Chapter 4

My heart clenched at the look in his eyes.

But I left without showing it.

On the way back, I kept turning over Captain Lin’s words.

“Excessive doses of weight-loss pills and other medications caused multiple organ failure.”

He must have found out.

Besides taking too many weight-loss pills, my wife had been consuming large quantities of tonics—ginseng powder in particular.

Weight-loss pills damaged the liver and kidneys. Misuse and excessive doses made that damage worse.

Once those organs began to fail, others would be affected.

Under those circumstances, large amounts of tonics, especially ginseng, would do no good. They would only put more strain on her organs.

A frail body couldn’t tolerate powerful tonics.

Ginseng might be used to restore vitality, but in her condition it was no different from poison.

She took several kinds of weight-loss pills every day and increased the doses herself. Her body had already been ravaged.

The combined effects of the pills and tonics had brought on multiple organ failure in just a few months.

She had kept believing there was nothing seriously wrong because the ginseng powder gave her a false sense of energy.

I couldn’t help sneering.

Captain Lin was a very good detective.

His guess was right.

I had killed my wife.

But he would never find evidence pointing directly to me.

My method hadn’t been complicated. Too many expensive tonics, especially ginseng powder: they looked like love, but underneath was the intention to kill.

Captain Lin couldn’t possibly uncover that secret.

And even if he discovered I was the real killer, what could he do?

Yes, I had bought the other tonics.

But our elderly neighbor had brought over the ginseng powder.

I had asked her to help persuade my wife before. To thank her, I regularly gave her ginseng powder.

I gave her several boxes at a time. It was expensive, so she would keep only two, add some fruit, and give the rest to my wife.

Apart from the weight-loss pills, the ginseng powder was the main reason my wife’s organs had failed.

Suppose Captain Lin did find out that the powder originally came from me. So what?

I hadn’t forced our neighbor to pass it back to my wife.

And if my wife was ill but refused to see a doctor, was it a crime to buy her tonics?

Captain Lin wanted evidence. What evidence could there be?

Ma Li had suggested that my wife lose weight. She had sold her the pills. She had also told her that all weight-loss pills had side effects, that they would go away once she stopped taking them, and that there was no need to see a doctor.

More importantly, my wife cared desperately about her pride. She would never have told Ma Li that I had secretly encouraged her to increase the doses, or provoked her by calling her a “fat pig.”

As for my real reason for taking her out so often over a year ago, she was dead now. There was no one left to contradict me. Captain Lin could investigate all he liked. I wasn’t afraid.

I felt rather pleased with myself.

I also understood that a woman had died. Captain Lin wouldn’t give up on me easily.

But without evidence, I wouldn’t confess.

Five days later, he knocked at my door with a young officer.

I invited them in.

“Captain Lin, when can I bring my wife home?”

“What’s the hurry? You’ll have to wait.”

He sat on the sofa and narrowed his eyes at me.

“Ha Tao, do you remember our first meeting? I asked how your wife had gained so much weight in just two years.

“You told me she had checkups twice a year and was very healthy.

“Why did you make such a point of saying she was healthy?”

Why was he asking me that?

I thought for a moment and guessed where he was going.

“Captain Lin, you told me the dog had scratched the door open. My wife and I had been happy since we married. She was heavy, but healthy.

“So the moment I learned she was dead, I suspected someone had broken in and killed her.

“That’s why I told you she was healthy.”

“You’re clever, Ha Tao. Very good at explaining things away.”

His expression was difficult to read.

“You also mentioned that her classmates had encouraged her to lose weight, and that she began feeling unwell after taking the pills.

“In other words, by stressing how healthy she was, you wanted me to conclude that the pills had killed her.

“That her death had nothing to do with you. You were in a hurry to clear yourself.

“But that means you already knew the cause of death the moment you learned she had died.

“Am I right?”

“Why do you keep talking nonsense, Captain Lin?”

My expression changed at once.

“My wife died. As the victim’s husband, shouldn’t I give you information that might help? Besides, you were the one who brought up the weight-loss pills.

“Why would I be in a hurry to clear myself?

“I wasn’t home when she died. Her death had nothing to do with me.

“What would I need to clear myself of?

“Even a police officer can’t make accusations without evidence.”

“Evidence?”

His gaze cut into me.

“You keep coming back to evidence. Are you that confident I won’t find proof that you deliberately caused your wife’s death?

“The excessive doses of weight-loss pills were wearing her body down, disrupting and damaging her organs.

“You took the opportunity to buy her large quantities of tonics, especially ginseng powder, to put still more strain on them.

“You were clever. You didn’t bring the powder straight home. You gave it to your neighbor.

“But I can see what you were doing. You knew her character. You knew she wouldn’t keep it all.

“You also knew she kept two boxes each time and passed the rest back to your wife.

“Have you studied traditional Chinese medicine, Ha Tao?

“You knew the saying: a frail body cannot tolerate powerful tonics. That’s why you used gratitude as an excuse to give your neighbor so much ginseng powder. You wanted her to pass it on to your wife.

“Otherwise, there was no reason to buy her so much every time.

“Your behavior doesn’t make sense. There’s something behind it that you don’t want anyone to know.

“If I find evidence that you studied traditional Chinese medicine, I can establish that you deliberately caused your wife’s death.

“Even if you never studied it, evidence that you looked up this information online could still secure a conviction.

“This is the age of big data, Ha Tao. That sort of information is easy to find.

“I advise you to confess and seek leniency.”

“Now I understand, Captain Lin.”

I met his eyes, my voice cold.

“You’re determined to pin my wife’s death on me.

“She looked ill and refused to see a doctor, so I bought her tonics. We often asked our elderly neighbor for help. She was getting on in years, and I gave her ginseng powder out of gratitude.

“It was ordinary kindness between neighbors. I don’t understand why you have to see something sinister in it.

“Besides, I had no idea my wife couldn’t take ginseng powder.

“She was an adult. Whether she wanted to eat something or felt unwell, did she have to rely on me for everything? She wasn’t a child. She could think for herself.

“I was her husband, not her private nurse.

“Was her death really my responsibility?

“All this talk of traditional medicine and frail bodies sounds like an excuse to frame me.”

I let my anger show.

“I’ve never done anything to be ashamed of. Investigate all you like. I’m not afraid.

“But if you try to frame me without evidence, I’ll file a complaint.

“There must be somewhere I can get a fair hearing!”

“I hope you can keep speaking with such confidence.”

Captain Lin’s voice was stern.

“We’ve carried out extensive inquiries. Ma Li sold your wife the pills, but we’ve found no grounds to suspect her.

“The excessive doses damaged your wife’s organs. Without all that ginseng powder, however, she wouldn’t have developed multiple organ failure.

“You knew she was vomiting repeatedly, yet you remained indifferent. That’s the first suspicious point.

“And your habit of taking her out so often over a year ago is suspicious, too.

“You despised her weight and wanted her property. You planned to kill her. I will find the evidence.”

He slowly stood.

“This is a high-tech age. No one can keep every secret hidden.

“I don’t believe you’ve covered every trace.

“We’ll meet again, Ha Tao. Soon.”

He started toward the door, then stopped and looked back.

“If you didn’t know your wife couldn’t take ginseng powder, why did you have the neighbor give it to her?”

“I’d bought it for her before. She said she didn’t like the taste.”

I answered with perfect innocence.

“A lot of my friends know that. You can ask them.”

Captain Lin said nothing. He simply smiled at me and left.

I stared after them for a few seconds.

Then my expression changed violently.

That last question. I had answered it wrong.

It was a loaded question.

God!

He had asked why I had used the neighbor to give my wife the powder.

Because I was focused on denying that I knew about frail bodies and tonics, I had answered without denying the act itself.

I had effectively accepted his premise that I had plotted against my wife.

What an idiot.

He hadn’t needed to ask me that.

If I had intended to kill her and deliberately kept my distance from the ginseng powder, of course I would have prepared an explanation for afterward.

He had investigated so much. He must already have known that, before the weight-loss pills, my wife wouldn’t even drink ginseng soup.

The sly bastard. He had set the trap and waited for me to walk into it.

It took me a long time to calm down.

What now?

How could I put it right?

Then again, he already suspected me. What did it matter if I had accepted his premise?

He still couldn’t find the evidence.

That reassured me a little.

I would have to be more careful around the old fox. He never did what I expected.

At the last interrogation, he hadn’t even mentioned those questions from our first meeting.

Today, not only had he returned to them, he had gone straight for the crucial detail.

I had prepared my defense for saying my wife was healthy. Yet under his questioning, every explanation had only made me look worse.

Now I even wondered whether that final question was the entire reason he had come.

But whenever I thought of his promise that we would meet again soon, unease stirred inside me.

Had he already found something?

I had never studied traditional Chinese medicine or searched online for that kind of information. Still, plenty of traditional medicine clinics displayed warnings about frail constitutions and powerful tonics.

But would someone as cunning as Captain Lin really tell me openly what he intended to investigate?

No. Of course not.

Besides, even if I had studied it, that shouldn’t matter much.

My wife was an adult. If she felt ill, she could have gone to a doctor herself.

What he really wanted to establish, I thought, was why she had refused.

The real reasons were her shame, the misleading things I had told her, and the false sense of energy the ginseng powder gave her.

Then I remembered.

To make her dismiss the side effects, I had once helped her search online for the dangers of lying around all day without exercise.

Could that become evidence that I had plotted her death?

If it wasn’t enough on its own, what about that search combined with the expensive powder I had given our neighbor?

People didn’t normally buy gifts that costly for a neighbor.

I really couldn’t be sure.

And I had no idea what Captain Lin had actually found.

I frowned and thought for a long time. After weighing everything carefully, I decided to turn myself in.

Yes, I had made my wife ashamed of herself and misled her. But in the end, she had died trying to lose weight. She was an adult. My offense couldn’t be that serious.

After telling Captain Lin I wanted to confess, I sat in the interrogation room and asked, curious, “What exactly did you find out?”

He answered gravely.

“More than a year ago, you began taking your wife to malls to buy clothes. Later, despite knowing she was vomiting frequently, you deliberately filled your schedule with unnecessary work.

“Then there was the apartment door, which was often left unlocked. And the fortune you spent on ginseng powder for a neighbor, supposedly to thank her. None of it made sense.

“Malls mostly sell fashion clothing that someone severely overweight won’t fit into.

“You knew those clothes wouldn’t fit your wife. Did it make sense to keep taking her there?

“You knew she was vomiting repeatedly. Did it make sense to avoid staying home to care for her?

“Your neighbor helped persuade her, yes. But did it make sense to spend tens of thousands of yuan on ginseng powder to thank her?

“More than a year had passed, but the contrast between you and your wife was so striking—one very heavy, the other slim—that the people at the mall remembered you well.

“More importantly, you once asked specifically about health practices at a traditional medicine clinic. You had known for a long time that a frail body couldn’t tolerate powerful tonics.

“Taken together, Ha Tao, these things are the most direct evidence we could have.

“In the age of big data, information is easy to find. Where you’ve been, what you’ve done—your car and phone leave records.”

Cold sweat broke out on me.

“H-how serious is my offense?”

Something shifted in Captain Lin’s eyes.

“Since you came forward voluntarily and appear sincere, I’ll do what I can to seek leniency for you…”

The End.

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