Zhen Wuyu was the kind of person who naturally put pressure on others.
High intelligence, cold, sharp; even if he tried to act low-key, when those eyes fixed on someone, it still gave them the psychological pressure of being seen through.
Xu Zhicheng’s fingers had already clenched into a fist; veins stood out.
The female officer handed out snacks from the bag to the two children, trying to smooth things over. She seemed displeased with Zhen Wuyu’s pressing momentum. Zhen Wuyu took the cue and got up to look around the rest of the home.
Xu Zhicheng glanced at him and secretly let out a breath. He hesitated when the female officer casually handed him a pack of packaged duck snacks. In the end he accepted it, didn’t open it, and gave it to the little girl.
He also allowed the female officer to coax his younger brother and sister off to the side.
The female officer turned back and asked him, “Actually, we came today not only because your mom asked us to check on you, but also because your mom ran into danger. We need to investigate. Do you know this person?”
She took out Shen Hui’s photo.
By age, Shen Hui went missing in 1989. Eighteen years had passed. The oldest, Xu Zhicheng, would have been only one or two then, so he likely had no memory. But after the Shen Hui case, Huang Xiuling and the others still hadn’t left Baimu Town. Back then they weren’t threatened, so it was possible they hadn’t guarded against anything, and may have left evidence at home. Years later, the children might have noticed it.
Xu Zhicheng glanced at it and shook his head. “Never seen her. Who is she?”
He seemed to return to his earlier cold caution.
The female officer said, “A victim, a doctor, and she likely knew your mom. Investigating her leads helps us find the bad person who kidnapped your mom.”
On the surface, that wasn’t wrong.
Xu Zhicheng said, “I know. I’ll cooperate. But I really… don’t know her. And I’ve never heard of my mom knowing any doctor…”
As soon as he finished speaking, he suddenly heard his younger brother and sister shout behind him.
“This one, this one, big brother, I’ve seen him.”
“I’ve seen this too! When I had a fever and a cold, Mom and big brother used it to measure my tummy.”
Xu Zhicheng turned around and saw his younger siblings, happily eating cake with cream on their lips, completely unguarded as they pointed at the many photos spread out on the table.
Beside them was Zhen Wuyu.
Just now, with his back to Xu Zhicheng, he had taken out a stack of photos. Some were of Lin Zong’s trio, and some were of Chen Shengnan and Shen Hui. Each person had multiple photos. He had deliberately mixed them together and laid them out. Among them were also some photos of private items that Shen Hui’s mother, Luo Zhen, had compiled after reporting the case.
Shen Hui was a doctor. When she went out, she carried professional tools she might need. If she ran into someone, she would help. That day, she had a backpack with a stethoscope, a thermometer, and some basic equipment, including first-aid supplies, as well as personal items.
She disappeared along with the backpack.
At this moment, a little girl, tasting sweet cake, pointed at a photo of those daily items.
Of course, it wasn’t certain they were Shen Hui’s things, but Huang Xiuling’s home did have them.
And the little boy recognized one of the people.
Lin Zong.
“This person, that old grandpa, I’ve seen him come to our house. That day he seemed to talk to Mom about something. They talked for a long time, but I couldn’t hear them; I was in the room.”
Xu Zhicheng walked over, wiped his younger brother’s mouth, then said to Zhen Wuyu, “Sorry, my younger brother and sister are still little. They don’t look great when they eat. These photos are…?”
He could tell it now. These two officers were feinting. The real target of questioning was the two unguarded kids, not him, the grown third-year high school student.
Zhen Wuyu said, “You’re very nervous.”
Xu Zhicheng said, “Sorry. I need to discipline my younger siblings. They can’t say random things. I’m their Ge.”
Zhen Wuyu said, “These people are all victims, not bad people. No need to be afraid. Right, can I take a look at this stethoscope?”
Xu Zhicheng said, “It’s just ordinary… who doesn’t carry one?”
That wasn’t right. A thermometer, maybe. But a stethoscope was absolutely not common.
If it still had markings, it would make the connection between Shen Hui and Huang Xiuling even clearer.
This kid knew something, and he was protecting Huang Xiuling?
Zhen Wuyu said, “You might still just be a kid, but I’m police, I’m investigating. I have my manners, but not much.”
Female officer: “…..”
Xu Zhicheng: “……”
When the atmosphere went quiet, the two children seemed to notice. Zhen Wuyu didn’t even need to give a look; the female officer smiled and led the two kids to the side.
Zhen Wuyu stood up, brushed the pant leg where he had half-kneeled to question the kids, and said to Xu Zhicheng, whose fist had tightened again, “If this was an accident, your mom being kidnapped is bad luck. But if the culprit isn’t caught, your whole family is in danger. If it wasn’t an accident and there’s a reason, then it’s even more dangerous; how can you be sure your younger brother and sister won’t be the next targets?”
“I remember your grades are good.”
“Smart people look ahead and behind, and being careful is fine. But you have to know how to choose. The impact of a choice on the outcome is far greater than effort.”
“Just like details matter, but results matter more; your house doesn’t have a single photo of your dad, Xu Mingli, yet the shoe cabinet always has a pair of size 39 men’s slippers. That’s not your shoe size either.”
“After your dad died, did Lin Zong come often?”
Xu Zhicheng’s face went dark immediately; humiliated to the extreme.
Putting together many bits of information, Zhen Wuyu had already vaguely guessed some of it. Huang Xiuling, Liu Aidi, poor family background, three older sisters and one younger brother, female, already seventeen in the first year of middle school; meaning she only started primary school at eleven. Not because her grades were unbelievably good, but because an old teacher recommended her and supported her; yet she still dropped out in the end. From those seemingly ordinary lines of personal data alone, you could already see how a person’s childhood and youth were destroyed, and how, from the source of that destruction, they reached the dimness of the years after.
Now it seemed that dimness would extend to her children too, even if her love was enough.
But the gloom had already settled over the oldest child.
“Active disguise is because you think the part that needs disguising can’t be seen.”
“Tell me; do you think those secrets can be seen?”
Zhen Wuyu stepped closer, looking down at the teenager.
But Xu Zhicheng heard the laughter of his younger siblings in the room, where the female officer was taking care of them.
Zhen Wuyu wasn’t exactly threatening him, but as police with enforcement and investigative power, there were many things he could do.
For example, test the three children’s DNA.
Xu Zhicheng understood the hidden meaning. He could gamble too; gamble that police were still police, that they had basic conscience and rules, and gamble they wouldn’t hurt children that small.
But if they investigated further and really found something, then what?
What would outsiders say?
The neighbors… take his younger siblings away? Take them where?
And just now this man had mentioned it; they were all at the hospital…
Lin Zong, and Mom, were both at the hospital.
Police were all at the hospital too.
In his ears, it was like a sentence he often heard as a child was echoing.
It was his mom’s reminder every time she went out.
“I’m going out… probably… coming back. If I don’t come back, don’t call the police… don’t call the police no matter what… Mom will definitely be fine… you watch your younger brother and sister.”
Don’t call the police no matter what.
Watch your younger brother and sister.
It sounded like there was no contradiction, but it was contradictory.
You couldn’t have both.
What do you do?
He was only nineteen.
Cold sweat seeped from Xu Zhicheng’s forehead. His clenched fist, his nails dug into his palm.
After a while, he said nothing and brought over the stethoscope.
“I don’t know whose it is. Anyway, Lin Zong brought it; many years ago.”
He was still lying.
If the stethoscope was Shen Hui’s, he wouldn’t have seen Lin Zong bring it.
But he also knew Lin Zong was involved… most likely, after Lin Zong came to their home, he had talked with Huang Xiuling about related things, and this kid overheard it.
He knew some of it, but to protect Huang Xiuling, he couldn’t reveal everything.
Zhen Wuyu understood clearly, but he also knew he couldn’t drive someone into a dead end, and couldn’t force a son into the most destructive choice between his mother and his younger siblings.
That wasn’t good.
So he carefully examined the stethoscope. He guessed Shen Hui was a proper senior doctor. If this belonged to her, it would definitely be a genuine product. Medical resources had records, the purchase channel could be checked, and there would be a serial number… and sure enough, there was.
Zhen Wuyu took a photo and sent it to a colleague to check. Then he looked at Xu Zhicheng and asked, “Your dad drank and gambled. They say he took the money and ran. On the last day you saw him, who did he see? Where did he go? Do you remember?”
Xu Zhicheng stared at him.
The female officer turned to look too.
The living room fell silent.
Hospital.
Three rooms.
First room: Lin Zong, an old fox. Under Xiao Li’s questioning, he answered neatly, step by step.
Second room: facing the bureau chief in person, Zhang Cheng’s plump face was full of weakness. He looked dazed, his answers jumbled, sometimes revealing a kind of innocence and the friendliness of someone who had once been a teacher…
So far, they still didn’t know the police had obtained the videotape.
Zhen Wuyu and the others also knew they couldn’t reveal it yet. They needed to first test their disguised state, then after gathering enough evidence tying them to crimes, pick the right moment to make them break.
Drive a dog into a dead end; that was when it worked best.
Tighten, then loosen.
Third room.
Liu Duan poured Huang Xiuling a cup of water.
She looked between middle-aged and elderly. Her appearance was aged but steady. She was polite and considerate. In the targeted questioning, Liu Duan leaned into the role of an old father type. They had analyzed Huang Xiuling’s personality flaws, and from Liu Mei they also knew her family situation.
Then, through the phone call with Zhen Wuyu, they confirmed the suspicious relationship between Lin Zong and her.
They had also secured the stethoscope, and were checking purchase records. If it could be confirmed as Shen Hui’s—
Then the chain connected. They could arrest all three and bring them straight to the station to enter investigation mode, instead of being this polite and constrained.
Before entering, Liu Duan adjusted his state.
Then he spoke. “I have a daughter too, but she’s never been good at school. It gives me a headache.”
“I’ve read your file. Back in that era, not many people could study, especially girls. It was very hard. Aside from families like Liu Mei’s, most girls dropped out early. You at least studied through the first year of middle school. With your family background and situation, even finishing primary school was rare. It was only because your grades were truly good, and because a local teacher with some reputation recommended you and supported you getting into middle school.”
Huang Xiuling knew the police could not be kept from her past.
Many cases in this world weren’t unsolvable; it was whether you chose to investigate.
Once the new leaf emerged, the root would be dug up. What was feeding under that root being exposed was only a matter of time.
But she was still gambling.
“I didn’t have as good a life as Liu Mei. She could harm people, but I couldn’t. Someone like me, who had nobody protecting me from childhood; if I don’t rely on myself to earn money and raise my kids, who would help me?”
Liu Duan said, “Wasn’t Chen Shengnan very protective of you?”
Huang Xiuling changed her line. “Yes, she was different. Shengnan was truly good. It’s a pity; she was harmed by Liu Mei… Did you investigate the Liu family? I suspect we got caught this time because Liu Mei set it up. Look, in Baimu Town and Changlin City, who else could arrange something like this?”
Liu Duan said, “You think your grudges are so big that after all these years she still wants to harm you?”
Huang Xiuling said, “Of course. I reported her back then… she’s guilty. She definitely wants to kill me to silence me.”
Liu Duan said, “Then take all of you in one sweep? The cost is too high. This is a society under rule of law now. She’s rich; she wouldn’t go that far…”
Huang Xiuling said, “One sweep? What do you mean? Uh, I don’t know Lin Zong and them. There’s no ‘one sweep.’ But maybe Liu Mei misunderstood, and she really wanted to kill me, so she did this.”
Liu Duan said, “Then what did you experience inside that factory?”
Huang Xiuling said, “Some very strange game. They tricked us out. Actually it was killing people. Luo Hong and Chen Qing got killed, right? We heard screams… then they released poison. Officer, you wouldn’t suspect me, right? I was poisoned too. I almost died. Luckily you came in time to save me… How are the others? I still don’t know their situation.”
Liu Duan said, “What did you say inside? Did the kidnapper ask you anything?”
Huang Xiuling thought of Su Li turning on them later. This old cop kept asking back and forth but never seemed to hit the point. Did Su Li say something, or not?
She couldn’t be sure, but she still chose the most conservative, safest response: deny, keep denying any accusation unfavorable to her.
“He just asked what kind of people we are, what we used to do, whether we have anyone we want to deal with. Honestly, in that situation, as a mom, I definitely didn’t want a bad person to know my family situation. I have three kids. So I said nonsense. And later he meant to make us kill each other. Even if we didn’t want to, our mental states got really bad in the end. Luckily, in the end we didn’t hurt each other.”
She pushed all behavior onto the psychological pressure of an extreme environment. Even if Su Li accused her of wanting to harm her then, she could shift responsibility away.
Liu Duan said, “Did you know Lin Zong and Su Li before?”
Huang Xiuling said, “I said it. I don’t know a single one.”
The Q&A stayed fast, and she kept answering smoothly. During this time in the hospital, those old foxes had enough time to prepare their lines.
As Xiao Li summarized mid-way: innocent, polite, cooperative, but knows nothing when asked.
The final question made Huang Xiuling’s expression change sharply, but she steadied quickly and denied it. “If I don’t know him, why would I have some old Chinese doctor come to my home for no reason?”
Zhen Wuyu had said that among the four, Chen Qing was the weakest; compared to the other three, he was like a total rookie, with no ability to disguise and no psychological resilience.
That judgment was accurate.
From Huang Xiuling’s repeated, fast exchanges up to now, she still keenly held onto the fake professions Lin Zong and the others used in the shoe factory shower-room prison, insisting she knew nothing about their real identities. That showed her mental response wasn’t weak, and her psychological resilience wasn’t low.
In the old case, those people lived near Baimu Station. Even if they had been questioned back then, they could probably have answered flawlessly.
Liu Duan said, “When your kids got sick, what doctor did you go to?”
Huang Xiuling said, “Nearby small clinics. We’re poor. We don’t have that much money. Especially after my husband ran off, we had nothing. Unless it’s a big illness, we rarely go to the hospital.”
Liu Duan said, “Can you check them yourself? Like using a stethoscope to diagnose them?”
Huang Xiuling was already unsettled inside. Now her brow jumped harder, her mouth tightened, her fist clenched.
“Officer, I don’t know what you mean. I’m a woman driver. What would I know about diagnosis… at most I’d take their temperature. Any mom can do that.”
Liu Duan smiled and handed over the cup.
Huang Xiuling hesitated before taking it, but she didn’t drink. She just held it in her palm, then heard this kindly old-cop-who-seemed-like-someone-else’s-good-dad say slowly:
“If the old principal from Baimu Town saw you with Lin Zong, I wonder if he could recognize that he was the one who recommended and supported you getting into the first year of middle school.”
Only after he got confirmation from the school principal and other older teachers, using Lin Zong’s photo, did Liu Duan feel confident interrogating Huang Xiuling.
These people weren’t without flaws.
“Do you think you’re grateful to him, or do you hate him?”
He had discussed it with Zhen Wuyu by phone. They guessed Huang Xiuling had received Lin Zong’s help back then. She was a teenage girl, ignorant, losing her chance to study under a cruel family, and then receiving an older person’s protection and support; she would definitely think she had seen a god.
But what if Lin Zong had bad intentions?
Using sweet-coated bullets to exploit a pure girl’s desire to study, saving her from fire and water, but actually dragging her into hell.
What girl in that situation could resist?
By age, Lin Zong’s involvement started earliest among them, so he was most familiar with the knot. Huang Xiuling’s fall very likely had Lin Zong as the guide.
How would she view that old man in her heart?
Gulp. Her hand loosened and the cup fell onto the blanket. Water spilled out.
Liu Duan quickly grabbed the cup, quickly pulled out many tissues, and had her wipe it herself.
Because he suddenly leaned in, Huang Xiuling had just tried to shift away, avoiding this kind of “older man” getting close. But seeing Liu Duan’s action, she froze for a moment, then leaned back and used tissues to soak up most of the water.
Head lowered, expression dark and numb.
Liu Duan didn’t rush. After a while, Huang Xiuling finally raised her head and said, “Him? I really didn’t recognize him. He got much older. He doesn’t look like before at all. But yes, it’s been more than ten years. Who wouldn’t change? I’ve changed from a little girl into an auntie too.”
“He probably didn’t recognize me either.”
Liu Duan guessed she knew what she was hiding from her eldest son; she knew he wouldn’t expose those things. And their neighborhood was mixed and messy, with few cameras. They couldn’t have footage of Lin Zong coming and going. Lin Zong was cautious too; he likely disguised himself each time…
They truly had no evidence that they had contact.
Even if they proved it, she could still push it off: it was a private relationship; what did it have to do with the case?
Sure enough, Huang Xiuling changed her posture and stared at Liu Duan. “I’m a victim, right? You don’t go catch the kidnapper who poisoned us, but instead you chase me with questions. Did Liu Mei pay you? Are you close with Liu Mei? Or did that Su Li use connections to target us? I know she’s rich. Maybe it’s like when I was in the first year of middle school.”
“People like them just move a finger and I’m finished.”
If the police hadn’t understood the Chen Shengnan incident and investigated these people, and if they hadn’t done advance analysis of the four, including the crucial videotape—
Seeing their hypocrisy and flaws in the extreme environment on the tape, maybe Liu Duan really would have made a biased judgment based on class positions between Liu Mei and Su Li on one side, and Huang Xiuling on the other, driven by a police instinct to hate evil.
Now, he stayed calm.
“This knot; can you untie it?”
He took out the knot. Huang Xiuling looked once, her mouth tightening. “When I was tied up, it seemed like this. Back then it was luck; I untied it randomly.”
Liu Duan said, “Aren’t you afraid?”
Huang Xiuling said, “Of what?”
Liu Duan said, “The hands tied with this were a corpse’s.”
That jar medicine granny.
Huang Xiuling adjusted her expression in time, shocked and frightened. Before she could curse Liu Duan for scaring her, Liu Duan continued, “Your home in Baimu Town is big. It’s a big courtyard. You lived more comfortably there than in Changlin. Why did you leave Baimu Town in 1991 and go to Changlin to be a woman driver?”
Huang Xiuling lowered her eyes and adjusted her posture, her back seeming to straighten as if to emphasize something. “It was poor there. Who would ride a car? As a woman, it’s not just that you can’t get passengers; you’re afraid passengers will rob you. Those years were chaotic. And there were murder cases, very scary. So I ran. What’s wrong with that?”
Liu Duan said, “That courtyard was bought in full, right? Where did the money come from? Working? If business was bad then, could you still save enough to buy a house?”
Huang Xiuling said, “I really couldn’t. But my life was bad. That winter, on New Year’s Eve, my family all died of gas poisoning. They left behind the old house and some money. When I rushed back, I only saw their bodies… That’s why I had money to buy the house.”
She stared at Liu Duan. “Officer, will you be like the people in my hometown, and think that because I just happened to not be home and didn’t die with them, and then as a daughter I inherited the property, it’s unforgivable, heaven won’t allow it, and I deserve punishment?”
“Or do they also think I shouldn’t have come back, so the money would be theirs? But I left home; I didn’t die.”
Those words were poisonous, and painful.
Liu Duan frowned. The investigative materials didn’t include this. They only knew she dropped out in the first year of middle school and went out to work early, drifting around. Those messy experiences would never be recorded in files. Even the Liu relatives didn’t know the details. They only knew that Huang Xiuling, still called Liu Aidi then, had a terrible relationship with her family, and later disappeared with no news.
In the end, time was too tight and they hadn’t investigated fully.
So the suspicion that she bought the house with trafficking money got cut off.
Liu Duan continued, “That’s reasonable. Women also have inheritance rights. So after you and your older sisters each inherited your shares, you bought the courtyard and renovated it? Do you remember what crew you hired?”
“They didn’t inherit.”
Liu Duan’s focus was the courtyard, but Huang Xiuling smiled.
As they looked at each other, Huang Xiuling said lightly, “They died long before my parents and younger brother.”
“One jumped into the river, one jumped into a well. If I hadn’t run away from home and had listened to them early and married, the place I chose would probably not be far from them.”
Liu Duan suddenly felt very cold. His scalp tingled.
He didn’t know whether Huang Xiuling’s parents and younger brother’s poisoning death was suspicious, or whether her two older sisters’ “suicides” were suspicious.
It felt like there were problems everywhere, and also like it was all a snapshot of the era and the world.
Everything had been normalized, so in police visits and investigations, few people even mentioned these old matters.
Baimu Town was a place where winter lasted longer than spring.
It was like it snowed all year.