Chen Zheng got up very early. He needed to go to the research institute today. Ever since the “Zeng Yan” case began, his quiet life in Zhuquan City had abruptly changed. Whether voluntarily or because circumstances pushed him into it, he had become an unofficial member of the Beiye Sub-bureau and had ignored the institute’s work for several days.
Technically, he had a superior at the institute whose surname was Bin. The man had a mild, easygoing temperament and was known to everyone as Old Bin. The circumstances surrounding Chen Zheng’s transfer to Zhuquan City were somewhat unusual, and Old Bin had always treated him politely, never interfering with his work. When Chen Zheng asked for leave several days earlier because of the “Zeng Yan” case, Old Bin approved it immediately and even said cheerfully, “Make yourself seen over there. We’re fine here.”
Unexpectedly, the person who had called the day before to “check up” on him was his young subordinate Xu Chuan. A hint of dissatisfaction had been audible in Xu Chuan’s voice. He said they were nearly finished analyzing the last case that came in and asked when their director planned to come listen to the report and assign the next task.
It was a little ridiculous for a subordinate to question his boss about his work, but Chen Zheng understood Xu Chuan’s personality. The young man was reckless, single-minded, and took the researchers’ work extremely seriously. Chen Zheng could easily have invented an excuse to put him off, but when he pictured Xu Chuan’s perpetually energetic face, he did not want to dampen the young man’s enthusiasm. In the end, he agreed to return to the institute.
His plan was to arrive early and leave early, ideally reaching No. 2 Middle School before ten. He had repeatedly turned Ke Shuer’s words over in his mind. If another unknown victim truly existed, that person was very likely another student from No. 2. Unlike Yin Jingliu, whose name everyone recognized as soon as it was mentioned, perhaps this had been a child with very little presence, someone no one had paid attention to during the earlier canvassing.
Chen Zheng had barely left the residential complex when he suddenly spotted a familiar person sitting on the flowerbed across the street, slurping noodles. When the man saw Chen Zheng, he even lifted his chopsticks and waved, looking for all the world as though he had been waiting there specifically for him.
“You’re here awfully early. Something up?” Chen Zheng walked over.
Only one mouthful remained in Ming Han’s bowl. He slurped it down with one sweep of his chopsticks, jumped off the flowerbed, and went to throw the bowl away in a nearby trash can. He even grinned at the noodle-stall owner, who happened to be looking over. “Uncle, that was delicious!”
Chen Zheng often ate at that noodle stall too. It really was good. “Don’t tell me you came all this way just for that bowl of noodles.”
Ming Han wiped his mouth. The noodles were spicy enough to leave sweat all over his forehead. “I was waiting for you. I’ve had something bottled up all night that I wanted to tell you, and I was afraid you’d run off.”
Chen Zheng paused. That wording really did sound a little suggestive. “Then I don’t want to hear it. Keep bottling it up.”
Ming Han laughed and followed him. “Come on. Ignoring a lead? What happened to your standards as a police officer?”
Chen Zheng remembered that Ming Han had gone to Old Yin Noodle Shop the night before. “What did Yin Gaoqiang tell you?”
“He said nothing, but he said everything.” Ming Han deliberately sounded mysterious, but Chen Zheng understood anyway. “He thought of someone who might avenge Yin Jingliu. He knows who that person is, but he’s choosing to conceal it.”
“That’s only human,” Ming Han said. “If I were Yin Gaoqiang, my son had been missing for so many years, and then the police suddenly started investigating. I hear what the police are implying—your son may have been killed ten years ago, and now someone is avenging him. I know this person, but before now I didn’t know what he’d done. Then I remember and realize he might be the person the police mean. Of course I wouldn’t betray him.”
“If Yin Gaoqiang knows, then keep watching him,” Chen Zheng said. “Sooner or later he’ll expose the key lead.”
Ming Han smiled. “Right, but that isn’t what I kept bottled up all night.”
“Hm?”
“I went back to the sub-bureau last night and saw what you added to the clue wall. It looks like you realized we might be moving in the right direction but following the wrong person. There’s another key individual outside our field of view besides Yin Jingliu.”
Ming Han’s tone was casual, but halfway through, Chen Zheng suddenly became serious—not because he was listening more carefully, but because he was studying Ming Han himself. He really had added a few things to the clue wall the day before, but because there was no evidence yet and he did not want to mislead anyone, he had written them very cryptically, only enough to help himself organize his thoughts. Ming Han had actually understood them.
“What do you think, then?” Chen Zheng asked.
“Yin Gaoqiang’s side happens to give me that same sense of a split.” Ming Han bought two steaming rice cakes and a bag of soy milk from a breakfast cart by the roadside. “How do I put it? From Yin Gaoqiang’s descriptions, Yin Jingliu strikes me as genuinely intelligent. I don’t just mean good grades. Someone can have good grades and still be a bookworm. Yin Jingliu was a different type.”
Chen Zheng had sensed the same disconnect. “After suffering a setback, if he thought of retaliation, he should have chosen a more rational method rather than directly going to Feng Feng and Zeng Yan the way we previously imagined.”
“Exactly. So the theory that Feng Feng and the others killed him is questionable.” Ming Han bounced the bag of rice cakes in his hand. Chen Zheng was just thinking that this man truly had an impressive appetite—he had just finished a huge bowl of noodles and could still eat two rice cakes—when Ming Han tossed the bag. It went whoosh straight into Chen Zheng’s arms.
Chen Zheng: “?”
“They’re for you.” Ming Han smiled smugly. “See how thoughtful I am? Not only did I lie in wait for you, I even bought you breakfast.” He pushed the straw into the bag of soy milk. “Take this too.”
Was that really how you used “lie in wait”? Chen Zheng thought.
It was rare for anyone to look after him this thoroughly, and for a moment, Chen Zheng did not even know whether to eat or refuse. The thoughts racing through his mind were interrupted by the distraction, and he forgot what they had just been discussing.
“Eat. We’ve got work after breakfast.” Ming Han was already treating Chen Zheng’s car as his own. If they became any more familiar, Chen Zheng suspected the man would simply reach into his pocket and take the keys himself.
Ming Han, who was not quite that familiar yet, held out a hand. “Bro, keys. You eat. I’ll drive.”
Chen Zheng cleared his throat. “We’re not going the same way today.”
“Huh? You’re not going to the sub-bureau? Not going to No. 2?” There was an element of performance in Ming Han’s surprise. Chen Zheng had already realized that Ming Han was not actually someone who wore his emotions on his face.
“Something came up at the research institute. I need to stop by.” As Chen Zheng spoke, he reached for the driver-side door.
Ming Han blocked him. “Easy enough. I’ll go with you, and then we’ll head to No. 2. The ‘Zeng Yan’ case is this troublesome. You’re not going to waste too much time at the institute, are you?”
Chen Zheng: “…” He really wasn’t.
Ming Han drove while Chen Zheng ate breakfast in the passenger seat with the window open. As they passed a construction site, Chen Zheng suddenly remembered Kong Bing’s boxed meal from the night before and blurted, “Have you ever eaten construction-site food?”
“Are you actually wondering why Kong Bing seemed so familiar with construction-site meals?” Ming Han asked.
Chen Zheng glanced at him. “You don’t have to observe everything quite that closely.”
Ming Han laughed twice. “When I got back last night, I saw him throwing away his lunch box and chatted with him. He recommended a few good construction-site food stalls. I’ll take you to try them next time.”
Chen Zheng had once been particular about food and disliked anything too oily. During the period when he had let himself go, he had eaten plenty of junk food, and now he was much less picky. Otherwise, he would have refused without even thinking.
“Kong Bing’s family was very poor. Before he went to the police academy, every yuan of his tuition was earned by his father, brick by brick.” Ming Han said, “He was actually very good at his school. But once he left it and was compared with people from prestigious universities, he no longer stood out quite as much. And if you want a good posting straight after graduation, being good isn’t enough—of course, exceptionally outstanding people like me are a different story.”
Chen Zheng: “…”
Ming Han continued, “Connections, money, an easy personality—he didn’t have any of them. So he could only start at a township police station. He was a criminal investigator, but during his first few years, he never encountered any cases that let him use what he’d learned. He nearly wasted away there. A few more years passed before he finally fought his way into an opportunity to train in Luocheng. Oh, right, Bro. By then you were already captain of the Major Crimes Unit, weren’t you?”
Chen Zheng did not want to talk about Luocheng, much less explain to Ming Han why he did not want to talk about it. The best approach was to act completely normal. “Mm. I was captain by then.”
After saying it, he suddenly realized that he and Kong Bing were about the same age. Strictly speaking, Kong Bing was even a few months older. Yet by the time Chen Zheng had already worked through numerous cases and become captain of Luocheng’s Major Crimes Unit, Kong Bing had still been stuck at a township police station, handling trivial neighborhood disputes every day. The opportunity to study in Luocheng had been something Kong Bing had fought desperately to obtain. Chen Zheng himself was exactly the kind of person Ming Han had described: a graduate of a prestigious school, outstanding both internally and externally, recommended by teachers, supported by seniors, and given the chance to participate in a serial-murder investigation while he was still an intern. From the moment they graduated, he and Kong Bing had stepped onto completely different paths in policing.
Chen Zheng had never been able to remember where he had offended Kong Bing. Now he thought that if he had been Kong Bing, arriving in Luocheng for training and seeing the brilliant Captain Chen at the height of his success, perhaps resentment would have risen in him too.
“What happened to him after that?” Chen Zheng could not help asking.
“He performed very well during the training. Not long after he went back to the township, he was transferred to Zhuquan City. He still started at a police station, but at least he finally had cases to investigate. Three years ago, he became criminal investigation squadron leader at the Beiye Sub-bureau. But moving any higher is difficult. He may never become captain of Zhuquan City’s Criminal Investigation Detachment.”
Chen Zheng looked straight ahead. He had already spent many years as captain of Luocheng’s Criminal Investigation Detachment.
Silence filled the car for quite a while. Chen Zheng tidied the empty food bag and changed the subject. “How do you know so much about Kong Bing?”
“Underestimating Mobile Unit members again?” Ming Han said. “Before we support any city, we familiarize ourselves with their important personnel.”
Chen Zheng felt relieved. Luocheng’s Major Crimes Unit was too strong to have ever needed Mobile Unit support, so there would have been no reason to investigate him. And his involvement in the current Zhuquan case had been a chance occurrence. Logically, Ming Han should not have had any reason to research him in advance either.
But Ming Han said in an irritatingly smug tone, “I do know quite a bit about you, though. Personal interest.”
They reached the research institute, cutting the conversation short. Chen Zheng opened the door. “You’re waiting here for me?”
Ming Han got out too. “No. I’m a distinguished Mobile Unit member. Would having me follow you around embarrass you?”
Chen Zheng had no time to bicker. Someone he had not seen in several days appeared ahead, and Chen Zheng instinctively straightened his back. The little bit of animation that had been on his face vanished, replaced by his usual composure at the institute.
“Director Chen!” Xu Chuan ran toward him excitedly. “You’re finally here!”
Ming Han mimicked Xu Chuan’s tone. “Director Chen!”
Xu Chuan’s attention was immediately caught by Ming Han. “Director Chen, who is this?”
“Don’t mind him. How far have you gotten organizing that case?” The moment Chen Zheng asked, Xu Chuan forgot about Ming Han. “I think the psychology of this kind of killer is really worth paying attention to. And social competition is getting more intense now, so there’ll be more people with similar motives. We need to watch for…”
Ming Han looked at their backs, smiled, and followed.
The research institute had no elevator. It had been renovated once several years earlier, so although the building itself showed its age, the interior furnishings were quite new. Xu Chuan’s group had four people. When they saw Chen Zheng arrive, everyone stood to greet him. Chen Zheng had only spent a few days at the sub-bureau, yet returning here already gave him an intense sense of unfamiliarity.
The institute was stable. The people who worked there were calm and courteous. He had worked here for more than half a year and thought he had already blended in. But he had not. Not at all.
“Good morning. Sorry. Something came up at the Beiye Sub-bureau recently, so I fell behind here.” Chen Zheng put on the mask of Director Chen. “Xiao Xu, tell me about the case.”
Xu Chuan cleared his throat and was just about to start when Ming Han slipped through the doorway. Xu Chuan: “Hey—”
Ming Han obediently brought himself a stool and gestured to Xu Chuan. “Please, continue.”
Since Chen Zheng had brought him, Xu Chuan did not object. “The victim was Zhao Shuihe, thirty-eight, from Yafu City. She was an executive at Yihe Advertising…”
“Yafu City.” Chen Zheng could not help thinking of Wu Lianshan. Her hometown was Yafu City as well.
Seeing a reaction from Chen Zheng, Xu Chuan immediately asked, “Director Chen, is there a problem with Yafu City?”
Chen Zheng shook his head. “No. Keep going.”
Slightly puzzled, Xu Chuan continued. The case had been solved two months earlier and sent to the institute one month ago. Yafu City lay northeast of Zhuquan City, with one city between them, and the two regions maintained relatively close economic ties. The victim, Zhao Shuihe, worked for Yihe Advertising, a well-known company in Yafu City that attracted clients even from other provinces. Many advertising executives were men, so Zhao Shuihe—a woman, and one with an extraordinary presence—stood out strikingly in the industry.
Yet on April twelfth that year, she had been murdered in Xingfu Park near her company. A sharp weapon had pierced an artery and her trachea in the neck. When she was found, she was still wearing a tailored business suit, while her high heels had fallen ten meters away. After killing her, the murderer had also slashed her face and eyes. During the search, police found the blood-covered weapon beside the body and recovered fingerprints from its handle. In addition, the scene contained suspicious partial footprints and one relatively complete set. It looked as though something had happened after the killing that forced the murderer to flee in panic, abandoning the weapon and failing to remove all the footprints.
Yafu City police initially believed the murder involved business competition. Under Zhao Shuihe’s leadership, her company had risen abruptly over the past several years, rapidly capturing market share through sharp instincts and distinctive creative work. In stark contrast, several traditional advertising companies had declined. It was no exaggeration to say that plenty of people hated Zhao Shuihe.
Police spent a great deal of time canvassing the suspicious individuals. Some genuinely had ample motive and opportunity, but investigators could never assemble a complete chain of evidence.
Just as the investigation reached a bottleneck, an important suspect emerged: Zhao Shuihe’s subordinate, Xiang Yu. He had graduated from a prestigious university, had been the strongest student academically among everyone at the company, and was a Yafu City native. When he first joined the firm, he had been full of ambition and eager to make his mark. But Zhao Shuihe, who had only graduated from junior college and came from a rural background, tore his first proposal apart and ordered him to redo it immediately. From then on, she found faults in practically every assignment. Even when Xiang Yu worked through consecutive nights and finally produced a plan, Zhao Shuihe would look it over and sneer, “You studied that much and still don’t know how to adapt? Did all that studying make you stupid?”
Even the company’s cleaning aunties could see how much Xiang Yu resented Zhao Shuihe, and on the night Zhao Shuihe was murdered, public surveillance captured him near Xingfu Park.
During the early interrogations, Xiang Yu firmly denied killing Zhao Shuihe. He admitted he disliked her and asked the investigators in return whether none of them had ever resented a superior. As the investigation progressed, however, suspects were eliminated one by one until Xiang Yu became the strongest suspect. His fingerprints matched those on the knife handle, and the more complete set of footprints at the scene was also suspected to be his. Under repeated interrogation, he finally broke beneath the psychological pressure and confessed to killing Zhao Shuihe.
“What’s so great about her? No education, no ability! Everyone knows how she climbed that high. Didn’t she just become the boss’s mistress? How did she land all those accounts? By sleeping for them! What gives a woman like that the right to order me around? I refuse to accept it!”
Xiang Yu poured out every ounce of his hatred toward Zhao Shuihe. When the police interrogation record was printed, it formed a thick stack, four-fifths of which consisted of Xiang Yu cursing her.
He confessed that one week before the murder, Zhao Shuihe once again made things difficult over a project he was responsible for. In the past, he had always swallowed his anger, but this time he could not endure it because Zhao Shuihe had actually transferred in a female employee who had only recently joined the company to replace him. At that moment, his hatred of women peaked. His mind filled with thoughts of killing Zhao Shuihe.
He went online and searched for ways to kill a woman. The answers varied wildly, and in the end he chose the simplest and most brutal method: a knife. Using a project discussion as an excuse, he arranged to meet Zhao Shuihe outside the office. Unexpectedly, while they were passing Xingfu Park, Zhao Shuihe continued mocking him and then walked alone into the wooded area of the park.
It was already night, and there were no pedestrians nearby. Xiang Yu followed her and stabbed Zhao Shuihe to death. Looking at her motionless body still did not feel like enough to vent his hatred, so he stabbed and slashed her eyes and face.
“She was blind to talent! She didn’t know what was good for her!” Xiang Yu screamed wildly in the interrogation room.
But even after Xiang Yu confessed, Yafu City police did not immediately close the case because many suspicious points remained. Partial footprints at the scene belonged to someone other than Xiang Yu. Given Zhao Shuihe’s personality, why would she go alone with Xiang Yu to a public park? Xiang Yu was timid by nature—did he truly have the nerve to kill someone? He claimed he had stabbed Zhao Shuihe to death, yet the fatal wounds on her neck and the injuries to her face looked as though they might have been inflicted by different people. And Xiang Yu could not explain where the murder weapon had come from.
For a time, police suspected Xiang Yu might merely have been the person pushed forward to take the blame. But no matter how they investigated, they could not find a second killer, while Xiang Yu became increasingly adamant in his confession. Pressure from public opinion to solve the case continued mounting. In August, the Yafu City Criminal Investigation Detachment closed the case.
Xu Chuan completely believed the detachment’s conclusion, and the institute’s role was not to challenge cases that had already been solved. He openly explained the conclusion he had reached after studying the case. “I think there are going to be more and more male employees who resent female superiors in the future. Objectively speaking, both sides bear some responsibility. If Zhao Shuihe had left Xiang Yu a little dignity, it might never have reached this point. Of course, Xiang Yu was still much more at fault. We need to…”
Before he could finish, a scoff cut him off.
Chen Zheng looked up. The person who had laughed was Xiao Xie, the only woman in the group. She usually kept her head down and did her own work and rarely voiced opinions. Chen Zheng had not had many opportunities to speak with her.
“Are you being objective, Teacher Xu?” Xiao Xie said. “Your whole argument is already standing on the man’s side. How did you end up blaming the victim too?”
Xu Chuan immediately flushed. “That’s not what I meant…”
“Why were so many people ‘picked apart’ by Zhao Shuihe, but Xiang Yu was the only one who killed someone? Was it really ‘picking apart,’ or was it normal discussion at work? Did Zhao Shuihe never reprimand women?” Xiao Xie said seriously. “At the end of the day, the problem was Xiang Yu himself. He thought too highly of himself, worshiped credentials, and blamed everyone else for his own failures. An overgrown baby who never learned responsibility, and he still has a researcher like you speaking up for him?”
Xu Chuan’s face went scarlet. He hurriedly apologized. “Sister Xie, I was biased. Don’t be angry. I’ll reflect on it right now!” After speaking, he secretly glanced toward Chen Zheng, apparently hoping Chen Zheng would smooth things over.
But Chen Zheng was reading the case investigation records, his brows faintly furrowed.
Xiang Yu had confessed and provided a relatively complete account of both the killing and the mental process leading up to it. But was he definitely the murderer? Chen Zheng had faced the same kind of pressure Yafu City police were under countless times in Luocheng. Yet as long as the Major Crimes Unit reported that the case still contained a doubt—even an extremely minor one—he would shoulder the pressure and give the team room to keep investigating.
Then he suddenly remembered what Ming Han had told him about Kong Bing on the way to the institute.
Not everyone had enjoyed a career as smooth as his, and not every city was Luocheng. What standing did he have now to criticize Yafu City’s criminal investigators for failing to withstand the pressure?
A faint emptiness rose inside him. Xu Chuan called “Director Chen” twice before Chen Zheng came back to himself. Xu Chuan continued discussing the lessons of the case, saying companies should pay more attention to psychological conflicts between men and women and not allow them to expand, and so on. Chen Zheng listened without much attention. This was about as far as the institute’s function went. There was almost no way to feed the lessons they supposedly extracted from these cases back into society in any meaningful way. Put harshly, it was little different from a group of people shutting themselves behind closed doors to play house.
The longer Chen Zheng listened, the more stifled he felt. At last, he interrupted Xu Chuan. “It’s about time. I still have something to do, so I’ll head out.”
Ming Han stood up too and waved goodbye with his usual lack of seriousness.
Xu Chuan suddenly said, “Director Chen, don’t you think you’re being too casual about your work?”
Every gaze in the room immediately converged on Xu Chuan. No one could conceal their surprise. Even Xiao Xie frowned.
Xu Chuan had probably been holding it in for too long and finally exploded. “Forgive me for saying this, but you don’t care enough about the work. Just because a case has already been solved means it isn’t worth studying? If you love frontline investigation so much, why are you still at the research institute?”
Ming Han still wore a smile, but his voice had already gone cold. “Hey, hey—”
Chen Zheng stopped him. He turned and looked directly at Xu Chuan, his voice mild, without the slightest sense of a superior reprimanding a subordinate. “Then don’t become like me. Don’t make me your goal.” With that, he turned and went downstairs.
Xu Chuan froze. A moment later, he clenched both fists and protested insincerely, “I never made you my goal!”
Ming Han drove again. Chen Zheng seemed to have forgotten that he no longer had breakfast to eat and surrendered the driver’s seat without resistance, issuing an order from the passenger side. “No. 2 Middle School.”
“Yes, sir!” Ming Han said.
They had driven for a while when Ming Han, who had already glanced at Chen Zheng several times, said, “Director Chen.”
“Use something else.”
“So you still prefer it when I call you Bro.” Ming Han sounded pleased with himself.
Before Chen Zheng could argue, Ming Han continued, “You weren’t angry just now? That kid talked to you like that.”
“Xu Chuan is an adult. What kid?” Chen Zheng turned his face toward the window. “And he wasn’t wrong. I really am a… leader who doesn’t care enough about the institute. I’m not the one who has the right to be angry. They are.”
Ming Han was silent for a while. “Then why are you still at the institute if you’re unhappy there?”
Chen Zheng did not answer.
Ming Han smiled. “If you ever want to vent, once this case is over, I’ll listen to ten yuan’s worth.”
Chen Zheng gave a quiet laugh.
“What are you laughing at? Ten yuan isn’t enough?”
“Once the case is solved, won’t you be going back to base to become the boss of the police dogs again?”
Ming Han deflated. “So heartless, Director Chen.”
By then, the car had reached the area around No. 2 Middle School. Chen Zheng’s expression grew serious. “Stop at the intersection ahead.”
Ming Han saw the sign for Hele Subdistrict Police Station and understood. “All right. You go to the station. I’ll go chat with the teachers.”