Luo Wenzhou looked at him in amazement.
"Given my understanding of Fei Chengyu, I think his reason was very clear—a problem of profits." Fei Du held down the glass with one finger and spun it on the table. "The real estate market was rising then, land prices were going up. How many novelty-seeking psychopaths would have needed to pay how much rent to cover the costs and future losses? Of course, those were far from the only funds Fei Chengyu had paid out under the guise of 'donations.' He could very well have put that piece of land down to a donation. But the 'project' itself made him uneasy."
At this point, Luo Wenzhou had already adjusted his train of thought.
Fei Chengyu had been a sadist, extremely controlling and extremely narcissistic. As his ambitions and his wealth increased apace, he must have been constantly puffing himself up; he absolutely wouldn't have allowed anything in his hands to get out of control.
Given his acuteness, he definitely would have realized that those people's conduct of staking a claim and establishing a "graveyard" was an omen that they were no longer satisfied with being "killers" and "hired thugs"; they were constructing an even more colossal, even more dreadful-sounding "industrial chain," wanting to use the rental graveyard to draw in a large net, bring in all the blood-drinking and flesh-eating monsters from the shadows, get dirt on them, and thus build their own kingdom and order—
"At the start, Fei Chengyu thought that he was rearing this 'parasitic beast.' He didn't expect that when he'd brought it up, it would want to establish its own business and downgrade President Fei to an ordinary collaborator," Luo Wenzhou slowly said. "That's what you mean? But while Fei Chengyu refused to give them the money, they still got that piece of land."
This time, without waiting for Fei Du to speak, Luo Wenzhou answered himself in accordance with logic. "Because they had more than one backer! The Zhou Clan—Zhou Junmao and Zheng Kaifeng were among them, right?"
"Do you remember Zhou Huaijin's statement in the interrogation room?"
"What?"
"Zhou Huaijin said that twenty-one years ago he overheard Zhou Junmao and Zheng Kaifeng's dialogue in the Zhou residence. The Zhou Clan's advance into the domestic market was blocked at the time. The two of them were having a secret discussion about an assassination pretending to be a car accident. If Zhou Huaijin didn't lie, then it shows that those people had more than one financial backer from the start, were controlled by more than one power. Fei Chengyu's problem of making too much of himself may not have changed even in death." Fei Du gave a derisive laugh, his smile like a small cut in a thin paper, pale and incisive. "Though these are all my guesses. They may not be correct.—But there's something you ought to have noticed."
Luo Wenzhou looked up. "You mean Feng Bin's murder? An assassination, a mysteriously vanished wanted criminal as the killer. That really is the same method as in their elimination of Dong Xiaoqing and Zheng Kaifeng."
"Not only that. Today, that little girl told me that the person who installed the tracking software on her phone is called Wei Wenchuan.' When you were all busy with interrogations this afternoon, I did a little investigating—this Wei Wenchuan is in the same class as Feng Bin, the class monitor. He can rally a multitude with a single cry at Yufen. It's likely he's the head of the bullying clique… Although none of that is important. What's important is that his father is Wei Zhanhong."
"I know, we called and summoned him… I heard Er-Lang say that he seems to be a very famous developer?" Luo Wenzhou gave Fei Du a doubtful look. "But I think he doesn't have any negative press apart from being especially rich?"
"Wei Zhanhong is low-key, doesn't lightly show his face in public, and doesn't talk much. But I've heard a story about this person," Fei Du said quietly. "A few years ago, he's supposed to have gotten a piece of land in a development zone in D City. Of course he was very thick with the local government when he got the land. The city government said that the plan for the development zone was already complete, and in the future this piece of land would be the only land used for residential purposes in the whole commercial district, with businesses all around. They wouldn't have any competitors—but this was an unwritten agreement to transfer land, with only a verbal promise. You understand, right?"
A verbal promise was the same as no promise at all.
"Later, maybe because of road repairs or for some other reason, the progress of the project was delayed a little. By the time their project was finally completed and they could start to sell, in the same commercial district, in a better location, a large swath of residences had already been built, and they'd had about half a year to snatch away sales. Many buyers had moved in. D City isn't one of the frontline cities. There isn't a large transient population. The local market is only so large. Two residential areas in similar locations that were about the same in every respect were life-and-death competitors. The side that got permission to sell first would squeeze the other out of existence."
Luo Wenzhou wasn't an expert on the business aspect of things, but Fei Du was giving a careful explanation; he roughly understood and nodded. "So this fell through for Wei Zhanhong. And then what?"
"Then something happened at the competitor's estate. A murderer who'd been wanted for two years somehow scurried over to D City and stabbed six people in a row in the garden at the center of the estate. When the police came, he resisted arrest and grabbed a student right in front of them and was attempting murder when he was shot dead. The story goes that the blood dyed the lotus pond in the garden red. The whole estate became an unlucky abode because of this. Many owners sold off their property at low prices. But Wei Zhanhong's project came back from the dead. All the houses were sold within a few years."
Luo Wenzhou: "…"
It turned out that when humans had broken through the moral bottom line, they could also sometimes demonstrate stupefying ingenuity.
"Though I didn't verify it. It's all gossip. Because this Mr. Wei became well-known through this 'pure coincidence,' many people say he's a lucky star." Fei Du shook his head. "I can't say for sure whether he's lucky, but his darling son is definitely connected to Feng Bin's murder."
Luo Wenzhou rubbed his forehead. The two of them fell silent at the same time, each digesting numerous and jumbled pieces of information in the small hours of the morning.
Because the two of them weren't at all sleepy and very wide-awake now, they couldn't help digesting this sequence of cause and effect. It wasn't long before the high-speed movement of their brains slowly decelerated, while the surging blood rushed to the heart.
The emotions and desires, knocked out by the huge secret, appeared like the truth coming to light.
Fei Du's lips had taken on a trace of color from the glass of red wine. It looked almost bright and fresh on his pale face. He looked in faint longing at the bottle of wine, feeling his hands and feet growing cold again, and wanted to have another glass, but Luo Wenzhou blocked his hand midway.
"Are you finished confessing?" Luo Wenzhou said.
Fei Du's throat moved.
Luo Wenzhou cleared his throat. "Then shouldn't it be my turn?"
Fei Du was clearly leaning on one side of the table with his shirt in a state of disrepair. Hearing this, his fingers, hanging curled at his sides, tightened, and his excessively focused gaze fell on Luo Wenzhou. He was clearly "expressionless," "hardly moving a muscle," but his whole body language changed subtly, giving the impression that he had sat upright and straightened his clothes.
"I…"
Luo Wenzhou had only said one word when Fei Du interrupted him. "Captain Luo, wait a minute, don't you wonder why Lu Guosheng would let Xia Xiaonan go? Wasn't it the same as telling the police that there was a problem with the girl, making you question her?"
Luo Wenzhou sighed and somewhat helplessly said, "Yes, I do wonder."
Fei Du said, "And in the case of kidnapping and selling girls, who was it that told Su Luozhan the details of the old case? Why would she suddenly copy Su Xiaolan's methods? And…"
Luo Wenzhou suddenly interrupted him. "And I also wonder how, when there was a problem at the Flower Market District Sub-Bureau, that report somehow managed to break through through Wang Hongliang's observation and come to the City Bureau. I wonder if that mysterious text message Zhao Haochang brought up really was sent by someone else, or whether it was all his own performance. I wonder who had such a hard time holding their tongue that they had to notify Dong Xiaoqing of the truth about her father's death and make her commit an irreparable blunder… And I wonder very much which work-obsessed god we've offended this year to get knocked dizzy by a string of major cases so we don't even have time to take our annual leave—"
"There's a very good explanation." Fei Du, staring into his eyes, asked, "Do you want to hear it?"
Luo Wenzhou paused, then expressionlessly said, "Not really."
But Fei Du seemed not to have heard. He kept talking. "Someone's been pushing these cases in front of your eyes, leading you to investigate them, so that those people would be panicked and nearly reveal themselves over and over, forcing them to break off a body part each time, throwing out their 'backers' with immediate motives as shields. The number of backers can't be that high, because there aren't so many true psychopaths, and those with the financial resources to support them are as rare as unicorn horns and phoenix feathers. When those people had cut themselves down to a pitiful bare stalk out of self-preservation, they'd have to find another investor, for example…"
Luo Wenzhou coldly said, "Fei Du, shut up."
"For example, me." Fei Du turned a deaf ear on him. "For example, Fei Chengyu's heir—me. I fit all the criteria. I should have been one of them before. It was only sheer chance, the fact that Fei Chengyu broke it off with them, that meant I didn't receive that 'sword.' I thought of killing Fei Chengyu over and over. I definitely wouldn't care about any 'enmity for the killing of your father.' And I succeeded in working my way into the City Bureau, using my position to investigate the truth about the old Picture Album Project, deceiving…"
Luo Wenzhou hit the table, but he couldn't interrupt Fei Du's speech.
"In fact, they've already made veiled attempts to contact me. I've ignored them because I didn't want to seem to know too much of the inside story, but if Wei Zhanhong gets in trouble this time, too, then they'll likely be under attack from all quarters, urgently needing new funds. They'll have to kneel and beg me for alms. I'll have a chance to snap their wings, turn the parasitic beast into my personal watchdog. That's what Fei Chengyu wanted to do but couldn't accomplish…"
This time Luo Wenzhou was thoroughly frightened. He immediately stood up. "They've contacted you? When did this happen? Why didn't you say anything?"
Fei Du's level brows rose gently. "…maybe I wasn't ready to give myself up yet?"
"Bull…" The curse came to Luo Wenzhou's lips, and he forced it back. He lowered his head and looked at Fei Du, leaning against the table, and suddenly realized that if today's "unexpected incident" hadn't occurred, Fei Du may have concealed this forever. If those people had come to see him, he would have gone along with it, gone into the abyss without help or connections.
Fei Du pretended to be an idle son of the wealthy, pretended to lead a life of luxury and dissipation, pretended to have a powerful desire for control. He'd sniped at the Zhou Clan first thing after Zhou Junmao's death, heartlessly wallowing in the feast of money—he also wore a "beast in human clothing" disguise. The beast in human clothing naturally had to be a gentleman, had to be urbane, had to be extremely patient, elegant and graceful. He'd made himself seem callous and powerful, up to anything.
But in the end, a beast in human clothing was only a beast. However much skill there was, it was still only on the surface. Any sudden change would require deliberation. Which beast would be as unassailable as he was, able to carry the human disguise to the point of keeping company with the babbling village woman Wang Xiujuan and the ignorant little girl Chechen?
Luo Wenzhou remembered the night of Zhou Junmao's car crash. He thought that rather than making enormous profits short selling Zhou Clan stock, Fei Du in fact would have liked to go home and sleep.
He was clearly a person who could be perfectly satisfied with a bowl of lean pork congee and a plate of salted vegetables on a winter's night. Give him a cup of coffee and some trivial documents to arrange, and he could tranquilly while away a whole day in the corner of the office—where was his desire to go into the abyss and contend with fierce beasts for power and money?
Luo Wenzhou had suddenly turned silent; faint unease instantly rose in Fei Du's heart.
"Because this crowd exists, all these years, you've felt that you couldn't escape Fei Chengyu, right?" Luo Wenzhou spoke very calmly. "So you'd rather throw yourself in, become one of them, control them, tear them up by the roots.—If you failed, you might die without an intact corpse like Zheng Kaifeng. If you succeeded, it wasn't as though you were a planted agent. When the time came, you would go to prison along with them. Have you thought about that?"
Fei Du forced a smile. "I…"
"You aren't stupid, of course you've thought it through clearly," Luo Wenzhou said. "But whether you died or spent the rest of your life in prison, you thought that would be pretty good, right? At least you'd be free, unencumbered. There'd be nothing to worry about."
Because if you couldn't be free, it was better to die.
Luo Wenzhou propped his hand on the edge of the table behind him. "Why are you willing to reveal everything to me now, letting your plans fall through on the verge of success? Is your conscience pricking you?"
Fei Du involuntarily backed up.
"Bah, you don't have any such thing as a conscience," Luo Wenzhou said. "You looked at me and thought, 'Fuck, such a handsome man is confessing his love to me, crying and wailing about wanting to be with me, what am I doing still thinking of dying or going to prison?' Besides, you have to get a regulation haircut if you go to prison, do you know—"
Fei Du was speechless.
"Since you were even willing to lay out your evil heart and rotten lungs for me, it means you were asking me to pull you out. I pulled, and you dodged and struggled again." Luo Wenzhou hit Fei Du's forehead with his palm. "What's your problem? Are you testing my strength?"
Fei Du seemed like Luo Yiguo leaping onto the dining table and being knocked off with a chopstick; somewhat dazed, he let Luo Wenzhou smack him.
"You always used to make me mad. Whenever I was in a bad mood then, you were always the person I imagined—imagined taking a burlap sack and taking you to a little alley for a beating. But there was a time later when the whole crowd of us went to play around at Tao Ran's house and accidentally knocked a crack in a brick in the wall. Tao Ran was renting, and the landlord was a problem. If he saw it, he'd definitely make a fuss. Only Tao Ran didn't say anything at the time, and we didn't take notice, not expecting that you, a half-grown child, would run around the building materials markets, find a brick that was exactly the same, get a set of tools from who knows where, and spend half a day taking out the old brick and swapping in the new one. I went to have a look afterwards, and the job was pretty well done. I thought then that while you perennially needed a spanking, you could also sometimes be pretty lovable, and if you ever went wrong, it really would be regrettable."
Luo Wenzhou's voice was getting quieter and quieter. In the end it was almost a whisper. "So I was always very severe towards you. There was no one else I got so exasperated being around… But that day at the City Bureau, you'd obviously come with that crowd of drinking buddies to make trouble, but in the end you stayed to accompany He Zhongyi's mother. And I suddenly thought that, actually, even if I wasn't minding you, wasn't criticizing you every day, you still wouldn't go wrong. I never thought that if I gave our interactions a drop of color, you'd run away and set up a dying vat with it, start pestering me all day with no thought for the consequences. Never mind fooling me into giving you my body, you even dared to fool me into giving you my feelings.
"You asshole." Luo Wenzhou repeatedly jabbed Fei Du's chest with one finger. "You actually do care for me, you didn't have any other ideas before, and now you want to stay with me. Do you dare to admit it?"
Fei Du froze under his attentive gaze for three seconds. Then he snatched his jabbing paw and instantly pressed Luo Wenzhou against the little dining table, stopping his mouth with biting force.