Chapter 36: Confirming a Bold Idea

“Can I take a look at it?”
Chen Yu pointed to the manila folder on the table, trying to negotiate.
“What do you think?”
Su Qingzhu didn’t even bother to lift her eyelids.
“Then… can I look at it alone?”
“No!”
Su Qingzhu finally glanced up, her face openly displaying an unmistakable look of absolute disbelief.
“You can only look at it here.”
“In front of me!”
Chen Yu’s smile froze at once, and in his heart he mocked her over and over.
“She’s just like that so-called pure-hearted goddess!”
He grumbled inwardly, casting a furtive glance at his own fingertips.
It seemed that “Retrospect” was out of the question.
With this icy beauty looming nearby, he felt that even breathing too loudly would be a crime, let alone touching anything.
“Fine, whatever Officer Su says.”
Chen Yu forced a sheepish smile, raised his hands in mock surrender, and then slowly reached out, untying the string wound around the folder.
A musty scent of old paper wafted out.
He carefully lifted out the documents.
The dossier was comprehensive.
From birth certificate, to student records over the years, and even address change logs—Luo Xiangdong’s entire life seemed condensed within those yellowed pages.
Chen Yu pulled out the first photograph.
The picture was already faded, showing a boy of six or seven.
He was as thin as a bean sprout, his complexion the pallor of someone who had rarely seen sunlight.
What caught Chen Yu’s attention most was his posture.
The boy was slightly hunched, head lowered deep, only daring to glance timidly at the camera from the corner of his eye.
That was not mere shyness before the lens, but a fear and inferiority rooted deep in his bones.
Chen Yu’s brows furrowed unconsciously.
He put down the photo and kept searching.
The second image was a middle school graduation photo.
Chen Yu spotted Luo Xiangdong at a glance.
He stood out—not for any positive reason, but because of how utterly out of place he looked amid the group.
Still emaciated, still hunched and withdrawn, tucked away in a corner as if wishing to be invisible.
A faint sense of anticipation stirred in Chen Yu.
He had a hunch that his suspicions tonight were about to be confirmed.
His movements quickened.
The high school graduation photo revealed the same image, the same aura of timidity and self-effacement seemingly etched into his bones.
Suddenly, a hardbound deep blue certificate slipped from the file and landed on the table with a thud.
Chen Yu picked it up and opened it.
"Bachelor of Science in Psychology."
The golden lettering gleamed a little harshly in the dim light.
“Hm?”
Before he could think further, another identical certificate fell out.
"Bachelor of Science in Biology."
“A double degree?”
Chen Yu’s head snapped up, startled, to look at Su Qingzhu.
She seemed surprised as well, but quickly resumed her businesslike expression, analyzing in a flat tone, “Top universities in the country allow outstanding students to minor in a second degree. There’s nothing unusual about that. He majored in biology and minored in psychology—makes sense.”
Does it really make sense?
Chen Yu’s heart sank.
Why would someone so deeply self-effacing choose to study psychology, a field that demands insight into the human mind?
He didn’t argue, simply put the certificates back, and continued flipping through the documents.
There it was!
His breath stopped in that instant.

The next photo was the one he had most wanted, most expected to see tonight—
Jiangcheng University.
Department of Biology.
Graduation group photo!
Holding his breath, Chen Yu carefully lifted the picture, dusted with a fine layer of gray.
On it were hundreds of vibrant young faces.
Chen Yu’s gaze, as precise as a scanning device, swept inch by inch from left to right, from back to front.
Once…
Twice…
His brow furrowed ever deeper, from a frown to near desperation.
When he had checked every last face, he was completely dumbfounded!
He wasn’t there!
The Luo Xiangdong he remembered—timid and self-conscious—was nowhere in the photograph!
How was that possible?
This was Luo Xiangdong’s file—how could he be missing from his own graduation photo?
Unless…
Chen Yu’s heart leapt. He quickly turned the photo over.
On the back, in elegant penmanship, each person’s name was meticulously listed in order from front to back.
His eyes raced across the list.
Finally, in the very center of the front row, the unchallenged central spot, he found the familiar name.
Luo Xiangdong!
A sense of foreboding surged to its peak. With trembling hands, Chen Yu flipped the photo back over!
His gaze locked onto the spot labeled “Luo Xiangdong.”
In that instant, his pupils shrank to pinpoints!
The person in the photo—
Still thin, perhaps even frailer than in high school, but the temperament had changed dramatically!
The face was strikingly… delicate!
Yes, delicate!
His skin was fair and fine, features exquisitely drawn, nose high and straight, lips rosy, teeth white.
His hair was long, black, falling to his shoulders, framing his face and emphasizing its petite, refined structure.
He was affectionately holding the arm of a silver-haired professor, beaming with dazzling, confident radiance!
Chen Yu, who had lived two lives and prided himself on his experience with women, was still momentarily stunned by that face.
Delicate!
That wasn’t a word one would normally use for a man.
And yet, on him—it fit perfectly.
“Whew…”
Chen Yu let out a long, shaky breath, his chest heaving.
He didn’t want to admit it.
But that wild, uncontrollable thought exploded in his mind like a volcano.
No!
Stay calm!
There must be another clue!
Forcing himself to focus, he turned the photo over once more, checking each name, one by one.
“Feng…”
“Feng…”
“Feng…”
He muttered to himself, combing through every name with the “feng” sound.
Nothing!
As he’d expected, nothing!
Among these hundreds of names, not a single one was connected to “Feng!”
Beside him, Su Qingzhu had been observing Chen Yu the whole time.
Watching his transition from somberness to shock to near loss of composure, Su Qingzhu couldn’t help but feel intensely curious.
What was wrong with this photo?
“Officer, may I ask…”

“Call me Officer Su!” Su Qingzhu corrected coldly.
“Uh… Officer Su,” Chen Yu didn’t bother with the formality, asking urgently, “Have you checked if anyone in this photo ever used another name?”
Su Qingzhu shot him a glare.
“You think we own the registry system? Jiangcheng University is one of the nation’s top schools—these hundred or so people come from all over the country. You think we have the manpower to check every person’s records for previous names? Do you realize how much work that is?”
“And besides, it’s three in the morning! Do you think our registry colleagues will work overtime for a ‘consultant’s’ hunch?”
“…Fine.”
Chen Yu let out a dejected sigh, knowing she was right.
He set down the photo, unwilling to give up, and kept searching through the remaining files.
When he reached the last page, he looked up, clinging to a final hope. “Why isn’t there a graduation photo for the psychology department?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Su Qingzhu spoke as if explaining to an idiot, “Luo Xiangdong was a biology major. Why would there be a psychology graduation photo in his file? He only took the courses as a minor and got the degree!”
Chen Yu had already expected this answer.
He asked only to vent the suffocating frustration building inside him.
In his mind, two images overlapped and clashed wildly.
One—a boy, from childhood through high school, forever hunched and downcast, frail and self-effacing.
The other—the university graduate, standing front and center, hair long, beaming with a brilliance brighter than the sun: a “delicate” youth.
What had happened in those four years?
How could a person undergo such a complete transformation in so short a time?
It was more than confidence—it was a fundamental metamorphosis.
And then, the “Feng!”
Was the killer “Feng?”
Did “Feng” even exist?
Or had Luo Xiangdong really said “Feng?”
If this person existed—
Where was he?
If “Feng” had changed Luo Xiangdong during university,
If “Feng” wasn’t in the biology group photo—
Could… he be in the psychology group photo?
That thought split the fog in Chen Yu’s mind like a bolt of lightning!
He whipped around, eyes blazing, fixing Su Qingzhu with an intense stare!
“Officer Su, do me a favor!”
“At daybreak, go to Jiangcheng University’s archives!”
“Help me get the graduation photos for all biology and psychology majors from Luo Xiangdong’s year and the two years above and below—every single one!”
“Please! I need them on my desk before the program airs this afternoon at the latest!”
Su Qingzhu was taken aback by his sudden commanding tone.
Her instinct was to refuse, but seeing those bloodshot yet terrifyingly bright eyes, and remembering her mentor’s instruction to “cooperate unconditionally,” the rejection on her lips was swallowed back.
“…I’ll try.”
She bit her lip, her voice strained. “They’re photos from ten or twenty years ago. The retrieval process is complicated, and getting access requires a lot of paperwork…”
“Officer Su, this is not a request.”
“It’s a notification.”
With that, Chen Yu no longer looked at her but turned, taking up the strange graduation photo from the table.
His fingertip gently brushed the image of the “delicate” Luo Xiangdong.
An even more chilling thought surfaced.
Biology…
Psychology…
Someone with lifelong inferiority, perhaps even gender identity issues, studying both these subjects—
What exactly did he want to do?
Remake his own body?
Or—
Create an entirely new “self?”
A cold sweat instantly drenched Chen Yu’s back.