Born criminal?
First time hearing this term. I never imagined such people existed in this world, no, I should say, such an illness.
Luo Bo said he was a born criminal. For a period, his mind was consumed with thoughts of perfect crimes. He had no interest in anything else. Even if the most beautiful woman stood before him, he wouldn't be tempted. His thoughts about women revolved around how to kill them without the police ever discovering he was the murderer.
...
I was dumbfounded. Was this the past of a criminal investigation captain? Wasn't this psychopathic?
...
Luo Bo was an undergraduate student at the police academy. There was a very popular club there called the Detective Society. In that society, every intelligent person racked their brains, trying to solve one near-impossible mystery after another.
Locked-room murders, subtle clues, accidental killings… these old cases were rehashed again and again, making them surprisingly appetizing. The reason bright students flocked to the club was the presence of an "Ultimate Criminal."
All the hypothetical crime puzzles were created by this "Ultimate Criminal." To protect their identity, the society never mentioned the "Ultimate Criminal's" name. Everyone just knew that this "Ultimate Criminal's" crime puzzles were novel, challenging, and had endings that were both unexpected and logical, making them irresistible.
For a time, even the police academy professors were engrossed in solving these crime puzzles. This continued until one day, a puzzle's content became a reality. A student, after failing their postgraduate exams, wrote a suicide note detailing their miserable life in a stream-of-consciousness style and then took their own life.
In that era, there wasn't much pressure for police academy graduates to find jobs. Committing suicide over failing postgraduate exams was completely outlandish.
These details aren't important. What's crucial is that during the police investigation, they discovered that the structure of the suicide note was eerily similar to a locked-room murder puzzle from the Detective Society. How to put it? The suicide note was hastily written. The early part, detailing a mundane life, was written with less skill than a junior high essay. The latter part was even more absurd, as if the writer had run out of ideas and rushed to the end.
"Dude, you're committing suicide? Having lost all hope in life, couldn't you have written about your despair more profoundly? How could you write like this?"
The suicide note read: "I didn't study hard, so I missed out on attending a key elementary school. In junior high, I was too playful and didn't get into a key high school. During high school, I wanted to date (I had a crush but never confessed), which affected my grades, so I could only get into the police academy. At the police academy, I failed my postgraduate exams. How could this happen? Anyway, I don't want to live anymore."
Was this considered a suicide note? It was too careless.
The police immediately launched an investigation. After all, a real investigation differs from a movie detective game. The police couldn't believe someone could perfectly imitate the deceased's handwriting to write a suicide note.
As the police investigation progressed, the news spread like wildfire. Regardless of how the police classified the case, the students in the Detective Society had already labeled it a locked-room murder. Furthermore, most members of the society believed the killer was among them. Their reasoning was that the society had a long-standing, unsolved locked-room murder puzzle, and at the beginning of that puzzle, the "Ultimate Criminal" had used an absurd suicide note as the opener.
The society members reasoned that if anyone among them was likely the killer, it would be the "Ultimate Criminal" who wrote the scripts. The Detective Society made a huge fuss about this, but the police didn't take it seriously. Murder requires a motive. There might be psychopaths who kill for pleasure, but surely not someone who writes scripts. In any case, the police didn't investigate the Detective Society's "Ultimate Criminal."
At that time, the president of the Detective Society, perhaps having played too many detective games, firmly believed that the killer had either stolen their new locked-room murder puzzle or that the "Ultimate Criminal" had escalated from writing fake crimes to committing real ones.
It was around this time that the Detective Society members realized why the club was so secretive: even the president didn't know who the "Ultimate Criminal" was. To prompt the police to intervene, the president posted some information about the victim on the announcement board.
For instance, before the body was discovered, the door was sealed with tape. When someone reported it, the police broke down the door and found the window also sealed with tape. The criminal intended to murder this student. The door was sealed, and entry had to be through the window. However, the tape on the window seemed to rule out this possibility.
It wasn't murder, so it must be suicide. But the absurd suicide note seemed to suggest otherwise.
After the Detective Society released this information, the police realized the student's death might indeed be connected to the club, as the scene matched the description: the door was taped shut, and the window was also taped shut.
...
When the police visited the Detective Society, they saw the script. The case-solving direction provided by the script also presented a dilemma for the police.
First, was there a killer?
This was the police's quandary. Until they could determine if it was suicide or murder, they couldn't answer this question. The deceased had no one around him with a motive to kill. His life, as detailed in his stream-of-consciousness suicide note, was marked by the greatest regret of not attending a key junior high school, and subsequently, not a key high school. He didn't even experience heartbreak, as he never confessed his feelings to his crush.
Second, if there was no killer, why stage a locked-room scene at a suicide? (The deceased was not a mystery enthusiast.)
This was also a current puzzle for the police. No one had truly encountered a locked-room murder case in real life, so this point was peculiar. The student was preparing for exams and wasn't playing detective games. Why go to the trouble of creating a locked-room scenario for his suicide? If he had this inclination, would he have committed suicide?
Third, if there was a killer, why use the locked-room murder technique and even write a suicide note to create the illusion of suicide?
...
The police decided to find the "Ultimate Criminal." The method was quite simple. The school administration assigned the task to the homeroom teachers. The teachers announced at a class meeting: "Whoever is the 'Ultimate Criminal,' please report to the academic affairs office. Don't try to hide it; it's not a big deal. But if you do hide it, you might be considered a suspect."
...
Luo Bo was that "Ultimate Criminal." After creating a fictional case, he would place it beside the president of the Detective Society, waiting for him to discover it. When he heard that someone had killed using his method, Luo Bo, with a heavy heart, went to the academic affairs office.
The police didn't try to scare Luo Bo, as someone like him could be a future colleague. Luo Bo said he had only written a puzzle for the Detective Society members to solve. From beginning to end, Luo Bo was just playing a game of challenging detectives.
The officer in charge at the time was quite open-minded. He asked Luo Bo how to solve the mystery using those three questions. Luo Bo smiled helplessly. The most crucial point of a detective game was not to give the answer directly, otherwise, the "detectives" who solved the puzzle wouldn't be happy. Everything was embedded within the facts, and finding the answer within those facts was the charm of a detective puzzle. (The three directions were also part of the puzzle.)
The police officer, after listening, chuckled, "Young man, what's the answer to your puzzle?"
"The door was taped, but I didn't specify where the tape was placed. If tape is applied to one side, when someone reports it and the police break down the door, they would vividly feel that the door was sealed with tape. In reality, the key point was the other side, the hinge side. That side was damaged. After the killer murdered the victim, they opened the door from the other side and left. The tape on one side became the hinge."
The police sort of understood, exchanging glances. Their investigation had been flawed; they hadn't noticed the door's hinge. At the time, to save the victim, they had to break down the door, and everyone assumed the hinge was damaged during that process.
Upon learning the answer, the lead police officer sighed, but it was merely a sigh. To put it bluntly, this was just a word game among students.
"Who else knew the answer?"
Luo Bo shook his head, indicating that he was the only one who knew the puzzle.
The lead police officer then asked, "What was the motive for murder in your puzzle?"
Luo Bo became very awkward, "In locked-room murder puzzles, everyone focuses on the method. If I were writing about subtle clues, I would include motive and character relationships. For locked-room mysteries, no one cares about character relationships."
...
Hearing Luo Bo reach this point, I couldn't help but interrupt and ask, "Did the police find the killer?"
"They didn't. It remained an unsolved case, but they found the murder method. It was the same as I described: the door was taped on one side, and the killer created a false locked-room scenario after leaving."
"Didn't the police suspect you?"
"No, I had an alibi when the person died."
It sounded like a story Luo Bo had experienced, but the reality shouldn't be so simple. I looked at Luo Bo, and he downed the white wine in his glass in one gulp. "For a long time, I felt like I was the killer. If it had been me, I could have created alibis for several people."
"Why?"
"During that time, I was working with a professor on a paper titled 'Is Heredity One of the Causes of Criminal Behavior?' For several months, I believed that born criminals existed in this world. These born criminals are self-centered, disdainful of others, impulsive, and form friendships to achieve their goals. And I had always been that kind of person. Besides these, there was a most important point: I always had that criminal desire in my heart."
"Don't overthink it. I'm sure you're not the killer."
"Yes, I'm not. One day, the professor asked me to print some documents from his computer and deliver them to the police. It was then that I saw the document and realized the professor was the one who had killed the graduate student. He killed to prove that biological motives for crime wouldn't be discovered. The professor said he had more experiments to do and asked me to be his assistant. He also gave me a phone number."
"You reported him."
Luo Bo nodded. "I deleted the last paragraph."
"You didn't want the police to find that professor, why?"
"I was scared. It was a trap. I was afraid that during the investigation, he would ignite that anti-social soul within me."
"Did he contact you?"
"No."
I had never imagined Luo Bo had such a side to him. He appeared to be an extremely calm person. So, I asked my last question: "When did your 'born criminal' illness get better?"
"It never did."