Chapter 2

I looked at him and deliberately slowed my speech.

“Qin Xuan, after hearing how much you've sacrificed for each other, I have to ask something you may find offensive.”

I leaned forward and lowered my voice.

“You're terminally ill, and you're taking all the blame…

“Is it possible you're confessing on your brother's behalf?”

A deathly silence filled the room.

At last, he raised his head. A mocking smile curved his lips.

“Ms. Chen, the police investigated that possibility long ago. They reached a definite conclusion.

“Do you think you're cleverer than they are?”

For a moment, I had no answer.

After a long silence, he continued.

“My brother works in deliveries. His social circle is simple. He had no connection with Wang Kai.

“I killed Wang Kai because he caused my girlfriend's death.

“It was between him and me. One of us had to die.”

“Wang Kai… caused your girlfriend's death?”

I repeated it in astonishment. There was nothing about this in the file.

His smile was more painful than tears.

“Yes. I don't mind telling you why I wanted him dead.”

4

Qin Xuan sank into his memories and spoke slowly.

It began during my university years.

For me, university was an island where I could escape my past.

No one looked at me with expectation in their eyes.

I was simply Qin Xuan, a hardworking student whose high marks had earned him a place at Jinghai University.

I met Jiang Nansheng in the library one afternoon during my first semester.

A fine spring rain was falling. She sat opposite me with a thick copy of A History of Western Philosophy in her arms.

A draft swept down the corridor and scattered the notes at the corner of her desk. A few sheets landed at my feet.

I bent to pick them up. My eyes passed over the neat handwriting: notes on Heidegger's concept of being-toward-death.

“Thank you.”

She looked up. Her voice was clear.

“Heidegger's difficult.”

I handed them back and, unusually for me, offered another remark.

“I always feel he's saying something important. But it's as if there's a layer of fog between us.”

That was how we began talking.

From existentialism to Zhuangzi. From the library to the café.

She studied sociology. Her mind was sharp, her manner gentle.

We were amazed to discover how closely our inner worlds aligned.

My love for Nansheng was the first light in a dull life.

She showed me another way to live.

Life wasn't only homework, rankings, and the need to succeed.

We could argue for hours over a single idea. Or walk around the sports field late at night, watching the stars in silence.

She liked hearing about my childhood with my brother.

Whenever I told her what he had done for me, she would say softly:

“He really is good to you.

“But carrying all his expectations must be exhausting.”

That one remark touched the most hidden part of me. I almost cried.

She made me feel that perhaps I could be more than the Qin family's great hope.

I could simply be Qin Xuan.

An ordinary person a girl might love.

We promised to stay in Jinghai after graduation, do work we enjoyed, and live a simple life.

For the first time, I could see what happiness might look like.

Then, just as our love was at its strongest, cracks began to appear.

About six months into our relationship, Nansheng changed.

She was often distracted. Her smiles seemed forced.

On dates, she drew away from my touch for no apparent reason.

When I asked, she shook her head and blamed the pressure of studying.

A few times, when I called late at night, I heard her trying to stifle her sobs.

“Nansheng, what's happened? Tell me!”

She wouldn't answer. She only cried in despair.

Foolishly, I thought something might have happened to her family, or that she had an illness she couldn't bring herself to discuss.

I treated her even more tenderly, careful to protect her feelings.

Then came the devastating news.

One early-winter morning, her roommate called me, her voice choked with tears.

5

Nansheng had taken her own life in the lake.

The artificial lake we so often visited together.

When they recovered her, she was still clutching a silver ring engraved with the character Xuan.

I had given it to her when I told her I loved her.

My world collapsed.

Every future I had imagined vanished with it.

I couldn't believe she had killed herself for no reason.

I searched through everything she had left behind. On her phone, I found a video.

The footage was shaky and blurred, but I could clearly make out Nansheng, barely conscious, being half-carried into a hotel room by a male classmate, Wang Kai.

Rage overwhelmed me.

I took the evidence straight to the police.

The officer was patient and recorded everything.

His answer, however, was like a bucket of cold water.

“Mr. Qin, we've checked. The video doesn't directly establish that rape occurred. Wang Kai insists it was consensual.

“And we have no statement from the woman. This video alone isn't sufficient to open a case.”

I argued desperately that Wang Kai was directly responsible for Nansheng's death.

The officer sighed.

“We're very sorry about Ms. Jiang's suicide.

“But legally, it's difficult to establish criminal causation between her death and sexual intercourse that may have occurred beforehand. There's nothing more we can do…”

Nothing more we can do.

Those words condemned Nansheng to a second death.

I went after Wang Kai and confronted him.

The rich playboy only sneered. He didn't even bother to hide it.

“You're Qin Xuan? You actually went to the police? Did it do any good?”

He came closer, his voice poisonous.

“What does that lousy video prove? That I slept with her? Let me tell you, it takes two!

“She was weak. Lost her head and killed herself. How is that all my fault?”

I gripped the knife hidden in my pocket, wanting to cut him to pieces.

But I couldn't.

My father was gravely ill. My brother was studying for the entrance exam again while caring for him.

If I destroyed my life over that piece of filth, my brother would have to carry the whole family alone.

I couldn't do that.

I buried my hatred, along with my grief and guilt over Nansheng.

More than a decade passed.

Then, last month, I was diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer.

Holding the report, I felt a release unlike anything I had known.

My father had long since died. My brother had a life of his own.

At last, I had nothing left to lose. Nothing to hold me back.

I found Wang Kai.

This time, I wasted no words.

The surveillance cameras recorded everything.

6

“That's my story, Ms. Chen.”

I sat stunned, caught in his account, unable to collect myself.

So much feeling. Every detail in place.

It sounded reasonable. Utterly convincing.

At last, I rose unsteadily.

“Mr. Qin, I need to verify what you've told me.

“I'll come back… in two days.”

At the firm, I immediately used my contacts to obtain the file on Nansheng's death.

The conclusion was clear: suicide.

My heart sank.

If that part was true, Qin Xuan's motive of revenge for his lover stood up.

My theory that he was taking the blame for someone else now seemed pitifully absurd.

He really was a devoted man, cruelly treated by fate, seeking revenge for love.

His feelings might deserve pity. His crime could not be excused.

“Well, our great lawyer. Met your client yet?”

My mentor, Zhong Yi, appeared at the door with a cup of hot tea.

He was the one senior colleague I truly respected.

Early in my career, I had handled several difficult cases. He had always helped and given me opportunities.

With a bitter smile, I told him Qin Xuan's whole story.

He listened quietly, gently blowing on the tea leaves.

I felt defeated.

“His account is watertight.

“Perhaps… I really was wrong.”

As I spoke, I turned my ring out of habit.

A long time passed before he lifted his eyes. There was a sharp gleam in them.

“A very polished story. But Chen, did you notice one detail?”

“What detail?”

I looked up.

He took a sip of tea.

“In all those years after university, the only people in his story are Jiang Nansheng and Wang Kai.

“His twin brother, Qin Zhu—the one who sacrificed everything for him—disappears completely.”