“You’re an actor, is it appropriate for you to have such constant interaction with the police? What if this is captured by paparazzi?” Li Xue rode on her bike and Han Fei sat behind her.
“It’s fine. I have a good relationship with the paparazzi, in fact, I am thinking about using them as my informant.”
“A celebrity using the paparazzi as informants to solve cases? Well, that’s unusual.” Li Xue drove very fast. “The entertainment industry is quite messy, I still think it’s better for you to keep a low profile.”
“Before this, I did not have a choice but now I just want to be a professional actor. If others in the industry want to stand in my way, I will bulldoze over them and then hand them over to the police.” Han Fei suddenly asked seriously, “During new officer recruitment, will the candidate’s history of being a Good Samaritan help his resume?”
“Well, we’ll take that into consideration.”
“Will it matter if that history is slightly bloody?”
“Huh?” At around 11 am, they finally arrived at the old city’s police station. Originally Li Xue’s teacher was resting at the hospital but once he heard Han Fei requested to meet him, he immediately changed the meeting location. In his opinion, Han Fei shouldn’t get too close to a location like the hospital. When they arrived, the senior officer was already there, he did not like for others to wait for him.
“What is it that you wish to discuss with me?” The old man stood beside the table. His posture was straight, unlike someone who was sick.
“Sir, I’m just wondering if the police have investigated this one particular person before.” Han Fei cut right to the chase.
“Who?”
“Ma Manjiang.” When Han Fei gave the name, the whole office silenced. The senior officer did not answer immediately. He looked at Han Fei strangely before revealing a rare smile. “Where did you hear that name?”
“From the internet.” Han Fei shared his full hypothesis. He believed Ma Manjiang had taken advantage of Chuxia and then to keep his evil deeds a secret, he first threatened and then killed the girl. Han Fei suspected Jin Sheng was the student who was inside the gym when Ma Manjiang assaulted Chuxia. Han Fei would not have come up with such a firm hypothesis without his adventure in the cryptic world but Li Xue’s teacher had no idea about the cryptic world’s existence. From his perspective, Han Fei was a genius detective since he managed to piece such a perfect hypothesis together just from the information he got from the internet. After hearing what Han Fei had to say, the senior officer’s eyes glowed with admiration, “It’s impressive that you manage to come up with all these on your own.”
“So the police are onto him as well.” Based on the old man’s expression, Han Fei believed that the police were already on Ma Manjiang’s tail.
“After we got the information from Meng Changan, we reopened the case into Yi Ming Private Academy. Unfortunately, Ma Manjiang has gone missing, yes, we have people looking for him as we speak.” The senior office sat down and signaled for Han Fei to join him. “When we pulled up the old case files, we noticed Ma Manjiang appeared much too often with different identities. He was last seen at his father’s funeral. Oh, right, do you know that his father was the founder of Yi Ming Private Academy?”
“His father was the headmaster?”
“Ma Manjiang’s father was an entrepreneur and philanthropist. They built this school in the countryside to provide an education opportunity for those who lived far away from the city but something about that goal changed…” Li Xue’s teacher shared the info that he knew. Based on the police investigation, there was a connection between all the victims at Yi Ming Private Academy. However, unlike Han Fei, they believed that connection to be Jin Sheng and not Ma Manjiang. Jin Sheng was the last victim at the school before it was closed down and the boy was the turning point in all the cases.
Han Fei viewed that case from Ma Manjiang’s perspective but Li Xue’s teacher viewed it from the Butterfly’s perspective. The Butterfly liked to toy with humanity, to push kindness to its brink. Of all the victims, the one who fitted the bill best was Jin Sheng. Li Xue’s teacher even had a brave supposition that it was Jin Sheng who caused the series of tragedies at Yi Ming Private Academy. It was Jin Sheng who was targeted by the Butterfly, the other victims were murdered because the Butterfly intended to expose the world’s sin brutally before the child for him to edge deeper and deeper into the abyss.
Han Fei speculated that Jin Sheng was the student who hid inside the gym, Li Xue’s teacher agreed with him and he even went one step further to hypothesize that it was the Butterfly who lured Jin Sheng in there. The purpose was for the boy to witness the true nature of his respected Teacher Ma. Jin Sheng probably would have sought help after that but no one believed him. Once people did start to hear him out though, those who trusted him started to die one after another.
Perhaps Jin Sheng’s death was not the Butterfly’s goal, they probably wanted Jin Sheng to embrace the darkness but Jin Sheng had chosen death instead. That was the police’s deduction, but ultimately police work depended on evidence, so far they could not even tell why Jin Sheng was targeted by the Butterfly. After some interviews, their impression of Jin Sheng was that he was a normal child, the only thing special about him was he liked to tell ghost stories, that was all. Jin Sheng was already dead so they could not get anything from him. However, it was a different case for Han Fei. He suspected Jin Sheng was still at Yi Ming Private Academy. He had the chance to get close to Jin Sheng and maybe even be his friends.
Han Fei had an advantage that the police did not. After hearing the senior officer’s analysis, Han Fei knew what to do next. There was a bond between Han Fei and the law enforcement. Han Fei could glimpse the dead’s memories from the cryptic world and then used these memories to form part of the truth and that would provide a general picture for the law enforcement to follow up on. The apprehension of the culprit, collection of evidence, or things that required manpower were all left to the police. They were in a symbiotic relationship, one worked on capturing the killers and the Butterfly in real life while the others attempted to bring salvation and release to the dead in the cryptic world.
With his superb memory, Han Fei already memorized all the key points even though the senior officer only went through it once. Han Fei planned to search for Jin Sheng in the cryptic world that very night. “Sir, I feel like my mind has cleared after talking to you.” Han Fei was detailed-orientated but Li Xue’s teacher was more a big-picture person. The latter helped put Han Fei into perspective.
“I enjoy our chats too.” The old man looked at Han Fei and he smiled kindly. “I am glad to have met a young man like yourself, but I hope you can promise me one thing.”
“What is it?”
“I hope that you’ll find a happier career. I know you are a great actor and even have the potential to be a great officer but neither of these careers will help you regain a real smile.” Li Xue’s teacher appeared to be able to see through Han Fei’s mind. “An actor can make other people smile but they can never make themselves smile; an officer will be exposed to many sins and when the weight of the sin crushes you, you’ll lose more than just a smile.”
The senior officer’s words warmed Han Fei’s heart. Unfortunately he had no other choice. “I know the risks but I can’t give up now. I have to capture the Butterfly.” Han Fei said determinedly. He was telling the truth. The black box that Butterfly was looking for was in his mind. Even if Han Fei gave up, the Butterfly would not. One young and one old, the duo with wildly different backgrounds chatted for a long time inside the office. It was not until the call came from the hospital that Li Xue’s teacher was escorted away by another officer. Even Li Xue found it unbelievable that her teacher had chatted for so long with Han Fei. Her teacher usually wasn’t such a chatterbox.
After the exchange with Li Xue’s teacher, Han Fei found his perspective adjusted. Most of his speculations were confirmed by the police. A plan was forming in Han Fei’s brain. The killers at Yi Ming Private Academy included Ma Manjiang and his son. Their suspected victims so far were the security guard, the ruffian, and Ma Manjiang’s wife. Han Fei needed to find the other victims to figure out more about the story. Han Fei left the police station and was about to go home when his phone rang. It was Director Jiang. “Director Jiang, how can I help you?”
“8 pm tomorrow night, Twin Flowers will be released on all platforms. We have rented a space and all of us plan to watch the first premiere together.”
“It’s happening so soon?”
“We’ve already given up on offline premiere, we’ll be focusing on online platforms instead. Tomorrow night, we’ll know whether all our effort will be worth it or not.”
As time advanced, offline and online cinemas branched off into two different product chains. Online movie cinemas were efficient and more comfortable, with that, it carved out a niche for itself; offline cinemas though had the upperhand in visual and audio effects, going to one was no different from a virtual reality experience.
Twin Flowers was a small budget film, it did not have that many special effects so online cinemas were more suitable for it.
“I will be there tomorrow night.” Han Fei was quite excited, after all, this was his first movie as the main character.
“Okay!” Getting Han Fei’s promise, Director Jiang sounded more excited than Han Fei was. “By the way, I have a friend who wants to meet you. He is quite a famous horror movie director. Tomorrow he’ll be there to watch the premiere with us as well.” Director Jiang was sharing his connection with Han Fei, he hoped that Han Fei would walk further on the road of being an actor.
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