Wei Youtai had been brought under control. On the drive from Huangqun Township back to Zhuquan, Chen Zheng was on a video call with Ming Han.
“You surprised me, Captain Chen.” For once, Ming Han did not lazily call him “Bro.” That “Captain Chen” made Chen Zheng pause. It was different from Kong Bing’s early sarcasm and different from other people’s polite flattery. It was simply a form of address that Chen had once found ordinary and now found strangely unfamiliar.
Just like when he was still in Luocheng and his brothers had all called him that.
“Wei Youtai’s demand for a livestream was outrageous. No one knew what he was going to say in front of that many viewers.” Ming Han suddenly smiled. “You actually agreed. Kong Bing was nearly furious enough to explode.”
“Since Kong Bing eventually agreed, that means he was prepared to deal with the consequences. The livestream was under our control. If necessary, we could cut it immediately.” The mountain road was badly uneven. Chen Zheng gripped the overhead handle with his right hand and held his phone in his left, making the video image shake constantly. “Besides, I had a pretty good idea… We all had a pretty good idea what he might say.”
Ming Han played dumb. “What? I didn’t. I was ordered to wait on the floor beneath the terrace and climb up the second anything happened.”
The terrace where Wei Youtai stood was thirty-three floors above the ground. Free-climbing at that height was not something every special-police officer could manage. While Kong Bing was worrying about what to do, Ming Han had changed into tactical gear and pointed to himself. “Don’t you have one ready-made right here?”
Chen Zheng sighed. “You had already guessed Wei Youtai’s motive wasn’t as simple as he claimed. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have had Liu Pinchao follow him. Anyway, nothing went wrong with the livestream. Wei wanted to use public opinion to pressure the justice system, but now the public has seen how despicable he really is.”
Ming Han turned serious. “We still haven’t found concrete evidence that hatred toward Feng Feng was the real reason he killed him.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Chen Zheng said. “He has already admitted killing Feng Feng. All he wanted was to use Hao Le to win sympathy. We tore that apart in public, so no matter how much he struggles now, he can’t exploit Hao Le anymore. Besides, we have time. Investigation on one side, interrogation on the other. We’ll find the evidence sooner or later.”
Ming Han stared at Chen Zheng through the camera for several seconds without speaking. Chen Zheng thought the signal had gone bad and was about to hang up when Ming Han suddenly said, “Actually, in this case, Wei Youtai’s motive isn’t that important anymore. The supplements he gave Xi Xiaoyong will probably turn out to contain something. If so, he’s implicated in two attempted or completed murders, so arguing for a lighter sentence based on motive will barely matter.”
Chen Zheng looked out the window. “But I don’t want someone who already died unjustly to be dragged out ten years later and exploited. Avenging Hao Le? Sounds righteous enough. Maybe people would even imitate that kind of ‘heroic act’ afterward.”
Ming Han continued staring at him. After a long pause, he said, “You…”
The signal froze. Chen Zheng asked, “What?”
Ming Han shook his head and did not finish whatever he had been saying. “Wait until you get back.”
The call ended. Chen Zheng was still wondering what Ming Han had meant. He knew some lip-reading. If the sound had merely cut out, he probably could have figured it out. But the image itself had frozen. All he could tell was that Ming Han had opened his mouth, and the first word was probably you.
You? You what?
“Officer Chen,” Ke Shuer said quietly. Ever since Wei Youtai had been confirmed as the killer and she had watched Chen Zheng confront him across the livestream, she was no longer as frantic as before.
Chen Zheng returned to himself. “What happened on Xuebu Mountain ten years ago still needs to be investigated when we get back.”
“I know. I was responsible for Hao Le’s death too. I helped Feng Feng. However many years I get, I’ll accept it.”
Chen Zheng looked at her for a moment. “Actually, you indirectly helped me quite a bit.”
Ke Shuer froze. “What?”
“If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have identified Wei Youtai’s real motive so quickly,” Chen Zheng said. “We’ll continue investigating what happened between Wei and Feng Feng over the past few months and find the exact point that truly drove him to murder. If you remember anything, tell me immediately.”
The car was quiet for a while before Ke Shuer suddenly said, “Feng Feng once told me that Wei Youtai was still like a dog, that he’d do whatever Feng told him to do. Feng Feng was actually very vain. He didn’t care that much about showing off money, but he liked ordering his followers around and dressing them down in front of other people.”
Ke Shuer gave him several names. She had never met any of these people herself. Feng Feng had casually mentioned them during their secret meetings, and they seemed to be business contacts of his.
“They… they might know Wei Youtai. I’m not sure.”
Chen Zheng wrote the names down. “I’ll check.”
As the car neared Zhuquan, Ke Shuer asked, “Then who killed ‘Zeng Yan’?”
Chen Zheng said, “Which Zeng Yan do you mean?”
Ke Shuer tugged at the corner of her clothes. “The later one. If she hadn’t died, you never would have traced this back to Wei Youtai.”
Chen Zheng smiled. “One ride in a police car and you’ve already learned to think like the police.”
Ke Shuer shook her head. “Actually, there’s something else I never told you.”
“Mm?”
“The shadow we saw in the woods back then was probably a woman.”
Chen Zheng asked, “You saw clearly?”
“No. It really did flash past us in an instant, as agile as an animal,” Ke Shuer said. “But it was definitely a person. Someone saw everything we did to Hao Le. You’ve never found Hao Le’s body, right? I think that shadow had something to do with it.”
Chen Zheng thought for a moment. “But you still haven’t explained why you think the shadow was a woman.”
Ke Shuer looked seriously into Chen Zheng’s eyes. “Would you believe me if I said women can sense other women?”
Chen Zheng frowned slightly and did not answer.
“I don’t have evidence, but even back then I felt it was a woman. Only a woman would have moved with that kind of body shape. A man… unless it was a man who looked especially feminine. And after everything that’s happened now, I’m even more certain it was a woman.”
Chen Zheng said, “What’s happened now? You mean ‘Zeng Yan’?”
“The real Zeng Yan disappeared not long after Hao Le died. That much is right, isn’t it?” Ke Shuer said. “Could this later ‘Zeng Yan’ have been that shadow in the woods? There were four of us, but the people directly responsible for Hao Le’s death were Zeng Yan and Feng Feng. Maybe that woman found Zeng Yan, killed her somehow, and became Zeng Yan. Why not Feng Feng? Because Feng Feng is a man. A woman can’t exactly pretend to be a man!”
Ke Shuer bit her fingernail. “Doesn’t that make sense? But now this fake Zeng Yan was killed too. It just happened to be around the same time Wei Youtai killed Feng Feng. Her death had nothing to do with Hao Le. She was killed because of whoever she originally was…”
By the end, Ke Shuer’s reasoning had become muddled. Even before that, parts of her logic did not quite hold together, but Chen Zheng had to admit there was some sense in the idea, and sometimes what people called “intuition” did come unexpectedly close to the truth.
When the group returned to Beiye Sub-bureau, Chen Zheng was about to go upstairs when he noticed Ming Han standing beside the flower bed downstairs. A cigarette was between Ming Han’s fingers, its ember glowing and fading in the night. Ming Han lifted a hand. Chen Zheng separated from the others and walked over.
“The test results on the supplements came back,” Ming Han said. “They contain paraquat, and the amount was controlled fairly precisely. If Xi Xiaoyong drank one bottle of the supplement every day, about a week after finishing the whole case, he would probably die from organ failure. Xi Xiaoyong had already drunk more than half.”
Chen Zheng had expected as much. “How is he?”
“You know the damage from this kind of poison is irreversible,” Ming Han said. “He’s already receiving emergency treatment. They can probably keep him alive for now, but his body will never recover.” He glanced at Chen Zheng. “I really understand why you agreed to let Wei Youtai livestream now.”
Chen Zheng laughed. “That wasn’t what you said a few hours ago.”
Ming Han shook his head. “Someone like Wei Youtai, who drags a completely unrelated person into his private vendetta, then tries to package himself as a loyal friend taking revenge, deserves to have everyone see his ugly face. He doesn’t deserve anyone’s sympathy.”
At that moment, a delivery scooter pulled up. The delivery rider rushed toward the duty room. Chen Zheng glanced over, and Ming Han asked, “Haven’t eaten?”
“When would I have had time?”
“Come on. I’ll buy you some stir-fry.”
The next day, the investigation into Wei Youtai entered its final stage. After a meticulous investigation by the Heiwen police, witnesses were found who had seen Wei and Feng Feng together, and surveillance footage also showed the car Wei had driven. Combined with the physical evidence and his confession, the evidence that he murdered Feng Feng was complete. But when it came to motive, Chen Zheng still wanted something more concrete, something that would nail Wei down completely.
Chen Zheng followed up on the names Ke Shuer had given him one by one. After seeing Wei Youtai’s photograph, a man surnamed Qiu said, “I’ve met him. He was President Feng’s… lackey!”
Chen Zheng repeated, “Lackey?”
It was not a term people in Zhuquan used often. Mr. Qiu himself looked a little embarrassed after saying it and explained that he did not know how else to describe their relationship. After thinking it over, “lackey” was the closest word he could come up with.
Mr. Qiu had met Feng Feng at a photography event and admired his style. They agreed to collaborate if the opportunity arose. Some of Mr. Qiu’s work involved Country J, and Feng Feng told him he had an underling who ran a Country-J cuisine restaurant. If Mr. Qiu ever needed to host an event at such a restaurant, Feng could get him the lowest possible price.
Mr. Qiu was interested. Not long afterward, he needed to entertain several guests from Country J but could not conveniently take them to a restaurant. He asked Feng Feng whether that underling of his could come prepare the food at his private villa instead, with expenses no object. Feng readily agreed and called Wei Youtai over.
Mr. Qiu treated Wei Youtai respectfully, addressing him as “Chef” at every turn, but Feng Feng clearly regarded Wei as nothing more than a cook, ordering him to personally plate and serve each dish. Mr. Qiu noticed Wei seemed displeased and tried to smooth things over, but Feng Feng stopped him and loudly said, “He did this stuff for me when we were kids. He’s used to it. Don’t worry about him!”
The guests were extremely satisfied. After they left, Mr. Qiu spoke to Wei alone, gave him extra money, and even apologized for Feng Feng’s behavior, saying he hoped to ask Wei for help again in the future. Wei’s expression became exceptionally ugly, even worse than when Feng Feng had been making things difficult for him.
Mr. Qiu had felt awkward and could not understand what he had said wrong.
“Because what Mr. Qiu said was like pouring hot oil over your fragile pride,” Chen Zheng told Wei Youtai in the interrogation room, enunciating every word clearly.
From the moment he heard Mr. Qiu’s name, Wei began trembling. His eyes glared at Chen Zheng with bitter resentment, as if some humiliating memory was being dug up shovel by shovel.
“You didn’t care that much about how Feng Feng treated you. You were his underling back in school anyway,” Chen Zheng said. “What you couldn’t bear was knowing that in someone else’s eyes, you were still Feng Feng’s dog. The moment Mr. Qiu offered what he thought was comfort but you heard as humiliation, you couldn’t take it anymore.”
Wei drew in a shrill breath, air whistling sharply through his windpipe. He gritted his teeth. “You already found something wrong with the supplements?”
“Yeah. Xi Xiaoyong nearly died because of you. He probably won’t die now, but he’s more or less ruined.”
Wei suddenly began laughing. The sound was piercing, almost ghostlike. “So there’s no getting away from the death penalty now, is there? Hahahaha!”
“I’m not a judge. I don’t decide your sentence.”
“Don’t fucking patronize me! I know how this works!” Wei slammed the table, completely out of control. “Doesn’t matter anymore. Death is death. I may have lived like a coward, but at least I’ll die for something worthwhile!”
Chen Zheng gave a cold snort. “How noble.”
“Isn’t it?” Wei said smugly. “Feng Feng died a pathetic death. He died without even understanding why. That’s what he gets for humiliating me all those years! I’m different. I chose this path myself!”
In a boastful tone, Wei finally admitted that killing Feng Feng had nothing whatsoever to do with Hao Le. He had long been sick of Feng Feng’s superior attitude. Feng had been nothing more than a school delinquent leader, so why did he still put on airs after entering society? At Mr. Qiu’s villa, Feng Feng had half-jokingly, half-seriously said, “Servants in Country J kneel when they serve. Why don’t you kneel and serve us too?”
Mr. Qiu had stopped him immediately, but Wei had still been furious. If he had not cared about maintaining appearances, he might have turned on Feng Feng right there.
After the gathering ended, Wei had already worked off much of his anger, but then Mr. Qiu had to look at him with pity. That was what he truly could not tolerate. What the hell was Feng Feng? Wei only gave him face because he did not want to ruin the dinner. Yet in someone else’s eyes, he had become Feng Feng’s obedient servant?
He could not accept it. Rage blazed through him, igniting more than ten years of accumulated resentment. He suddenly thought of Hao Le, who had died such a terrible death. Hao Le had been Feng Feng’s dog too, and that was where it had gotten him. To think Wei had once pitied him.
His revenge plan gradually took shape. He would never again endure Feng Feng’s condescension. That piece of trash would pay. Wei also needed an escape route. What kind of escape route? He thought and thought, then realized Hao Le was ready-made. Right. And Ke Shuer too, that shameless woman who had once again gotten mixed up with Feng Feng!
If the police never investigated him, fine. But if they ever did, he would concentrate every suspicious point onto Ke Shuer and have the police investigate her. If they still eventually caught him, Hao Le would become his motive, his perfect justification. He was avenging a beloved friend who had suffered brutal school violence. The law might not stand with him, but public opinion and the ignorant masses certainly would. As those voices grew louder and louder, they would eventually force the law itself to yield.
Wei was panting heavily, but his glittering eyes resembled those of a victorious general. From his teenage years onward, Feng Feng had ordered him around. Now he had finally killed him. Just a little more. He had been only a little away from deceiving the police.
With the complete confession secured, Chen Zheng stood and looked down at Wei Youtai. “Unfortunately for you, you aren’t the winner. You’re just a despicable loser.”
Before the door had even closed, Wei Youtai’s heart-rending howl came from inside.
Most of Beiye Sub-bureau’s officers had already withdrawn from Xuebu Mountain. Hao Le, whom Wei Youtai and Ke Shuer both insisted had died and been buried there, still had not been found. Continuing to search offered little hope, and the police had more urgent cases still unsolved: the “Zeng Yan” case and the Wu Junqian case.
Kong Bing gathered the team for a meeting. Everyone offered their own opinions. One thing was relatively clear: the fake Zeng Yan had not died because of Hao Le, nor did her death have much to do with Feng Feng’s. She and Wu Junqian shared several traits, so the killer might be targeting women in the food-service industry.
Chen Zheng and Ming Han sat in the final row of the meeting room and did not join the detectives’ discussion. They looked like students whispering during a large lecture, speaking quietly among themselves.
“There’s still something about Wei Youtai that bothers me,” Ming Han said.
Chen Zheng said, “He confessed too quickly?”
Ming Han nodded. “He made so many preparations. He could have kept ‘resisting’ for a while longer. He staged that whole suicide scene at Juxing only after Heiwen police found the body. But at that point, we still didn’t have any hard evidence tying him to the murder.”
“His explanation was that the body was buried somewhere no one should have found even after it had turned to bones, but then a group of content creators happened to find it, so he took it as heaven’s will.”
Ming Han propped his cheek on one hand. “It isn’t impossible. Someone like him is actually extremely fragile inside. Once the body was found, he mentally collapsed. And there’s one more thing, the overseas relay he used. That setup was fairly sophisticated. Technical Investigation couldn’t fully unravel it right away. Once things here are done, I’m planning to take it back to the Mobile Unit for analysis. Maybe it connects to something larger.”
Chen Zheng wrote several lines in his notebook. Ming Han leaned over. “What are you writing?”
“The issue you raised, and the relay.” Chen Zheng said seriously, “The question doesn’t seem to lead anywhere right now, but what if it matches something later?”
Ming Han gave him a small thumbs-up. “Thorough.”
“I’m more concerned about something else.” Chen Zheng frowned slightly and set down his pen.
“Where?”
“We initially focused on Yin Jingliu, but he disappeared completely.”
Ming Han asked, “Disappeared?”
“I mean from the later investigation, not his original disappearance.”
Ming Han took Chen Zheng’s notebook and turned to the earlier page containing Yin Jingliu’s clues. “He was the basis for how we traced the ‘Zeng Yan’ and Feng Feng line. And he really did disappear around the same time Hao Le died. Was it only a coincidence?”
“If Hao Le’s remains had been found on Xuebu Mountain, I might believe it was a coincidence,” Chen Zheng said.
Ming Han looked at his profile. “Mm?”
“Ke Shuer wasn’t lying, and Wei Youtai has no reason left to lie. They both gave the same burial location. So why did the body vanish without a trace? The soil doesn’t even contain the slightest trace of decomposition.” Chen Zheng said, “Either someone dug the body up almost immediately after it was buried and took it somewhere else. Or…” The corners of Chen Zheng’s eyes lifted slightly. “Hao Le wasn’t actually dead. They all thought he was, but maybe he still had one last breath.”
Ming Han’s fingers, pinching the corner of the notebook page, stopped moving.
“Ke Shuer gave us another clue. There’s no concrete evidence, but it’s worth considering.” Chen Zheng continued, “The figure they saw was a woman. She heard their secret and later became the current ‘Zeng Yan.’ If someone could pull that off, then this ‘Zeng Yan’ herself was no ordinary person.”
Ming Han said, “So that made you wonder whether Yin Jingliu might also have been on Xuebu Mountain that day?”
“The mountain is huge. Anyone could enter it. And Yin Jingliu had reason to resent Feng Feng’s group because of his eyesight,” Chen Zheng said. “Maybe he went into the mountain intending to do something to Feng Feng.”
Ming Han continued, “Then he witnessed Hao Le falling from the cliff too. He rescued Hao Le? Or took away Hao Le’s body?”
“It’s only one possibility. There’s no evidence.”
“That’s quite a startling theory.”
They both fell silent. What Chen Zheng did not tell Ming Han was that he had thought of another person whose body had disappeared: his friend Han Qu.
The attack case in Luocheng had long since been settled. The only person whose whereabouts remained unknown was Han Qu. Was Han Qu dead? If he was, who had taken away his body? Every time Chen Zheng thought of it, his nerves tightened instantly.
After a while, Chen Zheng took his notebook back. “What were you going to tell me that day?”
Ming Han looked puzzled. “What day?”
“When I was coming back from Huangqun Township. On the road.” Chen Zheng thought for a moment. “You only said ‘you,’ and then the signal cut out.”
Ming Han leaned against the back of his chair and folded his arms. “Oh. That.”
Chen Zheng stared at him, but Ming Han smiled mysteriously. “Not telling you.”
Chen Zheng was speechless.
Ming Han lightly swayed his head, his expression irritatingly smug.
Chen Zheng asked, “Was it something bad about me?”
Ming Han laughed. “Bro, do you think I’m an elementary-school kid? Why would I randomly badmouth you?”
Only afterward did Chen Zheng realize how childish and slightly rude his question had sounded. He looked away. “No. You’re an elite member of the Mobile Unit. The police dogs’ big brother.”
Ming Han burst out laughing. Kong Bing finally noticed the commotion in the back row. “Captain Chen, Captain Ming, do you two have any thoughts?”
Chen Zheng raised his head and met Kong Bing’s righteous gaze. After all these years, he once again experienced the awkwardness of being caught whispering by the homeroom teacher.
Ming Han cleared his throat. “We were just discussing the possibility that Yin Jingliu may have been on Xuebu Mountain…”
After the meeting ended, the officers dispersed to their respective tasks. Kong Bing decided to work from the more concrete clues and place the investigative focus on Wu Junqian. Chen Zheng and Ming Han had no objection.
Before the day ended, the hospital brought good news. Huang Li had regained consciousness. Her cognition was clear, and she did not seem to be suffering from the memory problems commonly seen after severe brain trauma.
Huang Li was crucial to the Wu Junqian case. Why she had tried to kill herself and whether she had anything to do with Wu Junqian’s death would directly determine the direction of the investigation.
Chen Zheng went to the hospital immediately. Huang Li became visibly nervous when she saw him. Chen Zheng said, “It’s all right. I’m only here to confirm your condition. Once you’re a little better, I have a few questions to ask.”
Huang Li was silent for a long time, then said, “You were the one who saved me that day.”
Chen Zheng was slightly surprised. “You knew?”
“I still had a faint sense of what was happening. I didn’t see you, but I could feel it.”
Huang Li took a deep breath. “Officer Chen, you saved my life. Since I failed to die, I don’t want to hide anything anymore. Wu Junqian… I killed her.”