"You must be Hou Dali? My husband, Dazui, often mentions you," Li Dazui's wife, Hu Xiu, said. True to her name, she was gentle and soft-spoken.
"Hello, Sister-in-law. I've been meaning to visit Master's home, but the timing has never been right," Hou Dali replied politely.
Hu Xiu had her daughter sit beside her and placed a large violin case on a chair, saying, "Our house is such a mess that I'm embarrassed to invite colleagues over. Liqin has to practice her violin every day, and she has a lot of homework. Dazui is so busy with work that he hardly takes care of things at home. I teach a graduating class in middle school, so I'm also out early and back late every day. Sometimes, I think about stopping her violin lessons, but everyone else's children are learning something, so she needs at least one talent."
Hou Dali noticed the fine lines around Hu Xiu's eyes and saw that she, like Li Dazui, was quite talkative. "Sister-in-law, I've been working closely with Master these past few days, and it's been so busy that he hasn't had time to take care of things at home."
Li Dazui said, "Wife, even my apprentice is already feeling the exhaustion—I'm not lying to you."
As Hou Dali watched Li Dazui attentively caring for his daughter, he suddenly understood why Li Dazui seemed so submissive at home. It wasn't out of fear but rather love, mixed with guilt for leaving all the household responsibilities to his wife due to his demanding job.
After finishing dinner, Hu Xiu, her husband, and their daughter walked along the riverside back home.
"Dear, Hou Dali doesn't seem like a rich second-generation kid at all. I really can't understand why he chose to become a police officer—it's exhausting, dangerous, and doesn't pay much. I was young and naive back then, tricked by your uniform. If I could go back in time, I definitely wouldn't marry a policeman," Hu Xiu said, knowing that Hou Dali was the son of the Guolong Group's owner. As someone worn down by life, she truly couldn't comprehend why Hou Dali would willingly take on such a tough job.
Li Dazui, holding his daughter's hand, replied, "He has a nickname—'Pervert.' Not only do you not understand, but neither do I. I've heard a rumor, though it's unconfirmed."
Upon learning that Hou Dali became a police officer to avenge Yang Fan, Hu Xiu's feelings toward him softened.
Meanwhile, Hou Dali sat alone by the river, his gaze following the family of three as they walked away.
Since Yang Fan's accident, he had avoided being near any river. Each time he saw the waves in a river, the memories stabbed into the softest part of his being like a knife, and the physical reaction was even worse—he would become dizzy, as if ill. During dinner, Hou Dali sat by the river but never directly faced the waves. After the family left, he turned to face the river, staring at the waves until everything around him began to spin.
Turning his back to the river, the dizziness slowly subsided. Hou Dali's mood grew darker and darker, as the memories of the past remained vividly painful, like a barrage of bullets piercing his soul with countless holes. The poisonous snake that had long coiled around his heart emerged once more: "If I hadn't gone out drinking that day, if I had gone home with Yang Fan, none of this would have happened."
He left the riverside despondently and wandered into the city. The barrage of mental bullets was momentarily blocked by the concrete and steel of the city, providing his soul with temporary safety.
Back at Gaosen Villa, Hou Dali didn't turn on the lights. Instead, he went to his study, turned on the sound system, and quietly listened to Yang Fan's favorite piece, The Butterfly Lovers. In his ears, the melody was filled with sorrow, quietly flowing in the darkness.
A few days later, Hou Dali received the test results: DNA extracted from the saliva on the duck bones matched that of Chen Lingfei's husband, Dai Xiaofeng.
Dai Xiaofeng had called Chen Lingfei around 4:00 p.m. on the day of the incident. Chen Lingfei had purchased the soy-braised duck at 5:12 p.m., and Dai Xiaofeng's DNA was found on the duck bones. This chain of events made it almost obvious who the killer was. Initially, when the detectives from the Major Crimes Unit first saw the crime scene, their intuition pointed to Dai Xiaofeng as the prime suspect. Based on the current clues, the intuition of those seasoned detectives proved to be of significant value.
However, there was still one major obstacle: numerous employees could testify to Dai Xiaofeng's presence at his office during the critical time frame, which strongly excluded him as a suspect.
After discussions within the squad and approval from Deputy Director Liu Zhangang, Jiangzhou Public Security Bureau decided to deploy technical investigation measures against Dai Xiaofeng.
The Criminal Investigation Squad Leader, Zhu Lin, had many tasks to juggle, but no matter how busy he was, he made it a point to visit the archive room of the second unit daily to check on the latest developments. After returning to his office from a meeting at the municipal bureau, Zhu Lin didn't go inside but headed straight to the second unit's archive room.
A map of Jiangzhou was spread out on the desk, with a route penciled in. Hou Dali was biting the end of his pencil, deep in thought as he studied the route.
"Any new discoveries?" Zhu Lin asked.
"Captain, we're still stuck on the timeline. My master and I questioned the employees at Dai Xiaofeng's company again. The 50-minute window between before and after dinner isn't enough for Dai Xiaofeng to travel from the west side of the city to the east and then back again," Hou Dali replied.
Zhu Lin frowned. Although Dai Xiaofeng's DNA was found on the duck bones, as Chen Lingfei's husband, it was normal for him to have eaten at home. The receipt only proved that the duck was bought at 5:12 p.m., but it didn't prove that the duck Dai Xiaofeng ate was the same one purchased at that time. Moreover, the most critical point was that Chen Lingfei's stomach had no trace of duck at all—she hadn't even eaten dinner that night, only a bit of apple.
"If Dai Xiaofeng is indeed the killer, then as someone with no prior criminal record, there must be a significant reason for him to choose to kill his wife. And no matter how well he hides it, there will be a flaw we can find," Zhu Lin said, before leaving the archive room, giving Hou Dali a firm pat on the shoulder, just as Ding Hao had done.
In theory, this was true, but finding a breakthrough was proving to be extremely difficult.
Hou Dali watched the surveillance footage again. On the afternoon of the incident, 107 people had entered and exited the residential complex. The Major Crimes Unit had thoroughly investigated all 107 individuals, meeting with each one, but found no useful clues.
The investigation materials on those 107 people formed a thick stack, and the work had been done meticulously.
After putting down the files, Hou Dali went to find Li Dazui.
"Going to the crime scene again? We've been there countless times. But sure, sitting around in the office is stifling," Li Dazui said. In truth, he enjoyed doing investigations with Hou Dali. After the investigation, the schedule was more flexible, allowing him time to pick up his daughter or go home to cook.
The two of them arrived at the crime scene and took another walk inside and out. In the narrow alley where they had caught Tu Sun, Hou Dali said, "The killer definitely entered the complex; there's no doubt about that. The complex has four entry points, and this alley is the only one without surveillance—a major oversight."
The two walked along the alley until they reached the complex's perimeter wall.
The wall was three meters high, with surveillance cameras mounted on top. Staring up at the camera, Hou Dali sighed, "There was a major oversight back then. We only retrieved the footage from outside the main gate, and didn't preserve footage from the other points. Now, even if we want to investigate, we can't."
Li Dazui said, "You can't look at things with the benefit of hindsight. Every investigator is just a normal person and can't foresee every detail of a case, so mistakes are bound to happen. Every time you look back at a case, you'll find something that could have been done better. It's easy for people in the office to sit back and criticize, saying the investigators made mistakes. But when the investigators were working on the case, they were facing a tangled mess. Any useful clue that seems obvious after the fact was initially buried in that mess."
The reasoning given did not convince Hou Dali. He placed himself at the crime scene and could not understand why the investigating officers at the time had failed to retrieve footage from the other surveillance points. Not retrieving that footage was indeed a major oversight.
Hou Dali had been invited to a dinner gathering by his high school classmate, Jin Chuantong. Although he hesitated for a moment, he ultimately agreed to attend. He suspected that the Yang Fan case was most likely a crime of passion, and the killer might be hiding among their former classmates. This suspicion was his main motivation for attending the reunion.
Some classmates wanted to use Hou Dali's connections to the Guolong Group to either do business or help their friends and relatives find jobs. Hou Dali had mostly obliged these requests, which gave him a good reputation among his classmates. The only ones dissatisfied with him were a few attractive female classmates who found him rigid and unresponsive to any romantic overtures.
"This is Wang Yongqiang from Class Five. Do you remember him?" Jin Chuantong introduced a bespectacled classmate to Hou Dali.
"We often lined up together during exercises," Hou Dali recalled after a moment, recognizing Wang Yongqiang from their high school days. Wang had been a rather unremarkable student—nothing about him stood out, and he easily blended into the crowd. The only thing Hou Dali distinctly remembered was that Wang Yongqiang always wore a gray shirt, though in reality, it was probably a white shirt that had turned gray from overuse. Wang Yongqiang had also been middle school classmates with Yang Fan.
"Wang Yongqiang was the first among us to start working. Now he's the principal of a training school. He didn't go to college but has achieved more than those of us who did," Jin Chuantong explained.
Hou Dali had spent four years in college, only to emerge as a rookie detective. Wang Yongqiang, on the other hand, had built a training school in those four years, which was quite impressive.
"What kind of training do you offer?" Hou Dali asked.
"Initially, it was computer training. Later, it expanded into comprehensive training, and now we also run a driving school. Business is decent, but compared to Guolong Group, it's like an elephant compared to an ant—or perhaps even smaller. It's not worth comparing at all," Wang Yongqiang replied, his demeanor more confident than before, though his belly had grown noticeably rounder.
As Wang Yongqiang spoke, he sized up Hou Dali, noting how different he seemed from their school days. Gone was the image of a spoiled rich kid; now, Hou Dali spoke with a calm and composed manner befitting a seasoned police officer.
"Don't just stand there—take a seat," Yang Hong, who seemed to have taken on the role of organizer, ushered everyone to their seats and then sat next to Hou Dali. Throughout the dinner, she took care of him, even stepping in to shield him from others' toasts.
Hou Dali was fully aware of Yang Hong's intentions. Although she was pretty, she wasn't his type, and she had once been close friends with Yang Fan. So, he pretended not to notice her advances, responding to her hints with indifference.
At nine o'clock, Wang Yongqiang turned on the television in the private room, tuning it to the Jiangzhou TV station.
Hou Dali rarely watched television, especially local stations like Jiangzhou TV. When the screen came on, he found the anchor's demeanor overly theatrical.
Yang Hong said, "Wang Yongqiang, turn off the TV."
"Just a moment. I want to catch the news. Our school's dragon boat team competed in a race today and did quite well—we placed third," Wang Yongqiang replied.
The news soon aired a segment on the race.
The event had taken place at an artificial lake on the outskirts of Jiangzhou, a signature feature of the city's new district. The dragon boat race, which had become an annual event since last year, was quite popular. Thanks to the well-maintained facilities around the lake, the area had become the most expensive real estate in Jiangzhou. Six dragon boats raced side by side, each carrying twenty paddlers, with a burly drummer standing at the front. Amid the drumbeats and shouts, the boats surged forward. The boat bearing the "Yongqiang School" banner finished in third place, with the cheer squad on the shore waving large flags with the school's name.
After the dinner, Yang Hong offered to leave the restaurant with Hou Dali. Emboldened by alcohol, she took his hand. Feeling her grip, Hou Dali stiffened slightly. Just as he was about to pull his hand away, his phone rang. After taking the call, he used the excuse of an urgent matter to hurriedly leave, leaving Yang Hong standing at the restaurant entrance.
Back at Gaosen Villa, Hou Dali went to the bathroom and washed his hands again. In high school, there had been two girls named Yang who were considered legends: Yang Fan and Yang Hong. Yang Hong's beauty was undeniable, and she was considered above average in Jiangzhou.
Despite her looks, Yang Hong hadn't managed to capture Hou Dali's heart. Left alone in his room, he zoned out for a while before idly browsing his computer, eventually returning to Chen Lingfei's Weibo page. Although Chen Lingfei's life had ended, her past posts remained, offering a poignant glimpse into her world. For those who knew the tragic story behind her posts, reading them was all the more poignant.
Weibo offered a window into the inner world and daily life of a young woman. Chen Lingfei had a zest for life and was full of love and anticipation for her new home. Many of her photos were related to the decoration of her new place.
Suddenly, something caught Hou Dali's eye.
There was a unique model of a small boat in the study. In a Weibo post, Chen Lingfei had written: "This single-seat kayak model on the desk is a tribute to my husband's days of water sports."
Hou Dali felt a string plucked in his mind. This string kept vibrating, filling his thoughts and making it impossible to settle down.
Looking at the map, Hou Dali saw that Jiangzhou was split into two parts, the west and east, by Ma Bei Mountain. The mountain itself had a narrow gorge connecting the two sides, making traffic between the west and east often congested due to the terrain, not just the increase in vehicles. The road had to pass through this gorge, where it was impossible to build more roads, naturally creating a bottleneck.
Apart from Ma Bei Mountain, there was also the Jiangzhou River, which ran through the city. The river was seasonal, with low water levels during the dry season. To address this, the city government had spent a significant amount of money digging a tunnel through Ma Bei Mountain, diverting water from another river outside the city to flow into Jiangzhou.
Hou Dali drove to the neighborhood where Chen Lingfei had lived, walking through the narrow alley where they had apprehended Tu Sun. The alley had an opening that connected to the canal used in the water diversion project. Armed with a flashlight, he walked to the riverside, then along the densely vegetated riverbank, reaching the tunnel entrance after five minutes.
At night, the tunnel entrance was eerily quiet, with only the sound of flowing water breaking the silence. Hou Dali fought off the dizziness as he used his flashlight to examine the tunnel entrance closely.
The tunnel was wide enough for a single car, with the water surface about one and a half meters below the tunnel ceiling—ample space for a kayak to pass through. If Dai Xiaofeng really had the skills to kayak, the time it took to travel from the west to the east side of the city could be significantly reduced. The exact time saved would require further experimentation.
Lingering by the water for a while, Hou Dali began to break out in a cold sweat, feeling the urge to vomit.
"I'm a detective. I have to overcome this fear of being near the river."
Determined to conquer this hidden ailment, Hou Dali sat by the riverside. The dark night, the faint river breeze, and the subtle scent of water transported him back to the darkest days of his life—those three days spent on the boat. His body felt like it was swaying on the water, his mind spinning into a fog. After a while, he couldn't hold back anymore and vomited.
Overwhelmed by the physical and mental anguish, Hou Dali left the riverside and walked into the city. His solitary figure cast a long shadow on the street.
"Who's there? Stop!" A patrolling officer noticed the suspicious figure and approached.
Hou Dali's head was still spinning, and his chest was covered in vomit. The officer's commands slipped past his ears without registering. Growing impatient, the officer grabbed Hou Dali by the collar and said, "Don't move! What are you up to?" Feeling something slick on his hand, the officer raised it to his nose, grimaced, and shined his flashlight on Hou Dali's face. "How much did you drink? Are you out of your mind?"
After a couple of kicks, Hou Dali suddenly seemed to snap out of his daze, as if passing through a time tunnel from the swaying boat back to reality. He dodged another kick and said, "Don't use force. Let's talk this out."
"What do you do?" the officer asked.
"I'm with the Criminal Investigation Squad."
"If you're with the Criminal Investigation Squad, then I'm a bodyguard at Zhongnanhai," the officer scoffed.
The officers didn't believe for a second that the drunken man before them was a detective. They escorted Hou Dali to the police station, and although he found the situation both funny and frustrating, he didn't argue with them and decided to follow along quietly. When he tried to call his master, they stopped him. Under the bright lights of the station, Hou Dali looked down at his chest and realized that he was indeed in a disheveled state, which probably explained why the officers had been so suspicious.
At the station, the officers on duty quickly verified Hou Dali's identity. Despite their initial doubts, the patrol officers apologized repeatedly. The one who had hit him, in particular, felt deeply embarrassed.
Fully recovered from the mental fog brought on by his encounter by the river, Hou Dali reassured the officers, "You were just doing your job, and I'm happy to cooperate. I'm really not upset, Mr. Zhongnanhai Bodyguard."
As Hou Dali was leaving the station, the officer who had jokingly called himself a Zhongnanhai bodyguard chased after him, offering a pack of cigarettes as a gesture of apology. Although Hou Dali had considered calling his master, he remembered that his master rarely had a full night to spend with his wife, so he decided against it. Instead of returning to Gaosen Villa, he went straight back to the second unit's archive room to re-examine his thoughts.
The duck bones had linked Dai Xiaofeng's DNA to the crime, and the kayak seemed to explain the timeline issue. All the pieces were coming together, making Dai Xiaofeng a prime suspect.
But what was Dai Xiaofeng's motive for the crime?
Chen Lingfei had been actively posting on Weibo up until an hour before she was murdered, showing no sign that she was aware of any danger looming over her. Her mother, very rational in her thinking, had never suspected her son-in-law.
Hou Dali spent the entire night pondering this question, unable to sleep.
"Where were you last night, Hou Dali?" Zhu Lin had received an apologetic call from the station chief that morning, informing him about Hou Dali's late-night wandering in a disheveled state. Concerned that Hou Dali's "rich kid syndrome" might be acting up, Zhu Lin went straight upstairs to question him about his whereabouts the previous night.
With a calm expression, Hou Dali replied, "I might have found a breakthrough."
Hou Dali, Zhu Lin, and Li Dazui headed straight for the canal entrance. On the way, Zhu Lin called the Major Crimes Unit's deputy captain, Huang Wei, instructing him to bring two people to the other side of the canal.
In the daylight, the situation at the canal entrance was even clearer. The thick greenery surrounding the canal provided excellent cover. The entrance was about three meters wide, and the top was about one and a half meters above the water. Standing by the water, Hou Dali felt a tightness in his chest again. Closing his eyes, his body seemed to sway as if he were back on that boat.
"Are you feeling unwell?" Li Dazui noticed Hou Dali's pale face and asked.
Shaking his head, Hou Dali said, "I think I caught a bit of a chill last night, but it's nothing serious. I'm fine."
Zhu Lin checked his watch and asked, "How long until they get here?"
Before he finished speaking, two men appeared at the riverbank, carrying a single-person kayak. As they prepared to launch the kayak, Zhu Lin asked, "Aren't you going to use any safety measures?"
The tall, dark-skinned man, who had a broad grin that revealed white teeth, replied, "This is our job—we're professionals."
Once the kayak was in the water, they received a call from the other side in just eight minutes. Paddling back upstream to the east side took eleven minutes.
After the experiment, Zhu Lin called the two kayakers over and asked them in detail about where single-person kayaks could be purchased within the province. Since such kayaks were specialized sporting goods, their buyers were typically professionals. In this case, tracing the kayak could be the simplest way to track down the suspect.
Two investigators were sent to the provincial capital and quickly found Dai Xiaofeng's name in the purchase records. He had bought the kayak two months before Chen Lingfei was murdered.
With the evidence chain nearly complete, the Criminal Investigation Squad placed Dai Xiaofeng under criminal detention, and experienced interrogators from the third unit were tasked with questioning him.
Fourteen hours later, Dai Xiaofeng finally broke down and confessed to the murder.
Hou Dali and Li Dazui, as the case investigators, watched the interrogation from the monitoring room.
Physically, Dai Xiaofeng was well-built and imposing when he stood. But after his psychological defenses crumbled, he deflated like a punctured balloon, collapsing into a heap.
As his spirit broke, Dai Xiaofeng muttered repeatedly, "I loved Xiaofei. She was the love of my life; I never loved anyone else. When I was at my lowest, she gave me so much support. Now, I've made it—I earn four to five million a year, and my business is thriving. We bought a new house and even got our marriage certificate."
When the interrogator asked about his motive, Dai Xiaofeng straightened up slightly and said, "I was lucky. My startup succeeded, and I married Chen Lingfei. I thought my life was finally on a happy track, but it turned out to be a cliff. I received an anonymous USB drive with three videos on it."
At this point, Dai Xiaofeng's facial muscles twitched, and he began to sob quietly.
"What videos?" the interrogator asked, patiently waiting for Dai Xiaofeng to calm down.
"They were videos of Chen Lingfei doing compensated dating. There were three videos, all with the same man." As he said this, Dai Xiaofeng clenched his fists and slammed them against the table. Although the handcuffs limited his movement, the sound of his fists hitting the table was still loud.
Gritting his teeth, with veins bulging on his forehead, Dai Xiaofeng continued, "At first, I couldn't believe it, but the woman in the videos was definitely Xiaofei. The birthmark on her buttocks, her voice—it was all the same. It couldn't have been anyone else. During the acts, the room's TV was on, and the news was playing. I saw the date in the news, and it was from the time when I had hit rock bottom—when I was out of money, out of options, and on the verge of suicide. Later, Xiaofei kept giving me money to pay my last two employees. She said it was borrowed money. I was so stupid—I believed her. I had no idea she was using the dirty money she earned to keep me afloat."
Dai Xiaofeng broke down into uncontrollable sobs.
Hou Dali and Li Dazui exchanged glances. After identifying Dai Xiaofeng as the prime suspect, they had speculated about his motive for the murder. Given Dai Xiaofeng's success in business and Chen Lingfei's devotion to their new home, they had ruled out motives like revenge or financial gain, leaving only a crime of passion: they theorized that Dai Xiaofeng had found a new lover and killed Chen Lingfei to be free of her.
But the real reason was completely different from what they had imagined.
Li Dazui was dumbfounded and muttered, "Although it's hard to accept that a wife would engage in compensated dating, it's understandable, given the circumstances. Chen Lingfei was a good woman, willing to do anything for her husband. Dai Xiaofeng isn't a real man—he could have divorced her if he couldn't accept her past, but there was no need to resort to murder."
"I just couldn't get over it. Every time we slept together, I kept picturing her with other men, in different positions. Her moans echoed in my mind all the time. Several times, I wanted to strangle her during s*x, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. Eventually, I bought the kayak and planned to create an alibi using the time difference," Dai Xiaofeng confessed, his spirit completely broken, no longer resembling the successful man he once was.
Hou Dali felt no sympathy for the man before him. To him, Dai Xiaofeng was incredibly selfish, and Chen Lingfei had made a terrible mistake by falling for him.
Li Dazui remarked, "Dai Xiaofeng did love Chen Lingfei, but that love turned into hatred."
Hou Dali shook his head. "He meticulously planned the crime and intended to live well afterward. If it were true love turned into hate, it would have been a crime of passion. Dai Xiaofeng is narrow-minded—he loves himself far more than he ever loved Chen Lingfei."
Chen Lingfei's mother, who had always held her son-in-law in high regard, was stunned when she learned the truth. She erupted in front of the investigating officers, screaming, "My daughter would never sell her body! There's been a mistake! Someone set her up!" As a university professor who had valued her reputation all her life, she couldn't accept that her well-behaved daughter had resorted to prostitution. To her, it was an even greater disgrace than death.
Hou Dali felt deep sympathy for Chen Lingfei, and his anger towards her mother grew as he watched her spiraling into a state of hysteria. "She's selfish too," he vented to Li Dazui. "I've read Chen Lingfei's Weibo, and she kept her mother at a distance. Her mother's overly strict control since childhood deprived her of feeling loved, so when she met a scumbag, she lost her sense of judgment. Chen Lingfei came from an educated family, and it must have taken immense courage to go against everything she was taught and engage in compensated dating. But that also shows just how much she loved. In my view, nothing justifies taking her life—no matter what she did, she at least had the right to live. Her mother was too domineering, and this strong-mother, weak-daughter dynamic is tragic. Chen Lingfei would rather engage in compensated dating than ask her parents for help—how twisted is that?"
Li Dazui placed a comforting hand on Hou Dali's shoulder. "You're a detective, Hou Dali. You can't let yourself get too emotionally involved in cases—it's not good for your mental health. The case is solved now; you need to let it go. Life goes on, the sun will rise again tomorrow, and the tolling bell should be for those who commit murder."
Though the case had been solved, and both Hou Dali and Li Dazui received high praise from the municipal bureau and the Criminal Investigation Squad, Hou Dali struggled for a long time to shake off the gloom that settled over him after learning the truth.
As summer waned, Hou Dali visited Jiangzhou Cemetery to pay respects at Yang Fan's grave. It was an annual ritual for him, one he had to fulfill each year. After placing flowers on Yang Fan's grave, he would usually take a slow walk along the cemetery paths. This year, he made a point of finding Chen Lingfei's grave.
After having thoroughly read through all of Chen Lingfei's Weibo posts and paper documents, Hou Dali felt as though he had opened a window into the life of a young woman, learning about her habits, preferences, and dreams. Over time, she had transformed from a stranger into a friend he had never met, and he could almost envision her face when he closed his eyes.
Standing before Chen Lingfei's grave, Hou Dali placed a bouquet of flowers at her tombstone and was shocked to find that her photo on the gravestone had been deliberately damaged, leaving a noticeable mark. He immediately went to the cemetery management office, showed his police badge, and inquired about the situation.
The cemetery staff explained, "The person who damaged the tombstone was the deceased's mother. Our security guards noticed it in time and reported it to the police. We really couldn't have stopped her—she just suddenly snapped during her visit to the grave."
After leaving the cemetery, Hou Dali initially considered helping to replace Chen Lingfei's photo. But as he sat in his car, the thought drifted away. Life, he realized, inevitably leaves scars—some on the heart, some on the body, and some on gravestones.
With the Chen Lingfei case finally solved after a year of hard work, the entire Criminal Investigation Squad breathed a collective sigh of relief.
Zhu Lin arranged to have a simple dinner at Old Jiang's house.
The meal was nothing fancy—just a large bowl of braised crucian carp. Old Jiang brought out a bottle of aged liquor, beaming with enthusiasm. "I went fishing in the Jiangzhou River today, down at an eddy, and I had a great haul—half a bucket of native crucian carp, all about half a finger wide. You're in for a treat tonight, Old Zhu."
Zhu Lin uncorked the bottle and poured them each a glass. "The Chen Lingfei case is solved, and it was done brilliantly. Hou Dali really has a gift for this line of work. He'll probably earn a third-class merit for this one."
Old Jiang took a sip of his drink and asked, "Are you still planning to go through with your plan?"
Zhu Lin downed his glass in one gulp. "Looking back on my time in the Criminal Investigation Squad, I've had successes and regrets. For instance, in the history of the Jiangzhou Public Security Bureau, most squad leaders have been Party Committee members, but I'm one of the few who isn't."
Old Jiang chuckled. "Do you still care about titles? If you did, you'd have played the political game a bit more back in the day, and who knows? You might have ended up as a Party Committee member or even the director. Zhangang was your protégé, and now he's a senior deputy director."
Zhu Lin replied, "During my tenure, apart from the Chen Lingfei case, there are still five unsolved homicides. No matter how great a detective is, there will always be some unsolved cases, but five is too many. Honestly, I don't care about titles, but these unsolved cases haunt me. I knew retirement was coming, and I'm fine with that. But before I leave, I want to create an opportunity for Hou Dali to tackle these unsolved cases."
"Do you have a specific plan?" Old Jiang asked.
"This needs to be handled carefully," Zhu Lin said. "If it's just something I set up, it will likely fall apart once I'm gone. There's no guarantee that anyone will continue to pursue these cases. Even if I take the lead and start working on these unsolved cases myself, there's no telling if I'll be able to finish them before I retire."
Old Jiang looked at Zhu Lin for a long time, holding his glass. "When it comes to rank, you're below me; but when it comes to dedication, I'm not your equal. The first of those unsolved cases is the Ding Li case, which happened on my watch. I do feel a sense of regret, but when I retired, I just let it go. In that sense, I'm not as committed as you are. I'll drink to that."
They clinked glasses, and Old Jiang advised, "Don't be too stubborn—you need to let some things go. There are limits to what a person can do, and every detective has cases they can't solve. Once you retire, we can go fishing every day. It'll be more fun with a friend."
Not long after that dinner, Zhu Lin reached his retirement day. But just as he was stepping down, an unexpected and extraordinary opportunity fell into his lap, almost as if it had been dropped from the heavens.