A Bad-Hearted Doctor is Unbearably Beautiful - Chapter 45

Lu Xiao checked the time again. Less than thirty minutes remained.

He quickly pulled up a search engine and typed in the keywords: “Dongxi Town” and “Angel Orphanage.”

The top result was a report on a fire from fifteen years ago. However, aside from the initial news flash, there were no follow-up reports or effective information to be found. The rest of the search results were merely “staged” photos of business elites and celebrities posing for charity events at the orphanage.

Lu Xiao clicked on a photo and slid the laptop in front of Shen Zhao. Pointing to a woman in the picture with a low bun and a warm smile, he asked, “Is this the Director?”

Shen Zhao’s gaze flickered with avoidance. He replied in a low voice, “Yes.”

Lu Xiao took a deep breath. “If the people behind those medical experiments back then are this group, do you think the kidnapper could be one of them?”

Shen Zhao shook his head. “I don’t know. After all, they all… died fifteen years ago.”

All dead?

Lu Xiao clicked back into the fire report, scanning it rapidly until his eyes locked onto a specific line: Police suspect the fire was most likely a case of deliberate arson…

His throat tightened as he asked the question he dreaded: “Shen Zhao, back then… how did you escape?”

“I—”

“Captain Lu! The video feed is changing! The kidnapper’s audio is back!” Lin Xue ran in, her face grim.

“Everyone, back to the conference room immediately!”

Lu Xiao gave Shen Zhao a profound look but didn’t press him further.

The air in the conference room was stagnant. It had been less than two hours since the last stream—what was the kidnapper planning now?

The kidnapping footage was projected onto the large screen again, pulling at the heartstrings of everyone in the room. The boy remained strapped to the bed, looking stiff and deathly pale. Under the cold white light, the blue and purple veins on his face appeared more grotesque; his skin was so pale it looked translucent.

“Mmph… mmph…”

The boy tried desperately to let out a whimpering plea for help, but his throat sounded as if it had been torn apart. At his moment of peak agony, even the right to cry had been stripped away. He could only manage hopeless, ragged gasps.

“Is the microphone on?” Lu Xiao asked.

Zhang Zhen nodded.

Suddenly, that voice rang out through the speakers again—eerie and manic.

“Is everyone doing well~~? My dear viewers, did you miss me?”

Lu Xiao spoke in a heavy voice, “It hasn’t been two hours yet. What do you want now?”

“Ah… has it not been that long? Why does it feel like years to me? Hahahaha…”

The voice trailed off with a long, melodic lilt, mixing cloying sweetness with pure malice. The laughter sounded genuinely euphoric.

Lu Xiao glanced at Zhang Zhen, who understood the signal immediately. Covered in sweat and looking tense, Zhang Zhen shook his head, reporting on the signal trace: “The signal is heavily encrypted through a triple-layer proxy. I’ve tried, but it’s impossible to trace.”

Old Zhou added from the side, “Lin Xue and I checked all missing children reports from Dongxi Town and the Shen City urban area recently…”

“There is only one child whose facial features match, but the family denied it was him after we contacted them.”

“Dammit!” Lu Xiao gritted his teeth and slammed his fist onto the table. “Expand the search radius! Keep looking!”

Suddenly, the screen went dark.

“Don’t be in such a rush; my second performance hasn’t even started yet,” the kidnapper’s voice drifted out leisurely.

Everyone’s breathing grew shallow; every eye was glued to the screen. After nearly thirty seconds of darkness, the sound of slow clapping echoed from the speakers. “Please enjoy! Chapter Two!”

The screen lit up again, but the camera wasn’t pointed at the child. It seemed to be remotely controlled, moving slowly to pan across every corner of the room.

Splattered across the white walls were streaks of blood. The color was a piercing, vivid crimson, the red stains still snaking downward. Once the surroundings had been scanned, the camera slowly returned to the bed, framing the child directly.

The boy had been stripped naked. Aside from the numerous mysterious metal wires attached to him, his chest, thighs, and arms were covered in a series of jagged, uneven incisions.

With a mechanical whir, a small cutting device descended, hovering over the boy. At the bottom of the device was a razor-sharp blade.

“Stop it!!” Lu Xiao’s voice thundered through the conference room.

Beside him, Wu Di covered her mouth, sobbing. Wang Deng shouted hoarsely, “If you’ve got the guts, give us your location and face us man-to-man! What kind of coward tortures a child?!”

“Shh—the main event hasn’t started yet.”

The kidnapper’s laughter crawled into their ears like earthworms.

“Don’t be afraid, I won’t let him die. I just want to demonstrate this equipment to you all. I discovered that it can engrave characters according to a set program… I wonder, what should I carve?”

Shen Zhao’s hands shook uncontrollably. His lips turned a sickly shade of blue, and he looked as though he might faint at any moment.

“Doctor Shen, does seeing a scene like this make you miss the old days?”

“Don’t worry. How deep to cut, how much blood should flow, how much pain is felt… I am a professional.”

Lu Xiao let out a low growl. “What the hell do you want?!”

The kidnapper sighed softly. “Never mind. Let’s just carve a ‘Number 13’ on him.”

“I promise, I’ll be very gentle.”

The images on the screen reflected in everyone’s pupils as the mechanical cutter whirred again, accompanied by the faint buzz of a motor. It was slowly adjusting its angle, aiming for the boy’s neck.

“Lunatic! You absolute fucking lunatic!” someone cursed.

Lu Xiao turned to look at Shen Zhao. The doctor was still sitting there, his knuckles white as he gripped his own head. His eyes were dry and hollow, staring fixedly at the projection. His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down, but he made no sound.

Lu Xiao strode over and used his body to block Shen Zhao’s view. “Shen Zhao.”

His voice was low and raspy as he called the name, over and over. Shen Zhao slowly looked up; his eyes were bloodshot, and he had bitten his lip until it bled.

“This has nothing to do with you. Don’t be too… distressed.” Lu Xiao glanced back at the screen. “We will catch him.”

The boy’s limbs were pinned down, and his head had been locked into place by a bracket extending from the bed. Finally, the mechanical cutter confirmed its position and descended.

Under the programmed settings, the blade precisely traced a thin line on the skin. Beads of blood welled up instantly, forming a gruesome red line across the neck. After two shallow incisions, the machine began the third stroke for the number ’13’…

“Lu Xiao…” Shen Zhao almost broke into a sob.

The kidnapper’s voice came through the speakers: “Is that you speaking, Thirteen? I remember you rarely cried when you were little… have you grown fragile now?”

His voice was as tender as a lover’s whisper. “Will you shed a tear for me?”