One of the streetlights on the road opposite the Beiye Sub-bureau was broken. In Chen Zheng’s field of vision, Ming Han quickly disappeared into the ink-thick night. The words Ming Han had said before leaving distracted him briefly. Before long, a horn sounded from behind and to his side. His car was indeed blocking the road somewhat, and he was about to move it when he noticed the vehicle belonged to the sub-bureau.
Kong Bing had also just returned from canvassing. If someone else’s car had been parked ahead, he would simply have gone around, but the moment he saw it belonged to Chen Zheng, he instinctively sounded the horn. “What are you parked here for?” Kong Bing got out just as Chen Zheng pushed open his own door. Kong Bing glanced inside the car. “If you’re going into the bureau, can’t you park inside?”
Chen Zheng could not be bothered explaining that he had only driven Ming Han back. “Captain Kong, did you find anything around Fengshu Residential Complex?”
He would have been better off not asking. The moment he did, Kong Bing’s expression became even uglier. After the meeting that afternoon, Director Zhang and the other leaders had remained uneasy and dragged them into yet another meeting. By the time they could finally go investigate, there was hardly any time left. Their investigative focus remained Fengshu Residential Complex, the snack alley, and Zeng Yan herself, so that was where their canvassing remained centered.
The residents’ impression of Zeng Yan consisted mostly of “her cold dishes were good” and “she was warm and friendly.” Several neighborhood women said that a couple of years earlier, seeing Zeng Yan single and working from dawn until late at night all by herself, they had introduced potential boyfriends to her. But Zeng Yan always said childbirth was too painful, raising children cost too much money, and she had not even figured out her own life yet, so she had no interest in putting herself through that. After being rebuffed enough times, no one worried about her marriage anymore.
“You know what it feels like?” As Kong Bing talked, he unconsciously began complaining to Chen Zheng. “After investigating this long, I keep feeling like this person is suspended in midair. There are two Zeng Yans, one before and one after. The first one wasn’t well liked, but she was vivid and real. It’s easy to find out who she had grudges with. The later one feels fake. It’s impossible to get hold of exactly how she managed to bring a fatal disaster down on herself.”
As Chen Zheng listened to Kong Bing describe the difficulties of the investigation, he thought of his former subordinates. They used to complain too, and listening to them had been part of his responsibility as captain of the Criminal Investigation Detachment. He had long since ceased to be a captain and now carried nothing more than the title of researcher, yet people still came to unload their frustrations onto him, as though he had been born to absorb the negative emotions of frontline investigators, chew them over, digest them himself, then feed back positive emotion and the motivation to keep moving forward.
Kong Bing seemed to realize he had said more than he should have. His expression soured slightly. “We found some elderly residents today. Their memories of Zeng Qun basically corroborate what Zheng Xiangxue told us.”
“You mean Zeng Qun was vicious and rude when he was young?”
Kong Bing nodded. After Zeng Qun started running Xiao Yan Cold Dishes, he became friendly and helpful. Naming the stall after his daughter also won him a great deal of goodwill. As time passed, people forgot what a good-for-nothing he had been when he was young. When he later became ill, plenty of neighbors even helped him.
But the elderly residents who had personally seen him fight had always been wary of him. They remembered that his parents had been workers at a nearby factory and that he had an elder sister. Zeng Qun was the youngest child. His parents used connections to get him a job at the factory, but even factory discipline could not control him, and he was eventually fired. After that, he became a local hooligan and mixed with unsavory people. When he had money, he never went home; when he ran out, he went to his mother and demanded more. The factory vanished in the dust of changing times, and after the older generation passed away, Zeng Qun’s sister cut off contact with him. He became even more reckless, and there were even rumors that he had dealt drugs.
Chen Zheng immediately became alert. “Is there evidence?”
Kong Bing shook his head. “It’s all word of mouth. Right now, I want to find Zeng Qun’s sister first. Oh, there’s something else. I checked the household registration today and discovered that Zeng Qun was never legally married. But the older residents said they used to see his wife. Everyone thought he was married.”
“Never married…” Chen Zheng thought for a moment, then brought the subject back to Zeng Qun’s sister. “We do need to find his sister first. His own family would know better than outsiders whether he ever married. Besides, I have an idea I need his sister to help verify.”
“What?”
“I suspect the Zeng Yan who was murdered may actually have been Zeng Qun’s biological daughter.”
Kong Bing asked, “Why? Then what was the earlier one?”
Chen Zheng told Kong Bing what he had learned at No. 2 Middle School that morning, then said, “Determining which Zeng Yan was actually Zeng Qun’s daughter will affect the direction of my investigation from here.”
Kong Bing absorbed that for a while, then looked at Chen Zheng strangely.
Chen Zheng: “Hm?”
Kong Bing gave a short laugh. “As expected of someone who was a Criminal Investigation Detachment captain in the provincial capital. You’ve got some ability.”
Normally, Chen Zheng could not be bothered responding to that degree of sarcastic needling, but perhaps he had spent too much time with Ming Han that day and picked up some of his influence. He said directly, “You can skip the sarcasm.”
Kong Bing immediately frowned, embarrassment and anger mingling on his face. Several seconds passed before he spoke. “I wasn’t being sarcastic.”
Chen Zheng had just pulled open the car door. Hearing that, he looked back.
Kong Bing looked like someone who was bad at expressing himself and still wanted to say something. But seeing that Chen Zheng was leaving, he waved impatiently. “Forget it.”
Chen Zheng went home. When he passed the snack alley, he stepped inside to take a look. The vendors were still busily doing business, apparently unaffected by the case, but more municipal enforcement officers were patrolling, and there were visibly fewer children lingering near the stalls. Adults were at least somewhat worried about their children and had sent them home early.
Chen Zheng turned on the stereo and played some light music. He closed his eyes for a moment in the sound of it, then opened his notebook and settled down to organize the clues that had accumulated over the course of the day.
Ke Shuer, by contrast, was restless at home. A cup had smashed the custom display beside her television cabinet where she kept blind-box figures, shattering it completely. Zeng Yan was dead? But what did that have to do with her? They were only schoolmates in high school. She had never been close to Zeng Yan! And that police officer had said something about the current Zeng Yan not being the old Zeng Yan. Why had he specifically said that to her? Was he testing her reaction?
She clawed at her hair and struggled to remember exactly what she had said to the police. Had she exposed some detail they could never be allowed to know?
She picked up her phone and once again dialed the number she had never saved under a name. Still no one answered.
“Fuck!” she cursed into the empty room. “Are you dead or something? Whenever I need you, I can never reach you!”
The night was already deep, but she was completely unable to sleep. Every time she thought of Zeng Yan, of the Zeng Yan who had been “replaced,” and of that police officer’s inscrutable gaze, she could not control her fear.
Suddenly, her ringtone pierced the silence. Ke Shuer jolted, her heart racing almost to its limit as dizziness washed over her. Instinctively, she thought the person had finally seen her missed calls and was calling back. She snatched up the phone, only to see an unfamiliar number flashing across the screen.
Her palm was slick with sweat, leaving the phone case misted with moisture. The ringtone continued, the vibration seeming to travel from her skin all the way into her heart. She did not answer. Before long, the ringing stopped. In the abrupt silence, the only thing she could hear was the exaggerated pounding of her own heart. Just as it began to slow, the phone rang again.
The same number!
After hesitating repeatedly, she cautiously answered but did not make a sound. The person on the other end said nothing either. Holding her breath, Ke Shuer heard the sound of breathing.
At last, she could not bear it. “Who is this? Speak!”
Still no answer, as though the caller were enjoying her mounting agitation. Ke Shuer lost control. “Fucking say something! Are you sick?”
Another stretch of breathing came through. Several seconds later, the caller hung up.
The beep, beep, beep of the disconnected call sounded like some kind of death summons. Ke Shuer violently threw the phone aside and rushed into the bathroom. Looking at her own furious face in the mirror, she slowly lowered her head, scooped up cold water, and splashed it over her face without restraint. Half a minute later, she lifted her head, and her pupils abruptly contracted.
The face reflected in the mirror was not hers.
It was unfamiliar… no, not completely unfamiliar.
It was Zeng Yan’s face from high school.
Zeng Yan stood at the edge of a cliff, a cold smile at the corner of her lips. “Good that she’s dead.”
“Ah—!” Ke Shuer let out a piercing scream. In the blink of an eye, the face in the mirror became her own again. Less beautiful than Zeng Yan, older than Zeng Yan. Dazed and terrified, she stumbled into the bathroom door and slowly slid to the floor, pounding both hands violently against the tiles.
Chen Zheng arrived at the Beiye Sub-bureau early the next morning. Apart from the whereabouts of Zeng Qun’s relatives, there was another matter he was particularly concerned about—had they found the woman whose DNA had been left in Zeng Yan’s home?
“Bro, you’re here early.” Ming Han carried a large bag of breads and cakes and shook it in front of Chen Zheng like someone showing off treasure. “Want some?”
Chen Zheng brushed past him. The packaging said Weiming, and he vaguely remembered that it was a famous local dessert shop in Zhuquan City. He had occasionally seen it in recommendations and livestreams, and whenever he passed one of its stores there was always a line, but he had never bought anything himself. “Eat it yourself.”
“There’s this much. I can’t finish it alone. I just got here, so I bought it for everyone.” Ming Han followed behind him. “No way. Don’t tell me you’ve already eaten?”
The research institute had a cafeteria, but apart from lunch, Chen Zheng rarely ate there. He usually bought bread or something the day before for breakfast, but the case had filled his entire life these past few days, and he had forgotten to stock up.
“One look and I can tell you haven’t eaten.” Chen Zheng had no idea how Ming Han had reached that conclusion. As he spoke, he pulled a cheese roll from the bag. “Here. This one smells the best.”
The aroma of the cheese roll drifted through the sub-bureau corridor. There was no denying that to someone with an empty stomach, it smelled extremely enticing. Chen Zheng accepted it. “Thanks. I’ll treat you next time.”
Ming Han was not polite about it. “I’ll remember that.”
The moment they reached the office, Ming Han began distributing breakfast with practiced ease. Some officers had worked through the night and were starving; others had arrived early to take over the next shift. Everyone crowded around the food. The case showed no immediate sign of being solved, but first they could at least fill their stomachs.
Chen Zheng leaned against a desk eating the cheese roll and watched Ming Han surrounded at the center of the group. Every team had someone like this. They were like the sun, effortlessly drawing everyone around them.
After two days of tension, the officers finally relaxed a little over breakfast. Someone asked, “Brother Bird, do you bring everyone breakfast this often in the Mobile Unit too?”
Chen Zheng paused. Brother Bird? Yesterday he was still Captain Ming, and today they were already using a nickname?
Ming Han continued handing out food. “Never used to. Only picked up the habit recently.”
“Huh?”
“The police dog center. Every morning when I open the door, a whole pack of dogs comes charging at me barking. If I don’t give them food, they’ll eat me instead.”
The officers: “…”
Chen Zheng lowered his eyes to the final bite of cheese roll in his hand and remained silent for two seconds. Forget it. The cheese roll is innocent. I’ve already eaten most of it.
“You little bastard!” Someone started it, and a hand smacked Ming Han’s close-cropped head. Everyone surged around him, laughing as they tried to beat up the asshole who had just compared them to dogs. Ming Han dodged them with a grin. The polite atmosphere of “show respect to the specialist from the Mobile Unit” that had existed yesterday vanished at tremendous speed.
Chen Zheng crumpled the wrapper and tossed it into the trash. He knew Ming Han had done it deliberately.
This kid truly was difficult to see through.
The officers kept chatting. “These cakes are from Weiming? Brother Bird, you just got here and you already know what’s popular around here?”
“I see it online a lot. Is it an old established shop?” Ming Han asked.
“Not really. I think it only opened a few years ago? But the owner knows how to market it, and the ingredients really are good, so it blew up.”
“Though I heard something happened to the shop recently and another business took it over…”
Zeng Qun’s household registration was in Zhuquan City, so in theory, his relatives should not have been difficult to locate. Yet the sub-bureau’s investigation found that the Zeng family had very few members. Starting with Zeng Qun’s father’s generation, many relatives had disappeared from contact. Zeng Qun’s elder sister, Zeng Li, had married into another province and had not returned for many years. After repeated efforts, police finally located her. She had not even known that Zeng Qun was dead. After learning that her niece Zeng Yan had been murdered, she discussed it with her husband and decided to come to Zhuquan City.
Zeng Li was in her sixties and slightly plump, but it was still easy to see that she had been beautiful when she was young. The moment she arrived at the sub-bureau, she asked to see Zeng Yan. Zeng Yan’s body was in terrible condition. It had not been discovered immediately and had already begun decomposing, so under normal circumstances, it was not suitable to let relatives view it. But Chen Zheng spoke to Kong Bing and accompanied Zeng Li himself.
Half of Zeng Yan’s body was exposed from the refrigerated mortuary drawer. Chen Zheng felt Zeng Li begin visibly trembling. Yet she maintained her composure, turning her gaze away only briefly before looking at the dead woman’s face again.
Ten minutes later, Chen Zheng brought Zeng Li to an interview room.
“She… she doesn’t look the way I remember.” Zeng Li said. “I haven’t seen her in more than ten years. If I passed her on the street now, maybe I wouldn’t even recognize her.”
“What seems different?”
Zeng Li thought for a long time. “I can’t really explain it. When she was little, she looked a lot like me. But she never should have been born. That animal Zeng Qun never deserved to be a father.”
Looked like Zeng Li? Was she referring to the original Zeng Yan? If a niece resembled her paternal aunt, that would mean the original Zeng Yan was Zeng Qun’s daughter.
“What do you mean, she never should have been born?”
Zeng Li sighed. “Zeng Qun raped a young woman from the countryside. That’s how she was born. Tell me—was Zeng Qun an animal or not? Should Zeng Yan ever have had to be born into that?”
It was a shocking lead, and it matched the fact that Zeng Qun had never legally married. Chen Zheng patiently listened as Zeng Li recalled the uglier parts of the Zeng family’s past.
Zeng Li had long since become disappointed in her parents for spoiling Zeng Qun. Once she reached adulthood, she went alone to another province to build a life. Every year when she returned, she would hear about some new trouble Zeng Qun had caused. Their parents had worked in factories all their lives and had accumulated some savings, enough to support Zeng Qun’s inexplicable expenses. Zeng Li had thought that no matter how outrageous he became, there would still be some line he would not cross. But twenty-eight years earlier, her mother wrote to say that Zeng Qun had gotten a girl pregnant.
Shocked, Zeng Li hurried home and found the girl living in her parents’ house, waiting to give birth. Zeng Qun himself had disappeared somewhere to fool around.
All Zeng Li knew was that the girl was called Xiao Hua. She had come from the countryside and had no one to depend on. Once she became pregnant, she could not find work. Zeng Qun refused to marry her, dumped her at his parents’ home, then vanished for a period of time. The older couple desperately wanted a grandchild, while Xiao Hua needed somewhere to stay, and so the absurd arrangement continued.
Zeng Li had considered reporting the rape, but her mother slapped her while crying and accused her, as a daughter who had already left the family, of trying to destroy her own younger brother.
Half a year later, Zeng Yan was born. Zeng Li hurried home again, only to find Xiao Hua gone. Zeng Qun said indifferently that she had left after giving birth. Before long, Zeng Qun vanished again too. Zeng Yan had essentially been born without ever receiving love from either parent and was raised by her grandparents. Becoming a father changed nothing about Zeng Qun. He remained idle and irresponsible, disappearing whenever he pleased and treating home like a hotel whenever he returned.
Zeng Li never saw Xiao Hua again and never learned whether she was alive or dead. She had once entertained the darkest possible suspicion—that her brother and parents had killed Xiao Hua together. But when she thought rationally, she could not believe her parents would have been quite that cruel.
As Zeng Yan grew up, Zeng Li returned every few years to visit the family. Everyone said Zeng Yan looked very much like Zeng Li had as a child, and Zeng Li herself felt an instinctive closeness whenever she saw her. Perhaps because she felt guilty toward Xiao Hua, she took Zeng Yan out whenever she came home and bought her clothes and toys. For a time, Zeng Yan was very attached to her.
But as Zeng Yan grew older, Zeng Li gradually began seeing traits in her that resembled Zeng Qun—malice, obsession, and a tendency toward violence.
The last time Zeng Li returned to Zhuquan City, Zeng Yan had already become one of the school delinquents. Despite her young age, she wore heavy makeup, beat people, and collected protection money, a living copy of Zeng Qun. And by then, Zeng Yan looked increasingly like Zeng Li herself. Looking at that face filled Zeng Li with a sense of guilt.
“When I saw her just now, she felt like a stranger.” Zeng Li looked at Chen Zheng blankly. “Girls change as they grow up, sure, but this is too much.”
Chen Zheng solemnly explained the other crucial reason they had asked Zeng Li to come: they needed a DNA sample for comparison. Zeng Li froze for a moment, then understood. “She isn’t Zeng Yan? Then where did Zeng Yan go?”
No one could answer that question.
Zeng Li cooperatively provided a biological sample. While they waited for the results, Chen Zheng talked with her about many other things. She was an emotional person and had spent half her life burdened by guilt toward Xiao Hua. Being unable to give police any more information about Xiao Hua now only plunged her deeper into pain.
From the limited time she had spent with Xiao Hua, Zeng Li remembered her as a woman full of vitality. Her speech and manner could be coarse, and she often could not stop herself from swearing, but her eyes had been bright, as though she were full of enthusiasm for life. Zeng Li had even once had the strange impression that Xiao Hua was a very dependable woman.
But how could that have been possible? After Zeng Qun harmed her, Xiao Hua had not even had the courage to leave him. Xiao Hua had not been an independent woman.
Zeng Li wiped away her tears and suddenly said, “Do you think Zeng Yan might have been taken away by her mother? If Xiao Hua is alive, she couldn’t possibly have stopped missing her child!”
“That’s another possibility,” Chen Zheng said. “We’ll continue investigating.”
Later, the DNA comparison results came back.
The murdered Zeng Yan had no biological relationship whatsoever to Zeng Li.
She could not possibly have been Zeng Qun’s daughter.
Holding the report, Chen Zheng’s gaze slowly deepened. His earlier judgment had been wrong.
The Zeng Yan who had disappeared was the real Zeng Yan.
Then how was he supposed to explain Zeng Qun helping the fake Zeng Yan conceal her identity?
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