Heavy rain was falling over Rongxiang City. Wu Tao had not brought an umbrella and was waiting downstairs from her office for her husband to pick her up. A car stopped, the door opened, and an unfamiliar man got out and walked toward her. She did not know him, but his eyes were fixed on her. Confused, she glanced around. She was the only person there.
“Ms. Wu, could I take up a little of your time?” Just as Wu Tao assumed he was another insurance salesman, the man held out his credentials.
Ming Han. Police.
Wu Tao paused, then looked up and studied him uneasily. “Why are you looking for me?”
There was an open café inside the office building. Ming Han said, “Let’s go inside.”
Hardly anyone came for coffee after work, so only Ming Han and Wu Tao were in the shop. Ming Han said, “I’m here because of your younger brother, Wu Ye.”
Wu Tao exclaimed, “My brother? What happened to him?”
“It’s complicated. Not long ago, he became involved in a murder investigation. During the investigation, he admitted to killing three women, as well as…” Ming Han looked into Wu Tao’s eyes. “Your father, Wu Zhang.”
Wu Tao went rigid, as if she had not understood. Then she covered her mouth. Her entire body began to tremble, and tears spilled from her eyes. “How is that possible?”
“Ms. Wu, calm down first. Those four cases I just mentioned are all things he himself claimed. We still have to investigate what the truth actually is.” Ming Han asked, “How long has it been since the two of you saw each other?”
Wu Tao choked back sobs for a long time, her voice full of self-reproach. “My husband and I went back during Spring Festival last year. This year, we went to my husband’s hometown instead. I’m usually very busy with work. Xiao Ye and I… we haven’t seen each other for almost two years. He couldn’t have killed anyone. There has to be some misunderstanding. Officer Ming, please don’t wrongfully accuse him!”
Ming Han nodded. “We also think there’s more going on behind this, but he refuses to talk. That’s why I came all this way to see you. Also, Wu Ye wouldn’t even tell us you were living in Rongxiang City. We had to learn about your current situation through other channels.”
Wu Tao stared at him. “What?”
“He may not want us to find you, but I don’t know why.”
Wu Tao’s face went pale, as if something had occurred to her.
Ming Han said, “Ms. Wu, given Wu Ye’s situation, I’d like you to come with me to Zhuquan City. He’s hiding many things he refuses to tell us. You may be the only person who can get him to speak.”
Wu Tao asked, “Can I know what relationship the three dead women had with him?”
“They weren’t especially close to him,” Ming Han said. “But they had significant connections to his girlfriend.”
Wu Tao blurted, “Girlfriend!”
“You didn’t know?” Ming Han said. “Wu Ye never told you he had a girlfriend?”
Wu Tao shook her head anxiously. “He never said anything! I even asked him before, and every time he said there was no one!”
“Maybe he wanted to introduce her to you in person.” Ming Han continued, “There are even more suspicious things about his girlfriend than about him, but we can discuss that later. First, to answer your question: one of the victims was her friend, one offended her many years ago, and the last had a more distant connection. Overall, Wu Ye came to know all three through her.”
“Then…” Wu Tao grew even more anxious. “Has she said anything?”
A cold, almost cruel side of Ming Han surfaced. “She says Wu Ye killed them all and that none of it had anything to do with her. She lived day and night beside a murderer, so she’s a victim too.”
Wu Tao shot to her feet. “Impossible! My brother must have been harmed by that woman!”
Wu Tao’s husband arrived. He was an ordinary-looking man, and when he learned something had happened to Wu Ye, he was shocked too and insisted on accompanying Wu Tao to Zhuquan City. On the road, Ming Han asked, “Do you remember how your father died?”
At the word “father,” undisguised disgust appeared on Wu Tao’s face. “He didn’t deserve to be called a father. He was a piece of trash!”
Wu Ye also used “piece of trash” to refer to Wu Zhang, so Ming Han simply used the man’s name. “Wu Ye was only eight then. How did he kill Wu Zhang?”
Silence fell in the back seat. After a long time, Wu Tao lowered her head. “He didn’t. Wu Zhang fell into the river by himself and drowned. It was retribution.”
Ming Han looked into the rearview mirror. “Wu Ye described the process very clearly.”
Wu Tao gripped her skirt. “He… what did he say?”
Ming Han repeated Wu Ye’s account, emphasizing how he had supposedly lured Wu Zhang onto the rock. “How could a child have thought of so much?”
Wu Tao’s voice shook. “That’s not what happened at all. Those are fantasies he made up!”
“Fantasies?”
“Yes! Just fantasies!”
Wu Tao explained haltingly that Wu Ye had lived under Wu Zhang’s violence from the moment he was born. At first, their mother had still been there to protect him, but after their parents divorced, Wu Ye was the one left behind. From that moment on, it was as though he had fallen into hell and lived without ever seeing daylight. Whenever Wu Tao had the chance, she went to see him, but she was still only a child herself and could not truly protect her younger brother.
Heaven finally opened its eyes and let Wu Zhang die on a stormy night. After discussing it with their mother, Wu Tao moved in with Wu Ye. At first, he could not escape Wu Zhang’s shadow and often woke at night crying and screaming. Wu Tao would tell him stories about good being rewarded and evil punished, saying that after Wu Zhang died he would still be struck by lightning, torn limb from limb, until even his soul ceased to exist.
Perhaps he had heard too many bloody stories like that. As Wu Ye grew older, he actually began imagining that he himself had killed Wu Zhang. He often vividly described different ways Wu Zhang had died. Wu Tao listened in horror, realized her brother might be developing psychological problems, and stopped telling him those stories about good and evil eventually receiving their due.
“You’re saying the whole story about leading Wu Zhang to his death by drowning was something Wu Ye imagined?” Ming Han asked, looking into the rearview mirror.
“Yes! He’s told me things like that before!” Wu Tao looked firm, but her voice was trembling. “I’m his sister. Wouldn’t I know?”
Her husband put an arm around her shoulders and quietly comforted her. Ming Han watched for a moment, then said, “Wu Ye’s testimony is very important. Whether he killed Wu Zhang will affect how we assess his current behavior and motives. Once we reach Zhuquan City, I’ll arrange for the two of you to meet. Whether you can get him to tell the truth will depend on you.”
“I… I understand.” Wu Tao’s voice was very low. Her whole body seemed wrapped in worry and fear.
Ming Han felt she was unlike an ordinary suspect’s relative. There was something extra in her. And that something was very likely exactly what Wu Ye was desperately trying to hide.
Chen Zheng took Wu Lianshan to the hospital and brought her to the emergency department. After vomiting, her face had turned a sickly white and her eyes were badly reddened. The doctor examined her and said it was a stress reaction caused by emotional shock. Rest would be enough.
Kong Bing assigned an officer to stand guard outside the ward, then hurriedly asked Chen Zheng, “What did you do to her? How did you manage to shake her up this badly?”
“I only took her back to some familiar places and helped her reminisce about the past she shared with Zeng Yan.”
Kong Bing asked, “Did she admit knowing Zeng Yan?”
Chen Zheng shook his head. “We have to wait for news from Ming Han.”
Wu Ye was now a suspect who had confessed, so a family member who wanted to see him had to pass through layer after layer of procedure, with police and a lawyer present. Kong Bing handled the paperwork while Chen Zheng met up with Ming Han. Ming Han introduced them. “This is Wu Ye’s older sister.”
After the long journey, Wu Tao looked exhausted. Mistaking Chen Zheng for some senior official, she hurriedly said, “My brother couldn’t have killed anyone. He’s innocent!”
The paperwork could not be completed immediately. Chen Zheng invited Wu Tao into a reception room. “Ms. Wu, there’s no rush. Rest for a while first.”
The less hurried he seemed, the more anxious Wu Tao became. “Where’s that woman? Can I see her?”
Chen Zheng knew she meant Wu Lianshan. “That may not be convenient right now. She’s ill and at the hospital.”
Wu Tao endured for as long as she could, but finally broke down crying. She said it was all her fault. In recent years, she had assumed her younger brother had grown up and become independent. She had her own career and family, so she no longer cared for him the way she once had. She had never imagined someone would frame him.
Chen Zheng showed her a photograph of Wu Lianshan. Hatred flared in Wu Tao’s eyes. Although she did not yet know the full circumstances of the three cases, she remained adamantly convinced that this woman had harmed Wu Ye.
That evening, Kong Bing finished the paperwork, and Wu Tao waited for Wu Ye on the other side of a glass partition. Wu Ye had no idea whom he was about to see. The instant he saw Wu Tao, he froze in place. Tears were already spilling from Wu Tao’s eyes as she softly called, “Xiao Ye. Xiao Ye.”
Wu Ye finally reacted, but rather than showing the slightest joy at seeing family, he roared in fury, “What are you doing here? Go back! Go back!”
The detectives immediately restrained him. Startled, Wu Tao knocked her chair aside and tried to hold Wu Ye, but she had no way to reach him. She could only cry out, “Xiao Ye, your sister came to see you! Don’t get worked up. Listen to me!”
Tears already covered Wu Ye’s face. He seemed to know exactly what seeing Wu Tao here meant. He looked at her with eyes full of grief and unwillingness. “Sis, go back. I’m begging you. Go back!”
Wu Tao said, “Go back? If I go back, what happens to you? They say you killed people, so many people. You could be sentenced to death! You’re my only younger brother. If you die, what am I supposed to do?”
Wu Ye stared tightly at Wu Tao and gradually quieted. The police pressed him into the chair and watched his every movement.
“You’ve been kind since you were little. You couldn’t even bear to hurt cats or dogs. How could you kill anyone? It was that girlfriend of yours, wasn’t it? You always do this. You put what other people did onto yourself, just like…”
“Sis!” Wu Ye shouted, cutting off the rest of her sentence. He looked abnormally agitated. Chen Zheng watched him through the monitor. In every previous conversation they had had, Wu Ye had never looked this tormented.
After that shout, Wu Tao fell silent too. Brother and sister stared at each other through the glass, as though a voice only the two of them could hear was flowing through the air. After a moment, Wu Ye pleaded, “Sis, go back. You raised me, and I never got the chance to repay you. I’m sorry.”
“You should be.” Wu Tao’s voice was desolate. “Just answer one question. Are you protecting that woman?”
Wu Ye lowered his head. It was impossible to tell whether he could not answer or simply did not want to.
Wu Tao stood and took a deep breath. “If you refuse to talk, fine. There are some things I can tell the police myself.”
Wu Ye became frantic. “Sis! Stop!”
Wu Tao gave him one last look, her eyes full of disappointment.
After Wu Tao left, Wu Ye sat motionless. Several minutes later, he erupted into a howl of anguish.
Chen Zheng turned and left the monitoring room. Kong Bing asked, “You’re going to see Wu Tao?”
“No. Don’t disturb Wu Tao. Let her husband stay with her. I’m going to see Wu Ye.”
Wu Ye was like a bull enraged by a red cloth. His rapid breathing filled the interrogation room.
“Why did you bring my sister here!” He glared at Chen Zheng. Chen Zheng had no doubt that if Wu Ye had not been restrained in the interrogation chair, he would have lunged at him.
“You confessed to four crimes. Under normal procedure, of course we would contact your family,” Chen Zheng said. “And I haven’t even asked you why you refused to tell us where your sister was. What? Did you think that if you didn’t say anything, I wouldn’t be able to find her?”
Wu Ye slowly sagged in the interrogation chair. His voice took on a sobbing edge. “I killed people. I admitted it. If I deserve the death penalty, then give me the death penalty. Why do you keep digging? I don’t want my sister to see me like this!”
“You love your sister that much. Don’t you understand that what she wants even less is to watch you be sentenced for reasons she doesn’t understand? Do you think she wants to watch you die?”
“I…”
Chen Zheng asked, “When you interrupted her just now, what were you trying to stop her from saying?”
Wu Ye grew agitated again. “Nothing!”
Chen Zheng simply took out his phone and played the video. “Right here. She said, ‘just like…’ What came next? Just like what happened when Wu Zhang died?”
“No!” Wu Ye’s entire body shook so violently that even the interrogation chair rattled.
Chen Zheng looked at him seriously. “Wu Ye, if I was able to find Wu Tao and bring her here, then I can get her to tell me what you refuse to say. You know better than I do what she was about to tell us just now. I’m giving you two choices. First, keep silent, and I’ll go speak to her right now. Second, tell me what your relationship with Wu Lianshan really is. Were the three cases involving ‘Zeng Yan’ really carried out by you alone?”
Wu Ye clenched his teeth, a muffled sound emerging from his throat.
Chen Zheng checked the time. Ten minutes later, he stood to leave. But just as he reached the door, Wu Ye called him back in a hoarse voice. “I’ll talk.”
Chen Zheng signaled the detective assisting them to begin recording.
“It was Wu Lianshan… She made me do those things. I… I couldn’t control myself.”
Wu Ye began with Wu Tao leaving Zhuquan City. From childhood, he had been protected by his mother and older sister, especially his sister, and this created an almost pathological dependence on her. But his sister eventually had a family of her own, leaving him as the last person still standing in the same place. He never told Wu Tao how insecure he felt. He did not want her to worry, and he wanted her to find happiness. Yet for a very long time, he felt as though he were walking through darkness with not a trace of light ahead.
At the health college, he was an outsider. He was quiet, looked gloomy, and no one wanted to be friends with him. Then Wu Lianshan appeared.
He had noticed Wu Lianshan very early. She frequently took part in charity work helping vulnerable women. In her, he saw a strength that reminded him of his sister. After being separated from Wu Tao for so long, he transferred some of his familial attachment toward his sister onto Wu Lianshan. He never expected that during an exchange activity between different year levels, he and Wu Lianshan would be assigned to the same group, and she would show intense interest in him.
Afterward, Wu Lianshan frequently invited him to study with her or eat together. He had never dated anyone before, but even he could vaguely understand what she meant. What he could not understand was why someone as outstanding as Wu Lianshan would be interested in him.
He wanted to ask his sister what he should do, but every time he called, she was busy with work and family and hung up after only a few sentences. The more he felt that his sister no longer belonged to him, the more deeply he sank into Wu Lianshan’s initiative and attention.
Wu Lianshan liked telling him about her family. He learned that her childhood had been no happier than his own. Her parents had died early, her grandmother had raised her, and as a child she had even been inexplicably humiliated by an adult woman.
Caught up in emotion, he said, “No one will ever bully you again. I’ll protect you.”
Wu Lianshan smiled gently. “Little brother, how are you going to protect me?”
He admitted that what he could stand least was Wu Lianshan calling him “little brother.” He became so nervous he did not know how to answer.
Wu Lianshan said, “Would you kill them for me if they bullied me?”
He stared. “What?”
Wu Lianshan laughed. “I’m joking!”
But jokes could imperceptibly change a person. Wu Lianshan made the same joke so many times that gradually he began to feel there was nothing wrong with killing someone for her. When a man and a woman were together, wasn’t the man supposed to protect his woman? Especially when the woman he had fallen for gave him the same kind of affection he associated with an older sister.
He formally confessed his feelings to Wu Lianshan, and the two began living together. Wu Lianshan told him more about her past, then asked about his family. He did not like talking about his piece-of-trash father, but Wu Zhang was unavoidable whenever family came up. Wu Lianshan cried as she listened and said that from then on, she would cherish him the way an older sister would.
The longer they were together, the more unquestioningly obedient he became toward Wu Lianshan. He did not understand why. Whenever Wu Lianshan wanted him to do something and he failed, overwhelming guilt and regret swallowed him, making him feel unworthy of her.
What did being unworthy mean? He and Wu Lianshan had no blood tie like the one between him and his sister. If he was unworthy of Wu Lianshan, she could leave and never come back. He could not bear the thought. So he did everything possible to satisfy every wish Wu Lianshan had. That feeling reached its peak when his sister told him she would not be coming back for Spring Festival. He had nearly lost his sister. He could not lose Wu Lianshan too.
Otherwise, I’ll go insane, he thought.
It was then that Wu Lianshan finally named someone she wanted dead.
“Do you remember the woman I told you about, the one who humiliated me and my grandmother?” Wu Lianshan nestled against him. “Her name is Zhao Shuihe. She’s become a very successful career woman.”
Wu Ye knew it was time to fulfill his promise.
Information on Zhao Shuihe and Yihe Advertising could be found online. Before their April trip back to Yafu City, the two of them secretly returned twice without telling anyone, observing Zhao Shuihe and asking around about her.
It was strange. Zhao Shuihe was nothing more than a stranger to him, yet under the influence of Wu Lianshan’s emotions, when he saw Zhao Shuihe he too found her hateful, someone who deserved to die.
Wu Lianshan had grown up in Yafu City and found an ideal place to act: Xingfu Park. But getting Zhao Shuihe there was difficult. Wu Ye could not do it alone.
Wu Lianshan said, “I have a way. You only need to complete the final step. Xiao Ye, you’re my knight.”
The method Wu Lianshan used to lure Zhao Shuihe was actually simple. She herself was the perfect bait, and only she, as the person directly involved, could serve as that bait.
She waited along Zhao Shuihe’s route home from work. Zhao Shuihe no longer recognized her, but the moment Wu Lianshan introduced herself and repeated what Zhao Shuihe had said to her years earlier, Zhao Shuihe immediately remembered who she was.
“No wonder you’re such a successful career woman. What a memory.” Wu Lianshan said, “Sister Zhao, you’re really famous now. Even living out of town, I see news about you all the time. You help girls in remote areas. You help women suffering domestic violence. You’ve turned yourself into everyone’s warm, caring big sister. You’ve wrung every possible benefit out of being a woman. But do your fans know that deep down, you actually despise women like us? More than those men do? Otherwise, why do you secretly suppress your female employees and never give them a real chance to stand out? Why did you say something that vicious to a little girl?”
Zhao Shuihe moved away from the crowd. “What do you want? Let’s talk somewhere else!”
Wu Lianshan smiled. “Fine. But I choose the place.”
Zhao Shuihe studied her and concluded Wu Lianshan had not recorded the conversation years ago. “You’re slandering me. I never said anything like that.”
“So what? Call it slander.” Wu Lianshan smiled faintly. “But if I speak out, will people online question me first and assume I’m lying? I’m an ordinary person, and an ordinary person in the weaker position. Of course they’ll pile onto you. Right, I haven’t told you yet. Over the years, I’ve sincerely helped plenty of women, unlike you, who only knows how to put on a show. Once the story starts spreading, they’ll all speak for me. More people will follow along with accusations of their own. Sister Zhao, isn’t your reputation the most valuable thing you have?”
Wu Lianshan’s smile disappeared. “Xingfu Park. Think it over and decide whether you want to come.”
Wu Lianshan hit Zhao Shuihe’s weak point with precision. Zhao Shuihe went alone to Xingfu Park late at night. But Wu Ye, waiting there and committing his first crime, was unexpectedly seen by Xiang Yu when Xiang Yu appeared in the woods.
Remembering what happened, Wu Ye gave a bitter smile. “I didn’t expect that guy to hate Zhao Shuihe too. To tell the truth, I was already prepared to go to prison, but then that guy said he was the one who killed Zhao Shuihe.”
Xiang Yu’s appearance was undoubtedly an accident in the case, but it also became a critical turning point.
After they returned to Zhuquan City, Wu Lianshan chose her next target: Wu Junqian of Weiming Pastries.
“Why kill her?” Wu Ye asked.
“She’s an exquisite egoist,” Wu Lianshan said. “That’s the kind of person I hate most. Xiao Ye, will you help me?”
Killing one person might have seemed difficult, but with the experience of Zhao Shuihe behind him, Wu Ye already felt that killing any number of people no longer mattered. Whatever Wu Lianshan wanted, he would do it for her.
Wu Lianshan said she wanted Wu Junqian killed on Xuebu Mountain. At first, Wu Ye did not know why. Later he discovered that Wu Junqian had a conflict with a group of students, and one of the boys in that group came from Xuebu Mountain. If police eventually found Wu Junqian’s body, those students could be made to take the blame.
He followed Wu Junqian, waiting for an opportunity to act, and saw her poison the stray cats. He did not understand why Wu Junqian would suddenly do something like that and told Wu Lianshan. Wu Lianshan told him it was the perfect opportunity. He could use the video to threaten Wu Junqian.
It was another deserted little park late at night. This time, Wu Ye was much calmer than he had been in Yafu City. He tricked Wu Junqian into getting into a rented car and knocked her unconscious inside. Wu Lianshan was already waiting on Xuebu Mountain to meet him.
As for the final case, Wu Ye admitted that killing “Zeng Yan” had been driven more by his own personal feelings. He never interfered with Wu Lianshan’s friendships. As long as the other person was not a man, he supported them. But because of “Zeng Yan,” Wu Lianshan kept saying strange things to him, things like women could not depend on men and women had to be independent. Later, “Zeng Yan” even encouraged him and Wu Lianshan to break up.
When he told Wu Lianshan that he wanted to kill “Zeng Yan,” Wu Lianshan showed an expression he still could not understand, almost as if some goal had finally been achieved.
After the previous two experiences, killing “Zeng Yan” took almost no effort. The process was essentially the same as the account he had already given.
Wu Ye looked at the ceiling and let out a long sigh. “I know Sister Shan was using me, but I couldn’t help it. I couldn’t lose someone willing to stay with me again.”
After a pause, he added, “I deserve whatever happens to me. I brought it on myself. But I’m begging you, don’t bother my sister again. None of this has anything to do with her. It’s all my fault.”
At that moment, in another police room, Wu Tao sat with her back to the monitor, covering her face as she cried silently.
Wu Ye’s testimony could not spare him from punishment. Whether he had been brainwashed or controlled would require a formal, rigorous assessment. But this new statement was crucial to the interrogation that would follow. Wu Lianshan was brought back from the hospital to the sub-bureau in handcuffs and seated in the interrogation room. Her face was still pale, as though vomiting had drained all her strength.
Chen Zheng sat opposite her, but the first thing he mentioned was not Wu Ye. “Let’s continue talking about you and ‘Zeng Yan.’”