Chapter 3
Edward Quan ·
“I’ve spent all this time looking for leads and come up with nothing.”
Wei Dong looked at me.
“The investigation will be closed tomorrow. Weng Chengwen’s death will be ruled a suicide.”
“I’m sorry I’ve kept bothering you.”
“Given your mobility problems, you really couldn’t have committed the crime. I was too stubborn to accept that.”
He still sounded despondent.
I knew the decision to close the case came from pressure higher up. It wasn’t what he truly believed.
After a moment, I said slowly, “Have you looked into Weng Chengwen’s background, Officer Wei?”
“Or, more specifically, the people around him? His relationships?”
He gave me a puzzled look, unsure what I meant.
After all, throughout the three interviews, I had acted as if this case had nothing to do with me.
I met his eyes.
“After Weng Chengwen confessed, everyone turned against him. But his wife and daughter were different. They trusted him. They never believed he could have done such a thing.”
“Yet soon after he went to prison, his wife was killed in a traffic accident while picking their daughter up from school. She died at the scene.”
Wei Dong frowned slightly.
“I know. It’s terribly sad.”
I burst out laughing.
He stared at me, baffled.
“The truck driver who killed them didn’t even have a delivery to make that day. He took over someone else’s shift.”
“And he was allergic to alcohol, yet he deliberately drank that day. The whole point was to make it look like an accident.”
Wei Dong looked shocked.
“What… What exactly do you know?”
I smiled.
“It wasn’t just Weng Chengwen’s wife and daughter. His parents-in-law also died in accidents, one after the other.”
“One death might be an accident. But an entire family, one by one? Can you still call that an accident?”
He shot to his feet, turned, and left.
The door hadn’t closed properly. A gust of wind blew in, and only then did I realize my face was cold with tears.
9
That night, I sat in my wheelchair, looking out at the darkness beyond the window.
A faint sound came from the front door.
My lips curved.
It was almost as if I could see a vast net slowly drawing tight.
The bedroom door was kicked open.
A tall man dressed in black appeared before me.
I looked at him.
“You’ve finally come.”
His voice was low.
“So you’re still alive.”
The next instant, the lights came on.
Wei Dong rushed out and pinned him to the floor.
The man panicked, desperately trying to cover his face. Wei Dong rolled him over and got a clear look at him.
Disappointment filled his voice.
“Uncle Wang. Did my father really send you?”
The man said nothing.
I smiled.
“Five years ago, your father had Wang do his dirty work. Five years later, he’s still using Wang.”
“Your father really is loyal, Officer Wei.”
Wei Dong held the man down and looked at me.
“I’ve done my part. Now you need to tell me what’s going on.”
“Why did Uncle Wang say you were still alive?”
“Who… Who are you?”
10
My name is Jiang Ting.
When I was eighteen, my school held a public-speaking event.
I gave a speech on behalf of my year.
It went very well. Amid thunderous applause, I bowed my thanks.
I never noticed the disgusting, feverish gaze fixed on me.
Afterward, we had to pose for a photograph with the principal and the officials.
The man standing beside me was Wei Guochang.
He was a senior official in the local education department, the most honored guest there.
He smiled warmly at me and asked about my studies and life at school.
He looked like nothing more than a kindly elder concerned about the younger generation.
But his eyes made me deeply uncomfortable.
They appraised me with an interest that felt as if it could strip me bare.
What happened afterward proved my instincts right.
He trapped me in his car and groped me, saying disgusting things.
I fought desperately to get away. Though I stopped him from going any further, I was left shaking with fear.
I went home and told my mother. We decided to report him to the police.
But on our way to the station, we saw Mr. Weng being arrested.
Someone claimed to have seen Weng Chengwen taking intimate photographs of me on his phone. He was also accused of repeatedly asking me to meet him in the grove.
Stunned, I wanted to protest.
But Weng Chengwen confessed.
I couldn’t understand how any of this had happened.
All I knew was that I could no longer go to school.
My classmates pointed and whispered. On my way home, the villagers looked at me strangely too.
I became afraid to go outside and shut myself in the house.
Eventually, I couldn’t endure that life any longer. I decided to end it.
At the riverbank, just as I was about to jump, someone pulled me back.
It was Jing Hong.
She was my neighbor. We had grown up together.
She did very well at school, but her mother had died when she was young, and she had a younger brother. Her father was an alcoholic. He had no intention of letting her continue her education. He only wanted her to start earning money for the family as soon as possible.
Her paternal grandparents favored boys so much that they had hardly ever given her a decent meal.
When we were little, my mother often asked me to bring her home to eat.
Later, Jing Hong insisted on staying in school. Her father beat her until her legs broke, and that really did put an end to her education.
Crying, she pulled me back.
“Jiang Ting, you can’t die. You’re not the one who deserves to die. My father is. And so is the man who really hurt you.”
I stared at her.
“How did you know…”
She wiped my tears and looked at me.
“Do you know what, Jiang Ting? Mr. Weng came to my house and said he wanted to pay for me to go to university. But my father wouldn’t listen.”
“How could someone as kind as Mr. Weng be the one who hurt you?”
We held each other and sobbed for the bright futures we should have had.
Then Jing Hong patted her legs and told me her plan.
She wanted me to live.
If I could no longer live as Jiang Ting, I could live as Jing Hong.
We already looked quite alike. We were best friends and knew each other’s habits.
Passing for each other would be easy.
She took my hand.
“You have to live, Jiang Ting. You have to find that vile man and clear Mr. Weng’s name!”
I cried.
“What about you? What will you do?”
She smiled.
“I’ll find a way.”
Later, I learned what her way had been.
She set a fire that killed her alcoholic father—and herself.
My mother helped cover it up and buried Jing Hong’s body.
It was a poor, remote mountain village, cut off from the outside world. No one looked too closely. Everyone assumed Jing Hong’s father had accidentally started the fire while drunk.
Then my mother and I staged another scene, making everyone believe Jiang Ting had drowned herself after suffering from depression.
No body was ever found, but the clothes and shoes were enough.
There was nothing wrong with my legs.
But what happened to Jing Hong affected me so deeply that, after repeating the same suggestion to myself day after day, I really did become unable to stand.
Once we received the insurance money, we bought a new home.
I began investigating and discovered that Weng Chengwen’s wife, daughter, and parents-in-law had all died in a series of “accidents.”
I knew Wei Guochang was behind it all.
But exposing him would take careful planning.
Then, last month, Weng Chengwen was released from prison.
I asked why he had confessed when someone else had committed the crime.
He refused to answer.
I told him his wife, daughter, and parents-in-law were all dead.
Only then did he break down and tell me what had happened five years ago.
He had happened to witness the assault on me.
When he saw me escape, he intended to call the police.
But Wei Guochang’s men spotted him. Before my mother and I could act, they began framing him.
They found people to give false testimony and planted the photographs in his dormitory room.
Then they threatened his wife and daughter’s lives to force him to confess.
He had no choice.
But as soon as he went to prison, Wei Guochang sent people to arrange one “accident” after another.
Weng Chengwen broke down completely, clutching his head.
“So he never intended to let me go. Not for a moment!”
“If he wants me dead, I might as well make the most of it. Don’t you think?”
The plan was Weng Chengwen’s idea.
He would use his own death to set everything in motion.
Wei Dong was one part of that plan.
He had a strong sense of justice and had solved many difficult cases over the years.
Most importantly, he was Wei Guochang’s biological son.
The night before we put the plan into action, Weng Chengwen stood on the balcony smoking a cigarette. Facing the bright moon, he suddenly laughed.
“To be arrested by his own son… What a sight that would be. A pity I won’t get to see it.”
11
I wrote the post online. The girl in the story was Jing Hong.
Everything that happened to her afterward was my invention.
No. If those terrible things hadn’t happened, she could have had a future that bright.
12
Three months later.
My mother pushed my wheelchair up to Weng Chengwen’s grave.
I burned the newspapers for him.
Wei Guochang had been charged over allegations that he had hired someone to commit murder.
Now he would answer to the law.
Outside Weng Chengwen’s apartment, people had piled up chrysanthemums and candles in apology.
How ironic.
Perhaps this was what they called justice delayed.
As I burned the papers, I whispered, “Mr. Weng, you did get to see it after all.”
13
After paying our respects, my mother and I came down the mountain and saw Wei Dong.
He walked over.
“So I was only ever a pawn in your game.”
I nodded.
He sighed.
“Did you really trust me that much? What if I hadn’t done what you expected? What if I’d chosen to cover it up?”
I smiled.
“There are security cameras in my apartment. If you’d chosen to cover it up, you and your father would probably be reunited by now.”
He stared at me in surprise.
He was about to ask something else, but I had already asked my mother to wheel me away.
I’m sorry.
You’re an honest police officer. But I don’t want to talk to you for long.
These past five years have left me so tired.
Every day, nightmares. Every waking moment, memories of the past.
Now it’s over.
All I want is a good rest.
Just… a good rest.
(The End)