Secretary Li turned to look at Chen Zheng. Chen Zheng was not in uniform, so there was nothing to show he was a police officer. Secretary Li asked cautiously, “And you are?”
“Investigating the case.” Chen Zheng gave a deliberately vague answer and looked at Secretary Li. “I want to talk to you.”
He had just spent several hours “talking” with the police, and now someone else had come. Secretary Li pulled a long face, drained the coffee in one gulp, and said, “I’ve already told you everything I know.”
“What you mainly talked about was the Jinluo Furo project.” Chen Zheng said, “Where do you rank among Luo Yingqiang’s secretaries?”
Secretary Li froze. “S-second. Mr. Zhao heads the president’s office and handles business matters. I-I’m basically just the errand guy. I drive Boss Luo around and things like that.”
Chen Zheng said, “So there are only two of you? Secretary Zhao is the first secretary, while you, the second secretary, also handle some of his personal-assistant work?”
Secretary Li hurriedly nodded.
“Then you know Zhang Yinan?” The moment Chen Zheng asked, Secretary Li’s expression became extremely awkward. Chen Zheng added, “The university student who died with your Boss Luo.”
“I know him. Sometimes I was the one who picked Xiao Zhang up.” Secretary Li could not keep the disgust from his face. “But I really wasn’t the one who picked him up yesterday, and Boss Luo never said he was going to meet Xiao Zhang. Think about it. On a day like yesterday, how could he bring in a… a rent boy?”
Chen Zheng said, “Sounds like you know quite a bit about Luo Yingqiang keeping Zhang Yinan. When did it start? Was Luo Yingqiang always that kind of person?”
Secretary Li flushed. “I really don’t know when they started. I’ve worked for Boss Luo for six years, and his private life has always been, well… like that. There were always women. I was the one driving most of them around. Zhang Yinan was the only man. To tell you the truth, the first time Boss Luo asked me to take Xiao Zhang home, even I was shocked.”
Chen Zheng asked, “When was the first time?”
“Probably August this year.” Secretary Li steadied himself a little. “Before that I never knew Boss Luo liked men. I was still picking up and dropping off women before summer break, and they were university students too. He seems to like that type.”
“And after August? Besides Zhang Yinan, who else was Luo Yingqiang seeing?”
“No one, really. Or maybe I just didn’t know. That’s what I found strange too. Boss Luo, he…” Perhaps because of the old idea that one should not speak ill of the dead, Secretary Li found it difficult to finish.
Chen Zheng had already guessed the rest. “Boss Luo had an excellent reputation among middle-aged and older women, but that was just the image he cultivated. In private, he had both the desire and the nerve to act on it, and when it came to relationships, he was as promiscuous as a person could be?”
Secretary Li stammered for a while. Since the police officer in front of him had already said it out loud, there was no need to protect the dead man’s dignity any longer. He simply continued, “Yeah. That’s exactly the kind of person Boss Luo was, which is why I said it was strange. After Xiao Zhang came along, he seemed to settle down. He never asked any other women to come sleep with him. Though maybe he just kept it from me because he was worried I’d tell Xiao Zhang.”
Chen Zheng said, “Luo Yingqiang didn’t have you drive every person he called over, did he?”
Secretary Li shook his head. “Boss Luo would pick people up himself sometimes, but I think he trusted me quite a lot. If he didn’t ask me to do the driving, then he probably handled it himself.”
Chen Zheng asked about Luo Yingqiang’s other lovers. Secretary Li’s professional competence showed itself here. He clearly remembered what each person’s parents did, what they studied, and where they lived.
So Chen Zheng asked, “Then you should know Zhang Yinan’s family background pretty well too?”
Secretary Li rubbed his face. “That I really don’t know. Everything I did, I did because Boss Luo told me to. Why would I go looking for extra work? Boss Luo was suspicious by nature. If he slept with a woman, he wanted to know her background. I investigated those people because he told me to. But he never asked me to look into Xiao Zhang. I even brought it up once, and Boss Luo said Xiao Zhang was a good kid and that he knew what he was doing. I think… maybe Boss Luo really did like him.”
Chen Zheng sneered inwardly. Like him? A wealthy businessman who built himself into the “dream man” of countless women while privately keeping university students of both sexes and using power and money to make them quietly serve him, and simply because he had not investigated one of them, that counted as liking someone?
Chen Zheng asked again, “What about Luo Yingqiang’s family? He wasn’t divorced.”
“Right, right, he wasn’t divorced. But with rich people like that, what difference does it make whether they’re divorced or not? They don’t live together anyway.” Secretary Li’s tone carried obvious disdain. He respected and feared Luo Yingqiang, yet seemed to have slipped into Luo Yingqiang’s own perspective, looking down from above at Luo Yingqiang’s wife and daughter. “By the time I started working for Boss Luo, they had already gone abroad, to Country A. Boss Luo provided them with everything they needed, but he didn’t allow them to come back.”
Chen Zheng’s brows drew together slightly. “He forbade them from returning?”
Secretary Li said, “I can understand it. What if they came back, started talking everywhere, and caused bad publicity for the group? Du Fangfei isn’t very educated, and she doesn’t see the bigger picture.”
Du Fangfei was Luo Yingqiang’s legal spouse. Back when Luo Yingqiang was still standing over a wok, she had shared his hardships and given birth to their daughter. Yet throughout Luo Yingqiang’s rise, Du Fangfei had barely any presence. She had never demanded shares or status the way some businessmen’s wives did, nor had she provided Luo Yingqiang with any help.
About ten years earlier, Luo Yingqiang had sent Du Fangfei and their daughter to Country A, effectively removing a potential source of trouble. Secretary Li had never met Du Fangfei and merely guessed that Luo Yingqiang must have given her plenty of money and satisfied whatever demands she had, otherwise she might have come back to make trouble for him.
Chen Zheng made a note of the mother and daughter, then asked, “Luo Yingqiang didn’t seem to have much affection for his wife and child, but he was deeply devoted to his own mother?”
Secretary Li hesitated for a moment. “Actually, I think this birthday celebration was just publicity too. His mother was like a mascot he brought out for display.”
Chen Zheng had already sensed that Luo Yingqiang’s relationship with his mother was not simple. “The old lady seems to be the only family member still around him?”
“That’s what people say, but Boss Luo kept his mother at Nanshan Gardens and only brought her out when he needed her to appear somewhere, like this time.” Secretary Li sounded faintly envious. “Of course, being able to live in luxury at Nanshan Gardens isn’t exactly an ordinary life either.”
Chen Zheng knew Nanshan Gardens was one of the finest villa compounds in Nanshan City, much newer and far better equipped than the neighborhood where Ming Han’s grandmother’s old villa stood.
The initial investigation was still incomplete, making it difficult to identify the motive behind the two murders. Seeing that Secretary Li was truly at the end of his endurance, Chen Zheng let him rest and then headed to the hospital where Luo Yingqiang’s mother was staying. Special police were on duty outside the room. Chen Zheng tried to go in, only to learn that a deputy director of the Nanshan Municipal Public Security Bureau was inside.
Chen Zheng was mildly surprised. At the earlier Major Crimes meeting, Cheng Cu had said he would introduce Chen Zheng to his superiors, but the only senior officer who attended was the captain of the Criminal Investigation Detachment. The deputy director in charge of criminal investigation had been absent because of other business. Chen Zheng had assumed the man would not be involved in frontline work, yet here he was making a special trip to see Luo Yingqiang’s mother.
Before long, the hospital-room door opened, revealing a face Chen Zheng had seen before. The other man froze for a moment, but perhaps Cheng Cu had already mentioned that people from the Provincial Department had arrived, because he quickly recovered. “Xiao Chen, no, Captain Chen. It’s been a long time.”
Chen Zheng recognized the deputy director too, Wu Zhan. Years ago, when Chen Zheng was still a student and had been brought by senior officers to Nanshan City to assist with a case, Wu Zhan had still been a squad captain, holding the same position Cheng Cu held now. Luocheng and Nanshan City had not cooperated much in recent years, and Wu Zhan had not even attended provincial meetings, so it truly had been a long time since they had seen each other.
“Director Wu.” Chen Zheng held out his hand. “I work at the research institute in Zhuquan City now. I’m not really a captain anymore.”
Wu Zhan opened his mouth as though he wanted to say something, but what came out was merely polite conversation. “Xiao Cheng said you and someone from the Mobile Unit were here. I was thinking that would make things easier for us.”
Chen Zheng shook his head. “We don’t have any leads yet. I came to see the victim’s family.”
A deputy director was naturally busy. Wu Zhan took his leave. Chen Zheng watched him go, vaguely bothered. Wu Zhan’s reaction just now had not been the reaction of someone meeting an ordinary colleague, but what exactly had he wanted to say?
A whimpering sound from inside the room interrupted Chen Zheng’s thoughts. He pushed open the door and found Luo Yingqiang’s mother crying.
A son had died before his elderly mother. Grief would have been the most natural emotion in the world. Yet the old woman’s tears did not seem to come from grief. They looked more like fear and relief.
“Luo Yingqiang is dead… You’re not lying to me?” The old woman trembled on the hospital bed, blood seeping around the IV needle in her hand. She stared at Chen Zheng, terror written across her face. “Did he send you here to test me?”
The nurse hurried to deal with the needle, but the old woman recoiled even harder, apologizing in a delirious panic. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I won’t do it again!”
The doctor who came over said that ever since she woke up, her mental state had been abnormal. She kept saying confused things and did not behave like a mother who had just lost her only son.
Chen Zheng sat beside the bed and said patiently, “He was murdered, after the birthday celebration he held for you. Look, these are my credentials. I’m a police officer, and I’m investigating the case.”
The old woman’s rapid breathing filled the room. The nurse added a sedative to her IV, and at last she calmed somewhat. Then she made a request a victim’s family member would almost never make. “I-I want to see the pictures you took. You took pictures, didn’t you?”
Chen Zheng asked, “You mean photographs from the scene?”
Her wrinkled hands trembled as she reached out, struggling to express herself. “His. His picture.”
Chen Zheng found a close-up photograph of the corpse’s head and neck on his phone and held it in front of her. The image would have disturbed most people. An officer beside him moved to stop him, but the old woman had already seen it and let out a sharp cry. Chen Zheng took the phone back. “Do you believe now that we weren’t lying to you?”
In an instant, tears poured down the old woman’s face. Her sobs were mixed with shrill laughter, leaving the medical staff completely bewildered.
Chen Zheng said, “You’ve wanted this unfilial son dead for a long time, haven’t you?”
The old woman sucked in a violent breath, nearly choking on it. “Unfilial son? He isn’t my son at all.”
Chen Zheng asked calmly, “What happened? Luo Yingqiang is dead now. Whatever you have to say, you can tell me without fear.”
Silence spread through the room. Only after the doctor and nurse had left, and the old woman had inspected everyone’s police credentials, did she begin to tell the story that had bound her for years. “Luo Yingqiang hired me. His real mother, my distant older cousin, died more than ten years ago.”
The old woman’s real name was Fan Lihua. Her family had been poor, and she left home early to work in the city. She had been a nanny, cleaner, and waitress, and had lost contact with Luo Yingqiang’s family for many years.
About twenty years earlier, she went home for Spring Festival and reunited with Luo Yingqiang’s mother. That was when she learned Luo Yingqiang had started a business and was doing quite well. Fan Lihua herself had worked so hard in her younger years that she had even lost the ability to have children. Luo Yingqiang’s mother spoke proudly about her son, and Fan Lihua could not help feeling a trace of envy. But everyone had their own fate, and she did not let the envy show.
When Spring Festival ended and everyone was preparing to return to their separate lives, Luo Yingqiang’s mother suddenly asked whether Fan Lihua wanted to come with her, keep her company, and help with some housework. Fan Lihua had spent so long struggling alone that no one even cared when she became sick. The thought that going with her cousin might mean finally having a whole family around her was deeply tempting. When she did not answer immediately, Luo Yingqiang’s mother assumed she had reservations, so she left her contact information and told Fan Lihua to reach out if she ever changed her mind.
Afterward, Fan Lihua regretted hesitating. If only she had simply agreed. Now the others had already left. How could she shamelessly seek them out again? Three or five years passed while she continued struggling at the bottom of society, unable to stop paying attention to Luo Yingqiang.
Yingqiang Group grew larger and larger. The wet markets, supermarkets, restaurants, and other places Fan Lihua visited in daily life increasingly belonged to the Luo family’s businesses. Luo Yingqiang’s reputation was astonishingly good too. People praised him as kind, upright, and filial. Fan Lihua often wanted to tell them, He’s my nephew!
She had already accepted that she would spend the rest of her life drifting from place to place, working herself to the bone for one household, washing dishes and scrubbing floors for another, and having wages withheld by stingy employers. Yet the existence of this distant relative, Luo Yingqiang, burned hotter in her mind with every passing day. Suddenly she felt that maybe she too could find a way into a better life.
She dug out the contact information Luo Yingqiang’s mother had left all those years before and called with great anxiety. The other woman recognized her voice and was delighted, saying she very much wanted to meet. Over the phone, however, Luo Yingqiang’s mother sounded tired and weak, as though her health was poor.
On the day they met, Fan Lihua gritted her teeth and spent two hundred yuan on an attractive fruit basket. Luo Yingqiang’s mother said her son knew a relative was coming and had specially sent a car to pick her up. Fan Lihua climbed excitedly into the luxury car, her heart surging. On the way, she silently rehearsed all the things she had practiced saying countless times. This time she had to seize the opportunity. Even if she had to work as a servant, she would find a way through the Luo family’s door.
The villa compound where Luo Yingqiang’s mother lived was enormous. The car kept turning after entering, leaving Fan Lihua dizzy and disoriented. She had never been somewhere like this, nor had she imagined a life like this.
When she saw Luo Yingqiang’s mother again, she was too shocked to speak. The cousin who had still been full of life only a few years earlier was now emaciated and bedridden. Luo Yingqiang’s mother held Fan Lihua’s hand with tears in her eyes and explained that she had an incurable illness and did not have long to live. At this point in her life, she desperately wanted to see relatives from the old days, but Luo Yingqiang would not allow it.
Fan Lihua was completely confused. Why would Luo Yingqiang forbid such an ordinary, human request? And if he had forbidden it, why had Fan Lihua been allowed to come today? Luo Yingqiang’s mother explained nothing. Instead, she asked whether Fan Lihua would be willing to stay and keep her company for a while.
Fan Lihua had come hoping to work as a nanny for the Luo family, so now she did not even have to ask. But she had never imagined caring for someone terminally ill, much less a relative.
At that moment, Luo Yingqiang appeared, his eyes full of concern for his mother. He said to her, “Aunt Fan, my mother is tired. Let me explain her condition to you.”
The man she had always seen on television was suddenly standing in front of her. Fan Lihua became so nervous her mind went blank and followed Luo Yingqiang into the study. Luo Yingqiang spoke earnestly, explaining that his mother did not have much time left and that his work left him almost no time to stay with her. He desperately hoped someone trustworthy could accompany her through the last stretch of her life. The caregivers they had hired before were all outsiders and could not give his mother the emotional comfort of family. Fan Lihua was his mother’s relative. If she agreed to stay, he would never treat her poorly.
Luo Yingqiang was an eloquent and persuasive man. Otherwise he would never have earned the title of “dream man.” Fan Lihua was easily moved by him and deeply touched, feeling that even if she were paid nothing, she would still be willing to stay with Luo Yingqiang’s mother.
And so Fan Lihua lived in the villa for three months. Other people bought groceries and cleaned; her only job was to talk with Luo Yingqiang’s mother. During the final month, the older woman spent long periods unconscious, almost like a dead person already. Fan Lihua had very little to do, yet the fear inside her steadily deepened. She had begun to realize that Luo Yingqiang’s mother’s life was not normal at all. The villa was like a prison, and the person living inside it was under Luo Yingqiang’s watch.
Luo Yingqiang appeared to have given his mother the best possible living conditions, yet despite how ill she was, he never came to see her. He always seemed to have endless work, and his dying mother ranked last in his priorities.
Fan Lihua saw a recent television interview with Luo Yingqiang. He was participating in a charity event focused on elderly health, and he actually claimed that his own mother was in excellent health because he consistently exercised with her.
On camera, Luo Yingqiang warned the audience that children had to pay attention to their parents’ health and not wait until their parents became ill before realizing how little they had done.
The sight chilled Fan Lihua. Luo Yingqiang’s mother was clearly close to death. How could he say she was in excellent health? He had not visited the villa once in three months, yet he claimed he regularly exercised with her?
But Fan Lihua was only an insignificant relative. She could not even communicate freely with the outside world. There was nothing she could do.
On the day Luo Yingqiang’s mother died, she regained consciousness for half an hour, and Luo Yingqiang still did not return. Fan Lihua sat by her bedside, remembering their carefree childhood and then looking at the cousin whom illness had reduced almost beyond recognition. Tears came without warning.
Luo Yingqiang’s mother suddenly grabbed Fan Lihua’s hand and said through tears, “Lihua, I’m sorry.”
Fan Lihua did not understand what the apology meant. Was she apologizing for making Fan Lihua care for her? But it had hardly been difficult work. In these three months, Fan Lihua had earned more than she could make in several years outside, and the work had been easier too. If anything, she felt she should have been the one saying thank you.
When Luo Yingqiang’s mother died, Fan Lihua felt half grief and half disappointment. The disappointment came from knowing that her job was over. She would have to leave the villa and return to her old life. Would Luo Yingqiang give her another job? She waited anxiously, then felt ashamed that the woman’s body was barely cold and she was already thinking about money.
Luo Yingqiang had never come back while his mother was gravely ill, yet he appeared almost immediately after she died, wearing a solemn expression. Fan Lihua assumed he had returned to arrange a grand funeral. Instead, Luo Yingqiang merely walked to the window, looked at his mother once, then turned to Fan Lihua and said just as he had three months earlier, “Aunt Fan, come with me to the study. I have something to discuss with you.”
Fan Lihua was utterly confused. Her feet felt welded to the floor, but Luo Yingqiang glanced back at her, and something in that look frightened her. She had no choice but to follow. The study door slowly closed behind her.
“Thank you for all the effort and affection you’ve given my mother over the past three months. With family beside her, she must have gone peacefully.” Luo Yingqiang delivered polite words in an overpowering tone. Inside, Fan Lihua was screaming: No, she didn’t go peacefully. She had regrets. Why didn’t you come back to see her one last time?
Luo Yingqiang suddenly sighed. “But the timing of her death really is inconvenient. There are still many occasions coming up when I’ll need her.”
Fan Lihua had never even finished middle school. She could not understand what Luo Yingqiang meant and stood there blankly. “What… what do you mean?”
Luo Yingqiang smiled. “Aunt Fan, after my mother is buried, what are you planning to do?”
She stammered, “Find another job. Mr. Luo, your company…”
Luo Yingqiang raised a hand to correct her. “Don’t call me Mr. Luo. That’s too formal. My mother regarded you as a younger sister, which makes you half a mother to me.”
Perhaps it was instinct, but Fan Lihua suddenly felt danger drawing close.
Luo Yingqiang continued, “For business reasons, my mother will be buried in secret, and I won’t tell outsiders that she has died. So I need another mother, someone who can stand beside me when necessary and let everyone see that I am still the same filial son.”
Fan Lihua’s eyes widened. She could not process what she had heard. A mother… how could someone simply replace one mother with another?
Luo Yingqiang gestured for his secretary to come in and place a contract in front of her. “Xiao Zhao will explain the clauses to you in detail. If there’s no problem, just sign it. Aunt Fan, I trust you very much. Other than my mother, you’re the person I trust most. You don’t have a son, so let me support you in old age and see you through to the end. Consider it repayment for staying with my mother.”
Luo Yingqiang’s mother’s body was still lying in the bedroom, yet Luo Yingqiang was already in a hurry to find himself a new mother. Fan Lihua was a traditional woman and could not understand how a son could say something like this. But she did not dare defy Luo Yingqiang. She sat down like a walking corpse and listened as Secretary Zhao read the contract to her line by line. She understood the difficult words individually, but once they were strung into sentences, she could not make sense of any of them.
Secretary Zhao had a shrewd, severe face. He was very young, but frightening. He told her, “Ms. Fan, there’s no rush to sign the contract. If there’s anything you don’t understand, I can explain it slowly. But before that, you need to remain here. Also, what we discussed today is confidential. You may not tell anyone. Can you do that?”
Fan Lihua nodded repeatedly as the fear inside her grew deeper and deeper.
Luo Yingqiang did not force her. She watched helplessly as his mother’s body was taken away. The next day, Luo Yingqiang attended a public event as though nothing had happened. After that, it was Secretary Zhao who repeatedly came to the villa to ask what she had decided.
Fan Lihua asked what would happen if she refused to sign. Secretary Zhao smiled and said nothing much would happen. She would simply return to a life more or less like the one she had before. No, perhaps a little worse, because Mr. Luo cared about his reputation and probably could not allow her to remain in Han Province.
She asked urgently where she could go instead. Secretary Zhao smiled. “Jinsi Island, maybe? It’s sure to become a paradise someday.”