After Guan Xia asked, Xu Nian didn’t answer immediately.
After waiting two seconds, Guan Xia noticed the faint surprise in Xu Nian’s eyes and suddenly realized how abrupt her invitation must have seemed.
After all, the two of them had only met three times, including today, and their only two phone calls had been case-related. They weren’t even friends—just acquaintances at best.
Feeling awkward, Guan Xia scratched her cheek and was about to backtrack when Xu Nian glanced at his watch and calmly said, "I have to return to the precinct tonight. I’ll need to leave by seven."
It took Guan Xia a second to process what he meant. Surprised but delighted, she quickly stepped back to let him in. "I won’t keep you long, Captain Xu. Please, come in."
Xu Nian hesitated briefly before following her inside. As he walked, he said, "My name is Xu Nian. You can just call me by my name."
Guan Xia set the plate of dumplings on the table and immediately understood the implication—while they weren’t friends yet, they were no longer strangers. He was someone she could address casually.
Obliging, she called out, "Xu Nian."
He nodded, glanced at the dining table, and pulled out a chair across from her.
Guan Xia hurried to the kitchen to fetch a fresh set of chopsticks and a bowl, then poured him a glass of water before finally settling into her seat.
Xu Nian thanked her but didn’t start eating right away. Instead, he asked, "What did you want to know?"
Guan Xia happily picked up her chopsticks. "Eat first! You have to leave by seven—let’s fill up before we talk."
Xu Nian waited until she had taken a bite, confirming she wasn’t in a chatty mood yet, before starting his meal.
Guan Xia had expected awkwardness, eating with someone she barely knew. But to her surprise, the silence between them felt natural, not uncomfortable at all. What shocked her most was how quietly Xu Nian ate—no slurping, no unnecessary noise, just the faint clink of chopsticks against the bowl.
It reminded her of her college cafeteria days, where every guy seemed to chew loudly or bombard her with questions, even if they’d just met. Eventually, she’d resorted to only sharing tables with other women.
They finished in about twenty minutes. Xu Nian set his chopsticks down first, took a sip of water, and said, "Ask whatever you’d like now."
Guan Xia wiped her mouth with a napkin and handed him one before thinking aloud, "That domestic abuser from Building 7—I only know his surname is Liang. Is he… still alive?"
At first, she hadn’t considered the worst-case scenario, assuming Old Liang had just gone fishing. But then she realized—the killer impersonating him had been wearing his clothes, meaning Old Liang must have fallen into his hands.
Sure enough, Xu Nian shook his head. "Dead. Yesterday morning."
Guan Xia’s lips parted. "The killer I saw did it?"
Xu Nian shook his head again. "No."
He didn’t elaborate, but for Guan Xia, this was enough—it confirmed her theory, based on the system’s timeline, that there were two killers.
After a pause, she asked another question, careful not to push too far. "Can you tell me why the killer targeted Old Liang and his family? Was it personal?"
Wiping out an entire family—what kind of grudge could drive someone to such madness?
Her mind raced with possibilities, but Xu Nian hesitated before answering, "He wasn’t targeting Liang Xinhua’s wife and daughter. He was there for Ye Lan."
"Wait, what?" Guan Xia frowned. "Then the other victims he killed before…"
Xu Nian looked surprised. "You know about those?"
Guan Xia winced—she’d slipped up. "Just… bits and pieces. Heard it around. That he’s a serial killer who dismembers his victims. That’s all."
She braced herself for him to ask where she got the information, but thankfully, he didn’t press.
After a moment of thought, Xu Nian finally said, "This case is complicated. The killer’s original target was Liang Xinhua, but due to certain circumstances, he shifted his anger toward Ye Lan, adding her to his list."
Guan Xia found his wording odd. "Anger? Ye Lan was just a victim of domestic abuse. What could she have done to provoke him?"
Xu Nian deliberated, then seemed to decide Guan Xia—a key witness who’d provided crucial leads—might continue aiding their investigations. "Because Ye Lan’s ex-husband, Tian Shaohui, was the killer’s second victim in Yongquan City."
The answer stunned Guan Xia. "What? Her ex-husband too? So both her husbands were killed by him? Wait—not him, his accomplice, but same difference. This killer’s logic is… bizarre. What did Ye Lan do to make him fixate on her?"
Just as Xu Nian was about to explain, Guan Xia gasped. "Because of the abuse? I remember hearing the neighborhood gossips say Ye Lan’s second marriage was worse than the first—her new husband started hitting her within a year. That means her first husband abused her too."
She looked to Xu Nian for confirmation. He didn’t speak, but his nod said enough.
Still baffled, Guan Xia muttered, "But why kill Ye Lan? Just because she married another abuser? You said he ‘shifted his anger’—did he feel like she wasted her second chance? Like she willingly walked back into hell, so he snapped?"
Xu Nian nodded again.
Guan Xia’s expression darkened. "This killer…"
She couldn’t put her feelings into words. Pity for Ye Lan’s suffering, frustration at her choices, fear of the killer’s brutality, even a twisted satisfaction at his targeting of abusers—until he turned on the victims themselves. The thought of him being caught was both a relief and a chilling reminder of how unpredictable such killers became once their psychology shifted.
Though no expert, Guan Xia had binge-watched enough crime dramas to know: once a killer like this changed their pattern, they were like a beast unleashed—unstoppable, unpredictable, and far more dangerous than before.
No matter how brutal he was, he had ultimately been caught. Guan Xia was startled by her own imagination for only two seconds before quickly realizing that the man would soon be taken away.
Watching Guan Xia's expression shift several times within those brief moments, Xu Nian couldn't help but smile faintly, though his lips soon settled back into neutrality.
Glancing at the time, Xu Nian asked, "Do you have any other questions?"
Guan Xia thought for a moment and said, "Can you tell me who the killer is? I have a feeling I’ve seen him before—not just during the camping trip or when he disguised himself as Old Liang."
Xu Nian remained concise. "You have. He observed the victims over a long period by selling vegetables, a method that drew little attention."
"The vegetable seller?" Guan Xia's mind raced, quickly piecing together who Xu Nian meant. "That man who sells vegetables at the entrance of the neighborhood? The one with a wife who runs a stall in the nearby market and a ten-year-old daughter?"
Xu Nian nodded. "Yes, him."
Guan Xia was stunned. Though she had only met them twice, she remembered the man and his daughter vividly.
They seemed so ordinary—the father, though not tall or particularly strong, always wore a warm, sincere smile as he greeted customers. She recalled him reassuring her not to care about others' opinions, saying it was important to eat well and stay healthy. His daughter, no older than ten, was quick with the scale, bagging vegetables and making change with practiced ease, clearly used to helping her family. She spoke like a little adult, her clothes neat and tidy, a sign of her parents' care. How could such an unremarkable man be the serial killer responsible for such gruesome murders?
Guan Xia couldn’t believe it. She struggled to reconcile the image of the friendly vegetable seller with the cold-blooded killer she had encountered twice.
She fell silent for a long while, only snapping out of it when Xu Nian refilled her cup with hot water.
Watching as he placed the cup by her hand, Guan Xia instinctively wrapped her fingers around it, her mind replaying scenes from the past few days. Finally, she spoke again. "And his accomplice…?"
Xu Nian said, "His wife—Jiang Chuntao, the woman who runs the vegetable stall in the nearby market."
Guan Xia was speechless. Though she had guessed as much, hearing it confirmed still left her with a complicated mix of emotions.
Since moving here, she had never shopped at that market, so she hadn’t met the woman. But from snippets of conversation among the neighborhood’s elderly, she had gathered that Jiang Chuntao was a tough, no-nonsense woman—someone who could keep her husband in line, endure hardship, and raise their daughter well. Now, this family of three had committed such a horrific crime, leaving only their young daughter alone in the world.
Thinking of the girl, Guan Xia recalled the scene she had witnessed from her study window. At the time, she hadn’t understood why the two girls were playing together. Now, it made sense—the vegetable seller’s daughter had likely approached Liang Panpan deliberately.
After a pause, Guan Xia shared this with Xu Nian. "I remember it was around noon two days ago. From my study window, I saw the vegetable seller’s daughter playing with Old Liang’s daughter. They seemed to have some kind of argument. Liang Panpan threw the lollipop the other girl had given her onto the ground and ran off without looking back. The vegetable seller’s daughter watched her disappear into the building before picking up the lollipop and leaving."
Xu Nian’s calm expression shifted slightly. He frowned. "You’re sure it was Luo Shun’s daughter, Luo Xiaoyun, and Liang Xinhua’s daughter, Liang Panpan?"
Guan Xia waited a few seconds, half-expecting some kind of system prompt to appear, but nothing happened.
She carefully retraced the memory before nodding firmly. "I’m certain."
Xu Nian rubbed his fingers against his cup, deep in thought. After a moment, he checked the time and stood. "It’s time for me to go. Thank you for dinner tonight. Once this case is wrapped up, let’s meet again. There are some things I’d like to tell you."
Guan Xia’s curiosity was piqued, but she didn’t press him. She simply saw Xu Nian to the door.
