Special Case Investigation Team

Chapter 1: First Encounter (back story)

(T/N: I’ve no editor for this story for now)

Cheng Jin believes that the important turning point in his life was when he was 14 years old. 

At the beginning of that year, the plane his parents were on crashed, and neither of them survived. After hearing the news, his grandfather suffered a heart attack and died. 

In the blink of an eye, his family was destroyed, leaving only him and his grandmother dependent on each other for their lives. 

His grandmother was in her 60s that year, and her health was not very good. When the bad news came, the old lady took care of everything in an orderly manner, because she knew she couldn’t fall down yet, or what would her young grandson do without her.

At this moment, Cheng Jin felt that the sky was falling down, and after a few days in a daze, he remembered that his grandmother was still old but had to deal with the affairs of his parents and grandfather alone, and had to take care of him every day. Overnight, Cheng Jin realised that he should be an adult, and he would take care of his elderly grandmother in the future. 

People can put a smile on their faces and pretend to forget the pain, but those injuries are clear in their hearts, and they are even more bloody in the dead of night. 

Cheng Jin couldn’t sleep every night. When his grandmother fell asleep, he would secretly go out and wander aimlessly in Qianming City. When it was almost dawn, he would go home exhausted, sleep for two hours, and then get up to buy his and Grandma’s breakfast. Before going to school he would eat with his grandmother.

This situation changed at the end of the year. Cheng Jin felt that someone was always following him in those days. Looking back, except for the occasional car driving by, there were no pedestrians at all. Cheng Jin didn’t see anything strange. He still took a regular walk outside late at night and went home when it was time. 

One day after Cheng Jin felt that he had been followed for almost a week, when he was walking through an alley that night, he suddenly felt a palpitation¹.

As soon as he turned around, he was thrown to the ground. Cheng Jin struggled with the person who attacked him. When the scuffle² started, Cheng Jin’s eyes were already used to the darkness. Even if the attacker put the sportswear hat on his head, he could still see clearly that this was a boy about his age, so he sighed in relief: “Hey, what are you doing?”

The boy was startled, probably not expecting that not only did he not curse, his tone was also quite gentle, and he couldn’t help but loosen his grip. 

Cheng Jin realised many years later that he was really ignorant and fearless. Cheng Jin saw that the boy seemed to be about to let go, so he let go first and pushed the boy: “Let’s get up first, it’s weird to lie on the ground. ”

Both of them got up, Cheng Jin patted the dirt on his body, and suddenly felt a tingling stab in his neck. Cheng Jin was a little angry this time: “What the hell is going on with you?” 

The boy only took two steps back without speaking. 

Cheng Jin soon felt a little dizzy, he touched his neck: anesthesia? Only then did Cheng Jin feel the danger. Looking around, the alley was quite long and desolate. The broken buildings next to it should be uninhabited. 

Soon Cheng Jin’s hands and feet were a little disobedient. He knew that he couldn’t run, and it might be useless if he shouted. It seemed that he deserved it, and he actually walked to such a desolate place suitable for crime. 

Cheng Jin staggered against the wall, still hesitating whether to shout a few times to try, he looked at the boy- he was wearing sportswear, sports shoes, and the logos on it were all famous brands, but he was still outside late at night like himself, more serious than himself, he even wanted to commit a crime. The boy looked at him quietly, as if waiting for Cheng Jin to lose consciousness. 

Cheng Jin sat down against the wall and asked the boy, “How long will I lose consciousness? 10 minutes?”

The boy didn’t speak, but took two steps closer. 

“Come and have a chat. It’s boring for you to stand alone, isn’t it? What do you want to do? It doesn’t seem to be robbery, you want to kill people?”

After the death of his parents, Cheng Jin has been wondering why it was not someone else who died, but he never thought of hurting others. 

The boy walked over and squatted down, “You are not afraid of me, but other people are very afraid of me. ”

“Who are you?” Cheng Jin wanted to see what he looked like, so he stretched out his hand to lift his hat. The boy didn’t stop him either. He just looked at him blankly in the faint moonlight. The boy had long and slightly curly hair, big eyes, white skin and pointed chin, like a beautiful doll, Cheng Jin smiled: “You are very good-looking. But if you stare at people like this, they will still be afraid. If you want others not to be afraid of you, you have to be a normal person.”Cheng Jin said in his heart: ‘At least you can’t care about giving anesthesia to strangers in the middle of the night.’

In fact, what Cheng Jin said was all about his experience. After the death of his parents and grandfather, Cheng Jin was expressionless every day. 

Later, after a long time, he discovered that many of his former friends were polite and distant to him, and the teacher always wanted to help him with psychological counseling.

The world is the survival of the fittest. 

Slowly Cheng Jin learned to pretend to show various expressions without showing any flaws, pretending to like the care of his friends and teachers, and pretending that the pain has diminished with the passage of time. 

“Be a normal person, pretend? I don’t know…how to do it, I don’t know how to laugh and cry.”

Cheng Jin was a little puzzled, is there a natural lack of emotions? Cheng Jin has also studied this aspect a little bit this year, because he found that he has no desire to laugh at things that others find funny. His feelings are numb, and it is difficult to feel that something is happy. 

Cheng Jin smiled slightly and said, “It doesn’t matter, you can refer to other people’s expressions more, and practice more. You will soon form a habit of conditioned reflexivity.” He was also saying to his former self, it’s okay, you will get used to smiling soon. 

The boy curled the corners of his mouth like he did, Cheng Jin smiled: “When you smile, you have to narrow your eyes a little bit.” Cheng Jin watched the boy adjust his expression, “Yes, it’s the same as a real smile. In the future, you can look in the mirror and practice more.”

“You know a lot, do you know why some people want to kill?” The boy also sat down on the ground next to him.

“…” Cheng Jin was sure that this boy was indeed dangerous, “I don’t know, you haven’t checked the information? Have you killed anyone?”

“Checked, psychopath, not yet.” The boy answered.

Cheng Jin was startled: “Do your parents know?”

“I don’t know, I only told my aunt.”

“Then what did she say?”

The boy kept smiling and said, “Then I have been in the hospital until now.”

Cheng Jin felt that his eyes were a little hot and humid. At that time, he was almost sent to hospital for treatment of psychological trauma. But his grandmother refused to let him go. He was very scared. He was very fortunate that he quickly learned to become a normal person. Cheng Jin asked him, “Then how did you get out?”

“Sneaked out.” The boy looked in the distance.

“You have to be well in the future, like a normal person, and then they will let you out of the hospital. You can go wherever you want at that time, but don’t kill people, or you will be locked up.”

“What if I don’t get caught?”

“You will be caught. You are wearing high-end clothes and shoes. You should also live in a high-end nursing home. Someone must be watching you every day. They must know when you run out.” When Cheng Jin said this, he suddenly thought that his grandmother might know that he came out every day, but she never said anything. 

The boy was silent for a moment, then leaned over to sit beside him, “”It’s okay to be locked up, and I don’t have a place I really want to go.”

Cheng Jin’s hands and feet were numb at this time, but his consciousness was still clear. He didn’t know what he wanted to do in the future. He could only say: “If you keep living, you will have something you want to do.”

“You should be comforting me now. Right?”

Cheng Jin smiled. He felt that his facial muscles had become stiff now, and he didn’t have much strength to speak: “Well, actually, I’m comforting myself…. It’s cold, I’m sleepy….”

The boy touched Cheng Jin’s face. It was very cold. After a while, he finally felt it was still warm. He thought for a while, took off his coat and covered Cheng Jin, stood beside him for a moment, turned and left. In the cold winter night, the boy wearing only a shirt walked alone in the faint moonlight. 

That day Cheng Jin slept in that alley until dawn. When he woke up, he found that he was covered with the boy’s coat. From time to time, passing pedestrians looked at him, but no one came to ask him why he slept here. Cheng Jin fell ill for a few days after returning home. He was cold and had a fever that night. Fortunately, it was not very serious and he recovered quickly. 

Later, Cheng Jin never went out to roam at night again, and his grandmother’s eyes were no longer so worried when she looked at him. He had been to various nursing homes and hospitals to find the boy, but he never saw him again.

Footnotes:

1. Palpitation: the sensation that the heart is racing, pounding, fluttering or skipping a beat, often bothersome.

2. Scuffle: a short fight or struggle at close quarters.