Chapter 114: Deceiving the Heavens and Crossing the Sea

I stared at Z. "Tell me yourself: will you be going to prison for murder, or for fraud?"

Z’s lips trembled. She remained silent for a long time, but I was in no hurry. I had already caught the killer; there was nothing I couldn't afford to wait for. After a long period of hesitation, Z finally uttered two words in utter despair: "Murder."

I watched her with interest. "Just as I suspected. Where is the victim's body?"

With Z and Charlie both at a dead end, it took a while before Z finally told me that the body was buried on a mountain in the harbor district. I instructed Chen Fan to write down the location and notify the harbor police to verify it immediately. Chen Fan complied, but after noting the address, he wore a troubled expression, admitting he still didn’t understand what was going on.

"Brother Han," Chen Fan said, completely bewildered, "didn't you say Z wasn't the killer?"

I smiled faintly. "I only said she wasn't the killer in the Kuman Thong case."

I stopped stalling. I still intended to solve this case through Chen Fan’s hands, so he had to understand the sequence of events. After a moment of thought, I decided to start with Z.

Many strange things had been happening to Z. Rumor had it she was raising a Kuman Thong; she had scratch marks on her arms and often talked to herself. These were not just rumors—I had witnessed them myself, more than once.

I do not believe in ghosts or gods. From the start, I suspected Z was merely feigning supernatural occurrences. Initially, both Z and Charlie were suspects. However, after witnessing Z’s erratic behavior, I began to feel that she wasn't putting on an act. Her fear was genuine, and her strange behavior seemed to occur when she was in a state of unconsciousness.

Consequently, I began to suspect Z suffered from a mental illness. The reports in the harbor district had never mentioned such a thing, but this time, I truly learned the prowess of the local media. When the paparazzi and reporters of the entire district work together, they are virtually omnipotent in gathering intelligence.

Mental illnesses are either congenital or acquired. Acquired mental illness is generally related to a person’s psychological state; those who are chronically repressed are more susceptible. Z had developed a mental disorder precisely because of long-term psychological suppression.

The scratch marks were self-inflicted, and her talking to herself occurred when her consciousness was clouded. Her nightmares and visions of things others couldn't see were all symptoms of her deteriorating mental state. Charlie was clever; once Z’s condition worsened, he told me he had also seen shadows.

However, Charlie claimed he couldn't be sure if he had truly seen anything, attributing it to being influenced by Z’s emotions or mere psychological suggestion. At that time, I already suspected Z had mental health issues but didn't expose it. If Z were mentally ill and Charlie claimed to see the same things she did, it would easily expose him as a liar.

Therefore, Charlie remained vague, attributing everything to emotional contagion. He was clever, but his cleverness was his undoing. The reason was simple: it was Charlie himself who took Z to seek out the Kuman Thong; he should have been a believer in the supernatural as well. If he had truly developed hallucinations due to nervous tension, his first instinct would have been to believe he had encountered a ghost. In such a state of fear, he wouldn't have been rational enough to explain to me his reasons for seeing "dirty things."

What confirmed Z’s mental illness for me was a night I spent accompanying her in the hospital. As I prepared to leave the next day, Z covered her face and wept. I suddenly grabbed her wrist. Although Z asked what was happening, I didn't say a word, but I noticed an interesting detail: her fingernails were trimmed quite neatly.

Fingernails grow easily and reappear shortly after being clipped. Trimming nails is a mundane task, but in Z’s state, it was highly abnormal. Because of her terror, she hadn't been able to eat or sleep for days; she hadn't even bathed. How could someone like that be concerned with trimming their fingernails? She had been disheveled for so long that her nails should have been quite long, yet they were neatly filed. Looking back two days—the two days before Charlie was injured—the strange events had basically ceased, and no new scratch marks had appeared on Z’s arms.

The reason was simple: Charlie had clipped Z’s nails, and the scratches on her arms were things she had done to herself while in a clouded state. Charlie had clipped her nails because of a trap I had laid in my words, stating that if the killer made any more moves, I would catch him. Fearing exposure, Charlie had forcibly restrained her, ensuring nothing happened for those two days, which naturally included clipping her nails. Given Z’s mental state, she wouldn't have cared whether her nails were long or short; her lack of awareness was entirely consistent with her condition.

Charlie must have known about Z’s mental illness for a long time. Otherwise, as her manager, he should have sent her to a large hospital for treatment rather than adopting a laissez-faire attitude. Charlie had exploited her mental state, leading Z herself to believe that supernatural forces were at work.

Living with her long-term, Charlie knew exactly what was happening to Z. It was not difficult for him to clean Z’s fingernails after she scratched herself. Just like this evening, when Charlie caused Z and the other officers to fall into a deep sleep—he hadn't had time to go out and buy sedatives in the last two days, which proved he kept such substances on hand specifically to control Z.

"Why did Z become mentally ill?"

Mental illness is often contemptuously or carelessly referred to as "being crazy" in daily life. I told Chen Fan that a psychiatric evaluation at the hospital would serve as evidence. Z’s condition stemmed from the psychological pressure I had previously analyzed.

"Guilt, fear, exhaustion, anxiety—every negative emotion you can imagine, Z had them. Slowly, she developed a split personality." I stared at Z, who sat powerlessly on the floor. There were things she didn't even know herself, but there were others she definitely did.

"Charlie, you thought you could deceive everyone. Do you want to know where you failed?"

The wound on Charlie’s shoulder was still bleeding, and he was on the verge of fainting. Desperate, he nodded slightly at me.

I wore a look of contempt. "As a manager, you are brilliant; that is your ability. Z was deep in a scandal, yet you managed to help her make a comeback in two years. You should know this entertainment industry better than anyone, yet you ultimately lost to it."

Charlie had lost to the paparazzi and reporters of the harbor district.

At first, when I used Wang Yazhuo to stir the pot and spread the news about Z raising a Kuman Thong, I hadn't truly suspected Charlie. However, the investigation results and my probes finally locked him in as the prime suspect.

The capability of one or two reporters is limited, but this time, by using a gimmick, I had mobilized almost the entire press of the harbor district. My goal was to collect more intelligence on Z and Charlie. I must admit, public opinion is an excellent informant; they indirectly provided me with a wealth of information. Old reports and photos were all unearthed at once like an explosion.

There were many photos of Z captured by the media, some showing that she had indeed aged decades and become frighteningly thin. However, there were contradictions in those reports and photos. I brought up the photo I had initially identified as inconsistent. That photo, combined with another report about Z and Charlie going abroad to seek spiritual help, proved they were taken during the same period, yet in that specific photo, Z did not look nearly as emaciated.

This was because the person standing before us was not Z at all!