Chapter 7

That didn’t just resolve the last remaining doubt. It also subtly reminded the police to use the newspapers to undo the negative publicity, leading us to put the official stamp on the case ourselves and call it airtight.

From beginning to end, you were misleading the police, steering us down the path you had laid out.

Whether the killer was over fourteen, who the killer really was, and how anyone could be convicted without witnesses or physical evidence—you used public opinion at every step to magnify those questions and bury the real truth: who the vanished body under the bed really was.

But Liu Ning, let me tell you this. Maybe you escaped punishment ten years ago, but people who do wrong must pay for it!

“Your story is fascinating,” Liu Ning said, “but do you have any evidence?”

Secretary Lin pointed toward the old man in the room.

“Your father, Liu Cheng, is alive and well right here. That’s the best evidence.”

“Liu Cheng is dead. Your own team solved that case, and the police deleted his household registration.”

“The man standing here today is my adoptive father, Liu Sheng. Even if I was adopted rather late.” Liu Ning looked tenderly at Liu Sheng, who was happily playing.

“Would you dare to take a paternity test with him?” Secretary Lin asked.

“I would,” Liu Ning answered without hesitation.

“Then, Secretary Lin… would you dare reopen the case?”

Secretary Lin paused. He didn’t answer directly. He only said:

“That wouldn’t be fair to Old Qian.”

Liu Ning closed the bedroom door.

“Secretary Lin, let me tell you a story. You can decide… if we’ve lived like this, what would fairness even look like?”

Liu Ning turned on the television in the living room. Page after page of yellowed paper appeared on the screen.

August 2

“My home is in Hebei. I have to get home. My younger sister is waiting for the money for college.

“Zhang Jianjun is in Tibet, Wang Qing in Henan, Zhu Chang in Yantai, Sun Ming in Qingdao, Li Weidong in Suzhou, Wang Guoye in Guilin, Wu Hui in Tianshui, Li Peng in Chifeng, Lei Jing in Guangxi, Chang Lei in Zhangjiakou…

“I have to remember the thirty-two people who helped me. Their families are waiting for them, too. When I get home, I have to report it to the police. I must report it to the police.”

August 5

“I’ve been walking for three days and still haven’t left Shanxi. No wonder my lame leg and blind eye are slowing me down so much.

“I wonder if Fang’er will reject me when I get home. But even if she does, that’s all right. Fang’er deserves someone better.

“I have to walk faster. I want to get home before my younger sister starts college.

“Thirty-two people.”

August 6

“I woke up with a headache this morning. I have a vague feeling I’ve forgotten something. Since it’s raining today, I should write more in my diary.

“My name is Liu Cheng. My home is in Hebei. My younger sister got into college, but our family has no money. We’ve tried everything we can think of and borrowed wherever we could, but we still don’t have enough for tuition.

“But when I saw my sister clutching her acceptance letter, her eyes shining, I decided to take a gamble.”

Qian Jinbao, who was apprenticing at Fang’er’s repair shop, introduced me to a job at a Shanxi coal mine. I signed a five-year contract to work underground and received five thousand yuan in advance.

Qian Jinbao swore he’d help me take the money home.

The mine foreman got drunk and told me the five-year contract was a fake. We’d work underground until we died. Qian Jinbao had sold me for five thousand yuan.

I asked the man who’d signed the contract with me. He didn’t answer. He just had his people beat me up. I understood then: the foreman was telling the truth.

He said I could leave if I signed a debt agreement and found someone else to take my place. That was how Qian Jinbao had escaped.

I hated him so much.

I can’t stay here forever. My parents, my sister, and Xiaoning are waiting for me at home.

I’ve tried to escape three times. They caught me every time and beat me half to death.

In the end, they grabbed my hand and pressed my fingerprint onto the debt agreement.

They said once my injuries healed, they’d seal me inside the mine and throw me down a shaft, then call it an accident.

I don’t want to die. My family is waiting for me.

I pretended to give in. I swore I wouldn’t run away again and would work hard.

When my injuries had nearly healed, I searched their office, found more than two thousand yuan, and escaped again.

My leg is lame. I’m blind in one eye. My mind isn’t clear anymore… but I’m still alive.

If I’m alive, I have to get home.

Wanted posters with my name are everywhere. There are police at the bus station, along with the mine’s men. I don’t dare take a bus.

Even if I have to walk, I have to go home.

Once I get home and report them to the police, I won’t be afraid of the police anymore.

I want to go home.

…

The later entries were broken and hard to read.

It was impossible to tell what he had written with.

On the last page, someone had carved a crooked scar into his arm with a knife:

“Hebei. Home. 32.”

“He spent seventeen years on that road home.”

“From Shanxi, through Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, Dalian, Tianjin… and finally back to Hebei.”

Even Secretary Lin, who had been a police officer for years, was shaken.

A man with a lame leg, one blind eye, and a mind damaged by beatings walked across Inner Mongolia with nothing but a ragged diary. No few words could convey what he must have endured.

“Seventeen years later, he finally came back to the home he’d dreamed of every night… But what was left of his family?

“His parents had been driven to their deaths by a piece of paper—the debt agreement.

“Their house and fields had all been sold.

“His sister had been denied a college education and left carrying a murder charge and a debt of ninety thousand yuan that grew with interest, one she could never repay in her lifetime.

“To raise her son, she had to sell her body again and again to men who lusted after her, becoming the very kind of woman she had once despised.

“The woman he loved had married the very man who tricked him into going to Shanxi. Her husband beat her every day.

“And he himself became a ‘dead man’ with a terrible reputation.

“Secretary Lin, tell me… who will give him justice?”

“Old Qian sold Liu Cheng to an illegal coal mine in Shanxi and destroyed your whole family. So you killed him?”

“That’s not right. On April 15, 2003, Liu Cheng hadn’t returned to Hebei yet. You couldn’t have known about that.”

Liu Ning let out a cold laugh.

“But I knew.

“Because that day… Old Qian told me himself.”

…

“April 15 is my birthday.

“No. I should say it’s the day Liu Cheng found me.

“Liu Cheng wasn’t my father, either.

“Old Qian was my biological father.”

Secretary Lin was shocked.

“What? Old Qian was your father?!”

“I was shocked, too.

“How could a biological father watch his own son pass out from hunger in a repair shop?

“How could a biological father make his son pay for every meal he gave him with his sister’s body?

“How could a biological father smash my skull with a wrench over the house deed?

“How could a biological father watch me live like a dog for more than ten years?

“How could a biological father sell the man who saved his son’s life to an illegal coal mine for five thousand yuan?

“How… could he be my real father?”

“If I wasn’t Liu Cheng’s son, what did my aunt sacrifice all those years for?”

Liu Ning broke down in tears. The calm, composed expression he’d worn before was gone.

“Secretary Lin, do you believe it?

“A man had countless chances to acknowledge his own son.

“When I was starving in the repair shop.

“When the other children cornered me and called me a bastard.

“When I fought a stray dog over a bone with a little meat left on it.

“When I mixed up the wires while repairing a car, and Old Qian kicked my arm so hard he broke it. I couldn’t afford the hospital, so they threw me out…

“But he never claimed me.

“Then, right at this moment—right when my aunt refused to hand him the house deed—he suddenly appeared and said he was my biological father!”

…

“So the DNA test you conducted back then, no matter how detailed it was, would have correctly found the third person to be related to me by blood.”

Secretary Lin was stunned.

If Old Qian really was Liu Ning’s biological father, then given the public pressure and testing methods of the time, the case had been almost perfectly sealed.

…

“‘I killed him. Xiaoning had nothing to do with it.’

“‘No. I killed him. None of you had anything to do with it.’

“Who was your aunt saying those words to?”

“To me.” Li Xiaofang sat down in the chair beside them.

…

“That morning, I heard everything Old Qian said to Xiaoning.

“Liu Ning was his biological son, and Liu Cheng was the man he had tricked and sold to the illegal coal mine.

“I was shocked and furious. My heart was pounding so hard that I was afraid I’d collapse, so I went home to take my heart medicine and rest.

“I didn’t expect to sleep until midnight.

“When I saw Old Qian still hadn’t come back, I hurried to Liu Ning’s house.

“Liu Ning was on the bed, unconscious and covered in blood. Old Qian was on the floor, crawling around, trying to get away.

“‘You damn woman, help me! What are you standing there for?’

“‘When I can stand up, I’ll kill every one of you!’

“I asked him if he had sold Liu Cheng to the illegal coal mine.

“He said he had.

“‘The two thousand yuan in bride price I gave your father when I married you—that was the money. What, do you feel sorry for him now?’

“‘If your father hadn’t demanded two thousand yuan for the bride price, I wouldn’t have had to…’

“He was blaming me!”

…

“To protect Fang’er and Xiaoni, and for Liu Cheng… Old Qian could not be allowed to walk out of that room alive.”

“I pretended to help him up, then strangled him with a shoelace I found on the floor.”

…

“Secretary Lin, you kept saying it wouldn’t be fair to Old Qian…

“Do you still think that now?

“Who will give us justice?”

Secretary Lin was silent for a long time. In the end, he couldn’t say anything.

Inside the room, Liu Cheng suddenly had a psychotic episode and began shouting:

“I want to go home… go home… if you’re alive, you have to go home… report it to the police… there are still thirty-two people…”

Secretary Lin stood up to take his leave.

His steps felt unbearably heavy.

He went over the case again.

Not only the “Liu Ning Kills His Father” case, but many other old cases as well.

Secretary Lin reviewed the entire case once more.

Not only the “Liu Ning Kills His Father” case, but many other old cases as well.

That family had spent every bit of money they had struggled to earn helping strangers in need.

Secretary Lin was torn apart by the dilemma.

On one side was a victim with countless crimes to his name, a man who deserved to die.

On the other was a pitiful but kind-hearted killer.

Should he reopen the case?

This family had fallen step by step into an abyss, each time because they chose to do good.

If he didn’t reopen it?

Fairness and justice weren’t only for good people. They were for everyone. Those who did wrong had to be punished.

Secretary Lin sat motionless at his desk all night. The ashtray was overflowing with cigarette butts.

The next morning, he had just washed his face and hadn’t yet started his day when an unexpected visitor arrived.

Liu Ning said:

“Secretary Lin, I want to talk to you.”

“We can turn ourselves in… but I have one condition.”

Secretary Lin was taken aback.

He couldn’t understand why Liu Ning, so sharp and unyielding the day before, had suddenly changed his mind.

He poured Liu Ning a cup of tea.

Everything Liu Ning said was true. The life they had now was hard-won, and even Secretary Lin felt a pang of sadness.

“What condition?”

He guessed Liu Ning might ask him to reduce the sentences for Liu Xiaofang and Li Xiaofang, or find someone to care for Liu Cheng, or ask for something related to his own company…

“Reopen the Shanxi 4.27 coal-mine disaster.”

“What?”

Secretary Lin stared at him.

He couldn’t understand why Liu Ning would make a request that seemed completely unrelated.

After thinking for a long time, he asked:

“That coal mine… was the one Liu Cheng, your father, was sold to?”

“That’s right.”

“Why?”

“For the thirty-two lives.”

“On April 27, there was a cave-in.

“The local authorities responded quickly. Rescue teams, government officials, police, and the media all arrived at the scene.

“The mine owner hadn’t had time to move the trafficked workers elsewhere.

“To keep the human trafficking from coming to light, he tricked thirty-three people, including my father, into an abandoned mine nearby.

“They were locked inside for three days.

“They discussed it and decided that since the police and government officials were outside, they might be rescued if they climbed out.

“Once the decision was made, they acted.

“My father was younger and more agile. With help from the others, he climbed into a deep recess in the side of the shaft.

“While the others were tying their clothes together to make a rope and preparing to escape…

“More than ten construction vehicles started working on the top of the shaft at once.

“Hundreds of cubic meters of earth and rock came crashing down.

“All thirty-two people below… died.

“All that remained was a torn rope made from their clothes.

“By the time my father clawed his way out, his hands bleeding, the whole thing had practically been settled. The government officials had already left.

“The mine owner saw that my father was healthy, so he kept him and made him continue working.

“My father kept those eleven pairs of trousers and eighteen shirts.

“He didn’t throw them away when he escaped.

“He put them all on and walked across Inner Mongolia for seventeen years.

“Today I want to ask you, Secretary Lin… reopen the April 27 coal-mine disaster and give justice to those thirty-two people who died unjustly.”

Beyond his outrage at the illegal mine owners, who treated human lives as worthless, Secretary Lin was mostly confused.

“I still don’t quite understand… How is reopening the 4.27 case necessarily connected to you turning yourselves in?”

“After my father came back, we tried more than once to get justice for those thirty-two people.

“The case is too old. The mine changed hands several times, and the shaft was filled in and shut down.

“Their remains are gone.

“The only person who knows the truth—the only evidence—is my father, Liu Cheng.

“But Liu Cheng is ‘dead.’

“Now he’s Liu Sheng.

“If he lives as Liu Cheng, his son, his sister, and the woman he loved will all have to go to prison.

“But if he lives as Liu Sheng, those thirty-two lives will simply disappear in silence.

“They were someone’s father, someone’s older brother, someone’s beloved.

“He doesn’t say it, but when he’s lucid and confused, he feels around for his clothes in the middle of the night, layering them one by one, muttering the thirty-two names and insisting he has to go home… That image keeps tearing at our hearts.

“So my aunt and the rest of us have already discussed it. We’ll make the choice for my father.

“Liu Cheng will remain Liu Cheng.

“Forever a kind-hearted man—perhaps a little too foolishly kind.”

After he said that, Liu Ning seemed to have let go of a burden.

“Secretary Lin, last year you led a team to Shanxi to crack down on organized crime. That investigation touched on this case, too. You just didn’t have evidence at the time.

“Reopening both cases together won’t be difficult for you.”

Secretary Lin looked at Liu Ning in front of him.

The outline of Old Qian’s face seemed to appear on his own, yet somehow Liu Ning looked more and more like Liu Cheng.

“How did you know I’d decided to reopen your case? I didn’t give you a clear answer yesterday.”

Liu Ning pointed to the third-class merit banner, which had been taken down and tossed aside.

“I knew as soon as I walked in.”

Secretary Lin laughed.

“All right.

“Liu Xinning, I agree.”

“Both cases will be reopened!”

“Liu Xinning… you don’t look like him at all.

“But you look more and more like Liu Cheng.”

Liu Ning understood what he meant. His eyes reddened, and he bowed deeply.

“Thank you, Secretary Lin!”

“Is that what everyone wants?”

“Yes.

“My aunt and Auntie Xiaofang both feel the same way.

“If we did wrong, we should be punished.

“That’s true for us.

“And it’s true for them, too.”

Both cases were quickly reopened.

The remains of the thirty-two people were finally found. DNA technology helped identify their families, and they were returned to their hometowns.

The illegal mine owner and those involved in human trafficking at the time all received appropriate punishment.

Li Xiaofang was sentenced to five years in prison for intentional murder.

Liu Xiaofang and Liu Xinning were sentenced to three years and one year, respectively, for destroying a body.

Liu Cheng was admitted to a nursing home.

It was in the suburbs, with a pleasant environment.

Secretary Lin drove out to visit him from time to time.

Liu Cheng attended the retrial of the April 27 coal-mine disaster.

After that, his mental state improved considerably.

When Secretary Lin visited, Liu Cheng was lucid most of the time.

Secretary Lin came to see him again today.

At the entrance, he ran into someone he knew—the nursing home attendant.

“Oh, Secretary Lin, what kind of person is this Liu Cheng, anyway?

“For more than a year, someone has come to visit him almost every day, from all over the country.

“Last time a few people came from Guangxi, talking about some ‘laobiao’ this and ‘laobiao’ that. I couldn’t understand a word.

“And every time, they bring bags and bags of things. When they leave, they insist on giving him money.

“Is Liu Cheng some important official or rich businessman?

“Ever since he came here, this nursing home has been lively every day…”

Secretary Lin was silent for a moment, then said:

“Liu Cheng isn’t an important official, and he isn’t a rich businessman.

“He’s just…

“Just an ordinary man.

“An ordinary, kind-hearted man named Liu.”

The End