Fei Du had two phones. One was comparatively clean. Apart from saving a bit of personal photographic work to it at odd moments, he used it for taking and making phone calls, and everyone he contacted was important; he'd given this one to Luo Wenzhou before leaving.
The other one he'd brought with him. It was full of all kinds of things. As soon as he turned it on, whistling advertisements, regards from his drinking buddies, and software update reminders nearly crashed the phone. He didn't display any happiness at being told that he could go. "So I can go? Have you questioned Su Cheng? What's his problem?"
The investigator was choked by his sudden question, because they hadn't found a single hair from Su Cheng's head.
A rental car had been found abandoned near an exit toll gate on North Yan Highway. Su Cheng's fingerprints were on the steering wheel. That was the last sign of him. Then he seemed to have vanished off the face of the earth, running away without a trace… No, if he really had run away, that would be good; the worst outcome was that he may already have been silenced.
But he couldn't mention these details of the investigation to Fei Du, so the investigator avoided the central issue, saying, "Concerning the problems of the property under your company's banner and Su Cheng, we're still investigating at present. Until all the details of the case have come to light, you're still under some suspicion, President Fei, so even though you're being released, we may still perform a follow-up investigation. Please understand when the time comes."
Fei Du looked up. The gaze hidden behind his lenses inexplicably made the investigator feel uncomfortable. For a moment, he even thought there was something demonic about the color of Fei Du's irises. He couldn't even tell whether Fei Du had just been asking casually, or whether he was a suspicious individual sounding him out.
The investigator's tone cooled involuntarily. "Do you need us to send a car to take you?"
Light flashed off Fei Du's lenses, interrupting his gaze; he suddenly changed, once more becoming that clever but inexperienced young man. "I heard the last investigator say that the car the company sent to pick me up got into a crash midway—was someone trying to kill me?"
The investigator said, "We can send an escort, do our utmost to preserve your personal safety, President Fei."
Fei Du pushed at his glasses and smiled wryly. "Even if everything is all right on the way, what if they break into my house? I couldn't take that. It might even bother the neighbors. Everyone's on vacation now, it wouldn't even be possible to hire an hourly worker, never mind a bodyguard.—How about this, look, can I wait here a while for someone from home to come pick me up?"
Those who had looked into Fei Du's background all knew that "someone from home" meant Luo Wenzhou. The investigator thought it was very indecent, but he couldn't quibble with this request. "That could work, but while you're waiting, you can't run around all over the place."
"I'll just stay here. I won't go anywhere." Fei Du raised his cell phone at him. "Just lend me a charger."
The investigator looked at him, still thinking there were a few unsuitable things about Fei Du.—The whole investigation team's views about Fei Du were polarized. Some people thought he was an innocent and unconnected young man, who may well have been framed and killed by Su Cheng if he hadn't been fortunate. The others, however, thought that he wasn't so simple. Being confined and investigated for days just before the New Year would have been an unexpected calamity for anyone, but when you thought about it, throughout the whole process, Fei Du had been actively cooperative, not at all flustered, answering anything he was asked without any resistance.
In stressful circumstances, however mild a person's temper, they would still show some aggression and resistance. People who'd been shut into a little dark room and weren't planning on confessing to a crime were usually either loudly stressing their own innocence, or obsessively asking non-stop, "What do you actually think I did?" Because of their worries, as soon as this question came up, implicated people would keep asking it over and over.
But Fei Du had only affably asked once at the beginning and hadn't brought it up again.
It seemed like…
It seemed like he wasn't at all worried about being investigated, like he knew that at a certain time, he'd be safely let go. Everything he said was just to accord with the seasonal lines the scenic characters in front of him had learned.
After leaving, the investigator didn't relax. He quietly turned on a surveillance feed and watched Fei Du.
In a very relaxed posture, Fei Du was openly sitting back and playing on his phone, totally ignoring the camera above him. Through the camera, the person watching the feed could even see the writing on his screen.
Like an ordinary young person, Fei Du had too many apps on his phone; it was unbearably cluttered.—He posted status updates and responded to the messages he'd received while the phone had been off for a few days; meanwhile, quite a few people, learning he was back online, started sending him private messages. Fei Du was interacting with five or six people at the same time, now reporting that he was safe and sound, now asking people to bring him things from abroad, now very inappropriately flirting and teasing, somehow managing not to get any wires crossed; his playboy skills were expert.
The investigator listened to a few sentences—at first, Fei Du, cheered up by someone, beamed into the phone and sent a voice message: "Really? You're all so disappointed that I didn't go? That won't do. How about I add another twenty thousand to each of your travel expense write off quotas? Not on the company's account. I invited you, you should all enjoy yourselves."
It sounded like there had been a trip arranged by the company for the employees. Given the quota, it seemed like it was a luxury tour abroad, the investigator thought absently, feeling a little sad—they had to go through the formalities just to get reimbursed for meals, but the young master's lips flapped, and each person's quota went up twenty thousand.
A while later, on the security camera feed, you could see that a friend noted down as "The Philosopher" had sent Fei Du a WeChat message: "Master Fei! How much money have you defrauded the revenue of! Why have you been locked up so long!"
When Fei Du had been taken away to be investigated, he'd publicly announced that the reason was to cooperate with an investigation into the economic problems of a subsidiary company. He hadn't mentioned anything else.
Before Fei Du had answered, this "Philosopher" sent several more messages in a row: "You didn't even get to see your brother one last time! My dad's banished me to exile in a barbarian land!"
Presumably the only punctuation this person knew how to use was the exclamation mark; he was always yelling.
When he'd finished reading, Fei Du's face displayed schadenfreude. He sent a voice message, saying, "Your dad's finally had enough of a wastrel like you?"
The investigator sighed. It seemed this was one of his drinking buddies, come to complain about being taught a lesson by his parents. He cut off the security camera feed—he felt that there was no point in listening any further. Fei Du was simply passing the time. He wasn't blind; of course he knew the security camera was filming him. It may be assumed that he wasn't stupid enough to confess anything.
Under the security camera, Fei Du raised his phone, listening to the voice message "The Philosopher" had sent.
The man's voice seemed to be coming from very noisy surroundings. His speech was like his typing, full of its own punctuation marks: "You'll never guess, I got knocked out by a drink at home! Today when I opened my eyes, I even fucking thought I'd gotten blackout drunk, so I got up and looked around, and, fuck me, where was I? On the other side of the ocean, don't you know! Gone in the middle of the night, along with Zhang Ting! Do you think my dad's having a midlife crisis? Is he crazy?! I don't even have a signal on my phone, I'm in a restaurant bathroom borrowing their wifi!"
Fei Du, seemingly indifferent, asked, "Borrowing wifi in a bathroom? How does it smell?"
"The Philosopher" said, "Get out! My dad sent people to watch me, they watch me wherever I go, they won't let me contact anyone else, and they won't change my phone card. I was forced to hide in the bathroom!"
Fei Du laughed.
"Oh, I see, am I here specifically to provide entertainment for you?—Master Fei, to tell you the truth, I'm worried there's a problem at home. Have you heard any rumors?"
Fei Du didn't bat an eyelash. "I haven't. What problem could there be? I think you're the one with the problem. Have you stirred something up again lately?"
"I didn't!"
Fei Du said, "Given your character, after you'd stirred it up, you may not have known it yourself."
"That's true," "The Philosopher" himself acknowledged. Then he groaned sorrowfully. "But if I die, at least let me understand why I'm dying.—Even if I had to be sent packing, at least he could have left me some time to say goodbye to my brothers, right? And you, too! You've spent this last half a year indulging in pleasures in some siren's Cavern of Silken Webs, forgetting your duties. I haven't seen a shade of you!"
Hearing the description "Cavern of Silken Webs," Fei Du thought of something and smiled for a while, unable to restrain himself. Then he said, "Oh, where are you now?"
"The Philosopher" told him the country and the place name.
"What a coincidence!" Fei Du's "astonishment" was very convincing. "Some of my subordinates are just taking their annual vacation over there. They must have arrived around the same time you did. If you're really going crazy from boredom, go play around with them for a few days. Consider that I've taken you there myself."
Hearing this, "The Philosopher" instantly swore. "Why didn't you say so? Give me the contact information, quick. Did Miaomiao come, too? All your assistants are great beauties, all of them dancing attendance on you alone every day, it's too fucking wretched!"
Zhang Donglai, who had woken to find himself in an alien land, held his nose and waited in the bathroom for a moment. Fei Du quickly sent him a WeChat name card, saying this was the team leader. Zhang Donglai added them excitedly; they quickly verified him and very politely sent a smiley face in greeting. "Hello, President Zhang. President Fei told me to look after you. Let me know if there's anything you need."
This person's profile picture was a little rabbit wearing a bow on its head. Though they hadn't sent a voice message, from the tone of the words you could tell this was a cute, lively girl. As he salivated, trying to guess which of the beautiful women from Fei Du's company this was, Zhang Donglai energetically set about flirting, ignoring even Fei Du.
Just then, there was a knock at the door. Perhaps one of the people following Zhang Donglai had thought he'd been in there too long and had come over to knock. "Manager Zhang, are you all right?"
"What do you want?!" Zhang Donglai yelled to him, pestered beyond endurance. "You're even rushing me when I'm shitting? You won't let me take my time?"
His phone vibrated. Zhang Donglai looked down. The person had sent a group picture of some rather familiar-looking beautiful girls with their arms around each other, laughing merrily, dimpled faces smiling into the camera. It was like a beam of light, illuminating Zhang Donglai's dejected heart.
The rabbit with the bow said: "We reserved the hotel's pool. We're planning to have a swimsuit party. Are you coming?"
Zhang Donglai's head heated up. "Even if I have to sacrifice everything I have!"
There was an update notification on Fei Du's Moments. He opened it and looked. A friend with a profile picture of a rabbit with a bow had posted a status update: "Dress up, beauties, a mysterious honored guest is coming tonight!"
When Fei Du looked down, the smile on his face receded like the tide. He closed the page and looked at the calendar on his phone: the twenty-eighth day of the twelfth lunar month.
He gently closed his eyes and sighed silently.
In an interrogation room in the City Bureau, Yang Xin, not making a sound, had sat idle for a whole day, unmoved by threats or persuasion, letting others counsel and scold her; there had even been one criminal police officer, emotions out of control, who'd jumped up, red-eyed, wanting to beat her.
Suddenly, the door of the interrogation room opened again. Yang Xin looked up gloomily and met the eyes of Lang Qiao, who'd come in—Lang Qiao was the one who'd nearly hit her and had been restrained midway by her colleagues. Lang Qiao looked at her expressionlessly but didn't come in. She held open the door, saying to someone behind her, "Slow down, it's a little narrow, take care not to bump yourself."
Then there was a rustling sound, and Yang Xin clearly saw who was behind her. Unconcealed astonishment at last appeared on her stiff face—a wheelchair forced its way through the door with Lang Qiao's help; it was Tao Ran, who should still have been in the hospital, returning while still wounded!
Staying in the hospital evidently wasn't at all pleasant. Tao Ran had lost a considerable amount of weight. His cheeks were sunken, making the gentle lines of his face look somewhat more fierce.
"Xinxin," Tao Ran said after looking at her for a while, "you could have beaten me to death and I still wouldn't have thought that one day I'd be here talking to you."
Yang Xin had thought that she had a heart of stone, but in the moment she saw Tao Ran, her human heart revealed itself inopportunely, defeating her in an instant.
All these years, no matter how cold her mom had been, Tao Ran had never taken issue. He'd been like an overly mild-tempered big brother, gentle and caring down to trivial details. Sometimes when she'd posted some grumblings online while at school, a package would arrive the next day—the tickets she couldn't get, the out-of-print book she couldn't find, the snack she wanted to eat that there was nowhere to buy. When he went to the city her school was in on business, the first thing he'd do when he was through with work would be to come to the school to see her, carrying bags of stuff.
Some classmates had even said jokingly that she had a model long-distance boyfriend, and for some reason she hadn't denied it.
Tao Ran looked down at his own arm in its cast. "If it had been me, would you have shot me, too?"
The rims of Yang Xin's eyes reddened instantly. She opened her mouth, subconsciously shaking her head.
"I'd rather it had been me you shot," Tao Ran said quietly. "Since shifu's been gone, I ought to have been taking care of you two, but I've never known the grievance you felt. I haven't done my duty. I've wronged you, and wronged shifu. I deserve to take a bullet."
Yang Xin's tears rolled down like a dike bursting. "Tao Ran-ge…"
Tao Ran pursed his lips. "But Xiao Wu didn't wrong you in any way. His mother and big sister have come, they're downstairs now. I saw them from far off and quickly had Xiao Qiao push me in by the side door to avoid them…"
Yang Xin took in a shaking breath, holding her head. There was a clatter of handcuffs.
Tao Ran's throat moved slightly. "Because I didn't know what I should say to them."
"I didn't do it on purpose." As if collapsing, Yang Xin began to bawl. "I didn't do it on purpose…"
Luo Wenzhou stopped the car at the side of the road and waited for Fei Du to come out, meanwhile listening to Lang Qiao reporting to him over the phone. "Yang Xin says that warehouse was one of their strongholds. They'd planned to briefly stop there for a day, then go see 'Teacher.' Their reaction was so intense because they'd gotten a call from one of their people beforehand saying that the location of the stronghold had been given up by a traitor."
From the corner of his eye, Luo Wenzhou glimpsed Fei Du walking out. As he opened the door and got out of the car, he said to Lang Qiao, "Did she say why they resisted arrest so fiercely?"
"She did. She said that Director Zhang…Zhang Chunjiu is the one who killed Lao Yang and Gu Zhao, that the ranks of the police are full of his people, and that he'd use the police to silence them, then throw dirty water on 'Teacher.' She also said she didn't want to hurt Xiao Wu, she only wanted to scare him, make him let go of Zhu Feng… She'd never used a gun before, hadn't expected the recoil to be so strong, the bullet went astray…"
Just then, a few investigators came out to escort Fei Du. Fei Du gathered up his coat and suddenly called them to a stop. "Oh… I actually wanted to ask, what's going on with Teacher Pan?"
An investigator paused in his steps.
Fei Du said, "Sorry, I'm speaking out of turn.—Though I've only taken one semester of classes, he is my teacher, and Teacher Pan's wife has always been very good to me. If you can't talk about it, then forget it. Because you asked me what happened on July 31st, I suddenly remembered that before my car crash that day I'd planned to go see his wife…"
The investigator's expression flashed. He was thoughtful for a moment, then fixed his eyes on Fei Du and said, "That time you didn't manage to go, a major suspect who still hasn't been found came to the door to see him."
First, Fei Du stared. Then the investigator saw this young man, rather unmoved by honor or disgrace, suddenly think of something; his expression suddenly changed.