Hao Le was clearly impatient, but Chen Zheng acted as though he did not notice. “Feng Feng was certain you were dead, but in fact you still had one last breath in you. And you weren’t the only people on Xuebu Mountain that day. Zhu Qianqian, the daughter of the female drug trafficker Zhu Lingjuan, was hiding there too and knew what Feng Feng and the others had done. But there was someone else on the mountain as well, or perhaps a group of people. When Feng Feng and the others thought they had finished dealing with your ‘corpse,’ that person secretly rescued you, and that was how you survived. My guess is that person belonged to the organization behind you, the same ‘people above’ that A-Ping and A-Li are so afraid of.”
Hao Le’s brows drew tightly together, and something unfamiliar and complicated suddenly appeared in his eyes. Nostalgia? His reaction surprised Chen Zheng slightly, but Chen Zheng kept his own emotions off his face and continued, “That person saw the suffering in you, and the hatred that suffering had bred. He had seen countless people, so perhaps he could even empathize with your pain. He also understood that your hatred wasn’t aimed at any one person, but at society as a whole. If properly harnessed, it could become an enormous force.”
“He gave you a new life. Your face had been shattered in the fall, and a highly skilled doctor reconstructed it into what it looks like now. You left Zhuquan City and received a new identity in Jiahui City. You asked how you could repay him, but he told you there was no rush. You were still young. You could first do some of the things you wanted to do.”
In the interrogation room, which had suddenly gone silent, Hao Le’s breathing sounded especially clear. Chen Zheng nodded. “Looks like my ‘guess’ is pretty accurate. Since you have no objections, I’ll keep going.”
“What did you want most? You wanted to study. Whenever your father, who worked himself to the bone on construction sites every day, had a spare moment, he would tell you: Son, only knowledge can change your fate. Even if Dad has to sell everything we own, I’ll make sure you get an education. From childhood, one belief took deep root in your mind: study, and change your life. When you were a little older, you met Zhang Bin. He was probably the teacher who influenced you the most, wasn’t he? He recognized your talent at a glance, appreciated your ability, placed great hopes on you, and even gave you his own watch. He believed mathematics would let you soar. Your father’s death broke your wings. Then, by chance, you were rescued and grew a new pair. Other than studying, you couldn’t think of anything else you wanted to do.”
Hao Le’s leg began to bounce involuntarily. He pressed a fist against his lips and gnawed at it without realizing.
“You said you wanted to go to university and study mathematics. The person who rescued you was delighted and praised you for being a good kid. But you were afraid you would disappoint him, because aside from mathematics, your other subjects weren’t especially strong, and even with mathematics you hadn’t touched it in a long time. He told you not to worry. He would find you a school where you could study in peace, with the best teachers and classmates, and where no one would know you weren’t the real Jiang Luoqing. You lived up to expectations. You really were gifted. Once you no longer had to spend all your time on endless work just to survive, your grades shot up, and you got into Wanqing University of Science and Technology just as you’d hoped.”
“As a university student, you weren’t as mature and steady as you later became. You thought of Zhuquan City, where you had almost lost your life, and of the people who had hurt you, so you came back. You discovered that instead of suffering consequences for their crimes, every one of them had somehow made a respectable life for themselves. Zeng Yan was already dead, but the others seemed to have turned over a new leaf and started living normal lives. Society was so unfair, you thought. Why were they allowed to reform? Was everything simply over because they had?”
Hao Le finally spoke. “I told you. I have no interest in ants.”
“Then how do you explain Feng Feng’s death?” Chen Zheng said. “With a brain like Wei Youtai’s, I don’t believe he would suddenly decide to kill Feng Feng without someone guiding him from the side. Of course, he gave us a motive that sounded perfectly reasonable, but are you sure that motive wasn’t something you planted in him little by little? Teacher Hao, you’re good at teaching and shaping people. Influencing an ‘ant’ like Wei Youtai must have been even easier than teaching mathematics.”
Hao Le pressed his lips into a flat line. He seemed to be tacitly admitting it.
Chen Zheng continued, “Coming back to Zhuquan City to teach was partly your own choice. Because of Zhang Bin, you had nothing against becoming a teacher. But it was also what the people above you required. They spent so much effort cultivating you, and I doubt they did it out of charity. You became a chess piece placed here, and this year was when they finally needed you to move. Yu Zhenxiao, Liu Wenran, and Xu Xinghao were all people you used. Your objective wasn’t to kill any one specific person. It was to throw the schools into chaos and stir up the malice hidden inside students. We already have evidence of that. But there are two things I still can’t figure out.”
Hao Le lifted his chin slightly, seemingly pleased by the confusion Chen Zheng had finally admitted. “There are things even you can’t figure out?”
“Why did you kill Zhao Yu?” Chen Zheng said. “She seems unrelated to your plan. If I had to connect her to it, she was Xu Xinghao’s ex-girlfriend, and Liu Wenran once designed drinks for her milk-tea shop.”
Hao Le said, “Haven’t you already investigated it pretty thoroughly?”
Chen Zheng shook his head. “People living in society are connected to one another in all kinds of ways. Was that little connection really enough for you to kill her? She and Xu Xinghao had been over for a long time. Liu Wenran was actually closer to her.”
Hao Le gave a cold laugh. “She was an accident, just like Lü Ou. That woman never even went to university, yet somehow she was smarter than Lü Ou. She was the first person to realize I intended to use Liu Wenran.”
Chen Zheng feigned surprise. “What? How did she figure it out?”
Hao Le clicked his tongue disdainfully, his tone full of contempt for a mere milk-tea seller. “Because running a business meant she’d seen all kinds of ‘bad people’? I don’t know. But she walked straight into the line of fire herself, so I had no choice but to get rid of her first.”
Chen Zheng asked, “She came to see you?”
Hao Le had chosen Liu Wenran for exactly the reason Chen Zheng had previously inferred. Liu Wenran had a certain dependence on Teacher Jiang, partly because in her first year of high school he had discovered that her family situation was not what she pretended it was, and partly because of Teacher Jiang’s own charisma. So when Hao Le received his assignment, Liu Wenran was the ideal tool. But one day Zhao Yu came to him and told him to stay away from Liu Wenran.
Hao Le had been stunned. He knew everything about Liu Wenran and of course knew that the woman standing before him owned Dream Island Milk Tea. Liu Wenran had gone to Dream Island frequently the previous summer and was close to her. What he could not understand was why Zhao Yu had come to warn him. Had she noticed something? But how was that possible? He had never even shown his face at Dream Island.
He cautiously asked Zhao Yu what she meant. Zhao Yu, every inch the righteous heroine, told him to stop pretending. He might look refined and decent, but he had clearly been harboring designs on Liu Wenran for a long time. Hao Le quickly regained his composure and coaxed the rest out of her.
After Liu Wenran once helped Zhao Yu, Zhao Yu began treating her like a younger sister and often checked in on her life. Liu Wenran seemed sociable, but she did not truly have a female friend she could confide in. There was no point even mentioning a mother like Cao Wenmei, while the huge economic gap between her and Zhou Xi’s group meant she could never bare her heart to them. Yet everyone longs to talk and share things with someone. For Liu Wenran, Zhao Yu was the ideal person to confide in.
Zhao Yu had not come from a rich family either. She had built her present life entirely through her own effort, so to Liu Wenran she was like an understanding older sister. Liu Wenran could not help talking to her about Teacher Jiang and how wonderful he was, but the more Zhao Yu listened, the stranger it sounded. Jiang Luoqing seemed to be exploiting the unequal teacher-student relationship and Liu Wenran’s affection to manipulate her psychologically.
Zhao Yu was an adult, after all. She did not immediately tell Liu Wenran what she thought. Instead, she used visiting Liu Wenran as an excuse to go to No. 10 Middle School, then spoke with students from the school who came to buy milk tea. From small details, she noticed that Jiang Luoqing treated Liu Wenran differently from his other students.
She knew nothing about Jiang Luoqing’s actual plan. She simply believed there was something wrong with him and that he had no business being a teacher. She wanted to protect Liu Wenran in her own way, so she went directly to Jiang Luoqing and threatened him, telling him to stop coveting Liu Wenran.
Her grades had never been especially good in middle school, but she had always had a strong sense of justice. She had helped many girls and had even gotten into fights with boys for them. She thought she could protect Liu Wenran this time too. Jiang Luoqing looked like nothing more than an ordinary teacher. And what did teachers fear most? Having their reputations destroyed. She warned him that if he dared interfere with any girl again, not just Liu Wenran, she would report him to the administrators at No. 10 Middle School.
Hao Le looked at her and was already laughing inside, though outwardly he pretended to be frightened. Afterward, he investigated her thoroughly and confirmed there was no way she could know his real background. Even so, he could not leave this woman alive, because the moment Liu Wenran disappeared, Zhao Yu would tell the police one thing: there was something wrong with that math teacher surnamed Jiang.
“That’s why she had to die,” Hao Le said indifferently. “Some people die young, and they have no one to blame but themselves for sticking their noses where they don’t belong.”
Seeing that Hao Le was gradually becoming more talkative, Chen Zheng casually guided him onward. “Zhao Yu knew Liu Wenran, so at least there’s a thread connecting them. But why did Yin Gaoqiang have to die? Surely it wasn’t because Liu Wenran gave him one of the dolls. And it probably wasn’t because of his connection to Cao Wenmei either. Right, one more thing. Do you know Yuan Zhangfeng?”
Hao Le’s expression shifted slightly. It was impossible to tell which name had stirred him.
“Yuan Zhangfeng introduced Cao Wenmei to Yin Gaoqiang. Liu Wenran thought Yin Gaoqiang had bought her mother, so she passed the doll on to him to disgust him. But Yin Gaoqiang wasn’t sensitive to the doll and never noticed Liu Wenran’s malice,” Chen Zheng said. “Liu Wenran passing on the doll was outside your plan, but that hardly seems worth killing Yin Gaoqiang over. Or did you have another reason? For example, the coasters placed in the noodle shop?”
After a stretch of silence, Hao Le leaned heavily back. “Yes. It was because of the coasters. You already got it right last time. Wu Lianshan saw me alive. Whether she remembered it or not, only her death could keep that secret forever.”
Chen Zheng thought for a moment. “But that still doesn’t seem enough to explain why you staged that explosion. The more I think about it, the only explanation is that Yin Gaoqiang learned your secret. After all, you also attended No. 2 Middle School, and just like his missing son, you had exceptional mathematical talent.”
Hao Le went rigid, as if an invisible sword had pinned him in place. Chen Zheng had already realized from Hao Le’s earlier reactions that Yin Gaoqiang meant something much more significant to him. This reaction confirmed it.
The truth was just ahead. Chen Zheng lowered his voice. “You fell from the cliff, were struck repeatedly in the face, and were buried in a pit while critically injured. Whoever gave you a new life should have rescued you immediately, or you would have had very little chance of surviving. So why were you still hiding on Xuebu Mountain when Zeng Yan and Wu Lianshan later came there? You were alone and badly injured. Could you really have survived there by yourself? Or did they actually see more than just you?”
Hao Le let out a strange, choked laugh, and his eyes actually reddened. “His son… had the same talent for mathematics that I did…”
Yin Jingliu. Chen Zheng’s heartbeat gradually quickened. There was something extremely strange in Hao Le’s tone when he mentioned Yin Jingliu. The police had previously considered Hao Le’s disappearance together with Yin Jingliu’s, but had never found the crucial connection. One theory had been that Yin Jingliu might also have been on Xuebu Mountain when Hao Le fell from the cliff.
At last, the most important missing piece clicked into place. In front of the monitor, Ming Han said softly, “Yin Jingliu?”
Even Chen Zheng could not help taking a deep breath. “I may have made one mistake. The person who rescued you on Xuebu Mountain wasn’t the person who later helped you. It was Yin Jingliu! Feng Feng ruined his eyesight, so Yin Jingliu had a motive to take revenge on him. But by chance, before he could carry out that revenge, he rescued you first!”
The red in Hao Le’s eyes deepened. He held his breath and stared at some point in empty space, but after several minutes, that breath finally escaped. He lowered his head, his voice trembling. “He saved me. And he ruined me.”
The two disappearance cases really were connected. Excitement sent Chen Zheng’s blood surging. “Where is Yin Jingliu? Is he also a member of your organization?” But the instant the question left his mouth, Chen Zheng realized something was wrong. How could Yin Jingliu have stood by and watched his aging father, who had searched for him for years, die in an explosion?
Hao Le fell silent, lost in thought. Chen Zheng used the silence to think rapidly. Yuan Zhangfeng and Zheng Tian had deliberately thrown themselves into police hands because there was something they feared even more, and now that thing was finally taking shape. Yuan Zhangfeng had been a friend of Yin Gaoqiang and his wife and had been asked by them to investigate Yin Jingliu’s whereabouts. As a foreigner, Yuan Zhangfeng had extensive connections. If official channels failed, he had illegal ones. Yin Gaoqiang might eventually have stopped expecting anything from him, but Yuan Zhangfeng had continued investigating, and so… he had found Yin Jingliu and Jiang Luoqing. He very likely knew what Jiang Luoqing was doing in Zhuquan City.
But the instant this shrewd businessman touched that darkness, he pulled his feelers back. He knew what he could afford to touch and what he could not. He feared that his and Zheng Tian’s investigation had already drawn certain people’s attention. Hiding in Country B was not safe. Disaster could find him at any moment. Where was safest? Zhuquan City. He needed to put himself directly under police observation so that whoever wanted to silence him would have no chance to get close.
“Yin Jingliu… yes, Yin Jingliu. We used to be best friends.” Hao Le suddenly looked at Chen Zheng with a smile. “I remember now. The thing I regret most where he’s concerned is getting Uncle Yin killed. Uncle Yin… was a good man.”
Hao Le’s mental state had changed. Chen Zheng knew he was about to reveal something crucial.
“But Officer Chen, do you really want to know what I’ve been through all these years? Do you want to know who I work for?” Hao Le smiled bitterly. “People instinctively seek benefit and avoid harm. Even Yuan Zhangfeng knew to hide the moment danger appeared, yet you still want to move closer to it? Are you even capable of knowing this?”
“That example doesn’t work,” Chen Zheng said. “Yuan Zhangfeng is an ordinary person. Of course an ordinary person should back away from danger they can’t handle. But I’m a police officer. Even if I’m not capable enough yet, I have no reason to retreat just because something is difficult.”
Hao Le turned his gaze toward the camera beside them. “Have you ever heard of the ‘Heaven-Measuring Ruler’?”
Ming Han’s expression changed. “‘Heaven-Measuring Ruler’?”
Kong Bing looked confused. “What’s that?”
Ming Han said nothing, almost holding his breath as he stared at the monitor.
Chen Zheng forced the storm inside him beneath an appearance of calm. “Never heard of it. What is it?”
Disappointment appeared on Hao Le’s face. “If you’ve never heard of it, then there’s no point in me saying much. You have no frame of reference.”
“That’s exactly why you need to tell me,” Chen Zheng said. “Everyone goes from not knowing to knowing.”
Hao Le fell silent again for a moment. “‘Heaven-Measuring Ruler’ is an organization. I’m only… an insignificant member.”
Once he began talking about the “Heaven-Measuring Ruler,” Hao Le’s speech grew slower and slower, often pausing for a long time after a single sentence. “If not for Yin Jingliu, I would never have known it existed. The irony is that in the end, I became a member, while he… was eliminated by me.”
“You guessed right. The day I fell from the cliff, Yin Jingliu was the one who saved me.”
As though remembering the agony of broken bones, blood clogging his airway, and the smell of death in the damp winter earth, Hao Le’s face turned deathly pale. At that time he had no one to rely on, and his greatest wish was simply to pay off the loan sharks he still owed from his father’s medical treatment.
He worked day and night, serving Feng Feng like a slave, and whenever the delinquents got into fights, he was always the one who ended up with the worst injuries. Whenever he felt he could not endure any longer, he told himself to hold on just a little more. Once the debt was paid off, he would be free. He could study what he wanted and live the life he wanted. Teacher Zhang had praised him as gifted, and a gifted person ought to be able to build a good life through his own ability.
But why did the rope always snap at its thinnest point? When Feng Feng told him to go to Xuebu Mountain with them, he thought he was only there to do hard labor. He never imagined Feng Feng and Zeng Yan would be deranged enough to order him down the cliff. His instinct was to refuse, but Feng Feng wore a smile while his eyes were ice-cold. Hao Le knew that if he refused, not only would he lose a job that paid relatively well, he would also be beaten.
He had only one final debt payment left. Gritting his teeth, he took the rope Feng Feng handed him and told himself hopefully that with a rope, it should be fine. Even if his foot slipped, the people above could pull him back up.
But he underestimated how despicable people could be. The moment he fell, everyone above released the rope at almost the same time. They were afraid he would drag them down with him. They would rather watch him die.
He fell without anything to break his descent. When he hit the bottom, the pain tore through him. Every breath brought agony, and every attempt to move made his organs feel as though they were being pierced by blades. Even then, he still desperately wanted to live. Feng Feng and the others hadn’t meant to hurt him, he thought. Maybe they would call a doctor. If he could just hold on until the doctor arrived, he would be saved.
He did not know how long he waited before he finally heard movement nearby. The people coming to save me are here! He forcibly dragged his fading consciousness back. But what did he see? Feng Feng and Zeng Yan’s frightened, vicious faces. They were discussing the fact that he was not dead, only crippled, and that if he survived, they would be finished. His severely injured head kept him from understanding immediately, but soon he did. They wanted him dead. Only a dead person could never make demands.
Stones and sticks came down on his head and body. It’s over, a voice inside him said. Through blood frothing in his mouth, he made one last weak plea for help, but the sound was too faint to summon salvation.
At last, he stopped moving. They believed he had finally died, and they treated his “corpse” more gently than they had ever treated him while he was alive. They dug a large pit, carefully lowered him into it, pressed their palms together, and muttered prayers he could not make sense of. They had despised him as a person, yet feared him as a ghost.
Everything around him fell silent. He was going to die. But after night fell, a pair of hands dug him back out. His consciousness was extremely blurred. He only knew that he was moved somewhere and that his injuries were properly treated. When he truly woke, half a month had already passed. He was lying in an abandoned house, looking at a familiar face. The other person said, “You’re awake.”
He recognized him. The young proprietor of the noodle shop outside No. 2 Middle School, the top student who had been famous at the school a couple of years earlier: Yin Jingliu.
“You…” Speaking was still difficult, and his thoughts were even more confused. He barely managed to understand that Yin Jingliu had saved him. But why was Yin Jingliu also on Xuebu Mountain? And with injuries that severe, how had Yin Jingliu managed to save him?
Yin Jingliu told him that for now he should not get out of bed and should not strain himself by thinking. All of his questions were gradually answered as they spent time together afterward.
Yin Jingliu had been on Xuebu Mountain because he wanted revenge on Feng Feng. His original plan was to burn down Feng Feng’s tent under cover of night, but before he could act, he witnessed Hao Le fall from the cliff.
“You were another victim of Feng Feng. My conscience wouldn’t let me stand by and watch you die,” Yin Jingliu told him.
Once he had saved someone, Yin Jingliu had no choice but to put his revenge plan aside for the time being. Yin Jingliu’s original dream had been to become a pilot. After suffering irreversible damage to his eyesight, he chose to study medicine instead. He was only half-trained, but he knew some first aid.
The more Hao Le heard, however, the stranger it seemed. Finally he could not help asking, “But I was injured that badly. Without medicine or equipment, even if you were a miracle doctor, you couldn’t have saved me!”
The look in Yin Jingliu’s eyes changed. Hao Le immediately regretted asking something he should not have asked. But then Yin Jingliu smiled. “You really want to know?”
The words sounded like an invitation with something dangerous hidden inside. Hao Le took the bait. And so, from Yin Jingliu, he heard the name “Heaven-Measuring Ruler” for the first time.
Yin Jingliu said that although he had compromised with fate, the longer he stayed at university, the harder it became to let go. He had done nothing wrong, so why had the life he wanted slipped away from him so easily? He could not accept it. The darkness inside him attracted people who preyed on that kind of darkness. A Mr. Jin from the “Heaven-Measuring Ruler” appeared before him and told him he should take revenge. Once his revenge was complete, a brand-new world would open before him.
At the time, Yin Jingliu knew very little about the “Heaven-Measuring Ruler,” but hatred spurred him on. A moment of softness made his revenge fail, yet by sheer chance he saved Hao Le, who should have died ten years earlier. The people from the “Heaven-Measuring Ruler” appeared again. Not only did they refrain from blaming Yin Jingliu, they praised his kindness lavishly. It was medicine supplied by the “Heaven-Measuring Ruler” that kept Hao Le from dying in that cold winter.
And when spring arrived, a new story began.