UCS Chapter 124.2

…

Where was this. Where was this place.

The vision dissolved completely. Something in his mind felt as though a shackle had been broken.

He remembered.

“Over there! The third paint cabinet in the studio is a large mechanism!”

The mechanism engaged. The paint cabinet shifted. A wide space leading underground was revealed.

The lights came on. The cold white light bleached the faces of everyone present.

It was an exhibition room. Drenched in the smell of blood.

On the display platforms were the organ specimens from the videos.

In the centre stood an empty incubation unit.

Gao Shi knew. Originally, this incubation unit had been intended to house what Xiao Yusheng considered the most beautiful body, assembled piece by piece.

In the dream, this incubation unit had been designated for Gao Gusheng.

In the real world, it was almost certain the same plan had been made.

It would never be realised now.

The specimens were transported for DNA analysis. The entire villa was searched for clues from top to bottom.

Two officers exchanged a troubled conversation. “With this many bodies, where on earth are they hidden?”

“He disposed of over a dozen in eight years. There has to be some trace left somewhere!”

Nearby, Gao Gusheng’s expression shifted slightly. “Dad… I don’t know if I’m overthinking this, but Xiao Yusheng likes to make his own paints. When Junzi and I came by today, he was in the middle of making bone black.”

Freshly made paint. The arm Zhou You had lost.

Gao Shi thought of the painting Xiao Yusheng had posted on Weibo, and something moved in his chest.

Xiao Yusheng was cool-headed and arrogant, possessed of a pathological obsessiveness. The fact that he had encoded Zhou You’s condition in veiled imagery and posted it publicly on Weibo made it clear that toward the general public he maintained an attitude of contemptuous challenge, as though taunting them for sport.

Look. I have told you everything. And yet not one of you fools has seen a thing.

If that was the case, then the paintings he had posted multiple times before, of the dog chasing butterflies, beyond simply being evidence of animal cruelty, might also carry another meaning entirely.

Gao Shi gave orders in a low, measured voice. One team to examine Xiao Yusheng’s paints. One team to dig up the garden.

Standing in the garden looking out over the wide rose fields, the officers rolled up their sleeves and prepared to request several more police dogs, when the German shepherd and the golden retriever came running over. Heedless of the sharp thorns, they pushed into the flower field and began to dig.

The team exchanged a look and followed, digging after them. Within a few minutes, a shovel struck something hard. A torch beam lit the spot, and everyone looked down at a set of white bones.

No wonder Xiao Yusheng’s dogs always kept going to the garden.

They were never chasing butterflies at all.

…

The nature of this case was too monstrous. The prohibited drugs Xiao Yusheng had concealed alone were enough to put him away for years, to say nothing of the bodies buried in his garden.

He was ultimately sentenced to death and executed immediately.

At first, the forces Xiao Yusheng had cultivated on the outside refused to give up and attempted to pull him free. Before long, however, Xiao Yusheng’s situation made the trending list.

[?? Did I read that wrong? Is it a different person with the same name? Xiao Yusheng has been sentenced to death?]

[Everyone, do you remember that video of the film emperor that came out before? Could he really have been arrested for running an illegal operation?]

[Surely not. Compare it to other cases — a few years at most. Maybe he was dealing drugs?]

[Drug dealers deserve to die!]

[Deserve it +1. Though I don’t think that’s it. Let’s guess something more grounded in reality.]

The public didn’t have long to speculate before this world-shaking serial murder case was exposed in full.

The shock was so immense that people scrolling online momentarily found themselves unable to speak.

Eventually, a fan of one of the celebrities who had died at Xiao Yusheng’s hands was the first to speak out.

[My sister was wrongly accused! She never intentionally tried to ride his coattails!]

This broke the dam. Fans of all the celebrities who had been unjustly destroyed came forward one after another.

[My brother was wrongly accused too! His first album made the charts entirely on its own. He had no need to ride anyone’s coattails!]

[I’ll admit our guy may have sought some association, but in that photo the two of them were just standing slightly close together. What was being marketed was Xiao Yusheng praising his acting. There was no belittling anyone or manufacturing a ship. And yet he was driven straight out of the industry. And now he’s lost his life over it!]

[My god, I became a fan because of Edward. I thought anyone who loves small animals must be especially gentle. I never imagined…]

[I can’t take this. For a dog, once they’ve accepted their owner, it’s for life. He probably didn’t even have to try to kill them. Just a wave of the hand and they’d come right over.]

[They died without ever understanding why their owner had done it.]

Xiao Yusheng’s former image had been so immaculate that when his true face was exposed, countless people simply could not accept it.

Particularly devastating was the revelation that the person who had administered the drug that night had been Xiao Yusheng himself. He had intended to act against yet another victim, but miscalculated and drank the drugged milk himself, which was what had caused his disgraceful exposure. The number of people who renounced him and turned on him was beyond counting.

Certain obsessive, unwell fans could accept Xiao Yusheng as a beautiful killer, as someone with a pathological desire to collect perfect body parts. What they could not accept was that he was a revolting predator who drugged people with intent to assault them.

Xiao Yusheng’s image collapsed completely. At this point he was still in custody, negotiating with his outside contacts.

His face was unshaven, the skin beneath his eyes dark and sunken. He could not understand how he had simply slept for a while and woken up to find everything had changed. It felt exactly like a nightmare.

He looked at the people in front of him, bound to him by shared interests, and demanded coldly that they find a way to get him out.

Death sentence to suspended death sentence. Suspended death sentence to a fixed term.

But they only shook their heads, indicating it could not be done.

Xiao Yusheng’s brow furrowed hard. He pressed his voice down and snarled, “Don’t forget—”

Whether out of fear that he might implicate them or out of some remnant of prior feeling, the visitor showed him the tide of public opinion online.

The vast fanbase Xiao Yusheng had built was in total collapse. Every artist under his company had been investigated. Some had been taken into custody on the spot. Those who had not been arrested had rushed to terminate their contracts and flee. His company had long since become an empty shell.

His fame was gone. His company was gone.

His name had rotted beyond salvaging. “Xiao Yusheng” had even become an adjective, used specifically to describe men who were handsome on the outside and monstrous within.

Xiao Yusheng stared at it. His face split open with rage.

No. No.

The reputation he had spent so long building!

The moment he imagined the admiring gazes of the past turning to disgust, his entire body began to shake. He could not accept that a single stain had fallen on his perfect life. This was worse than death.

The investor gave him one last look, shook their head, and left.

Leaving Xiao Yusheng alone to fall apart.

But his collapse was not yet over. Gao Gusheng’s arrival became the final straw that broke him.

He looked at Gao Gusheng with desperate anticipation, his gaze hungry.

At least this rose had bloomed for him.

But Gao Gusheng looked back at him with an expression of perfect indifference.

“I heard your outside contacts have no intention of saving you and have already divided up your company. That’s all right. They’ve been dealt with too. Not one of them got away.”

“And also…”

Gao Gusheng’s eyes filled with quiet contempt.

“You didn’t actually think I liked you, did you?”

…

The final straw.

He went mad.

***