The fire at Uncle Yin’s Noodle Shop was extinguished at midnight. Because it had burned so fiercely and an explosion had occurred, the surrounding storefronts had suffered varying degrees of damage as well. Chen Zheng stood before the row of charred, empty frames, his pupils trembling slightly.
Half an hour earlier, Kong Bing had called to tell him Uncle Yin’s Noodle Shop was on fire. At the time, Chen Zheng had not imagined it would be this serious. Fire engines lined the scene. The students had already been evacuated to safety, while shop owners who had rushed over after hearing the news wailed over the destruction.
He did not see Yin Gaoqiang anywhere, and a bad feeling abruptly rose in his chest. The firefighters said the call had come in at ten, and the fire had started at around 9:50. Most of the shops were already closed by then, and Yin Gaoqiang usually shut his doors at nine.
But where was Yin Gaoqiang?
Just then, one of the noodle shop’s beams collapsed with a crash. Several firefighters rushed out of the ruins and gestured toward the command vehicle. Chen Zheng ran over, only to be blocked by one of them. “It’s dangerous inside. Civilians need to stay outside!”
Chen Zheng took out the temporary work ID Beiye Sub-bureau had issued him. “I’m with Criminal Investigation. Is anyone inside?”
The firefighter looked at his ID and shook his head. “Even people from the sub-bureau can’t go in. You investigate cases, we put out fires. We can only let you inside once we’ve cleared every danger!”
Firefighters were already rushing back in. Chen Zheng stared into the wreckage, his heart sinking further. Sure enough, not long afterward, they carried out something wrapped tightly from head to toe. A loud buzz seemed to explode inside Chen Zheng’s head.
The “thing” no longer looked human, but after more than a decade in the police, Chen Zheng knew at a glance that it was a body.
Who was dead? Was it Yin Gaoqiang?
A motorcycle braked behind him, followed by familiar footsteps. Chen Zheng did not turn around. His mind was racing through one question after another. If the dead man was Yin Gaoqiang, was this explosion connected to the unresolved doubts left by the previous case? Someone had secretly placed a coaster in the noodle shop. Had that person now acted directly? Why kill Yin Gaoqiang? What did it have to do with Yin Jingliu’s disappearance ten years ago?
His mind felt like the ruins after a fire, scorching and boiling, crowded with clues that were no use at all.
Chen Zheng clenched his fists, anger blazing in his eyes.
“The sub-bureau notified me too.” Ming Han came to stand beside him, none of his usual flippancy on his face. “This explosion definitely isn’t simple.”
Chen Zheng said, “I’m going to Yin Gaoqiang’s home.”
Ten minutes later, the two stood before an old-fashioned iron gate. They knocked repeatedly, but no one came to answer. Chen Zheng already had his answer. Ming Han raised a hand and nudged Chen Zheng backward, then took out a slim lock pick. To someone who knew how to pick locks, this combination of an old iron gate and wooden door was practically undefended. It was simply that no one normally came to this sort of residential building to pick locks.
With a click, Ming Han opened the iron gate. A dozen seconds later, the wooden door inside opened as well. Chen Zheng immediately lifted the door curtain and stared silently into the darkness.
Faint light from a streetlamp filtered through the window. The room was extremely quiet. No one was breathing inside.
Ming Han switched on the light, revealing everything in the room. Yin Gaoqiang’s slippers sat beside the door with their toes facing outward. He had never come home.
By then, the firefighters had finished searching the shop. They had found only one incomplete body and confirmed that the center of the explosion was in the kitchen of Uncle Yin’s Noodle Shop, most likely involving a problem with the valve of an LPG cylinder. The scene was handed over to Beiye Sub-bureau for further investigation.
Chen Zheng’s phone rang. It was Kong Bing. Over the chaotic background noise, Kong Bing shouted, “We found a body. The identity hasn’t been confirmed yet. It might be…”
“It’s Yin Gaoqiang,” Chen Zheng said.
Kong Bing went silent for several seconds. “How do you know?”
“Ming Han and I are at his home right now.” Chen Zheng glanced at Ming Han, who was collecting biological samples. “We’ll bring comparison samples back immediately.”
At two in the morning, a faint burnt smell hung in the air at the forensic examination center. An incomplete body lay on the autopsy table. It could never be made complete again. Some of the tissue had been incinerated in the instant of the explosion.
The broken body lay there, barely recognizable as someone who had been alive only a few hours earlier, no different from the charred wood visible at the scene.
The forensic pathologist immediately collected DNA from the body, which was being compared with biological samples taken from Yin Gaoqiang’s home. Chen Zheng stood nearby and watched the autopsy.
Before dawn, the reports began arriving one after another. The deceased was indeed Yin Gaoqiang. The flames had “washed away” any traces that might have remained on his body. What the forensic pathologist could confirm was that Yin Gaoqiang had still been alive when the explosion occurred and had consumed alcohol before his death.
The explosion had not only erased traces from Yin Gaoqiang’s body, it had also wiped the scene clean. Surveillance cameras at both Uncle Yin’s Noodle Shop and the neighboring shops had been destroyed, making it impossible to know exactly what had happened at the time.
The atmosphere at Beiye Sub-bureau was oppressive. Kong Bing slapped the table. “I was just planning to reopen the investigation into Yin Jingliu’s disappearance. How did Yin Gaoqiang suddenly…”
Chen Zheng had been awake all night. His eyes were threaded with blood vessels, but his mind was exceptionally clear. “If he was murdered, could that itself be the reason Yin Gaoqiang was killed?”
Kong Bing looked up. “What?”
“There are three possibilities for Yin Gaoqiang’s death. First, suicide. Second, an accident. Third, homicide.” Chen Zheng said calmly, “Suicide isn’t very likely, but it isn’t impossible either. Yin Jingliu has been missing for ten years, and his wife has already died. He held on alone for years and may finally have reached his limit. When we investigated the case at No. 2 Middle School last time, we effectively gave him hope. But there was still no news of Yin Jingliu. For him, that may have been the same as having that hope shattered. The second possibility is an accident. Gas accidents happen all the time. The detailed investigation report isn’t out yet, so I can’t draw a conclusion.”
“The third possibility,” Chen Zheng continued after weighing his words, “is also the one I personally think is closest to the truth. Someone killed Yin Gaoqiang. He ran an honest little business and never offended anyone. The only thing about him that drew attention was his missing child. He waited outside No. 2 Middle School for ten years because of that. He lived perfectly well for all those years, so why would someone kill him now of all times?”
Chen Zheng’s gaze sharpened. “Because the police finally, truly began paying attention to him and decided to solve Yin Jingliu’s disappearance. There was something connected to Yin Gaoqiang. I don’t know what it was, and Yin Gaoqiang himself may not even have realized it. But the killer knew and was afraid the police would find out. So before our investigation could formally unfold, the killer got rid of Yin Gaoqiang.”
Kong Bing’s eyelids twitched violently as he listened. “How big of a mess can one high school student’s disappearance possibly be tied to? Ten years later and someone’s still killing to silence people?”
Chen Zheng was silent for a moment, then brought up the coaster that had appeared in the noodle shop. “The timing of that coaster was too perfect. Without it, we wouldn’t have found the Wu Lianshan lead so quickly. It was almost as if someone was using Yin Gaoqiang to guide us toward Wu Lianshan. But if that person is the one behind this explosion, it doesn’t make much sense. Their guidance more or less made us notice there was something hidden around Yin Gaoqiang. Why would they do that?”
Kong Bing did his best to follow. “Then the two sides belong to different camps?”
Chen Zheng said frankly, “I haven’t figured it out yet.”
No matter how complicated the network behind this might be, the investigation still had to begin with the basics. The possibilities of suicide and accident seemed remote, but neither could be ruled out without concrete evidence.
Early that morning, a crowd gathered around the noodle shop. Beiye Sub-bureau put up police tape outside, while officers from Hele Street Police Station took shifts guarding the area to stop anyone, especially students, from rushing inside.
Classes had already begun, but many students refused to leave. They knew Yin Gaoqiang had died in the explosion and spontaneously placed flowers along the roadside. Quite a few girls were crying. Several teachers hurried out of the school, trying to pull the students back inside.
One girl wiped her tears and snapped angrily, “Now you suddenly remember you’re supposed to manage us? Where were you when students were getting hurt?”
A teacher said nervously, “What nonsense are you talking about?”
Chen Zheng listened silently to the argument.
The girl said, “What about Uncle Yin’s son? He disappeared. Did you ever ask what happened to him? Wasn’t he your student? And what about those delinquents? The police have already come to investigate several times. Wow, so more than ten years ago you were already letting delinquents run wild? Is bullying some kind of No. 2 Middle School tradition? Where are you when delinquents bully us? We only came out to say goodbye to Uncle Yin and suddenly you’re in a hurry to control us?”
The teacher’s face alternated between red and white. Seeing police and members of the public standing all around, the teacher said, “We’ll talk about this inside!”
“I’m talking about it right here!” The girl grew even more worked up. “You teachers only know how to pick on easy targets. Controlling us makes you look responsible and morally upright, right? Why don’t you go control Du Qing and his gang?”
Other girls, along with some boys, began voicing their dissatisfaction with the school too, their voices growing louder. The teachers saw that the situation was beyond their control and could only let them continue, no longer interfering.
Chen Zheng walked over and handed the girl a packet of tissues. She looked at him. “Are you a police officer?”
“Mm.” Chen Zheng crouched down and placed a cigarette beside the flowers she had left.
The gesture immediately made him feel closer to the students. Tears welled in the girl’s eyes again. “Then you have to investigate properly. If someone hurt Uncle Yin, you have to find the killer!”
Chen Zheng simply sat down on the curb. “You were pretty upset just now. Did Uncle Yin help you before?”
The girl sat down too and sniffled. “Uncle Yin helped a lot of us.”
“Can you tell me about it?”
“No. 2 Middle School isn’t a good school. You probably know that since you came to investigate what happened in the past.” The girl said the teachers always claimed that, after years of effort, No. 2 Middle School was no longer the place overrun by delinquents that it once had been and had even produced students who made it into good universities. But the students who actually lived inside the school were still affected by the delinquents to one degree or another.
The delinquents now did not openly beat people or extort money the way they had in the past, of course, but they would randomly choose quiet, withdrawn students as targets. Even if they never hit anyone, being surrounded or harassed for no reason was still miserable. Pretty girls who refused to mix with the delinquents had it especially bad. Being followed and whistled at was routine, and some were even threatened with rape if they refused to date them.
Most of those threats were probably empty boasting, but the people being threatened still lived every day with fear and disgust.
The school invariably pretended not to see. At most, teachers would speak to the delinquents, then harshly criticize the victims instead: Why did they target you rather than anyone else? You must have provoked them somehow. Just ignore it. If you stop reacting, they’ll get bored eventually and leave you alone.
Chen Zheng could imagine everything the girl described. Human nature was not nearly so noble. Persuading a delinquent to reform was far harder than lecturing someone weaker than yourself, and confronting a delinquent carried the added risk of provoking them and bringing trouble down on your own head.
The girl continued describing how much she hated the school. It felt almost like groundwork for everything she wanted to say about Yin Gaoqiang. When the teachers failed to protect them, Uncle Yin was the one who stood in front of them.
She still remembered being in her first year of high school when a delinquent from the neighboring class followed her and demanded her phone number. One look at him told her he had no good intentions. She complained to a teacher, but the teacher smoothed things over and accomplished absolutely nothing. The next time the boy followed her, she was so frightened she did not know what to do. Yin Gaoqiang happened to wave to her from the entrance of the noodle shop. “School’s out? Come have some noodles before you go home.”
The kindly smile on Yin Gaoqiang’s face made her feel safe. She darted into the noodle shop and glanced back. The delinquents had already left after getting no response.
Yin Gaoqiang began telling her about the shop’s specialties. Unable to hold it in, she said, “Uncle, someone was following me.”
Yin Gaoqiang fell silent for a moment, then smiled. “Don’t be afraid. See? They’re gone now, aren’t they?”
Only later did she gradually learn that Yin Gaoqiang had run his noodle shop for decades and had seen every kind of student. Teachers might be afraid of the delinquents, but he was not. In fact, the delinquents were afraid of him.
Chen Zheng asked, “Why?”
The girl said, “Because Uncle Yin’s child disappeared. Brother Xiao Liu got really good grades, so Uncle Yin was willing to protect students who actually wanted to study. And Uncle Yin had already lost everything. I guess the delinquents thought someone with nothing left to lose was the last person they should mess with.”
Chen Zheng understood the logic and another thought branched out from it. Then it was entirely possible that some of No. 2 Middle School’s delinquents hated Yin Gaoqiang. People at that age, driven by impulse, could do almost anything.
Chen Zheng took down the girl’s contact information and told her he might need to speak with her again.
Before long, a young man came stumbling over. His legs gave way outside the noodle shop, and he fell hard to the ground.
Chen Zheng recognized him. He was the noodle shop’s helper. Yin Gaoqiang called him Xiao Huang, and his full name was Huang Fei. He was short and barely spoke while working. Whenever Yin Gaoqiang called him, he simply answered with an “Mm” or two. Although Huang Fei was much younger, the students loved joking around with Yin Gaoqiang and generally treated Huang Fei as if he were invisible.
“Uncle Yin really died?” Chen Zheng stepped forward to help Huang Fei up, only to have his arm seized. “How could this happen? When I left yesterday, I was still telling him I’d find time to take him to see a doctor! Uncle Yin… Uncle Yin!”
The police were currently canvassing Yin Gaoqiang’s social network. As the person closest to him, Huang Fei was naturally one of the people they most needed to question.
But Huang Fei was in terrible condition, so Chen Zheng had to wait for him to calm down first. He handed him a pack of cigarettes. Huang Fei’s hands shook so badly he could not press the lighter. The cigarette trembled in his grip and was soon damp with sweat and tears.
He shoved the cigarette back into the pack and wiped his face roughly. “Officer Ch-Chen, ask whatever you need to ask.”
The noodle shop was now a dangerous structure and could collapse at any moment, so no one was allowed inside. Chen Zheng and Huang Fei stood nearby. “You said you wanted to take Uncle Yin to a doctor. What was wrong with him?”
Huang Fei choked out, “Joint pain. An old problem. Whenever it got cold, he could hardly stand it. He’d only get some Chinese medicine to take. Every time I tried to persuade him, he’d say he was already old, so why waste money on it?”
“Did Uncle Yin have any other health problems?”
“He got headaches a lot. He had tests done. They didn’t find any growths or anything, but when the headaches hit, they were awful.”
“What time did you leave yesterday? Was there anything unusual about Uncle Yin?”
“Before eight. Anything unusual…” Huang Fei thought for a moment. “Not really. He’d actually been pretty down lately, not just yesterday.”
Chen Zheng said, “Down? Why?”
Huang Fei hesitated, then looked up at Chen Zheng.
“Just say it. You don’t need to worry about anything. We need more clues.”
Huang Fei sighed. “It had something to do with you coming to investigate. I’m not blaming you. I don’t mean that. It’s just what happened.”
Chen Zheng nodded for him to continue.
“Xiao Liu had been missing for so many years without ever being found. Uncle Yin always said he wouldn’t give up, but deep down he already knew Xiao Liu might never come back.” Huang Fei lowered his head again. “Life just went on like that, and I thought he was pretty calm about it. But when you came to investigate, he started believing Xiao Liu was about to come home. Then there was no news, right? That was when he became depressed. He’d zone out all the time and even cooked the wrong noodles a few times. Lately he kept sending me home early. He probably wanted to stay alone in the shop a while longer.”
Chen Zheng said, “He was still in the shop at 9:50 last night.”
Huang Fei froze. “That really is late. A few days ago, I came back to grab something after getting off work. It was around 9:30, and he had already gone home.”
Chen Zheng changed the subject. “How did you and Uncle Yin meet?”
Huang Fei began crying again. “Uncle Yin helped me. I never mentioned this to him. I didn’t dare. But in my heart, I thought of him as my father.”
Huang Fei was twenty-three that year and had worked at the noodle shop for four years. He came from the countryside and had not even finished junior high because his family was too poor. He came to the city early with people from his hometown to find work. He worked at construction sites and restaurants, but because he was introverted, short, and thin, he was constantly bullied. Eventually, the bullying escalated. His coworkers falsely accused him of stealing their wages. He had no way to defend himself, and they searched him and took every bit of money he had.
At the time, he truly had nowhere left to go. He searched for work at a wholesale market, but because he looked too weak to carry heavy loads, no employer wanted him. Yin Gaoqiang had come to buy supplies and saw him crouched near the entrance. When Yin asked about his situation, Huang Fei admitted he had been falsely accused of stealing. Yin Gaoqiang frowned, and Huang Fei knew immediately that this opportunity was probably gone too.
Whenever prospective employers had asked about his work history before, Huang Fei had always told them that part. They invariably found some excuse to reject him afterward. He understood they believed he really was a thief. But he could not bring himself to hide it either. What if an employer heard about it from somewhere else?
Instead, Yin Gaoqiang held out a hand to him. “The noodles I make are really good. Look how thin you are. Come have a bowl first.”
At the time, the noodle shop’s previous helper was about to return to his hometown. Huang Fei became his replacement just like that. He stayed for four years, learned Yin Gaoqiang’s craft, and saved enough money that he was ready to open a shop of his own.
Huang Fei burst into loud sobs. He said he had spent the entire year hesitating over whether to tell Uncle Yin that he wanted to leave. Yin had seen what he was thinking and supported him completely, even promising to contribute some money once Huang Fei opened his shop. Huang Fei felt that because he had been running all over looking for a suitable location and his mind was no longer entirely on the noodle shop, he had failed to give Uncle Yin enough care.
“If I’d stayed with him more, he wouldn’t have killed himself!”
Chen Zheng said, “You think Uncle Yin committed suicide?”
Huang Fei looked lost. “Didn’t he?”
Chen Zheng did not answer. Instead, he asked, “You never considered a gas accident, or… something else?”
Huang Fei said with certainty that it could not possibly have been an accident because Uncle Yin took safety extremely seriously. From Huang Fei’s first day working there, the thing Yin had emphasized most was gas safety. The local authorities carried out spot inspections from time to time to make sure gas equipment was safe, while Yin personally checked everything every single day. If he ever discovered a leak, he immediately called the repair service.
Chen Zheng fell into thought. The autopsy and scene examination both indicated that the problem had been with the LPG cylinder’s valve, and Yin Gaoqiang had been beside the valve when the explosion occurred. He had manually manipulated it, triggering the blast. That action could be interpreted as deliberately causing an explosion, meaning suicide, or as an emergency response after discovering a gas fault that still ended in an explosion.
But according to Huang Fei, Yin Gaoqiang was meticulous about gas safety. If something was wrong, he would immediately call emergency repair personnel rather than tamper with it himself.
That pushed the balance another step toward homicide. The killer might have tampered with the valve so that the moment someone performed a gas-safety check, it would trigger an explosion.
The killer knew Yin Gaoqiang’s habits inside and out. They knew Yin would never leave a safety inspection to anyone else and that he would only perform it after all the customers had left.
Chen Zheng looked at Huang Fei. He was the person most capable of arranging something like that. But his reactions did not feel like those of a killer.
The investigation continued. Logically, an accident had essentially been ruled out, while the possibility that Yin Gaoqiang had committed suicide was increasing. Shopkeepers nearby confirmed Huang Fei’s description. Yin had been very depressed lately. People sometimes had to call him several times before he responded. Everyone else would close up for the night while he sat outside on a stool, staring at nothing.
“Thinking about his son. Thinking about his wife.” Ming Han said, “Thinking about how he’s reached this point in his life and somehow ended up alone. Given Yin Gaoqiang’s circumstances and his age, choosing suicide wouldn’t be impossible to understand.”
Chen Zheng considered this. “But choosing an explosion…”
“An explosion draws the greatest possible amount of attention, both from the police and from the public,” Ming Han said. “If I were Yin Gaoqiang and believed I would never see my son again, I might use my own death to force the police investigation forward.”
Chen Zheng said, “It’s extreme, but we really can’t rule it out.”
“Now turn it around and consider homicide,” Ming Han said. “The killer also chose an explosion. Whether the gas equipment was tampered with, and how, will be very difficult to verify now.”
Chen Zheng stared at the tabletop without speaking.
Ming Han waited a while. “Bro? What are you thinking about?”
Chen Zheng came back to himself. “I’m thinking that suicide is possible, but for Yin Gaoqiang specifically, I don’t think he could choose an explosion.”
Ming Han said, “Oh?”
Chen Zheng told him what he had heard from the girl and added how Yin Gaoqiang had cared for Huang Fei, then drew his conclusion. “An explosion wouldn’t only hurt him and destroy his own shop. It would damage the surrounding shops too, and it happened right when school was letting out. There was no guarantee a student wouldn’t be hurt. Would Yin Gaoqiang really do that?”
Ming Han said decisively, “Then it’s definitely homicide.”
Chen Zheng looked faintly surprised. “I’m only giving you my judgment.”
“Doesn’t matter. I trust your judgment.” Ming Han laughed and tapped his temple. “When you’re here, I’m too lazy to use my brain.”
Chen Zheng looked into his eyes, and his thoughts paused for an instant. Ming Han stepped a little closer. “Bro, your direction was already clear at the meeting last night. Why was Yin Gaoqiang fine before, then the moment the police seriously reinvestigated Yin Jingliu’s case, something happened to him? Obviously someone was afraid the police would learn too much and chose this exact moment to silence him.”
“You follow that line,” Ming Han continued. “Leave the suicide and accident branches to me.”