The temperature dropped sharply that night, and a light rain began falling over Luocheng, but the two bowls of beef-offal rice noodles between them drove away the chill. Chen Zheng thought Ming Han’s timing could not have been better. The shop was so busy it never offered delivery, and whenever Chen Zheng got hungry while sorting through case material, he had to go there himself.
After they finished eating, Chen Zheng went downstairs to throw away the trash. When he returned, Ming Han was showering. Not long afterward, Ming Han came out wearing Chen Zheng’s pajamas.
Chen Zheng: “…”
Ming Han defended himself. “I don’t have any clothes here.”
Chen Zheng silently calculated that he should order a few sets for this oversized man later, before Ming Han stretched his own clothes out of shape.
Fine rain tapped against the windows. Warming a pot of red wine would have suited the mood rather well, but the moment they started talking about the case, whatever atmosphere there might have been vanished without a trace.
“What brought you to Luocheng?” Chen Zheng asked.
Ming Han told him about Li Wan’s disappearance and the theories he had formed after speaking with Li Shuxing’s father and Shi Bo. Chen Zheng thought for a long time and also believed Li Wan was connected to Li Shuxing’s case.
Ming Han asked, “Bro, what did you call me about?”
Chen Zheng returned to his own line of investigation. “Have you spoken to Xue Chenwen’s family yet?”
Ming Han said, “I haven’t had time. His father already went abroad. His mother became a nun to atone for him.”
Chen Zheng nodded and handed Ming Han the electronic case file containing Fan Weijia’s name. “We need to look closely at this man. His relationship with Xue Chenwen may not have been simple.”
After daybreak, Chen Zheng and Ming Han split up again. Ming Han returned to Nanshan City to investigate Fan Weijia in detail, while Chen Zheng drove toward Jinghui Nunnery in the northwestern corner of Han Province.
Jinghui Nunnery stood halfway up a mountainside. Snow had fallen in the mountains for several days, leaving the roads slick and the landscape blanketed in white. Chen Zheng parked at the foot of the mountain. For safety reasons, the mountain administrators would not let him drive any farther.
He waited quite a while before taking a local police vehicle to the entrance of Jinghui Nunnery. The nunnery was not a tourist site and received only worshippers. In the bitter cold, it was nearly deserted. A nun who had been working nearby came over and asked what they needed. The officer explained that they needed cooperation on a case and wanted to see Fang Shan, who had come from Nanshan City.
Before long, a sorrowful-looking woman came to Chen Zheng. She wore plain monastic robes and moved prayer beads through her fingers. “You are…?”
Chen Zheng said, “I’m here because of Xue Chenwen.”
At the sound of her son’s name, Xue Chenwen’s mother stumbled and nearly lost her footing. She opened her mouth, pain and fear flooding her eyes. “Why…”
Chen Zheng said, “Let’s sit down and talk.”
Life at Jinghui Nunnery was austere. There was no heating even indoors. Xue Chenwen’s mother shivered lightly as she looked at Chen Zheng. “Could it be… could his father have come back and caused some new trouble?”
Chen Zheng said, “We need to reinvestigate the old case. Why would you think Xue Chenwen’s father had come back to cause trouble?”
She sighed. “That’s the kind of man he is. If it weren’t for him, Chenwen wouldn’t have become what he did.”
Chen Zheng glanced around. “You became a nun because you wanted to atone for Xue Chenwen?”
She lowered her head. The room was so quiet that the sleet outside could be heard. After a moment, she said, “I’m a mother too. My son killed someone else’s children. What else can I do except spend the rest of my life atoning for him and reciting sutras for him and those two children?”
“I’ve met Xue Chenwen’s teachers and colleagues. In their eyes, he was kind, gentle, and well brought up,” Chen Zheng said. “I don’t understand how someone like that reached the point he did.”
Tears filled her eyes. “You ask me, but who am I supposed to ask? I believed I gave everything I had to raising him properly, but in the end I still failed him.”
Through her choked recollections, Chen Zheng glimpsed one corner of a family that had once been prosperous.
The Xue family had already been very well-off in Xue Chenwen’s grandfather’s generation. Xue Chenwen’s father made several times the family fortune speculating in land. His mother was a teacher who knew nothing about business but was very good at managing a household. When Xue Chenwen was tiny, she taught him poetry and classical allusions.
His father was dissatisfied. He said that if she had given birth to a daughter, that would have been one thing, but since they had a son, the boy should learn from him how to make money. They considered having another child, hoping for a daughter, but Xue Chenwen’s mother never became pregnant again. Xue Chenwen remained their only child.
Xue Chenwen’s father began taking him to social gatherings while he was still in elementary school. Xue Chenwen disliked them intensely. Even as a little boy, he said he hated the smell of money and that a person could not live only for money, infuriating his father. His mother, on the other hand, was delighted that her son, like her, preferred a life among books.
As Xue Chenwen grew older, he became less stubborn than he had been as a child and learned to play along with his father socially. At banquets, people often told his father, “Your boy is generous and easygoing. Takes after you.” His father would beam with pride and become even more determined to push Xue Chenwen into business.
But when it came time to choose a university path, Xue Chenwen applied to a normal university and told his father plainly that he intended to become a teacher. His father fumed but could do nothing about it. After thinking it over, he actually began urging Xue Chenwen’s friends his own age to talk him out of it.
Because his father had dragged him through business circles since childhood, Xue Chenwen had passively come to know many other businessmen’s children. He was quite close to some of them. Even after his case, several actively tried to help him obtain a suspended death sentence.
No fewer than ten people may have tried to persuade him on his father’s behalf, but none changed his mind. At the end of that summer, Xue Chenwen packed his bags and officially became a freshman at Han Province Normal University.
Chen Zheng interrupted. “Was Fan Weijia among the people who tried to persuade Xue Chenwen?”
Xue Chenwen’s mother paused, seemingly surprised that Chen Zheng had suddenly mentioned him. “Yes. They used to be very good friends.”
Chen Zheng asked, “How close were they?”
She recalled that Fan Weijia had probably been one of Xue Chenwen’s earliest friends. She had never liked her husband taking Xue Chenwen to places that, in her eyes, reeked of money. She thought many businessmen were uncultured nouveau riche who spoke and behaved crudely, and that plenty of their children had learned the same habits from them.
Xue Chenwen often came home complaining that one child swore at everyone and another could not recite even a single poem by Li Bai. He disliked them all.
She argued with her husband about it, but he did not care. He even mocked mother and son. So what if they could not recite Li Bai? Li Bai himself had scattered a fortune of gold! If a boy was going to be Old Xue’s son, all he needed was the ability to make money.
But one day, Xue Chenwen came home happily and announced that he had made a very good-looking friend.
That friend was Fan Weijia.
As a child, Fan Weijia had looked like a doll, prettier than many girls. Xue Chenwen was initially drawn to his appearance and, unusually, approached him first. Fan Weijia was introverted and spoke very softly. When Xue Chenwen recited poetry to him, admiration immediately lit up his face.
Perhaps the small vanity of childhood had been satisfied. Xue Chenwen quickly grew fond of Fan Weijia. Whenever his father had another social gathering, he began volunteering to go simply so he could play with Fan Weijia.
The Fan family were also businesspeople, but in a different field from the Xues. They mainly dealt in electronics and later moved into the internet industry. During Xue Chenwen’s middle-school years, the Fan family prospered. Xue Chenwen’s father was delighted to see the two boys getting along like brothers. Fan Weijia also tried to persuade Xue Chenwen on his father’s behalf. Xue Chenwen listened to him about many things, but no one could change his mind about his university choice.
Xue Chenwen’s mother remembered that Fan Weijia went to university in Luocheng. He had originally planned to study abroad, but for some reason never went.
Chen Zheng asked, “Xue Chenwen’s university teacher recommended him for an internship at Xingning Middle School in Luocheng. Did you know about that?”
She nodded. “Of course. He badly wanted to teach in Luocheng. Before his teacher recommended him, he even came to me for help.”
“What did he say?”
“He wanted me to use some connections for him. As long as he could teach in Luocheng, he didn’t care whether the school was good. He said he could rely on himself to move to a better school later.” She frowned. “At the time, I already felt something was a little strange.”
Chen Zheng asked, “Because he was too determined to go to Luocheng?”
She nodded. “He was my child. I knew him. He loved teaching, but he didn’t care whether he taught in Luocheng, Nanshan City, or some remote mountain district. What was there in Luocheng that attracted him so strongly that he would lower his head and ask his father for help? I couldn’t understand it.”
Xue Chenwen’s father naturally refused to help, although his mother did have a few connections she could have used. But Xue Chenwen proved capable enough on his own. Before she could contact any old classmates, he had already secured the recommendation.
Chen Zheng said, “Did you ever figure out afterward why he wanted to go to Luocheng? Did he ever tell you?”
She shook her head. “I asked. He only said a big city would train him better. I didn’t think that was the real reason. But not long after that, he changed his mind and came back anyway.” Her expression dimmed. “It was all karma. I shouldn’t have said those things to him.”
Chen Zheng asked, “What did you say?”
In the winter of Xue Chenwen’s senior year, Nanshan City’s business community was in turmoil. Many companies in technology and media suffered badly. The Fan family was among the hardest hit. Believing they had caught the right trend, they had invested heavily and expanded into Luocheng, only to lose almost everything.
Fan Weijia’s mother fell seriously ill under the shock. Xue Chenwen’s mother had often socialized with her. Seeing the other woman’s misfortune made her think of herself, and as she grew older she had begun to feel uneasy about many things. So when Xue Chenwen came home, she held his hand and fussed that her health was not very good, that she did not want him living so far away, and that if he could come home to work, perhaps he should.
Xue Chenwen had always been very close to his mother, and he really did return to Nanshan City for his internship. She was both delighted and uneasy. She was happy that her son was filial, but worried that she might have interfered with the course of his life.
“I was selfish. I thought he might have been better off staying in Luocheng, but for my own sake I never encouraged him to go back.” Xue Chenwen’s mother raised her head and stared at the ceiling. “He and I both received our retribution.”
Chen Zheng, however, wondered whether it had not been her at all who brought Xue Chenwen back to Nanshan City, but Fan Weijia.
“What happened with the Fan family’s business?” Chen Zheng asked. “Why did they try to develop in Luocheng?”
Xue Chenwen’s mother shook her head. “I don’t understand business. I only heard that there was money in the internet industry. But Nanshan City is an industrial city, after all. If they wanted to seize the opportunity, they had to go to Luocheng. Back then, almost everyone in the Fan family was busy there. Maybe that was why Fan Weijia never went abroad to study. Later, they lost terribly, practically the whole family fortune, and could only come back.”
Chen Zheng asked, “Xue Chenwen and Fan Weijia were so close. Did they see each other often during that period?”
She had little impression of that. Xue Chenwen had been busy during his internship, running back and forth between school and home, and she did not remember seeing him seek out Fan Weijia. The Fan family was overwhelmed with its own problems then, so Fan Weijia may not have had time for friends either.
“I think they drifted apart later.” She sounded uncertain. The Fan family had nearly collapsed, and Fan Weijia seemed to have started some new business, but according to her ex-husband, that had not worked out either. “It would be understandable for them to grow apart. They had different personalities and different careers. Chenwen was only a teacher. How could he help Fan Weijia?”
In the police records, Fan Weijia had been questioned only as an ordinary friend of Xue Chenwen’s. Just as Xue Chenwen’s mother said, the two appeared to have drifted apart after entering working life.
Chen Zheng also asked about Xue Chenwen’s father. She said her ex-husband had always cared about nothing but money. When Xue Chenwen was first investigated, he stood by his son and refused to believe that Xue Chenwen could have done something so terrible. Near the end of the investigation, when he realized there was no longer any possibility of changing the outcome, he began moving his assets. He knew there would be no future for him in Han Province and wanted to make arrangements as early as possible.
While Xue Chenwen was under investigation, both his parents were also subjected to intensive scrutiny, which established that neither had participated in the case. Xue Chenwen’s mother decided to stay behind and spend her life reciting sutras in atonement. His father chose to leave the country and continue doing business. From then on, the two went their separate ways. She had no idea what her ex-husband was doing now.
Before leaving, Chen Zheng asked, “In all the years you’ve been here, has anyone ever come to visit you? One of Xue Chenwen’s friends, for example?”
She looked out at the snow. After a moment, she said, “I remember now. Fan Weijia came too. He lit lamps for those two children.”
“Lit lamps?”
“Mm. To pray for blessings for them.”
Xue Chenwen’s mother led Chen Zheng into a hall wreathed in incense smoke. Countless eternal lamps flickered inside, like souls being held back by loved ones who could not let them go. She pointed to two lamps side by side and said Fan Weijia had sponsored them for Ping Yiyi and Li Shuxing. “I suppose he wanted to atone for Chenwen too. They were once so close.”
Chen Zheng looked at the lamps for a while. “What year did Fan Weijia come? What did you talk about?”
She thought for a long time. It had been the winter one year after Xue Chenwen died of illness. At the time, she still had not recovered from her son’s death. Although she had already shaved her head and become a nun, she was in poor condition emotionally. She did not know how Fan Weijia discovered she was there, but he came to visit. He did not say much. He only told her to take care of herself, saying that Chenwen had made mistakes but certainly would not want to see her tormenting herself this way.
When Fan Weijia saw the eternal lamps, he asked what they were. She explained that they were meant to pray for the dead. Fan Weijia thought for a moment, then said he would light two as well. Afterward, he stood before the lamps for a long time. Xue Chenwen’s mother assumed that, like her, he was praying for the two children to rest in peace.
Fan Weijia never returned after that, and she had no idea what had become of the Fan family.
Holding an umbrella, Ming Han looked up at the cat shop in front of him. Fan Weijia had opened the place several years earlier. It was small but did decent business. With the weather cold, quite a few customers had brought their cats in for bathing and drying, and the employees were busy. Fan Weijia was not there. The middle-aged woman who looked like the proprietor was his wife, Ms. Qin.
Ming Han entered the shop. Ms. Qin assumed he wanted to buy a cat and greeted him warmly. But the moment she heard the name “Fan Weijia,” her face cooled and she swept him with a hostile look. “Which one of his lovers are you?”
Ming Han raised an eyebrow. “Lover?”
Ms. Qin sneered. “He’s not here. Go look somewhere else.”
Ming Han showed his credentials. “I think you may have misunderstood.”
The moment Ms. Qin saw them, embarrassment flashed across her face. “P-police? Did he get arrested for fooling around outside? I don’t have any money to bail him out!”
Customers were already looking their way. Ming Han said, “Boss Qin, why don’t we talk somewhere else?”
Ms. Qin did not want to neglect the shop, but she could hardly ignore a police officer who had suddenly appeared. She relented. “Come upstairs with me.”
There was a lounge upstairs. Ms. Qin leaned against the door. “What happened to him? Don’t tell me somebody did him in?”
Ming Han raised a hand. “Wait. You said he fools around outside. Are the two of you still married?”
Ms. Qin rolled her eyes. “I want a divorce. He’s the one who refuses. Says people will gossip if he doesn’t have a wife and his family won’t accept it either. Ridiculous. His family’s already fallen this far and he still acts like they’re some grand clan.”
Ming Han said, “So yours is… a sham marriage?”
“Hey, hey, don’t act like I agreed to that!” Ms. Qin snapped. “I was deceived! When he pursued me, I had no idea what kind of man he really was!”
When Ms. Qin met Fan Weijia, the Fan family was already declining but still had some life left in it. To her, Fan Weijia looked like a decent marriage prospect: an engineering-and-science type, honest, devoted to his work, and from a wealthy family.
Fan Weijia claimed to have fallen for her at first sight and pursued her awkwardly. Her own family circumstances were poor, and she had met plenty of glib, sweet-talking men before. Fan Weijia’s awkwardness actually appealed to her. Neither of them was especially young anymore, and after spending time together and finding each other acceptable, they began discussing marriage.
Ms. Qin said self-mockingly that by then the Fan family’s company was facing enormous compensation claims and Fan Weijia could barely keep it afloat. She should have ended things while they were still not legally tied together. But seeing how worn down he looked, she could not bear it. She thought that if two people loved each other, what hardship could they not survive together? Besides, her own childhood had been much harder than this. She believed she could help Fan Weijia stand back up.
They held a simple wedding, and before long Ms. Qin became pregnant. Before the child was born, Fan Weijia’s father, her father-in-law, could not bear seeing the business he had spent his life building end in failure and died by suicide. The Fan family completely fell apart. Afraid that Fan Weijia might also collapse, Ms. Qin stayed beside him throughout her pregnancy.
What she never expected was that, shortly before she was due to give birth, she discovered Fan Weijia was having an affair. In her anguish, she threatened to end her own life and that of the unborn child unless Fan Weijia brought his lover to face her. When she finally saw the person, her vision went dark and it felt as though the sky had collapsed.
The other person looked like a university student. Her husband, she realized, was a gay man who had deceived a woman into marrying him.
She demanded to know why Fan Weijia had married her. Fan Weijia admitted that he had never been attracted to women and had never loved her. He had married her only to satisfy his parents. His parents knew his sexual orientation, but their only demand was that he find a woman and have a son.
Fan Weijia dropped to his knees in front of her and sobbed uncontrollably. “You think I wanted to marry you? I was forced too!”
Ms. Qin was disgusted, but it was already too late for her to terminate the pregnancy. At first she planned to give birth and leave the child with Fan Weijia. But once her daughter was born, she could not simply abandon her. Fan Weijia begged her as well, promising that she could control all the family money and that they could live separate lives from then on as long as she did not divorce him.
Practical reality and her attachment to her daughter made Ms. Qin give in. Even in decline, the Fan family still had resources. If she left Fan Weijia, she would struggle just to support herself. Fan Weijia began running small businesses and, as promised, handed the money over for her to manage. They stopped sharing a bed and only acted like husband and wife in front of other people.
After so many years, Ms. Qin had grown used to it. “Once my daughter is an adult, I’m definitely leaving him.”
Ming Han asked, “Who is his lover?”
Ms. Qin rolled her eyes. “There isn’t one fixed person. His honest-looking face fooled me. That whole bunch of gay men are scumbags. He likes them young, university students who are naive and listen to him. He doesn’t want anyone older, and older men wouldn’t fall for the way he sweet-talks students anyway.”
Ming Han asked, “Did he ever mention Xue Chenwen to you?”
Ms. Qin looked startled and immediately became wary. “You mean that murderer?”
Ming Han said, “Yes. Fan Weijia and Xue Chenwen grew up together. They were close.”
Ms. Qin blurted, “You mean the two of them were… were like that?”
Someone else might not have reached that conclusion so quickly, but Ms. Qin had been deceived into a marriage with a gay man. Her first thought was that Fan Weijia and Xue Chenwen had been lovers. When Ming Han remained silent, she cried out, “Seriously? How much else has he hidden from me?”
“I’m not sure. That’s why I came today to speak with you and Fan Weijia.” Ming Han’s tone turned serious. “Calm down first. What did Fan Weijia ever tell you about Xue Chenwen?”
By the time Ms. Qin and Fan Weijia were dating, Xue Chenwen was already dead, but his name had once been known to nearly everyone in Nanshan City. One day, Ms. Qin saw photographs of Fan Weijia and Xue Chenwen on Fan Weijia’s phone and was so startled she began to stammer.
Fan Weijia quickly took the phone back and explained that the Fan and Xue families had once done business together, so of course he knew Xue Chenwen too. But after university, he said, they had rarely kept in contact.
Ms. Qin asked why he still had the photographs. He said he had a habit of copying all the photos whenever he changed phones and had transferred them together without looking closely. At the time, Ms. Qin did not know Fan Weijia was gay, so it never occurred to her that the two men might have had a relationship. She was simply curious about Xue Chenwen and kept asking questions. Fan Weijia’s expression turned ugly, and he brushed her off.
“The photos of Xue Chenwen on his phone…” Ming Han said. “What about now?”
“Who knows?” Ms. Qin suddenly thought of something. “What if they didn’t just date? What if Xue Chenwen was actually someone important to Fan Weijia? With how fast he changes partners, why would he still keep Xue Chenwen’s photos otherwise?” She sucked in a breath, then said with a trace of malicious amusement, “Don’t tell me Xue Chenwen was the one he wanted but could never have?”
While Ming Han was still talking with Ms. Qin, several calls of “Boss Fan” came from downstairs. Ms. Qin paused. “Well, look at that. Usually he never bothers coming by, but today he shows up.” She winked at Ming Han. “The person you’re looking for is here. I’m done talking. Ask him whatever you want.”
Fan Weijia was not yet forty. Because of the way he dressed and styled himself, he looked younger than his actual age. Ms. Qin pushed him upstairs. He had no idea what was happening until he saw Ming Han. He froze where he stood, his pupils contracting. “You… you’re that…”
Ming Han said, “You know me?”
Fan Weijia said, “You’re that student!”