Several vehicles gave chase, and though the middle-aged man was desperate, he only managed to delay them for about ten minutes before being cornered on an unnamed road near the highway entrance in the suburbs of Jianyang City.
The middle-aged man even tried to accelerate and ram through the police cars to escape, but against so many officers, his efforts were nothing more than the last struggle of a trapped beast. With a series of screeching brakes, both his car and the dented police vehicle veered off the road and crashed into a tree, coming to a halt.
Guan Xia watched the scene unfold—something straight out of a crime drama—gripping her seatbelt tightly, not daring to breathe too loudly. She even suppressed her instinctive gasps to avoid distracting Zhong Xiaoyu, who was driving. Only when the middle-aged man’s car finally stopped did she exhale in relief.
Zhong Xiaoyu reacted swiftly, slamming on the brakes and pulling over. Almost before the car fully stopped, she leaped out of her seat and sprinted toward the middle-aged man’s vehicle like it was second nature.
As if on cue, a flurry of brakes sounded around them. Before Guan Xia could even process what was happening, she saw Pang Le charging forward too, everyone rushing to surround the car.
Limited by her view, Guan Xia couldn’t see the details clearly, so she stepped out of the car as well.
Just as she reached the rear of the vehicle, she saw Zhong Xiaoyu, who had already yanked open the driver’s door and reached in to grab the man, suddenly jerk backward, retreating several steps in haste.
Guan Xia squinted and realized the middle-aged man had pulled out a bloodstained kitchen knife, wildly swinging it to fend off the approaching officers.
Seizing the moment, the man stumbled out of the car, still brandishing the knife, his voice frenzied as he shouted, "I’ve already killed a few people—getting caught means death anyway! Might as well take a few more with me! One’s a bargain, two’s a profit! Come on, try me!"
Armed and emboldened, the man barely stood for a few seconds before lunging at Zhong Xiaoyu, the closest to him, slashing wildly.
Guan Xia’s palms turned clammy with sweat, her breath catching in her throat. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from Zhong Xiaoyu, terrified she’d get hurt.
Fortunately, Zhong Xiaoyu, a former armed police officer, remained composed. She dodged fluidly, eyes sharp, waiting for the right moment to strike.
Just as Guan Xia’s heart pounded in her chest, the middle-aged man’s crazed gaze suddenly flicked toward her. The instant their eyes met—his bloodshot and full of malice—Guan Xia barely had time to react before he pivoted and charged straight at her.
The abrupt shift stunned everyone, but they seized the opportunity instantly.
Almost simultaneously, Xu Nian and Zhong Xiaoyu lunged at the man, but Zhong Xiaoyu was faster. With precise efficiency, she locked his knife-wielding arm, twisted, and slammed him onto the ground with a brutal judo throw.
Xu Nian and Jiang Yingyao were on him in the next second, pinning him facedown and cuffing him. Wang Yu, a step too late, kicked the knife away, while Pang Le, who hadn’t even gotten a chance to act, took the chance to sneak in a kick before returning to Guan Xia’s side.
"You okay? Not too shaken, are you?" Pang Le studied Guan Xia’s pale face, then sighed in relief. "Your luck’s something else. Out of all these people, why’d he zero in on you? I saw it—he beelined right for you."
The adrenaline-fueled minute left Guan Xia’s heart hammering so hard she thought it might burst. It took her a full ten seconds to register Pang Le’s words.
Still rattled, she shook her head, but her mind had never felt clearer.
Something clicked—she’d felt off lately, like she’d forgotten something important. Now she remembered: ever since returning from the Daqu County case, her "halo" hadn’t recharged.
Thankfully, she never went anywhere alone, not even for morning runs, always sticking with the group. That’s why she’d avoided danger—until now.
But clearly, that wasn’t enough.
Despite standing at the very back, completely inconspicuous among a dozen officers, she’d drawn the man’s attention like a magnet. One second, he’d been locked in a frenzy with Zhong Xiaoyu; the next, he’d fixated on Guan Xia as if she were his sworn enemy, charging at her with the knife, oblivious to the surrounding police.
Sensing her lingering fear, Pang Le suddenly pulled her into a brief hug, patting her back before pointing at the middle-aged man now surrounded by officers. "Guan Xia, look."
Snapping out of her daze, Guan Xia followed Pang Le’s finger and saw that someone had unzipped the man’s thick jacket, revealing a T-shirt soaked in shocking amounts of blood.
"With this much blood and what he said earlier, this bastard’s definitely got serious crimes on his hands," Pang Le analyzed grimly. "Judging by his state, it’s probably a crime of passion. Lucky we ran into him—he might’ve actually gotten away."
Before Guan Xia could respond, the wail of approaching sirens cut through the air. Pang Le pulled out Ji An’s phone and checked it. "Tong’an Precinct’s here. Good thing I had the sense to turn on location sharing, or they’d have taken longer."
Minutes later, the police cars arrived, and Little Chen, the young officer they’d met before, stepped out, exhaustion etched on his face.
"Where’s the new suspect you caught?" he asked bluntly. "We need to haul him back to the station ASAP. There’s another fresh crime scene—we’re swamped."
Guan Xia gestured toward the man, then gasped. "Another one? That makes three since Captain Yang left for the first scene?"
Little Chen nodded, looking utterly drained. "Yeah, three in under 24 hours. Even Director Tian’s been alerted. We’re so short-staffed that Little Yan had to drag the last of our desk officers and auxiliary cops to the newest scene."
He paused, remembering something. "Oh, right—I brought the surveillance footage from near the second victim’s scene. Also, once we get this guy to the station, I’m heading straight to the new site. Captain Yang said if you’ve got time, you can question him. If not, just lock him in the interrogation room till he gets back. Everything else takes a backseat to the current cases."
From Little Chen's machine-gun-fast speech, it was clear that despite his exhausted expression, he was genuinely frantic inside. So although Guan Xia still had questions, she ultimately held them back. After escorting the middle-aged man into the car, they all returned to the Tong'an District Police Station.
As Little Chen had said, the most urgent matter at hand was indeed the current case.
The moment the car pulled into the station and the middle-aged man was led out, Little Chen didn’t even turn off the engine. After a casual wave to the others, he hit the gas and sped off again.
The group exchanged puzzled glances before shrugging it off and ushering the man into the building.
It was then that the system interface finally popped up, initiating another round of energy recharge for the halo.
With the protective halo restored, Guan Xia immediately felt a renewed sense of security and almost skipped her way into Captain Yang’s office.
Wang Yu handed out the small box of USB drives containing surveillance footage, distributing them casually before everyone dug into breakfast and got to work.
Guan Xia had assumed that, given the first killer’s caution and cunning, even if they had left behind crucial evidence, they would still have been careful not to leave too many traces during the murders—buying time to carry out their next steps. To her surprise, a potential suspect was spotted almost effortlessly.
She hadn’t even bothered to pick carefully, just grabbed a random USB drive, and within the first surveillance video she watched, there it was—a discovery.
Before she could even call it out, Wang Yu suddenly announced, "Captain Xu, I’ve got something here."
As soon as Wang Yu spoke, others chimed in one after another.
Jiang Yingyao said, "I’ve got something too."
Ji An added, "Same here."
Pang Le also spoke up, "Me too."
Seeing this, Guan Xia chimed in, "Same on my end."
Almost simultaneously, everyone had made a discovery. The sheer abnormality of the situation had them exchanging glances again. Xu Nian frowned deeply and said, "The suspect isn’t even trying to hide their tracks. Their plan must be even more time-sensitive than we thought."
Three murders in less than 24 hours—that alone had already exceeded their worst expectations. Could there be a fourth or even fifth victim on the way?
While Guan Xia was still reeling from the shock, Xu Nian abruptly stood up. "No, continuing to review footage isn’t productive right now. The killer might already be en route to their next target. I’ll contact Captain Yang—we need to issue a citywide APB. That’s the only way we might catch them before another victim turns up."
With that, Xu Nian stepped aside to make the call. The others, clearly inexperienced with such a situation, seemed at a loss.
Jiang Yingyao, the most seasoned among them, reacted swiftly. "I’ll extract a clear shot of the suspect’s face and send it to Captain Yang. With facial recognition and the city’s surveillance network, plus all our officers, pinpointing their identity shouldn’t be hard."
Jiang Yingyao got to work.
About fifteen minutes after Xu Nian finished his call, an unfamiliar uniformed policewoman sprinted into the office, panting as she handed over a stack of documents. "Captain Xu, Captain Yang asked me to deliver these. The suspect’s identity is confirmed—they have a prior record. Captain Yang and the team have already left for deployment. Director Tian is leading the operation. Captain Yang said that while the suspect’s surrender is unlikely, we can’t rule it out, so someone needs to hold down the fort here. You and your team are to stay stationed at the precinct."
Xu Nian took the documents with a distracted nod, immediately engrossed in the details.
Recalling the near-empty office building she’d seen on her way up, Guan Xia understood Captain Yang’s reasoning.
This was their jurisdiction, after all, and such a vicious spree of murders demanded every available officer on the ground. Since Xu Nian’s team was already at the station, they’d been drafted to manage operations here—convenient, given they’d just brought in a suspect who still needed questioning.
Turning these thoughts over in her mind, Guan Xia leaned in to study the suspect’s profile alongside Xu Nian.
The first thing that caught her eye was the mugshot—undeniably the same person from the surveillance footage.
A square-jawed face with thick eyebrows, large, piercing eyes, and most strikingly, the left cheek—whether from burns or scalds, the skin was uneven, mottled with scars that covered nearly the entire left side.
Looking at that face, Guan Xia recalled her earlier speculation: perhaps the first killer had also been a victim of some horrific crime committed by cruel children, which had driven them to kill those who harmed others in similar ways.
She couldn’t help but wonder—were the two victims after the second killer also motivated by the same twisted sense of justice?
