"The police have formally entered the headquarters of the Wei Clan. Concrete information will have to wait until the investigation has advanced a step.—From this reporter's understanding, the Wei Clan spans thirty years and two generations. It established itself in the catering business and gradually became its own food and drink conglomerate. In recent years it switched to real estate and rose in reputation, becoming one of this city's well-known enterprises. Last year it was nominated as a candidate for the city's leading enterprise. The head of the enterprise, Mr. Wei Zhanhong, has always been very low-key, rarely showing his face in public spaces, but frequently described as public-spirited. His public image was rather healthy. Now what causes would have…"
On the TV, the female reporter's lips flapped as though there were springs installed in them, her speech as rapid as popping beans; the focus was on the news of Wei Zhanhong being investigated.
At the same time, the word "assassination," after temporarily enjoying the internet famous treatment, had been classified as a prohibited word by all the major web portals and turned into different sorts of mosaic.
Tao Ran was at the City Bureau working overtime. Xiao Haiyang, with huge dark circles under his eyes, was sitting on the couch in Luo Wenzhou's house, holding a cup in his hands. His eyes were turned emptily toward the TV. He didn't even notice Luo Yiguo sneaking a drink from his cup.
"Uncle Gu didn't have any other relatives," Xiao Haiyang finally said without beginning or end during the commercials. "I'm sure of it. So who would sweep his grave?"
Luo Wenzhou slapped Luo Yiguo's butt, sending it running, then took Xiao Haiyang's cup, which was full of floating cat hair, and took it to the kitchen to wash it and refill it with water for him. "Did you know his colleagues, informers, friends back then?"
Xiao Haiyang hesitated a moment, then slowly shook his head. "When the old lady was arranging his affairs, there really were some people who came to the door one by one to see her, but they were all turned down at the door. They came once or twice at most, like a revolving horse lantern. I don't remember any of them."
Over a decade ago, he had after all been too little. Even though Xiao Haiyang's memory was outstanding and he could perhaps remember everything that had happened when he was a child, it was still too hard to recognize someone he'd only seen once. As for what Gu Zhao's social network and informer network had been like, he wouldn't have talked about that to an eight- or nine-year-old child.
Luo Wenzhou muttered to himself for a moment. "Since it was a legally purchased cemetery plot, there would have been a record left behind. If someone in the system had wanted to go looking, it wouldn't have been hard to find…"
"No, Captain Luo," Xiao Haiyang said somewhat tensely. "That graveyard is pretty well-run, under sealed management. It's quite strict. Visitors coming to sweep graves all have to sign in. During high-traffic times like Qing Ming, you have to make an appointment. But I went over to investigate the visitor record first thing this morning and found that there hadn't been any visitors apart from me these last few days. So the person could only have gotten in by going over the wall in the middle of the night, like I did last night. If it was one of our people, why would he need to do that?"
Luo Wenzhou frowned.—Indeed, whether Gu Zhao had suffered an injustice or had truly committed a crime when he'd been alive, a person's death was like the extinguishing of a lamp. The good and bad, right and wrong of his life all came to nothing. If his former colleagues and friends had gone to see him out of old affection, there would have been nothing to criticize them for. There really was no need to sneak around like this…especially at this critical juncture, when the old case was about to be investigated anew.
"The planner A13 who Lu Guosheng described, the mysterious security guard who vanished from the Longyun Center, and Wei Wenchuan and Feng Bin's online friend—up to the present, we have no traces of these people." Xiao Haiyang pursed his lips, which were so dry they were peeling, and drank half the cup of water like a donkey at a water trough. Then he went on speaking with difficulty. "The whole thing gives me a feeling as though…as though…someone was luring us into investigating the old case anew. I feel like…"
Luo Wenzhou looked up at him.
"Feel like they were doing it to avenge Gu Zhao." Fei Du silently walked over to Xiao Haiyang, startling the Little Glasses.
Fei Du's face was rather pale, but for some reason his lips had more color in them than usual. He frowned gently when he sat. His eyes never seemed to open fully. He nearly sank into the soft couch cushion. "First they targeted Wei Wenchuan, quietly getting close to him using an investigation of his mental state and the appropriate guidance."
Luo Wenzhou said, "Including instructing him on how to lord it over that garbage school Yufen?"
"Oh, Wei Wenchuan would have done that even without guidance." Saying so, Fei Du reached for the cans of beer arranged on the table to entertain guests; Luo Wenzhou tapped on the back of his hand with a pen. Fei Du gave an "oh," and even the preoccupied Xiao Haiyang looked over.
Fei Du: "…"
Then, pretending that nothing had happened, he turned and picked the detailed materials about Wei Wenchuan up off the table, very properly pushing at his glasses. "Lu Guosheng confessed that Wei Wenchuan ran across him at the Beehive, so he must have been going with his father Wei Zhanhong to that money squandering establishment since he was little. Likely Wei Zhanhong didn't hide what he was doing from his only son. If you look closely, you'll find that Wei Wenchuan's body language is very like Wei Zhanhong's. He'll imitate his father in every aspect, including the way he conducts himself in society—though it's likely he learned the means from this mysterious 'go ask shatov'. This sort of systematic malice, backed up by theory, seems more like the handiwork of an adult."
"But…" Xiao Haiyang hesitated. "How could he be sure that Wei Wenchuan would follow his lead to the point of killing someone?"
"To an ordinary person, assassination is a serious crime that there's no coming back from. They absolutely won't make that kind of choice unless they have no way out. But to Wei Wenchuan, it's an advanced strategy reserved for adults only, his father's prerogative. Adolescents have an intense desire and curiosity towards the adult world. He'd do it if you only gave him two things—the puffed up feeling of being grown up, and the ability to obtain the 'tool.'" Fei Du's fingertip drew a line over Wei Wenchuan's photograph. "Single-handedly establishing the order at school gave him that puffed up feeling, and having him conveniently run into Lu Guosheng gave him the tool. He was like a child holding kindling. Sooner or later, he wouldn't be able to hold himself back."
Luo Wenzhou paused and couldn't resist letting his mind wander a little. He thought that what Fei Du said made sense, and that was why it made him feel something was off.—At the age when a small child was like a blank piece of paper, he didn't know the difference between good and evil and would imitate his parents. His views towards some things would already be taking rudimentary form while he was learning to talk; it would be very difficult for later education to change them. So there was nothing remarkable about Wei Wenchuan growing up like this.
But thinking about it carefully, Fei Du had grown up in almost exactly the same environment as Wei Wenchuan. What had made him resist Fei Chengyu so fiercely?
It was hard for Luo Wenzhou to imagine that it was merely because of his mother.
The reason that the majority of people thought of "mama" as a warm and sacred form of address was that when they'd learned to pronounce it, they'd linked it to the parent who raised and taught them; because they were filled with affection towards this person, they invested this word with a special meaning. But from the few words that Fei Du had let slip, it seemed that his earliest acquaintance with the word "mama" had been attached to a hysterical madwoman, punished every day for doing the wrong thing, mentally unwell, her position not even as high as a housekeeper's.
Would the sort of woman who left that impression really have been able to use her life to overturn the brand left by Fei Chengyu?
Luo Wenzhou couldn't help remembering the day they'd been investigating Lu Guosheng's whereabouts, when Fei Du had made that strange and accurate inference about the employee bus. He hadn't had time to think carefully about it then, but now his misgivings floated up again.
He must have been staring at Fei Du too long. Fei Du gave him a slightly dubious look, and Luo Wenzhou suddenly discovered that the redness floating at the corners of his eyes still hadn't receded fully. His rigorously calculating line of thought staggered in its steps, nearly slipping into the abyss flowing below. He hastily withdrew his gaze, coughed dryly, and sat up properly.
"When Feng Bin ran away with the others, he left a letter that was posted online and somehow attracted interest," Fei Du continued. "The school system and teenagers' mental health are always popular topics, so no one questioned it at the time. But thinking about it now, that wave of enthusiasm was very unusual. It must have carried the trace of someone's manipulation.—And when people were about to forget this business, Feng Bin died. The schoolyard bullying at Yufen immediately fermented, discussions of schoolyard bullying were everywhere, the level of social interest was extremely high. And the killer was a criminal who had been wanted for fifteen years, causing this murder plot, which should have been mentioned a few times and then passed, to shift over to the City Bureau, becoming the focus of everyone's attention."
"Wait a minute." Luo Wenzhou suddenly remembered something. "The day before Feng Bin died, the business of the middle school students running away was inexplicably pushed over to me—in other words, it's likely that wasn't coincidence!"
Fei Du shrugged. "When we accidentally alerted the enemy, even you thought we wouldn't be able to take Lu Guosheng alive—though actually, even if Lu Guosheng had died, the existence of the ecological park would still undoubtedly have been revealed. The video record of Wei Wenchuan meeting Lu Guosheng at the Longyun Center would have been sufficient basis for the police to investigate the Wei family. Investigating following that thread, you may still have been able to catch those people."
"But someone ran the risk of changing the Longyun Center's security camera records a second time to delay Wei Zhanhong's people," Luo Wenzhou said quietly. "I suspect that even if we'd been particularly unimpressive, not come in time even with green lights the whole way, that mysteriously vanished A13 would likely have personally rescued Lu Guosheng."
Xiao Haiyang said, "Wait…wait a minute, why?"
"Because only with Lu Guosheng living could he confirm in his own words in full public view that the wanted criminal's fingerprint fourteen years ago wasn't made up at all, that it wasn't concocted by Gu Zhao in order to solicit a bribe, that there was an injustice involved in the fire at The Louvre." Fei Du knocked on the table. "I'll get people to sift through all the aerial footage from that day. That A13 must have been near the ecological park that day."
Luo Wenzhou nodded, then said to Xiao Haiyang, "With investigating the case of Wei Wenchuan plotting to kill his schoolmate as your reason, go to the police station that first received the report and ask around. I want to know who pushed that case over to me."
Xiao Haiyang pursed his lips, wanting to speak but stopping himself.
"The City Bureau's forensics department personally performed the autopsy on Officer Gu. With the eyes of so many colleagues and experts watching, the medical examiners couldn't have misidentified the deceased. The report concerning the autopsy is in the file." Luo Wenzhou seemed to have understood what he was thinking and very confidently said, "Xiao Xiao, I don't believe in stories about souls coming back to possess others' bodies."
Xiao Haiyang looked at him with a complicated expression and sighed, in disappointment or gladness. "Yes, I know."
"As for who this A13 actually is, whether he secretly helped us, and what his final goal is, that's what we need to investigate next. But there is one thing." Luo Wenzhou raised a finger and said sternly, "He's one of the suspects in Feng Bin's murder. You understand?"
Xiao Haiyang said, "Yes, sir!"
"Then get to work," Luo Wenzhou said. "With a public security bureau about to be turned into a sieve by all these snitches, there really aren't many people we can trust. I'm going to see…"
He'd only gotten halfway through his words when his phone suddenly vibrated. There was a group message on it. He looked down and saw that the sender was Yang Xin—Lao Yang's little daughter.
Yang Xin said: "My mom had her surgery today. The doctor says it didn't go well. She's still in the ICU. My thanks for the concern of all our relatives and friends. There have been too many inquiries, so I'm replying all at once. I'll do my best to take care of her. Growing old and falling ill is normal. Everyone take care of yourselves."
Luo Wenzhou's heart lurched. He stared emptily for a long time. "I…I have something to do. We'll see each other in the afternoon."
He hastily said goodbye and hurried to the hospital.
Luo Wenzhou was tactful, but his temper really was considerable, and he had some of the bad habits of a young master in his bones. His affection for their shifu wasn't any weaker than Tao Ran's; he'd always send something home with Yang Xin during the holidays. If the Yang family had needed anything, Yang Xin could have summoned him to be pierced with knives from both sides with one text message. But knowing that their shiniang Fu Jiahui didn't like him, he wouldn't be like Tao Ran, enduring humiliation to go see her. Thinking of it, since shifu's death, he hadn't had any contact with this shiniang.
He hadn't thought that when he saw her again, there would be the hateful door of an ICU ward between them.
When Luo Wenzhou reached the hospital, he first went to comfort Yang Xin, then went to chat with the doctor. When he left, he saw from afar Yang Xin talking to a familiar person. He paused, then went over to say hello. "Director Lu."
Lu Youliang nodded towards him, then said warmly to Yang Xin, "It's all right, girl, your uncles are all here. If you need people or money, we have both. Don't be afraid. I'll have your auntie stay with you for a few days. If you're busy at school, don't keep coming over here. We'll help you keep watch."
Red-eyed, Yang Xin nodded.
Lu Youliang pointed at Luo Wenzhou and said, "Perfect. You can have your dage drive you back. I'm hitching a ride today, too."
Luo Wenzhou's brow twitched. He said nothing. When he'd taken Yang Xin back to school, he looked at Lu Youliang in the rearview mirror. There was deep weariness in Lu Youliang's face. He had his eyes closed, rubbing the center of his brow.
Luo Wenzhou remembered that when they'd parted yesterday evening, Tao Ran, pretending to be playing around, had said something into his ear—he'd said, "I followed Director Lu the whole time that day. I don't think it was him."
"Wenzhou," Lu Youliang suddenly called to him.
"Yes? Should I take you to work or home?"
Lu Youliang said, "Just drive around. I have something to say to you."