehead was stuck to a wound. It was as if she wanted to tell everyone something that made her proud. "My daughter Qinqin goes to the Steel Mill Affiliated School. Her grades are excellent. The teachers praise her every day. She's gotten a hundred percent on her tests several times."

[What is this nonsense?]

[I told you it's a gimmick by Liu Chen! This isn't the first time he's pulled something like this.]

[Damn, I thought this was some major social exposé, but this is it? Are you sick!]

[Liu Chen, you're dead.]

Chen Xiulian's voice was muffled by the sound of the rain, becoming very faint. No one was listening to her pride. People had spent their precious few minutes to come in here, not to hear her talk about her daughter. The joy she had accumulated died along with the topic. Her expression looked like she was about to cry, but she didn't.

"The first person I killed was named He Zhiguo. He was a rapist. Before the war, he came to work at our factory and wanted to date me, but I refused, so he raped me," Chen Xiulian raised her voice, tilting her face up slightly so that everyone could see her clearly. "In the end, I married him."

[??? What kind of melodramatic plot twist is this?]

[Sick, sick, sick!]

[He raped you and you still married him? Are you pathetic!]

"I'm not sick," Chen Xiulian forced a smile, struggling to organize her words for the camera. "I'm not sick. I'm very normal. Really."

Chen Xiulian didn't think she was mentally ill. She wasn't. The one who was sick was He Zhiguo. She killed He Zhiguo because she had reached her limit, because there was no hope left. But from beginning to end, she felt she was clear-headed. Wanting to kill He Zhiguo wasn't something she had decided in a few days; she had simply acted according to her own thoughts.

"I didn't marry him willingly, just like I wasn't raped willingly. I told..." Chen Xiulian thought of the faces from the past, but she couldn't remember who they all were, there were too many. "I told many people that I hoped He Zhiguo would be punished by The Alliance. I wrote letters to the Supervisory Bureau, and I called them, but I was stopped by He Zhiguo every time."

Chen Xiulian stopped here. She raised her hands to unbutton her jacket, revealing a form-fitting tank top underneath. She took off her jacket, her pants, and even her shoes and socks, standing before countless people in just that tank top.

"He was always hitting me," Chen Xiulian said, pointing at her thigh, where there were indelible scars. Her arms, too, were covered in burn marks. "Every time I wrote a letter, he would hit me. He said he hadn't broken any laws, that The Alliance allowed him to do it. I read Liu Chen's news reports, and he also said that rape is against the law, that domestic violence is against the law. So why didn't the Supervisory Bureau arrest him?"

Chen Xiulian stared at the camera without any shyness, as if this exposed body belonged to someone else. She wiped the rain from her face and asked, "During the war, I called the Supervisory Bureau. They were busy fighting and told me to wait." Her throat was dry, her expression gradually filled with indignation. "Do you know how long I waited? I waited year after year! Who would come and arrest He Zhiguo? Who? Nobody!" Her arms, with nowhere to go, waved in the air as if to violently shake off her shackles. "He Zhiguo, that coward! Trash! Scum! He took my daughter in the car and killed her in the crash, why isn't he dead yet? Scumbags like him should just die!"

The downpour poured down on Chen Xiulian's body like the beating of a club. She was beaten until her back was bent, her head was lowered, beaten until she was beyond recognition! She pointed at the camera, at Jiang Lian behind the camera, at everyone, venting without restraint.

Jiang Lian's Communicator suddenly rang. The operations team approaching the residential building near the water tower said over the Communicator, "Target is holding a hostage on the rooftop. The observer says the hostage is tied to the railing and could fall at any moment."

"The target is emotionally unstable. Don't rush in rashly," Jiang Lian said. "Disperse the residents near the old building first, activate the Fall Bearing Device, and keep a close watch on the target's movements."

[So pitiful. The Supervisory Bureau is useless, before and after the war.]

[She's so emotional, it seems a bit like an act to me.]

[Supervisory Bureau, say something. Jiang Lian, say something. Has the Profiler arrived yet? Couldn't even predict this? Is Black Panther useless too?]

[I've been saying, Black Panther are all warmongers, they can't empathize with normal people at all.]

[What on earth is she trying to do?]

Shi Shanyan finished his game. Amidst the noise, he looked at Jiang Lian's light screen with an unreadable expression. He had been very calm throughout this case, so calm he seemed to be a spectator at a battle. Apart from his interest in Yan Junxun, he showed no other emotional fluctuations. He wasn't one to ponder 'why', because 'why' was usually a question asked about established facts.

Chen Xiulian wasn't in the process of exploding; she had already exploded.

"I killed four people, and I did it on purpose." Chen Xiulian raised both arms high, her wooden eyes looking as if they had lost all life as she recounted her psychological journey. "After I killed He Zhiguo, he was still talking. It scared me so much. You understand, right? A dead person talking in your ear, that's how horror movies play out. He was still cursing me, and clamoring to kill me. I was scared to death, so I dismembered him, put him in a pot, and ate him."

The corners of her stiff mouth drooped, and her expression grew confused.

"But it was useless. He's still here. He wakes me up with his curses every day, he's in my ear at every moment. I actually regret it. Before, when I was at work, he couldn't bother me. Not anymore. He's always in my ear. He might be monitoring me." Chen Xiulian's gaze shifted, wandering for a moment. "He is monitoring me, and he even shows me the news articles he's collected. Those articles were all written by Liu Chen. They're so well-written, I can understand them. The people he wrote about are all rapists. But I don't get it, these rapists were caught and put in jail, so how did they get out again?" She had memorized those articles. "Li Jianhua raped his colleague, and that woman jumped to her death, yet he bought a house in the district. They're just like He Zhiguo, they all think they did nothing wrong. And that Liu Xincheng, he wrote 'Rape, well done' on the wall by his front door. So many people passed by and saw it, yet no one did anything."

As she spoke of this, Chen Xiulian's mood turned irritable again. She spat on the ground.

"Those animals. The ones who do things like that are all He Zhiguo. I understand them, I know what they're thinking. If I do nothing, they'll just keep coming for me," she stomped on the ground paranoidly. "They will definitely come for me! When He Zhiguo was in the pot, he told me he wanted revenge. I knew then that he had other bodies. Liu Xincheng and Li Jianhua are his other bodies! They were going to come rape me and beat me, so I had to kill them first!"

Her chest heaved. At this point, she suddenly bowed deeply. But that didn't seem to be enough, as she kept pressing her body lower.

"But Huo Qingjun, Teacher Huo," Chen Xiulian's voice choked with sobs as she looked at the camera with bloodshot eyes. "I'm sorry, Teacher Huo. I deserve to die ten thousand deaths. I'm willing to accept punishment from The Alliance. I killed Teacher Huo, I killed Teacher Huo!" She raised a hand and slapped her own cheeks hard. "I'm sorry, Teacher Huo!" The rain on her face was like tears, streaming down her chin. She spoke incoherently, "I originally wanted to kill He Zhiguo. Teacher Huo told me he hadn't sexually assaulted anyone, but I didn't believe him." She pulled at her hair in anguish, her voice becoming shrill, as if it was stuck in her throat. "Why didn't I believe him... He Zhiguo also told me he didn't sexually assault anyone. I've heard it too many times, I can't tell the difference!"

Her vision blurred by the rain, Chen Xiulian gasped for air.

Right. That was it. She couldn't tell the difference. In this man-eating jungle, she had been deceived by a few words. The words Liu Chen used were all meant to incite her. The moment she saw Huo Qingjun, she had already condemned him. She had believed the reports too much.

Chen Xiulian didn't dare to think about it, she didn't want to think about it, but she always did. If Huo Qingjun hadn't died, if his case had been overturned, would he have been able to return to his wife's side? What made Chen Xiulian most desperate was that she couldn't remember his expression before he died; she only remembered the look on his face when he handed her that family photo.

Chen Xiulian tried to cover her mouth, but a wail still escaped. She had found courage in the act of killing He Zhiguo, but in the end, it was shattered because of Huo Qingjun. She grabbed Liu Chen by the collar, slammed him against the railing, and screamed uncontrollably in the downpour, "Apologize! Apologize to Teacher Huo!"

Liu Chen hit the railing, smashing his head until it bled. He shouted, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Teacher Huo... Spare me!"

The rust from the railing scraped against both of their wounds. Liu Chen heard a "crack," and the railing shook violently. He couldn't see clearly ahead, but he knew that falling meant death.

"Stop pushing, stop!" Liu Chen wailed. "I'll apologize!"

"Fall Bearing Device has been activated. Rooftop assault team is in position!" the operations team shouted over the Communicator.

"Move in," Jiang Lian replied.

"I won't hit you, and I won't hurt you," Chen Xiulian said. Smelling blood and hearing the footsteps as the iron door behind her was broken open, she wiped the rain from her face with a dirty hand and leaned in to whisper in Liu Chen's ear, "I don't want... I don't want to hurt the innocent. Your crime doesn't deserve death. The one who deserves to die is me."

'Don't jump,' He Zhiguo appeared in Chen Xiulian's mind again, saying in a panic, 'Don't you fucking jump! I don't want to die.'

'Coward.'

Her face covered in rain, Chen Xiulian burst out laughing. "You coward! I couldn't escape before, and then I gave up. Now, neither of us can dream of escaping. Since God insists on tying us together, I'll just take you down with me. I've fucking wanted to take you down with me for a long, long time."

Then she broke through the railing and leaped off in a final, desperate gamble. The rain poured down. Liu Chen was so frightened he began to sob silently. Chen Xiulian couldn't care about anything anymore, she thought in her final moment.

'I'm most afraid of violence.'

Yan Junxun closed his eyes and heard a "thud".