Chapter 4
Edward Quan ·
It took me three days to carry out Mr. Huang’s instructions. Then I returned south.
About half a month later, Xu Min suddenly came to see him. He wanted to introduce someone for a job at the site and said he would pay the man’s wages himself.
“So generous? Who is he?” Mr. Huang asked.
“My older brother.”
Mr. Huang agreed.
...
Another month passed.
One day, Xu Min called and asked me to “move some goods.”
That was our code. Usually, it meant beating someone up.
I took two men to the site and, following Xu Min’s instructions, gave Lu You a savage beating.
He babbled a great deal while we hit him.
“I was wrong back then. I ruined your life.”
“I shouldn’t have gambled. Shouldn’t have killed anyone. Shouldn’t have lied to you.”
When he seemed close to breaking, I told the men to stop and went outside to call Xu Min in.
Xu Min questioned him about a few things.
When he came out, he asked me to go north again and dispose of a body.
I agreed.
Before leaving, I told Mr. Huang.
“Don’t get rid of everything,” he said. “Keep a bone. Something to hold over him.”
“Yes, sir.”
...
Up north, I found the burial site on a hill behind a steelworks.
There was a pronounced depression in the skull. The victim appeared to have been beaten to death.
I disposed of the remains, keeping a leg bone hidden, then told Xu Min it was done.
...
When I returned, Lu You had disappeared.
I asked Xu Min where he was.
“On the construction site.”
He was the first body buried there.
He would not be the last.
On February 9, 2014, the ninth day of the Lunar New Year, workers began returning to the site.
That day, I drove Mr. Huang and Xu Min over to inspect it. Besides Zhou Qian, the project manager, five workers were there.
Zhou told the men to prepare building materials and get things ready for construction.
Mr. Huang urged him to finish the development quickly. He promised him a five-million-yuan bonus when the project was complete.
Zhou nodded and assured him he would speed things up.
The inspection over, Mr. Huang was preparing to leave.
Just then, a worker approached.
He carried two broken lengths of steel. As he walked toward Mr. Huang, he was saying something about “substandard materials.”
I was sitting in the car and couldn’t hear clearly. Even so, I felt uneasy.
A little later, I saw Mr. Huang put an arm around the worker’s shoulders, lead him to the edge of the foundation pit...
And push him in.
I immediately unfastened my seat belt, opened the door, and looked toward Mr. Huang.
“Zhou Qian, clean this up,” he said.
Then he walked toward the car.
I steadied my breathing and got back behind the wheel.
Mr. Huang told me to drive.
Once we had left the site, I asked, “What happened?”
“Some worker who didn’t know his place. Kept shouting about the materials.”
“Mr. Huang,” Xu Min said, “couldn’t you just fire him? Why push him in?”
“A righteous type like that? Fire him and he’d go talking everywhere. What happens when we can’t cover it up?”
Xu Min thought for a moment, then nodded.
“True.”
Mr. Huang turned back to me.
“Feng, go back later and see how Zhou handles it. I’m afraid he won’t do a thorough job. Help him tidy up.”
I nodded.
“Yes, sir.”
...
After taking Mr. Huang and Xu Min home, I returned to the site.
Zhou Qian was mixing concrete to bury the body.
I looked into the foundation pit. The man was already dead.
I asked Zhou about the situation and how he intended to deal with it.
“Four workers saw Mr. Huang push him,” he said. “I’ve called a vehicle to send them to another site.”
“They won’t talk?”
“They’ve been around construction sites for years. I gave them ten thousand each to keep quiet and told them to think about their families. They won’t talk. And if they do, nobody will believe them.”
I pointed at the body.
“What about him? Aren’t you worried his family will go to the police?”
Zhou waved a hand.
“He’s new. If we don’t say anything, nobody knows he ever worked here.”
“What if someone comes looking?”
“Won’t do them any good. They have no evidence.”
I thought for a moment and nodded.
“All right. Do that.”
...
More than six months passed without further trouble at the site. The dead worker’s family never appeared.
Presales were due to begin soon when a murder suddenly occurred.
A university student named Zhang He had come to work there over the summer. He killed a worker who shared his room by hanging him.
The man Mr. Huang had pushed into the pit on the ninth day of the New Year was named Zhang Ping.
With the same surname, they might well be brothers.
Mr. Huang told Xu Min to find a way to become Zhang He’s defense lawyer and investigate his background.
Xu Min returned and said Zhang He had refused his services. He didn’t know why, but he had obtained a photocopy of Zhang He’s identity card.
Mr. Huang had Zhou Qian find the copy of Zhang Ping’s.
The registered home addresses matched exactly.
They were brothers after all.
Clearly, Zhang He had come because of Zhang Ping.
But killing a man had no obvious direct connection to searching for his brother.
Besides, Zhang He was now in custody. Mr. Huang couldn’t touch him, so he could only wait and see.
...
The first hearing took place on August 26.
The judge sentenced Zhang He to death.
Mr. Huang breathed a sigh of relief. He thought Zhang He was finished.
But soon afterward, the police began investigating Zhou Qian. Zhang He had accused him of hiring someone to commit murder.
When we heard, we had no idea what Zhang He was playing at. All we could do was keep Zhou Qian calm.
By then, Zhou suspected Zhang He was connected to Zhang Ping.
Mr. Huang lied, telling him the two were unrelated. Only then did he relax.
...
On September 17, Zhou Qian was detained for contempt of court. Meanwhile, Zhang He began steering the police’s attention toward the construction site.
Mr. Huang finally understood what he wanted.
Too late.
At first, he tried to use his police connections. But there was too little time, and the case was too big. It didn’t work.
The police found a body on the site.
Zhang Ping.
With the body discovered, Zhou Qian could easily become a problem.
Mr. Huang had Zhou’s wife sign a letter authorizing Xu Min to act as his defense counsel.
That gave Mr. Huang a way to get messages to him.
On the day of the fourth hearing, he told Xu Min to pass on this message:
“Admit nothing. We’ll protect you.”
In truth, he had no intention of doing so.
Xu Min had told him something.
“Mr. Huang, we can’t save Zhou Qian. He has to take the fall. The country’s position on homicide is that every case must be solved. The police have found Zhang Ping’s body. If Zhou isn’t the killer, they’ll keep looking for the real one. What if they trace it back to you...?”
That settled Mr. Huang’s mind.
The best option was to make Zhou Qian confess.
Once he confessed, the police would announce they had solved the case. They would stop digging.
“How do we get him to confess?” Xu Min asked.
Mr. Huang looked at me.
“Feng, go and ‘invite’ his family over. Once we have them, he’ll confess.”
I had no choice.
Things had spun completely out of control.
I could only obey.
Just as I was about to leave, Mr. Huang called me back.
“Wait, Feng. We might as well go all the way. Bring Wang Changping’s daughter too.”
I hesitated...
But in the end, I obeyed.
...