Parents

Chapter 40: Parents

Officer Wang came in.

He was also startled by how clean the room was.

"Whoa, these walls are spotless. Doesn't look like a teenager's room at all—not even a single poster." Officer Wang's offhand remark made Bai Yanliang pause.

He stepped up to the pristine wall and ran a hand over it.

"Officer Wang, we may need a UV lamp," Bai Yanliang said seriously.

Officer Wang glanced at the wall, then at Bai Yanliang. He didn't quite understand what Bai Yanliang meant, but he decided to trust him.

"Xiao Zheng! Get a UV lamp!"

While they waited for an officer to bring the lamp, Officer Wang noticed Hao Bowen's desk and the books about drawing on it. At last, he understood what Bai Yanliang was getting at, and couldn't help admiring his deduction.

The young man didn't seem to let outside distractions cloud his judgment, nor did emotion sway him. He remained remarkably calm. That was rare, after all. Humans were only human, not machines.

The UV lamp arrived quickly. Bai Yanliang drew the curtains, and Officer Wang held the lamp himself, shining it at the walls.

Though he'd already suspected what they might find, the sight still made Officer Wang and the other officers draw in a sharp breath. At the same time... a chill crept through them.

"Thump—"

"Catch her!"

Hao Bowen's mother had suddenly fainted at the sight of the pictures on her son's bedroom wall.

She couldn't be blamed. Even Hao Bowen's taciturn, grim-faced father had gone pale.

The things on the walls were simply too shocking.

Under the UV lamp, eerie pictures drawn with fluorescent paint appeared across the walls. Their ghostly blue glow made it seem as if the things in the pictures had come to life.

No one knew why the boy's mind had become so twisted.

Every one of the bizarre doodles covering the walls depicted a grotesque monster!

The room fell quiet. Everyone silently followed the beam of Officer Wang's UV lamp as it moved on, but by now they were certain of one thing: Hao Bowen's mind had become completely warped.

He was nothing like the neat, clean, disciplined boy he seemed on the surface.

Instead, he'd swung to the opposite extreme: utterly repressed, tormented, twisted, confused, and cruel!

There wasn't a trace of hope in his drawings, nor the slightest hint of mercy!

"Phew..."

Officer Wang let out an involuntary breath and drew back the curtains.

Sunlight streamed in from outside, dispelling some of the eerie chill that had seeped into everyone's bones.

It was suffocating. He'd been a police officer for years and had seen plenty of strange cases, but he'd never seen a teenager with such a twisted mind.

What had he been through?

"Wait."

Bai Yanliang spoke up.

He took the UV lamp from Officer Wang, who didn't understand what he was doing, and pointed it toward the ceiling.

Everyone froze. Then the ghostly blue glow appeared there too!

There were doodles on the ceiling as well!

But... what was this one?

Everyone's gaze shifted in unison to Hao Bowen's father and his mother, who had just regained consciousness.

The couple stared at the ceiling, dumbfounded and disbelieving.

It looked as if they were standing in front of a building. Hao Bowen had only sketched its rough outline, without identifying it.

But Officer Wang knew the picture reflected some kind of twisted emotion in the boy's heart.

What was the building behind the couple?

"Mr. Hao, Ms. Gong, please explain what this picture means," Officer Wang said sternly, looking at them.

"Explain? Explain what? How am I supposed to know what he's drawn? That ungrateful wretch! I raised him for nothing!" Hao Bowen's father had been worked up ever since seeing the picture. His face was red, his tone harsh, and the veins in his neck bulged as he ranted about how hard he'd worked and how difficult his job was.

Then he began cursing up at the sky and down at the ground, complaining about how Hao Bowen never applied himself and was addicted to the internet.

As his emotions spiraled out of control, Officer Wang took action, ordering the officers to restrain him. Then he turned to Gong Lan.

The woman, who was nearly forty, looked dazed. She kept staring blankly at the ceiling.

Bai Yanliang had already switched off the UV lamp, but she continued to gaze up at the spot, lost in thought.

After a long while, Gong Lan lowered her head and spoke.

"That's the Yehua Education Center... an institution that treated internet addiction."

Officer Wang's expression changed. He looked as though he wanted to say something, but in the end he fell silent.

Everyone listened as the woman spoke hoarsely.

"Bowen used to be so unruly... He did all sorts of bad things and never studied. His father was busy with work, and he wouldn't listen to me. We watched him get worse and worse. Of course we couldn't let that continue!"

Despair and confusion clouded Gong Lan's face as she went on. "Later, someone recommended an education center to us. They got great results! The children they helped all became well-behaved and sweet. Everyone liked them, so... his father and I tricked him into going there."

"Who recommended this education center to you?" Officer Wang asked.

"Li Degang. He recommended a lot of students to them. He... was a good person." Gong Lan's face was deathly pale. She couldn't understand why her child would attack someone who had helped them. As far as she was concerned, hadn't Hao Bowen gotten better? After a year of training, he'd developed a very regular routine and kept everything in order. He spoke politely and had good manners. He was supposed to have become a well-behaved boy. Why...

Bai Yanliang silently watched her, and the man still ranting furiously. He'd never known his own parents; his older brother had raised him.

But that didn't mean he couldn't understand the love parents felt for their children.

The cause and effect were clear now. Hao Bowen had grown up in a family that had failed miserably at raising him.

His parents were traditional in their thinking and wanted complete control over their child, treating him like their property.

They were failures in their own lives, and they liked to shift the blame. To give their child a "bright" future, they'd chosen to send Hao Bowen straight to hell with their own hands.

Bai Yanliang didn't know what went on inside that education center, but the densely packed doodles on the walls let him feel Hao Bowen's helplessness, fear, and despair.

He'd become the good boy his parents wanted, but deep in his heart, a twisted, unheard scream still rang out.

"Officer Wang, I'll head out first."

Bai Yanliang said goodbye. Officer Wang nodded and turned to the couple.

His position made it impossible for him to do certain things or say certain things.

He also knew that changing deeply ingrained beliefs was extremely difficult, and for any given family, the matter was deeply personal.

Hao Bowen had only taken revenge on Li Degang. Perhaps, with his twisted heart, that was the last bit of kindness he had left.