Luo Wenzhou had been in a hurry when he'd left that morning and taken a taxi to the Gulou District. When he walked out of the City Bureau's gates, an unoccupied taxi just happened to be driving by.
His fingers, stuck in his pocket, twitched, but somehow he didn't reach out to flag it down. Instead, he waited half a minute for the light to change, then crossed to the parking lot across the street.
When his steps fell on the evenly laid out crosswalk, Luo Wenzhou's gaze had already become a scanner, inspecting the parking lot from east to west.
Halfway through his inspection, this self-styled senior official began to ridicule himself—the human heart was weak; if it had one thing, it always wanted another. Fei Du had been seized by a whim to pick him up once, and the second time, he was scrambling for everything he could get, looking out for Fei Du to come again.
But what if he didn't come?
If he didn't come…that didn't mean anything.
Luo Wenzhou had arms and legs; he was half as tall as a house standing up, in excellent health with a healthy appetite. He could take down a whole class full of delinquents barehanded. It was a piddling two or three kilometers to his house; jogging there and back wouldn't exhaust him. Hoping for someone to come pick him up was really shameless.
After all, Fei Du had never said he was going to pick him up after work.
He hadn't even clearly indicated what was happening between the two of them.
Luo Wenzhou was human; sometimes a human couldn't avoid being covetous, couldn't avoid being endlessly greedy.
In the beginning Fei Du had been like a dangerous plant emitting a rare perfume, indiscriminately attracting everyone who passed by. The more Luo Wenzhou's intellect had flashed warning signals, the more attracted he had been. All the so-called "seductive" people and things on earth were probably like this—you knew they were poisonous, but you wanted to go take poison.
Then had come the cataclysm of the bomb and nearly parting forever; like an invisible dark hand, it had pushed him into the swamp called "Fei Du." He wanted to love him, wanted to take care of him, wanted to slowly unwrap his convoluted, unknowable heart like opening a beautifully wrapped package. Luo Wenzhou had started on a path with his one-sided declaration, had made his preparations for a long and arduous journey, carrying a traveling bag of patience on his back.
But he'd had him by his side only a few days when that bastard had once again thrown him off his proper pace. It was as if he'd been bewitched.
The sudden physical intimacy had made him throw away all his defenses, filling his heart with deep-rooted desires. It had also pushed him onto a roller coaster. All the things he'd originally planned to take his time on had at once become things he was itching with impatience to get on with.
Luo Wenzhou was impatient to hear Fei Du say what he'd been thinking when the bomb on that fatal cold chain truck had gone off, and why he'd grabbed him.
He was impatient to open up Fei Du's maze-like chest and see his own progress, see how far he'd gone. Impatient to hear a few sentences of truth come out of his mouth, to hear him own up to all the facts.
But this was wrong. Luo Wenzhou understood that.
Dealing with a bad guy required quick wits, bravery, and strength. Dealing with Fei Du, however, required huge amounts of patience and perseverance.
Performing this almost harsh self-reflection, Luo Wenzhou's expectations lowered with every step he took over the crosswalk. When he'd crossed the ten-meter wide road, he'd managed to force his heart, floating in midair, back down to the ground. Luo Wenzhou considered the endurance of that reinforced glass heart, making a surefire mental preparation—he thought, even if he went home now and found that Fei Du had run off after sleeping with him, he could very well accept that as a normal phenomenon.
As for why he'd let that empty taxi go by at the door and insisted on crossing the road…
Luo Wenzhou found himself a reason. He'd just been planning to cross the road and buy a bag of roasted chestnuts.
Thinking this, his gaze burned as it fell on the little roasted chestnut cart, as if he wanted to swallow the peddler's whole pot in one go… Then, the next instant, Luo Wenzhou saw his own car behind the little stand.
Fei Du had the heating on this time, and he'd also opened the car's window. His elbow was sticking out the window. He was thinking about something. From his profile, he seemed to be staring fixedly at the roasted chestnuts.
Luo Wenzhou's reinforced glass mental precautions immediately crumbled. He stood a few steps away as if his feet had been glued to the ground.
He'd been in too much of a rush when he'd gotten up that morning. There were many things he hadn't had time to think over carefully. Seeing Fei Du again after the space of a day, all those intimacies he hadn't had time to dwell on—the feel of his skin, his subtle expressions in the lamplight, their mingled breath…all of it spun through his mind like a running-horse lantern. Luo Wenzhou's throat moved gently; he even felt his blood pressure rising.
The things you couldn't get enough of after you'd had a taste truly were one of the great torments of the mortal world.
Just then, the roasted chestnut peddler's spatula stopped, and he began to hawk his wares, his clear shout traveling far away, simultaneously startling the two of them at a distance of a few meters apart.
Fei Du's far-wandering mind at last returned. He felt around in his coat pocket, pulling out a bill. He was about to pass it over through the window. "Excuse me, could I…"
Before he'd finished speaking, he was cut-off midway.
"If you eat that now, will you have any appetite for dinner? What's your problem?" As if he'd just shown up, Luo Wenzhou, pretending nothing was the matter, pressed his hand back. Then, without waiting for Fei Du to speak, he said to the roasted chestnut peddler, "I have some change. Give me two jin2."
Fei Du: "…"
Luo Wenzhou took the well-wrapped chestnuts and got in the car. Deliberately looking a little displeased, he said to Fei Du, "Don't come over here on purpose tomorrow. It's not far for me to walk back.—If I hadn't been coming over to buy something, I may have gotten a taxi at the gate. Wouldn't we have missed each other, then?"
Fei Du happily said, "Oh, all right."
Luo Wenzhou: "…"
Was it too late to take back what he'd just said?
He felt rather gloomy but couldn't show it. Having just established the principle of not eating snacks before dinner, he looked down and peeled a chestnut. After he'd peeled a good number and eaten them, he very benevolently bestowed one upon Fei Du. "It's not good for your digestion to eat too many. I'll just give you a taste. There's no more for you after this one."
Fei Du didn't quibble with his idiotic style of being strict with others and permissive towards himself. While he was stopped at a red light, he lowered his head and took the chestnut from Luo Wenzhou's hand with his mouth, licking Luo Wenzhou's fingers in passing, saying ambiguously, "Sweet."
The "enemy" was again launching an offensive without prior notice. Luo Wenzhou took a direct blow to the chest, nearly coughing up blood out of unsatisfied lust. "Are you looking for trouble? Who was it that passed out last night?"
Fei Du didn't care about that. Taking no notice, he was about to continue the seduction when Luo Wenzhou called him to a halt. "Shut your mouth."
Fei Du heard a trace of humiliated anger. He was a cut above in this contest of shamelessness. He laughed silently and obligingly shut his mouth.
The only sound left in the car was the babbling radio reading out the roads that were blocked up with evening rush hour traffic. The two of them were temporarily silent, an indescribable atmosphere filling every corner of the car along with the buzzing heating, almost making it impossible to sit still.
Luo Wenzhou gazed at Fei Du's profile out of the corner of his eye, suddenly feeling that he seemed to have returned to his distant childhood, to the first time he'd ignorantly held the hand of a boy he liked. He could no longer clearly remember whether the hand had been rough or slender; only the feeling of fireworks going off in his heart was still vivid in his mind.
As he'd grown older and become more experienced, he'd begun to feel that a physical exchange was all there was, as trivial and tasteless as any other bodily function; that vivid glow he'd felt in his chest had never appeared again, as if it had been sealed by something.
Now the monk Tripitaka had come on his great road to unseal the Five Elements Mountain.
The mountain collapsed, the earth opened, and the wild monkey, eating the wind and drinking the dew, gave a great cry, once more seeing the light of day3.
Luo Wenzhou suddenly said, "Do a U-turn up ahead. Let's go to the Drum Tower."
As Fei Du shifted to the U-turn lane, he said in surprise, "I just heard an update on the radio. Didn't they say that the runaway students had all been found and the suspect determined?"
"Oh, right," thought Luo Wenzhou, "there's just been a murder at the Drum Tower."
He stretched his legs carelessly, saying very forthrightly, "The killer is a suspect who escaped in the National Road 327 serial robbery and murder case. There are many suspicious points here. Oh… I wanted to have another look.—Did you read that letter I sent you?"
His speech was too earnest, as if this was what he'd meant to say in the first place. Even Fei Du was taken in, restraining his playfulness.
"Yes." Fei Du nodded. "What's the real name of the child who left the letter? What are his relationships with his classmates at school like normally?"
Luo Wenzhou pulled himself together, towing back his soul, which had travelled a circle around the world, with difficulty focusing his attention on the murder at the Drum Tower. He considered Fei Du's words for a moment, then somewhat doubtfully said, "His relationships with his classmates? Why do you ask?"
Wouldn't the normal reaction be to ask about his relationship with his parents?
Because the letter Feng Bin had left on his dormitory's desk before running away had been addressed to his parents. It opened: "Dear Mom and Dad, I'm leaving you this letter because I worry every day, pondering in pain what I was born for."
It seemed that because he lived most of the year in a boarding school, his familial relationships were weakened and he felt uncared for; adding in his adolescence, the stress of his studies, and plenty of other factors, this had produced an emotional break.
"Tell me first. Otherwise, it's only a letter. I can't interpret too much based on it."
"The boy was called Feng Bin, in senior middle Year 1 at Yufen. His relationships with his classmates were all right. According to his teacher, he was an average student, neither good nor bad. His family background is also pretty good, though he's very ordinary in that rich kids' club. Pretty good-looking, studied music for a few years. Aside from that, there's nothing unusual about him. He fit in pretty well, had no sharp edges. Not one of those boys with leadership qualities, but also not the kind who gets isolated by the whole class." Luo Wenzhou paused. "Come to think of it, the children who ran away were all of that type—aside from Xia Xiaonan."
"And who is Xia Xiaonan?"
When an underaged victim was mentioned on the news, the real name wouldn't be used. Fei Du hadn't caught up yet.
"An eyewitness to last night's murder," Luo Wenzhou explained briefly. "This girl is a scholarship student. Her family's finances are rather tight. She may not have any common language with her peers, may be out of place in her class."
The evening rush hour was fairly smooth in the Gulou District. They reached their destination in less than twenty minutes.
"Do you see the little yellow building on the left-hand side? That's the convenience hotel where the students were staying the last few days. Another two intersections on there's a BD Supermarket. Turn there." As Luo Wenzhou pointed the way, he said, "Last night, close to nine, Feng Bin left the hotel, telling his classmates he was going for a walk. About half a hour later, Xia Xiaonan left too, saying she wanted to buy basic necessities. They met at the crossroads behind the supermarket."
Fei Du said, "A secret date?"
"Yeah," Luo Wenzhou agreed. Then his heart moved. Seemingly carelessly, he said, "Did you go on secret dates in middle school?"
Fei Du was caught off guard. The corners of his mouth instantly stiffened.
He'd never had an immature adolescence like that.
Fei Chengyu wouldn't have permitted it.
Fei Chengyu had always thought that the body could develop, could mature, could have desires, but if, because of the appearance of some mere hormones, you developed symptoms such as "adolescence," developed illusory so-called "feelings" towards someone, what would be the point? Wouldn't it be as stupid as a dog in heat?
After a pause, Fei Du immediately adjusted, displaying an ambiguous smile. "Shixiong, are you trying to ask about my exes?"
Then, before Luo Wenzhou could answer, he casually said, "No, I was attending a public school. There were only a few children from wealthy families there, and I didn't fit in very well. Anyway, there were too many girls who liked me. If I'd chosen one, wouldn't I have been hurting the others?"
Saying so, he slowly rounded the supermarket, stopping the car at the intersection where Feng Bin and Xia Xiaonan had met.
The Drum Tower tourist attraction had closed and locked up again. Following the murder, the whole area seemed unusually solemn. The gambling security department had been made an issue of, and the person in charge of the tourist attraction had temporarily replaced the night shift. Even the sanitation workers were working harder than usual.
Luo Wenzhou had keenly felt Fei Du's momentary unease and looked at him deeply. He didn't blindly press on, changing the subject. "The killer started following them here."
Fei Du rolled down the window, looking all around and frowning. "Strange."
"What is?"
"This place is open on all sides." Fei Du lightly tapped on the car window. "An ordinary mugger wouldn't choose to have his stake-out here—how would you select your target? How could you be sure where the people going by were going to go next? What if they were going to take the next turn onto the main road? The uncertainty is too great, and furthermore, basically all intersections with streetlights have surveillance cameras. Even if he wasn't afraid of being caught on camera, he still wouldn't need to purposefully show himself, would he?"
Luo Wenzhou understood his implication. "You're saying that it's likely the killer knew where the children were meeting for their date, and which way they were going to go, and had staked the place out ahead of time!"
Lu Guosheng hadn't returned to his original profession; Feng Bin had been his target!
But why?
When Lu Guosheng had been sent into hiding by a wanted notice fifteen years ago, Feng Bin hadn't even been born. What grievance could Lu Guosheng have against him?
And how had Lu Guosheng known where Feng Bin and Xia Xiaonan had arranged to meet?
And there was also that girl, who hadn't been harmed at all…
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Authors note:
(2) Unit of measure equal to .5 kg, or a little over a pound.
(3) An extended Journey to the West metaphor - Sun Wukong AKA the Monkey King was imprisoned under the Five Elements Mountain until he was released to protect the monk Tripitaka, a reincarnated follower of the Buddha.