Chapter 80: That is what people often mistake for the “heart.
Qin Ge didn’t know what Xie Zijing was thinking. He also looked at the glass mirror, secretly observing Xie Zijing’s expression through it.
Their eyes met, and Qin Ge lowered his eyelids, walked to a chair, and sat down.
Opening a beer, cool air like smoke emerged, and Qin Ge’s palm immediately became damp with condensation. In the hot summer, a cold beer is a perfect match. He gulped down half of it in one go, the chill rolling from his throat into his stomach, which people often mistakenly believe is the location of the “heart.”
Xie Zijing was still watching him, as if trying to discern something from his face.
Qin Ge awkwardly made the conversation, “Lei Chi sure is taking a long time.”
Xie Zijing: “Are he and Bai Xiaoyuan really together?”
Qin Ge: “I don’t know, I can’t tell.”
Xie Zijing: “It doesn’t seem like it.”
Qin Ge found it a bit amusing, “You know? You’re that familiar with the two of them?”
At this moment, Xie Zijing turned his head and said, “I’m not familiar with them. What about us? What was our relationship before?”
The sentinel’s question was very direct, and Qin Ge couldn’t avoid it. He quickly took another sip of beer, choking and coughing repeatedly.
Xie Zijing added, “I think the relationship between you and me must have been special.”
The small notebook was still in his pants pocket; the zipper pulled up, keeping it very safe. It wouldn’t fall out. Xie Zijing thought to himself that he was quite bad. He knew everything, yet he still had to ask this way.
Making Qin Ge embarrassed, he felt somewhat sad but also a bit excited.
He is embarrassed because of me. Every reaction Qin Ge gave made Xie Zijing, whose memories were still vague, feel like he was finding the roots and evidence to connect with the world. He needed something more concrete to prove his feelings. It certainly wasn’t the words recorded in the notebook, nor was it the slowly recovering memories. Xie Zijing couldn’t explain what exactly he wanted, but he wanted to know what his mood was like when he wrote “I love Qin Ge” in the notebook.
Qin Ge put down the empty beer can. “We were very good friends before.” He didn’t look at Xie Zijing, but stared at the lights outside, “That’s all.”
Xie Zijing wanted to see traces of lying on his face, but Qin Ge didn’t look at him, and he couldn’t find any loopholes.
The two remained silent until they finished their drinks and remembered missing Lei Chi.
Lei Chi, taking advantage of a phone call, gave Xie Zijing and Qin Ge a chance to be alone. He perfectly followed Bai Xiaoyuan’s instructions to arrange everything and received Bai Xiaoyuan’s comment, “Not bad.”
The next day, they split up, with one going to the city’s crisis management criminal investigation department for a meeting, and the other two meeting with Xie Weiran to return to the village to find Jiang Yong.
Qin Ge told Xie Zijing that to find Jiang Yong, it was best to find Hai Tong first. Hai Tong had known Jiang Yong for many years and called him “A-Gong,” which means grandfather. Xie Weiran, familiar with the special people in the village, also knew some things about Jiang Yong.
“Jiang Yong is a sentinel who came here about ten years ago,” Xie Weiran said. “The files at the time of handover said he had severe mental disorders, but when we first contacted him, we didn’t notice any obvious problems. Later, one night when visiting Jiang Yong, we saw him talking to himself.”
Jiang Yong had very severe hallucinations and emotional disorders. His personal emotions seemed to be controlled by a mysterious person. During the day, the mysterious person hid in his body, and at night, the mysterious person would come out, giving Jiang Yong a chance to talk to him. He would tell the mysterious person everything that happened during the day, sometimes receiving praise and sometimes harsh criticism.
“Hallucinations?” Qin Ge was stunned, “Persistent ones?”
“Yes, one feature is persistence, and another is logic.” Talking about this, Xie Weiran also seemed oddly surprised, “The logic of his hallucinations is very, very strong. During our observations, we even thought it wasn’t a hallucination, but a real person that we just couldn’t see. This is completely different from typical mental disorders. His logic is not only perfectly coherent from the patient’s side, but we outsiders can also completely understand and guess what he said to the mysterious person.”
Xie Zijing: “What do you mean specifically?”
Xie Weiran turned on his phone: “I recorded it once a few years ago. Listen.”
A low rustling sound came from the phone.
“That night, Jiang Yong walked to the beach by himself, and we followed him. He knelt down on the beach facing the sea.”
After a moment, a hoarse crying voice sounded: “I’m sorry… don’t kill me… I’m sorry… don’t kill me…”
“He kept repeating these two sentences. When he wasn’t crying, it was as if he was begging for mercy from some mysterious person we couldn’t see.”
Xie Weiran turned up the volume, and Qin Ge and Xie Zijing clearly heard Jiang Yong’s words: “Xie Liang is gone… isn’t that enough…”
Xie Weiran: “But we don’t know who this Xie Liang is.”
Xie Zijing and Qin Ge exchanged glances but didn’t speak.
They both had the same confusion in their minds: Xie Liang’s disappearance was clearly related to Zhou You, and the person Jiang Yong was begging for mercy from was obviously also Zhou You. Since even Jiang Yong, who was not present at the time, knew that Zhou You and Xie Liang’s disappearance were closely connected, it at least indicated that something special must have happened when the two were escorting Zhou You to Wearhouse Zero. These events made Jiang Yong realize that Zhou You would not forgive him and Xie Liang.
Xie Zijing’s emotions grew increasingly complex. He didn’t want to discover during the investigation that his father was actually a bad person.
Xie Weiran parked the car outside the village and entered the village with Qin Ge and Xie Zijing. But even after walking through the entire small village, the three of them couldn’t find Xiaohai.
“We already know where Jiang Yong lives. Can’t we just go find him directly?” Qin Ge asked.
Xie Weiran: “Jiang Yong won’t pay attention to us. He only trusts Xiaohai.”
“Why is Sea Child also listed as a suspect?” Lei Chi asked as he flipped through the files.
Among the seven victims, Cha Lao and two guides were locals, while the rest were from other cities along the coastline. Lei Chi looked at the young Sea Child in the files. He followed his mother’s surname, Zhang, and his name was Xiaohai.
“Zhang Xiaohai was very familiar with the murdered Cha Lao, and after Cha Lao was killed, he returned to the tea mountain several times and was discovered by our people a few times.” A report record appeared on the slide. “Xiaohai has been reported multiple times for indecent exposure to women. Although he used swimming as an excuse, isn’t it a bit odd for someone to be so fond of skinny-dipping?”
Lei Chi: “…Just because of these two points, you listed him as the sole suspect?”
“Experts in criminal profiling at the provincial level provided some suggestions. The perpetrator of this case is clearly a strong young man, likely acting alone. The female victims had signs of abuse, and five of the seven were se-x workers, but they were not se-xually assaulted. This is a clear sign of se-xual impotence and frustration.”
“I think we shouldn’t use these profiles to fit suspects. We should first find someone with concrete evidence of criminal suspicion, then use the profiles to judge. We can’t rely solely on the profiles, can we?” Lei Chi said, trying to control his impatience. The city was too small, and the local crisis management office was clearly underqualified. Among those present, apart from a few special individuals, the rest were ordinary people. Lei Chi knew they rarely handled such major cases, so when one appeared, they naturally rushed to resolve it quickly.
“There was an eyewitness who saw Zhang Xiaohai leave the village on the night the fishing boat caught fire and disappeared by the sea. No one knows where he went, and he refuses to say. Isn’t that suspicious?”
Lei Chi had to remind them, “If it were truly suspicious, you wouldn’t have failed to get a result and release him. This clearly means there’s no actual evidence. You can’t handle cases this way.”
The smoke-filled meeting room fell silent. Lei Chi, regardless of whether it displeased them, said, “I need to return to the provincial capital this afternoon to report on the case. I can’t just put Zhang Xiaohai up there. Since the provincial experts gave these suggestions, why not start by studying those five sex workers?”
Lei Chi was waiting for a response when suddenly a commotion erupted outside.
Everyone left the meeting room and found the narrow crisis management office crowded with people. Angry, anxious villagers were dragging in a dark-skinned teenager. The boy had already been beaten, with injuries on his body and face, and his eyes were red. Lei Chi noticed large scars on the boy’s face, neck, and ribs.
It was Sea Child.
“It’s him who burned my daughter!” A woman clawed at Sea Child’s neck, her fingers digging into his abnormal gills. A look of extreme pain instantly appeared on Sea Child’s face. The woman quickly withdrew her hand, then, both shocked and furious, grabbed a paperweight from the table and struck him on the head.
Lei Chi lunged forward and grabbed the woman’s hand. “Don’t cause trouble here!”
Tears covered the woman’s face. “It’s him! This monster is the one who harmed people!”
The paperweight had hit Zhang Xiaohai’s nose, causing a stream of blood to trickle down. A voice of surprise rose from the crowd: “His blood is red too!”
Zhang Xiaohai lowered his head, wiped the blood from his nose, and remained silent.
“Are we still waiting?” Xie Weiran returned to Qin Ge and Xie Zijing after circling the village. “The boy’s mother isn’t here. Someone said they saw Xiaohai go out alone last night. He was wearing new clothes.”
Qin Ge was stunned. “Why?”
Xie Weiran: “He said an old classmate invited him to a gathering. He seemed quite happy.”
“Stayed out all night?” Xie Zijing, who had been flipping through a small notebook, said with a smile.
Xie Weiran: “He never attended gatherings before. The people in the village who went to elementary school with him get along well, but I don’t know about those from outside. Since he stopped studying, he hasn’t had any contact with them. It’s strange, who would invite him?”
“A classmate gathering?” Xie Zijing said. “Invite him over, then tie him up as a monster. People have been on edge recently, and he’s an easy target.”
Qin Ge stood up. “Forget it, let’s not wait. Let’s go directly to Jiang Yong’s place.”
Xie Weiran: “Without Xiaohai, he won’t pay attention to us.”
Xie Zijing jumped up from the ground. “He should listen to me.”
Xie Weiran: “Because you’re a sentinel?”
Xie Zijing: “Because I’m the son of his partner, Xie Liang.”
Xie Weiran was stunned. Xie Zijing grabbed a large crab, bubbling continuously from atop her head. “Can you eat this thing?”
The crab started to turn red slowly. Xie Zijing was astonished. “Wow!” But the crab pinched him with its claw, causing him to shake his hand in pain, flinging the crab into the bushes.
Qin Ge noticed a small notebook on the spot where Xie Zijing had been sitting. He often saw Xie Zijing flipping through it, but Xie Zijing never shared what was written inside. However, he looked through it so often that the edges of the pages were slightly yellowed and curled.
He picked it up and followed behind Xie Zijing and Xie Weiran.
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