Good and Evil Chapter Thirty-Three Pandora's Box

People often say that knowledge should be put into practice—a phrase originally meant as praise. Yet when one uses their learning to embark on a path of crime, it becomes a case of the capable turning their talents against themselves.

After the mask was removed, prompted by Xu Lang, Ning Yanran immediately began the interrogation, giving the suspect no time to gather his thoughts.

In the cramped interrogation room, Xu Lang and Ning Yanran sat opposite the suspect. Ning Yanran was responsible for taking notes, while Xu Lang conducted the questioning.

Under the harsh glare of the light, the suspect squirmed uncomfortably, his head bowed, eyes fixed on the gleaming handcuffs at his wrists. Perhaps he had never imagined he would one day wear such restraints.

Before the questioning began, Xu Lang had taken a photograph of the suspect and sent it to Zhao Hua, who was conducting an on-site investigation at the construction site.

Upon seeing the photo, Zhao Hua immediately called Xu Lang to inform him that the man was Qiu Liang, a distant relative of the site’s canteen cook, whom they had previously encountered during their investigation.

With this clue, Zhao Hua and Zhang Lei knew exactly what to do next.

“Name.”

Xu Lang’s keen eyes bore into the suspect.

“Qiu Liang.”

His voice was soft, almost feminine, which surprised both Xu Lang and Ning Yanran.

“Age?” Xu Lang continued calmly.

“Twenty-three.”

“Occupation?”

“I set up scaffolding at construction sites.”

“...”

“Where were you between 10 p.m. on June 26th and 5 a.m. the next day?”

After a round of basic questions, Xu Lang cut straight to the heart of the matter. Rather than asking about his whereabouts during previous incidents, he asked directly about four days ago.

“In... in the dormitory...” Qiu Liang stammered nervously at the question.

“What were you doing in the dormitory?”

“Sleeping.”

“Who can vouch for you?” Xu Lang pressed.

Qiu Liang lowered his head and fell silent.

After a moment, Xu Lang suddenly asked, “Can you drive a car?”

Qiu Liang looked up, puzzled by the question, but answered, “No.”

“Can you ride a motorcycle?”

“Yes.”

“And a bicycle?”

“Yes.”

“Do you own a bicycle?”

“I do, oh... no,” Qiu Liang blurted out, then quickly corrected himself.

Xu Lang, having dealt with countless criminals, saw through this minor ploy immediately.

With a sharp slap on the table, Xu Lang barked, “So do you have one or not?”

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

Qiu Liang fell silent again, then finally shook his head, refusing to speak.

Xu Lang did not press further. Instead, he picked up an evidence bag from the table—inside was a thin mask. He asked, “Can you explain what this is?”

Qiu Liang glanced at it, then quickly dropped his gaze back to the handcuffs, remaining silent.

While Xu Lang and Ning Yanran conducted their surprise interrogation, Zhao Hua and Zhang Lei, with their team, immediately took control of Qiu Bo, the canteen cook.

They did not bring Qiu Bo back to the police station but questioned him on the spot. According to Qiu Bo, he and Qiu Liang were both from Qiu Family Village in Changshui County, a subordinate county of S City. Qiu Bo, now in his fifties, had been working as a cook on construction sites for many years, traveling wherever the work took him. When the construction team landed a major contract at the current site, he came along.

Qiu Bo recalled that Qiu Liang’s father had also been a construction worker, while his mother farmed at home. As a child, Qiu Liang was known throughout the village as a model son, always helping his mother with chores. However, during Qiu Liang’s high school years, tragedy struck. His father, while dismantling scaffolding without proper safety measures, fell from the eighteenth floor. Though he landed on a platform on the tenth floor rather than the ground, and his life was saved after prompt hospital care, he was left paralyzed. Years of treatment consumed the family’s savings, with the site boss making a partial but insufficient private compensation.

Qiu Liang’s mother, a simple rural woman, toiled in the fields by day and nursed her husband by night, eventually collapsing from exhaustion. Shortly before Qiu Liang’s college entrance exams, she fell ill and died; his father, left without care, soon followed. Qiu Liang was left an orphan.

Despite excelling academically in his early years, Qiu Liang’s grades plummeted after his father’s accident. His teachers often spoke with him and even organized a class donation for his family, but to no avail. Eventually, his homeroom teacher gave up hope.

After losing his parents, Qiu Liang failed his college entrance exams. Upon graduation, he looked for work but found nothing suitable.

Though from a rural background, Qiu Liang loved performing, often participating in school plays and competitions. In junior high, he even won first prize in a costume ball.

Upon entering society, he aspired to act, waiting outside film studios for crowd scenes by day and working as a KTV or bar waiter by night to make ends meet. After more than a year, having had only a few background roles—most as corpses, never showing his face—he gave up and followed Qiu Bo to the construction site, joining the roving team. They only arrived at the current site in April.

With this background in mind, Zhao Hua had Qiu Bo take them to Qiu Liang’s lodgings.

Qiu Liang usually lived at the construction site with the other workers. Qiu Bo, however, had rented a cheap room nearby and often invited Qiu Liang to stay over. Like his father, Qiu Liang worked setting up and dismantling scaffolding. The work was strenuous, but as the youngest, Qiu Bo would often cook him special meals to build up his strength.

Before the police found Qiu Bo, he had even considered matchmaking his daughter, a college student, with Qiu Liang. Though they shared a surname, there was no blood relation, and Qiu Liang was hardworking and well-built—a good match in Qiu Bo’s eyes.

Zhao Hua’s team first visited the on-site dormitory: a makeshift iron building with six metal bunk beds, housing twelve men. Only one worker was inside, napping; the rest were on the job. The summer heat turned the tin room into a steamer. Tools and rusty clothes littered the place, the floor scattered with cigarette butts, drink bottles, and beer cans. Each bed had a bamboo mat and a faded blanket, with a small fan on some.

Qiu Liang’s bed was the upper bunk at the far end. Aside from a neat mat and a freshly washed blanket, there was a pillow and a fan. Zhao Hua checked under the bedding but found nothing, so they proceeded to Qiu Liang’s other residence, not far from Qiu Bo’s.

This second room was small and simple: just a bed and a wardrobe, with a shared bathroom outside. The landlord provided a key. Inside, the bed was neatly made and the floor spotless—nothing to suggest it belonged to a construction worker.

Zhao Hua took a quick look around, then opened the wardrobe. Aside from clean clothes, there was only a suitcase, which felt surprisingly heavy. Placing it on the floor, he opened it to find it had been modified into separate compartments, each containing various items: wigs, gloves, makeup, false mustaches. In the two largest sections were two boxes. Inside each was a thin mask—one resembling a man in his thirties, bearing a striking likeness to a TV star, and the other fashioned after a foreign celebrity, much like someone from a Hollywood film.

Upon seeing these items, Zhao Hua ordered them sent immediately to the Second Criminal Investigation Unit, and had the room searched thoroughly.

During the search, they also found a small makeup kit filled with powders, brow pencils, palettes, and other cosmetics. Under Qiu Liang’s bed, they discovered a large bag stuffed with jewelry and handbags.

With these items and Qiu Bo in tow, Zhao Hua’s team returned to the detective squad.

Li Lei, upon examining the items, found Qiu Liang’s identification card—issued seven years prior, before fingerprinting was required and, since Qiu Liang had no prior record, his prints and DNA were not in the system.

Once the evidence and stolen goods were laid out in the interrogation room, Qiu Liang finally abandoned resistance, his psychological defenses crumbling as he confessed to his crimes.

Before he turned to crime, Qiu Liang’s life was much as Qiu Bo described: born to a rural family, never spoiled but never lacking. His parents provided what they could. After his father’s accident, Qiu Liang bore no resentment; he simply tried to keep the family afloat. His high school grades suffered because he worked nights as a waiter to cover school expenses and send money home for his father’s treatment.

At first, he managed, but over time, the lack of sleep ruined his health and grades. Despite his teachers’ efforts and his classmates’ donations, the money was a drop in the ocean. To keep his father alive, he took on five part-time jobs, skipping school during the day. In the end, his father never recovered, his mother passed from exhaustion, and Qiu Liang was left devastated.

After failing the college entrance exam, he left for the city’s film studios, juggling odd jobs and chasing acting roles. There, he befriended a makeup artist who taught him the basics of stage makeup. Smart and eager to learn, Qiu Liang scoured the internet for tutorials, gradually mastering the craft.

He spent over a year at the studios, but when his friend moved on and acting opportunities remained elusive, he went to the construction site, following his father’s path.

He had considered factory work, but the pay was too low. On-site, especially setting up or dismantling scaffolding, the wages were much higher, albeit dangerous and demanding. Three hundred yuan a day was far better than factory work, though the jobs were only available during specific phases of construction.

Despite the hard labor, Qiu Liang never gave up on makeup. If he couldn’t act, he thought, perhaps he could be a makeup artist. This ambition persisted until he saw a prop in a film: a realistic mask. The idea struck him—if he wore such a mask, would anyone recognize him? At first, such items were unavailable online, but after a big Hollywood blockbuster featuring them, they began to appear for sale.

Qiu Liang, always alert to such developments, immediately bought the cheapest mask he found. Disappointed with its quality, he dipped into his savings and bought the most expensive one—a replica of a Hollywood star.

Once he mastered its use, combining online tutorials with his own skills, darker thoughts began to stir. If he wore the mask, he reasoned, he could commit robberies without being recognized.

At twenty-three, after years among mostly male workers—older or otherwise unappealing—Qiu Liang had his own desires. At first, he joined his coworkers in visiting prostitutes, but he was proud and looked down on them. After acquiring the mask, a new notion took root: why not use it to target single women at night, taking both their money and their bodies? Hidden behind the mask, he felt invincible.

Thus the seed of evil, once sown, quickly took root and flourished. None of his fellow workers, not even Qiu Bo who treated him like a son, noticed the change in him.

When he arrived in S City with the construction crew, his suppressed urges became uncontrollable. He began prowling the streets near the site, discovering that three roads—Changxi Road, Changdong Road, and Niwa Road—lacked surveillance cameras and were deserted at night. Excited by this opportunity, he prepared to act.

On the night of June 5th, after dinner with Qiu Bo, he returned to his room and carefully applied his makeup. In the dead of night, he slipped through a blind spot in the site’s surveillance and headed to Niwa Road.

He waited for a long time before spotting a provocatively dressed woman, adorned with gold jewelry, walking home alone. Qiu Liang sprang from the shadows and struck her on the back of the head.

As a scaffolder, he was strong; a single blow felled her. He snatched her bag, rifled through it for a wad of cash, then removed her rings. As he turned her over to take her necklace, the sight of her exposed skin aroused him. Noticing condoms in her bag, he dragged her into the roadside bushes and raped her. During the assault, the woman regained consciousness. Strangely, after an initial moment of shock, she did not resist, even cooperating—startling Qiu Liang, who nonetheless continued.

Afterward, he dressed and hurried back to his rented room.

This was his first crime and the beginning of a series of rapes and robberies. When days passed with no police in sight, his anxiety faded.

They say Pandora’s box, once opened, is hard to close. So it was with Qiu Liang: one crime led to another. On June 9th, he once again donned the mask, applied his makeup, and returned to Niwa Road, robbing and raping a hostess, stealing over three thousand in cash, an iPhone, two gold rings, and a necklace. In the following days, he committed another similar crime.

After these three incidents, robbing hostesses no longer thrilled him. He set his sights on Changxi and Changdong Roads.

An educated man, Qiu Liang was clever. He bought two more masks online, and on June 11th, attacked Ma Xiaohua on Changxi Road, robbing and raping her. Still, the police did not appear.

Thus began his spree, continuing until five victims, including Cai Fenfen, finally reported the attacks. Police investigated but found nothing conclusive.

At first, Qiu Liang panicked when he saw police, but when a few days passed without further action, he resumed his rampage. On the night of the 26th, after assaulting Yu Han and dragging her into the roadside bushes, he heard the sound of a car. He grabbed some of her belongings and fled, only to be spotted by Xu Lang. The ensuing chase was their first, and Qiu Liang escaped, thanks to his familiarity with the terrain.