When 16-year-old Zhang Liang went to police in November of 2003, he had trouble convincing investigators that his harrowing story was true. He claimed that a man by the name of Huang Young, 29, had invited Liang to the man's apartment by offering the boy a job. Once there, however, Yong had bound Liang and strangled him into unconsciousness three times, splashing the youth's face with water to revive him for another session. Yong told the terrified Liange, "I've already killed 25. You are number 26."

Somehow Liang talked Yong out of killing him and even received fare from his attacker to get home. The next day he went to police and after convincing them his story was legitimate Yong was arrested and detectives searched his Dahuangzhuang house for evidence. The were not disappointed. Buried beneath and around the ramshackle home were the dismembered remains of eighteen boys. Knowing the game was up Yong make a full confession to 25 slayings, all boys he had lured away from internet cafes and video game arcades. After tying them up to his noodle-rolling machine he would delight in strangling a boy into unconsciousness with a length of rope over and over again. When finally tired of his death game Yong would finish his prey, cut up the body, and bury it in the personal graveyard that was his property.

Yong was convicted of slaying seventeen boys and sentenced to death on December 9, 2003. He was executed by a gunshot to the head on December 26. Not long afterwards reporters and a forensic scientist unearthed two more bodies at Yong's former residence.