More than two years earlier, on April 10, Qianziba Police Station received a report from Li Wan’s family saying they had been unable to contact him for half a month.
The officers asked why the family had waited so long to report him missing. The Li family explained that Li Wan had started his annual leave at the end of March and was not going into the office. Everyone knew how hard he usually worked, so no one disturbed him during his vacation. It was only on April 7, when he should have returned to work but did not appear, that they realized something was wrong. They searched for three days without finding him, then called the police.
Police discovered that Li Wan had flown to Nianbei City on March 25 with a man named Shi Bo. At the sound of that name, some of Li Wan’s relatives looked displeased, while others shouted angrily, “That little fox must have done something to my brother!”
Only after questioning them did police learn that Li Wan had remained single for so many years because he was gay. He and Shi Bo had been together for a long time, breaking up and getting back together several times.
The Li family patriarch was deeply hostile toward homosexuality. He had once declared that homosexuality was against humanity and that all gay people should be rounded up and shot. When Li Wan first got together with Shi Bo, the old man repeatedly beat Li Wan, and Shi Bo had even been confined. The old man swore that if Li Wan refused to change, he would never receive any share of the family business.
But Li Wan and Shi Bo continued seeing each other in secret. Their relationship moved one of Li Wan’s older sisters, who did everything she could to help them. Later, after Li Shuxing’s case, the old man collapsed under the grief and his health deteriorated sharply. Li Wan was the only person capable of carrying the company, so the old man had no choice but to tacitly accept his orientation. Even so, until the day he died, he refused to meet Shi Bo or allow him into the family home.
Once the old man was no longer standing in their way, Li Wan and Shi Bo finally settled into a more stable relationship. But the good times did not last. With the external pressure gone, problems between the two of them gradually surfaced. Shi Bo came from an ordinary, even poor, family. He had received little education growing up, was not particularly bright, and had a rather bad temper.
Perhaps his only obvious advantage was that he was beautiful, and when the mood struck him, he was very good at making people happy. Li Wan had fallen for him at first sight and indulged all his little faults. Later, when the old man persecuted them, Shi Bo proved even stronger than Li Wan. Li Wan came to believe Shi Bo was the only person for him.
After Li Wan took over the burden of the family business, Shi Bo probably felt he had finally endured his way to better days. He began throwing his weight around, acting like the boss’s wife, and insisting that Li Wan find him a position in the company. Li Wan knew he was not suited for that kind of work, so instead he gave Shi Bo money to try livestreaming.
Livestreaming was not nearly as developed then as it was now, but Shi Bo’s face was enough to draw attention, and he was fairly entertaining when he spoke. Before long, he had amassed a large following. Shi Bo grew greedy and refused to settle for being a minor internet celebrity. He wanted Li Wan to help him enter show business.
How could that possibly work? The Li family’s company was already nowhere near as influential as it had once been, and even at its peak it could never have turned Shi Bo into a star. The two quarreled frequently. Even the older sister who had always supported them eventually lost patience and called Shi Bo a little fox to his face.
Still, the sweetness and bitterness of a relationship were not things outsiders could fully understand. Although Li Wan had grown thoroughly fed up with Shi Bo, he ultimately never broke up with him. The Li family became tired of watching the two break up and reconcile over and over, and eventually stopped caring. Before taking his annual leave, Li Wan did not mention Shi Bo at all. He only said he was exhausted and wanted some time alone to clear his head.
When officers went to Shi Bo’s home, he was catching up on sleep after livestreaming all night. He had only just entered deep sleep when they woke him, and he was extremely irritable, refusing to let them inside. But when the officers mentioned Li Wan’s disappearance and said Shi Bo might be a suspect, his eyes flew open and he shouted, “Are you kidding me? He abandoned me and even tried to have me killed, and now I’m the suspect?”
The officers entered Shi Bo’s apartment. It was in an upscale residential complex, but the interior was a complete mess. Still in pajamas and bad-tempered from being woken, Shi Bo called Li Wan a bastard and said that after finding someone new, Li Wan had wanted to get rid of his old lover. The officers looked at one another, completely unprepared for this development, and quickly asked what had happened.
Shi Bo said angrily that he had gotten together with Li Wan before he was even twenty. He knew everyone around them said he only wanted Li Wan’s money, but he had genuinely loved Li Wan. He was also the only person who had helped Li Wan through the most painful period of his life.
The Li family said he constantly caused trouble for Li Wan for his own sake, but Shi Bo insisted he had only wanted a career of his own. He did not want people saying he was unworthy of Li Wan. Li Wan understood all of that, which was why they had managed to stumble along together for so many years.
But at the beginning of that year, Shi Bo discovered that Li Wan was cheating on him. He had once believed Li Wan was absolutely faithful in relationships, but the saying “men turn bad when they get rich” had apparently come true for Li Wan after all.
Then Shi Bo corrected himself with a sneer. “No, not rich. He was rich to begin with. Power was what turned him bad.”
The officers asked who Li Wan was having an affair with. Shi Bo became agitated, pacing back and forth through the living room. He said he had never managed to find out. He and Li Wan had fought over it many times, but Li Wan refused to tell him.
“Could you have misunderstood?” an officer asked.
Shi Bo shouted, “If I misunderstood, why didn’t he deny it? I asked who that man was, and he couldn’t answer!”
By March, their relationship was hanging by a thread. Li Wan tacitly acknowledged the man’s existence but still would not say who he was. Shi Bo told him they should break up, and Li Wan only lowered his head in silence. Shi Bo could not take it anymore and wanted to end the relationship, but Li Wan suddenly suggested that the two of them travel together.
Shi Bo was no longer the naive teenager he had once been, so before going to Nianbei City, he stayed on guard. Nianbei was rich in tourist attractions, with mountains and high plateaus where visitors could ride horses and hike, satisfying the longing for wilderness that built up in people who spent too long living in cities.
During the trip, Li Wan seemed distracted and checked his phone from time to time, as if waiting for someone’s message. Shi Bo guessed he was waiting for his little lover.
They rented an RV from a local campground and drove onto the plateau. One night, Shi Bo saw Li Wan sneak outside. At that moment, his heart went completely cold. Li Wan returned sometime after midnight as though nothing had happened and continued traveling with him the next day. When Shi Bo demanded to know where he had gone during the night, Li Wan seemed unusually keyed up, unlike how he had been in Nanshan City. He said everything would be resolved soon and promised to explain once they went back.
But the next night, Li Wan went out and never returned.
Before dawn, Shi Bo left the RV to search for Li Wan and was attacked, nearly losing his life. Fortunately, he was not far from the RV. He ran back with everything he had, sped away, and narrowly escaped.
“That person was Li Wan’s little lover,” Shi Bo said through clenched teeth. “They wanted me dead. Don’t lots of murder cases happen on trips? No wonder Li Wan brought me traveling. Killing someone and dumping the body in wilderness like that is much easier than doing it in a city!”
An officer asked, “How do you know that person was Li Wan’s lover? Did you see his face?”
Shi Bo said disdainfully, “I saw the man from behind. He looked like him. Besides, he had to be on the Nianbei Plateau. Otherwise, who was Li Wan going out there to meet?”
Shi Bo drove back to the city, returned the RV, and bought a flight to Nanshan City that same day. He had previously lived with Li Wan in Li Wan’s villa, but this apartment was one he had bought with money he earned from livestreaming. Once he locked himself inside, he finally felt safe, and the relationship was finally over too.
After calming down, Shi Bo concluded that the little lover had tried to kill him on his own initiative. Li Wan had been with him for so many years. Even if Li Wan had fallen for someone else, surely he would not go so far as to kill him. Now that Shi Bo had returned, Li Wan must know what his little lover had done. Shi Bo decided he would wait there for Li Wan to come find him, then demand a final breakup payment. If Li Wan refused, Shi Bo would make what happened on the Nianbei Plateau public.
That was his plan, but Li Wan never contacted him again. Not only Li Wan, nobody contacted him. Three days earlier, Shi Bo had resumed livestreaming, yet no one had asked him anything strange. His world seemed completely unchanged, except that Li Wan was gone.
He curled up painfully on the sofa, hugging himself, and whispered, “If they don’t report him missing, I was going to do it myself in a few days. Li Wan… why isn’t Li Wan coming to find me? Why isn’t his lover coming to find me either?”
While searching the apartment, the officers discovered that Shi Bo suffered from a serious mental illness and was taking medication. Li Wan’s disappearance had worsened his condition.
The Li family insisted Shi Bo was responsible for Li Wan’s disappearance, but police found no evidence. The disappearance had also occurred on the Nianbei Plateau, where the police force was limited and the territory vast, making the investigation extremely difficult to pursue.
Local police confirmed that Shi Bo and Li Wan had indeed traveled to the plateau together, but only Shi Bo had returned. The rented RV had already been thoroughly cleaned, and no bloodstains or other suspicious traces were found.
As for the person Shi Bo claimed had attacked him, there was no way to locate that person either. Perhaps the attacker really existed. Perhaps Shi Bo had invented him. It was even possible that the figure had been an involuntary hallucination as Shi Bo’s condition worsened.
At the Li family’s request, police restricted Shi Bo’s movements for a period of time. That could also be viewed as a way of protecting him. In May, with no evidence against him, Shi Bo regained his freedom. Li Wan’s missing-person case then went cold, with no new leads for police to pursue.
After Ming Han finished reading the entire file, he propped his cheek on one hand and fell into thought.
Missing-person cases were often like this. Even if police were almost certain the missing person was already dead, they still could not investigate the case to the standard of a homicide. Without a body, many lines of work simply could not proceed.
More than two years had passed, and the Li family seemed to have accepted Li Wan’s disappearance. The entire family was sliding toward decline. If Li Wan had been the greatest beneficiary of Li Shuxing’s death back then, who benefited most from Li Wan’s disappearance?
His older brothers and sisters? It did not seem likely. At least Li Shuxing’s father had no interest whatsoever in the family business. He had been pushed into taking responsibility and was living worse than before.
Ming Han turned again to one section of Shi Bo’s statement. Shi Bo had said he was the one who accompanied Li Wan through the most painful period of his life. When had that been?
It seemed that to investigate Li Shuxing’s case, they would need to investigate Li Wan’s disappearance at the same time. Shi Bo was someone Ming Han had to meet in person.
Shi Bo was originally from Nanshan City, but after Li Wan disappeared, he could no longer remain there. He sold his apartment and moved to the provincial capital, Luocheng. He now worked behind the scenes at an influencer-incubation company.
Ming Han did not hesitate. He returned to Luocheng immediately and intercepted Shi Bo in a downtown office building just as he was about to go to work. Compared with the photograph in the case file, Shi Bo looked much more mature now. He was fashionably dressed, wore light makeup, and carried himself with considerable style.
Shi Bo frowned as he studied Ming Han. “You are?”
Ming Han said, “I’d like to take up a little of your time and ask you about your ex-boyfriend, Li Wan.” As he spoke, he showed his credentials.
Shi Bo looked startled, his mouth falling half open. A few seconds later, worry appeared in his eyes. “You… found him?”
Ming Han found the reaction interesting. “Are you worried you’re about to hear a bad answer?”
Shi Bo sighed and glanced toward a café inside the office building. “Let’s talk there.”
Ming Han sat down. While ordering coffee, Shi Bo called his assistant and said something had come up and he would arrive late. After ending the call, he asked, “Did you find his body?”
Ming Han shook his head. “I heard from my colleagues that you hated him for abandoning you and believed he and his lover tried to have you killed. Why does it seem like you don’t think that anymore?”
Shi Bo said, “It’s been more than two years. How could a person not change at all? Besides, I was very sick back then. I was manic and constantly felt that everyone wanted to hurt me. I’m better now, and I can finally calm down and think objectively about what happened.” His fingers curled slightly, his mood sinking. “I may have misunderstood Li Wan. The person I saw probably wasn’t his lover at all.”
Ming Han said, “What makes you say that?”
Shi Bo quietly watched steam rise from his coffee and began telling Ming Han about his past with Li Wan.
Much like the Li family’s account, Shi Bo also believed that as a teenager he had not been worthy of Li Wan and had nothing but a pretty face. It was only after he truly became attracted to Li Wan’s talent that he began wanting to make himself better.
The Li family said Shi Bo had constantly tormented Li Wan with his ambitions, but Shi Bo said Li Wan had supported his career, with the exception of entering show business. Li Wan told him that the entertainment industry exposed a person to too many eyes, and having spotlights trained on an ordinary person was not necessarily a good thing.
At first Shi Bo had not understood and sulked at Li Wan. Later, after Li Wan explained, he understood. The Li family worked in pharmaceuticals, an industry where they had to conduct themselves carefully and tread on thin ice. Shi Bo should not attract too much attention toward Li Wan.
Around the turn from winter to spring that year, Shi Bo noticed that Li Wan often seemed distracted, as though he were worried about something. At first, Shi Bo did not think it was an affair. He assumed something had happened at the company. But when he quietly asked around, he discovered that everything at the company was calm. The more he thought about it, the stranger it seemed, until one day he followed Li Wan and saw a thin man get into Li Wan’s car.
Shi Bo could hardly believe his eyes. Li Wan actually had someone else! He had not seen the man’s face clearly. He followed Li Wan several more times afterward but never saw the man again. When he confronted Li Wan, Li Wan’s expression stiffened and he instead demanded to know why Shi Bo had been following him. The two had a huge argument, and Shi Bo suffered a manic episode that very day.
Because of Shi Bo’s illness, Li Wan tolerated him and took care of him. But Shi Bo wanted only one answer: who was that man?
Li Wan refused to say. He only asked Shi Bo to give him some time and promised that he would resolve everything later. Tormented by his emotions, Shi Bo could not understand what had happened to Li Wan. They had endured so much hardship together. Why had Li Wan become like this?
His doctor suggested traveling for a while to help him recover. Li Wan proposed the Nianbei Plateau, and Shi Bo agreed. He thought Li Wan had already broken things off with the other man and that the two of them could repair their relationship during the trip. But Li Wan was still in contact with him.
Shi Bo again described what happened to him on the Nianbei Plateau. This part of his account was identical to the old police record, but his interpretation of it was now completely different from two years ago.
“I thought about it later. The person I saw probably wasn’t Li Wan’s lover. He was someone who wanted to kill Li Wan. For some reason Li Wan couldn’t even tell me the details, maybe because he was trying to protect me. He told me everything would be resolved soon. Was he going out there to deal with that person? But he failed. That person killed Li Wan and almost killed me too.” Shi Bo drew a deep breath. The café was warm, but his shoulders trembled slightly. “Maybe the reason I’m still alive and perfectly fine is precisely because Li Wan never told me who that person was, and that person knew I didn’t know.”
On his way to Luocheng, Ming Han had already considered the possibility that Li Wan had never cheated. If things had really been as Shi Bo told police two years ago, why had Li Wan and the supposed “lover” disappeared while Shi Bo remained?
“You said you accompanied Li Wan through a painful period. What period were you talking about?” Ming Han asked.
Shi Bo froze, then remembered and smiled faintly. “It wasn’t anything major. His father was an old fossil. Not only did he try to break us apart, he threatened Li Wan too. He said that once Li Wan’s nephew came of age, the nephew would take over the family. No matter how capable Li Wan was, he would only ever be his nephew’s deputy.”
Ming Han frowned. There had been another layer like this inside the Li family?
Shi Bo explained that Li Wan’s older brothers were all spoiled wastrels, so from the moment Li Wan was born, the family placed enormous expectations on him and the old man raised him as the successor. Li Wan resembled the old man in practically every way except his orientation. The old man had beaten Li Wan viciously over it. Shi Bo had even heard him say that the only reason he hadn’t beaten Li Wan to death was to leave his grandson a capable assistant.
Li Wan had been deeply depressed during that period. He was capable and had worked hard as a student, unlike his older brothers, who spent their lives enjoying themselves. He could hardly be said to have ever lived an easy life. Why should everything he had worked so hard for be handed over to his nephew?
Shi Bo stayed with Li Wan and tried every possible way to talk him through it. Gradually, Li Wan emerged from the slump. Perhaps he stopped caring so much about fame and money, or perhaps he found some higher goal. In any case, he was no longer depressed. Not long after that, Li Shuxing’s case happened.
Even now, Shi Bo believed it had been karmic retribution against the old man. He had been too harsh on his youngest son, forcing Li Wan, despite being the elder, to live as a foil for Li Shuxing. Even heaven could not stand it, so it took the child away.
Although Shi Bo felt little affection for Li Shuxing or the rest of the Li family, he could not help grieving Li Shuxing’s death because of Li Wan. After Li Shuxing disappeared, Li Wan was the member of the family who cooperated most actively with the police. He had genuinely loved the nephew he had watched grow up.
Shi Bo let out a long sigh. “I thought you had news about Li Wan. Officer Ming, why did you suddenly remember him after all this time?”
Ming Han said it was because Li Shuxing’s case needed to be reinvestigated. Shi Bo looked surprised. “Wasn’t he killed by that teacher?”
Ming Han looked directly into Shi Bo’s eyes. “There may have been someone else.”
Shi Bo slowly leaned back into the sofa and remained silent for a long time. Even after Ming Han left, he stayed there, staring blankly ahead as though lost in thought.
Ming Han knew that once Chen Zheng finished investigating in Tongzhou City, he would come to Luocheng, so Ming Han stopped by Xingning Middle School while he was there. He did not see Chen Zheng. He was in no hurry to meet him and instead thought through Li Wan’s disappearance and the role Li Wan might have played in Li Shuxing’s case.
After Li Shuxing and Ping Yiyi were confirmed dead, police first investigated the school staff, then both victims’ parents, before expanding the inquiry to students and other parents. Ping Yiyi came from an ordinary family, so it seemed far less likely that a killer would have specifically targeted her than Li Shuxing.
Every member of the Li family had been questioned. Li Shuxing’s father and the others were panicked and grief-stricken, while the old man became bedridden. None of them could provide the police with useful information as the victim’s family. Li Wan stepped forward instead and answered the police’s questions with relative composure.
Early clues suggested the perpetrator might have been one of the Li family’s business competitors, abducting Li Shuxing to bring the family down, only for something to go wrong midway and force the deaths of both Li Shuxing and Ping Yiyi. That line of investigation went nowhere, and not long afterward Xue Chenwen became the focus.
If Xue Chenwen had not confessed, Li Wan would probably have drawn much more attention. Based on what Shi Bo knew, Li Wan had an obvious possible motive. He had known since adolescence that he was gay, and that was not something he could simply change. Nor did he want to spend his life serving as deputy to a nephew ten years younger than himself. With the old man still alive, if Li Wan wanted everything he believed he deserved, Li Shuxing stood in his way.
If Li Wan really had been involved, then had Xue Chenwen taken the blame for him? Or were they accomplices? What motive would Xue Chenwen have had? There was no evidence at all that Xue Chenwen and Li Wan had any connection.
Li Wan had disappeared more than two years ago, and the likelihood that he was no longer alive was high. Could the person responsible for his disappearance have been connected to the deaths of Li Shuxing and Ping Yiyi? Had that person known the truth and taken revenge on Li Wan? Had Li Wan been vague with Shi Bo because he had no idea how he could possibly explain it to him?
No, that did not fit either. That line of thinking assumed Li Wan had caused Li Shuxing’s death. But if that were true, why had two new insect doodles appeared in Nanshan City after Li Wan disappeared?
Ming Han licked his dry lips and thought of the person Shi Bo had seen. That person was the true key to unlocking the entire mystery. Who could he be?
When Chen Zheng called, Ming Han was waiting in the freezing wind for beef-offal rice noodles. The shop was famous in Luocheng. Ming Han came for a bowl whenever he finished an assignment, especially in the damp cold of winter. One bowl seemed enough to dissolve days of accumulated exhaustion.
“I came to Luocheng today too,” Ming Han said with a smile.
Chen Zheng sounded surprised. “What are you doing here?”
Ming Han picked up two takeout portions of beef offal and walked into the night. “I wanted to see you, so I came.”
Chen Zheng’s ears warmed, but he quickly realized Ming Han was teasing him. Maybe on an ordinary day, but with the case consuming them now, Ming Han was not someone who would abandon his work just for that. “What lead was important enough to trouble you into making the trip yourself?”
“Aiya!” Ming Han pulled open his car door. “Bro, can’t you at least pretend?”
Chen Zheng asked, “Where are you? I’ll come find you.”
Ming Han said, “No. You’re back home? I’ll come straight over.”
Half an hour later, Chen Zheng met the travel-worn “delivery guy” Ming Han at his door. Ming Han had lived here for a while already, so he shamelessly stepped into his own slippers and hurriedly put the beef-offal rice noodles on the table. The moment he opened the lids, fragrance filled the room. Chen Zheng raised an eyebrow. “You bought from this place?”
Ming Han said, “You know it?”
Chen Zheng sat down and saw that both portions had extra toppings. “The beef-offal rice noodles on Chundong Road. I eat there a lot when the weather gets cold.”
They sat under the bright lights. Ming Han’s nose was faintly red from the cold, while his eyes shone. “Then how come I’ve never run into you there?”
Chen Zheng thought for a moment. “I keep normal working hours. Can’t compare with you Mobile Unit people appearing and disappearing like ghosts.”
Ming Han laughed and took out the small plastic container of condiments. “Then what flavor do you like?”
Chen Zheng said, “Hot and sour.”
Ming Han’s eyes curved further. He emptied the condiments into Chen Zheng’s bowl. “Perfect. That’s exactly what I got.”