Carmen: I know we're here because of SOMBRA, so finding a dead body doesn't surprise me... but a dead teenager? Is SOMBRA killing rice farmers now?
The Bureau arrives to Yuanyang County in the Yunnan province of China to look for clues regarding The Head Hunter, the SOMBRA contact that ordered Warren Goodfellow to murder Sandeep Sadhra in the previous case. There, Chief Ripley orders Carmen and the player to investigate the rice fields, where they find the body of teenager rice farmer Guo Han with his throat slashed.
Tropes:
- Ambiguously Evil: You meet Ronin Ozawa in this case, a Japanese tourist visiting China who had been following Han and Mei around for some time and knew Warren Goodfellow. However, he claims he had no idea about Warren being evil and was just following both kids for their safety, leaving unclear if he's with SOMBRA or is a honest man.
- Bindle Stick: You find one belonging to the victim, proving that he was kicked out of home.
- Blind Seer: Blind Sen likes to pretend he's this, though he's more of a Cloudcuckoolander who gets some crazy visions instead.
- Book Burning: The children of the village had been burning books provided by school, with no explanation as to why other than turning into Wild Children out of nowhere.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Though not explicitly stated, it's obvious that Mei's interactions with SOMBRA led to her becoming the Creepy Child and Social Darwinist side of her you meet in this case.
- Cheerful Child: The Douglas Triplets are shown to be very hyperactive and curious, to the point they worry their parents a little too much.
- Creepy Child: Zhao Mei definitely qualifies, as she speaks in a very monotone way during her interrogations and says the victim was weak and should've acted stronger if he wanted to survive. Of course, this gets turned up to eleven when you also discover she's the murderer, engaging in a very unnerving Madness Mantra about how the weak die and only the strong survive.
- The Cuckoolander Was Right: Though you don't find about it until Case 29, Blind Sen's panic and distrust while meeting Ronin Ozawa turns out to be completely justified when he's revealed to be working with SOMBRA.
- Death of a Child: The victim is a teenager who worked in the rice farms of the country.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Mei says this when she explains her "motive" for murdering Han.Mei: I did what I had to do, Your Honor. Han was weak, and the weak perish in the competition for resources.
- Forced from Their Home: Han was kicked out of his home by his aunt after she discovered he had stolen money from her, although she ended up regretting it.
- Harmful to Minors: Defied by Lars, who orders his daughter June to go play somewhere else while he's performing an analysis as he doesn't want her to be scarred, but played straight with Angela who doesn't mind showing April how a bone saw works.Lars: It's great that the girls are now living with us full-time, but I didn't want June to hear the violent details of how this boy died. You can probably guess the rest anyway.
- The Hermit: Blind Sen, a blind Cloudcuckoolander old man who lives in the forest, appears as a suspect.
- Japanese Tourist: Ronin Ozawa is a Japanese tourist visiting China who supposedly was hired to follow Han and Mei around for their own safety, but it remains unclear if he's telling the truth.
- Madness Mantra: After Mei is arrested for Han's murder, she can't stop repeating about how she killed him for not being enough and how the weak must die.
- Missing Child: June gets momentarily lost at the start of Chapter 3, though you manage to find her pretty quickly in the forest.
- Nephewism: Han lived with his aunt.
- Omniglot: Carmen remarks how Dupont is fluent in thirty languages during a talk with Elliot.
- Parental Abandonment: The vicitm's parents had moved to Beijing since he was just a baby, leaving him to live in Yunnan with his aunt.
- Parting-Words Regret: Aunty Hua experiences this after her nephew is murdered, due to lamenting she chased him out of home after she found out he had stolen money from her.
- The Runaway: During the Additional Investigation, Ronin informs you Mei had ran away from her home in Sichuan and that's why he was following her, giving you a clue about where to go next.
- Shout-Out:
- The case's title is most likely a reference to The Catcher in the Rye.
- In Chapter 2, is shown that Miss Yang recommended the victim to read Lord of the Flies.
- Slashed Throat: The victim was killed by having his throat slashed with a sickle.
- The Social Darwinist: Mei turns out to be this, even becoming her "motive" for murdering Han despite being best friends with him.Mei: I liked Han. But he was weak. He spent hours in his room reading, or crying for his absent parents!One must learn to endure pain and sickness. I was trying to teach Han to be stronger!I killed him because the fate of the weak is to die at the hands of the strong, <Player's Name>.
- Stalker without a Crush: Ronin had been following around the victim for some time, with the player even finding a photo of Han telling Ronin "he was a good candidate". When you confront him, Ronin claims he had been stalking Han because he wanted to take him as an apprentice, though Carmen has her doubts about it. Later, you also discover he was following Mei, but he tells you she had ran away from home and was hired to find her.
- Sugary Malice: Carmen is convinced that Ronin's smooth talking and polite tendencies are just a smoke curtain for a more evil side of him, though the Bureau finds no proof about him having connections with SOMBRA.
- Teens Are Monsters: Mei, a 15-year-old girl, killed her best friend Han for no reason other than believing he was too weak to deserve being alive.
- Tragic Dropout: Miss Yang tells you how Han was a bright student, but was forced to drop out of school to help his aunt in the local rice farm.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Not only Mei and Han had started to act strange for the past weeks (such as Mei becoming a SocialDarwinist and Han stealing from his aunt), but Miss Yang tells you how every child in the village has started to become a Wild Child for no reason other than apparent debauchery.Teacher Yang: You don't understand, <Player's Name>! ALL of the kids are acting out of character! I don't know what's happening to them, but lately I fear for my own safety in the classroom!
- Two-Teacher School: Miss Yang is the only teacher in the small village the case is set in.
- Verbal Backspace: While interrogating Blind Sen, Carmen asks him if he didn't saw anything regarding the victim before immediately correcting it to "noticing".
