The elderly man Kong Bing was talking about, Xiong Keping, was seventy-two years old. He had once been a university professor and, after retiring, had been rehired by another university. He did not fully retire until two years ago. His income and savings were substantial, and by Zhuquan City standards his standard of living was far above average for someone his age.
He had a son and a daughter, both working in education, and the family had once been happy. But like Xiao Kangqi, he had become one of Zheng Tian’s target clients. Once he got involved in buying women, he stopped being a good father in his children’s eyes.
When the police went to the Xiong home to verify the situation, Xiong Keping’s son, Xiong Wei, was visibly nervous and kept evading the point. His wife stammered as well and could not clearly explain where Xiong Keping had gone. When the police stated outright that the lead had come from Luo Anxin, the shock in Xiong Wei’s eyes was impossible to hide. Beads of sweat rolled down his face. “My father, my father… he ran away from home!”
Since the police already knew about Xiong Keping buying women, Xiong Wei stopped trying to conceal it. He said he did not know when his father had first gotten involved with those women. By the time he noticed something was wrong, it was already August. Neither he nor his older sister could accept it, especially his sister, whose work had some connection to the institution where their father had worked before retirement. If their father’s scandal became public, it could seriously affect her career.
The siblings had tried to sit down with their father and talk sincerely. They did not object to him finding a companion in his old age, but fooling around with women was unacceptable. Xiong Keping not only refused to listen but flew into a rage, insisting that his children did not understand him and that only those women did.
At that point, Xiong Wei could not help complaining. “What do you mean, understand him? He just likes being flattered by young women! After retirement he couldn’t hear that anymore, so he buys a woman to flatter him! Vanity, that’s all!”
When Xiong Keping was young, he had been handsome and refined and was very popular with female students. An educated older man could easily dominate an inexperienced young woman in a relationship. Although Xiong Keping had never actually had an affair with a female student, it was undeniable that he had engaged in ambiguous flirtations with some of them. As he grew older and his hair turned gray, his manner became even more polished. Right up until retirement, female students still admired him. After retiring, however, his company consisted of nothing but other retired old men. After a lifetime of being praised, he suddenly found it difficult to adapt.
Xiong Wei continued. Half a month earlier, his sister had come to speak with their father again. She said she had heard rumors about him at work and felt deeply humiliated, and she begged him to stop doing things that would disgrace his children. At first both of them remained fairly calm, but Xiong Keping refused to listen to reason. His daughter finally lost control, flew into a rage, and abandoned all composure. Xiong Wei naturally sided with his sister. From Xiong Keping’s perspective, the entire family had turned against him.
“Fine, fine, fine! I never should’ve had two ungrateful children like you!” Xiong Keping shouted before locking himself in his bedroom, while his daughter broke down crying outside.
They all assumed Xiong Keping had shut himself in to sulk. Less than fifteen minutes later, however, he came out carrying a large bag and strode toward the door with a cold expression. Xiong Wei hurried forward. “Dad, where are you going this late?”
“What business is it of yours?” Xiong Keping shoved him aside. “You want to restrict your old man’s freedom too?”
His daughter cried, “Are you going to those women again? Do you want to die in their beds?”
The words had plainly been spoken in anger, but hearing them only made Xiong Keping even more furious. “Yes! That’s exactly where I’m going!” he roared, then slammed the door behind him.
The officer asked, “None of you went looking for him?”
Xiong Wei said that at the time, he had told his wife to stay with his distraught sister while he ran downstairs after their father. But although Xiong Keping was old, he walked quickly. By the time Xiong Wei reached the entrance to the residential complex, his father was already gone. Xiong Wei had been furious too. He thought, If you want to leave, then leave. You’re just going to those women anyway. He could not be bothered to keep chasing him.
The next day, Xiong Keping did not return and did not call. Xiong Wei and his sister were still angry, and both knew their father’s habits. The man had never suffered in his life. When their mother had been alive, he had always expected everything to be brought to him and done for him. Apart from his professional expertise, he was practically helpless. How long could someone like that last outside without his family’s care? Surely he would come back on his own before long.
But a full week passed and there was still no word from Xiong Keping.
Xiong Wei finally began to panic. He called his father, but the phone was switched off. He and his sister knew only that their father had been seeing those women; they did not have any of the women’s contact information. The whole matter was also deeply embarrassing, and neither sibling wanted to use personal connections to investigate it. So they kept putting it off until now.
The residential complex still had surveillance footage from half a month earlier. At nine o’clock on the night of November 7, Xiong Keping had indeed left alone carrying a travel bag, and Xiong Wei had followed him as far as the entrance before turning back. He had not lied about that. But whether Xiong Keping later returned, or whether anyone from the Xiong family went out looking for him, had not yet been verified.
Kong Bing said, “At least one thing is certain. After Xiong Keping left home, he never went to see any woman. Luo Anxin was the one who gave us his name, and before we told her Xiong Keping was missing, she knew nothing about it. We spoke to her again just now. She’s certain Xiong Keping hasn’t contacted her in more than half a month.”
Ming Han said, “Luo Anxin might not have been the only woman.”
“That’s true, but Luo Anxin says she’d been seeing Xiong Keping for quite a while. He told her everything, and she’s not some naive little girl who’d believe whatever he told her. From the things he said, she understood that he only wanted to be with her now.” Kong Bing added, “Besides, when Xiong Keping stormed out of the house, theoretically he would’ve gone to the woman he got along with best.”
Chen Zheng asked, “Have you checked the surveillance around the Xiong home?”
“We haven’t had time to go through it in detail. From the preliminary look, only one camera at the mouth of an alley caught him. After that he vanished.” Kong Bing said, “I think Xiong Wei and his sister are highly suspicious. Sometimes the hatred inside a family is hard to imagine.”
“One possibility is that Xiong Keping didn’t run away at all. The siblings killed him and disposed of the body. If we hadn’t traced the case to their family, they might have kept it hidden indefinitely.” Chen Zheng continued, “Another possibility is that Xiong Keping really did leave home but encountered some accident on the way. His disappearance gave the siblings relief. Most people, no matter how much resentment they feel toward relatives, won’t actually kill them. But plenty of people will simply take advantage of circumstances. An elderly family member with dementia wanders off and doesn’t come home, and the family doesn’t look for them, just leaves them outside to fend for themselves.”
Kong Bing frowned. “Actually, yes. Taking advantage of the situation sounds more likely than directly killing Xiong Keping.”
Chen Zheng fell silent, the shadows of his lashes dark across his eyes. Ming Han watched him without making a sound, almost as though admiring a painting. But Kong Bing could never sit quietly. After waiting for Chen Zheng to continue and hearing nothing, he blurted, “Why have both of you gone mute?”
Chen Zheng came back to himself. “We haven’t gone mute. I was thinking about a darker possibility.”
Kong Bing raised an eyebrow. “What possibility?”
“Whether Xiong Keping is still alive, and if he’s dead whether his children killed him, let’s set that aside for the moment.” Chen Zheng had barely begun before Kong Bing interrupted in disbelief. “How can you set that aside?”
Chen Zheng said, “Don’t rush me. Listen first. The reason I want to set it aside is that, subjectively, the Xiong siblings wanted their father to disappear from their lives. Right?”
Kong Bing considered it, then nodded.
Chen Zheng continued, “Xiao Ke and Chen Jun killed Xiao Kangqi outright after they could no longer endure him. The children in these two families are in the same position: they can no longer tolerate their fathers’ behavior. And what caused the conflict inside the family? Elderly men buying sex.”
Kong Bing looked thoughtful. “Not just these two families. Among all the families we know about, whenever the elderly man has children and the children know what’s happening, there’s been a family war. These two are just the most extreme.”
“Exactly. Remember when I said I couldn’t understand why Zheng Tian and the people behind him were steering Cao Wenmei and the others toward wealthy elderly men?” Chen Zheng said. “The cut they take from Cao Wenmei and the others is tiny, almost nothing more than going through the motions. So how do they profit? Maybe money was never their real objective.”
Ming Han said, “Incitement. Provocation. Intensifying conflict within families.”
Kong Bing drew a deep breath. “They’re trying to disrupt society starting with families? If that’s true, this is huge.”
Chen Zheng said, “That’s not quite what I’m getting at. Think again. What’s the most urgent problem we’re dealing with right now?”
Kong Bing said, “The string of incidents at the schools!”
“There’s a connection between the two,” Chen Zheng said. “I’m not saying Yin Gaoqiang somehow knew both Cao Wenmei and Liu Wenran. It’s that both sides seem to involve destabilizing a particular group of people.”
Kong Bing’s expression turned grave. “They lure well-paid retirees into buying sex and inflame family conflict, sometimes to the point of tragedy between parents and children. Then they use the dolls to stir up students’ tendency to imitate others, release their malice, and produce more and more campus incidents.” By the time Kong Bing finished, goosebumps had risen all over him.
Chen Zheng said, “Maybe our theory about the motive is wrong. Only the people committing the crimes know what their real objective is. But I’ve always held to one thing: if a crime happens, there is a motive behind it.”
Kong Bing calmed down for a while, then said, “We’ll investigate the Xiong family in detail tomorrow. And then there’s Xu Xinghao. That man makes no sense at all. Oh, right. No. 2 Middle School has another missing-person case. They still haven’t found the kid.”
Chen Zheng and Ming Han exchanged a look. Ming Han had spent the entire day running around various middle schools, but because he had only recently visited No. 2 Middle School, he had overlooked it this time. “Who’s missing?” Ming Han asked.
Kong Bing said, “A male student named Du Qing. I haven’t looked closely at the investigation yet. I heard his father reported him missing.”
“Du Qing?” Chen Zheng said. “The Grade 12 Du Qing?”
Kong Bing looked startled. “Don’t tell me you know him.”
Chen Zheng nodded. “After the noodle-shop explosion, a lot of students left flowers by the roadside to mourn Old Yin, remember? Some teachers thought the students were making trouble for the school and came out to stop them. One girl argued with the teachers. I spoke with her.”
The girl had angrily accused the school of doing nothing while allowing delinquent students to bully ordinary students. She herself had been a victim. The teachers, she said, only ever smoothed things over and had never truly protected students who were being harmed. Instead it had been Old Yin, an outsider, who regularly helped and comforted them.
Among the delinquents she named was Du Qing. She said he relied on his influence to bully others, harassed female students, and even hit them. His behavior was serious, but because the school did not want trouble, it looked the other way, acting as though nothing mattered as long as the incidents never reached the police station.
After hearing this, Kong Bing said, “I remember something like that. You even suspected those delinquents might have something to do with Yin Gaoqiang’s death.”
Chen Zheng said, “I did. But at the time Old Yin’s case was the only one we had. I suspected Du Qing might be connected to the explosion. He had motive, but absolutely no opportunity, and that bombing really wasn’t something someone like him could carry out. So I dropped the idea.”
Kong Bing said warily, “And now he disappears at a time like this…”
No one had an answer. Chen Zheng said, “I’ll go to No. 2 Middle School tomorrow.”
Kong Bing had to stay on duty at Beiye Sub-bureau that night. Chen Zheng did not particularly want to go home either, but the sub-bureau had nowhere for him to sleep, so he still had to leave. He had already reached the corridor when he suddenly felt as if he had forgotten something. He checked himself: keys, phone, credentials, everything was there. What could he have left behind?
He stood there for a moment, letting his mind go blank as he searched his memory. He confirmed that nothing was missing and could only lament how badly the case had worn him down; even his brain was starting to seize up. He was about to head downstairs when footsteps sounded behind him. He turned, and something flashed through his mind like lightning. He remembered what he had forgotten.
It wasn’t a thing. It was a living, breathing person.
Ming Han, however, did not wear his usual ingratiating look when trying to hitch a ride. He merely said, “Bro, heading home?”
Chen Zheng thought it was strange that he was suddenly being so polite and offered first, “Come on. I’ll give you a ride.”
Ming Han raised an eyebrow. “I never said I was going home.”
Chen Zheng looked him over. “You’re on duty too?”
Ming Han laughed. “The sub-bureau gave me a dorm room last time. You forgot?”
Chen Zheng: “…” Fine. Must be nice to have a dorm. People without one had no choice but to drive home after a full day of work. Maybe I’ll just take a cab tomorrow, Chen Zheng thought.
Too tired to talk to Ming Han anymore, Chen Zheng waved a hand and headed downstairs. Ming Han followed behind him. Chen Zheng almost asked, Why are you following me? Then he reconsidered. Was there another way downstairs? He really was exhausted out of his mind.
The dormitories were to the left, but Ming Han did not turn. Instead he called toward Chen Zheng’s back, “Bro, you don’t feel like driving, do you?”
Chen Zheng replied irritably, “What, are you going to call a designated driver for me?” The moment the words left his mouth, he was a little startled. Since when had he become so comfortable taking his irritation out on Ming Han? He was not even bothering to keep up appearances.
Ming Han walked over with a smile. “I’ll drive you home.”
Chen Zheng said, “And then I drive you back here?”
Ming Han burst out laughing. “Bro, you know what? When you get too busy, you become kind of funny.”
Chen Zheng froze. Do I? When he got too busy, he usually could not even be bothered to speak, just like now. He did not particularly want to talk now either, but there was an energetic parrot beside him chirping nonstop, so he had to answer at least a little. What would it say about him if a human picked a fight with a parrot and lost?
While Chen Zheng was still standing there blankly, Ming Han had already reached the driver’s side. “I’ll drive. You know what my driving is like.”
A driver had volunteered himself. No reason to refuse. Chen Zheng got into the car, his eyelids fighting to stay open. Ming Han kept talking on the way, but Chen Zheng barely listened. He vaguely heard him ask, “Were you like this back when you were still on the front line?”
Half asleep, Chen Zheng answered, “That was different.”
Ming Han asked, “How?”
He said, “Major Crimes had a bed. Mine.”
Ming Han said, “Then this is about the same. I’m taking you home, so you don’t have to drive.”
Chen Zheng was genuinely exhausted and fell asleep for the latter half of the trip. Although calling it “the latter half” made it sound longer than it was. Zhuquan City was not that large, and Beiye Sub-bureau was especially close to his home. It should have been only a few minutes before Ming Han woke him. “Bro, we’re here. Go sleep.”
Chen Zheng woke without any of the heaviness he should have felt after sleeping for only a few minutes. Instead, he felt as though he had gotten a proper rest.
Ming Han got out too and walked into the residential complex with him. Chen Zheng asked, “You’re not going back to the dorm?”
Ming Han laughed. “You really want me to drive you home and then have you drive me back? We’re already here. Of course I’m sleeping at home.”
Chen Zheng almost said he felt awake enough now that taking Ming Han back would be no trouble, but the whole thing had been a joke to begin with, so he let it go. They separated. When Chen Zheng reached home, he glanced at the digital clock on the wall cabinet and froze. It was already one in the morning. He distinctly remembered checking the time before saying goodbye to Kong Bing: it had been five minutes to eleven. He and Ming Han had bickered for a few minutes on the way out, but only a few. At night, with no traffic, the drive from the sub-bureau to his home took barely ten minutes. How had the trip somehow lasted… two hours?
Chen Zheng ran a hand through his hair and understood why a few minutes of sleep had made him feel completely recharged. Ming Han had not woken him as soon as they reached the complex at all. He had let Chen Zheng sleep in the car for nearly two hours.
All his sleepiness had vanished. Chen Zheng warmed himself a cup of milk and found himself wondering why Ming Han had done it. Had he seen Chen Zheng sleeping so deeply and felt bad about waking him? Ming Han had no trouble being shameless. If anything, Chen Zheng would sooner believe the man had taken the opportunity to mess with him while he slept. Thinking of Ming Han’s lazy, slightly obnoxious expression, Chen Zheng’s lips curved upward without his realizing it.
No, that was not it. Then why? Ming Han was tired too. Had he wanted to rest for a while before leaving? If Chen Zheng put himself in his place, did that make sense? He had not fallen asleep, and his home was not far away. Why sit in the car instead of going home to sleep properly?
Chen Zheng’s fingers tightened slightly around the milk cup, his palm warming against it. He had no evidence, yet a scene almost appeared before his eyes: while he slept, Ming Han had turned sideways and quietly watched him. Only when Chen Zheng began to show signs of waking had Ming Han pretended they had just arrived and called him out of the car.
What did that mean? If Chen Zheng were still some clueless young man, perhaps he would not understand what Ming Han was doing. But at his age, if he still could not read the thoughts of someone younger than him, then he had lived all those years for nothing.
Ming Han was approaching him openly and without shame, forcefully tearing apart the stagnant life Chen Zheng had been living in Zhuquan City. He followed Chen Zheng through investigations, moved into the neighborhood near him, and practically only lacked a sign around his neck saying, I’m interested in you.
But precisely because Chen Zheng was no longer young, even though he could see what Ming Han was thinking, he had no intention of exposing it first. One thing he knew with certainty: he did not dislike Ming Han crossing what should have been a safe distance between them.
The next morning, when Chen Zheng left home, Ming Han was astride his motorcycle, the engine roaring. One look at him and Chen Zheng thought he looked like some delinquent cool guy today: dressed head to toe in rugged black, topped off with an exaggerated pair of sunglasses. Chen Zheng walked over. “Making this much noise first thing in the morning. Keep it up and traffic police will slap a ticket on you.”
Ming Han said, “First thing in the morning and I’m the person you’re most worried about?”
Chen Zheng said, “Thanks for last night.”
“Not at all. I got a ride out of it too.” Ming Han made no mention whatsoever of the two-hour “time difference.” “Want to head out together?”
One of them was going to No. 2 Middle School, while the other refused to say where he planned to wander off to. Their so-called “together” only lasted as far as the intersection outside the residential complex. Chen Zheng glanced into his rearview mirror. As if Ming Han had known he would look, the man waved at him, then smoothly swung the motorcycle in another direction and sped away.
“What’s he showing off for?” Chen Zheng smiled and shook his head.
The officers at Hele Street Police Station had not expected another problem so soon after the previous string of cases had barely ended. The moment an officer saw Chen Zheng, he panicked. Experience told him that if Director Chen came in person, it meant something serious.
“Director Chen, are you here about Du Qing too?” the officer hurriedly asked.
“How is it? Have you found him?” Chen Zheng asked.
The officer sighed. “Found him? Not a chance! All we know is that he received one of those dolls before he disappeared! What kind of cursed thing is this doll anyway? Why are students getting into trouble everywhere?”
Chen Zheng said, “Do you have the doll? Let me see it.”
“Yes, yes!” The officer brought over the evidence bag. Chen Zheng looked at the doll. It was not one of the mass-produced copies. It resembled the handmade one Ming Han had previously brought back from No. 2 Middle School, crocheted from yarn.
Chen Zheng set down the evidence bag. “How far has the investigation gotten?”
The officer started from the report made by Du Qing’s father. Du Qing’s grades were poor, and he had been trouble from the moment he started Grade 10. The station knew him well. When they first heard he was missing, they had not thought much of it. A delinquent disappearing for a while was practically routine. But the recent cursed-doll incidents had put every middle school in the city on edge, especially the police stations near the schools. So the moment the report came in, officers were dispatched.
The investigation found that Du Qing had last attended school on November 20. He had behaved normally and completed the entire school day. After classes, he ate barbecue outside the school with two other delinquent students. They separated at ten-thirty, and Du Qing headed home alone. But surveillance at his residential complex never captured him arriving that night, and he had not appeared again afterward.
Du Qing came from a single-parent household and had no mother. His father often attended social engagements and did not come home every night. According to his father, he had called Du Qing but found the phone switched off. Assuming Du Qing was off causing trouble again, he returned home but could not find him. He asked Du Qing’s classmates and learned that the boy had not gone to school either, so he hurried to report him missing.
Officers found a doll crushed out of shape inside Du Qing’s desk. Students close to him said they had personally seen him throw the doll onto the ground and stomp on it. The others jeered and wanted to stomp on it too, but Du Qing shoved them away. Then he picked the doll back up and casually stuffed it into his school uniform, leaving everyone baffled.
Everyone agreed on where the doll had come from: Zhang Xiran had given it to him. Zhang Xiran was in the same grade as Du Qing but a different class. Her grades, family circumstances, and appearance were all ordinary, yet for some reason Du Qing had been obsessed with her for a time. His classmates emphasized that it had been a very brief period. It did not seem that Du Qing had actually liked her. Rather, he had enjoyed the process of pursuing and bullying an ordinary girl, and once he grew bored, he stopped paying attention to her.
Zhang Xiran usually spent time only with other girls. The boys in her class all said they had hardly spoken to her. So when Zhang Xiran personally crocheted a doll and gave it to Du Qing, not only Du Qing but his delinquent friends were surprised.
“Qingzi’s eyes nearly popped out when he got that thing. I remember he hadn’t bothered her in ages, right? Then she brought herself to him. Guess she got anxious when she realized Qingzi wasn’t interested anymore.” The delinquent student spoke with the oily swagger of someone pretending to be a hardened gangster. Everyone had mocked Zhang Xiran as a clown and told Du Qing to throw the doll away. That was when Du Qing stepped on it but refused to let anyone else do the same.
After that, Du Qing occasionally took the doll out, but no one ever saw him speaking to Zhang Xiran. Before his disappearance, he did not seem to behave unusually in any other way.
The officer said, “Once Du Qing’s father found out about the doll, he became convinced Zhang Xiran had done something to his son. Every day he brings a whole pack of relatives to No. 2 Middle School to make a scene. Zhang Xiran doesn’t even dare come to school anymore.”
Chen Zheng asked, “What does Zhang Xiran say?”
The officer sucked in a breath and began shaking his head before he had even gotten a word out. “I genuinely don’t understand this Zhang Xiran. The girls close to her all say she hated Du Qing. Last year, when he kept harassing her, she wanted to smash his head with a brick, and she said more than once that she hated delinquent students who never learned anything. But when we questioned her this time, she said she likes Du Qing now. She said she regrets it now that he isn’t interested in her anymore and wants to win him back. Listen to that. What kind of story is this? Forget us police. Even her own friends can’t understand what happened to her.”
When something could not be explained, it only meant the people observing it had not yet found the truth. Chen Zheng asked for Zhang Xiran’s address. She lived in Jiahui Residential Complex, two bus stops from No. 2 Middle School. Chen Zheng planned to meet Zhang Xiran first and then visit the Du home.
But outside Jiahui Residential Complex, Chen Zheng spotted Lü Ou out of uniform. He looked extremely guarded, as though he were waiting for someone.