1 Return

Drip. Drip. Shhhh....

Under the heavy rains of late autumn, a slender young man wearing black clothes walked on an old deserted bridge under his black umbrella. On a nearby shed, several drunkards were taking shelter from the rain, smoking a particularly pungent substance.

As the young man passed by them silently, a harsh wind blew, forcing his umbrella to be pushed back, revealing the young man's pale complexion and delicate face comparable to top stars.

One of the drunkards saw this and whistled loudly, calling out to him.

"Little white-faced brother, why don't you accompany this older brother home tonight, ah?"

The cold wind blew, pushing the leaves and several plastic bags towards the gushing river below.

Hearing their friend's sudden exclamation, the two other drunkards turned to look at who he was talking to, only sigh in understanding upon seeing the young man's face.

"Pan ge, that's a man." A thin man who resembled a stick more than a man pointed out with a cigarette hanging from his mouth.

"Fuck! Do you think Laozi can't see?!"

"Aiyo! Pan ge, don't you think it's too early to be going back to old habits? You've just gotten back from prison last month!" A round man said, his eyes squinting and disappearing into fatty wrinkles as he joked humorously.

Prison?

Under the shadow of his umbrella, the young man turned to face the three men, studying them calmly. A fatty, a stick, and a rough uncle. The one who called out to him just now seems to be the rough uncle.

Upon seeing the older man's unshaven face, stained shirt, and yellowing teeth, the young man inwardly sneered in disgust. As a respectable citizen in society, with a proper social life and career, seeing people like this who let go of themselves and let their life go to waste disgusted him to no end.

In all actuality, the young man wasn't exactly too young himself. Currently at the age of 24, but his delicate face made it seem as if he were much younger.

That aside, for some inexplicable reason, the young man seemed to find the rough man familiar.

Feeling the young man's gaze on him, the rough man looked back to meet his eyes and instantly froze.

With the light from the dim streetlamp hitting the young man's face at just the right angle, a pair of greyish eyes seemed to glisten, framed by long and dark lashes.

Previously, he only treated it as a joke when he called out to him since he had just been released from prison and was still being kept under surveilance but now, he was tempted to ignore the consequences and do it seriously.

But before he could say anything, the young man spoke to him first.

"You are Pan Chong?" The young man asked but his question felt more like a statement.

Feeling suspicious, the rough man stood up, his eyes darting from side to side. "That's me. Who's asking?"

The moment the young man uttered his name, his first thought was that this was a test from the police. A month after he was released, he happened upon a beautiful and defenceless young man who immediately knew his name. If this wasn't the doing of the police then he will change his surname!

And actually, he wasn't technically wrong.

With the young man's calm gaze abruptly turning sharp, the other two people finally realized that the atmosphere felt wrong.

"My name is Sun BaiYue. I work in the forensics department of the Shanghai Police Department." The young man stated coldly upon confirming Pan Chong's identity. "You might not know me but, three years ago, I was an intern who studied the corpse of the little girl you murdered."

...

"Murder..?!" The stick man took a sharp breath, stepping back and staring at Pan Chong in disbelief. "Didn't you say you were arrested or sexual harassment, Pan ge?"

"P-Pan ge?!" The fatty muttered hesitantly, looking back and forth between Sun BaiYue and Pan Chong.

"I didn't lie! It was sexual harassment!" Pan Chong shouted, stomping angrily towards Sun BaiYue. "You, don't accuse people of something they didn't do!"

Although the man spoke steadily, his eyes kept flickering about in panic, making Sun BaiYue more sure of his conjecture. At that time, when he was just a new intern working at the police department, when they received the case on a child's murder, he was just a 21 year old youth filled with naivety and righteousness.

He did all that he could to assist in the case, even disobeying orders and conducting investigations of his own when they were about to close the case due to lack of evidence. In the end, despite his efforts, the case was still left cold and he could only wallow in his own grievance.

The wind blew harshly, and the rain seemed to grow stronger as thunder roared in the distance. No one dared to go outside in this weather and there were no cameras around.

At this moment, a stray thought crossed Sun BaiYue's mind.

If the society couldn't punish such heinous criminals blatantly and let them walk freely despite their misdeeds, then he would be the executioner who will weed out these rotten people himself.

After nearly 25 years of living aimlessly, Sun BaiYue finally realized his true purpose.

"The mother was a woman you previously harassed and the father pressed charges against you." Sun BaiYue spoke calmly as he recalled all of the information he had in Pan Chong's case; the one available to the police and the one's he investigated himself. "Since you only harassed her once and there wasn't enough evidence against you, you were only detained for a week. But, during that week, your wife filed for a divorce and the debt collectors who were hunting you down, took this chance to raid your house and took all of your valuables."

Putting on a fresh pair of surgical gloves, Sun Baiyue spoke steadily with cold conviction. Towards his words, Pan Chong tried to come up with a denial but was left stuttering as the young forensic scientist stepped closer and closer towards him.

"S-So what if you know that?!" Pan Chong gritted out but his hands trembled nervously. "The investigators also knew that much but I only got through three years! Don't think that I don't know you're just bluffing!"

At this point, the other two men with him were feeling conflicted. If they backed Pan Chong up, that would mean they were helping a possible murderer, if they didn't do anything and Pan Chong ended up being wrongly accused, then that would mean their brotherhood was over. But, Sun BaiYue didn't give them enough time to think it over.

"You wanted revenge but, the debt collectors were controlled by the triad so you set your eyes on the people who pressed charges against you. Knowing that you are unable to move the husband and wife due to their background, you eyed their defenceless daughter." As Sun BaiYue arrived in front of Pan Chong, his right hand discretely went to a pocket in his coat, grabbing a familiar rectangular object, ignoring how much Pan Chong denied his claims.

Lighting struck nearby and thunder soon came roaring after. Inside the shed, the two other men made their presence scarce, already half convinced of their friend's crime due to the confidence Sun BaiYue carried as he spoke and the way Pan Chong visible cowered from their questioning gaze.

Despite Pan Chong's continuous efforts to deny, Sun BaiYue still continued. "So one stormy afternoon, not that different from this one, you kidnapped the child, knocked her unconscious, and then threw her to the Yangzi river where she died, only to be found five days later. And after that, you went on to harass more people, both men and women before enough evidence were gathered to send to prison for three years only for harassment and attempted rape."

With cold eyes, Sun BaiYue glared at Pan Chong murderously and, despite being half a head shorter and being nearly two decades younger, he managed to impose imense fear on the other man.

"There isn't enough evidence! As long as you can't find any evidence, all you're doing is just blindly accusing me!" Pan Chong argued despite his fearful countenance and, legally, he was right.

But, right now, Sun BaiYue wasn't exactly feeling very lawful.

"The only evidence I need is my own judgement." Sun BaiYue said, each word thundering in Pan Chong's ears. "Pan Chong, age 42, I sentence you."

"To Death Penalty."

Instantly, just as those words left his mouth, Sun BaiYue whipped out a taser from his coat, bluish white sparks arching outwards as he swung it.

Below the bridge, the currents of the river gushed wildly, drowning out the sounds of confrontation above them.

"Ah! Pan ge! You- Didn't you say you worked for the police?! Wha- Ugh!"

"You idiot, run!"

"Ah! Why is he so fast-"

Occasionally, a few sounds would drift over but would quickly be muted by the rain.

On the bridge, Sun BaiYue calmly picked up his umbrella which had fallen previously and studied the three men who were currently unconscious before putting his taser back into his coat.

In all honesty, with the standard voltage output of 30,000 volts of his taser, it was only enough to temporarily paralyse a person and not enough to put someone unconscious so, he had to knock them out himself.

Fortunately, the difference in physiques of people who let their life come apart and someone who regularly trained with the police were vastly different. Enough to let Sun BaiYue handle them within three minutes.

Seeing his work on the ground covered in mud and rainwater, Sun BaiYue cringed in disgust but still mustered the energy to haul them up one by one and threw them over the bridge and into the raging waters of the river.

In all honesty, if he wasn't so worried about being found if he delayed any longer, he was tempted to cut their bodies apart to discard easily. Especially the fatty. His body was really too heavy.

Still, this method was optimally the best that he could do in this condition.

With him tasing them before knocking them out lightly, he made it quick and left little to no traces of conflict and, technically, their real cause of death was drowning in the river.

Sun BaiYue raised his head and peered at the dark and overcast sky.

According to the news this morning, this storm was supposed to pass after three days but there were still chances of rain afterwards. With the current of the river, there was a chance that the bodies would wash up near Nanjing or get redirected to a nearby dam. In any case, there would be atleast a five day blank period where their bodies would be unfound.

But, just in case, he still kicked down the back board of the shed, the rotten wood soaked in rainwater immediately giving way and falling to the river.

So, if ever investigators managed to trace them back to this shed, all they would find are empty liquor bottles with the deceased's saliva on them and traces of illegal drugs, plus the broken back of the shed and immediately conclude that they drowned in accident.

At this time, it never crossed his mind how he felt no guilt or remorse upon having killed three people.

Just as he was about to leave the scene of the crime, he noticed something odd.

Below the railing, just a few inches away from his shoes, a delicate white journal laid. No matter how hard the wind blew, the journal remained unmoved and no amount of rain water could wet it. He could have sworn there was nothing there previously.

From within his waterproof bag, a melodic ringing suddenly pierced through the rain, bidding Sun BaiYue to find his phone and, to his pleasant surprise, it was a call from his younger brother who was studying in another country.

"Xiao Yun." Sun BaiYue spoke with a smile, his previous heavy mood immediately going away.

[Erge! Are you well? Have you eaten? It's 11 am here so that means it's almost 6 pm there, right? Are you out of work?]

"En. I'm doing well. Haven't eaten yet. It's 5:30. I have a night shift."

As he listened to his younger brother's voice through the phone, Sun BaiYue answered gently as he picked up the white journal from the ground and kept it in his bag.

[That's great! Actually, I called this time to inform erge that I will be returning to Shanghai soon during the holidays to visit! So you better not skip this year's family gathering, okay!]

"Okay."