After finishing an entire bag of frozen dumplings, Captain Xue noticed Chef Ling heading to the restroom and immediately got up to follow him.
Ling He had just stepped out when he and Xue Qian crossed paths. In that split second, Xue Qian planted one palm against the wall, bluntly blocking the way, then crooked his fingers at Ling He.
Ling He had already guessed that Captain Xue had not followed him over merely to queue for the toilet.
Xue Qian found a corner of the living room beyond Mr. Yan’s line of sight, somewhere Xiaodao could neither see nor hear around the bend, and lowered his voice. “Mr. Ling, I just want to talk. About the case involving Ling Huang.”
The moment Ling He heard that, he understood why Xue Qian had so conveniently “passed through” Luancheng during a business trip. A criminal-investigation captain spent his days and nights running himself ragged. When would he ever have time to stop by for small talk and beg dinner? Obviously Xue Qian had not come to deliver ordinary case news, and he certainly had not merely been “passing through.”
Ling He said coldly, “So Captain Xue came to question me after all.”
Xue Qian spoke with his usual crisp efficiency. He had only three things to say.
“Ling He, the economic-crime unit has basically figured out what happened in Ling Huang’s case, so I’ll tell you enough to put your mind at ease. There were hidden circumstances behind both the fundraising fraud and the smuggling charges. Several insiders in the provincial Development and Reform Commission, the courts, and customs abused their authority, accepted bribes, switched evidence around, and conspired with others to manufacture the charges. After Ling Huang got into trouble, his company’s assets were frozen. But once those assets were liquidated, they were worth more than two billion yuan, and the records show the money scattering into unexplained channels. Some of those assets and cash may have been embezzled through other means. The task force will keep investigating. Once we get to the bottom of it, we’ll give you an explanation, and we’ll recover as much as possible for you and your family.”
“Thank you for your trouble, Captain Xue.” Ling He nodded. He had known all along that the truth would look something like this.
A trace of hesitation and reluctance entered Xue Qian’s eyes, but he still moved to the second matter. “Before Ling Huang went to prison, there was another smaller case involving him. He was a prominent businessman at the time, somebody with status and influence, so when a report was filed against him, he managed to make it disappear easily and the matter went nowhere. He… he was reported for sexually abusing male minors and for predatory conduct toward teenage boys both at the company and at home. Do you know anything about that?
“By coincidence, can you guess who reported him?”
Xue Qian watched Ling He’s face as he spoke every word.
Ling He answered simply, “No idea.”
Xue Qian gave him no time to breathe. “Then do you know who the victim was?”
Ling He fell silent.
Xue Qian narrowed his eyes, tracing every minute change across Ling He’s face. Ling He slowly wiped his hands with a towel, but the force in his grip nearly tore the cloth apart. Every knuckle stood out an alarming white, his clenched fingers betraying resistance and defiance.
Ling He understood why Captain Xue had deliberately avoided Yan Xiaodao and tried to pry open his mouth in private. Was this supposed to count as consideration for his privacy, some rare display of sympathy and tact? After chasing him relentlessly all the way here, he could keep that consideration. What exactly was there to ask?
Ling He raised one brow. “Captain Xue is asking me? Who do you think it was?”
Xue Qian pressed the advantage, guiding the exchange forward in the measured rhythm of an interrogation. Against Ling He’s flickering, deliberately evasive gaze, he released the third question. “Ling He, is Ling Huang really your biological father? Or is your biological father someone else, someone who met with trouble back then?
“According to our investigation, the records saying Ling Huang fell ill, received treatment, and died after treatment failed were falsified. There is also no file showing a commuted sentence, parole, or medical release. So did Ling Huang never die at all? Is he still alive? Where is he now? …Are you willing to cooperate with us and tell the truth, Ling He?”
“…”
“I’m not willing.” Ling He returned those four words and casually snapped the towel back onto its rack. The long strip of cloth cracked through the air with the force of a whip, almost as though he had lashed Captain Xue across the face, despite Captain Xue hardly deserving it.
Ling He’s refusal was hard and absolute, without circling, hesitation, or interest in further entanglement. Even Xue Qian had not expected him to be this stubbornly uncooperative.
I’m not willing.
That was all. There was nothing to discuss. One lift of Ling He’s eyes already meant he was seeing his guest out.
Xue Qian coughed lightly. “I know bringing up something this old again must be difficult for you…”
“What meaning is there in bringing it up now? Nobody investigated back then, and now you come here pretending to care, asking whether I’m well before digging through every last root?” Ling He suddenly stepped close, glaring at Xue Qian with anger sharp enough to flash like a blade. “Isn’t it a little late?”
The force radiating from between Ling He’s brows actually drove Xue Qian back two steps. Rarely apologetic, Xue Qian said, “In the economic case, there really were insiders abusing authority, taking bribes, and breaking the law. But in a criminal case, if the victim was underage and unable to report the matter directly or give a detailed statement at the time, then we police also…”
“Heh!” Ling He scoffed in open contempt, his breath hitting Xue Qian’s face as he mocked him without mercy. “If the victim was underage then, with no ability to resist or protect himself, then he should be an adult now. He can protect himself now. He is capable enough to collect every debt people once owed him, principal and interest included. Why would he still need you people coming out to meddle? …Captain Xue, you’re worrying too much. I suggest pulling your arm back and minding the little patch of ground that belongs to you.”
Having finished venting, Ling He added with perfect calm, “Captain Xue, don’t get trapped in a dead end. You guessed wrong. I’m not a victim. Nobody can hurt me.”
I shouldn’t even have fed this man frozen dumplings.
Ling He complained silently to himself, offering his guest absolutely no face as he turned away with a stormy expression and abandoned Xue Qian by the restroom door.
Captain Xue’s foul, stubborn temper was famous in their circles too. If anyone else had spoken to him this way, he would have exploded and started cursing long ago. Yet this time Xue Qian somehow swallowed it. He stared at Ling He’s uncompromising back and eventually shook his head with a sigh.
Xue Qian already understood everything and had his answer. He had come specifically to sound out the person involved and confirm his suspicions face-to-face…
Yan Xiaodao stood from the table. The baijiu had brought a flush around his eyes, while his ankle had not yet completely recovered after surgery, lending his walk a loose, swaying swagger. He came over and slung an arm around Captain Xue’s shoulders the way he would one of his own brothers, naturally carrying the presence of a big brother. “Come on. Keep drinking.”
The words Ling He had been preparing to use to throw Xue Qian out stuck in his throat. He glared at the captain in warning: If you’ve got the nerve, spill all of that in front of Yan Xiaodao.
Xue Qian disguised the clarity of his mind behind an equally swaying gait and completely ignored Ling He’s murderous warning. He plainly had no intention of leaving. First he had arrived uninvited, and now he invited himself to spend the night at the Ling residence.
In the kitchen, Ling He simmered Yan Xiaodao’s medicinal decoction in a clay pot and ignored the two rough men upstairs.
Xue Qian entered Yan Xiaodao’s room without the slightest ceremony. The two grown men moved the liquor bottle and cups onto the bedside table, clearly preparing to drink and talk deep into the night. All those inexplicable misunderstandings between them before, all their self-important bouts of temper, had already been slapped back into their own faces and swallowed clean. Once the misunderstanding was gone, they discovered they were actually rather alike, both men of strong feeling and straightforward temperaments. They might as well move one step closer, turn mutual respect into genuine friendship, and call each other friends.
Sitting cross-legged on the bed, Xue Qian clinked cups with Mr. Yan once more and spoke candidly. “Mr. Yan, do you know how we found the lead in the Ling Group case?”
Yan Xiaodao asked, “What happened?”
Xue Qian snapped his fingers. “We owe that to Chen Jin and his little friend. You remember the boy he’s dating at school, Qi Yanxuan, right?”
……
Chen Jin had spent years carrying the ugly label of a murderer’s son, but beneath all the unruliness he was simply stubborn and painfully straightforward, without the habit of twisting his thoughts through seven or eight hidden turns. His resentment came quickly and dissolved quickly too. Once Captain Xue hauled him out of the swamp of his adolescent shadows, Chen Jin poured out years of bitterness as thoroughly as if rinsing his insides clean and felt much lighter, as though a set of shackles that had choked him for years had suddenly fallen away.
A father was a father and a son was a son. Chen Jin had done nothing wrong. Why should he carry crimes and debts left by the old scum of the previous generation?
Chen Jin took Qi Yanxuan back to Rongzheng Street. This time they went while evening light still remained, walking openly through the street without caring whether any old acquaintances recognized him. Chen Jin bought Qi Yanxuan grilled squid. Each took one end between his teeth and they bit their way toward the middle, finishing the squid until their lips met.
That night, the two finally found an intimacy that suited them. Qi Yanxuan had never experienced anything like it in all those years, and even Chen Jin seemed surprised by how different closeness felt when they stayed face-to-face. At one point, Chen Jin actually lifted him into his arms and let him take the upper position…
They tried nearly every position they could think of and abruptly felt that all the confused struggling of the previous few years had been wasted effort.
Several times, Chen Jin asked Qi Yanxuan, “Do you like it? Does this feel good?”
Did that even need an answer? Qi Yanxuan was happier that night than he had ever been, tasting for the first time what it felt like to be cherished during intimacy…
The two of them probably exhausted themselves so thoroughly that every shred of vigilance disappeared. They were in Qi Yanxuan’s own bedroom, not his parents’ room, but after sleeping straight through until the sun was high, being caught in bed when Qi’s father pushed open the door was exactly the kind of disaster that excessive relaxation made inevitable sooner or later.
Qi Yanxuan’s father, the government official, was named Qi Xiaojie.
Qi Xiaojie had been an ordinary university graduate who built his career from nothing. He spent most of his life navigating officialdom with meticulous care, behaving cautiously, keeping a low profile, and serving his superiors attentively. Without a powerful family background or patrons behind him, his room for advancement had always been limited, and every step upward had been hard-won. The greatest shock and humiliation of his life arrived when he saw his own precious son in bed with Chen Jin and realized the two boys were in the kind of relationship he considered unspeakable.
A black cloud seemed to descend over Qi Xiaojie’s increasingly exhausted middle-aged face. It was as though the dead Chen Jiu had crawled straight out of his grave and slapped him across the face. His sallow complexion turned scarlet, veins standing out at his temples. In a single night, as far as he was concerned, the family reputation had collapsed, shame had entered his household, and the treasured son he had expected so much from had been ruined by Chen Jin.
Qi Xiaojie beat his chest in fury, rushed forward, and slapped Chen Jin twice across the face.
Chen Jin gritted his teeth and knelt before Qi Xiaojie, saying that he sincerely loved Xiao Xuan and wanted to build a life with him in the future.
Qi Xiaojie roared, “Impossible! Dream on! I will never agree! You think I don’t know what you are? You’re the son of a murderer. Forget it!
“Ungrateful, vicious little bastard! Why the hell did I ever pay to put you through school? People like you are born without a conscience, rotten stock that can never be raised properly. You’re worthless! I might as well have fed every cent I spent on you to a dog!!”
In the heat of his rage, Qi Xiaojie hurled every ugly insult he could think of, reducing his own son to tears and finally driving Chen Jin to turn and run from their home.
Eventually the man collapsed onto the sofa, face red, trapped between fury and sobs. A father already well into middle age finally began crying too, repeatedly slapping himself across the face. “Retribution. This is my retribution…”
Qi Xiaojie cried terribly, mucus running down his face in time with the shaking of his shoulders. Years of torment and regret poured out of him. “I brought this on myself. I took money. I betrayed my conscience and did something evil. I deserve this…”
After three days and nights of sleepless torment, Qi Xiaojie lost more than five kilograms. The final straw shattered an already fragile psychological defense, and he went to the police to surrender. He confessed numerous leads connected to the old economic case and even handed over account books and bank records containing the illicit money.
Before being transferred to the Three Rivers region, Qi Xiaojie had worked in customs in the neighboring province. His official rank had not been conspicuous, but his position gave him real control over import and export matters. During the customs-smuggling and fraud case, he colluded with certain people to frame Ling Huang’s company and accepted a large bribe in return.
Later, Qi Xiaojie took part in a so-called charitable program run by the Three Rivers civil-affairs bureau, donating to the “Three-City Civil Servants Relief and Education Fund for Out-of-School Youth.” Chen Jin had not been randomly assigned to him by drawing lots. Qi Xiaojie deliberately chose to sponsor the Chen boy one-on-one because from the beginning he knew Chen Jin was the son of the dead Chen Jiu from the great robbery, and from the beginning he had vaguely known part of the truth. His conscience had been uneasy. In a rush to accumulate virtue and perform charity, he threw out what amounted to a trivial sum for his own family to help the unlucky homeless child, hoping to buy back a conscience he himself considered nearly worthless.
Instead, his attempt to accumulate virtue created an enormous mess. He failed to redeem his conscience and dragged his own innocent, beloved son into it as well. Heaven truly had eyes. Retribution never failed.
……
The inside story left Yan Xiaodao deeply unsettled. He found himself worrying on behalf of Chen Jin and Qi Yanxuan. Those two young men clearly faced tremendous resistance from their families, and Yan had no idea whether their still-young shoulders and limited experience of the world could withstand that kind of pressure. By comparison, the obstacles between himself and Ling He suddenly seemed almost insignificant. Yan Xiaodao considered his own bones hard enough. He could endure.
Yan Xiaodao had drunk exactly enough, neither too much nor too little, leaving his throat pleasantly warm and loosened.
Captain Xue, on the other hand, might actually have been tipsy. Red blotches covered his forehead and the skin around his eyes as he sank deep into the soft pillows at the head of the bed and flipped through his phone. Almost casually, as though he had stumbled across them by accident, Xue Qian showed Yan Xiaodao several photographs from the screen.
Xue Qian said, “Among Chen Jiu’s pile of broken bones, one shoulder joint was cut apart. You saw those pictures before, right? Tch. A man really does reap what he sows. He died horribly.”
Yan Xiaodao gave the screen only one glance before both eyes locked onto the image and his breathing stopped.
He had never seen this particular photograph. It looked like part of the same set Bureau Chief Bao had shown him previously, but somehow this one had slipped through the net. The picture clearly displayed the cross-section of a partially decayed bone.
Xue Qian said, “He was hacked apart with a blade.”
Yan Xiaodao replied, “Right. That’s why the bone surface looks like this.”
Xue Qian asked, “Can you tell what kind of blade made that cut?”
Yan Xiaodao: “…”
Bureau Chief Bao had always tried to coax Yan Xiaodao into helping the police determine what sort of weapon the killer used. Yan had repeatedly made excuses and avoided the matter. Now Xue Qian had come all the way to his door and shoved this photograph directly in front of him.
Yan Xiaodao’s face remained expressionless. His teeth lightly caught the corner of his mouth while his thoughts changed violently from instant to instant. Unpredictable winds over Linwan Harbor whipped the sea into towering waves that crashed against his heart… What kind of blade was it?
“What’s wrong?” Xue Qian raised a brow. “You still can’t tell?”
Yan Xiaodao’s Adam’s apple moved. He laughed helplessly. “There are countless kinds of blades in the world. How am I supposed to tell from this? What could anybody see?”
Even Yan Xiaodao could feel how stiff his smile had become, tiny spasms pulling at his face. At this point, he could only hope Captain Xue truly was drunk enough not to see the hastily constructed mask covering his expression.
Xue Qian narrowed a pair of wine-hazed eyes. His gaze seemed to carve at Yan’s face like a knife, or scrub at it with two hard-bristled brushes, trying to scrape away the layer of putty covering the surface and expose the warm, living face beneath the mask, expose the truth.
Yan Xiaodao avoided Captain Xue’s scrutinizing eyes. “The photograph isn’t clear. I can’t tell.”
Without changing expression, Xue Qian put the phone away. “I’d guess it was a very heavy steel blade. And the person swinging it used his left hand, right?”
Yes. The person who dismembered the body had used the left hand, choosing the critical joints where bone could be separated most efficiently, methodical in thought and calm in execution.
And these were clues Yan Xiaodao himself had once blurted out to Bureau Chief Bao without the slightest caution.
For an instant Yan Xiaodao’s vision nearly went black. Looking back now, had that resourceful old Bao Qingtian suspected something from the very beginning? Had Bureau Chief Bao deliberately tricked him into examining the case to test his reaction and prepare to sweep everyone into the same net?
Elio’s Notes: Bao Qingtian, better known as Judge Bao, is the legendary incorruptible magistrate Bao Zheng. Yan Xiaodao is jokingly casting Bureau Chief Bao in that role because of both his surname and his unnervingly shrewd handling of the case.
Yan Xiaodao shook his head at Xue Qian with genuine apology. “Captain Xue, my ability is limited. I truly can’t tell. You’d better find someone more capable.”
Captain Xue did not press or force him. Magnanimously, he laughed it off. “Sure. After this many years, the person involved is probably conflicted too, regretting the impulse and malice of that moment. He probably never imagined a day would come when the dead man’s bones themselves spoke the truth and pointed out the killer.”
Xue Qian was a veteran of public service, long experienced in reading people, investigating cases, and dealing with every sort of demon and monster. The words landed with hard, righteous force, compelling Yan Xiaodao to turn away. Xue Qian’s gaze seemed to radiate heat against the side of his face… Yan Xiaodao genuinely had nothing to say.
Yan Xiaodao had realized it too. Captain Xue had not merely “passed through” during a business trip. He had lingered far too long, completely unlike Xue Qian’s usual whirlwind style and crushing workload.
Yasha Xue finally took his leave sometime before dawn to catch the earliest flight back to the Linwan Municipal Bureau. Yan Xiaodao straightened from the rigid half-reclining posture he had maintained against the headboard. Hours of tension without shifting position had left his shoulders and waist aching.
A thread of daylight peeled back the black curtain covering red roofs and green trees, returning the city’s true colors beneath the dawn. The instant Xue Qian left the building, Yan Xiaodao swung himself out of bed, his face grave, and quietly slipped into Ling He’s bedroom.
Moving carefully beneath the fish-belly pale light of dawn, he searched for the object behind the enormous doubt weighing on him: his blade.
Ever since Ling He had “caught” him and brought him here under soft house arrest, several things he carried had been confiscated. Ling He kept Yan Xiaodao’s broad steel fighting blade somewhere inside the villa. Of course, it was not exactly real house arrest anymore. The two of them did love each other, after all.
……
At the same time, Xue Qian waited for his flight in the departure lounge and called his superior to report.
“Chief, everything went according to our original plan. The job’s done!
“Neither of them told the truth. I think our direction is correct, but it’s going to be very hard to persuade both of them to cooperate with us at the same time.”
Bao Zhengwei asked, “What, they gave you attitude again?”
“Not exactly. I ate a stomachful of frozen dumplings!” Xue Qian slapped his thigh. “Chief, next time don’t send me to do this kind of thing. Pretending to be low-key and infiltrating somebody’s inner circle really isn’t my specialty. I nearly suffocated keeping all that in. I’m much better at sitting in an interrogation room and questioning a suspect directly!”
Xue Qian could hold his liquor extremely well, no worse than Yan Xiaodao, which was precisely why he had dared drink with Mr. Yan and try to coax out the truth once the alcohol warmed them both. Xue Qian continued, “I think Mr. Yan recognized something about the blade marks, but for now he’s keeping his mouth sealed and refusing to tell us the truth. If he’d just say one sentence, we could save ourselves an enormous detour. For example, where is the murder weapon?”
On the other end, Bao Zhengwei nodded. “Right. We have a suspect, but finding direct evidence has been extremely difficult. Yan Xiao is the easiest angle from which to pry open a breakthrough. He is that man’s godson, after all.”
Suspicion and intuition alone were useless. Police work no longer followed the methods of twenty years ago. Today a case had to be supported by a complete chain of evidence, and without hard proof the courts could convict nobody. The crime was too old. There was no surveillance footage left, no video, no blood, no DNA. A fire deliberately set to destroy corpse and evidence had collided with a group of irresponsible fools at the local police station back then, burying every trace beneath dust and ruins. All they had left now was Wang Chongliang, a witness whose mental state was hardly stable. Modern criminal investigators accustomed to DNA, surveillance cameras, and other technological tools found an old case like this genuinely difficult.
Yet who could have imagined that blurry footage from more than a decade earlier still remained outside the public-security bureau, allowing investigators to discover by chance that the man who had used an alias to report Ling Huang for misconduct was actually Qi Baoshan?
It was exactly this kind of indirect clue, one careless move made in a moment of impulse, that finally forced one person to reveal himself and connected events that had once appeared completely unrelated along a trail that had always been there.
Xue Qian said, “Chief, that move of yours, striking the mountain to frighten the tiger, could also beat the grass and startle the snake. Now we wait and see what Yan Xiao does next.”
Elio’s Notes: “Strike the mountain to frighten the tiger” means warning or pressuring a target indirectly, while “beat the grass and startle the snake” warns that probing too obviously can alert the person you are trying to catch. Xue Qian is pointing out that Bao’s tactic may provoke exactly the reaction they want, or tip their hand too soon.
Bureau Chief Bao said heavily, “I hope I haven’t misjudged Yan Xiao. I hope he doesn’t disappoint me.”
Xue Qian continued, “And there’s Mr. Ling. He flatly refuses to cooperate, but I think our guesses are solid. First, somebody substituted one person for another and got Ling Huang out of prison, so Ling Huang never died. Second, Ling He may have been a victim in the molestation case, but we’ve encountered many victims of cases like this who, after reaching adulthood, refuse to expose what happened. They would rather hide the truth to preserve their reputation than cooperate with police. Ling Huang definitely has a problem, and there may have been many other victims. This is a case hidden inside another case. Believe me, once we pull up one corner of the filth in there, we may uncover an entire chain of people protecting and colluding with one another.”
Bao Zhengwei replied with restrained calm, “Mm… possible. It could become a very difficult major case. We can’t take it lightly.”
Xue Qian looked directly through the window, where an enormous airplane wing stretched across the broad apron. His gaze did not waver. “Economic crime isn’t my jurisdiction, and I’m not interested in it. But the case within the case involves criminal responsibility. Whether the victim from back then is willing to identify anyone or not, I’m not giving this up. I’m going to investigate until the truth comes completely to light.”
Captain Xue possessed sharp instincts about certain matters and plenty of experience. When he came across the Ling family’s economic case and picked up Ling Huang’s file photograph, he had taken one look and said, “This man is Ling He’s father? Those two aren’t biologically related. We don’t even need DNA. Either some ‘Old Wang next door’ fathered him, or he was adopted from the beginning.”
Bureau Chief Bao asked, You’re that certain? We don’t even need DNA?
Xue Qian grinned with irreverent confidence. “Chief, you’ve been away from frontline work too long. Too many summary meetings and commendation ceremonies. I’ve seen enough cases to know that from the perspective of criminal profiling, biological fathers and sons will always show some resemblance somewhere in their facial features. If two people share absolutely nothing, just look at these photographs yourself. Could an ordinary-looking man like Ling Huang produce a son who looks like Ling He? Is he mixed-race? He simply couldn’t.
“Would Ling He really be satisfied with nothing more than clearing Ling Huang’s wrongful conviction? What exactly is he trying to do? And who is his biological father?”
……