“You can’t think of anyone?” Ming Han said. “Because you’ve harmed too many people?”
Huo Xiling neither looked at him nor answered.
Ming Han left Weihai Technology. Huo Xiling might have appeared to confess everything, but her account had only produced more contradictions and doubts. She claimed Heaven-Measuring Ruler had disappeared from sight. Police intelligence, however, showed the organization expanding aggressively in Hua Country, and not long ago it had even staged a criminal selection process on a school campus.
Heaven-Measuring Ruler had not withdrawn. It might have changed strategy, abandoning its old practice of recruiting intensely competitive businesspeople like Huo Xiling and Bu Yangyun. But if it was merely discarding them, why target Ming Han and Huo Yewei? None of it made sense.
Huo Xiling had disclosed only half the truth. Was the other half something she did not know, or something she could not say?
At the Junan City police bureau, the special investigation team was holding a meeting. Mei Feng continued to insist that he had killed Dong Jing, apparently determined to keep Liu Xun out of it. But the team knew Dong Jing was not his victim. The murderer was among Dong Jing’s four former intern friends.
As the events of that year were gradually uncovered, Du Ying, Li Ren, and the others’ reactions became increasingly telling, and inconsistencies began appearing in their statements.
Zhang Pin claimed the anonymous message had left him badly unsettled. He had long since forgotten about Zhu Yi, and he had not been one of the main people who encouraged her to remain in Yuanshu Township. But that message had shattered his peaceful life. He had to come see what was going on.
He had imagined that when they met, everyone would calmly resolve the problem and identify who had organized the gathering. What frightened him was that everyone behaved as though it were an ordinary reunion after years apart, as if they were still the interns from back then and Zhu Yi had never existed among them.
He began to think that every one of them was frightening. He vaguely suspected that someone in the group intended to kill the others.
On the afternoon of the eighteenth, he had been so uneasy that he left the guesthouse early and went to the busy lakeside. Only when he saw the others that evening did he learn that each of them had been out alone, while Dong Jing and Zhu Xiaodi had disappeared.
After returning to the hotel, he dared not go out again. He planned to leave Weimo Mountain Resort first thing in the morning. He locked his door tightly that night and did not sleep for a single second.
Li Ren admitted that he had suspected Dong Jing from the beginning. Dong Jing had been the only one to try to stop Zhu Yi, and as his roommate, Li Ren knew he had never gotten over her. If the anonymous sender was one of them, it could only be Dong Jing.
Li Ren also offered a theory: Dong Jing had been Zhu Yi’s contact on the outside. He had contacted Mei Feng and his wife, helping rescue Mei Rui, but for some reason had failed to save Zhu Yi.
Li Ren conceded that he had considered killing Dong Jing if it became absolutely necessary. He was no longer the penniless intern of years past. He had a career and a family. If Dong Jing intended to destroy everything he had worked so hard to build because of Zhu Yi, Li Ren would strike first.
“But I’m not the one who killed him,” Li Ren said expressionlessly. “It was those two women. It could only be them. They were the ones who most wanted Zhu Yi gone back then. If I were Dong Jing, they’d be my first targets.”
“Si Wei killed Dong Jing. I have evidence.” For once, Du Ying’s bland face wore an unfamiliar expression.
Chen Zheng asked immediately, “What evidence?”
“It’s on my phone. There’s an encrypted file called ‘Withered Leaves of Time.’ Listen to it and you’ll understand.”
The technical investigation officers got to work. Once decrypted, it proved to be a cloud file. Shortly after they opened it, hurried footsteps could be heard, not on an indoor floor, but apparently crunching through leaves and branches.
“What is this?” Chen Zheng asked, puzzled.
“Look at the time,” Du Ying said.
The timestamp showed 11:40 p.m. on January 18. All four had previously stated that after eating lamb hotpot by the lake, they had returned to Shanshui House, gone nowhere else, and retired to their rooms.
“You’re saying someone left the guesthouse before 11:40? Si Wei?” Chen Zheng asked.
“You can search Si Wei’s belongings. There’s a little perfume amulet from ‘lake’ that she carries with her. I gave it to her, but she didn’t know I had placed a miniature recorder inside.”
There really was an amulet-like object in Si Wei’s bag. When the police dismantled it, they found a recorder inside.
Chen Zheng held the recorder up in front of Du Ying. The playback had finished by now. There had been no conversation at all, only footsteps, the sounds of blows, labored breathing, and earth being shoveled.
“I suspected she would make a move. I just didn’t want to be the one who died, so I wanted an escape route for myself,” Du Ying said.
Like Li Ren, Du Ying had immediately assumed on receiving the anonymous message that Dong Jing must have organized the gathering. After so many years, Zhu Yi was someone left in the past. Only Dong Jing still held on to her, and now that everyone else was living a normal life, he wanted to drag them all down to join her in death.
Before setting off, Du Ying had prepared the recorder but had not yet decided how to use it. Then, on the afternoon of the seventeenth, she watched Dong Jing play the gentleman and Si Wei play the sweet young woman. She finally made up her mind: she would plant the recorder on Si Wei.
The perfume amulet launched by ‘lake’ was just large enough to conceal the device. It was opaque and appeared sealed from the outside. Du Ying tampered with the amulet and gave it to Si Wei, who was delighted and placed it in her coat pocket.
That very night, Du Ying tested the recorder and confirmed that it captured the sound of Si Wei walking.
“Dong Jing disappeared on the afternoon of the eighteenth, when Si Wei was attending Huo Yewei’s concert,” Chen Zheng said. “Why would Si Wei run into Dong Jing that night?”
After several minutes of silence, Du Ying said, “I knew Dong Jing was hiding in the woods. I wasn’t idle that afternoon either.”
Du Ying had been in the guesthouse garden when Dong Jing left, and he did not see her. She blended into the crowds and followed at a distance, watching him pass the shopping street and head straight for the lakeside. The area was packed with people and activities, yet Dong Jing entered a stand of trees.
He seemed to be observing something there. Du Ying watched for as long as he stayed. The woods were near the lake but relatively concealed. If Dong Jing wanted to kill someone, that might have been a suitable place. So who would his first target be?
At the appointed time to meet for dinner and fireworks, Du Ying went to the crossroads to wait for Si Wei. Si Wei looked radiant from seeing her idol, but Du Ying knew she was putting it on.
“Where are the others?” Si Wei asked.
Du Ying shook her head. “Haven’t seen them.”
Si Wei said nothing. The four soon met up, with everyone claiming not to have seen Zhu Xiaodi or Dong Jing.
Everyone had their own fears and calculations over dinner. None of them had any heart for the fireworks bursting overhead.
“How could you be sure Si Wei would go looking for Dong Jing?” Chen Zheng asked.
“I couldn’t. I was gambling on her state of mind,” Du Ying replied. “She used to like Dong Jing, which is why Zhu Yi was such a thorn in her side. If Dong Jing was going to so much trouble to avenge Zhu Yi now, do you think Si Wei might explode?”
Back when they were interns at Yongshen Law Firm, Du Ying often worked until the middle of the night and carried all kinds of self-defense gadgets. Si Wei, however, carried nothing at all. Du Ying found it strange. A girl as attractive and flirtatious as Si Wei seemed more likely to attract dangerous attention than she was.
Si Wei had confided mysteriously that she had practiced combat sports for more than ten years and could handle a sexual harasser or robber without trouble. Not long after, Si Wei had knocked down a shady-looking man who had been following them. Proudly, she said, “Law is a dangerous profession. I wouldn’t dare work in it without a few tricks up my sleeve.”
The recording had not yet undergone professional analysis, but the struggle in its middle section was audible. Dong Jing had been strangled with a rope, and the sounds were consistent with that.
While listening to the recording, Si Wei initially looked puzzled, as though she had no idea what the noises were. Then she heard something fall, followed by her own ragged breathing. Her face turned deathly white, and her eyes nearly bulged from their sockets.
Chen Zheng stopped the playback at just the right moment and tossed the evidence bag containing the perfume amulet onto the table. Si Wei’s voice shook. “Wh-what is that?”
“It’s the amulet you were carrying. You don’t know what it is?” Chen Zheng asked.
Fragments of memory flashed through Si Wei’s mind. Suddenly she clutched her head and screamed, and a female officer hurried to restrain her.
“Du Ying? Du Ying set me up? She was listening to me?” Si Wei struggled desperately, with such startling strength that she almost threw the female officer across the table. Her actions were practically a demonstration that she could easily have taken Dong Jing’s life.
“What else did she record?” Si Wei shouted. “I remember now. She was outside the woods at the time! She was trying to trap me!”
In fact, the recorder had limited capabilities. What Chen Zheng stopped playing was already the entire recording the police possessed. But Si Wei clearly did not believe that. Shouting, she insisted she had only acted in self-defense, that Dong Jing had intended to kill her. After Huo Yewei was splashed with beer on the seventeenth, she returned to the guesthouse and encountered Dong Jing, who arranged to meet her in the lakeside woods the following night.
Although Si Wei admitted killing Dong Jing, Chen Zheng checked everyone’s statements and found that while the anonymous messages had drawn them all to Weimo Mountain Resort through the shadows in their own hearts, they had not actually felt an overwhelmingly strong desire to silence one another. Zhu Yi was in the past. Could she really have inspired Dong Jing, or anyone else, to murder on her behalf?
“How’s the investigation into the anonymous messages going?” Chen Zheng asked the technical officers.
“The sender used a foreign relay. The messages weren’t necessarily sent by Dong Jing,” an officer replied. “As for the Shanshui House reservation, Dong Jing’s ID and platform account were used, and the linked bank card was his. But his platform account was accessed from an unfamiliar device. We suspect the account was hijacked.”
“Can you trace whoever took over the account?” Chen Zheng asked.
The technical officer shook his head. “Just like the anonymous messages, the access went through a relay.”
Chen Zheng thought it over. Dong Jing had not organized the gathering. Like everyone else, he had received an anonymous message. Although he had briefly tried to stop Zhu Yi from staying in Yuanshu Township, he had ultimately joined the others in pushing her toward death. He was not the most exceptional among them, but in the others’ eyes, he was.
Everyone assumed the anonymous sender was one of their group, since no one outside it could know what had happened in Yuanshu Township. To everyone except Dong Jing, Dong Jing seemed the most likely organizer.
Perhaps they had gathered not to kill one another, but to settle things like adults and finally erase this long-forgotten incident from their lives.
Chen Zheng opened the section of the investigation report concerning Dong Jing. He had resigned from Yongshen and gone overseas soon afterward, before Mei Rui was brought home. He was therefore unlikely to have been the one who contacted Mei Feng and his wife. So who was?
That person had served as the bridge between Zhu Yi and the outside world. They had helped Mei Rui get out, but abandoned Zhu Yi.
Everyone claimed Zhu Yi had never contacted them, but someone had to be lying. Who?
Li Ren and Zhang Pin had had little contact with Zhu Yi, and Li Ren had been hostile toward her. As men, they were also far less likely to have been the people she relied upon. That left Si Wei and Du Ying. Zhu Yi had been closer to Du Ying, whereas her relationship with Si Wei was awkward because of Dong Jing.
Du Ying appeared to be the one who had kept in contact with Zhu Yi.
Yet Du Ying’s actions this time had mainly been for self-preservation, while Si Wei had actually killed someone. All of them had their fears and misgivings, but only Si Wei had turned those fears into murder. Why had she felt she absolutely had to eliminate Dong Jing?
After resting for several hours, Si Wei had calmed somewhat. Chen Zheng returned to question her, but began by bringing up Huo Yewei. “Your liking for Huo Yewei was just ordinary interest. You weren’t a genuine fan of his.”
Si Wei blinked. “Does it matter now whether I was a fan?”
“Your behavior outside the Huo residence on the eighteenth was exaggerated. You deliberately made sure the cameras recorded how carefree you were. You also suspected Dong Jing would kill someone that afternoon. You were constructing an alibi,” Chen Zheng said. “From the moment you received the anonymous message, you decided Dong Jing was the organizer and that he intended to avenge Zhu Yi.”
Si Wei clenched her teeth, looking deeply resentful. “Why should he? He treated me as a substitute for Zhu Yi back then, and now he wanted to kill all of us for her? If he’s so devoted, he can go down there and be devoted to her face-to-face.”
“But nothing happened that afternoon,” Chen Zheng said. “Dong Jing didn’t kill Zhu Xiaodi. If you hadn’t killed Dong Jing, no one would have died that evening.”
A faint bewilderment entered Si Wei’s eyes.
“You believed Dong Jing would attack you. Every one of you went off alone on the afternoon of the eighteenth, so that would have been his best opportunity. You met the other three at dusk and found Zhu Xiaodi and Dong Jing missing. You concluded that Dong Jing had killed Zhu Xiaodi. And because Dong Jing had arranged to meet you in the woods that night, you thought you were his second target. So you decided to strike first.”
Si Wei’s chest rose and fell. “Wasn’t that what happened?”
“But your premise was wrong. Dong Jing never killed Zhu Xiaodi. His killer was Mei Rui’s father, Mei Feng,” Chen Zheng said. “Dong Jing might genuinely have wanted nothing more than to talk to you, perhaps about who had sent the anonymous messages.”
Si Wei looked as though she had been struck by lightning. She stared at Chen Zheng in disbelief and did not move for several minutes.
“Why were you so certain Dong Jing had sent the messages? Why did you think he would kill you?” Chen Zheng asked.
“Because… because…” Si Wei began biting her nails, her speech turning disjointed.
“Because you knew you bore a direct responsibility for Zhu Yi’s death,” Chen Zheng said, his gaze growing colder. “In your mind, Dong Jing, who ‘loved’ Zhu Yi so deeply, was bound to want you dead. Add Zhu Xiaodi’s disappearance, and because you didn’t know at the time that Mei Feng had killed him, you became still more certain that if you didn’t act, you would be the one to die.”
Si Wei began trembling. She drew her cuffed hands together, as if trying to hug herself.
“Come to think of it, Mei Feng was someone you knew, wasn’t he?” Chen Zheng abruptly changed the subject.
Si Wei raised her head, her eyes empty. “He…”
“You’re the only one in that group who followed through on killing someone, yet you were the least likely-looking murderer,” Chen Zheng said. “After eliminating the possibilities, I can see only one explanation. It was through you that information about Mei Rui reached Mei Feng. And perhaps Zhu Yi also told you she herself was in danger. She begged you for help. That was her only chance. She trusted you. You weren’t under Yi Lei and the other villagers’ control. All you had to do was call the police, and she could have been rescued.”
Si Wei bit down hard on her lip until it whitened. She shook her head faintly, as though wanting to cover her ears.
Chen Zheng went on. “You refused to save her, so you were the most frightened of everyone who received the anonymous messages. Once you suspected Dong Jing was behind them, it was easy for you to believe he knew the truth, hated you, and wanted you dead!”
Si Wei screamed, “Wasn’t that true? I caused the death of the woman he loved, so he came to take revenge! But Zhu Yi contacted him first. He was the one who decided to go overseas, and that was how it became my responsibility!”
“So Dong Jing was Zhu Yi’s original contact, and then you took over?” Chen Zheng asked.
Si Wei wept as she spoke, her account incoherent and broken.
On their final night together in Yuanshu Township, she had gone to see Dong Jing but found Zhu Yi chatting with him. Feeling awkward, she started to leave. Zhu Yi stopped her with a smile. “Weiwei, perfect timing. Dong Jing and I were just discussing how to keep in touch.”
Si Wei had not wanted to get involved, but she had no choice but to go inside. Zhu Yi explained that if she was going to infiltrate the villagers, she needed to become as familiar as possible with the village women. Her phone might eventually be taken from her, so she would be the one to initiate contact with the two of them.
Si Wei had wanted no part of it. But she had been so enthusiastic when urging Zhu Yi on that showing reluctance now would expose her hypocrisy. So she feigned eagerness and promised she would always be there, whenever Zhu Yi needed her.
Dong Jing had said the same.
After returning to the city, Si Wei received several messages from Zhu Yi and exchanged a few brief chats with her. When Zhu Yi asked her to help locate Mei Feng and his wife, Si Wei asked Dong Jing about it. He said Zhu Yi had not contacted him. She was surprised. Dong Jing was closer to Zhu Yi, so why was she the one Zhu Yi kept bothering?
Si Wei confirmed that Mei Feng and his wife lived at Huyun Tea Factory and passed the information back to Zhu Yi. She could not help asking why Zhu Yi did not contact Dong Jing. Zhu Yi explained that perhaps only another woman could truly empathize in a situation like this.
Si Wei found it troublesome, yet was also a little moved. Because of that feeling, she did not make a single mistake while helping Mei Rui. During that period Dong Jing went overseas. Before he left, he specially invited Si Wei to dinner and asked her to look after Zhu Yi.
Si Wei sneered inwardly and made a couple of barbed remarks. “If you’re so reluctant to leave her, why don’t you stay?”
Dong Jing apparently had not expected that response. The atmosphere became awkward, and the dinner ended unhappily. Afterward, Si Wei’s attitude toward Zhu Yi began to shift in subtle ways.
I don’t want to help her anymore. Let her fend for herself. Si Wei thought this more than once. But when Zhu Yi finally persuaded Mei Rui and asked her to make formal contact with Mei Feng and his wife, Si Wei still could not bring herself to stand by and do nothing.
This is the last time. Absolutely the last time. With that thought, she bought a virtual phone number online and sent a message to Li Ping.
She thought it would all end there. Instead, Zhu Yi sent a message unlike any before: Save me!
Si Wei’s heart seized up, and she dropped her phone in fright. What did it mean? Mei Feng and his wife had not even arrived at Yuanshu Township yet. Had Zhu Yi already been discovered? By whom? Yi Lei or some other villager?
Her mind descended into chaos. She grabbed a coat and hurried toward the nearest police station, but stopped with only a road separating her from it. A voice within her asked: Why should you save her? Is she that important to you? What good would it do you if she came back?
Watching the traffic stream past, Si Wei suddenly laughed, mocking herself for an idiot. Zhu Yi had never been her friend. They lived on entirely different paths. Why should Si Wei disrupt her own life for Zhu Yi? Zhu Yi loved helping people so much; let her stay in Yuanshu Township. Si Wei had already done more than enough for her romantic rival. Even the man who stood between them had washed his hands of the affair and was enjoying himself abroad. Why should she keep meddling?
Besides, she had already seen how lawless and vicious people in impoverished places could be. If those villagers latched onto her, she would be the one in danger. Then Zhu Yi would once again be praised by everyone as a beautiful, kindhearted goddess. And what would Si Wei be?
She turned around. The police station stood silently behind her. She raised her phone and deleted Zhu Yi’s plea for help.
For a long time afterward, she consciously avoided news of Yuanshu Township and the tea factory. Eventually, she heard that someone had jumped from a building at the factory. After asking around, she learned it was Mei Rui. She felt oddly hollow for a moment, but ultimately concluded that Zhu Yi was ridiculous.
After all that effort, the woman Zhu Yi saved simply ended her own life. She would have been better off staying in Yuanshu Township. Life there might have been hard, but surely that was better than dying? And suicide, of all things. How miserable did she have to be to choose that? Had Zhu Yi really been helping anyone? No. She’d only been satisfying herself!
“Yes, I saw she was in danger and chose not to help. So what?” Si Wei glared viciously at Chen Zheng. “She was always making trouble for me, for all of us. If she wanted to play the saint, that was her business. She shouldn’t have dragged me into it!”
The sequence of events was finally clear. Chen Zheng sighed. “You didn’t see Dong Jing again before this gathering?”
“What reason did I have to see him?” Si Wei asked.
“Dong Jing didn’t organize this gathering. Nor did he ask you to meet him on the eighteenth because he wanted to kill you,” Chen Zheng said. “He was just as troubled over who the organizer might be. Among your group, he believed you were closest to him. After all, you two were the last people to plan things with Zhu Yi. He wanted to ask you what happened before Zhu Yi died, then work with you to identify the organizer.”
“Impossible!” Si Wei became agitated again.
“Think about it carefully. Wasn’t he completely unguarded around you? He knew you were skilled in combat. Did he bring anything he could have used to kill you?” Chen Zheng asked.
Si Wei’s eyes darted about, but she could not answer. No. She had searched Dong Jing and found only a lighter. She had been the one carrying the rope used to kill him.
“Another question,” Chen Zheng said. “If we rule out Dong Jing, who do you think organized this?”
Si Wei covered her mouth mechanically, her mind blank.
“Whose wedding did you come here to attend?” Chen Zheng asked.
Si Wei was slow to respond. “He Mei? You mean He Mei? H-how is that possible? She doesn’t care about any of us!”
Chen Zheng received similar answers when he put the same question to the other three. All of them had boarded this ship of vengeance on the pretext of He Mei’s wedding, yet not one had thought there might be something wrong with her. Even when Chen Zheng named He Mei directly, they still believed that someone so exquisitely self-interested would be the last person in the world to pursue revenge.