Chapter 26

With forty-five seconds remaining on the countdown, the whole Canopy of Heaven suddenly froze. Then, under everyone's blank gazes, a photograph of a young man spread over it.

He was eighteen or nineteen, very ordinary-looking, a little dark, his posture facing the camera very cautious, but he was still smiling widely, showing all his white teeth.

The gaze of the woman on the rooftop encountered this beaming photograph without warning. She went still; she was straddling the railing with one foot in and one foot out, the "wings" on her back fluttering in the night wind.

What the woman saw, all the people gathered in the central square to wait for the closing ceremony rehearsal also saw. Luo Wenzhou had just finished searching a building and was exiting. He lifted his head and saw the transformation outside. He staggered and nearly rolled down the steps at the entrance.

A criminal policeman next to him meanwhile sucked in a breath. "Captain Luo, the broadcasting rights must have been bought up. Can they suddenly change it like this? It's…it's another smashed-up car!"

"Shut up!" Luo Wenzhou's steps didn't stop. He lifted his walkie-talkie. "Group 1, respond. Have you found the car? Take note of all intersections. If the car's driver makes an appearance, seize him at once. Give Fei Du the car's make, model, and license plate number, have him throw it up on the screen, encourage people to call in."

At the same time, in the Trade Center Building's control room, a crowd of workers were so busy their feet didn't touch the ground.

"Is the recorder connected?"

"Where's the video processor?"

"Lights, lights, lights… Hey, look out for that wire!"

In the midst of this noise, Fei Du was resisting the impulse to pace, forcing himself to stand unmoving in a corner.

His leather shoe, which had at some point picked up a smudge, was tapping lightly on the floor. It seemed that the whole world contained an unhurried melody in 4/4 tempo that he could use any time to separate himself from all the surrounding sounds.

Suddenly, the lights came on in front of him. Fei Du looked up.

"President Fei, the equipment's ready!"

The woman on the rooftop stared greedily at the boy in the photograph for a long time.

To tell the truth, it was a strange thing. His face was clearly ordinary; no one would look twice at him in the street; but in her eyes, he was unspeakably adorable.

His clumsy square chin was adorable, his very wide-set eyes were adorable, his sparse brows were adorable, even his two front teeth with a slight gap between them were adorable. She could have looked at him for ten thousand years without seeing enough.

Unfortunately, she couldn't.

As soon as this thought arose, her memories surged up like a tide, slow but inexorable, the gleam in her eyes like an obstinate reef being gradually submerged.

She raised her head, wiped her eyes, and remembered—Zhongyi was gone.

She clenched her teeth, preparing to step over with her other leg, hoping that they could reunite over there.

Just then, the picture on the Canopy of Heaven dissolved and a video was inserted.

The hastily put up background was a stark white wall; a few lights shone on it from different angles, so bright they hurt the eyes. A young man wearing a black shirt appeared in the center of the screen. Likely because the equipment had been set up so quickly, it seemed that the aspect ratio wasn't quite right; he was a little unnaturally stretched out.

This was the young man she'd wanted to say goodbye to, but hadn't been able to wait for.

The person on the Canopy of Heaven gently touched the microphone and spoke. "Hello, auntie. I haven't heard any news of you. For me, that's the best news. I want to try using this method to say a few words to you. If you can hear me, please grant me two minutes of your time and listen to what I have to say."

Wang Xiujuan looked in some terror at the screen on which a person had just appeared. She was so bewildered her thoughts vanished. She could only subconsciously nod once. Then she remembered that they couldn't see each other.

Luo Wenzhou was just crossing the central square, with his left ear listening to all the groups' progress reports through his earbud, with his right ear paying attention to his surroundings. His attention divided, he commanded, "Find some people to maintain order in the central square. If there aren't enough people, ask the security guards to help. Don't let the people around here call out anything that could disturb her state of mind."

On the big screen, Fei Du spoke. "Auntie, if my own mother were still alive, she would be about the same age as you."

Luo Wenzhou heard this and subconsciously looked up at him, but even as he looked, his steps didn't stop. He quickly crossed the square's open ground, hurrying towards the next building. "Group 3, the rooftops of the buildings overlooking the street all have security cameras. You can check them directly, no need to waste time. Tao Ran, take care to disperse the traffic over there. Group 4, come with me to the eastern Gemini Building, there are some floors under construction, it's a serious possibility."

Fei Du's somewhat downcast voice relentlessly pursued his hurried steps. "…I came home more frequently than Zhongyi. After all, he had to work hard to save money to pay for your treatment, while I was only an idle student. Every weekend, she would change the flowers for fresh ones, pour out her efforts preparing my favorite things to eat, clean my room, air out my quilt. She didn't like having a housekeeper around, so she had to do all these things herself.—Did you also air out Zhongyi's quilt for him?"

Past endurance, Wang Xiujuan let out a long sob, which was shortly picked up and drawn away by the wind.

The sobbing wind swirled down from the building's rooftop, brushing past Luo Wenzhou's sweat-soaked temples like a sigh.

"But one day, I came home full of expectation and opened the door. I found there was only a pile of dried twigs in the vase at the door. All the curtains were closed, and the rooms were full of a smell like death. When I reached her room, trembling with fear, what I found wasn't an aired-out quilt, but her corpse." Fei Du paused slightly. "Not long ago, you said to me, my mother must have looked forward to me coming home every day. But back then, the policeman who worked the case told me that the night before I came back, she killed herself.—I came home at the same time every weekend. She knew that.

"Mom, I've always wanted to ask you a question. What kind of mother would choose that time, leaving her corpse for her child to find on purpose? I thought every day about how to be good to you, how to make you happy—how to save money so I could pay for your treatment, how to repay the person who'd lent me the money for your surgery… I still haven't returned the money, and now I'm alone in a freezer and can't return home. Are you planning to leave me here? If you're all so heartless, then why did you act like you cared about us so much before?"

Straddling the guard rail, Wang Xiujuan slowly crouched down.

Fei Du stopped for a moment, touched the microphone again, silently counting to five.

At the same time, in a corner of the image, the mysterious rental car's make, model, and license plate number appeared. Wang Xiujuan's education level was limited, and she couldn't make anything of the words and numbers, but the passersby all around read them and one after another got out their phones and spread the information to their friends and family.

"Captain Luo, the Gemini Building's construction team says they're using the weekend to overhaul the building's electric system. They turned off the power over an hour ago."

Luo Wenzhou's back was soaked with sweat, making him experience something of what old Lian Po (35) had gone through wearing thorns to humbly apologize. He would have liked nothing better than to part ways with his back, leave his spine responsible for his internal organs, and decamp, exiting the marriage without property.

He looked up at the tall tower and clenched his teeth. "Let's go up."

Fei Du was silent for a while, then, slowing his speech, broke off the purposeful confusion between himself and He Zhongyi. "Auntie, the murderer hasn't been caught yet, and you don't understand any of the circumstances. Doing this in such a muddle, how do you plan to tell Zhongyi? I implore you, wherever you are now, could you come as quickly as possible to the square? We're all looking for you. We'll go catch the murderer together, and when he's caught, you'll still have to take Zhongyi home, and I still want to speak with you for a while.

"Could you…give me another chance to pretend I'm seeing my mom?"

Wang Xiujuan at last began to wail.

She cried her soul out, the courage that had made her want to throw herself in this city's face flowing east into the sea with her tears. She once more weakened into a lost and nervous woman who had just come to Yan City. When she looked down from on high, she suddenly even felt that her legs were a little weak.

Wang Xiujuan turned her gaze away but couldn't keep her footing. She tried grabbing the guard rail, wanting to draw her foot back in, but at that moment there was a great change—

The seemingly firm guard rail was actually only loosely held in place. Wang Xiujuan was entirely unprepared. When she grabbed it, the broken railing swung out. She lost her balance and went falling back.

Wang Xiujuan's eyes opened wide. Her mind roared.

At the last moment, a human figure flashed over and grabbed her foot, just held up by the half-loose railing. The woman struggled instinctively, and her thin ankle nearly slipped from his hand.

Her weight pulled at Luo Wenzhou's arms, and his just sealed back instantly tore open, as if he was being split in two. Clinging to one thought, he held onto her and roared, "Don't move!"

Fortunately he hadn't come up alone. The people following quickly dashed over, and three minutes later, all working together, they had pulled up Wang Xiujuan, who had lost consciousness.

Luo Wenzhou ordinarily felt that he could ascend to heaven and go three hundred rounds of battle with Sun Wukong, but now he had over-exerted himself so much he could barely stand up. He staggered backwards a few steps, then simply dropped inelegantly to the ground, gasping for breath, waiting until he heard someone say, "Captain Luo, she's alive!"

His muscles, tensed into a knot until then, relaxed.

As soon as he relaxed, Luo Wenzhou found that the blood and sweat on his back had mixed together. The pain made him suck in a shaking breath. "Hss… Fuck, I'm just about done for…"

Just then, Lang Qiao's voice came over the walkie-talkie in his pocket. "Chief, a couple just reported seeing the suspect's car in the landscape park. The lights were on inside and they were afraid the murderer was still in there, so they didn't dare to go over!"

"A park? Where?" said Luo Wenzhou.

"About a kilometer from the central square, I think. It's pretty deserted at night. No one but couples sneaking around goes there."

"That's not right. It can't be that far away," Luo Wenzhou said amidst the insistent pain. He closed his eyes. "Coordinate with the repair team, make them turn on the building's emergency power supply. Turn on all the security cameras, position people to watch the cameras' blind spots.—This murderer sent a lawyer to keep track of the investigation, and he kidnapped someone right from the City Bureau. I don't believe he'd be willing to quietly hide away from everyone when he hadn't seen the outcome he wanted yet."

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Author's Note:

(35) Warring States era general, was publicly very unfriendly to a minister of the time, so the minister once turned his carriage away rather than jostle for right of way with him; when accused of cowardice, the minister said that since the two of them were responsible for the government and the military, it would be wrong to let a personal feud cause trouble. Hearing this, Lian Po was ashamed and wore thorns on his back to beg the minister's forgiveness. Later they were friends.