Case File Compendium: Bing An Ben is a danmei sci-fi Web Serial Novel written by Meatbun Doesn't Eat Meat, first published on JJWXC in 2021.
He Yu is an elite young man with looks and wealth but also a dark side in a unique psychological disorder. He returns to China from overseas with the goal of winning the heart of Xie Xue, the girl of his dreams. However, upon his return He Yu must also confront his long-time grudge against Xie Xue's overprotective brother Xie Qingcheng, He Yu's former doctor who doesn't believe that he is capable of love.
However, the past doesn't go away that easy. When an incident exposes a dark secret, He Yu is forced to confront his inner darkness and his deep, aggressive relationship with Xie Qingcheng.
The novel was licensed by Seven Seas Entertainment for an English release beginning February 2024.
Case File Compendium: Bing An Ben provides examples of:
- Armored Closet Gay: He Yu often loudly and vehemently talks about how gross he finds gay men and men's bodies in general while equally loudly proclaiming his heterosexuality, despite the fact that he is aggressively pursuing Xie Qingcheng, another man, for sex. When Xie Qingcheng challenges him on this assertion while they're in bed together after having sex, He Yu claims they have an "If It's You, It's Okay" situation, to Xie Qingcheng's skepticism.
- A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: As is tradition with Meatbun and her characters-who-seem-nice-but-are-actually-evil in her previous two works, this novel also has The Dragon Duan Wen a.k.a. Chen Lisheng. Initially introduced and described as Chen Man's kind-hearted older half-brother who was an upright officer and died while investigating the death of Xie Qingcheng's parents, he's later revealed to actually be blood-related to the Big Bad Duan Cuizhen and has been groomed by her to be her effective right-hand-man. Duan Wen emphasizes that his front as Chen Lisheng has always been fake, that the 'upright officer' identity was so inconvenient, and that he actually doesn't give a shit about Chen Man's life or death. He only lets Chen Man live in the end because he's amused by Chen Man's strong Big Brother Worship for his front.
- Bedlam House: Cheng Kang Psychiatric Hospital was used by a mysterious group of conspirators for both mysterious and sinister experimentation on the patients and rampant sexual abuse of said patients. Early on, patient Jiang Lanpei escapes from confinement, brutally kills the director and burns the hospital down, killing herself in the process.
- Blood Magic: This is He Yu's special ability as Case #4 of Psychological ebola, able to control mentally ill people with the scent of his blood.
- Brain Fever: Fever brought on by emotion leading to fits of insanity is one of the major symptoms of Psychological Ebola, the Fictional Disability He Yu suffers from. Xie Qingcheng running a fever after He Yu assaults him in the nightclub is foreshadowing for his also being afflicted.
- Coitus Uninterruptus: While He Yu is having his way with Xie Qingcheng at the nightclub, He Yu's father calls to check on him. He Yu chats with his father on the phone while continuing to fuck Xie Qingcheng and making a concerted effort to get Xie Qingcheng to audibly react.
- Death by Irony: Duan Wen lampshaded his own death this way: Just like 20 years ago, the Replacement Goldfish of Li Yun that he personally requested to create once again jumped at him to protect him from mortal danger, this time an explosion. Duan Wen noted that it was actually a Senseless Sacrifice from Li Yun's part, because had Duan Wen reacted faster, he could've pushed Li Yun out of the way to save his own life. And yet, the way replacement-Li-Yun's eyes reflected Duan Wen as if he was the only one in his eyes at that moment, caused Duan Wen to hesitate for one split second, which caused him to be caught in the explosion with Li Yun, leading to his death. Duan Wen noted, again, that in the end, he didn't die from revenge by any of the people he had wronged, but by protection from the one person he was closest to and the only one he had any connection with in this world at all. Not that he seemed to mind, though.
- Dr. Psych Patient: The person who identifies herself to Xie Xue as Dr. Liang Jicheng, Director of Cheng Kang Psychiatric Hospital, is actually Jiang Lanpei, a patient who has stolen the real Dr. Liang Jicheng's clothing. Jiang Lanpei proceeds to take Xie Xue hostage and gruesomely murder the real Dr. Liang Jicheng. Not that he was any better, mind you.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: This is basically The Dragon Duan Wen's entire thing: He had been groomed by Duan Cuizhen from a very young age to take on her selfish and sociopathic morals and become her future right-hand-man, and only became an officer as Chen Lisheng because it could help him with confusing the police. However, his Only Friend and fellow Xie Ping's student Li Yun was a genuinely good person who once saved him from being crushed to death (or at least heavily crippled) by a billboard, which greatly confused him as he was sure he wouldn't have done the same thing and would've just left Li Yun to die. Because of this, Chen Lisheng/ Duan Wen became incredibly fascinated with Li Yun, to the point that Li Yun could pretty much be regarded as the only person Duan Wen has ever loved, if the guy even knew what that is.
- Fictional Disability: He Yu has "psychological ebola", a rare disease with only four known cases. Symptoms include emotional dysregulation, antisocial personality, intense anger, and emotional numbness with flare-ups of anger, violence, and psychosis that progressively worsen over time.
- Go Among Mad People: Cheng Kang Psychiatric Hospital is used as a dumping ground for victims of the Nebulous Criminal Conspiracy regardless of their initial mental state. Initially sane patients' minds break under the mistreatment including Jiang Lanpei's or rather Jin Xiuhe's.
- Hallucinations: He Yu discovers that many of his memories of being close friends with Xie Qingcheng's sister Xie Xue are actually memories of interacting with a hallucination caused by his illness and he and the real person are just casual acquaintances. He does not take this well.
- Hospital Hottie: Xie Qingcheng is He Yu's former doctor who works as a medical school professor and regarded as classically handsome.
- Hypocritical Heartwarming: He Yu and Chen Man have a physical fight over each of them considering himself the only one who should be allowed to sexually harass Xie Qingcheng. Xie Qingcheng breaks it up and points out to the two of them that he actually doesn't want to be sexually harassed at all.
- Ironic Nursery Tune: Psychiatric patient Jiang Lanpei sings the nursery rhyme "Diū Shǒu Juàn (丟手絹)" or "Drop the Handkerchief" as she dismembers the abusive asylum director. According to Xie Xue, Jiang Lanpei was singing the same song as she drugged Xie Xue in order to take her hostage, which is why Xie Xue has the song as an Earworm as she waits to give her statement at the police station, to the consternation of the other witnesses. Later, "Diū Shǒu Juàn (丟手絹)" is used as background music for the Snuff Films of people associated with the asylum that are made to autoplay on everyone's phones by hackers.
- It's All About Me: The Big Bad Duan Cuizhen is revealed to be like this, a selfish, sociopathic old woman who doesn't care about anyone else and will use anyone to her advantage and to achieve her goal of living longer - this includes but is not limited to killing her own older sister and her grandson to take their bodies.
- It's Personal with the Dragon: The main characters are not personally involved with the Big Bad Duan Cuizhen at all and didn't even see her face until the very end of the story. In contrast, The Dragon Duan Wen a.k.a. Chen Lisheng has been established since the beginning as Chen Man's half brother and the student of Xie Qingcheng's father Xie Ping.
- Knight Templar Big Brother: Xie Qingcheng is Xie Xue's protective older brother who tries to get in the way of He Yu's romantic advances towards her. But given he knows about He Yu's psychological disorder, it's very understandable as to why he doesn't want him anywhere near Xie Xue.
- Literal Metaphor: Yi Awen questions He Yu about why he was sneaking around her place of business and takes offense when he says he was there to investigate her mom. He then clarifies that he was investigating her actual mother's involvement in a Nebulous Criminal Conspiracy.
- Love Is in the Air: One of the illicit pharmaceuticals the Nebulous Criminal Conspiracy has developed is an aphrodisiac used by being burned as incense and inhaled. Lü Zhishu tries to use it to put Xie Qingcheng in a compromising position in public with his sister's fiancé Wei Dongheng. A third party makes sure Wei Dongheng misses the scheduled meeting, allowing He Yu to take his place.
- Loving a Shadow: He Yu is in love with his estranged childhood friend and current university professor Xie Xue because of her great past kindness to him and believes that she likely loves him back despite her actions in the present not bearing that out. Unbeknownst to He Yu, he suffers from chronic hallucinations, and most of the acts of kindness he credits Xie Xue with were actually hallucinations.
- Magic Countdown: The bomb Lu Yuzhu is using for her Suicide Attack on the Bowen Archives has a timer that can be adjusted remotely via wireless internet, allowing He Yu and an unknown remote party struggling for control as Dueling Hackers to extend the initial five minute countdown enough for Xie Qingcheng to finish his Kirk Summation, Lu Yuzhu to actually try to kill them, He Yu and Xie Qingcheng to have an emotionally fraught confrontation about their past, and He Yu and Xie Qingcheng to finally get out of the building and warn the police about the bomb before it actually explodes.
- My Sister Is Off-Limits: He Yu initially attributes Xie Qingcheng's opposition to He Yu's romantic pursuit of Xie Qingcheng's sister Xie Xue to Testosterone Poisoning and continues pursuing Xie Xue anyway. Once He Yu learns that Xie Qingcheng knew that the interactions that He Yu took as evidence that Xie Xue reciprocated He Yu's feelings were really hallucinations caused by He Yu's mental illness but never told He Yu, He Yu is very hurt and diverts his attention from Xie Xue to Xie Qingcheng himself.
- Not Helping Your Case: He Yu is badly upset over finding out that Xie Qingcheng apparently considers him a danger to him and his sister Xie Xue due to his mental illness and has gone out of his way to avoid him for that reason. When Xie Qingcheng comes to the Skynight Club where He Yu is drowning his sorrows, He Yu proceeds to drug Xie Qingcheng, bind him, and repeatedly and brutally ravage him. Xie Qingcheng, who had been planning to apologize for being so judgemental, decides against doing so and resumes avoiding He Yu.
- Obfuscating Disability: When He Yu and Xie Qingcheng disguise themselves to investigate a Happy-Ending Massage parlor with ties to the Nebulous Criminal Conspiracy responsible for most of the plot, He Yu is inspired by the Bollywood film Andhadhun to have Xie Qingcheng's disguise be a blind man. In keeping with that inspiration, Xie Qingcheng finds a dead body while so disguised and pretends that he couldn't see it.
- Oblivious to Love:
- Even until the side stories, Xie Xue remains completely unaware of He Yu's (once) crush on her. It doesn't help that he never managed to confess to her for the entire duration of that crush and ended up falling for her own brother afterwards, which makes her even less likely to ever consider the idea of He Yu ever liking her that away.
- Similarly, Xie Qingcheng has never realized that the girl He Yu was once in love with was his own little sister, and only found out by Duan Cuizhen screaming at He Yu during a We Can Rule Together rant moment.
- Pimping the Offspring: Yi Qiang, Lu Yuzhu's worthless ex-husband, opens a Happy-Ending Massage Parlor after his second wife leaves him. When a client expresses an interest in his younger daughter Yi Lulu, Yi Qiang allows the man to rape her. When his elder daughter Yi Awen finds out, she murders Yi Qiang and hides the body in the attic wall.
- Psycho Psychologist: The director of the Bedlam House Cheng Kang Psychiatric Hospital, Dr. Liang Jicheng, and his predecessor Dr. Liang Zhongkang are discovered to have habitually sexually abused female patients after one such patient Jiang Lanpei snaps and kills Liang Jicheng.
- Psycho Serum: RN-13 is an experimental drug intended to give a patient a temporary Healing Factor. It works for that purpose, but has the nasty side effect of causing Psychological Ebola, a disease that gives the patient delusions, mood swings and violent tendencies among other unpleasant symptoms.
- Replacement Goldfish: Due to Duan Cuizhen's obsession with living forever, the Mandela island under her ended up developing a technology that allows making "modified people" by using death people's bodies and implanting the data of a once living person inside their brains, causing them to act very alike to the death person they were supposed to be a replacement for. This technology caused Zheng Jingfeng to tragically misunderstand that his death comrades, Xie Qingcheng's parents, had come back to life; and Duan Wen requested this technology to be utilized to create a replacement of his Morality Pet Li Yun, with his looks and almost everything else about him the same as the real deal, minus being loyal to Duan Wen and his ideals.
- Revealing Cover-Up: The Nebulous Criminal Conspiracy's practice of killing potential witnesses and burning potential evidence leaves a trail of arson and murder for the protagonists to follow.
- Romantic Ride Sharing: He Yu and Xie Qingcheng, who at that point have a checkered past together that they're trying to put behind them to avoid hurting themselves or each other again, are running for their lives from someone they've just learned is a murderer and come across an unlocked motorcycle. When Xie Qingcheng tells He Yu to get on the motorcycle and hold on, it's the first time he's invited He Yu to hold him in a very long time which adds a certain fraught element to their fleeing for their lives.
- Survivor Guilt: Xie Qingcheng's mentor Qin Ciyan insists on being the one to confront Yi Beihai, the disgruntled son of a patient who died under their care, and is consequently murdered by Yi Beihai. Xie Qingcheng, dealing with his own terminal diagnosis, struggles with Qin Ciyan's decision to sacrifice himself and has to step back from active patient care, causing conflict between him and He Yu.
- Two Aliases, One Character: Early on in the book, He Yu discusses "The First Emperor" as a computer simulation of a Psychological Ebola patient on which his treatment is based. Later on, he learns that "The First Emperor" is a real Psychological Ebola patient, specifically Xie Qingcheng.
- Unknowingly in Love:
- He Yu notes that even during the time he was having a crush on Xie Xue, he had already developed some feelings for Xie Qingcheng, but unfortunately didn't realize it.l
- Duan Wen is a rather tragic case of being oblivious to his own feelings of love, not helped by having Evil Cannot Comprehend Good. Even though he was never aware enough to voice it, it's very obvious that he loves Li Yun, his Best Friend, Only Friend, and Morality Pet; to the point of trying to reason with the man instead of killing him, and even after Li Yun chose to commit suicide due to misunderstanding that Duan Wen would modify his body, Duan Wen still decided to have a Replacement Goldfish of Li Yun made, so that he could spend more time with him. However, if the fact that Duan Wen shed tears after willingly choosing to not push Li Yun aside when the replacement version of the latter once again protected him like 20 years ago and ended up dying with him was any indication, it seemed he did finally realize his feelings during his last living moments after all.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The Nebulous Criminal Conspiracy prevents former participants in their human trafficking operation from turning on them by, as He Yu puts it, putting them under the protection of Yanluo Wang (Buddhist Lord of the Underworld).