Chapter 5

My guess was that he had no evidence or usable leads.

Or perhaps he trusted no one else.

He might have feared that if he told me outright, the police and procuratorate would get involved, alert the other side, and ruin his plan.

So he had chosen this indirect way to prompt me to investigate.

I drew a deep breath.

If that was right—

Everything made sense.

His lies were not really lies at all.

They were—

Important pieces of information he was trying to point me toward.

21

I carefully sorted through the contradictions in his story.

The first and most important concerned his and Chen Bing's movements over the previous year.

He said they had spent a great deal of time together.

The police found that Chen Bing had spent almost the entire year out of town.

Which meant—

Where Chen Bing had been that year was highly suspicious.

22

Second, Chen Yu said that in his first year out of prison—two years ago—he had rarely visited his father because he was working at the karaoke bar. The neighbor said that throughout that year, he had repeatedly come demanding money and behaved appallingly. I still couldn't explain that discrepancy.

Third, there was Chang Fei.

Chen Yu said Chang Fei had found him the job, yet he never mentioned him in his statement to the police.

More importantly, my notes from eight years ago showed that Chang Fei had never been one of Chen Yu's followers. He had been one of his bullies. Why would someone like that find him work?

Chen Yu was signaling that Chang Fei mattered.

Finally, and most importantly, there was the relationship between Chen Bing and Zheng Luoshan.

In Chen Yu's story, Chen Bing had silenced Zheng Luoshan because the man knew an important secret.

Perhaps that secret was precisely what he wanted me to investigate.

As the pieces fell into place, a chill ran down my spine.

If my deductions were right, this went far beyond what we could see. Something no one could have imagined must be hidden underneath.

I remembered another remark of Chen Yu's.

His instinct told him that Han Mengjing, the woman who had been involved with his father, might know the truth.

I had meant to start with her, but Chen Bing's succession of lies had led me down the wrong path.

Now it seemed Chen Yu really had freed me from the current case by dismissing me.

I got up at once and went to find Han Mengjing.

23

Han Mengjing worked at a commercial karaoke establishment. More plainly, she was a hostess paid to entertain customers in private rooms.

I booked a room, ordered a case of beer, and requested her by name.

She came close, draped an arm around my neck, and cooed:

“Haven't seen you before, handsome. First time here? Did Mr. Li send you?”

I gently removed her hand, cleared my throat, and lit a cigarette.

“Actually… I wanted to ask you a few things.”

Her expression changed instantly. Without asking, she took a cigarette from my pack and lit it.

“Ask me things? What a nut.”

She stood to leave.

I took out a stack of hundred-yuan notes and slapped them on the table.

“Even if you drank yourself to death with me, you wouldn't earn this much commission, would you?”

At the sight of the money, her face transformed again. Beaming, she sat beside me and pocketed it.

“What is it, darling? Ask away. I'll tell you everything I know.”

I pointed at the song selector and motioned for her to put on a few songs so no one would suspect anything.

“I'd like to know about Chen Bing.”

Her smile froze. Disgust crossed her face.

“Chen Bing? Why bring up a dead man? Bad luck.”

“How did you meet?”

She rolled her eyes.

“How do you think? The same way you and I met.”

“How long had you known him?”

She thought.

“About three years. He came here with some people and asked for me. Then he got my number and kept asking me out.

“He was full of sweet talk. Said he had loads of money and I could settle down with him.

“I was sick of this life then. I lost my head and stayed with him for a while.”

I nodded.

“Why did you split up?”

She looked wary.

“Why are you asking?”

I smiled.

“Don't worry. I'm a lawyer, not a policeman. I just want to know a few things about him. You won't get dragged into anything.”

She frowned.

“It was the children, wasn't it?”

“Children? You mean his son, Chen Yu?”

“His son, my ass. He kept insisting I have a baby.”

She spat and went on.

“I had a miscarriage years ago. I can't have children anymore. But he must have had something wrong with his head. Every single day, on and on about a baby. He could bloody well give birth himself!”

I stared.

That was the last explanation I had expected.

“I heard you argued a lot and sometimes smashed things. Was that about having a baby too?”

She rolled her eyes so far I thought they might disappear.

“What else?

“Every month, right on schedule, he'd ask if I was pregnant. Pregnant, my—oh, forget it. He's dead. It's bad form to curse him.

“But honestly, he was a bastard. Had a son of his own and wouldn't acknowledge him, yet kept pressuring me to have one.

“He even said he'd give me five hundred thousand yuan if I had a baby. Pah! Did he think I was a beggar?

“When I was younger, I made more than that in a year. He could keep his money and feed it to the dogs!”

The torrent almost made me dizzy.

“All right. Enough about babies. Let's talk about Chen Yu. What do you know about him and his father?”

She considered.

“The police already asked me. I told them what I knew.

“I only lived with Chen Bing for about a year. All I knew was that Chen Yu was his son and came around sometimes asking for money. Chen Bing wouldn't give him a penny.

“Sometimes even I couldn't stand it. I'd tell him to give the boy something. Then he'd shout at me. Said he'd rather feed his money to a dog.

“But later, I don't know why, he started giving him something whenever he came. He wasn't happy about it, but he paid.

“I even saw him transfer money to Chen Yu once. Quite a lot.

“That's all I know.”

Those were details I hadn't heard before.

“Did Chen Bing keep a diary?” I asked suddenly.

“A diary? What diary? A boor like him would be doing well to write his own name correctly.”

She answered without hesitation.

Habits don't change easily, especially a habit like keeping a diary.

So that diary seemed to be another invention of Chen Yu's.

Those supposedly torn-out pages were probably a convenient way to cover the fact that he couldn't invent any more entries.

I nodded and continued.

“What do you know about his past?”

“Not much, honestly. I know he came from some remote mountain area. He'd been married before. His wife died seven or eight years ago, I think. He never remarried.

“He was a womanizer, though. He must have been with several women before me. None worked out.

“I bet he made them have babies too. If they couldn't, he dumped them.

“Maybe he came after me because he'd heard I'd been pregnant before and thought I could give him a child.

“The bastard. Did he have a throne to pass down? Babies, babies—nothing else in his head.

“Hang on. Maybe he was the one who couldn't have children. All those women—surely they couldn't all be infertile? No, wait. He did have a son.

“Must have worn himself out fooling around these last few years.”

My head began to throb as she returned to the subject.

I quickly interrupted.

“All right, all right. Back to Chen Bing. Do you know which village he came from?”

She thought for a while.

“No. I once heard him talking to someone on the phone. I couldn't understand his dialect. Something about Zhangnan County, I think. I didn't catch the village.”

Zhangnan County.

An unexpected breakthrough.

According to his police registration, Chen Bing came from Zhangbei County. Both were administered by Zhang City, but they were a long way apart.

“Are you sure it was Zhangnan?” I asked eagerly. “Could it have been Zhangbei?”

She rolled her eyes.

“I might not understand their dialect, but 'south' and 'north' sound completely different. You think I'd get that wrong?”

I nodded and stubbed out my cigarette.

“That'll do for today. I'll contact you if I need anything else.”

She grinned.

“No problem, darling. Pay the same rate next time, and you're always welcome.”

“One last thing. Did Chen Bing usually keep spare keys in the fire-hose cabinet?”

She paused.

“No. He treated everyone like a potential thief. Why would he leave keys there?”

I nodded thoughtfully.

24

What I learned from Han Mengjing was immensely valuable.

The police had found that over the previous year, Chen Bing regularly bought tickets to travel back and forth between Zhang City and other places.

I had assumed he was returning to Zhangbei County. Now it seemed his registered hometown might be false. His real destination was Zhangnan.

He had moved to our city during a period of sweeping social change. Many administrative systems were still incomplete. Falsifying a hometown would not have been particularly difficult.

Why had he done it?

I would have to go to Zhangnan County.

Before leaving, though, there was someone else I wanted to meet.

25

When I found Chang Fei, he had just been released from detention and was drinking with a group of young men with dyed blond hair.

I tapped his shoulder.

“Chang Fei?”

He gave me a sidelong look.

“Who the fuck are you?”

“Police station. I need to ask you some questions.”

His aggression vanished. The blond youths quickly found excuses to leave.

“Officer, I've already told you everything. That's really all I know about our boss. I'm just a little guy trying to get by. I don't know the things you want…”

“Have I told you what I want to ask yet?”

He blinked.

“Not about the boss? Then what?”

I kept my face stern.

“Chen Yu.”

Fear immediately appeared on his face.

“Chen Yu? Didn't he… kill someone again?”

“How do you know he killed someone?”

He became flustered.

“All our old classmates know! He killed his father. It was on the news. Everybody knows!”

I patted his shoulder to calm him.

“All right. Relax. I'm only asking. I hear he came to see you after getting out of prison.”

He nodded.

“Yes. He came. He…”

He hesitated.

I glared.

“What did he want?”

Looking miserable, he stammered for a while.

“What else? Revenge.”

“Revenge?”

I narrowed my eyes.

“We… had some trouble back in the day.”

Then he stopped and slapped his thigh.

“I remember you! You're the lawyer who defended him! I knew you looked familiar.

“Fuck! You're a lawyer, not the police! You fucking lied to me!”

With my identity exposed, his swagger returned.

I gave a cold smile.

“So you know what a lawyer is. Then you must know the police can authorize a lawyer to collect witness statements and physical evidence. I'm acting on their behalf. There's nothing wrong with saying I'm from the police station.”

A lawyer couldn't interfere with police investigations and evidence gathering. I was bluffing.

I was betting he knew nothing about the law.

It worked. He stared for a moment, then wilted again.

“I really don't know anything about Chen Yu killing someone. Why come to me?”

I patted his shoulder.

“Just answer my questions. Back to what you were saying. What trouble did you have with him?”

He sighed.

“Don't you already know? We were classmates. I used to beat him up. Who knew he'd actually have the nerve to kill someone?

“When I heard he'd killed Zheng Luohai's brother, I nearly pissed myself. He came looking for revenge after he got out. If I hadn't…”

“Hadn't what?”

“Knelt down, begged him, and slapped myself a few times. Only then did he let me go.”

All bluster, no courage.

“Did he say anything else?”

Chang Fei thought.

“He asked if I knew where Zheng Luohai was. How the hell would I know? After his brother got killed, he disappeared. I heard he went back to his hometown. Don't know where.”

“Do you know where his hometown is?”

“Somewhere in Zhang City, I think. No idea where exactly.”

Zhang City, as expected.

In the old case file, Zheng Luoshan's hometown was listed as Xing City. It had no bearing on the case, so no one had checked closely.

His information was false too.

So Chen Yu's story wasn't all made up. Chen Bing and Zheng Luoshan really did come from the same place.

“Why did you help Zheng Luohai bully Chen Yu?”

He sighed.

“You asked me that before, didn't you? Zheng Luohai's parents were dead. His brother was a gangster. No one kept him under control.

“He was vicious. Every fight ended in blood. We couldn't beat him, so we followed him.”

“I mean, why Chen Yu?”

He looked puzzled.

“He was quiet. Easy to push around. Do you need a reason to beat someone?”

Yes.

You didn't need a reason to beat someone.

But to kill someone, you did.

I took a deep breath, looked at Chang Fei with disgust, and suppressed my nausea.

“Think carefully. What did Zheng Luohai say to Chen Yu when he bullied him?”

“What else? The usual filthy stuff.”

Then he remembered.

“Oh, right! He used to say Chen Yu had a mother to give birth to him but no mother to raise him.

“I think that was what made Chen Yu lose it and hit him with a chair. Then Zheng Luohai brought his brother to back him up, and it all happened.”

That matched Chen Yu's account.

He seemed particularly sensitive to that insult.

I nodded and was about to speak when Chang Fei slapped his thigh again.

“I remember! There was something else Zheng Luohai told us. He said Chen Yu wasn't his father's real son. Said he was a bastard.

“I think his brother told him.”

“What?”

I stared.

Chang Fei sounded certain.

“Yes. Zheng Luohai definitely said that.

“Honestly, I don't remember much about Chen Yu. I never thought much of him at school, so I'd forgotten why Zheng Luohai started beating him.

“But since he came to see me, I've kept thinking about it. It feels like one day we suddenly started picking on him, but I couldn't remember why.

“Eventually, that thing Zheng Luohai said came back to me.

“We thought he was just swearing, trying to humiliate him. Now I wonder if he actually knew something.”

I was stunned.

Could Chen Yu really not be Chen Bing's biological son?

If so, his whole story made sense.

Chen Bing had made him take the blame, then refused to acknowledge him.

So that was why.

But this was only Chang Fei's account. Thugs like them routinely used such insults. It was not substantive evidence.

To uncover the final truth, I had to find one person.

Zheng Luohai.