Liu Duan followed the footprints and tracked them to the back door.
There were traces of a snow vehicle leaving, but they were faint as well. And outside, the snow cover was even more vast, the wind and snow even harsher; it would probably be hard to keep tracking the other side.
Disappointed, Liu Duan holstered his gun and went back inside. He saw Zhen Wuyu checking the label on the videotape.
Number 4?
“Did he do this on purpose? He predicted we’d track to this place?”
“This is number 4. Does that mean there’s a number 3 tape we haven’t found?”
Liu Duan looked around but didn’t see it. He suspected tape number 3 might be at another factory.
Zhen Wuyu wasn’t sure either, but he knew they’d find out once they watched it.
“We can’t watch it here.”
“First, confirm whether this place is where he’s hiding them.”
They searched around, but found no trace of Su Li and the others. There was no sealed underground hidden room here either.
After they got back in the vehicle, Liu Mei heard they needed to watch the tape. She thought for a moment and said, “The nearest place that can play a tape is a factory that’s also on the route to the next factory you’re going to. If you’re worried about wasting time, leave one person there to watch the tape while the other continues…”
She was a career woman. When something came up, she liked to solve it directly. She wouldn’t wait for others to hesitate and decide before giving her orders.
She was also the type who liked giving suggestions.
Zhen Wuyu and Liu Duan felt it was a good idea.
Twenty minutes later, in the endless white snowfield, they reached the Qi family furniture factory. Sure enough, preparations for restarting work were underway. Local workers and two government staff were there. When they learned it was the police, they greeted them briefly; they were all part of the same official system and didn’t interfere.
Liu Mei asked the person in charge whether there were spare snow vehicles. She was worried that if the person left behind discovered something after watching the tape, they might not be able to act. So the moment she arrived, she was already arranging a backup.
“Director Liu Mei, we only have the one we’re using. You need it? You can take it first…”
“Okay. If we need it later…”
Liu Duan left with Liu Mei. Zhen Wuyu stayed.
The iron door of the monitoring room opened. After he fiddled with the equipment and power, he loaded the tape.
He was confused the moment the tape started.
Because number 4 opened with a scream, followed by Su Li and the others’ shocked reactions.
Clearly, it continued directly from tapes 1 and 2.
1, 2, 4?
Where did 3 go?
Zhen Wuyu kept watching.
After a burst of panicked shouting, the old man spoke to remind them that someone had died, killed by a companion.
Only then did the shouting fall silent.
Lin Zong and the other two didn’t ask who had died. Instead, they exchanged glances…
If you already suspected their connection and observed with intent, you could see their interactions were frequent. Su Li was the lone one. She hadn’t blended into the trio’s small circle. She was still panicking on her own: “Who died?”
The Saw Grandpa said, “Luo Hong.”
The four of them reacted in different ways. True or fake, it was hard to tell. In any case, they all expressed fear and regret…
“Why did someone die? Didn’t you say you’d let us out? Wasn’t that a lie?”
Huang Xiuling’s voice was almost hoarse, like she couldn’t bear it.
Su Li only said, “I have a lot of money. I’ll give it to you. Let me go? I’m not like these poor people. I can pay ransom.”
Lin Zong and the other two: “……”
Unfortunately, the Saw Grandpa dismissed money. “I don’t lack money, little girl. I will always have more money than you, so don’t negotiate with me using money.”
Su Li said, “Then… can I negotiate using your rules? Can I ask why Luo Hong died? Did you cause his death, or did Chen Qing already intend to kill him?”
Already intended to kill him?
Her question made Lin Zong’s expression darken slightly. He glanced at her, then asked as well, “For no reason, why kill him? Was it for the hundred thousand? But the money wasn’t in Luo Hong’s hands…”
The Saw Grandpa said, “One was too obedient, but stupid. One wasn’t obedient, but ruthless enough.”
Su Li gasped. “Then I’m finished. I’m obedient and stupid and not ruthless enough; doesn’t that mean I’m dead for sure?”
Watching the tape, Zhen Wuyu lowered his eyes and adjusted the volume. He heard the old man continue: “So you think the three of them will kill you the way Chen Qing did?”
With that single sentence, all four fell silent.
Every stall sank into an eerie atmosphere.
Zhen Wuyu watched coldly. His gaze swept across the four faces with their different expressions, then moved to the broadcast speaker.
He could tell the speaker was new, not old at all, and the model was unusual.
He picked up his phone, thinking to look up the model, but the network was lagging—probably because of the blizzard and poor base-station signal. While it stuttered and delayed, the Saw Grandpa told them to continue.
Huang Xiuling said, “How do we know you won’t deliberately set us up again? What if, like Chen Qing and the other, one of us dies… how can we bear that?”
Su Li said, “Maybe both of them died. Who can say Chen Qing really escaped?”
Huang Xiuling: “……”
The moment Su Li said it, the atmosphere died a second death.
This rich girl really knew where to stab.
The Saw Grandpa said, “You’re not wrong to suspect. But do you have a choice?”
They did. If they didn’t cooperate, there wouldn’t even be a chance like Chen Qing had to escape.
At least they had a fifty-fifty chance.
In silence, the four of them could only keep playing.
Zhen Wuyu knew that among these four, the number of people who truly didn’t want to keep playing was probably zero or one.
Huang, Lin, and Zhang were a group. They definitely wanted to find a chance to leave with Su Li and kill her. As for Su Li, she likely realized those three had problems. If she wasn’t confident she could deal with any one of them, staying was best—so that was one.
If she was confident, then it was zero.
Either way, they were basically all acting… a whole cast of performers.
Zhen Wuyu watched coldly, but his gaze repeatedly fell on Su Li’s posture and expression. He knew that if she had a chance, she would leave more key information.
The second round began. Next was Huang Xiuling. The Saw Grandpa spun the wheel.
Huang Xiuling closed her eyes to pray, hands pressed together, like she was kneeling before a Buddha for three hundred years just to—
“Money, money, money, I want money.”
“1, 1, 1, 1, 1, I want 1…”
“Sanqing, Jesus, Tathagata, Guanyin Bodhisattva, Maria…”
Su Li suddenly complained, “Da Jie, you’re stepping on an entire ocean-going fleet like that; they’d drown you in a pig cage.” [1]浸猪笼: “to drown in a pig cage” — an old folk punishment used to shame and execute women for “immorality,” invoked here as a sharp joke. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_1832071_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1832071_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });
Snap—the result came out at the same moment.
Everyone looked. 2—Hatred.
Huang Xiuling’s face turned black. She jerked her head toward Su Li. That expression was no longer meek or plain; it twisted into something vicious.
Su Li startled, a little scared, and shrank back.
Huang Xiuling said, “Hatred. If I have to talk about hatred, can I name her?”
She stared at Su Li.
Su Li was wronged. “No, Da Jie, how is that my fault? You think if I kept quiet you’d definitely win? Ask them if they think that too.”
Zhang Cheng helped Su Li again. “That’s true. Da Jie, this isn’t good. You’re acting like the money is definitely yours. And we can’t only look at money. If you’re alive, you should have some pursuit.”
Huang Xiuling said, “Then I hate you. You die for her.”
Zhang Cheng said, “Pretend I didn’t say anything.”
Huang Xiuling sneered. “If I don’t want money, what do I want? I have several kids at home. How do I live without money? I’m not like you men… you fat bastard, you see a young girl and you’re like this. For you men, besides money, it’s women. Now there’s a woman right here, you don’t love money anymore?”
Zhang Cheng got mad, like he thought her words were ugly.
“Da Jie, we don’t even know each other. You’re too vicious. Why be like this… I’m a teacher. This girl could be my daughter. How could I be that filthy?”
Huang Xiuling said, “Don’t know me, yet you’re this enthusiastic? I don’t see you treating me this well.”
Zhang Cheng said impatiently, “Because you’re old. Because you’re not pretty.”
Huang Xiuling said, “And you’re not old? Not ugly?”
Strangers, victims—people who should have been united against the enemy—started fighting like this.
Su Li didn’t dare join in. She looked toward Lin Zong, who should have been next in line. She realized the old man wasn’t anxious, as if he wasn’t that obsessed with money—at least, he wasn’t in a rush, and he didn’t show it.
The Saw Grandpa said, “Are you sure you want to set it as this Hu Li?”
Su Li said, “Su. My surname is Su.”
The Saw Grandpa said, “If you die, what surname you have won’t matter.”
Her face changed immediately. She turned to Huang Xiuling, pleading. “Da Jie, don’t do this. I was wrong, isn’t that enough… Please name the person you truly hate first. Don’t waste this chance. You should know, even if you want money, money might not solve your enemy. Isn’t this the more direct, one-step solution? Using me to cancel out this huge opportunity—am I worth it?”
That did sound reasonable.
Huang Xiuling finally calmed down. Her eyes flickered, as if thinking about something. Only then did she say, “I want to kill my classmate.”
“She bullied me in seventh grade… She used money to buy off those classmates, isolated me, even blocked me in the bathroom before class so I couldn’t go to class. She beat me, slapped my face… I went to the teacher, but the teacher wouldn’t help me.”
Just hearing it made people angry; you could imagine how wronged she had been as a kid.
“Her family is very rich. They used to be the richest in this town. Later it seemed their business grew outside. Recently she came back. If you can help me kill her, I’ll be grateful to you.”
The Saw Grandpa said, “It sounds pitiful. Your request makes me more willing to help than Chen Qing’s.”
Lin Zong’s expression turned subtle. He rasped, “Why do you say that? He’s a middle-aged man, his wife cheated and gave him horns, and he can’t kill her? Huang Xiuling was only bullied. Girls bicker, what big deal is that? With how petty they are, you’re going to treat them differently too?”
The Saw Grandpa said, “I am treating them differently. What can you do about it?”
Lin Zong fell silent.
Su Li said, “Uncle Lin Zong, are you especially angry and wronged? That’s right. If this old grandpa bullies you, you think it’s unfair. Then why can’t Da Jie hold a grudge? Do you think you’re more noble than her?”
With that reminder, it was true. Everyone suddenly understood. Lin Zong clearly understood too, but his face looked worse—and… he glanced at Su Li and restrained his expression.
“You’re right. As a man, I didn’t think it through for a moment. Supporting a family is too hard. It’s different from what you women think.”
Huang Xiuling’s view of Su Li changed. Gratitude showed on her face.
“Meimei, you’re a good person. Later, if I can get out, I’ll pick you to go with me. We’ll go out first.”
Su Li said, “Okay, Jie.”
Zhen Wuyu thought: Lin Zong and Huang Xiuling are doing this on purpose. They’re working together—getting Huang Xiuling closer to Su Li. And Su Li is deliberately choosing Huang Xiuling to go out with her?
The Saw Grandpa said, “So you two?”
Su Li and Huang Xiuling had no objections.
Lin Zong suddenly said, “I’m next, right? Do we start now, or wait until the two of them leave before we start?”
Zhang Cheng said, “There are only two men left outside anyway. We might as well start. If there’s something to deal with between us, maybe we can form other pairings.”
Those two wanted to shorten the distance between themselves and Su Li and Huang Xiuling—go out around the same time. With three people, they could take Su Li down for sure and deal with her cleanly.
Then… handle the aftermath.
The Saw Grandpa fell into a strange silence.
That interrupted silence even gave the four people there—and Zhen Wuyu watching—a feeling: did this kidnapper see through everything?
Luckily, the Saw Grandpa soon said, “That works too. After all, this Su Li hasn’t gone through the wheel yet; she can join in.”
“I’m actually very busy too.”
“But my requirement is: you must not lie, or else…”
He didn’t continue. The blank space afterward made the four people each show a tiny reaction.
Lin Zong frowned. Zhang Cheng looked confused. Huang Xiuling rubbed her fingers. Su Li carefully wiped the dirt off her face, and, like a chatterbox, immediately spoke up.
“Of course. If anyone lies, I curse their whole family line to die out, and their wealth to crash! Their body and mind will both break!”
What a vicious curse.
A full-spectrum strike against a person’s life.
The other three could only follow along and agree: absolutely no lying, and absolutely no more lies.
It was Lin Zong’s turn. He had patience and didn’t urge anything. The remaining options were 1, 3, 5—money, secrets, and freedom.
His odds of getting money were huge.
Huang Xiuling said, “Big brother, you’re alone, no relatives. Having that much money is useless. If you get 1 and can exchange directly for cash, why don’t we swap… If swapping were allowed, that would be great.”
She still wouldn’t give up. She even asked the Saw Grandpa if they could swap.
The Saw Grandpa said, “No.”
His temper really was good. Even though they were prisoners jumping around nonstop, he never seemed angry.
Or perhaps—he couldn’t do anything.
After all, he was old, and paralyzed in a wheelchair.
Strange. How could a person like that silently abduct all six of them and bring them here?
The wheel result came out.
3—Secrets.
Lin Zong frowned. “What does ‘secrets’ mean? I have to tell my secret? How is that a request?”
The Saw Grandpa said, “It can be… dealing with the people who know your secret.”
Lin Zong lowered his eyes. His withered fingers with thick joints rubbed unconsciously. “But I don’t have secrets.”
“I’m a Chinese medicine practitioner. What secrets could I have?”
The Saw Grandpa said, “If you don’t, then you don’t. Next. Only you two are left. One more spin and it’s done.”
It was Zhang Cheng’s turn. If his result wasn’t 1, then Su Li would get money.
He stared, and saw the pointer land on 5. His cheek twitched. He looked at Su Li. “I’m 5, freedom. You can only be 1 now. The money is yours.”
Huang Xiuling looked at Su Li, hesitated, and finally said, “Even though we’re short of money and you aren’t, you’re a good girl. Maybe this is your luck.”
Because of what happened earlier, she was much closer to Su Li now. Even her greed for money had been pressed down.
Su Li looked at her and suddenly asked curiously, “How do you know I’m not short of money? Because I said so earlier? If I said it, you believe it? Or do you know me?”
Huang Xiuling froze, stammering, unable to answer. Instead, she looked at the others.
Then Zhang Cheng said, “Ah, you… just looking at your clothes, they’re expensive. But if we could swap, it’d be better if you got freedom. Can freedom let you go out directly?”
He was really asking whether he could go out directly.
The Saw Grandpa said, “No swapping. And freedom isn’t letting you walk out directly. It’s letting you say what you’re not free from, and the trouble that makes you not free. Solve it, and you’re free.”
Su Li said, “Then I want to swap even more.”
The others frowned. Zhang Cheng said, “You don’t want money? You have no obsession at all?”
Su Li fell silent, like she was thinking about what obsession to name. After a while, she said, “I have to pick one?”
The Saw Grandpa said, “If it’s too hard to choose, you can just take money. What’s the account number?”
Su Li said, “No need.”
“My dad is a tycoon, my mom is the bureau chief, I’m their only child, the top scorer in the provincial college entrance exam, the school beauty, the people chasing me line up all the way to France, I’m my own boss, and my startup succeeded. Sorry, give me more time to think of unhappy things.”
The others looked like they had swallowed something unclean, staring at her.
But Su Li really did think of something.
“My biggest regret is that I came back this year and found there are even fewer people in this town.”
“It still looks poor. That’s such a regret. This place should be developing and getting better.”
Huang Xiuling snapped, “Better my ass. They don’t let us log anymore, how can it get better? You can’t even do furniture business. Who knows how many people ran away.”
Su Li said, “You’re a local?”
Huang Xiuling said, “N-no. I’m from Changlin. Not from Baimu Town.”
Su Li said, “Uh, I didn’t say Baimu Town.”
Huang Xiuling: “……”
Her expression choked. She couldn’t speak again. She lowered her eyes, a dark glint flashing in them. Lin Zong and Zhang Cheng also looked at Su Li strangely, wondering if she had sensed something. Why was she probing them now?
So neither of them followed up. They were afraid of exposing themselves too.
Huang Xiuling could only stiffly change the subject. “So can Su Li and Zhang Cheng swap? When do we start?”
She was extremely anxious now. Zhang Cheng brought it up again—could he swap with Su Li?
Su Li looked strange, a little confused. “It makes sense that Huang Jie and that Chen Qing are short of money; one has no job, one is just a driver. But you’re a teacher, and you’re short of money too? Aren’t you on the state payroll? After the post-’85 reforms to 《Education Law》, the climate improved, and the pay is decent.”
She mentioned 1985.
Lin Zong shot a quick look at Zhang Cheng. Zhang Cheng’s fingers, working behind his back at the rope, tightened. He gave a bitter smile. “My place is just a small backwater. It’s worse than Baimu Town. What state payroll? At most I was a rural teacher, holding on with a little love for teaching and a sense of duty. The ones with good pay are the official teachers in the city. I’m not qualified.”
“And as a temporary teacher, people like me get pushed around. There are tons of people above me who can crush me. I tried applying to become official before, but it was too hard. I had to provide all kinds of documents. A few years ago I really couldn’t survive, mainly because the salary wasn’t enough to feed my family. So later I went out to work. The money was more than that dead salary, but it was exhausting. The boss was stingy, made us work overtime every day, and always docked wages. I remember once we took clients out for dinner. He used the excuse of being drunk and told me to pay first, said finance would reimburse me later. When the clients left, I asked for the money. He said it never happened, and asked if I still wanted to keep my job…”
“That year was 1990. The unemployment wave hit. People were losing jobs everywhere. What could I do?”
“But even though I’m short of money, I’m not that greedy. I wouldn’t kill for money. Miss Su, in my eyes you’re like those students, just a kid. I wouldn’t throw away morality and harm you, so…”
“Don’t test me.”
Zhang Cheng suddenly revealed a corner of the truth. Maybe he sensed the prey wasn’t stupid. Pure acting would look fake. It was better to “trade sincerity for sincerity.”
Su Li was caught off guard and looked awkward. “You saw through me. Actually… it’s because Luo Hong was killed. He wasn’t special… except he got a hundred thousand. I’m not sure Chen Qing killed him for that hundred thousand.”
“Compared to him, I’m much richer, and I’m a weak woman. How do I know you won’t hurt me?”
That, too, sounded sincere.
Lin Zong rasped, “Understandable. Even I would worry you people might harm me. After all, I’m an old man. I can’t be a match for you young people.”
“It’s good to lay it out now.”
Huang Xiuling gave a bitter smile. “I’m a woman. How could I deal with you two men? It’s you two—don’t bully me and Miss Su just because we’re women.”
Zhang Cheng said, “No way. What use is a fat guy like me? Running eight hundred meters feels like it’ll kill me.”
Su Li said, “Talking like this is useless. You don’t have the kind of value that makes people want to harm you. If you trust me, let me break free first. Put the initiative in my hands… If you agree, let me open the door first, and I promise that after we get out, I’ll give each of you two hundred thousand.”
The three of them froze.
Su Li continued, “Assuming you didn’t lie just now, and you really are short of money, but you have morals and wouldn’t deceive people—still, human hearts are hard to predict. So I’d rather give you enough benefit first, in exchange for you taking a step back.”
“It’s like doing business. One willing buyer, one willing seller.”
“Is that an excessive request?”
“If you won’t agree… then I’d rather not go out.”
A vicious move.
The three of them were trying to win her trust together, looking for a close-range chance to kill her with maximum certainty. She, step by step, guided them—loose and tight in turns—following their acting, coaxing them into promises.
With terms this good, if they refused, it meant admitting they were lying.
And the premise was—this was after the Saw Grandpa had just said: no lying.
So what now?
The three of them wore different expressions, but they could only go along.
Zhang Cheng reacted fast. He didn’t hesitate. He even pretended to be delighted. “Really? Then of course I agree!”
Huang Xiuling was happy too.
Lin Zong didn’t object. “But to untie ropes, it still looks like the two of you women have to help each other. If you trust Huang Xiuling, let her do it. That way you’ll feel more at ease, right?”
Huang Xiuling said, “Meimei, do you trust me? I have several kids at home. I won’t lie to you. If I really did something bad, what would happen to my kids?”
Su Li said, “Of course I trust you, Jie.”
Huang Xiuling said, “Then have this old grandpa unlock the door, and the two of us first—”
Su Li said, “That won’t be necessary.”
She suddenly slipped free—her hands were already untied. She sprang up and lunged at the iron door.
The three were shocked. They didn’t know how she had freed herself. But the iron door hadn’t opened yet.
At that moment, Lin Zong and the other two almost moved with her—
Snap!
Su Li had been pinching something between her fingers.
An earring stud.
Right. During her earlier movements, she had quietly taken it off. The tip was sharp. All this time, with her back turned, she had been holding it between her fingers to cut, grind, and pick at the rope until it snapped.
All the joking and chatter had been to buy time.
Now…
The rope was off, but the door was still locked!
She kicked off her shoes, pulled out the insoles, folded them, and used the insole to hold the earring tip as she stabbed it into the seam of the lock’s control panel.
Was she going to pick the lock like some master thief from a novel? But this was a remote smart electronic lock. Could an earring really do it?
And yet, in the next second—
The locks on the other doors began…
The locks on the three of them had all automatically disengaged.
Clatter!
The first to rush out was Lin Zong—his rope was already undone too!
This man…
Old, supposedly in poor health, yet he moved like a hyena. He sprang up, yanked open the unlocked iron door, and charged at Su Li with a twisted, vicious face.
Three steps became one. A large rough hand curled as it reached out.
Not a trace remained of the earlier kindness, warmth, or “sincerity.”
He looked like an evil ghost…
Facing him, Su Li’s face turned white. But with a click, the earring stud pierced the latch. The panel’s wiring was exposed. After spotting the lines inside, Su Li used the rubber insole as insulation and yanked out a blue wire.
Neutral.
She pulled it out and snapped it.
Once the wire broke, the lock, still supported by the remaining wiring, triggered an emergency mechanism. With a click, it locked tight.
It was like the hub had been scrambled and the lock core jammed.
Rattle, rattle.
Lin Zong frantically yanked the iron door and lock. Zhang Cheng and Huang Xiuling struggled free and stared as Su Li retreated rapidly to the back of the stall, dragging the wire to the other side…
What was she doing?
She crouched by the drain at the wall and fed the wire end down into it, stretching it in.
Was she…?
The wire slid farther and farther down…
“She’s going to destroy the electrical system!”
“Get out, now!”
Lin Zong shouted. Zhang Cheng twisted his body, the loosened rope falling away, and lunged toward the lock…
But it was too late.
The wire went down far enough that it hit pooled water beneath the drain.
With this much moss, the place was naturally damp and water-rich. Years of neglect meant water had accumulated under the drain.
As long as the wire reached far enough…
Sizzle, sizzle.
The wire end touched the water—sure enough!
Sizzle, sizzle, it started burning immediately.
At the instant Huang Xiuling and Zhang Cheng burst out of their stall and reached Lin Zong—
The lights and locks crackled, then snap—the light burned out.
The entire space fell into darkness.
In the dark, Su Li panted and said, “You three liars. You hardly speak a single truth.”
“I figured out long ago you came for me. Luo Hong was killed by you too, wasn’t he?”
“I said I was the top gaokao scorer; you don’t believe it?”
“Now the outer iron gate is locked too. No one can get out. But you can’t open my door either, can you? This welding job is pretty good. If you have the ability, rush in and kill me.”
“Stay put in here. Wait for the police to find this place… Let’s see if you can withstand an investigation.”
“Idiots.”
References[+]