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默读 #2
默读 (Ⅱ)
童年，成长经历，家庭背景，社会关系，创伤……
我们不断追溯与求索犯罪者的动机，探寻其中最幽微的喜怒哀乐，不是为了设身处地地同情、乃至于原谅他们，不是为了给罪行以开脱的理由，不是为了跪服于所谓人性的复杂，不是为了反思社会矛盾，更不是为了把自己也异化成怪物——
我们只是在给自己、给仍然对这个世界抱有期望的人——寻找一个公正的交代。
我们不断追溯与求索犯罪者的动机，探寻其中最幽微的喜怒哀乐，不是为了设身处地地同情、乃至于原谅他们，不是为了给罪行以开脱的理由，不是为了跪服于所谓人性的复杂，不是为了反思社会矛盾，更不是为了把自己也异化成怪物——
我们只是在给自己、给仍然对这个世界抱有期望的人——寻找一个公正的交代。
378 pages, Paperback
Published July 1, 2018
8 people are currently reading
146 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
August 30, 2022
If I'm being honest I am quite confused as to how the story is broken into as I am reading an online version and the website on which I am reading has mentioned that there are 5 books/arcs but I am going to write the review at the 2/3rd mark of the novel.
The story quite easily is one of the best Chinese crime novels that I have read. It is no lie that the author has put in a lot of thought and research to the novel. From the start of the novel, the author has planned everything to boil down to the last finale. At the half way mark, it would be as if the first arc is completely solved and set aside but unexpectedly at certain points you see characters from the former making a cameo too. Although this is considered a BL novel, the romance is at the threshold level and does not take a larger part of the story which is actually supportive to the bigger picture running in the plot. If I am to admit I was quite saddened by the Yufen Middle School Murder. That truly did saddened me, the loss of a life and the cruelty and malice running in a 15 year old to go through with it.
As I have been saying, all these minor arcs are just a prequel to the finale or the ultimate climax. even with 2/3rd of the story finished, we are more or less left in the dark as to what is truly happening and who the major opponent of this large chess game is. With that curiosity we can safely enter the last book of the novel expecting our questions to be answered after all.
The story quite easily is one of the best Chinese crime novels that I have read. It is no lie that the author has put in a lot of thought and research to the novel. From the start of the novel, the author has planned everything to boil down to the last finale. At the half way mark, it would be as if the first arc is completely solved and set aside but unexpectedly at certain points you see characters from the former making a cameo too. Although this is considered a BL novel, the romance is at the threshold level and does not take a larger part of the story which is actually supportive to the bigger picture running in the plot. If I am to admit I was quite saddened by the Yufen Middle School Murder. That truly did saddened me, the loss of a life and the cruelty and malice running in a 15 year old to go through with it.
As I have been saying, all these minor arcs are just a prequel to the finale or the ultimate climax. even with 2/3rd of the story finished, we are more or less left in the dark as to what is truly happening and who the major opponent of this large chess game is. With that curiosity we can safely enter the last book of the novel expecting our questions to be answered after all.
August 7, 2023
This is hands down the best mystery novel I've ever read in my life
February 16, 2024
⋆｡ ﾟ☁︎︎ ｡ ✧ ⋆ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 🍓｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡ ⋆
mo du book 2 took awhile to get through because of how disturbing and creepy the case was but the writing was so so good
i can’t wait to read the rest of mo du and watch luo wenzhou & fei du slowly fall in love as the solve crimes together
”Luo Wenzhou saw that speaking had twice failed; he had to act. He grabbed Fei Du’s arm and skillfully pulled it backwards. Using the grip he normally used to arrest criminals, he twisted Fei Du’s hand behind his back and pulled him away from the door. Fei Du: “…”
mo du book 2 took awhile to get through because of how disturbing and creepy the case was but the writing was so so good
i can’t wait to read the rest of mo du and watch luo wenzhou & fei du slowly fall in love as the solve crimes together
December 22, 2019
#案件 #犯罪心理 #创伤后遗症
默读系列第二集。以下内容包含故事情节，请斟酌阅读。
****
其中的校园案件牵涉校园霸凌，让我想起了《少年的你，如此美丽》。更巧的是今天我负责的新书发布会，新书中的内容也有涉及校园霸凌，作者本身也分享了曾遭欺负的经历。校园霸凌一直都在，无论程度大或小。我觉得近年听到新闻或讨论的次数多了很多。是逐渐有增加的趋势，还是终于有人愿意正视并触碰这个课题？
《默读II》的校园霸凌是几乎全校的参与，相当惊人。所谓的"鹿"将成为所有人--主人、平民、奴隶的针对对象，不顺从的话，你就有可能是下一只"鹿"。直到成为"鹿"之前，没有人会知道到底谁是鹿。欺凌别人的带头者里面，总有人是有权有势有背景的。我很佩服费渡能够猜透他们的思路、顾虑，先试图让他们卸下心墙，再自愿公开内情，虽然部份的原因也是他们其实都想说，只是害怕。这就是我觉得P大说得特别对的地方，有好多好多的遗憾，都能归于 "对不起，我害怕" 六个字。
费渡和骆闻舟之间，有年龄上的差距，身份上的不同，思想上的矛盾，但这些都不是问题，问题在于费渡封闭的心。他伪装自己，把内心藏起来，从不对任何人说他内心真正想的。其实骆队和陶然都能成为费渡倾诉的对象，为何只有骆队能穿过那道墙？也许是性格。对我来说，他们能惺惺相惜，不容易。而费渡能敞开心房，更是不容易。他试图将骆队推开、但其实心里渴望得到的这种心情，我想我能理解。如果骆队放弃了费总，我想，费总最终是会走偏的。即使费总再能猜透人心，他也无法保留不想和他一起的人。剩下自己一个人的下半辈子，不是堕入黑暗，就是走向死亡。能在汪洋大海中找到可以抓紧的浮木，浮木也紧紧的握住自己、即使刺痛也不想放手，夫复何求。
还是一样充滿故事性、说服力和丰富人物描写的一集。期待大结局。
默读系列第二集。以下内容包含故事情节，请斟酌阅读。
****
其中的校园案件牵涉校园霸凌，让我想起了《少年的你，如此美丽》。更巧的是今天我负责的新书发布会，新书中的内容也有涉及校园霸凌，作者本身也分享了曾遭欺负的经历。校园霸凌一直都在，无论程度大或小。我觉得近年听到新闻或讨论的次数多了很多。是逐渐有增加的趋势，还是终于有人愿意正视并触碰这个课题？
《默读II》的校园霸凌是几乎全校的参与，相当惊人。所谓的"鹿"将成为所有人--主人、平民、奴隶的针对对象，不顺从的话，你就有可能是下一只"鹿"。直到成为"鹿"之前，没有人会知道到底谁是鹿。欺凌别人的带头者里面，总有人是有权有势有背景的。我很佩服费渡能够猜透他们的思路、顾虑，先试图让他们卸下心墙，再自愿公开内情，虽然部份的原因也是他们其实都想说，只是害怕。这就是我觉得P大说得特别对的地方，有好多好多的遗憾，都能归于 "对不起，我害怕" 六个字。
费渡和骆闻舟之间，有年龄上的差距，身份上的不同，思想上的矛盾，但这些都不是问题，问题在于费渡封闭的心。他伪装自己，把内心藏起来，从不对任何人说他内心真正想的。其实骆队和陶然都能成为费渡倾诉的对象，为何只有骆队能穿过那道墙？也许是性格。对我来说，他们能惺惺相惜，不容易。而费渡能敞开心房，更是不容易。他试图将骆队推开、但其实心里渴望得到的这种心情，我想我能理解。如果骆队放弃了费总，我想，费总最终是会走偏的。即使费总再能猜透人心，他也无法保留不想和他一起的人。剩下自己一个人的下半辈子，不是堕入黑暗，就是走向死亡。能在汪洋大海中找到可以抓紧的浮木，浮木也紧紧的握住自己、即使刺痛也不想放手，夫复何求。
还是一样充滿故事性、说服力和丰富人物描写的一集。期待大结局。
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 8, 2023
Solid, edge-of-your-seat 5 ⭐
Format read: Kindle
Reading time: 4-5h
Tags: detective fiction, crime, thriller, trauma, police, translation, friendship, found family, enemies-to-lovers, lgbt (bi, m/m)
Own a copy: yes
Reread likelihood: 10/10
If you liked this book, then you'll probably like: Guardian: Zhen Hun, Vol. 1 by the same author, and SCI Special Crime Investigation (Season 1)
Summary
The investigation team finds itself saddled with a 20-year-old cold case about missing children and a current day copycat kidnapper. While Luo Wenzhou, Tao Ran, and Fei Du work tirelessly to uncover the truth, young girls keep disappearing without a trace. With one suspect dead and another one stoic and silent, the team races against the clock to try to save lives and bring justice to the missing girls.
Review
Volume 1 referenced the novel The Red and the Black, which informed parts of the narrative, but volume 2 relies on Lolita for inspiration. From the get-go, you can expect that this volume is going to be really heavy on themes of child SA and pedophilia.
The case in this volume centres around a 20-year-old series of kidnapping that Wenzhou's old boss and teacher had worked on without ever solving it. 20 years ago, a young girl went missing on her way home from school, and even though the police searched high and low, she was never found. Her father decided to lead his own investigation and traced the disappearance back to a male teacher at the girl's school. With the help of a young boy from the same school, Feifei's father went to the teacher's house and killed him. Because of his actions, the perpetrator never faced justice, and the traces of the missing girls went cold.
Fast forward to present time, Wenzhou is called in to intervene in an emergency: a school bus full of children has been hijacked, and the criminal is demanding ransom for the children's safety. Aboard the bus is one clever girl, Qu Tong, who escapes from a window and runs off into the woods. There she flags down a car and, thinking it's safe because of the presence of another child in the car, Qu Tong gets in and promptly vanishes without a trace. When another girl goes missing a few days later, Wenzhou and the team realise that the case from 20 years ago has come back to haunt them.
This whole book was so chilling from start to finish, and each twist and turn had me on the edge of my seat. When the true criminal is revealed, it is nothing you would expect and it is truly shocking. In terms of criminal psychology, this book proposes a type of criminal that is extremely rare, which makes it all the more thrilling. The reveal itself is truly shocking, but the aftermath of the case and the thorough interrogation of the criminal is even more gripping. It is, naturally, a sad case because of all the innocent lives lost.
I think volume 2 is not for the faint of heart since it deals with a very sensitive topic, but for the most part everything happens off page. There are mentions of child SA, but nothing in that regard is vividly described. There are, however, vivid descriptions of violence (murder, kidnapping, abuse, etc.) as one would expect from a crime novel.
Case aside, the characters in vol. 2 grow so much compared to vol. 1, especially the two mains. It's a very, very slow burn danmei (which I personally love), so don't expect there to be much romance at this point. The focus of the novels is really the cases they work on, and interpersonal relationships take place in the background of the story. However, it's nice to see how the cases bring the characters closer to one another and how they learn to see past old grievances.
In the end, there are lots of sweet, caring moments in between the horrors of the murders and kidnappings. Vol. 2 was really high-octane throughout the narrative, and even though the subject matter is difficult, I think Priest executed it perfectly. I think vol. 2 is now one of my favourite crime/detective novels.
Format read: Kindle
Reading time: 4-5h
Tags: detective fiction, crime, thriller, trauma, police, translation, friendship, found family, enemies-to-lovers, lgbt (bi, m/m)
Own a copy: yes
Reread likelihood: 10/10
If you liked this book, then you'll probably like: Guardian: Zhen Hun, Vol. 1 by the same author, and SCI Special Crime Investigation (Season 1)
Summary
The investigation team finds itself saddled with a 20-year-old cold case about missing children and a current day copycat kidnapper. While Luo Wenzhou, Tao Ran, and Fei Du work tirelessly to uncover the truth, young girls keep disappearing without a trace. With one suspect dead and another one stoic and silent, the team races against the clock to try to save lives and bring justice to the missing girls.
Review
Fei Du leaned to one side. "Do you need my help?"
Luo Wenzhou hesitated. "In what capacity?"
Fei Du shamelessly answered, "Friends and Family."
Volume 1 referenced the novel The Red and the Black, which informed parts of the narrative, but volume 2 relies on Lolita for inspiration. From the get-go, you can expect that this volume is going to be really heavy on themes of child SA and pedophilia.
The case in this volume centres around a 20-year-old series of kidnapping that Wenzhou's old boss and teacher had worked on without ever solving it. 20 years ago, a young girl went missing on her way home from school, and even though the police searched high and low, she was never found. Her father decided to lead his own investigation and traced the disappearance back to a male teacher at the girl's school. With the help of a young boy from the same school, Feifei's father went to the teacher's house and killed him. Because of his actions, the perpetrator never faced justice, and the traces of the missing girls went cold.
Fast forward to present time, Wenzhou is called in to intervene in an emergency: a school bus full of children has been hijacked, and the criminal is demanding ransom for the children's safety. Aboard the bus is one clever girl, Qu Tong, who escapes from a window and runs off into the woods. There she flags down a car and, thinking it's safe because of the presence of another child in the car, Qu Tong gets in and promptly vanishes without a trace. When another girl goes missing a few days later, Wenzhou and the team realise that the case from 20 years ago has come back to haunt them.
This whole book was so chilling from start to finish, and each twist and turn had me on the edge of my seat. When the true criminal is revealed, it is nothing you would expect and it is truly shocking. In terms of criminal psychology, this book proposes a type of criminal that is extremely rare, which makes it all the more thrilling. The reveal itself is truly shocking, but the aftermath of the case and the thorough interrogation of the criminal is even more gripping. It is, naturally, a sad case because of all the innocent lives lost.
I think volume 2 is not for the faint of heart since it deals with a very sensitive topic, but for the most part everything happens off page. There are mentions of child SA, but nothing in that regard is vividly described. There are, however, vivid descriptions of violence (murder, kidnapping, abuse, etc.) as one would expect from a crime novel.
Case aside, the characters in vol. 2 grow so much compared to vol. 1, especially the two mains. It's a very, very slow burn danmei (which I personally love), so don't expect there to be much romance at this point. The focus of the novels is really the cases they work on, and interpersonal relationships take place in the background of the story. However, it's nice to see how the cases bring the characters closer to one another and how they learn to see past old grievances.
"I came over here to have a look once in a while." Luo Wenzhou spoke first. "After all, it was the first case I handled that involved a death."
"So it made a deep impression?" said Fei Du.
"Yes. 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.
In the end, there are lots of sweet, caring moments in between the horrors of the murders and kidnappings. Vol. 2 was really high-octane throughout the narrative, and even though the subject matter is difficult, I think Priest executed it perfectly. I think vol. 2 is now one of my favourite crime/detective novels.
November 5, 2021
No lie. This book is straight out 5/5.
This Lolita arc is even more disturbing, gross and sick than the first one. Terrifying even, considering the fact that the main culprit is literally a corrupted minor hurting other minors her age. The highlight surrounding lust and human's desire, the obvious involvement of seven deadly sins, is also an amazing details. Also, taking after the title this arc was taken of, the highlight surrounding pedophilia is very fucking sickening, it had shown even darker side of it, in which could make the reader more aware of the reality of the issue.
All those details are what making this arc even more better than The Red and The Black arc. The plot is far well-knitted and the characters are even more sickening. The mysteries surrounding it also is very page-turning. The tension are unbreakable. Once you pick this book up you could never stop reading.
In addition, the relationship development between Fei Du and Luo Wenzhou are very interesting to read. I love them so much. It's slow but steady. Also because Fei Du's backstories are slowly folded, i could empathize with him more. It's too bad that there is still no sign of LWZ's backstory.
In conclusion this book is good. Very page turning. Very detailed. Interesting characters. And the emotional involvement is very felt. 5/5 definitely.
***whateverth reread edit***
the promised thesis will come up today i think. i can finally organize my disordered mind after i read this unlike before.
This Lolita arc is even more disturbing, gross and sick than the first one. Terrifying even, considering the fact that the main culprit is literally a corrupted minor hurting other minors her age. The highlight surrounding lust and human's desire, the obvious involvement of seven deadly sins, is also an amazing details. Also, taking after the title this arc was taken of, the highlight surrounding pedophilia is very fucking sickening, it had shown even darker side of it, in which could make the reader more aware of the reality of the issue.
All those details are what making this arc even more better than The Red and The Black arc. The plot is far well-knitted and the characters are even more sickening. The mysteries surrounding it also is very page-turning. The tension are unbreakable. Once you pick this book up you could never stop reading.
In addition, the relationship development between Fei Du and Luo Wenzhou are very interesting to read. I love them so much. It's slow but steady. Also because Fei Du's backstories are slowly folded, i could empathize with him more. It's too bad that there is still no sign of LWZ's backstory.
In conclusion this book is good. Very page turning. Very detailed. Interesting characters. And the emotional involvement is very felt. 5/5 definitely.
***whateverth reread edit***
the promised thesis will come up today i think. i can finally organize my disordered mind after i read this unlike before.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 2, 2023
3.75 Silent Reading Book 2 - Humbert Arc
In this second arc of Silent Reading, we get into a veritable perverted and macabre case of child trafficking and abuse transpiring more than 20 years, inspired by the famous work by Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita. Apart from the hard-to-stomach crimes in it, I really enjoyed getting to see the main characters interact more with each other, especially the weird flirting (?) between Fei Du and Luo Wenzhou, their banter is hilarious. Often in Chinese works depicting homosexual relationships, the fact that the characters are queer is often never mentioned and only subtly mention, but in this one is quite refreshing to see that Luo Wenzhou is quite openly gay, and the people around him accept it as it is with no drama. So, it is great. I can't wait to see how their relationship will blossom.
In this second arc of Silent Reading, we get into a veritable perverted and macabre case of child trafficking and abuse transpiring more than 20 years, inspired by the famous work by Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita. Apart from the hard-to-stomach crimes in it, I really enjoyed getting to see the main characters interact more with each other, especially the weird flirting (?) between Fei Du and Luo Wenzhou, their banter is hilarious. Often in Chinese works depicting homosexual relationships, the fact that the characters are queer is often never mentioned and only subtly mention, but in this one is quite refreshing to see that Luo Wenzhou is quite openly gay, and the people around him accept it as it is with no drama. So, it is great. I can't wait to see how their relationship will blossom.
October 10, 2023
Sang đến phần này mình lại nhớ đến “ Đứa trẻ hư “ của Tử Kim Trần, thêm cả cuốn “ Bạch dạ hành “ của Higashino Keigo. Mình thấy hơi ớn người khi con bé đó sẵn sàng bắt cóc trẻ còn rồi cùng người lớn làm những việc táng tận lương tâm.
Vì được dạy dỗ bởi một người mẹ không ra sao đã khiến con bé trở nên y chang mẹ nó….
Vì được dạy dỗ bởi một người mẹ không ra sao đã khiến con bé trở nên y chang mẹ nó….
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 11, 2024
this book is genuinely insane my god
June 12, 2025
”师兄，我爱你。”
Then warm lips lightly touched his forehead. A sense of familiarity about the sensation made Fei Du calm down.
"I'm here," this person said into his ear. "Everything is all right. Rest now, we'll talk when you wake up."
adjskskskksks
Then warm lips lightly touched his forehead. A sense of familiarity about the sensation made Fei Du calm down.
"I'm here," this person said into his ear. "Everything is all right. Rest now, we'll talk when you wake up."
adjskskskksks
September 28, 2021
I'm not sure how the author split up the series into 3 books, but this review is for the middle 1/3 of the story, from chapter 61-120. This covers all of the Macbeth arc and part of the next Verkhovensky arc.
**Warning: Spoilers Ahead**
The Macbeth arc was all right. Probably my least favorite arc so far, since it involves a lot of messy family drama for a high profile family, but the concept of using suicide drivers as a tool for homicide was interesting. There are still a lot of open points unresolved from this arc, mainly around the group/individual who's behind the driver's daughter's murder and also the murder of the criminal who killed her.
So far I'm loving the Verkhovensky arc. Not only are we finally getting somewhere with the mysterious criminal group that seems to be the mastermind behind a number of heinous crimes, but Luo Wenzhou and Fei Du's relationship also deepens here. Fei Du finally bares all of his secrets open to Luo Wenzhou, around the circumstances of his upbringing and his father's accident, and how all of his scheming is to be finally free of his father. I think this is the real beginning of their relationship together. Yes they've slept together a couple times before this, but up until now Fei Du closed off his true thoughts to Luo Wenzhou and never admitted that he cared for him. Fei Du tried to push Luo Wenzhou by calling himself a psychopath and saying that he's incapable of feeling love, but Luo Wenzhou saw through him and called him out. And he's right. Would a psychopath care for a victim's mom or a little girl the way Fei Du did?
The story is slowly coming together too. We finally learn more about this master criminal organization and how it's brought together our group of 4 unlikely conspirators. Luo Wenzhou and Tao Ran through their teacher's death and his dying words about the radio program, Fei Du through his father's connections and accident, and finally Xiao Haiyang as the adopted son of a policeman who was wrongfully accused and whose death was hushed up. I feel like the Avengers have finally gathered to expose the crimes and fight evil or something like that. There are just too many coincidences linking the various crimes together, and I'm really excited to see how this all plays out in the last story.
Also, I'm dying to know who the Reciter is and how he's connected to the group bringing all these crimes to light.
Kudos to Priest for masterfully weaving all these storylines into one cohesive story split out over the course of multiple arcs. This series couldn't have been easy to write. I have much more respect for her writing after reading this, much more so than after reading any of her other works.
Some of my favorite scenes from this book:
Luo Wenzhou was human; sometimes a human couldn’t avoid being covetous, couldn’t avoid being endlessly greedy.
In the beginning Fei Du had been like a dangerous plant emitting a rare perfume, indiscriminately attracting everyone who passed by. The more Luo Wenzhou’s intellect had flashed warning signals, the more attracted he had been. All the so-called “seductive” people and things on earth were probably like this—you knew they were poisonous, but you wanted to go take poison.
Then had come the cataclysm of the bomb and nearly parting forever; like an invisible dark hand, it had pushed him into the swamp called “Fei Du.” He wanted to love him, wanted to take care of him, wanted to slowly unwrap his convoluted, unknowable heart like opening a beautifully wrapped package. Luo Wenzhou had started on a path with his one-sided declaration, had made his preparations for a long and arduous journey, carrying a traveling bag of patience on his back.
But he’d had him by his side only a few days when that bastard had once again thrown him off his proper pace. It was as if he’d been bewitched.
The sudden physical intimacy had made him throw away all his defenses, filling his heart with deep-rooted desires. It had also pushed him onto a roller coaster. All the things he’d originally planned to take his time on had at once become things he was itching with impatience to get on with.
----------------
“Because this crowd exists, all these years, you’ve felt that you couldn’t escape Fei Chengyu, right?” Luo Wenzhou spoke very calmly. “So you’d rather throw yourself in, become one of them, control them, tear them up by the roots.—If you failed, you might die without an intact corpse like Zheng Kaifeng. If you succeeded, it wasn’t as though you were a planted agent. When the time came, you would go to prison along with them. Have you thought about that?”
Fei Du forced a smile. “I…”
“You aren’t stupid, of course you’ve thought it through clearly,” Luo Wenzhou said. “But whether you died or spent the rest of your life in prison, you thought that would be pretty good, right? At least you’d be free, unencumbered. There’d be nothing to worry about.”
Because if you couldn’t be free, it was better to die.
----------------
Luo Wenzhou looked up at him and saw the lamplight refracted in Fei Du’s glasslike eyes. There seemed to be a faint human warmth floating there.
Then Fei Du, tugging on a rag made out of old long underwear, at last nodded and acknowledged, “Yes, I care for you.”
The flashy mountain bike blown sky-high, the old game machine that had accompanied him as he’d grown up, the drawer that had once hidden a little cat, the skewers with too much chili on them, the flowers left in the cemetery once a year, the countless mutually ridiculing quarrels… Today it seemed that all those past events were strung together on a golden thread, showing a faint outline in the thick black mist of his memories, lighting his past and future.
Luo Wenzhou felt that he seemed to have been waiting all his life to hear these words. The corners of his mouth pursed slightly in an almost smile. Then, without making a sound, he suddenly pulled away the rag, tossed it on the ground, dipped his hands in the wash basin, and, without even drying them off, put his arms around Fei Du’s waist and dragged him off.
----------------
And of course, gotta love all the coincidences...
On the night that they were pursuing Zheng Kaifeng, Fei Du had vaguely mentioned some power behind the Zhou Clan to Luo Wenzhou—and some secret and horrifying connection to the case of three generations of the Su family trafficking and murdering female children.
The Zhou Clan case, the death fleet, the kept wanted criminals…
There was also the Zhou Clan’s Yang Bo; Yang Bo had been valued by Zheng Kaifeng for no reason, clearly a good-for-nothing covered in fake gold leaf, but he’d been Zhou Junmao’s personal secretary. And Yang Bo’s father had also died in an unusual car crash, supposedly hitting and killing a team working on a project, and the greatest beneficiary had been an invisible shareholder called the Guangyao Fund, which just happened to be the owner of the usage rights to the patch of seaside land where Xu Wenchao had disposed of the little girls’ bodies.
**Warning: Spoilers Ahead**
The Macbeth arc was all right. Probably my least favorite arc so far, since it involves a lot of messy family drama for a high profile family, but the concept of using suicide drivers as a tool for homicide was interesting. There are still a lot of open points unresolved from this arc, mainly around the group/individual who's behind the driver's daughter's murder and also the murder of the criminal who killed her.
So far I'm loving the Verkhovensky arc. Not only are we finally getting somewhere with the mysterious criminal group that seems to be the mastermind behind a number of heinous crimes, but Luo Wenzhou and Fei Du's relationship also deepens here. Fei Du finally bares all of his secrets open to Luo Wenzhou, around the circumstances of his upbringing and his father's accident, and how all of his scheming is to be finally free of his father. I think this is the real beginning of their relationship together. Yes they've slept together a couple times before this, but up until now Fei Du closed off his true thoughts to Luo Wenzhou and never admitted that he cared for him. Fei Du tried to push Luo Wenzhou by calling himself a psychopath and saying that he's incapable of feeling love, but Luo Wenzhou saw through him and called him out. And he's right. Would a psychopath care for a victim's mom or a little girl the way Fei Du did?
The story is slowly coming together too. We finally learn more about this master criminal organization and how it's brought together our group of 4 unlikely conspirators. Luo Wenzhou and Tao Ran through their teacher's death and his dying words about the radio program, Fei Du through his father's connections and accident, and finally Xiao Haiyang as the adopted son of a policeman who was wrongfully accused and whose death was hushed up. I feel like the Avengers have finally gathered to expose the crimes and fight evil or something like that. There are just too many coincidences linking the various crimes together, and I'm really excited to see how this all plays out in the last story.
Also, I'm dying to know who the Reciter is and how he's connected to the group bringing all these crimes to light.
Kudos to Priest for masterfully weaving all these storylines into one cohesive story split out over the course of multiple arcs. This series couldn't have been easy to write. I have much more respect for her writing after reading this, much more so than after reading any of her other works.
Some of my favorite scenes from this book:
Luo Wenzhou was human; sometimes a human couldn’t avoid being covetous, couldn’t avoid being endlessly greedy.
In the beginning Fei Du had been like a dangerous plant emitting a rare perfume, indiscriminately attracting everyone who passed by. The more Luo Wenzhou’s intellect had flashed warning signals, the more attracted he had been. All the so-called “seductive” people and things on earth were probably like this—you knew they were poisonous, but you wanted to go take poison.
Then had come the cataclysm of the bomb and nearly parting forever; like an invisible dark hand, it had pushed him into the swamp called “Fei Du.” He wanted to love him, wanted to take care of him, wanted to slowly unwrap his convoluted, unknowable heart like opening a beautifully wrapped package. Luo Wenzhou had started on a path with his one-sided declaration, had made his preparations for a long and arduous journey, carrying a traveling bag of patience on his back.
But he’d had him by his side only a few days when that bastard had once again thrown him off his proper pace. It was as if he’d been bewitched.
The sudden physical intimacy had made him throw away all his defenses, filling his heart with deep-rooted desires. It had also pushed him onto a roller coaster. All the things he’d originally planned to take his time on had at once become things he was itching with impatience to get on with.
----------------
“Because this crowd exists, all these years, you’ve felt that you couldn’t escape Fei Chengyu, right?” Luo Wenzhou spoke very calmly. “So you’d rather throw yourself in, become one of them, control them, tear them up by the roots.—If you failed, you might die without an intact corpse like Zheng Kaifeng. If you succeeded, it wasn’t as though you were a planted agent. When the time came, you would go to prison along with them. Have you thought about that?”
Fei Du forced a smile. “I…”
“You aren’t stupid, of course you’ve thought it through clearly,” Luo Wenzhou said. “But whether you died or spent the rest of your life in prison, you thought that would be pretty good, right? At least you’d be free, unencumbered. There’d be nothing to worry about.”
Because if you couldn’t be free, it was better to die.
----------------
Luo Wenzhou looked up at him and saw the lamplight refracted in Fei Du’s glasslike eyes. There seemed to be a faint human warmth floating there.
Then Fei Du, tugging on a rag made out of old long underwear, at last nodded and acknowledged, “Yes, I care for you.”
The flashy mountain bike blown sky-high, the old game machine that had accompanied him as he’d grown up, the drawer that had once hidden a little cat, the skewers with too much chili on them, the flowers left in the cemetery once a year, the countless mutually ridiculing quarrels… Today it seemed that all those past events were strung together on a golden thread, showing a faint outline in the thick black mist of his memories, lighting his past and future.
Luo Wenzhou felt that he seemed to have been waiting all his life to hear these words. The corners of his mouth pursed slightly in an almost smile. Then, without making a sound, he suddenly pulled away the rag, tossed it on the ground, dipped his hands in the wash basin, and, without even drying them off, put his arms around Fei Du’s waist and dragged him off.
----------------
And of course, gotta love all the coincidences...
On the night that they were pursuing Zheng Kaifeng, Fei Du had vaguely mentioned some power behind the Zhou Clan to Luo Wenzhou—and some secret and horrifying connection to the case of three generations of the Su family trafficking and murdering female children.
The Zhou Clan case, the death fleet, the kept wanted criminals…
There was also the Zhou Clan’s Yang Bo; Yang Bo had been valued by Zheng Kaifeng for no reason, clearly a good-for-nothing covered in fake gold leaf, but he’d been Zhou Junmao’s personal secretary. And Yang Bo’s father had also died in an unusual car crash, supposedly hitting and killing a team working on a project, and the greatest beneficiary had been an invisible shareholder called the Guangyao Fund, which just happened to be the owner of the usage rights to the patch of seaside land where Xu Wenchao had disposed of the little girls’ bodies.
March 17, 2021
位高權重家財萬貫的大慈善家死於一場車禍。看似簡單的一起意外卻一石激起千層浪，牽扯出謀殺、洗錢、跨境犯罪、綁架等案子，涉及橫跨多年的恩怨情仇，甚至前一部的少女拐殺案也和他脫不了干係。
一對同流合污的搭檔 ，一次又一次的踐踏法律和規則，順風順水的得到自己想要的東西。一對在扭曲的家庭中長大的兄弟，理所當然的有彼此憎恨的緣由，卻被迫在漫長的時間裡相依為命。
所有的悲劇原始於曾經的同舟共濟到後來的同床異夢，雖然警方勉強拼湊出一條證據鏈讓案子得以了結，然而，所有重要的當事人都死絕了，很多細枝末節全都死無對證。
一所寄宿高中裡，有錢少爺帶著被霸凌的小女友離校出走，打算公開學校裡的霸凌事件和其小團伙。不料，英雄還沒當成，小情侶卻遭襲擊，兇手的正面被監控拍下，他正是被通輯了15年的在逃犯。男孩被殘忍殺害兼分屍，與15年前的連環搶劫案的殺人手法如出一轍，而兇手卻只是搶走女孩的手機後放生了她。
越接近真相，越發覺得有一股黑勢力在背後推動所有的罪案。
接二連三的案件讓這股黑勢力驚慌失措，三番幾次幾乎爆露自己，逼得他們只好斷尾求生，把豢養他們的金主們推出來當擋箭牌。這群寄生獸四面楚歌即將走投無路，而費渡的施捨將是他們所尋求的最後支柱。如果沒有駱聞舟拉他一把，孤立無援的費渡在面對那群獸時，大概會順水推舟走向深淵。
上一部，費渡母親自殺後，儘管駱聞舟和拍檔對他無微不至的關照，也改變不了他深藏骨子裡孤獨的靈魂。費渡天生會獨處，後天學會了鬼混，是個孤獨的浪蕩子。這一部簡單帶過他坎坷悲哀的成長經歷，還有他那自戀又變態的父親，控制欲使他扼殺了費渡的青春期和他的正常人性，親手把兒子捏造成了殘忍、冷酷又沒心沒肝的畸形怪胎。
讀完《默讀2》，我不只是深深地被費渡和駱聞舟吸引，我更是被Priest大神屏氣斂息的故事架構、傳神阿堵的人物設定和斐然成章的文辭圈了粉。
不得不愛，未完待續。
一對同流合污的搭檔 ，一次又一次的踐踏法律和規則，順風順水的得到自己想要的東西。一對在扭曲的家庭中長大的兄弟，理所當然的有彼此憎恨的緣由，卻被迫在漫長的時間裡相依為命。
所有的悲劇原始於曾經的同舟共濟到後來的同床異夢，雖然警方勉強拼湊出一條證據鏈讓案子得以了結，然而，所有重要的當事人都死絕了，很多細枝末節全都死無對證。
一所寄宿高中裡，有錢少爺帶著被霸凌的小女友離校出走，打算公開學校裡的霸凌事件和其小團伙。不料，英雄還沒當成，小情侶卻遭襲擊，兇手的正面被監控拍下，他正是被通輯了15年的在逃犯。男孩被殘忍殺害兼分屍，與15年前的連環搶劫案的殺人手法如出一轍，而兇手卻只是搶走女孩的手機後放生了她。
越接近真相，越發覺得有一股黑勢力在背後推動所有的罪案。
接二連三的案件讓這股黑勢力驚慌失措，三番幾次幾乎爆露自己，逼得他們只好斷尾求生，把豢養他們的金主們推出來當擋箭牌。這群寄生獸四面楚歌即將走投無路，而費渡的施捨將是他們所尋求的最後支柱。如果沒有駱聞舟拉他一把，孤立無援的費渡在面對那群獸時，大概會順水推舟走向深淵。
上一部，費渡母親自殺後，儘管駱聞舟和拍檔對他無微不至的關照，也改變不了他深藏骨子裡孤獨的靈魂。費渡天生會獨處，後天學會了鬼混，是個孤獨的浪蕩子。這一部簡單帶過他坎坷悲哀的成長經歷，還有他那自戀又變態的父親，控制欲使他扼殺了費渡的青春期和他的正常人性，親手把兒子捏造成了殘忍、冷酷又沒心沒肝的畸形怪胎。
讀完《默讀2》，我不只是深深地被費渡和駱聞舟吸引，我更是被Priest大神屏氣斂息的故事架構、傳神阿堵的人物設定和斐然成章的文辭圈了粉。
不得不愛，未完待續。
September 13, 2023
It took me so so long to get past the first 20% of the book, however I wouldn't say it's solely because of the book, really. It does take a moment at the beginning to put down the chess pieces for the rest of the story and it's all the better for it. Downed the remaining 80% of the book in one go in just a couple of hours.
I definitely think the case discussed here made more sense and was articulated better than the one in the first instalment of the series. I cared so much more, and there was a sense of urgency that wouldn't let me put the book down. Well done.
I definitely think the case discussed here made more sense and was articulated better than the one in the first instalment of the series. I cared so much more, and there was a sense of urgency that wouldn't let me put the book down. Well done.
August 28, 2023
So many twists and turns. By the time I finish this series. I'll have to re read for fear of have missed things!!! Good book tho. Can't get enough of Lou Wenzhou and Fei Du. There to much some times 😆
January 24, 2025
5!
traumatizing and had me looking at my wall for hours every 5 minutes.
tbh i'm scared for what's coming cause i can feel that all these cases are connected somehow for sure or it's just me overthinking everything.
traumatizing and had me looking at my wall for hours every 5 minutes.
tbh i'm scared for what's coming cause i can feel that all these cases are connected somehow for sure or it's just me overthinking everything.
November 10, 2019
yEs i love it when Fei Du is finally opening his heart to Luo Wen Zhou and the parts when they cooperate with each other
September 15, 2020
Full review on first volume
April 17, 2021
太帶感了
誰會在乎它是dm
誰會在乎它是dm
September 14, 2021
oh god this case was so disturbing i had to take a break for this book bc it was too heavy
May 21, 2022
4.5 star
July 28, 2022
3.5*
فقدت اهتمامي مجدداً :| ما بكمل الكتاب الثالث …
فقدت اهتمامي مجدداً :| ما بكمل الكتاب الثالث …
February 16, 2023
Book 2
I wish I had read this before. This might be the best novel that priest has ever written
I wish I had read this before. This might be the best novel that priest has ever written
May 6, 2023
“I love them so much. How could I stand to hurt them?”
Reading this was tough.
Reading this was tough.
July 21, 2023
“i love them so much. how could i stand to hurt them?” disgusting
August 31, 2023
they're so romantic
January 24, 2024
The cruelest mistake anyone can make is to underestimate someone as being too young or too innocent to know what pain is, and wish to inflict it on others.
February 1, 2024
I LOOOOVED the case depicted in this one and ALL THE FLIRTING. just kiss already
February 28, 2024
reading this was tough. this is by far the most disturbing arc. very excited to hop into the next book and read more of fei du and luo wenzhou's flirting and squabbling and solving crimes together.
October 20, 2024
priest i need to dissect ur brain like a bug
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