Chapter 147: Don’t Rely on Guesswork for Everything

2022-05-20

The moment I saw Guan Zengbin arrive, I knew he’d followed the instructions I left in my phone. Hours ago, even as we were setting up an ambush for the killer, I’d already expected this situation to unfold. So I assigned Guan Zengbin a few things to do.

First, contact Captain Zhou’s younger brother and sister to find out if Captain Zhou had sent them any money recently.

Second, track down the wholesale market where Erxiao sources supplies and see if Erxiao had gone out shopping.

Third, if both of those turned out negative, have Team Leader Shao bring people here.

Clearly, the answer to both the first and second was no.

By now, the five people had come up from the basement warehouse.

“Did you catch the killer?” Team Leader Shao looked at me.

I didn’t answer. Instead, I turned to Captain Zhou and said quietly, “Luo Sumei’s body is in the warehouse. I think you should go see her.”

Captain Zhou studied me, a mix of emotions passing over his face. Then he nodded and walked downstairs.

Silence hung in the air for a moment. Then Captain Zhou’s gut-wrenching cries echoed up the stairs.

“What’s going on?” Guan Zengbin didn’t understand and started down to check.

Suddenly, a deep sadness welled up in me. I grabbed Guan Zengbin and held him close, murmuring, “Let him cry for a while. He needs this.”

Guan Zengbin still didn’t know what was happening, but seeing how down I was, he said nothing and just gently patted my back.

I’ve never been in love, so I can’t say what it’s like. But from the sound of Captain Zhou’s sobs, I could hear he truly loved Luo Sumei. Yet he had no choice—Captain Zhou had made up his mind to kill the woman he loved most. That kind of love turned to hate—it’s heartbreaking.

“I was the one who did it.” Captain Zhou climbed up the stairs. “I’m completely colorblind.”

A day later.

Guan Zengbin told me the lab results were in. The DNA matched Luo Sumei, and the coarse brown hair found was dog fur. He also told me that when Luo Sumei’s family was notified of her death, they refused to come claim the body because it was too far.

Mary’s investigation turned up that every month, Luo Sumei sent money home. She had a twenty-five-year-old brother. Her mother had told her that if she couldn’t send five thousand yuan every month to help with her brother’s wedding, she wouldn’t call her daughter anymore.

Three days later.

Captain Zhou confessed, along with the five others, to the entire sequence of murders. Throughout the interrogation, an elder who’d watched Captain Zhou grow up sat in, silent as he listened to the story. When it was over, he just got up and left, saying nothing.

As he walked away, I overheard him mutter, “Heaven turns a blind eye.”

Sometimes, no matter how hard you fight or work, you can’t always get what you want. Some people are simply born carrying original sins.

I suddenly remembered something Captain Zhou once said: “This is as far as I’ll get in life.”

Such a tone, so helpless, so bitter.

There’s one thing I had to ask Captain Zhou—because I probably wouldn’t get another chance.

I asked, “You kept your colorblindness hidden for twenty years and nobody noticed. How did Luo Sumei find out?”

Captain Zhou gave me his signature smile. “I told her myself.”

“Why?” I couldn’t help but ask.

Captain Zhou turned and got into the car, rolling down the window. He said, “Because we’re alike, really. I’ve been lonely for forty years. If you want to know more, go to where I live, there’s a vegetable market in the back. At the end, there’s an old lady who sells produce—ask her about us. I always thought I loved her, and she loved me.”

The car started rolling away. Captain Zhou called back one last time: “But really, we just loved ourselves. I regret it, truly. If it had been me in her place, would I have done better…?”

That was the last time I ever saw Captain Zhou.

Five days later.

Tougouzi Village.

When Team Leader Shao came that day, he plowed the road open with a snowplow so all the snow in the village lanes was cleared. We could drive straight to Tougouzi Village. Right now, I was sitting in the old village chief’s office.

“Now, every last villager in Tougouzi Village knows the truth,” the old village chief poured me tea. “Captain Zhou, Old Xia, Erxiao, Li Danan, Li Luo, Sun Zheng—they’re all murderers. All at once, so many villagers gone. Some of this dates way back.”

I shook my head and didn’t touch the tea. Instead, I walked to the village chief’s bookshelf.

Last time, I’d seen the bookmark was in the middle of a book. Now, it rested two-thirds through. I opened the glass doors, took the book out and flipped through it absentmindedly.

I said, “When you’re in your wheelchair, no matter how far you reach, there’s no way you’d get a book from the top shelf.”

“You don’t have a secretary either.” I glanced over at the old village chief. “So why do you always use a wheelchair? Wouldn’t it be better for you to get up and move around?”

The old village chief burst out laughing. “I never said I couldn’t stand. People just assumed I was disabled because they always saw me in the wheelchair. That’s why, you shouldn’t always jump to conclusions—your eyes can trick you.”

A wry smile tugged at my lips. “If you can’t trust your own eyes, then what should you trust?”

“Trust your heart,” the village chief replied, standing up to take the book from my hands before settling back in his wheelchair. “The world becomes whatever you believe in your heart.”

I said, “There’s something I don’t quite get. Captain Zhou visited Tougouzi Village plenty of times, so he had to know Old Xia. But when he first came, he pretended he didn’t know Old Xia. Why do you think that was?”

The village chief pointed at my chest. “What do you think?”

I paused for a moment. “From the start, Captain Zhou never wanted to confess. Back in the warehouse, when I told the others that he’d come clean, honestly, I wasn’t sure. Is it possible Captain Zhou only confessed because he saw I’d uncovered almost everything and wanted his sentence reduced?”

The village chief didn’t answer directly. Instead, he said, “The world is what you believe in your heart. Maybe Old Xia and Captain Zhou did meet several times, I can’t say either. I don’t know why he pretended not to know Old Xia.”

“But if that’s true…” I furrowed my brow and asked, “Did Erxiao always restock on a fixed schedule?”

The village chief nodded. “Always. Like clockwork, after lunch on the 25th of every month.”

His words hit me like a bolt from the blue. I froze, a chill flooding my whole body, as if the world around me had turned into a bottomless abyss. The five who would sacrifice anything for Captain Zhou must’ve been very close to him. Captain Zhou, in return, must have known Erxiao’s schedule by heart.

If Captain Zhou had deliberately left Luo Sumei alive, using someone else to finish her off—

Captain Zhou would have staged the whole thing. He’d meant to kill Luo Sumei without dying himself.

That way, he’d only be guilty of attempted murder. With so many people to plead for him…

But if all of this were true, how very dark a man Captain Zhou would be.

“But…” My voice shook a little.

The village chief saw I was turning over new doubts, and pointed at the words hanging behind him. “When I was young, I wanted to understand everything about the world, just like you. But later on, I realized—not everything needs to be figured out. At forty, they say, doubts subside. It doesn’t mean you know everything.”

“It means you understand some things just don’t have answers.”

“You’re still too young.”

He gestured at the four characters on the wall.

Wisdom in confusion.

I felt a sense of relief.

As we left the village, we decided to visit Old Lady Wang again—the one who couldn’t hear or speak. This time, Guan Zengbin cooked. It was unexpectedly delicious. Old Lady Wang’s smile was full of deep wrinkles, like a happy child.

When we left, I tried to slip her a few hundred yuan, but she refused again and again.

Once outside the courtyard, I turned back, dashed in and tossed the money onto her bed, then ran off.

But as I rushed away, I thought I heard a voice say,

“A good person has left us.”

It was a gentle, kind voice. But when I turned, Old Lady Wang still looked the same, not as if she’d spoken. So she could talk—but she’d gone through life never saying much to anyone. I wondered, do the people in a so-called “disabled village” see themselves that way because they choose to? Maybe each of them has stories they’d rather not tell.

But then, who’s to say we’re not all a bit “disabled” ourselves?

I couldn’t tell if she meant I’d left, or if she meant Captain Zhou was gone.

Who really knows? Who dares claim to be a good person?

A week later.

Zhang Ke, Xia Tian, Li Danan, Sun Zheng, and Li Luo were all sentenced to death. Captain Zhou received a suspended death sentence.

When I heard the news, I couldn’t help thinking of Sun Kangning.

I wonder if, when he learns the truth, he’ll end up hating me. To him, am I a good guy or a villain? Maybe he thinks I’m just as bad as the person who took his arm—after all, I took his father.

Ten days later.

I went to the address Captain Zhou had given me and found the old woman selling veggies.

I asked her about Luo Sumei. She remembered her clearly because she knew Captain Zhou; he often helped her carry things.

Four months ago.

When Luo Sumei was buying vegetables, she got into an argument with the old woman over thirty cents. At first Luo Sumei was fierce, but halfway through, she suddenly sat on the ground and started crying.

People around had no idea what was happening and rushed over to ask.

Luo Sumei sobbed, “I’m already thirty years old, yet I have to haggle over thirty cents for vegetables. This isn’t the life I wanted. How did I end up like this?”

Just then, Captain Zhou came out to buy groceries and saw it all.

He asked, “What’s your name?”

“Luo Sumei.” She glanced at Captain Zhou, suddenly shy, as if she were twenty again.