Bin Fa’s home looked no different from the last time they had visited. The crime scene examiners were sorting through things and preparing to take them back to the sub-bureau. Chen Zheng spoke for a while with Bin Fa’s neighbor, who did not remember seeing Bin Fa with anyone else recently.
“He always came and went alone. He wasn’t originally from around here, either, so we never really knew how to greet him.” The neighbor sounded a little guilty.
Objectively, the chances of criminals approaching this residential compound for police families were low. But how could they be certain Bin Fa had nothing in his home that might harm them? Were they sure he had destroyed all important evidence? Or were they sure he had never possessed any important evidence at all?
Spring had not officially arrived. Once darkness fell, the temperature dropped quickly. The sub-bureau officers left first. Chen Zheng checked the time and was about to go as well. Just then, he saw a shadow move inside the building across the road. When he focused on it, the room that should have contained someone was already pitch-dark.
That building was not part of the police residential compound, but an ordinary old housing estate. Locals called it Xingfu Village. It stood across the road, windows facing windows, close enough that someone who looked carefully could see the furnishings inside the opposite apartments.
Had someone been watching Bin Fa from across the street? Had they now turned their attention to the detectives? Chen Zheng grew intensely alert and immediately decided to check out Xingfu Village.
The two buildings looked close together, but their entrances happened to face opposite directions, with traffic lights along the way. By the time Chen Zheng arrived, fifteen minutes had passed.
The security guard at Xingfu Village stopped him. “Hey, what are you doing? Why are you rushing inside? Haven’t seen you around before.”
“Police,” Chen Zheng said, reaching for his identification as he spoke.
Before he could take it out, the guard clicked his tongue. “What police? I’m telling you, the compound next door’s full of police officers, and I…”
Chen Zheng showed his credentials. The guard choked. “You really are police?”
Without wasting words on him, Chen Zheng strode toward Building Three, observing the people in the compound as he went. It was an old estate, but not everyone who lived here was elderly. Delivery drivers came and went. Young workers hurried upstairs after their shifts. Some residents were walking dogs or keeping an eye on children downstairs. Everyone looked as though they belonged there.
The room where the suspicious shadow had appeared was on the fifth floor. There was no elevator, and each floor had four apartments. Chen Zheng mapped out their layout in his head and stopped before Unit 5-2. The Lunar New Year had just passed, and many doors still displayed red couplets and good-fortune characters. This door was covered only in small advertisements.
Chen Zheng reached through the iron security grille, moved the latch, and opened it. With only a wooden door between him and the apartment, getting inside would have been easy. But he had no authorization to search the home. And he had come chasing nothing more than a shadow. Anyone could say he had no grounds at all.
He pushed the security grille shut again and knocked twice on the wooden door.
There was no reply and no sound from within.
He knocked again. Just then, a middle-aged woman carrying a bag climbed the stairs and eyed him suspiciously. “Have you got the wrong place?”
“Does no one live here?” Chen Zheng asked.
“No one’s lived here for ages! The people who owned it had no morals. They took money to store people’s ashes, and we chased them out. It’s been empty ever since!”
Chen Zheng clearly remembered that the shadow had appeared in this very apartment. If nobody lived here, that made his earlier feeling more credible. Someone really had been using this spot to observe what was happening in Bin Fa’s home.
He immediately called Kong Bing to arrange an authorized search. When the apartment door was opened, a stale smell of incense and candles drifted out.
Chen Zheng flicked the switch beside the entrance, but the light did not come on. The electricity had been cut off. In the corridor light, he could make out the furnishings. The cabinets once used to hold urns had all been removed, leaving marks on the walls. A large table stood in the middle of the living room, used for offerings and religious rites, though it was now empty. Half-used incense and candles had been left in a corner. With the place shut up and unventilated, the smell had grown so strong.
Restoring the electricity would take time. Kong Bing contacted the owner, whose voice rose to a shriek when he heard that the police were there.
Without power, they could not carry out a proper forensic examination yet, only make an initial survey. Chen Zheng cautiously entered one of the former bedrooms. Of course it was no longer a bedroom, and there was no bed. Dirty curtains covered most of the window, and no one was hiding there. But not long ago, that shadow had stood by this very window, watching Bin Fa’s home, watching him.
Kong Bing sounded anxious. “Teacher Chen, was the person you saw watching Bin Fa, or watching you?”
Chen Zheng could not answer. He could not even produce evidence that someone had been watching the opposite building.
When the electricity was restored, light flooded every corner of the room. Even without specialist equipment, clear footprints could be seen on the floor. Judging by their size and the style of the footwear, whoever had hidden here seemed to be a woman.
A woman?
Ming Han’s first thought was Xu Hetang. When Lü Ou had been held captive by Hao Le in the tattoo shop, Xu Hetang had left footprints at the scene. They could compare them.
While the police examined the apartment, its owner arrived. Chen Zheng asked, “When was the last time you came here?”
The owner thought for a long time. “More than two years ago, I guess? They wouldn’t let me run the ashes business, so I moved out, didn’t I? Oh, right, last year they said they’d cut off my water and electricity and told me to come back to pay the property fees. What a joke. I wasn’t living here. Why should I pay?”
“Who has a key besides you?” Chen Zheng asked.
“No one. Who’d dare come to a place like this, anyway…”
Yet someone had taken advantage of the very fear people had of entering the apartment and turned it into a base. What had she been trying to do?
On February fourteenth, a large spring job placement fair was under way in Luocheng, organized by Yunquan Group. The fair had been held for five years, but this was the first year it had attracted the police’s attention.
Dressed like young people looking for work, Ming Han and Zhou Jue mixed with the crowd and slowly pushed their way through the venue. The hall was enormous. Many companies had applied for booths, and volunteers handed out leaflets describing various kinds of work.
The people’s faces showed different expressions. They craned their necks at the assorted booths. Some eagerly promoted themselves. Others were tempted but did not dare step forward. Yet hope shone in every pair of eyes. In this season when all things were coming back to life, they longed to find jobs that would support their families.
“Bird, have you ever been to a job fair like this?” Zhou Jue asked. “Why isn’t it anything like I imagined?”
“What did you imagine?” Ming Han asked. “Everyone in suits carrying briefcases?”
Zhou Jue scratched his buzz-cut head. “Something like that. Why does this look more like a market?”
“You’ve watched too much television. Get your feet on the ground and take a look at ordinary people’s lives.”
Zhou Jue bristled. “Hey, how am I not grounded in reality?”
Ming Han pointed to the promotional slogan hanging nearby. “Labor placement. See? Most people who come looking for work here haven’t been to university. They’re at the bottom of society. They generally aren’t looking for white-collar jobs in office buildings. They want work in transportation, cooking, cleaning, domestic service, construction, agriculture, services, that sort of thing.”
As he spoke, Ming Han examined the overseas labor placement area. Yunquan Group had established links with foreign companies too. Qualified job seekers could go abroad after receiving systematic training.
Zhou Jue wanted to experience job hunting, so he approached the booth of a transportation company. The interviewer, a middle-aged man, asked about his work history. Zhou Jue made up an identity. The man looked him up and down, apparently pleased by his build, and told him to fill out a form and await further notice.
“That’s it?” Zhou Jue said to Ming Han, holding the form. “Finding a job’s pretty easy.”
“Then hurry up and change careers. I’ll put in a word with Old Tang for you.”
Zhou Jue lightly tapped Ming Han on the head with the form. “Watch your mouth.” After a while, he grew reflective again. “I’ve realized that if you come here confidently and have a skill, finding work really isn’t hard. Even if you can’t find a job here, you can try going abroad and earning some foreign currency. The hard part is organizing a fair this big.”
“Getting this many companies here, offering so many openings, and keeping the venue running smoothly takes real ability on Yunquan Group’s part,” Ming Han said.
“Is Yunquan Group doing charity work?”
“It’s also a publicity strategy.” Ming Han scrolled through his phone as he spoke. After running labor placement fairs for five consecutive years and making a great effort to provide jobs to low-income workers, Yunquan Group’s reputation had steadily improved. Many people said that other big companies made empty gestures by donating money and goods, while Yunquan was the one doing something genuinely useful.
And for ordinary people, a sustainable job was indeed worth more than gifts or gestures of concern.
Compared with the domestic employment booths, fewer people were gathered around the overseas labor placement area, and most were young. Pretending to be interested, Ming Han approached. Many of the companies here came from Countries K and J and Southeast Asia. Those places needed labor and were relatively close to Hua Country. Most of the positions involved agriculture, processing, construction, and related work.
After looking around, Ming Han did not notice anything unusual for now. At least on the surface, the recruitment, interviews, and training procedures appeared proper.
He and Zhou Jue had come today to investigate Yunquan Group. Chen Zheng suspected the company was involved with Heaven-Measuring Ruler, but the police did not yet know what form their cooperation might take.
Just then, a commotion broke out near Gate Two. Ming Han immediately looked over. A group of men resembling bodyguards had entered, escorting another man. It was Liang Yueze.
Here he comes, Ming Han thought.
At previous fairs, Liang Yueze usually arrived on the second or third day to thank the attending companies on behalf of Yunquan Group and wish the job seekers well. This year, he had come on the third day.
The host announced the arrival of Mr. Liang Yueze from Yunquan Group, and thunderous applause broke out in the hall. Many people did not know who Mr. Liang was, but this reception told them he must be important to the organizers. Yunquan Group was providing them with job opportunities. Of course they welcomed one of its important figures.
Their feelings were simple and sincere. Ming Han heard the young people around him cheer and clap, and he joined in.
Liang Yueze was not wearing a suit. Instead, he was dressed like many of the job seekers, in comfortable sportswear that allowed easy movement and would not show dirt. He briefly explained the purpose of the fair, emphasizing that Yunquan Group would do everything possible to coordinate matters and safeguard job seekers. In particular, the company understood the difficulties facing people who chose to work overseas. If they encountered problems after leaving the country, they could contact Yunquan Group.
His impassioned speech drew enthusiastic applause. He seemed to know exactly when to stop, ending before the audience began to tire. After giving Yunquan’s vocational schools one final plug, he smiled and left.
Ming Han had become separated from Zhou Jue. The reception inside the venue was poor. He sent Zhou Jue a message and squeezed out through Gate Two.
Outside, Liang Yueze had already entered his car, a conspicuous Maybach. Ming Han and Zhou Jue’s vehicle had been parked in an inconvenient spot. By the time Ming Han drove out, the Maybach had almost vanished from sight.
Fortunately, he knew Luocheng’s roads like the back of his hand. Taking a shortcut, he finally caught up and followed the Maybach with three cars between them.
The Maybach was driving away from Yunquan Group, with no indication of its destination. Because the exhibition center occupied so much land, it had been built far from downtown. They were now four kilometers from the venue, yet pedestrian traffic remained sparse. Few tall buildings stood in this area, so visibility was generally good. Ming Han watched the roads around him as he drove.
Ahead was a traffic light, with ten seconds left before it turned red. He pressed the accelerator and overtook another car. Otherwise, he might have to watch the Maybach slip away before his eyes.
But just as he accelerated, a small truck came charging down a slope on the right. A tall building stood at just that spot. From where Ming Han was, he could not possibly have seen the approaching truck. The signal countdown dropped into single digits. No cars remained between Ming Han and the Maybach, which was just about to pass through the intersection.
At that instant the little truck struck, hurtling toward the Maybach like a shell. Ming Han slammed on the brakes. His seat belt pulled tight across his body as he lurched forward.
The shock of the collision came like invisible blades cutting across his windshield, while the thunderous crash assaulted his eardrums. The small truck did not stop. The Maybach was knocked into the oncoming lane and struck a taxi approaching from the opposite direction. The taxi overturned, and the Maybach was brought to a halt on the landscaped median. Horns blared up and down the road, but the truck that caused the crash accelerated and sped away!
Ming Han looked toward the Maybach. He had no idea what had happened to the people inside. Then he looked at the small truck, which was heading out of the city.
“Fuck!” Ming Han cursed and chose to pursue it first.
“Zhou Jue!” Ming Han kept his eyes fixed on the road ahead. “Get people to Zhongjia Avenue immediately. Liang Yueze’s car’s been hit. This isn’t an ordinary accident!”
Zhou Jue was still at the venue. He ran outside, borrowed a vehicle from the special police officers on duty, and raced toward the scene.
Because of the sudden crash, one side of Zhongjia Avenue was completely blocked. Fire engines and ambulances approached from the other side, their sirens deafening.
By the time Zhou Jue arrived, paramedics had just pulled the occupants of the Maybach and the taxi from their vehicles. Blood pooled on the ground, and it was impossible to tell how seriously each person was injured. Zhou Jue called Ming Han, who said only “Still chasing,” then hung up.
“What the hell is going on?” Zhou Jue shook his head, pushed toward an ambulance, and showed his credentials, insisting on riding along to the hospital. The paramedics initially refused, but when a traffic officer saw he was with the Mobile Unit, he shouted, “Let him in!”
As the ambulance headed to the hospital, Zhou Jue looked at Liang Yueze, unconscious and covered in blood around the head, and felt an awful sense of foreboding. The Mobile Unit had only just begun watching Liang Yueze, yet something had happened right before Ming Han’s eyes. Who had the nerve to kill someone at a moment like this?
Police reinforcements had already arrived on Zhongjia Avenue. Their sirens blared as they blocked the small truck’s route. The driver swung the truck sideways, but Ming Han had cut off the other side.
After a moment’s hesitation, the truck accelerated straight toward Ming Han!
Many of the Mobile Unit’s cars had been modified and were tough enough to withstand a beating. But this time Ming Han was in an ordinary vehicle, whose capabilities could not match Liang Yueze’s Maybach. The small truck had dared to slam into the Maybach at full speed and was certainly not afraid of Ming Han. Ming Han jerked the steering wheel, chambered a round, and fired decisively at the truck’s front wheel.
Bang! Bang! The gunshots sounded almost together. Bullets struck the truck’s front and rear wheels. With a shrill scraping noise, it veered toward the roadside and overturned with a crash.
Ming Han glanced at the police car ahead. A gloved hand had been raised. It belonged to Wen Wu.
Wen Wu was actually a decent shot by Mobile Unit standards, but he had a fatal weakness: he hesitated before firing. Zhou Jue had said all that marksmanship training was wasted on him. If he dared not shoot in the field, what kind of police officer was he? He might as well become an athlete and shoot in exhibitions.
There was no time to wonder why Wen Wu had fired so decisively this time. Ming Han immediately got out and approached the overturned truck.
Only one person was inside, the driver. His leg was trapped, and he was struggling to free himself. Ming Han approached with his gun raised. Suddenly his pupils contracted. The driver was holding a detonator!
“Run!” Ming Han shouted.
The instant the word left his mouth, the driver, his forehead covered in blood, pressed the button with a vicious grin. For a moment, the world seemed to fall silent. Fire and blast waves rose high behind Ming Han, like the gates of hell thrown open, evil dancing freely in the flames and devouring anyone who dared come close to stop it.
The shock wave lifted Ming Han off his feet. He clenched his teeth and used all his strength to protect his head. After his body struck a car roof with terrible force, his hearing, the pain, everything returned. Time finally began to move again.
The windows had shattered. He was in such pain that it felt as though rusty hands were tearing at his internal organs. When he opened his mouth, he smelled blood.
The small truck was still burning. Trees along the road had caught fire too. Ming Han struggled to look back. The clear spring sky was now stained black and red by smoke and flame. Explosive fumes and dust rolled everywhere, and the truck was burning down to its metal frame.
Ming Han clenched his fist and slammed it against the car roof. The moment he moved, he coughed up a mouthful of blood.
“Bird! Ming Han!” Wen Wu’s voice came through the thick smoke. He sounded anxious, but he was shouting so loudly he was probably unhurt.
Wen Wu rushed through the band of fire. At the sight of Ming Han, however, his raised hands stopped. Ming Han looked so terrible that Wen Wu feared moving him even slightly might kill him.
“I’m… fine,” Ming Han said in a breathless whisper. “Firefighters… ambulance…”
“They’ll be here any second! Hang on!” Wen Wu said, his eyes red.
Ming Han had a fairly good sense of his condition. He was injured, and the impact had been punishing, but his life was not in danger. His thoughts were clear. He was still regretting that he had failed to capture the driver alive.
Who was the driver? What had he been promised that made him drive so readily into the Maybach and then press the detonator without hesitation?
An ambulance siren sounded in the distance. Ming Han breathed in the smoke and began coughing violently. The answers would probably remain out of reach for now.
Chen Zheng did not learn of the bizarre crash until Ming Han had been taken to the hospital. His mind buzzed, and for a moment he could not process the news.
Kong Bing said anxiously beside him, “Hurry up and ask how Ming Han is!”
As Chen Zheng picked up his phone, his fingertips trembled slightly. A feeling of dread even stronger than when he had rescued Ming Han at the Yunxiang Theater in Nanshan City washed over him. Ming Han had chased the truck and been very close to the center of the explosion.
Ming Han, was he…
The call rang unanswered. His heart suddenly raced out of control. An inner voice shouted, Of course calling him won’t work. Call someone else!
He found Wen Wu’s number and was just about to dial when his phone suddenly rang. The screen displayed “Little Bird.”
He answered at once. “Ming Han, you…”
“Brother Chen, it’s me.” It was Wen Wu’s voice.
Chen Zheng’s heart seemed to drop into an empty space, sweat sliding down his temples. “How is Ming Han now?”
“He’s out of danger, but the doctors are still examining him. He can’t answer the phone. Zhou Jue and I have his mobile.”
Chen Zheng closed his eyes. The awful feeling of being gnawed at by insects finally subsided a little. “That’s good. That’s good. What about the rest of you? Is anyone hurt? What happened?”
Standing in the hospital corridor, Wen Wu told him what had happened. “We’re all fine. We were farther from the truck. Ming Han warned us. He was much closer because he wanted to capture the driver alive. He didn’t expect the driver to be so ruthless.”
Chen Zheng listened, his nerves stretched taut. Everything had happened so suddenly, and every decision Ming Han had made on the spot had been right. The blame lay with the driver and whoever stood behind him for being so utterly vicious. If Ming Han had been even a little closer to the truck, or a little slower to retreat, the consequences would have been unthinkable.
Wen Wu added, “Brother Chen, Ming Han knows you called. He was afraid you’d worry, so he told me to call you back right away. He can’t talk now, but he’ll call later.”
Chen Zheng slowly curled his fingers. “All right. Let him rest. I’ll wait for his call.”
After putting down the phone, Chen Zheng stared into space for a while. He had not been at the scene and could not directly picture the moment the truck rammed Liang Yueze’s car. Had the perpetrator planned to attack Liang Yueze all along, or had he been forced to act because the police had begun investigating Yunquan Group?
Liang Yueze’s schedule for the job fair had been decided long ago. The small truck might have lain in wait on Zhongjia Avenue for days, waiting for the precise moment his car passed. Had they anticipated that the police would be following him? Could their reason for not striking at another time be that they wanted to do it right in front of the police?
A show of force? A provocation? Intimidation?
Chen Zheng could not help thinking of Bin Fa’s body, left at the rear gate of the research institute. Heaven-Measuring Ruler was brazen to the extreme. It not only killed police officers, it dumped their bodies where they worked.
What about this time? Was Heaven-Measuring Ruler also behind the truck driver? Did Heaven-Measuring Ruler want Liang Yueze eliminated?
“How could that be?” Chen Zheng frowned deeply. Events had taken a course utterly opposed to his earlier deductions. Bu Yangyun, Huo Xiling, and the others had used Heaven-Measuring Ruler to get rid of Second Uncle Liang and the twins and had become Liang Yueze’s mortal enemies. But from what the police had learned so far, Heaven-Measuring Ruler today might be different from what it had been more than a decade ago, and Liang Yueze appeared to have connections to its current incarnation. So why would Heaven-Measuring Ruler attack him?
How many competing forces were moving beneath the surface? How many distinct criminal factions were the police facing?