Not illegal, but immoral.
That was probably Su Li’s style. Ever since she was young, she used her family’s natural advantages to stand above, drive, and suppress most of the ordinary students at Changlin High. She acted however she pleased in a nasty, loud way. That kind of arrogance and malice even made the teachers, who were a whole tier above students, deeply wary.
That was how the teacher incident happened.
But Zhen Wuyu kept realizing that his repeated predictions about her only exposed how low-level he was; he had underestimated her.
In the interrogation room.
Zhen Wuyu checked his watch. “You went out for less than three minutes and came back.”
“Just now, your lawyer’s expression was very complicated.”
Who was he mocking?
Su Li: “It’s fine. Give him a raise.”
So arrogant, so capitalist.
Zhen Wuyu couldn’t help saying, “Do you think money means you can do whatever you want?”
He had never been able to understand why Su Li’s temperament was so complicated.
Sure, extreme wealth and fame could feed unrestrained desire and malice, and make someone better at squeezing others. But he also believed Su Li’s IQ and EQ were strong enough that no matter what she was like inside, she could still pretend to have a style that benefited her in society and in her future.
But she was strange.
Unruly, moody, full of contrasts.
In fact, it wasn’t good for her future.
Su Li held a glass of water in her fingers. She still hadn’t drunk it. Hearing him, she lifted her eyes. “That colleague of yours on the inside, is it because they’re dissatisfied with the sacred authority of police, or because they want money?”
She knew how to cut straight to the point.
And on top of answering, she set an ideological trap for him.
It looked like a choice between two options, but in reality he could only pick the second.
Zhen Wuyu couldn’t refute that at all. He went back to handling the “picking fights and causing trouble” from earlier, step by step…
He knew it wouldn’t hold her long, because…
“They won’t sue. They want to settle.”
Not because Su Li’s lawyer had come, but because even before the lawyer arrived, her phone call had already made those people choose what benefited them most.
Su Li started drinking water, swallowing. “Looks like what I said just now was a bit unnecessary.”
“Now this is the most standard answer.”
Zhen Wuyu didn’t debate. He packed up and stood. “By the standards for picking fights and causing trouble, at most we detain you for fourteen days. But your lawyer just relayed Mr. Su’s suggestion: he wants you out tomorrow, on bail.”
Su Li: “It’s up to me. I don’t agree. Don’t agree either.”
Zhen Wuyu: “That lawyer asked me to relay what Mr. Su asked him to relay: if you still want inheritance rights to his assets, you’d better leave tomorrow, and go abroad according to his arrangements.”
He stared at Su Li.
“Does that count as another kind of ‘up to you’ answer.”
“Money can do whatever it wants.”
“It doesn’t pick targets.”
Su Li set down the cup, leaned back in the chair, and smiled slightly.
“Fine. I’m still willing to submit to money.”
“Going abroad does seem like a good choice for me, especially when the situation is so dangerous.”
“To stay alive and reduce my losses, principles and original intentions are hard things to hold onto.”
Zhen Wuyu: “So your original intention was coming back, and investigating the case for Director Zhan?”
Su Li frowned. She laced her fingers together and sat up straight. She didn’t answer directly. Instead she said, “Actually, when I was little, I told my parents: I said I wanted to become a police officer like her.”
She rarely brought up Zhan Qing on her own.
And people today mostly remembered Zhan Qing from the ID photo on the case file folder and the information related to the homicide.
Even…
Autopsy information.
Corpse photos.
Zhen Wuyu was someone who came later. He remembered those things, but he never had extra feelings about someone dead for over ten years, and he hadn’t deeply connected Su Li with Zhan Qing’s mother-daughter relationship.
Probably because Su Li had never shown the kind of sincere and intense feelings ordinary people had for their parents.
Indeed, when an individual was strong enough, and their temperament was cold enough, they would break away from the family and moral constraints under civilization.
Zhen Wuyu: “That’s what confuses me. You have this motive and ability, so why didn’t you apply to police academy?”
He had always felt she could become a good person, someone useful to society and to the public.
Not like now: looking glamorous, but more like a rainforest of poisonous miasma.
You never knew what kind of beast or venomous insect was hiding inside.
Su Li: “If you know there are crocodiles in a river, would you jump in personally just to catch crocodiles?”
Zhen Wuyu: “……”
Su Li: “So back to the earlier question, original intention?”
“For the truth, for innocent people, for ideals and justice.”
“Like my mom.”
“Even if I can’t become a police officer.”
Her eyes were full of sincerity, her expression gentle.
Everyone present was moved.
Actually, when Zhen Wuyu paused at the doorway, he had wanted to turn back, sit down again, and talk with this classmate, this school beauty who had pressed him down for years, the one whose number-one brilliance kept him looking up, about the past.
About the homeroom teacher’s case.
But after hesitating a moment, he still went out.
He felt that he was police, and she was still a hidden suspect. Investing too much personal emotion was a major taboo for police.
He couldn’t do that.
So he pulled the door closed, a click, shutting it, and also shutting away the gaze Su Li lifted from her chair behind him.
More grown now than in high school, prettier, more nourished by wealth and fame, yet her face still held that sincerity and sadness from just now.
Or rather…
Regret?
Did she really want to be a police officer?
Like her mother.
After Zhen Wuyu returned to the office, he contacted someone.
When the call went through, an elderly, weak voice came from the other side.
Zhen Wuyu’s expression softened, and guilt surfaced. He said quietly, “Auntie Luo, I want to ask about Shen Hui.”
On the other side, Luo Zhen’s breathing stalled. She suppressed excitement and pain. “Sorry to trouble you, Officer Zhen. After so long, you’re the only one still paying attention to this…”
“No, it’s what I should do. I’m investigating right now too. I need you to answer some questions… I’ll do my best.”
If a reporter asked what the greatest hardship in a police career was, maybe eighty percent of police would answer: it wasn’t facing a corpse with a tragic death, and it wasn’t facing vicious criminals. It was facing the victim’s family, especially families who still hadn’t gotten the truth, yet kept holding on and hoping.
Their eyes were the gentlest and most bone-deep judgment in the world.
Police would feel guilty too.
Luo Zhen: “I know you’ve had it hard too… What do you need me to answer?”
Zhen Wuyu: “Luo Hong, also known as Zhang Han. Besides the doctor-patient family relationship at the hospital, did he have other contact with Shen Hui? Have you seen Zhang Han? How would you evaluate him?”
When the investigation hit a bottleneck, he had to recheck every connected… living person.
Luo Zhen: “Zhang Han? Let me think. I’ve heard of him, but I haven’t met him. I heard about him from Xiao Hui. She said he was a good person, and very filial.”
“Her exact words?”
“Huh? Yes, that’s what she said…”
First a good person, then very filial.
That meant a highly educated doctor like Shen Hui first formed a judgment about his character, then noticed he was filial. So she knew Zhang Han before his parents were admitted to the hospital?
Zhen Wuyu: “Then they might have known each other before.”
Luo Zhen: “Ah? I’m not sure… She didn’t say much, but she really cared about his parents. Once she even asked me to make lunch boxes for her to bring to the hospital. She said that during that period Zhang Han spent all his money buying food and necessities for his parents, and he himself only ate two meals a day…”
Zhen Wuyu was surprised. In his mind he tried to connect a gentle, beautiful, high-status doctor with a butcher who had been jailed, divorced, penniless, and had two seriously ill parents…
It didn’t match at all, like worlds apart.
“Zhang Han is from Baimu Town. His address is… his shop is also…”
“Where did your family live before?”
Luo Zhen suddenly understood. “Ah? He lives there? We didn’t live in Baimu Town for long. There was one year when my mother, Huihui’s grandmother, became seriously ill. That same year my man died. I brought her back to Baimu and stayed for a while… I was busy taking care of the old person. Huihui did the grocery shopping…”
Zhen Wuyu understood too. Shen Hui was young then. She might often have gone to Zhang Han’s place to buy pork.
She had seen his life and observed him as a person.
Honest, not smart, but truly an “honest man.”
Otherwise he wouldn’t have been bullied and framed by those criminal capitalists, losing his shop and freedom, taking the blame.
She had eaten the pork he sold.
She knew he was innocent.
So later, he cared about her life and death, her whereabouts.
Her truth.
“Then… Auntie Luo, later, did Zhang Han contact you? Or after Shen Hui’s accident… did any strange person contact you?”
Luo Zhen was confused, then said, “No… But I did receive things sent from Shen Hui’s classmates and colleagues from time to time. Some had names, some didn’t.”
“Huihui helped a lot of people. These people are helping me.”
“After a long time I told them to stop sending things. Everyone has to live. They can’t keep thinking about me… Later there were fewer items… but there still are.”
“I don’t know if Zhang Han is among them.”
Zhen Wuyu controlled his voice and asked, “Then recently, just these past few days, has there been anything?”
“Yes, yes. Let me look… The ones with names definitely aren’t him, right? I’ll look for the ones without names… I remember before there was someone called Da Xiong. I didn’t even know who that was. I wrote back telling him not to send things, but he wouldn’t listen… But what he sent were things my body needed. At the time I felt he must know my physical condition very well.”
Zhen Wuyu waited a moment. There were small rustling sounds on Luo Zhen’s side, mixed with wind and snow.
Then.
Luo Zhen’s voice came through.
“Found it, found it… It smells, like ginseng…”
“Oh, there’s a note inside.”
After a while, Zhen Wuyu received a photo Luo Zhen took.
The box was packed full of mountain ginseng. The note had some dirt-stained color, like natural sincerity and honesty, with one crooked line of writing.
Auntie, I will find her. It will all be over soon.
Was it that tall, burly idiot butcher, disguised as a crafty materials dealer, sitting in a chair and writing his true feelings word by word?
Almost over.
I’m going to find her.
I’m going to find Huihui.
Zhen Wuyu thought of it: Luo Hong had taken Chen Qing away and hadn’t killed him. What was the goal? Naturally, to force answers about back then.
Could it be Shen Hui wasn’t dead yet?
Luo Hong had already gotten the location where Shen Hui was trafficked…
Zhen Wuyu stared at the mountain ginseng for a while. He didn’t know much about it and couldn’t get specific info. So he went out to ask local Baimu Town officers. The policewoman answered first, because she was a local and her hometown was near the mountains.
She looked at the photo for a bit. “This quality looks local. And it’s raw, not dried. Looking at how plump and good it is, it was probably dug up just a few days ago. It’s still very fresh.”
A few days?
Zhen Wuyu calculated the time to buy mountain ginseng in Baimu’s mountains and mail it to Changlin. That would take one or two days too. With slow logistics, after all the counting, Luo Hong had bought this ginseng and mailed it to Luo Zhen five days ago.
Five days ago, Lin Zong and the others hadn’t been arrested yet.
Then where was Luo Hong?
Zhen Wuyu immediately pulled up the earlier investigation on Lin Zong and the six missing people.
From it he confirmed Luo Hong’s movements five days ago. Five days ago, he wasn’t in Baimu Town. Before the case even happened, he was out of town.
So who bought the ginseng, and who mailed the note?
Zhen Wuyu suddenly thought of something.
Five days ago, Su Li had already arrived in Baimu Town.
But that was only suspicion, no proof. He couldn’t just rush over and question Su Li.
She was too sly.
“Where do people sell this kind of ginseng? Is it sold directly at the foot of the mountain, or is there a fixed market?”
The policewoman thought for a moment. “I remember there’s an open-air trading stall at the foot of the mountain temple. It opens once a week. Most of it is people trading medicinal materials.”
Mountain temple?
This time Zhen Wuyu was genuinely speechless.
Based on the timing, when that person carried a bag of offerings to the temple, did she also buy a box of mountain ginseng at the foot of the mountain?
If the ginseng seller there told him it really was her who bought it, he would be finished.
The next day, the lawyer came to pick her up, and learned she was already gone.
Su Li, she had already been released.
Half an hour ago, at six in the morning, there was frost on the second-floor window. Breath would form white mist on it, but Zhen Wuyu wasn’t breathing. He silently watched through the glass as Su Li got into a car and left.
The glass was clear, but the person beyond it looked blurred, separated by space.
“It’s snowing again.”
Chen Liao brought milk and buns for him to make do for breakfast.
“Thanks.”
Chen Liao saw a lot of files on the desk, and many of them seemed to be… the Xue Ling Dao case?
“Shifu was investigating all night. You didn’t go over. Were you looking at Xue Ling Dao and Shen Hui’s cases?”
Zhen Wuyu sat down to eat breakfast and answered. To identify the mole’s identity, Liu Duan and the others could screen internal data themselves. But to save time, they had to divide tasks. They couldn’t throw everyone at one thing.
“Yes. Too much material. We have to pull out what’s truly valuable and correct.”
Case file records, whether valuable or not, were basically true and correct information.
If Zhen Wuyu said he needed to find what was correct, that meant he thought something inside was incorrect?
Chen Liao actually knew Liu Duan, the chief, and Zhen Wuyu had a small private group searching independently… As a police instinct, he knew there was an internal problem. He just didn’t know whether it was someone on the current team, or someone from the old case team.
Not asking was his best response.
“Xiao Ling said that market opens at eight. What time are you leaving? Should I go?”
Zhen Wuyu had planned to bring him, because if Su Li really had a problem, she had many people under her, and also many who protected her. They might not be able to bring her back to the station.
He also didn’t want an illegal conflict on site. It would be best if their own police force could suppress it and force the other side not to resist and come back to cooperate.
Their manpower was stretched to the limit. Chen Liao could still spare time. Going together was good.
But.
Zhen Wuyu’s phone rang. Chen Liao went out.
Click, the door closed.
Zhen Wuyu glanced at the caller ID.
He had many channels to investigate people, more than Liu Duan and the others imagined, like provincial resources that he could mobilize without going through any official personnel in Changlin or Baimu Town.
Last night, he had added a new direction for that side to investigate.
Today, that side was returning earlier results.
“Su Li’s studies have no problem, but it’s not a criminal investigation direction, and she hasn’t worked in related industries. But her study timeline is a bit strange. She took two years off during university. As for her whereabouts during those two years, since it was abroad, we’re still checking…”
“Chen Wanrong’s Hongfeng company has been operating poorly these past years. It’s in industrial transition. It’s been in contact with the internet company Su Ye manages, intending to jointly invest in real estate and regional development projects… There’s serious internal infighting at Hongfeng’s Hong Kong headquarters, and there are issues in the accounts. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority has been giving them trouble… But this person is still one of Hongfeng’s original founders. She doesn’t hold shares as capital, but she has always had management power. She has a wide network. From what I’m hearing, Hongfeng is doing badly, but her overseas assets have been surging. That’s likely why certain departments are investigating her.”
Zhen Wuyu: “Someone reported her, right? And provided some materials. Otherwise, she’s been rooted for so many years, rarely has incidents. Recently Hongfeng hasn’t completely blown up either. It wouldn’t suddenly be investigated.”
“That, I can’t be sure. Different departments. Hong Kong won’t contact us in real time. It’s only because she recently came to the mainland that the two departments had contact… We can only say, if there wasn’t some solid evidence that made their investigation intensity increase, she probably wouldn’t come to the mainland.”
Coming to the mainland was a last resort for Chen Wanrong.
Either she was truly clean and not afraid of anything, and came to Baimu Town to clear her name.
Or she wasn’t clean.
“Maybe someone behind her forced her to come and take the blame and clean up. Or maybe her route out of the country has already been blocked, and Hong Kong won’t let her leave.”
Official channels were definitely more accurate than Su Li’s face-to-face mockery.
One of the reasons Chen Wanrong came to Baimu was that she couldn’t get out.
It sounded like good news, but Zhen Wuyu wasn’t optimistic.
“If there really was solid evidence, she wouldn’t even be able to leave Hong Kong. If she can leave, that means they can’t take her down. They can only file and investigate, but won’t get results.”
“You’re from the economic side. You’re telling me this because you want me to take her down on the criminal side? Then do a joint investigation?”
The other person gave a dry laugh. They couldn’t exactly admit their investigation had hit a bottleneck. Time was running out, and that group might really wipe clean everything and escape. Their sin would be huge. So…
“How much time is left?”
The other side: “Her former accountant has been held over there for a while. There are five days left.”
That was short.
Days passed fast.
Zhen Wuyu: “She must be confident. She’s already started provoking Su Ye’s daughter.”
That information made the other side pause.
This wasn’t romance gossip. It was a strong signal: Chen Wanrong believed she had removed key hidden dangers. The economic case couldn’t touch her, and the criminal side had no weak point either…
Zhen Wuyu was reminding them that the criminal side might not succeed either, so they should share more valuable information, or help with permissions, speeding up certain investigations.
Wait.
Zhen Wuyu suddenly stood up.
“What’s wrong? Hello? Hello?!”
Beep beep beep. He heard dead tone, and the call cut.
A family housing courtyard.
An old man pushed open the door, carrying vegetables he had just bought at the market. He met a neighbor and chatted a few lines.
“Dropped off your grandson again? Your good grandson is really worth doting on, going back and forth every day…”
“Aren’t you the same. Whose kid isn’t worth doting on… Don’t laugh at me… What’re you eating today? Me? I bought a bit of pork… As for vegetables, I’ve got them in the cellar, not spending that money…”
“You old man, your pension is so high and you’re still saving?”
“Who’s got a lot of money, I’m poor as dirt…”
They laughed and cursed softly. The kind-faced old man went inside, walked into the kitchen, and was about to take out the pork and the big yellow croaker from the bag to process them, when he suddenly noticed a knife missing from the rack where the tools were kept.
As he wondered, he saw on the narrow blade of another knife the kitchen door he had pushed open swinging wider, and a red shadow, terrifyingly familiar, silently watching him from behind that door…
Those eyes, that face.
No face.
A white mask.
In that instant, extreme fear made his eyes go wide. His fingers trembled as he reached for another knife.
But.
The kitchen was small. The distance was too close. When he saw her, she was behind him the next second.
The thin-bladed knife he usually used to cut meat and vegetables came from behind…
Covered his mouth, and cleanly slit once.
Hiss…
Hot blood sprayed onto the kitchen wall tiles.
Then quickly streamed down…
He was laid onto the floor, looking up at the woman in red, looking at the eyes under the mask.
Twitching, he forced out his last hoarse, difficult sound.
“Zhan… Zhan…”
She ignored him. Right in front of the dying old man, she used the knife in her gloved hand to press a fingerprint imprint that had been stuck to the handle with plastic film.
Later… after the old man completely stopped breathing, she put a few strands of hair into the bloodied cracks under his fingernails.
The blood began to congeal. The hair stuck there, as if proof had been left behind during a struggle.