Chapter 106

They truly didn’t want to recall the entire process of learning the truth all those years ago.

From outside the interrogation room, they had listened to every word of Dai Hongtian’s confession through a monitor.

He was in handcuffs, recounting the facts one by one in an arrogant, sickening tone. Every word seemed to be caked in filth, reeking of a stench so foul it made one’s entire body tremble.

“You can only blame their bad luck, I suppose?” The man sneered. “They just happened to be there. What was I supposed to do?”

Mother Yun’s hand was trembling. Father Yun took hers and gently patted the back of her hand.

Dai Hongtian’s confession, combined with the statements from the hospital staff at the time, pieced together the whole story.

Mother Yun said, “At the time, his wife had a difficult labor. She suffered a major hemorrhage after giving birth. Although the child was healthy, his wife’s condition was terrible. She needed immediate surgery, which required a family member’s signature, but Dai Hongtian refused to sign. He didn’t want to get his wife treated.”

This is what Dai Hongtian had said to the doctor, “—She’s just an omega, is it really necessary? The rescue will cost money, won’t it? I don’t have any. Tsk, and this kid, why did you let her give birth to it? I never wanted it. Now that you’ve saved it, how am I supposed to raise it? By the way, does your hospital buy children? I can sell it to you.”

The police officer taking notes paused abruptly, somewhat stunned.

He had seen many people over his years on the force, but Dai Hongtian was the only one who could speak of life and a child so flippantly.

“He wouldn’t sign, so the doctors couldn’t perform the surgery. During the stalemate, our child happened to be born safely.”

Father Yun took over the story. “We were originally planning to head to my parents’ city, but we got into a car accident on the way. It was an emergency, so we had to go to the nearest hospital for the delivery. Since it was still some time before the due date, the birth was extremely perilous, but thankfully, the child was safe.”

At this point, they paused. The officer didn’t ask any more questions, patiently waiting for them to compose themselves.

After a moment, Father Yun continued. 

Dai Hongtian refused to sign the pre-operative agreement and demanded that his wife be transferred directly to a general ward. The doctor had no choice but to comply. Just then, the nurse in charge of Mother Yun and Father Yun’s delivery came out of the delivery room. Speaking of the new mother lying inside, she couldn’t help but sigh with admiration.

“What a wonderful couple.”

“I know, right? I heard they’re both professors at such a young age.”

“I think they just won an award this year, some kind of literature prize?”

“Who cares what prize it was? I heard the prize money was pretty high, right? Over a million? Or was it over two million?”

The nurses walked past Dai Hongtian. Then, another nurse came running upstairs, breathlessly delivering a piece of news: Dai Hongtian’s wife had stopped breathing on her way to the general ward after they had given up on surgery.

The doctor’s face instantly turned ashen as he stared furiously at the man before him.

If he hadn’t given up on the surgery, his wife might not have lost her life!

But Dai Hongtian just shrugged nonchalantly, looking more as if a burden had been lifted. “See? No need for surgery after all. Saved a bundle.”

He whistled and cast his gaze toward the nurses who were walking further and further away.

At that moment, no one present knew what he was thinking. But looking back, the idea that had formed in his mind at that instant was utterly chilling.

—He wanted to swap the two babies, raise the other one for a year, two years, or maybe a few more. Then, when he was out of money, he would use the child to extort a huge sum from the couple.

He didn’t want to raise a child, and that couple was rich anyway.

The police officer said nothing. He was grinding his teeth in hatred. He was trembling with rage just from taking notes; he couldn’t even imagine how the two professors, the victims, had managed to endure it.

The car accident had happened suddenly, and Mother Yun had been rushed in without any preparations for the baby, like clothes and other necessities. Everything was provided by the hospital. Aside from the wristbands and name tags, everything the two babies had was identical. Furthermore, it was just a hospital in a small county town with no surveillance cameras, and security at night was lax. After all, no one would ever think someone would sneak into the newborn nursery.

So Dai Hongtian had easily swapped the two babies and forcibly taken the newborn infant away the next day.

By this point, Mother Yun was sobbing uncontrollably.

The officer handed her a tissue.

The subsequent events could be roughly deduced from the case file.

The child Dai Hongtian took was the professors’ son, Yun Xiaoxu. He took nude photos of the child. Eight years later, deep in gambling debt, he used Yun Xiaoxu and the photos to blackmail the two professors, extorting a large sum of money.

He also abducted Yun Zhou. An eight-year-old child had no strength to resist; he could drag the boy into a van with one hand.

It wasn’t that the two professors hadn’t reported it to the police over the years, but it had led to nothing.

He couldn’t be found. There were simply no clues!

It wasn’t until Yun Zhou led the criminal police to his home that Dai Hongtian’s deeds were fully exposed.

—Domestic abuse, inciting theft, and even selling Yun Zhou to human traffickers. Even more horrifying, he had swapped their children years ago and extorted a massive ransom!

—The evidence was ample, and the trial proceeded smoothly. But even though Dai Hongtian’s crimes were unforgivable, even though he had nearly destroyed a family and two children, he was still only sentenced to thirteen years.

He could apply for a reduced sentence. He could be released. He could still live out the latter half of his life.

The officer slammed his fist on the table.

He was being too emotional; he shouldn’t have acted that way, but he couldn’t help it.

Was this man even human?

He was so fucking disgusting!

After calming down for a moment, Father and Mother Yun asked, “How will this matter be handled going forward? How will responsibility be assigned?”

For a deceased criminal suspect, criminal liability is generally not pursued, but civil liability can be pursued against their legal heirs within the scope of the inherited estate.

Dai Hongtian was dead. When his body was carried out, it was unrecognizable, almost burned to a crisp. For them, this was the best possible outcome. From now on, no one would come to disrupt their lives again.

The two professors didn’t care about civil compensation, but if the details were made public, Yun Zhou, as Dai Hongtian’s descendant, would inevitably be affected.

“Well… generally, when a person involved in a case dies, civil liability is pursued against their heirs within the scope of their inheritance,” the officer said, flipping through the documents. “But he has no descendants, so for the follow-up, we’ll probably have to…”

The two professors froze for a second. “What did you say?”

No descendants?!

*

Jiang Zhihuo and Yun Xiaoxu were in a hospital room. The young nurse from the ambulance had taken them through a series of check-ups, and they were now waiting for the results.

About fifteen minutes later, the young nurse said, “Wait for me a moment, I’m going to get the paper reports.”

The reports were on the same floor, so it wouldn’t take long. When the young nurse returned to the room, she heard Yun Xiaoxu chatting with Jiang Zhihuo.

Yun Xiaoxu: “Ge, you still haven’t answered me! How are you s-so cool?! So are you a cop? Are you, are you, are you?!”

“…” Jiang Zhihuo shifted further into the hospital bed and replied, “I’m not.”

“Then what are you?”

The phrasing of that question didn’t sound quite right. Jiang Zhihuo turned to Yun Xiaoxu. “?”

Yun Xiaoxu quickly explained, “No, I mean, what’s your relationship with the police? Why were you allowed on the scene? Why were you so skilled?! You predicted everything Dai Hongtian was thinking! Do you have mind-reading powers? Can superpowers actually exist in this world? Look, I’m wiggling my finger now, can you guess what I’m thinking?”

This guy’s train of thought was all over the place. Jiang Zhihuo was speechless. “No. What are you thinking about? I can’t guess.”

Yun Xiaoxu’s eyes lit up. “Then what is it? If it’s not a superpower, can a normal person achieve this?”

Jiang Zhihuo said, “Personality profiling. Simply put, it’s observing a person’s partial behavioral characteristics over a long period or through a large amount of information to construct a psychological model and predict their subsequent actions.”

A string of jargon popped out, leaving Yun Xiaoxu, the poor student, completely baffled. “?”

Jiang Zhihuo couldn’t explain too much, so he made an analogy. “You can think of it as big data. You collect various data points on the subject, arrange and combine them, and calculate a result.”

Yun Xiaoxu was still lost. He mulled it over but couldn’t figure it out, so he waved his hand dismissively. “Forget it, I don’t get it. But isn’t that skill super useful?! You can easily guess what people are thinking!”

Jiang Zhihuo sat on the hospital bed, slowly drawing up one leg. “It’s not that easy,”

Yun Xiaoxu: “But you accurately predicted what Dai Hongtian was thinking!!”

“Only him.” Jiang Zhihuo wrapped his arms around his knees, his gaze darkening. “I was constantly watching him. He’s a madman. Every theory I learned, I would first apply it to him. His thoughts, his potential actions… I’ve predicted them countless times…”

Outside the door, the young nurse overheard their conversation and clenched her fists.

From what was said in the ambulance, she could roughly guess their relationship. They must have had some entanglement in their childhood, and the one who kidnapped Yun Xiaoxu was the other young man’s father.

As an outsider, she didn’t have Yun Xiaoxu’s thick skin. She could hear the lingering fear in Jiang Zhihuo’s tone. What if his prediction had been wrong? What if he had been a step too late? What if Yun Xiaoxu had been hurt?

It had nothing to do with him, but he would surely blame himself.

“It’s not your fault!” The young nurse strode into the room. “Your father is responsible for his own actions! It’s his problem! You don’t need to blame yourself or feel down about what he did!!”

“Huh?” The young nurse’s tone was a complete mismatch with her gentle and graceful demeanor from before. Jiang Zhihuo looked up in confusion. “He’s not my father.”

The young nurse: “?”

Yun Xiaoxu: “?”