Face to Face

Jiang Ru had too deep an impression of those eyes. It seemed that with just one glance, she could see the man from twenty years in the future.

She clearly remembered the first time she saw Li Xiao. At that time, she had accompanied her mentor to an interrogation. The man sat in the interrogation room, and when the door opened, he looked up at her. Even though he was forty years old then and his face was weathered by time, it still made her startle.

She truly hadn't expected that a man wearing old, wrinkled clothes, looking haggard and poor, could be so handsome it would make one stunned. He was cold and sinister, with a faint, indifferent smile on his lips, his ruthless face clearly showing a look of mockery.

He was born with a hatred for the police, not just because of what happened to his daughter, but because of his own upbringing.

According to the records, his father was a violent alcoholic who died in an accident when he was nine. After his mother remarried, the two brothers lived a very hard life, with no one to care for or educate them. He grew up among the neighborhood thugs; fighting and brawling were common occurrences, and he went to the police station as often as one would go for a meal.

Although he had turned himself in, he was uncooperative. It was a provocation, as well as a show of contempt.

The night before the interrogation, Jiang Ru had read many related documents, reviewed previous records, studied interrogation techniques, and observed every small expression of the suspect, preparing meticulously. She had concluded that revenge killers like Li Xiao, once the evidence was clear, usually enjoyed bragging about their crimes. It brought them a kind of twisted pleasure and a sense of catharsis.

Jiang Ru had prepared herself mentally, but she hadn't expected this man to be completely different. No matter what was asked, he remained silent. It left everyone at a loss.

It wasn't until three days later that he suddenly spoke; his first request was for a cigarette. After being given one, he didn't smoke it, just held it in his hand and looked at it. After that, he became extremely cooperative. No one knew what he was thinking at that time.

If the Li Xiao of twenty years later was guarded and caustic, then the young Li Xiao was like a sharp blade—arrogant, with a hidden ferocity and rebellion. He didn't look like someone to be trifled with.

Jiang Ru had seen photos of Li Xiao when he was young, but not like this. In the past, not many people took photos, and photos of Li Xiao were even rarer. The only one was of him holding his four-year-old daughter in the snow. The little girl sat on his shoulders, her hands gripping her father's short hair, smiling as brightly as the sun. He was also smiling, but it was a very faint smile, his lips just barely quirked. His handsome face looked a bit indifferent and lazy, yet it carried a hard-to-detect trace of doting. He looked like any other father, except that he was exceptionally handsome. It was impossible to tell that he would later become a madman who killed over ten people.

Today, those were still the same eyes, but this person was twenty years younger.

A complex emotion suddenly surged in Jiang Ru's heart. She pursed her lips, hesitating whether to say something, when the man just gave her a cold glance and then leaned down to pick up the door plank from the ground.

Then, he carried the door plank out into the courtyard.

Jiang Ru breathed a sigh of relief. While his back was turned, she quickly went into the house and straight to the kitchen in the back.

Once the sound of footsteps faded, the man fixing the door turned his head to look, his gaze seemingly thoughtful.

After fixing the door, he closed the gate and walked into the courtyard. After a few steps, he seemed to notice something and stopped, scanning the clean courtyard with a look of slight surprise.