Before watching the footage, everyone had pinned all their hopes of finding clues on the surveillance recording. However, after watching it, those hopes were completely shattered, leaving not even a single trace behind.
The camera at Cheng Xurong’s apartment building had only captured footage of Hou Hongchang entering. After that, no one else walked into the building. Whether it was the killer entering the stairwell or escaping afterward, there wasn’t even the slightest shadow. It was as if the killer had sprouted wings and flown away.
Hou Hongchang’s mother exploded on the spot. Crying, she chased and beat the security personnel responsible for the cameras, insisting that their security measures were incomplete and that the surveillance had blind spots, which had led to the death of her precious only son. Hou Hongchang’s father tried to stop her but couldn’t. He could only squat to the side, tears streaming down his face.
Hou Yu remained relatively calm and asked Han Yue, “What do you think?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Han Yue said. “A surveillance blind spot. The killer must have anticipated the camera at the entrance before carrying out the operation. In my opinion, he was already lying in wait inside the stairwell. After killing Hou Hongchang with a single slash, he slid down the drainpipe on the opposite side of the building. This is an older residential complex with incomplete surveillance to begin with, and it was pitch black outside. He could’ve easily hidden in any flowerbed and slipped away.”
Hou Yu slammed his fist hard against the stair railing. “Who the hell is this person, planning so meticulously to take Hou Hongchang’s life?!”
At that moment, Pei Zhi walked over, patted Hou Yu heavily on the shoulder, and said, “You should prepare yourself for the worst. The Hou family only has you as a male heir left. You need to hold the family up. I just did a preliminary examination with the forensic pathologist. This case… I think it’s very suspicious.”
“How is it suspicious?”
“I’ll have someone recreate the scene and you’ll understand.” Pei Zhi called over a armed policeman, gave him detailed instructions, then turned to Han Yue. “Han Er, you’re more familiar with knives and weapons than we are. You might be able to spot something.”
Pei Zhi’s plan was for the armed policeman to act as Hou Hongchang. He himself stood outside the door, pretending to be the unknown killer. The policeman walked over from the dining area inside the apartment, made a motion of opening the door. Pei Zhi stood outside and turned to Han Yue and the others. “Suppose I’m the killer. If I were to knock, I would definitely stand here, about thirty to fifty centimeters away from the door. The forensic pathologist’s preliminary identification shows the murder weapon was a knife over fifteen centimeters long, with a very pronounced curve and unusually sharp blade. So if I were the killer, to achieve a one-hit kill, I would need to position the knife here,” Pei Zhi patted his right thigh, “so I could draw it instantly.”
Han Yue interrupted him: “Under normal circumstances, a short blade of that length cannot be drawn instantly unless the sheath’s clasp was already open.”
“That’s the first anomaly. The forensic analysis suggests this knife likely had no clasp or fastener, allowing it to be drawn with a single pull.” Pei Zhi paused, his expression extremely grave. “This isn’t standard issue—at least I’ve never seen anything like it. It was very likely custom-made by a specialist. An extremely rare military knife used by special forces for nighttime operations.”
At that moment, the armed policeman opened the door from inside the dining area.
“Look, Cheng Xurong recalled that while she was in the bathroom, she only heard Hou Hongchang say ‘Coming, coming.’ That means the moment he opened the door and saw the killer, he didn’t even have time to say another word before his windpipe was severed.” Pei Zhi made a slicing motion across the policeman’s neck. “The blade entered here, the edge cut through the trachea, the tip pierced and cracked the cervical vertebra, then protruded from here. The entire wound was twelve centimeters long, cutting across the whole neck. The killer drew the knife the instant Hou Hongchang opened the door, swung it horizontally, and ended his life in less than a second.”
Pei Zhi paused and looked at Han Yue and Hou Yu. “Only then could Hou Hongchang be prevented from making any sound, or even the slightest struggle, before collapsing dead on the spot.”
Hou Yu didn’t speak. He only felt a chill rise from the bottom of his heart, making him shiver involuntarily.
“Wait,” Han Yue suddenly walked over to Pei Zhi’s side and gestured. “According to what you said, the force of the killer’s horizontal slash must have been extremely powerful. When the short blade protruded from Hou Hongchang’s neck, there should still have been residual force. Hou Hongchang was standing inside the door, with the doorframe only ten to twenty centimeters away from his body…”
Pei Zhi followed his gesture and looked at the doorframe. The solid wood frame showed no trace of the blade at all. Aside from a few splatters of blood, it was smooth and intact as new.
“That means after completing the killing blow, the killer stopped the blade right before it hit the doorframe—without even making any sound from the blade striking it.”
Pei Zhi paused, his face unusually solemn and sharp. “This person’s skill in assassination and covert killing has reached a level ordinary people can hardly imagine… At first I thought it might be because Hou Hongchang hit that migrant worker’s kid and provoked some enemy into hiring a killer. But now I think even if he had hit ten or eight migrant kids, he couldn’t have provoked such a terrifying enemy…”
The three of them fell silent at the same time.
After a long while, Pei Zhi spoke slowly, “I don’t mean anything else by this, but if it was a hired killing, that would be one thing. What I’m afraid of is that it was done by people from above… You know there are some special departments directly under the Ministry of National Defense. No matter what they’re planning or intending, we can’t interfere at all…”
Hou Yu’s mouth twitched. “We’re directly under the Military Commission. Do they have the guts of a leopard to move against aristocratic families?”
Han Yue cut Hou Yu off and asked in a deep voice, “Isn’t Long Jiwei still lying in the hospital?”
Pei Zhi nodded.
“I don’t believe this was done by people from above. Besides, even if they wanted to make a move, the first target would be the Han family, not Hou Hongchang, who does nothing serious except eat, drink, and play around.” Han Yue pointed at the spray-patterned pool of blood outside the door, his expression cold. “You haven’t been in the military, so you don’t know what it looks like when the state apparatus starts operating. I can tell you—if the state really did this, Hou Hongchang would have disappeared without a trace, not even a hair left behind. That would be true deterrence, a real warning.”
Pei Zhi and Hou Yu fell silent for a moment.
“I guarantee you, this was definitely a civilian assassination.” Han Yue glanced at Hou Yu. “You should carefully recall who Hou Hongchang offended that he shouldn’t have, what powerful enemies he might have made, and whether that migrant couple had any unusual connections… That would be more reliable.”
Although the Hou family tried their best to suppress the matter, the next day, news of Hou Hongchang being assassinated at his mistress’s doorstep still broke in the papers.
The print media exercised some restraint, but the voices online were much louder. Major websites put it on their front-page headlines. Everywhere one looked, there were cheers of approval. Public forums, websites, blogs… people were practically singing praises and clapping in delight. There were all kinds of wild speculations about the assassin’s identity and background.
The Hou family had lost a son and were naturally driven mad by the online celebration, but there was nothing they could do to stop it. They could only force the police to publicly claim it was a robbery-murder.
In the end, it created a very awkward situation. Because when Hou Hongchang was killed, the furnishings and furniture around him were very tidy, with no sign that the assassin had entered the apartment. This fully showed that the killer was not after money, but only his life. The police, pressured by the Hou family, could only speak ambiguously—first saying it was a home invasion robbery-murder, then saying the scene was completely intact—making them look extremely embarrassed in front of the reporters.
People these days were not fools. From the media’s contradictory reports, they could easily guess what had happened. For a time, word spread everywhere that the ignorant and arrogant second-generation official had been killed with a single slash, just like a righteous hero in a wuxia novel chopping off the head of a corrupt official. A plot from martial arts fiction had actually happened in real life around ordinary citizens…
That day, Han Yue was in the kitchen observing a pot of seafood soup he was simmering when his phone suddenly rang. He picked it up and heard Hou Yu’s voice, sounding furious and flustered: “Second Young Master Han! Lend me a squad of guards from your place! I’m going to blow up XX newspaper today. How dare they move against us…”
Han Yue said, “The people’s soldiers don’t do that kind of thing.”
“Damn it, do you know what happened? That newspaper wants to chase popularity. They’re going to turn Hou Hongchang’s case into a front-page headline, and also deliberately stir up a big debate about whether the killer’s actions were justified, whether they should be encouraged, and all that…” On the other end of the line came the sound of a newspaper being torn apart. Hou Yu clearly couldn’t read on: “I’m about to explode. Justice? Worth encouraging? If I ever catch that killer, I’ll skin him alive and tear him to pieces!”
“If you find any clues about the killer and need manpower for investigation, just ask me. No problem. But smashing up a newspaper office is out of the question.” Han Yue tasted the soup and added another pinch of salt. “Blocking people’s speech is worse than blocking a river. The reason Hou Hongchang’s case blew up so badly later was because your mother insisted on suppressing public discussion from the start, which only made things escalate beyond control.”
Hou Yu knew that once Han Yue said no, there was no room for negotiation. After a burst of frustration, he cursed angrily: “If I ever catch that bastard, I’ll make sure his whole family dies with him!” Then he slammed the phone down hard.
Han Yue put the phone back into his pocket, when a cold laugh suddenly came from behind him: “Then he’d better be able to catch him first.”
Han Yue turned around and saw Chu Chi. He had no idea when he had come back from work and was standing at the doorway taking off his white coat. Underneath, he wore only a light blue plaid shirt and washed white jeans. The colors were simple and fresh. Han Yue stared at him for a long time without moving.
Chu Ci stood guarded at the door. “What are you looking at?”
“…Nothing.” Han Yue looked away and glanced at the pot of seafood soup. “Hou Yu just called asking to borrow police guards to go smash a newspaper office… The Hou family really is cornered this time.”
Chu Ci gave a cold laugh. “Aren’t you also helping them catch that killer? You’re all the same. Why use ‘dogs’ to describe your own allies?”
Han Yue hated it most when Chu Ci spoke to him like that. He nearly lost his temper on instinct, but forced it down after a few seconds. “Do you think killing Hou Hongchang was justified?”
Chu Ci said nothing, standing at the doorway with an icy, indifferent expression.
“I’m asking you. Hou Hongchang did kill someone’s child in a traffic accident, but does that make him deserve death? Which law in China says a traffic accident requires a life for a life? Even in severe cases, punishment is the state’s business. Whether it’s execution or injection, it’s only valid after a court judgment and lawful enforcement.” Han Yue let out a disdainful snort. “If everyone ran around playing Zorro, the world would be chaos. What is a state? A massive machine. Law is the rule that runs it. It’s a restriction everyone must follow. No one can bypass law to enforce justice. No one has that right. Do you think there are still wandering heroes like in martial arts novels in modern society? Naive.”
Compared to Han Yue’s usual explosive temper, this was already restrained. Under normal circumstances, he would have been shouting or even kicking things.
He only held back because the person in front of him was Chu Ci. If it had been his father or his elder brother, he would likely already be slamming the table.
After hearing this, Chu Ci was silent for a few seconds, then unexpectedly smiled.
There was no real warmth in that smile—only irony and cold detachment. Chu Ci rarely smiled, so Han Yue couldn’t help staring at him. “What are you laughing at?”
“I’m laughing at you,” Chu Ci said calmly. “I’m laughing at how you still don’t understand why Hou Hongchang had to die.”
Han Yue’s first reaction was: shit, I shouldn’t have yelled at him. People say severe depression can come with suicidal tendencies.
“It’s true that no law in China says a traffic accident warrants the death penalty. But Hou Hongchang drove drunk, disregarded human life, shirked legal responsibility afterward, and even trampled on the life of the child he killed… His crime is not just killing a child. He has completely trampled on the authority and dignity of the Constitution on which the People’s Republic of China is built.”
Chu Ci’s tone was not loud, but extremely sharp. Han Yue found himself unable to respond.
“The Constitution of the People’s Republic of China, Article 33, states that all citizens are equal before the law. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 3, states that everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security of person. Article 14 of the Criminal Law states that if a person knows their conduct will cause harmful consequences to society but still allows or wishes it to happen, it constitutes intentional crime of serious nature.”
Chu Ci paused and looked at Han Yue with faint contempt.
“Drunk driving causing a fatal traffic accident is not a capital offense by itself. But Hou Hongchang placed his privilege above the fundamental right to life of ordinary people. That nature of behavior is unconstitutional. A crime that violates universal human values and constitutional order is enough to make him deserve death a thousand times over.”
Han Yue instinctively felt every word was correct, but that same instinct made his chest tighten, a cold chill rising along his spine.
After a pause, he said quietly, “People in certain social classes won’t accept that view.”
Chu Ci said nothing. He glanced at him, then turned and walked into the living room, slamming the study door shut.