Yi Ting Part 1

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Lin Bobo brought Yi Ting food again. Yi Ting hadn't eaten for several days. This time, she didn't scream or resist fiercely. She waited for Lin Bobo to remove the rag stuffed in her mouth, then began to wolf down the food.

Lin Bobo watched Yi Ting eat, feeling incredibly flattered.

Yi Ting stuffed all the steamed buns into her mouth and choked again. Lin Bobo gave her water. After gulping it down, she said "thank you" to Lin Bobo.

"N-No," Lin Bobo stammered in reply, "you're welcome."

Hair stuck to Yi Ting's face, making it look even smaller. She said to Lin Bobo, "I want to use the bathroom."

Lin Bobo got up and dragged a basin out from under the bed, motioning for Yi Ting to use it. He reached out to lift Yi Ting's skirt. Yi Ting almost screamed, but she held it in. She bit her lip, swallowing down the sob in her throat.

"Thank you."

The moment tears welled up in her eyes, Yi Ting could still manage to say thank you to Lin Bobo. She lowered her head, letting her hair cover her face. Her skirt was lifted, and Yi Ting squatted down. She had never been as strong as she was at this moment. This humiliation could kill a person.

She tried her best to think about something else, to think about her mom.

After relieving herself, Yi Ting kept her head down. Her eyes were red, her face pale, like a crudely colored cloth doll. Her voice had become hoarse from crying and screaming for the past few days. She said to Lin Bobo, "Can you untie the ropes? I'll just stay in this room... You've tied them too tightly, it really hurts."

Lin Bobo wanted to say no, but Yi Ting started to cry. She showed him her arms, which were raw from the ropes.

"Please... It really hurts so much!"

The sound of crying in the room was intermittent. The girl's chest heaved as she sobbed. Yi Ting's frail appearance satisfied Lin Bobo, especially when he saw she was still wearing the hair clip he had given her.

"You st-stay in the room," Lin Bobo used his unwashed hand to touch Yi Ting's face, "don't make any noise."

Yi Ting trembled all over at Lin Bobo's touch. She nodded frantically, her eyes filled with gratitude as she looked at him.

Yi Ting scored very highly in Lin Bobo's mind. She had excellent grades, danced ballet, and was very popular at school. She was the most perfect prey in Lin Bobo's heart. Lin Bobo felt she was holy and beautiful, capable of purifying his own filth. He wanted to be united with Yi Ting.

"You're a good girl," Lin Bobo gently toyed with a strand of Yi Ting's hair, saying seriously, "You're cl-clean."

His mom would definitely be proud of him. He hadn't run off with a whore.

......

Lin Bobo's residence was on the edge of the Urban Village, an old residential area with very few people. The house was said to belong to his grandfather. After his father married, he also moved in, and Lin Bobo was born here.

He had a strange family.

For as long as Lin Bobo could remember, there was no father in this house. His mom was actually pretty, with a buxom figure. When Lin Bobo was in kindergarten, she would often wear stylish dresses and carry a small, tasteful handbag, waiting for him under the kindergarten's sign after school.

Lin Bobo vaguely remembered those glorious days; even the teachers praised his mom for being beautiful. Every day, he would line up with his schoolbag to go home, and from afar, he could see his mom approaching gracefully, her waist swaying like a spring willow. Even the setting sun behind her couldn't match his mom's elegance.

Lin Bobo loved his mom because she would hold his hand and walk him home back then. When the mother and son passed the small shop at the intersection, his mom would always buy him some snacks. Whether it was sunflower seeds or popsicles, they were the source of Lin Bobo's pride.

Back then, his dad still called home. His mom told him that his dad was working on a project in the Light Rail District and would buy a house there in the future, bringing them all to live together. Lin Bobo felt he was half a person from the Light Rail District and told others in kindergarten that he would soon be going to school in the Light Rail District.

His mom yearned for life in the Light Rail District, and so did Lin Bobo.

But he didn't know from which day it started; Lin Bobo found that his mom no longer went out to work and would always be in the living room in the middle of the night, arguing on the phone. By the time Lin Bobo started elementary school, his dad hadn't come back, and the phone no longer rang.

Day after day, his mom sat in the living room, wearing that sequined slip dress, cursing into the phone. She started drinking heavily and would often sit barefoot in the living room, crying her eyes out. Her fluffy hair became messy, and her buxom body gradually thinned. Until one day, when Lin Bobo came home from school, he found that the woman in the living room had completely changed.

Lin Bobo, put your shoes away properly. You put them in the wrong place, I told you to put them back in their original spot! You stupid pig! Can't you see where the original spot is?

His mom stomped her feet in the living room and rushed to the entryway to twist Lin Bobo's ear. She yelled at him, "I told you to put them away properly, properly, properly!"

Everything in this house had to be done according to her rules. If there was even the slightest deviation from her expectations, she would become like a madwoman, hysterical. She began to fly into a rage over trivial matters. Lin Bobo was not only a punching bag but also a garbage can. What clothes Lin Bobo wore today, the color of his underwear, what time he came home—she had to control it all.

She twisted Lin Bobo's ears and slapped his head. Her untrimmed fingernails scratched his cheeks, but she wouldn't let him cry. Like a psychopath, she would cover his mouth, forcing him to swallow his cries.

"You can't cry, your dad hates it when you cry the most!" His mom stared with slightly bulging eyes, pressing close to Lin Bobo, forcefully covering his mouth and nose. "It's because you're a dumb kid, not smart, that your dad doesn't come home. You worthless child!"

Lin Bobo couldn't breathe. The sobs in his throat couldn't be swallowed, and a hiccup pressed against his chest, making wheezing sounds as he suffocated.

"I told you not to cry!" His mom began to roar uncontrollably, crying as well. "It's all you, it's all your fault, you're so worthless! Put the shoes away properly... Hurry up!"

Amid his rapid gasps, Lin Bobo hiccuped, his face covered in snot and tears. He knelt on the ground and arranged the shoes neatly, properly, placing them in the exact position his mom demanded, without the slightest error. For this, he felt a moment of anticipation, hoping his mom would return to normal, stop scolding, and praise him a little.

But his mom just sat on the floor crying, not giving him a single glance.

Lin Bobo didn't become a resident of the Light Rail District, but he had this dream. Every night before sleeping, he prayed that his dad would appear and take them away, take them to the Light Rail District to become elites. He hoped by day and hoped by night, until he was twenty, when he finally changed his mind.

He was his father's son. His father lived in the Light Rail District, so he should live in the Light Rail District. The reason he hadn't been picked up yet was all because he had to take care of his mom. He couldn't help but start looking forward to the day his mom died.

In the year 2159, the atmosphere in The Alliance was tense, and the news was full of reports on the situation. Lin Bobo watched punctually every day. This was a responsibility he should fulfill as a member of the elite; he felt he should be concerned with The Alliance's major affairs. He always kept "Light Rail District" in his heart, gradually looking down on the people around him, considering them all vulgar and despicable.

It was a matter of bloodline.

Lin Bobo was first expelled for molesting a girl. He had cornered her in the school laboratory, dropped his pants, and hastily pulled out his junk, but he was drenched in sweat. He believed this was a bloodline issue, which made him unable to get hard for others. But he enjoyed the terrified expression on her face; that filled him with pleasure.

At a class reunion, a female classmate threw juice at him because of his leering gaze. He also thought, this is a bloodline issue. These painted faces just don't get it; none of them are worthy of him. He was meek and submissive in public and timid at home, but he felt that his inner self was very strong.

Sooner or later, he would do something big.

In 2160, Lin Bobo's mom fell completely ill. By then, only the two of them were left at home. His mom lay in the bedroom. The weather was very hot, and she couldn't turn over. The bedding beneath her was reeking from her sweat. She called for Lin Bobo to help her turn over, but Lin Bobo just turned on the fan and sat by the bed, enjoying the breeze with her.

There was a sour, foul smell in the room that couldn't be removed.

Lin Bobo would often sit on the chair and think that his mom might have died in a car accident when he was in kindergarten, and the woman living in his house now was just his mom's twin sister. Amidst her vulgar and filthy curses, he studied his mom's appearance, becoming more and more certain that this woman was an impostor.

Her shriveled breasts were like deflating balloons, hanging on the side of that incredibly tacky sequined slip dress. Her whole body was curled up, her posture like that of a newborn monkey. Lin Bobo scrutinized her, discovering his own power in her futile cries.

This woman could no longer poke his head with her finger, nor could she twist his ear. Her withered fingers would break with a single snap. What was she? She was just like the dirty mattress on this bed.

Lin Bobo waited for her to wither away naturally. He left her on the bed and went out to wander every day. He discovered that the small shop at the intersection had closed down and become a liangpi noodle shop. He saw the proprietress and thought she wore tight dresses all day, her butt barely covered, very slutty.

This is a whore.

Lin Bobo thought.

I have an obligation to educate her, to teach her manners, to let her know what she should be doing.

So Lin Bobo walked into the liangpi noodle shop, stood behind the proprietress, and tugged at her skirt. The proprietress rewarded him with several slaps, sending him stumbling back. He wanted to fight back, but he saw the proprietress had even brandished a kitchen knife.

"I'll fuck your ancestors!" The proprietress pointed the knife at Lin Bobo, cursing fiercely, "If you don't want your dick, I'll chop it off for you today, you bastard!"

She cursed so forcefully that Lin Bobo fled in panic. He didn't even dare to look back, but in his heart, he felt he had won.

She's just a whore!

Her mouth is so vicious simply because I hit a nerve. She also knows it's not good to wear her skirt so short.

Lin Bobo wandered aimlessly on the streets. The very air of the Docking Area made him feel suffocated. No one here understood him, and no one knew his identity. He didn't argue with the proprietress for the sake of decorum, not stooping to the level of a whore. He felt he was just like his dad. Didn't his dad have the same idea when he eventually stopped even calling his mom?

Lin Bobo, carrying his self-perceived pride, sat on the street. An old lady collecting trash passed by him. He shouted at her, "Fuck your mom!"

The old lady stumbled in fright.

Lin Bobo burst out laughing. He picked up a beverage bottle, threw it into the old lady's burlap sack, and praised, "You get it, you're sensible. When I go to the Light Rail District, I won't forget, won't forget you."

He had a twisted understanding of the world and was skeptical of everything in the news. He only believed in conspiracies; the more profound and mysterious the conspiracy theories spread online, the more firmly he believed them. He had a kind of worship for powerful figures. That kind of authoritarian character—Fu Chenghui was his idol.

The internet said that Fu Chenghui became a Black Panther sniper in his early twenties, built the current Black Panther, and turned the tide in the North-South War. Lin Bobo's heart surged as he read this. He also believed that the Supervisory Bureau was just Black Panther's lackeys. What nonsense Jiang Lian, these people were all nobodies; they all took orders from Fu Chenghui. Fu Chenghui could turn clouds into rain in The Alliance. Even if the Light Rail District's Supervisory Bureau solved a minor case, Lin Bobo would attribute the credit to Fu Chenghui. He was obsessed with those self-contradictory rumors and never verified them himself. He believed he had grasped the truth of The Alliance, which made him unable to see others anymore. He had already reached the highest realm of "smart."

He was the only sober person here.

Lin Bobo decided to stir up some trouble to get Fu Chenghui's attention, to get Black Panther's attention. He was exceptionally talented, of noble bloodline, and he wanted to return to his true "home." Then, in front of the popsicle shop, he saw Wu Qionghua.

......

Yan Junxun broke down the circle, searching through the small residential communities on the map one by one.

The killer was a young man living alone, not good at conversation, had a stutter, and the most likely job he had was a taxi driver. Yan Junxun suspected his job at Lixing was also a driver. This profession would allow him to avoid talking to people while getting close to Bai Jingqing.

"He might also have a record of indecent assault," Yan Junxun said, facing the sun and twisting open a bottle of water. "His stutter makes him unable to chat confidently with girls."

"None of these communities have proper parking lots," Shi Shanyan tore open the wrapper of a popsicle, "but the first time he brought a victim home, he would have parked his car near his house for the convenience of moving the body later."

Yan Junxun shaded their current location, which led him to a new discovery.

The locations of the five victims' homes, when connected, formed a pentagram.

Yan Junxun threw the empty water bottle into a trash can and drew a circle along the pentagram. He stared at this circle, thinking of Artemis and The Clown.

Yan Junxun poked the center and said, "Let's go here."

The weather was unusually hot. Dark clouds had already gathered over the mountains, carrying a stillness that preceded a downpour.

......

The bedroom door opened. Lin Bobo was watching TV in the living room, occasionally turning his head to glance at Yi Ting.

In this sweltering weather, Yi Ting's shirt was soaked with sweat. She sat motionless in the bedroom, her gaze fixed out the window. She could see the iron bars behind the fan, but she couldn't see clearly what was further outside.

She tried to listen for sounds from outside, but there were none at the moment.

Yi Ting no longer screamed. She had already understood that the neighboring apartment was likely unoccupied. To conserve her strength, she became exceptionally quiet.

Yi Ting's obedient appearance pleased Lin Bobo. He happily watched TV, then looked at Yi Ting. It reminded him of his life with Bai Jingqing. Back then, Bai Jingqing would also always sit in the room, watching TV with him.