Not two days later, the police screened a man from their database whose physical characteristics highly matched the bus station dispatcher’s description.
He had a scar on his face and had been to prison in his early years for violent debt collection.
In recent years, he had been making a living as a taxi driver. His memory of the events of that year was very vivid. The moment the police stated their purpose, Scarface burst into tears and swore up and down that he hadn’t killed anyone.
Zhuang Ningyu asked, “Didn’t kill who? Lan Lan?”
Yi Ke sat by the hospital bed and handed him a peeled apple. “He didn’t kill Yun Dali.”
Not only was Zhuang Ningyu stunned, but the police officer conducting the interrogation at the time was also stunned. Yun Dali?
Scarface sat in the interrogation room and confessed everything.
“Back then, that guy surnamed Yun was borrowing money everywhere. When it was time to pay it back, he ran off without a trace. We really had no other choice, so we went to Lan Lan to ask for the money. She was still in the hospital at the time and said that Yun Dali had already run away, and she couldn’t contact him either. She didn’t have a single penny, but she could give us a woman in exchange for some money.”
“Give?”
“…Actually, it was selling. Selling a woman,” Scarface said, wiping away a nervous sweat. “Selling her into the mountains, or to places like a shady KTV. Baldy… oh, his name is Wang Yong, he and I knew some connections, so we thought we’d act as middlemen. We could at least get some of the debt back.”
When Lan Lan worked at the hair salon before, she had seen many similar things and was very clear about the unwritten rules.
Scarface and Baldy followed her instructions and traveled all the way to the town near Yun’s village, staying at a guesthouse to wait for the “goods.”
But after waiting for a week, Lan Lan backed out. The woman never arrived. She only said on the phone that Yun Dali was currently near the bus station and told Scarface to hurry up and catch him.
What followed was the scene the dispatcher had witnessed.
After being cornered by his creditors at the bus station, Yun Dali first said he would sell Lan Lan to the south to pay off his debts, and later simply said his son could also be “temporarily given to the two of them.”
Of course, Scarface and Baldy didn’t believe this nonsense. They had originally wanted to take Yun Dali back to the hotel, but they weren’t paying attention for a moment, and he actually managed to run away.
The two brothers had made this trip for nothing. No goods, no money. They were furious. After searching for two or three days and feeling it was hopeless, they cursed and prepared to go home.
But as luck would have it, they encountered a heavy snowstorm that blocked the roads, and all bus services were suspended. The locals saw their anxiety and told them they could cross Gaolin Mountain to get to the next town and catch a bus there.
“And then, guess what?” Yi Ke opened the window, letting the morning sunlight stream in. He then arranged the beautiful, dew-kissed roses one by one into a vase. The cuffs of his shirt were rolled up halfway, the veins on his forearm faintly visible.
It was hard to say if he was actually working or just taking the opportunity to show off his good physique. Zhuang Ningyu ignored it and answered directly, “They found Yun Dali dead in the mountains?”
“Yes,” Yi Ke said. “Gaolin Mountain is not a deserted mountain. There are several villages along the way. If you’re tired, you can find lodging and food at any household. It takes about two or three days to walk out.
Compared to waiting indefinitely at the guesthouse, it was a better option. So, the two of them bought thick cotton clothes, shouldered a large bag of food, and went into the mountains.”
Zhuang Ningyu asked, “Where was Yun Dali’s body?”
“In a patch of wild forest. It’s far from the villages in either direction, and there are wild animals.”
Scarface recalled the situation back then, still terrified. His lips were pale as he said, “It was already getting dark then. Yongzi and I went deep into the woods to take a piss. As we were walking, my foot suddenly stepped on something, I don’t know what, it was soft. I turned on my flashlight and looked down. Yun Dali’s entire head was a bloody mess, and more than half of his body was buried in the dirt. He was staring straight at me with wide-open eyes.”
The scene was truly terrifying. The two brothers were scared out of their wits. They didn’t even have time to grab their things and ran for several li on the spot, scrambling and falling.
Scarface wanted to call the police, but Baldy wouldn’t let him. He collapsed under a tree, panting, and analyzed, “The two of us aren’t clean to begin with. What’s the difference between calling the police and turning ourselves in? Besides, what if the police can’t catch the murderer for a long time and just use us as scapegoats? It’s a murder case; you can get shot for that.”
Scarface thought about it and realized it made sense. Yun Dali was already on the run from debts anyway. No one would find it strange if he disappeared. At most, people would just curse that the old rascal was good at hiding. But if they reported it to the police, there would be a lot more things to investigate, and it was hard to guarantee they wouldn’t get implicated themselves.
Yi Ke said, “Baldy’s testimony is almost identical to his. Both said they didn’t kill Yun Dali. After they decided to conceal it, they went back to the crime scene to get their luggage. To avoid any future trouble, they also buried the body a little deeper to prevent it from being dug up by wild animals. The Xucheng police are now locating and excavating the remains.”
“Logically speaking, the two of them were still hoping for Yun Dali to pay back the money. There was indeed no need for them to kill him.”
Zhuang Ningyu said, munching on an apple. “Did Lan Lan kill him? Or did Cheng Ye kill him?”
“I heard the investigation team has also made progress, but they haven’t had a meeting yet.”
Yi Ke brought over a wheelchair. “Come on, I’ll take you out to the garden to get some sun first.”
“I’ll walk by myself!”
“Don’t. Walk one for me to see.”
“I’ll put on my own shoes.”
“No.”
“…”
Zhuang Ningyu stayed in the hospital for fifteen days. Yi Ke came a total of sixteen times, more punctual than clocking in for work. The medical staff on the entire floor loved Yi Ke. The security guard uncle even extended his visiting hours for him so he wouldn’t have to rush on the road after work.
The hospital at night was very quiet.
Yi Ke leaned back on the recliner, lazily flipping through a book.
Zhuang Ningyu’s face was full of refusal. You’d better not come at all tomorrow.
The day before he was discharged, Yi Ke came to the ward as usual, holding red roses. “Feng Ting confessed.”
Zhuang Ningyu pointed to his phone, indicating that he had just spoken with Ye Jiaoyue.
For the past half month, the investigation team had been working day and night.
Although they couldn’t find evidence that the Cheng Ye couple had murdered Yun Dali, they had dug up a lot of other material, including murder cases.
Feng Ting knew there was no hope of escaping punishment. To strive for lenient treatment, she finally confessed what had happened between the few of them.
Yun Dali met Lan Lan on a transport run. After a while, the two got together.
Compared to Du Xiaohe, Lan Lan was clearly more like a “gangster’s woman”—beautiful and savvy.
Yun Dali liked her very much at first; otherwise, he wouldn’t have brought the mother and son to Jincheng. But no matter how much he liked her, it didn’t stop him from continuing to solicit pro-stitutes during his transport runs. Lan Lan found out and made a scene, but it didn’t achieve any results. If she left with the child, she was unwilling to accept that she had wasted her best years for nothing. So she kept dragging it out, until later, Yun Dali had more and more women, and he became more and more stingy.
Feng Ting said, “At first, when Yun Dali saw that Lan Lan wasn’t making a scene anymore, he thought she had softened up and even boasted to Old Cheng. But he never expected that Lan Lan actually… that woman, on the surface, she continued to be gentle and affectionate, but behind his back, she found a group of friends from her old hair salon and had them lead Yun Dali into a casino.”
Yun Dali had always been very tight with his money. Lan Lan’s original intention was to make him spit it out at the casino. She, as the introducer, could also get a cut. Then she could take her son and the money and leave. It was better than getting nothing and having it all left for his other women.
But how could a gambler be a normal person? Not only did she not get a single cent of the introduction fee from her “friends,” but she was also beaten until she was black and blue by the gambling-crazed Yun Dali.
Lan Lan was hospitalized, leaving Xiao Cong with no one to take care of him. Three or four creditors sat at her door, refusing to leave. Yun Dali was at his wit’s end and could only turn to Cheng Ye. And although Cheng Ye had long been disgusted with him, he couldn’t afford to offend him.
After all, the two of them had done a lot of shady things together in their early years, leaving behind plenty of leverage. So he could only comply with his requests time and time again, cleaning up his messes and taking care of his family.
“Just like many times before, we gave Yun Dali a sum of money, paid the hospital fees, and took in his son,” Feng Ting said. “Then one day, Yun Dali called and asked us to help him find an IOU in his apartment in Taoli Community. My husband and I went, taking his son with us. Anyway, Du Xiaohe had already left by then, so we didn’t have to worry about being discovered by anyone. Who knew that child… we just weren’t paying attention for a moment, and he climbed up to the rooftop.”
What happened next was roughly as Zhuang Ningyu had deduced. Cheng Ye and Feng Ting threw the barely breathing Xiao Cong into the trunk after his fall. Without even checking if he was still breathing, they drove him to the mountains, dug a pit, and buried him.
“After Lan Lan was discharged from the hospital, we sent her back to Blissful Homeland to recuperate, and… and arranged for a few people to watch her, afraid she would run around. She asked us for the child, and we just said we had enrolled the child in a full-day care program. Anyway, Yun Dali’s phone was always off at that time, so we weren’t afraid of him asking. But in the end, Lan Lan still found a neighbor to help her and managed to escape. She came to Old Cheng’s company to make a scene. Old Cheng had no other choice and casually said the child was in Yun’s village. He never thought that in the middle of winter, she would actually go and look for him.”
The investigator looked at Feng Ting. “I’m afraid it wasn’t that you ‘never thought,’ right?”
Feng Ting’s eyes flickered for a moment, and she didn’t speak again. Indeed, the two of them had deliberately induced Lan Lan to go to Yun’s village. That place was full of snow and deep forests. It would be easy to make an out-of-town woman disappear without a trace.
After killing Lan Lan, Xiao Cong’s disappearance would have the most perfect explanation—to escape her gambler husband, the mother finally took her child and went far away. This way, when Yun Dali asked about it in the future, they would have a story and could completely absolve themselves.
“Later, we called and tricked her into going to the Gaolin Mountain reservoir. Under the cover of night, we pushed her into the water, until she… until she stopped moving.”
“Then what about Yun Dali? How did Yun Dali die?” the investigator continued to ask.
Feng Ting shook her head. “I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“We really didn’t kill Yun Dali, and we really don’t know where he’s been all these years. After returning from Gaolin Mountain, I kept having nightmares. The moment I closed my eyes, I would see that reservoir. Old Cheng’s business also wasn’t going well. We hired a master to do a reading for us, and he said it was a vengeful spirit demanding retribution. To resolve it, we had to use a personal item of the person who died unjustly to set up a formation. So I went back to Meiman Jiayuan, found an old piece of clothing Xiao Cong had worn, and wrapped it together with Lan Lan’s gold bracelet, and pressed it under the terrace of the Taoli Community apartment. You’ve already dug up that spirit-suppressing well. There are only these two items. If we had also killed Yun Dali, then there should be one of his items in there too, right?”
She didn’t look like she was lying, and what she said was indeed logical. The investigators looked at each other. Then how did Yun Dali die? They couldn’t find an answer right away and could only handle it as a separate case.
Zhuang Ningyu opened the photo of the spirit-suppressing well on the terrace again. “So this piece of gold was Lan Lan’s bracelet, not Xiao Cong’s relic?”
Yi Ke handed over his phone. “The technical department found the numbers ’56’ on this piece of gold, speculating that it’s the bracelet’s circumference. It is indeed a size for adult women.”
“But according to Lan Lan’s financial situation at the time, how could she have such a thick gold bracelet at home?”
“She didn’t have it at home; she was hiding it on her person. It fell out during her scuffle with Cheng Ye and was found by Feng Ting. Because it was valuable, Feng Ting was afraid someone else would pick it up and cause trouble, so she put it in her own bag.”
Zhuang Ningyu magnified the picture countless times. Although the bracelet had been smashed beyond recognition, in some places, one could still vaguely see a regular pattern, like… fish scales? Dragon scales?
Yi Ke said, “It should be dragon scales. Is there a problem?”
“This bracelet has actually been mentioned by someone before,” Zhuang Ningyu raised his head. “Do you remember? The description the gym club owner gave of Du Xiaohe.”
—”At that time, I saw she was dressed plainly and was already prepared to bargain. But she directly took out a stack of large bills, and she was wearing a newly bought large dragon-head gold bracelet on her wrist. The tag hadn’t even been completely torn off.”
Dragon head, dragon scales. What if they were the same bracelet? Zhuang Ningyu decisively submitted a request to the technical department. Soon, a restored image of the bracelet was sent back. It was indeed a very special dragon bracelet, with the logo of “Wufu Gold Shop” on the bottom.
Wufu Gold Shop was an old, established gold shop in the city. The investigation team took the picture of the bracelet and went to them. The owner recognized it at a glance; it was indeed a product from his own shop. He explained with a smile, “This bracelet wasn’t made by a master craftsman; it was made by my clumsy wife. She doesn’t have much aesthetic sense, so no one ever bought the bracelet. Later, during the store’s anniversary, we took it out for a promotion with no labor fee.”
“Buying a bracelet for the price of gold bars, even if it’s not very good-looking, is still a good deal. Gold prices were rising sharply back then, so it was sold the moment we opened… What? A second one? There was no second one. Just this one. It’s not good-looking, why would we make so many? Besides, with my wife’s skill level, she couldn’t make a second one that’s exactly the same.”
Combining the gold shop owner’s sales time and the gym owner’s identification, it could basically be confirmed that this was Du Xiaohe’s bracelet.
But why did Du Xiaohe’s bracelet end up on Lan Lan’s wrist?
Both Cheng Ye and Feng Ting said the two women didn’t know each other, and there was indeed no reason for them to have a relationship. To know the answer, they could only ask Du Xiaohe.
On the screen, she was still refined and gentle, sitting behind a large desk, gently turning the jade thumb ring on her hand. “I know of that woman, but we’ve never met. The bracelet… perhaps Yun Dali stole it and then gave it to her.”
“I don’t think so.” Zhuang Ningyu shook his head. “When you and Yun Dali broke up, he was already at his wit’s end, being chased by creditors. He gets such a large gold bracelet, and instead of selling it for money as soon as possible, he gives it to Lan Lan? You know, he didn’t love her that much. You could even say he didn’t love her at all.”
Du Xiaohe laughed. “Then I don’t know.”
“Boss Du, I heard you’ve been doing charity for many years, so I guess you must be a very righteous person,” Zhuang Ningyu said. “There’s one thing I should tell you. After Lan Lan was discharged from the hospital that year, she once found two hooligans and said she wanted to sell a woman to them. The transaction location was set in Yun Dali’s hometown. I didn’t think this woman was you before, but now, combined with this bracelet, you two must have met in private. Boss Du, do you think this woman who was almost turned into a ‘commodity’ could be you?”
Du Xiaohe’s eyes flickered slightly.
“In the two years when Yun Dali’s business was at its peak, he had no less than five mistresses outside. You chose to cut ties, and Lan Lan also wanted to cut ties. But she chose the wrong path. She conspired with others to set up a game, trying to make Yun Dali spit out his money at the casino. But although he did spit out the money, Lan Lan was also cheated by her partners and didn’t get a single cent. When Yun Dali found out, he hated her, but he also clung to her like a leech, not letting her go, coaxing her to go plead with the creditors, to go borrow money. When Lan Lan refused, he would beat her, and then apologize after beating her.”
That time, after Yun Dali sent Lan Lan to the hospital, he was worried about being found by his creditors and quickly left in a hurry. He never appeared in Jincheng again after that.
Zhuang Ningyu continued, “Boss Du, you smuggled yourself out of the country that year, so there would be no record at customs. The so-called September was just a deduction made by others based on the time you and Yun Dali broke up. But, was it really September? What if it wasn’t September? What if it was after winter?”
Du Xiaohe lowered her eyes. After winter. She did indeed board the train after that year’s winter. After a long silence, she let out a long sigh.
“That’s right. After I separated from Yun Dali, I did indeed secretly stay in Jincheng for a long time. I only released news to the public that I had already left the country in September, hoping for some peace and quiet. But I don’t know how Lan Lan found me. She came in and said she had been cheated by Yun Dali. She knelt in front of me, crying, begging me to go with her to Yun’s village to find her son. She said her son had most likely been sold by Yun Dali, and that Yun Dali would only listen to me. As long as we could find her son, she would do whatever I asked.”
“You didn’t go?”
“I didn’t go. I didn’t want to get involved with Yun Dali again. Besides, I was about to go abroad at that time, so I really didn’t have the time. Seeing that she couldn’t persuade me, she just cried and kept begging, disheveled. A perfectly fine woman, she looked no better than a beggar. Later, I really couldn’t bear it, so I gave her my gold bracelet. Anyway, I still had some money at that time, so my life wouldn’t be unlivable. If it could save that child, I would just consider it doing a good deed. She took the bracelet, didn’t say anything, just cried. After crying for a while, she turned around and ran away. I thought this girl was not quite normal at the time, so I quickly moved to another place.”
Zhuang Ningyu sighed. “Only she herself knew what Lan Lan was thinking at that time. Perhaps at first, she really did want to trick a woman, earn some money, and go far away with her son. But in the end, she still didn’t lay a hand on any innocent person. She only tricked Yun Dali back to Yun’s village.”
A fleeting, imperceptible change crossed Du Xiaohe’s expression. “I know. She killed him.”
Zhuang Ningyu’s face was calm. “Yes, she killed him. How do you know?”
“Because Lan Lan called me,” Du Xiaohe said. “The moment the call connected, she was crying and laughing on the other end. She said she couldn’t find the child. The Cheng Ye couple said the child was in Yun’s village, and Yun Dali said the child was at Cheng Ye’s house. Everyone was lying to her. She said the child must have already been sold by Yun Dali. She cursed Yun Dali for selling the child and for wanting to drag her to the south to work as a hostess to earn money. So she tricked Yun Dali into the mountains, made him drink wine laced with drugs, and killed him.”
“And after that?”
“After that, she said she had to find her child and hung up the phone. I was terrified at the time. I didn’t know if it was true or not, so… I also left. Left for good.”
After Du Xiaohe finished speaking, she asked tentatively, “How is Lan Lan now? And that child…”
“Neither of them are here anymore,” Zhuang Ningyu said. “That child wasn’t sold by Yun Dali. He fell from the terrace of the Taoli Community apartment due to the negligence of the Cheng Ye couple and didn’t survive. Cheng Ye buried the child, and worried that Yun Dali would find out and demand an explanation, he wanted to pin everything on Lan Lan. In his view, killing a woman with no family or connections was much more cost-effective than being entangled with Yun Dali for a lifetime. So they tricked her into going to Yun’s village and killed her. But what Cheng Ye and Feng Ting didn’t know was that the Yun Dali they feared had actually died a day earlier at Lan Lan’s hands.”
After Du Xiaohe finished listening, she didn’t speak for a long time.
Zhuang Ningyu said, “But thankfully, there is still one person in this story who ended up living a good life. Boss Du, thank you for your cooperation.” He clicked the red ‘X’, ending the conversation.
Yi Ke stood behind him. “Is it over?”
Zhuang Ningyu stretched his sore waist. “It’s over.”
After a while, Yi Ke asked, “How about I donate some money to Boss Du’s charity project?”
Zhuang Ningyu didn’t fall for the trap. You can donate your own salary. You don’t need my permission.
Yi Ke: “Then I’ll donate your salary.”
Zhuang Ningyu: “?”
Regarding the Taoli Community rules incident, the Order Maintenance Department and the police still had a lot of work to do, but for Zhuang Ningyu, the mission was complete.
After he was discharged from the hospital, he lay at home for another half a month before finally returning to work like a revered ancestor after Director Wang’s repeated urging.
The Dispute Resolution Department’s office had been moved back to the small Western-style building. Wu Tao said, “By the way, boss, the Order Maintenance Department sent you an office chair yesterday. They said it’s good for the lumbar spine.”
Zhuang Ningyu: “The Order Maintenance Department?”
Wu Tao: “…’s staff member, Yi Ke, sent it.”
Qian Yue’s vigilance was at maximum. See? I told you he’s coveting our Dispute Resolution Department!
But no one paid him any attention. After Wu Tao finished speaking, she started typing away on her keyboard, looking like a dedicated and motivated young person. Zhuang Ningyu, on the other hand, picked up his thermos and went to talk to Director Wang about work—nothing in particular, just to annoy him.
Qian Yue was puzzled. “Since when does the boss have a special trip to see Director Wang?”
Wu Tao replied, “His chair was replaced, so he’s in a bad mood. It’s destined that someone will get scolded today. Do you want the boss to scold me, you, or Director Wang?”
Qian Yue: “Then of course it’s Director Wang. But that chair looks really comfortable. If the boss doesn’t like it, can I place my eager butt on it?”
Work continued so happily.
Yi Ke was rated “Excellent” for his performance in the Taoli Community rules-breaking operation. He was the third team member in the last ten years, besides Huo Ting and Zhuang Ningyu, to receive an excellent rating during his internship period. Huo Ting and Zhuang Ningyu’s abilities were there for all to see, so high hopes were naturally placed on Yi Ke. Just two days after this mission ended, he was seconded to Jiangcheng to break another rules zone.
But that didn’t stop him from sending all kinds of high-end afternoon tea to the Dispute Resolution Department from three hundred kilometers away, right on time.
Qian Yue ate like a happy hamster. He said with tears in his eyes, “Boss, why don’t you just say yes to Xiao Yi?”
Zhuang Ningyu’s eyes widened. What kind of revolutionary traitor is this?
Wu Tao: “I didn’t say anything!”
Qian Yue continued to complete his sentence: “Just let him come and work in our department!”
Wu Tao: “…”
Zhuang Ningyu took a sip of coffee that was more bitter than his life, unable to appreciate this high-end stuff. So he thought about going to have another heart-to-heart with Director Wang, but unexpectedly, he pushed open the door and ran into Huo Ting. He was puzzled. “It’s the middle of the afternoon, what are you doing here?”
…
Jiangcheng, a certain rules zone.
Yi Ke leaped down from the platform and, amidst the massive shockwave of the explosion, successfully concluded this breaking mission. He didn’t stay for the celebration party but instead drove back to Jincheng overnight. When he got home, he spent a good while grooming himself and even gave himself a charming battle-worn look.
But he couldn’t find the person he was looking for at the Dispute Resolution Department.
Jincheng’s Order Maintenance Department had five major action zones. Yi Ke was in the first zone, and Zhuang Ningyu had been borrowed by the third zone. In the large office, the action zone chief of the third zone personally explained, “Xiao Yi, we really tried, but we all failed without exception. We simply can’t enter the rules zone.”
“What rules zone can only he enter?”
“A club in the east of the city. In the words of the young people, it’s called a ‘face-check party.’ They only want young, handsome men,” the third zone chief replied. “The first, second, and fifth zones all have other missions. We and the fourth zone’s team members all tried, but who knew, we were all blocked out. We really had no other choice, so the department head had to find Ningyu.”
Yi Ke: “…”
The third zone chief looked aggrieved. To be honest, he and his brother-in-misery from the fourth zone still couldn’t accept the cruel reality that when the team members from their two zones were combined, they couldn’t even muster a single handsome man. This was a great humiliation.
