Meanwhile, in another interview room, Du Ying finally spoke after a long silence. “I actually… hoped Zhu Yi would never come back.”
Among the interns, Du Ying’s overall abilities had been second only to Zhu Yi’s, making her almost certain to be retained by the firm. Yet she felt anxious, as though she were suspended in midair and her future was full of uncertainty. If Li Ren had been ahead of her instead of Zhu Yi, she knew she’d have a position. But the reality was that Zhu Yi stood above her: a woman who was better at nearly everything, yet so similar to her.
Du Ying was like an inferior version of Zhu Yi. Even He Mei had once mistaken her for Zhu Yi. At a law firm, men always had more advantages than women. They might seem to be hiring several people, but perhaps only one would be a woman. Si Wei had an advantage over Du Ying because she was nothing like Zhu Yi.
Du Ying felt increasingly threatened. If Yongshen already had Zhu Yi, what would it want with an inferior copy? Any spare position might as well go to Zhu Xiaodi or Zhang Pin. The first had family connections, while the second was carefree and suitable for miscellaneous work.
On the surface, she and Zhu Yi were affectionate as sisters, but privately she constantly wondered how to make Zhu Yi leave without any pain.
She wasn’t a bad person. She couldn’t bring herself to hurt Zhu Yi. Yet however much she thought about it, she couldn’t find a solution that was good for both of them. Then, that evening, Li Ren suggested infiltrating Yuanshu Township. An idea came to her at once: persuade Zhu Yi to become the person who infiltrated.
Zhu Yi had said Yi Lei was a good man. She seemed to like him. If they spent enough time together, might Zhu Yi actually fall in love with him and stay in Yuanshu Township? No, Du Ying didn’t need to think that far. It would be enough if Zhu Yi stayed temporarily and devoted herself to the village. That would give Du Ying the opportunity to return to Yongshen and establish herself. Once she was securely employed, what Zhu Yi did afterward would be none of her concern.
So Du Ying encouraged Zhu Yi with all her might, promising to be her staunchest supporter. Throughout the process she noticed Li Ren several times. She knew he felt the same urgency she did. Zhu Yi’s presence was an obstacle to him as well.
“I only wanted to hold her back for a little while,” Li Ren said gloomily. “It was incredibly hard for me to get as far as I had. My family was nowhere near as well-off as Dong Jing’s or Zhu Xiaodi’s. I was even worse off than Zhang Pin. People kept cutting in front of me, and the line ahead of me grew longer and longer.”
He smiled bitterly several times as he recounted his past, as though he were the one who had endured the greatest suffering.
His university was not as prestigious as Han Province University of Political Science and Law. The internship at Yongshen was an opportunity he could never expect again. He had to seize it. But after he’d been there a while, reality slapped him in the face. Dong Jing was well-informed and told him Zhu Xiaodi already had a guaranteed place, while Dong Jing could probably pull strings of his own if he made the effort.
Among the women, Si Wei wasn’t particularly capable, but she knew how to please the people in charge. A firm needed beasts of burden, but also decorative beauties. Zhu Yi hardly needed explaining. Her education was a selling point, and though she wasn’t a stunning beauty, her appearance and manner made people comfortable. If Yongshen didn’t hire her, they must be blind.
However Li Ren worked out the numbers, he was the one destined to be rejected. He couldn’t sit back and wait. If the normal path to a permanent position was blocked, he’d have to consider another. After preparing himself mentally for a long time, he approached He Mei and explained his difficulties. She studied him, then mentioned a name: Gu Qiang. Li Ren froze. Of course he knew who Gu Qiang was, a renowned partner at Yongshen who had handled numerous celebrated cases.
He Mei said that although Gu Qiang was successful now, he’d known hardship in his youth. Deep down he only respected men. The overwhelming majority of his team were male, and in his eyes even the best woman would never measure up to a man.
He Mei left it at that, but Li Ren understood. He could find a way to catch Gu Qiang’s eye and make the man aware of him. Perhaps Gu Qiang would give him a second glance and hand him some small tasks. Then his opportunity would come.
Li Ren dreamed of joining Gu Qiang’s team and contrived reasons to pass through places where Gu Qiang might appear. But Gu Qiang never once showed up. Li Ren wasn’t ready to give up and planned to keep trying when a human-resources staff member suddenly came to the interns’ work area and called Zhu Yi’s name.
Everyone pricked up their ears. The HR representative smiled. “Student Zhu, here’s your chance. Lawyer Gu has an event, and he’d like you to come help out.”
Lawyer Gu? Gu Qiang? It hit Li Ren like a bolt from the blue. Hadn’t He Mei said Gu Qiang disliked women? Then why had Zhu Yi been chosen?
Everyone started talking, while Li Ren listened in a daze. They said admiringly that Xiao Yi was so outstanding she’d already earned the great Lawyer Gu’s favor. Before long she’d probably be hired directly into his team.
It’s over, he thought. Someone else had reached the only path he could think of before him. Why? It was so unfair. He’d worked so hard. Why should the opportunity go to Zhu Yi when she hadn’t even tried for it?
When Zhu Yi left with the HR representative, she still looked bewildered. She’d never intended to join Gu Qiang’s team. So why had he chosen her?
Several days later, Zhu Yi returned. Dong Jing and the others immediately gathered around and peppered her with questions. They were all young and curious about someone as important as Gu Qiang. Zhu Yi smiled and said she had barely spoken to Lawyer Gu. Other members of his team had assigned the work, and she’d only run errands.
“I’m so jealous,” Si Wei said. “I don’t even qualify to run errands!”
“I hope I get a chance next time,” Du Ying said.
“I’m definitely not getting an opportunity like that,” Zhang Pin said.
“My skills aren’t good enough,” Zhu Xiaodi said. “Should I ask Dad to bring someone a gift? I want to work with Lawyer Gu too, waaah!”
Dong Jing laughed. “You’re not even pretending anymore, are you?”
Every word grated on Li Ren. He was the truly pathetic one who couldn’t even get the chance to run errands.
By the time they arrived in Yuanshu Township, Li Ren had given up hope of remaining at Yongshen. He Mei had said Gu Qiang’s younger years resembled his, but she was wrong. Li Ren and Gu Qiang were worlds apart. He didn’t possess Gu Qiang’s talent. He was thinking of switching careers while he was still young.
Yet when the legal-outreach project went badly and everyone sat down to discuss it, he suddenly proposed having one of them infiltrate the village. Most of the group supported the idea immediately. He swore he hadn’t meant to push Zhu Yi into danger when he first suggested it. He’d only been thinking objectively of what might work.
As the discussion went on, though, he began to realize he might have another chance. Zhu Yi had the courage to fly into the flames like a moth. If he added just one more spark, she’d volunteer to be the person who went inside. If Yuanshu Township kept her occupied, he would have one fewer rival. Even if Zhu Yi eventually returned covered in glory, it wouldn’t matter. He had no interest in legal education or rescuing women, so they’d be working in different fields. Zhu Yi would no longer stand in his way.
Compared with the others, Zhang Pin seemed unsure even of his own motives. He wore a miserable expression. “I don’t know what I was thinking back then. Part of me felt something was wrong. Aren’t remote, poor villages supposed to be dangerous? If those people don’t want to be saved, why take such a risk to save them? I wanted to tell Zhu Yi it was a bad idea. There had to be danger. She was a young woman staying in a place like that. Even if we reacted immediately when something happened, we might not make it in time. But I… I didn’t dare say it! I didn’t want everyone to look down on me!”
Zhang Pin had been the weakest intern in the group, but precisely because he was only there to make up the numbers, he felt less pressure than Li Ren and Du Ying. He’d never expected to be retained. He simply needed experience at Yongshen so that a smaller firm or a company’s legal department would regard him more favorably in the future. He got along with everyone and secretly liked Du Ying.
He liked Du Ying partly because she was the most ordinary of the three women. Si Wei and Zhu Yi were beyond his reach. With Du Ying, he might have a chance if he tried hard enough. He envied Dong Jing’s ability to express his feelings openly. Zhang Pin couldn’t do that. He hid his affection beneath his habitual foolish grin, agreeing with everything Du Ying said. To make it less obvious, he also agreed with everyone else. Over time he became the person with the least presence in the group. Nobody usually asked for his opinion when making decisions.
That night, for example, he tried several times to object, but no one even looked at him. It was as though nothing he said mattered. He glanced at Du Ying, noticing she was behaving oddly, more enthusiastic than usual.
He lowered the hand he’d almost raised and began doubting himself. Why was everyone so courageous and optimistic? Was he the only coward? Was it because he lacked experience and worried unnecessarily about being unable to handle emergencies? Would Du Ying look down on him if he tried to stop Zhu Yi?
For an insignificant person like him, survival meant following the crowd. When he raised his head again, he was wearing his trademark foolish smile. “It’ll be fine, Zhu Yi! If you’re in danger, we’ll come rescue you right away!”
Zhu Yi looked at him and smiled confidently. “I believe you, Brother Pin!”
“What about Dong Jing?” Chen Zheng asked when he’d heard all their confessions. “Wasn’t Dong Jing against the plan?”
Zhang Pin hugged his head and shook it repeatedly. “I-I don’t know what Zhu Yi said to him afterward. At our last meeting, the day before we left Yuanshu Township, he was supporting her too!”
Chen Zheng could almost see the scene four years earlier. The interns boarded the vehicle that had brought them and left for their next stop. Zhu Yi stood beside Yi Lei and watched them go. Her eyes were bright. Her battle was about to begin. She believed she could become the hero of this village, because she had six teammates behind her.
“What happened afterward?” Chen Zheng asked. “You just went home? Who received her messages asking for help?”
“Not me! I never contacted her after I returned to Junan City!” Si Wei gripped the edge of the table tightly and looked away. “Even if she wanted to send information, she wouldn’t have sent it to me.”
“What happened after you left Yuanshu Township?”
Si Wei shook her head and unconsciously tugged at her hair. She said that as the vehicle drove away, Zhu Yi’s figure shrank in the rearview mirror, and she suddenly felt intense disgust with herself. Why had she done that? Zhu Yi had explicitly rejected Dong Jing long ago. There was nothing flirtatious between them. What on earth had she been jealous of? But she couldn’t turn back, and no one else in the vehicle turned back either.
The interns spent the required amount of time in other villages. Without Zhu Yi, none of them had much enthusiasm left. The villagers, their eyes vacant from years of grinding labor, looked unbearably ugly to Si Wei. Why should she spend her time and energy rescuing them? Disgust toward the villagers and toward herself finally affected her plans. She no longer wanted to work in law. She didn’t want to end up like Zhu Yi one day, used by others without even knowing it.
“I resigned not long after I got back,” Si Wei said with a self-mocking tone. “I wasn’t that outstanding, so nobody bothered asking why. The day I finished the paperwork, I felt free. Zhu Yi and I weren’t competing anymore. I sincerely hoped she’d return safely and achieve her dream of rescuing the women of Yuanshu Township.”
“You never tried to contact her?”
“No. Zhu Yi herself set that rule. She said once she was on her own, the villagers would watch her closely. Even at Yi Lei’s house, she wouldn’t be safe. If we sent her messages or called, her plan might be exposed. She said she’d find opportunities to contact us.”
Si Wei paused, then added, “If she’d contacted me, I certainly would’ve helped.”
Du Ying corroborated Si Wei’s explanation, except for one important difference: Zhu Yi had contacted Du Ying twice. The first time was while the interns were still visiting other villages, and the second was one month after they returned to the firm.
The first time Zhu Yi sounded frustrated. She’d tried many approaches to Mei Rui, but Mei Rui wouldn’t speak to her. She tried persuading Mei Rui and asking for her parents’ address, but Mei Rui insisted the Li family was her home.
The second time, Zhu Yi said she was beginning to feel afraid. Yi Lei wasn’t as simple as she’d first believed. He was calculating and had recently started looking at her in a strange way. She was even thinking of running away.
Du Ying was busy preparing for examinations and assessments, determined to secure a permanent position at Yongshen. She had no time for Zhu Yi, and the idea of her returning frightened her. Run away now? Was she joking? If Zhu Yi abandoned Yuanshu Township and returned to Yongshen at this moment, wouldn’t everything Du Ying had done to stay be wasted? She couldn’t let Zhu Yi come back. At the very least, she had to wait until Du Ying was officially hired.
So she patiently soothed Zhu Yi, repeatedly reminding her of her dreams and the suffering of the village women. Zhu Yi thanked her, saying she really would have given up if Du Ying hadn’t reminded her of those things.
After hanging up, Du Ying breathed out and threw herself back into the fight to secure her position. “I’ve already told you what happened afterward. I did get hired, but I knew I couldn’t advance very far in law. Maybe the psychological burden Zhu Yi left me played a part too. Eventually I left Yongshen. I was the one who deleted Zhu Yi’s contact information.”
“Why did you have to delete it?”
Du Ying thought for a long while. “It hurt to see her name. I didn’t measure up to her professionally, in appearance or in communicating with people. Even my conscience didn’t measure up to hers. Seeing her name reminded me how shameful I was. So I deleted it.”
Li Ren and Zhang Pin’s experiences were less complicated than Si Wei’s and Du Ying’s. As men, they hadn’t kept in regular private contact with Zhu Yi, only exchanging messages with her in the group chat.
After returning to the firm, Li Ren struggled badly. He’d assumed removing Zhu Yi from the competition would improve his prospects of becoming a permanent employee, but what he’d done gradually weighed on him. He frequently lost focus and failed to complete several tasks He Mei gave him. HR spoke to him and hinted that if he didn’t improve, he wouldn’t be kept on. The more worried he became, the worse he performed.
His family was somewhat superstitious. His mother took him to a fortune-teller, who said everything had causes and consequences, and that Li Ren’s recent misfortune came from offending a woman. His mother assumed he’d fallen in love and was actually delighted, but Li Ren’s face went ashen. Offending a woman? Did the fortune-teller mean he’d harmed Zhu Yi for his own benefit?
His condition grew worse. Even if he didn’t resign, he was likely to be dismissed. He finally left, believing that giving up his chance at Yongshen might somehow balance the karmic scales.
“I asked you this before. I’m asking again now,” Chen Zheng said, staring at Si Wei. “You’d left Yongshen a long time ago and barely kept in touch with the others. Why did you come back for He Mei’s wedding? You weren’t particularly close to her.”
The past had been uncovered piece by piece. Si Wei no longer saw any point in hiding the truth. She sighed. “The invitation wasn’t really the important part. Lawyer He didn’t invite us personally. She only posted the wedding details on her social feed.”
“Then you…”
“Someone told me I had to come, so we could find a way to settle what we’d done wrong all those years ago,” Si Wei said, trembling. “He also told me Zhu Yi was dead, and we were the ones who had driven her to her fate.”
“Who told you?”
Si Wei shook her head hard. “I don’t know, I really don’t! It was a virtual number. I was scared and deleted everything.”
“Did you contact anyone else before attending the wedding?”
“No. I was afraid it might be a trap.”
“So when you saw Du Ying and the others, you guessed they’d been ‘invited’ too?”
Si Wei nodded.
The other three gave similar answers when asked the same question. Du Ying, however, said she’d known Zhu Yi was dead for a long time.
“When did you find out? How?”
Du Ying explained softly that after leaving the law firm, she’d spent some time in a slump before finding the energy to look for work again. She’d been fortunate to meet a supervisor at her current company who appreciated her. Once her job was stable, she felt better about her life. Thinking of Zhu Yi stirred her guilt, and she wanted to find out how Zhu Yi was doing. But by then she’d lost contact with all the other interns.
She was relatively introverted. Rather than ask someone else, she thought it would be easier to visit Yuanshu Township herself. Yet remembering Zhu Yi’s warning, she worried that arriving unexpectedly might cause trouble. So instead, she went to Yuancao Township, where the interns had once stayed.
Yuancao Township fell under Gezi Town but was close to Jianya Township. It was the last village the interns had visited before returning to the firm. Perhaps because their difficult legal-outreach assignment was nearly over, everyone had been more relaxed there. They’d barely spoken of anything the villagers disliked. Rather than fight a losing battle, they’d gone along with the village and merely stayed long enough to complete their hours.
Du Ying had gotten along well with a family surnamed Sun. Their family atmosphere wasn’t as oppressive as some others. Although the husband and wife had entered an arranged marriage, they lived fairly happily. Du Ying returned to Yuancao Township ostensibly to visit Sister Sun and stayed with the family. She hoped to accompany Sister Sun into Yuanshu Township disguised as another villager. Instead, she heard the Sun family’s husband say something serious had happened in Yuanshu. The wife the Li family had obtained from outside had been taken away, and the police were investigating everywhere.
The Li family’s wife? That was Mei Rui. Du Ying immediately grew tense. If Mei Rui had been rescued, what had happened to Zhu Yi? The villagers weren’t fools. They must have worked out that Zhu Yi was responsible. The next day, Sister Sun went to a market in Jianya Township, and Du Ying accompanied her. Amid the crowd, she suddenly spotted a familiar figure: Yi Lei.
What was Yi Lei doing there? Was he shopping too? But he didn’t look like someone shopping. He seemed nervous and kept glancing around before heading into an alley. Du Ying told Sister Sun she needed the toilet and followed him immediately. He looked back repeatedly as he walked, making her heart hammer.
Before long, Yi Lei reached a small courtyard at the edge of the village. A man came out of the house. Thinking no one was nearby, he said loudly, “When are you going to get rid of that woman?”
Yi Lei lowered his voice. “Get rid of her? Impossible. The police are still in Yuanshu Township. You want me to go to prison?”
They entered the earthen house, and she couldn’t hear anything more. Du Ying’s legs went weak. She clapped a hand over her mouth to stop herself making a sound. Who was the “woman”? Zhu Yi. It had to be Zhu Yi. Mei Rui had gone home, exposing Zhu Yi, and Yi Lei had moved her to Jianya Township.
Du Ying had seen what happened to women in these isolated villages. Zhu Yi was finished. There was no saving her. She fled, not even taking the time to say goodbye to Sister Sun.
Chen Zheng hadn’t expected this part of the story. Back then Yi Lei was afraid someone would come for Zhu Yi and had confined her but had not yet begun the worst of his abuse. If Du Ying had reported what she’d seen, there was still time to save her.
“You…” Chen Zheng asked. “You did nothing?”
Du Ying’s expression turned cold again. “I’m just an ordinary person. My life was finally becoming stable. Why should you expect me to get mixed up in something like that? What if they took revenge on me? Who would save me?”
“She was your friend, at least,” Chen Zheng said.
“Friend?” Du Ying laughed coldly. “We just happened to intern at the same law firm. You want to say that if I’d reported it, Zhu Yi wouldn’t have died, right? But that would’ve put me in danger. If she’d survived, Yi Lei would’ve received a lighter sentence. All he’d done by then was imprison her. When he got out, what about me? I’d have a mad dog coming after me! Officer Chen, I’ve worked in law. I understand better than you that the law can’t restrain lunatics. Zhu Yi dared risk her life to save people. I didn’t. I’m a coward!”
Perhaps because he hadn’t deliberately meant Zhu Yi harm, Zhang Pin was relatively composed compared with the other three. “I actually wanted to find out what happened to Zhu Yi. That message told me to come, so I came.”
Li Ren looked miserable. “Someone is taking revenge on us? But I don’t understand why Dong Jing was the one killed. Shouldn’t he have been the one to…”
“Dong Jing wanted revenge on all of you?” Chen Zheng asked.
“Who else could it be?” Li Ren had once shared a room with Dong Jing and knew him better than the other interns. “Didn’t you tell us he booked the guesthouse? He must have been planning revenge on us from the start. He still liked Zhu Yi, more than he liked Si Wei. But why didn’t he save her?”
Li Ren shook his head, bewildered. “Right, he went abroad not long afterward. He wouldn’t have been able to rescue her. Surely Zhu Xiaodi isn’t the killer? He barely had any connection with Zhu Yi. Where… where is Zhu Xiaodi?”
It was something Chen Zheng was deeply concerned about as well. Besides Dong Jing, Zhu Xiaodi, Gong Xiaoyang and Lu Feng had all been missing. Their connections to Zhu Yi and Mei Rui were now clear enough. After Dong Jing’s body was found, the task force expanded the search, but none of the other three had been found, alive or dead.
Dong Jing looked very much like the person who had organized the gathering. Then why had he been the first to die?
A thick fog blanketed Junan City in winter. From the Municipal Bureau’s balcony, the road opposite was barely visible. The case was just as obscured.
Locals said Junan’s frequent fog came from the lake and the terrain. Such an enormous body of water was bound to send fog rolling out across the winter landscape.
Chen Zheng thought alone. Suddenly his phone vibrated. Ming Han was calling.