Chapter 35: Doll Party 17
After Zhuang Ningyu finished cleaning the kitchen and came out, Yi Ke was sprawled on the single sofa, lazily flipping through a book. His nose was still bruised and swollen, and a cartoon flower band-aid had been stuck horizontally across it by the clinic nurse, making him look rather comical. His two long legs had nowhere to go and were stretched out straight in front of him, making him look like he was taking up a lot of space. Zhuang Ningyu placed a glass of passion fruit tea on the table. “If you’re bored, go make a book list for Xiao Tian.”
This time, Tian Luxin had been trapped in the rule zone purely because she wanted to attract attention. She was at fault first, similar in nature to those college students in the news who get trapped while hiking in off-limits mountains. It was only to be expected that she would be criticized by netizens after the incident. Although the subsequent revelation of the truth about Yin Bar was closely linked to the triggering of the rules, a violation was a violation. Therefore, the first thing she did after escaping was to clear all her social media accounts, leaving only a sincere apology statement.
Yi Ke closed the book in his hands. “Is she really going to take the civil service exam?”
“The contract she signed with that MCN has a hefty penalty for breaking it. Becoming a civil servant is the only way to terminate it painlessly,” Zhuang Ningyu said. “Xiao Tian’s academic qualifications and major are fine, and her performance in this rule-breaking operation was good too. She’s young, detail-oriented, listens to advice, and dares to fight and run. There are a ton of departments she could apply for.”
The three people connected to this rule zone—Tian Luxin, Wen Yue, and Zhao Jiaxue—would all have their lives changed to varying degrees because of this incident. But fortunately, from the looks of it, everyone’s future was heading in a better direction.
Zhuang Ningyu opened the window and pulled down the screen, and the apartment instantly became a part of the lively morning market in the alley. Yi Ke got up from the sofa and stood with him by the window, watching the hustle and bustle. The owner of the fruit shop across the street looked up and saw Zhuang Ningyu on the second floor, immediately greeting him with a smile. “Teacher Zhuang, we have your favorite Ruixiang Red apples today, fresh and super sweet.”
Yi Ke turned his head. “You like this variety?”
Zhuang Ningyu didn’t want his office to be flooded with apples, so he denied it. “No, I don’t like them.”
Yi Ke didn’t believe him and insisted on dragging him downstairs. Zhuang Ningyu had grown up in this area and knew the neighbors well. The moment he stepped out of the building, the lady at the egg cake stall in the distance was already skillfully oiling her small pan. She made one with cream and pork floss and another with shredded potato. Crispy and fragrant, she packed them in a bag and even gave Yi Ke a free seaweed and pork floss one.
The two walked from one end of the morning market to the other. On their way back, Yi Ke was carrying green crabs, lamb chops, and dried squid in his left hand, and vegetables, fruits, and olive oil in his right. He also had a large bouquet of fresh-cut, budding flowers tucked under his arm. Zhuang Ningyu followed behind him, one hand in his pocket, the other holding a cup of honey lemon water. As he walked, he reminded him, “I don’t know how to cook crab.”
Yi Ke said, “I do.”
Because the morning market didn’t have all the seasonings, he also bought a bunch of things on an app. At first, Zhuang Ningyu didn’t want to interfere and just let him be, sitting at his desk to deal with work. But delivery couriers came one after another, with no sign of stopping. When the doorbell rang for the fourth time, Zhuang Ningyu stood by the door with his arms crossed, watching as the courier handed over a yellow shopping bag with the LV logo on it.
Yi Ke pointed to the disposable hotel slippers on his feet and declared righteously, “These are uncomfortable. I want to wear normal slippers!”
Zhuang Ningyu: “…You wear them.”
The small kitchen welcomed a long-overdue liveliness. Lunch was scallion oil crab and homemade seafood noodles. The phone on the countertop buzzed. Yi Ke glanced at it amidst his cooking; it was the internal work group chat. At the same time, Zhuang Ningyu received a call from Qiu Meng, who said that in the face of human testimony and physical evidence, You Tu had confessed to what happened back then.
“Confessed to what?” Yi Ke came out carrying two bowls of noodles.
“He admitted that You Hong and Tong Yishuai were not actually lovers. Or to be more precise, just as Yin Bar was to Tong Yishuai, Tong Yishuai was You Hong’s most satisfying ‘masterpiece’.” She did indeed like the structure of his bones, so the flesh attached to them also had to be equally flawless. Thus, You Hong personally took the knife and, bit by bit, meticulously carved out that face on the operating table, as handsome as Adonis. He was her ivory, her rose leaf, the most sacred John in Salome’s eyes, and the snow on the mountain top of Judea that swirled into the valley.
Later on, even You Tu felt that the frequency of the surgeries was a bit excessive, but he couldn’t persuade the two people involved. In his words, “They had gone completely mad.”
“No wonder Tong Yishuai had such a strong uncanny valley feel, looking like a novel cover,” Yi Ke said, pulling out a chair. “Looks like You Hong’s aesthetic sense wasn’t all that great.”
“Our previous speculation wasn’t wrong. You Hong was a complete career-oriented person, even more demanding and fanatical than Tong Yishuai,” Zhuang Ningyu said. “During one surgery, in pursuit of a better effect, she injected Tong Yishuai with a new type of filler that had not yet been approved in the country. This caused his face to develop severe hyperplasia and infection, almost disfiguring him.”
Of course, Tong Yishuai was devastated, but You Hong reassured him, saying that everything would be fine after the material was removed. He had no choice but to believe her—when people are in despair, they often instinctively avoid the truth, clinging only to that tiny, illusory shred of hope. Both of them had the same need for “secrecy” in this matter. So, under You Hong’s management, Tong Yishuai used someone else’s fake identity whenever he sought treatment, whether at Star Beauty or other hospitals, never leaving any medical records under his own name. This was also a major reason why the police mistakenly judged him as “having no health problems” after the incident.
The filler not only ruined Tong Yishuai’s face but also destroyed his nervous and immune systems. His body was soon ravaged by illness. Any kind of food could trigger a new round of allergies, so he could only sustain his life with large amounts of supplements and medication. He quit drinking for the same reason.
In the end, You Hong finally panicked. As a doctor, she certainly knew that there was no possibility of Tong Yishuai’s face ever recovering. According to You Tu’s account, his mother had already developed extremely severe anxiety symptoms at the time. Although mistakes in the cosmetic industry were not uncommon, this wasn’t an ordinary patient; it was Tong Yishuai, who had a huge fan base. Given his influence in Jincheng and on the internet, if the matter was exposed, then everything would be ruined.
Because of this, You Hong became almost completely obedient to Tong Yishuai in the later stages. She coaxed him like a child, wanting the secret to remain a secret forever. According to You Tu, You Hong had even personally designed a near-perfect “disappearance” for him, guaranteed not to arouse any suspicion from the police. She just never expected that she herself would “disappear” at Tong Yishuai’s hands first.
On the night of the anniversary celebration, after poisoning all the guests on the first floor, Tong Yishuai returned to the third-floor office and ended You Hong’s life with a glass of mango juice laced with cyanide. No one knew what had happened between the two of them—whether it was coaxing or coercion, the matter ultimately led to the same end. You Tu said, “A few days before the anniversary, my mother had actually vaguely sensed that something was wrong with the bar. Maybe it was a sixth sense, but in any case, she didn’t want to attend any Doll Night. But she had to keep an eye on Tong Yishuai at all times to prevent him from losing control and going crazy. So that night, my mother asked me to go to Yin Bar with her. Later, I waited in the car until the agreed time, but she never answered her phone. So I decided to go to Tong Yishuai’s office to check. But when I pushed open the door… it was too late.”
His mother’s body being pushed out, the juice glass and poison bottle on the table, and the smell of alcohol and gasoline filling the room. You Tu panicked and rushed to the window to look down. His first instinct was to call 110 and 120. But Tong Yishuai sat behind the desk, looked up like a phantom, his mask gleaming silver, and asked him, “Don’t you want to keep Star Beauty?”
The price of calling the police was his mother and Star Beauty being investigated thoroughly. You Tu knew all too well what that would mean.
Tong Yishuai continued, “On the first floor, everyone is dead now. They are dead because of me. I wanted them to die because of your mother. You’d better think carefully before you make a decision.”
First floor, everyone is dead. When You Tu first heard these words, he couldn’t believe his ears. He was completely overwhelmed by immense horror and experienced severe tinnitus. His legs could barely stand. He wanted to call the other man a lunatic, but when he opened his mouth, no sound came out. He could only stand there rigidly, like a doll unable to move on its own, watching as Tong Yishuai chugged the last bottle of wine, watching him put on his mask, and then watching him sway, using his last ounce of strength to pick up the lighter on the table.
Before the flames erupted, You Tu finally came to his senses, turned, and left the office. He never expected to bump into a girl in a white dress in the hallway.
You Tu confessed with great remorse, “I was… not in my right mind at the time. I couldn’t tell if she had been eavesdropping. I was afraid that the content of my conversation with Tong Yishuai would be leaked, and I didn’t want Star Beauty to be associated with a room full of dead people. So I… I dragged her back to Tong Yishuai’s office.”
And in the instant before the flames ignited, he took the bottle containing the residual cyanide. You Tu killed the girl in the stairwell, then dragged her body to the first floor. Wen Ling didn’t die immediately. She struggled and crawled through the mountain of corpses. You Tu probably also found this scene too terrifying. To avoid leaving fingerprints or other clues, he simply set a fire on the first floor as well.
The flames soared, and smoke billowed. The filthy secrets were temporarily buried. This disaster brought grief to all the victims’ families. Only You Tu, in addition to grief, also felt a secret excitement, as if a great burden had been lifted—his mother, who had always held a tight grip on Star Beauty and refused to share power with him, was gone, in a way he had never imagined. And she had left behind a thriving cosmetic empire, a huge fortune, and had forever taken that unsettling, terrible secret with her.
Yi Ke scooped out a spoonful of tender white crab meat, then used the tip of a clean chopstick to dab a little aromatic vinegar on it. The word “trouble” had just flashed through Zhuang Ningyu’s mind when the spoon was already at his lips.
Yi Ke: “Ah—”
Zhuang Ningyu: “Put it in the bowl!”
Ah, my foot.
Dinner was French-style lamb chops and black truffle fries, along with a large bowl of fresh, crisp vegetable salad dressed with a sweet vinaigrette. Crunch, crunch, it was like eating in Oscar Wilde’s secret garden.
Yi Ke: “Want to add some grated cheese?”
Zhuang Ningyu: “Do you have to sit right next to me to eat?”
Yi Ke: “Mhm, mhm, mhm.”
Zhuang Ningyu: “…”
Outside the window, the sky had completely darkened. After dinner, the two of them cleaned the kitchen together. The dishwasher hummed. Yi Ke pulled out a thick paper towel to dry his hands. “Go get changed.”
Zhuang Ningyu, who was munching on a red apple, paused. “Where are we going now?”
Yi Ke replied, “No. 426, Jinfu Alley, Guanfeng Road, Ping’an Community, 6th District.”
Zhuang Ningyu hadn’t expected such a detailed address. This was the large courtyard where the bartender and his neighbor’s younger sister’s families lived together in the bar case.
Yi Ke drove across most of the city. The streets, illuminated by streetlights, wove into a net. Zhuang Ningyu sat in the passenger seat, looking out the window at the glass curtain walls completely lit up by neon lights. The city center was brighter at night than during the day.
The 6th District was on the edge of the old city. Jinfu Alley had many old courtyards that had not yet been demolished. Looking through the open gate of No. 426, wind chimes and small bird-shaped lights hung from the eaves. In the warm, steamy living room, a large group of people were chatting and eating hot pot together. It was hard to tell whose parents were whose, but everyone seemed to be living their lives well.
Yi Ke said, “I also had someone ask about A’Lin’s family. The old couple is doing okay. As for Brother Jie, his grandfather passed away the year before last. The old man was in a nursing home before he died and his mind wasn’t very clear, so his family never told him about his grandson. They managed to coax him along, so… it’s okay.”
Zhuang Ningyu nodded. “Let’s go. Don’t disturb them.”
The car got onto the ring road elevated highway. This wasn’t the most direct route home; it was more like they were going for a drive. The night was stretched longer and longer. Amidst the quietly flowing music, Zhuang Ningyu spoke, “Strictly speaking, this kind of behavior isn’t allowed.”
Yi Ke chuckled. “I know, but if you don’t say anything, no one will know.”
His voice was very light, soaked by the night into a low, soft, and warm tone, with a hint of childish kindness. To meet friends who had already died within a rule zone, and then to witness firsthand outside the rule zone how their families’ lives were overwhelmed by immense grief because of this “death,” was a kind of prolonged psychological torture for any human with normal emotions. That’s why both textbooks and operational guidelines would stress the separation of inside and outside the rules. Once a rule was broken, the ideal state for an operative was to immediately forget everyone and everything related to it.
Zhuang Ningyu warned him, “This is the last time.”
Yi Ke stopped at a red light, turned to look at him, and curled his lips into a smile. “Then you’ll have to keep a closer eye on me in the future.”
That night, it wasn’t until midnight that Yi Ke sent him home. The pair of LV slippers were still at the entrance of 201, kicked under the shoe-changing bench by Zhuang Ningyu, out of sight, out of mind. A large pile of books that Yi Ke had pulled out was messily stacked on the desk. After showering, Zhuang Ningyu slowly tidied up while drying his hair. His eyes caught the photo frame on the shelf, and he was slightly taken aback—the frame, which originally held a landscape photo of the Maldives, had been replaced with a hand-drawn picture. It was still the same blue sea, but in the corner, a hammock had been added. A cartoon version of himself was lying there, lips curled up, comfortably sunbathing.
He had even censored the two dots on the cartoon figure’s chest.
Zhuang Ningyu shook his head with a smile and continued putting the books back one by one.
The night was very quiet.
…
The police and the Order Maintenance Department soon released a joint report on this rule incident. The secret that had been sealed for five years was finally brought to light. For a time, online hot searches were almost dominated by this matter. You Tu and his Star Beauty were implicated in multiple medical and financial cases. The police had quickly set up a special task force and were currently concentrating their efforts on the investigation. The green iron fence around Yin Bar was dismantled, and excavators rumbled onto the scene. The charred little building, wrapped in a cloud of dust and smoke, collapsed with a roar in front of countless reporters’ cameras, completely disappearing along with the rules that had once occupied it.
This time, Zhuang Ningyu did not spare his praise, giving Yi Ke a perfect score in his summary. Half a month later, the Order Maintenance Department issued an announcement approving Yi Ke’s early promotion. Qian Yue was intensely jealous. He said sourly, “The boss has never even given me a perfect score!”
Wu Tao shoved a large pile of documents into his arms. “Forget about perfect scores. Go and sweep the public reception room when you have time. Auntie Wang is holding a community singles’ mixer there this weekend.”
A mixer! Qian Yue lowered his voice. “Is it for the boss again?”
“Not this time,” Wu Tao said. “Besides, the boss doesn’t have time either. He’s going to a banquet this weekend.”
That’s right, Liu Xiaoyang, Deputy Captain of the Third Action Division of the Order Maintenance Department, loyal fan of Captain Zhuang, and owner of five beautiful wedding photo albums, was finally getting married! Because the wedding venue was quite remote, the wedding company had specially arranged several minibusses to transport guests to and from the city on that day.
Qian Yue took the documents to make copies. As he passed by Zhuang Ningyu’s desk, he saw an invitation lying there. He curiously picked it up to take a look—Groom: Liu Xiaoyang, Bride: Ge Qing, Wedding Venue: Huanian Mountain Villa.
“Whoa, this villa is really far. It’s almost in the next city, isn’t it?”
“Can’t be helped. The bride and groom get what they want. It’s what they like.”
Zhuang Ningyu had also looked up the location of the villa. Seeing the winding green curve on the navigation, he decisively gave up the idea of driving himself and asked his colleagues where he should wait for the minibus on the weekend.
In the 100-plus-person wedding banquet group chat, Yi Ke replied: I’ll pick you up.
Zhuang Ningyu almost dropped his phone.
The groom almost dropped his phone too. He was shocked and frantically asked everyone, I don’t remember inviting Xiao Yi from the first district, how is he in the group, who pulled him in, I haven’t even said two words to Xiao Yi, no, not even one word, how can I ask for a gift from someone I don’t know, what do you mean the gift money has already been sent, no, why are you all so eager to collect money?
He was apprehensive and specially called Yi Ke to apologize. But before he could finish, the other side stated that the gift money was a must, and please arrange for him and Captain Zhuang to be seated together at the banquet.
Liu Xiaoyang was momentarily stunned. “Huh?”
Yi Ke said very politely, “I would like to sit with Captain Zhuang during the meal. Thank you, brother. I wish you a happy wedding.”
Liu Xiaoyang stammered, “Oh, oh, okay. You’re welcome.”
The weather forecast said it would be good weather for the next week.
Clear skies for miles.
