Chapter 4

I waved away the compliment.

“What I want to know is how you left the hotel.”

“I don't want to discuss that.”

“Fine. Then why were your bodily fluids inside the hotel victim?”

“One thing I didn't lie about: I did pay for sex. It wouldn't be strange for someone with an agenda to collect my bodily fluids.”

True. Once someone was determined to ruin you, nothing was impossible.

After I left the detention center, Xu Youshan called.

He gave me an outline of developments in Jincheng.

The factory employees had been questioned one by one. The little building was the plant manager's private office. No one else was allowed inside.

The manager wasn't Zheng Shaoming. His name was Lu Jiu.

He couldn't be reached, and the police had sent people to track him down.

On the surface, Lu Jiu and Zheng Shaoming appeared to have no connection.

Finally, DNA testing had been carried out on the head, tissue, and blood at the scene.

All belonged to the same body.

But after comparing results with the Qincheng police, they knew this wasn't the head missing from Room 1203.

The DNA didn't match.

In other words...

There was a second dead person.

The head was badly decomposed, and part of the skull was missing, making visual identification difficult.

Experts had reconstructed the victim's face from the remains.

Of course, the reconstruction might not be accurate.

The police were looking into recent missing-person cases.

Perhaps they would establish the victim's identity in time.

I hung up.

The case felt more tangled by the minute.

If Zheng Shaoming really was involved in a murder, the dead person in Jincheng was probably the one he'd wanted to kill.

That made the victim's identity crucial.

What grudge lay between them?

And who could have known the exact timing of his crime?

If someone wanted to frame him, why not simply drug him, dump him at the scene, and call the police?

Why go to the trouble of returning him to Qincheng's Yunduan Hotel and using another corpse to incriminate him?

Was that person Lu Jiu?

And Zheng Shaoming really had been drinking on the nineteenth.

He couldn't have driven himself.

Who had driven for him?

I'd have to investigate those questions myself.

He certainly wouldn't tell me.

I felt as though I'd fallen into a pool of ink.

Layers of black water surrounded me, drowning me, hiding the truth.

I rubbed my eyes and checked my phone.

Three-thirty a.m.

I'd slept only two hours.

I checked the date.

July 26.

These past few days had passed in such a haze that I'd lost track of time.

Even my dreams were full of this case.

As though some invisible thread of cause and effect had wound itself around me.

I couldn't see it clearly.

Couldn't touch it.

Perhaps only one person could explain it all.

Lu Jiu.

The Qincheng police were looking for him as well as the Jincheng police.

But he seemed to have vanished off the face of the earth.

Neither side had a single lead.

I was only a lawyer. There weren't many places I could investigate.

The only one I could think of was that little bar.

First, there was too much about it that didn't add up.

Second, it had long bought its meat from Lu Jiu's processing plant.

I didn't believe the two had nothing to do with each other.

The case had reached a dead end.

The police in both cities and I had run out of things to investigate.

But the police were the ones under pressure.

Until they established the identity of the victim in Room 1203, they couldn't refer the case to the procuratorate and bring it to trial.

Even if they did, I was confident I could win.

The crucial question was...

How complete was the chain of evidence in Jincheng?

Xu Youshan might be my old classmate, but he could only give me information that wasn't confidential.

Investigative progress was absolutely off-limits.

In the end, I'd have to rely on myself.

I shook my head and set my thoughts aside.

Parked in a corner, I quietly watched the bar's front entrance.

Maybe someone suspicious would appear.

Tap, tap, tap.

Someone knocked on my car window and gestured at me.

I rolled it down.

“What is it?”

“Hey, your rear-right tire's flat. Completely flat.”

I hurried out to check.

The instant I stepped out, a cold dagger pressed against my throat.

I raised both hands above my head.

“Easy, man. Money, the car—whatever you want, we can talk.”

“I want you.”

“...”

I stammered for a while.

“Is this a sex thing, man?”

Without answering, he forced me into the driver's seat.

He climbed into the back, never taking the dagger from my neck for a second.

“Look, man, you're really not my type. How about I give you some money and you hire a guy—”

“Shut up. Drive. Go where I tell you.”

I wasn't a cop. Just an ordinary lawyer.

Years of irregular living had left me less fit than the average person.

Five flights of stairs without a break would leave me panting.

Now a vicious criminal with unknown intentions was threatening me with a knife.

I really didn't dare resist.

I had a feeling that if I made the slightest move, he really would slit my throat.

We headed straight onto the highway.

I drove for four or five hours.

Through Jincheng, then on toward Zhoucheng.

I didn't know Zhoucheng well. I'd only been there once or twice.

Following the robber's instructions, I took one winding road after another until we entered a small village.

Perhaps seven or eight households in all.

Desolate country in every direction.

Even if I tried to escape, I wouldn't know where to run.

“Engine off. Get out.”

I didn't dare run once I was outside either.

Who knew whether he had accomplices?

He got out, grinned at me, and put away the knife.

“Come on. Punch me.”

“What?”

“What do you mean, what? Hit me. Right in the face.”

“Boss, is this... some special kink of yours?”

He drew the knife again.

“Are you going to do it?”

“Yes, yes, yes...”

I couldn't begin to guess what he wanted.

Was I supposed to hit him lightly or hard?

He seemed to read my mind.

“As hard as you can. Give me a good punch and I'll let you go. A man's word.”

Well, if he insisted. I put everything I had into a punch at his cheek.

He turned easily, caught my arm, and threw me straight over his shoulder.

The impact felt as though it stopped my heart for three seconds.

My face turned red as I struggled for air.

It took a long time before I could breathe again.

“Nothing personal. Just showing you the difference between us. I don't mean to hurt you. Behave, and I guarantee you'll be fine.”

Come on, man...

Was that performance really necessary?

Over a meter eighty tall and covered in muscle—you could have just told me. I'd have believed you.

“All right. I understand.”

“Turn off your phone. Hand it over.”

He took it, removed the SIM card, snapped it in half, and threw it away.

Then he pocketed the phone.

“Come on. Back in the car. Keep driving.”

This time, he sat beside me without the knife.

We were both a good deal more relaxed.

Two hours later, the surroundings were less desolate.

At least we'd reached somewhere the size of a town.

“Your name's Wu Yang?”

“Yes.”

“From now on, where I go, you go. No running off. No phone calls. I won't beat you. Understood?”

“Understood. Can I ask something?”

“Go on.”

“You went to all this trouble to kidnap me. What do you actually want?”

“I'll tell you when we've got time.”

My brain suddenly short-circuited. I asked a question even an idiot wouldn't have asked.

“What's your name?”

He grinned again, showing small, sharp, white teeth.

“Aren't you all looking for me?

“I'm Lu Jiu.”

The sun had just set.

Lu Jiu brought back some grilled skewers and two bottles of baijiu, dropping the food casually onto the table.

He took two cups from the kitchen cupboard and handed me one.

“Have a drink?”

“Anything besides baijiu?”

“Fuck, you're picky. It's that or tap water.”

“I'll have the liquor, then.”

He filled my cup first, then pushed the plate of skewers toward me.

“Try them. See if they're better than yours.”

I took a bite.

Not much flavor. The meat wasn't pure lamb either.

“Well?”

“Pretty bad.”

“I grilled them myself.”

“In that case... not bad.”

He laughed, waved it off, and tucked in.

“Wondering why I brought you here?”

“Yes.”

“I'm not going to do anything to you. I just want you to stop taking Zheng Shaoming's case. Let him lose and get sentenced to death.”

“You mean you don't want me representing him in court?”

“Exactly.”

So there was bad blood between them.

It looked very likely that Lu Jiu was the one who had framed Zheng Shaoming.

But he'd miscalculated one thing.

Zheng Shaoming couldn't be left without counsel.

“Look, you may not understand how trials work. On a charge as serious as Zheng Shaoming's, even if I don't show up, the court will adjourn and appoint a legal-aid lawyer.”

“Doesn't matter. As long as it's not you.”

“Why?”

He raised his cup, touched it lightly to mine, and drained it.

I only dared take a small sip.

If I drank like him, I'd be telling him my bank-card PIN within two minutes.

“Whether he hired someone from his firm or someone outside, I had it all arranged. That was the plan from the start. I just didn't expect him to find you.”

So all of this...

Had been designed by the rough-looking man in front of me.

But could someone with his temperament really devise such a meticulous plot?

No.

I shouldn't judge by appearances.

Plenty of big, rough men were exceptionally calculating.

Zhang Fei, for instance.

“You and he... have a grudge?”

“Yeah.”

He snorted, then explained.

“I've done plenty of dirty work for him. I don't need him falling over himself with gratitude. But he could at least stop treating me like a dog.”

Conflicting interests.

A staged murder.

The case seemed a little clearer.

“Were you the one who met Zheng Shaoming at the bar that day?”

“Yes.”

“He said you wouldn't need to do this if you wanted to ruin him. You have plenty of evidence of his illegal dealings.”

“If I didn't do it this way, wouldn't he immediately know it was me? Then I'd have all kinds of people coming after me.”

The last thing anyone would expect.