Liang Yueze seemed to have evaporated from Luocheng, from Han Province itself. Bu Yangyun was urging him to go to Country M, yet Liang Yueze had started preparing before the email even arrived. His next move was almost certainly to leave the country, but there was no trace of him at airports, high-speed rail stations, or expressway toll booths.
“Liang Yueze can’t leave the country legally anymore,” Chen Zheng said. “He’ll try to cross the border illegally. Someone in Country M will be able to receive him.”
“Killer A vanished after shooting Jin Xiaoquan. Maybe he’s already waiting for Liang Yueze in Southeast Asia?” Ming Han paced behind Chen Zheng. “The Heaven-Measuring Ruler is especially good at smuggling people across borders. If Liang Yueze leaves illegally while his whereabouts are unknown, we’ll have a hard time stopping him.”
It was already late at night. The entire Mobile Unit had been deployed that day to no avail. The surveillance officers were deeply ashamed, and Chen Zheng’s emotions were unsettled too.
“Actually, the situation isn’t quite as bad as you’re imagining,” Tang Xiaoli said. “Liang Yueze and the police may stand on opposing sides, but there’s one goal we share.”
“Going to Country M?” Chen Zheng asked.
Tang Xiaoli nodded. “Liang Yueze wants to go there to settle the old Jinsi Island case. We’re trying to get there to tear down the Heaven-Measuring Ruler’s headquarters. But as you know, we’ve met with a lot of obstacles in seeking authorization. Our superiors think the conditions aren’t sufficient, and they’ve got many reservations. Whether we can go, and when, remain undecided.”
“Liang Yueze disappearing and fleeing to Country M would be a major point in our favor,” Chen Zheng said.
“Exactly. If we confirm he’s in Country M, we’ll have stronger grounds to go there ourselves. But of course, we can’t let up on the search. Doing our best and failing to stop him is one thing. Standing by and watching him cross the border illegally is another.”
“I understand,” Chen Zheng said.
After the meeting, Chen Zheng opened Bu Yangyun’s email again. In the afternoon, he and Ming Han had been so busy trying to locate Liang Yueze that neither had found time to watch the video twice.
The meeting room was deserted. Chen Zheng turned down the volume. Ming Han sat behind him with a hand resting on his shoulder.
Perhaps because he’d lived abroad for so long, Bu Yangyun’s word choices and intonation had taken on a foreign flavor, and his facial expressions seemed rather exaggerated.
“Do you think he’s telling the truth?” Chen Zheng asked after watching it again.
Ming Han looked unusually serious, almost distracted. Chen Zheng sighed inwardly. In the video, Bu Yangyun had displayed a rare show of concern for his child. Even if it was insincere, it was difficult to feel absolutely nothing in response.
“He’s building himself a persona again. Even Luo Yingqiang can’t compete with him at that,” Ming Han sneered. “He claims he’s only admitting what he did because Liang Yueze has made me a target of revenge, so now Liang can go after the actual person responsible. Then why did he treat my mother and me the way he did back then? I think he’s digging a pit for me. If I fall into it, that would benefit him, Liang Yueze, and maybe even the Heaven-Measuring Ruler.”
Hearing how clearheaded Ming Han was only made Chen Zheng’s heart ache. He almost wished Ming Han could be a little less clearheaded for once.
When Chen Zheng hadn’t spoken for a while, Ming Han turned and saw the concern in his eyes. “What’s wrong, Bro?”
Chen Zheng shook his head, wrapped an arm around Ming Han’s head, and drew him down against his shoulder. “Tired?” he asked gently.
Ming Han had been wound tight all day. Leaning suddenly against Chen Zheng, breathing in the familiar scent at his neck, he finally relaxed. “Want the truth?”
“I’ll allow you to lie.”
“Now you’re teasing me?” Ming Han laughed. “I’m not tired. If we go home, I could probably keep you shut inside for three days and nights.”
Chen Zheng lightly bumped his forehead against Ming Han’s. “No chance. My stamina would last one day at most.”
“With me pulling up the average, we could manage two.”
Chen Zheng slapped his cheek lightly. “Talking like that in front of Bu Yangyun gives me goose bumps.”
“What’s there to be afraid of? I’d say it to his face too.”
Chen Zheng steered them back to the subject. “If Bu Yangyun is setting a trap, what do you think he really wants?”
“Bu Yangyun went to Country G because he was afraid of becoming a complete puppet of the Heaven-Measuring Ruler. As far as he was concerned, the Jinsi Island case had little to do with him. Yunquan Group was in no position to protect itself, let alone do anything to him if it learned he was one of the people who benefited,” Ming Han reasoned, resting his chin on his hand. “But even after moving to Country G, Bu Yangyun kept track of the organization’s affairs. He probably knows more about what happened to its factions over the past dozen years than we do. That’s how he knows Jin Chiya’s branch is finished. Why did it fall? Maybe internal conflict, maybe an attack from outside. But Jin Chiya’s branch differed from the rest. Jin Wu, the organization’s leader, valued it highly, and Jin Chiya had been doing well in Hua Country. Infighting alone probably wouldn’t have made it disappear so completely.”
“So from Bu Yangyun’s perspective, Jin Chiya’s faction must have suffered both internal and external blows, and around the same time, Yunquan Group recovered,” Chen Zheng said. “As one of the Jinsi Island participants, Bu Yangyun immediately suspected Yunquan Group had begun its revenge.”
Ming Han nodded. “Bu Yangyun’s spent all these years in Country G intact. He may have an intelligence network we don’t know about. He might have known what was happening before I called him. My call just made him hurry. He knows Liang Yueze is seeking revenge on the people involved back then and that Jin Chiya’s entire faction may have been wiped out. Neither he nor Huo Xiling can escape forever. Liang Yueze allied himself with Jin Xiaoquan’s branch of the Heaven-Measuring Ruler, but now there’s a rift between them. Liang Yueze doesn’t just want revenge. He wants to take down the entire Heaven-Measuring Ruler, right up to Jin Wu. That puts Bu Yangyun’s interests on the same side as the organization’s again. He needs its protection, and it needs him as bait. Why else would he disappear for so long? He must have been secretly preparing to go to Country M.”
Chen Zheng wrote down the Heaven-Measuring Ruler aliases they knew. Jin Chiya and Jin Xiaoquan were both crossed out. Above Jin Xiaoquan stood the mysterious Jin Xiuhe; they were part of the branch from Country A. Jin Chiya’s branch came from Country K. That branch had been destroyed so swiftly as a result of Liang Yueze and Jin Xiaoquan joining forces. It was also Jin Xiaoquan’s branch that had been wreaking havoc in Hua Country in recent years and had attracted the Mobile Unit’s attention. Now Liang Yueze and Jin Xiaoquan had fallen out completely, and the person most eager to eliminate Liang Yueze might be Jin Xiuhe.
Chen Zheng circled Bu Yangyun’s name. “Is he working with Jin Xiuhe, or with Jin Wu?”
Ming Han couldn’t reach an answer either. “Bu Yangyun makes a lot of grand speeches, but what he really wants is for us to arrest Liang Yueze. Why else rush to send us that email?”
“Exactly. He could have sent it only to Liang Yueze, who would’ve found it easier to get away,” Chen Zheng said. “But he sent it to us too. That makes stopping Liang Yueze our responsibility.”
“Then he can rest easy in Country M. Once Liang Yueze is convicted, he won’t have the chance to seek revenge on Bu Yangyun again, and Bu Yangyun will have secured a new arrangement with the Heaven-Measuring Ruler.” Ming Han clicked his tongue. “He dumps all the hard work on the police and gets to play the concerned father at the same time.”
Even after Chen Zheng and Ming Han analyzed Bu Yangyun’s motive, they were no closer to finding Liang Yueze. Tang Xiaoli had said that if Liang Yueze crossed the border, it would strengthen their application to conduct an operation in Country M. Yet while his whereabouts remained unknown, the Mobile Unit had even less chance of getting permission to travel there. Everyone redoubled their efforts to find him.
Xie Yiliang was still in custody. When Chen Zheng visited, he pleaded with red-rimmed eyes. “Brother Chen, I know I was wrong! I shouldn’t have listened to my cousin. Please let me out! I’m begging you!”
Chen Zheng hadn’t come to listen to pleas. “How did you get so good at impersonating Liang Yueze? Have you practiced before?”
Xie Yiliang shook his head in panic.
“It’s far too late to keep lying to me,” Chen Zheng said. “You two look similar, but your mannerisms and bearing are nothing alike. How could putting on his clothes turn you into ‘President Liang’?”
“I…” Xie Yiliang shifted nervously. Finally, he seemed to give up resisting and admitted, “I-I stood in for my cousin before!”
“Why? When?”
Xie Yiliang said it hadn’t happened often, only three times in total. Each time Liang Yueze had been busy elsewhere and needed him to make a brief appearance. He hadn’t needed to speak. He’d simply arrived and left again in a hurry. The later two occasions had been easy. But the first still frightened him when he remembered it.
“What happened?” Chen Zheng asked.
“S-someone followed me.” Xie Yiliang squirmed in his seat. “They mistook me for my cousin.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know! I told my cousin, and he said not to be scared. Someone would protect me.”
Xie Yiliang calmed down a little. Once someone began secretly protecting him, the feeling of being followed and watched had disappeared.
A figure flashed across Chen Zheng’s mind. He pulled up the footage of Killer A. “Have you seen him?”
Xie Yiliang watched for a few seconds. “That’s him!”
“He was the one protecting you?”
Xie Yiliang nodded frantically. “It wasn’t even all that secret. We had a meal together once. He-he’s actually quite nice.”
“What’s his name?”
“Suizi,” Xie Yiliang answered.
“Suizi?”
“He told me I could call him that. I don’t know his real name.”
Chen Zheng thought for a moment. “What else did you talk about?”
“I thought he was my cousin’s bodyguard, so I asked how they knew each other. He said my cousin was his benefactor. Oh, and he’s not from Hua Country. He used to live in Country A.”
“When was the last time you saw him?”
Xie Yiliang said Suizi had protected him for a while, then disappeared without even saying goodbye. That had been two years ago.
After leaving the interrogation room, Chen Zheng considered Suizi’s identity. He was a highly capable assassin who worked specifically for Liang Yueze. But why had he come from Country A? And how was Liang Yueze his benefactor? As far as Chen Zheng remembered, Liang Yueze had never spent an extended period there. He must have traveled there on business, certainly, but how could he have established that sort of connection during a short visit? Jin Xiaoquan and Jin Xiuhe, on the other hand, came from the Heaven-Measuring Ruler’s Country A branch. Could Suizi have once been one of their people?
Suizi had left footprints and appeared on video, but he had never left DNA behind. A DNA profile might have provided the breakthrough they needed.
The search for Liang Yueze continued for three days. Toward the end of the third day, a police unit in another province sent intelligence: someone resembling Liang Yueze had appeared in Longzhou City in the northwest. Judging by his route, he might try to cross the border through the small frontier city of Weishan.
According to the report, Liang Yueze’s group numbered at least seven people. They’d been hiding aboard a truck transporting vegetables. The surveillance images weren’t clear. Liang Yueze was dressed like a loading worker, while the more distinctive figure nearby was Killer A, also dressed as a worker and keeping a watchful eye on the surroundings.
After leaving Longzhou City, the group had disappeared again, apparently realizing they were being watched. There was no longer any trace of them in the truck. Longzhou was close to the northwestern border, and if they intended to leave the country, they would most likely stop in Weishan City first.
“Old Tang.” Ming Han turned to Tang Xiaoli.
Liang Yueze’s appearance in the northwest had caught the Mobile Unit by surprise. Earlier, police had believed he would most likely try leaving via the southwest or southeastern coast, routes frequently used by the Heaven-Measuring Ruler. Instead, he’d gone northwest, where both terrain and weather made crossing the border much harder than in either of those regions.
Longzhou police had already lost the trail. Their only lead was surveillance footage from a vegetable market, and it might have been a decoy.
But the Mobile Unit was in an awkward position. Hunting Liang Yueze was their responsibility, yet letting him reach Southeast Asia could also help them secure authorization for an overseas mission. It would be one thing if their colleagues in another province had found nothing. But now there was a lead. If they chose not to pursue it simply because it might be a decoy, what would their superiors think?
“Ming Han, take a team and set out immediately,” Tang Xiaoli decided. “Do everything you can to bring him back. Don’t think about anything else.”
“Yes, sir!” Ming Han answered.
Once the assignment came down, Ming Han began preparing. Chen Zheng wasn’t a member of his squad, so he went to Tang Xiaoli. “I’d like to go with Ming Han.”
Tang Xiaoli studied him, weighing the request. “This isn’t an ordinary investigation. At the border, anything could happen. We might even have to open fire.”
Chen Zheng nodded. “I understand. But thinking isn’t the only thing I’m good at. No one in the Mobile Unit has known Liang Yueze longer than I have. Ming Han will probably need me on this mission. Besides, to resolve the Heaven-Measuring Ruler case, we have to go to Southeast Asia. I’d like to use this operation to get used to working in these conditions.”
“Let him go,” Lu Hejing said.
Tang Xiaoli looked back. “Old Lu.”
Lu Hejing walked up to Chen Zheng and held his gaze for a moment. “Luocheng is like a greenhouse…”
“I know.” Chen Zheng cut him off. “You’re going to say that a detective like me who grew up working in Luocheng’s comparatively peaceful environment can’t compete with your Mobile Unit officers. But you also need me for the Heaven-Measuring Ruler case. Old Lu, I’ll adapt to the Mobile Unit as fast as I can. I won’t hold Ming Han back.”
Lu Hejing frowned deeply. “Don’t let anything happen to you. I wouldn’t be able to face your mother.”
Chen Zheng smiled and gave his shoulder a light punch. “You’re all grown up and still afraid of your big sister?”
“…” Lu Hejing said nothing.
This time the Mobile Unit was preparing for combat. Ming Han was checking the equipment when Chen Zheng sauntered in empty-handed, picked up a disassembled lightweight rifle, and swiftly put it together. “Brother Bird, what gear should I take?”
Ming Han had known Chen Zheng would come. He glanced behind him. “Where are Old Tang and Old Lu?”
“They aren’t my tails.”
“I thought you’d have to argue with them for ages and only persuade them at the last second.” Ming Han folded his arms and let his imagination run wild. “We’d have already set off, and you’d be running desperately after our car, shouting, ‘Brother Ming! Wait for me! I’m coming! Don’t leave me behind!’”
Chen Zheng gave him a whack with the rifle butt. Ming Han clutched his ribs and crouched. “We haven’t even set off, and you’re assaulting your superior!”
Chen Zheng was about to demand what kind of superior Ming Han thought he was, when he remembered that, although Ming Han had been demoted to leading the police-dog unit, he was also a squadron leader in the Mobile Unit. Their missions were generally conducted by squadron. Within Ming Han’s squadron, he really was the commanding officer.
Chen Zheng helped Officer Ming to his feet and even saluted him. “Good day, sir! Rookie Chen Zheng reporting for duty. What assignment do you have for me?”
Ming Han considered, chin raised. “Rookies need training. Start by following me around and bringing me tea and water.”
“Yes, sir!”
Zhou Jue had been coming to discuss something with Ming Han. Hearing the exchange, he immediately hid outside the door. Wen Wu passed and looked at him in surprise. Zhou Jue stopped him quickly. “Shh! Bird’s bullying a junior officer at work!”
Wen Wu’s face lit up. Were they spreading rumors again?
Preparations complete, Ming Han’s squadron set out. Tang Xiaoli contacted Luocheng’s military airport, and they flew directly from there to Longzhou City.
Longzhou was tiny. Its entire economy couldn’t compare with a single district of Luocheng. The airport lay on the outskirts, and after landing there was still a drive of more than half an hour ahead of them.
Spring was a particularly bad season for dust storms in the northwest. The moment the aircraft door opened, it felt as though yellow sand were everywhere. Chen Zheng rarely came to this region, and his earlier visits hadn’t been in spring. He’d never experienced dust on this scale. His throat immediately grew uncomfortable. Ming Han handed him a disposable face mask. “Make do with this for now.”
Chen Zheng put it on and looked at Zhou Jue and the others. Everyone seemed accustomed to all kinds of extreme weather and was adjusting well.
Local police had arranged vehicles to meet them. Along the road from the airport to the city, the scenery was almost invisible. Everywhere they looked there was sand hanging in the air.
“A few days from now there’ll be rain, and the sand won’t be so bad,” Ming Han said. “But we won’t be waiting that long.”
“Have you been on an operation here before?” Chen Zheng asked.
Ming Han shook his head. “I trained here. My mentor led the team. He always said, ‘What’s the Mobile Unit? A unit that can move immediately wherever and whenever it’s needed. If you go somewhere and the climate or local conditions knock you flat, then you’re not the Mobile Unit.’ So when we first joined, he took us to all kinds of places with extreme environments for field training. We spent over a month here.”
Zhou Jue joined in. “Bird was terribly delicate back then. Every day he complained his lungs hurt or his nose hurt. Captain Liu nearly told him to get lost and go home!”
Ming Han kicked the back of Zhou Jue’s seat. “You talk too much.”
“So how did you get used to it in the end?” Chen Zheng asked.
“Endured it. When I couldn’t take it anymore, I’d pour water into my nose. I was young. What hardship couldn’t I stand? After a while, I could breathe freely in the dust.”
Chen Zheng removed his mask. Ming Han immediately protested. “This is one hardship you don’t need to endure.”
“Because I’m not young anymore?”
Ming Han put the mask back on him. “Because I’ve already endured it for you.”
Zhou Jue sneezed several times in succession. Wen Wu looked over. “A horse snorting isn’t half as dramatic as you.”
At the Longzhou City Bureau, local police shared everything they’d collected. In the processed surveillance footage, Killer A was clearly visible, but the person suspected to be Liang Yueze never showed his face. The group had left Longzhou hidden in two trucks. Both trucks were later found abandoned on a country road fifty kilometers outside the city. The vegetables were still aboard, but the people had vanished.
Just as the Mobile Unit was planning to pursue them westward, Tang Xiaoli called unexpectedly. “We’ve received a message from Liang Yueze!”
Chen Zheng was startled. Liang Yueze was contacting the police voluntarily?
Tang Xiaoli forwarded the message to Ming Han’s phone. It was a short video, but what it contained was startling. Liang Yueze appeared on screen with a scruffy beard, unkempt clothes, and eyes heavy with exhaustion. He wore the same outfit seen in the surveillance footage.
Although he’d sent it directly to the Mobile Unit, Liang Yueze was speaking to Chen Zheng. His voice was hoarse, and he couldn’t get through many sentences without coughing, as though the local dust were causing him severe discomfort.
“Chen Zheng, I know you’re looking for me and won’t let me go. But I’m determined to go to Country M. My closest family were murdered there. You could say my family was destroyed long ago. Only I know what I’ve lived for all these years. I’m sorry I deceived you. I let you think I was simply a hardworking businessman trying to make something of himself. The truth is, I’ve participated in many crimes. I have very close ties to the Heaven-Measuring Ruler, the organization you’re investigating.”
Liang Yueze gave a bitter smile and shook his head. “It was the Heaven-Measuring Ruler that killed my family, yet I had no choice but to work with it. So, Chen Zheng, do you understand how wretched these years have been for me? When a person lives like that for too long, he gradually stops being normal. And after Xiao Bin and Xiao Qing died, I wasn’t normal to begin with.”
“Chen Zheng, I have to finish what I set out to do. It won’t be long now. The Heaven-Measuring Ruler is in Country M. I promise you that when I’ve taken my revenge, I’ll come back and submit to the law.”
Liang Yueze clasped his hands, almost reverently. “Let me go this once. Even if you keep chasing me, you won’t catch me, so what’s the point? When I come back after finishing everything, I’ll tell you all of it, including the Azure Sky Cult, Jin Xiaoquan… and the person you care most about, Han Qu.”
The video ended there. Technical analysis showed it had been recorded the previous day, roughly when Longzhou police spotted traces of Liang Yueze.
Chen Zheng watched it again, then asked Ming Han, “What do you think?”
Ming Han stared straight at him. “Bro, who’s more important to you, me or Han Qu?”
“…Is this really the time for jokes?”
“I’m not joking.” Ming Han spoke solemnly and even took Chen Zheng by the chin. “Me or Han Qu?”
Lately the man had become increasingly brazen. He used to behave like a younger brother wagging his head and tail for affection. Now that their relationship had become intimate, he no longer bothered hiding his fierceness or possessiveness. Chen Zheng thought he would need to teach this big police dog a lesson someday, but now was clearly not the moment.
“You,” Chen Zheng answered, swatting Ming Han’s hand away.
Ming Han’s eyes curved in a smile. “Then Liang Yueze is full of shit. His entire speech is nonsense meant to distract us at a critical moment. Why should we pay attention? We keep chasing him, and if we have to fight, we fight.”
Chen Zheng had thought Ming Han was simply sulking, but the man was extraordinarily clearheaded. He was beginning to understand why the Mobile Unit had chosen Ming Han. At decisive moments, he was difficult to sway. Beneath his unserious exterior was a resolute heart and remarkably steady emotions.