Psycho: 疯子

by 小妖子, Xiao Yao Zi, Rai R (Translator)

In a manga chat group, a user named "Hare" posted three lines of red text.
“I want to kill her.”
“I want to kill her.”
“I want to kill her.”
Out of curiosity, Ye Zi DMed the stranger as "Predator."
[Predator (Ye Zi): I saw your messages in the group chat. "I want to kill her."... Is that what you really think?]
[ Yes, it is.]
[ …I can’t think of anything I want more than to tear her body to shreds. Do you know that feeling?]
[ I do.]
[ Because there's also someone I want to kill.]
[ Who?]
…
[ Do you want to kill him?]
[ I do. I think about it even in my dreams.]

After about two minutes, Hare’s profile picture blinked again.
[ Murder exchange. Ever heard of it?]
[ I’ll kill that guy for you first. Once it’s done, it’s your turn. What do you think?]
[ Alright.]

After that day,
The person Ye Zi hated... vanished. To fulfill their deadly pact, he killed in return. No meetings. No traces. The perfect crime.
Ye Zi thought peaceful days would come.
He was wrong.
[ Not bad. Your girlfriend's pretty cute.]
Immediately, Ye Zi looked up across from him.
Sure enough, the teen was resting his jaw comfortably on his palm, watching him with a gaze that pierced through the deep shadows.
A faint illusion of a smile was present on his lips; one so tender, yet it made chills run down Ye Zi’s spine.
In this hunt...
Ye Zi was never the Predator.

Genres: LGBT

315 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 8, 2015

Reviews

[Laura]

Psycho Manhua Review
90 chapters (completed)

Dark + Toxic + Stalker Romance + Some murder = this story

Personally, I didn’t enjoy this due to my personal preferences, so won’t be giving this a rating as it wouldn’t be fair.

I wasn’t a fan of the characters or art. So many plot holes so little time. I thought that the twist near the end was confusing.

I have a feeling the officially licenced novel by Via Lactea will be better than this and will feel less ‘choppy’. Sadly, I don’t think I would want to pick up the novel now that I know what the story is about.

[Queens Love Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I’m the ghost that’s always stuck to you. Wherever you go, I’ll be there. I’m always watching over you, I know everything about you.”

The story grabbed my attention right from the start, and I never felt like I had to wait for things to get interesting. I was hooked almost immediately. But I’ll be extremely honest, I usually enjoy psycho stories more when both characters are equally messed up, or when one is a psychopath and the other is a sociopath like Wine and Gun. I kept hoping for more of that dynamic while I was reading. One thing I couldn’t stop thinking about was the whole “murder exchange” thing. I found it so interesting that now I actually want to look it up and see if it’s ever happened in real life or if it’s just a fictional concept. For most of the book, I also kept wondering why they hadn’t been caught by the cops yet. A part of me really wanted to see them questioned because I felt like it would’ve been so satisfying to watch that kind of tension play out.

Somewhere toward the end, I started convincing myself that this probably wasn’t going to be a book I’d come back to anytime soon. I had already accepted whatever ending I thought was coming, and I was preparing myself for it. Whenever I read a killer BL, I always think there are only three possible endings. They either spend the rest of their lives hiding, they get caught and serve their sentence, or it ends in tragedy. I kept trying to guess which one this story was heading toward, and somehow it kept making me second guess myself. It’s honestly so hard to talk about this book because almost anything I could say about the ending feels like it would spoil the experience. I don’t even know how to describe it without saying too much.

When I finally finished reading it, I realized I was actually satisfied, even if it wasn’t for the reasons I expected. If you asked me whether this book has a happy ending, my answer would completely depend on how you define a happy ending. If you asked whether they end up together, I’d honestly say yes… and no. That’s probably the best answer I can give without ruining anything. I can already imagine the ending not working for a lot of readers, and I completely understand why. For me though, the ending is exactly what saved the book. It left me sitting there thinking about everything that had happened, and that was enough to make the whole journey worth it. I mentioned earlier that toward the end, I didn’t think I’d be re-reading the book, but after everything was over, I could actually see myself re-reading it next year to experience the story all over again.

Date Read: 2026.07.19

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5
For Mature Readers

Wow! Is all I can say. This author really knew how to mess with your mind; I was in total shock. I’ve never read a novel like this before, and I wasn't sure what to expect while reading it. I have so much going through my brain right now! This story does have some heavy themes, so I would recommend checking the trigger warnings on Novel Updates.

The story follows Ye Zi, who decides to do a murder exchange with someone named Hare after seeing their online post: "I want to kill her." Ye Zi agrees to the exchange, only to immediately back out out of fear. But Hare is always watching.

The plot twist was absolutely twisting!

I want to say more, but since it's only one volume and so easy to spoil, I'll hold back. The ending blew my mind, and I am in utter shock! I'm honestly speechless and can't wait to read more of this author's work. They truly know how to write psychological thrillers—it had me questioning everything happening in the book!

[Faith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story is absolute madness. Don’t let the poor reviews/ratings deter you from reading this.
Just make sure to check the TW as this does get very intense and graphic.

TW include
-On Page Murder
-Gore
-Kidnapping
-Stockholm Syndrome
-Stalking
And more lol

If you like absolute toxicity and chaos then you’ll probably enjoy this.

I really really liked this. In fact, I feel like I need to re read it because of that ending. When I was reading I was thinking ‘wow, seems MC is an unreliable narrator’ and I was right. The guy is the definition of delusional.

This literally felt like 3 different stories all merged into one. When I was a quarter of the way through I kept thinking ‘this is the same story?’ Towards the end it felt like I had picked up a new book altogether.

This was a wild ride. I felt so many different emotions reading this. I felt disgust, anxiety, concern, creeped out and I felt shivers down my spine.

I really appreciate the symbolism in here as well. The whole time I felt like something was off. It didn’t feel right and I felt something big was coming. I read a review on here about the plot twist and I felt that there were 2-3 plot twists in here until I realized what the actual ‘twist’ was.

Big big spoilers! >>

I thought that maybe the writing felt a bit off to me because of the translation, but I think it’s intentional. With how warped MCs mind is, it all makes sense. The times where it felt like the story wasn’t making sense, or when I was thinking ‘how is this even possible given the circumstances?’ It’s because it’s a mass delusion of the MCs broken mind. The ‘plot holes’ are there for a reason and you can’t make any sense of it until the end.

I saw someone use the term schizophrenia and I think that pretty much sums it up. Instead of the stalked being the prey, the prey is the predator himself. I picked this up right away in chapter 22 when Ye Zi is seeing people he’s ‘killed’ walking about and alive. When Hare says ‘It’s just a hallucination’ and Ye Zi asks ‘Am I… sick?’ I knew something wasn’t right. It just didn’t get confirmed until the very end.

I also really appreciate that we got an explanation from the author at the end. We don’t usually get to see that so that was really fun.

Overall, I really liked this and I wish I had a physical copy.. maybe someday I’ll find it. I only have the ebook right now.

[Leila ✨ · Rating 2 out of 5]

El "plot twist" fue la mayor verga que leí en mi vida.

2 de 5 estrellas.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5. this book is absolutely unhinged and i love it i can't stay away from yanderes at all. this was toxic and fucked up in the best way possible. and while i don't love the ending (the only reason this isn't 5 stars for me), it was good enough that it didn't ruin the book for me and i'm v glad i bought a copy of this

[Gothdoll666{In Rue's Pocket} · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not like this at all and it was not because of the darker/toxic things mentioned in this novel. This novel was not written well nor translated well. Huge paragraphs of dialogue with no dialogue tags, the words subconscious & conscious were mixed up in a sentence, when time passed it was not always stated in the novel but shown with an ellipses. The syntax was also choppy and awkward. Ye zi and Hare as characters were not fleshed out. I could not connect to them. I did not know their wants or hobbies, they did not seem well rounded. There was not enough reflection nor introspection for our mc, Ye Zi. Ye Zi briefly mentions he hated being adopted but he never goes deeper than that. There was not enough imagery nor descriptions. The reader doesn't know what Ye Zi school looks like, nor do we get a description of Hare's house. The sex scenes also could have been written with more detail, they were very short. So short, I could hardly imagine what was going on.The pacing was much too fast for the story. Within one paragraph the characters would hop to different setting.

The plot twists: I do love & appreciate a good plot twists. I understand that they can add entertainment & intrigue into a story but the 1/3 of the twists in this story did not work. Contextually it did not make sense even in this fictional world.

Another thing I disliked was that the author used 7 pages at the end of the novel to explain what happened in the novel. I believe that when an author does this, they did not write a good story.

[Chérie · Rating 5 out of 5]

我爱兔子
我爱兔子
我爱兔子
...

[Fransisca · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really like this kind of twisted love story, although this book is going to have a lot of CW/tw, so I hope other readers will consider it before reading it.
I like this kind of troupe, but at first I thought it's gonna be a wicked love story full of the obsession of a mad person, well, it's kind of true, but it's more than that. Personally, I prefer the Chinese title "MadMan" over "Psycho" because when you finish the book, it literally depicts the content of the book, whereas "Psycho" does not.

Although in the middle of the story, I kinda guess where this story will be going, but it keeps interesting to read, some phrases make you feel like watching a surrealist movie, and make you feel like flying on the cloud (or "high").

I checked the author's other stories, and it seems the author is a type who writes stories that require a high tolerance from their reader, but I wish there were more from this author published in English.

About it have a Happy or Bad Ending? I think it depends on how the reader will interpret the story. This kind of story cannot have 100% happy or bad ending, but for me, it feels like a bad ending, but it's a happy ending for the protagonist. Perhaps it can be described have same feeling when you read the ending of legendary Kaori Yuki's manga Boy's Next Door.

I hope Tu and A-Zi can be together forever ;_;
(but I'm still glad ChengXi truly loves him, and Zi is not one-sided, but it's too painful)

[Ree · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐

Okay. I'm a little dissapointed to be honest. The first 80% of the book was great and I think the plot twist had potential, though I'm a little ticked off at the well of torture that was revealed a certain character faced at the end and how it justified the story. Which like, don't get me wrong I think had potential too. But the entire book, because of the plot twist remained as just a good potential. At times it felt like the plot was being rushed over important scenes just to get to the plot twist near the end. I feel like there could have been a couple of more chapters to really explore both Ye Zi and Hare's characters. I was so excited when I realised this was a Yandere story and wished it unapologetically leaned into it, but the ending felt like a cop out.

[Ainsley Price · Rating 4 out of 5]

I originally was going to rate this a 3 but after careful consideration, I gave this a 4. Whilst at times the writing felt a little meh to me (I don’t know how to describe it), the author really knew how to drag you in with the descriptions of the ‘💀’ and some of the plot twists I didn’t see coming. I only saw one plot twist coming which still shocked me and when I read the ‘💀’ descriptions, I could only think about “the author had to look this up, right?” because how in the world does a human think like that…but it was engaging and sometimes a little slump but not too much. I’d give it a shot if you like something more darker with lots of plot twists.

[ɐusɐʎ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Trigger warnings aside,the whole thing is absolutely CRAZY, at first it sounded like a fanfiction to me but when I reached the end of the book and the plot twist hit, I finally realized why I felt like that. Although the translation wasn't great I didn't quite dislike it

[Jerry]

review text for 4127

[K · Rating 2 out of 5]

wtf

[Spcbnd]

Resumen: era un sueño de Resines. Paso jajaja.

[Mi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Everyone wants to be a yandere these days yet no one wants to be scary.

[Sydney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Did I enjoy it? Eh kinda!

[slumberingpines · Rating 5 out of 5]

其实这本真的很绝，留的是开放式结局。虽然作者偏向了美好一点的结局（我也更偏向这个美好的结局），但另一种对结局的解读也很有意思：或许“兔”从来都不曾存在过，整个故事只是一个关于叶梓的人生反射：他为叶城汐付出了所有，本来以为可以拥有幸福的人生，却被叶城汐背叛，被他夺走了自己曾经拥有的一切，只能窝在破旧狭小的出租房里，看着毁掉他人生的人活得幸福美满。可恶的是叶城汐在抛弃了叶梓拥有了财富，家庭后，他又继续纠缠着叶梓。如果“兔”真的不存在，那么确实，叶梓在他人看来就是一个不幸的精神病患者，最终在幻觉中结束了自己的生命。不过即使是这个结局，我也并不认为这是一个悲剧。
叶梓的一句话给我留下了很深的影响：“世界上有那么多真真假假，真假又有什么区别呢？区别只在于，自己相不相信罢了。” 我当时看这句特别震撼。仔细一想确实是这样的，所谓的真正的爱情不也只是我们的大脑在作祟吗？既然都是脑海里的情绪，那又有什么真假之分。对于叶梓来说，他的现实生活已经糟得不能再糟了，所以对于他来说，选择活在梦境里无疑是更好地选择。在外人眼里他是可怜人，是精神不正常的人。可被认为“不正常”的叶梓从来没有伤害过任何人，而被认为“正常”的人。如聂海霞，叶城汐，他们却一直在伤害。让我想起了一篇文章《病人》。究竟谁才是疯子？
叶梓的灵魂已经超脱了这个世界，他在悲剧中给自己找了一条出路，所以这个故事的结局不纯纯地是悲剧。
“纯白色梦境里，纱窗帘都像你。”

[autumn wind · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story is full of twist and turns. The final revelation left me speechless. Indeed a good read.

tags- murders, gore, stalking, kidnapping, schizophrenia, stockholm syndrome

[Jessica Huynh · Rating 3 out of 5]

That crazy plot twist…I did not see that coming.

[tofu lobotomizado · Rating 1 out of 5]

qué forma de arruinar un libro con un final y un plot twist que al menos a mi parecer, no tuvo sentido.