The final trace of daylight disappeared into the woods. A black curtain spread overhead, scattered with countless stars that gathered into a brilliant river across the sky. It was a clear night.
The cemetery gates must already have been locked. Officer Lu’s grave stood in a remote corner, which had conveniently spared the two of them from much scrutiny when they entered. Tonight, getting back out would probably require sneaking over a wall.
They rose and silently took their leave of the man beneath the grave marker, their expressions solemn and deeply respectful.
Ling He instinctively bowed. He carefully straightened the two bouquets Yan Xiaodao had brought, thanking Officer Lu for having spared Xiaodao’s life.
Ling He lingered in front of the grave for a moment, thinking, then suddenly said, “Did the police ever broaden the scope of the investigation back then? This couldn’t have been just an ordinary loan-sharking company. If all they wanted was money, there was no need to kill anyone. Murdering a criminal-investigation captain in such a horrifying way is a capital-level crime. There had to be something hidden in the dark behind it, something serious enough that those devils were willing to risk committing an even greater crime to conceal it. Maybe they were covering up something even worse.
“Officer Lu’s murder wasn’t accidental. It couldn’t have been merely because he refused to defect. If refusing to turn traitor meant death, why did it have to be Lu Haocheng? Why not kidnap Bureau Chief Bao instead? He had a higher rank and would have been even more useful. Officer Lu must have had some reason they absolutely needed him dead. What major cases had he handled? How close had he come to the core? Who had he approached? Who was so terrified of him staying alive?”
Ling He had barely finished speaking, the final sound not yet withdrawn behind his lips and teeth, when somewhere at the edge of the black sky, beyond the wilderness beneath a lone bright star, thunder suddenly tore through the dry night air and struck their eardrums with a deafening roar.
The tall white poplars beside the cemetery lurched violently in the wind, their leaves rustling as though struggling to speak.
Dark clouds chased away the Milky Way, and without warning a fine rain began drifting down from the horizon.
Only minutes earlier, the night had been perfectly clear.
Yan Xiaodao instinctively caught Ling He by the wrist and moved closer to him. Without any warning, the rain descended over them like a curtain quietly sobbing in the dark, pouring only across the space above their heads. More droplets seemed deliberately drawn toward Ling He, slanting across his face and soaking him from head to toe. One after another, they struck the grave marker without a sound, then gathered like falling tears and streamed slowly down the crystalline veins of the marble onto the stone steps below…
At the time, Yan Xiaodao could not understand who had summoned this rain, or for whom the grave marker was weeping.
He came to pay respects to Officer Lu two or three times every year. Never once had heaven thundered and shed tears before his eyes.
This long-delayed water of confession seemed almost as though it had waited specifically for one important person to appear before finally falling, wiping away that person’s tears.
The two slipped down toward the foot of the mountain and prepared to climb over the cemetery wall.
After they left Lu Haocheng’s grave and had descended only halfway down the slope, the sudden rain inexplicably stopped again. The brilliant river of stars reappeared overhead in all its magnificent splendor.
Yan Xiaodao crouched beside the wall and gave Ling He a look: Up.
Barefoot, Ling He stepped onto Xiaodao’s shoulder and climbed. Yan Xiaodao threw Ling He’s cheap plastic flip-flops, their soles nearly melted away, over the top first, then took a running start and, with slightly more effort than he once would have needed, jumped onto the wall himself…
Down in the parking lot, there was not a single trace of rain. The ground was completely dry.
Everything that had just happened felt like a dream glued to memory, except both men’s clothes were soaked through, and the droplets they remembered gathering on those yellow and white flowers had been impossibly real and clear. Fragments of memory continued connecting themselves, becoming almost tangible beneath the heavy pressure settling across their chests.
Whatever suggestive intentions they had previously concealed behind a casual “Want to meet?” were clearly impossible to continue tonight. Both men were too weighed down by what they had remembered. Neither could bring himself to flirt, so this fine night of cool breeze and moonlight was destined to go to waste.
Ling He climbed into Yan Xiaodao’s car instead. He crossed the negligible barrier between passenger and driver seats and gave Xiaodao a solid, substantial embrace. The unexpected tenderness made Yan Xiaodao laugh openly. “It’s not that bad. I can handle it.”
Ling He did not hurry to leave. Sitting beside him, he said, “Xiaodao, I know why you brought me here today.”
After being violently washed back and forth by emotion, Yan Xiaodao himself had almost forgotten the original purpose. Why had he brought Ling He here to sweep a grave?
“Xiaodao, you’re someone who values loyalty and feeling. You’ve always treated other people ten times, a hundred times better than you treat yourself. My heart hurts for you, and I respect you for it. You’ve carried guilt all these years for Officer Lu, who exchanged his life for yours. If one day I hurt your godfather, Qi Baoshan, wouldn’t you fight me to the death? If I hurt your heart, I hurt too.” Ling He laughed at himself. The words were unbearably sentimental, embarrassingly domestic, completely unlike him. But what could he do? This was Xiaodao. Over these months, the man gradually moving mountains and reshaping another person was hardly Yan Xiaodao alone.
Yan Xiaodao thought blankly, Would I really be able to fight you to the death? All this time, the life I’ve been fighting with has been my own.
Ling He kept one hand pressed to Yan Xiaodao’s shoulder, reluctant to let go of this body beneath his palm. “Xiaodao, I didn’t make a move against You Jinglian. The bullet he took wasn’t fired by me either. I only wanted the demon hiding behind all of them to crawl out and face the law. I’ll give your broad fighting blade back to you. I’ll leave Master Qi a road to survival, and I won’t keep obsessing over what he did anymore. You stayed beside me through the first half of this road. The part ahead is even muddier and harder, and there’s nobody left who can help me. I want to finish it alone. Whatever happens, happens.”
The police had already followed threads from every direction until all of them converged here. Soon they would tear off the lid.
The final layer of disguise Ling He depended upon to survive was about to be ripped away, exposing everything miserable and lonely beneath it. Yet the sharpest hatred inside him had gradually quieted. Yan Xiaodao had worn smooth nearly every jagged edge and thorn on his body. Xiaodao was the one sight along this road Ling He could not bear to leave behind. At the very least, he had already received Xiaodao’s wholehearted love.
Those final words struck Yan Xiaodao like a gathering storm. He grabbed Ling He’s hand and refused to release it, as though the moment he let go, some black whirlwind waiting in the darkness would seize the person in front of him and carry him away.
They stared at one another, both throats suddenly dry.
Yan Xiaodao reached across the seats and embraced Ling He without hesitation.
He nearly hauled Ling He’s upper body upward by force, lifting him several inches. The gesture looked possessive, almost domineering, but beneath it was a protective instinct strong enough to torment him day and night. He crushed Ling He’s head against his chest and kissed him hard, his lips and rough jaw scraping over him. Ling He answered immediately, sucking at his mouth and sliding both hands beneath Xiaodao’s shirt to stroke his back and chest with force…
In a place hardly suited to such behavior, the two lost control and kissed until the car seemed ready to catch fire. When they finally forced themselves apart, they discovered both sets of hands had somehow ended up beneath the other man’s clothes, still unwilling to release that warm, living proof of life.
“Xiao He, I haven’t hidden anything else from you. You’re still the one refusing to tell me the truth. Whatever blood feud you carry, whatever suffering you’ve endured that you can’t speak about, we’ll carry it together. I absolutely will not allow you to walk the rest of this road alone.” Yan Xiaodao squeezed Ling He’s fingers one by one, cherishing each of them. His lashes lowered as he avoided Ling He’s eyes. “If somebody hurt you before, no matter what kind of injury it was, I hope you can let it go.”
Ling He tilted his head and studied Yan Xiaodao’s strange expression. Entirely unromantic, he reached out and pinched Xiaodao’s mouth into a fish shape, mocking the grave seriousness on his face. “I know exactly what you’re imagining, Mr. Yan. You and Captain Xue are equally oversensitive and suspicious. You let your imagination run wild and then congratulate yourselves for digging up the truth.”
Yan Xiaodao had just been mocked, and the red patches around his eyes had not even faded.
“You don’t need to worry about me, Xiaodao.” Ling He smiled with easy, powerful composure. “I’m not afraid of being hurt. There is no one left in this world who can hurt me anymore.”
There is no one left in this world who can hurt me anymore.
Those words alone were enough to wring blood from Yan Xiaodao’s heart.
How much sorrow and hardship had Ling He already chewed to pieces along this road before he could say something like that?
……
Yan Xiaodao and Ling He ate dinner at a restaurant, then held each other for a little longer inside the car, leaving bite marks beneath each other’s collars before finally separating reluctantly.
Yan Xiaodao returned to Master Qi’s city residence. The moment he stepped through the door, he saw a giant bowl of noodles beneath a square mosquito-net cover on the Eight Immortals table. Only then did he remember. He smacked himself hard on the forehead. Which lying bastard had promised to come home and eat dinner with his godfather? At this point, he could only accompany the old man for a midnight snack.
Following the sound into the rear courtyard, he tiptoed through the covered walkway and peeked around the corner obediently. Qi Baoshan was sitting on a tiny stool beneath the eaves, chopping firewood. Branches and logs cut in spring and summer had to be stored until autumn and winter, when they could be burned in the fireplace.
Qi Baoshan truly knew how to keep his composure. He continued eating, drinking, and entertaining himself as usual. Compared with Secretary You, who had nearly frightened himself insane some time ago, the difference between their temperaments was enormous. Yan Xiaodao felt uneasy all over again. His godfather really was no ordinary man.
Master Qi held a slightly long woodcutting blade in his left hand and brought it down on the logs with considerable force. The blows sounded suspiciously as though he had been bottling up anger. Surely he wasn’t imagining chopping apart the unfilial son who had failed to come home for dinner?
Qi Baoshan caught sight of the little thief hiding behind the wall from the corner of his eye. “Come out. Who are you hiding from?”
“Godfather.” Little Thief Yan strolled out. “I’m back.”
“Mm.” Qi Baoshan kept chopping. “Had a dinner engagement?”
Yan the thief seized the excuse immediately. “Yeah.”
Qi Baoshan sneered. “An engagement with that lover of yours, I assume? Fortune truly turns in circles. He’s perfectly safe and comfortable now, nothing like when he first came to Linwan a few months ago!”
Yan the thief immediately turned to leave. “Godfather, I’ll go eat that bowl of noodles you made.”
“Enough.” Qi Baoshan knew perfectly well what his godson looked like when he was skulking around with something weighing on his mind. He crooked his fingers. “Son. Come here.”
Yan Xiaodao immediately turned back and took the woodcutting blade from his godfather. He unbuttoned his shirt and obediently took over the firewood. In weather this hot, barely a dozen chops were enough to soak his hairline and leave beads of sweat across his chest.
Qi Baoshan said, “I had somebody look into what happened with your adoptive mother’s house.”
Yan Xiaodao quickly replied, “You’re busy enough already. I didn’t want you worrying about it. It’s a trivial little matter. I can handle it myself.”
“This is trivial?” Qi Baoshan’s face looked stern and gloomy beneath the small lamp hanging from the walkway. “Your adoptive mother counts as family to me too. Some little bastard dares shit on your head and tear down your house, that’s the same as tearing down my front door! I checked. The development rights to that piece of land were won by a real-estate investment group from Yandu. Huima Town in Nanjiao County sits right along the border with Tongzhou County on the Yandu side. There’s already an internal planning notice from above. Eventually the entire area is going to be folded into the so-called ‘Second Capital’ special zone. Land prices there have gone insane. Everyone’s fighting over one piece of golden meat dripping with oil. Whoever won that contract must have a powerful background in Yandu.”
Qi Baoshan told him the developer was called Yaoguang Group, and its registered legal representative was a man named Guo Zhaobin, commonly called Boss Bin.
Qi Baoshan asked, “Have you dealt with this man before? Offended him?”
Yan Xiaodao carefully scraped every corner of his memory and genuinely found nothing. He handled matters cautiously and rarely offended people without reason.
“Yaoguang Group’s front man is surnamed Guo, but supposedly the backer behind the real-estate company is surnamed Liang. Think about that.” Qi Baoshan tapped him meaningfully on the forehead. “You watch this Boss Liang. He’s no benevolent man. Your godfather made his fortune through crooked channels. Fine. I admit it. But in our circle, which man who claims wealth enough to rival a nation dares say every cent came from somewhere clean? And what the hell is Boss Liang supposed to be?”
Mention the surname Liang and there was only one possible backer: Yandu’s richest man, Liang Tong, father of Young Master Liang Youhui. Across several neighboring provinces, there was hardly another Liang whose name could carry that kind of weight. Yan Xiaodao froze. “No way… Surely not?”
Yan Xiaodao felt unexpectedly grateful that his godfather had quietly taken the Yan family’s trouble to heart and investigated it himself.
The answer only confused him further. Why would Liang Tong’s people secretly interfere and demolish his family home? Had Chairman Liang’s subordinates genuinely been so incompetent that they mixed up the house numbers and destroyed the wrong property? It was absurd.
……
……
That same night, Captain Xue sat cross-legged on a long sofa with his laptop in his arms, immersed until dawn in data, records, and video analysis.
The thrilling case reports and blood-pumping crime stories ordinary people read in newspapers were built from mountains of tedious data, records, and technical analysis like this. The work itself was difficult and monotonous, like steering a tiny boat across an enormous sea, moving forward and backward again and again, repeating steps and testing mistakes while guarding against black wind and cold rain overhead, or the occasional bloody wave breaking across the surface. The smallest trace of fear or retreat would make the job impossible to continue.
Xue Qian could no longer safely stay in his completely unsecured bachelor apartment. He had originally rolled up his bedding and planned to camp directly in the office, turning his usual overtime into permanent twenty-four-hour residency until the case was solved.
Bureau Chief Bao finally lost patience and gave him a direct order. “Move into my place. I refuse to believe evil can overpower what’s right. Let’s see whether those people dare break into the municipal government compound, into my own home, to threaten you or threaten me!”
Captain Xue had also checked all the street surveillance around his apartment from the day the threat arrived. The roads were full of ordinary vehicles, every one another source of interference hiding the useful clues inside the ocean of people. The bribe in the cash case consisted of consecutive-numbered new banknotes. Xue Qian even traced them back to the specific bank branch that issued them, only for the trail to break at the final step. Nobody knew who had withdrawn the money.
Late at night, the living room where Captain Xue had temporarily established camp remained lit. So did Bureau Chief Bao’s study.
Xue Qian came out of the bathroom. The toilet tank flushed with a roar loud enough to travel straight through the walls in the middle of the night. Surely it had disturbed somebody.
He opened the study door quietly. The instant he did, Bureau Chief Bao turned a photograph frame facedown in his hand and discreetly slid it into the right-hand drawer of his desk.
Bao Zhengwei’s face remained perfectly composed. The old fox, who had hidden his thoughts for years, had no intention of exposing those suppressed emotions easily.
Xue Qian had seen the photograph before. It was taken years ago when Bao Zhengwei served as a visiting professor at the Public Security University. The old man looked absurdly proud, one arm around each of his two most valued disciples. On his left stood Lu Haocheng. On his right stood Xue Qian. Both young men were tall and handsome, conviction and absolute loyalty to their beliefs concentrated between their brows, their faces bright with youthful ambition.
Xue Qian leaned against the doorframe. His hard body somehow managed to slump into three lazy curves, and in front of his direct superior and teacher he did not bother hiding his usual undisciplined aura. “Chief, thinking about my senior brother again? Sorry. I can’t replace him. My temper isn’t as good as his, and I’m not as obedient. I’ll never be your favorite.”
“No.” Bao Zhengwei turned away, opened the window, and lit a cigarette as though nothing had happened. Emotional impulses had no place in a man of his age, rank, or experience.
Xue Qian said, “Chief, I know Senior Brother was the disciple you admired most. If he hadn’t died, this captain’s position never would’ve gone to me.”
“What kind of nonsense is that? Say a few fewer useless words for once!” Bao Zhengwei frowned and interrupted him. “You were both my best students. I value talent wherever I see it.”
“Yes, yes.” Xue Qian laughed openly, never particularly embarrassed by his own faults. “Teacher, it isn’t because you favor him over me. It’s my own problem. Hah. This sexual-orientation issue of mine makes all those conservative old men and women above us uncomfortable as hell. They’re never going to promote me. I know that puts you in an awkward position.”
Bao Zhengwei pointed one finger at Xue Qian, visibly tempted to find some tape and seal the brat’s mouth shut.
As Bureau Chief Bao practically kicked him back out of the room, Xue Qian straightened his spine and his expression returned to normal. His face had been weathered by years beneath sunlight, every metallic line revealing resilience and refusal to yield. “Chief, don’t worry. I never put that old case down. I’m going to drag the mastermind out. Not one drop of Senior Brother’s blood will have been shed for nothing.”
Bao Zhengwei’s expression shifted. “Leave that old case alone for now. I’m taking full responsibility for it. You concentrate on the case already in your hands.”
One of Bao Zhengwei’s people had already died. He absolutely would not allow his most valued disciple to suffer another accident.
A threatening letter and a case full of cash meant to buy a man’s soul weighed heavily on him. The cruelty and determination behind them made him furious and wary. Lu Haocheng’s murder back then, Mai Yunliang’s sudden death now, You Jinglian’s abnormal death, Qi Baoshan’s involvement, certain ugly rumors surrounding Ling Huang, the sudden appearance of a young man named Ling He who had arrived with his own agenda… Beneath this entire chain of events lay some abyss too deep to touch. Perhaps they were already drawing closer and closer to the center of the target.
Rumors about a certain wealthy circle around Yandu and Jinmen had existed for years, tales so strange and grotesque that even Captain Xue might never have heard them, hidden in darkness beyond ordinary people’s reach. To Xue Qian, the contemptible words written in Ling Huang’s file described one individual criminal case. But Bao Zhengwei read the texture of those pages differently, as though the paper itself had been soaked in venom.
A wealthy businessman named Ling Huang had traveled to Yandu years ago with a beautiful mixed-race adopted son. Could that truly have nothing to do with the long-circulating rumors inside the circle about “offering treasures”?
If all of it was coincidence, why had this young man Ling He appeared now?
Why did Ling He know so much about every case in the chain, and why did he pursue them with such relentless persistence?
Why did this beautiful young man’s shadow appear every time something happened, uninvited and impossible to drive away, always entering the police field of vision no matter how often they tried to push him out?
Once every thread connected, this matter would exceed anything a municipal criminal-investigation captain like Xue Qian could shield. Bao Zhengwei had no intention of allowing another disciple he valued to charge recklessly into the same swamp capable of swallowing living people whole. If someone had to carry this case, Bao would rather shoulder it with his uniform and the official career he had spent decades building.
“The case in my hands?” Xue Qian immediately reported to his teacher. “That one’s basically clear. There were three principal offenders. You Jinglian is dead. Qi Baoshan is under strict surveillance and definitely knows we’re watching him. I’ll give him three more days to walk in and surrender. Three days after that, if he still hasn’t come, I already have the detention paperwork ready. I’ll personally go arrest him.
“We’ve also identified the Ling Group driver involved in the old case, and he’s under surveillance too. According to the task force’s investigation, that man was cornered and forced into it. Zhang Tingqiang hired him and coerced him into participating. The social connection between him and loan-sharking boss Zhang Tingqiang was that his family had dragged him into debt, and he owed a mountain of compound-interest loans that could never be repaid. He’s interesting too. From the beginning, he was never truly on the same side as the criminals… Anyway, right now the person we’re hunting is Zhang Tingqiang.”