After calming himself for a moment, Chen Zheng called Tang Xiaoli. Tang Xiaoli had just left the hospital and was preparing to return to the crash scene.
“Liang Yueze has been saved, but he hasn’t woken up yet. His assistant is more seriously injured and his life is at risk. The driver’s fine.” Tang Xiaoli sighed. “The taxi driver and the passenger in the back seat both died.”
Chen Zheng’s heart sank.
Tang Xiaoli explained that Liang Yueze had been protected by the superior safety features of his expensive car. The taxi driver and his passenger were not so lucky. The truck had not hit the taxi directly, but the force with which the Maybach struck it was enormous. The passenger in the back was not wearing a seat belt and was thrown out on impact, breaking her neck. The taxi driver died on the way to the hospital.
As for the vehicle responsible, police had established that it belonged to Feima Freight Company. The driver was Tang Xiaowan, forty-two years old, with more than twenty years of driving experience. He had previously worked in long-haul transportation and had only joined Feima Freight four years earlier, driving a small truck and taking on relatively minor jobs such as moving households and offices.
Feima Freight was in complete chaos. The owner insisted he had no idea why Tang Xiaowan had suddenly gone mad. He had seen him only a few days ago, and the man had seemed perfectly normal. An investigation into Tang Xiaowan’s family was still under way. His body had been blown apart, and even piecing it back together would take time.
“And this Tang Xiaowan got his current job thanks to Yunquan Group,” Tang Xiaoli said.
“He attended the job placement fair?” Chen Zheng asked.
“That’s right. He stopped doing long-haul work not because it stopped paying well, but because living on the road for years gave him a serious back injury. He got terribly ill and was almost completely incapacitated.” Tang Xiaoli relayed what he had heard from Feima’s owner. “If that job fair hadn’t offered him an opportunity back then, he might not have found work again so quickly.”
“So he repaid Liang Yueze’s kindness by trying to kill him?” Chen Zheng asked.
“He was certainly just a tool. It’s possible he didn’t even know whom he was being sent to hit. Someone bought his life. All he had to do was show up at the specified time and place, ram his vehicle into the target, and kill himself before the police arrived.”
Thinking of those split seconds, Chen Zheng suddenly had a bold idea. “Captain Tang, could it be that Liang Yueze wasn’t his target at all?”
Tang Xiaoli paused. “You mean he was actually trying to hit Ming Han?”
“The fact that we’re investigating Yunquan Group is hardly a secret. And they really have begun going after police officers. They could have killed Ming Han with a vehicle anywhere, but they knew he would be following Liang Yueze’s car, so they acted while he was tailing it. Captain Tang, if Ming Han had been the one hit today, what would you have thought?”
“My first reaction would be that someone was attacking the police,” Tang Xiaoli considered. “But after thinking about it, I could reach another conclusion: Tang Xiaowan was ordered to hit Liang Yueze in the car ahead, but he made a mistake and struck Ming Han instead.”
“Exactly!” Chen Zheng said. “Perhaps that was precisely the conclusion they wanted us to reach. But Tang Xiaowan hit the wrong vehicle and almost killed Liang Yueze.”
Tang Xiaoli’s vehicle stopped along the stretch of road where the explosion had occurred. The fire had been extinguished and traffic had mostly returned to normal, but the trees lining both sides of the road had been scorched bare. In this season of new growth, they looked especially desolate.
“When Liang Yueze wakes up, I’ll sound him out carefully,” Tang Xiaoli said.
The crash disrupted Chen Zheng’s arrangements in Zhuquan City. The person who had killed Bin Fa and dumped his body appeared and vanished like a ghost. Aside from repeatedly reviewing surveillance footage, the police had no better way to find him. He was clearly skilled. Apart from the moment a public camera caught him in the lane by the institute’s back gate, he seemed to have evaporated into thin air.
Even on that occasion, it was not as though he could not have avoided the camera. He seemed to be making sure the police saw him: I came here, and there’s nothing you can do about it.
Under these circumstances, the shadow Chen Zheng had discovered deserved particular attention. The footprints suggested the two people were not the same person and that the shadow might have belonged to a woman. Kong Bing led officers to canvass the area around Xingfu Village, asking whether anyone had seen a suspicious woman entering or leaving, but even the strict security guard said he had noticed no one suspicious.
Then perhaps this person lived in Xingfu Village herself. After Chen Zheng discovered her, she might not have left at all. She might simply have returned home or hidden in another apartment.
The officers checked the residents’ footprints, but it was an arduous, thankless task. No one wanted to be treated as a suspect. Once they heard the footprints had been found in Unit 5-2, their faces darkened, and they swore they would rather die than set foot in that apartment.
After more than half a day of comparisons, none of the footprints matched.
When Chen Zheng pulled his thoughts away from the crash, he once again felt that sinister gaze settle on him.
At Luocheng Third People’s Hospital, Ming Han had just completed all his examinations when he started tugging at the IV needle in his hand. “Wen Wu, where’s my phone?”
Wen Wu handed it to him. A nurse passing by saw that Ming Han would not settle down and wanted to go in and stop him. Wen Wu blocked her and even pulled the door shut. “Let him make the call. If he doesn’t, he’ll practically die on you in a minute.”
The nurse: “…” Did police officers just talk about dying whenever they liked?
Ming Han placed the call, and the other end answered almost instantly. Chen Zheng’s voice came through, different from usual, a little hurried and nervous, nothing like the calm, collected Teacher Chen.
Ming Han’s lips curved into a smile. “Broooo…”
As soon as he said it, he startled himself. When he had been injured, everything had hurt, and in a daze he had even seen his grandmother. But after treatment he felt much better. He had simply wanted to call Chen Zheng “Bro,” drawing it out a little so Chen Zheng would know he was fine. He had not meant to sound so nasal and coaxing.
That single “Bro” drove everything Chen Zheng had wanted to say out of his head. He paused, only coming back to himself when he heard Ming Han breathing. “Could you… turn on video?”
Ming Han fumbled around. “Video?”
“I’ll call. You just answer.” Chen Zheng hung up and sent a video invitation. In an instant, Ming Han’s flushed face appeared on the screen. His forehead was injured and wrapped in a bandage, with faint traces of blood showing through. His eyes were bloodshot, and a cut at the corner of his mouth was somewhat swollen. He seemed in decent spirits, though Chen Zheng had no idea what the rest of his injuries looked like.
“Bro!” Ming Han called again, with much less of a coaxing tone this time.
Chen Zheng looked him over very carefully, noticing that Ming Han’s cheeks were even redder now. “Why are you blushing?”
Ming Han hurriedly touched his face. “Am I?”
Touching it only made him blush more.
Chen Zheng sighed. “You’ve worked hard, Brother Bird.”
Ming Han turned serious. “It’s a shame I couldn’t take the driver alive. I was so close.”
Chen Zheng did not want to criticize him just now. “Tell me what happened.”
He had already learned what had happened, but hearing Ming Han describe it from his own point of view was even more frightening. As soon as Ming Han spotted the detonator in Tang Xiaowan’s hand, he ran, yet the blast still lifted him off his feet. Fortunately, Ming Han was physically strong. Someone even slightly less robust would now be in intensive care or the morgue.
A chill of delayed fear ran through Chen Zheng. Ming Han suddenly pointed at the injury at the corner of his mouth. “Bro, my face is ruined.”
The wound looked frightening now, but it would not be very noticeable once the swelling went down. “You didn’t even need stitches,” Chen Zheng said. “How does that count as ruining your face?”
“It’s on my face, and my mouth of all places. A very important place,” Ming Han complained.
Chen Zheng humored him. “Yes, yes. You’ll have to be careful not to get spicy food on it.”
But Ming Han said, “Kissing won’t be convenient anymore.”
Chen Zheng: “…”
Ming Han blinked innocently.
“Is there no one else in your room?” Chen Zheng asked.
Ming Han laughed. “Just me. I drove everyone out. They were making too much noise.”
As if you aren’t noisy enough yourself, Chen Zheng thought.
Ming Han leaned a little closer and showed him the wound on his forehead too. “Be honest, Bro. Now that my face is ruined, will you dislike looking at me?”
Chen Zheng was speechless. “It’s such a small thing. You…” He had been about to say, You’re this big and you can still be so fussy? But seeing Ming Han look a little aggrieved and remembering that he really had suffered, Chen Zheng softened.
“I what?” Ming Han pressed.
Chen Zheng thought for a moment. “What about your other injuries? Show me.”
Ming Han held the phone farther away and lifted his hospital gown. Bandages were wrapped around his body, and his muscles were covered in bruises. Even in that state he had to show off verbally. “Just admit you wanted to see my abs.”
Chen Zheng: “…Yes, yes. I wanted to see your abs. Here, did the impact knock them off?”
Ming Han jumped and immediately checked. “Nonsense! They’re still here!”
After chatting idly for a while, the heart Chen Zheng had held suspended ever since hearing of Ming Han’s injury finally settled. He reminded Ming Han to recover properly and absolutely not to go anywhere before the doctors cleared him for discharge.
Ming Han agreed readily, then said, “Liang Yueze, his driver, and his assistant are all in this hospital too. The assistant’s in worse shape. When Liang Yueze wakes up, I’ll go see him.”
“What do you want to ask him?”
Ming Han shook his head. “Frankly, I don’t know. The crash was far too suspicious. I’m finding it hard to define what role he played in it.”
“You don’t think he was simply a victim either,” Chen Zheng said.
Ming Han’s eyes grew darker. He had been considering the same question as Chen Zheng. “Maybe Tang Xiaowan was actually trying to hit my car.”
A chill climbed Chen Zheng’s spine. “Then you need to be even more careful. I can’t come back yet, and you…”
Ming Han chuckled softly. “Bro, I’m more worried about you. At least I’ve got a whole crowd of people watching over me. You’ve only got Kong Bing.”
Chen Zheng stared at the “battle-damaged bird” on his screen, momentarily lost in thought. After a while, he cleared his throat. “If Kong Bing knew you’d said that about him, he wouldn’t let you set foot on his Beiye Sub-bureau turf next time.”
“Bro,” Ming Han said again. “I really want to get back to you as soon as possible. If the police really are their targets, you’re in even more danger.”
“I know,” Chen Zheng said seriously. “I’ll be twice as careful.”
They looked at each other through the phone. After a moment, Ming Han assumed a frail, helpless manner. “I can’t take it. Every time I remember my face is ruined, I feel so sad. I won’t even be able to kiss properly anymore.”
Chen Zheng pressed his index and middle fingers together, touched them to his lips, then placed them against the injured corner of Ming Han’s mouth on the screen.
Ming Han froze, utterly motionless, as though the network had lagged.
“No signal?” Chen Zheng said. “All right, that’s it then. I’m hanging up.”
“Bro!” Ming Han blurted. “There’s a signal! There’s a signal!”
Chen Zheng laughed. “Go rest properly, or your face will never heal.”
They went back and forth a little longer. Only when a nurse came in to check on him did Chen Zheng finally end the call.
Liang Yueze’s crash drew widespread public attention. People online had already begun mentioning Yunquan Group’s old tragedy, linking this crash to the one on Jinsi Island.
“What kind of people did Yunquan Group offend? How can they be so vicious? Last time they nearly destroyed Yunquan. Just when it finally got back on its feet, they struck again?”
“Seriously though, Liang Yueze is impressive. If he hadn’t stepped up during the crisis, Yunquan really would’ve been finished.”
“He’s that handsome? I thought he’d be a greasy middle-aged businessman!”
“His younger brother who died was the real talent. If he were still alive, who knows how far Yunquan would’ve grown.”
“Liang Yueze has to get better! Don’t let the bad guys win!”
“Speaking of the Liang family accident, have the police really not caught the killer after all these years? What are the police even doing?”
“Maybe the cops and criminals are working together?”
“Stop making things up. The accident happened in Country M. It’s such a mess over there. What could anyone do? Let’s see what happens this time. Surely they’ll catch the killer!”
…
While internet users let their imaginations run wild, the Mobile Unit continued its investigation into Yunquan Group. Liang Yueze had started building vocational schools and organizing labor placement for lower-income workers five years earlier, establishing relationships with a number of foreign companies.
Those activities did not really connect with Yunquan Group’s core business. Since Liang Yueze had taken over, Yunquan had gradually transformed into a technology company requiring highly specialized talent. It had even outsourced its manufacturing in the early years. That made Liang Yueze’s decision five years earlier particularly worth examining.
Among the foreign companies linked to Yunquan Group, a businessman from Country K named Jin Xiaoquan caught the Mobile Unit’s attention.
He was a labor-placement intermediary who traveled around the world, with agencies in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. He attended Yunquan Group’s job fairs every year. People hoping to work abroad passed through his hands, underwent skills and language training, and were sent to various countries.
There were actually many gray areas in how these operations worked. But in Hua Country, Yunquan Group vouched for him, and abroad he had local contacts to receive the workers. His business appeared to run remarkably smoothly.
There were plenty of intermediaries like him among Yunquan’s partners. The Mobile Unit focused on him for two reasons. First, his team was large, and he had close ties with Liang Yueze. Second, his nationality and name.
Heaven-Measuring Ruler contained countless men known as Mr. Jin. The name had long since become a symbol. What about this Jin Xiaoquan? Could he be another Mr. Jin?
Many of Yunquan Group’s senior executives came to the hospital, and its partners also sent people to visit, but the doctors, nurses, and police turned them all away. Liang Yueze was not currently well enough to receive visitors.
Jin Xiaoquan was not among those who came. He did not appear to have much of a personal relationship with Liang Yueze. The job fair was still going on. Jin Xiaoquan went back and forth between the hotel and the venue, looking extremely busy. Within the limited scope of their authorization, the police found no evidence of unlawful conduct in his domestic business operations.
The investigation into Tang Xiaowan, however, uncovered quite a lot. When his former wife, Ms. Li, learned what he had done, she felt far more frightened than grief-stricken. “I knew he’d come to this one day! He went crazy long ago! Thank goodness we’re divorced!”
Tang Xiaoli personally interviewed Ms. Li. “Why did you divorce back then?”
In fits and starts, Ms. Li explained that she and Tang Xiaowan came from the same hometown and had known each other since childhood. They had once been very close. Tang Xiaowan had been hardworking and honest. He wanted to go to a big city, work, and earn a lot of money, but warned that it would be hard and asked whether she was willing to endure hardship with him.
She had thought Tang Xiaowan was a man she could entrust her life to. Together they could build a promising future. So she joined him on his long-haul trips.
Long-distance freight work was exhausting. They ate and slept in the truck and spent most of the year on the road. But they did save a considerable amount. They bought a home, had a child, and became city residents.
Years behind the wheel ruined Tang Xiaowan’s lower back. He became bedridden, and neither medication nor massage helped. He was the family’s main support. If he collapsed, the whole family would fall with him.
Treating Tang Xiaowan’s illness cost a great deal, and the family suddenly found itself short of money. Ms. Li went out to look for work. At that time, she was still hopeful. Tang Xiaowan was not paralyzed; he could still get out of bed. They could stop driving and return to the countryside to open a parcel delivery station or a convenience shop. Surely they would be able to get by.
But the saying about people turning to any remedy in desperation had stood the test of time and generations. When Tang Xiaowan saw that doctors could not cure him, he began believing in superstition and bizarre doctrines. From somewhere he heard of an “Azure Sky Cult.” Every day he worshipped the “Azure Sky God” at home, praying for that mysterious deity to save him.
The village where Ms. Li had grown up was poor, but efforts to stamp out superstition had been effective. She did not believe in gods or Buddhas and was strongly opposed to such things. She thought her husband had been bewitched. They argued daily as she tried to set him right. But Tang Xiaowan went further and further, taking the family’s money to make offerings to the Azure Sky God and insisting only this deity could heal him.
Watching years of savings squandered before her eyes, Ms. Li finally could not bear it. She divorced Tang Xiaowan and took their child back to her hometown. Somehow, however, Tang Xiaowan’s back slowly seemed to improve.
Ms. Li had even wondered whether the Azure Sky God really worked.
After his back seemed to get better, Tang Xiaowan found a job. He was still a driver, but no longer on long-haul routes. His daily work was much easier, though his income also dropped sharply. Tang Xiaowan believed the Azure Sky God had given him a new life. He frequently preached to friends and relatives and even tried to make his son a believer too.
Ms. Li absolutely refused. Whenever Tang Xiaowan returned home to preach, she went from door to door telling people he was sick and crazy. The two clashed repeatedly. Tang Xiaowan called her a madwoman, infuriating her. The last time they met, she shouted at him, “One day that plague god you worship will get you killed!”
Ms. Li was trembling. “I… I was right. That ‘plague god’ really did get him killed!”
Tang Xiaowan’s body was incomplete, making the autopsy extremely difficult. Combined with his medical records, the forensic pathologist confirmed that he had suffered from severe lower-back disease. As for how he had later recovered and resumed driving, it was probably not because of the Azure Sky God, but because of a drug.
The pathologist found traces of a psychoactive drug in the fragmented remains. The same drug had been found at Tang Xiaowan’s home. His sudden improvement did not mean his back injury was healed. Rather, the drug had stopped him from feeling pain. He could no longer perceive the pain in his back.
Tang Xiaoli stared at the test results, frowning deeply. The substance was Black Mark, the very drug the Mobile Unit had been watching closely. Xue Chenwen had used an early version of it back then, and Huo Yewei had used Black Mark just recently!
Both Xue Chenwen and Huo Yewei were wealthy and had numerous ways of obtaining illegal drugs. Given Tang Xiaowan’s financial circumstances, it could only have been the Azure Sky Cult that supplied him. That was why he felt so grateful and mistakenly believed the Azure Sky God had manifested a miracle.
A condition that had not improved despite spending tens of thousands on specialist consultations had suddenly seemed to vanish! He had become the most devout believer, preaching at every opportunity, becoming a madman in the eyes of his wife and fellow villagers.
In the end, he truly had become one.
If that was what happened to Tang Xiaowan, what about Huo Yewei? The police had only a limited number of cases connected with Black Mark. The drug had not yet spread widely, and there was a strong possibility that Huo Yewei had obtained it from the Azure Sky Cult too.
When Feima Freight’s owner learned that Tang Xiaowan’s back had never truly recovered, he broke out in a cold sweat.
He said small companies like theirs did not require regular employee medical examinations. Tang Xiaowan had arranged his own, and the report said he was healthy, so the owner had let it go. “If I’d known he was keeping himself going with that kind of drug, I never would’ve employed him! No one told me!”
“Black Mark is a highly addictive pain-relieving drug that acts on the mind,” Tang Xiaoli said. “They let Tang Xiaowan taste the benefits and supplied him with measured doses on a regular schedule. As soon as the supply was cut off, the pain and drug dependence would drive him to distraction. His body had come completely under the drug’s control.”
Ming Han was already able to get out of bed and walk around, supporting himself with his IV pole. “At that point, making Tang Xiaowan do anything would be easy. Deny him the drug and the old pain combined with withdrawal would be unbearable. ‘We can give you the drug, but you have to do one thing for us.’ He wouldn’t be able to think about anything except the drug. Even if they told him he’d have to press the detonator at the end, he’d agree right away. Where did this Azure Sky Cult come from?”
“We have very few leads for now,” Tang Xiaoli said. “It doesn’t have many followers.”
Ming Han looked puzzled. “But didn’t Tang Xiaowan preach to everyone he met? Surely there are plenty of people like him. Why hasn’t it grown?”
“Old Lu and I think the Azure Sky Cult may be extremely selective. It truly accepts only the people it has specifically targeted. Those brought in by other believers, like the people Tang Xiaowan recruited, aren’t really recognized by it. They can’t access its secrets. Tang Xiaowan recruited six followers. I’ve spoken to every one of them. But all they knew was the name Azure Sky Cult. They imitated Tang Xiaowan in worshipping the Azure Sky God and occasionally recited things like ‘May our Lord protect us.’ None of them had met Tang Xiaowan’s handler in the cult, and none had ever received any drugs from him.”
“So they’re effectively useless as followers,” Ming Han said.
Tang Xiaoli nodded. “Exactly. There are probably quite a few people like Tang Xiaowan. All of them suffer physical or psychological pain they can’t overcome. That’s what lets the Azure Sky Cult take advantage of them, giving them short-term relief with drugs and maintaining long-term control. Huo Yewei was like that too. He wasn’t in physical pain, but his psychological suffering was severe.”
Ming Han considered this. “Then what’s the connection between the Azure Sky Cult and Heaven-Measuring Ruler?”
“That’s what we have to investigate next.” Tang Xiaoli clasped his hands behind his back. “And we also need to ask where Black Mark is being manufactured.”