Fei Du stopped the car by the side of the road. The two of them walked the path Feng Bin and Xia Xiaonan had taken walking towards the east side door of the Drum Tower.
Around the winter solstice, the days were shortest and the nights longest. Night was already beginning. A cold moon partway between a crescent moon and a half moon hung up high by a distant corner of the Drum Tower, tainted by a bit of clear mist, an echo of the light of the snow on the roof tiles.
"So the reason they ran away was that their studies were too stressful and they wanted to celebrate Christmas?" Fei Du tightened his scarf, thoughtfully saying, "Do you believe that reason?"
"Who hasn't been young once? Little whelps would do anything. Sometimes it won't necessarily agree with adult logic." Luo Wenzhou absently blocked the wind for him, carefully examining the surroundings.
He hadn't had this feeling when he'd come here during the day, but now that it had gotten dark, the whole Drum Tower scenic spot had become a great maze. All the street lights looked exactly the same, stretched out in long lines, like some sort of secret bewitching array in a wuxia novel.
Aside from the landmark of the Drum Tower itself, all the little alleys seemed to be identical. Even the antique-style old shops had their closed doors in about the same positions. There were three-way intersections everywhere. Sometimes you'd run into a street sign or two, like winning the lottery, but their directions were unclear. Walking through here, it was easy to lose track of where you'd gotten to.
The two of them had good senses of direction, especially Luo Wenzhou. After a good number of years working as a front-line criminal policeman, he had a particular sensitivity towards geographical layouts and human facial features. But despite this, he still felt somewhat disoriented shuttling along the little streets at the side door.
"No, come back, it's not there." Luo Wenzhou turned on his phone's flashlight, considering a rare street sign for a good while, calling back Fei Du, who had turned in the wrong direction. "Did those two brats really have nothing better to do? What were they doing here in the middle of the night?"
Fei Du suddenly said, "Going to the Drum Tower at midnight, the two of them must have been going to see the Lovers' Mirror?"
Luo Wenzhou had been standing on the little step next to the street sign; taken unawares, he missed a step and stammered, "Wh-what?"
"Lovers' Mirror is one of this city's top ten scenic locations for a date. It's in the Drum Tower scenic area," Fei Du said in surprise. "Haven't you ever heard of it?"
Luo Wenzhou measured others by himself, thinking that if he didn't know something, then no one knew it. He'd wanted to sneakily lead Fei Du over on the pretext of "investigating the details of the case" and receive certification from the venerable Jade Emperor, but he absolutely hadn't expected this—that Fei Du would disregard his proper duties to the extent of investigating scenic locations for dates when he had nothing else to do.
"Why would I have heard of a stupid thing like that?" Luo Wenzhou said grumpily. "I can see your specialty is fooling around with girls and little fools. If you spend all day thinking about useless things like this and your company hasn't closed down yet, your resources really must be plentiful."
Fei Du was very wronged, because this just happened to belong to the small category of things that were his "proper business"—the Drum Tower's leading attraction for couples was very simply and crudely made, but the outcome was extraordinarily good; all the bosses who were thinking of branching out into this sphere had devoted a great deal of thought to studying this issue among others and remained perplexed. Fei Du not only knew that there was a Lovers' Mirror at the Drum Tower, he could even recite the annual turnover of the little photo shop next to the Lovers' Mirror.
After a momentary blankness, he keenly noticed the flustered exasperation in Luo Wenzhou's words. Fei Du's heart suddenly moved lightly as he realized something.
Fei Du exerted all his effort to manage to keep from smiling, pretending not to know that the "investigation" was a pretext.
Luo Wenzhou, meanwhile, felt that he'd done the most idiotic thing possible and determined that he absolutely couldn't let Fei Du know, pretending that he was a decent people's police officer and the "investigation" wasn't a pretext.
With the two of them firmly grasping both sides of the "pretext," they looked at each other with respectively "innocent" and "upstanding" expressions, then averted their gazes, each harboring his own intentions.
Fei Du very properly said, "A full price ticket for the Drum Tower tourist attraction is twenty or thirty yuan. Since Feng Bin's family circumstances are good, he shouldn't care about a bit of money like that. Choosing to come at night was likely because he didn't want others to find out about his relationship with this girl."
Luo Wenzhou nodded with a great show of earnestness. "Makes sense. What else?"
Fei Du: "…"
The experienced and able President Fei had never before experienced this type of "pretending not to be on a date" date. For a time he was at a loss for words.
Luo Wenzhou said, "Let's go up ahead and have a look. What do you think is the motive for the cover-up? Schoolyard romances ordinarily get hidden from teachers and parents. Not many people would hide from the die-hard followers who ran away with them?"
Fei Du went along with his topic, saying, "Two possible circumstances. Either he felt the relationship was beneath his dignity, or it was to protect her—since Feng Bin expended so much effort to take the girl to see the Lovers' Mirror, I surmise that it's the latter."
"Oh, so—" After Luo Wenzhou gave a seemingly absent-minded nod, he suddenly changed the subject. "You didn't use to care about getting a little fine for parking against regulations. You were always hanging around parading yourself at the City Bureau's gates. Why is it that lately when you come to the City Bureau driving my car, you're paying attention to the rules and going to the parking lot? Is it the former or the latter?"
Fei Du paused.
Luo Wenzhou raised his eyelids, looking at him, pointing to his own ears. "Why don't you take the opportunity to own up? I'm listening."
"Neither." Fei Du pulled himself together and smiled ambiguously, touching Luo Wenzhou's waist and lowering his voice. "Isn't it a public security bureau? I'm afraid I'll be arrested for being an 'uncertified driver.'—Mr. Policeman, when are you coming with me to receive certification at the Lovers' Mirror?"
Luo Wenzhou: "…"
The asshole had known all along! He'd been playing dumb!
Fei Du was as bothersome as could be, not at all lovable. Right now, Luo Wenzhou thought that there wasn't a single adorable thing about him, from the roots of his hair to his heels. What had he spent these past few months constantly thinking about him for? This bit of goods was only fit for dragging home, stripping naked, and throwing on the bed.
Between the branches of the old trees that had lost all their leaves, you could see the ancient bell on top of the Drum Tower. The night was limpid.
The two of them had finally torn away the seriously damaged pretext, tossing aside this murder case where the murderer was evident at a glance.
"When I was fifteen or sixteen, I also plotted to run away with a group, though the reason was better than celebrating a Western holiday—KFC or some company like that was putting together a middle school basketball competition, and the prize was a basketball signed by an NBA celebrity, who just happened to be the basketball player I liked. So I got together a group of people, got a sick note from a classmate's cousin who was a nurse, told my parents the school had organized a competitive summer camp, and ran around playing basketball for half a month."
Fei Du: "…"
This was a recollection so wretched it really made you sigh in admiration.
"We did get the prize, and I fooled my mom by saying a classmate had brought it back from abroad." Walking beside him through the peaceful little alley, Luo Wenzhou took his hand, felt it was cold, and gave him the still warm bag of chestnuts to hold, keeping watch out of the corner of his eye to make sure he didn't sneak any. "Later there was a parent-teacher conference. As soon as the teacher talked to my mom, the whole thing came out. When my dad got home and heard about it he gave me a hell of thrashing."
Fei Du thought that a late-stage problem child like this couldn't be kept down with simple force.
"My dad, he seems pretty severe, but actually he's very fair and reasonable," Luo Wenzhou said. "When he got a handle on his temper, he said to me, 'A forcibly picked melon won't be sweet. If you don't like going to school, then forget about it. Do what you like."
Luo Wenzhou's ridiculous stories of domestic trivialities had an unbelievable attractive force for Fei Du. Each time he occasionally said a few words like this, Fei Du felt that he'd encountered a hidden easter egg. Seeing Luo Wenzhou suddenly stop, Fei Du couldn't resist following up. "And then what?"
Luo Wenzhou said, "At first I was pretty happy, thinking that the old fellow had 'found salvation' and changed his ways. I didn't expect that he would 'fairly and reasonably' stop my senior middle Year 2 school fees and allowance.
"While I cut class sometimes, I wasn't really prepared to become a dropout, so I had to go out and earn my school fees when I was on vacation. The old fart was as good as his word. He really didn't give me a penny. I carried water barrels for people for a couple months for the sake of that basketball… Don't laugh."
If he could have preserved this story like a specimen, Fei Du felt he could have enjoyed it for half a lifetime.
"You always let me take the lead in telling this sort of embarrassing story." Luo Wenzhou poked him with his elbow. "Your turn."
Fei Du: "…"
There really was nothing fun about his whole endless upbringing, but he couldn't bear to spoil the mood, so he had to rack his brains for a good while, finally managing to pull something out of his memories that would oblige.
"All right," Fei Du said, "I'll tell you a secret."
Luo Wenzhou indicated that he was all ears.
"Around the Spring Festival one year, I went to pay a New Year's call on a friend." Fei Du paused, then said, "I saw a bicycle downstairs at his house, a racing bike with a gearshift and an especially flashy paint job, with a pattern like a poisonous snake. It seemed to be calling out to me."
Luo Wenzhou somehow felt that the bike he'd described sounded familiar.
Fei Du licked his lips, very cautiously arranging his diction. "So I left a New Year's present for it…by glueing its back wheel with chewing gum."
Luo Wenzhou's footsteps abruptly paused—he'd remembered. During the Spring Festival one year, Tao Ran had been unable to go back to his hometown because his duty schedule had been full, so Luo Wenzhou had ridden his bike over with presents to represent the citizens of Yan City in delivering comfort to the police comrade.
Before going, he'd thought of a certain little whelp with no one to look after him and had brought along a limited-edition game machine to give to Tao Ran to pass on to him.
In the end, he'd stayed twenty minutes at Tao Ran's house, and someone had messed around with his bike, which he'd left downstairs—some wretched child had stuck a few small firecrackers to his back wheel with chewing gum. Luo Wenzhou hadn't noticed it when he'd gotten on the bike and reached out his foot to peddle—
And he'd nearly been launched into orbit by the explosions!
Maintaining his smile, Fei Du guiltily took a small step back.
"Fei Du!"
President Fei reaped the consequences of lascivious activity. In order to entertain a beauty, he voluntarily gave himself up to the authorities as one possessed; it was too late for regrets.
He didn't receive any "leniency" for his confession. Luo Wenzhou grabbed him and gave him a good seeing to. He was pushed against a wall from behind.
Fei Du said, "Wait…wait a minute."
"Wait for what?" Luo Wenzhou laughed menacingly as he held his chin. "Rape doesn't have to wait for a stoplight."
Fei Du said, "There's blood on this wall…"
Luo Wenzhou froze, then immediately let go. Fei Du stepped back, his steps somewhat disordered, averting his gaze, his face growing paler.—Luckily the blood on the wall was already dry, so he didn't throw up on the spot.
There was a line of blood splatter on the wall that was very easy to overlook on the dark red surface. If not for Fei Du's extreme sensitivity to the smell of blood, they probably would have overlooked it.
"The security cameras only caught Feng Bin and Xia Xiaonan running out of an alley being chased by the killer." Luo Wenzhou touched the bloodstains on the wall, then paced around, finding fragments of a glass bottle in a hidden corner. "Feng Bin must have been taken completely unawares when he was attacked. He tried to fight back, throwing the snacks and drinks he'd bought—the sanitation workers must not have noticed and cleaned it all up."
Fei Du lightly rubbed the center of his brow. "Feng Bin had already been cut when he ran away?"
"Yes." Luo Wenzhou nodded. "The wound was on his back."
His back having been injured, it was likely Feng Bin had at the time been embracing Xia Xiaonan…perhaps even kissing her. Perhaps he'd been making mental preparations the whole way and only at this point had gotten up the nerve to daringly touch the girl he treasured.
This was a stretch of road where every corner was suitable for kissing. The moonlight swirled, the fresh snow was clear, the streetlights frequently drew two people's shadows out together, inseparably intertwining.
But this daydream-like scene had suddenly been shattered by a knife.
"The killer followed them all the way from the intersection," Fei Du said slowly. "On the path we just walked through, there were at least three or four spots that would have been more ideal for acting. But the killer chose to act here. Why?"
The first time Feng Bin and Xia Xiaonan encountered Lu Guosheng, while Feng Bin had been cut and the two of them had truly been hard pressed, they'd still escaped—because just as Fei Du had said, the geographical conditions here weren't "ideal" for a murderer. The other end of the little alley was clear and open, with many branchings. If the two children had run fast enough, they likely would have succeeded in shaking Lu Guosheng off!
Yes, if they hadn't muddled their way back to where they'd started from, perhaps they would have made a smooth getaway.
If they hadn't come back themselves…
Luo Wenzhou and Fei Du simultaneously fell silent. This sweet road leading to the Lovers' Mirror where celestial beings bestowed agreement had suddenly become bone-chilling.
Any boy who had just kissed the person in his heart could instantly attain the greatest courage of his life. Feng Bin hadn't had time to think much; he'd certainly used all his strength to protect Xia Xiaonan.
But what had the girl whose hand he'd been holding so tightly been thinking at the time?
With what kind of gaze had she looked at their joined hands?
Just then, an extremely faint sound of soft rubber-soled footsteps came from the other end of the little alley, treading almost noiselessly on the ground, only slightly coming to people's awareness in this nearly stifling silence. Ominous ripples at once spread out through the night. Luo Wenzhou felt a thrill of fear, pulling Fei Du behind him. "Who's there? Come out!"
In answer, someone came out apprehensively. It was one of the tourist attraction's patrolmen.
The patrolman was perhaps somewhat nervous. The flashlight he was holding flashed up and down. "What-what are you doing? We're closed."
The false alarm past, Luo Wenzhou expressionlessly took his work ID from his pocket and flashed it. "Police. I came to have a look."
The patrolman let out a long breath and smacked his own chest, squeezing out a polite smile. "Oh, oh, all right, I see you're busy."
Saying so, he nodded and made a slight bow, making to leave.
"Wait a minute," Luo Wenzhou called to stop him. "Could I ask for your work ID number?"
The patrolman froze, then obediently took off his work card and offered it to Luo Wenzhou with both hands. "Whatever you like, officer."
Luo Wenzhou calmly looked over the ID number and the photograph, then returned the work card. "Aren't you afraid to be patrolling on your own in a place where a murder has just happened?"
The patrolman's manner was unassailable. He smiled openly. "The murder didn't happen in this street. That street is sealed off. I couldn't go there if I wanted to."
Luo Wenzhou's gaze swept over the patrolman like the edge of a knife. When the patrolman had been made rather uneasy by his stare, he finally waved a hand, showing he could leave.
When this brief interlude had passed, Fei Du took up the previous topic. "We can't eliminate the possibility that it was coincidence. After all, I nearly also went the wrong way just now."
But Luo Wenzhou didn't respond. His mind was clearly replaying that segment of security camera footage—the first time Feng Bin and Xia Xiaonan had run out from under Lu Guosheng's eye, Lu Guosheng hadn't expended his efforts chasing them. His bearing as he'd walked through the intersection had been almost leisurely, as if he was certain his target couldn't get away.
"I thought that letter of Feng Bin's was very off," said Luo Wenzhou, "but I couldn't concretely tell where it was off, so I sent it to you. Have you reached a conclusion now?"
"I have something for your consideration.—While the letter opens 'Dear Mom and Dad,' the whole of it doesn't sound like it was written for his parents," said Fei Du. "'We're all very anxious, there aren't any truly carefree and peaceful people around us.' 'What we wanted before we now don't want at all.' And there's that line at the beginning, 'pondering in pain what I was born for.'—There's a great number of lines paraphrased from a book called All About Lily Chou-Chou, translated from Japanese. It's a story about a murder that concerns schoolyard bullying. I'm not sure whether he was hinting at something."
Luo Wenzhou muttered to himself for a moment. "Come on, let's go to the hospital. I want to see Xia Xiaonan."
At the same time, he sent the work ID number he'd just seen to Tao Ran, who was on duty for the evening. "Contact the person in charge of the Drum Tower and look into the patrolman with this ID."