Chapter 3

I returned to the station and filed a full report.

The decision came quickly.

Chen Yang had acted in lawful self-defense. Xie Feng’s death was accidental, and no criminal charges would be brought against him.

Ma Xiaoya was detained for ten days and fined five hundred yuan for giving false information.

A year passed.

When Chen Yang and Ma Xiaoya sent me a wedding invitation, I gave them a red envelope.

I wished them well, sincerely. At least they had found their way out of the darkness.

The wedding was held at the largest hotel in the county, with a great many guests.

A drunken insurance salesman nearby was holding forth.

“Life’s unpredictable. You ought to buy insurance while you can…”

Then he added, “Take today’s bride. Her husband died last year, but she got a big insurance payout. Now here she is, happily marrying someone new…”

I froze.

“What did you just say?”

He gave an awkward laugh and hurried away.

I looked at the business card on the table.

Ruihe Insurance.

A terrible thought took hold of me.

I went straight to the insurance company.

They brought out the file.

The policy had been purchased about a month before Xie Feng’s death.

My suspicions began to spread like vines.

That death a year earlier—had it really been self-defense?

Or had it been a carefully planned murder?

Every word in that insurance contract seemed to say there was more to it.

10

I made further inquiries to establish that the policy was genuine.

In the process, I discovered something even more startling.

Xie Feng’s video channel, Where the Wind Meets Mountains and Rivers, was registered under an outfit called Leyou Studio.

According to its business registration, the studio was an ordinary small partnership.

One partner was Xie Feng.

The other was Chen Yang.

The next day, I intercepted Ma Xiaoya and Chen Yang as they were about to leave for their honeymoon.

Their smiles froze when I produced a copy of the insurance contract.

“The policy was only a month old when Xie Feng had his accident,” I said coldly. “Was that a coincidence? Or had someone planned ahead?”

Chen Yang spoke first, sounding uneasy.

“Officer Song, what are you saying? Of course it was a coincidence. The court already ruled on that case. Don’t you remember?”

“Oh, I remember. That’s precisely why I’m here.”

I gave a cold laugh and laid down another photocopy, this one from the business registry.

“According to this, you were also an owner of the video channel. Two partners sharing profits and losses. Your earlier story about falling out with Xie Feng because he owed you wages was a lie.”

As I pressed them, they exchanged a glance.

The last trace of hope left their eyes.

Ma Xiaoya spoke first.

“If you already know, Officer Song, we might as well tell you the truth.”

She paused, grief entering her voice.

“Xie Feng lied to me from the very beginning.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“The beginning? How far back are we talking?”

“A long time… From the moment I started receiving those love letters…”

Her gaze drifted.

Word by word, she took the three of us further into the past.

11

Xie Feng and Chen Yang had been best friends since they were small boys in split-crotch trousers. They had been classmates all the way through high school.

Ma Xiaoya transferred into their class in eleventh grade. Xie Feng fell for her at first sight and announced in front of everyone that he was going to win her over.

Chen Yang liked her too. But he was so shy he could barely bring himself to speak to her. He kept his feelings to himself.

Then Xie Feng asked him to write love letters on his behalf.

For some reason Chen Yang could scarcely explain, he agreed.

At that age, when love was still something new, Ma Xiaoya was his ideal.

He did not dare hope she could be his. He thought himself unworthy of her. Simply seeing her from a distance and knowing she was happy would be enough.

So he poured all his feelings into ninety-nine love letters.

At first, Ma Xiaoya had no interest in Xie Feng. He was lazy, had no ambition, and cared about nothing but games.

Then, week after week, a letter arrived. The depth of feeling in those words gradually won her over.

When she received the ninety-ninth, she finally agreed to date him.

They were nearing the end of high school by then.

Chen Yang had tried to prepare himself. It still hurt terribly.

After graduation, he left his hometown to study and work elsewhere.

Five years passed.

Bored with working for other people, Xie Feng tried starting an online business. Two ventures failed before he turned to travel livestreaming.

He asked Chen Yang to come back and help. They would invest together and split the profits equally.

Chen Yang agreed.

He thought he had put the past behind him. He would be content to stand aside and see Ma Xiaoya happy.

Then Xie Feng proposed something outrageous.

They would livestream a wedding on a cliff, staging a scene in which the bride jumped into the sea to rescue her husband. It would bring them money and views.

Chen Yang could hardly believe it. But when Ma Xiaoya raised no objection, he swallowed his own protest.

Just before the wedding, however, he happened to notice something wrong with her life jacket.

There was a small knife cut inside it. It was shallow enough that the jacket could still be inflated, but the pressure of the seawater would make it tear open completely.

The discovery hit him like a thunderbolt.

He hurried to tell Ma Xiaoya everything.

The ninety-nine love letters had been his.

And after marrying her, Xie Feng had secretly taken out an enormous insurance policy on her life.

12

Ma Xiaoya was far calmer than he had expected.

She listened in silence. Horror showed in her eyes, but she neither wept nor flew into a rage.

In truth, she had been suspicious of Xie Feng for some time.

He had copied the letters out in his own handwriting, but the better she knew him, the less sense they made.

How could a man so foul-mouthed and petty have written anything so deeply felt?

By then, though, she felt she had no other choice.

Her family was drowning in debt. Her parents had pressured her to marry so there would be another wage earner to help pay it off.

Worse, Xie Feng had taken advantage of her drunkenness and raped her.

With her conservative upbringing, she believed there was no way back.

When he proposed livestreaming the wedding and pressured her to act out the rescue, she had objected. She did not want their marriage turned into a money-making prop.

But he promised to pay off all her family’s debts.

She wavered, and took the gamble.

She had never imagined he could be so vicious. He wanted more than the money from the broadcast.

He wanted to trade her life for an insurance payout.

“Ha.”

Ma Xiaoya gave a bitter laugh, her eyes full of scorn.

“Of course. With money, he could have as many women as he liked. I was too conservative. Always trying to rein him in, always advising him. He must have been tired of me. But he cared about his reputation. He didn’t want people calling him a faithless bastard. So this was the perfect solution. Kill me and make a profit. Two birds with one stone.”

Tears ran down her cheeks.

Chen Yang took a tissue and wiped them away, then turned to me.

“Let me tell the rest. You’re probably wondering why she didn’t expose him then.”

I shrugged. I couldn’t deny it.

“It’s simple,” he said calmly. “Xie Feng and I were partners. Half the money we made was mine. I didn’t trust him, so I planned to give Xiaoya my entire share. She could pay off her family’s debts and leave him.”

But plans were one thing. What happened was another.

Despite their careful preparations, there was still an accident.

As a wave crashed over her, Ma Xiaoya’s world went black.

When she woke, there was no light at all.

She was blind.

Yet with her sight gone, she saw the situation more clearly than ever.

In front of the cameras, Xie Feng wore an expression so earnest it could fool anyone.

Again and again he said, “For the rest of my life, I’ll be your eyes.”

Ma Xiaoya lay in her hospital bed, looking deeply moved.

Inside, she was laughing bitterly.

She understood this man all too well.

For the sake of views, he could play the devoted husband to the very end.

So she did not expose him.

She waited in silence to see how long he would keep acting—and how much cruelty he was capable of.