Chapter 4

Honestly, everyone involved in this case was strange.

Very, very strange.

Huang Yong was no exception. From start to finish, he was neither defiant nor servile, and showed no sign of panic.

Yet he had called us here to turn himself in.

And after leaving the factory, he had spent more than a month building this peculiar little house?

Why?

“It was a little dream we had as children,” he explained.

He looked up at the treehouse for a long time before continuing.

“Think of it as a memorial. I want it to stay, for as long as possible… A place like this, with friends to share it… it would be wonderful.”

For some reason, he sounded a little sad.

“All right. But first, we need to look inside.”

Mostly, I wanted to find the murder weapon or the clothes Huang Yong had worn when he committed the crime.

“Sure. Go up. But don’t shut the door. There’s something wrong with it. If it closes and won’t open again, that’ll be a nuisance.”

He smiled, then added:

“But if you’re looking for evidence, it isn’t here. I hid it somewhere else. I’ll tell you where once we get back.”

I did not entirely believe him.

I took hold of the rope and climbed up.

It really was tiny.

I had to stoop a little to enter. The interior was only three to five square meters, with very little in it.

I swept my flashlight around but found nothing that looked like evidence.

So I came straight back out.

Only later did I learn that the little more than ten seconds I had spent inside had almost cost me my life.

At the time, neither of us noticed anything.

Nor did we imagine that this little treehouse would become another crucial link in the case.

We agreed to Huang Yong’s request, cordoned off the tree and told the village officials it was connected to a case. No one was to enter for the time being.

Then he came quietly back with us.

He admitted that his motive for the killing had indeed been revenge for Chen Linlin.

He explained the killing and the weapon, leaving nothing unclear.

It seemed we could close the case.

But one question remained.

If he was avenging Chen Linlin, why had he surrendered before killing Zhang Bin?

Huang Yong said he was tired.

Besides, Zhang Bin was too careful. He could not find an opportunity.

That was true.

Zhang Bin was extraordinarily cautious.

He was highly intelligent and gave people very few openings.

It made sense that Huang Yong had been unable to complete his revenge.

What I did not expect…

was that it was not over.

Once again, events took us by surprise.

After Huang Yong’s arrest, we spent the whole day rushing from place to place and still did not finish everything.

Gathering evidence was painstaking work. We could not afford a single mistake.

Only around noon the next day did I get a moment to turn my attention back to Zhang Bin.

The technical investigation team had located the QQ group and infiltrated it with an alternate account.

We could have filed a complaint and had the group shut down, but there was little point.

Zhang Bin and Xu Wenjia could still message each other privately. We could not stop that.

Better to remain inside and watch quietly.

But when I received access to the account and read the group’s messages, I was stunned.

Things had moved far too quickly.

Zhang Bin had told the members that his business was taken care of. He had arranged to meet his girlfriend that afternoon.

“Unless something goes wrong, you’ll all have some hot pictures tonight.”

I did not understand. Did he know Huang Yong had been arrested?

Otherwise, how had he found the courage to go on a date?

That was the most frightening thing about it. Unless someone managed to save themselves, there seemed to be no effective way to restrain the person harming them.

That afternoon, Zhang Bin posted again. Everything was ready. Tonight, he would “reel her in.”

I could not bear it any longer. I called Xu Wenjia several times, but she did not answer. In the end, I had to give up.

The thought of a beautiful young woman sinking into that mire, perhaps following Chen Linlin to the same fate, filled me with a helpless sense of sorrow.

But I could do nothing.

And that night, something did happen.

Zhang Bin posted nothing in the QQ group. Not a word.

The members began speculating that their “teacher” had botched it.

Only early the next morning did we learn that it was much worse than that.

Zhang Bin was dead.

Where he had been killed shocked Zhao Jun and me.

The strange little treehouse.

We nearly found ourselves in trouble too. We had cordoned the place off only the day before.

His death had been horrifying.

The treehouse caught fire, but for some reason he seemed unable to escape. He burned alive inside.

Only after he died did the structure collapse to the ground, scattering flames.

The biggest problem was that, judging by the shoeprints at the scene, Zhang Bin had come alone the night before.

No one else had been there.

No killer.

The scene raised countless questions.

Why had he gone there alone in the middle of the night?

What had given him the nerve?

Why had the treehouse caught fire?

Had Huang Yong set a trap?

But we had already arrested Huang Yong. In theory, there was nothing he could have done.

Had Zhang Bin killed himself?

That was even less likely.

He had no reason to. At the time, he was still out seeking pleasure.

Once we finished at the scene, Zhao Jun and I split up.

I went back to question Huang Yong.

Zhao Jun went to find Xu Wenjia. She should, after all, have met Zhang Bin the previous afternoon.

I had Huang Yong brought in and demanded to know what he had done to the treehouse.

He smiled and answered with a question.

“So he really is dead? That’s a relief…”

He was involved.

But I had no idea how he had done it.

I pressed him immediately.

Still smiling, he explained.

“I prepared that treehouse to kill myself. I didn’t spend more than a month just building it. I fitted hidden wiring and an ignition device, and put flammable material inside and outside the wood. Once someone went in and shut the door, it would lock tight and the inside would burst into flames… I even reinforced the base to stop it collapsing. Heh…”

I stared at him, speechless.

Only then did I realize how close I had come to dying.

If I had shut the door, I might have died there. Even Zhao Jun, standing so close, could not have saved me.

I steadied myself and asked:

“That explains the fire. It doesn’t explain why Zhang Bin went there alone, does it?”

Huang Yong laughed even harder.

He chuckled until he bent double.

I could only stare, unable to understand what he found so funny.

After a few seconds, he looked up, wiped the tears from his eyes and asked:

“Doesn’t that mean he went in voluntarily? Willingly?”

Voluntarily.

Willingly.

Such familiar words.

They had appeared more than once or twice throughout this case.

For instance…

Chen Linlin’s suicide.

She had voluntarily gone to her death.

Just then, my phone rang.

Zhao Jun.

He was back, with Xu Wenjia.

I went out to meet him. Before entering her interview room, we spoke briefly.

He had asked her what had happened. She had freely described the entire time she spent with Zhang Bin the previous day.

Nothing more than shopping, walking around and afternoon tea.

Zhao Jun had also asked the officers responsible for the pedestrian shopping street to check the cameras. They confirmed her account.

“And then?”

“Nothing. They parted before dinner. Xu Wenjia went back to the factory, ate and worked the night shift. They didn’t meet again.”

“Then why did Zhang Bin go out there in the middle of the night… Did they contact each other some other way? Texts? QQ?”

“That’s another coincidence. Xu Wenjia says she dropped her phone yesterday afternoon and broke it. She hasn’t contacted Zhang Bin since.”

Zhao Jun held out a spare phone.

“I just got this from storage. She has her SIM card with her. Once we put it in, we’ll know whether she’s telling the truth.”

I remembered calling her yesterday afternoon. I had indeed been unable to reach her.

Could it really be such a coincidence?

“Come on.”

I pushed open the door.

Xu Wenjia sat quietly in the interview room. Her expression did not change when she saw us.

At that moment, I had a strange feeling.

She seemed an entirely different person from the young woman Zhao Jun and I had tried to warn the other day.

Zhao Jun took out the spare phone and inserted her SIM.