Chapter 3

Tiểu Vịnh’s death would be treated as an ordinary suicide and quickly closed.

Even if Tiểu Liễu kept reporting it, with nothing but an app, it would probably achieve nothing.

Making a spectacle was the only way.

I immediately asked:

“What about now? Will you investigate? That filthy club, the people who drove her into a corner…”

“We’ve reported it up the chain. Technical investigators are working on it,” he said helplessly. “We have to investigate now, whether we want to or not.”

“You don’t know how seriously we’re treating this. Every available officer has been mobilized. There’s an investigator in every apartment in the building. We’re afraid someone else might really be harmed.”

“The higher agencies are taking it extremely seriously too. A joint investigation across multiple units has even been approved.”

“Think about it. A young woman, a human head, dismemberment, body parts appearing and disappearing…”

“This Tiểu Liễu certainly knows how to generate public attention…”

I breathed out in relief.

Then he grew stern again.

“But if he really did it, a university student has ruined his life. He’ll definitely face criminal responsibility… What a shame. It isn’t worth it…”

I checked the time.

If the case really had received that much attention, with multiple units involved, they must have opened locker 305 by now.

And contacted Tiểu Liễu.

Just then, the officer noticed another problem.

“No. How could a university student who doesn’t even live here dismember his sister and secretly place the remains in five separate homes?”

He fixed his eyes on me.

I asked indifferently:

“Have your colleagues reached him? What did he say?”

He tapped his earpiece.

“As soon as we sent the details. He denies it, but can’t establish an alibi for last night…”

I smiled.

“That’s right.”

“Because he didn’t do it.”

The officer’s eyes widened.

I asked with interest:

“Has no one checked locker 305 yet? Ask your colleagues.”

Frowning, he worked his phone again and listened intently.

After a long time, he abruptly looked up.

“A suicide note?”

“She wrote it… to you?”

As though released, I sighed.

“Let me explain.”

“Yes. She wrote the note to me. Our relationship wasn’t as simple as you think. At least, not when we first met.

“It was a winter night. I’d been drinking heavily while entertaining clients. On my way home, I collapsed into a flowerbed in the complex. She saved me.

“The temperature suddenly dropped that night. It snowed heavily. Without her finding me, I might really have died. We became friends. Later, we crossed the boundary of friendship.

“Then one day, she killed herself.

“Only in the note did she tell me how much she’d carried.

“Those people wouldn’t leave her alone.

“They gave her no chance to begin again.

“Finally, she couldn’t bear it.

“She chose death.

“How could I accept such a sudden loss?

“I decided without hesitation that I would expose the filthy club behind her.

“So…

“I dismembered her.

“I secretly put the remains in the neighbors’ homes.

“My alibi footage was fake. A technical examination will show it was edited.

“I threatened the police.

“I created that strange cipher to make you trust me and let me participate in the investigation.

“And the reason…

“I had studied how the local criminal investigation unit operated.

“With too many suspects and an entire building at risk, you were likely to prioritize resolving things onsite rather than taking everyone to the station.

“Only then would I have a chance to tell the whole story.

“So when you entered this apartment alone, I wasn’t surprised.

“I knew officers normally worked in pairs during investigations.

“I had predicted the shortage of personnel from the beginning.”

He stared, stunned.

“You mean… Tiểu Liễu had nothing to do with it?”

I shook my head.

That was indeed the case.

I stressed it again.

“Your instinct was right. From the beginning, I wanted you to investigate the club. When you said you definitely would, my purpose was achieved. That’s why I decided to confess.”

He looked at me in disbelief, angry and bewildered.

“Was it worth it?”

“She was only a prostitute.”

“How could she be worth all this?”

I wanted to laugh.

I couldn’t.

Slowly, I answered.

“Perhaps I really am ill… I’ve spent my life trying desperately, always pushing forward. But I’m tired. So tired. Keeping up the image of an exceptional person… More than once, I’ve been too tired to want to live.”

“The night we met, perhaps I wasn’t that drunk. I just couldn’t get up anymore. Maybe I thought I might as well die there. Then I met her. I’d loved people before. At first, I didn’t think I loved her that much. But later, she said something to me. Another time, work had left me overwhelmed, so anxious I wanted to die because I couldn’t solve my problems… She told me:

“‘You don’t have to live like this. You can do nothing at all. You don’t have to come first. You don’t have to be the best. I’ll love you just the same.’”

I clenched my teeth, my eyes burning red.

“I’ve received so much love in my life. To repay it, I kept trying to be stronger, braver, better. Get good grades. Find a good job. Become outstanding… Since childhood, I’d understood that everything was an equal exchange. But she told me:

“‘I’ll love you no matter what. Being you is enough.’”

I wiped my tears and forced out the last words through clenched teeth.

“So I can’t accept her death! Still less can I accept the people who caused it walking free!”

He remained stunned.

“Fuck… You really are sick…”

I nodded.

He would not understand.

I did not need him to.

“All right. Arrest me. That’s everything. Sorry for holding up your work so long.”

He looked close to breaking down.

He tapped at his phone and lit a cigarette.

I breathed out in relief.

At last, it was over.

I no longer had to stay tense.

Other officers soon entered.

As expected, they took me away.

I was detained.

In a haze, I fell asleep.

When I woke, the officer had come to see me.

Alone.

I had studied criminal investigation procedures.

One officer could not take an official statement by himself.

So this was only an informal private visit.

Seeing me awake, he spoke first.

“We’ve arrested some people from the club. Repeat offenders. We’ll dismantle the entire operation. They did use threats and coercion to control women selling sex. That’s a serious crime. If we catch the leader, even a death sentence isn’t impossible.”

I nodded repeatedly and thanked him sincerely.

He frowned again.

“You haven’t given your official statement yet. Before that, there’s something I want to understand. You found her body quickly that night and then dismembered it… That was a lot of work. Did you really do everything alone?”

I interrupted at once.

“Of course! Just me!”

He scratched his head and muttered:

“But those neighbors, and her brother… None of them has an alibi…”

Then he looked at me seriously.

“All right. Think carefully before your formal statement. Explain honestly how you obtained the neighbors’ keys and security-door codes. Understood?”

I kept nodding.

And thanking him.

From the bottom of my heart.

Because he had seen through it.

That was why I had feared the police discovering how the remains had been disposed of.

He knew I was hiding something.

“You’ll be sentenced. I’ll try to help you obtain a suspended sentence…”

As he spoke, he took a sheet of paper from his pocket and handed it over.

“We found some more words she left behind. Read them yourself…”

Puzzled, I accepted it.

He turned and left.

When I unfolded it, I found a printout of notes from her phone.

Only then did I learn.

She had not killed herself simply because she could no longer endure that life.

She had grown used to it.

Even without a way out, she had not entirely lost the will to live.

What she wanted…

Was to be with me.

She wanted it so badly.

Before meeting me, she could have continued living that way.

Afterward, she couldn’t.

I was the light in her life.

For me, she wanted to escape her past.

I stared at the words on the page.

Tears would not stop.

What a beautiful thing.

We had been each other’s light.

Only, I had never managed to tell her myself.

“You were the light of my life too.”