Ming Han’s father, Bu Yangyun, was born into an ordinary family in Nanshan City. His parents’ generation was honest and hardworking, and they taught Bu Yangyun to be steady and diligent too. Bu Yangyun was smart, did well in school from childhood, got into university, and majored in foreign languages.
Back then, having a child reach university was tremendous news for a family like theirs, and Bu Yangyun’s major sounded especially promising. But Bu Yangyun had watched his parents get taken advantage of again and again because they were too meek, and once he entered university, he could no longer stand their way of living. He spent his parents’ money while looking down on them, relied on his handsome face and glib tongue, and partied with newly acquainted rich girls until he became a textbook kept man.
Before he even graduated, Bu Yangyun got a female classmate pregnant. He refused to take responsibility and nearly had his legs broken by her family. Bu Yangyun’s father had lived an upright life, only to see his son do something so disgraceful. The shock made him seriously ill, and he died not long afterward. With his father no longer there to restrain him, Bu Yangyun became even more reckless. Later, after going to Country G, he met Ming Han’s mother, Ming Xiaotian.
Ming Han despised Bu Yangyun, but even he admitted that the man was clever. Before graduation, Bu Yangyun had already teamed up with students from the School of Computer Science to develop software. The others provided the technical expertise while he supplied the sales pitch, and they made a substantial amount of money. Using that money and the connections of an ex-girlfriend, he secured an opportunity to study in Country G. There, he worked while moving through overseas Chinese student circles, crafting the image of an impoverished young gentleman that made Ming Xiaotian fall for him at first sight.
Unlike Bu Yangyun, Ming Xiaotian came from a well-off family whose older generation worked in the arts and education. She herself had moved to Country G while still in middle school. In Bu Yangyun’s eyes, she was a rich prize waiting to be reeled in.
With Ming Xiaotian actively pursuing him, the two quickly fell in love. Bu Yangyun hid the fact that he had once gotten a classmate pregnant and lied that Ming Xiaotian was his first love. Ming Xiaotian loved him deeply and gave him whatever he wanted.
When it came to business, Bu Yangyun did live up to expectations. Every investment he made brought in handsome returns, and by the time the two returned home planning to marry, he had effectively crossed into a different social class.
Ming Xiaotian, however, was easy to fool. Her family was not. Her father quickly investigated Bu Yangyun’s background and absolutely refused to let his daughter marry him. But Ming Xiaotian was madly in love. Even when her parents told her that Bu Yangyun had a very complicated history with women and was not someone she could entrust her life to, she convinced herself that all of that belonged to the past, and that from the moment Bu Yangyun met her, he had never looked at another woman.
Bu Yangyun certainly had no intention of letting go of the rich prize he had worked so hard to catch. He whispered into Ming Xiaotian’s ear that her parents simply looked down on his humble background.
Caught in the tug-of-war between family and what she believed was “love,” Ming Xiaotian chose that “love.” Not even her mother’s tears could make her turn back.
After the marriage, Bu Yangyun did not reveal his true nature immediately. He appeared dedicated to his work, traveled frequently around the world, and accumulated capital. Cut off from her parents’ financial support, Ming Xiaotian simply staked her life on her husband’s career and became his business partner. But the good times did not last. Ming Xiaotian became pregnant, while Bu Yangyun grew wealthier and wealthier. Gradually, he began to look down on the woman who had helped transform him from a poor young man into a wealthy businessman. While Ming Xiaotian was awaiting the birth, he cheated on her with a mixed-race model who had a modest degree of fame.
Ming Xiaotian was devastated and spent her days in tears. The Ming family could not bear to see their daughter suffering and brought her home to care for her. Her father confronted Bu Yangyun, but Bu Yangyun was no longer the man he had once been and no longer regarded his father-in-law with any respect. Ming Xiaotian nearly miscarried. Ming Han was born prematurely, and as an infant his health was extremely poor.
Hearing this, Chen Zheng felt a pang in his chest. Ming Han was nearly 1.9 meters tall now and so healthy he could have starred in an advertisement for physical fitness, yet he had once almost failed to enter this world at all. Chen Zheng’s thoughts drifted. If Ming Xiaotian really had miscarried, where would he himself be right now? Who would be sitting across from him at a table piled with late-night food?
Ming Han continued. Ming Xiaotian survived the pregnancy and birth, but mentally she collapsed. She developed a severe mental illness, spending most of her time abnormally withdrawn from everyone and, on rare occasions, becoming manic and losing control. Bu Yangyun had long since stopped loving her, but she had given him a son, and that delighted him. He felt that the Bu family line finally had an heir and gave the newborn, who had only just survived a life-threatening start, the extravagantly grand name Bu Shenghan.
Ming Han grew up in his maternal grandparents’ home. By the time he reached middle school, Bu Yangyun had shifted the focus of his business to Luocheng, then later overseas, and after that he was almost never in Nanshan City. Ming Han felt no affection whatsoever for his biological father. The older he grew, the more he pitied his silent, unresponsive mother, and every day he tried every possible way to make her notice him.
“Guess why I became a campus detective?” Ming Han said.
Chen Zheng had already guessed, but he did not say it.
Ming Han smiled. “I wanted to get her attention. I wanted her to see that her son was someone impressive. I wanted… her to praise me.”
In Ming Han’s memory, Ming Xiaotian had never stroked his hair or kissed his face the way other mothers did. She seemed like a stranger who merely lived in the same house. Sometimes that stranger would be hospitalized when her condition worsened. Most of the time Ming Xiaotian simply sat in a daze. Occasionally she watched television dramas, and they were always mysteries and crime stories. So Ming Han assumed his mother liked police officers who solved cases.
But no matter how well known he became as a campus detective, no matter how many cases he told Ming Xiaotian he had “solved,” she never reacted. The time Chen Zheng came to Nanshan City, Ming Han went home and told her about that case too. Suddenly, Ming Xiaotian looked at him differently. He was thrilled, believing that at last she had noticed him. What he received instead was a resounding slap and a bout of hysteria so extreme that she seemed like a monster.
His grandfather rushed over and restrained Ming Xiaotian, and once again she was taken to the hospital. After an exhausting night, his grandfather said in despair, “Don’t provoke your mother anymore. She can’t take much more.”
That autumn, unable to move past the devastation of her marriage, Ming Xiaotian took her own life when no one was watching her. Bu Yangyun tried to take away the son who now seemed likely to amount to something, but Ming Han slapped away the hand he reached out. That same year, he discarded the name Bu Shenghan, which he had hated for years, and changed it to Ming Han.
Ming Han’s grandfather died a year after Ming Xiaotian. By then Ming Han was already in high school, shooting up in height and carrying himself with an adult’s sense of responsibility. For the next several years, he and his grandmother depended on each other in this old house. Three years ago, he saw his grandmother through the end of her life. The Ming family had gone through tremendous upheaval because of their daughter’s marriage, but their final years were at least quiet and stable.
After Ming Han finished speaking, he remained caught in the emotions of the past for a moment, then suddenly felt a hand settle on his head. Coming back to himself, he looked up. Chen Zheng, who had been sitting opposite him, was now standing beside him, his right hand lightly patting Ming Han’s short, stubborn hair.
“Bro…” The impulse that had been fermenting wildly in Ming Han’s heart since adolescence condensed into a faint tremor at the end of his voice. He stared at Chen Zheng, his gaze like a black lock.
Chen Zheng froze, partly because of that look and partly because of his own slightly out-of-bounds gesture. After a moment, he withdrew his hand. “It’s late. Go get some rest.”
But just as Chen Zheng turned away, Ming Han suddenly seized his wrist. Before Chen Zheng could speak, he was pulled toward him.
“Ming Han!”
Strong arms closed around Chen Zheng, more forceful than the invisible lock of Ming Han’s gaze. Yet before Chen Zheng could struggle, Ming Han had already lowered his head obediently against Chen Zheng’s chest and said hoarsely, “Don’t go. Let me hold you for a while.”
The next morning, Chen Zheng opened his eyes in an unfamiliar bed. His mind was not fully awake, and the feeling of Ming Han’s arms around his waist the night before still seemed to linger. For an instant, that big man had become the little Radish from years ago, with hair hanging over his eyes.
Chen Zheng let out a breath and sat up to check the time. It was still early, not yet seven. But the moment he unlocked his phone, a local news alert appeared: Homicide at Shanwen Center, Victim Suspected to Be “Dream Man” Boss Luo.
These days, sensational headlines often hid stories that were ridiculous rather than frightening. Chen Zheng tapped in, but as he went through the photos, his brows gradually drew together. The pictures were of Building A at Shanwen Center, the same place he and Ming Han had passed the day before. A long line of people had been waiting to enter the foot spa, while inside it had been packed and lively.
Luo Yingqiang was dressed in a suit, cutting the ribbon for the foot spa. Beside him sat an elderly woman in a wheelchair, dressed in conspicuously festive clothes, apparently Luo Yingqiang’s mother, whose birthday was being celebrated. But the photos that followed showed either panicked crowds scattering in every direction or a mosaic-blurred bathing pool whose water had turned red, with a vaguely human-shaped “thing” slumped against the edge.
Chen Zheng enlarged the image and confirmed that the object hidden behind the mosaic was a body. Someone had died in the newly opened foot spa. With that much blood, had an artery been severed? The victim was not necessarily Luo Yingqiang. The media might have mentioned him only to draw attention. But if the dead person was someone else and had died in such a conspicuous fashion, then who was it?
The moment Chen Zheng remembered that Liu Pinchao had photographed Xu Hetang at Shanwen Center the day before, after which both of them had vanished, he could no longer sit still. He washed up quickly and went to knock on Ming Han’s door.
Ming Han had not fallen asleep until the latter half of the night and was sleeping soundly now. Chen Zheng knocked for a long time without getting a response, so he simply pressed down the handle and opened the door. Ming Han had just been jolted awake and was sitting on the bed with a face full of morning irritation, wearing… absolutely nothing.
Ming Han propped his forehead on one hand, his voice low and hoarse. “This enthusiastic first thing in the morning?”
Chen Zheng: “…”
Chen Zheng cleared his throat and turned sideways so he was no longer looking at him. “Wake up, put some clothes on, and check the news on your phone. Something happened at that new foot spa.”
Ming Han froze for a moment. Without bothering to dress first, he immediately grabbed his phone. He had received the alert too. “Luo Yingqiang… is dead?”
Chen Zheng said, “We don’t know that it’s Luo Yingqiang. Get up first!”
Ming Han’s mind was still foggy, but he quickly reacted. His expression darkened, and he snatched up his clothes and threw them on. “Give me ten minutes.”
Chen Zheng went downstairs and began searching for videos of the scene posted by people online. Something had indeed happened at the foot spa the previous night, and because there had been so many people there, it had caused a major stir. Police had arrived long ago, but there was still no official statement. A few unedited photographs had leaked. The face could not be seen, but judging from the heavyset body, it could not have been either Liu Pinchao or Xu Hetang.
Even so, Chen Zheng could not let go of the tension in his chest. He and Ming Han had barely arrived in Nanshan City when a major case erupted there. Was that really a coincidence?
Half an hour later, the two had already driven to Shanwen Center. Several police cars were parked outside Building A, and the police cordon was impossible to miss. Plenty of onlookers stood both inside and outside the restricted area, looking confused or frightened. Some were still wearing bathrobes provided by the foot spa.
Chen Zheng and Ming Han were both police officers, but they were not part of the local force. At the moment, they were little different from ordinary members of the public and could not simply barge in. Ming Han’s gaze swept rapidly across the area before suddenly fixing on a police vehicle. “Wait here. I’ll go ask around.” With that, he headed toward the car.
Chen Zheng noticed that the front passenger window was open. A man about Ming Han’s age sat inside, also with closely cropped hair. Did Ming Han know him? Curious, Chen Zheng followed. Before he got close, he heard the man inside bark in a rough voice, “Holy shit! Bird! When did you get back?”
The man climbed out and hugged Ming Han. Seeing Chen Zheng follow, Ming Han simply introduced them. “My teammate, Chen Zheng from the Provincial Department. Bro, this is my classmate, Cheng Cu.”
The moment Cheng Cu saw Chen Zheng, his eyes lit up. “So you’re Xiao Zheng, the instruc…”
Chen Zheng: “?”
Ming Han immediately elbowed Cheng Cu. Wincing, Cheng Cu changed course. “So you’re Brother Chen!” Then he shot Ming Han a look full of meaning. “Bird, you two are…”
Ming Han said, “We came to follow up on a lead. This place opened yesterday and we were here then. This morning we heard someone had died, so we came to take a look.”
Cheng Cu frowned. “You think this case might be related to the lead you’re following?”
Ming Han shook his head. “Hard to say. That’s why we want to find out what happened.”
Cheng Cu immediately led the two toward the police cordon. “Then come upstairs with me first. The case hasn’t been reported upward yet, but I have a feeling it’s going to be troublesome.”
Ming Han said, “Was the victim really Luo Yingqiang?”
At that, Cheng Cu’s brows drew together even more tightly. “I saw the body. It was definitely him.”
“Cause of death?”
“Throat cut.”
The foot spa’s official name was Jinluo Furo, an awkward grafting of foreign words. Shanwen Center’s Building A had six floors in total, and Jinluo Furo occupied the top two, making it a very large establishment.
Elio’s Notes: Furo (風呂) is Japanese for “bath.” The narration is poking fun at the spa for awkwardly grafting a foreign-sounding term into its name.
The crime scene was in the VIP area on the sixth floor. At two in the morning on December 14, a staff member noticed that Luo Yingqiang had not come out for a long time and went in to look for him. The entire bathing pool had turned red. Luo Yingqiang was naked and slumped against the side of the pool, blood still flowing from his neck. The floor was covered in water and extremely slippery. The staff member’s legs went weak with fear, and he kept falling as he tried to get away. By the time he crawled to the door, he could no longer even make a sound.
“That’s the room.” Cheng Cu pointed toward a door guarded by special police officers. “There’s something else. Luo Yingqiang wasn’t the only one who died.”
Chen Zheng asked, “Who else?”
“A young man in his early twenties. We haven’t identified him yet. He was found dead on the bed in a lounge, and there were… contraceptives there.” Cheng Cu clicked his tongue. “We suspect he was a ‘rent boy’ Luo Yingqiang was keeping.”
Chen Zheng and Ming Han exchanged a glance. Only the previous day, Chen Zheng had heard Ming Han explain that Luo Yingqiang had an excellent reputation among Nanshan City’s middle-aged and older women, so much so that people called him a “dream man.” That morning’s news alert had used the same term. A man like that had been keeping a young male escort?
The bodies of Luo Yingqiang and the other victim had already been sent to the municipal bureau for autopsy, while the scene had been left largely untouched. The pool of bloody water was shocking, and the air carried a heavy metallic smell. In the lounge, blood had sprayed directly across the wall and bed, the red even more vivid, making the room look like the set of a horror film.
Chen Zheng instinctively looked for cameras, but Cheng Cu sighed. “Don’t bother. The sixth-floor surveillance system isn’t in operation yet.”
Chen Zheng did not understand. “Why?”
“Because the only area officially open right now is the fifth-floor public section. The sixth-floor VIP and private areas supposedly won’t open under a membership system until the end of the year,” Cheng Cu said. “Right now this is basically Luo Yingqiang’s personal territory. He can invite whoever he wants. If he installed cameras, wouldn’t that interfere with his ‘business’?”
The absence of surveillance immediately increased the difficulty of the investigation severalfold. Chen Zheng thought for a moment, then asked, “What about traces and other evidence?”
Cheng Cu said, “Still being sorted out. The sixth floor isn’t open to customers, but foot-spa employees and mall employees can all come up, and some areas are still under construction. There are a lot of different people moving through.”
On the way into the foot spa, Chen Zheng had noticed that all he saw were police officers and ordinary employees. “What about Luo Yingqiang’s family?”
Cheng Cu said, “You know what? Even his own old mother doesn’t seem to care whether he lives or dies.”
Chen Zheng pulled up the news photo on his phone and pointed to the elderly woman in the wheelchair. “Her?”
Cheng Cu glanced at it. “Yeah. She was here when we arrived today too. When she heard Luo Yingqiang had been killed, she didn’t react at all.”
Chen Zheng said, “Could she have been too shocked?”
“Didn’t feel like it. But we sent her to the hospital anyway. Her, the whole Luo family, everyone up and down Yingqiang Group, we’ll have to investigate them layer by layer.” Seeing that Ming Han had been silent for a while, Cheng Cu called, “Bird, see anything? Think this has anything to do with what you’re investigating?”
Ming Han came out of the lounge. “We want to follow this case. We’ll go to the municipal bureau afterward to look at the bodies too. Any problem?”
Chen Zheng instinctively looked at Cheng Cu. The Mobile Unit behind Ming Han had plenty of special authority, but it did not outrank the Nanshan municipal bureau. Conflicts between local police and people sent down from above were common. Whether Nanshan’s bureau would accept them getting involved was still an open question.
Cheng Cu’s expression turned serious too. He walked over to Ming Han. “You need to give me something to work with. Otherwise I won’t know how to explain this to my boss.”
Ming Han said, “I’ll tell you the truth. The Mobile Unit only sent me this time. Captain Chen came along because Old Tang specially approved him. I barely know what footing I’m standing on myself. What exactly do you expect me to give you?”
Cheng Cu frowned.
Ming Han continued, “But the person we were following disappeared at Shanwen Center yesterday. Luo Yingqiang’s case already looks complicated. Some connections won’t surface unless we dig into them.”
Cheng Cu fell silent, brows knotted as he thought. “Fine. You can follow it. If anything happens, I’ll take responsibility. I have one condition. If you have any lead in your hands that has anything to do with my case, don’t hide it.”
Ming Han said, “Of course. Who would dare provoke a local big shot like you?”
The homicide had occurred in the early hours. Even though images from the scene were already spreading online, the impact would not truly spread like wildfire until most people woke up. By now, more and more people were gathering downstairs from Building A after hearing the news. Some were Luo Yingqiang’s middle-aged and elderly fans, who stopped police officers and mall employees to ask anxiously, “Did something really happen to Boss Luo? How could this happen?”
Among those faces, Chen Zheng spotted one he recognized: the little bottom from the gift shop the day before. The young man saw him too and fought desperately through the crowd. “Officer Chen! Officer Chen!”
His urgency was strange. Chen Zheng said something to Ming Han, then immediately squeezed through to him. “What’s wrong?”
The young man’s name was Lou Xiaoguo. His voice trembled, nothing like the cheerful, lively tone from yesterday. “I heard something happened at the foot spa! The person who died… was it really Luo Yingqiang?”
Chen Zheng did not think he should care this much about Luo Yingqiang, but then he suddenly remembered the young man Luo Yingqiang had allegedly been keeping. Could it be…
Lou Xiaoguo grew even more frantic. “Actually… actually, my boyfriend didn’t come home last night. He said he was coming to my place, but no matter how many times I call, he doesn’t answer. I got hold of one of his friends, and they said he went to the foot spa last night. I’m scared. I’m scared that…”
Chen Zheng said, “You’re afraid the other victim is your boyfriend?”
Lou Xiaoguo nodded over and over. His eyes were already red as he stamped his foot. “If it isn’t him, I’m going to beat him to death. What was he doing sneaking off to the foot spa behind my back?”
The blood-covered lounge and the photograph of the body on Cheng Cu’s phone flashed through Chen Zheng’s mind. “Do you two have a photo together? Let me see.”
Lou Xiaoguo hurriedly pulled out his phone. His hand shook, and he almost dropped it. His album was full of selfies, making it obvious that he was a gay guy who loved looking good for the camera. When Chen Zheng reached one photo, his heart tightened. The young man in it had his eyes closed, sleeping soundly, and he looked somewhat similar to the body in Cheng Cu’s photograph.
“I took that secretly,” Lou Xiaoguo said. “Officer Chen, what’s wrong?”
Chen Zheng said, “Come on. You’re coming with me to the municipal bureau.”
Ming Han was sitting in the driver’s seat when he saw Chen Zheng bring someone back and formed a rough guess. But when he heard Lou Xiaoguo’s name, his eyes narrowed slightly. Before he could say anything, Lou Xiaoguo began crying from fear in the car. “No way… Brother Nan really got into trouble?”
The Brother Nan Lou Xiaoguo spoke of was Zhang Yinan, twenty-one years old, a third-year student in Foreign Literature at Nanshan University. A friend of Lou Xiaoguo’s was Zhang Yinan’s junior. Lou Xiaoguo met Zhang Yinan when he went to visit that friend.
Guys who majored in foreign literature could be dangerously deceptive. Zhang Yinan always spoke eloquently, quoting classics and dropping long, difficult names that Lou Xiaoguo had never even heard before. So Lou Xiaoguo thought Zhang Yinan was handsome, cultured, and the kind of boyfriend who made him look good. He had never gone to university himself, but he was not insecure about it. Once he took a liking to Zhang Yinan, he pursued him relentlessly, and Zhang Yinan quickly gave in and started dating him.
At first, Lou Xiaoguo thought it was only vanity, that Zhang Yinan was simply a more impressive boyfriend than the ones other gay men had. But once they were actually together, he realized he really loved Zhang Yinan. Zhang Yinan doted on him too. Whenever he had time, he came to pick Lou Xiaoguo up after work. When Lou Xiaoguo said he did not want to work for other people forever and hoped to start his own business someday, Zhang Yinan took out the money he had earned from part-time work and offered it as startup capital. Lou Xiaoguo was deeply moved, but he returned the money and said he wanted to keep working steadily for a few more years. He could not recklessly gamble away the money that belonged to both of them.
In the car, Lou Xiaoguo sobbed as he told them how he and Zhang Yinan had met, clutching his phone tightly in both hands as though it were his last lifeline. What if? What if Zhang Yinan called him back?
“Brother Nan’s family isn’t well-off either. He came from a small town, so he’s always worked part-time. He’s really capable. He makes more from part-time jobs alone than I do,” Lou Xiaoguo said through tears. “We clearly agreed we’d go to the foot spa together!”
When they arrived at the municipal bureau, Cheng Cu had already spoken to Major Crimes, so Chen Zheng encountered no resistance when he took Lou Xiaoguo to identify the body. The forensic pathologist had just completed the autopsy, and the body had been returned to the morgue. Lou Xiaoguo walked over on trembling legs. The moment he saw the familiar face, he collapsed to the floor and vomited.
Chen Zheng hurried to help him up and asked nothing. His reaction already said enough. The dead man was his boyfriend, Zhang Yinan.