On the twentieth Friday a truck carrying three hundred thousand yuan drove into the tobacco factory early in the morning.
The entire accounting department turned out to escort the wages into the accounts office. Two accountants one holding the code and the other holding the key together locked the money inside the safe. Xu Jiu stood outside the door watching them. Neither alone could access it and only the factory owner held both key and code.
Surely the owner would not steal from his own business. A crowd of workers had gathered outside the office. Payday was tomorrow and after a month of hard work everyone wanted to see the money arrive to feel encouraged and ready to keep going. Xu Jiu scanned their faces one by one but saw nothing out of the ordinary. No one wears their bad intentions openly.
A middle aged man in a tailored suit with a briefcase tucked under his arm walked over slowly followed by a young assistant who treated him with great deference. This was Zhu Chao the factory owner. He had a thick paunch and slicked back hair and insisted on taking Xu Jiu out for a meal.
Xu Jiu wanted to stay right by the accounts office and refused to move an inch afraid that the thief might strike the moment she looked away. Zhu Chao treated her as an honoured guest and scolded his assistant Sun Wensheng for leaving her waiting outside.
Sun Wensheng agreed repeatedly and invited her to the office to sit by the fan. Xu Jiu glanced back at the securely locked safe. It was broad daylight and nothing should happen so she followed them inside.
Zhu Chao’s office was lavishly furnished. He displayed various statues of wealth and prosperity a bright green jade cabbage and a golden toad. A large black cabinet stood against the wall filled with books and certificates and gave an immediate sense of heaviness.
Sun Wensheng turned on the electric fan and poured tea and Xu Jiu felt awkward and told him to sit down and rest. Zhu Chao waved it off saying that was exactly what he was there for and he would feel restless if he sat idle. Sun Wensheng nodded in agreement.
Zhu Chao said he had heard from Xu Yongcheng that she was writing a story about the factory and asked which newspaper it would appear in adding that he would buy hundreds of copies so everyone could read it. Xu Jiu said it was for the school newspaper.
Zhu Chao looked surprised and asked if she meant the school paper. Xu Jiu confirmed and went on to say how many students admired him and saw him as a role model they hoped to emulate one day. Zhu Chao was visibly pleased and said young people were the true future and he did not want to be a bad influence.
Xu Jiu replied that they would be lucky to achieve even half of what he had. Having lived through thirty years she knew exactly what to say to keep him happy. Zhu Chao beamed and upgraded their planned meal to the finest hotel in town.
Sun Wensheng went next door to make the arrangements and Zhu Chao remarked that this was why you hired obedient staff and not loud difficult ones. Xu Jiu nodded respectfully and said it sounded like hard earned wisdom. Zhu Chao’s expression darkened briefly and he waved it away saying it was nothing special.
Sun Wensheng drove them out through the factory gates then braked sharply sending everyone lurching forward.
Zhu Chao flew into a rage calling him useless and incompetent. Sun Wensheng spoke quietly and said someone was standing in the road. Xu Jiu rubbed her forehead and looked out to see a haggard woman standing in front of the car with arms outstretched.
She looked tired but unafraid and stared straight at them. When the car stopped she ran over clutching papers in one hand and pounded on the window asking where Zhu Chao had hidden her husband.
Zhu Chao lowered the window slightly and told her to go to the police instead of bothering him. The woman reached inside and said her husband had come to see him and then vanished and she knew he was involved.
Zhu Chao pulled back and began to wind the window up trapping her hand. She cried out that Dezhu had come to reason with him and now he was gone. Zhu Chao called her crazy and threatened to have her arrested. She shouted that he would be haunted by his bad deeds.
Zhu Chao kicked the back of Sun Wensheng’s seat and ordered him to drive. The car pulled away the woman stumbled and fell and sat on the ground dishevelled.
Zhu Chao calmed himself when he noticed Xu Jiu watching and explained that Zhao Dezhu was an old employee who had been laid off and he was very concerned about him. Xu Jiu glanced at the handbill stuck to the window a missing person notice with a face that looked remarkably like her classmate Zhao Lei.
The woman was his mother Zhang Yan. She had never paid much attention to those around her in her previous life and had not even learned all her classmates names by graduation. She realised how cold and distant she must have seemed compared to others who had offered to help search.
Zhu Chao seemed worried she would write something negative in the school paper and said the factory was struggling and layoffs were unavoidable. Xu Jiu asked when Zhao Dezhu had disappeared. Zhu Chao said last Friday that he had come asking for more compensation and he had given him an extra five thousand yuan but the man had still left and not come home. Xu Jiu asked how he could be so sure he had simply given up. Zhu Chao said at his age without special skills finding work would be difficult and he feared he might have done something desperate.
Xu Jiu frowned. Her classmates had said the same thing yet according to Zhu Chao he had already agreed on compensation so why would he choose to end his life. Sun Wensheng coughed and lowered the window saying he was not feeling well.
Zhu Chao told him to take medicine and not spread illness around. Xu Jiu set the thought aside. Her priority was preventing the robbery and once that was done she could help find Zhao Dezhu.
At the restaurant Zhu Chao kept Sun Wensheng running errands until he had no time to eat and finally sent him to settle the bill. Sun Wensheng looked unwell and held his stomach as he left.
Xu Jiu disliked Zhu Chao’s behaviour and found herself wishing he would lose his money though she would never want innocent people to suffer. She knew she could not stay at the factory all night and she needed another way to ensure safety.
Back in the office she turned to Zhu Chao and said she had something she was hesitant to mention. He told her to speak freely as family.
She said she knew a little about fortune telling and looked closely at his face. He grew nervous and asked what she saw. She told him she saw signs of financial loss. Sun Wensheng paused what he was doing and looked at her suspiciously.
Zhu Chao laughed and said his money was safe in the bank. Xu Jiu reminded him about the payroll arriving. His smile vanished he pulled out a set of keys and checked that his was still there. Xu Jiu advised him to post guards at the accounts office that night just in case.
Superstitious by nature Zhu Chao agreed immediately and ordered Sun Wensheng to assign trusted men to watch the door and let no one pass. Sun Wensheng glanced at her then left to make the arrangements.
Xu Jiu let out a breath of relief and listened to a little more of Zhu Chao’s life story then left before dark. She booked a room in the hotel opposite and sat watching the factory through the open curtains.
From this distance she could see nothing and it gave her little real comfort. Late that night after she had fallen asleep she woke to a bright orange glow like dawn. Voices and footsteps rushed along the corridor shouting about fire and smoke. The innkeeper banged on doors and told everyone to evacuate if the factory was burning.
Xu Jiu rushed to the window and saw flames lighting up the sky. Fire engines ambulances and police cars converged on the site. Her mind went blank. There had been no fire in her previous life. She ran out of the room across the road and into the factory grounds. Workers stood watching helplessly as police secured the area. Xu Jiu ran straight to the accounts office where two men sat on duty behind makeshift beds. The door was secure and no one had entered. She stepped back and waited anxiously. Water sprayed high into the air and the fire was contained but a large section of the building collapsed into smouldering ruin.
As workers cleared the site a body wrapped in white cloth was carried out. One blackened arm dangled from the stretcher and on the finger was a gold ring coated in dust.
People gasped in horror and confusion. Xu Jiu felt sick and leaned against a wall overwhelmed. Not only had there been a fire there was now a death. Had her interference caused this through the butterfly effect. She had saved Jiang Zhiyan once without disaster so why now was everything worse.
Zhu Chao and Sun Wensheng arrived and Zhu Chao immediately began shouting at his assistant blaming him for everything. Sun Wensheng apologised and said he had checked the building and locked the gate himself.
Zhu Chao kicked him asking if he had checked that everyone was gone. Sun Wensheng fell to the ground his glasses askew and kept apologising. Zhu Chao raged about the cost of the stock and said Sun Wensheng’s whole family could not pay it back.
A police officer intervened helped Sun Wensheng up and asked Zhu Chao if he was in charge. Zhu Chao spoke rudely and said he was disciplining an incompetent employee. The officer told him to behave himself. Qin Shuo arrived with the criminal investigation team and took charge of the scene.
Jiang Zhiyan spotted Xu Jiu sitting alone on the steps dishevelled and covered in dust and ran over calling her name. She looked up and her eyes filled with tears. She reached out to him and he knelt down to hold her.
She said she had tried to stop something bad from happening and had only made things worse. He comforted her and said disasters were not her fault and no one could foresee everything. She wiped her eyes and asked if the victim had been identified. He said not yet and offered to take her to sit in the car. She refused and said she wanted to help.
The ground was muddy and waterlogged. Investigators photographed and mapped the area. An outline marked where the body had been found. Xu Jiu studied it closely and sensed something did not fit.
She asked if the body had been taken for autopsy. Jiang Zhiyan confirmed it had. The fire investigator reported that the blaze had started deliberately with oil poured over cardboard boxes.
The witness who first saw the fire said he had noticed the glow around eleven and had run to alert others but within minutes the flames had spread wildly. They had gone to the hotel across the road to call for help because the office phones were locked inside and no one dared break in. Every employee had been accounted for and no one knew who had been inside the building.
Zhu Chao saw Xu Jiu and complained that her prediction had come true and he had lost a fortune. Xu Jiu replied sharply that he had not mentioned the life that had been lost. Zhu Chao said he would find whoever was responsible and make them pay.
Jiang Zhiyan told him as the manager he was responsible for security. Zhu Chao changed his tone and became polite and cooperative. They asked to see the security monitor and Sun Wensheng took them to his office.
It was a cramped cluttered space filled with boxes a folding bed and rows of suits hanging on racks.
The desk however was neat and organised with books arranged carefully by colour. Sun Wensheng apologised for the mess. Zhu Chao criticised him for living in squalor.
Sun Wensheng said he would tidy up later and turned to the computer. The connection was slow and the grainy black and white footage showed only vague figures. Qin Shuo said it was too unclear to be useful. Jiang Zhiyan said it was still worth reviewing.
They tried to locate the exact time of the fire but discovered that the recordings from ten until midnight were missing. Sun Wensheng said he would need a technician to explain why. Zhu Chao slammed a book onto the table and accused him of negligence then threatened to fire him immediately.
Jiang Zhiyan intervened and said the hard drive would be taken away for examination. Zhu Chao fell silent.
Xu Jiu suggested they return to the station to review the autopsy report. In the car Qin Shuo asked what she was doing there at such an hour. She looked out at the dark smoke stained sky and said she had come to interview Zhu Chao for a story.
Qin Shuo agreed the man was a terrible exploitative boss. He went on to say the case was baffling no one knew how the fire started or who had been trapped inside. Xu Jiu said quietly it had not been a living person. Qin Shuo turned around and asked what she meant.