At No. 10 Middle School, the homeroom teacher of Class 2 was frantic, scolding two students. “He didn’t return to the dorm last night. Why didn’t you say anything?”
The two students were both Lü Ou’s roommates, and one was also a class officer. He lowered his head, guilt and panic written all over him. “He… he said yesterday afternoon that he was going out to meet an online friend at night. He asked us to do him a favor and cover for him if the dorm supervisor checked rooms. I… I didn’t know something would happen to him.”
The homeroom teacher snapped, “Something did happen! Schools all over the city have been having incidents. That girl from Class 13 is still missing. The school has warned you again and again to be careful, and you still helped Lü Ou lie?”
“We… we…” The two roommates looked ready to cry.
“All right, all right. This isn’t the time to blame them.” Kong Bing interrupted the teacher. “Let me speak to them alone.”
The homeroom teacher stepped aside angrily. Kong Bing was not good at dealing with students, and now he had to force out a smile to make himself look less intimidating. Yet the two boys still stared at him in terror, trembling even harder than they had in front of their teacher.
He clicked his tongue inwardly. Am I really that scary? Images of Chen Zheng talking to students flashed through his mind. In the end he gave up. Without Chen Zheng’s face, there was no point trying to imitate Chen Zheng’s manner.
Kong Bing cleared his throat. “Did Lü Ou say who this online friend was?”
“N-no.”
“Then take a guess. Everyone says you kids in the experimental class are smart. Has he ever let anything slip about who this person might be?”
“Really, no. He never mentioned any online friends before. We were surprised yesterday when he said it too.”
Kong Bing thought it over. The online friend was probably just an excuse Lü Ou had made up to fool his roommates. But where had he actually gone?
His roommates said that ever since the disappearance case began, Lü Ou had stopped focusing on his studies. He had done badly on a quiz the previous week, yet seemed not to care at all. They understood why. Lü Ou had always been interested in Liu Wenran, and now that she was missing, he was probably the student most invested in what had happened.
“Could he know where Liu Wenran is, so he went out to find her?” The roommate grew more worried the more he spoke. “And then something happened to him? He never tells us this kind of stuff…”
No. 10 Middle School had recently upgraded its surveillance system, making it more comprehensive than before Liu Wenran disappeared. Kong Bing watched footage of Lü Ou, pausing it several times. Lü Ou’s movements were just as conspicuous as they had been immediately after Liu Wenran vanished. He still frequently went to the floor where Class 13 was located. Most of the other students in his class rarely even left their own floor, let alone went to Class 13, because the experimental class truly had a crushing workload.
But Kong Bing noticed something else. Over the past three days, Lü Ou had gone to the Grade 10 teaching building four times, something he had never done before.
He had passed the Grade 10 mathematics office and waited outside without speaking to any teacher. He had also appeared near Grade 10 Classes 7 and 11, again without contacting anyone. He came and went for no apparent reason, like a tourist.
Kong Bing obtained the student and faculty rosters for those two Grade 10 classes. His gaze fixed on one name: Jiang Luoqing.
Jiang Luoqing was the mathematics teacher for both classes. And over the past two days, in addition to his regular teaching load, he had been assigned to substitute again for Grade 12 Class 13.
A surge of heat raced through Kong Bing, like the flash of insight that came just before the truth emerged. He checked the surveillance from the Grade 12 building again. Lü Ou appeared near Class 13 precisely when Jiang Luoqing was substituting there.
Kong Bing had personally detained Lü Ou before because the boy had looked so suspicious, but Chen Zheng had released him after investigating and questioning him. Kong Bing had argued with Chen Zheng over it. Chen Zheng said Lü Ou was the sort of amateur campus detective who looked like he was causing trouble for the police but was actually unrelated to the crimes themselves. Ming Han had agreed.
So the situation now was this: their campus detective had uncovered some unknown clue and begun suspecting Jiang Luoqing. Chen Zheng had already noticed irrationalities in Jiang Luoqing’s behavior and was quietly investigating him with Ming Han to avoid alerting him. And right at this critical moment, Lü Ou vanished.
Kong Bing asked, “Where is Jiang Luoqing now?”
School administrators were astonished and did not understand why the police wanted Jiang Luoqing. The Grade 10 year director said, “He’s teaching right now. Wait, Teacher Jiang is one of the outstanding young teachers we’re focusing on developing. Don’t make a mistake here!”
Detectives near the Grade 10 teaching building had already reached the doorway of Class 7. Class had not ended yet. Jiang Luoqing stood at the lectern, his teaching style relaxed and engaging, and the students listened with obvious interest. To avoid disrupting the lesson, the detectives made no noise. After the bell, some students stayed to ask Jiang Luoqing questions while others filed out and only then noticed the police. Everyone knew what had been happening around the school lately, and seeing officers outside their classroom made them nervous.
Jiang Luoqing seemed to hear the commotion outside. Smiling at the student asking him a question, he said, “Teacher has something to take care of right now. I’ll explain it to you during evening self-study.”
The moment he stepped out, his gaze met Kong Bing’s. The two studied each other. Jiang Luoqing spoke first. “Captain Kong, is there something you need me to cooperate with?”
In an interview room at Beiye Sub-bureau, Jiang Luoqing looked around the cramped space with confusion in his eyes. “Captain Kong, I said I would cooperate with the investigation. What exactly have I done that makes you treat me like a criminal?”
Kong Bing did not bother playing games. “Last night, Lü Ou from the Grade 12 experimental class disappeared.”
Jiang Luoqing frowned as though he did not understand. “Another student disappeared? Then you should hurry up and look for him instead of staring at me. Captain Kong, I don’t teach Grade 12 anymore.”
“Lü Ou has had quite a bit of contact with us police,” Kong Bing said. “He once sat exactly where you’re sitting now. I was the one who questioned him too.”
Jiang Luoqing said, “Captain Kong, what exactly are you trying to say? I don’t understand.”
Kong Bing scowled. “Lü Ou admitted that he interfered with the police investigation because he wanted to find the suspect before we did.”
Jiang Luoqing was silent for several seconds, then shook his head. “That’s something you should be telling his parents. I’m not his teacher… Lü Ou, yes, I know his name. He’s very good at math and one of the top students in the experimental class. But that is the full extent of what I know about him.”
Kong Bing said, “Are you still acting, Teacher Jiang? Lü Ou has been investigating Liu Wenran’s disappearance and the origins of the dolls. Then he suddenly disappears. Who else would want him gone besides someone who doesn’t want him learning the truth?”
Jiang Luoqing did not look away from Kong Bing.
Kong Bing tapped the tablet, then turned it toward him. “We pulled the surveillance from the past few days. Lü Ou’s movements on campus overlap heavily with one person’s.”
On-screen, Lü Ou appeared near Grade 10 Classes 7 and 11. Not long afterward, he shared the frame with Jiang Luoqing as Jiang emerged from Class 11.
Surprise and anger finally appeared on Jiang Luoqing’s face. “So because you think he was following me and investigating me, I must be the one who made him disappear? And the one who made Liu Wenran disappear too? Ridiculous! Lü Ou and I have never even interacted!”
Kong Bing said, “Teacher Jiang, don’t get worked up. Answer a few questions first.”
But Jiang Luoqing seemed to have lost control of his emotions. He kept insisting, “You have the wrong person! I need to go back and teach!”
Kong Bing asked, “Where were you last night?”
Jiang Luoqing answered irritably, “Supervising Class 7’s evening self-study! I spent the whole evening going over test papers with the students! You don’t even need to ask me this. Just check the cameras.”
Kong Bing said, “Of course I checked. Grade 10 has two evening self-study periods. You supervised the first, which ended at eight twenty. What happened after that? Where were you?”
Jiang Luoqing paused. “Got off work. Went running. Went home.”
Kong Bing asked, “That’s all?”
Jiang Luoqing said, “Captain Kong, I have always respected the police. I would appreciate it if you showed me the same respect as a teacher. Your suspicion has absolutely no basis. This is a serious insult and humiliation.”
“I’m simply curious. Didn’t you chat with your colleagues about what happened on Yeping Street?” Kong Bing said. “It’s the biggest story in the city right now.”
“What?” Jiang Luoqing said. “What does that have to do with Lü Ou disappearing or with you bringing me in? Are you going to say I’m involved in that too?”
Kong Bing pressed his lips together and did not answer, but the look he gave Jiang Luoqing was loaded with meaning.
Jiang Luoqing seemed thoroughly enraged. “I request a different officer for this questioning!”
“Oh? Who do you want instead?”
“Officer Chen. He has come to No. 10 Middle School many times during the investigation.”
Kong Bing gave a rare smile and shook his head. “Unfortunately for you, Officer Chen happens to be out of Zhuquan City.”
The soft lines of Jiang Luoqing’s face stiffened almost imperceptibly.
“But he’s out there running around because of you.” Kong Bing stood. “Oh, right. Paying attention to you was his idea too. He thought it was strange that a top graduate of Wanqing Tech would come teach at No. 10 Middle School, so he has already gone to Wanqing Tech to investigate.” Kong Bing glanced at the time. “Wait a little longer. He’ll be back soon.”
The interview-room door closed. Jiang Luoqing stared at the narrow seam as his pupils slowly contracted.
Chen Zheng had originally planned to remain in Wanqing City for another day. But while he was still on the Wanqing Tech campus, unease had begun gnawing at him, as though in the rush he had overlooked something and his mind, running at full speed, could not immediately identify what it was. Then Kong Bing called and told him Lü Ou was missing.
Right. Lü Ou. Chen Zheng pressed a hand to his forehead, brows drawing tightly together.
Lü Ou was a force outside the police investigation. The boy was intelligent, and because he was a student at No. 10 Middle School, he was inevitably closer than the police to the suspect hidden inside the fog. And the moment he tried to clear that fog, he could easily put himself in danger.
After finding the suspicious points around Jiang Luoqing, the sudden incident of Xu Xinghao’s suicide had occurred. Chen Zheng immediately decided to investigate Jiang Luoqing and forgot that Lü Ou might already be deep in danger, perhaps even killed to keep him quiet.
Chen Zheng’s eyelid twitched violently. He decided to return to Zhuquan City immediately.
Jiang Luoqing was temporarily detained at the sub-bureau while police investigated his movements. He lived at Huaquan Residential Complex, about a kilometer from No. 10 Middle School. Surveillance at the main gate showed him returning to the complex at eleven the previous night and leaving at eight that morning.
Under normal circumstances, walking home from work took him only fifteen minutes, so he should have entered the complex no later than nine. But he claimed he had gone for a run after leaving school, and he was dressed in sportswear when surveillance recorded him.
Kong Bing pulled older footage from the complex that had not yet been overwritten and found that Jiang Luoqing left home at a very regular time, always around eight in the morning, while his return times varied considerably. Sometimes he came back shortly after five, on days when he did not supervise evening self-study and had no other school duties. Sometimes he returned just before nine, after the first evening self-study period. Other times it was after ten, following the second period. The latest was midnight, again in sportswear and carrying what looked like takeaway food.
Even before asking Jiang Luoqing, Kong Bing knew what he would say: he got hungry after running, stopped somewhere to eat, then packed up the leftovers and brought them home.
Seen that way, Jiang Luoqing returning home at eleven the previous night did not seem particularly strange.
Meanwhile, technical investigators had uncovered something about Lü Ou’s movements. A little after four on the afternoon of the twenty-ninth, he left No. 10 Middle School and took a taxi to Yening Middle School. Officers from the sub-bureau were canvassing Yening Middle School at the time, yet Lü Ou seemed to deliberately avoid them. Why had he gone there? Because he knew the police had shifted their focus to Yening Middle School, or because he had discovered a clue the police did not yet have? For now, no one knew.
After Xu Xinghao appeared, Yeping Street fell into chaos. One camera briefly captured Lü Ou, who looked completely out of place amid the panicked crowd, displaying a calmness unusual for someone his age. The last surveillance image of him was at ten o’clock. He left Yeping Street’s main road and entered Huaxiang Alley. After that, he never came back out.
There were no cameras inside Huaxiang Alley. He had only been caught by a camera angled from the side, and that camera had a large blind spot. Whether anyone followed him in, and how they later left, remained unknown. After a search, police could confirm only one thing: Lü Ou was no longer in Huaxiang Alley.
If something had happened to him, it most likely happened inside Huaxiang Alley, after which the suspect moved him somewhere else. Pedestrians had already destroyed any usable footprints, and no blood was found.
Jiang Luoqing’s communication devices had been surrendered. His social network appeared simple. He had joined many teaching group chats, which occupied the top of his contact lists. He also frequently chatted with students, but almost all of it involved answering questions about schoolwork. Occasionally students asked about his personal life, and even then his replies were beyond reproach. Technical investigators had not yet determined whether key information had been deleted or hidden from the phone.
By evening, Lü Ou was still missing when Chen Zheng returned to Zhuquan City. He had slept only two hours the previous night and taken two flights in a single day. The exhaustion on his face was obvious. Kong Bing frowned. “In your condition, you’re planning to question Jiang Luoqing right now?”
Chen Zheng nodded. “You heard what Ming Han found, right?”
While Chen Zheng had been in the air without a signal, Ming Han had sent the clues he uncovered in Jiahui City back to Beiye Sub-bureau. The Jiang Luoqing who once lived on Linping Street and the Jiang Luoqing of today were not the same person. Had the original Jiang Luoqing really been smuggled out of the country? Ming Han was seeking help from the local police.
Kong Bing’s expression was tense. “If this Jiang Luoqing is using a false identity, what is he trying to accomplish? The administrators at No. 10 think he’s excellent, his students like him, and the teachers at Wanqing Tech thought he had a brilliant future. Why impersonate a thug?”
Chen Zheng said, “A normal person wouldn’t replace someone worse off than himself. But what if he isn’t normal?”
Kong Bing asked, “What do you mean?”
“If he had no identity at all, or if his original identity could no longer be used, then he needed a new one. Whether that identity belonged to a thug would not matter.” Chen Zheng said, “He has an obsession with Zhuquan City. He had to come back here. He returned even while he was still studying at Wanqing Tech. I just don’t know what here draws him so strongly.”
After taking a little time to rest and organize his questions, Chen Zheng pushed open the interview-room door. Jiang Luoqing looked up and displayed just the right amount of surprise, forcing out a strained smile. “Officer Chen, you’re finally back.”
Chen Zheng raised a brow. “You wanted to see me that badly?”
“Not exactly.” Jiang Luoqing gave a bitter smile. “Captain Kong is simply very difficult to communicate with.”
Chen Zheng sat down and looked directly into Jiang Luoqing’s eyes. Calmly, he asked, “Are you really Jiang Luoqing?”
A muscle in Jiang Luoqing’s cheek twitched. “Officer Chen, what do you mean?”
Chen Zheng said, “Things have reached this point, so I won’t circle around it. I visited your alma mater, Wanqing Tech, and found something difficult to explain. During a school break, instead of returning to your hometown, Jiahui City, you came to Zhuquan City. This isn’t your hometown. What were you doing here?”
Jiang Luoqing opened his mouth to defend himself, but Chen Zheng spoke first. “Before you explain, there is something else I need to tell you. I’m not the only person investigating you. My colleague is in Jiahui City right now, and he has already confirmed that the Jiang Luoqing named on your identity records is not you. That Jiang Luoqing was an ignorant, notorious thug. Forget getting into Wanqing Tech. He would have struggled even to graduate high school. The neighbors on Linping Street in Jiahui City still remember him and his family. As far as they know, all three members of the Jiang household died at sea years ago while being smuggled out of the country. Teacher Jiang, who exactly are you?”
The masklike gentleness on Jiang Luoqing’s face vanished like flour dissolving in water. The corners of his mouth pressed downward, coldness showing in his eyes. He met Chen Zheng’s gaze without looking away. In fact, Chen Zheng was the first to shift his gaze, almost as if he could not bear the eye contact.
In reality, Chen Zheng had noticed a minute movement of Jiang Luoqing’s hands. Jiang did not want the police to see him shaken, yet his hands moved instinctively. His right hand covered his left wrist and lightly touched the watch he wore there.
A sudden sense of familiarity stabbed into Chen Zheng’s mind. The watch looked old. Some people collected vintage watches, but this one plainly had no collectible value. It was too ordinary, too plain. It did not suit Jiang Luoqing’s youth at all, yet somehow it suited the identity of a teacher.
Chen Zheng was certain he had seen that watch somewhere before.
“Officer Chen, I think there must be some misunderstanding.” After his brief loss of composure, Jiang Luoqing lifted his chin. “You say I’m not Jiang Luoqing simply because I used to be ignorant and useless. But there’s an old saying that after three days apart, you should look at a person with fresh eyes. Why couldn’t I turn over a new leaf and start studying seriously?”
Chen Zheng’s attention returned fully to the confrontation. “We went to Jiahui No. 1 Middle School, where you supposedly studied. After Grade 11, you stopped attending entirely. What kind of serious studying is that?”
Jiang Luoqing actually smiled. “Since you’ve been to No. 1, you should know exactly what kind of school it is. The entire place was full of people like the old me. Every last teacher was just going through the motions too. Could I have gotten into Wanqing Tech at a school like that?”
Chen Zheng said, “So you’re saying you worked hard somewhere else?”
Jiang Luoqing nodded, sadness settling over his expression. “When I was in Grade 11, something happened to my family. You could say I grew up overnight.”
Chen Zheng asked, “Something happened? What?”
Jiang Luoqing sighed. “Haven’t you already found out? My parents tried to leave the country illegally. It… didn’t work. They died at sea.”
Chen Zheng narrowed his eyes slightly. When he dropped that bombshell earlier, Jiang Luoqing had panicked. But the panic had not lasted long. He was already building a story around the clue the police had given him.
This man was frighteningly calm.
“It was because I was useless from the time I was young. They wanted to go abroad, make more money, and give me a way forward. I was the one who got them killed.” Jiang Luoqing lowered his voice, shoulders trembling slightly. “Because they were leaving illegally and died at sea, I couldn’t even hold a funeral for them. If my uncle hadn’t helped me, I might have followed them a long time ago.”
“Your uncle?” Police had no information at all about an uncle of Jiang Luoqing’s.
When he spoke of this uncle, Jiang Luoqing’s voice filled with gratitude. “Yes. He’s a distant younger cousin of my father’s. He went to Country A when he was very young. My father had wanted to go there to join him. When he heard what happened to our family, he came back specifically to see me. I was still young. I had no idea what I was supposed to do.”
“He gave me two choices. The first was to go with him to Country A. But I had no skills. I couldn’t even make anything of myself here, so if I went abroad I’d probably spend my life just scraping by. The second was to stay, study properly, and let him pay for me to study elsewhere as a temporary student. No matter what university I later got into, he would cover my education. What happened to my parents made me afraid of going abroad. I didn’t want to go somewhere completely unfamiliar, and I didn’t want to impose too much on my uncle either, so I chose the second option.”
Chen Zheng asked, “Study there as a temporary student? Where?”
Jiang Luoqing said, “No. 1 Middle School. Just not the one in Jiahui. Zhuqing No. 1 Middle School.”
Chen Zheng could not help frowning. Zhuqing No. 1 Middle School was one of the best high schools in the province and was located in the provincial capital, Zhuqing City. Ming Han was still in Jiahui and could not immediately verify Jiang Luoqing’s claim.
“Why attend as a temporary student?” Chen Zheng asked. “So it would be easier to return to Jiahui City for the college entrance exam?”
Studying outside one’s registered area while returning to one’s place of origin for the exam occupied a gray area. Jiang Luoqing had been a teacher for several years and naturally knew it was not something to boast about publicly. He nodded with some embarrassment. “I could have transferred directly to Zhuqing No. 1 at the time, but my uncle took my situation into account. My grades were terrible then, and there was no guarantee I could improve them. If I couldn’t, I would still have to return to Jiahui City. So we decided I would only attend there temporarily and come back to take the exam.”
Chen Zheng said, “Then your uncle had quite a few connections. He could arrange for you to attend school in the provincial capital and also arrange for you to quietly take the exam back in your registered hometown.”
Jiang Luoqing said, “But I really did get into Wanqing Tech on my own merits.”
“Is your uncle still in Country A?” Chen Zheng asked. “What’s his name?”
Jiang Luoqing answered calmly, “He became a citizen of Country A a long time ago. Officer Chen, knowing his name won’t mean much to you.”
“Tell me anyway,” Chen Zheng said.
Jiang Luoqing hesitated for a moment. “His name is Jiang Ming. His whole family emigrated to Country A years ago. He has no relatives left in China.”
Chen Zheng glanced at the notebook beside him, then said, “Teacher Jiang, there’s one more question I’m personally curious about. What exactly is so attractive about Zhuquan City? You were born and raised in Jiahui City. After graduating, why did you refuse to stay in Wanqing City, refuse to return to Jiahui or Zhuqing, and instead come all the way to Zhuquan?”