At a law firm like Yongshen, celebrated senior lawyers might occasionally give lectures to the interns, but the people who actually supervised them were new hires who had not been working for long. He Mei was only in her twenties then. She juggled her own work with looking after the interns and answering questions the veterans considered too trivial to bother with. She had even been scolded by her superiors for their sake.
After leaving the firm, the only person Li Ren felt grateful to was He Mei. The others felt the same way. So when he heard He Mei was getting married, he took time off work and came.
At the wedding, the former interns, who had not seen one another in years, sat around the same table. For a moment, the old feeling of working late into the night and discussing cases together came back. Si Wei had become a marketing planner and was even better at stirring up a crowd. She suggested that since everyone had come so far, they might as well go to Junan Lake together for the New Year. Dong Jing, Zhang Pin, and Zhu Xiaodi immediately agreed. Du Ying made no comment, but when Si Wei begged her, she agreed too.
Li Ren was about to say, “I’ll pass. I’ve got work,” when Dong Jing hooked an arm around his shoulders. “Old Li, don’t tell me you’re going to run off. How long has it been since we had a drink together? If you leave now, I’ll look down on you!”
Everyone joined in teasing him. Then He Mei and her husband came over to make a toast, and Si Wei even “reported” Li Ren to He Mei, saying he was refusing to join the group outing. He Mei smoothed things over as she always had. “Do me a favor and go have fun.”
What could Li Ren say to that? He could only agree.
Chen Zheng subsequently put similar questions to Si Wei, Du Ying, and Zhang Pin. Zhang Pin had scored worst among the interns in all their assessments. If He Mei had not helped him, he would have been eliminated much earlier. But he had an easygoing disposition. Unlike Li Ren, he did not fuss over everything or feel particularly inferior. When Dong Jing and Li Ren voluntarily left, Zhang Pin received an offer. He concluded that law was too difficult a career and decided it was better to quit while he was ahead.
Du Ying had persisted at Yongshen the longest of the group, but only by a few months. She had left before she was formally confirmed in her position.
“Because I couldn’t see a path forward for myself,” she said calmly. Perhaps choosing to study law in the first place had been a mistake.
She had believed she was intelligent enough and logical enough in her view of the world. But to become a prominent lawyer, brains were far from sufficient. You also had to read people and speak persuasively. For a woman, it was harder still.
Some of her seniors had shown her a shortcut: using her body. She rejected that path, and nearly every route upward was closed to her.
She looked at Si Wei and Dong Jing, who had left before her. They had given up law and were doing no worse than before. Even Zhang Pin had found a decent job. Why couldn’t she? She met up with Si Wei, who knew her well and suggested trying corporate work. That was how she became in-house counsel for a food company.
“You’ve kept in touch with Si Wei all these years?” Chen Zheng asked.
Du Ying murmured her agreement. They used to speak on the phone almost every week. These days, whenever they saw something interesting, they would still send it to each other.
“Did Si Wei and Dong Jing ever date?”
Du Ying frowned, plainly unwilling to answer. “All I know is that Dong Jing pursued Weiwei. But Dong Jing is flighty. He isn’t the kind of man you can settle down with. So Weiwei only had a thing with him for a while.”
“And now?”
“You mean the flirting? That ended in the second half of our internship.”
“What kind of person was He Mei?”
Du Ying looked surprised. “Is Lawyer He involved in this case?”
“If you hadn’t attended her wedding, you wouldn’t have come to Weimo Mountain Resort. Zhang Pin and Li Ren both said she took good care of you. What about you?”
Du Ying lowered her head. After a moment, she said, “She used to be the kind of person I wanted to become.”
“Something must have changed, then,” Chen Zheng said. “Let me guess. Was she the senior colleague who showed you that ‘shortcut’?”
Du Ying froze. “You…”
“Did I get it right?”
With a sigh, Du Ying explained that He Mei was more professionally capable than she was, was excellent at dealing with people, and was very beautiful. Being assigned to supervise interns had itself been a sign that the firm valued her. Du Ying had assumed He Mei would have a brilliant career, only to learn she was involved in an ambiguous relationship with a senior lawyer at the firm. Du Ying had asked her about it. He Mei did not deny it, merely saying she had no choice. Everyone was fighting to climb to the top and would use whatever means were necessary. If she did not take that path, someone else would.
What disheartened Du Ying was not that He Mei had become the senior lawyer’s mistress, but that someone as capable as He Mei had to use such a “shortcut.” What chance did Du Ying have? She did not even possess He Mei’s beauty or knack for captivating men.
Chen Zheng asked, “And the man He Mei married was…?”
Du Ying shook her head. “Someone else. He’s a lawyer too.”
Si Wei had already been questioned by Ming Han and remained immersed in grief over her idol’s murder, wiping away tears from time to time. Asked about Dong Jing, she admitted she had once liked him. Precisely because she liked him, she had seriously considered a future together. Eventually she decided someone like him could never offer a stable life, so she let go early.
Her departure from the firm had a great deal to do with Dong Jing. At the time, she had not known he planned to leave. The thought of continuing to work alongside him made her fear she would never disentangle herself, so she simply quit. Only after speaking to Human Resources and He Mei did she discover that Dong Jing was resigning too. By then she could not take back her decision. She had regretted it a little, but after changing careers she felt fortunate she had been resolute.
“When you realized Dong Jing was missing, didn’t you think of looking for him?” Chen Zheng asked.
“We sent messages and called.” Si Wei was deeply shaken by Li Ren’s remarks. “Maybe he was right. However good it felt back then, we’re not in the same circle anymore. Forcing everyone together doesn’t make anybody happy. I shouldn’t have asked them all to come.”
“Who booked Shanshui House?”
Si Wei looked bewildered. “I don’t know. I just followed everyone else.”
All four gave the same answer: they didn’t know.
Unless someone was lying, the booking must have been made by Dong Jing or Zhu Xiaodi. But Weimo Mountain Resort was so popular that it was highly unlikely they could have reserved rooms on the spur of the moment.
Ming Han arrived at Shanshui House to find the proprietor complaining to Li Shu about how hard it was to run a guesthouse. Ming Han asked who had made the booking for Si Wei’s group and when. The proprietor checked and discovered that the reservation had been made as early as November twentieth. The person who booked it was Dong Jing.
Had Dong Jing been planning the supposedly spontaneous New Year gathering all along? Did he really have some ulterior purpose? But Huo Yewei’s arrival at Junan Lake had been impossible to predict, perhaps even for Huo Yewei himself.
Chen Zheng was just preparing to go over the clues with Ming Han when Kong Bing called. He raised an eyebrow. Why would Kong Bing be contacting him now?
“Teacher Chen,” Kong Bing said, “do you remember Liu Haitao?”
“Liu Wenran’s father. Have you found something?”
“He’s dead. And he’s been dead for many years.”
Chen Zheng walked onto the balcony. “How did he die? Where did the news come from?”
The cursed-doll case engineered by Hao Le at No. 10 Middle School in Zhuquan City had now been unraveled. During the earlier investigation into Liu Wenran’s family, Chen Zheng had learned from her mother, Cao Wenmei, that her father Liu Haitao was an idler who mixed with criminals. When Liu Wenran was very young, Liu Haitao said he was going abroad to make money and never returned. Cao Wenmei suspected he had run up debts and been murdered.
With only Cao Wenmei’s testimony, the police could not trace Liu Haitao. His disappearance or death had apparently had nothing to do with Liu Wenran’s case. But because they were searching for Liu Wenran, the police collected her DNA. That was what now provided a lead.
“Police in Country M recently discovered a mass grave containing more than a dozen bodies. About half were Chinese nationals. They sent DNA profiles from the bodies over for comparison against missing-person records,” Kong Bing said. “We uploaded Liu Wenran’s DNA, remember? One of those bodies turned out to have a parent-child relationship with her.”
Beiye Sub-bureau promptly contacted Cao Wenmei. Since losing her daughter, she had aged considerably. Her curly hair had been cut short. As soon as she saw Kong Bing, she demanded to know when the man who killed Liu Wenran would be executed.
Hao Le had committed grave crimes, but he was also an important witness for the continuing investigation. Not only had he not been sentenced, the investigation itself was not yet complete. Kong Bing sighed and told Cao Wenmei they might have found Liu Haitao. She froze for a long while, as though she could no longer remember what the name meant.
The remains were still in Country M. Kong Bing showed Cao Wenmei some photographs. Finally, she alternated between laughing and crying as she slapped her thighs. “Good riddance! Scum like him should have died years ago!”
According to the information sent by the authorities in Country M, all the victims had been shot. The earliest deaths dated back twelve years. The mass grave was on Jinsi Island, a tourist destination in Country M. The Chinese victims had no legal immigration status and had probably entered the country illegally to make money through illicit work. Who had killed them, and why, remained unknown.
The grave had actually been discovered the year before, but only a few of the remains had been identified. Cooperation between Han Province and overseas police had increased this year. Once Liu Wenran’s DNA was uploaded, a recent comparison yielded the new lead.
Kong Bing cautiously asked Cao Wenmei to confirm, “Liu Wenran really is Liu Haitao’s daughter, isn’t she?”
Cao Wenmei laughed almost hysterically. “Whose child would she be if not his? I’ve only ever given birth to one! He never paid attention to either of us. All he did was hang around with criminals. Look where it got him! Hahaha!”
Cao Wenmei’s account also fit Liu Haitao’s estimated date of death. Sixteen years earlier, he disappeared from Zhuquan City, claiming to have found a way to get rich. He said he would make some money in Southeast Asia and return, but he was never heard from again. He reached Country M, became involved with a local gang, and was shot four years later. His body had lain buried ever since. In the past, police and criminals in Country M had often worked hand in glove, making old cases extremely difficult to investigate.
Hearing this, Chen Zheng suddenly felt as though something had become lodged in his thoughts.
Kong Bing added that the police in Country M were being strangely proactive. Their contact was a security captain named Li Dongchi, apparently a major figure in the capital, Jiaoliu City. He was not particularly old and had dyed his hair an outrageous white.
Jiaoliu was one of the few comparatively peaceful cities in Country M and had attracted many Chinese tourists over the past two years. Kong Bing guessed Li Dongchi wanted to make money from those visitors, which explained his sudden enthusiasm for cooperation with Chinese police.
Chen Zheng had never heard of him. He silently repeated the name Li Dongchi.
Kong Bing continued, “Anyway, that’s what happened. It doesn’t seem to change anything about the case we were investigating. You seemed pretty concerned about Liu Wenran and her mother, so I thought I’d let you know. I’m hanging up.”
“Wait!” Chen Zheng said instinctively.
“Huh?”
Chen Zheng thought for a moment. “You said the bodies were discovered on Jinsi Island?”
Kong Bing did not know why he cared about the location. “Is there something wrong with Jinsi Island?”
Chen Zheng pinched the bridge of his nose. “Nothing yet. Let me think. Thanks, Captain Kong.”
“…Hmph. If there’s something you want investigated, tell me.”
For the moment, Chen Zheng had nothing specific for Kong Bing to look into. More precisely, he had not sorted out his thoughts. After ending the call, he stared at the wooded hills in the distance. Country M. Jinsi Island. A mass grave. Liu Wenran’s father…
After the incident at No. 10 Middle School but before Hao Le’s capture, Chen Zheng had wondered why Liu Wenran had been targeted. Did she possess some quality that attracted criminals?
At the time, Heaven-Measuring Ruler had not yet emerged. All the police knew was that Liu Haitao had been missing for years and was suspected of criminal involvement; Cao Wenmei had offered intimate services to older people to make ends meet; and Liu Wenran concealed her true circumstances, pretending to be a wealthy, privileged girl at school.
None of these facts seemed directly connected to her disappearance. Once Hao Le emerged as a suspect, the explanation appeared clear. He had shown Liu Wenran concern, and she had become dependent on him. Her troubled home life made her an easier target.
Hao Le had admitted as much.
Now, however, Chen Zheng had to pick up a lead he thought he had set aside, because Liu Haitao had died on Jinsi Island in Country M. The place was unforgettable to Chen Zheng not because it was a famous resort, but because the Liang family’s twins and Second Uncle Liang had died there.
Jinsi Island had only become a popular destination within the last decade or so. Large sums had been spent developing it, with capital pouring in to transform it into a paradise. Almost no one remembered that the Liang family had first recognized the potential of that previously obscure island. At eighteen, Liang Yubin had possessed a vision the adults around him lacked. The Liang family had come close to dominating Jinsi Island, if not for that car accident.
Now Yunquan Group had no presence on Jinsi Island or anywhere else in Country M. After Liang Yueze took over, the group withdrew, consolidated, and transformed itself. It had emerged from the disaster.
Yet the name Jinsi Island still made Chen Zheng’s heart tighten instinctively.
According to Cao Wenmei, Liu Haitao might have reached Country M sixteen years earlier, along with other Chinese people who had entered illegally. How had they supported themselves in Country M, on Jinsi Island? Had they been there when the Liang family met with disaster?
The more Chen Zheng thought about it, the more plausible it seemed. Liang Yueze had been devastated then. Chen Zheng had dealt more often with Liang Yueze’s aunt, Liang Huiting, who said Liang Yubin met many people while negotiating the project: senior government and police officials, business partners, and workers at the bottom of society. Many Chinese people had gone to Country M for work, and a large proportion lacked legal documentation. Liang Yubin was young and kindhearted, and wanted to give them opportunities. He employed as many as he could.
If so, Liu Haitao might once have worked for Liang Yubin.
Two people who seemed wholly unrelated might have had such a connection. A storm rose in Chen Zheng’s chest.
Following that line of thought, after Liang Yubin’s death all of the Liang family’s projects in Country M were halted. Workers like Liu Haitao should not have been greatly affected. They could have found new employment soon enough.
Why, then, had Liu Haitao been shot twelve years earlier, on Jinsi Island? Had the people buried with him also worked for the Liang family?
Chen Zheng did a quick search on his phone about the island’s development. After Yunquan Group withdrew, construction stopped. Six months later, domestic capital in Country M poured in and development began again. Liu Haitao and the other victims might well have worked on the project, only to be eliminated before Jinsi Island opened fully to visitors.
What did that imply?
A truth from years ago was gradually coming into view. Someone had used the Liang family’s downfall to grow into a towering power. The workers who had once worked for the Liangs, Liu Haitao among them, had been completely swept away before Jinsi Island’s dawn.
Years later, Liu Haitao’s daughter was targeted and killed. The force behind the plot was Heaven-Measuring Ruler.
Was it coincidence, or had the people ordering Hao Le’s actions targeted Liu Wenran from the beginning?
Chen Zheng’s heartbeat quickened. He felt as though he had glimpsed a corner of the truth. Heaven-Measuring Ruler might have caused the Liang family’s tragedy. Back then, the organization had operated only in small countries neighboring China. Now it had infiltrated Han Province. Yunquan Group had since become a leading technology company there. Would the Liang family become a target once more?
Footsteps sounded behind him. Chen Zheng breathed deeply and gradually calmed down. As expected, it was Ming Han. Seeing his knitted brows, Ming Han reached out and gently poked between them with one finger. “Trouble back in Zhuquan?”
Chen Zheng told Ming Han what Kong Bing had reported and everything he had just considered. Ming Han frowned too. “That really is possible. Does Liang Yueze know Heaven-Measuring Ruler exists?”
Chen Zheng shook his head. It was not that he knew Liang Yueze was ignorant, but that he was uncertain. If Liang Yueze did not bring up the twins himself, Chen Zheng would not mention them. He had repeatedly urged Liang Yueze to let the accident go. Bringing Yunquan Group back from the brink did not mean Liang Yueze had forgotten his pain. He carried the entire Liang family on his shoulders and had had no choice but to pull himself together.
“He may know,” Ming Han said, narrowing his eyes with a gaze that was almost cold.
“Hm?” Chen Zheng looked up.
“I don’t believe some naive, sheltered CEO could revive a major company that had nearly been destroyed. Besides, I’ve met him. How should I put it? He’s not an ordinary man.”
Chen Zheng had grown up with Liang Yueze. He thought Ming Han had a point, even if it was exaggerated by personal feeling. “If he isn’t an ordinary man, what is he?”
“He understands better than you why his family members died. Back then he had two choices. One was to disregard whether Yunquan Group survived, spend all the wealth the Liangs had accumulated, and uncover the truth without involving the police. If possible, take revenge. The other was to accept reality for the time being, or at least appear to, and rebuild Yunquan Group.” Ming Han said, “He chose the second. That doesn’t mean he let go of the first. The truth can be surprisingly easy to uncover if you’re willing, or able, to use methods no one can restrain.”
Chen Zheng nodded. He understood. Bypass judicial oversight, set humanity aside, and scatter money like wastepaper. Desperate people would gladly offer their services. So if Heaven-Measuring Ruler was responsible for that old accident, Liang Yueze might have known for years.
What, then, would Liang Yueze do next?
“Quite a few people Heaven-Measuring Ruler sets its sights on are entrepreneurs,” Ming Han said. “Someone at Zhan Fuhai’s level isn’t worth their notice as a peer. They lure people like him into working for them, offering a ‘ticket’ as compensation. The moment Zhan Fuhai failed, they threw him away.”
Chen Zheng was thoughtful. “And Luo Yingqiang…”
The police had found no confirmed connection between Luo Yingqiang and Heaven-Measuring Ruler. His death appeared to be part of the organization’s attempt to use Liu Pinchao to bait Ming Han, but the operation had been so elaborate that it was hard not to suspect a deeper reason for killing Luo Yingqiang.
“And Bu Yangyun,” Ming Han added. “That reaction of his was far too strange to mean nothing.”
“So what conclusion have you reached?” Chen Zheng asked.
Ming Han was silent a moment. “Whether Liang Yueze actively investigated the old tragedy, or stayed put and was approached by Heaven-Measuring Ruler, I think he’s probably already come into contact with them. We need to consider the different possibilities of what his relationship with the organization might be.”
Chen Zheng admitted Ming Han had identified the crux of the matter. But they could hardly unravel all those branching complications in an instant, even working together.
“Bro, there’s something I want to say, but I’m afraid you’ll think I’m trying to turn you against someone.” Ming Han lowered his voice, testing the waters.
Chen Zheng looked at him for a moment, then nudged him with an elbow. “Even if you really are, I’ll be on your side.”
Ming Han’s eyes widened. He seemed unable to believe such an unreserved declaration could come from Chen Zheng. “Huh?”
“What do you mean, huh? Say whatever you need to. We still haven’t made sense of the case here.” Seeing his astonished expression, Chen Zheng sighed, reached out, and pinched and rubbed his cheek. “Ming Han, you said you wanted me to trust you and share every lead without reservation. That’s what I’m doing now. Why are you suddenly so hesitant?”
“I…” Ming Han frowned faintly. “I just…”
“You think Liang Yueze is my childhood friend, that we’ve known each other since we were little, so he matters more to me than even Han Qu does.” Chen Zheng voiced the worry in Ming Han’s heart. “You assume I don’t want to hear anything unfavorable about him.”
Ming Han gazed at Chen Zheng. Reflected in Chen Zheng’s open, candid eyes, he saw himself, looking like a foolishly anxious idiot.
“But if I were really like that, why would I have told you about the Liang family, just now or last time?” Chen Zheng said. “There are many stages in life, Student Ming. When I was little, Liang Yueze was my childhood friend. Now he’s one of the few friends I have outside work. You, though, are my teammate fighting beside me.”
A glint of coldness entered Chen Zheng’s eyes, a product of his experience and reason. “I trust my teammate. And I question anyone who objectively presents grounds for suspicion, whether childhood friend or family.” Then he relaxed his tone. “Instructor Xiao Zheng has spoken. Did Student Ming understand?”
Ming Han did not answer. Instead, he threw his arms around Chen Zheng. Caught unprepared, Chen Zheng nearly staggered. He patted Ming Han’s back. “You don’t think you’re light, do you?”
“Don’t care.” Ming Han buried his face against Chen Zheng’s shoulder, his voice muffled. “Instructor Xiao Zheng has a strong waist. You can hold me.”