Chapter 3

Captain Chen turned to the page with the follow-up records and pointed to the entry.

“On the twelfth of last month, she developed a rash after accidentally eating spinach. The doctor told her to keep avoiding it and monitor the symptoms. The hospital has just confirmed that these records are genuine.”

I glared at Liu Detai.

“You said you’d been cured for ages. Did I somehow forget who I took to the hospital just last month?”

His lips moved, but no answer came.

Captain Chen handed the documents to a colleague.

“This is only one reason to doubt his identity. It’s not the only reason we’re detaining you.”

He held up his phone.

“Liu Detai, look. Who’s this?”

The footage came from a small supermarket diagonally across from the Liu family’s house.

At dusk, five days earlier, my father stood at the gate of the Liu family’s courtyard with a cloth bag in his hand.

Liu Detai followed him outside.

For the first time, the camera caught the two look-alike faces in the same frame.

My father was about to leave when Liu Zhiyuan grabbed his arm.

Liu Detai rushed him from behind and wrapped both arms around him, squeezing tight.

The three of them struggled and fell beside the threshold.

Then my father stopped moving.

The father and son dragged him into the courtyard, one after the other.

My voice caught in my throat.

“We… helped him inside to rest.” Liu Detai’s teeth chattered.

“By choking him?”

Captain Chen cut him off.

“Where is he? Bring Xu Jianping out!”

Liu Detai clamped his mouth shut.

I raised my hand to slap him, but the female officer caught me around the waist.

“Where’s my father’s phone? Did he give it to you? Would he leave me alone like this?”

Liu Zhiyuan suddenly shouted, “The money was a loan!”

Captain Chen turned to him.

“Did I ask about the money?”

The young man’s face went ashen.

The officers making inquiries had found that yesterday he’d paid off a predatory loan of 260,000 yuan. The police were checking the transfer records.

Uncle Zhang leaned against the doorframe and slowly crouched down.

“Old Liu… didn’t you go back to your hometown?”

Liu Detai was still desperately arguing.

“I’m not Liu Detai! The door lock recognizes me!”

Just then, the identity check came back.

The fingerprints of the man in front of us did not match Xu Jianping’s original records.

The door-lock management history showed that a new fingerprint had been registered three days earlier.

The account that made the change belonged to Liu Zhiyuan.

The name was still Xu Jianping, but the fingerprint had been changed to one that could open the door.

Captain Chen looked at him coldly.

“The photo you just showed us was taken last month, when the lock was set up.”

Liu Zhiyuan’s knees began to shake.

An officer answered his phone, listened to a few words, then hurried over to Captain Chen.

“A truck has arrived at the Liu family’s house. The driver says someone called tonight and asked him to haul away the old chest freezer from the back room. We’ve stopped him.”

Captain Chen immediately picked up his radio.

“Secure the courtyard and call in the search team. No one touches that freezer!”

6

The Liu family’s old house was on the west side of the city.

When I ran over, police tape had already been strung across the courtyard gate.

The truck was parked by the road. The driver crouched beside one of its wheels with his head in his hands, repeating that he’d only come to haul away an old appliance.

From inside the courtyard, I heard metal clanging.

Then all the voices stopped.

I stepped forward, but an officer blocked my way.

“Ms. Xu, please wait here.”

“Have you found him?”

He didn’t answer.

I asked again.

Still, no one answered.

The female officer draped a jacket over my shoulders. When I looked down, I realized I was only wearing slippers, and the sock on my left foot was soaked through.

Not far away, someone was speaking into a phone in a low voice.

“In the back room. Chest freezer. We’ve found the body of a man.”

A body.

The two words seemed to come from somewhere very far away.

I was staring straight at the courtyard gate, yet I couldn’t see anything clearly.

Captain Chen came out and crouched in front of me.

“Xu Ning, we need you to identify two items.”

He showed me photographs of the evidence.

A blue cloth bag.

An old pair of brown sleeve protectors.

My mother had sewn the bag. Its lining was lighter than the outer fabric, and a patch of mismatched cloth repaired a tear in one corner.

I had replaced the elastic in the sleeve protectors. I thought my father’s wrists were too small, so I’d deliberately shortened them by an inch.

“They’re his.”

My lips moved several times before I could get the words out.

“There’s a magnifying glass in the bag. Dad said he was going to repair someone’s old pocket watch. He didn’t want to leave a tool behind and have to make a second trip.”

Captain Chen looked at me, his expression softening.

I grabbed his sleeve.

“Was my father very cold?”

No one answered.

I suddenly threw myself toward the courtyard.

“Bring my dad out! He gets cold so easily—when the weather turns chilly, he has to wear two layers!”

The female officer caught me from behind and held on tight.

I struggled, unable to break free, and my knee slammed against the curb.

Only then did the sobs finally tear out of my throat.

“Dad!”

“I’m home. Can you hear me?”

Inside the police tape, a harsh white light came on.

One of the windows had been covered.