Chapter 5

The landlord was an obsessive voyeur. He’d installed cameras throughout the house.

Through them, he’d witnessed everything Li Yong and Li Gang did to my sister.

He was afraid the police would discover the camera in the chandelier during their investigation.

So he came specifically to remove it.

But as he was taking it down, my sister suddenly regained consciousness.

She’d only passed out. She hadn’t stopped breathing.

When she woke, she saw him removing the camera beside her.

To keep his filthy behavior from being exposed, he grabbed her legs and pulled hard.

Strangling her to death for good.

But none of them knew her cat had been hiding in a corner all along.

The recorder on its collar captured the entire murder.

After finding the evidence, I didn’t go to the police.

I’d studied the law.

The brothers’ actions amounted to attempted murder.

Under the current law, at least those two couldn’t be sentenced to death.

So I decided to act myself.

That was why I moved here.

32

To play two roles alone, I used work as an excuse.

Deng Bing and Liu Min could only appear by day and by night respectively.

With surveillance cameras everywhere, I had to tread carefully.

I also needed a little private space.

This afternoon, while showering…

I deliberately splashed water into the bathroom heat lamp’s ventilation gap.

I needed to break it.

Then I’d have a legitimate reason to replace it and remove the landlord’s camera inside.

The electrician Li Yong was the first man I intended to kill.

So I contacted him and asked him to replace the heat lamp.

I deliberately let him discover the camera inside the bulb.

Once he knew there might be footage of their crime in this house, he and Zhou Lei would each have a reason to silence the other.

Let’s see which one died first.

33

May 18. Evening. Weather: drizzle.

At six, I pretended to leave for a night shift at some warehouse.

At eight, disguised as a woman, I returned from work as Deng Bing’s wife, Liu Min.

Because the landlord was an obsessive voyeur, only a beautiful female character would hold his attention as prey.

May 19. Daytime. Weather: clear.

At six, I got up to make breakfast for my “husband.”

I had to build the image of a beautiful, devoted wife.

At seven, I pretended to leave for work.

At eight, I changed back into men’s clothes and returned from the night shift as Deng Bing.

I ate the breakfast my “wife” had prepared.

Then I went to print some rental flyers.

I intended to sublet the ground floor.

That afternoon, I installed three cameras: one in the bedroom chandelier, one in the kitchen water heater, and one in the bathroom electrical socket.

Then I returned upstairs and deliberately used my computer under the landlord’s camera, beginning to set up and adjust the ground-floor surveillance system.

I also deliberately placed that morning’s rental flyers where his camera could see them.

I’d prepared those flyers especially for him.

Together with the footage of me adjusting the downstairs cameras, they would establish Deng Bing as a voyeur.

A beautiful, devoted wife paired with a voyeuristic husband.

The sharp contrast, and the powerful sense of identification, would captivate a fellow voyeur like the landlord.

34

May 20. Evening. Weather: light breeze.

At six, I again pretended to leave for a warehouse night shift.

At nine, I returned as Liu Min.

For the past two days, I’d been following Li Yong.

Sure enough, I discovered he’d contacted Zhou Lei about the cameras.

After sounding each other out and learning each other’s secrets, both had decided on murder to ensure silence.

Today, after work, I followed Li Yong again.

On this special date, I saw him confess his feelings to a girl.

She was rather pretty.

Unfortunately…

She was a man.

The landlord, in disguise.

Perhaps that was the advantage of appearing as a woman.

You could lure an enemy while concealing your identity.

The landlord and I had hit on the same idea.

Truly, wherever there was a Crouching Dragon, there was bound to be a Fledgling Phoenix.

35

May 21. Morning. Weather: clear.

This morning, Zhou Lei killed Li Yong.

He’d moved faster than I expected.

At noon, he moved downstairs as a woman.

I hadn’t expected my rental flyers to work so quickly.

I’d known he would come.

Because his next step was to kill me in my male persona.

More importantly, he was afraid someone else would move in.

I’d hidden evidence of his murder in this house.

From today, Zhou Lei became my tenant.

And I became his landlord.

With no time to dispose of Li Yong’s body, Zhou Lei simply stuffed it into a suitcase and brought it along.

At ten that night, he went to dump it.

I followed him all the way.

I watched him bury Li Yong in a patch of woods behind the hill.

He almost spotted me too.

After Zhou Lei left, I dug up Li Yong’s body and phone.

Then I used the phone to message his accomplice, Li Gang, urging him to steal the recorder from Zhou Lei’s place.

I told him it contained evidence of their murder.

I told him Zhou Lei had installed cameras in the house.

I told him Zhou Lei was now disguised as a woman, living on its ground floor.

And I told him I’d obtained a key and left it beneath the doormat.

These messages would also become evidence I left for the police.

I’d calculated the timing.

When Zhou Lei returned, Li Gang would still be inside.

Through the feed on my phone, I watched Li Gang hide in the wardrobe.

He tried to escape while Zhou Lei showered.

I waited outside the door, posing as a hanging ghost, and scared him back inside.

Li Gang decided to wait until Zhou Lei slept before trying again.

Meanwhile, I put my sister’s cat through the window.

I also pressed play on the recorder.

It contained something my sister had recorded while alive, during the time Li Yong and Li Gang were stalking her.

I had three purposes.

First, “The hanging ghost is outside the door” would strike fear into Li Gang in the wardrobe.

Second, I wanted to wake Zhou Lei, giving Li Gang no chance to escape.

Third, I wanted them to recognize the cat’s collar as a recorder.

Then I went downstairs as the landlady, looking for the cat.

After returning to my room, I deliberately pretended to be frightened by something outside.

The purpose was to make the recording’s line, “I’m being followed by a headless ghost,” sound more convincing.

36

May 22. Morning. Weather: clear.

At six, I prepared breakfast for my “husband,” as usual.

At seven, I left for work, as usual.

At eight, I changed into men’s clothing and returned from the night shift, as usual.

I ate the breakfast my “wife” had made.

I deliberately switched on my computer in view of the camera and began watching the ground-floor feed.

Downstairs, Zhou Lei could use my monitor to see what was happening in his own room.

I deliberately let him discover Li Gang in the wardrobe.

Then, acting out a possession, I arranged for my male persona to disappear from the cameras.

I pretended to strangle myself and crawled into the bathroom.

With no camera inside, it was the perfect place to shed my old identity.

I climbed through the window and down the drainpipe.

When I returned, I was Liu Min, the landlady coming home from work.

37

May 22. Evening. Weather: heavy rain.

Since Zhou Lei and Li Gang in the wardrobe still refused to act, I decided to make my own move as Liu Min.

Returning home, I pretended to discover my husband’s body in the bathroom.

I also pretended to drop and break my phone while calling the police.

Then I rushed downstairs in a panic and knocked on Zhou Lei’s door.

I pretended to ask for help. He pretended to call the police for me.

He even invited me to stay.

While he showered, I secretly opened the kitchen gas valve.

The room was small, the doors and windows tightly shut.

Within half an hour at most, it would be full of concentrated gas.

Finally, I placed a lighter from the table on the burning mosquito coil in the corner.

I’d worked out the timing.

Half an hour later, the lighter would explode, triggering a gas explosion.

Next, I used the hanging ghost outside as an excuse to draw Zhou Lei away.

Then I quickly used Li Yong’s phone to message him.

While he hid in the bathroom to reply, I quietly left the room.

Before leaving, I tore the first page from my diary and placed it on the bed.

It was the “death notice” I left for Zhou Lei.

Once I slipped out, I hung Li Yong’s body outside the door.

I also pushed the recorder into his mouth.

Then I left the house.

Alone, I stood silently some distance away in the rainy night.

The rest could be left to time.

…

About ten minutes later, a distant explosion rang out.

The two-story wooden house was quickly swallowed by flames.

The heavy rain had paralyzed traffic.

By the time the fire engines arrived, every trace of my presence would be ash.

All that would remain were three charred skeletons.

A recorder I’d put inside Li Yong’s body.

And the chat histories on all three men’s phones.

As for what conclusion the police eventually reached…

I’d leave that to them.

38

May 23. Before dawn. Weather: rain.

The rainy night stretched on. Wind scattered the clouds.

Drenched, I walked straight ahead, holding the cat.

The fire behind me illuminated the dark street.

And the sky above my head.

I raised my face, letting raindrops fall against it.

When we were little, my sister often told me:

The raindrops in the sky looked just like human tears.

I stood amid the endless rain, lost in thought.

Little sister, I’ve avenged you.

Can you see?

The rain…

Fell harder and harder…