Liuping Town lay southwest of Zhuquan City and was rich in river sand, so freight-truck drivers frequently came to haul loads away. Dust hung thick over the roads. Old Zhang’s truck broke down midway. He spent half the day trying to repair it himself without success and could only sit beside the road waiting for assistance. They were in the outskirts, with not another person in sight. Growing irritated, Old Zhang told his apprentice to watch the truck while he went into a patch of woods to relieve himself.
The trees had yellowed in autumn, leaving little cover, so Old Zhang walked deeper inside. Squirrels darted among the trees, each one almost as big as a rat and surprisingly cute. He had liked animals like this since childhood, and after living in the city so long, he rarely saw them. On impulse, he followed one farther into the woods.
“Fuck!” Something caught his foot, nearly sending him face-first into the dirt. When he turned around, he saw that someone had placed a stone over a patch of grass.
Old Zhang crouched beside it and examined the ground. Something did not look right. The soil here had been packed more firmly, and not only the stone but even some of the grass had clearly been moved from elsewhere. Old Zhang loved crime dramas and immediately imagined something buried beneath it. Excitement swept over him. Forgetting the truck stranded beside the road, he shouted for his apprentice to bring over a shovel. The apprentice became excited too. Together they moved the stone and grass aside. After only a few shovel strikes, they uncovered a dark-gray waterproof sealed bag.
The apprentice swallowed. “Master, I think I smell something.”
Old Zhang had loved dragons only until a real dragon appeared. Now that they had actually dug something up, fear made his tongue stumble. He pointed at his apprentice. “Quick. Call the police!”
The moment someone reported finding a body, Liuping Town Police Station mobilized immediately. The rescue vehicle for Old Zhang’s truck had not even arrived when the police car came roaring in. By then Old Zhang had calmed somewhat and carefully explained how his truck had broken down, how he had gone to urinate, and how he had discovered something suspicious. The officers dug out the sealed bag and unzipped it. His apprentice’s scream was loud enough to rival a siren.
They had not guessed wrong. There really was a corpse inside. But nobody had expected it to be headless.
Police immediately secured the scene. Old Zhang and his apprentice stood frozen in shock. Their work was obviously finished for the moment. Old Zhang slapped himself across the face and muttered, “That’ll teach me to stick my hands where they don’t belong.”
Crime scene examiners discovered two sets of suspicious footprints in the woods that did not match Old Zhang or his apprentice and were believed to have been left by the killer. The forensic examination established that the dead man was around seventy years old and had been dead for less than forty-eight hours. There were four contusions on his body, but none showed vital reactions, meaning they were probably caused during transport. The cut surface at the neck also showed no vital reaction. The victim had been decapitated only a day after death. His fatal injury was therefore likely on the missing head, which might explain why the killer had needed to dismember him. In addition, lividity patterns showed that after death, the victim had lain flat on his back for a considerable period. Only when the body was buried in the woods had it been turned onto its side.
Liuping Town Police Station immediately began trying to identify the body. DNA comparison produced no result for the moment. Several key questions stood out. Where had the victim’s head been hidden? Why had the killer not buried the body immediately after the crime, and why had they not immediately dismembered it? Had something happened yesterday that forced a sudden change of plan?
Judging from the traces left at the scene, the killer did not appear particularly skilled and may have buried the body in panic. The local station concluded that the case would not be especially difficult. Once the victim was identified, finding the killer should not be far behind.
News of the Liuping Town homicide had not yet reached Zhuquan City. Early on the morning of the eighteenth, Chen Zheng drove to Honghua Welfare Home in Sixin Town.
Many people in Sixin Town worked in the clothing business. There were several factories, and almost every storefront lining the roads was a wholesaler. The shops were already open before dawn; before white-collar workers in the city had even clocked in at their office buildings, the small merchants here had already completed several bustling deals.
Chen Zheng drove around looking for the welfare home and was mistaken for someone coming to collect wholesale goods. Someone actually shoved an entire outfit into his hands. He did not even look at what kind of clothes they were. After another few turns, he finally saw the welfare home’s sign.
Honghua Welfare Home stood at the deepest end of a street. From outside, it looked like a dilapidated courtyard, much quieter and more desolate than the lively storefronts around it. Chen Zheng stood at the gate for a moment and was about to go inside when a voice called from diagonally behind him. “Young man, who’re you looking for?”
Chen Zheng turned. A short, plump woman with graying hair was dragging a grocery cart toward him. The cart was overloaded and clearly difficult to pull. Sweat covered her forehead, but her voice was strong and full, and she looked extraordinarily energetic.
“I’m looking for Zhao Hongfang. She works here, right?”
The woman paused and looked him over. “That’s me. And you are?”
Chen Zheng took out his credentials and reached for the cart handle. “Let me.”
Zhao Hongfang looked surprised. “Officer Chen… Beiye Sub-bureau. Were you the one who called me yesterday?”
Chen Zheng smiled mildly. “Let’s go inside first.”
Clearly, just as Chen Zheng had judged the day before, the Zhao Hongfang standing before him was not the young woman who had sold dolls at Quanmao Center.
Inside, the welfare home did not look as old as it did from the street. The walls had been freshly painted and the tile floors were scrubbed clean. Groups of children were leaving for school and waved to Zhao Hongfang. “Goodbye, Teacher Zhao!” Younger children stayed behind and studied with teachers from the welfare home itself.
Chen Zheng followed Zhao Hongfang to the director’s office. The grand-sounding “director’s office” was really only a small room. The desk and cabinets were old, nothing like the bright, newly renovated classrooms used by the children.
Zhao Hongfang asked anxiously, “Officer Chen, we didn’t break the law by selling dolls, did we? I didn’t pocket the money. It all went to the children.”
Chen Zheng shook his head. “I can see you take very good care of them.” Zhao Hongfang managed a weak smile. “Of course…”
Chen Zheng took out an evidence bag containing the doll recovered from Huang Fei’s home. “Director Zhao, take a look. Was this really made by the teachers here?”
Zhao Hongfang glanced at it, then quickly looked away, twisting her hands together uneasily. “Y-yes.”
Her reaction made one thing clear: she was not good at lying. For some reason, however, she was doing everything she could to hide the truth.
“Really?” Chen Zheng placed the evidence bag on the desk. The desk came from the previous century and had long since become chipped and mottled, like an old man half buried in the earth. The doll, meanwhile, carried an unsettling newness. Placed together, the two objects looked as if they belonged to different eras.
“Then I’d like to know how it was made. Did you design it, or did one of the other teachers? What materials did you use?” Chen Zheng’s voice remained slow and casual, as though the questions hardly mattered.
Zhao Hongfang grew even more nervous. “The… the materials were bought online. It’s very… very simple.”
Chen Zheng asked, “And were you the one running the stall at Quanmao Center?”
“Yes. Me.”
“But I saw the surveillance footage. It didn’t look like you. The stallholder seemed very young.”
Zhao Hongfang took a deep breath and pretended sudden realization. “One of our younger teachers went. I obviously couldn’t go myself. I’m an old woman. I’d kill the mood.”
“Then why did she need a mask?”
“Our teachers aren’t professional vendors. She was shy and didn’t want anyone she knew recognizing her.”
Chen Zheng nodded. “Which teacher was it? Would it be convenient for me to meet her?”
“Well…” Zhao Hongfang hesitated. “All right. I’ll go find her.”
“I’ll come with you.”
Zhao Hongfang paused. “Ah. Sure. Sure.”
In the courtyard, a female teacher wearing an apron was teaching children how to identify plants. From the corridor, Zhao Hongfang called, “Teacher Han, come over for a moment.”
Chen Zheng saw that Teacher Han’s build resembled the person from the surveillance footage, and she was also young. Her eyes were bright, her manner lively. But when she walked, her right shoulder did not sit lower than her left.
“This is Officer Chen. He came to ask us about the… the toys.” Zhao Hongfang deliberately raised her voice and kept signaling Teacher Han with her eyes. “You were the one who ran the stall at Quanmao Center, right? They said they saw you there.”
“Huh?” Teacher Han did not react quickly enough. “Ah. Yes. Yes, I was.”
Chen Zheng asked, “How much did each one sell for?”
Teacher Han had not prepared for that question. She kept looking toward Zhao Hongfang and answered guiltily, “More than fifty…”
Chen Zheng had no interest in continuing their performance. “Teacher Han, Director Zhao, I don’t know why you’re covering for the person who actually sold those dolls. I’m a criminal investigator. I’m here today asking about them because the dolls are connected to a criminal case. Are you still going to keep hiding the truth?”
Teacher Han’s face turned white. Before Zhao Hongfang could speak, she hurriedly said, “Officer Chen, this has nothing to do with me! I wasn’t the one at the stall!”
Now that things had reached this point, Zhao Hongfang sighed and told Teacher Han, “Go back to work. I’ll explain to Officer Chen.” Then she turned to Chen Zheng. “It really has nothing to do with Teacher Han. If anything happened, this old woman will take responsibility.”
Back in the office, Chen Zheng said, “Someone used your account to collect payments, and you knew about it.”
Zhao Hongfang sighed. “Xiao Xi wanted to help us. I promised her I wouldn’t tell anyone. You said there’s a criminal case involved. Did something happen to Xiao Xi?”
“Who is Xiao Xi?”
Zhao Hongfang began from the beginning.
Honghua Welfare Home had existed for decades. It had originally been an orphanage and was later reorganized as a welfare home. After the elderly director’s health deteriorated, Zhao Hongfang, the deputy director, took charge of daily operations. The children had all been dealt difficult hands in life. Before adulthood, they could still depend on the welfare home, but what would happen after they grew up?
People said welfare homes were much better funded now and that the government and various organizations provided support. But when those resources were divided among individual children, there was still never enough. Zhao Hongfang had watched too many children enter society only to be eliminated by it. Some lived in poverty. Some even drifted into crime. The older she became, the less willing she was to let the children lose before they had even reached the starting line.
But society was practical. If she wanted the children to succeed, they needed additional material resources and money. The welfare home’s basic support could not provide those things, so she and the other teachers looked for other avenues. Whenever there was a possible partnership, they pursued it, trying to bring in as much extra money as they could.
At the beginning of the year, Xiao Xi began visiting the welfare home. She often played with the children and taught them crafts. Xiao Xi was still a high-school student and could not provide financial assistance, so she could only volunteer. Seeing everyone at the welfare home constantly struggling to raise money, Xiao Xi suddenly said to Zhao Hongfang one day, “Director Zhao, I have an idea. Could you maybe…”
Her idea was to participate in markets held by malls and residential communities, sell things to young people, and donate every yuan of the proceeds to the welfare home.
Zhao Hongfang’s ideas had fallen behind the times. She thought markets belonged to her generation and had long since been eliminated. How could anyone still make money from them? Didn’t young people buy everything online now?
Xiao Xi showed her a doll she had made. “Markets are novel. My things are unusual too. As long as the market happens, I’m sure they’ll sell. But I need your help. I’m only a student, so it’s inconvenient for me to collect payments or apply for a stall.”
At first Zhao Hongfang did not believe it would make money, but she believed Xiao Xi was a good child. Since Xiao Xi wanted to try the market, Zhao Hongfang was willing to help.
Later, Xiao Xi chose Quanmao Center. Zhao Hongfang accompanied her to complete the application, then stopped involving herself. Until one day in September, money suddenly began flowing continuously into Zhao Hongfang’s account.
Xiao Xi’s stall really was making money.
Chen Zheng asked, “What’s Xiao Xi’s full name? Which school does she attend?”
Zhao Hongfang’s answer caught him completely off guard. “Zhou Xi. Xi as in tide. I’ve seen her student ID. She’s one of No. 10 Middle School’s top students!”
Zhou Xi. How could it possibly be Zhou Xi?
Chen Zheng wanted to retrieve surveillance footage, but the welfare home’s cameras were poor and footage from Xiao Xi’s earlier visits had already been overwritten. Zhao Hongfang said that after Xiao Xi began selling dolls, she returned only once, probably because she had become too busy. Her final visit was in late October.
Chen Zheng called Ming Han and Kong Bing from the road and explained what he had learned at Honghua Welfare Home. After returning to Zhuquan City, he drove directly to No. 10 Middle School. Zhou Xi had taken a day to rest and had already returned to class. Faced with Chen Zheng’s questions, she looked completely baffled. “What welfare home? I’ve never been to a welfare home.”
“Have you ever lost your student ID?”
Zhou Xi thought for a while. “Yes, but that was when I’d just started Grade 10. I applied for a replacement as soon as I realized it was gone.”
Chen Zheng accepted her current student ID. Its case was extravagantly decorative. He slid the card out and examined both sides. There was a chip inside, but it was only a standard chip used to enter and leave school. Issuing a replacement would not make the old card unusable.
He returned the card. Zhou Xi asked nervously, “Officer Chen, did someone impersonate me and do something?”
Chen Zheng’s first thought was that “Xiao Xi” might simply have found Zhou Xi’s lost ID, realized it could be useful, and decided to impersonate her. But Zhou Xi had lost the card right after beginning high school, which meant more than two years ago. Had “Xiao Xi” kept it all this time? Because she had some preexisting grievance with Zhou Xi?
“Before high school, did you ever offend anyone?”
Confusion spread across Zhou Xi’s face. She could not answer.
Chen Zheng also realized the question was far too broad. When people were students, offending someone or being close with someone was completely normal. It would be difficult to find a breakthrough there. “It’s fine. If you remember anything, contact me immediately.”
Zhou Xi followed him out, tears already filling her eyes. “Officer Chen, does this really have something to do with me? Something didn’t happen to Wenran because of me, did it?”
All Chen Zheng could say was, “We’ll do everything we can to find Liu Wenran.”
Ming Han was also at No. 10 Middle School, but the problem in front of him was something else entirely. Technical Investigation still could not determine who had interfered with the surveillance cameras around Class 13, but after tracing through intermediary nodes, they had finally found a hacker who was not especially skilled: Lü Ou.
“I knew there was something wrong with you.” Ming Han showed Lü Ou no politeness whatsoever. He practically hauled the boy into a self-study room and shut the door. “Talk. Were you the one who left that gift for Liu Wenran?”
“Not me!” Lü Ou glared back at him, refusing to show weakness. “Since you were able to trace me, doesn’t that prove I wasn’t the person who interfered with the cameras that day?”
“How do I know you didn’t do it deliberately?” Ming Han said. “Use your sloppy hacking for ordinary jobs, then switch to a jammer when you actually need to hide something. Later, when police ask questions, you say, ‘Since you managed to trace me, doesn’t that prove I wasn’t the one who interfered with the cameras that day?’”
“You!” Lü Ou could not immediately respond. “It wasn’t me. You have no evidence. You can’t accuse me recklessly!”
Ming Han sat on the edge of a desk. “Fine. We’ll set that day aside for now. Let’s talk about the hacking. Why did you break into the school surveillance system?”
Lü Ou stiffened his neck and refused to answer.
“You’re still going to play stubborn with me?” Ming Han sneered. “Before, you said I couldn’t do anything to you. True. Back then I merely suspected you. I was investigating the dolls, and so were you. You even traced them all the way to Liren Middle School. I still couldn’t do anything to you, because you had the freedom to act. Without evidence, I couldn’t arbitrarily restrict you. But now? You really think I still don’t have anything on you? You still think you can refuse to speak whenever you feel like it?”
Lü Ou pressed his lips together, his brows knitting tighter and tighter. He was weighing the situation, thinking through Ming Han’s words.
Ming Han suddenly clapped his hands together with a loud smack. Lü Ou flinched instinctively.
“Brother, you’ve hacked school surveillance repeatedly and you’re still sitting here pretending to be innocent?” Ming Han said. “Fine. If you insist on keeping quiet, we’ll go back to the sub-bureau and have a proper talk. We’ll invite your family over too. We can all talk together.”
“I was investigating,” Lü Ou muttered.
“What?” Ming Han had heard him perfectly but exaggerated anyway. “You were doing what?”
Lü Ou looked at him with disgust. “I was investigating things happening at this school!”
“What things?”
Lü Ou scoffed. “Plenty. You think a school is some clean place? Bullying, stealing, cheating, affairs… Whatever happens in society happens here too.”
He had expected to see surprise on Ming Han’s face. Ming Han really did look surprised, just not in the way Lü Ou expected. He was staring at him like a monkey. “Wait. What does any of that have to do with you?”
Lü Ou: “…”
“You want to be a detective?”
Lü Ou’s face turned red, then white. He said irritably, “I just want to find the truth. I didn’t hurt anyone, and I never spread the things I discovered. If you people hadn’t insisted on checking the surveillance system, all those secrets would’ve stayed secret.”
Ming Han laughed. “You’re impressively chuuni. I’m not interested in your little secrets either.”
That finally infuriated Lü Ou. “Then let me go! I still have class!”
“Oh, now you remember a student’s primary job is studying?” Ming Han swung one leg across the way. “Don’t rush. Hacking public surveillance is illegal. I have grounds to detain you.”
Lü Ou could not leave and was not stupid enough to physically fight Ming Han. “You want to know why I was investigating the dolls? Because I care about Liu Wenran’s disappearance too.”
“I remember you saying you liked her.”
“Tch. Not liked. I was curious.” Lü Ou put on the mature air of someone far older. “She’s completely different from her ‘persona.’ If you observe long enough, you can tell.”
“You kept going to Class 13 because you were observing her?”
Lü Ou effectively admitted it, then said, “She disappeared Friday. You police didn’t start investigating until Monday. I don’t believe you can find her.”
“So you decided to act yourself?”
Lü Ou shrugged, a trace of pride in his voice. “Didn’t I discover before you that people at other schools also had those dolls?”
“But wasn’t the doll clue something the police discovered first?” Ming Han said. “You’re waving around secondhand information and boasting to me?”
Another blow landed. Lü Ou frowned. “I told you everything I know. Do whatever you want.”
Ming Han studied him for a while, then suddenly asked, “So what’s your theory, Little Detective?”
At the words Little Detective, Lü Ou shot to his feet. “Don’t call me that.”
Ming Han laughed. “Aren’t you trying to be a campus detective?”
Lü Ou turned awkwardly away. After half a minute, he said, “Liu Wenran’s disappearance definitely has something to do with the doll. Someone deliberately wanted to mess with her. Even if that wasn’t the purpose, the doll must’ve been some kind of signal. A signal to act, for example. Otherwise, you can’t explain why the surveillance cameras were interfered with when she received it. Whoever did that had to hide themselves. But the other dolls probably don’t have that function. The killer… no, the person who took Liu Wenran got hold of one of those dolls and simply used it.”
His reasoning was close to the police’s, although the investigators had considered more possibilities and still needed to identify who made the dolls. Ming Han gave him a token round of applause. “You experimental-class kids really do think fast.”
Lü Ou did not look pleased. “Can I go now?”
“Sure. We’ll talk about the surveillance hacking later. You’d better give me more useful ideas by then.” When Lü Ou had already reached the door, Ming Han called, “Stop.”
Lü Ou snapped, “What now? Can’t you say everything at once?”
“You’re too impatient to be a good detective.” Ming Han’s expression sobered slightly. “Why do you hate the police?”
Lü Ou clenched his teeth. “Because you’re useless. The people who need you to find them, you never find!”
Ming Han had already investigated Lü Ou’s family. The boy currently lived with his grandfather. His father was alive and healthy but extremely busy with work and rarely came home. His mother, Xu Hetang, had disappeared when Lü Ou was little.
In that sense, Lü Ou’s family resembled Liu Wenran’s somewhat. The difference was that the Lü family was financially comfortable. Lü Ou lacked affection, but never material support.
That part was… also a little like Ming Han’s own childhood.
No wonder Lü Ou, like him, had once been a stupid little campus detective.
The investigation was gradually becoming fragmented and chaotic. Ming Han sorted through the threads and remembered the oddity surrounding the Xiao family that Chen Zheng had mentioned the previous day. He still had not had time to look into them properly.
At that moment, Xiao Ling was packing at Liren Middle School. Ever since police had come the day before, she had been unable to settle down. The doll was gone, but there was no guarantee the “curse” had gone with it. She had called her friend at No. 10, who told her she had also handed her doll to police. Now everyone was saying the dolls brought misfortune. The more people talked, the more frightened Xiao Ling became.
Her fear had another layer. Her mother’s reaction the previous day. Since childhood, Xiao Ling had believed she had an exceptionally happy family. Every elder adored her. Her parents hardly ever argued. Her grandfather and grandmother had also been open-minded people who frequently slipped her spending money. After her grandmother died, Grandpa had been depressed for a while, then gradually recovered. The only thing troubling Xiao Ling now was that perhaps because he was aging, Grandpa had recently begun clashing with her parents more often.
Thinking back to her mother’s attitude the day before, Xiao Ling worried that some kind of family war had broken out. And Grandpa was the one who had brought home the dolls. If there really was a curse, what if it came true on him? She could not bear the thought. She could no longer stay at school and asked for leave to go home.
A little after three in the afternoon, the house was empty. She immediately smelled an overpowering odor of disinfectant, and the living room was unusually spotless. The house felt unfamiliar, and from that unfamiliarity came a trace of fear. Whose home smelled like this? Why had someone sprayed disinfectant everywhere? There was no flu outbreak lately.
Her parents being away was normal. But the weather today was poor, and her grandfather usually would not go out in conditions like this. Xiao Ling immediately called him. His phone was off. Then she called her mother. The moment her mother learned she had gone home, she seemed to suck in a breath and scolded, “Didn’t I tell you not to come home? We already brought your quilt. What else do you want?”
Xiao Ling was startled. “Mom, what’s wrong with you?”
Only then did her mother seem to realize how agitated she sounded. “I… I’m just too busy. I can’t take care of you. Go back to school quickly. Your dad and I won’t be home today.”
“What about Grandpa? If neither of you is coming home, who’s taking care of him?”
The line suddenly went silent. Several seconds later, her mother said, “Grandpa… Grandpa is perfectly fine. He can take care of himself.”
Xiao Ling became even more uneasy. At last she understood what had felt strange about her mother’s words yesterday. Her mother had said then that Grandpa was perfectly fine too. Xiao Ling had not even asked about him. Why had her mother needed to emphasize it?
“Grandpa isn’t home, and he isn’t answering his phone. Do you know where he went?”
“He’s definitely out walking somewhere with those old friends of his.” Her mother spoke urgently. “Lingling, Mom has to work. Don’t stay home. Go back to school right now!”
Xiao Ling put down the phone and sat alone on the sofa in the room saturated with disinfectant. Her heartbeat grew faster and faster. Her mother’s tone, urging her to leave, made it sound as though the house was dangerous, as though something terrible waited there. But how could that be? Wasn’t this her home?
She called Grandpa twice more. Still nothing. She could not sit still. Return to school? But she had only just come home. Stay? This house no longer felt like the home she knew.
With no idea what else to do, she kept scrolling through her phone. Her classmates were all discussing the dolls. She did not want to join in and instead opened local news. Grandpa loved social news and often told her that now their lives were good, they should pay more attention to issues affecting ordinary people.
Suddenly, her hand shook violently. A local-news notification read: This morning, a body was discovered in Liuping Town. The deceased is believed to be approximately seventy years old…
The article itself contained few details, but after she opened it, the algorithm immediately pushed large numbers of scene photos posted by bystanders and self-media accounts. She learned what the news report had not written: the corpse had no head.
Someone had photographed the body. The image was blurry, but the clothes were visible. Her phone slipped from her hand. After a brief blankness, tears burst from her eyes.
Those were clothes she had given Grandpa. She could not be mistaken.
But very quickly, grief was overwhelmed by terror. Everything from yesterday until now replayed through her head in a frantic montage. The house full of disinfectant, her mother’s words, the quilt and fruit left on the ground… If that headless corpse was Grandpa, then her parents were…
She did not dare continue the thought. She fled the apartment.
Chen Zheng was heading to find Ming Han, walking along the corridor of No. 10 Middle School’s Grade 12 building, when his phone suddenly rang.