“So if that’s the case, then all three of them truly did have solid alibis on the night Nie Han died. Even if those alibis were deliberately arranged, they genuinely weren’t present at the crime scene.” Zeng Yongjia unconsciously spun a pen between his fingers as he thought aloud. “Then who exactly killed Nie Han?”
He Shu tapped the whiteboard lightly; it was chaotic yet strangely organized.
“That brings us right back to the key issue we identified at the beginning: the fourth person.”
“That’s why it has become critically important to investigate in detail whether Tang Jia, Zhang Shengnan, and Pan Yu, who appear to have no connection whatsoever, ever had any overlap in their private lives.”
“Makes sense.” After a brief silence, Chang Bin nodded. “On the surface, those three women lead completely different lives and have no interaction. So if there really is any point where they intersect, that’s probably where the fourth person exists.”
“You’re assuming Tang Meitong isn’t the fourth person.” Xie Zihao clearly had a different view. “She still hasn’t been cleared of suspicion. She had contact with both victims, albeit in different ways, and that’s already far too much of a coincidence.”
“Besides, she’s related to Tang Jia. Maybe she killed Nie Han out of revenge for her cousin and later told Tang Jia what she had done.”
“That would also explain how Tang Jia knew so many details. Then, after seeing Tang Meitong arrested, she felt guilty and voluntarily came forward to take the blame…”
“According to your theory,” Zeng Yongjia interjected, finally stopping the pen-spinning that had become dizzying to watch, “Tang Meitong killed Nie Han because he coerced Tang Jia. Then why did she kill Ying Weiqiu?”
Xie Zihao spread his hands.
“That’s something we can ask Tang Meitong, who’s still sitting in an interview room.”
“Maybe Ying Weiqiu offended her too.”
“Or maybe after killing Nie Han, she suddenly awakened her inner serial killer and couldn’t suppress the urge anymore.”
“That’s not impossible, is it?”
Using the marker in her hand, He Shu drew several heavy circles around Fourth Person on the whiteboard. “Actually, I agree with the last part of what Brother Xie said.”
“The second victim may not have had any connection to Nie Han at all.”
“But as for the identity of this so-called fourth person, it’s still too early to draw any conclusions.”
“Everything has to be based on evidence.”
She paused. “Tang Meitong left extremely obvious evidence of contact with both victims on two consecutive nights.”
“Does that fit with our current profile of the killer?”
“Let’s consider just one point.”
“From the very beginning, the killer demonstrated enough awareness to notice the police investigation’s progress. During the second murder, they even forced themselves out of their comfort zone to dispose of the body elsewhere.”
“That alone suggests someone with at least a certain degree of counter-surveillance awareness.”
“Mm…” He Shu merely spared him a glance, dragging out the response vaguely. It seemed as though all of her attention was focused on the phone screen in her hand.
Zeng Yongjia found the sight rather novel. “Never thought I’d see you addicted to doomscrolling online.”
Since he was curious, He Shu didn’t hide what she was doing. Instead, she openly turned the phone toward him. “A Moments feed… whose is it?”
Zeng Yongjia slipped the cigarette pack back into his pocket and reached over, scrolling through the screen a couple of times. The moment he recognized it, his expression transformed into one of utter shock and disbelief.
“Isn’t this Lin Jinxuan’s social media feed?” His thoughts immediately exploded:
#Captain He, I never knew you were like this#
#What has clouded your sharp detective vision? Money? Looks? It can’t possibly be love, right?#
#Captain He actually likes this type?#
Facing the thoroughly outraged expression in front of her, He Shu understood every unspoken accusation hidden within it. She merely smiled slightly and offered no explanation. Instead, she took back her phone, exited the social media app, and opened Weibo.
Knowing she wasn’t bothered by his curiosity, Zeng Yongjia scooted closer and leaned in to look.
The account belonged to Lin Jinxuan. From the profile picture to the username, everything practically screamed wealthy second-generation playboy. After the initial shock wore off, his brain began working rapidly again.
Seeing how unconcerned and straightforward He Shu was being, he realized he had probably gotten the wrong idea. Maintaining an uncomfortable half-bent posture, he leaned over beside her and carefully began reading through every single one of Lin Jinxuan’s Weibo posts.
“Almost every single post is either clubbing and drinking, or him with his arms around women dressed in revealing outfits. Is he afraid people won’t know he’s a playboy?” Zeng Yongjia shook his head and sighed.
“But that’s reality for you. The more a guy acts like that, the more popular he seems to be with women.”
Then he added: “On the other hand, who can blame him? He’s got the resources for it.”
“Captain He, were you suspicious of this nightclub owner from the beginning? What exactly were you suspicious of?”
Just as He Shu was about to answer, an unexpected exclamation came from the doorway.
“Oh, my God!”
The two of them looked up at the same time.
Standing there was Hou Zibo from the Cold Case Unit. With exaggerated drama, he covered his eyes with one hand. Unfortunately, his fingers were spread so wide apart that he could clearly see everything through them.
He grinned like a fox that had just stolen a chicken. “I didn’t see a thing!”
Zeng Yongjia immediately straightened up and rolled his eyes.
A few seconds later, two more people arrived after Hou Zibo spoke, one of them being Ji Chen.
Eager to share the gossip he’d just stumbled upon, Hou Zibo announced in a dramatically exaggerated tone: “Jiajia, you people in Special Crimes really have it good. Unlike us in Cold Cases. Reform and opening-up happened decades ago, and we’re still basically a monastery over here.”
“I’ve warned you a million times, don’t call me Jiajia!” Like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, Zeng Yongjia instantly exploded. In his outrage, he completely missed the layered implications hidden in Hou Zibo’s teasing.
“Then stop calling me Monkey.”
The two immediately squared off like fighting roosters, looking one step away from physical combat.
Meanwhile, He Shu casually scrolled through two more posts before putting her phone away. She stuffed the last biscuit into her mouth, chewed a few quick bites, and drained the now-lukewarm water from her cup.
Just then, the aroma of coffee drifted through the room. Almost unconsciously, she glanced over.
Ji Chen stood at the counter with his back to her, slowly stirring a cup before finally bringing it to his lips.
Don’t provoke me. Those three words, almost growled out earlier, still echoed in her ears. Whatever thoughts she might have originally entertained had now been temporarily reined in. She did have her own motives. But irritating someone for no reason had never been her style.
With that thought, He Shu got to her feet, exchanged friendly greetings with the other two men, and left.
After a few more rounds of bickering with Hou Zibo, Zeng Yongjia also stopped lingering.
In an instant, the break room became quiet again.
Hou Zibo lit a cigarette and puffed on it while shaking his head. Looking cheerful, he remarked: “Judging from the look on Zeng Yongjia’s face, the guy’s definitely exhausted. Sounds like Special Crimes has a pretty complicated case this time. There was quite a commotion downstairs this afternoon.”
“They’ve been running nonstop for two straight days, right? Seems the new Captain He is no ordinary person. The workaholic tendencies are already starting to show. Those guys are going to suffer in the future.”
“But I heard from Brother Xie that she’s not exactly easy to get along with.”
Another member of the Cold Case Unit spoke up, scratching his head as he did so.
“Can anything Old Xie says really be trusted?” Hou Zibo waved a dismissive hand. “The guy argues with the heavens above and the earth below. Seven things out of ten annoy him, and the other three offend him. I’ve never heard him praise anyone.” He continued: “Right now, the entire bureau is watching Special Crimes. Everyone wants to see how the new captain’s first major case is going to end.”
Finishing his sentence, he took two deep drags from his cigarette. Then he looked at Ji Chen, who had stood silently by the window the whole time. “Team Leader Ji, what do you think? Do you think this new captain is going to hold onto her position?”
Ji Chen remained silent. He took a sip of coffee. After a long pause, he looked toward the other two men and asked, “Hungry?”
The abrupt change of topic caught them completely off guard. Hou Zibo froze for a moment, then rubbed his stomach and nodded. “Now that you mention it, yeah, kind of.”
“Call and order some dumplings.”
“My treat.”
With that, Ji Chen turned and walked out of the break room.
…
Special Crimes Unit Office
It was already past nine o’clock at night. He Shu sat in front of her computer, continuing to browse through the Weibo posts and social-media updates she hadn’t finished checking earlier. After sitting in the same position for so long, her shoulders and neck ached, and her eyes felt dry. She tilted her head back slightly.
Crack. A series of pops came from the back of her neck.
Just then, a knock sounded at the door.
A young delivery worker wearing a red cap poked half his body through the gap in the barely closed door. “Hello, where should I put the dumplings you ordered?”
Chang Bin happened to be pacing around the office to stretch his legs. Hearing this, he walked over and hesitantly accepted the two large bags of takeout containers.
“Who ordered these?”
The delivery worker looked familiar. He seemed to be a waiter from the nearby dumpling restaurant.
“Team Leader Ji did.” The young man grinned. “One of the officers from his unit told us they just solved a major case. Team Leader Ji was in a good mood and said he’d treat everyone on duty tonight to a late-night meal.”
“Alright then, thanks.” After the delivery worker left, Chang Bin set the bags on the nearest desk.
Rubbing his chin, he muttered: “This is a first. Since when have our two departments gotten along this well? They’re even sending us a share of the late-night snacks.”
“You’re giving them way too much credit, Old Chang.” Zeng Yongjia walked over and pulled out a container of dumplings as he spoke.
“This isn’t kindness. This is blatant mockery!”
“They solved a case, so now they’re showing off.”
“Showing off, you hear me?”
“Like they’re the only unit in the bureau capable of closing cases. Honestly…”
Everyone thought he had a point. But talk was talk, and free food was free food.
A bunch of grown men immediately swarmed the bags and divided up most of the dumplings.
When Chang Bin returned to his desk, he brought a container over to He Shu as well. “Captain He, eat first and work later!”
He Shu thanked him, opened the container, and popped a dumpling into her mouth. When the rich, savory flavor of the filling hit her tongue, she blinked in slight surprise. A fleeting thought surfaced in her mind, but she quickly suppressed it. It’s only a box of dumplings. There’s no need to read so much into it. Even so, she couldn’t stop herself from recalling that afternoon’s scene.
A trace of regret flashed through her eyes. Standing that close, I wonder if there’ll ever be another chance in this lifetime.
Tsk. Coming back to herself, her expression became somewhat complicated.
…
The next morning, Zeng Yongjia suddenly leaped to his feet and slapped the desk hard. Despite having slept little, if at all, the dark circles under his eyes did nothing to dampen his excitement.
“Captain He!”
“You were absolutely right!”
“I found it. I finally figured out what connection Tang Jia, Zhang Shengnan, and Pan Yu have with each other!”
Zeng Yongjia spoke so quickly he sounded like a machine gun, barely pausing to breathe.
“Captain He, you were absolutely right! Since Zhang Shengnan and Nie Han weren’t originally from Jinghuai and only moved here after getting married, her social circle and daily activities were relatively simple compared to the others, so I started my investigation with her.”
“And guess what I found? Two months ago, she signed up for a five-day body-sculpting course offered by a yoga studio called Lingrui Yoga. The class was heavily discounted and had limited enrollment.”
He slapped the table excitedly.
“And here’s the crazy part. There were only eighteen people enrolled in that session, and all three of them were on the roster!”
“After the course ended, the studio discontinued that particular program for some reason. From that point onward, the three women appeared to have no further contact with each other.”
“Damn!” Chang Bin blurted out, not bothering with politeness. “If that’s true, does that count as karma?”
“Jinghuai City is huge. What are the odds that three women who all hated Nie Han would end up in the same class?”
“And yet that’s exactly what happened.”
After letting Chang Bin finish, Zeng Yongjia snapped his fingers.
“There’s more.”
“While investigating Zhang Shengnan, I contacted the police in Shaozhou, where she and Nie Han are originally from, asking them to help gather background information.”
“And during the investigation, we discovered something interesting.”
“Although they met through a matchmaking arrangement, Zhang Shengnan actually wasn’t willing to marry him at first. Nie Han was the one who kept pursuing her.”
“According to villagers from Zhang Shengnan’s hometown, the rumor was that Nie Han forced himself on her.”
“The Zhang family felt too embarrassed to report it to the police. Not only that, they accepted a large bride price and persuaded their daughter to marry him.”
“People in their village talked about it for years. The story was incredibly detailed and widely known.”
“This,” He Shu said, tapping her fingers rhythmically against the tabletop, “is the common link we’ve been looking for.”
“All three women were victims of Nie Han.”
“The fact that they shared the same traumatic experience means the bond formed between them was probably far deeper than we initially imagined.”
“Since it doesn’t appear that any of those three actually carried out the murders themselves, then this fourth person…”
“Could the fourth person be another one of Nie Han’s victims?” Chang Bin guessed.
“No, no. We can’t let that line of thinking limit the direction of our investigation.” He Shu shook her head. “Zeng Yongjia, run background checks on every member from that yoga course. Pay special attention to whether any of them have experienced sexual assault or similar incidents. And if the yoga studio happened to keep any video recordings from the course, pull those as well.”
After giving the instruction, she looked at Chang Bin.
“Right now, the quickest and most straightforward way forward is to get a breakthrough from Tang Jia, Zhang Shengnan, and Pan Yu.”
“Bring Zhang Shengnan and Pan Yu in immediately.”
“We’ll conduct surprise interrogations.”
“Yes, ma’am!”
…
Tang Jia sat quietly in her chair, staring at a bird perched on a tree branch outside the window. Beside her sat half a cup of cold water and an untouched boxed meal. After spending the entire night in the interview room, she looked exhausted. Her complexion was ashen, and her lips were dry and cracked.
At that moment, the door opened. He Shu entered slowly with Chang Bin. Upon noticing the untouched meal, she raised an eyebrow. “Miss Tang, take care of your health.”
Tang Jia swallowed hard and spoke in a hoarse voice: “Sister Meitong really has nothing to do with any of this. Please let her go.”
“You don’t need to worry about that.” Chang Bin straightened the interview transcripts in his folder. “Once the police have determined the truth, if she’s innocent, she will naturally be released.”
He was just about to begin the day’s questioning when the door was abruptly pushed open again.
Two uniformed officers stood outside with a woman.
He Shu immediately recognized her. It was Pan Yu.
The officer leading the way was Xie Zihao. At first, seeing someone already inside the room startled him. Then he greeted them: “Oh, Captain He and Brother Chang, you’re using this room?”
“Sorry about that. We got the rooms mixed up.” After apologizing several times, he led Pan Yu away.
The door remained open behind them. A cool breeze from the corridor drifted into the room.
Tang Jia’s and Pan Yu’s eyes met for the briefest instant in the doorway. Almost immediately, both women looked away. It was a tiny gesture, but it did not escape the notice of those who were paying attention.
At the end of it, a subtle smile with an unreadable meaning tugged at the corner of He Shu’s lips.
As the questioning continued, Tang Jia became noticeably more agitated. She could no longer sit still. Perhaps because the doors to both interview rooms had been left open, faint sounds from next door kept drifting into her ears. She could tell people were talking, but she could never make out exactly what they were saying.
The sensation was maddening.
Chang Bin kept recording her increasingly incoherent, off-topic answers while giving He Shu a meaningful look.
He Shu immediately understood. She picked up her phone and sent a message.
Then she calmly crossed her arms, leaned back against her chair, and fixed her gaze on the woman sitting across from her.
Less than five minutes later, a flurry of hurried footsteps echoed down the hallway.
Immediately afterward, two police officers escorted another woman past their interview room. The group paused briefly at the doorway and exchanged a few greetings.
This time, the woman being brought in was, naturally, Nie Han’s wife, Zhang Shengnan.
After only a couple of sentences, the officers continued onward. They stopped briefly outside the interview room where Pan Yu was being questioned, then turned a corner and disappeared from sight.
Tang Jia’s heart began pounding wildly. Cold sweat gathered in her palms.
“Miss Tang…” Chang Bin chose that exact moment to speak.
“Ah!” Startled as though someone had struck her, Tang Jia accidentally knocked over the disposable paper cup beside her. Water spilled onto the floor. She hurriedly bent down to pick it up and, taking advantage of the fact that the two officers could no longer see her face beneath the table, forced herself to take two deep breaths.
Only after straightening up again did she manage to ask in a voice she tried desperately to keep steady: “Those two people just now were…?”
“Hm?” He Shu looked mildly puzzled. “You don’t know them?”
After receiving Tang Jia’s answer of no, she kindly explained: “The woman who just passed was Nie Han’s wife. It’s a little surprising that you worked with Nie Han for so long and never met her.”
“As for the person before that, she’s the woman who claimed five years ago that Nie Han had forced himself on her.”
“They’re both here today to assist with our investigation.”
“His wife…?” Tang Jia awkwardly rubbed her forearm. “I’ve really never met her.”
Afterward, they asked a few more insignificant questions.
Then He Shu and Chang Bin left the interview room and headed straight for the small conference room on the same floor.
When they opened the door, four people were already seated inside: the Special Crimes officers who had been questioning Pan Yu and Zhang Shengnan.
“Brother Xie, how did Pan Yu react?” He Shu asked without preamble.
Xie Zihao organized his thoughts before replying: “When she saw Tang Jia, she was visibly surprised. But aside from that, she didn’t show any other obvious reaction.”
“When we asked whether she knew Tang Jia, she denied it.”
“Later, when Zhang Shengnan passed by, her pupils dilated for a moment. I’d say it looked more like shock than anything else.”
“After that, when answering the next two questions, she had obvious trouble organizing her thoughts. Her responses became somewhat disjointed.”
“It wasn’t until the third question that she gradually regained her composure.”
“And Zhang Shengnan?”
Another officer began his report: “Zhang Shengnan never displayed any extreme reaction at any point.”
“She answered every question smoothly.”
“And when Tang Jia’s and Pan Yu’s names were brought up, she showed no suspicious emotional fluctuations whatsoever.”
After listening, He Shu fell silent in thought for a while. Then she let out a slow breath.
“It seems the relationship among those three isn’t the equal partnership we originally assumed.”
“Considering all the evidence we currently have, among the three women, Zhang Shengnan occupies what is, at least on the surface, the strongest position.”
“She has been the one directing and maintaining the connections between them all along.”
“An unequal relationship is actually good news, isn’t it?” Chang Bin was, as always, the optimist.
“A hierarchy is much more likely to produce cracks and weaknesses than a relationship built on complete equality and mutual trust. On the surface, they may seem tightly linked together, one ring locking into another, but the links themselves differ in strength. If we can break the weakest one, the other two won’t be able to protect themselves.”
“Who’s the weakest?” Xie Zihao asked. “Tang Jia or Pan Yu? I’d say the secretary. Among the three, her emotional control is the worst. She’s soft-hearted too. She even came in and falsely confessed just to keep Tang Meitong from being implicated.”
Chang Bin nodded. “That’s actually pretty convincing.”
Unexpectedly, He Shu laughed. When everyone looked at her suspiciously, she suppressed the smile and said, “Have you ever heard the saying a needle hidden in silk?”
“The gentler and more fragile someone appears, the harder they may actually be to deal with.”
“Pan Yu has a fiery personality. When she was assaulted, she immediately chose to report it to the police and confront her attacker head-on. That took courage.”
“Zhang Shengnan appears cold on the outside, but she’s the type who never forgets a grievance and refuses to yield. That’s why her marriage to Nie Han was so poor. He rarely went home, which, in its own way, allowed her to avoid his harassment.”
“But Tang Jia…” He Shu paused. “After being sexually assaulted, she endured and endured for all these years.”
“On the surface, it appears she maintained that twisted relationship only because Nie Han was coercing her.”
“But unlike Pan Yu and Zhang Shengnan, she shows none of the trauma responses you’d normally expect.”
“You can see that from her microexpressions and her subconscious physical reactions.”
“And the reason she came to confess after learning Tang Meitong had been detained is probably because she understood perfectly well that as long as the evidence remained questionable, the police would never believe her confession.”
“Nor would we simply send her to court based on it.”
“Hiss…” Chang Bin inhaled sharply. “Now that you put it that way…”
Suddenly, he felt unable to look at that seemingly delicate, innocent woman the same way again. Only then did he realize why, earlier, He Shu had emphasized the words ‘on the surface’ when describing Zhang Shengnan as the group’s leader.
“Captain He, what are you getting at?”
“Let’s start with Zhang Shengnan,” He Shu replied.
“After all, there’s an old saying.”
“What is overly rigid is easily broken.”