Chapter 534: Mei Shiyu

Seeing the shocked look on Fan Yansong’s face, Qi Youxuan said, “Now you believe in the effect of psychological suggestion.”

Fan Yansong did not say a word but his facial expression said it all.

Qi Youxuan was in no hurry and calmly spoke, “Now you tell me, from the beginning, what this Dr. Xu told you.”

Yang Shaoqun felt something amiss when he listened to Qi Youxuan’s voice. It seemed hypnotic. It had a calm, non-undulating tone, like an ethereal voice in a dream.

Turning again to Fan Yansong, he did not realize when his expression became calm and even sluggish-looking.

Fan Yansong began talking about his treatment in B City and continued until he came to T City. What he could remember was incomplete and could not repeat it word for word. He could only express in general what Dr. Xu told him at the time. It was also out of sequence.

This caused Qi Youxuan to exert more effort in his judgment. After all, the words used by a psychiatrist at times—especially like this Dr. Xu—was always thought out in advance. Each word and its sequence had a specific purpose.

“I felt that I may have relapsed and it was more serious than before. I became very irritable and violent. It was unbearable to be with others. It was even more unbearable to be alone. I knew that it was bad, but I didn’t know where to find a reliable psychiatrist in T City. I had no one else to turn to. I’m afraid that others will think that I have mental problems, that I’m a freak, and that I’m crazy. So I thought of Dr. Xu, and I called him again.”

“I told him about my emotional problems. He said that sometimes emotions can’t be continually supressed and need to be vented properly. It’ll feel better once vented. For example, certain urges that I have can be followed through. He tells me little by little each time. I now realized that I was just in a violent mood at first, but not to the extent as to kill. It was he who encouraged me to vent my emotions a little bit. Soon, those failed to satisfy me. I wanted to kill.”

“I only felt happy after I killed Xiong Shishi, but I was scared at the same time. I was scared I had become a pervert. I told him but I had no guts to tell him that I had killed someone. His voice was very gentle then, just like yours.” Fan Yansong glanced at Qi Youxuan.

“He said it was good that I had found a way to relax. This will be a good method. If I stick to it, I’ll be better. I actually did feel much better. Due to his words, a huge burden was lifted. He also said to find more ways to relax, as long as it was effective.” Fan Yansong’s expression suddenly became perplexed. “He told me something more but I can’t remember. I think I was a little absent-minded then.”

“Quite often when chatting with him, there will be a period of time where my mind goes blank. I feel very comfortable and relaxed. Even though I don’t remember anything, I rather liked the feeling.” Fan Yansong’s expression then morphed into the look of terror. “Give us the contact information of that psychiatrist,” said Yang Shaoqun.

“His cellphone number is in my phone contacts, the address of his clinic is recorded in my cell phone’s memo,” said Fan Yansong.

Zou Chengwei, who had been listening next door, immediately went to get Fan Yansong’s cell phone and found a contact named Dr. Xu. After confirming with Fan Yansong, he wrote down the number and found the address of his clinic.

Sure enough, the address was in B City, Room 1301, Block A, Jinbao International Building, 58 Jianguo Road.

The doctor’s name: Xu Heyou.

They had already arrested Fan Yansong. As to what charges to press, this would depend on his mental state. Qi Youxuan’s party had no say in it.

They packed and prepared to return to B City.

Jiang Yuecheng had sent Xu Heyou’s address and contact information to Zhang Ming. They booked the earliest flight the next day back to B City.

It was already late night when they finished questioning Fan Yansong. Because of that, they had no time to meet Xiao Yiqing and Xiang Haorui.

They turned off their cell phones when they got on the plane.

When they landed and turned on their cell phones, Jiang Yuecheng saw that he had a missed call from Zhang Ming.

He called back. After listening to Zhang Ming and hanging up, he told Qi Youxuan and the others, “According to Zhang Ming, the psychiatry clinic at the address had been closed down. He checked with the building’s security guards and found out that there was a clinic there previously but it was closed down a month ago. Shaozhan also found that no psychiatrist in B City goes by the name Xu Heyou.”

“Have Zhang Ming ask the building’s security guards, the people who work in the building and the people who had contact with Xu Heyou and get a police sketch of Xu Heyou based on the descriptions from them.” Qi Youxuan then instructed, “Also, have Yang Shaozhan find the author of the book, <Killer of the Heart>.”

In the car, Wei Muran did a search on the internet with her cell phone. “This book was initially published on the Jiangshi Chinese Network and was then licensed to Jinzheng Publishing for publication. Jiangshi Chinese Network is located in B City, 21 Guangbo Road, Block A, Haidong Building, Room 1001-1010.”

After they returned to the police station, Zhang Ming and Jiang Yuecheng went to the Jinbao Building; Qi Youxuan and Wei Muran to the office of Jiangshi Chinese Network; and Zhao Yiyang and Xing Jiadong went to Jinzheng Publishing.

At the office of Jiangshi Chinese Network, Wei Muran presented her badge and found the editor for <Killer of the Heart>.

“What seems to be the matter, officer? Have you come to check for pornographic content? This book by Mei Shiyu is a Detective Fiction novel. There’s no pornographic content in there. Our website has rectified all books to ensure compliance. The content is good. There is no indecent content. Officer, are you here to arrest me? Is it too late if I resign now?” said the editor while clutching her employee ID tag, hiding her identification from Qi Youxuan and Wei Muran.

“…” Wei Muran took a quick glance at the employee ID tag clutched in her hand and said, “We’re from the Criminal Investigation Division. We’re responsible for major crimes like murders, arsons, and bank robberies. We’re not responsible for fighting pornography.”

The editor breathed a sigh of relief and chuckled. “If that’s the case—”

Before she could finish, she got scared again. “Then it doesn’t concern me!”

“Please calm down, Miss. We’re here to inquire about Mei Shiyu, it’s not directly related to you,” assured Wei Muran.

“What happened to Mei Shiyu? Did one of my authors commit a crime?” asked the editor nervously.

“Just answer the questions that I ask, alright?” said Wei Muran with a wooden expression.

“Sure, sure.” The editor’s shoulders loosened and she no longer covered her employee ID badge.

Wei Muran saw the name on her employee ID badge: Pu Qiuping.

“Madam Pu Qiuping?” asked Wei Muran again.

“Yes, yes, I’m Pu Qiuping.” Pu Qiuping shifted her buttocks and adjusted her posture. “Not Madam. Miss. I’m unmarried.”

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“…” Wei Muran ignored the second half of what she said. She wondered if the editor has read too many novels which caused her brain to be crooked compared to others. “Mei Shiyu is one of your authors. Do you have a way to contact him?”

“I only have his QQ number, and we usually communicate via QQ,” answered Pu Qiuping. She then took out her cell phone from her jacket pocket, logged in to QQ, found Mei Shiyu’s QQ number and told Wei Muran.

“Still, we haven’t been in contact for more than half a year. After his novel was published half a year ago, he said he wanted to take a break. There was nothing much happening during this time, so I haven’t contacted him,” informed Pu Qiuping.

“How much do you know about Mei Shiyu’s real identity? Did you need an identification card to sign the contract?” asked Wei Muran.

“Just a minute, I’ll find our contract editor and get a copy of Mei Shiyu’s contract,” said Pu Qiuping. She then sent a QQ message to the contracted editor with her cell phone. “It’s a little troublesome to find a contract and it may take a while.”

“How much do you know about Mei Shiyu? Could you tell us? I saw your website. Does he only have one series on your website?”

“Yes. I’m not sure if he has vested in other websites. This is the first time he has come to our website. We posted our editors’ posting submission emails and genre of submissions on our website. I’m in charge of suspense, supernatural, online games, and science fiction. He submitted his work to me last March. I saw that it was really good, so I contacted him and quickly signed the contract. This detective fiction novel isn’t long, approximately three hundred thousand words. It was completed within two months.”

“Our website has a dedicated publishing department responsible for recommending suitable books on the website to publishers. Our colleagues in the publishing department recommended this book to Jinzheng Publishing. It so happened that detective fiction novels were particularly popular at the time, and the publishers were more than willing to sign on novels of this genre. This book of his was highly popular on our website. Although short, it had a huge amount of readers and Mei Shiyu’s name also gained fame. The publishers signed the contract and the royalties were considerable. We’re recently preparing to recommend it to make a movie out of it,” Pu Qiuping added.

“Have you ever met?” asked Wei Muran.

Pu Qiuping shook her head. “His book was very well-received. The theme was new and original. We wanted to cultivate him as the face of our website. At the author’s annual meeting last year, he was specially invited to attend. He was to be presented with a particularly important award, which came with generous bonuses. This will also help to boost the popularity of this book. I contacted him and explained clearly but he still didn’t agree; he just didn’t want to reveal himself.”

Pu Qiuping felt helpless and even a little sullen. He just passed up such a good opportunity.

“There were other events held, big and small, yet he declined them all. The book sold very well and he even built up a fan base. The publisher wanted to do a book signing event, he declined. The publisher was willing to cover all travel and lodging expenses, he still declined. They requested that he come over to sign some copies of the book and sell them as special signature editions, he refused as well. He only had the publisher send him a stack of A4 papers and sent them back after he signed them.” Pu Qiuping shook her head. “Still, it turned out alright as the publisher used the mystery angle as a selling point. The results turned out pretty good.”

After a while, a girl who looked like she had just graduated came bearing a contract.

Wei Muran flipped open and photographed Mei Shiyu’s signature, identification card, and real name.

Later, Qi Youxuan asked Pu Qiuping to contact Mei Shiyu with her office number.

They both followed Pu Qiuping to her desk. They stood behind her as Pu Qiuping found Mei Shiyu’s name from the author’s category of her QQ friends, and sent two words: [You there?]

There was no reply even after they waited a while.

Pu Qiuping looked at them regrettably and said, “We haven’t contacted each other for more than half a year. He’d respond just as slow back then when we were in contact. Most of the time, I contacted him in the morning, and he’d only respond in the afternoon. It was considered very fast if he responded within one to two hours.”

“Do you use this work number for personal use?” asked Qi Youxuan, frowning.

Pu Qiuping shook her head. “No, it’s used only during office hours. The account number and password are provided by the company.”

“Very well, give us the account name and password. If it’s not convenient to reveal the password, you may change it. You can change it back after we return the account to you,” said Qi Youxuan.

Pu Qiuping shrugged. “It’s not inconvenient, it was all set-up by the company.”

As she spoke, she retrieved a random sheet of A4 printer paper, wrote down the account number and password, then handed it to Qi Youxuan.

On the way back, Wei Muran said, “Not sure what’s the connection between Mei Shiyu and Xu Heyou.”

She stared at the picture Mei Shiyu’s identification card photo on her cell phone. The real name was printed right there, a common name: Song Pengfei.

However, because of <Killer of the Heart>, Wei Muran was used to using the pen name.

“We’ll have the identification card checked out, but I don’t have high hopes,” said Qi Youxuan after glancing at Wei Muran’s cell phone screen at a red light while driving.

“The identification card is a fake?” asked a shocked Wei Muran.

“Not necessarily. Even if the identification card is legit, I suspect that the person may not be the real Mei Shiyu,” said Qi Youxuan. The light turned green and he drove. “You asked what’s the connection between Mei Shiyu and Xu Heyou. There’s definitely a connection but he won’t let us find it so easily.”

Back at the police station, Zhao Yiyang and Xing Jiadong had also returned from the publishers.

Unsurprisingly, they did not find any information about Mei Shiyu that was of use at the publishers.

“The editor at the publisher who was in contact with Mei Shiyu also said that he had never met him. Mei Shiyu just wouldn’t participate in any events; they don’t have his cell phone number; he usually contacts him via QQ. If unlucky, he might not be online for a few days. Important matters will need to be delayed because of this. Even the signing of the contract for the publication of <Killer of the Heart> was conducted by Mei Shiyu via the editor at Jiangshi Chinese Network,” said Zhao Yiyang.

Yang Shaozhan spun in his chair. “Mei Shiyu thinks he’s such a big shot!”

Wei Muran transferred the photographs on the phone to Yang Shaozhan via the cloud network.

Very quickly, Yang Shaozhan leaned back on his chair and said, “Such a person exists and is in B City.”

At this moment, a notification rang from Pu Qiuping’s editor number that they had previously logged into on their computer. The initially grey avatar lighted up. Upon closer inspection, they realized that the avatar was of Van Gogh’s painting, <The Starry Night>.

Wei Muran opened it quickly. Yang Shaozhan moved over to a computer that seemed to have lots of complicated attachments connected to it and gave Wei Muran an ‘OK’ hand signal.

Only then did Wei Muran officially begin her conversation. Mei Shiyu only responded with one word, [Yes.]

Wei Muran considered for a moment then wrote, “The website is now in talks about the movie rights for <Killer of the Heart>. The people at the movie studio want to meet and discuss with you in person. Other than the movie rights, there’s also the adaptation of the book to the big screen. A movie adaptation is a very important matter. There are also other trivial matters. You must come over this time.”

Wei Muran waited a while, and when there was no reply, she added, “This is related to your future. This isn’t child’s play. You better take this seriously, or else it’s no use for us to be anxious for you.”

Wei Muran felt that she was really into the role of playing the character of an editor.

“Tell him that if the book can be successfully adapted into a movie, the popularity and influence will be incomparable to what it is currently. Many more people will read the book, many more people will know the plot and will know of his thinking, and be attracted by his ideas. They don’t even have to make the movie. As long as they sign the contract to adapt it, and once promoted online, the number of readers would increase tremendously compared to before,” elaborated Qi Youxuan.