Chapter 3

“We understand how you feel.

“But please trust the police.

“We've considered the possibilities you've thought of too.”

That left me with nothing to say.

In their eyes, I still wasn't entirely above suspicion.

Perhaps they thought I was so eager to accuse Lâm Thanh Thần because finding another killer would clear my own name.

The next day, they did bring him in again.

As soon as I heard, I went to the station.

Dương Trác came with me.

It turned out Lâm Thanh Thần had lied about his whereabouts on the night Mạnh Tuyền died.

He had originally said he was asleep in the village. But he lived alone, with no one to corroborate his account. The police had had their suspicions but nothing more.

Then, the day before, a witness had come forward.

At around eight that night, the witness had seen him in the city.

He had gone to a hair salon to buy a wig, then to a shopping center for some cosmetics.

Surveillance footage confirmed it all.

Something was wrong.

Something was definitely wrong.

I was beside myself with excitement, thinking the case had finally reached a breakthrough.

What I hadn't expected was for him to be held for only one day, then cleared of suspicion.

I couldn't understand it.

I went to the police.

“Why did you let him go?

“There's clearly something wrong.”

Officer Trần answered, “Our investigation confirmed his alibi, so for now he's been ruled out.

“As for posting the videos, he told us he couldn't bear seeing the victim repeatedly violate the ethical standards expected of a teacher. He wanted the public to see his true character.”

But he left out the most important part.

“What he actually did that night is a private matter. We can't disclose it.”

I was still bewildered and about to ask more about Lâm Thanh Thần when he abruptly changed the subject.

A chill spread through me.

“Let's leave him aside for now.

“Ms. Lý, we've reviewed your medical records from the past few years.

“You've been to hospital frequently.

“And you've been treated repeatedly for injuries of varying severity.”

His eyes were as sharp as a hunter's.

“Did the deceased ever subject you to domestic violence?”

The question caught me completely off guard.

“I...

“Mạnh Tuyền, he...”

Domestic violence.

What a frightening term.

In front of the police, I could only admit that yes, it had happened to me.

There had been a period, I acknowledged, when work stress made him prone to losing control.

He had hit me.

“I forgave him.

“And I didn't think it mattered much, so I didn't mention it.”

“Then when you told us he was gentle and considerate, a good husband, was that also a lie?”

“No!”

I jumped up and hurried to explain.

“He really was good to me.

“Sometimes work put him under so much pressure that he couldn't help losing control.

“But apart from those times, he really was gentle and considerate.”

I kept insisting.

He was a good husband.

Officer Trần considered this in silence.

After a few more questions, he finally let me leave.

Before I went, he reminded me once again not to conceal anything connected with the case.

I nodded, meeting his meaningful gaze.

I knew that until the killer was caught, they would keep suspecting me of murdering my husband.

I left the station and walked down the street in a daze.

In my high heels, barely aware of where I was going, I felt my legs give way and nearly fell.

A pair of hands caught me in time.

Dương Trác.

“Why are you still following me?”

It was strange. I wasn't in the village anymore. There was no need for him to keep watching over me.

He didn't answer.

“You're in a bad state,” he said.

“Who wouldn't be after her husband died?”

I couldn't control my emotions. My words turned vicious.

“I don't want to interfere in other people's business,” he said. “I just want you to stop making false accusations against my friend.”

I gave a cold laugh.

“Even I haven't been cleared yet.

“Why should your friend be, when he was so determined to destroy my husband's reputation?

“For that matter, you could be Mạnh Tuyền's killer yourself.”

“Yes.

“I'm the killer.”

His reply was perfectly calm.

“Will you leave Lâm Thanh Thần alone now?”

I glared at him and told him to stay away from me.

But when he actually turned to leave, I changed my mind.

“Wait.”

I called him back.

“Could you... take me home?”

He accompanied me to the apartment where Mạnh Tuyền and I had lived.

Since the murder, I had been staying with my parents. This was my first time back.

The police had moved things during their search for evidence.

The moment I stepped inside, my heart trembled.

The kitchen. The living room. The bedroom.

Wherever I looked, it was as though I could see through time to the person I had been, treated like an animal, abused without mercy.

Yes.

He had abused me.

That was true.

But his gentleness and thoughtfulness had been real too.

I had lied to the police.

Half angel, half devil.

That was the most accurate description of him.

Ten years ago, three days after our wedding, he had spent the entire night in the laboratory.

At dawn, I heard the door open and hurried happily to greet him.

His hair was disheveled, his eyes bloodshot.

Without a word, he closed every curtain and turned the television up loud.

“What's wrong?”

The coldness coming off him made me step back involuntarily.

He didn't answer.

He came toward me, shoved me to the floor, then seized my ankles and dragged me into the bedroom.

The door slammed shut.

And my world fell apart.

That was the first time he violently raped me.

My wrist was broken. I needed seven stitches to my genitals.

In everyday life, he really did take good care of me.

But whenever research or project pressures overwhelmed him, or something didn't go his way, he turned his brutality on me.

Hurting me seemed to drain away all his frustration.

I also understood perfectly why those students had been treated so differently.

Mạnh Tuyền had a sick appetite.

His bouts of violence came about once a week. Under heavy stress, they came every two or three days, sometimes on consecutive days.

I was always his first target.

He knew I couldn't do anything to him.

When he couldn't get what he wanted from me, he went after his students.

Most of the women who called him gentle had slept with him within a week of his abusing me.

Those who accused him of violence and depravity had mostly been with him during periods when I had fled home and stayed away for a long time.

With no outlet for his vicious desires, he turned on innocent young women.

He was clever.

Whatever kind of encounter it was, he slept with each woman only once.

That greatly reduced the chance of their going to the police. It also kept the ones who dreamed of romance from “clinging” to him.

It worked just as he had intended.

For all those years, none had made a police report. If any tried, threats and inducements made them give up.

Because of the abuse, I had lost my unborn child.

The bleeding had been so severe that I needed a hysterectomy.

I had thought of running away and tried repeatedly to divorce him.

But I couldn't win against him.

Every attempt failed.

I had wanted to go to the police, but I was afraid.

He knew a secret about me.

I hadn't told the police the details.

Still, I suspected they were beginning to notice something.

The reporters who had appeared outside the station that day?

I had called them myself.

When I kept looking around anxiously, I hadn't been waiting for my parents.

I had been waiting for the right moment to let the reporters film my confrontation with Vương Mạn Mạn.

“Mistress bullies wife.”

An irresistible story.

Lâm Thanh Thần wasn't the only person who wanted Mạnh Tuyền disgraced.

I did too.

That night, standing by the window and watching the search terms climb the trending list, I really had laughed.

Seeing that hypocrite exposed to the public had made me so happy I couldn't help it.

No wonder the police suspected me.

I hated him to the marrow.

But however much I hated him, I hadn't killed him.

I led Dương Trác inside.

The lights were off, and everything felt cold.

Yet with the monster who had lived here dead, for the first time I found the apartment almost lovely.

I switched on the lights.

Dương Trác looked around.

“Jealous?” I asked.

“It's a big place.”

The words tasted bitter.

“What use is a big place if you're miserable in it?”

What an irritating boy.

Never mind.

Mạnh Tuyền was dead, after all. I wasn't the old Lý Tĩnh Nguyệt anymore.

I took several cans of beer out of the fridge.

“Come on.

“Have a drink with me.”

Since marrying Mạnh Tuyền, I had all but cut off my social life.

Eventually, I hadn't had a single friend left.

How long had it been since I'd sat down for a drink with someone like this?

Dương Trác said nothing. He just quietly opened all the cans for me.

I couldn't hold my drink.

After two beers, I was getting drunk and talking more freely.

I told him everything about Mạnh Tuyền's true nature.

He listened in silence.