Chen Zheng returned to the interview room. Xi Xiaoyong had originally been craning his neck toward the door, but the instant he saw Chen Zheng, he lowered his head.
Chen Zheng set his phone on the table. “Still not planning to talk? Do you really want the person who bought your car to give us your name first?”
Xi Xiaoyong looked startled. “What do you mean?”
Chen Zheng tipped his chin toward his phone. “Know what news I just got? Wei Youtai ran.”
At the sound of that name, Xi Xiaoyong sucked in a sharp breath before he could stop himself. Air squeezed through his windpipe with a high whistle.
Chen Zheng said, “Why would he run? And why did you react so strongly to his name?”
By now, Xi Xiaoyong was completely sober. Thinking back over everything Chen Zheng had said earlier, he suddenly realized he might have been set up. “I… I’ll talk!”
Chen Zheng nodded to the officer taking notes beside him.
“I sold my car to Wei Youtai!” Xi Xiaoyong said. “He even paid me hush money so I wouldn’t tell anyone he was the buyer!”
Xi Xiaoyong had not left Huangqun Township in years. Even when his parents were still alive, the farthest he had ever gone was the county seat on the other side of the mountain. The Xi family had once been relatively well-off by Huangqun Township standards. Xi Xiaoyong’s parents had been in the sand and gravel business, and when investors large and small poured into Huangqun Township to build villas and castles, they made a fortune. The family had even owned several cars.
But Xi Xiaoyong was nothing like his parents. He had been lazy from birth and had never held a job in his life. After the development boom faded and it became clear there was no more money to be made in Huangqun Township, his parents decided to head south in search of opportunities and wanted to take him with them. He refused. The Xi family had only one child, so his parents did not force him and left him behind.
Disaster struck without warning. In the first year after Xi Xiaoyong’s parents left, they died in a traffic accident. The compensation money, combined with the family’s existing savings, was enough for Xi Xiaoyong to coast through the rest of his life without working.
And that was exactly what he did. He sold the extra cars and properties and shut himself inside the house, rarely going out except to buy food and drinks or collect newly purchased games from the parcel station. He had no ambition, but he also caused no trouble, so the villagers left him alone. Many people practically forgot he existed.
At the beginning of the year, Xi Xiaoyong became addicted to illegal overseas gambling. He made quite a bit of money at first, then lost all of it. He had no income and lived entirely off his inheritance. Once the money started disappearing, he finally felt a sense of crisis.
When Wei Youtai approached him, he was agonizing over whether to sell his house first or his car. He had no real use for the car, and as for the house, he could always move somewhere smaller.
Wei Youtai offered to buy his car at a price far above the market value Xi Xiaoyong had looked up. On top of that, Wei Youtai demanded that he never tell anyone where the car had gone. If he could keep his mouth shut, Wei would pay him another sum of money.
Xi Xiaoyong agreed.
Once the money was in his hands, all of it in cash, he was delighted with himself. He bought alcohol and food and spent his days in a drunken haze at home, not even knowing when Wei Youtai came to drive the car away.
After finishing his account, Xi Xiaoyong wearily clutched his chest and began coughing without pause. Seeing this, Chen Zheng called an officer over and told him to take Xi Xiaoyong for a medical examination immediately.
When Ke Shuer learned that Wei Youtai had disappeared, she became paranoid all over again. One moment she worried he had been killed too, the next she was convinced he was coming to kill her. Seeing that Chen Zheng did not seem particularly concerned and was instead searching Xi Xiaoyong’s home, she could not help asking, “Aren’t you worried at all? Wei Youtai is gone!”
Chen Zheng asked in return, “I’m in Huangqun Township right now. I can’t get back to Zhuquan anytime soon, and I’m not the one responsible for the search. What good would being anxious do?”
Ke Shuer was momentarily speechless. “But you can’t just do nothing.”
Chen Zheng dragged a case of health drinks from beneath Xi Xiaoyong’s bed. More than half had already been consumed. He held one of the brownish-yellow bottles up to the light. “Does this look like I’m doing nothing?”
Back in Zhuquan City, Kong Bing was furious that Wei Youtai had disappeared. Wei was already highly suspicious, and surveillance on him had been arranged long ago, yet somehow a grown man had slipped right out from under their noses.
Ming Han handed Kong Bing a bottle of chilled mineral water. “Captain Kong, cool down. We’re in the open. It’s normal that surveillance might fail. We didn’t have enough evidence to lock him up before.”
Kong Bing was already physically and mentally exhausted from one case after another. On top of that, he had never dealt with anything quite like this before. Once he got busy, he became prone to confusion, and once he was confused, he began overthinking. “Could there be someone behind the scenes who took him away?”
Ming Han shook his head. “If Wei Youtai wanted to flee, he had plenty of better opportunities earlier. He probably isn’t running now. More likely, he’s gone somewhere to wait for us.”
Kong Bing immediately asked, “Where? You have an idea?”
Huijia Alley had been demolished many years ago. The old houses and market that had once stood there were long gone, replaced by a newly built community shopping center, a neighborhood kindergarten, and apartment buildings.
Liu Pinchao stood expressionlessly at the roadside and tugged down the brim of his baseball cap. Within his field of vision, Wei Youtai was dressed entirely in black, like a crow that had flown out of some unknown graveyard. Wei glanced around several times and even met Liu Pinchao’s eyes once, but noticed nothing unusual. Liu moved through the crowd, keeping neither too close nor too far behind him. Wei looked back again, apparently deciding no one was following, then entered an office building.
Liu Pinchao’s phone rang. He answered.
Ming Han asked, “Found him?”
“I found him. He’s in Juxing Building B.”
“What are you here for?” the office-building security guard asked.
“An interview.” Wei Youtai smiled and produced the résumé he had prepared in advance.
Countless people entered and left the Juxing office complex every day. The guard merely questioned unfamiliar faces as a formality. He glanced at the résumé without even seeing the name clearly, then waved Wei inside. Wei stood before the elevator, watching the glowing numbers on the display, and pressed thirty-three. The doors opened. White-collar workers streamed out, and he squeezed inside with the others waiting. As the elevator rose, people got off one after another. By the time it reached the thirty-third floor, only Wei remained.
There were two companies on the thirty-third floor, as well as an open terrace. Under the puzzled looks of people passing by, Wei walked over, closed the glass door separating the terrace from the corridor, and secured it with a lock he had brought himself. Then he went to the railing and braced both hands against it, like a child playing on parallel bars.
A startled cry came from beyond the glass door. “Someone’s going to jump!”
The commotion spread rapidly throughout the office building. More and more people gathered downstairs, many of them raising their phones.
The wind was strong on the terrace. It blew Wei Youtai’s hair into his eyes, yet the corners of his lips were actually curved upward.
Thanks to Liu Pinchao’s lead, Ming Han and the Beiye officers arrived even faster than the local police station responding to the emergency call. An inflatable rescue cushion was quickly spread below, but the thirty-third floor was far too high. If Wei Youtai truly jumped, there was little chance it would save him.
Someone was already livestreaming. The viewer count shot upward.
Ming Han hurried to the thirty-third floor and met Wei Youtai’s gaze through the glass door. The doors did not seal tightly, leaving a finger-width gap between them, enough for voices and emotions to carry clearly.
“Why so desperate?” Ming Han showed none of the tension one might expect when a suspect was threatening to jump. From the moment Liu Pinchao reported Wei’s location to now, he had remained remarkably relaxed. “What can’t be said properly? Why do you have to jump?”
Wei Youtai frowned, apparently unsure how to deal with a police officer like this. After a moment, he gave a bitter smile and shook his head. “It’s all over.”
“Oh,” Ming Han said. “Can’t keep the act going anymore?”
Wei lowered his head, lost in thought. Half a minute later, he finally said, “Yes. Ever since I learned Feng Feng’s body had been found, I understood. Heaven isn’t letting me go. Heaven doesn’t approve of what I did.”
After saying this, he turned around and braced both hands on the railing again.
Cries rose from below, and even more phones were lifted into the air.
Ming Han asked, “Why did you choose this place?”
“You managed to find me. Don’t you know why?”
“This used to be a market. When you were little, you helped your parents with their business here,” Ming Han said. “You miss the carefree days from back then.”
Wei Youtai frowned and shook his head helplessly. “You know perfectly well that’s not it.”
Ming Han folded his arms and made a show of looking puzzled.
Wei appeared to lose patience. He lifted one leg over the railing, and screams erupted from below.
Ming Han pressed his right hand against the glass door. The lock was on the inside, so he could not simply open it. They could break the door by force, but the sudden noise might startle someone already preparing to jump.
“Don’t come in!” Wei shouted. “If you come in, I’ll jump right now!”
Ming Han raised both hands. “Fine. I won’t come in. I just want to know what you want.”
“I…”
“Do me a favor and don’t leave me with a mess,” Ming Han said. “You jump, and everything’s over for you. What about me? We’ve worked this case for ages, and then our suspect goes and disposes of himself.”
Wei pulled his leg back over the railing. He stared silently at Ming Han for a moment. “I want a livestream.”
Kong Bing immediately spoke through the communicator. “Absolutely not. We can’t give him a livestream!”
Chen Zheng, closely following the situation from afar, said, “Let him do it. I’ll talk to him.”
“No,” Kong Bing said.
Ming Han said, “Captain Kong, this time, listen to Teacher Chen.”
The livestream equipment was quickly set up outside the glass doors, the camera pointed toward Wei Youtai. Only then did he temporarily move away from the railing. With the two locked glass doors between them, he did not have to worry that Ming Han could rush him in an instant.
“Go ahead. Tell your story,” Chen Zheng said. “I’m listening, and so are all your viewers.”
Wei sat down where he was and looked up at the sky. When he faced the camera again, his eyes were full of tears.
“I killed Feng Feng. But I didn’t do it for myself. I did it to avenge someone named Hao Le, my friend.”
Wei Youtai’s parents divorced when he was very young, and he lived with his mother. Back then, she was not wealthy like she later became. She ran a market stall to support him and pay for his schooling. When he saw other vendors bullying his mother, what he wanted most was a father, or perhaps an older brother.
Later, his mother married his stepfather, and Wei finally got the father he had wanted. But his stepfather was from Country J, and Wei’s name was changed into something that sounded Country-J-like. His stepfather treated him well, yet Wei could never bring himself to like him, much less feel close to him.
To build a better life, his parents rented a stall in the Huijia Alley market and started a seafood business. Markets already reeked, but the smell around a seafood stall was even stronger. Deep down, Wei hated going there, but when he thought of how his mother rose before dawn and worked until late at night, he could not sit comfortably at home enjoying the money his parents had earned through hard labor.
So whenever he had time off school, he would show up at the stall, enduring his discomfort as he helped customers choose fish and even learned how to clean and gut them.
Gradually, he got used to the fishy smell and was happy that he could finally protect and help his mother. But the looks his classmates gave him cut like knives.
“You stink! You smell like rotten fish!”
“Can’t you change your clothes?”
“Teacher, I don’t want to sit with Wei Youtai. He’s a little Country-J bastard, and he stinks!”
He wanted to tell them that he did not wear the same clothes to school that he wore while selling fish. Every time he came home from the market, he washed himself thoroughly. He never went directly from the market to school, and he was not from Country J.
But no one listened to his explanations. All they knew was that he smelled bad. Really bad.
His teacher spoke with him privately, praising him for helping his parents and telling him he was a good child, but also tactfully reminding him that after working at the stall, he should make sure he washed himself thoroughly.
He did not know what to do. By then, he was already in fifth grade, no longer a little child who understood nothing. If he told his parents what was happening, they would definitely stop letting him help, and they would be heartbroken that he was being treated this way. But he did not want to stop going to the market either. If his mother asked him why, what could he possibly say?
Fortunately, summer vacation had begun, so for the time being, he did not have to face the classmates who despised him.
The summer was sweltering, and the market smelled even stronger than usual. He went to the family stall as always, only to notice a boy with straight bangs working at the meat stall diagonally across from theirs. The boy was a little older than him and was skillfully helping Uncle Li hang cuts of meat. Wei watched him for quite a while. When the boy looked over, Wei was about to awkwardly turn away, but the boy smiled politely at him.
Over the next few days, Wei saw him every day. Although they never spoke, Wei could tell that the boy’s situation was different from his own. Wei was helping at his family’s stall. The other boy was a temporary worker Uncle Li had hired for the school holidays.
When the vendors had free time, they liked wandering between stalls to chat and play cards. Before long, Wei’s mother learned that the boy helping Uncle Li was called Xiao Le. He lived nearby, came from a single-parent household, and his family was poor, but he was very smart and did well at school.
Parents naturally liked children who got good grades, especially when their own child struggled in school. One day, Wei’s mother actually brought Xiao Le over to him. “Your Brother Le has some free time. Hurry up and get your homework out. Let him explain it to you.”
Wei froze, staring at the boy without being able to speak.
The boy himself was not shy at all. He pulled over a plastic stool and sat down. “I’m not good at the other subjects, but I’m good at math.”
Wei instinctively took a step back, not because he was afraid of him. In fact, he was curious about this older boy too. He was simply terrified that the smell on him would disgust him.
His mother laughed and smacked him lightly on the back. “What are you hiding for? Even little girls aren’t this shy!”
There was less work to do in the market during the afternoon, so the vendors were all playing mahjong. The floor around the seafood stall was wet. After Wei’s mother spoke to Uncle Li, he cleared a space at his stall for the two children to do homework.
Once away from the seafood stall, Wei felt as if the smell on him had only grown stronger. And explaining problems meant sitting close together. Xiao Le carefully worked through the solution for him, but Wei could think only about how badly he must stink. He did not absorb a word.
After Xiao Le finished, he pushed the notebook and pen toward him. “Your turn.”
Wei gripped the pen, his mind completely blank.
Xiao Le asked, “You weren’t listening just now?”
Wei was so embarrassed he wanted to dig a hole and disappear into it, but Xiao Le said patiently, “It’s okay. I’ll explain it again.”
Watching Xiao Le work through the problem with complete concentration, Wei desperately wanted to ask, Brother Le, can’t you smell the stink on me?
The adults finished their game and began closing their stalls. Xiao Le helped Uncle Li clean up. Wei’s mother cheerfully asked, “Did you understand it?”
Wei nodded, his face red. His mother was delighted and gave Xiao Le a fish. “Xiao Le, teach our Youtai again when you have time.”
Xiao Le thanked her and said, “No problem!”
And so Xiao Le became Wei’s little tutor, explaining problems to him every few days or simply doing homework together when there was nothing to explain. Wei used his pocket money to buy Xiao Le cola outside the market and finally could not resist asking, “Brother Le, don’t you dislike me?”
Xiao Le blinked. “Dislike you because your math isn’t as good as mine?”
Wei choked on his cola and nearly coughed up a lung. Xiao Le hurriedly patted his back. Wei wiped the cola and tears from his face. “Because I smell like fish, and… my name sounds like one of those Country-J people.”
Xiao Le stared at him in disbelief. “I smell like dead pigs. Do you dislike me?”
The question stunned Wei. If Xiao Le had not said it, Wei would never even have noticed.
Xiao Le said, “Your family sells fish, and you help them, so of course the smell gets on you. What’s there to dislike? My dad works construction and smells of sweat, but isn’t that just part of earning a living?”
Wei felt strangely happy. No one had ever said anything like that to him before.
Xiao Le added, “When you go home, just wash carefully and use one of those herbal soaps. You’ll be fine!”
Perhaps it was psychological, but afterward, Wei stopped feeling as though he were constantly surrounded by the smell of fish.
That summer, besides Xiao Le, he also noticed Feng Feng, although the acquaintance was entirely one-sided. At the time, he did not even know Feng Feng’s name. Most people who regularly appeared around the market lived in Huijia Alley, but Feng Feng was an unfamiliar face. He was still only an elementary-school student, yet he had the audacity to stop middle-schoolers and demand money from them. When one refused, Feng Feng punched him several times and quickly beat him into submission.
Watching Feng Feng, Wei felt that childish worship of strength take hold. That was what being cool looked like. He wanted to become someone like Feng Feng too. Over dinner, he told his mother about Feng Feng beating people up for money, his tone full of admiration. His mother and stepfather both scolded him and told him to learn from Brother Le instead and stay away from delinquents.
With Feng Feng as a comparison, Wei suddenly felt Brother Le was not quite so impressive anymore. Brother Le was weak. He never argued with anyone and quietly swallowed every disadvantage. If Brother Le ever ran into Feng Feng, he would definitely be bullied.
Time passed quickly, and soon school started again. Wei washed himself carefully. At first he still worried that his classmates would complain about the fish smell, but aside from a few “dog noses” who avoided him, everyone else seemed to have forgotten that his family sold fish. Xiao Le returned to school as well and found work somewhere else. Back then, staying in contact was nowhere near as easy as it was now, and just like that, Wei and Xiao Le drifted apart.
Later, his parents’ business grew larger and moved to a bigger market. Uncle Li’s meat stall was transferred to someone else. Later still, both the market and the old houses of Huijia Alley became history.
Wei grew older, but his grades never improved. He forgot everything Xiao Le had taught him, while the sight of Feng Feng fighting remained burned into his mind. He started using expensive imported body wash that smelled wonderful, yet not long after entering senior high school, he once again noticed someone looking at him strangely.
He knew that look too well. It was exactly the same as the looks those children in elementary school had given him. He walked over and punched the student. After that, the boy ran whenever he saw Wei.
Wei had learned the real way to make people shut up. He began worshipping violence. When he encountered Feng Feng again, now the school tyrant, it felt only natural that Wei became one of his underlings.
Then Wei saw Hao Le’s photograph on No. 2 Middle School’s honor board and learned that Hao Le had once attended the same school. He thought he ought to be happy. After all, he finally had the chance to reunite with Brother Le. But when he looked at the photograph of Hao Le, still wearing those straight bangs, he suddenly felt ashamed. Why did this boy always look so weak, so meek, so willing to endure whatever happened to him? He was already in high school. Couldn’t he be a little tougher?
A classmate asked, “You’ve been staring forever. Know him?”
Wei immediately denied it. “No. Just looking.”
Even so, he could not stop himself from asking around about why Hao Le had dropped out. He learned that Hao Le’s father had been severely injured, leaving a huge amount of medical debt, and Hao Le could no longer afford to stay in school because he had to earn money to repay it.
Wei’s feelings were complicated. Part of him pitied Hao Le, while another part could not understand him. His own parents’ business had grown larger and larger, their wealth snowballing. He wore famous brands and had become “Young Master Wei” in the eyes of his classmates. He could not understand how a lack of money could force someone so gifted at mathematics to quit school. Couldn’t the school find a solution? Couldn’t he borrow money? Couldn’t he… come ask Wei for help?
Forget it, he thought. What does it have to do with me?
He assumed he would never have anything to do with Hao Le again in this lifetime, until Feng Feng brought Hao Le before their group of “brothers.”
Seeing Hao Le again, Wei was too shocked to speak. Hao Le’s clothes were badly worn, his gaze lowered and submissive. He had grown taller since they were children, but he was still thin. Wei himself had grown too and was now considerably taller than Hao Le.
Hao Le looked at him, and something shifted in his eyes. Wei knew Hao Le had recognized him. His first reaction was to lift his chin and avoid his gaze. Guilt and anxiety rose inside him, but one thing was clear: he absolutely did not want to acknowledge Hao Le under these circumstances. It was too humiliating. Whether Hao Le understood his thoughts or had some other reason, he stopped looking at Wei as well and pretended they did not know each other.
Feng Feng announced that Hao Le was a new brother and threw an arm around his shoulders. The whole group noisily ate hot pot together.
But Wei knew Hao Le could never truly be one of their brothers. Feng Feng knew how to fight, and his group always needed someone to serve as cannon fodder, someone to throw forward and take the worst of the beating. Feng usually paid people like that. They had to take hits and act as his servants.
In Hao Le’s very first fight with them, he was beaten until he coughed up blood. Watching it left Wei deeply unsettled. He wanted to tell Hao Le to stop earning money this way, but the words would never come out.
While the others drank and played cards, Wei pretended to ask casually, “This guy can’t take much of a beating. Brother Feng, where’d you find him?”
Feng Feng said he had already known Hao Le had dropped out. People who were desperate for money were the easiest to use. Besides, Hao Le still carried the reputation of being a “good student,” which made him useful for dealing with teachers who liked him.
Feng Feng had found Hao Le, thrown money down in front of him, and asked if he wanted to become his underling. A few days later, Hao Le agreed.
“What good are grades?” Feng Feng said contemptuously. “No money, no backbone. In the end, he can only be a punching bag.”
Wei increasingly avoided Hao Le. He looked down on him, yet because of what had happened between them as children, he could not stop watching him. Every time the group got into a fight, Hao Le suffered the worst injuries. Of course, Feng Feng paid his medical expenses and what he called a “fee.” When the delinquents had nothing to do, they ordered Hao Le around, and sometimes Feng Feng beat him himself. Everyone else whistled and cheered. Wei could only sit there, painfully uncomfortable.
When they went to Xuebu Mountain, Wei had not really wanted to go. The mountain was cold in winter, and he would much rather have stayed home playing games. But Feng Feng was bringing Hao Le. Wei had a bad feeling something would happen and thought that perhaps, if he were there, he might be able to help him.
He never imagined that he would be the one sent back to fetch Hao Le from the campsite, that he would watch Hao Le fall, and that he would stand nearby as Feng Feng and Zeng Yan smashed Hao Le to death while he still had one breath left.
Wei did nothing. In that moment, he was a true underling, too afraid to make so much as a sound in front of the boss.
On the way from the campsite to the cliff, after all those years, Wei spoke to Hao Le for the first time.
“Why are you hanging around Feng Feng?” he asked through gritted teeth.
Hao Le answered slowly, “What about you? Why did you become a delinquent?”
“I…” Wei had no answer. Any explanation would only make Hao Le despise him.
Hao Le walked ahead of him. “I understand.”
Wei shouted angrily, “What do you understand?”
“Everyone has their own hardships,” Hao Le said. “We’re the same.”
Then Hao Le continued forward, not knowing that this would be the final stretch of road he ever walked in this world.
Wei Youtai sank into his tangled emotions and suddenly burst into uncontrollable sobs. Chen Zheng’s gaze, however, only grew colder. “Sorry, but let me interrupt. Back then, you had plenty of chances to help Hao Le. Even at the very end, you could have stopped him from going to the cliff. You could have taken the rope from Feng Feng. When Hao Le still had one breath left, you could have called the police or an ambulance. But you simply watched him die. Ten years have passed, and now you killed Feng Feng for him.”
Chen Zheng gave a cold scoff. “I really can’t understand your motive.”