Xia Xiaonan had been rescued, but her connection with the strange case of Feng Bin's murder remained hidden in a dense fog.
What had that mysterious patrolman been up to? Why had he wanted to get into the Drum Tower scenic spot, and why had he followed Luo Wenzhou and Fei Du? This also defied understanding.
The moon and stars had been fine, and perhaps the Jasper Lake4 had been frozen over and all the wintering immortals had come to surround the Lovers' Mirror. At first they had only wanted to watch a courtship in this romantic setting, not expecting that this Lovers' Mirror had been truly shoddily manufactured; midway through, the channels had gotten mixed up, and a grim, bloody crime thriller had been inserted.
The crowd of immortals had in unison found their appetites gone and uncompromisingly pulled up a double handful of black clouds, covering up the bright starry sky, leaving it as murky and dark as the bottom of a pot, each scattering.
By the time Luo Wenzhou and Fei Du returned home after dealing with the problem of the girl jumping off the building and getting Xia Xiaonan settled, in the mortal world, even the romantic settings in the eight o'clock time slot were about to sing their last notes.
Luo Wenzhou was so hungry he felt that even the air had thinned out a little. As soon as he opened the door, he was thrown off by finding that while his belly was empty, Luo Yiguo's food bowl contained both dry food and a can of cat food. The hard-hearted old cat had eaten and drunk its fill and licked itself glossy and was sprawled on its cat bed. Hearing the sound of the door, its sharp ears turned in half circles, but it paid it no mind, let alone coming out for a greeting.
Luo Wenzhou gained a deeper understanding of his position in the household—it turned out that what Master Luo welcomed every day was a walking meal ticket. As for the useless two-legged litter box attendant himself, it didn't have any interest in him at all. As long as it had something to eat, it didn't care where he went or whether he lived or died.
Other living beings would be all right missing a meal; Luo Wenzhou was only worried about the patient going hungry.
When they'd just brought Xia Xiaonan down, he'd wanted to tell the patient to leave, but Fei Du had been unwilling.
Seeing that it was already so late, Luo Wenzhou had wanted to stop somewhere to buy takeout on the way. Fei Du hadn't said what he wanted to eat, only make nitpicking comments about every restaurant along the way, the implication being that he was equally unwilling.
"You just had to come home to eat. What is there to eat at home? Will congee and salted vegetables suit your tastes? You're a bigger problem than even Luo Yiguo." As he complained, Luo Wenzhou hastily put a bowl of washed rice into the freezer to chill, then started to chop meat and preserved egg, setting up the pressure cooker in a flurry. He irritably scolded Fei Du, who was standing by idly, "And you're as much in the way as Luo Yiguo!"
Fei Du, holding his game machine in his hands and walking around aimlessly, and Luo Yiguo, who at some point had come over to observe human cooking, one standing and one crouching, turned their gazes on him at the same time.
Luo Wenzhou looked back at the two of them. Within half a minute he was utterly routed. Having been defeated, he ungrudgingly went to work.
Fei Du could race motorbikes in a rainstorm with a crowd of aimless rich kids, could party with his drinking buddies until the middle of the night, could spend money like water, could spout a mouthful of glib talk; clearly he ought to have been flamboyant to his heart's content, but at the same time he was excessively controlled and reserved. Whether he was laughing or angry, the majority of it was brought out for show. Any real emotion was like a trace element that you needed a special instrument to get an inkling of.
Luo Wenzhou turned his naked eyes into microscopes, faintly discerning something that might have been his own mistake; Luo Wenzhou felt that Fei Du was "sticking" to him a little—just a little, about the viscosity of rice boiled soft.
Perhaps, having crossed paths with Xia Xiaonan, who'd kept saying, "She hated me," internally he wasn't nearly as untouched and unassailable as he seemed
At Luo Wenzhou's direction, Fei Du took up a small cutting board and set about "mixing the salted vegetables." The salted vegetables were leaf mustard bought from the store, which needed to be chopped up thin, then mixed up with cilantro and chili pepper, then have sesame oil and other such condiments added, a personal version of the northeastern dish "Tiger Vegetable Salad."
No matter what you had him do, Fei Du would learn it very quickly, remembering when you'd said it only once and soon getting it right…only his knife work was a little lacking. He kept having to pause to look around for the right angle for the knife. The vegetable knife came down against the cutting board time after time, the sound almost carrying an echo, unusually hypnotic. When Luo Wenzhou had used the pressure cooker to cook a pot of his own version of preserved egg and lean meat congee and steamed some frozen buns, Fei Du had just finished chopping a small amount of leaf mustard.
Luo Yiguo, looking out from on top of the oven, stared curiously at Fei Du, observing what he was doing but not daring to rashly make trouble in front of him.
With his arms crossed over his chest, Luo Wenzhou watched his Master Fei and Master Cat. His heart, left behind on the icy rooftop of the administration building, finally seemed to return to his body, slowly sinking into his chest, producing a flower, the scientific name of which was "calm."
While Fei Du was going back and forth over a chili pepper with the vegetable knife, Luo Wenzhou suddenly spoke, seeming casual. "Hey, do you want to…stay here with me after this?"
Fei Du's hand slipped, and the knife fell, cutting the chili pepper in half on the cutting board.
The chili pepper, which had died unfulfilled, sprayed a pungent grievance up to the heavens, like a biological weapon, simultaneously drawing a round of sneezes from Fei Du and Luo Yiguo, their eyes watering from the spice.
Luo Wenzhou had been prepared, dodging a meter away, laughing like a dog—then he seized the opportunity to cover up his question just now, laughing merrily as he passed Fei Du a box of tissues.
Fei Du turned his head and fixed his reddened, streaming eyes on Luo Wenzhou's somewhat flustered figure, having an impulse to answer, "All right!" But as soon as he opened his mouth, he couldn't help turning his face away to sneeze again. The momentary impulse, like a weak flame in a storm lantern, died invisibly after having risen silently.
First thing the next morning, Luo Wenzhou was called down to the forensics department. The results had come out on the analysis of the blood on Xia Xiaonan's backpack; the blood really was Feng Bin's, and there was also a hidden bloody fingerprint on the inside of the strap of the backpack that perfectly matched Lu Guosheng's fingerprints as recorded in the system.
"So when Lu Guosheng finished killing Feng Bin, he hauled Xia Xiaonan out of the garbage bin, searched her bag, took her money and cell phone, then gave the bag back to her." As Tao Ran spoke, he was helping to block Lang Qiao—while His Majesty wasn't paying attention, the wretched eldest princess was miserably swapping buns all around. "But I still don't think Xia Xiaonan could be an accomplice. Just think about it. Don't you think it would be terrifying? Never mind a little girl, if I weren't a police officer, I definitely wouldn't dare to have dealings with a vicious person like Lu Guosheng."
"And there's the suspicious patrolman." After parting with her last cilantro-filled bun, Lang Qiao stuck out her head and put in a word. "At first I thought he was part of Lu Guosheng's group and was pretending to be a patrolman to come clean up the blood on the crime scene, but now I've thought about it, and what would be the point of cleaning up the blood? Lu Guosheng came face to face with Xia Xiaonan. We'd come to that conclusion as soon as we ran an analysis. He didn't even bother wearing gloves to commit a murder, why would he care about a bit of blood at the crime scene?"
Luo Wenzhou looked at her, and Lang Qiao quickly drew her head back, not daring to come into his line of sight again. She'd been racking her brains for an age, and she truly couldn't think of what she'd done to offend their boss. She simply felt that this gay guy's heart was like a needle at the bottom of the sea, entirely impossible to find under any weather conditions.
Lang Qiao felt for a time that her future was lightless and without prospects and wished to exchange one gay boss for another; for example, that domineering director-general Fei was all right.
"How is Xia Xiaonan?"
"I'm going to try having a talk with her in a while," Tao Ran said. "Oh, right, I just contacted the teacher at Yufen, and those students. The teacher didn't say anything and agreed to come over after class, but none of the students' parents are very willing. We may need to talk to them again."
When someone else's child got hurt, a parent would naturally have some fear after the fact, but if, because of this, a public security bureau started summoning their own child for questioning day in and day out, that would be truly unpleasant.
"Understood." Luo Wenzhou sighed. "If they're really unwilling to come over, we'll go make house calls one by one—first, let's go question Xia Xiaonan."
Xia Xiaonan was sitting there quietly, like a lantern with a picture of a girl on it, drawn in fine lines, vivid and realistic, but still only paper; if you weren't careful for a moment, she could be burned to ashes by the flame.
She looked at Tao Ran and Luo Wenzhou, not making a sound, then lowered her head again, her messy shag cut hair drooping from her temples, falling onto her shoulders.
Luo Wenzhou was rather expert at dealing with the utterly evil type, but seeing Xia Xiaonan, he felt his head swell and thereupon ceded the court to Tao Ran.
"Xia Xiaonan, right?" Like a well-spoken elective teacher, Tao Ran sat down across from her, a kindly look on his face, flashing his work ID. "I'm called Tao Ran. I work in the Criminal Investigation Team. I'd like to clear up a few points with you."
Xia Xiaonan didn't look up, as if she hadn't heard, focusing her whole attention on picking her nails.
An hour later, Tao Ran walked out of the interrogation room in utter helplessness.
It was as if Xia Xiaonan had a snail's shell on her back. If there were signs of trouble outside, she'd retreat inside, trembling with fear. If you used soft words to try to persuade her, she wouldn't make a sound. If your manner was a little more forceful, she'd cry. Her crying was heart-rending; at one point she nearly went into shock. Tao Ran was at a loss. He'd had to send Luo Wenzhou, playing bad cop, out to the observation room midway.
From a certain point of view, she could be called unmovable either by force or persuasion.
From beginning to end, she only nodded her head three times.
The first time was when Tao Ran asked, "Were you there when Feng Bin was murdered?" The second time was when Luo Wenzhou lost his patience with her evasiveness and asked, "Did you collude with the murderer ahead of time? Otherwise, how would he have managed to trap you guys in those complicated little streets?"
The third time, it was when Tao Ran asked her, "Do you know who wanted to hurt Feng Bin?"
This time, Xia Xiaonan gave a clear answer. She said, "It was me."
As soon as the words "It was me" left her mouth, she collapsed, her nerves as thin as gossamer, like an old computer that was about to be scrapped and would crash as soon as you tried to play Spider Solitaire and wouldn't turn on again after. As for why she'd wanted to hurt Feng Bin, how she knew Lu Guosheng, where the wanted criminal had gone after doing his business, they could get nothing out of her.
People who got involved in this kind of vicious crime, provided they weren't demented psychopaths, would often disavow involvement; even if they couldn't succeed in disavowing, they would subconsciously describe themselves as helpless victims—pleading innocence and shifting responsibility were common human reactions. They'd very rarely admit things so openly, unwilling even to make up a motive.
Xia Xiaonan's grandfather was waiting in the corridor. After his granddaughter had been brought to the public security bureau, the old man had finally noticed something was off. He'd asked around everywhere and managed to pin together some of the circumstances; he was frightened and overwhelmed. Seeing Tao Ran and Luo Wenzhou walking towards him, he immediately stood up, at a loss, like a student who'd done something wrong.
Tao Ran poked Luo Wenzhou with his elbow. "Go talk to him."
Hearing this, Luo Wenzhou turned tail and ran. "Director Li! Hey, Director Li, I've been looking for you all day. Have you found the materials I asked for yesterday? I need them in a hurry!"
Tao Ran: "…"
Bastard.
Because Xia Xiaonan was unwilling to cooperate, the whole case had reached another impasse.
Towards evening, the Criminal Investigation Team, having come up empty after a whole day's bustle, put their heads together in the conference room.
"The little girl won't say anything aside from admitting over and over that she was the one who caused Feng Bin's death." When Xia Xiaonan's mood had stabilized, Lang Qiao had also gone to talk to her. "Also, getting at it in a roundabout way, I found out that she has no idea that Lu Guosheng is a wanted criminal who ran for it fifteen years ago. When I mentioned him, she started to shake, not reacting even when she peeled back her nail. It was real fear, not faked."
"Their homeroom teacher just came over to talk to me." Tao Ran came in with a notebook under his arm. "She says that since Xia Xiaonan's grades are good, her disposition is quiet and gentle, and she's pretty, there are quite a few boys in the class who like her, but she's never seen her get close with anyone—not the girls, either. The atmosphere in their class is very good, everyone is very friendly, hanging out all the time at school, like one big happy family. There's no bullying."
Lang Qiao said, "A teacher wouldn't necessarily know whether there was bullying going on at school, though?"
"No." Xiao Haiyang pushed at his glasses. "A teacher might not know about trivialities like individual fights and targeted attacks, but if there was long-term collective schoolyard bullying, she'd definitely know what was going on, unless she's a young teacher who just graduated and has no experience at all. Either the schoolyard bullying really is nonexistent, or the teacher is lying."
Xiao Haiyang's political examination was sitting on Luo Wenzhou's desk. He hadn't had a chance to open it yet. Hearing this, Luo Wenzhou looked at him. "Didn't I send you guys to talk to the students?"
"We talked." Xiao Haiyang spread open his notebook. "Altogether, there were six students who ran away. There are four children aside from Feng Bin and Xia Xiaonan, three male and one female. The girl is supposed to be running a fever from fright and shock and wouldn't see us, but we saw the three other boys. But none of them gave us any answers. It was as if they'd agreed on their lines in advance. They categorically asserted that they ran away to have fun. When the murder occurred, they were all waiting at the hotel. They didn't know that Feng Bin and Xia Xiaonan were together, and they didn't know what the two of them had gone out for."
Luo Wenzhou thought about it. "I remember there was a fat little boy called Zhang Yifan. Stammers when he talks to strangers. He didn't say anything either?"
Xiao Haiyang shook his head.
Luo Wenzhou said, "What about the tourist attraction angle? Are there any clues about the fake patrolman? On the night of the crime, Lu Guosheng finished his murder and swaggered away from the scene. Are there any cameras that could have caught where he went after?"
A few travel-worn criminal police officers shook their heads at the same time.
Luo Wenzhou frowned and suddenly stood up, putting on his jacket and making to leave. Lang Qiao quickly said, "It's almost time to get off work, boss. Where are you going? Surely it can wait till tomorrow."
"I'm going to talk to those students again." Luo Wenzhou drank the tea on the table in one gulp. He knew that when he got off work today, he wouldn't see Fei Du in the parking lot across the street, so he held no expectations towards the words "get off work." More dead than alive, he said, "When I'm finished talking to them, I'll just drive home."
Lang Qiao looked at her watch. "But Yan Security Uni said their contact person is coming over soon. If you're not here, who's going to sign his transfer orders?"
Luo Wenzhou waved his hand irritably. "Whoever. Who is he to make me wait respectfully to receive him? Don't I have a job? Does he think everyone is as idle as those wretched students? Tell him to come again tomorrow."
Before he'd finished, he heard a voice at the door saying, "Is your schedule already full today?"
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Author's Note:
(4) Mythological home of the Queen Mother of the West.