The Silent Executioner

His name was Shen Mo, and he restored ancient books, spending his days among yellowed legal texts.

No one knew that a secret lay in his palm: the Heavenly Punishment System, which held the punishments used across three thousand years of Chinese history, from the Xia and Shang dynasties to the Ming and Qing. Death by burning, death by a thousand cuts, beheading, execution by dismemberment... each torture awaited a "suitable" criminal.

His blade targeted only those beyond the reach of the law: a businessman who drugged and murdered women, a telecom boss who swindled the elderly, a child trafficker, and an official who embezzled disaster relief funds. When the justice system let them go for "insufficient evidence," Shen Mo struck in the dead of night, using ancient methods of execution to make the criminals confess where they had buried their victims before dying in agony.

The first time, his hands shook with nerves, and he left a strand of hair at the scene.

The second time, he began to enjoy the feeling of control and stopped to eat a bowl of beef noodles.

The third time, he returned to the scene after carrying out the execution and brushed shoulders with the police.

The fourth time, overconfidence let his target escape, exposing his identity to the entire internet.

Overnight, he became the focus of a nation divided: half called him a murderer, half hailed him as a hero. The police launched an all-out manhunt, while copycats used his name to kill innocent people. He continued carrying out executions on the run, only to discover that he was losing his ability to feel pain. That blade was slicing away his humanity, inch by inch.

At last, he chose to turn himself in.

On the day of his trial, two opposing crowds faced off outside the courthouse. He was sentenced to life in prison and thought it was all over.

Until his mother died of illness. In the lining of her urn, he found a suicide note that revealed a secret she had kept for seventeen years:

The girl he had never known