Chapter 6: Simulation

2022-05-20

That offhand remark pointed Team Leader Shao and me in a new direction. Maybe it could help untangle some of our four lingering doubts. But it was already late and, honestly, putting my theory to the test now seemed a bit too risky. I could only ask if we could wait and try again tomorrow.

On our way back, Team Leader Shao chatted with me, half-interested, while Mary kept teasing me about my mental health, clearly still holding a grudge over the whole ‘corpse water’ incident. Then, out of the blue, Team Leader Shao hit me with a deep question that left me genuinely speechless for a moment.

He asked, “I know you’ve always longed for this. But because of your background, you couldn’t do it. Can you tell me, why do you want it so much?”

Mary caught our conversation, shrugged, and said, “What background? What’s so special about his background?”

Team Leader Shao always spoke kindly to Mary, but this time he turned serious, a rare sight. “Mary, you’ll understand one day. For now, let’s drop it.”

Mary rolled her eyes and went quiet, looking genuinely annoyed. For a woman in her thirties, she could really sulk like a girl. Honestly, I never understood what that legendary coach saw in Mary that gave him the guts to marry her.

I waved it off. “There’s nothing mysterious about where I come from. My dad got arrested, and when I was just a year old, my mom dumped me at someone’s front door and ran. The sick part is, she left me at the wrong place—my dad wasn’t even there.”

I gave a bitter laugh. “So to this day, I have no idea whose son I really am, who my parents even are. Until I turned eighteen, I just grew up there.”

Mary’s jaw dropped, like she couldn’t believe my story. But I’m used to it. I’d been called an orphan my whole life, up until I turned eighteen and struck out on my own.

“You still haven’t answered my question,” Team Leader Shao said, letting go of the steering wheel to light up a cigarette.

I honestly didn’t know the answer, or how to explain. Growing up around the people I did, I should’ve ended up just like them. So why did I want this so badly?

It was a tough question. So I just told the truth. “Right now, I really can’t answer that.”

Team Leader Shao took a drag, then smiled. “When I was young, I couldn’t answer it either.”

“What about now?” I pressed.

“Some people are born to hide in the shadows; others are born searching for light in the darkness. Luckily, I’m the second kind. What about you?” he replied.

“I’m half darkness, half light,” I said, scratching my head.

That answer seemed to catch Team Leader Shao off guard. He glanced at me through the rearview mirror. “A bit of both, huh? That’s interesting.”

When the first rays of sunlight spilled over the earth, we were already back at the wire fence. Today, I needed to test my theory and run a full simulation. After I explained my idea, Team Leader Shao gave the green light.

My role was the killer. Mary played Zhang Xutong, Team Leader Shao became Luo Yongjun, and Gu Chen stood in for Li Cunzhuang. I also called in the two electricians who originally found the body.

I told everyone to act just as they had on the rainy night, following the timeline where Li Cunzhuang’s and Luo Yongjun’s paths overlapped.

Standing at the shabby hut’s door, lit only by a faint bulb, I spotted a woman. I grinned, then pulled down the breaker. Instantly, every streetlight went black.

Mary jumped but didn’t panic—instead, she kept walking forward.

I slipped into the tunnel, reaching the outside of the wire fence facing Mary. Then I sprinted ahead of her, looping through another tunnel to come out at the woman’s fence. I pried up a board to watch for Mary—and finally, there she was.

I grabbed Mary’s leg, dragging her inside. She screamed, but thunder masked the sound.

Gu Chen was trailing Mary from a distance, but now he suddenly lost her. Panic set in as he scanned all around, searching.

Mary and I hid out in the tunnel for about ten minutes. When enough time passed, I hauled her out. First, I set a wooden board down in the mud, then dragged over a chair. I tried tossing the ‘body’ onto the railway. The chair was just too short—I couldn’t get it over.

Then inspiration struck. I climbed a utility pole, cut the wires—one tied around Mary, the other thrown over the fence. I threaded the fence’s end of the wire through, tied it tight, and just like that, I built a ‘bridge’ between the pole and the fence.

No way I could squeeze three fingers through those tiny gaps to climb up by hand without shattering my knuckles. But with the bridge I’d rigged, I could crawl across and start pulling up the wire that held Mary. Of course, the real, live Mary wasn’t exactly cooperating.

When I finally got up there, I was tired, so I jammed Mary’s hand through the fence to keep her from falling—naturally, I didn’t really do that to her. Then, a bolt of lightning split the night sky. With my vantage point, I saw Gu Chen heading right for us.

I panicked. With nowhere else to go, I just leaped down onto the railway tracks. If I didn’t have the key, there was no way out. Only one door opened in this stretch of fence, and it was at the back of the hut.

Gu Chen was getting close. I froze on the tracks, not daring to move. Then, I witnessed something I’ll never forget. When I was sure Gu Chen was gone, I got up slowly. I had to get out and hide the body.

Good thing Gu Chen left. I untied the rope from the fence, planning to climb out, when suddenly I heard a rapid ‘thump-thump-thump.’ In the dead silence of a rainy night, it sounded downright chilling.

“That’s it! That’s the sound we heard that night!” the two electricians shouted.

I was so scared I let go of the rope. That’s when I spotted someone familiar. He signaled for me to be quiet, then pointed at two faint lights in the distance. He gently pushed the chair over—it landed in the mud without a sound.

He led me back to the hut, then into the tunnel. The two flashlights were gone; the electricians had disappeared. He untied the wire from Mary, packed up the board and chair, and buried them under the locust tree.

After that, he sat at a desk, scribbling and drawing. Then he told me, “Grab the white liquor and come with me.”

When we got there, we could hear train horns blaring overhead—right on schedule.

We drank in the tunnel, a bottle each. Then he said, “I’m taking you to turn yourself in.”

I panicked. No way was I turning myself in. They couldn’t know I was the killer—they had nothing on me. Wait, this guy can’t hold his liquor—he can’t drink nearly as much as I can. If I get him drunk, he’ll drown in the tunnel’s shallow water, and then no one will ever pin this on me.

His tolerance was just as bad as I thought. After downing our bottles of white liquor, he collapsed, drowning in water that barely reached mid-calf.

I walked out. I wore gloves during the murder—they wouldn’t find a trace of me.

The man on the ground was Team Leader Shao. No, he was Luo Yongjun. But then… who was I?

That answer was simple.

Just then, Team Leader Shao’s phone rang. After listening, he said, “We just got a call from out of town—a woman on the train reported something terrifying.”

“It was late, and everyone was half asleep when a thunderstorm woke her. She pulled back the curtain to check the rain, but instead saw a young man carrying a woman outside the wire fence, struggling to toss her onto the tracks…”

Team Leader Shao went on, “She spent ages with a map to figure out where it happened, but finally realized it was right here in our city…”

The net of justice always closes in, slow but sure. To know if our suspect was the one, we just needed to show his photo to this witness.

“By the way,” I asked, “anything new on those liquor bottles?”

Xiao Liu replied, “Just about to tell you. On half the bottles, we found fingerprints—matched to Luo Yongjun. The other half were wiped clean, or else the person wore gloves.”

I snapped my fingers. “I know who the killer is.”

Team Leader Shao shook his head. “I’ve seen too many cases like this. Check Luo Yongjun’s home address—we’ll be ready to arrest the killer.”

Once we confirmed Luo Yongjun’s address, we prepared to move in. But as we opened the door, something completely unexpected happened. Someone was already on the floor, not breathing, and next to them on the table were several bags of… something.

Team Leader Shao stepped up, pinched a bit of the residue on the table between his fingers, then frowned in disbelief. He turned to us, face twisted in shock. “We might have a massive case on our hands,” he said.

“What is this stuff?” I gasped.

Team Leader Shao nodded. “Exactly what you think it is!”