At seven in the morning, Jiang Ye opened his eyes.
From across the hall came the sound of a door opening and closing. Someone went downstairs.
He walked to the window, lifted the curtain, and saw Jin Feize, dressed in athletic clothes, leaving the apartment building.
He turned and knocked on the bedroom door.
Li Miaomiao opened it. “What is it, Brother?”
“I’m giving you ten minutes to wash up.” Jiang Ye glanced at his watch. “Jin Feize went out for a morning run. There’s only one place nearby with a running track, Shadi Park, so he’s probably going there. No matter what method you use, keep him outside. Don’t let him get home within forty-five minutes…”
Jiang Ye looked up, saw Li Miaomiao’s face, and abruptly stopped mid-sentence.
“You cried again?”
Her eyelids were swollen like fish bladders.
“No, I didn’t cry.” Li Miaomiao patted her chest. “Leave it to me. I’ll definitely help you keep him there—wait, why do you need to keep him away?”
In the past, Li Miaomiao would sleep until the sun was high overhead. Today, the moment Jiang Ye knocked, she got up.
Jiang Ye understood at once.
She had not slept all night.
Jiang Ye frowned. “You don’t have to force yourself.”
“I’m not forcing myself!” Li Miaomiao tried hard to squeeze out a smile. “Really. I can help.”
Jiang Ye silently stared at her.
Li Miaomiao said, “Brother, let me go. If you let me do something, then I won’t keep thinking about those things.”
Jiang Ye was still hesitating when she closed the door, packed herself up with a series of clattering sounds, and flew out the door.
“Leave it to me!” she shouted.
Once Li Miaomiao sent a message saying she had already seen Jin Feize, Jiang Ye walked to the balcony, climbed onto the railing, grabbed the iron frame along the exterior wall, stepped onto the air-conditioning unit, and leapt hard into Jin Feize’s balcony.
He put shoe covers on himself, wore disposable gloves, opened the balcony door, and entered Jin Feize’s living room.
The floor bedding had already been put away. The sofa and coffee table were spotless, and every ornament was arranged symmetrically.
Jin Feize clearly had obsessive-compulsive tendencies, and a serious obsession with cleanliness.
At a glance, there was no useful information.
The pantyhose and red high heels Li Miaomiao had mentioned were gone. They had probably already been put away.
Jiang Ye searched through Jin Feize’s wardrobe. Everything inside was from major brands, arranged meticulously by color and style. There was also a remote-control drone on top of the wardrobe, wiped until it gleamed.
On the desk lay the brown leather notebook he had seen before at school.
Jiang Ye opened it and saw many things listed inside.
Run for thirty minutes every morning. Run for thirty minutes every night. Treat at least three classmates kindly. Make at least five friends. Smoke once…
There was a small checkbox after each item. Some were checked, some were not.
All of these items were written with a brush, and the handwriting did not look like Jin Feize’s.
Jiang Ye flipped farther back. Jin Feize had recorded some things himself, such as: “Do not accept other people’s gifts.”
Jiang Ye: “…”
A row of the Thirteen Daoist Classics and human anatomy atlases stood in the bookcase. Tucked inside the books was also a DVD case for Disney’s Tangled.
This combination was something Jiang Ye could not understand.
On the right were several opened envelopes stacked together. Written on them was: “Study Materials—Gift from Grandpa.”
Jiang Ye opened one of the envelopes. Inside was a disc.
Jiang Ye suspected that “study materials” was only a label, and that some special message might be hidden inside. So he returned home, brought over his laptop, and inserted the disc.
After a stretch of music, a scene of a man and woman having sex appeared on the screen.
He quickly put the disc back where it belonged.
There were several drawers under the desk. Jiang Ye pulled open the first one, and inside were neat rows of trazodone hydrochloride tablets.
Jiang Ye knew this medicine. His mother had to take it every day in order to sleep.
Jiang Ye lowered his head and looked at the trash can. It was full of empty medicine boxes. It seemed Jin Feize, like his mother, suffered from severe sleep disorder.
He pulled open the second drawer. Inside was a red wool scarf.
It was like being punched in the face.
His expression turned ugly.
Jin Feize was too vile. He had pretended to be a girl and deceived someone’s feelings. Perhaps in Jin Feize’s WeChat, Jiang Ye was not the only complete fool who had been tricked and spun in circles.
The more he thought about it, the angrier Jiang Ye became.
He walked out of the bedroom, at a loss.
He had not found any clues about his mother.
He entered the kitchen.
A full set of imported slaughtering knives lined the wall: boning knives, breaking knives… everything was there, wiped until each blade shone, without so much as a speck of dust.
He opened the refrigerator. It was stuffed full of bright-red chunks of meat.
All the meat had been cut into equal portions and vacuum-packed in clear plastic bags. There were also pairs of pig trotters, frozen snow-white.
He looked up and saw hooks hanging from the ceiling.
The hooks were extremely thick, a full forty centimeters long.
These hooks… should have been specifically for hanging pigs.
He crouched down and found bloodstains by the drain.
He did not understand why Jin Feize would slaughter pigs at home.
There was still nothing to be found in the kitchen.
He stepped back into the living room and looked around. Suddenly, he saw several straight scratches on the floor beside the bookcase.
He touched the scratches, looked up at the bookcase, and experimentally pushed the bookcase in the direction of the marks.
When the bookcase was completely pushed aside, he saw the photo wall hidden behind it.
The wall was covered with various candid shots of Jiang Ye.
The school cafeteria, food streets, Tianlu Mansion, downstairs from the apartment building…
Many of the photos were shot from above. They were probably taken using that drone.
Some of the photos were actually set against the background of Jiang Ye’s home.
Jiang Ye realized Jin Feize had installed pinhole cameras in his house.
He finally knew why the Witch could know his movements so accurately.
Before this, he had thought the Witch knew some inside information about his mother. As it turned out, it was simply because this pervert had been stalking him the whole time.
His gaze moved downward and landed on one photo.
His pupils suddenly contracted.
It was a photo of him looking at his phone before bed one night. At the center of the photo was his phone screen, and stretched across it were the Witch’s two long legs.
At the time, he had been covered by a thin blanket, and the tented shape at his crotch was extremely obvious.
Expressionless, he tore down that photo and tucked it into his pocket.
He pushed the bookcase back into place.
Suddenly, he heard a click from the doorway.
Jiang Ye frowned.
That unreliable Li Miaomiao. He had clearly told her to stall him for forty-five minutes, yet not even half an hour had passed and the person was already back.
The apartment was extremely narrow. There was nowhere to hide.
Seeing that the door was about to be pushed open, Jiang Ye quickly slipped into the bathroom.
“Move the bed in the bedroom out first, then bring the new bed in,” he heard an unfamiliar male voice say.
Several sets of messy footsteps entered, followed by the sound of a bed being moved.
“Slowly, slowly,” that person said.
Furniture shifted and scraped for a long while before finally stopping.
Immediately after that came the sound of footsteps leaving. The movers had probably gone.
Jiang Ye was just about to let out a breath when he heard the man say, “Ms. Yao, please clean up a bit.”
“All right. I might as well give A-Ze’s place a full cleaning,” a woman’s voice replied.
Jiang Ye thought, Damn it.
He could not keep hiding.
He took a deep breath, removed the shoe covers and gloves and stuffed them into his pocket. Then he took off his shoes, put them into his backpack, pressed the toilet flush button, and pushed the door open.
He came face-to-face with a man and a woman standing in the living room.
“You…” The man pointed at him in astonishment. “Where did you come from?”
Without changing expression, Jiang Ye lied. “I’m Jin Feize’s classmate. I borrowed his place to sleep last night. I was just using the bathroom and didn’t have time to greet you. Hello, sir, ma’am. You are…?”
“Oh, we’re the Jin family’s cleaner and housekeeper,” the woman called Ms. Yao answered. “A-Ze rents this place. The old master has us come over regularly to clean.”
Jiang Ye nodded. “Then I won’t disturb you. I have something to do, so I’ll go first.”
He turned to leave, but the man grabbed him. “Wait. I’ll call A-Ze and ask.”
Jiang Ye could not pull free, so he could only let him make the call.
“A-Ze, did you let a classmate stay over last night? He’s still at home. Ms. Yao and I just happened to run into him… Ah, all right, all right.”
He handed the phone to Jiang Ye. “Oh, so you really are A-Ze’s classmate. I’m sorry, I was too nosy. A-Ze said he has something to tell you, and asked me and Ms. Yao to step out for a moment.”
He and Ms. Yao left, thoughtfully pulling the door nearly closed behind them.
Jiang Ye hesitated, then accepted the phone.
Jin Feize’s smiling voice came from inside.
“Are you all right? Mr. Gao is a retired soldier, so he’s rather alert. It’s very difficult to lie successfully in front of him.”
“Where’s Li Miaomiao?” Jiang Ye asked.
“She went to the bathroom,” Jin Feize said.
“I know who you are now.” Jiang Ye’s voice was cold. “Why did you do this?”
Jin Feize said, as if it were only natural, “Of course because I like you. Classmate Jiang Ye, I liked you from the first moment I saw you.”
“…”
Jiang Ye closed his eyes.
He did not believe a single word Jin Feize said.
He said, “I want to break up with you.”
The other end of the call paused.
Jin Feize asked, “Why? After you looked at that photo, you had a physical reaction. You clearly like me too. We like each other, so why can’t we be a sweet couple?”
Jiang Ye gripped the phone, the veins on the back of his hand bulging.
He had rarely been this angry.
“I don’t like you.”
“Is that so?” Jin Feize remained unhurried. “Then why did you stay up all night doing boosting jobs to earn money, then buy me bracelets, bags, shoes, and jewelry?”
Jiang Ye said each word distinctly. “I don’t take online relationships seriously.”
Jin Feize seemed very wounded and let out a long sigh. “Classmate Jiang Ye, you truly are heartless.”
Jiang Ye did not want to waste any more time with him and was about to hang up.
Suddenly, Jin Feize spoke again. “Come to the harbor and find me at noon. We can talk face-to-face.”
“I’m not going.”
He laughed. “You really don’t want to talk? Haven’t you been asking me all along about your mother? If you don’t come find me, how am I supposed to tell you?”
“You know?” Jiang Ye froze, then calmed himself and asked warily, “Are you lying to me again?”
“You’re getting harder and harder to fool.” His tone was light, and he seemed very pleased. “But I’m not lying this time. What exactly happened to your mother in 2005—I can tell you what I know.”
Jiang Ye silently tightened his grip on the phone.
He decided to believe Jin Feize one more time.
“All right,” he said quietly. “I’ll come see you.”
“One more thing, Classmate Jiang Ye.”
Jin Feize’s voice was as gentle as water.
Whenever Jiang Ye spoke to him on the phone, there was always the illusion that he was pressed close to his ear, whispering ambiguously.
He said, “This is a date between the two of us. Don’t bring bodyguards.”