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Silent Reading #2

Silent Reading (II)

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Childhood, upbringing, family background, social relations, traumatic experiences…

We keep reviewing and seeking out the motives of criminals, exploring the subtlest emotions driving them. It’s not to put ourselves in their shoes and sympathize, or even forgive them; it’s not to find some reasons to exculpate their crimes; it’s not to kneel down before the so-called “complexity of human nature”; nor to introspect social conflicts, much less to alienate ourselves into monsters.

We just want to have a fair trial – for ourselves and for those who still have hope for the world.

548 pages, ebook

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Priest

261 books1,475 followers
Associated Names:
* Priest
* พีต้า (Thai Profile)

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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
Profile Image for Monique.
496 reviews237 followers
July 3, 2025
5

This vol's case reminded me why I stoped reading crime novels - they just make me so sad sometimes, especially if the victims are children 😢😢 so some scenes were really hard to read. Neverthless, the whole case plot was brilliantly written, and zhoudu had some great moments together, so I'd rather focus on that.


Gif by zhouszishu

“So it made a deep impression?” said Fei Du.
“Yes.” After Luo Wenzhou’s terse nod, he was silent for a while. Then he said, “Although it wasn’t your mom that left a deep impression.”
Fei Du carelessly said, “Captain Luo has seen all kinds of corpses, of course…”
“I could never forget you,” said Luo Wenzhou.

Luo Wenzhou being so stunned by the realization that he finds Fei Du attractive, that he just unitentionlly starts flirting with him 😄 (Also, Fei Du was so surprised he probably thought Wenzhou was being possessed, haha)
However, Wenzhou is like 'he might be good looking but he's still a brat and he annoys me too much'.

He unconsciously felt around for his cigarettes, then forced himself to put them back. Next to him, Fei Du said, “Go ahead and smoke.”
“Didn’t you have pharyngitis?” asked Luo Wenzhou.
Fei Du shrugged. “No, I was just nitpicking to make you uncomfortable.”
Luo Wenzhou: “…”
He was still a scoundrel, after all!
He couldn’t resist giving Fei Du a light punch on the shoulder; but Fei Du turned out to be a true gentlemen, pursuing the policy of “use your mouth and not your fists.” Suffering a surprise attack to his shoulder, his relaxed and elegant posture became unbalanced, his raised leg dropped, and Fei Du hurriedly reached out a hand to support himself, ending up with a handful of mud.
Not only did Luo Wenzhou not apologize, he actually thought it was pretty funny. Next to Fei Du, he heartlessly laughed out loud.
Fei Du: “…”



Gifs by zhouszishu

I know I already said that but I love their dynamic so much. Their relationship is still more on the slowburn side but things are progressing nicely between them - Luo Wenzhou being completly unable to process how the fuck happened that he finds Fei Du attractive?? and Fei Du upping his flirting game from 'gently pursuing' Tao Ran to 'practically cornering' Luo Wenzhou.

“Captain Luo, please don’t pretend to be innocent at your age. Don’t you know that this conduct of staring into someone’s eyes usually means you’re asking to be kissed?




Gifs by xiaobaosnoona

We also learned some more about Fei Du in this vol. He's still very mysterious but the intricate facade he had built for himself has started to crack, and Luo Wenzhou is slowly disovering that his opinion about him might have been wrong afterall.

“I told you all along.” Tao Ran sighed, as before habitually playing peacemaker. “Fei Du’s really all right. If you’re a little nice to him, he’ll quietly pay it back to you tenfold. He may run off at the mouth sometimes, but he’ll rarely haggle over anything for real. Otherwise he wouldn’t have let it go so easily when that sports car of his got smashed up.”


Gif by lilianhuas

Ok, time to wrap this up. I'm, of course, excited to read more and looking forward to zhoudu future interactions 🥰

Luo Wenzhou let him sit there looking pretty.

Careful Captain Luo, your bias is showing 😉 also, it's so funny that he has Fei Du saved in his contacts as Feishir 😆
Profile Image for Grace.
92 reviews7 followers
August 13, 2025
And this volume reminded me why I loved Mo Du so much the first time through. Wow. No second-volume slump here! Fast-paced, another suspenseful and compelling murder case, and great balance between romantic development and crime investigation. AND the cherry on top—character development for my beloved, and somewhat dark and mysterious, Fei Du.

This volume wraps up the He Zhongyi murder case from volume one and smoothly transitions right into the next major case: the kidnapping and murder of young girls. What starts out as a seemingly simple hostage situation quickly turns into the uprooting of a decades-long string of unsolved disappearances of young girls, forcing Luo Wenzhou and his team to re-examine countless cold cases in the effort to locate a young girl who managed to escape a hostage takeover of her school bus, only to mysteriously disappear from the scene of the crime. But what began as a simple missing persons case quickly unveils connections to the serial disappearances of girls long past—a floral-patterned dress, and a disturbing phone call to the parents of the missing child.

They’re like sheep. All they can do is bleat, slow and foolish. Easily tricked, scream at a touch, die just like that. They’re of no value alive….Those sheep really are very foolish. They believe anything you say.

This case is exhilarating to read, with new evidence unfolding at every turn. With its long history comes a long list of victims, and the city bureau investigation team is forced to contact the families of the victims, some of whom had long buried this painful loss in the past. Priest excels at writing the grief and pain of the families of the victims—from the first arc, He Zhongyi’s mother’s screams of despair, desperately asking “who murdered my son?”; and in this arc, Guo Heng’s rekindled fervor in hunting down the true culprit behind his missing daughter’s case from decades ago is both powerful and heart-wrenching. The atmosphere Priest writes in the bureau as the lobby is crammed full of previous and current victims’ families is so heavy that it leaves a raw and hollow feeling in your chest.

With that being said, this case is not for the faint of heart. I think it requires some trigger warnings, as it deals with the torture and SA of minor girls. As the team gets further into their investigation, the gruesomeness of what these girls endured only gets heavier, and the unsolved nature of the crimes from years past, the questions left unanswered for grieving parents, adds to that haunting, simultaneous sense of heaviness and hollowness.

But thankfully, Priest is also a master at balance. To counter the hefty emotions of the investigation, we get a healthy dose of romantic development between Luo Wenzhou and Fei Du—although perhaps the term “romance” is still premature here…our boys are still fighting against their mutually felt (and now internally accepted) urges toward each other. What started as mere childish taunts and jabs at each other in passing quickly develops into innuendo-filled, testing-the-waters type veiled flirting. The tension surmounting between them is TANGIBLE, and they’re not the only ones picking up on these vibes. As Fei Du becomes more ingratiated in the cases and helps where and when he can, constantly popping up at Luo Wenzhou’s side, the investigation team quickly deduces that something is most definitely going on between these two, whether they admit it or not.

Not only is the romantic development full to bursting with sexual tension, but its perfectly balanced with emotional development alongside this, as Luo Wenzhou starts to see Fei Du in a new, gentler light, and Fei Du restrains his reflexive defensiveness around Luo Wenzhou and slowly opens up to him. Probably one of my favorite scenes from the whole series is the umbrella scene—caught in a sudden rainstorm at Fei Du’s mother’s gravesite, our boys are caught sharing one umbrella to wait for the rain to pass, and Fei Du inquires about a small mystery that had eluded him for years.

[Fei Du] quietly asked, 'So you were the one who left these flowers?' …. Fei Du gave people—gave Luo Wenzhou, at least—the feeling that he was like the metal-framed glasses resting on the bridge of his nose, seeming very exquisite, but in fact silently giving off a feeling of inhuman cold. But now, trapped under an umbrella, he was surprised to find that this person’s body temperature wasn’t cold at all.

The character development for Fei Du in this volume is so subtle, yet so deep. We see him slowly opening up to Luo Wenzhou, exposing his painful childhood trauma—not only relevant to his mother’s passing, but the more complex ways his upbringing influences those little quirks of his that Luo Wenzhou has previously noted, i.e. his picky food preferences. Upon sharing a brief moment of domesticity with Luo Wenzhou as he’s prepared an impromptu dinner for him, Fei Du admits that “meals at my house were a very nerve-wracking thing,” and he’s surprised at the warmth and ease he feels around Luo Wenzhou’s table. This hinting at a deeper trauma in his past, as well as an extremely ominous later passage that delves into Fei Du’s unexplained discomfort around Luo Wenzhou’s cat, Luo Yiguo, strongly builds the intrigue behind Fei Du’s “little quirks” and his ongoing persistence that his mother’s death was not the cut-and-dry suicide case the cops originally ruled it out to be.

Beyond just deepening the complexity of Fei Du’s traumatic beginnings, Priest also develops Luo Wenzhou’s perception of Fei Du as he acknowledges Fei Du’s impressive intelligence, and his resourcefulness and usefulness in these ever-increasingly complicated cases. On more than one occasion, Luo Wenzhou even defers to Fei Du’s opinion, his inferences on the perpetrator’s thought process, what choices the suspect made and why they would have made those choices. Here we get steady development of Luo Wenzhou and Fei Du as the power duo they could become tackling these tough cases—if they can overcome these unspoken boundaries they’ve set with each other.

This volume reminded me why I love the series so much, and being able to pick up on the little things the second time through has only made it that much more enjoyable. No notes, just me gearing up for this accumulating tension (romantic, sexual, psychological, you name it…) to inevitably burst.

Bonus points for the two beloved cats of Luo Wenzhou’s life finally meeting. <3
Profile Image for Devinne Ch.
56 reviews
April 20, 2025
This case is probably the one I remembered the best after the first time I read it, because it left quite an impression on me. I recall that I even needed to take a pause after finishing it, it really got me staring at a wall for a while afterwards.

"You can teach a child to be careful of strangers, to be vigilant, but you can’t make her scared of wearing floral-patterned dresses. Otherwise, what’s the point of us?".

As in every case in this novel this one portrays certain issues our society struggles with until nowadays. We're faced with child abductions, ab*se and m*rder, not to mention the r*pe, p*d*philia, child neglect and child pr*stituti*n.
As a young girl barely stepping out of adolescence, and only a few years older than the victims, it's no wonder this case got to me the way it did.

"These girls were like dried flowers sprinkled on the ground, submerged in the sea of missing child notices, gradually becoming pressed among the pages of unsolved cases, gone without a trace. If not for this chance, no one would have discovered that these cases had grown on the same vine.
This was a poisonous vine growing hidden in a deep forest under a bright sun; its root system was colossal, its tendrils dolorous, like an invisible net. Revealing only the tip of the iceberg already made one tremble in fear".


With that being said I still think that the most horrifying part of it was knowing that such situations are so common and recurrent in reality. Every day you find new incessant reports just like those, familiar news that repeat endlessly with barely any variation, and sadly, more often than not, with similar developments.
The author allows us, while following the process of investigation, getting to know some of the victims, not as tragedies, but as individuals, it also allows us to see things from the perspective of their families, and even get a glimpse into the head of those who grew up in that kind of environment, and how they got so entangled in that mess, to the point of even contribute to perpetuating the cycle.

"The records of missing children were all very succinct: boy or girl, how old, when and how they disappeared… As for how the child had acted, what they'd liked, what their temperament had been, what family members still woke from nightmares every night, planning to spend the remainder of their lives immersed in a hopeless search—none of this would be reflected on paper".

It's really all so messed up, all of those involved, all of those affected one way or another, the crude cruelty...

“Fei Du,” Luo Wenzhou suddenly said with a great show of propriety, “if you provoke me like that again, I’m going to think you have some ‘unspeakable intentions’ towards me.”

On a less heartbreaking side, our Captain Luo and President Fei are starting to grow closer to each other, seeing one another in a different light while adapting to their newly founded partnership for the sake of the case. 🤭

"Suddenly, something pulled him from behind. His back pressed against a warm and solid body, and a pair of hands came around him, traveled up, and covered his eyes. He smelled the faint scent of cigarettes on those clear-knuckled hands. Then, in the cracks between the fingers, there was a burst of light".
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Anita.
306 reviews10 followers
March 6, 2025
”Suddenly, Fei Du turned around. Luo Wenzhou had no time to dodge, and their gazes lightly bumped together.”

The transition from book one to two felt like going from one chapter to another. I’m suspecting the original work isn’t split up like this. Either way, this book was also very case-driven. We didn’t really get to explore the relationship between the two main characters too much, which was a bummer. The translation is also a bit choppy from time to time, some really strange word choices when there are easier ways to express things. Priest is known for writing plot-heavy books, but I find this case underwhelming. The premise was interesting, but the ending felt rushed. There wasn’t really an explanation behind why the family involved did all this. Especially on the grandmothers part and the connection to the other men involved. I would’ve liked more of a resolve with the victims and their families, as well as the father who spent twenty years looking for his daughter. All in all, more explanations on everyone involved, it was way too vague to create an emotional attachment.

Another thing I thought about already in the first book is how unnatural most of the encounters feel between the main characters. It’s almost always something unbelievable like the graveyard and then the car accident. It felt a little over the top and staged, but I guess it can’t be avoided considering their vastly different career choices.

Either way, this case is as far as the series have gotten to, so I’m going to start the next book to find out what happens next. Maybe they’ll wrap up this storyline in the beginning of the next book. Hoping for some more progress relationship-wise in the upcoming part.
Profile Image for Julianne Bellardo.
103 reviews23 followers
August 14, 2025
"So it made a deep impression?" said Fei Du.
"Yes." After Luo Wenzhou's terse nod, he was silent for a while. Then he said, "Although it wasn't your mom that left a deep impression."
Fei Du carelessly said, "Captain Lou has seen all kinds of corpses, of course..."
"I could never forget you," Said Luo Wenzhou.


The case they deal with in this volume is probably one that left the deepest impression for me. I started getting on edge from the very first time they presented the book that'd set the tone for the case - which is also something I love about MoDu.

How Priest already gives us clues of what is coming with the quotations she chooses to open the volume.

Beyond the case, that I felt was even more interesting than the first one, in this part we have ZhouDu beginning to interact with each other more, talking beyond their usual banter.

But the part that really stood out for me was when Fei Du went to talk to the Su girl (don't ask me the actual name) - how he could turn the interrogation around and understood which buttons to press. And I think not only in that moment, but during the entire book we are giving more understanding on wh Fei Du is.

Priest really managed to make this volume better than the first one!
Profile Image for Ify Osuji.
207 reviews
November 5, 2025
This book covered arc 2 (Humbert Humbert), which had an equally (though definitely darker) gripping and complex case that the main characters had to unravel. It was difficult to put down, but simultaneously difficult to read at times because of the sensitive nature of the case.

I loved the development of Fei Du and Luo Wenzhou’s dynamic, and I’m looking forward to them getting closer. Looking forward to the next!
Profile Image for Jools.
91 reviews
November 18, 2025
Priest knows how to finish a book. Knows how to hook you up in that perfect way you are itching to just read the first chapters of the next one.

Btw, much better than the first, I devoured the first half in a couple days. And the end. Simple and disturbing.
Profile Image for Nerea.
731 reviews33 followers
March 4, 2025
Love this series!! The cases are so interesting and all the characters really well build!
Also the sloooow burn... on pointt XD
Profile Image for akira.
115 reviews
April 15, 2025
one of the most harrowing things i've ever read. i have no other words...

I'm afraid not even zhoudu's developing relationship was enough to add levity to this, cute as they were.
Profile Image for DaisyAshira.
17 reviews
September 10, 2025
Hoooo…. I love the dynamic between Captain Luo and President Pei. The tension and flirting start from book 2. It’s more clear now what happened to the second case.
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