Chapter 4

I took a screenshot and saved it in my notes.

This wasn’t over.

I didn’t call a cab when I left the station.

I walked along the pavement for twenty minutes, then turned into a breakfast shop and ordered wonton soup.

As the bowl arrived, my WeChat erupted.

Voice messages from my eldest aunt, one after another. Each the full sixty seconds.

I didn’t listen. I read the text messages first.

My sister-in-law, Zhou Xue: “Are you really going to abandon your own brother?”

An image followed.

Her belly. An ultrasound report. Five months pregnant.

I laid the phone facedown and ate my wontons.

On the third one, the phone rang.

My aunt.

I answered.

“Yanqing, listen to what your aunt has to say—”

“Auntie, hear me out first.”

“Go on.”

“Yanwen hit someone while driving drunk last night and fled. When he turned himself in, he named me as the driver. He’d secretly put my things in the car beforehand. He also used my information to get a fake driver’s license.”

Two seconds of silence.

“…What fake license?”

“Ask my mother.”

“Your mother said you two went out for dinner together—”

“Auntie, I got home at six twenty-seven last night. The compound’s entry system recorded it. The grocery store downstairs has cameras. I didn’t leave the apartment all evening.”

She said nothing.

I could hear her drawing breath.

“The police are checking all of it. If you don’t believe me, wait for the results. But if you help them pressure me now, when the investigation comes back around you’ll have to give a statement too. Explain who told you to make this call.”

“Yanqing, I’m not trying to pressure you—”

“Then let’s leave it there. Wait until we hear something.”

I hung up.

The wontons had gone cold. I asked the owner to heat the soup again and finished every drop.

Outside the shop, the phone rang again.

An unknown number.

I answered.

“Is this Ms. Zhao Yanqing? I’m a relative of the victim from the Cuiping Road collision. My surname’s Fang.”

A middle-aged man’s voice. Hoarse.

“How did you get my number?”

“Zhao Yanwen’s wife gave it to me. She said… she said you were actually the one driving last night. Told me to come to you for compensation.”

The wontons seemed to lodge in my throat.

I stood at the roadside. A bus swept past, blowing diesel fumes into my face.

“Mr. Fang, you’ve been given the wrong person. I wasn’t driving. Zhao Yanwen was. The police are investigating. They’ve recovered the dashcam’s cloud footage. The driver is a man.”

Silence.

“His wife’s name is… Zhou Xue, right? When did she contact you?”

“This morning. Around eight.”

“What did she say?”

“She said her husband was in the passenger seat. His sister was driving. She said you’d been drinking, told me to demand compensation directly from you. Otherwise, I should report it to the police and have them take further action—”

“Did you record the call?”

“…Yes.”

“Mr. Fang, don’t delete it. Everything she told you was a lie. I’ve just left the station after giving my statement. The police have confirmed the driver was male. Zhou Xue’s call to you this morning was another attempt to frame me.”

He drew a breath.

“Would you be willing to send me a copy of the recording?”

“Well…”

“You don’t have to send it to me. But please keep it. When the police contact you, give it to them.”

“All right.”

“How is your relative doing?”

“In intensive care. Still critical.”

“I’m very sorry. But I wasn’t the one who hit them.”

After hanging up, I leaned against the railing beside the road.

The sun shone on my face without warming it.

Zhou Xue was five months pregnant.

Sending me an ultrasound to plead for help, while calling the victim’s family to tell them I was the driver.

I opened my notes and added a line beneath today’s entries:

“Around 8:00 a.m., sister-in-law Zhou Xue contacted a member of the victim’s family, surname Fang. Falsely identified me as the driver and directed him to seek compensation from me. Mr. Fang recorded the call.”

I took a screenshot and sent it to the number the younger officer had left me when taking my statement.

“Hello, Officer. This is Zhao Yanqing, from this morning. I have new information to add.”

Twenty seconds after the message went through, he replied.

“What information?”