Chapter 189: He Xiao Yi’s observations.
Outside the interrogation room, the detectives and mayor clustered around the observation mirror were in shock. The chief’s face was pale. Xuanji even let out a gasp.
"Did I hear that man right? A network with a fate predictor who sells information on children?" Su Jin grabbed Xuanji’s collar. "Did I hear him right?"
Xuanji pried her fingers away. "Yes, Su Jin. We all heard it and we are all in shock."
"It is monstrous." Linlin muttered, joining them finally. "They are gambling with lives, turning children into commodities to be bought and sold, then returned if found to be defective. I cannot believe a fate predictor is involved. I am so ashamed of my kind."
The chief shook his head. "Actually, I am not surprised. Forty percent of all criminals who are system hosts tend to be fate predictors or involved with one. But, that is not the scary part here. I am now more worried about the possibility of more barrels in the sea that we have not yet found."
A younger officer gasped.
"No way." Xuanji whispered.
Chief Abby shrugged. "One child ended up in a barrel because his parents were done with the project. How many more do you think are out there like him? We need to do a deep dive of the location where Wuji pulled this barrel and every other body of water in the cities where these people operate."
There was silence for a moment. Everyone was imagining the horror of the possibilities if the chief was right.
"That is a big sea." Su Jin muttered, "Big, big, sea."
Inside the interrogation room, Liwu and Xiao Yi had heard all that the chief and the others said. She looked at Mr. Ji, her expression clam but her eyes sharp as blades. Then, she turned to Mrs. Ji, the woman who was sobbing uncontrollably now, clutching tissues that had dissolved under her tears.
She looked at he Xiao Yi, noticing that he was frowning deeply, his pen tapping against the table in rhythm with his thoughts. That feeling of bad luck crept along her spine.
Liwu pinched her throat, and cleared her throat. It was best to chase away such thoughts and focus on what they had. She slid a paper and pen to Mr. Ji. "Names. Locations. Phone numbers. Emails. Every contact in this network. If you can think of it, write it down. What you leave out, we will find in your phone and other devices at your house which we are about to get a warrant to search. This is no longer a small case. It involves conspiracy, human trafficking, child abuse and a host of many other crimes I cannot put a label on just yet."
Mr. Ji’s hands trembled as he scribbled, sweat dripping onto the paper. Each name he could remember from the moment he heard about the adoption was a nail in the coffin of this conspiracy. His wife wailed louder, as if her tears would cleanse their mistakes. But sadly, it would not happen.
When he finished, Liwu took the paper, opened the door and held the paper out. Linlin was the one that grabbed it.
"Cross-reference these names against our database. Loop in missing persons, the children’s department. We might have a major trafficking ring on our hands."
She heard He Xiao Yi’s voice and turned around quickly. Given the look on his face from before, he had found something and she did not want to miss it.
"Did your son bully other children often? From what you mentioned, he targeted two of his nieces." He asked slowly, as if he was reeling them in like fish on a hook.
Liwu sat down, looking from him to Mrs. Ji.
She nodded. "All the time. At school, at the mall, at home..anywhere, as long as he got the opportunity."
"Girls or boys?" He asked.
Liwu frowned. Where was he going with this?
Mrs. Ji hesitated, then whispered, "Girls. Always girls."
He Xiao Yi rose abruptly, rushing out of the room. Liwu followed, running after him. He didn’t stop walking until he came to the medical room, which was opposite the in-house coroner’s building next door. The precinct and coroner’s building were connected by a corridor and single door.
He Xiao Yi stopped outside the single general ward which could house six patients at a time. He stood behind the glass, looking at the bed where Ji Xiaoyu was sleeping, in a drug induced state.
"What did you find?" Liwu asked him.
The rest of their team poured in, panting and curious. Weijun looked like he would burst if He Xiao Yi did not immediately reveal what he had noticed.
He Xiao Yo touched the mirror, his brows furrowed. "This is a bad kid, we all agree on that. Right?"
Nobody rushed to answer. They all had opinions on the child, but good or bad was too concise. Circumstances had to be considered. Maybe the parents were bad, and their treatment of their son had resulted in problems. It was hard to tell without a further investigation into the matter.
He could see their hesitation, and Liwu could see the certainty in his.
"Let’s say he is not a nice kid." She said, tilting her hand from side to side. "I can’t for sure call him bad."
He Xiao Yi nodded. Slowly, he said, "That is good enough. We can all agree that this kid is not a nice kid. He likes to bully others and his targets are always girls. You heard the parents. He poured boiling water on one and pushed another down the stairs. He killed the neighbors cat and threw it into another person’s house. We found him locked in a barrel and he didn’t exhibit the typical traumatized response you would expect to see in a child his age. He has not cried once. Not even at the moment he was rescued."
They all thought back to that moment. Indeed, the kid had not cried, expressed any fear or asked for his parents. In fact, Xuanji could remember him asking for a sandwich.
He Xiao Yi’s fingers tapped the glass. "I believe we might be looking at a budding psychopath. Not a sociopath, but a psychopath. One with a system." He turned to look at his team members. "Tell me, does any of you believe that this kid is going to go into the world and do good. Maybe he was sealed in that drum for a reason."
His words threw them all off balance for a moment. It wasn’t like they had never met dangerous children before, but this one was different. He had not harmed anyone--not unless you counted the girls he had bullied. But, was that enough to label him a psychopath and label him as a future killer? Was that reason enough for someone to lock him in a barrel and send him off to his death?
"Maybe we need--" Xuanji started, but Weijun cut him off.
He put his hand over Xuanji’s mouth. "Liwu, what are you waiting for? Take your handcuffs out and arrest the kid right now."
She was astounded. "You want me to arrest him! You want me to arrest a twelve year old kid. For what?"
"For killing a cat and harming his cousins." Weijun replied obliviously. "I don’t actually know if such charges can stick but you need to arrest him for something. I am not letting Chucky the psycho bully grow up in my city to terrorize women in future."
Liwu spun to look at him. "Chucky the psycho bully?"
Weijun took his hand off Xuanji’s mouth and shrugged. "Maybe, I could have used a better name but the premise is the same. Xiao Yi told me that his system is correct in profiling 100% of the time. If he says the kid is a psycho, I believe him. Now, lock the kid up in some underground prison in your hidden city because not even taking his system away will stop him from doing bad things. He was already killing cats and pouring hot water on people before the system arrived. What will he do now that he has one?"
It was another thing for ponder one, so there was a not of silence for a while.
Linlin finally raised her hands. "Okay, everyone needs to take a moment to breathe. "The kid is not a nice person, but he a breathing system. It is not as if...."
"So he can suffocate people to death and get away with it!" Weijun bellowed, stepping forward. "Prevention is better than cure."
Liwu pulled her husband back. "I agree with Linlin on the matter of everyone needing to take a breath. I think the most logical thing we can do right now is to send Linlin in so that she can see what the boy’s future holds. If she doesn’t see anything bad, we find another way to help him."
"And what happens if she sees something bad?" Weijun asked in a strong voice.
