Chapter 5

“Loudi has been contacted, and we’ve found Qian Jinlong’s address.

“We’ll take the team out tomorrow morning.”

I took the travel order.

“Yes, Chief! We’ll get it done!”

Before we left, the chief angrily tossed a newspaper into the car.

“Read it on the way!

“Now step on it. We’re going straight to Hunan!”

“Liu Ning’s Patricide Case at a Dead End! Not a Single Piece of Evidence—Could It Become a Cold Case?”

Perhaps the person behind the articles had realized something. This time, the story appeared in a commercial newspaper that mostly ran advertisements.

“No witnesses, no physical evidence. How can the police convict anyone?”

“Will a fourteen-year-old boy keep taking the blame…”

“Or will his vicious aunt bow her head and confess?!”

The article also carried a note of impatience with how slowly the police were solving the case.

No wonder the chief had looked as dark as a pot this morning.

When we arrived at Qian Jinlong’s address, we found someone unexpected.

Old Qian’s wife was carrying a bag and checking a small slip of paper against the house numbers.

“Follow her. Quickly.”

She wound through several alleys and finally stopped outside a dilapidated house and knocked.

The person inside didn’t open the door at once. A curtain shifted, and someone peered out.

Seeing that she was alone, he opened the door just wide enough to pull her inside.

“Move in! Arrest him!”

Xiao Hu kicked the rotten wooden door open.

Light flooded the dark room.

Cigarette boxes, betel-nut wrappers, and takeout containers littered the floor. The stench of sweat mixed with other foul smells until it was nauseating.

Old Qian’s wife was still clinging to him and crying.

“You bastard! You’d really divorce me for that slut!”

At the sight of us, Old Qian wilted and lowered his head in resignation.

In just one month, he had gone from over eighty kilos to barely over sixty.

A bandage was wrapped around his neck. His right hand was twisted at an unnatural angle. He looked like a different person.

We didn’t stop. We immediately drove back.

I had so many questions for him.

But from the moment he got in the car, Old Qian didn’t say a word.

His wife, on the other hand, wouldn’t stop talking.

“You’d do anything for that slut!”

“First you helped raise her nephew, and now you’re helping her murder someone!”

“Have you thought about Xiaoni? She’s only six!”

“How will she ever hold her head up if she grows up with a father who went to prison for murder?!”

As she spoke, Old Qian’s wife took a fresh divorce form and a pen from the pocket inside her clothes.

“Isn’t this what you wanted? To divorce me and be with that slut?”

“Fine!”

“The house, the repair shop, and our savings are all mine!”

“Go live with that murderer!”

We silently watched their drama unfold.

To our surprise, Old Qian, who had been silent all along, picked up the pen and shakily signed the divorce papers.

The moment he signed, his wife burst into tears and lunged at him to hit him again.

Even with people holding her back, she managed to scratch five bloody marks across his face.

“Ah! You heartless bastard! You really signed!”

“What did I do to deserve this?!”

“You have no conscience!”

“When you came here, you were nearly starving to death in the street. My father gave you food, taught you to repair cars, and even gave me to you in marriage!”

“Now that my family has no one left to stand up for me, you’re trying to bully me to death!”

Once she had cried herself out, her emotions gradually settled.

“Divorce is for the best!

“Then Xiaoni can pretend she never had a father like you!

“Comrade Officers, you can be my witnesses!

“From now on, this man has nothing to do with my daughter and me!”

She turned toward the window, trying to look strong.

But her tears never stopped for the entire drive.

It was midnight by the time we got back to the bureau.

The chief told us to rest, but we refused. We interrogated Old Qian right away.

Old Qian pointed to his throat and forced out a hoarse sound. Then he pointed at the pen in Xiao Hu’s hand.

Xiao Hu immediately gave him paper and a pen.

“Liu Ning killed him.

“Liu Xiaofang is lying.”

A little after eleven on the night of the fourteenth, Liu Xiaofang knocked on the door of my repair shop.

She was frantic. She told me Liu Ning had killed someone.

At first, I didn’t want to get involved. But she said Liu Cheng’s body was still in the house.

If the matter came to light, the demolition would surely be affected. For the compensation money, and for Liu Xiaofang, I gritted my teeth and agreed.

Then we went to her house. Liu Ning was lying on the bed like a corpse, barely breathing.

But I had no time to worry about that. I found an axe and, fighting nausea and fear, chopped the body into pieces.

I was so nervous that I cut my own hand. At first it only hurt a little. I didn’t realize I’d hit the bone until we were done.

All the while, Liu Ning kept mumbling:

“‘Auntie, I killed him… Now we’ll get to live well… He won’t come beat you anymore…’”

After we dismembered the body, we carried the pieces to the waste-treatment dump behind the house in several trips.

It was only after I got home that I began to feel afraid.

Those two had nothing left, but I had a family. I had a child.

I regretted it right away.

I was afraid the police would find out. I was afraid I’d go to prison.

I didn’t sleep all night.

Early on the morning of the fifteenth, I bought a ticket on the first bus to Hunan.

I had an older brother in Loudi, Hunan, so I planned to hide there for a while.

After I bought the ticket, I worried Liu Xiaofang might name me or make me take the blame.

I found a print shop by the roadside and had them make a copy of a divorce agreement. Then I went to Liu Xiaofang’s house and placated her, promising I’d come back and marry her after some time.

In Loudi, I lived like a fugitive. I couldn’t eat or sleep properly. Every day, I felt as if someone were watching me.

My hand was injured, but I didn’t dare go to a hospital. The wound became infected and festered. I had a high fever that wouldn’t break, and even my tonsils were damaged.

I asked someone to find an underground clinic. They cut into my throat, and I survived, but my voice was ruined.

Then you found me.

“Liu Ning killed him? Are you sure?”

“I’m a hundred percent sure. Liu Ning did it.”

“Do you remember whether it was the fourteenth or the fifteenth?”

“The fourteenth. It was a Friday. Xiaoni got out of school early, and my wife went home to cook for her, so I slept alone at the repair shop.”

“Whether Liu Ning was fourteen yet or not, you still helped destroy evidence. That crime is already made out. It won’t reduce your responsibility. If you lie, it could make things worse. Do you understand?”

“I understand. I’m telling the truth. On the fourteenth, Liu Ning killed Liu Cheng.”

“Do you have evidence?”

“I do. The hammer Liu Ning used is at my place.”

“What? You have the hammer? Where?” Xiao Hu was so excited he stammered.

“I want to see Liu Xiaofang. I’ll tell you where it is after I see her.”

The chief agreed without hesitation.

“They’ve been right under our noses. What else could they be up to? Let them meet! The evidence team still has nothing. Whether we can convict anyone depends on that hammer!”

The moment Liu Xiaofang saw Old Qian, she froze, then burst into tears.

“Old Qian, I dragged you into this.”

Old Qian didn’t look at her. He wrote a few words on a piece of paper and handed it to Xiao Hu.

After reading it, Xiao Hu looked shocked, then passed the note to me.

“Stop taking the blame for Liu Ning. I’ve told the police the truth. I never threw away the hammer. It’s at our secret hideout. Tell the truth and you may get out sooner.”

At that point, the hammer was the only physical evidence in the case. Turning it in voluntarily might count as helping solve the crime.

Old Qian was giving Liu Xiaofang the chance to earn credit for it?!

“Old Qian, are you sure?” I asked.

Without hesitation, he nodded.

I handed the note to Liu Xiaofang. She clenched her fists, then broke down sobbing.

“I’ll tell you… I’ll tell you everything.”

When I got home on the night of the fourteenth, Xiaoning had a wound on his face, and his head was oozing blood. But he seemed so happy that I didn’t ask him about it.

That night, I woke up and saw Liu Cheng’s body. Then I went to get Old Qian to help dismember it.

The next morning, Old Qian came to see me. He said he was about to divorce his wife and marry me.

But first he had to go back to his hometown to remove his wife’s name from the family register and add mine.

I knew he was scared and wanted to hide for a while, but I didn’t call him out.

Xiaoning was gone all afternoon. I was afraid something had happened to him, so I went looking.

He was standing outside the school gate, staring stupidly inside and smiling.

I thought that if we could get through this, I’d make sure Xiaoning went to school.

I went to the neighborhood committee to ask which school he’d be assigned to after the demolition.

The neighborhood officer wouldn’t tell me how the school assignment would work.

She said:

“Schools don’t accept children raised by murderers.”

She said schools don’t accept children raised by murderers!

She called me a murderer!

Even after all these years, even though the court ruled that I had acted in self-defense, people still saw me as a murderer.

I didn’t want things to happen that way back then. What choice did I have?

Those loan sharks had driven my parents to their deaths and wanted to sell Xiaoning and me into the mountains. He was only five. They chloroformed him with a cloth and were about to shove him into a car.

At that moment, all I could think about was saving Xiaoning.

As I passed a window, I smashed the glass with my head and grabbed a shard, driving it straight into one man’s neck.

He died.

The police and the court investigated and gathered evidence. They ruled that I had acted in self-defense.

A few days later, I was acquitted and released.

But… was I really free?

I applied to be a school librarian. They said I’d killed someone and would be a danger to the children.

I applied for a receptionist job at a company. They said a murderer would damage the company’s image.

I applied to be a nanny. They said I had a criminal record and might be unstable.

I even applied to sweep the streets, but they said I didn’t meet the requirements…

No matter how I explained, nobody believed me. Nobody wanted to hire me.

After that, I went to the neighborhood committee and the women’s federation again and again. Each time, they might help me find work for a few days. But when payday came, I’d be fired for one excuse or another.

I’ve spent years being looked down on and misunderstood.

I know all too well how bitter and exhausting that life can be.

But Liu Ning is still a child.

He still has hope for his life.

He wants to read. He wants to go to school.

He wants an ordinary life—not one where he has to worry about finding three meals every day, or spend every day collecting scrap to patch up our leaking house.

So even though a child under fourteen isn’t criminally liable, I didn’t want him to carry that label.

After I got home, I thought about it for a long time.

So many people were looking for Liu Cheng. I knew the truth would come out sooner or later, so I had to prepare.

It was worth giving up my life if that could buy Xiaoning half a lifetime of a future.

I knew Dr. Wang drank heavily on the fifteenth of every month. So I deliberately dressed lightly and knocked on his door in the middle of the night.

I said I hadn’t brought any money. He started tugging at me, wanting me to pay with my body.

I refused, but deliberately acted as if I were wavering.

Just as I expected, he took the bait and followed me home.

I pretended not to notice. I deliberately said in the house that I was the one who had killed him.

He was so scared he nearly wet himself and ran away.

For the next month, I waited for him to report me, but he didn’t say a word. I thought he’d forgotten.

Then, the day after the demolition money was paid out, he came to me and demanded five hundred thousand yuan.

I couldn’t give him a single cent.

That money was for Xiaoning.

Xiaoning overheard us arguing.

He insisted on turning himself in.

I knew if I just told him I would take the blame, he’d never agree.

So I had to put on an act and do everything I could to make you believe I was the one who killed him.

Who could have guessed… you’d find Old Qian?

“Where exactly is the hammer?”

“I understand what Old Qian meant. If I tell you where it is, will that count as helping solve the crime?”

Xiao Hu looked at Captain Lin.

Captain Lin nodded.

“If the hammer really was the murder weapon, then your cooperation will count.”

“All right. I’ll take you there.”

The city’s middle school had moved to a new campus several years ago. A large crack had been found in the main building of the old campus, so it had been declared unsafe and the area sealed off.

We climbed through the blue corrugated-metal fence, went up the main building, and reached the stairwell leading to the observatory.

They pushed open the peeling yellow door. Beneath a pile of junk in the corner, they found a bloodstained hammer wrapped in a plastic bag.

“Have the evidence team take samples immediately and send them to the city for DNA testing. Take samples from Liu Ning, Liu Xiaofang, and Old Qian, too.” A hint of a smile finally appeared on Captain Lin’s face.

We… were finally about to get out from under this case, I thought.

Even though the workday was over, no one at the bureau went home.

The chief paced back and forth by the window.

“Xiao Zhang, go see if the city has sent the results yet. They promised they’d get them to us today.”

On his fifth trip downstairs, he finally spotted the city’s Santana.

With everyone watching expectantly, Captain Lin opened the report.

“Our department tested the mixed sample recovered from the hammer you submitted in connection with the case.

“Testing detected DNA from Liu Ning and Qian Jinbao in the mixed sample. No DNA from Liu Xiaofang was detected.

“The mixed sample also contained DNA from a third person.

“The third person is a blood relative of one of the people whose DNA was found in the sample.”

“Yes!” Xiao Hu was so happy he nearly jumped up.

“Lin Yesheng, get your people to wrap this up! I want the report on my desk tomorrow afternoon!” The chief sounded relieved, too.

The whole bureau was celebrating.

“At last, we can stop searching the dump every day! This is great!”

“I’m taking tomorrow off! My wife gave birth two days ago, and I still haven’t even seen the baby…”

Captain Lin was thrilled, too. But once the excitement passed, a deep unease welled up inside him.

He didn’t go home. Instead, he brought out every statement and piece of evidence in the case and reviewed it all.

First, Liu Ning and Liu Xiaofang had turned themselves in.

Then there was Liu Xiaofang’s evasive, guilty behavior, which led everyone to think she had killed Liu Cheng and made Liu Ning take the blame.

Then Dr. Wang came forward with a lead, directly identifying Liu Xiaofang as the killer.

Liu Ning then said she was lying, and every lead ultimately pointed to Old Qian.

Liu Ning couldn’t read, yet he gave them the name of Loudi, Hunan. Old Qian’s wife had “led them” to Old Qian.

Old Qian’s confession and the hammer established that Liu Ning was the killer.

Everything…

had gone too smoothly.

So smoothly it seemed as if someone had arranged it all in advance.

And there were still many little questions without answers.

There was no DNA from Liu Xiaofang on the hammer at all?

The hammer was a household tool. How could Liu Xiaofang never have touched it?

Liu Xiaofang’s two changes of statement had also come far too easily. First she confessed to killing Liu Cheng. Then she explained why she was taking the blame for Liu Ning. Everything had gone off without a hitch.

Old Lin had worked homicide for more than ten years. He had never seen a criminal enter an interrogation room and not try to argue.

Even with the truth and a chain of evidence laid out in front of them, they always tried to deny at least something.

Most of all, who had been feeding stories to the newspapers?

The earlier suspicious details could just barely be explained as coincidences. But the three articles—the timing of each one, their effect on the case, and the public reaction they provoked—could never be explained away by that word.

Someone had done it on purpose.

Captain Lin stayed up all night organizing the entire case file.

He interrogated Liu Ning, Liu Xiaofang, and Old Qian again, one after another. All three sat silently in their chairs without saying a word.

The next day, Captain Lin was about to ask them again about the newspaper leaks when Xiao Hu came hurrying in.

“Captain Lin, I caught the person who sent the articles to the newspapers!”

Captain Lin got up from the folding bed and looked toward the door.

To his surprise, it was Old Qian’s wife—the thin, dark-complexioned woman who always seemed ill.

According to Xiao Hu, when they arrested her, she was holding a newspaper article she had already assembled from cut-out words. Its headline read:

“Vicious Aunt Incites Nephew to Kill His Father Just to Steal the Demolition Compensation!”

“My name is Li Xiaofang. I’m Old Qian’s wife, and I went to school with Liu Xiaofang.

“Because we had the same name, we secretly competed with each other at school and never got along. Clothes, grades, boyfriends—we compared everything.

“I didn’t get into college, so I married Old Qian. Liu Xiaofang got in, but couldn’t go because of what happened with Liu Cheng.

“Later, when something happened to her family, I was kind enough to let her stay with me. Who knew that shameless woman would hook up with my husband?

“Old Qian went to Hunan and vanished. Meanwhile, she was about to get her hands on the demolition money and live the good life. Why should a man-stealing fox like her get to turn her life around?

“So when I heard Liu Cheng was dead and they’d turned themselves in, I was actually happy.

“See? Liu Xiaofang still couldn’t beat me in the end.

“And I didn’t think I should be the only person who knew what had happened. Everyone should know—our classmates, all our mutual friends.

“Especially the people who used to think she was better than me. I wanted them to see how miserable Liu Xiaofang’s life had become and decide for themselves which of us was doing better—her or me, Li Xiaofang!”

“What about the second article?”

“That day, I went to ask for news about Old Qian. When I went to the bathroom to wipe Liu Xiaofang’s spit off my face, I happened to overhear it.

“Then the third time you came to my house to ask about Old Qian, I saw ‘no evidence’ written in that young officer’s notebook.

“After that, you told me Old Qian wanted to divorce me for that shameless woman. Neither of those adulterers is any good!

“So I sent in the third article…”

After she finished explaining, everyone’s expressions turned grim. Old Qian’s wife grew frightened and hurried to add:

“Comrade Officers, I really didn’t know where Old Qian was in Hunan before. I only found out he’d committed such a serious crime after you told me.

“I found the address among some things he’d sent from his hometown when we got married more than ten years ago.

“I planned to go and check first. If Old Qian really was there, I would definitely have come back and told the police.

“Didn’t you say earlier that if I cooperated, it might count as helping solve the case?

“I only sent in three newspaper articles, and every word was true. I didn’t break any law!”

“But you smeared the police and caused a very bad public reaction!”

“Then put out an article of your own. The case is solved now, isn’t it? You can undo the damage…”