You did the crime, and now comes, the punishment “phase”, from the Front Page Sections, translated…
The suspect, Chen, who’d murdered his own ex-girlfriend Liu and injured Wu, another man in the process, had escaped into the mountains and lived for twenty-eight days, yesterday afternoon, he was, arrested. As the police made the arrest, he’d, attempted to kill himself by slashing his own wrist, he said, that he was displeased at how his girlfriend had a change of heart, and owed him money, that, was what drove him to murder.
The fifty-year-old Chen grew up in Chiayi, and had gotten used to living in the wilderness, the police nicknamed him “armadillo”. During this past few months, he’d, hidden everywhere, he’d ridden his motorcycle into Chiayi, to switch out his own license plate, as he rode into the mountains, he’d covered the motorcycle with grasses, and chopped up wood, and had once set up a hiding spot with a tent and an army bed in the close by mountain areas, and had gone to make offerings to the Guardians of the Earth all around, to ask for blessings.
At first, the police couldn’t find his whereabouts, but, they were able to zoom in on his regular hangouts, and found that he had a small wooden cabin at a high point up a path. Yesterday afternoon, the police went to his small cabin to arrest him, he’d used a knife, to attempt to dodge his own arrest, and attempted to slash his own wrist, the police fired off two shots into the air, to scare him, and were able to, take him into custody.
In the calendar found in his cabin, Chen turned it to October 15th, with “I acted out of impulse today”, then, from that day, marked down the days, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, yesterday, was the eighth day since he’d evaded arrest. There were agricultural poisons in the shack, and, inside his knapsack, there was, a last note too, Chen said he’d wanted to commit suicide, but he’d wanted to go see his mother in her eighties one more last time.
As Chen was taken into custody, he’d looked very weakened, and, told Liu’s family that he was sorry, but insisted that “I’d not done her wrong”, “She owed it to me.”
The police investigated, that Chen worked odds and ends in welding, that on the fifteenth of last month, he was suspected of murdering his girlfriend who’d distanced herself from him, and broken up with him he’d hacked Liu to death, and managed to injure Wu in the process.
The neighbors told, that he was a gambler, a loner, and that they’d seen a lot of people go to his place to collect the debts. Liu originally worked as a caretaker in the hospital, she was divorced many years ago, has two sons three daughters, a wide variety of friends, she’d not known Chen that long; but, Liu’s family denied, that she was, dating him.
The police ambushed in the mountains for hours, fearing, that they might alarm him, they’d even dressed up as members of the community, but, were bitten too hard, by the insects in the mountains, but in the end, they were, able to, arrest the suspect.
So, you ran, after you’d murdered your own ex-girlfriend, because she had a change of heart about loving you, and you thought you were able to escape, but you weren’t, you’d lived for twenty-eight more days of being tortured by your own guilty conscience…
Life, the Obstacle Course 