Knowing that she would lose her freedom when we returned to the police station, Xiaotao insisted on going to Officer Ma’s house. On the way there, she wondered aloud, “I don’t understand why Li Wenjia had to go to such lengths to eliminate me. She could’ve just stopped me on my way to work, hypnotized me, and killed me!”

“That’s not how psychopaths think,” I replied. “She didn’t want you to just die. She wants to savor the joy of seeing you in misery. She wants you to betray the people around you, scare you, and humiliate you. She wants to rob you of everything you hold dear, just like what you did to her.”

“When have I done anything like that to her?”

“She was orphaned at a young age. Her brother was all she had left. You captured him and put him in prison, where he died. You can imagine just how much she’d hate you for that.”

“And you said you don’t know much...