After the meeting, Chen Zheng packed up his things. Ming Han, who always came empty-handed and had nothing to pack, remained in the conference room anyway, sprawled across a chair like a man with nothing better to do. Chen Zheng prepared to leave, glanced at him without saying anything, and walked straight out. Ming Han immediately stopped sprawling and sprang to his feet. “Bro, I’ve been waiting for you all this time and you’re just leaving?”
Without slowing, Chen Zheng said, “You were waiting for me? I thought you were exhausted and lying there catching your breath.”
Ming Han laughed. “I was sent here to investigate the ‘Zeng Yan’ case. Then somehow we dug up school bullying from ten years ago, then the Zhu mother and daughter who disappeared even earlier, and now there’s another case. You even told Kong Bing to look into recent disappearances. If this really turns into a serial murder case, my workload is getting ridiculous. Am I not allowed to catch my breath?”
“How about I give you some leave and you go back to base to be big brother to the dogs for a while?”
“See? There you go mocking me again.” They had already reached the ground floor of the sub-bureau. Ming Han stretched lazily. “Bro, where are we going now?”
“Home to rest. Where else would I go?”
“What? Rest this early? With a murder case in front of us, shouldn’t we work twenty-four hours a day and devote ourselves body and soul?”
“…” Chen Zheng headed toward the car. “Then I’ll leave that noble self-sacrifice to Officer Ming.”
Yet Officer Ming moved even faster than he did. By the time Chen Zheng reached the driver’s seat, Officer Ming was already in the passenger seat with his seat belt fastened.
Chen Zheng held his own seat belt and met Ming Han’s entirely matter-of-fact gaze. He briefly reflected on whether he had spoiled this man too much. Four enormous words might as well have been written across Ming Han’s face: Give him an inch and he takes a mile.
Seeing Chen Zheng remain still, Ming Han even reached over. “Need help fastening your seat belt? Happy to be of service.”
Click. Chen Zheng snapped the belt into place. “You really want to go back to base? Fine, I’ll drive you.” With that, he stepped on the accelerator.
“Don’t!” Ming Han watched the car turn west and immediately said, “Bro, buy me a Deep-Sea Flame.”
Chen Zheng raised an eyebrow and glanced at Ming Han.
He had only noticed the name Deep-Sea Flame earlier that day. It was Weiming’s signature cake, extremely popular and often sold out by the afternoon. If they went to Weiming at this hour, they would probably find little more than leftover cookies or dried bread.
But Chen Zheng knew Ming Han was not really going there just for cake.
It was nearly closing time when they reached Weiming’s flagship store downtown. The shop was empty, yet many pastries remained, displayed inside the glass cases like exquisite works of art. A small number of employees were still present. When customers entered, no one proactively greeted them; every face looked somber.
Beiye Sub-bureau investigators had already come during the day, and news that Weiming’s owner had been murdered had begun spreading online. Only a handful of uninformed customers, or people slow to react emotionally, had come in to buy pastries. For the past two months, people from the Wu family’s restaurant company had been helping manage Weiming. Now the Wu family itself was in chaos, and no one had decided whether Weiming would continue operating. So while the stores remained open for the moment, the employees were already planning their next steps.
Ming Han managed to buy a Deep-Sea Flame and also picked up a fan-favorite chestnut Napoleon. While paying, he noticed the cashier nervously studying him and smiled. “I’m with the same people who came earlier today.”
The cashier immediately stood straighter. “Are you here to investigate something else?”
“If you’re free, come chat with us for a bit. We haven’t had dinner, so we thought we’d fill our stomachs while we were here.”
The cashier was young and clearly did not know how to handle the situation, so she immediately called the manager over. The manager’s name was Huang Li. She was in her thirties and looked relatively steady, though the wariness in her eyes was stronger than the cashier’s.
“How much longer until you get off work?” Ming Han asked.
Huang Li checked the time. “Half an hour until closing. Then we still have to tidy up. There were a lot of things to deal with today.”
Ming Han put the cakes on the table. Chen Zheng had not felt hungry while running around, but the moment he sat down and relaxed slightly, the sight of food made hunger surge through him.
With shops like this, the more delicately made the pastries were, the smaller the portions tended to be. The two cakes together cost more than sixty yuan, yet an adult could finish each in three or four bites.
Chen Zheng picked up a spoon. He had originally intended to ask Ming Han which one he wanted, but Ming Han was already talking with Huang Li. After a moment of hesitation, Chen Zheng pulled the chestnut Napoleon toward himself and left the Deep-Sea Flame for Ming Han.
“You have this much left. Will you sell it again tomorrow?” Ming Han asked, returning to the glass case.
“Of course not. We dispose of everything. We have rules here. We absolutely never sell food from the previous day.”
“Was that rule set by Wu Junqian?”
“Yes. Boss Wu… cared a great deal about food safety.” When Huang Li mentioned Wu Junqian, her brows drew together almost imperceptibly, and a trace of dissatisfaction entered her eyes. The emotions disappeared almost instantly, but Ming Han still caught them.
“How long have you worked at Weiming?”
“More than three years, I think. I came not long after Weiming first opened.”
“So you’re one of the originals.”
“Nothing like that. I’m only earning a living.” Huang Li touched her hair twice, apparently unwilling to discuss the subject.
“What kind of person was Boss Wu?” Ming Han asked.
Chen Zheng ate his Napoleon while listening to the conversation by the glass case.
Huang Li looked sorrowful. “She was very responsible and meticulous with every product. Weiming only became what it is today because of her. Now… now Weiming may not be able to stay open.”
“Did anyone in the shop ever have conflicts with her? Arguments, things like that?”
Huang Li froze for a moment and immediately shook her head. “She was the boss. Who would argue with the boss?”
Out of the corner of his eye, Ming Han noticed the cashier from earlier. She had hunched her shoulders and looked as though she wanted to say something but could not. Ming Han turned back to Huang Li. “What about you?”
“Me?”
“I met Boss Wu’s family today. Even they admitted she had a quick temper, held both herself and others to very high standards, and often kept employees late because of the products. If someone didn’t follow her rules, she could reprimand them harshly. I tried putting myself in an employee’s place. I think it would be difficult not to feel dissatisfied sometimes.”
Ming Han gave Huang Li a meaningful look. “That’s why I wanted to ask you which employees Boss Wu had conflicts with. You’re the manager, after all. Comparatively speaking, you spent the most time around her and probably knew the most, right?”
Huang Li lowered her head. After a long while, she said, “You’re giving me too much credit. I’m just an employee. If something wasn’t my business, I never involved myself.”
“Did she ever keep you late?”
Huang Li seemed a little irritated. “Yes, but overtime is normal in this line of work when you’re developing new products. I used to run my own shop and regularly worked until the middle of the night without earning an extra cent. At least the boss here paid overtime.”
“You used to have your own shop? Then you’re a pastry chef too?”
“A small one. Eventually it couldn’t survive, so I closed it. This place happened to be hiring, and the boss thought my skills were decent, so she kept me.”
“Then your cakes must be delicious. Otherwise Boss Wu wouldn’t have trusted you to manage the flagship store.”
Huang Li awkwardly smoothed her hair. “Something like that.”
Ming Han was about to continue, but when he turned around and saw Chen Zheng, the words stopped at his lips. A moment ago, he had left two whole cakes on the table. Now there were only two spotless plates. Chen Zheng was just setting his spoon down beside one of them.
Ming Han walked back. “Bro, you ate both of them?”
Chen Zheng stood up, went directly to the display case, took two Napoleons and another Deep-Sea Flame, then carried them to the register. “Please ring these up.”
The cashier had watched the whole thing from the corner. Flustered, she said, “N-ninety yuan altogether!”
Chen Zheng glanced at the drink menu. “Do you still have lemon tea?”
“Yes!”
“Two. No sugar in one.”
The drinks would take a little time. Chen Zheng carried the cakes back and sat down with an unchanged expression, as though he had not just eaten Ming Han’s cake. He pushed the chestnut Napoleon and Deep-Sea Flame toward Ming Han and kept the other Napoleon in front of himself.
“Weren’t you hungry? Eat. They’re pretty sweet, so I ordered tea too.”
Ming Han finally could not hold back his laugh. “Bro, you finished your Napoleon and then ate mine too. I saw you.”
The corner of Chen Zheng’s eye lifted ever so slightly, but he remained perfectly composed. “And haven’t I replaced it?”
Ming Han pointed at the Napoleon. “Never would’ve guessed.”
Chen Zheng frowned faintly. “Then you haven’t seen enough.”
Ming Han shook his head. “I still remember when you came to buy iced tangyuan and specifically told me to use less sugar. Today you can suddenly eat three cakes in one sitting.”
Chen Zheng was just about to start when he abruptly found it difficult to push the spoon into the cake. The cakes are tiny. I’ve barely eaten anything all day. Who am I hurting by eating three?
Just then, the cashier brought over the lemon tea, still looking nervous. “P-please enjoy!”
Chen Zheng quickly took a large drink. The cloying sweetness in his mouth finally eased a little.
Ming Han pushed his own Napoleon toward Chen Zheng. “Want this one too?”
“Eat your own. Keep dawdling and they’ll close.”
Hearing that, Huang Li, whose back was turned to them, quietly let out a breath.
Ming Han looked as though he had a huge appetite, but after eating only half the Deep-Sea Flame, he stopped. Chen Zheng finished his Napoleon and looked at Ming Han in confusion. “I told you there was no need to save any for me.”
Ming Han asked the cashier for a takeout box and packed the Napoleon inside. “Who said I’m saving it for you? Can’t I take it back for breakfast tomorrow?”
After the two “uninvited guests” finally left, Weiming closed for the night. The cashier cautiously glanced at Huang Li. Huang Li sat behind the register staring blankly at the wall, as though she had not noticed anyone around her.
After a full day of police repeatedly coming to the shop, the cashier had had enough and practically fled. On the road she had to take toward the bus stop, Chen Zheng’s car was waiting.
Ming Han waved at her cheerfully. “We meet again.”
The cashier froze. “Is there something else?”
“I don’t, personally. But back in the shop, it looked like you had something you wanted to tell us.” Ming Han said, “You just couldn’t say it with the manager there.”
The cashier’s eyes immediately reddened, and the tension in her body eased slightly. In a low voice, she said, “I… there are a few things I wanted to tell the police.”
Chen Zheng opened the rear door. “Get in.”
The cashier’s name was Xiao Dan. She had begun working at Weiming after the Spring Festival that year and had been personally hired by Wu Junqian. She said Weiming frequently required overtime. Sometimes Wu Junqian acted almost mentally unstable, with a nearly pathological obsession with her products. If the smallest thing was wrong, she would scold the employees.
But Wu Junqian paid high wages, and when she herself made a mistake, she sincerely apologized to her employees. For the money, Xiao Dan tolerated her temper. After Wu Junqian disappeared, however, Weiming’s management grew more chaotic, and Xiao Dan had already begun looking for another job. Learning that day that Wu Junqian was dead made her finally decide to leave.
It was precisely because she had decided to resign that she wanted to tell the police what she had seen and heard at Weiming.
“Sister Huang actually had the biggest conflict with the boss,” Xiao Dan said. “I heard Deep-Sea Flame was originally Sister Huang’s. It existed before Weiming even opened, but the boss took both it and Sister Huang for herself.”
Unlike Wu Junqian, Huang Li had not come from a wealthy family. Before working for Weiming, she had spent more than ten years making pastries. She began as an apprentice, then finally saved enough capital to open a shop of her own.
Pastry shops were everywhere. Unless they were chains or famous online brands, they were difficult to keep alive. Huang Li’s small shop was the same. At first, she ran it as a cake shop, selling small cream cakes and accepting custom birthday-cake orders, but business was terrible. She had no choice but to copy other shops, selling breakfast cakes and eventually making Chinese-style pastries as well.
Even so, her cream cakes still had a small following, because one particular mulberry-strawberry cake was especially delicious.
When Wu Junqian returned from abroad to start her business, she was dedicated enough to visit practically every pastry shop in Zhuquan City. She praised Huang Li’s cake extravagantly. Weiming needed a signature cake, and Wu Junqian wanted to acquire the recipe openly and legitimately, so she approached Huang Li about a partnership.
Although Huang Li did not want to work for someone else, her family was struggling financially and her own shop was obviously failing. In the end, she had no choice but to accept the olive branch Wu Junqian offered. In effect, Wu Junqian bought both the mulberry-strawberry cake recipe and Huang Li’s expertise as an experienced pastry chef.
At first, everything went very smoothly. Besides Deep-Sea Flame, Weiming had several other signature items. Wu Junqian knew how to build momentum online, while the products themselves genuinely tasted distinctive. Before long, Weiming had made a name for itself.
But the conflict between Wu Junqian and Huang Li steadily deepened. On the surface, Wu Junqian had given Huang Li an excellent position as manager of the flagship store, yet Huang Li’s life was not as easy as that of the branch managers. Whenever an employee caused a problem, Wu Junqian blamed Huang Li first, saying she had failed in her responsibilities as both manager and senior staff member. Huang Li silently accepted the criticism every time, but the others were not blind. Everyone could tell Huang Li and Wu Junqian disliked each other.
“I was scared when I saw Sister Huang’s reaction just now,” Xiao Dan said anxiously. “You were asking her all those questions, so you must’ve found that she might have had a reason to hurt the boss. The way she reacted… I don’t want to stay at Weiming for even one more second. Push someone too far and there’s no telling what they might do!”
Chen Zheng took Xiao Dan home and thanked her for the information. The car fell quiet. After a while, Ming Han said, “Wu Junqian repeatedly making things difficult for Huang Li was probably connected to Deep-Sea Flame too.”
Chen Zheng nodded. Human darkness was everywhere. When Wu Junqian first bought Huang Li’s shop and idea and hired Huang Li at a high salary, her intentions had been good. But once their signature products went on sale, none of Wu Junqian’s own creations could surpass the Deep-Sea Flame she had purchased. Could she have resented Huang Li? Perhaps she herself would never have admitted it, but her emotions had long been written plainly across her face. Even a relatively new employee could see them.
Emotion worked both ways. If Wu Junqian made Huang Li’s life difficult, of course Huang Li would become angry. Add in the thought that her own product had been taken away, and hostility that had not originally existed could easily grow. If the question was whether Huang Li wished Wu Junqian would disappear, the answer was undoubtedly yes. More importantly, Huang Li’s behavior that night had been very unnatural. She concealed the conflict between herself and Wu Junqian. She was afraid the police would start looking at her.
“But if that’s the case, the motive is on a completely different track,” Ming Han said. “Huang Li has a motive to kill Wu Junqian. What about ‘Zeng Yan’? There’s no connection.”
“Does Chen Wen and Fu Bo’s line connect to ‘Zeng Yan’?”
“Good point. Neither line necessarily contains the truth.”
“But the truth has something to do with them.” Chen Zheng’s gaze disappeared into the night, as though searching for something hidden beneath the lights. “I asked Chen Wen and Fu Bo today whether they ever felt influenced by someone. They said they influenced each other. But afterward I thought about it. Influencing a group like theirs would actually be pretty easy.”
“Pretend to be a righteous bystander online and stir things up?” Ming Han said. “That would work. Once they’re emotional, any random user can throw more fuel on the fire and they won’t notice it at all. And Wu Junqian also seems like someone gave her a push.”
Chen Zheng turned his face toward him. “Hm?”
Ming Han told him what he had seen and thought in Wu Junqian’s merch shrine room. “Li Luo suggested that Wu Junqian use the café event to advertise. Wu Junqian refused. So why did she eventually do it? I think someone more persuasive than Li Luo spoke to her.”
Chen Zheng considered it. “So someone was pushing both directions? Guiding Wu Junqian into doing something at the café that violated fandom rules, while also guiding Chen Wen and the others into cyberbullying her?”
“Otherwise, it’s hard to explain why Wu Junqian, someone who understood the fandom, would deliberately break its rules.”
More clues needed to be analyzed carefully and calmly. They had already returned to the Beiye Sub-bureau. Chen Zheng said, “I’ll think about it when I get back.”
Ming Han picked up the cake box and smiled. “Thanks.”
Chen Zheng saw a trace of teasing in his eyes and immediately remembered eating three cakes. He concealed his embarrassment. “You’re welcome.”
Ming Han hummed as he walked toward the dormitory, the cake box balanced proudly on his right hand. The retired old man guarding the gate stuck his head out of the security booth. “Look at the way you’re strutting!”
Ming Han held the box toward him. The old man reached for it, but Ming Han pulled it back. “Someone gave it to me. None for you.”
The old man bristled. “What lousy thing is that? You think I want it?”
Ming Han kept humming as he went upstairs. He set the box on the table without turning on the light and stared at it for a while in the glow coming through the window. Then he murmured to himself, “I want it.”
The next day, the investigation moved deeper. The moment Chen Zheng arrived at the Beiye Sub-bureau, he headed straight to the technical investigation office and asked them to consolidate the posts Chen Wen and the others had made calling out Wu Junqian across different platforms, then search the replies for users whose language was unusually extreme and highly inflammatory. The technical investigation officers found the request difficult. After Wu Junqian disappeared, Fuhua Police Station quickly traced the posts to Chen Wen and the others. Frightened, they deleted most of the original material. What remained now consisted largely of reposts by other users.
Chen Zheng thought for a moment. Assuming his and Ming Han’s theory was correct and someone had been guiding both sides from behind the scenes, that person would have needed Chen Wen and the others to actually see the messages. Replying only beneath reposts would have had little value.
“Can the deleted material be recovered?” Chen Zheng asked.
The technical investigation officer thought about it. “We’d need to contact the platform operators, and we’d need approval from above.”
“All right. I’ll have Ming Han figure it out.”
“Got a problem? Find Ming Han.” Ming Han arrived carrying breakfast and handed food around to the investigators. “Right, Bro?”
Chen Zheng briefly explained the problem the technical team was facing. Ming Han leaned against the edge of the desk with his arms folded, listening with a confident expression that said leave it to me. After Chen Zheng finished, he had the vague feeling something was off, but could not immediately identify what. Then he heard an officer bite into a roujiamo and ask, “Brother Bird, why aren’t you eating?”
Right. Why was Ming Han not eating today? Chen Zheng looked at him.
Ming Han cleared his throat, straightened up, and said proudly, “I already ate at the dorm. Somebody bought me today’s breakfast last night.”
Chen Zheng choked.
Another investigator asked, “Who? What did they buy you? Better than roujiamo?”
Chen Zheng turned and walked away, but there was no shutting Ming Han up. “I’m not telling you who, but it was a breakfast made with love. Of course it was better than roujiamo.”
A burst of laughter erupted behind Chen Zheng.
Chen Zheng drove to Xuebu Village. Some of the Beiye Sub-bureau’s officers had remained there continuously. Wu Junqian’s body had been discovered on Xuebu Mountain, so investigators had to radiate outward from the burial site and conduct an enormous amount of canvassing. More importantly, the only reason police had been searching the mountain at all was that according to Wei Youtai and Ke Shuer, Hao Le had been killed there ten years earlier by Zeng Yan and Feng Feng, and his body should still be somewhere inside.
The combined “Zeng Yan” and Wu Junqian case was now extremely difficult. It seemed possible that a killer who hated women in the food-service business was committing a series of murders. But that remained only one possibility. Chen Zheng would not abandon other investigative directions because of it. Wei Youtai and Ke Shuer were still concealing things, Feng Feng’s whereabouts remained unknown, and even further in the past lay the bizarre mysteries of the fake Zeng Yan replacing the real one and the disappearance of the Zhu mother and daughter.
When Chen Zheng reached Xuebu Village, he briefly spoke with Kong Bing. Kong Bing’s brows were tightly furrowed. They still had not found Hao Le’s body. The day before, they had brought Wei Youtai over to identify the area. The more they questioned him, the less clearly he could say where the body was, and he eventually broke down emotionally.
The canvassing connected to Wu Junqian’s case was not going smoothly either. Xuebu Village sat on the edge of Zhuquan City and covered a wide area, but almost every able-bodied young person had gone into Zhuquan for work. The people left behind were mostly elderly. They knew nothing when questioned and insisted they had seen no suspicious strangers. The killer had likely recognized exactly that before daring to murder someone and bury the body so openly.
Large-scale canvassing was always time-consuming and exhausting, yet it could not be skipped. Chen Zheng decided to walk around the village himself and see whether he could find a key lead.
Because police were present, many villagers stayed inside their own courtyards and did not want to come out. As Chen Zheng walked along the road, he felt a heavy atmosphere of old age. Perhaps another decade or two from now, Xuebu Village would be swallowed completely by the city.
As he walked, he heard one villager shouting at the entrance of a house. “Old Fu! Old Fu! You still need all those textbooks at your place? Let my kid use them!”
An elderly man with white hair but excellent spirits came out with his hands behind his back, looking very proud. “Of course I need them! I can lend them to you, but you have to give them back!”
“Definitely, definitely!”
Old Fu went inside for the books. Chen Zheng walked over to the doorway and casually asked, “What are you borrowing?”
The villager looked him over. “Police?”
Chen Zheng copied the man’s stance. “Yeah.”
Perhaps Chen Zheng did not give off much of the oppressive air people associated with police, because the villager readily explained, “Old Fu’s grandson has made something of himself. Got into normal college. Old Fu talks every day about how good his grandson is at taking notes. He even studied at No. 10 Middle School for high school. That’s a top school. I want to let my grandson look at the notes. He takes the college entrance exam next year.”
Just then, Old Fu emerged carrying a huge stack of textbooks and exercise books. The villager hurried forward. “That many?”
They fumbled the handoff and the books crashed to the ground. Chen Zheng helped pick them up. He opened one and saw a name written on the title page:
Fu Bo.
“Fu Bo is your grandson?” Chen Zheng asked.
Old Fu snatched the book back and gave a couple of proud grunts. “That’s right. Of all the kids who left our village, he has the best grades!”