A man who sought to maim his ex-girlfriend over a bitter breakup was recently prosecuted in Zhengzhou, Henan Province on suspicion of not only hiring a hit man, but also gave him killing lessons, media reported on Wednesday.

Zhang Yong, a 25-year-old graduate student in minerals engineering, was arrested on April 26, 2014 in Zhengzhou for his connection to Wang Wei (pseudonym), who was arrested for an attempted assault on Zhang's ex-girlfriend, Lulu.

Zhang is accused of hiring Wang in March to "cut off [Lulu's] ears so she would be unable to get married" following their breakup in 2013.

Wang, 25, is being held on homicide charges in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, where he told police he waived his 50,000-yuan ($8,004) fee in exchange for killing lessons from Zhang.

Zhang bought four different chemicals online and gave instruction on how to use them, Wang told police.

He chose chemicals because they are more difficult to be detected than knives during security checks, he added.

Zhang and Wang said the chemicals would only be used on Wang's future targets and not Lulu.

Dahe Daily