Fei Du suddenly smiled, turning his head to blow a kiss to the hospital room's security camera. "Scared you."
He bent and picked up a card from a small table next to him—this was one of the characteristic services provided by a high-priced private sanatorium. For the relatives of patients who had no means of communicating, it could be hard to unburden themselves in unilateral jabber, so the sanatorium provided pens and small cards that the patients' relatives could write a few words on, passing along comparatively tangible emotions.
With a somewhat ironic look at the man in the hospital bed, Fei Du wrote without introduction or signature: "I hope you can hold out a few more years."
The private sanatorium's fees weren't cheap; the expense of him lying there on its own was enough to support several doctors and nurses.
After all, there were some people who, in their whole lifetimes, could only bring some benefit to the people around them during the years they spent lying insensate.
Outside the window the blazing sun burned like fire. In the hospital room, the central air-conditioning maintained a constant temperature year-round; under the drawn-out leafy shade, there was a chill in the air.
Having passed along the emotion of "seeing you unwell makes me feel better," Fei Du, seeming to have accomplished his yearly duty, drove back to the city alone.
Without any traffic, it was four hours from the seaside sanatorium to Yan City. Fei Du had arranged with Dr. Bai to come and borrow a book from her in the evening—he had already formally concluded his lengthy years of regular counseling, but he still maintained his friendship with Dr. Bai; as before, he would often go borrow some books she recommended.
If nothing unexpected occurred, a day of long-distance driving, a visit to a human vegetable, borrowing a book concerning mental illness and taking it home to read halfway into the night before lying down to sleep were the sum total of his arrangements for his twenty-second birthday.
Fei Du ordinarily went where the fun was, but all the people who were comparatively familiar with him knew that on his birthday, the anniversary of his mother's death, and any happened-upon holiday, he would be out of sight and out of contact. Even a person as undiscerning as Zhang Donglai wouldn't bother him at these times—he wouldn't have been able to bother him even if he'd wanted to. President Fei's phone, normally on twenty-four hours a day, would be unreachable.
The traffic conditions on the way back to Yan City were poor. The highway leading into the city was jammed up into a mess; he would be an hour later than anticipated. Fei Du was rather exhausted. He could only wait, relying on the car's radio to keep awake. He happened to hear Yan City's police force collecting leads concerning the missing girl Qu Tong from all the city's residents.
"…especially around schools, Children's Palaces, and summer training courses and camps. If you discover any suspicious individuals, please notify the police at once. …Also, we remind our friends who have families that it's summer vacation now, and you must look out for the safety of children in your household…"
"How come this program suddenly turned into a hazard notice about open-water swimming?" Luo Wenzhou only returned to the City Bureau around quitting time, feeling that his three immortal souls and seven mortal forms were all about to evaporate out of the top of his head. Thereupon he rudely poured himself a cup from a pot of tea brewed by some unknown person and drank it.
However much Lang Qiao, running over, wanted to stop him, there wasn't time.
Lang Qiao's anguished wail: "Boss, that's the slimming tea I just brewed…"
Luo Wenzhou paused for a moment, then, without turning a hair, he downed the other half of the pot—at this moment, never mind slimming tea, provided that it was liquid, he wouldn't have passed up drinking insecticide. Having finished, he wiped his mouth. "What did the stake-out at Qu Tong's house turn up? Have Xu Wenchao and Su Xiaolan been found?"
"We reviewed all the security cameras from the shops around the estate. Counting package delivery, food delivery, milk delivery, and realtors, forty-some people come by every day. Luckily they all wear uniforms, and we were able to call each of their companies to confirm the employees' identities and whereabouts at the time of the crime. There were remaining questions about four of them, and we brought them back to the City Bureau to cooperate with the investigation," Lang Qiao said. "Apart from that, we made a list of all people coming into the estate during off-peak hours. There are over eighty altogether. We're just comparing them against the neighborhood committee's record of permanent residents."
Hearing this, Luo Wenzhou's head, already about to explode from the heat, swelled up further.
It was fortunate that City Bureau could command a great deal of police manpower. Otherwise, would they be investigating until the end of time?
Lang Qiao continued, "We've already found Xu Wenchao. Tao Ran is inside having a talk with him. Su Xiaolan can't come. She's gone."
Luo Wenzhou casually asked, "Out of town? Or did she go abroad?"
"No…" said Lang Qiao. "I don't mean she's not in the city. She's not on this planet—she's dead."
Luo Wenzhou's footsteps paused for a moment. "So young?"
"After that business, nothing went right for her. Her dancing came to nothing, and her grades were poor. She barely managed to get into a vocational college, then dropped out halfway through. She didn't have any regular employment, relying on good looks and youth to go around with some rich people. Before she was twenty, she'd given birth out of wedlock, and afterwards she lived very chaotically. She became ill and passed away two months ago—here's her information."
Lang Qiao passed him a thin file pouch. Luo Wenzhou took it and flipped through it.
He had soon finished reading it, because her life had been too short, and because there really was nothing to say for it. Inside were her past addresses, contact information, two disciplinary actions from the time she was at school, a record of once being detained for drunk and disorderly conduct, and a death certificate.
Last of all was a photograph taken shortly before her death. The woman, only a little older than thirty, already showed the ravages of time. Her thin cheeks were stretched tightly over her cheekbones, her chin was razor sharp, and there were lines around her mouth. There was faded makeup on her face, as if it couldn't be washed off. Looking very closely, it was just possible to see some vestiges of the little beauty she had been in her youth.
In the long corridor, Luo Wenzhou and Lang Qiao exchanged a helpless look—and this was the end of the last…surviving girl.
"You know what, Captain Luo," said Lang Qiao, "sometimes when I see these things, I think that 'surviving' is an ugly thing."
Luo Wenzhou hit Lang Qiao on the back of the head with the kraft-paper pouch. "Morning to night, you're so full of ideas. Go write some books, what do you want to be a police officer for? The most important objective now is to find Qu Tong—tell me, what does Xu Wenchao do?"
Xu Wenchao was a freelance photographer.
He was very tall and refined; he could have been described as a man of striking appearance. Suddenly asked down to a public security bureau, it was hard to avoid being somewhat nervous; his hands moved back and forth under the table.
Tao Ran poured him a cup of water. "We don't mean anything by it. We'd just like you to take time and remember some things."
Xu Wenchao lowered his head and pursed his lips, avoiding Tao Ran's gaze. He quietly thanked him.
Standing in front of the surveillance feed, Luo Wenzhou and Lang Qiao heard Tao Ran ask mildly, "Did you attend Jinxiu Middle School for junior middle?"
Xu Wenchao very elegantly sipped some water. "Yes."
"Do you remember having a classmate back then called Su Xiaolan?"
Xu Wenchao's fingers gave a tremble. He was silent for a long time, then spoke obscurely. "I remember."
Tao Ran asked, "Could you tell me about her?"
There was nothing ambiguous about these words, but Xu Wenchao didn't seem to have understood. He stared for a moment. "Hm?"
Tao Ran said, "Tell me about Su Xiaolan."
The fingers laying on Xu Wenchao's knees suddenly tightened, clutching at his own knuckles. "Oh, I, I haven't been in touch with her for many years, she…she was a rather cheerful girl…
"She wore her hair long, and she liked to wear all kinds of floral-patterned dresses."
Hearing these words, the faces of Tao Ran and those watching on the surveillance feed all tensed.
But Xu Wenchao's words had come to an abrupt stop. His gaze went back and forth between Tao Ran and the clerk several times. Suddenly, he said, "Did you bring me here because of that girl they were talking about on the radio? I heard on my way here."
"Then I won't go around in circles anymore," said Tao Ran. "How much do you know concerning the case of Wu Guangchuan kidnapping, killing, and sexually assaulting female children?"
Xu Wenchao thought with intense concentration. "Not much. I was little then. No one would tell a child about those things in detail, right?"
Tao Ran said, "But the father of one of the victims says that he found you, and the reason Su Xiaolan was rescued was that you told him she was in danger."
"Uh… It was over twenty years ago. I can't quite remember."
Tao Ran patiently said, "The father of one of the victims in the serial kidnapping case back then came to the area around Jinxiu to trail and investigate some of your teachers. He encountered you furtively following the male teacher Wu Guangchuan and went up to question you. The two of you suspected Wu Guangchuan of deviant behavior and investigated him together. Do you remember?"
Xu Wenchao still didn't speak. This time, his blank silence lasted for a minute. Then at last he deigned to speak: "I guess so. I don't remember clearly."
Speaking with this person was especially strenuous. He wasn't a criminal; the police couldn't forcibly interrupt his lengthy periods of silence. They could only sit and wait for him to speak, like a person suffering from mental retardation. Asked a question, he thought about it for half a year, then at last gave an equivocal answer—it was all variations on "Seems like it." or "Really?" or "I guess." or "I don't really recall."
Tao Ran spent over an hour questioning him over and over again. Having drunk two whole bottles of water, Xu Wenchao maintained an empty, wandering dejection, demonstrating total ignorance.
Lang Qiao said, "I really want to punch him.—Boss, do you think he's our suspect?"
"Just because he mentioned 'floral-patterned dresses?'" Luo Wenzhou shook his head. "Middle schools were very strict back then. Students wore identical uniforms. The girls either had to have all their hair off their faces in a ponytail, or cut it to their earlobes. The restrictions were only relaxed for the specially enrolled students for the sake of appearances. If Su Xiaolan was the only special one in the class, it's normal for him to remember. But…"
Tao Ran was saying to Xu Wenchao, "But I think it's a little strange. Wu Guangchuan's case must have caused a sensation at the time. How could you, who personally played a part in it, not remember clearly?"
Xu Wenchao smiled mildly. "During junior middle school, I got very sick. I had a fever that wouldn't go down and nearly died. Though I pulled through in the end, it's possible it damaged my brain. My memory hasn't been very good ever since, and my reactions are a little slow. Sorry, officer."
This explanation sounded perfectly reasonable. Tao Ran could only nod helplessly. "Are you married, Mr. Xu?"
Xu Wenchao shook his head.
"On the night of the twenty-seventh of this month, where were you?"
This time, Xu Wenchao didn't hesitate. He quickly answered, "At home."
"Alone?"
"I'm a bachelor. Of course I was alone."
"What were you doing at home?"
"Reading…a book about composition techniques."
Tao Ran's gaze sharped slightly. "Mr. Xu, in order to cooperate with the investigation, could we request your vehicle's location record?"
"Yes. It's parked outside." Xu Wenchao looked back at him calmly. "Do you have any other questions? Can I leave? I have work tomorrow, there are some things I need to prepare when I get back."
Tao Ran's eyes turned to the security camera. He heard Luo Wenzhou say to him over his earbud, "Let him leave. I've made arrangements. From the time he leaves, there'll be people watching him twenty-four hours a day."
Tao Ran stood and shook hands with Xu Wenchao. "You can leave. Thank you for your cooperation. I'll see you to the door."
At this time, Xu Wenchao's body language finally relaxed slightly. At Tao Ran's gesture, he turned to leave. Just then, as if idly chatting, Tao Ran quietly said beside him, "Private schools must be very strict. I hear the teachers are all desperate to get a higher rate of enrollment in higher education."
Xu Wenchao said, "We just had to study harder. It's a good habit."
"You must not have had any time for young love. If you said one word to a girl, there would be eight teachers staring at you. Even if you liked someone, you'd have to hold back." With one hand on the doorframe, Tao Ran looked meaningfully at Xu Wenchao. "Were there any girls you liked, Mr. Xu? A specially enrolled student like Su Xiaolan must have been very noticeable in your class?"
Xu Wenchao was taken unawares. His expression altered at once; the hands hanging at his sides nervily picked at the seams of his pants. After a while, he forced out a smile. "Who doesn't like pretty girls when they're young? But she's dead, there's no sense in talking about it… Officer, there's no need to see me out."
Tao Ran frowned faintly—he had only discovered Su Xiaolan was dead when he'd wanted to summon her. Up to the present moment, he hadn't mentioned this fact to Xu Wenchao.
So had Xu Wenchao, who "hadn't been in touch with her for many years," learned the sad news from a concerned classmate, or…
Having said these words, Xu Wenchao quickly walked away without a backwards look.
At the same time, the policemen ready to take turns watching Xu Wenchao arranged their shifts and left silently under cover of night to follow him.
When Luo Wenzhou left the City Bureau, dragging his steps somewhat, it was already past eight. He didn't go directly home.—Although Director Lu had stepped back to avoid suspicion, this situation wasn't like Director Zhang's. Zhang Donglai had been a close relative under serious suspicion; by comparison, Director Lu at most could be said to have some connection to the old case. He wasn't a major operator. Someone less scrupulous may not have made anything of the connection.
With a scrupulous leader, it wasn't proper for his subordinates to be too easygoing, especially after running around all day using up the old man's face. Luo Wenzhou planned to bring Director Lu a box of peaches brought back from Lotus Mountain, and in the process give him a simple progress report.
He called Director Lu, mentioning only the peaches, not the case.
Lu Youliang agreed at once and gave an address. "Your auntie's colleague is getting married. She only decided to go this evening and didn't tell me in advance. I've gone over to my little sister's place to scrounge a meal. You can come over here."
Luo Wenzhou turned on his GPS and entered the words "North City Chenguang Road."
Fei Du flashed his headlights and saw a road sign reading "Chenguang Road Exit 1.5 km."
He let out a slight breath. This return trip had taken over six hours. There was traffic everywhere, and no place to rest. His back was so sore that it was about to go numb. Only now did the road conditions ease somewhat. Fei Du sped his car right up to the speed limit, considering how he should apologize to Dr. Bai.
But just as he had driven the last stretch and was planning to turn off onto the side-road, a car suddenly charged out up ahead. It came up right in front of him. Not only did it not brake, it accelerated, heading right for him. There was no time to make way. Fei Du slammed the brakes down to the floor—
Next, the whole car shook tremendously. His ears rang. The airbag pushed him back into his seat. Fei Du's eyes dimmed, his insides turned over, and there was a sharp pain in his left forearm.
His consciousness blurred for a second or two, but the sharp sounds of car alarms and human voices startled him awake.
A passerby quickly ran over, shouting, and pulled open the door of his car. The summer night's turbid warm wind hit him full in the face.
There was a moment where a thought slipped through his not very clear consciousness: "Retribution comes very quickly."
Luo Wenzhou was just thinking gratefully that the traffic situation was all right when he encountered an accident up ahead; the flow of traffic stopped.
He sighed heavily and, like the other drivers, stuck his head out to look. As soon as he looked up, from far off he saw a big SUV, a good bit taller than all the other cars, sprawled at the exit like a crane among chickens.
Luo Wenzhou's heart gave a jump—wasn't that car the same model as the one Fei Du had flashed around in front of Tao Ran?