Probably every city has many neighborhoods like this.
Chaotic, disorderly, with pots and pans left out in the open, street vendors crossing the walkways, clotheslines strung between buildings and trees — adults’ clothes, children’s quilts, like flags of different sizes fluttering in the air. That is during the day.
At night, those clothes that haven’t been taken down in time look even more like mourning pennants, swaying, swaying, as if calling out people’s souls.
Luo Sui stood behind the window and looked down.
This was Li Ke’s apartment, rented from some second-tier landlord; it had never been officially registered, so the police hadn’t been able to determine the exact room number right away — but that probably wouldn’t take much longer.
Luo Sui thought quietly to herself.
The complex wasn’t large. From the sixth floor, she could see the whole place. She had already spotted the police at both the front and back gates. They had locked onto this complex and sealed off its two entrances. What remained was just a matter of painstaking search work.
Why were they here? No need to cling to any luck anymore. They were probably here to find me.
Luo Sui no longer looked out the window.
She stayed where she was, unmoving, only shifting her eyes slightly to the lily-of-the-valley on the windowsill.
Yesterday, when she came to find Li Ke, she had asked him to do two things for her: one was to go to the complex where she had once lived and retrieve a parcel; the other was to buy a potted lily-of-the-valley in bloom.
The room was dark, and she hadn’t turned on the lights.
Only a layer of dim, dirty light flowed in through the window, shining on the lily-of-the-valley and making the string of white blossoms gleam like jade.
In the darkness, it occupied a single strand of light all by itself, beautiful in a way that trembled and stabbed at the heart.
It was as if it had come alive from memory.
Luo Sui’s breathing hitched.
Then she reached into her pocket. When she took her hand out again, there was an ID card in her palm. The ID card had clearly been reissued in recent years, and the photo on it already felt unfamiliar.
Her thumb pressed over the face on the ID card as she closed her eyes.
Maybe when people are lonely, they think too much. She thought of the steps she’d gone through when she changed her ID card, of brushing back her hair, sitting down, taking the photo; of the gentle female police officer patiently guiding her as she pressed her thumb onto the specialized machine to collect fingerprints; of taking her identity card out of the courier bag…
She also thought of her former roommates.
She thought of those dark, desperate nights when they had huddled together, the air full of wailing and pale words of comfort.
Those words were so formulaic, so barren, so hypocritical — just like noise.
Clearly she no longer wanted to live, and yet in the end she never went through with dying.
Why? If she wanted to die so badly, why could she never do it?
There were so many ways to die — whether by jumping off a building, jumping into the sea, hanging yourself indoors, slashing your wrists, or drinking poison. Was it harder to live, or harder to die?
She had never understood this, but now she suddenly did.
Dying really was so hard.
So hard…
Even after reaching the end of the road, even after knowing that tomorrow’s sun no longer meant anything to her, even after her brain had accepted the word “death”… she still didn’t dare to die.
Every cell in her body was still begging to live, her organs contracting and trembling from fear. The instinct to survive wound around her body like vines, binding her tightly.
She was afraid of death.
In the darkness, sobbing gradually began to be heard…
Li Ke’s mouth was opened after the ninety-first minute in the interrogation room.
During those ninety-one minutes, Zhao Wu’s method was very simple: he told Li Ke how many floors and rooms the police had searched on the scene, one by one. The more he said, the smaller the remaining area became, and the more anxious Li Ke got.
And the traces of lily-of-the-valley toxin found by forensics made Zhao Wu’s pressure feel even more real.
“We have enough evidence to suspect Luo Sui of involvement in a murder. If you keep obstructing our work, you’ll be held criminally responsible for harboring a suspect. In serious cases, that carries a prison sentence of more than three years and less than ten.”
“If we find evidence that you two planned something before this… then it won’t just be harboring — it will be complicity.”
Once the rope had tightened to a certain degree, that mouth, stubborn as a shell, naturally loosened.
In the end, questioning didn’t have all that much mystery to it. As long as you found the suspect’s weak point, one strike could be fatal.
“I’m not an accomplice!”
That was the first thing Li Ke said after speaking.
“People always push responsibility away from themselves first thing. I thought he was some kind of devoted lover who’d take the blame for Luo Sui,” Ji Xun said from outside the one-way glass, speaking sarcasm that the person inside couldn’t hear.
But Li Ke probably also felt ashamed at blurting that out. His face turned red, and he muttered, “There must be some misunderstanding… or, right, confession should get me a reduced sentence… maybe?”
“He’s already jumped to confessing — does that mean he guessed or knew Luo Sui had broken the law?” Ji Xun mused. He looked at Li Ke twice, then finally shook his head. “I thought he was a tough one from the way he’d been silent just now, but he’s all bark and no bite, a silver-coated spear made of wax. He didn’t even last two hours. Luo Sui’s taste in men needs work.”
“Please use ‘fighting to the bitter end,’” Huo Ranyin said expressionlessly. “Fighting to the bitter end is meaningless. If you committed a crime, you should accept punishment.”
“Too righteous,” Ji Xun complained. “You make it so I can’t even entertain the thought of favoritism and bending the law.”
Huo Ranyin’s eyes shifted over, and in the black depths there seemed to be a few strands of mockery, as if he were saying, If I wanted to bend the law for someone, would I go looking for you?
While Huo Ranyin and Ji Xun were talking outside, Zhao Wu’s questioning inside hadn’t stopped either.
Li Ke opened his mouth and seemed to want to say something, but he had great reservations. After Zhao Wu tried to guide him a few times, he finally said, “I’m just an observer. I can’t explain it clearly. You should talk to her yourself.”
“You’re afraid you’ll say the wrong thing if you talk too much?” Zhao Wu had already had enough of this guy’s reluctance and his tone sharpened again. “Don’t think you can hide anything. If you did something bad, we’ll find it out.”
“I didn’t!”
But Li Ke’s stubbornness wasn’t the most urgent thing right now. The top priority was still arresting Luo Sui. Zhao Wu threatened him a few more times and, after getting Li Ke to agree to open the door for them, came back out.
“Team Leader Huo, Specialist Ji, are you coming too?”
Ji Xun and Huo Ranyin naturally followed.
They had already gone ninety-nine out of a hundred steps. How could they stop at the last one?
Since Li Ke had spoken in the interrogation room, this time he didn’t seem to be playing games. He directly led everyone to his home. On the way there, he had already explained the situation clearly:
“I rented a small unit from a second landlord. It wasn’t expensive, and the room is actually pretty big. I live there alone… Blue… Luo Sui came to find me last night. I saw that she was in a very bad state, so I let her stay at my place.”
Ji Xun asked, “When did you two meet?”
“Several years ago.”
“How did you meet?” Ji Xun pressed.
“She helped me…” Li Ke lowered his head and said.
Ji Xun still had plenty he wanted to ask clearly, but they had already entered the building stairwell. In order not to alert the suspect, Zhao Wu made a shushing gesture, and everyone closed their mouths and slowly climbed the stairs. For a moment, the only sound was the faint rustling of coats in winter.
Li Ke’s rented place was on the sixth floor.
There were two households on the sixth floor: one was vacant year-round, and the other was Li Ke’s.
When Li Ke led everyone to the door, Zhao Wu and the deputy captain became highly alert, standing on either side of him in case of emergency. Li Ke said nothing, only reached into his pocket. Everyone heard the jingle of keys…
Then a key ring came out, just about to be used to open the security door.
Suddenly, his fingers jerked, and the keys that had been held so well slipped downward. Just as they were about to hit the floor, a sneaker shot out and caught them on the instep, then flicked them back into the palm like juggling a ball.
Ji Xun caught the key ring, and before he had even warmed it up, two hands were already reaching for it.
He looked from one to the other.
The broad, rough hand on the left belonged to Zhao Wu; the long, firm hand on the right belonged to Huo Ranyin.
Ji Xun: “…”
At least it wasn’t Yuan Yue and Huo Ranyin reaching at the same time. Ji Xun thought. With the keys in hand, he moved them a few centimeters toward Huo Ranyin. According to emotional closeness, he should naturally lean toward Huo Ranyin anyway…
But when Huo Ranyin reached out to take them, Ji Xun suddenly turned his wrist and tossed the keys to Zhao Wu.
He said in a low laugh, “Guest should follow the host’s lead. Team Leader Huo shouldn’t compete with Team Leader Zhao over work here in Qin City.”
Huo Ranyin couldn’t be bothered to argue with Ji Xun.
Zhao Wu was about to open the door when Li Ke suddenly said, “Wait, let me open it. You… you look kind of fierce, and might scare her.”
Zhao Wu: “…”
The key he had just taken was heavily slapped back into his hand.
Zhao Wu warned him in a low voice, “Don’t try any tricks. Only by cooperating with the police can we solve the problem!”
“I know, I know…”
This time, the homeowner steadied the keys. The key went into the lock, and the door opened.
The door was a little stiff, and because of the delay it made a coughing, rusty, elderly kind of creaking sound.
Li Ke muttered, “Why is it heavier than usual…”
Zhao Wu was exhausted beyond words. “Try anything again and see if I can’t deal with you!”
“No, no, I’ll use some force. I’ll use force right away!”
Their exchange took place in just a short time. Huo Ranyin was not standing on the side of the door that was opening. With the door opening, a glint of silver flashed in his eyes like dust.
Silver light, dust?
The door is heavier than usual?
When those two thoughts flashed through his mind at the same time, Huo Ranyin didn’t even have time to speak. He acted instantly and firmly seized Li Ke’s hand, the one pulling at the door, and only after he had controlled him did he bark:
“There’s a line behind the door! Something’s wrong!”
The movement of everyone in the corridor stopped simultaneously because of Huo Ranyin’s sudden action.
“Damn it!” Since it happened so abruptly, the deputy captain’s temper flared. He pulled out his gun and pressed it against Li Ke’s forehead, cursing loudly. “You little bastard, trying to pull something?”
“No, no, I really didn’t know, it wasn’t me—”
But faster than Li Ke’s panicked explanation was Zhao Wu’s movement. He had originally been standing against the wall, and no one knew how his broad body could be as flexible as a gymnast’s. In a single motion, he slipped past the deputy captain and Ji Xun and reached the gap in the door.
“It’s fishing line,” he said solemnly, lowering his voice. “A bomb trigger?”
“No,” Huo Ranyin replied.
He drew in a slight breath through his nose and caught the smell coming from inside the room.
“…It’s a lifeline.”
After saying that, Huo Ranyin cut the fishing line tied behind the security door in one swift motion. Then he took the lead and slipped into the room, heading straight for the source of the smell — the bathroom.
The others were only a few steps behind him.
In an instant, even Ji Xun, who was walking last, saw the situation in the bathroom.
Water vapor was billowing up. The hazy fog was not content to fill only the bathroom ceiling; it was also seeping out in thin wisps through the door and window openings.
And the source of that fog was a bathtub full of hot water, in which a pot of lily-of-the-valley had been placed.
The lily-of-the-valley’s green stems and delicate blossoms had wilted and were dying in the hot water, but the red blood spreading through that boiling water gave the dying flowers an eerie, seductive radiance.
Ji Xun’s gaze paused for a moment on the blood-stained lily-of-the-valley, then slowly moved sideways to Luo Sui, who had fallen into the bathtub.
The person they had seen only days ago now lay heavily in the tub, a fishing line wound around her neck. The fishing line stretched downward from her neck and had originally run all the way to the front door. If someone from outside opened the door, the tightened line would instantly pull the blade lodged at her throat deeper into her windpipe.
Now, that blade was deeply embedded in the woman’s soft neck, and blood was gushing out in thick pulses.
The blank water gently swayed over her body, then turned red with blood, then stained the bathtub, and then the lily-of-the-valley. The paler the person became, the more beautiful the flower looked, as if at that moment the human soul, with blood as its medium, was being transferred from the body into the flower’s body.
This grotesque, terrifying scene came to a halt with Zhao Wu.
Zhao Wu rushed in, lifted Luo Sui, and shouted, “She’s still alive! Call 120 for emergency rescue, now!”
