33 Chapter 32

The interrogation room's door opened, and two expressionless criminal policemen came in, flanking Zhao Haochang to each side and pressing him back into his seat. Shining handcuffs clicked, closing on his flashing wrist, the metal of the cuffs a distant echo of the metal of the watchband, the two weirdly complementing each other.

Magnificent, cold as ice, and sharp.

Looking on from outside, Fei Du narrowed his eyes and assessed, "Your handcuffs are very aesthetically pleasing. Could I get a set to take back as a souvenir?"

Tao Ran didn't catch up at once. "What do you want handcuffs for?"

Fei Du turned to look at him, then, seeming to realize he'd been indiscreet, only meaningfully curved his peach blossom eyes.

Tao Ran belatedly groped his way to the meaning of this. As a conventional man whose life contained only overtime and home loans, Deputy-Captain Tao really couldn't appreciate this bourgeois-style lakes of wine and forests of meat. Seeing Fei Du's disgraceful behavior, he strongly felt his field of vision had been polluted. He then justly reprimanded, "Talk nonsense again and you can get out."

Fei Du gave a dry cough, properly suppressed his magic powers, which were unsuited to the venue, and didn't say a word.

The ice-cold handcuffs made Zhao Haochang give a fierce shudder. He came around and, not losing hope, tried to defend himself as before. "Slow down, what house…"

Luo Wenzhou coldly interrupted him. "You want to say the house isn't yours? Attorney Zhao, that isn't what the Fengqing Winery's security cameras say."

The panic on Zhao Haochang's face could no longer be suppressed. The handcuffs clanked.

Luo Wenzhou enjoyed his expression, then unhurriedly added, "Also, who told you we lost track of He Zhongyi after he got off the bus at Wenchang Intersection?"

"No, it's…it's not possible…"

"You're under suspicion of premeditated murder and purposefully disposing of a body. Fearing that the victim's relation would recognize you, you also tried to coerce an innocent woman to publicly commit suicide, and damaged high elevation guard rails. You involved yourself in the investigation repeatedly, attempting to mislead the police and frame another person.—Zhao Haochang, the evidence of these crimes is conclusive, what more do you have to say?" Luo Wenzhou suddenly looked up and glanced at Zhao Haochang, the corners of his lips turning up roguishly, displaying a pampered lordling's scornful sneer, stabbing right at the pit of Zhao Haochang's heart.

Luo Wenzhou said, "You've worked hard and struggled so many years, you were a step away from ascending to the heavens, and then with one wrong step you slipped and became a murderer. 'What fate has ordained in the end comes to pass, what is not ordained cannot be asked.' Zhao Haochang, I pity you."

It was as if a needle had been stuck into Zhao Haochang's chest. He lost control, hysterically crying out, "You call that conclusive evidence? Did you film me killing him? Did you find my fingerprints or DNA on the phone? Zhang Donglai's fingerprints on that tie are clear as day, isn't that direct evidence? Which is solid, which is flimsy? Why are you saying it was me! Because Zhang Donglai is your director-general's relative? Because his family's rich? Isn't falsifying evidence and arranging frame-ups the police's specialty? Who knows whether you put that phone…"

Howling to the end of his breath, Zhao Haochang suddenly got a clear look at Luo Wenzhou's derisive expression. He quickly came back to himself and felt the inside of his head roar, all the blood in his body surging outwards to his stiff limbs.

Luo Wenzhou rested his elbows on the table and leaned forward slightly, attentively watching Zhao Haochang's bloodshot eyes. "Zhang Donglai's fingerprints on the tie are clear as day? Attorney Zhao, you're more capable than our medical examiners. They need to fiddle with their equipment making comparisons for ages, but you can know just by making a wild guess."

Zhao Haochang was stock-still, cold sweat slowly soaking through his sleek hair. The damp, chilly air-conditioning blew, and he shivered fiercely.

Luo Wenzhou laughed. Like a cat that had had enough of toying with a mouse, he lost interest in Zhao Haochang. He pushed his chair back and stood, indolently nodding to the two criminal policemen standing off to one side. "The criminal suspect—I suppose I can say that now, Attorney Zhao—the criminal suspect's crimes have been established. All that remains is a question of details. You guys go ahead and question him for a bit, I won't waste any more time on him."

Then he headed out. Just then, Zhao Haochang pulled at his handcuffs and, amidst the criminal policemen's scolding, struggled fiercely and yelled, "Slow down, it…it was legitimate self-defense!"

Luo Wenzhou turned and looked at Zhao Haochang almost in wonder. He suddenly thought that so-called "dignity" was only a thin piece of wrapping paper, and when all one's schemes had been exhausted, in the end the wrapping would come off with one tug, exposing the sorry body inside.—When Tao Ran and the others had broken up the mass brawl in the Flower Market District, the legal illiterate who'd made the most noise had said the same thing. Panicking, the great, glittering lawyer Zhao Haochang and the elementary school security guard Yu Lei came by different roads to the same end.

"Did I hear that right?" Luo Wenzhou tipped forward slightly. "Attorney Zhao, you, a leading light in your field, with your proper legal education, would call out 'legitimate self-defense' under these circumstances? Did the blow you dealt He Zhongyi rebound on your own head?"

Zhao Haochang's face was dead white. He stared at Luo Wenzhou with enmity and malice. Nearly grinding his teeth, he said, "He Zhongyi took part in drug trafficking. He pestered me repeatedly, there was nothing I could do. I was forced to fight back."

"He Zhongyi took part in drug trafficking?" Luo Wenzhou's voice became heavy. "How do you know?"

Zhao Haochang's cuffed-together hands lay in his lap, trembling unstoppably. He was clenching his fists tightly, nails biting into his flesh and drawing blood, but he hadn't noticed it. "I have evidence, I have evidence! I know you're investigating Chen Yuan's case, I'm an important witness! I can cooperate with the investigation, but you have to promise me leniency!"

Luo Wenzhou looked at the security camera, meeting Fei Du's gaze through the equipment.

Fei Du leaned forward, arms crossed over his chest, and gave a rather interested "wow."

"What is it?" said Tao Ran.

"He thought at first he'd won a complete victory, then he quickly experienced a fatal defeat. He panicked, became enraged, even slipped up and gave you something to use, but he's been able to get a clear grasp of the situation this fast, adjust his emotions, and work out the trade you require." Quietly, Fei Du said, "He really makes me think of a centipede in a swamp."

An insect with a hundred legs, dead but not stiffening.

Luo Wenzhou sat back down across from Zhao Haochang. "Go ahead."

Zhao Haochang took a deep breath. "I need your promise, a clean towel, and a cup of coffee."

In the interrogation room, it was a battle of wits and a series of swindles. Luo Wenzhou considered it and felt that his "promise" wasn't worth any money. Then he generously nodded. "Fine."

A short while later, an exquisite porcelain tray was brought in from outside, with a moist towel, a napkin, and a richly-scented cup of coffee arranged on it; in addition, there were tidily arrayed Western pastries and a dewy fresh flower. Smelling all this, Luo Wenzhou knew it was that bastard Fei's doing.

The clerk and the two criminal policemen exchanged helpless looks—and became indignant at the same time. They didn't even get this kind of treatment when they were on duty during the Spring Festival!

Zhao Haochang's expression changed. Looking at the flower, he seemed to recover some self-respect. This self-respect made him straighten his spine and speak decently.

"At the end of last year, in the capacity of a legal adviser, I took a team to see some clients in the East Flower Market District. I was going to be drinking that day, so I didn't drive. When we were through, I got a taxi nearby, and I was followed." Zhao Haochang unhurriedly finished eating, sipped the coffee, then let out a soft breath and closed his eyes. "Sumatran? Too earthy."

"Was it He Zhongyi who followed you?"

"Yeah, he recognized me and asked me for money." Zhao Haochang's voice had steadied. From wildly floating, his gaze had changed to firmly looking back at Luo Wenzhou. "Blackmail. He wanted 100,000 yuan."

Luo Wenzhou considered Zhao Haochang—he had a first-rate meat sack; it could be described as imposing and well-proportioned, and it was covered up with the skin of a social elite. It truly didn't seem like he could be browbeaten by someone of He Zhongyi's insignificant stature. "Did you give it to him?"

"I did. You must have turned this up in your investigation." Zhao Haochang pursed his lips faintly. After a night squatting in a little dark room, there were dark circles around his eyes, emphasizing how deeply set they were, looking unusually dismal. "My parents were both disabled. Including me, they had four children, two of whom also had problems. Starting from the time I went to middle school, there wasn't any money in the house to spend on me. I saved up to get free: carried things, did odd jobs for my teachers, picked wild fruits in the dead of night to bring to the market in town to sell… I did everything so I could complete my education, so I could one day stand out.

"But you know what they said in the village? They said we were a family of 'deaf-mutes.' Later, when I finished upper middle school and tested into university, those people saw me in a new light. My house turned into a marketplace, people coming in and out, all of them peddling their families' stupid village girls.

"But during my third year at uni, my little brother was born. My parents yearned to have another adult male around the house, but when he was born he was like my second sister, a congenitally deaf and dumb child with an intellectual impairment. It was a nightmare. From then on we once again became 'a family of idiots' to the village. It's hereditary. In the future, my children will very likely be like that too, you understand? My career was just picking up, I had a girlfriend, I loved her, I couldn't allow that sewer rat to blab in front of her, I had to give him some money to get rid of him."

Luo Wenzhou looked down, knocked a cigarette out of a package, put it in his mouth, and considered Zhao Haochang through a cloud of very clear smoke. "Sewer rat?"

Zhao Haochang's psychological quality was extraordinary. Even having come to this point, he still looked unflinchingly into Luo Wenzhou's eyes. "Officer Luo, you grew up in Yan City, right? Then you definitely don't understand what it's like to be away from home, to live in one of the West District's overcrowded rentals. I never dared to go out with my classmates, desperately earned scholarship money while I was at school, worked all the time after I got a job, all to save a bit of money to send home. My parents didn't know what it was like for me out here, all they did was constantly ask me for money. Because of my little brother's problems, they wanted to run the risks of advanced age and give me another child to raise. The people in the village whispered behind their backs, the people in the village put pressure on them, and in the end all that pressure came down on me.

"My family had nearly sucked my marrow dry, but I didn't resent them at all; I hoped their lives in the village could be a little better. I even asked for a vacation so I could help re-roof the house. But when it was only halfway done, I took a trip to the county seat, and when I came back, my home had burned down in an accident and turned into a ruin. My parents, my siblings were all gone, not one escaped… I was inconsolable, but a rumor went around the village that said that the fire had to do with me!"

He'd come to the important point.

Indifferently, Luo Wenzhou asked, "Oh? And did it have to do with you?"

The corners of Zhao Haochang's lips pursed tightly, and he flared up. "You'd ask me that? Are you a beast?"

Luo Wenzhou crossed his legs, looking Zhao Haochang up and down without anger or surprise. Only when Zhao Haochang could hardly stand it any longer did he unhurriedly tap out his cigarette ash and flatly say, "All right, you're pure and innocent, your plight is mournful, let's continue with He Zhongyi."

"I left my home, changed my name, thought I'd finally broken free of that barbaric hole, but the peace only lasted a few years before that trash He came to find me. He said it wasn't the first time he'd seen me, he'd also seen my girlfriend, he threatened that if I didn't give him the money, he'd tell Zhang Ting about my family's hereditary disease and the supposed truth about the fire." Zhao Haochang's manner, tolerably even until now, began to roil like boiling water, thick hatred even covering up the coffee's aroma, assaulting the senses as if it had physical substance. "They ruined the first half of my life, they were going to ruin the rest of it, too, all my efforts and hopes, everything would burst into nothing where those nauseating worms had crawled. Why?"

"So you decided to kill him?" said Luo Wenzhou.

"I didn't." Zhao Haochang's chest rose and fell violently. "I wanted to compromise and avoid trouble. I even got 100,000 yuan in cash and gave it to him. I only asked him not to mention me to other people. But he wasn't satisfied, he was always pestering me. I even prepared to be blackmailed for a long time, and went out of my way to request an unregistered number he could use to contact me.

"I accepted my former academic advisor's invitation and retuned to my alma mater to lead a class of shidi and shimei in real-world experience. I met Cui Ying, a girl with a gentle and quiet nature, very dependent. If she needed anything she'd ask me. One day she called me in a flurry, as if something major had happened. I listened to a few sentences, felt something was wrong, and immediately stopped her from saying it over the phone. I arranged to meet her…arranged to meet her in a private place."

"She showed you what Chen Yuan had passed on to her."

"I was very shocked, but to protect Cui Ying I ordered her not to talk about it. I went home and tossed and turned all night. Owing to my conscience, I decided to use my familiarity with the West District to verify the authenticity of the evidence." Zhao Haochang quietly said, "And there I saw He Zhongyi with another…with a very skinny young person. I lay in wait until close to evening and saw the boy sneak over to a place near West Guanjing Street. It was one of the drug trafficking locations Chen Yuan had mentioned. He was a drug addict!"

From his description, it sounded like he was talking about Ma Xiaowei.

Zhao Haochang drank a large mouthful of coffee, as if to steady his emotions. "That drug-using boy took what he had bought back home. I followed him and saw him come 'home' with my own eyes. He turned on the lights, there were shadows on the window. That He Zhongyi was sharing the drugs with him! And he went back on his word and pestered Zhang Ting and let me catch him at it!"

"You saw the time Zhang Donglai beat him up?"

"Zhang Donglai beat him up, he didn't dare to fight back, but he was looking at me the whole time," said Zhao Haochang heavily. "He wanted to retaliate, I knew it, I was scared. After that I bent my head to him again, gave him what he wanted."

"The cell phone," said Luo Wenzhou.

"He was constantly insinuating to me about it, saying he'd seen other people using it and felt envious."

Luo Wenzhou dully picked up a rollerball pen and twirled it around in his fingertips. He tapped the table with the shaft of the pen. "All right, even if he pestered Zhang Ting, how can you say solely based on some shadows on a window that he was using drugs? Do you have X-ray vision…"

"I said I have evidence!" Zhao Haochang interrupted him emphatically. "I installed two pinhole cameras in the 'Golden Triangle Lot!'"

Luo Wenzhou inside the interrogation room and Tao Ran and the others watching outside of it all stared—they hadn't found the cameras when investigating the scene.

"Of course I didn't install them on the scene, otherwise those pieces of trash would have found them a long time ago." Zhao Haochang seemed to have worked out what he was thinking. His gaze was faintly disdainful. "The West District's streets are convoluted. There are places you think a road goes all the way through, but actually it's blocked off midway. There are places you think are very well concealed, but actually there's a projecting part of a far-off building that you can see everything clearly from.—I installed one camera outside the window of He Zhongyi's apartment and the other on the roof of a nearby public toilet."

The clerk's forehead was covered in sweat; he simply couldn't keep writing.

"What did you film?" asked Luo Wenzhou.

"I filmed the course of several transactions in the 'Golden Triangle Lot.' Sometimes there were only drug traffickers; sometimes you police degenerates were there patrolling, safeguarding them."

Luo Wenzhou quickly followed up, "And the records, where are they?"

"There's a safe under the floor lamp in my house's basement, you can go investigate it," Zhao Haochang said straightforwardly. "When you're finished, you'll know I've told the truth. He Zhongyi was very careful, usually he had his friend show his face, but on the evening of the twentieth, he gave that person the phone to exchange, and it was caught on camera.—There should also be a text message record on his phone, a notification that they'd changed the location of the transaction at the last minute."

Luo Wenzhou considered him with a peculiar look, then suddenly asked, "There was a piece of paper on He Zhongyi's forehead, with the character 'money' written on it. When he went to see you that night, he had a kraft-paper envelope. Our technicians analyzed it, and the strip of paper was torn from that kraft-paper envelope and stuck to his forehead. That was you?"

"Yes." Zhao Haochang raised his eyebrows. "He followed me all the way to Chengguang Mansion, shamelessly wanted to see me under the guise of returning my money.—There was 20,000 yuan in that envelope. Officer Luo, I ask you, aside from selling drugs, where is a poor country brat going to get 20,000 yuan?"

Luo Wenzhou was somewhat speechless.

"I also ask you, if an extorting and blackmailing drug addict suddenly wanted to return your money, how would you feel? Would you accept it with pleasure, think that he'd mended his ways? He's certainly planning something else against you! He gives you twenty-thousand, it's because he wants to get two-hundred thousand, two million out of your pocket! These greedy bumpkins, what do they know but money?" Zhao Haochang's deep-set eyes were like two deep wells, hardly allowing light to pass, with bone-chilling darkness rippling inside. "I did it to protect myself, and to rid the people of an evil. Officer, where you worms and good-for-nothings had abstained, what did I do wrong?"

"Attorney Zhao's moral is correct." Luo Wenzhou nodded good-humoredly. "Could you give me the code to your safe? We'll go check the evidence of He Zhongyi's guilt."

One of the criminal policemen beside them immediately handed Zhao Haochang pen and paper. There was a cold smile on Zhao Haochang's face. He blithely wrote down the code.

Luo Wenzhou at once passed it on to Lang Qiao, who was at the 'Fengqing Winery,' and five minutes later received Lang Qiao's confirmation text.

"Thank you." Luo Wenzhou stood up and smiled at Zhao Haochang. "Attorney Zhao, I just have two things left to say. Would you condescend to listen?"

Zhao Haochang was forced to raise his head to look at him.

"First," Luo Wenzhou stuck up one finger, "He Zhongyi's autopsy report showed that he had never touched drugs. As for the phone, witness testimony says that it was stolen by his roommate."

Zhao Haochang's brow furrowed. He was about to open his mouth to dispute it. Luo Wenzhou put up a second finger.

"Second, since you used your infinite resources to place the pinhole camera outside the window of He Zhongyi's apartment, why didn't you simply put it inside the room? Then you could film him day and night, film him eating, sleeping, and defecating. Wouldn't you be able to know at a glance whether he was using drugs or trafficking them?"

Zhao Haochang froze at once.

"You're too clever, Attorney Zhao." Luo Wenzhou laughed. "Your humble servant is deeply gratified to be able to capture an asshole like you who won't shed a tear until he sees the coffin. I feel it's worth spending all the time I should be out having fun working overtime instead. As for my promise… Sorry, I'm an asshole, too. I'm only sincere in front of my wife. You… Leave it out."

Luo Wenzhou stopped speaking. He didn't feel like looking at this hypocritical painted face anymore and left the interrogation room.

Tao Ran didn't come around at first. "What did he mean?"

"Using the images, you can trace the location of the cameras." Fei Du stared unblinkingly at the crumbling Zhao Haochang. He quietly said, "He didn't care at all whether He Zhongyi was innocent, whether he was involved with Ma Xiaowei and the others. From the time He Zhongyi started his unreciprocated attentions, constantly trying to contact him, Zhao Haochang wasn't planning on letting him live."

Tao Ran's eyes opened wide. "You're saying that he sent the video from the camera outside of He Zhongyi's window anonymously to Wang Hongliang!"

"Though I don't know why He Zhongyi escaped that calamity, that certainly does tally with the trend of Zhao Haochang's logic." Fei Du watched from afar as Luo Wenzhou threw on a jacket and stiffly walked over with a cigarette in his mouth. He turned to Tao Ran and nodded. "Ge, I'm not interested in the rest. I'll be going."

Then he pushed at his glasses and unhurriedly headed out. When he brushed past Luo Wenzhou, he looked curiously at Captain Luo's rigid posture and very urbanely extended a greeting to him. "You seem to have strained your back. The elderly should look after their health."

Luo Wenzhou: "…"

He was happy and laughing, and at the same time Luo Wenzhou inexplicably felt that the Fei Du of today was almost a little more carefree than usual—maybe because he had dug out a long-festering wound; it had perhaps been painful and bloody, but it had also been a fresh opportunity to heal.

"Let me ask you something," said Luo Wenzhou. "Would you guess that Zhao Haochang was the one who killed his whole family?"

Fei Du was absolutely unwilling to cooperate and talk nicely. He mockingly answered, "Captain Luo, after all that time cheating and swindling, using hard and soft tactics, you haven't worked out who killed the Zhao family?"

Luo Wenzhou's back hurt hideously. He couldn't quite stand upright. So he very rudely put his hand on Fei Du's shoulder, using him as a human crutch. "It doesn't look like it to me. Although our Xiao Qiao'r says he preserved the arsonist's sleeve and therefore must have been at the scene, I still think that at most he watched them die without calling for help. Ordinarily, a criminal escalates. A novice will very rarely start out by tidily plotting to kill his entire family."

Fei Du froze.

Luo Wenzhou shrugged. "I wasn't alluding to you. I've already apologized."

Expressionlessly, Fei Du said, "You're pressing on my hair."

He tilted his head, slipped away from Luo Wenzhou's dog's paw, distastefully dusted his shoulder a few times, and glided away.

"Captain Luo!" A criminal policeman ran over. "Huang Jinglian saw the evidence and freaked. He gave up Wang Hongliang and the others!"

Luo Wenzhou turned around at once.

"There's also Chen Yuan's case. Huang Jinglian says that it happened because he received a package. He opened it and found a film of their whole business process. They decided they had a mole and immediately started to investigate. They found the pinhole camera hidden on Chen Yuan, and then they…"

Luo Wenzhou stared.

Perhaps Zhao Haochang had hidden the camera too well and Huang Jinglian and the others had missed it; perhaps Huang Jinglian hadn't thought that the person who had secretly filmed them would use a camera in a fixed location that they could find, so his first reaction had been to look for a mole—through a strange combination of circumstances, an innocent girl had died in He Zhongyi's place.

But the rash boy who couldn't read others's behavior hadn't been able to escape the gaze from the swamp.

"Keep questioning them." Luo Wenzhou stretched with difficulty. "See who sent that text message to He Zhongyi on the night of the twentieth."

"Yes, sir!"

The reporting criminal policeman turned and ran off.

Luo Wenzhou stood where he was for a while, thinking deeply. Suddenly he felt there was a smell around him, very faint, winding around the tip of his nose thread by thread, then quickly reaching somewhere deeper. It was the lingering end of men's Mu Xiang(41). Smelling it for a long time made the heart itch a little.

Luo Wenzhou searched all around and at last raised his own fingers and lightly sniffed them. He found that he had picked it up from Fei Du.

Luo Wenzhou clinked his tongue and rubbed his fingers together in disappointment. Having found the source, he didn't itch anymore, and he didn't think it smelled good. "What's the use. Waste of my damn hormones."

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Author's note

41- Also called costus root, used medicinally and in perfumes.