Chapter 521

"You lied? What do you mean?" I asked.

Shen Lijuan frowned, "When I looked at this photo at the time, I thought it was him, so I said yes. But I just suddenly realized that it doesn’t appear so."

"So is that yes or no?"

"I don't know!"

"You clearly saw him..." Xiaotao stood up excitedly, but I motioned for her not to interrupt.

"I'm sorry,” Shen Lijuan bowed her head.

When I asked her what happened after that, she explained that my grandfather wanted to send her home a few days later. He warned her against telling anyone what happened for fear she would never be at peace for the rest of her life.

Naturally, she wouldn’t dream of mentioning her experience to anyone. My grandfather then took her to the hospital for an examination. During that time, in the 1990s, a middle-aged man in his fifties taking a young woman for a physical examination certainly attracted a lot of contempt and suspicion, but Grandpa didn't care.

Fortunately, she wasn’t pregnant nor did she have any venereal diseases.

Grandpa sent her home and made up a bunch of lies, saying that Shen Lijuan was previously kidnapped. She was reluctant to part with such a kind man because he didn't look down on her at all. Additionally, she had a very strict family.

When she returned home, she suffered discrimination and criticism from her family for a period of time. They looked at her differently, as if it was her fault for being kidnapped and raped! Whenever her father got drunk, he insinuated she was a whore nobody wanted who had no self-respect. Shen Lijuan felt as if he had twisted a knife into her heart each time.

The incident itself and her family’s attitude left her with severe psychological trauma. She couldn't go to school at all, and eventually dropped out.

In the second year after that, her father died in a drunk driving accident and her mother remarried. Finding her stepfather rather strange, Shen Lijuan couldn't stay any longer so she went out and looked for work.

During that difficult period, she suddenly recalled Grandpa’s phone call after he left. He told her she could contact him if she needed help.

Thinking she would give it a shot, she called Grandpa. After hearing about her predicament, Grandpa immediately remitted a sum of money to her every month for ten years. The money helped her through the most difficult times so she could finally build a life for herself.

Therefore, Grandpa was just like a beacon in her life, no less than her God.

Teary-eyed, Shen Lijuan turned to me, "By the way, how is your grandfather doing?"

"He’s well,” I lied. “He’s now retired at home, listens to opera and gardens. He’s always been strong and healthy.”

"I’m so relieved to hear that. I finally managed to save some money over the past two years. I’ve always wanted to pay your grandfather back as soon as I’m able to. I’ll hand you part of it first."

"No, no, in fact, we’re doing quite well,” I refused. “Now that you’re pregnant, you need the money, so keep it! When I return, I’ll tell Grandpa that you’re doing well. He’ll be happy to hear that."

Shen Lijuan smiled and stopped insisting.

"By the way, where was your school located?” I asked. “Do you remember where you were kidnapped?"

She asked her husband for a map to show it to me. The school where she went to school was Liangchuan No.3 Middle School, and the place she was kidnapped was a small road behind the school. On the left of the road was the back wall of the school and on the right was a string of stores. There was a store selling spicy soup at the intersection. At the time, the whole street was dark except for that store, which left a strong impression on her.

“May I have this map?" I asked.

"Sure thing!"

We didn’t have any other questions so we said our goodbyes and left. As soon as we exited Shen Lijuan’s home, Bingxin smiled, "I didn't think you told white lies."

"I just think it’s too much trouble," I said.

Xiaotao sighed, "You’re obviously being kind but unwilling to admit it."

"I’m hungry, let’s find a place to eat supper!"

We soon arrived at a street filled with restaurants and food stalls. As we passed one of them, Bingxin refused to walk on, her eyes hooked onto the piles of spicy crayfish. She insisted on eating here. Thus, we found a table and ordered crayfish, barbecue, edamame and iced mung bean soup.

While I marked the map, Bingxin asked, "Why can't she remember the murderer's appearance?"

"Because memory is subjective and can be tampered with,” I explained. “She was in a situation of extreme fear, so it’s normal to not remember the murderer's appearance."

"Then why did she identify Ma Sanyou as the murderer?" Bingxin seemed puzzled.

"Because Ma Sanyou looks like him!"

"Looks like him?!” Bingxin and Xiaotao stared in shock.

Pulling out my cell phone, I pointed to photos of a young Ma Sanyou, "Look at his pot-like face. He’s ugly and fierce. In Shen Lijuan's subjective consciousness, that’s what the murderer looked like. We replace our memory with what we see in front of us. This is known as memory contamination. Unfortunately, Ma Sanyou's ugly face has hurt him. The police and people around him think he’s a murderer because of that."

"You mean, he’s not the murderer?" asked Xiaotao.

"Absolutely not!" I affirmed.

"That can’t be! How do you explain the evidence found by Officers Xiao and Nie?"

"The two evidence resemble nails, firmly riveting our reasoning to determine that Ma Sanyou is a criminal. Let’s put aside those two pieces of evidence and scrutinize the case from other angles." I spread out the map in my hand, marking the location of each corpse one by one, and then marked two points. "This is Ma Sanyou's home and this is his store. I don’t need divination to tell me it’s inconsistent with geographical profiling.”

"Yes, why don't you use divination?" wondered Xiaotao.

I shook my head bitterly, "The murders happened too long ago so it may not be accurate. But I will give it a try later on."

"Is it just the geographical profile that appears off?"

"There’s one more thing. If you paid attention to Shen Lijuan's narrative earlier, you’ll notice that every time the murderer comes to see her, it’s after dark. However, Ma Sanyou is self-employed and has as much free time as he pleases. So the murderer either goes to work or school. Hence, his time is relatively fixed."

"Then why didn't the murderer kill Shen Lijuan?” Bingxin interjected. “Was he in love with and couldn’t bear to kill her?"

"No, according to his abnormal logic, only when he falls in love with a woman would he be cruel. From a utilitarian point of view, it’s definitely safer for Shen Lijuan to die rather than live. However, the murderer didn’t kill her because there was a bigger drawback preventing him from doing so."

"What is it?" the two asked in unison.

My finger landed on the map, right where Shen Lijuan had been kidnapped. "Because if Shen Lijuan dies, he will be exposed!"