Ming Han let out a strange yelp and hurriedly pulled his shirt down. “Bro, you ambushed me?”
“Who told you to stretch like that?” Only after committing the offense did Chen Zheng realize how immature the gesture had been. He coughed twice and shoved all responsibility onto Ming Han. “You’re an elite member of the Mobile Unit. When you’re visiting a fellow police unit, at least watch your image. Anyone who didn’t know better might think you were…”
Ming Han had already straightened his clothes. “Think I was acting like a hooligan in public?”
Chen Zheng said, “Not exactly.”
Ming Han nodded. “All I did was stretch because I’ve been working nonstop and I’m exhausted. No matter how you look at it, that doesn’t count as acting like a hooligan. You, on the other hand, poked an elite Mobile Unit member in the navel in broad daylight. You’re the one acting like a hooligan!”
Chen Zheng: “…”
Ming Han smiled at him. “Am I wrong, Hooligan Bro?”
Chen Zheng expertly pushed his face away. “Enough.”
Ming Han took the opportunity to rub his cheek against Chen Zheng’s hand. “You still hadn’t finished what you were saying.”
Chen Zheng was still reflecting on the fact that he had poked someone in the navel. “Huh? What?”
“What would people think I was?” Ming Han asked.
Chen Zheng knew Ming Han well enough to understand that if he refused to answer, Ming Han would pester him forever. “They’d think some big bad wolf had gained human form but still hadn’t lost its wild nature, and was stretching itself out.”
Ming Han could not help laughing. “I’m that cute in your eyes?”
Chen Zheng: “…”
You call that cute? Well… I suppose it isn’t entirely wrong.
“Any news on Liu Pinchao?” After fooling around for a while, Chen Zheng asked. He had already guessed that Liu Pinchao was why Ming Han had been standing here in the wind, lost in thought. There had been no word from him for far too long, while Luo Yingqiang’s case was becoming increasingly entangled with Heaven-Measuring Ruler. Ming Han was worried, and Chen Zheng was worried too.
“No.” Ming Han shook his head. “We’ve basically eliminated everyone with a motive to kill Luo Yingqiang. Heaven-Measuring Ruler is active in Han Province, and Luo Yingqiang was the richest man in the city. There may really be some connection between them. And there’s something else…” Ming Han frowned, clearly hesitating.
Chen Zheng turned to him. “What?”
“When you went to Nanxi Middle School, Teacher Gu mentioned that Bu Yangyun wasn’t a good person,” Ming Han said.
Chen Zheng paused, not expecting Ming Han to bring this up now. Teacher Gu had taken good care of Ming Han and was one of the teachers he had been most grateful to during his school years. Chen Zheng and Ming Han had discussed Bu Yangyun at the time, but so much had happened that their attention soon shifted elsewhere.
“Teacher Gu only meant that she had heard things,” Chen Zheng said. “Why? Did you remember something connected to Bu Yangyun?”
“Nothing directly tied to the case,” Ming Han said. “But if Bu Yangyun hadn’t interfered, the Fan family could have established itself during that round of competition among internet companies. Fan Weijia wouldn’t have returned to Nanshan City completely disheartened. Xue Chenwen wouldn’t have given up the job opportunity at Xingning Middle School, and he and Fan Weijia wouldn’t have broken up. Then Lou Xiaoguo would have engineered Li Shuxing and Ping Yiyi’s fall, Li Wan would have gone back to ‘finish them off,’ and Director Wu’s people, together with you officers who came in as support, could have solved the case back then.”
Chen Zheng said, “But we also analyzed Bu Yangyun’s behavior before. It fit the logic of a businessman. He had to cut off those competing Nanshan businesses’ remaining options if he wanted to secure his own position.”
“True, but what was supporting him from behind?” Ming Han frowned. “At first he relied on my mother and my grandfather. Later he grew powerful in his own right. I’m not denying that he was very capable, but was his ability alone really enough to squeeze so many Nanshan companies until they could barely breathe? And there’s another point I never examined closely before. He was already so successful. Why didn’t he keep developing in Luocheng? Bro, you know better than I do how many opportunities Luocheng had more than ten years ago.”
Chen Zheng grew serious as well. “Right. He had already captured the market. Logically, he shouldn’t have withdrawn immediately.”
“His explanation was that he wanted to develop overseas because there was more room abroad.” Ming Han rubbed his brow. “I’ve deliberately avoided paying attention to him all these years, so I don’t even know how well he actually did overseas.”
Chen Zheng said, “You think there may have been something that forced him to develop abroad instead?”
“Maybe what Teacher Gu heard was true. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. He may really have done something that made it difficult for him to stay in the country,” Ming Han said.
For the moment, there was no clear way to pursue the doubts surrounding Bu Yangyun, while Lou Xiaoguo’s interrogation was still unfinished. Ming Han sat across from Lou again. This time, Lou was the one who asked a question. “Didn’t you say last time that you knew why Teacher Xue killed himself? I’ve finished confessing. Shouldn’t it be your turn to answer my question? I don’t want to go to hell still wondering.”
“Easy enough,” Ming Han said. “As it happens, I wasn’t finished questioning you last time either.”
Lou Xiaoguo’s expression darkened. “What else do you want to ask?”
“Did you really kill Luo Yingqiang and He Yunchao?” The moment Ming Han asked, Lou Xiaoguo’s eyes shifted instinctively. Ming Han said, “See? Even you don’t believe it.”
“I did!” Lou Xiaoguo said at once.
“Really?” Ming Han said. “Lying to me is one thing. Don’t lie to yourself too. You don’t want to go to hell with questions unanswered either.”
Lou Xiaoguo sucked in a breath. “Didn’t you see my ‘signature’? If it wasn’t me, who else could it be?”
“You did intend to kill them, but someone got there before you.” Ming Han said, “I genuinely can’t picture you holding Luo Yingqiang and He Yunchao by the head and cutting their throats. That isn’t what you’re good at.”
Lou Xiaoguo’s face slowly turned pale.
Ming Han said, “Were you forced to do this? Who made you take the blame, the way Xue Chenwen once did for you?”
After a long silence, Lou Xiaoguo gave a cold laugh. “You really want to know? I’m afraid once you hear his name, you won’t want to know anymore.”
The person Lou Xiaoguo named shocked everyone listening.
“It was the man you and Officer Chen came to my shop asking about that day. What was his name again? You showed me his photo.”
“Liu Pinchao?” Chen Zheng stared at the monitor and murmured, “So it was…”
A storm erupted in Ming Han’s mind. He opened Liu Pinchao’s photo on his phone and held it up in front of Lou Xiaoguo. “You’re sure it was this man?”
Lou Xiaoguo gave it a lazy glance. “Yeah. That’s him. I remember very clearly.”
To get rid of Luo Yingqiang and He Yunchao in one stroke, Lou Xiaoguo had made meticulous preparations. He made He Yunchao believe he truly stood on his side and would help him kill Luo Yingqiang. He Yunchao’s mind was consumed by hatred for Luo and he obeyed Lou in everything. That night, as long as He Yunchao followed their plan and got Luo Yingqiang drunk, Lou would be able to act easily. But before night fell, there was an unexpected wrinkle: police officers came looking for him.
Chen Zheng and Ming Han did not look like ordinary police officers, and the person they asked about had nothing to do with either his past crimes or the crime he was about to commit. It seemed they had merely happened to trace their investigation to him. Even so, Lou Xiaoguo had a faint sense of bad luck, especially because he had seen both of them before: one was an officer from the old case, and the other was the student who had said there was something wrong with Teacher Xue.
He even considered canceling the operation that night. But he had no idea when another opportunity would come, so he suppressed his unease and slipped into the bustling foot spa anyway.
At the appointed time, he quietly emerged from his hiding place and headed toward the bathing pool where Luo Yingqiang and He Yunchao were supposed to be. Before he got close, however, he noticed something unusual.
It was deathly quiet ahead, and an extremely faint smell of blood drifted through the air. Lou Xiaoguo was very sensitive to the scent of blood. His first thought was: had He Yunchao lost patience and already attacked Luo Yingqiang?
That idiot! He Yunchao had no ability to take down Luo Yingqiang by himself. If he tried to force it, Luo would only kill him instead.
Lou Xiaoguo did not dare keep advancing recklessly. He hid behind a column and held his breath, listening. Soon footsteps sounded. Every hair on his body stood on end. Then a figure flashed past at speed without looking toward the column.
Lou Xiaoguo saw the man reflected in the glass wall. A sense of familiarity struck him, and after thinking carefully, he realized it was the very man whose photograph the police had shown him not long before.
He risked leaning out from behind the column and caught sight of the man’s profile. It was almost identical to the photograph. Lou Xiaoguo’s heart hammered so hard that he could hear nothing else. Before long, the surroundings fell completely silent, while the smell of blood grew stronger. Judging that the man probably would not return, Lou cautiously approached the VIP bathing pool. There he saw Luo Yingqiang and He Yunchao, both murdered.
In that instant, what Lou Xiaoguo felt was not fear or relief, but rage. The rage nearly set him on fire. These two cooling bodies were his prey, the targets of his revenge. How could some stranger who had appeared from nowhere kill them first?
Lou Xiaoguo had no way to investigate everything about Luo Yingqiang, but he was confident he knew He Yunchao inside and out. That man had never appeared anywhere in He Yunchao’s life. What right did he have to kill him?
Lou Xiaoguo had never failed to kill someone before. The one time he did, someone else had beaten him to it. The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. By the time he retreated to the column, he nearly snapped the pen he had prepared in his hand.
The pen? Then he remembered. He had brought it specifically so he could leave his signature after the murders. He drew an ant on the wall. Only after finishing did his mood settle slightly. I killed them, he told himself. If they’re dead, the credit is mine.
After leaving the foot spa, he did not go home. Instead, he went to his mother’s esports hotel. By then his head had cleared a little, and he began thinking about why that man had killed Luo Yingqiang and He Yunchao, and why the police had been searching for him.
The man’s intended target could only have been Luo Yingqiang. He Yunchao had simply been there and died because of bad luck. Had that man committed crimes elsewhere? Or did the police already know what he intended to do and had begun tracking him? Lou could not work it out, so he waited to see what the police would do next.
The police came to him soon afterward to ask about “Zhang Yinan.” Lou pretended not to know about Zhang Yinan’s relationship with Luo Yingqiang, and at first the police did not spend much effort on him. What puzzled him was that they seemed never to consider that the killer might be the very man they had been looking for the day before.
“How do I know whether you’re lying?” Ming Han said coldly.
Lou Xiaoguo burst out laughing. “Seriously, Officer Ming? You were the one pressing me for answers just now. Now I tell you who I saw and you don’t believe me? What exactly do you want me to say?”
Ming Han met his gaze for a moment, then suddenly laughed and relaxed. “Fine. Since you’ve given me an important piece of information, I’ll tell you two things you care about too.”
Lou Xiaoguo frowned warily and straightened. “Teacher Xue?”
“Right. The first one concerns Teacher Xue.” Ming Han said, “He was a poor judge of people. First, he helped a murderer like you. Second, he had a useless boyfriend with no sense of responsibility.”
Lou Xiaoguo slammed a fist onto the table. “What did you say?”
Ming Han told him in full about the domestic abuse, abandonment, and psychological manipulation Xue Chenwen had suffered at Fan Weijia’s hands. The more Lou heard, the uglier his expression became. Through clenched teeth, he said, “If I’d known back then…”
“You would’ve killed Fan Weijia. But you didn’t even have the courage to find out why Xue Chenwen no longer wanted to live.” Ming Han said, “The second thing also concerns Teacher Xue. Lou Xiaoguo, for someone as sly as you, did you really never wonder how Li Wan knew you were the one who killed Li Shuxing and Ping Yiyi?”
“Didn’t I already say? He must have found out…” Lou Xiaoguo suddenly stopped.
Ming Han said, “Right, he found out. But how? Why did he discover something even the police never did?”
“Because…” Lou Xiaoguo’s eyes widened, cold shock glinting inside them.
Ming Han said, “You don’t seriously think our investigative ability as police officers is worse than that of a man you killed so easily, do you?”
Lou Xiaoguo’s Adam’s apple moved with difficulty, his pupils trembling. “Because he… saw it…”
Ming Han said, “Why would he have seen it?”
It was as though an icy blade pierced Lou Xiaoguo’s brain. In a single instant, every unanswered question snapped into place. “He was at the scene. He was following us… no, he was following Li Shuxing! He wanted… he wanted to kill Li Shuxing!”
“Clap. Clap. Clap.”
Crisp, monotonous applause sounded through the interrogation room. Ming Han said, “Congratulations. You finally got there. You weren’t the only person with a motive to attack Li Shuxing. Li Wan’s motive was even stronger than yours, and unlike you, he didn’t act on a sudden impulse. He had been preparing for it for a long time.”
Lou Xiaoguo breathed rapidly, pounding his cuffed hands against his forehead. Between ragged breaths, he said, “How did I never think of it? If he had nothing to do with Li Shuxing’s death, why didn’t he just call the police? Li Shuxing and Ping Yiyi weren’t dead yet when I left, were they? After I ran, Li Wan went over and ‘finished them off’?”
Ming Han nodded. “Based on what we know now, that is the most logical explanation. The autopsy also shows they didn’t die immediately after the fall. The fatal injuries were heavy blows to the head.”
“I… I thought falling bricks and stones had smashed their heads!” Lou Xiaoguo cried hoarsely.
Ming Han said, “You understand now, right? Li Wan was afraid that one day you would sort out all the inconsistencies. He had been far too active back then, so he believed you would eventually suspect him. That’s why he sent Kong Chunxiang to follow you and look for a chance to get rid of you.”
Lou Xiaoguo leaned back in the chair and forced a sound out of his throat. “Hah…”
“You wouldn’t have become a killer in the first place, and Teacher Xue wouldn’t have needed to confess to murder in order to protect you.” Ming Han said, “Teacher Xue had already suffered a mental collapse by then, but you were one of the very few people who might have been able to save him.”
Lou Xiaoguo gave a dry laugh. “Me? Officer Ming, what kind of insane thing are you saying? Who could I possibly save?”
Ming Han said, “You were a student he cared about. Maybe you were the only person who ever saw him weak enough to cry and then tried to comfort him. Isn’t that enough?”
Lou Xiaoguo tried to keep laughing, but the smile gradually froze on his lips.
“Think about it. That day, after you made Li Shuxing and Ping Yiyi fall, imagine you hadn’t run away immediately and had gone down to check on them instead. You said yourself that part of you regretted it. If you saw they were still alive, what would you have done?” Ming Han said, “You would have gone back to find someone you trusted and asked for help. That person would have been Teacher Xue. He was trapped in heartbreak and had already lost the will to live, but if one of his students begged him for help, his attention might have shifted. He would have helped you save them. After watching students hover between life and death and survive, might his own view of life and death have changed?”
Lou Xiaoguo’s chest heaved violently, his eyes growing redder and redder.
“He might have pulled himself out of it and poured all his energy into all of you. He could have defended you, fought for a lighter sentence, taught Li Shuxing and Ping Yiyi to get back on the right path, and gotten proper treatment himself. By the time he finally finished dealing with everything, the heartbreak might not have mattered so much anymore.” Ming Han shook his head. “But there are no ifs. He didn’t want to live. He thought he could trade his life for yours, that afterward you would turn over a new leaf and become a good person. Instead, he turned you into a complete outlaw who came to believe murder carried no punishment. And at the very beginning, you weren’t actually the killer.”
Lou Xiaoguo let out a roar, bitter tears spilling from his eyes.
“That is the truth I can see.” Ming Han stood and looked down at him.
The interrogation room filled with Lou Xiaoguo’s unwilling, ragged breathing. Was he wondering too whether, if he could return to the instant Li Shuxing and Ping Yiyi fell, everything might still have been salvageable?
Ming Han opened the door to leave. Lou Xiaoguo’s hoarse voice came from behind him. “Ming Han, you’re no better than me.”
Ming Han frowned and glanced back. “What?”
“You regret things too, don’t you?” Lou Xiaoguo’s eyes were full of malice. “You regret not finding the man in that photograph one step sooner. He matters a lot to you, right? Otherwise you and Officer Chen wouldn’t have traveled all this way looking for him. You aren’t even Nanshan City police. But after everything you’ve done, wasn’t it all useless? You didn’t stop him from killing anyone, and you didn’t find him either. Hahaha! If I hadn’t seen him, you still wouldn’t know he was the one who killed Luo Yingqiang and He Yunchao! Hahahaha! So tell me, do you think I was telling the truth?”
Ming Han’s gaze grew colder. Lou Xiaoguo continued, “Ah, ah, I lied just now. I didn’t see anyone. I’m the killer. Hahahahaha…”
The absurd laughter echoed through the municipal bureau corridor like an ominous wail rising from hell.
In the Major Crimes conference room, Cheng Cu looked baffled. “No, Bird, isn’t Liu Pinchao the man you’ve been looking for? How did he suddenly end up killing Luo Yingqiang? Is Lou Xiaoguo screwing with us?”
Chen Zheng could not determine whether Lou Xiaoguo was telling the truth either. “There are only two possibilities. One, Liu Pinchao wasn’t the killer. Two, Lou Xiaoguo wasn’t lying. The first possibility doesn’t really get us anywhere. Based on Lou’s statement, he genuinely doesn’t look like the killer, so the case can’t be closed and we still have to keep investigating. As for the second possibility, if Liu Pinchao is the killer…” Chen Zheng looked at Ming Han. “Then the problem is even bigger. Should we speak to Captain Tang?”
Ming Han immediately stood and went to make the call.
The conference room fell quiet. Chen Zheng felt heavy storm clouds pressing down. If Liu Pinchao had killed Luo Yingqiang, then they had to consider his motive. The purpose keeping Liu Pinchao alive was to find whoever had killed his older brother, Liu Chenfeng. He had followed Xu Hetang to Nanshan City, which probably meant he possessed clues the police did not yet have. And on the very day he disappeared, Luo Yingqiang was killed. Liu Pinchao had even contacted Ming Han not long before. Why had he acted so urgently? Was he certain Luo Yingqiang was connected to Liu Chenfeng’s death? And what about Xu Hetang?
Xu Hetang was connected to Heaven-Measuring Ruler, and Liu Chenfeng had also died while investigating Heaven-Measuring Ruler. Following that logic, Luo Yingqiang had to have some connection to Heaven-Measuring Ruler as well.
Chen Zheng could hardly sit still. Luo Yingqiang had been the richest man in Nanshan City. Had Heaven-Measuring Ruler already grown this powerful?
Earlier, because the Provincial Department had always been extremely guarded about the Heaven-Measuring Ruler investigation, Chen Zheng and Ming Han’s trip to Nanshan City had effectively received only Tang Xiaoli’s approval. They could not openly coordinate with the local police, which was also why the search for Liu Pinchao had advanced so slowly. Chen Zheng glanced at Wu Zhan. Wu Zhan shook his head helplessly, indicating that his side had no news of Liu Pinchao either.
Cheng Cu had spent this whole period running around between several cases and knew the least about Liu Pinchao. All he knew was that Ming Han was looking for the man. Now he paced beside the table, clearly wanting to ask Chen Zheng what exactly was going on, but discipline kept him silent.
Chen Zheng was growing frustrated too. Without the local police force behind them, it would be difficult for him and Ming Han, along with the small number of officers Wu Zhan had assigned them, to determine Liu Pinchao’s whereabouts. But tracking Liu Pinchao was tied to the Provincial Department’s broader investigation into Heaven-Measuring Ruler, so he could not act rashly.
“Director Wu, can we still find the analysis report on the medication Xue Chenwen was taking?” Chen Zheng asked.
Wu Zhan answered immediately, “We kept it. We checked that drug through every channel available to us and couldn’t trace its source. All we know is that it’s highly addictive. It can temporarily free someone from physical and psychological pain, but it also causes serious harm to the body.”
Chen Zheng said, “I want to take it back to Luocheng and run comparisons again.”
Wu Zhan said, “No problem.”
At that moment, Ming Han pushed the door open and returned. Wu Zhan immediately asked, “Well?”
Ming Han said, “Captain Tang agreed to let us launch a full-scale search for Liu Pinchao. Director Wu, we’ll have to trouble you.”
Chen Zheng gently closed his eyes. He felt relief, but at the same time the weight on his shoulders suddenly grew heavier. Cheng Cu, on the other hand, remained lively. “Then let’s put together a plan as soon as possible. If we don’t find this guy, I won’t even be able to enjoy New Year this year.”
Ming Han knocked him on the head. “Already thinking about New Year?”
Cheng Cu knocked him back indignantly. “Don’t think I won’t hit you just because Captain Chen is here. Look whose turf you’re standing on!”
Wu Zhan called the two of them back to order. Ming Han sat beside Chen Zheng and showed him his perfectly unharmed forehead. Chen Zheng’s taut nerves loosened slightly. In a low voice, he said, “You hit him first and you’re still acting wronged.”
They had thought Lou Xiaoguo’s confession would finally bring the case to a stopping point, but his testimony instead pushed the investigation into a new fog. Major Crimes had no time to rest and immediately threw itself into the next task.
Cheng Cu mixed himself a cup of coffee. When he saw Chen Zheng, he casually made one for him too. Chen Zheng accepted it, and the two leaned against the wall in the break room, zoning out.
“Bro Chen, I actually knew who you were a long time ago,” Cheng Cu suddenly said. “My brain’s been fried from all the work lately, so I never had time to talk about it.”
Chen Zheng lowered his cup and remembered their first meeting at the foot spa, when the first thing Cheng Cu had said was “Xiao Zheng.”
Cheng Cu laughed. “I knew there had to be a reason Ming Han was so eager to act like your lackey. Turns out you’re that Instructor Xiao Zheng from back then.”