The sky remained overcast as the minivan arrived at the national highway junction between Haijing and Dengchang. Members of the criminal investigation team descended from the vehicle, observing through a thin mist the majestic and sprawling mountains.
Cheng’an Mountain was one of the largest in the northern region, narrow and stretching for thousands of miles, covering a total area of 1325 square kilometers. Its main peak towered into the clouds, perpetually shrouded in mist. This mountain spaned two major cities, divided into southern and northern peaks—Haijing’s southern Cheng’an and Dengchang’s northern Cheng’an. The developed parts of the mountain include forest farms, temples, scenic areas, and more. Due to its vast size, there are still large undeveloped wilderness areas, with a river flowing through lush forests at the junction of the two peaks.
Li Changsheng rested his hand on his forehead, looking from left to right, sighing, “How long do they want this cordon to be?”
“What cordon? Look at the roads below the mountain; there are four way intersections everywhere. It would take days just to close them off.”
“Coming all the way here is also a real pain. It’s not even peak tourist season, and tourists are scattered all over the place. Where are we supposed to find them?”
Yi Shi remained silent, accustomed to quietness, his eyes fixed on the map of Cheng’an Mountain displayed in the bus station window. Yu Xing raised his hand to quiet down the chattering colleagues. The team from Haijing had arrived.
The Haijing Municipal Bureau had received a message from Nanyi and integrated two teams to formulate a search plan. They also called Dengchang, requesting their cooperation and dividing their efforts: one team searching southern Cheng’an and the other searching northern Cheng’an.
The scenic area is in southern Cheng’an. Yuan Kang, captain of the Haijing Criminal Investigation Team, furrowed his brow and said, “It’s a headache. Such a huge mountain, and the timeline set from above is too short. We’re racing against the clock for everything.”
“Absolutely. Every time the provincial department holds a meeting, they cut our deadline in half. I beg our leaders to gather less frequently to discuss trivial matters.” Zhang Rui sarcastically commented.
Liu Chenyi glared at him and said, “Watch your words. How can you discuss leaders behind their backs?”
The only female team member, Song Ping, nudged his shoulder teasingly, “Exactly! I should record you and play it back next time the leaders come for inspection.”
Zhang Rui pursed his lips and didn’t dare retort to Liu Chenyi. Apart from the original captain, Lao Liu had the longest seniority and the highest awareness in the Haijing Criminal Investigation Team. Even if he couldn’t stay on the front lines in the future, he could still pursue an administrative career.
They saw the minivan from Nanyi Municipal Bureau stop at the intersection. They walked over, shaking hands and exchanging greetings one by one, “Comrades, you’ve worked hard. You’ve come a long way. Once we catch that bastard Pang Daozi, we’ll submit an application and enjoy a funded trip in Haijing.”
The colleagues in Nanyi City Bureau were all very nice, and from the tiredness on their faces, it could be seen that they worked non-stop like them. However, there was only one person who stood quietly in the back, with a face that looked like he was going to sing and dance on the stage, but also a pair of eyes that looked like he was going to kill someone on the execution ground.
Yu Xue turned sideways and pulled Yi Shi over. “This is Yi Shi, also part of our team. Thanks to him, we caught Zhao Chenghu, and his contribution to gathering clues was invaluable.”
Song Ping blinked. Wow, this must be the face of the Nanyi City Bureau, right? The little brother is cool and handsome. Just looking at him makes her want to pair him up with herself.
Ahem, the mission is important, so stay serious.
The two teams gathered together, dividing the area according to the map. Both city bureaus often faced manpower shortages, so personnel were borrowed from grassroots levels for such large-scale search tasks. After assigning tasks, the entire southern Cheng’an Mountain was divided into sections, akin to cleaning duties in a school where each takes responsibility for their designated area.
After reaching an agreement with the original team, Yu Xue called the members aside for a brief meeting. With a marker pen, he wrote names in designated areas on the map. “Everyone, bring your maps. We’re not familiar with this area, so follow the local police officers during the search. Don’t act on your own.”
The phrase “act on your own” had a pointed meaning, as Yi Shi was the only one in the team who wouldn’t follow orders. Sure enough, as soon as the tasks were assigned, Yi Shi began acting independently. “I’m going here.”
He pointed to the southern Cheng’an Cemetery at the end of the Cheng’an Mountain Range. Yu Xue pushed up his glasses, “Any reason?”
Yi Shi flicked his fingers, “When I grabbed Zhao Chenghu’s hair, I felt some powdery substance inside, like ashes.”
The air around them suddenly chilled. Ding Ju stuttered, “That… that’s impressive?”
Who exactly was this guy? He casually claimed it was ashes with just a touch.
“Could it be a mistake? The texture of the ashes is very similar to that of wood ash. We caught Zhao Chenghu in the village. It might be left over from burning straw,” said Li Changsheng.
Yi Shi shook his head, “It’s been raining in Nanyi; nobody burns straw on rainy days.”
Shao Shiqing said, “It could be something else, like cement or lime…”
“I’ll go check,” Yi Shi interrupted him decisively.
After futile discussions, everyone turned to Yu Xue for guidance. Yu Xue smiled, “Then go ahead. Do you need anyone to accompany you?”
“No need.”
With these two words, Yi Shi had already walked away, heading to hail a taxi by the roadside.
On the other side, members of the Haijing Municipal Bureau also noticed Yi Shi leaving the team to act alone. Yuan Kang approached and asked Yu Xue, “Captain Yu, where’s your team member going?”
“I’ve assigned him a task. He’ll join us after he finishes,” Yu Xue smiled faintly. “Don’t worry; it won’t delay our search progress.”
Yuan Kang wasn’t particularly concerned about that. After all, this operation wouldn’t wrap up in just a day or two. He just found Yi Shi a bit strange; looking at his face, he had a vague sense of familiarity.
As if he had seen him somewhere before.
.
[11/22, 08:34, Haijing City, Southern Cheng’an Cemetery]
Yi Shi hailed a taxi and gave the destination, sitting in the back seat with his head lowered in thought.
The vehicle drove steadily on the wide road as he took out a triangular piece of shredded paper from his pocket. It was a fragment of a notebook cover, recognizable with a missing corner that formed the letter “南 (South)” and a blurred image depicting green mountains and neatly lined short tombstones.
The back side was blank, with several handwritten numbers—15\10. It wasn’t ordinary handwriting but rather the LCD1, Liquid Crystal Display font.-style font, square and precise like numbers displayed on a calculator.
He had found this in Zhao Chenghu’s dirty hood. Yi Shi’s keen eye had noticed the crumpled piece of paper when he grabbed Zhao’s hair.
So it was not so magical that he could feel ashes with one hand. Indeed, he had felt some fine powder stuck in Zhao’s greasy hair, coarse particles resembling ash from burnt vegetation. Initially uncertain, his deduction aligned with Li Changsheng’s and others’. Later, upon discovering this paper scrap, Yi Shi confirmed the powder was likely ash from burning incense, indicating Zhao Chenghu had visited the cemetery.
He hadn’t informed Yu Xue about the paper scrap. He was used to going solo, finding answers to discoveries himself. On one hand, it was convenient to act independently; on the other, he knew his temperament well. Sometimes his methods were ruthless, and he didn’t want to drag his teammates into potential consequences.
Yi Shi stared at the numbers, deep in thought. The format resembled a date, typically with the month first and the day second. But this assumption didn’t hold, or perhaps it should be reversed—could the month be second and the day first?
October 15… Yi Shi closed his eyes and rubbed his temples, trying to recall. The explosion hadn’t yet occurred that day. He had been on his usual morning run and had passed by a newly opened coffee shop…
Yi Shi suddenly opened his eyes.
Did he go in? What did he order inside? How long did he stay before leaving?
No impression lingered; his memory ended there. Despite his exceptional memory, events from over a month ago remained clear. He remembered trivial details from September, like giving an old lady collecting bottles a drink. Her worn floral shirt, missing a few buttons, was vivid in his mind. How could he forget whether he had a cup of coffee?
“Young man, we’re here. The fare is 18 yuan.”
The taxi driver’s voice snapped Yi Shi back to reality. After paying, he got out of the car. Directly ahead stood a tall stone archway engraved with the words “Southern Cheng’an Cemetery” in bold seal script.
Instead of rushing up the hill, Yi Shi headed to the administration office. He flashed his credentials and began rifling through a stack of documents.
Finally, he found a simple logbook with a cover depicting an aerial view of Southern Cheng’an, now yellowed and stained along the edges, unappetizingly discolored.
Yi Shi took out the shredded paper and successfully matched it with the design on the top right corner of the cover. He flipped through the logbook. “Do you have a newer version of this?”
The administrator, peering through reading glasses, shook his head after inspecting it. “This has been out of production for over twenty years.”
Yi Shi held up the paper, vibrant and new in color. He rubbed it against the cover, feeling the similarity in texture—it was likely from the same production batch.
Flipping through the cemetery registry, Yi Shi scanned for the section and plot number matching the numbers on the paper. Southern Cheng’an Cemetery was divided into four major sections by rank, each with rows labeled 15 and 10. There were six burials already, and covering all would require traversing half the mountain.
“Have you seen this man recently?” Yi Shi pulled out Zhao Chenghu’s wanted photo.
The administrator squinted for a while and firmly replied, “No.”
“Okay, thank you.”
Leaving the administration office, Yi Shi entered the cemetery, searching for the corresponding tombstone by section number. From the east section to the west, he found nothing. Moving into the north section, row 15, he stood in front of tombstone number 10, arms crossed, head bowed.
Compared to other legitimate tombstones, this one had overly simple engraving—no birth or death dates, no names of family or relatives, no photos. The entire black stone was adorned only with a surname, “Lin,” highlighted in cinnabar.
Yi Shi pondered. According to the logbook, this plot in the north section had been purchased over twenty years ago, with all subsequent purchase information blank.
Whose grave was this? The characters were in red, indicating the person hadn’t died yet. Who would arrange their affairs twenty years in advance?
Suddenly, footsteps approached from both sides of the same row. To the left were a mother and son, the woman nearing forty and the boy about junior high school age. The boy carried chrysanthemum incense sticks and stopped at tombstone number 2, lighting the paper.
On the right, a livelier group of four adults with two young children carried gold ingots, yellow paper, and offerings of food and drinks, stopping at tombstone number 20 and placing everything down.
“Shuwu, you were wronged. Without the head of our household, how can we go on…”
The woman pulled the silent boy by the arm. The boy paused and said, “Dad, I will take care of mom in the future. You must bless us in heaven.”
The mother and son burned paper as they walked; not far away, Yi Shi could hear clearly. The other group was farther away; their conversation mixed with the noise of children playing in the empty cemetery.
“Miaomiao, this is a cemetery. We must respect the dead and be quiet! Look at you. Can’t you learn from Xiao Shitou and stand quietly for a while?”
The man scolded the child while tugging on him. The child glanced at Xiao Shitou standing next to him, head down, as straight as a little white poplar tree, and stuck out his tongue: “He’s a stone; he doesn’t talk. I’m Miao Miao (淼淼), and my surname is Lü, which has two mouths (口) and six waters (水). I have to use them well!”2The character 吕 for the surname “Lü” is composed of two parts, each resembling the character 口 (kǒu), which means “mouth.” Hence, “two mouths. The character 淼 (miǎo) means “vast (of water)” and is made up of three 水 (shuǐ), which means “water.” Since Miao Miao’s name is repeated, 淼淼 contains six 水 characters in total. Hence, “six waters.”
Another man tried to smooth things over: “Alright, alright, kids are like this. Just pay a bit more attention.”
A woman in their group waved toward the steps: “Hey! Lin Heyu! Don’t go past; we’re here!”
Yi Shi followed her gaze and immediately widened his eyes.
It was him.
Lin Heyu wore a black casual jacket and held several bunches of chrysanthemums, giving one to each person. Then he squatted down, placed some food, and poured a cup of wine.
Flames on both sides burned fiercely, turning the yellow paper ingots visibly into ashes, which swirled up into the sky in spirals. Yi Shi stood in the middle, and through the wavering air, Lin Heyu’s stern face seemed slightly distorted, becoming somewhat unreal.
After burning a stack of yellow paper, Lin Heyu took the hand of Xiao Shitou, who was standing nearby, and walked down the steps. Yi Shi quickly moved to follow but was bumped in the leg by a child.
“Ouch!”
Yi Shi reacted swiftly, scooping him up with one arm. It was Miaomiao, who had just been jumping around.
“Hey, who are you?” Miaomiao turned his head, looking around, and suddenly stood up and shouted, “Dad! Mom! Where did you go?”
“Up ahead…” Yi Shi hadn’t finished speaking when Miao Miao ran off, racing down the steps on the other side, anxiously looking for his parents. His clear, childlike voice echoed through the cemetery.
The mother and son, who had finished burning the paper money, kowtowed three times and left. They brushed past Miaomiao, seemingly not noticing each other, and the thin air in between visibly bent into a subtle arc.
How could this be?
Yi Shi stood stunned for a moment, then turned to stare at Miaomiao’s family. They were still chatting and laughing, unaware of the child’s heart-wrenching cries. Faint shadows cast on the ground, the firelight flickered before the graves, and the wind began to die down.
The sun?
Yi Shi looked up and saw the sky split like a canvas into two sections. Above their heads, a pale sun peeked out from the clouds, while his part of the sky grew increasingly gloomy, the dark clouds gathering in the wind.
The eeriness of the scene compelled Yi Shi to move forward, wanting to investigate further. He stepped on a candy, a fruit gummy in HELLO KITTY packaging, which must have fallen from Miaomiao’s pocket.
He picked up the candy, noticing the cute classic HELLO KITTY character raising its left hand and the pink bow on the left side of its head.
——————–
