Chapter 5

Xu Xiaofeng hadn't been unfaithful.

She was simply blinded by love.

She really had met a terrible man before. She'd believed his sweet talk, become pregnant before marriage, and been swindled out of everything she had.

That was when Zhang Mingxiang appeared.

He didn't look down on her for her lack of education or a steady job. He didn't reject her for what that man had done to her, or for having a child.

Under his devoted care, she had gradually climbed out of that abyss.

She accepted him, registered their marriage, and even changed the child's surname to Zhang. His name became Zhang Lijun.

No one imagined that this would lead to her son's death.

Looking back, the accident might not have been an accident at all.

He had been only seven months old. Who taught a seven-month-old baby to walk?

Xu Xiaofeng said it had been Zhang Mingxiang's suggestion.

He had sounded perfectly reasonable. Experts online recommended it, he said: the younger children started walking, the sooner they were encouraged to try, the cleverer and healthier they would grow up.

She believed him.

That was how Zhang Lijun came to be wandering alone around the grain-drying yard.

And how Zhang Mingxiang came to press the accelerator and run over his "son."

He had wept bitterly and begged for forgiveness.

In the end, she chose to believe him. He was the man who had saved her from the depths.

For this insurance scam, he had told another lie.

His elder brother had cancer and needed a great deal of money for treatment.

Their parents had died when he was young. His brother had raised him. An eldest brother was like a father; if he couldn't help at such a crucial moment, he would live with the guilt forever.

Their apartment hadn't been handed over. Without the title certificate, they couldn't sell it.

Insurance fraud was the only solution he could think of.

He would find a body at a funeral home and use it to fake his death in a crash.

Once they had the money, he and Xu Xiaofeng could leave, find new identities, and live happily together.

There were so many holes in this story that I couldn't help asking her, "He fell out with his brothers long ago. Have you ever met the one who's ill?"

"No. He said his brother had gone to the provincial capital for treatment..."

"We discussed the apartment yesterday. I won't repeat that. But using a body from a funeral home is completely impractical. A forensic examiner can determine the time of death. Didn't you know?"

She shook her head blankly.

"Then why did he try to kill you last night?"

"Because I asked him to confirm what was happening with the apartment. And he... he suddenly..."

I understood.

He knew we had investigated the apartment. He knew what he had done might be exposed.

And the truth might well come from Xu Xiaofeng.

So he had decided to silence her.

I didn't know whether to call this woman devoted or foolish.

Even in her hospital bed, she was only sad. Not angry.

Not one word of blame for Zhang Mingxiang.

She really hadn't been having an affair.

Looking at her pitiable state, I felt deeply uneasy.

In the end, I apologized.

Not merely for calling her in twice in one day, but for my reckless assumptions.

Another question had formed in my mind.

What role had Xie Jintao played?

Still, the real culprit had emerged.

"Coordinate with the other departments. Find Zhang Mingxiang."

I thought catching him would bring out the truth.

I hadn't expected that truth to be even harder to bear.

It was a sadder story still.

That very afternoon, after the wanted notice went out, Zhang Mingxiang was caught.

Even I found it incredible.

He had surrendered.

The night before, he'd been willing to assault a police officer to escape.

Yet now, instead of getting away, he had walked openly into a station.

In our interview room, he confessed to everything.

He had married Xu Xiaofeng entirely because she was easy to manipulate.

He had committed insurance fraud because he owed a huge sum to an underground casino.

Both Zhang Lijun's accident and this latest crash had been arranged to pay gambling debts.

He also admitted killing the homeless man.

He had planned the fraud for a long time and considered every detail.

For example, he hadn't dared take his own clothes to the staged crash scene. He had stolen a set from Xie Jintao's home.

He had deliberately left the heat-resistant metal belt buckle as a marker for Xu Xiaofeng to identify the body.

He had thought it flawless. He hadn't expected us to uncover it.

That was why he had attacked her the night before. As the only person who knew the truth, she was a threat to his concealment.

But after a night of thought, he realized he could never escape.

Surrender was his only option.

Captain Xu was very satisfied.

I still felt something was wrong.

Perhaps this wasn't the truth.

After all, the police crackdowns in our county had left no underground casinos.

I had also checked his phone. There was very little about online gambling.

He was lying.

His money had gone somewhere else.

Once again, I thought of Xie Jintao.

He really didn't have the money to buy that apartment.

Had Zhang Mingxiang given it to him?

If so...

Why?

Just as I was about to go looking for him, he came to me.

"I want to talk."

Since I was the only one who had visited him the day before, I was the only officer he could approach.

He didn't want to talk at the unit. It wasn't an official conversation, he said.

I agreed, of course.

We arranged to meet in a quiet park.

When I arrived, he was waiting on a stone bench.

I sat beside him. Without a word, he handed me a stack of papers.

I looked through them.

IOUs.

All private loans—or, in plain terms, loan-shark debt.

Roughly a million yuan in total.

For a moment, I thought these were Zhang Mingxiang's debts. He had admitted gambling and owing a fortune.

Then I saw the name.

Xu Xiaofeng?

Beneath the IOUs was something stranger.

A pathology report.

It was recent. Only a week old.

The name on it was Xu Xiaofeng too.

It showed a disease called a germ cell tumor.

Put simply, brain cancer.

For a moment, I couldn't make sense of it.

Beside me, Xie Jintao began slowly.

"Officer, I don't want to be arrested. But I want to tell you a few things... On one condition. Could you not arrest me?"

That was why he had wanted to meet away from the unit.

"I won't. Go on."

"I have a sideline. I find customers for small lending companies. To put it bluntly, I'm a loan-shark broker."

At last, I understood. That illegal income had bought his apartment.

But what did any of it have to do with the case?

I was more confused than ever.

He continued, answering my questions one by one.

The whole story was beyond anything I'd expected.

He and Zhang Mingxiang were close friends and had known each other for years.

He had indeed introduced Xu Xiaofeng to him. I'd verified that.

But he hadn't met her through gaming.

He had met her through debt.

Remember the man who had deceived her, got her pregnant, and taken everything she had?

It was worse than that.

He had not only taken her money. He had made her borrow heavily.

Those were the IOUs in my hands.

Xie Jintao had handled the loans.

That was how he knew her.

Some things seemed ordained by fate.

He had never intended to introduce her to Zhang Mingxiang.

One day, while she was meeting him to discuss repayment and he was pressing her for money, Zhang Mingxiang happened to come looking for him.

They met by chance.

That meeting changed their lives.

He fell in love with her.

To stop him, Xie Jintao immediately told him everything. The deception, the child she was carrying, the debt she owed.

Zhang Mingxiang didn't waver.

How determined was he?

Xie Jintao said, "I'd known him for years. That was the first time I'd seen that kind of light in his eyes."

He began pursuing the pregnant Xu Xiaofeng.

But in his eagerness, he used a less than honorable method.

He lied. He said he had money and could pay off all her debts.

Moved by his devotion, she fell for him too.

They quickly registered their marriage.

Like a giant, Zhang Mingxiang took the entire weight of her debt onto his shoulders.

To let her live without worry, he even asked Xie Jintao to assure her that he had repaid everything.

Naturally, she believed him.

But he had overestimated himself.

The burden was too great.

He drove his light truck and worked overtime, day and night, yet barely earned enough to cover the interest.

Even that interest had been reduced with Xie Jintao's help.

It was still too much.