An urgent knock on the door startled Ji Xun from his bed.
It wasn’t as if he was waking from sleep, but rather from a brief period of meditation. His back was still propped against the pillows on the headboard, a laptop resting on his crossed legs. His unsupported neck felt like a stick riddled with cracks. As Ji Xun sat up, he heard a “kaka” sound—and so did the computer on his lap.
The computer screen lit up as he moved, revealing a document with only a couple of lines written.
Ji Xun, currently twenty-nine years old, a former criminal police officer, now a mystery novelist—author of the well-known “Poison Fruit” series. His life was decent enough. If there was anything worth worrying about, it was probably his rather severe insomnia.
But the precise machine that is the human body is bound to have some glitches at a certain point. Considering this, his problem was just a small, dark one.
Ji Xun straightened up, holding his head. The knocking outside was relentless. He glanced at the time: 7 AM. Who would be here so early?
He pushed open the bedroom door. On the sofa outside slept the tear-mole youth from last night. He had already been woken by the noise and was sitting up, unhappily smoothing down a rebellious lock of his hair. The youth’s hair was of good quality, moderately soft and firm, offering both the pleasure of silk and the ability to be styled.
For instance, that curled tip of hair the youth kept tugging at made one want to insert a finger, pinch the strand, and wind it around a knuckle again and again.
But the mere sight of him brought back the awkwardness of last night.
He pretended not to see the tear-mole youth, and the tear-mole youth pretended not to see him.
If the night was a hotbed of desire, then the day was an effective tool for violently dismantling that hotbed.
Once dressed and under the sunlight, everyone is a respectable person.
…Of course, nothing indecent had happened last night. To have sheltered someone for a night for free, thinking about it, felt like quite a loss.
The tear-mole youth went to the bathroom to change. Ji Xun went to the door and opened it with a touch of impatience. “Who is it—”
A pregnant woman stood there, her belly jutting out, appearing brazenly in his line of sight.
This was an acquaintance Ji Xun had absolutely not expected. He blurted out, “Xia Youqing?”
“It’s me,” the woman said. She was caressing her belly, with a bit of force, making one wonder if she wanted to press the protruding stomach back down. “You seem a little surprised. How rare.”
“Why are you here?” Ji Xun whispered. “Where have you been for the past six months? Your stomach…”
“Ji Xun,” Xia Youqing avoided the last two questions and only said, “I have something to ask of you.”
Ji Xun looked at the woman before him.
This acquaintance wasn’t actually that close to him. Under normal circumstances, they wouldn’t even be in a position to ask favors of each other.
They just… both knew another person, and both were close to that other person.
Yuan Yue.
Xia Youqing was Yuan Yue’s girlfriend; their relationship had once been so close they were discussing marriage.
As for him and Yuan Yue, Yuan Yue was four years his senior and had joined the police force four years earlier. When he joined the force, Yuan Yue had been the one to guide him. Later, they were even partners for a while.
They were extremely close. Even now, after he had left the force, Yuan Yue still called him from time to time.
“Go find Yuan Yue,” Ji Xun said.
“I haven’t even told you what I’m asking,” Xia Youqing said softly.
“It’s not hard to guess. You disappear for half a year and then reappear. It’s not to borrow money from me. Besides a little money, all I know how to do are those things: tracking, criminal investigation,” Ji Xun said. “But you also know, I left the police force three years ago. On the contrary, Yuan Yue has become a captain—”
As soon as he said this, he realized he shouldn’t have, but he finished the sentence anyway.
“Go to him. He will do everything in his power to help you.”
The face of Xia Youqing before him turned ashen. After a long moment, she curved her lips into a smile as cold as one on a canvas.
“Ji Xun, do you think ex-boyfriends and girlfriends can still be friends?”
“I think…”
“Ji Xun, don’t lie,” Xia Youqing reminded him softly.
“I think, giving and receiving is a cycle. If you want to receive, you must always give.”
Ji Xun cleverly sidestepped Xia Youqing’s question. Can exes be friends? Possibly, possibly not. But in Xia Youqing’s case, it was clearly impossible.
The woman in Ji Xun’s memory was intellectual and beautiful, always appearing with his good friend. Back then, her smile was always laced with a sweet scent, as if she hid a whole jar of sugar in the slight curl of her lips.
But now, the child in her womb had absorbed too much of her nutrients. She was even thinner despite being pregnant. Her hair, which reached her waist, pulled her head back like a heavy curtain. The wrist resting on the door was as thin as kindling, breakable without much force.
Happiness had faded, like a diamond losing its halo, exposing its cheap and common essence.
This was a good woman, and she had given a lot for Yuan Yue. Yuan Yue had indeed failed her.
This led even Ji Xun to have to bow his head slightly in front of her, on behalf of his friend.
“I understand,” Xia Youqing said faintly. “Everything has its value. To receive, a price must be paid. Then, Ji Xun, I have something here. Are you willing to pay a price to get it back?”
“What is it?” Ji Xun asked.
“Ji Xun, tell me…” The woman blinked, her voice both gentle and cruel. “Does Yuan Yue know that you like him?”
Hearing this out of the blue, Ji Xun’s brain froze for a few seconds. He looked at Xia Youqing. The woman had now composed her expression and pleaded with him.
“I have a friend who I can’t contact right now. I hope you can go with me to check on her. I’m worried something has happened to her…”
Before Ji Xun could speak, the bathroom door opened, and the tear-mole youth walked out.
He was wearing the same patent leather jacket from yesterday, but his hair had been restyled, combed all back and fixed with hair gel, revealing his smooth and full forehead. His aura had also undergone a huge change. Just standing behind Ji Xun, he gave off a sharp, oppressive feeling.
The only problem was, Ji Xun didn’t have things like hair gel in his house.
This guy actually carried hair gel with him.
“That request sounds very simple,” the tear-mole youth said concisely to Xia Youqing. “Did he agree? If not, I’ll go with you.”
Who are you?
Xia Youqing’s face showed confusion. She didn’t answer, only looking at Ji Xun. She hadn’t come here out of desperation. The reason she didn’t look for Yuan Yue was because she hated Yuan Yue, but even more so, because she trusted Ji Xun.
She was waiting for Ji Xun’s answer.
Ji Xun looked at Xia Youqing, then at Huo Ranyin.
Both of them were looking at him.
“…Alright, let’s go. The three of us together.”
Ji Xun suddenly made a decision. He didn’t give Xia Youqing or the youth a chance to object, put on his clothes, quickly washed his face and rinsed his mouth in the bathroom, and then led the two out of the building. On the way to Xia Youqing’s friend’s residence, he briefly got the situation.
Xia Youqing’s good friend was named Xi Lei, 28 years old, renting in the Qing’an residential area. She used to be a nurse at a hospital, then resigned to become a maternity nurse. Although she wasn’t a live-in maternity nurse, she had professional knowledge and was optimistic, cheerful, diligent, and hardworking, so she was very popular at the maternity center and earned a good income.
Three months ago, she met Xia Youqing at the hospital entrance, who was in a poor mental state and had no family with her. She had taken care of Xia Youqing in many ways and even arranged to go for a walk with her every morning. This was the first time in three months that she had disappeared without a word.
“Does she have a boyfriend?”
“Yes, but I don’t know him well,” Xia Youqing said apologetically. “Her boyfriend is named Zeng Peng. I think he worked at a car repair shop, but he resigned a while ago. During that time, Xi Lei was always a bit worried, and I comforted her a few times. After that—nothing much, I didn’t hear anything more.”
“When was the last time you contacted her?”
“The night before last at 9:10 PM,” Xia Youqing remembered clearly. “I was taking a shower at that time. When I came out, I saw a missed call. When I called back, no one answered. The next day, when I called again, the phone was off.”
The car arrived at the residential area. As Xia Youqing got out of the car, she said nervously, “I don’t have a key to Xi Lei’s apartment.”
“It’s okay,” Ji Xun said, scanning the surroundings and heading in one direction. “Give me five minutes.”
It didn’t even take five minutes. He came out two minutes later, holding his phone, already on a call with the landlord. “Auntie, hello, I’m Xi Lei’s brother. She left for her hometown in a hurry and forgot to leave the key. My pregnant sister and I are waiting downstairs for her… You’re coming right over? Okay, thank you very much.”
How did he do that?
Xia Youqing’s face was full of astonishment. The tear-mole youth standing next to her, as if reading her mind, explained, “This real estate agency is the closest to the residential area. Based on the human principle of proximity, the probability of the landlord listing the property for rent here is the highest.”
“You are…” Xia Youqing was curious about this person’s identity.
The tear-mole youth did not answer. From beginning to end, his gaze never truly landed on Xia Youqing. He was always looking at Ji Xun.
Ji Xun hung up the phone.
Pregnancy was indeed a very powerful thing. Auntie Jiang arrived quickly. When she arrived, she didn’t have any doubts about them, directly led them upstairs, and opened the door with a key. “It’s cold today. You guys hurry inside. A pregnant girl must not get cold.”
The door opened. Ji Xun stopped Xia Youqing and entered first.
It was a typical small studio apartment. The kitchen was first upon entering, followed by the living room and bedroom. The house was very clean inside; even the range hood had little grease on it.
In the corner of the kitchen was a basket, a very ordinary bamboo basket, but a circle of dried flowers was wound around the rim, making even the few plain black umbrellas placed inside seem interesting.
Looking at the fabric art hanging on the wall, the patterns were very mixed, clearly pieced together from scraps of cloth. Even so, it lightly and cleverly covered the inevitable cracks on the walls of the old building.
A clean, tidy, and life-loving woman. Such a woman shouldn’t have made this mistake.
Ji Xun’s gaze moved away from the disturbed soil at the entrance. The small amount of scattered soil looked as if it had been repeatedly burrowed through by earthworms. Thinking of earthworms, it felt as if the soft-bodied creatures had crawled into his clothes, onto his skin, and were quietly crawling up his spine.
He loosely clenched his fist.
It was really a bit cold today.
The decorations inside the house were bright and sunny, but the air was as cold as a frozen cellar, devoid of any human presence.
The owner had only been gone for two or three days. Was it necessary for it to be so deathly still? Perhaps it was. A house always needed someone living in it. An empty house was just a shell for dust and spiderwebs, a paradise for insects, snakes, rats, and ants.
He passed the kitchen and entered the bedroom. His restrained gaze scattered, first seeing a bouquet of flowers on the TV cabinet. The bouquet was in a transparent glass vase. There was no water in the vase, and the vibrant flowers had already withered in the dryness, their heads drooping, limply resting on the edge of the glass vase.
Under the glass vase, there were also specks of purplish-red, the traces of crushed purple petals.
The wind roared, and the curtains fluttered and rose like bat wings. The light suddenly dimmed and then brightened. He finally saw the small woman on the sofa, and the countless dolls in front of the small woman.
The woman was lying horizontally on the sofa, her clothes neat, one hand hanging limply. On her plain face, her expression was peaceful, as if she were ordinarily asleep, having an ordinary dream. Her other hand was loosely clenched, a wooden doll in her palm.
The doll was a girl with two small braids, a round face, bright clothes, and black hair. Every part of it was painted in fine colors, except for the eyes, which were not lit. They were hollow white pupils, staring at the woman holding it.
Below its left eye, where the woman’s thumb pressed, a faint purplish-red mark remained.
It was the mark left by the purple petals, but it looked more like the doll’s blood, slowly seeping out from the wood.
Besides this, there were many more dolls.
Some of these dolls were standing, some were lying down, some were on the coffee table, some on the sofa, and some had fallen to the floor. Their postures were different, and their styles varied, but they were all girls, and none of them had their pupils lit. Their identical, ghastly white pupils stared at the dead woman on the sofa, at every corner of the room, and at Ji Xun who had entered the room.
“Chirp—”
A sound like a young girl’s delicate cry rang out in the room. Ji Xun shuddered slightly, then realized it was the call of the Java sparrow in the cage in the corner. The all-white bird was fluttering in the cage, its call piercing Ji Xun’s skin like a needle, piercing to the bottom of his heart. It twisted, as if the earthworm that had just crawled on his body had also found a gap to enter…
He took a step back and bumped into the youth’s shoulder. The other’s calm voice followed.
“A female body has been discovered. Call the police.”
Ji Xun looked back. The youth also looked at him. The other’s pupils were like a dry ancient well, so dark they could hide any ugly thing.
When Ji Xun came out of the corridor, the police cars and cordon tape had already appeared. The other residents of the community were craning their necks to look. Auntie Jiang sat on a small stool in the corridor, looking lost, accompanied by a female police officer, repeatedly muttering, “How could this happen,” and “Someone died, how can I rent out my house now.”
The chaotic crowd was filled with order, like groups of ants with clear divisions of labor.
Ji Xun found a pale-faced Xia Youqing downstairs. Before he could speak, an intense gaze came from the side.
Ji Xun followed the gaze.
It was a youth with a steamed bun in one hand and soy milk in the other, his head bald, staring in his direction with a shocked and blank expression.
To be honest, with a bald head that could pass for a monk’s with just the addition of initiation scars, no one would normally associate him with a police officer.
But he was a genuine criminal police officer.
Tan Mingjiu, a member of the Second Criminal Investigation Unit, an old acquaintance of Ji Xun’s.
There was a reason for his bald head, all thanks to a past crisis. The original Tan Mingjiu was a literary youth with rather long hair. Although he had been reprimanded twice by the bureau for his appearance, he still couldn’t bear to part with his soft hair.
Once, Tan Mingjiu was tracking a vicious murderer. The murderer had a gun and was extremely cunning. They engaged in a final chase in an abandoned building.
Tan Mingjiu was chasing so hard he was sweating profusely, and his hair kept falling into his eyes. He found a rubber band from somewhere and tied up the lock of hair covering his eyes.
It was also a coincidence. At that time, he was ducking behind a half-section of a cement wall, and that lock of hair happened to stick out a little over the edge of the wall. The murderer on the other side saw the hair and, in his tense state, fired a shot.
The shot directly blasted the hair off Tan Mingjiu’s head. The murderer’s position was also exposed because of this and was killed by a sniper.
Recalling it afterwards, Tan Mingjiu could still feel the heat on his scalp as if it had been plowed by an electric razor. Just one centimeter off, and it would have been his head, not his hair.
During the debriefing at the bureau, Tan Mingjiu’s dangerous encounter did not receive any humanitarian care. After learning the whole story, everyone just gave Tan Mingjiu a burst of laughter. The bureau chief even brought up the issue of his appearance again and ordered Tan Mingjiu to conduct a profound self-criticism.
The danger was one thing, but he was also scolded by his superior and mocked by his colleagues. It was adding insult to injury, a triple blow.
Tan Mingjiu learned his lesson. He hardened his heart and shaved off his three thousand strands of worldly care, and from then on, he lived a life of competing with light bulbs for business with his head.
Ji Xun wanted to leave as soon as he saw Tan Mingjiu, but Tan Mingjiu didn’t give him the chance.
Recovering from his shock, Tan Mingjiu crossed the distance in a few steps and came to Ji Xun. “You? Xia Youqing? Xia Youqing? You?”
Then his voice dropped an octave, speaking in almost a whisper.
“Xia Youqing’s stomach?”
“Don’t overthink it.”
“I’m not overthinking it,” Tan Mingjiu said immediately, but he only held it in for a second. A second later, he was whispering in Ji Xun’s ear, “So… is the child yours, or Yuan Yue’s? Am I drinking to your wedding, or Yuan Yue’s?”
“Get lost.”
Ji Xun’s head was throbbing. He was just glad that Xia Youqing had already turned and left when she saw Tan Mingjiu and was no longer by his side.
He pushed away this former colleague whose every cell came alive at the sniff of gossip and emphasized again.
“Don’t overthink it. Xia Youqing is here because of the deceased upstairs—the body is upstairs. Go take a look.”
When it came to business, Tan Mingjiu became more serious. “Of course I’ll go see it. But where are you going?”
“To eat. I’m starving.”
Tan Mingjiu handed the flattened bun in the plastic bag to Ji Xun, generously saying, “Here, breakfast. My rations are yours.”
“The country has been out of poverty for many years. You don’t have to be so frugal. How about this, you go handle the case first. I’ll treat you to breakfast another day. Soy milk, steamed buns, fried dough sticks, porridge, as much as you want,” Ji Xun suggested.
“If you come upstairs with me now, after we’ve checked the scene, we don’t have to wait for another day. I’ll treat you right away. Soy milk, steamed buns, fried dough sticks, porridge, the same, as much as you want,” Tan Mingjiu also said slowly.
“Why bother?”
“Why bother, he says.” Tan Mingjiu rolled his eyes at the sky. “Better to be early than to be on time. You’re a consultant for our bureau anyway. Since you’re already at the scene, why not go up and take a look?”
“Just an external consultant. The bureau has so many consultants, one less of me won’t make a difference.”
“Is the number of consultants the point? The point is you’re at the scene.” Tan Mingjiu ruthlessly dragged Ji Xun back.
Two grown men pulling and shoving in broad daylight was really too unsightly. He slapped away Tan Mingjiu’s hand, took out a tissue to cover his nose, and voluntarily entered the stairwell.
The flat bun was back in Tan Mingjiu’s hand. Tan Mingjiu didn’t mind, taking a big bite and eating half of it. Then he saw Ji Xun’s action, paused, and swallowed the bun whole, sniffing around like a dog, puzzled.
“What are you doing?”
“What are you doing?” Tan Mingjiu retorted.
“There’s a smell,” Ji Xun said.
“What smell in winter,” Tan Mingjiu rolled his eyes. “Haven’t seen you in three years. I don’t know if you’ve lost your skills, but you’ve certainly picked up some affectations.”
Ji Xun’s mouth twitched. Fortunately, they had reached the last flight of stairs, and the crime scene attracted Tan Mingjiu’s attention.
Tan Mingjiu gasped.
“What is he doing here?”
“Who?”
Ji Xun asked. He followed Tan Mingjiu’s fixed gaze and knew who he was referring to.
The mysterious tear-mole youth.
The youth was standing inside the room, holding a doll in his gloved hand.
There were quite a lot of dolls. Tan Mingjiu, standing next to Ji Xun, was already confused and counting, “1, 2, 3… a total of 19. What’s with these dolls? Did the killer drop them? A cult murder sacrifice scene?”
“Doesn’t look like it,” Ji Xun replied. “They belong to the deceased.”
“How can you tell?” Tan Mingjiu asked.
“There are quite a few tissues in the trash can. A rag was just found under the sofa. On the wall cabinet opposite the sofa, one large cabinet is empty. From the dust distribution on it, you can tell that many round objects were originally placed there. Coincidentally, the bases of the dolls are all round…” Ji Xun slowly finished. “Considering all this, the deceased was cleaning these dolls of hers before she died.”
Tan Mingjiu understood. “I’m still thinking something’s not right.”
“What’s not right?”
“You’re saying, even if the deceased was a woman who liked dolls and bought nineteen of them, why are none of their eyes painted? This is creepy… You can’t just sum it up with ‘unique hobby’, can you?”
While they were talking, the on-site investigation was also proceeding.
A young criminal police officer with glasses stood next to the tear-mole youth, checking and recording, “Window open, footprints on the windowsill, scene in disarray, computer and mobile phone missing. Suspected robbery-murder case.”
The youth’s gaze moved to under the desk, where a rather conspicuous silver headset lay. “What about this?”
The glasses-wearing detective was stunned, looking at the headset, not understanding.
The forensics technician turned his head and looked. “A brand-name headset, market price two or three thousand, not cheap. It’s strange for a robbery suspect to leave this behind.”
The glasses-wearing detective proposed a possibility. “The headset was under the desk. The suspect didn’t see it when he left in a hurry.”
The youth was noncommittal. He took two more steps and came to the balcony, where several pots of flowers were placed. He pointed to one of them. “The soil in this pot has been loosened. Dig it up and take a look.”
The forensics personnel immediately went forward. After completing the examination, they dug out the soil and found a tightly tied plastic bag inside.
Opening the plastic bag, they found a large floral wallet inside, but the wallet was empty, with nothing inside.
“Can you tell when this pot of soil was disturbed?” the youth asked.
“The traces are very new. It happened within the last three days.”
“Has the on-site forensic examination been completed?” the youth asked again.
“It has,” the medical examiner replied. “The deceased was bound before death. No obvious injuries were found on the body surface. The punctate subcutaneous hemorrhages around the mouth and nose are consistent with the sofa pillowcase fabric. The oral mucosa was ruptured and bleeding. A typical case of smothering. The time of death is estimated to be more than 24 hours but less than 48 hours.”
Having observed all this, the situation was clear.
“A crime committed by an acquaintance, a staged robbery scene. Investigate the deceased’s social relationships and love life. Focus the investigation on the deceased’s boyfriend.”
The voices from inside were faintly audible, but not very clear. Ji Xun wasn’t listening carefully either. His gaze fell on a data cable on the empty table inside. The black data cable, like a small coiled snake, was extra eye-catching.
Tan Mingjiu had let go of the topic of the dolls and was now leaning into his ear, about to tell him the youth’s background.
“You came with him today? Why didn’t you give me a heads-up? He—”
“Do you have anything to add?”
Tan Mingjiu’s sentence was cut short. He was interrupted. At some point, the youth was already standing at the door of the house, speaking to them. Tan Mingjiu froze. He was about to answer, but found that the other person was not looking at him. He was looking at Ji Xun.
Ji Xun was leaning against the wall as if he had no bones, not quite meeting the youth’s gaze, only letting his eyes rest on the door frame, and he had changed the tissue covering his nose. “Asking me? I have nothing to add. Perhaps it’s like the police superintendent said, a rather boring case.”
“Boring?”
“Boyfriend kills girlfriend for money or love. Isn’t that boring enough? Of course, there might be some twists. After all, even a third-rate author knows to create some real and false conflicts and contradictions before a murder.”
The youth’s brow furrowed, seemingly dissatisfied with Ji Xun’s flippant tone, but he didn’t dwell on it and changed the subject.
“When did you discover my identity?”
“I had my suspicions from your grappling technique last night. Your answer this morning confirmed my suspicions. Now I know your position and rank.”
The youth took off his latex gloves and extended his hand forward. His pale fingertips were aimed at Ji Xun. Stripped of the drunken indulgence under the red and green lights, his beautiful features were now only sharp. He stood there, as solid and imposing as a mountain by a deep pool, a completely different person from last night.
“Huo Ranyin, Captain of the Second Criminal Investigation Unit.”
Ji Xun shook his hand.
The other’s hand was as cold as his voice.
Author’s Note:
Xia Youqing’s viewpoint is Xia Youqing’s viewpoint. The main character has no romantic feelings for Yuan Yue~
Note 1: The professional descriptions of the corpse in the text refer to professional books.
