Chapter 4

“So you never opened the sack? You believed all along that Qin Feng was inside?”

Officer Zhou asked.

“Yes. Only Qin Xiaozhou knew the truth.”

I paused, bewildered.

“But why would he kill Huang Dashan?”

Officer Zhou didn’t answer. He immediately ordered someone to bring Qin Xiaozhou’s statement.

After reading it, he looked up.

“According to Qin Xiaozhou, Huang Fang miscarried because she failed to catch your mother-in-law and let her fall down the stairs. He also says he had no idea you’d been assaulted, let alone that Qin Feng was the man responsible.”

He paused.

“Qin Xiaozhou’s spent years gutting fish. If we can find the weapon…

“You really have no reason to murder Huang Dashan.”

He seemed to be speaking as much to himself as to me.

“Huang Fang! She must know something.”

I urged him to speak to her.

They kept me in custody while they carried on questioning people.

The next day, Officer Zhou treated me much better.

In the interrogation room, he said:

“We made a breakthrough with Huang Fang.

“She’s told us everything.”

He sat down and pushed a cup of water toward me.

“She says she endured it for five years. By the end, she couldn’t tell whether she hated Qin Xiaozhou or simply couldn’t leave him.

“She confirms he killed Huang Dashan. Forensics established that all the wounds were inflicted with the same knife.

“We found it wrapped up at his seafood stall, with fingerprints and Huang Dashan’s blood on it.”

“Why?”

My voice began to shake.

“Officer Zhou, why did he do it?”

He was silent for a moment.

“Perhaps it’s better if you don’t see Qin Xiaozhou.

“The men who assaulted you were Qin Feng and Qin Xiaozhou.”

I went still.

“Huang Fang’s evidence shows that both men regularly abused her too. That was why she agreed to testify against them.

“In fact, Huang Fang has Asperger’s syndrome.”

That night, Huang Dashan had intercepted a stolen car.

Its dashcam had recorded Qin Feng and Qin Xiaozhou’s assault on me in Pingyang Lane. The evidence was clear.

He had gone to Qin Feng’s house to make an arrest.

Qin Xiaozhou had returned from hospital with his knife.

Originally, he had intended to kill Qin Feng.

Then no one would ever know what he’d done.

But Huang Dashan arrived.

While he and Qin Feng argued, Qin Xiaozhou decided to kill him and stabbed him to death.

Huang Dashan went into the sack.

Then Qin Xiaozhou held the knife to Qin Feng’s throat.

“If you ever come back, I’ll report you. Do you think Lin Xiaowan will let you get away with it?”

Qin Feng sobered at once. He was so terrified of the man before him that he wet himself.

Qin Xiaozhou’s calculation was vicious.

If Huang Dashan’s remains were ever found, the blame could fall neatly on Qin Feng, the man who had fled.

“All these years, Qin Xiaozhou was the one sending you money in Qin Feng’s name.

“We’ve investigated. Qin Feng really has been living in hiding…”

I covered my face and cried.

Cried because I’d trusted the wrong men.

Cried because every man I’d leaned on had been one of my attackers.

Qin Feng.

Qin Xiaozhou.

Both of them.

Huang Fang and I had suffered in both body and mind. We were admitted to hospital for treatment.

It took a full year before we could begin to emerge from that darkness.

After I was discharged, I learned that my mother-in-law had been sent to a nursing home. She’d died less than a month later.

Knowing he couldn’t escape, Qin Xiaozhou confessed. His death sentence had already been carried out.

Huang Fang and I returned to the village, signed the demolition agreement and received the compensation and replacement apartment.

Officer Zhou came looking for me several times.

I refused to see him.

I didn’t want to speak of the past again.

Years passed.

Huang Fang and I adopted a little girl.

Once, I happened to meet Officer Zhou in the street.

He offered to buy me a coffee.

I agreed.

“There’s something I’ve wondered about all these years.”

He looked at me.

“Who reported the skeleton in your wall?”

I sipped my coffee and smiled.

“I don’t know either.”

“Do you really not know Huang Xiaoyan?”

He asked again.

“Officer Zhou, shall I tell you another story?”

“Five years ago, the night we sealed the wall, Qin Xiaozhou called me Lin Jie.

“After I changed my name, even Qin Feng never called me that.”

I suddenly remembered meeting Qin Xiaozhou when I worked at the karaoke club.

He had offered to pay me to spend a night with him.

But I was only a waitress, not what he thought.

I didn’t explain. He smelled of fish, so I covered my nose and walked away.

Huang Dashan really had been killed by Qin Xiaozhou.

“Officer Zhou, only Qin Feng’s death could make Qin Xiaozhou panic. Make him rush to pin the blame on me.

“Huang Xiaoyan was an old coworker. She was very good to me. She just happened to run into Qin Feng. He was only one of her clients, a man eager to show off his prowess. Unfortunately…

“That’s the end of the story.”

I raised my cup and glanced at him.

“But it’s only a story.”

Those dark days were finally over.

Lin Jie was dead.

Only Lin Xiaowan remained, with a life beginning anew.

Every evil had met its reckoning.

Every wound could, at last, slowly begin to heal.