Chapter 8
Edward Quan ·
Vương Ngưng laughed.
A wild laugh.
“You? You were the one I wanted dead most.
“When you pursued me, what did you say?
“That you believed me. That whatever happened, you always would.
“In the end, you believed Vạn Phong's rubbish and broke up with me.
“Didn't you deserve to die?”
I shook my head.
“I always believed you.”
“Then why leave me?”
“Not because of the karaoke club. Not because of the rumors.
“Because by then, your state of mind had become too extreme.”
“Oh?”
I had known she had her reasons.
I had known she hadn't crossed any lines.
But later, somehow, things spiraled.
People kept saying money could buy a night with her.
At first, I didn't believe it.
Until one day, I saw her leave a hotel with a strange man.
It hurt terribly.
I had never understood why she changed so much.
Now I did.
Judging by the timing, it had been after her parents died.
The shock had been too great.
She had gone mad.
“Given what you'd become, wasn't it normal for me to leave?”
“But you promised!”
“I can swear that if it had only been the club, without what followed, I wouldn't have.”
“Then why did you disappear for half a month?”
“I fought the people spreading rumors. My face was bruised. I didn't want you to worry.”
“You're lying.”
“Call and ask.”
I named several people.
“Ask whether I fought them at university. And why.”
She fell silent.
So did I.
An invisible film seemed to separate us.
Neither could pierce it.
We could only look.
Never reach each other.
“I truly hate you.”
I shrugged and said nothing.
“But I hate myself more. I couldn't bring myself to kill you.”
“So skipping me wasn't a mistake?”
“In a way, it was. I meant to kill you that night, but Hướng Nam saw me. There was a witness.
“Still, if I'd been determined, I could have done it.”
“Poison the dining room coffee?”
“Yes. I didn't expect Cốc Cường to drink it.
“He happened to be next after you on the list, so I went with it.”
She was right.
Had she insisted I go down to eat and have coffee, I probably would have.
“Can you bring yourself to kill me now?”
She was silent for a while.
Then shook her head slightly.
“Still can't.”
With that, she ran toward the nearby railing.
And jumped.
Vương Ngưng had killed herself.
I didn't know what I felt.
Relief at surviving?
Sorrow for her fate?
Grief at my classmates' unjust deaths?
A sense that we reap what we sow?
Perhaps all of them.
Perhaps nothing.
I sat alone in the courtyard until dawn.
Then I returned to the resort and lit a fire.
Standing at the broken bridge, I watched black smoke billow upward.
Like our filthy lives.
“Officer, this is the fifth time. I swear I wasn't the killer. Everything I've told you is true.”
He asked, “If you realized burning the resort would attract the forest fire service, why didn't you do it at the start?”
“I didn't know when I might die. I was petrified. I only thought of it later.
“Besides, it was Vạn Phong's resort. He was alive then. I couldn't burn it whenever I liked.”
He checked his watch.
“Take him back for now.”
“Officer... when can I leave?”
“Officer, twelve times now. What else do you want?”
“We've contacted some of your university classmates. Several things don't match your account.”
“What things?”
“Some say you and Vương Ngưng weren't a couple. You were class president. She handled academic affairs.
“You often went around together, so people assumed you were dating.”
I laughed.
“So many people say we were. You deliberately found someone who didn't think so?
“Dating isn't marriage. There's no certificate.
“You call that a contradiction?”
He looked at me.
“The biggest problem is that the entire account comes from you alone.”
“Obviously! Everyone else is dead. Who else could tell it?”
“Below the cliff, we found only Vương Ngưng's body.
“Not Hướng Bắc's.”
“Then keep looking. It's all water. Who knows where the current took her?”
He stared.
“Could Hướng Bắc still be alive?”
“What?”
27
“If she is, everything you've told us could be overturned.
“You and she conspired to kill everyone.”
I sighed.
“She had severe asthma. She couldn't disappear for so long.
“Even with an inhaler, she couldn't perform strenuous activity, let alone all those complicated murders.”
“She couldn't. Hướng Nam could.”
27
“You say you scratched Hướng Nam's arm, then checked the mark when she entered your room.
“But what if you lied?”
“What do you mean?”
“The woman in your room that night wasn't Hướng Nam.
“It was Hướng Bắc.”
I waved that aside.
“Why would she come?”
“To ask whether her sister was with you, for example.”
28
“Suppose Hướng Nam disappeared that very evening and hid herself.
“Hướng Bắc thought her sister was in your room, went to ask, and happened to meet Vương Ngưng.
“Hướng Nam planted poison in the dining room, killing Cốc Cường. Then she drugged Vương Ngưng.
“The woman held by fishing line who fell into the gorge wasn't a substitute.
“She really was Vương Ngưng.
“That explains why we found her body but not Hướng Bắc's.
“Hướng Bắc's throat had been cut by her sister. Her body was burned in the resort fire.
“Hướng Nam never died at all.
“Doesn't that make sense?”
29
“Officer, it's all speculation. Solving a crime requires evidence.
“I arrived later than everyone. How could I know who would stay?”
“Wasn't Vạn Phong notorious for partying? He often brought people there.
“Wasn't that why this group stayed?
“There were also rumors about the twins' profession. True or not, he would certainly have been interested.”
I shook my head hard.
“And I had no motive. Why go to all that trouble?”
“We've found plenty else that contradicts your account.”
“Such as?”
“Such as your girlfriend at university being Hướng Nam, not Vương Ngưng.”
“Nonsense.”
“Vương Ngưng did work at a KTV club. Her father really was ill.
“But to earn faster, she began recruiting classmates.”
My expression darkened.
“Hướng Bắc agreed. She went further than Vương Ngưng.
“After drinking with clients, she often spent the night with them. She mixed with all kinds of people.
“The sisters weren't close.
“Because Hướng Bắc was ill, their parents doted on her almost blindly. She often bullied Hướng Nam.
“A group of thugs mistook Hướng Nam for her sister. Forced her to drink, then...
“And after she was humiliated, her classmates despised and mocked her even more than Vương Ngưng.”
“Enough!”
I slammed the table, my eyes bloodshot.
Several deep breaths brought me back under control.
“I'll say it again. You need evidence.
“Not speculation and hypotheses.
“Would I risk my life over something like that?”
He cleared his throat.
“For example... you have a terminal illness.”
He took out a medical report and placed it before me.
“Late-stage lung cancer. Incurable.”
I looked straight into his eyes.
“So? What has that got to do with keeping me here?”
“I know you didn't kill anyone. You're covering for her.
“Tell me where Hướng Nam is.”
30
“She's dead. Her throat was cut.”
He sat back.
“Does she know you're ill?”
“How should I know what she knows?”
“Then we'll make it public. See whether she comes to see you one last time.
“We don't know what you promised her.
“But you've sacrificed so much. At least she should know, so she'll remember what you did for her.”
31
“Don't you dare!”
32
“I'll ask again.
“Where is Hướng Nam?”
33
An officer rushed into the interview room, not even stopping to knock.
He tried to lower his voice, but in his excitement, I heard him clearly.
“We recovered a fingerprint from the burned body. Results are back.
“It's Hướng Nam.”
“Are you certain?”
“Certain. Hướng Nam.”
The interrogating officer stared at me in disbelief.
At the mockery on my face.
“No... something isn't right...”
He muttered to himself.
I whistled calmly.
34
No one knew that when the twins took the university entrance exam, Hướng Nam's results were a little better.
Their parents switched their identity cards.
Their fingerprints were registered again under the new identities.
Unfortunately, neither got into the better university they wanted. They ended up at the same one.
To save trouble, they never switched back.
To teachers and classmates, Hướng Nam was still Hướng Nam.
But in the household registration system, the person registered as Hướng Nam was really Hướng Bắc.
And Hướng Bắc was really Hướng Nam.
After their parents died in a traffic accident last year, I was the only one left who knew.
35
“Actually, whether we convict you hardly matters now. You probably won't live to hear the verdict.
“But there's one thing I'm particularly curious about.”
I stopped whistling.
“Ask.”
“I've confirmed it repeatedly. You were the only person alive at the entire resort that day.
“Behind it, an unclimbable cliff.
“Below it, a gorge with no path.
“If someone else survived, how did she leave?”
I lifted my hands above my head, brought my thumbs together, and flapped my hands like wings.
“She flew.”
(The End)