It was the girl from yesterday, Xiao Ling. Chen Zheng looked at the flashing number and frowned slightly, surprised that she was calling him again so soon. He moved aside with his phone and answered. Before he could speak, rapid breathing came through the line. “O-Officer Chen?”
Her heartbeat seemed so violent that it traveled through her breathing and the signal straight into Chen Zheng’s ear. He immediately realized something serious had happened. “It’s me. What happened?”
“My… my parents…” Xiao Ling’s voice was filled with shock, terror, and sobbing. “They killed my grandfather! My grandfather is dead!”
Chen Zheng stopped walking, his brows drawing tight. “Where are you? I’m coming right now.”
When Chen Zheng reached the McDonald’s near Xiao Ling’s residential complex, she was sitting rigidly at a table like a puppet. Food covered the table in front of her, untouched. Her back was perfectly straight, as though warning everyone around her not to approach. But her eyes were terribly red, and fear wrapped tightly around her. She could only make herself look indestructible, temporarily protecting herself through sheer stubbornness.
Chen Zheng sat opposite her. Xiao Ling’s shoulders tensed warily. Once she saw clearly that it really was the police officer she had met before, tears gradually clouded her eyes. “I… I…”
“No rush. You’re safe now.” Chen Zheng said, “Do you want to talk here, or come back to the sub-bureau with me?”
The moment Xiao Ling had said she was at McDonald’s, Chen Zheng had known she was relatively good at reacting under pressure. She had not run around blindly, nor had she hidden somewhere deserted. McDonald’s had plenty of customers. If danger appeared, she had a greater chance of finding help.
Xiao Ling wiped away her tears. “I want you to go look at my house. I’m not lying. It’s exactly like I told you on the phone. Have you seen this news?” She handed him her phone. On the screen was the report about the homicide in Liuping Town. Her hand shook so badly that the phone nearly fell into Chen Zheng’s palm.
Chen Zheng had been so busy he had not had time to look at the news. After reading it, he immediately said, “Come with me. I need to contact some people.”
Xiao Ling trusted him and followed him into the car. As he drove, Chen Zheng called Kong Bing and explained the situation. Kong Bing said incredulously, “I heard about that case. The victim’s head was cut off. You think his own son did that?”
A trace of coldness entered Chen Zheng’s eyes. He had handled cases far more brutal than this. Human nature often could not withstand even the smallest test.
“Forget who did it for now. Send crime scene examiners over immediately. Xiao Ling’s home reeks of disinfectant. It may be the crime scene.” Chen Zheng continued calmly, “Coordinate with Liuping Town too. See whether we can take over the case.”
Kong Bing agreed, then abruptly realized Chen Zheng had just been giving him orders. He snorted irritably. “I’m the captain!”
Chen Zheng humored him. “Right, Captain Kong. I’m just waiting for you to issue the orders.”
Returning to her residential complex again, Xiao Ling was suddenly afraid to get out of the car. This place had once been her refuge. If she did badly on an exam or fought with a friend, coming home always made her happy. Her father, mother, grandfather, and grandmother had given her endless love and tolerance. She was the little princess of the family. But the moment she smelled that disinfectant, everything had changed.
Chen Zheng wanted to enter the Xiao home as quickly as possible, but he had no intention of forcing Xiao Ling. Leaving her alone in the car was not wise either. Before contacting him, Xiao Ling had already called her mother, Chen Jun. If something truly had happened in the Xiao family, then Chen Jun, knowing her daughter had returned home, might come back. If Xiao Ling encountered her mother alone, no one could predict what might happen.
The two waited in the car for the crime scene examiners and the search authorization. Sitting in the passenger seat, Xiao Ling suddenly sucked in a frightened breath. Chen Zheng followed her gaze. A woman was walking quickly toward the apartment building.
“Chen Jun?” he asked.
Clutching her schoolbag, Xiao Ling nodded. “My mom. My mom came back.”
Chen Zheng got out and told Xiao Ling to stay close to him. Chen Jun may have noticed movement behind her. She turned around, and the instant she saw Xiao Ling, undisguised panic appeared on her face. “Lingling, didn’t I tell you to go back to school? Why are you still here?” Then her gaze moved to Chen Zheng. The unease between her brows became even more obvious. “Who’s he? You’re just following some random person around now? Don’t tell me you’re bringing a stranger into our home?”
Xiao Ling stepped backward and instinctively grabbed Chen Zheng’s clothes. She knew she was already a Grade 11 student, no longer a little girl. But facing a mother who looked completely unlike the woman she knew, she still could not suppress her fear. The balance in her heart tipped instantly toward the police officer beside her.
“Your daughter already called the police.” Chen Zheng put out one arm, gently moving Xiao Ling behind him, and showed his credentials with the other hand. “I’ve been assigned to conduct an examination of your home. Please cooperate.”
Chen Jun’s pupils contracted sharply. She nearly lost her footing. “What did you say? Called… called the police?” She looked as though she could not believe her ears. A moment later, she stared at Xiao Ling in horror. “What did you do? Are you insane? Why would you call the police?”
Xiao Ling’s throat moved, but she could not speak at all. She turned her face away, unwilling to look at her mother like this.
Chen Jun finally seemed to understand what might have happened. She stepped in front of Chen Zheng. “You can’t go in! My husband and I are the homeowners. She’s just a child and doesn’t understand anything. She called the police recklessly. We’re canceling it! Xiao Ling, come here!”
There was no chance Xiao Ling would go to her. Chen Zheng blocked Chen Jun when she lunged forward. “Ms. Chen, you probably don’t want to visit the station for assaulting a police officer.”
“I’m not afraid of assaulting police!” Panic had already driven Chen Jun beyond reason. She began beating Chen Zheng violently with her handbag. Chen Zheng caught both her wrists and restrained her. Disheveled and miserable, Chen Jun dropped to the ground and began screaming.
Chen Zheng frowned. This woman was somewhat different from what he had imagined. Judging from this string of behavior, she might be suffering from mania or another psychiatric disorder.
Xiao Ling was frozen with terror. She had never seen her mother behave like a madwoman. Her mother was someone who had always managed both her career and family with effortless competence. She had been Xiao Ling’s role model. Xiao Ling hoped that when she entered society one day, she could become someone like her mother. Now her mother’s shrill screams felt like a bucket of ice water poured directly over her head.
The police vehicle arrived. After checking the search authorization, Chen Zheng showed it to Chen Jun. She rushed forward frantically, clawing at him, but he did not let her succeed. The sub-bureau detectives temporarily restrained the irrational woman while Chen Zheng entered the Xiao residence with the crime scene examiners. One examiner hissed the moment he stepped inside. “This smell is way too strong. How much disinfectant did they use?”
Under the effect of luminol, bloodstains invisible to the naked eye appeared before them. Large areas of blood were present on the living-room sofa and floor. This was also where the smell of disinfectant was strongest.
Xiao Ling covered her mouth, and her tears finally spilled uncontrollably. When Chen Jun saw the glowing traces, her vision went black and she fainted.
After Kong Bing contacted Liuping Town Police Station, they immediately sent the evidence and DNA samples collected at the scene to Beiye Sub-bureau. At the Xiao residence, crime scene examiners found one strand of hair that had escaped cleaning. DNA comparison matched it to the headless corpse. The victim’s identity was confirmed. He was Xiao Ling’s grandfather, Xiao Kangqi. The two sets of footprints in the woods were also consistent in size with male and female shoes from the Xiao household. Chen Jun and her husband, Xiao Ke, had probably already disposed of the clothes, shoes, and socks they had worn while dumping the body, so investigators had not yet found shoes with matching tread patterns.
Chen Jun was receiving treatment at the hospital. Xiao Ke’s phone, however, had been switched off. His whereabouts were unknown.
“He knows the whole thing blew up, so he dumped his wife and daughter and ran.” Ming Han held out a cup of hot coffee to Chen Zheng. “Want some?”
Chen Zheng glanced at it. “You drank from that?”
Ming Han smiled and drew the cup back. “Disgusted? Fine. I’ll drink it myself.”
Chen Zheng noticed that he looked ready to leave. “Where are you going?”
“Liuping Town.” Ming Han zipped up his jacket. “They killed someone at home but dumped the body in Liuping Town. And they didn’t dump it immediately. Didn’t you call the Xiao family last night? I suspect your call spooked Xiao Ke and Chen Jun and forced them to move the body at the last minute. If they hadn’t moved it, the body probably wouldn’t have been found this quickly.”
Chen Zheng said, “The Xiao family’s ancestral home is in Liuping Town.”
Ming Han nodded. “Exactly. So my guess is that the night before last, after this pair of heartless son and daughter-in-law killed their father, they drove the body to the old family home overnight. No one goes there for months at a time anyway. Your call came completely out of nowhere. Even though we had no idea at the time that something had happened to Xiao Kangqi, they might’ve assumed the police were already onto them. Once we learned their old home was in Liuping Town, naturally we’d search it. So they had no choice but to move the body again.”
The search for Xiao Ke was already underway. He was a middle manager at a medical-equipment company in Zhuquan City. Chen Zheng went there to review attendance records and surveillance footage. Xiao Ke had not arrived at work until after two in the afternoon the previous day. His assistant said he had gone out that morning to discuss business, but could not explain what business. After being pressed with more questions, the assistant actually broke into a sweat and said he was only a new employee and did not dare ask about his superior’s whereabouts. At four that afternoon, Xiao Ke left again after spending less than two hours at the company. He looked terrible. Today, he had not appeared at all.
Xiao Ke’s supervisor was astonished by the police visit. When he heard Xiao Ke might be involved in a criminal case, disbelief filled his face. “You must be mistaken. I know Xiao Ke. He joined the company before he even got married. He’s intelligent and hardworking. I promoted him myself. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with his character!”
The supervisor also said Xiao Ke was famous in the company for being devoted to his family. Their industry inevitably involved social entertaining, and relationships between men and women could become complicated. But Xiao Ke loved his wife and never crossed boundaries with other women. If not for that, his supervisor said, Xiao Ke would not still be stuck in middle management. He would have been promoted long ago.
Ironically, just as the man was guaranteeing Xiao Ke’s character, police reviewing the garage surveillance discovered that shortly after ten that morning, Xiao Ke, who had never reported to work, had driven away in his supervisor’s car.
The supervisor’s face instantly turned the color of pig liver.
Xiao Ke had fled in his boss’s car. The vehicle was still within Han Province and had already reached the vicinity of Luocheng.
Looking at the familiar map, Chen Zheng unconsciously pressed down the corner of his mouth. This case had erupted unexpectedly. Zhuquan police had no problem coordinating with nearby cities, but establishing immediate cooperation with the provincial capital, Luocheng, was more awkward.
If anyone at Beiye Sub-bureau had strong connections in Luocheng, it was naturally Chen Zheng.
Kong Bing coughed. “Teacher Chen, about this…”
Time was tight, and police did not know what Xiao Ke intended to do in Luocheng. If he were simply fleeing, passing through a major city like Luocheng was a poor choice. The real concern was that, in extreme panic, he might go there intending to cause trouble or under someone else’s direction.
Chen Zheng thought of the suspicions that had hung over the previous case and of the unidentified Zheng Tian mentioned by Cao Wenmei. He stopped hesitating and called Luocheng Municipal Public Security Bureau directly.
Chen Zheng had worked in Luocheng for many years. Even though he was no longer stationed there, his phone call proved more useful than Zhuquan working its way upward through every administrative level. Luocheng Municipal Bureau immediately deployed personnel, intercepted Xiao Ke on the expressway entering the city, and found a human head giving off a foul odor inside the trunk.
Xiao Ke was already on his way back to Zhuquan, personally escorted by Luocheng’s Major Crimes Unit. Chen Zheng finally relaxed slightly. Meanwhile, at the Xiao family’s ancestral house in Liuping Town, Ming Han discovered bloodstains and fresh footprints in a household storage room. There were also tire tracks in the courtyard matching the Xiao family’s car. Xiao Kangqi’s body really had been hidden there.
At Beiye Sub-bureau, Xiao Ling sat on a bench in the corridor. The building was not cold, yet she could not stop trembling. Her family had been destroyed. The night before last, she had still been throwing a tantrum, demanding that her mother hurry and bring her a thick quilt. She had heard her parents arguing with Grandpa again, but she had assumed it was only some minor family friction. What family did not have arguments? They would make up soon. Her family had always been so warm. And then, in a single night, everything had changed. Grandpa was gone, and Dad and Mom had become murderers. Then what did that make her?
Suddenly, she thought of the doll Grandpa had given her. The girl at No. 10 who received a doll had already disappeared. Everyone at school was frantically spreading stories about the doll’s curse. Xiao Ling had thought the curse would fall on her. When she finally handed the doll over to the police, she had even felt relieved, believing she was safe. But instead, the curse had fallen on her grandfather, on her father and mother.
She broke down crying and curled tightly into herself. No matter how the female officer comforted her, it did no good. Xiao Ling believed she herself was the source of disaster. If her grades had not been poor, Grandpa would never have bought her that dangerous thing. If she had not panicked and contacted the police, her parents would never have been caught…
Chen Jun had regained consciousness. Under medication, her emotions had finally calmed, but the face beneath the interrogation-room lights was utterly lifeless, filled with confusion and helplessness.
Chen Zheng indicated the evidence in front of her. She asked softly, “Where’s my husband? I want to see my husband.”
“Xiao Ke fled toward Luocheng this morning carrying Xiao Kangqi’s head. He’s currently being transported back.”
Chen Jun slowly processed the words, then shook her head in disbelief. “Fled? No. No, impossible. He would never abandon me.”
“I can ask him for you later.” Chen Zheng said, “First answer my question. Did you and Xiao Ke kill Xiao Kangqi?”
After a long silence, Chen Jun nodded. “Mm.”
Chen Zheng asked, “Why?”
Chen Jun raised a tear-streaked face. “I couldn’t take it anymore. My father-in-law became a completely different person. I really just lost control. It was an accident! We never meant to kill him!”
Chen Jun had once been extremely satisfied with her marriage. She worked in finance and had met Xiao Ke through a blind date. Xiao Ke fell in love with her at first sight, but she had never loved him quite as much. She had been pretty and popular, with no shortage of pursuers. Xiao Ke merely earned her parents’ approval because he was dependable. At the time, she had always believed she could find someone better.
What ultimately convinced her to marry Xiao Ke were his parents. They were open-minded and easy to get along with. Chen Jun’s own family had been financially comfortable but placed tremendous pressure on her from childhood. For the first time, the Xiao family showed her what a relaxed family environment felt like. Her mother-in-law was well-read, gentle, and tolerant. Her father-in-law had worked for many years in management at a power plant and was humorous and generous.
After marriage, the Xiao family’s warmth did not change. Her in-laws treated her like their own daughter. In nearly twenty years of marriage, the only period when Chen Jun truly suffered was after giving birth to Xiao Ling. Her mother-in-law took her to see a psychiatrist, and for the first time Chen Jun learned that she had a manic disorder.
The Xiao family never treated her differently because of it. Her mother-in-law and husband accompanied her whenever possible, looked after her, and gave her the understanding her own family had never provided.
But her mother-in-law’s death put a comma in that happy life. Perhaps she had been the most important member of the family. After her death, Xiao Kangqi was depressed at first, then suddenly became lively like a young man again. Almost every day he dressed like a fashionable old gentleman and went out meeting all kinds of people.
His pension was extremely generous, and because his late wife had always managed the household carefully, he also had substantial savings. Neither Chen Jun nor Xiao Ke coveted his money. They even gave him spending money. Around a year ago, however, Xiao Kangqi began spending recklessly. Health supplements poured into the house as if they cost nothing. At first, the younger couple thought an old man spending money to make himself happy was harmless. But over time, watching the products pile up began to irritate them.
Xiao Kangqi seemed to have fallen into a bottomless pit and refused to listen to anyone. Whenever they tried to advise him, he became angry and said he had worked hard his entire life. If he did not enjoy himself now, was he supposed to wait until he died? Chen Jun even tried asking Xiao Ling to persuade him indirectly. Grandpa listened to his granddaughter more than anyone. But Xiao Ling took her grandfather’s side.
They tolerated all of that. At worst, they thought, the family owned another home. They could move apart. Out of sight, out of mind. What went beyond everything they understood or could accept was that Xiao Kangqi began paying women for sex.
A seventy-year-old man was doing something their family considered utterly disgraceful.
At this point Chen Jun began choking on her words. Chen Zheng’s expression sharpened too. When he first met Xiao Ling and heard about her family, he had already thought of this possibility. Now, threads that had seemed unrelated were quietly beginning to connect. The dense web behind them was enough to send a chill down his spine.
“Who were the women?” Chen Zheng asked. “How did he contact them?”
Chen Jun shook her head. “I don’t know. He refused to say. He never brought them home. They always met at hotels. My husband followed him once and saw a woman in her forties…”
She struggled to continue. Given the environment in which Chen Jun had grown up, the matter was genuinely too disgraceful for her to discuss easily. What she found even harder to accept was that before her mother-in-law died, the elderly couple had practically been a model marriage. Why had Xiao Kangqi begun doing something like this outside the moment his wife was gone?
They had been willing to ignore his reckless spending on health supplements, but they could not remain silent about this. At first Xiao Ke tried reasoning with his father. He even said it would be fine if Xiao Kangqi wanted to find them a stepmother, but he could not go out and pay for sex. Xiao Kangqi refused to listen. Eventually, every discussion became a family war. Xiao Kangqi insisted that his children did not understand him and could not give him companionship, while those women did. When furious enough, he even declared that after he died, he would leave all his money to them.
On November 15, the family fought over the issue again. This time, Xiao Kangqi had gone beyond buying women for himself. He had begun acting as a middleman and introducing other elderly friends to buy the same services. The son of one of those men had come directly to the Xiao household to complain. The family had now lost every shred of face. Xiao Ke and his father nearly severed ties. Chen Jun listened from the side, and the mania that had vanished years earlier under her mother-in-law’s care erupted again. Xiao Kangqi raised his cane, intending to strike his son. Chen Jun had just finished speaking with Xiao Ling on the phone. Seeing this, rage overwhelmed her. She grabbed a vase and smashed it hard against the back of her father-in-law’s head.
Xiao Kangqi collapsed. His eyes remained open, staring at her in disbelief as his body began convulsing. Xiao Ke stood beside them, stunned. Chen Jun had completely lost control. She grabbed a shard of the broken vase and drove it into Xiao Kangqi’s neck.
There was a dull thud, blood and mangled flesh, and a life came to an end at the threshold of seventy.
Only after the old man had completely stopped breathing did Chen Jun and Xiao Ke gradually understand what they had done. Chen Jun broke down and sobbed uncontrollably as her husband pulled her into his arms. “I’ll take care of it! I’m here!”
“How? I… I killed someone!”
“Not you. Us. Trust me. We’ll hide Dad at my family’s old house. Nobody ever goes there. As long as we say nothing, nobody will know he disappeared.”
“But… but Lingling is coming home soon!”
“Have her stay at school this weekend! Once we’ve dealt with everything, we’ll tell her Grandpa went traveling.”
Under cover of darkness, they transported the body to Liuping Town. Most residents there were elderly people whose younger relatives lived elsewhere. By midnight, everyone was asleep. The couple hid the body in the old house’s storage room. Because Xiao Ke’s job gave him contact with people in the funeral industry, he planned to pay heavily to bribe someone in the business to dispose of the body without leaving a trace. Until he found someone, the old family storeroom seemed like the safest hiding place.
Although Chen Zheng already understood why the body had been moved, he still asked, “Why did you move it again? And why did you dismember him?”
The word “dismemberment” clearly struck a nerve with Chen Jun, and she began trembling uncontrollably as she said, “My husband said… the police had called!”
Chen Zheng’s phone call had been catastrophic for the couple. Xiao Ke still had not found a funeral worker he trusted. In a panic, he rushed back to the old house. Crying, Chen Jun had said, “What if someone finds the body? They definitely will. Can’t we dump it somewhere farther away?”
Farther away would certainly have been better, but reality gave them no more time. Xiao Ke made a brutal decision. He cut off Xiao Kangqi’s head, believing that even if police discovered the body, identifying it would take longer.
Cutting it off was easy, but disposing of it proved far more difficult; after burying the body, Xiao Ke suddenly broke down over what he had done to his own father and hugged the severed head as he wailed.
After returning home, neither husband nor wife was themselves anymore; even though they had washed the house with disinfectant again and again, they still felt as though Xiao Kangqi remained inside it.
Xiao Ke had now been transported back to Zhuquan City. Accompanying him was Xu Kan, the forensic pathologist from Luocheng Major Crimes Unit. He seemed to have a great deal he wanted to say to Chen Zheng, but there was no time. Chen Zheng merely patted him on the shoulder before entering the interrogation room.
Xiao Ke never lifted his head throughout the questioning. He was drowning in remorse, and his account was almost identical to Chen Jun’s. As for why he had taken the severed head toward Luocheng, Xiao Ke said that once daylight came, he could no longer bear the torment of his conscience. At the same time, he remembered his promise to his wife and wanted to carry the head as far away as possible. If there was truly no way to escape, he planned to surrender in some large city. He had not expected his wife to confess before he did.
Chen Zheng took out Cao Wenmei’s photograph. “Do you recognize her?”
Xiao Ke looked at it and shook his head.
Chen Zheng asked again, “Do you know Zheng Tian?”
At last, Xiao Ke reacted. “I heard Dad mention him. He’s the one who introduced those people to my father! Zheng Tian brainwashed him!”