Chapter 6

“The night Fu Nian died... I couldn't sleep. I thought I'd go and sit in the art room for a while.

“I never expected to find her lying naked on the floor.

“At first, I thought I was dreaming. It took me a long time to come to my senses.

“My first thought was to put her clothes back on. But before I'd finished, the guard pinned me down.

“Fu Nian was my salvation. My hope.

“When I saw she was dead, I didn't want to live anymore either.

“So I confessed. I wanted to end my life.”

After hearing his story, I was silent for a long time.

Then I spoke slowly.

“But did you ever think... that doing so would only let the real killer go free? Would that be fair to her?

“You were only moving yourself with your own sacrifice. You never thought about her feelings.

“I believe that if the injustice done to her wasn't put right, she couldn't rest in peace.”

Xiao Chen said nothing.

His face twisted with pain. He seemed to be struggling fiercely inside.

I stood and left the cell.

Making a false statement. Obstructing a police investigation.

Those two charges were enough for him to face consequences.

Early the next morning, I met Bai Qiao at a café near the school, as arranged.

I pushed the coffee I'd ordered toward her.

“Ms. Bai,” I said gently. “I'm sorry for your loss.”

In the space of one night, her adopted daughter had died, and the killer had turned out to be the student she'd sponsored.

An ordinary person would struggle to bear such a shock.

“Thank you,” she murmured, her face heavy.

“May I ask... why you wanted to see me, Officer Xia?”

22

Holding back the anger churning inside me, I continued.

“You'd already had your revenge. Why wouldn't you leave the sisters alone?”

Venom filled her face. She spoke through gritted teeth.

“Blame the girl for looking so much like her mother. Every time I saw that face, I was filled with hatred I couldn't control.

“This time, I wanted to destroy her completely, from beginning to end. Leave nothing.

“So after adopting the sisters, I secretly devised a plan.

“A plan that lasted fifteen years.

“And I have to admit, it succeeded beyond my expectations.”

I forced myself to stay calm and feigned indifference.

“Oh? Would you tell me about this perfect plan?”

Bai Qiao smiled again.

The smile exposed exactly eight even white teeth. She'd clearly practiced it.

“Let me remind you again. Everything I'm about to say is simply a story I've invented from your conjectures. The ‘I’ in the story is not the real me.”

I nodded for her to continue.

She thought for a moment.

“Fu Yi was the most important person in Fu Nian's life. To make Fu Nian suffer, I only needed to turn the sisters against each other.

“So I treated them completely differently from childhood.

“I poured everything into nurturing Fu Nian, raising her to be the perfect child. Fu Yi, on the other hand, never got my attention.

“I let her do whatever she wanted and sink further and further. I even stood by and watched it happen.

“After more than a decade, her hatred for her sister had only grown.”

I listened silently, a chill spreading through me.

“Of course, I couldn't pin all my hopes on Fu Yi alone.

“So I chose another pupil from a miserable family. I paid for her education, pulled her out of the mud, and made her see me as her savior.

“Xu Ruo.

“From time to time, I'd happen to mention Fu Nian in front of her. I constantly praised Fu Nian's excellence and made no secret of my affection.

“It was easy to stir Xu Ruo's competitive spirit and make her feel threatened.

“She worked herself to the bone trying to beat Fu Nian. She failed every time.

“The foolish girl never knew I secretly gave Fu Nian the questions before every exam.

“How could she possibly win?”

Bai Qiao lowered her head and chuckled, as though telling a delightful anecdote.

“No one wants to share the most important person in their life.

“Year after year... tell me, how could Xu Ruo not resent Fu Nian?”

I was about to speak when she cut me off.

“Oh, yes. I'm a very careful person. Two pawns weren't enough.

“So I agreed to make a sacrifice. I willingly got together with Liu Jie. I even lived with him.”

She frowned in disgust.

“That really was an enormous sacrifice. Every time I looked at his fat, greasy body, I wanted to vomit.

“But whenever I thought of him groping Fu Nian, his eyes full of lust, I felt such pleasure.

“She was too embarrassed to say it plainly. She only hinted that I should break up with him.

“I just said gently, ‘If I leave him, I'll lose my job.’

“She never mentioned it again. She silently endured everything.

“Ha ha ha... She really was just like her mother.”

Bai Qiao laughed until she shook and tears came to her eyes.

At last, she could reveal secrets she'd kept for years.

Once she'd begun, she seemed unable to stop.

23

“As you know, the university entrance exams are coming soon.

“Fu Nian endured all those years for this day. Once the exams were over, she could leave that suffocating home.

“But to drag someone into the deepest despair just as hope is within reach...

“That's the perfect revenge.”

I swallowed, my voice trembling.

“So... what did you do?”

Bai Qiao drew a deep breath, her eyes bright with excitement.

She looked like a child peeling away the last layer of wrapping paper, about to see the present she'd wanted most.

“That evening, I went to see Fu Yi and Xu Ruo separately.

“I told Fu Yi I wanted her to work after high school and earn money to support her sister's studies abroad. Our family's finances simply couldn't cover the expensive tuition and living costs overseas.

“And... it was what Fu Nian wanted too.

“Just as I'd expected, she stormed off to confront her sister.

“Before she reached Fu Nian, I ‘accidentally’ let her discover the truth about the car accident that killed their parents.

“Once she found out the sister she hated most was responsible for their deaths, and rage robbed her of her reason... what do you think she'd do?”

As Bai Qiao spoke, her satisfaction grew. There was even a hint of madness on her face.

“Then I told Xu Ruo much the same thing.

“I said Fu Nian was going abroad and had demanded I stop sponsoring her. That she was jealous of how close we were, and wouldn't let me see her anymore.

“‘Xu Ruo, you'll understand, won't you? Fu Nian is more gifted than you, after all. More perfect...’

“She didn't lose her temper. She just nodded and said she understood.

“But I know her. The calmer she is, the more turmoil there is inside.

“She always looks cold and emotionless, but deep down she suppresses feelings powerful enough to drive her mad.

“She's like a thermos. Cold on the outside, full of boiling water within.

“After speaking to both girls, I went to my online meeting.

“I'd spent more than a decade carefully laying the tracks of fate. All I had to do was set the train in motion. It would follow its appointed course and crush Fu Nian, already tied to the rails.”

Her mingled madness and triumph made me shiver.

In a dark corner no one knew about, she'd spent decades painstakingly constructing a magnificent stage play.

She was proud of her perfect masterpiece, but she'd had to keep it hidden, unable to share it.

Today, her theater had finally welcomed its one audience member.

Me.

At last, someone knew the masterpiece she'd labored over. How could she not be excited? How could she not be delirious?

Before long, she recovered her gentle, tranquil manner, as if life had always been peaceful.

She sipped her coffee, laced her fingers, and gave me that practiced smile.

Her features were beautiful, her movements graceful. Her carefully maintained face bore no trace of age.

Yet looking at her filled me with an indescribable fear.

Who could imagine that beneath that beautiful skin, flesh-eating flowers flourished, rooted in foul, rotting soil?

I could no longer contain my anger.

“Do you realize you've destroyed three young people? They should have had bright futures and happy families. You dragged them into the abyss, step by step.”

Bai Qiao met my gaze without yielding, her eyes full of contempt.

“Captain Xia, please don't confuse a story with reality. And even if every word were true, what crime have I committed? Are you going to have me shot for saying a few unkind things?”

I slowly stood and walked over.

Under her astonished gaze, I took out my handcuffs and locked them around her wrists.

“Bai Qiao, you're suspected of involvement in a murder. Come to the station with me to assist the investigation.”

She laughed in fury.

“Captain Xia, I think you've lost your mind. You solved Fu Nian's case yourself. You arrested Xu Ruo yourself. Are you really going to convict me on the basis of the story I just told?”

I shook my head, my voice full of pain.

“No. The person you're suspected of killing isn't Fu Nian. It's my sister... Xia Ruonan.”

Her expression changed immediately.

“Wh... what kind of joke is that?” she asked stiffly. “Don't make accusations without evidence. I'll sue you for defamation.”

I took out my phone and played a video.

In it, Bai Qiao quietly approached my sister's bed and swiftly inserted a syringe into her arm.

“At three thirty-six this morning, you slipped into Xia Ruonan's room and gave her an insulin injection.

“An insulin overdose can be fatal. Insulin also breaks down in the body. Without a thorough investigation, the real cause of death can be difficult to establish.

“More importantly, Ruonan had terminal brain cancer and was dying. If she suddenly passed away, no one would think to perform an autopsy.

“That's why someone as cautious as you dared take the risk.”

After watching the video, Bai Qiao went white and slumped.

“Impossible... Impossible...” she muttered in disbelief. “There weren't any security cameras in that room...”

I looked down at her and met her eyes.

“I deliberately moved Ruonan to that room without cameras. I was waiting for you to take the bait, Ms. Bai.”

She closed her eyes in despair.

I took her wrist and escorted her to the police car.

After bringing her to the station, I went into the restroom.

Sitting on the toilet, I quietly began to cry.

Like Bai Qiao, I'd painstakingly staged a play.

I had directed yesterday's performance.

My sister was in a deep coma. She couldn't receive any information from the outside world, let alone help me solve a case through some supposed brain-wave receiver.

Everything I'd done was a trick to make the real culprit reveal herself.

I'd known from the beginning that Xiao Chen wasn't the killer.

Following the evidence and my deductions, I'd identified Xu Ruo through the missing paintbrush.

My colleagues had found it in the storeroom long before. Testing had confirmed the blood on it was hers.

I'd stopped them just as they were preparing to arrest her.

Because I'd realized there was another crucial figure in the case.

Bai Qiao.

She was too perfect.

Too normal.

My sister's words echoed in my head.

“It's simple. The person who seems most normal is the least normal. In a case, the more normal someone appears, the more suspicious they are.”

A perfect alibi.

A woman who'd remained unmarried all her life to care for her best friend's children.

Who quietly funded a poor student's education.

At first glance, the case had nothing to do with her.

Yet her shadow was everywhere.

My first impression of her had been a single image.

A spider.

Lying elegantly at the center of a vast web, keeping her distance while knowing everything.

Any prey caught in it would only sink deeper the harder they struggled, until they couldn't move and could only die in despair.

I began investigating her background.

The information I found was like a thread connecting all my scattered conjectures.

I made bold assumptions about her motives and purpose.

In the end, though, I realized that even if every theory was right, I could do nothing to her.

I couldn't break the web she'd spent so many years weaving.

My only chance was to make her step out herself.

So I gathered them together and borrowed my sister's reputation as a detective genius to “solve” the case.

There was a remote control in my trouser pocket.

Its two buttons made the computer play different sounds and change colors.

With that simple trick, I pretended to communicate with my sister.

Step by step, clue by clue, I peeled away the fog and found the real killer.

By the end, everyone believed completely in my sister's genius.

All I had to do then was cast a net and wait for Bai Qiao to walk into it.

Through my sister, I said the case wasn't over. There was still a hidden truth.

The others were merely doubtful.

Only Bai Qiao was truly afraid. She feared her plan had a flaw that my sister had discovered.

She'd witnessed Ruonan's intelligence and extraordinary powers of deduction firsthand.

She was frightened.

She couldn't risk it.

But she still clung to a little hope.

I decided to fan the flames.

When I said the equipment would be repaired the next morning, she finally stopped hesitating.

That very night, she attacked my sister.

I'd deliberately moved Ruonan to this hospital because Bai Qiao often came here for rhinitis treatment and knew it well.

She knew the room had no cameras. She knew my sister was dying and that no one would perform an autopsy.

It all strengthened her resolve to kill.

What she didn't know...

Was that I'd installed a camera inside the helmet.

When she entered the room, the camera hidden in the helmet on the table faithfully recorded everything.

Through my blurred tears, my sister's face rose before me again.

I remembered her holding my hand in her hospital bed and crying.

“I can't accept it. I'd rather die at a criminal's hands, following a lead... than die in a hospital bed.”

It felt as though a knife were cutting into my heart.

I'd watched her suffer, powerless to help.

Now...

I'd used what little life she had left to turn the enemy's own methods against her.

Bai Qiao, who'd destroyed so many lives, had finally paid the price.

I don't know whether what I did was right or wrong.

But if my sister could know...

She'd surely agree with me.

Wouldn't you, Ruonan?