Captured By The Cold Detective (BL)-Chapter 486: Prime Suspect

Cw: mild gore

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It was He Juan’s fault. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

He should have known better than to spare Fang Yazhu’s life, especially after he uncovered the man’s involvement with that damned secret experiment. It was his lapse of judgment that had led to his current predicament. He thought that death was the simplest punishment there was, and thus he had intended to hand Fang Yazhu over to the Interpol, to imprison him behind the cold bars for the rest of his life, watching as the glory and reputation he had painstakingly built for years crumbled to dust. This kind of slow and agonizing demise was more fitting for someone like Fang Yazhu, or so He Juan had believed.

But now, he was proven wrong.

Sometimes, certain people must not be allowed to exist even one second longer on Earth, lest they contaminate all they touch with their foul nature.

It was early hours of the morning, and the sun had not even fully risen yet. However, inside a luxurious villa in Guangnan, a suffocating stench of blood spread through the air, coming from the man securely bound to the wooden chair.

His condition was one of utmost wretchedness. Not a patch of skin remained untouched; his body bore tens, if not hundreds of lacerations. Blood pooled around his feet, and his body was spasming once in a while. His head was slumped to the side, and faint flumes of vapor could be seen floating from his soaked body. Though his eyes were closed, his wildly twitching eyelids indicated that he had yet to lose consciousness— or to be exact, he could not faint even if he wanted to. Because the moment he teetered on the brink of darkness, someone would splash him with boiling water, jerking him awake again and again.

Gasping for breath, Fang Yazhu’s voice came out in a garbled murmur, "Kill me... I beg you... just kill me..."

He Juan scoffed when he heard the plea. "Don’t you think death is the easiest punishment for you? I had actually prepared a plan for your life. Even though it might be a little unpleasant, you do not have to go through this excruciating agony. Too bad, someone just doesn’t recognize my goodwill and insists on provoking me again and again..."

He walked toward the tray where the tools were laid out, his fingers brushing over them. With each crinkling sound, Fang Yazhu would jerk and tremble uncontrollably, his teeth chattering so hard that He Juan could hear it from where he was standing.

"Kill me... I told you to kill me..." he struggled violently against the belts around his body to no avail. With his spirit on the edge of breaking down, he erupted in a roar akin to a desperate beast struggling on its last breath. "I TOLD YOU TO KILL ME NOW! KILL ME KILL ME KILL—"

A resounding crash echoed as He Juan abruptly snapped and hurled a thick glass ashtray against the wall, causing it to shatter into millions of pieces. His silver eyes were a violent whirlpool of fury as he seethed, "Shut up. Who gives you the right to order me around?"

That effectively halted Fang Yazhu’s emotional outbursts, though the sight of the wrathful man further drove him to the brink of insanity. He began to cry, a muffled and harrowing cries that spoke of the torment he was going through. "Forgive me... please, XIU... I know, I know I messed up. Please forgive me..." The ex-politician, who once carried himself with pride and arrogance, finally crumbled apart under the intense and prolonged torture. Tears and snots ran down his bloodied face as he kept begging for mercy again and again.

He Juan’s annoyance surged at the unpleasant noise, and he finally decided that he’d had enough. He could not stand spending even one more second in the company of this repulsive man. Gripping the sharp and polished knife, he turned and advanced toward Fang Yazhu, grabbing the man’s hair and forcing him to raise his head.

"I will kill you," He Juan declared. "If you answer my question honestly."

The words, which were supposed to evoke fear, now seemed like sweet relief to the tormented man. The eyes behind his swollen eyelids glimmered with a spark of hope and he nodded by reflex, only to realize that he couldn’t move due to He Juan’s grip on him. So he spoke eagerly, "A–Ask... ask me! I will tell you everything!"

He Juan tightened his grip to shut the man up and posed his first question, "Do you know Luo Xuan?" He stared intently into Fang Yazhu’s bloodshot eyes, taking in the flicker of surprise and confusion within.

"I–I don’t know..." Perhaps fearing that his answer would not satisfy the man, he hurried to add, his voice shaking uncontrollably, "I–I swear, I’m telling the truth! I really don’t know anything about him!"

"A man in his late twenties, long brown hair, brown eyes, an Omega. You really don’t know him?" He Juan narrowed his eyes sharply, the tip of his knife pressing against Fang Yazhu’s cheek, just below his eyeball.

Horror was reflected within Fang Yazhu’s eyes as he responded, more frantically this time, "I really don’t...! I don’t know anyone like that! Please, you have to believe me!"

"Then why did you invest in that facility?" He Juan glowered. "Don’t tell me that you really thought it’s a legitimate Alzheimer’s research institute."

"S–Someone convinced me that it was a smart business move! They promised returns a hundred times beyond my investment! I thought... I really thought it was a golden opportunity!"

He Juan’s brows furrowed, "Who?"

"I–I don’t know! I swear! They sent an anonymous proposal to my personal email. I... I ignored it at first because it sounded so suspicious, but... but they did not give up. They kept sending me one proposal after another. I didn’t even know where they got my personal email from! This went on until..." his face contorted as though recalling something unpleasant. At a glance, He Juan could immediately tell that the other person must have gotten a black material over him, forcing him to agree to the proposal.

"Last question," He Juan’s tone was flat, betraying none of the turmoil churning in his heart. "Who instructed you to shift the blame for the accident on Wunan Road to me?"

This time, Fang Yazhu outright sobbed, his fear overwhelming him to the point of losing control. The pungent scene of urine filled the air, mixing with the metallic blood and making He Juan feel even more irritated. He inched the knife closer and Fang Yazhu screamed, "M–Mercy, I... I beg you! I will talk, I will! No one ordered me to do it!" His twisted features looked grotesque with the bloodshot eyes and bleeding cuts. "I recognized you at a glance even though your face wasn’t visible in the videos, and I... I thought I could—arghhh!"

Blood sprayed across the wall as He Juan brought the knife down and slashed Fang Yazhu’s throat in one clean move. The crimson liquid splattered to his face and body, yet a trace of manic delight flickered in the depth of He Juan’s silver eyes as if he was thriving on his enemies’ agony and pain.

He did not release Fang Yazhu’s hair until the man breathed his last, the excruciating torment etched forever on his features. Stepping back, he smoothed down his expression and gestured for his men to take over, "Clean up this mess, and..." He paused briefly. Despite Fang Yazhu’s honest confession, he couldn’t shake off the feeling that something was amiss. Everything was too... swift, too quick for him to catch up on, not allowing him any room to breathe. Like a row of dominos neatly lined up, only waiting for a little nudge to set off the chain reaction. He clenched his jaw before deciding, "...burn the body. Do not leave any traces behind."

The men, who were on standby in the corner of the room, responded in unison, "Roger, Boss!"

He Juan stepped out of the room and discarded his bloody gloves, but at that moment, Huang Zhiyan rushed over with a grim expression, "Boss, you need to see the TV right now!"

Early in the morning, on every national channel across the country, the same news was being broadcasted.

"...the emergence of the mutant Alphas is suspected to be done by a single individual. Presently, the police have identified the prime suspect, who is none other than XIU of Xuanlong. We have the director of Yuyang City Bureau here with us."

"Sir, could you please provide an update on the progress of the investigation?!"

"How did you manage to lock in on XIU of Xuanlong? Isn’t he hailed as the uncrowned hero of justice by the public?"

"How confident are you that XIU is responsible for the Wunan Road massacre?"

"Do mutants really exist or is that a fabricated twist to diverge the public from the truth?"

In the midst of countless blinding camera flashes, a man in his forties clad in the official police uniform with shining epaulets on his shoulders, stepped onto the podium and took hold of the microphone. He cleared his throat and began,

"We possess substantial evidence that supports our focus on a particular suspect. However, the details are classified for now so I regret that I cannot provide further information at this moment. I extend my heartfelt condolences to everyone affected by the Wunan Road tragedy. We ask for your trust in the police force, as we are committed to serving justice to you. For that, I hereby announce that a joint investigation team has been established between Yuyang, Guangnan, Beijing and several other cities. At this moment, XIU has officially been put on the top of our wanted list, and we will exert our utmost efforts to bring him before the law!"

***

"...we will exert our utmost efforts to bring him before the law!"

CRASH!

A glass slipped from Mu Yuze’s grasp, shattering into countless pieces as it hit the floor. Water splashed onto the hem of his trousers, yet he did not seem to realize it at all for his entire attention was fixed on the headline news reported on the television.

His pupils trembled, and he uttered in a voice thick with disbelief, "...What?"