Chapter 15

"I hate doing an analysis of the victim the most." Lang Qiao pouted, holding her pen between her nose and mouth. "Sometimes the victim was killed for no reason, and I can't let it go for a long time. I keep saying, Why? Why did a perfectly nice person run into some bad luck and end up like this? Why did someone who'd worked hard all his life, struggled for years, at the very last get finished off by some scumbag coming out of nowhere? But when the victim wasn't innocent, or he was simply guilty and deserved to be punished, I think he had it coming, and us tracking down the murderer for him is just giving succor to the enemy, and I…ouch!"

Luo Wenzhou had rolled a document into a paper tube and hit her on the back of the head, breaking off Lang Qiao's long-winded speech.

Lang Qiao held the back of her head. "What are you hitting me for? Everything I'm saying is normal human feelings. Police are human, too!"

"Do you want your salary?" asked Luo Wenzhou.

Lang Qiao said, "…Yes."

"If you want it, then do your job. What's all this pontificating for?" Luo Wenzhou pulled over a whiteboard. Under a photograph of the young man with a moon-shaped scar on his forehead, he wrote: "He Zhongyi, male, eighteen years old, delivery man, H Province native" and other such basic facts.

Then, taking advantage of his height, he looked over the little whiteboard and through the office's clear glass window at Fei Du keeping He Zhongyi's mother company.

Having heard some wild talk, Mother He had felt very desperate over the City Bureau setting Zhang Donglai free. As if determining that she had nowhere left to turn for help, she'd cried herself to the point of collapse; she had been hardly able to walk upright. She had been propped up by Fei Du on the way in.

Perhaps she had instinctively clutched at a straw, or perhaps she'd determined that Fei Du was part of Zhang Donglai's group, so she "couldn't let him get away"; when Mother He's mind had gone blank, she'd subconsciously tightened her hold on to Fei Du's clothes.

Fei Du had been dramatically forced to stay, leading to the scene outside the window.

Fei Du was a young man, after all. If he'd wanted to forcefully shake off this chronically ill woman who barely reached his chest, it would have been easy. But contrary to expectations, he hadn't flared up; he'd only calmly sat with this old and ugly woman.

By now Mother He had already come back from the exhaustion of her collapse and recovered some mental faculties. Luo Wenzhou watched as Fei Du held her hand and bent down, quietly discussing something with her. Whatever fine words he was using, they were actually making Mother He slowly calm down; she was even occasionally able to nod or shake her head in response.

"Has Ma Xiaowei been released?" Luo Wenzhou asked, looking out the window.

Tao Ran put down the phone. "No, the person I talked to at the sub-bureau says that Ma Xiaowei started going into withdrawal over there. The civil police went to search his residence and turned up a good deal of loose drugs, so they've kept him under arrest."

"Can we get him over here for questioning?" said Luo Wenzhou.

Tao Ran shrugged. "No. They say his condition is very unstable. If something happens, the sub-bureau won't be able to shoulder the responsibility. If we really want to question him, we'll have to send someone to the sub-bureau to question him there."

Wang Hongliang had settled on the idea of not letting anyone speak to Ma Xiaowei alone. To this end, he was giving the teenager the treatment of a relic in a museum—others were only permitted to look at him through a window; if they wanted to take him away, there was no door.

Just then, two policemen from the Criminal Investigation Team came in, carrying a cardboard box. "Chief, we brought over all of He Zhongyi's personal possessions. When we've finished investigating, we can return them to the victim's relation. There may be something useful."

He Zhongyi had few personal possessions. There was some clothing—mostly the standard delivery uniforms handed out to all workers—some extremely basic daily necessities, the cell phone packaging he hadn't been able to bring himself to throw away, and a diary.

It was called a diary, but it really didn't have the contents of one; it was basically a ledger and record book.

Aside from being a delivery man, He Zhongyi must also frequently have done short-term temporary work. There were scattered bits of income all over. Scraped together, his monthly income could measure up to that of a white collar worker.

The ledger was kept very carefully; even things like spending 2.5 yuan to buy breakfast were recorded. Luo Wenzhou flipped through a few pages, then suddenly paused. "What did the piece of paper stuck to the victim's head look like? Let me see it."

Someone next to him quickly got out a close-up photograph and passed it to him.

The character "money" was crooked, written in unprepossessing childish handwriting. The right-hand hook was very large, almost occupying the territory of the whole character and looking very uncoordinated—it was identical to the character "money" written in He Zhongyi's ledger.

"This character is in the victim's own handwriting." Tao Ran paused. "Hold up, I remember that when He Zhongyi was waiting outside Chengguang Mansion that night, he was holding a kraft-paper envelope. Could the piece of paper have come from the envelope? We never found that kraft-paper envelope. What was in it?"

Luo Wenzhou quickly skimmed through He Zhongyi's notebook. "Could it have been cash? Look here."

Outside the window, Fei Du was nodding in agreement. "The money to pay for your treatment really was considerable. But back then he must have only just come to Yan City, just started working. Where did he get so much money?"

Hoarsely, Mother He said in a low voice, "He said he got an advance from his fixture."

"Fixture?" Fei Du wasn't very familiar with this usage of the word; he only came around after a pause. "You mean the place he worked at?"

Mother He's health was poor; she was a village woman who rarely had contact with the outside world. She didn't understand the employment relationships of manual laborers with their temporary and toilsome work—many people earned just enough to live to the next day; bosses and workers each suspected that the other could run off at any time. A boss who was willing to give a worker an advance on his wages was basically engaging in charity.

But even if a boss was accumulating merit by doing good deeds and so was willing to help out in an emergency, giving an advance on a month or two's wages would already be very kind. The money to pay for Mother He's treatment, however, would probably make up a few years of a delivery man's wages.

There was no way selling physical labor could repay such an enormous favor, but selling one's body would just about cover it.

But when President Fei, who had some understanding of male beauty, objectively recalled the briefly-glimpsed He Zhongyi, he thought that based solely on looks, that young man really wouldn't be worth such a price.

So who had lent him the money? Why hadn't he told even his own mother the truth?

There was a debt of 100,000 yuan recorded in He Zhongyi's ledger, but there was absolutely no explanation of where this mysterious debt had come from. With regards to this, the City Bureau's criminal policemen all went into action, spending the better part of the day questioning He Zhongyi's coworkers and acquaintances. Everyone they asked was totally bewildered; they not only didn't admit to lending him the money, each in turn also said that they hadn't even known about him borrowing it.

When Luo Wenzhou and Tao Ran returned to the City Bureau, they found Mother He curled up on some chairs, sleeping. Fei Du had gotten a thin blanket from someone and put it over her.

Tao Ran went over and, keeping his voice low, asked, "Why's she sleeping here?"

"I said I could take her to a hotel, but she didn't want to. She insists on waiting until you've caught the murderer." Fei Du looked up and saw that Tao Ran's forehead was covered in sweat. He frowned, got a tissue out of his pocket and handed it over. "Do you always work this hard? It makes my heart ache to see it."

Before Tao Ran could answer, next to him, Luo Wenzhou coolly said, "This is what it's like for the people's police. If your heart aches, pay some more taxes and don't make so much trouble. Though, now that I think of it, President Fei, don't you domineering director-generals have a myriad of business affairs to attend to? How come you always seem so idle?"

Fei Du smiled slightly. "I don't keep my crew of professional managers around just so they can run their mouths. I'm truly very grateful for Officer Luo's concern for the security of my financial affairs, but it's really not necessary. Even if I threw away all my family's property, the interest I collect on the spare change left in the bank would still be more money than you'll earn in your lifetime."

Tao Ran: "…"

As expected, these two mental deficients couldn't keep the peace for three minutes at a time before they were fucking at it again.

Grabbing one with each hand, he forcibly pulled the two fighting cocks apart. With one hand, he dragged Luo Wenzhou into the office; with the other, he pointed warningly at Fei Du.

Not finding this at all uncongenial, Fei Du very suggestively grabbed his finger.

Luo Wenzhou lost his temper. "That little…"

Tao Ran closed the office door and very helplessly said, "In a while when I get off work, you two can make a date to go fight it out to your heart's content."

Luo Wenzhou acutely picked out some implication behind these words. "Oh? You have something after work today?"

Tao Ran turned and looked at him. "I have a blind date (28)."

Luo Wenzhou was stunned.

Tao Ran patted his shoulder. "I've reached the age where I can't keep you company as a bachelor anymore."

Luo Wenzhou's gaze flickered to the floor. He muttered to himself for a moment, then smiled. Pointing at Tao Ran, he said, "You traitor! Going and selling out the club without so much as a by-your-leave. Our undying 'Drop Dead League' will never let you off."

Tao Ran considered. "Then I'll bribe you—when I have a child, I'll make you the godfather."

"No," said Luo Wenzhou, waving his hand. "One Luo Yiguo is enough for me. I don't have a craving for fatherhood. The future of the nation will have to rely on the strenuous exertions of you straight people.—All right, if you have something to do, go do it. You won't find any clues by wasting your time here, anyway. If the murderer is close to Zhang Donglai and following the course of the investigation, I figure he'll act soon. We'll investigate while we wait."

Tao Ran shook his head, gathered up his things, and was about to leave when from behind him Luo Wenzhou suddenly called him to a stop.

"With you betraying the club, I really feel a little like I've been jilted," Luo Wenzhou whispered. "Right, mortgage slave, do you want to borrow a car?"

"Get out!" said Tao Ran.

That evening, Zhang Donglai heard the whole course of his getting into and getting out of the little dark room from Zhang Ting. He thought that most of the credit in this belonged to the lawyer, so he went home, took up a pomelo leaf, bathed, then that very day asked the lawyer to a one-on-one dinner.

Compared to their fellow professionals who performed non-litigation legal services for all the great bankrollers, criminal lawyers had high risk, high stress jobs that didn't pay very much. It was truly very rare to run into an uncomplicated case like this one, with a client who had more money than brains. If not for the fact that he'd gone to school with Zhao Haochang, this kind of good fortune wouldn't have come his way, either; the lawyer cheerfully kept the date.

Zhang Donglai very politely gave him a red packet. He'd said at first that he would drive the lawyer home, but when they'd just left the restaurant, they ran into a great beauty who greeted Zhang Donglai very familiarly, then in a very natural manner got into Zhang Donglai's car.

The lawyer didn't think it would be very good to get too to close them making eyes at each other, so he tactfully sat in the last row of seats, then said that he only needed to be dropped off at the nearest subway station.

In the car, the beautiful woman and Zhang Donglai shamelessly went back and forth in a way that would make any onlooker feel like he was sitting on pins and needles. The lawyer's face wasn't so thick; he could only pretend to be a bit of empty space, leaning back and fiddling with his phone. While driving through an intersection, Zhang Donglai slammed on the brakes a little forcefully, and the lawyer went pitching forward; out of the corner of his eye, he seemed to see something in a corner.

The lawyer thought it was something that had been knocked off the seat by the stop just now. He decided to pick it up and had just bent down when he abruptly froze.

He saw that it was a striped silver-gray tie, its tail still bearing a famous brand's label. It was of superior make, but it seemed to have been mistreated; it had been rolled up into a shape like a piece of dried fish and stuck in the gap between the seats in the back row.

"There was blunt force trauma to the back of the victim's head, and he was asphyxiated; the murder weapon was a piece of soft cloth, possibly a silk scarf, a necktie, a soft rope and so on…"

The lawyer had had a bit to drink. At this moment, the alcohol evaporated from his open pores in an exhalation.

Just then, Zhang Donglai seemed to finally remember that there was a living creature in the backseat. While he got the car moving, he turned back to look at him. "Attorney Liu, why are you bending over? Did you have too much to drink, or does your stomach hurt?"

The lawyer hurriedly straightened up, all the blood in his body fighting to get to his head first. His limbs went cold, his ears roared, and he forced out a smile. "I…I'm a little dizzy."

Zhang Donglai looked at him in the rearview mirror. Perhaps it was the light, but Attorney Liu felt that there was something sinister in his look.

Luckily Zhang Donglai didn't take much notice of him. He only looked at him a couple of times, then quickly devoted himself whole-heartedly to flirtatious banter with the great beauty next to him. Attorney Liu stiffly maintained his posture, opened the camera on his phone, and sneakily took a picture of the place where he'd found the tie. Then he stretched out his foot bit by bit and used the tip to pull the tie out. Behind the screen of his briefcase, he quickly picked up the tie through his sleeve and shoved it into the briefcase.

Before he'd had time to pull his hand out, Zhang Donglai once again unexpectedly looked at him through the rearview mirror. "Is it the subway station up ahead, Attorney Liu?"

Attorney Liu was so startled his heart nearly stopped. He completely lost his powers of speech and nodded falteringly.

Zhang Donglai raised his eyebrows. "Why is your face so sweaty? Is the air-conditioning not cold enough?"

His companion in the passenger's seat wasn't having this. "Don't turn it down anymore, I get cold."

If it hadn't been for this entirely ignorant silly girl interrupting, Attorney Liu thought he would have gone out of his mind with fear. He didn't know how he managed to get out of Zhang Donglai's car. Zhang Donglai politely stuck his head out the window: "Attorney Liu, are you really all right? I really don't need to drive you home?"

The lawyer strove to arrange his facial muscles. "There's really no need."

Luckily, Zhang Donglai's thought processes were addled by lust, and he didn't seriously want to drive this sturdy fellow home. Having received a confirmation, he quickly stepped on the gas pedal and drove off.

The night wind blew past, and Attorney Liu discovered that his spine was soaked.

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Authors Note:

(28) Could equally be translated as "marriage interview"—a meeting arranged to size up a potential partner.