When Huang Li learned that the stray cats had almost certainly been killed by the poisoned cake she herself had made, she seemed nailed to the chair. Not a single part of her body moved. Even her eyes remained still. A long time passed before she slowly raised both hands to cover the lower half of her face, shaking her head faintly as tears spilled out.
Chen Zheng turned the tablet toward Huang Li and played the footage of Wu Junqian appearing on Silu Street. “Did you know she had been following you?”
Huang Li was sobbing too hard to answer immediately, so Chen Zheng gave her time to compose herself. Eventually she choked out, “No. The Silu Street store was our first location. After the other branches developed, this one was basically abandoned. She never came here!”
The revelation that Wu Junqian had poisoned the stray cats shocked and distressed not only Huang Li but the police as well. At the same time, it opened a new direction for the investigation. Kong Bing immediately assigned additional personnel to Chen Zheng and ordered a detailed review of every accessible surveillance camera around Silu Street. Ming Han said from the side, “Cameras alone aren’t enough.”
Kong Bing looked at him. “Mm?”
“Killing animals is an important point. If Wu Junqian was capable of using Huang Li’s cake to poison stray cats, maybe she had harmed small animals before too. Could that be why she was killed?”
Chen Zheng said, “Then what about ‘Zeng Yan’? I mean the later ‘Zeng Yan.’ The two murders are connected. Could she also have died because she harmed animals?”
Kong Bing said, “I’ll send people to check that first. It’s a new direction. We haven’t investigated it before.”
Although the surveillance review had been delegated to others, Chen Zheng remained especially interested in Silu Street and stayed closely involved. The footage search expanded outward from the little park, increasing the workload again and again.
When a familiar figure appeared on the screen, Chen Zheng instinctively leaned closer. At 9:10 p.m. on July 27, the night Wu Junqian disappeared, Wu Ye appeared in Silu Fourth Alley. Going backward in time, cameras in the little park also caught him feeding sausages to stray cats on July 18 and July 20.
Chen Zheng frowned. “Wu Ye…”
This was Wu Lianshan’s boyfriend, a current student at the health college. Wu Lianshan occupied an extremely peculiar position in the “Zeng Yan” investigation. “Zeng Yan’s” phone contained a secretly taken photograph of her. Wu Lianshan claimed she had met “Zeng Yan” through square dancing and that the two had admired each other. After arguing with Wu Ye, she went to “Zeng Yan” to vent, and “Zeng Yan” let her stay overnight. At the time, only Wu Lianshan and “Zeng Yan” were in the apartment, meaning the photograph had most likely been taken secretly by “Zeng Yan.” Why “Zeng Yan” had taken such a photograph remained unanswered. Objectively, however, it was precisely because of this photograph that the police had found Wu Lianshan.
Not long ago, Chen Zheng had met both Wu Lianshan and Wu Ye. On the surface, neither appeared connected to the “Zeng Yan” murder. Wu Lianshan especially had been on the night shift at No. 9 Hospital on October 4, when “Zeng Yan” was killed. Yet both of them possessed a faint sense of inconsistency, as though what they had told the police was not entirely true. The greatest difficulty in the “Zeng Yan” case remained motive. The police could not determine why she had been killed, and still less could they find a motive involving Wu Lianshan or Wu Ye.
Yet now Wu Ye and Wu Junqian had appeared in the same place during the same period of time. Shortly afterward, Wu Junqian was murdered.
On the already complicated clue board, Ming Han drew another line connecting Wu Ye and Wu Junqian. “Another common point between the two cases.” He tapped the tip of his pen beneath Wu Ye’s name several times. “This suspicious little couple.”
Chen Zheng stepped back several paces and sat in a chair facing the clue board, thinking calmly.
He did not immediately draw a conclusion. He had already suspected Wu Ye and Wu Lianshan before. Seeing Wu Ye now would naturally push him toward assuming something was wrong. That made calm objectivity even more necessary.
“I remember Wu Ye likes stray cats too,” Chen Zheng said after several minutes. “There are a lot of them around the old building he rents with Wu Lianshan. When I went to his place before, I saw him playing with one.”
“Silu Street isn’t anywhere near the health college, No. 9 Hospital, or their apartment.” Ming Han opened a map. “Classmate Wu Ye really goes out of his way to do good deeds. How did one of those good deeds take him all the way across districts to Silu Street?”
Chen Zheng said, “We can ask him.”
After the temperature dropped, the ginkgo trees at the health college turned yellow, and autumn began spreading through every corner of campus. On his previous visit, Chen Zheng had barely noticed the stray cats in the grass and along the base of the walls. Looking now, he realized they were all well cared for and unafraid of people. The bolder ones even came forward, meowing for food. Several students were using cages to “trap” stray cats, apparently to take them for sterilization. Chen Zheng watched for a while before heading toward the academic buildings.
He could not find Wu Ye. His classmates said Wu had recently been spending more time in the library, so Chen Zheng went there instead. A crowd had gathered beside the library, everyone staring upward. Chen Zheng approached and saw a cat clinging to a tree that was shedding its leaves. No one knew how it had climbed up, but now it could not get down. Students below tried coaxing it with food, but it clung tightly to the branch and refused to move. Wu Ye had climbed the tree and was slowly reaching toward it. The cat watched him warily. He whispered, “Come here. Come on.”
The cat still refused to move, so Wu Ye carefully edged a little closer and finally gathered it into his arms.
The students cheered. Once brought down, the cat immediately darted away.
Wu Ye brushed the dirt from his clothes. When he looked up, he saw Chen Zheng. He paused briefly, then walked out of the crowd. The others were dispersing too. Chen Zheng followed behind at an unhurried pace. Only after there were no other students nearby did Wu Ye turn around again. “Officer Chen. Something else?”
Chen Zheng glanced in the direction the cat had disappeared. “You really like these little animals?”
Wu Ye looked slightly puzzled. “Isn’t it hard not to like them?”
“Not necessarily.”
“Not necessarily?”
“Otherwise, why are there so many videos of cats being tortured and killed, with so many people watching them?”
Wu Ye’s expression instantly darkened, as though Chen Zheng had touched a nerve. “People who make videos torturing and killing cats aren’t human. They’re animals.”
Chen Zheng nodded. “Agreed.”
Wu Ye observed him for a moment. “So what exactly did you come to ask me?”
“You feed strays quite a bit, don’t you?”
Wu Ye thought for a moment. “I also take them to be sterilized. It isn’t irresponsible feeding.”
“Only the ones around campus? What about other places?”
“What are you getting at?”
“Do you know Wu Junqian?”
Wu Ye’s tone changed noticeably. “What?”
“The owner of Weiming desserts.” Chen Zheng stopped and met Wu Ye’s eyes. “Come to think of it, last time I saw a Weiming cake bag at your place.”
“Oh…” Wu Ye looked away. “Sister Shan likes their cakes. Why?”
“Wu Junqian is dead.”
Wu Ye pressed his lips together and said nothing, as though evaluating why Chen Zheng would ask him about this.
“She didn’t just die. Someone killed her more than two months ago. We only recently found the body,” Chen Zheng continued, watching Wu Ye’s eyes. “Coincidentally, we discovered her body while investigating the ‘Zeng Yan’ case.”
Disbelief flickered through Wu Ye’s eyes. “What do you mean? You think this person’s death has something to do with me?”
“Of course I’m not going to make a judgment that easily,” Chen Zheng said. “What were you doing on Silu Street on July 27?”
Wu Ye’s eyes widened immediately.
“And twice in mid-July, you also appeared on Silu Street,” Chen Zheng continued. “Are the stray cats there especially attractive to you?”
Wu Ye clenched his hands. Chen Zheng noticed the veins rising across the backs of them. “Don’t I have freedom of movement? Do I have to report everywhere I go to the police?”
“Under normal circumstances, of course not,” Chen Zheng said. “But now there’s been a murder. You appeared in the same place during the same period as the victim. This victim also appears connected to ‘Zeng Yan.’ You care about stray cats, while she… poisoned some.”
Wu Ye held his breath. After a moment, he said, “I don’t know this person.”
Chen Zheng glanced at students walking past. “You’d better come back with me so we can take a proper statement.”
“What if I don’t want to?”
“I’m working wherever I happen to be. If you want to do it here, I don’t mind.”
A few seconds later, Wu Ye clicked his tongue. “Who would dare go against the police?”
No one spoke inside the interview room. The computer quietly played surveillance footage showing Wu Junqian and Wu Ye appearing one after another.
Wu Ye said, “You brought me here because of this video? So many people pass through this street every day. Why don’t you arrest all of them?”
“Do all of them also have a connection to ‘Zeng Yan’?” Chen Zheng said. “And one correction: you came here. You weren’t ‘arrested.’”
Wu Ye was visibly restless, far less composed than he had been during their conversation in the lecture hall. Chen Zheng asked, “Why did you go to Silu Street?”
“To buy cake. Didn’t you see Weiming packaging at my place?”
“Oh? I seem to remember the downtown Weiming is much closer to your apartment. Does the Silu Street branch sell something special?”
Wu Ye faltered and changed his answer. “Buying cake was only incidental. I mainly went to buy jiangxiang flatbread.”
“Jiangxiang flatbread?”
“I only went to buy the jiangxiang flatbread Sister Shan likes.” Wu Ye lowered his head.
“Which shop?”
“Liu Laopo’s. It’s famous. Look it up if you don’t believe me.”
“From the health college to Silu Street is half the city. You went that far just to buy a flatbread?”
Wu Ye grew agitated. “So what? Sister Shan likes it, I had time, and she’s busy with work. She wanted that particular one, so I went to get it for her. Is that wrong?”
Chen Zheng brought up the earlier footage of Wu Ye in the little park. “What about these two days? You went for flatbread then too?”
Wu Ye straightened his back. “Yes. I noticed there were a lot of cats around, so I fed some while I was there.”
“The stray cats Wu Junqian poisoned may have included ones you fed.”
Wu Ye’s breathing gradually grew heavier. “Someone like that deserves a bad end, but I didn’t know her. Don’t just assume things and pin everything on me!”
“What are you imagining?” Chen Zheng said. “I only asked whether you happened to see Wu Junqian poison the cats that day, since you were both in the Silu Street area.”
Wu Ye froze. A drop of sweat slid from his temple.
Chen Zheng continued, “I also want to know whether, if you saw her, you noticed anyone suspicious around her. After all, she disappeared shortly afterward. And… you and your Sister Shan like eating Weiming pastries. Wu Junqian often appeared in livestreams to promote them. You might have recognized her.”
After a brief silence, Wu Ye insisted, “I didn’t know her. I don’t know what she did on Silu Street. I only went there to buy jiangxiang flatbread.”
At No. 9 Hospital, Wu Lianshan was even busier than the last time Chen Zheng had seen her. Every ward seemed to need her, and sounds of pain periodically came from the rooms. Chen Zheng observed for quite a while until Wu Lianshan finally changed out of her uniform and finished work.
When she saw Chen Zheng, Wu Lianshan paused. “Off… Officer Chen. Did you solve the ‘Zeng Yan’ case?”
Chen Zheng shook his head. “Why would you think that?”
Wu Lianshan tucked back a strand of hair. “You haven’t contacted me lately. Then you suddenly came to see me, so I thought… I thought the case had been solved.”
“It hasn’t. The good news is that we have more clues now.” Chen Zheng spoke slowly. “The bad news is that there’s another victim.”
Wu Lianshan’s eyes widened, her face showing fear and confusion. “Who?”
“You seem nervous.”
Her voice trembled faintly. “You said the case isn’t solved, then you said someone else died, and now you’ve come to see me. Either the person who died has something to do with me, or… or I might be the next person something happens to.”
The number of possibilities she reached in such a short time was somewhat beyond Chen Zheng’s expectations. He said, “Don’t be nervous. Do you know this person?”
He pushed Wu Junqian’s photograph across to her.
Unlike Wu Ye’s categorical denial, Wu Lianshan studied the photograph carefully before saying, “She looks familiar. I think I’ve seen her.”
Chen Zheng did not rush her. “Think carefully.”
Several minutes later, Wu Lianshan said, “I think she’s a streamer who sells cakes. Work is stressful, so sometimes I watch livestreams to relax. I’ve seen hers several times.”
“You’ve bought her cakes too?”
Wu Lianshan thought about it. “Probably. I don’t remember which shop.”
“Weiming desserts. She owned Weiming.”
“That’s her?” Wu Lianshan suddenly understood. “No wonder. She really didn’t look like an ordinary streamer.” After a pause, Wu Lianshan nervously asked, “But what does she have to do with me? Officer Chen, I don’t understand why you came to find me. I only bought cakes from her shop.”
The difference between Wu Lianshan’s reaction and Wu Ye’s was striking. Wu Ye had been far more agitated. Wu Lianshan displayed exactly the right amount of worry and unease.
Chen Zheng asked, “You and Wu Ye are still together?”
Wu Lianshan paused and smiled awkwardly. “We’re doing well.”
“I can tell. He’ll even cross the city to Silu Street to buy meat flatbread for you.”
“Ah, yes, yes. Liu Laopo’s. I really like theirs.”
“Wu Junqian was there at the same time. She disappeared shortly afterward.”
Wu Lianshan looked shocked. “That… Xiao Ye just happened to be there, right?”
Chen Zheng abruptly changed subjects. “Wu Ye likes small animals?”
“Yes. He takes care of several at school.”
“Never thought about bringing one home?”
“We rent. Even if we wanted to, the landlord doesn’t allow pets.”
When Chen Zheng said goodbye, Wu Lianshan’s concern was written all over her face. “Xiao Ye doesn’t know this Wu… Wu Junqian at all. They couldn’t possibly have had any conflict. This case definitely has nothing to do with us.”
Ming Han had parked near No. 9 Hospital. Chen Zheng spotted him the moment he came outside.
“How’d it go?” Ming Han asked.
Chen Zheng found a bottle of mineral water, twisted it open, and drank. “Both of their reactions are a little off. Wu Ye never really explained why he appeared on Silu Street, and it wasn’t his first time there. When Wu Junqian was following Huang Li, maybe he was following Wu Junqian.”
“The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.”
“Did Wu Ye go back to the apartment that night?”
Ming Han shook his head. “Can’t confirm it. The surveillance around that place is practically decorative.”
The car was quiet for a while. Chen Zheng said, “What do you think?”
“Me?” Ming Han smiled. “I think plenty.”
“Let’s hear it.”
“Someone like Wu Ye, who loves cats that much, runs into someone like Wu Junqian poisoning them. Once emotion takes over, I wouldn’t be surprised by what he does,” Ming Han said. “Maybe he originally came to Silu Street to buy jiangxiang flatbread for Wu Lianshan, noticed all the strays, and started feeding them whenever he came. Then on the twenty-seventh, he happened to see Wu Junqian poisoning the cats.”
“Wu Ye probably wouldn’t immediately rush up and kill her. First, he’d need a way to make Wu Junqian obey him. How? He had already noticed her and recorded what she did. He says he didn’t know Wu Junqian, but if Wu Lianshan watched her livestreams, he might have seen them too. He knew she was the owner of Weiming. A semi-public figure like that is easy to control. She doesn’t have the kind of professional PR team a true celebrity does, but she still has to worry about damaging her brand. If Wu Ye threatened her with footage of the poisoning while she was unprepared, she might have had no choice but to cooperate.”
“After that, it becomes even easier to explain. Wu Ye takes her somewhere, kills her, then buries the body on Xuebu Mountain where it’s unlikely to be found.” Ming Han continued, “That makes his motive revenge against someone who killed cats. And since Wu Junqian and ‘Zeng Yan’ share similarities, perhaps ‘Zeng Yan’ had abused animals too.”
Chen Zheng was quiet for a moment. “But Huang Li is the variable. If Huang Li hadn’t given Wu Junqian a poisoned cake that day, Wu Junqian wouldn’t have gone to poison the cats. The theory you just described makes Wu Ye’s crime impulsive. But we already discussed how thoroughly the killer planned things, even using those Super Fox fans and choosing Fu Bo’s hometown as the burial site. The killer practically handed suspicion to those students on a platter.”
“He had already targeted Wu Junqian, and Huang Li’s actions that day merely accelerated his plan?”
Chen Zheng paced several steps. “Still a problem. If Wu Ye loves cats to an extreme degree, why would he watch Wu Junqian kill them without stopping her? He would be exploiting the cats’ deaths so he could threaten her. That doesn’t fit someone whose love for cats has become obsessive. And if he targeted Wu Junqian earlier, why did he target her?”
Ming Han drew an exaggerated breath. “Bro, you just demolished everything I worked so hard to come up with in one breath!”
Chen Zheng could tell immediately that he was acting. “Wu Ye and Wu Lianshan are highly suspicious, but the evidence we have isn’t enough to detain them. We can only investigate around them for now.”
“Wu Ye is local. Easy enough to investigate. Wu Lianshan’s hometown is Yafu City. If we want a detailed background check, someone will have to go there.” At this point, Ming Han suddenly made a small sound of realization.
Chen Zheng asked, “What?”
“Yafu City. Isn’t the case that kid from your institute was investigating also in Yafu City?”
“That kid has a name. Xu Chuan.” Chen Zheng had considered the same thing before, but Zhao Shuihe’s death showed no obvious connection to Wu Lianshan. It seemed like nothing more than coincidence. By the time Zhao Shuihe’s case was sent to the institute, it had already been closed. The institute’s job was only to study the psychological details of the crime. Chen Zheng had spotted problems in the investigation immediately, and when Xu Chuan came to see him last time, Chen had told him to look carefully for the holes in the case.
He had no idea how Xu Chuan’s investigation was going.
“Fine, fine. Xu Chuan.” Ming Han said, “I’m going to Yafu City. Should I take him along and let him see the world?”
“He works at the institute. Why does he need someone from the Mobile Unit to show him the world?”
Ming Han smiled. “No idea who keeps saying a driven young man like Xu Chuan is wasting his life at the institute. No idea who wants him to get where he belongs as soon as possible, somewhere like frontline investigation.”
Chen Zheng turned away. “Take him if you want.”
Before Ming Han could leave, Kong Bing returned with new information.
“Reality isn’t quite matching what we imagined,” Kong Bing said. “Wu Junqian had no history of abusing cats or dogs. She didn’t seem to care much about animals at all, either positively or negatively. And ‘Zeng Yan’ was actually very good to strays. She regularly fed them and even found old blankets to make shelters for them in winter. There’s no way Wu Ye targeted her for animal abuse.”
Beiye’s detectives had handled this line of investigation. For Wu Junqian, they spoke to her relatives, employees, and neighbors. Li Luo and the rest of the Wu family naturally defended Wu Junqian completely, and their accounts were heavily colored by personal emotion. Li Luo kept both cats and dogs at home and said they were all fond of Wu Junqian. Wu had bought plenty of pet supplies for them and would help care for the animals whenever Li Luo traveled.
But according to outsiders, Wu Junqian never showed much enthusiasm toward animals. She was a pastry chef and had stricter hygiene standards than most people. She owned no pets herself, and no one remembered seeing her stop to play with animals on the street. One employee recalled arriving for work once with a lot of dog hair on her ordinary clothes. Wu Junqian scolded her and said people who worked with food should not keep cats or dogs. The employee had felt wronged. It was not as though she wore those clothes in front of customers without changing into a clean uniform. Wu Junqian was only her boss. What right did she have to dictate whether employees kept pets at home?
When detectives asked whether Wu Junqian showed any tendency to abuse cats or dogs, some people shook their heads and said it would never go that far, while others could not answer. Overall, before the stray-cat poisoning incident, Wu Junqian’s attitude toward animals was indifferent. She neither liked nor hated them. If friends or relatives had pets, she might play with them while visiting, nothing more.
Chen Zheng lowered his voice to Ming Han. “That means your theory doesn’t work. Wu Ye couldn’t have targeted Wu Junqian early because of animal abuse.”
Ming Han leaned back in his chair, looking entirely unbothered.
The investigation into “Zeng Yan” was much simpler. She had no family, so detectives questioned vendors from the snack alley and residents of Fengshu Residential Complex. Plenty of people had seen her feed leftover food to cats and dogs. Some vendors said she had asked them for food they were about to throw away, washed off the seasonings, then divided it among the animals. A few vendors were influenced by her and eventually began feeding stray cats and dogs without waiting for her to ask.
There were also many witnesses who remembered “Zeng Yan” helping make shelters for animals in winter. She had not done it alone. Plenty of warmhearted older women in the complex participated, providing quilts, old clothing, and cardboard boxes.
“The animal-abuse angle doesn’t work for ‘Zeng Yan’ either,” Kong Bing said. “I still think the common point between Zeng Yan and Wu Junqian should be food service.”
Chen Zheng added, “Young, attractive women working in food service.”
That reminded Kong Bing of the three women they had identified during the recent missing-person sweep: Liu Jianglu, Zhao Yu, and Wang Chenchen. Investigation into the three had been delayed somewhat by the Wei Youtai case. Now, at last, they had enough manpower to resume it.
Ming Han waved and started to leave. Chen Zheng called after him, “You’re just going to Yafu City like that?”
Ming Han turned around with a cheeky grin. “You’re letting me take your car? Thanks, Bro.”
Chen Zheng thought, Did I say that? But Ming Han had already very naturally taken his keys. Chen Zheng did not stop him. “Bring Xu Chuan. He knows Yafu City better than you do.”
Ming Han cupped a hand behind his ear. “Huh? Bring who?”
Chen Zheng sighed. “That kid from the institute.”
Ming Han tossed the keys once in his hand. “Roger that.”