"I continued: 'From the perspective of criminal psychology, he can't control himself either. Moreover, as a pervert, Xu Jingmiao is equivalent to an unfinished work that failed to materialize. The police must have strengthened their protection of Xu Jingmiao by now, and he won't take such a risk. He will definitely strike again soon, looking for another target to satisfy himself.'"

  "Historically, he strikes again in three days," Wu Yu said. "We have one more chance."

  I nodded.

  Our goal is clear. With the experience of last time, this time we will be more fully prepared and he will have no chance to escape again.

  "You're absolutely right," said Wu Yu.

  "I said: 'Of course, have you never seen a pig run, or haven't you ever eaten pork?'"

  Perhaps it was a bit too crude of an analogy, but Wu Yu smiled and put his hand on my shoulder, saying: "You are the smartest and most excellent girl I have ever met."

  Although he said that I'm a stunning beauty, his words made me blush. After all, I'm just a third-rate university student who didn't do well in school. But since he's so infatuated, should I remind him to snap out of it? Feeling secretly pleased, I didn't expect him to stare at me for a while and ask: "How did you end up going to that university back then?"

  I: “……”

  The world of learning disabilities, the bookworms really don't understand. I do have a bit of cleverness at times, but can the bookworms think that having some small cleverness means they can learn well in those subjects?

  I was silent for a while and then said, "That's how I got in."

  "Did you try your best?"

  I feel something is off, am I being treated like his sister or what? I glare at him, taking a firm stance, saying: "Of course I've done my best! Can't do any better than that! Not good enough?"

  He smiled and hugged me, no longer asking questions. After a while, he said: "In the future..."

  "What's next?"

  "He said: 'Nothing.'"

  I grabbed his collar: "Speak!"

  He turned his head and smiled: "From now on, I'll take care of the kids' studies."

  Suddenly, a surge of emotions burst forth in my heart. I couldn't quite put into words what I was feeling, but when he started talking about the future, his seemingly ordinary words somehow filled my heart to the brim.

  "Hmm... I'll just treat it as writing an essay then." I said calmly.

  Wu Yu said: "Very good, combining literature and logic."

  He leaned down and kissed me again. This kiss was surprisingly passionate, as if both of us had new hopes hidden in our hearts. Just then, the sound of the door opening came from behind, along with Yu Miao's deliberately loud coughing. Yu Jian let go of me, and as the sunlight shone on our backs, we both stood up and turned around to see his mother and Yu Miao walking into the room with big smiles on their faces. The only thought in my mind was that I wished this moment could last a little longer, just a little longer, and never end.

  ——

  The second person we met who was also a victim of the case is Ye Xunyi, a girl in her early twenties who had just started working.

  She liked to hang out in bars and lived in a new campus of a local university, which was located in a remote area. According to Wu's memory, she would disappear on her way home from the bar at around 1 am on July 30th. Her body was found three days later in a construction wasteland not far from the school. Ye Xunyi was also chopped into bone and flesh pulp, with a death similar to that of Wu Miao, making it hard to imagine the fear and torture she suffered before her death. The criminal's brutality had been escalating from dismemberment to fragmentation since the beginning.