Chapter 3

17

I took the opportunity to praise her weight-loss pills. Clearly they were working, I said. She should build on that success and keep increasing the dose.

I also “thoughtfully” reminded her that, if her body couldn’t take it, I would bring her straight to the hospital.

Then I pretended to be indignant on her behalf. She had to lose the weight and show those classmates of hers. Let them see who the real “fat pigs” were.

The words filled her with renewed confidence.

She kept increasing the dose.

As she took more, the side effects grew worse. Every day brought bouts of dizziness, a racing heart, weakness, and vomiting.

The first thing I did after work was clean her vomit off the floor.

Her classmate had told her that all weight-loss pills had some side effects, but that they would disappear once she stopped taking them. She paid them no mind.

I had also told her to look it up online: lying around for too long without exercise could cause those symptoms, too.

She kept believing it was all because she spent too much time on the sofa.

18

More time passed.

When she began falling repeatedly from dizziness, I offered once again to take her to a doctor.

But she looked so ill and felt so weak that she didn’t want to go out.

I had no choice but to ask our elderly neighbor to come and persuade her to go to the hospital.

She stubbornly insisted that these were normal reactions to weight-loss pills. It was nothing serious. The neighbor needn’t worry.

Seeing how haggard she looked, the old lady earnestly urged her to stop taking them.

I joined in, advising her to give up the pills and get more exercise.

She refused to listen.

In the end, our neighbor could only shake her head and leave.

I knew why my wife wouldn’t see a doctor. I also knew why she wouldn’t stop taking the pills.

She was lazy and obsessed with saving face.

She knew all too well that she was as fat as a pig. Wherever she went, people looked at her with contempt and disgust.

She had become ashamed of herself. She didn’t dare go out.

And with her classmates calling her a “fat pig” behind her back, her pride demanded that she lose weight. But she couldn’t control her eating. The pills were all she had.

As her health worsened, I bought her a great many tonics.

Then I threw myself into work.

My wife, dizzy and weak, ordered takeout incessantly.

She couldn’t even be bothered to open the door for every delivery, so she began leaving it ajar. I discovered that by chance.

I said nothing.

I had expected something to happen to her.

All medicine had its dangers, after all. She took several kinds of weight-loss pills every day and kept increasing the doses. It would have been stranger if nothing had happened.

I sneered at the thought.

Then my expression darkened.

Captain Lin had said that my wife and I didn’t look like a married couple. He had also told me not to leave the city.

Did he suspect me?

On what grounds?

I was well dressed and kept myself in shape. My wife was severely obese and slovenly. Yes, that might raise suspicions.

But our neighbors and my friends all knew how much we loved each other.

Besides, I had never been involved in buying her weight-loss pills.

Even if Captain Lin thought her death suspicious, I didn’t think he could uncover anything.

All I had done was say a few things and take her out. I had never acted violently.

And I hadn’t even been home when it happened.

More importantly, we hardly ever argued.

Then a vague unease came over me. Had I overlooked something?

Of course.

Captain Lin had asked how I had come to marry my wife.

He had made a particular point of how well dressed I was.

Had he suspected me from the very first glance?

If so, once he discovered that I had been penniless before marrying her…

He would conclude that I had married her to get my hands on her family’s fortune.

My mother-in-law had only one child.

When she died, she left my wife a great deal of money.

Now my wife was dead, too. Everything belonged to me.

If Captain Lin followed that line of inquiry, the loving marriage everyone knew about would become a performance I had staged to escape suspicion after killing her.

And my lack of involvement in buying the pills would become the means by which I had used them to kill her.

She was fat and untidy. I was good-looking.

How could a man with my looks possibly spend his whole life with a woman as fat as a pig?

And as her husband, why hadn’t I taken her to a doctor once I noticed the side effects?

“She wouldn’t go” wasn’t enough to explain that.

The cause of death would be easy to establish: she had died from taking too many weight-loss pills.

Captain Lin would be coming for me soon.

And I was right.

Three days later, two young officers brought me to an interrogation room at the city’s criminal investigation unit, saying they needed my help with the inquiry.

“Ha Tao.”

Captain Lin sat opposite me, his face cold.

“We’ve established the cause of your wife Han Fangfang’s death. Excessive doses of weight-loss pills and various other medications caused multiple organ failure.

“Medication killed her.

“But multiple organ failure doesn’t develop overnight. It takes time. Your wife must have been showing symptoms well before she died. As her husband, you couldn’t have failed to notice.

“Why didn’t you get her medical attention sooner?”

“My wife… died because of the weight-loss pills?”

I choked out the words, shocked and grieving.

“I told her long ago to stop taking them, but she wouldn’t listen.

“Captain Lin, I did notice that she was often vomiting. I offered to take her to a doctor.

“But she refused. She said it was a normal reaction to the pills, nothing serious, and told me to mind my own business.

“She was so stubborn that I didn’t dare say any more.

“I don’t have much of a say in that house. I might as well have married into her family.”

“Is that so?”

Something shifted in Captain Lin’s eyes.

“Our inquiries have given us some idea of your life together.

“About a year ago, you began taking your wife out regularly. At that point, she didn’t seem interested in losing weight. She was heavy, but she was lively and outgoing.

“It wasn’t until after your mother-in-law died, when your wife met her classmate Ma Li again, that she began trying to lose weight.

“According to Ma Li, your wife couldn’t control her appetite and insisted on relying on pills. Once she began taking them, you rarely took her out anymore.

“Ha Tao, why did a woman who had always been cheerful and outgoing suddenly stop wanting to leave the apartment?

“Am I to understand that, before Ma Li appeared, you had a reason for taking your wife out so often?

“You resented her weight and laziness. You deliberately exposed her to other people’s contempt so she would become ashamed and want to lose weight. Even then, you wanted her dead.

“Then Ma Li appeared, and you seized the opportunity to push her into taking excessive doses so you could kill her.”

He slammed his hand on the table.

“Ha Tao! Tell us what you did. An honest confession may earn you leniency!”

I stared for a moment, then looked at him coldly.

“You’re quite a storyteller, Captain Lin.

“My wife was an outgoing person. You think taking her out was enough to make her insecure?

“She stopped going out because my mother died suddenly. The shock made her withdraw.

“And this claim that I forced her to take weight-loss pills is pure slander.

“I argued with her to try to make her stop. I even asked our elderly neighbor to talk to her.

“Especially after I noticed how ill she looked, I offered time and again to take her to a doctor. She insisted these were normal reactions to the pills.

“When I couldn’t persuade her to get medical help, I bought her all sorts of tonics.

“I never wanted my wife dead, Captain Lin. I never despised her. I certainly didn’t want her putting herself through this with pills.

“Besides, she was an adult. If there was something wrong, she could go to a doctor herself, even if I didn’t take her.

“She refused because Ma Li kept telling her not to go.

“I genuinely don’t understand what gives you grounds to say I killed my wife.

“Oh, by the way—did Ma Li tell you that my wife bought all those pills from her?”

Captain Lin’s expression changed.

After a silence, he said, “You’re very glib, Ha Tao. But we’re police officers. You won’t talk us out of our suspicions.

“When you first married, before your wife became so heavy, you hardly ever took her out.

“Then, over a year ago, once she weighed more than a hundred kilograms, you suddenly began taking her out all the time. You had a purpose.

“A change like that has a reason.

“You’re handsome. I’m told you’re rather fastidious, too. You couldn’t stand your wife’s weight and untidiness. But you weren’t willing to divorce her. You planned to kill her for her property—”

“Are you determined to make things up?”

I cut him off, shouting furiously.

“I was starting a business when we first married. Where was I supposed to find the time to take her out?

“A year ago, business improved. I felt guilty about neglecting her, so I began taking her out more.

“Captain Lin, did someone hurt you? Is that why you can’t stand seeing other couples happy?

“I don’t understand why taking my own wife out becomes some sinister plan in your eyes.

“What evidence do you have that I killed her?

“I know the law, too. Without evidence, you’re slandering an innocent man. I’ll file a complaint!”

“I’ll find the evidence.”

Captain Lin frowned, his voice cold.

“The symptoms of multiple organ failure are obvious. You knew something was wrong, yet you wouldn’t take her to a doctor. That is the biggest inconsistency here.

“Weren’t the two of you supposed to be in love?

“Stop repeating that she refused to go. This was her health—her life. If you really cared about her, you would have found a way to get her to a hospital, however much she protested.

“You knew she was vomiting frequently. Why didn’t you take it seriously?

“Her face was discolored. Her body was swollen. Shouldn’t you have taken her to the hospital? Even if you were busy, did you really not have time to call an ambulance?

“On the surface, it looks as though her classmates provoked her into trying to lose weight.

“But her decision to take several kinds of pills and increase the doses herself couldn’t have been entirely unconnected to you.

“Your behavior toward her had been strange for more than a year. You deliberately staged a loving marriage for everyone to see, so that when she died you could clear yourself of suspicion.

“This business about being too busy with your startup is just an excuse.”

“You really do tell a good story.”

A thought crossed my mind.

“If my wife and I had been on equal financial terms, perhaps I’d have dared make her listen.

“But the gap between us was too large. I didn’t dare go against her.

“Besides, Ma Li was the one who suggested losing weight. My wife bought all the pills from her. And when she developed side effects, Ma Li was the one who stopped her seeking medical help.

“So tell me, Captain Lin: what grounds do you have for suspecting me?

“Does it seem reasonable to accuse me like this without a shred of evidence?

“Most importantly, my wife was an adult, not a child. She could decide for herself whether she felt ill and needed a doctor.

“You don’t have to believe my explanation. You can suspect me all you like. But you need evidence.

“This is a society governed by law. Even a police officer can’t accuse an innocent man at will.

“Am I free to go?”

Captain Lin’s face darkened.

He was silent for a moment before replying coldly.

“If I’m prepared to suspect you, Ha Tao, I’ll find the evidence.

“Do you remember the first thing I told you?

“Your wife, Han Fangfang, died of multiple organ failure caused by excessive doses of weight-loss pills and other medications.

“That’s all for today. You can go.”

He gave me another pointed look.

When I met his eyes, my heart clenched.