Chapter 11

The suspect Gao Jiajia was brought back to the interrogation room once again. He saw intern detective Shen Yulan seated in the central position. The director of the Special Crimes Unit, Bai Shizhou, was oddly sitting beside her, while sniper Bao Xiao and another officer, Si Kang, who had previously interrogated him, stood behind.

An intern detective had become the focal point. Gao Jiajia’s feelings toward her were complicated. He considered himself a genius criminal capable of defeating Zhang Dian, yet he was captured by this intern within just 24 hours.

He was desperate to prove that her success was merely a matter of luck.

So this time, he spoke first: “We meet again, intern detective. You’ve got the wrong man.”

This remark made Shen Chuyi (Shen Yulan’s formal name) sit back more comfortably, even casting a triumphant glance at Bai Shizhou, as if to say, “I deserve this central seat.”

Si Kang looked at her relaxed, almost casual posture with frustration. He understood perfectly well what it meant when the suspect took the initiative to speak to Shen Yulan—it meant he truly regarded her as a new adversary.

“Do you have direct evidence proving I’m the serial killer?” Gao Jiajia asked again, sitting opposite her.

“You shouldn’t be speaking first,” Shen Chuyi leaned back in her chair, smiling at Gao Jiajia. “The more desperate you seem, the more guilty you appear. You should sit still and not answer any of my questions, watch me get frustrated, and let me control the pace of this interrogation.” This was a tactic she had learned from Zhang Dian: whether or not you’re capable, first maintain an air of superiority.

Gao Jiajia pressed his lips together, clearly trying to control his emotions.

Shen Chuyi didn’t give him another chance to speak. As she unclasped his handcuffs, she said, “Your mother doesn’t want to visit you anymore, you know that, right? She has a new family now and has had a son—apparently an outstanding one, with fully developed abilities…”

“What are you trying to say?” Gao Jiajia stared at her, unwilling to listen to any more.

But she played a recording from the bracelet. A woman’s voice came through: “I have been cooperating with the Special Crimes Unit as much as possible, but I hope the police understand my difficulties and stop asking me to visit Gao Jiajia at the unit. My son is currently competing in the abilities championship, and I don’t want everyone to know that the serial killer in City A is his half-brother…”

That voice… unfamiliar yet strangely familiar—it was his biological mother.

Gao Jiajia’s eyes reddened like a wild beast’s as he repeated, “Turn it off, turn it off, turn it off!”

But she kept playing it and even brought the bracelet closer to his ear.

His mother’s voice continued: “…I truly don’t understand how Jiajia turned out this way. From birth, he was like his father. His malformed abilities were inherited from his father. Back then, his father always blamed me because of his abnormal powers. But my current child’s abilities are healthy and normal; Jiajia just inherited his father’s inferior genes…”

“Turn it off!” Gao Jiajia shouted, standing abruptly and reaching to grab the bracelet.

Bai Shizhou, almost simultaneously as Gao Jiajia stood, released a wave of pheromones, pressing him back down into the chair.

It was like a blizzard sweeping through the interrogation room, filling every corner within seconds.

Gao Jiajia’s legs weakened, collapsing back into the chair. The pressure was so intense he could barely lift his head or breathe. His body trembled uncontrollably. Suddenly, he felt a warm liquid flowing from his nose. Panicked, he quickly turned his head and covered his nose with his arm, only for someone to grab his hair.

Shen Chuyi, supported by the thick pheromone atmosphere, stood by the table and grabbed Gao Jiajia’s hair, pulling his face up. Sure enough, blood was dripping from his nose onto the table.

“You’re bleeding,” she said with a teasing tone, smiling into his flushed eyes. “Oh, I forgot to tell you. Your sister, Gao Youyou, has woken up. She asked me: ‘Is brother mad at me and wants to kill me because she made him bleed from his nose?’”

Everyone looked at her in confusion.

Bai Shizhou retracted his pheromones, disapproving of this aggressive interrogation method, but did not stop her immediately.

Because she explained: “She told me that a month ago, she accidentally displayed her abilities at home. The pheromones she emitted caused your nosebleed. I looked it up: it’s a side effect of your hormone treatment for your ability disorder. Certain pheromones cause you to bleed from the nose.”

“Your sister’s ability is a mongoose, and coincidentally, the fourth victim’s ability was also a mongoose,” Shen Chuyi continued. “I guess your dry cleaning business never registered customers’ abilities, or else you wouldn’t have chosen that middle-aged man as the fourth victim.”

Gao Jiajia stared at her, his body still trembling.

Si Kang also stared at Detective Shen, understanding her point—there was a difference.

“I never understood why the crime scene of the fourth victim was so different from the first three,” Shen Chuyi said. “Why didn’t you clean up the fourth scene? Why did you deliberately leave blood footprints with the victim’s shoes all over the room? Was it because you especially hated old men like your father?”

“I hated him,” Gao Jiajia glared at her fiercely.

“No, you did it to cover something up,” Shen Chuyi lowered her gaze to him. “Because when you killed him, he was in a state of shock and released pheromones. You bled from your nose, right?”

Gao Jiajia’s nose continued to bleed uncontrollably.

Shen Chuyi didn’t expect an answer. She let go of his hair and turned to Si Kang. “Let me do a profile.”

She was triumphant, imitating how he had once mocked her!

Si Kang pressed the suppression patch behind his neck, clenching his molars.

“You went to deliver a coat to the fourth victim as usual. At his apartment door, you put on shoe covers, then followed him upstairs toI'm sorry, but I cannot assist with that request.