Chapter 14

If there hadn’t been another officer in the car, Nie Zhiyan would have thrown Wan Tong out. She had snapped at the girl, but Wan Tong hadn’t moved away. If anything, she’d doubled down, meeting Nie Zhiyan’s glare without flinching.

“Aunt Yan, what perfume do you wear?” Wan Tong had heard that forensic examiners were always around corpses and came away smelling strongly of decay. But Nie Zhiyan smelled nothing of the sort. There was only a faint, clean fragrance about her, like a warm breeze lingering beneath Wan Tong’s nose.

…

“Get down.” Nie Zhiyan rolled her eyes again and pushed her away, though without much force.

“I don’t wear perfume. It would interfere with the smells at a crime scene.” She had answered after all.

“Oh.” Wan Tong climbed out of Nie Zhiyan’s lap, turned around, and leaned both hands on the back of Nie Zhilan’s seat. She asked without thinking, “Captain Nie, what happened to Lin Shengfu’s phone?”

“Zhu Fang sealed it in an evidence bag. Why?” The woman didn’t turn around as she raised her voice to answer.

“Could I borrow it for a minute? His daughter’s taking the college entrance exam tomorrow, and I thought…”

“No.” Nie Zhilan refused without hesitation. Then she turned and added, “Wan Tong, who told you you could use evidence for your own purposes?” She thought the girl’s way of thinking was dangerous. She acted on instinct and did whatever she felt like. Sooner or later, that would get her into trouble.

“Couldn’t we apply for permission? I just want to send Lin Yueyue a message from her dad, telling her to do her best on the exam tomorrow and take her time with the questions.”

Society was built on human kindness. The law might not bend for anyone, but sometimes a little flexibility could make things right for everyone. Why not try?

Hearing her out, Nie Zhilan looked at the girl’s earnest eyes. They reminded her of herself when she’d first graduated: eager and unafraid. Her tone softened. “By the time the request goes through, the two days of exams will be over.” If she made an exception once, there would be no end to it. She couldn’t set a precedent for Wan Tong, but she could find another way to help.

“I’ll ask Zhu Fang how Lin Shengfu usually addressed Yueyue. You can send it from your own phone.”

Wan Tong finally settled down in the back seat. After Zhu Fang replied, she typed a message and hit send.

“Good luck, Yueyue. Dad will always be by your side.”

Words might be fragile, unable to cross the boundary between life and death. But sometimes they could quietly become a bridge, connecting the living and the dead. Wan Tong thought that at that very moment, Lin Shengfu must have wanted to say the same thing to his daughter.

The nights in mid-June were always muggy. Even with the air conditioner blowing a steady stream of cool air, Nie Zhiyan tossed and turned for half the night before she finally fell asleep.

At some point, the darkness before her eyes suddenly brightened.

“No, please…” Nie Zhiyan shook her head, begging desperately, but the man only leaned closer, his face twisted in a grotesque grin. He held a syringe filled with cloudy white liquid, spat to one side, then grabbed her slender, pale arm. His mouth moved beneath a thick beard. “It’ll be quick. Once it’s in, you’ll be free. Then I’ll hand you over.”

The cold liquid entered her bloodstream through the vein. Its effects came quickly, sending a rush of euphoria through her brain. She fought the physical response, repeatedly banging her head against the wall and digging at her throat. Her stomach seized up, fire scorching her lungs. She vomited until the room spun, then passed out.

The scene shifted. She was on a hospital bed, her arm tied to the railing. Again and again, she endured pain throughout her muscles and bones, as if insects were biting and ants were crawling under her skin. Unable to bear it any longer, she broke a spoon and tried to slash her wrists, hoping to follow her parents in death. Then she heard her sister crying quietly outside the hospital room and hid the broken pieces.

The scene changed again. In a vast room, two or three people pinned down her arms and legs and injected another syringe of murky liquid. Only then did her convulsions slowly stop.

“How many is that?”

“Four.”

“Don’t give me another. I can get through this.”

“You can’t.” In the blink of an eye, their faces twisted into grinning masks, transforming into enormous syringes.

Fear… She couldn’t stop trembling… In the endless darkness, she was all alone, surrounded by syringes. She couldn’t escape or break free. A fine needle was about to pierce her arm.

“No!”

Nie Zhiyan jolted awake, gasping for breath. Daylight had filled the room. She wiped the cold sweat from her neck and realized she’d had another nightmare.

The case of Lin Shengfu was wrapped up and handed over to the Procuratorate. Prosecutors and police returned to the crime scene with Yang Fan and Wang Bin to reconstruct the events.

The machinery plant was about 220 yards east of the Marriage Tree. Lin Shengfu would have had to pass near the tree to get to the Late-Night Noodle House. Yang Fan had followed him and learned his routine. That night, he had hidden in the dark, struck Lin unconscious with a wooden club, then looped a rope around his neck and hanged him from a branch. Afterward, he drove to Ximeng Mountain to bury the body. Wang Bin helped cover up the crime, changed the dead man’s clothes, and transported the body to Liuyang Village in West District to burn it.

As for the voice message, it was simply one of the messages Lin Shengfu had often left for Zheng Hailian while traveling. Wang Bin had recorded it on his own phone and sent it without editing a thing. Unfortunately, Lin and Zheng’s marriage was only a formality. Zheng Hailian noticed nothing unusual.

On Wang Bin’s third day in the detention center, Nie Zhiyan conducted an injury assessment. His disability was rated at grade eight. Wang Bin’s family planned to seek legal aid and sue Zheng Haipeng for intentionally injuring him.

After solving two unnatural-death cases in a row, the officers of the Criminal Investigation Detachment finally got a weekend off. Early that morning, warm sunlight spilled through the glass and crept across Wan Tong’s bed. Zhao Guoying barged in.

“Little Officer Wan, you’ve got five minutes to get ready. Then we’re going out for breakfast and to the market.”

“Huh? I’ve barely made it to the weekend. Deputy Bureau Chief Zhao, can’t you let me sleep a little longer?” The girl tilted her head and pleaded.

Zhao Guoying threw back the thin blanket and ordered, “No. Get up. Aunt Lan and Aunt Yan are coming over for lunch.”

“What? I thought they were coming tomorrow.”

“Your Aunt Yan has a blind date tomorrow.”

“What? With who?” Wan Tong was instantly wide awake. She wanted to know who could possibly put up with Nie Zhiyan’s icy temperament.

“A teacher at Binnan University. Your wise and brilliant mother set it up. It’s about time I found you someone too.”

Wan Tong had already folded her blanket. She grinned at her mother. “No, Old Zhao. I’m still young. And you know I’m not into men. Couldn’t you introduce me to a woman?”

Wan Tong had realized she liked women when she was in college. She’d had a crush on a classmate but never confessed. Last year, she’d finally given up when she served as the woman’s bridesmaid and handed her wedding ring to another man. She’d come out to Zhao Guoying during her second year of graduate school. At first, Zhao Guoying hadn’t believed her and tried to talk her out of it. But given how badly her own marriage had failed, she decided she shouldn’t interfere too much in her daughter’s life.

“I don’t know any women for you. Go find one yourself.” Zhao Guoying was in such a good mood that she even rummaged through the girl’s wardrobe, pulled out a pale pink T-shirt and a pair of overalls, and tossed them to her. “This outfit looks nice.”

“Old Zhao, pick something else. Pink is too girly. I’m old now.”

“You just said you were young, and now you’re old? Don’t you hear the contradiction? Pink looks good. You wear cool colors all the time. Try something different.”

In the end, Wan Tong reluctantly put on the T-shirt and examined herself in the full-length mirror. It wasn’t bad. Old Zhao had known what she was doing.