POTL Chapter 5

Yu Shi and Li Yu were investigating near a mobile stall. According to the findings from Jun Zi and Xiao Lang, an unlicensed sugarcane vendor was operating a mobile stall in the area. Yu Shi and Li Yu decided to check it out. Just as they were nearing their destination, Yu Shi received a call from the police station. The caller reported that a body had been discovered in an apartment, and the suspect was a sugarcane seller. After listening, Yu Shi replied that she was nearby and would provide immediate support. She then urged Li Yu to hurry.

Following the address provided by the caller, they arrived in front of an old apartment building. Yu Shi got out of the car first and pressed the elevator button. But there was no response. She immediately took the stairs. Li Yu caught up shortly after. Finding the door locked and hearing unusual noises from inside, the two of them worked together to kick and ram the door. Just as Li Yu was about to put all his strength into a final shoulder charge, the door swung open, causing him to stumble forward and fall inside, landing squarely on top of the person who had opened the door.

The person pinned beneath struggled to get up. Yu Shi found herself locking eyes with her in a long-awaited reunion. Both couldn’t help but let out sounds of confusion.

After a few seconds of silence, Xiang Ling finally spoke up, “The suspect jumped out the window and escaped!”

“Li Yu, go after him!” Yu Shi called out before rushing off to pursue the suspect.

She looked in the direction the suspect had fled and saw a man holding a sickle, climbing down a drainpipe. The fourth floor wasn’t too high, so Yu Shi followed suit, descending the same way. Li Yu, following her instructions, quickly got up and dashed out the door, intending to intercept the suspect from another direction.

Xiang Ling looked around the now-empty room. Both the suspect and the police had fled, leaving her alone in the same space as a corpse. After checking her camera for any damage, she brushed the dust off her clothes and turned her attention to the freezer.

Not long after, Yu Shi returned and saw Xiang Ling leaning against the freezer, looking rather pale. “If it makes you uncomfortable, don’t look,” she said, before examining the body inside the freezer herself.

“It’s not that…” Xiang Ling clenched her fist and pressed it against her philtrum, speaking seriously, “I drank sugarcane juice.”

Yu Shi glanced at the sugarcane in the corner of the room and said, “There’s no sugarcane in there, so what you drank should be fine.”

“I added ice cubes…” Xiang Ling said slowly, word by word, “and I drank a hair.”

Yu Shi was momentarily at a loss for words. The atmosphere grew quiet. After a long pause, she turned back to examine the body in the freezer. It was seated on the right side, while the left side was filled with square ice cubes. Embedded in the ice wall was a clump of hair, stained with a bit of blood.

Xiang Ling took one look at the color of the hair and realized it was the same as the one she had drunk the day before, causing a wave of severe discomfort to wash over her.

Yu Shi checked the time and estimated that the rest of the police team would arrive soon. Pointing at the camera hanging around Xiang Ling’s neck, she said, “Keep the memory card safe and don’t let anyone find it.”

Xiang Ling belatedly removed the memory card and tucked it away. Taking photos at a crime scene was strictly forbidden, especially when a body was involved.

Before long, Li Yu handed the suspect over to his colleagues and returned to the room with the others. The forensics team had also arrived.

The forensic examiner accompanying them today was once again Shu Xia. After a preliminary examination of the body, she concluded, “Based on the strangulation marks on the neck, the cause of death is identical. It’s almost certain that this sugarcane vendor is the perpetrator of all three murders.”

Upon hearing this, Xiang Ling couldn’t help but feel puzzled. “Three cases?”

“Mhm. Besides the one under the bridge, there was another victim. The modus operandi was almost identical. Including this one, that makes three cases.” Yu Shi explained, gesturing for Shu Xia to ignore Xiang Ling.

Mie Mie pulled Li Yu into a corner and asked in a voice only the two of them could hear, “Brother Li, why is Sister Yu explaining so much to an unrelated person?”

“Don’t ask too many questions. They just have some history.” Li Yu brushed Mie Mie off and tried to walk over to Yu Shi to examine the body.

Mie Mie pulled Li Yu back again. She couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off. “Then how did she discover the body? Is she really not a suspect? Didn’t we deduce that the perpetrator had an accomplice…”

“She’s a journalist, and she happened to be investigating this case. Besides, that accomplice would have to be a man. Otherwise, how could they sexually assault the victim?”

Li Yu repeatedly told Mie Mie that any questions would be answered after everyone had been questioned.

Afterward, the police completely took over the scene. The perpetrator and the body were both taken away, while Xiang Ling followed instructions to go to the police station to give her statement. Xiang Ling’s statement was handled by Mie Mie and Da Gezi, while Yu Shi and Li Yu were responsible for the perpetrator Tang Zhengyi’s statement. Both sides proceeded simultaneously.

While being questioned, Xiang Ling couldn’t help but feel that the female officer named Mie Mie opposite her had something in her eyes. Sometimes the same question was asked repeatedly in different ways. Fortunately, Xiang Ling was sharp enough not to be led astray.

When she finished and stepped out of the room, the door to the neighboring interrogation room also opened. Yu Shi walked out, while Li Yu escorted the perpetrator to the detention cell.

Hua Yicheng heard that the serial killer had been caught and came to take a look during his break. Seeing Li Yu escorting the perpetrator past, he looked at Yu Shi and asked, “Looking at the perpetrator’s face, did you do that?” The perpetrator’s face was bruised and swollen, with bloodstains under his nose that hadn’t even been wiped clean.

“Part of it was me, part of it was her.” Yu Shi pointed at Xiang Ling, who happened to be standing beside her. When she went to apprehend the perpetrator, his face was already covered in nosebleeds. It was hard not to think Xiang Ling had something to do with it.

“Who is she? Did your team get a new member?” Hua Yicheng thought Xiang Ling was a newcomer and almost went up to shake hands and introduce himself.

Yu Shi stopped Hua Yicheng and said word by word, “She’s the first person to discover the scene. Don’t just approach anyone you see who’s pretty. If you don’t leave now, I’ll tell Shu Xia.”

“I just came to take a look at the perpetrator. Now that I’ve seen him, I’m leaving. Bye!” Hua Yicheng immediately turned around and walked away.

“Let’s talk in private.”

Yu Shi led Xiang Ling to a corner of the corridor to talk.

“I’ll say it first: you can’t publish photos of the body.”

“Don’t worry, I took some other photos as substitutes.” Of course, Xiang Ling knew that close-up photos of the body would only disgust readers and disrespect the deceased if published.

“I also want to ask how you knew Tang Zhengyi was the perpetrator?” Yu Shi had to admit, Xiang Ling had acted faster than she had.

“First, you can’t compare what I’m about to say with the statement I just gave. There might be some discrepancies.”

Xiang Ling had to give a heads-up. Although she hadn’t lied in her statement, she had omitted quite a few details.

“I promise.” Yu Shi gave a firm answer. She wasn’t trying to hold Xiang Ling accountable. She was just curious.

Xiang Ling recounted her investigation process from the beginning. Initially, she received news that a body had been discovered under a bridge, so she went to take photos and successfully published a report. Later, after the police released the victim’s photo, she recognized the person because she had previously visited the clothing store where Yi Ziyun worked. She then took the initiative to visit the store and gather information from the colleagues there. Through observation, she noticed the bench and decided to check the surveillance footage on a whim, where she spotted the peculiar man reading a newspaper.

After that, she originally planned to visit Yi Ziyun’s home, hoping to pose as a friend to extract information from Yi Ziyun’s parents. However, she happened to see Yu Shi and the tall man arriving, so she held back. After waiting in her car for a while, she saw Yu Shi and the tall man emerge, holding an evidence bag containing a sugarcane stalk. Her intuition told her the sugarcane was a key clue, so she followed that lead.

During multiple trips between the shopping mall and Yi Ziyun’s residence, she discovered a mobile snack stall. The sugarcane vendor’s physique closely matched the man she had seen in the surveillance footage. Combined with information she obtained from the fried chicken stall owner, she confirmed that Tang Zhengyi was indeed suspicious. After largely identifying him as the suspect, she decided to search his home for clues and ended up discovering the third body.

“So you found the culprit based on intuition,” Yu Shi remarked, somewhat speechless. While she was still investigating the sugarcane lead for the case she was responsible for, the other party had already pinpointed the suspect.

“It wasn’t just intuition. Luck played a big part, too.”

Xiang Ling reflected that this time, she had truly stumbled upon the truth by chance. Much of it was thanks to Lady Luck. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have found the key hidden under the flowerpot base.

“Luck won’t work every time. Next time something like this happens, don’t go into a suspect’s home alone. If you’re caught, it’s trespassing,” Yu Shi warned sternly, though she wasn’t sure if the other would listen.

“Now that you’ve asked your questions, it’s my turn. Did the sugarcane vendor confess?”

Leaning against the wall, Xiang Ling asked. Apart from the initial awkwardness at the scene, their conversation now felt as familiar as between ordinary friends.

“If I tell you, you can’t write about it in a report!” After receiving a firm nod from Xiang Ling, Yu Shi slowly explained, “He didn’t confess to everything. He admitted to killing Wu Xiaoruo, Yi Ziyun, and Li Xiaofei, but he denied sexually assaulting Yi Ziyun and abandoning her body.”

“Huh?” The sexual assault detail was new to Xiang Ling. She was also unaware of the body being frozen, the existence of another victim, or the sugarcane fibers found between the teeth. It was all information from the police’s internal investigation.

“According to Tang Zhengyi’s account, that night, he lay in wait for Yi Ziyun, planning to strike. But he saw another man act first, dragging Yi Ziyun into a dark alley to assault and beat her. After the man left, Tang Zhengyi went over and strangled Yi Ziyun to death. He then intended to take the body back to his home to refrigerate it, so he returned to his car to fetch a burlap sack. However, when he went back for the body, it was already gone.”

As Yu Shi spoke, it was clear to them that Tang Zhengyi wasn’t lying about these inconsistencies. The suspicious car with its intentionally concealed license plate, discovered by Mie Mie, only added to the doubts.

“If it really wasn’t him, then I might know something you don’t.”

Xiang Ling tilted her head in thought, recalling a piece of information she had obtained from Yi Ziyun’s colleague that day. She told Yu Shi, “Among Yi Ziyun’s colleagues, there’s one who’s particularly gossipy. She told me that she once saw the store manager talking to Yi Ziyun in the stairwell of a shopping mall. The gist of it was that the manager had confessed his feelings but was rejected. Because of this, I even suspected the manager might be the murderer.”

“None of the statements taken by Da Gezi and the others mentioned this.” Whether it was due to the subordinates’ incompetence or other factors, Yu Shi intended to hold them accountable when she returned.

Xiang Ling shook her head, already foreseeing which subordinates were in trouble. “Because that gossipy colleague took leave and went home right after serving me. By the time your subordinates arrived, she was already gone.”

“Thank you for the information. I’ll investigate it thoroughly.”

After saying this, Yu Shi glanced at the time. It was about time to end the conversation, as her subordinates were waiting for her to start a meeting.

“I gave you a useful piece of information, so how about an exchange? Can you tell me the sugarcane vendor’s motive for murder?” Xiang Ling made a writing gesture, indicating she needed it for her report.

Yu Shi thought for a moment. There shouldn’t be any issue revealing it, as it would be made public sooner or later anyway. Letting Xiang Ling have the exclusive wasn’t a bad idea. “They said he was dirty.”

“Alright, I understand.” Xiang Ling committed the answer to memory. From here on, she would have to rely on herself.

Yu Shi waved a hand and began to walk away. Halfway there, she turned back and asked, “Why did you become a journalist?” It was just a casual question. She didn’t expect an answer.

Xiang Ling looked at the somewhat blurry face in the distance and, with a more serious expression than ever, whispered, “Because I always need to know why I have to die.”

Yu Shi was taken aback. She hadn’t expected the other to still be clinging to the past. She had thought everything that needed to end was already over. But as long as the person involved hadn’t let go, the case wasn’t truly closed. She said, “My number hasn’t changed. What about yours?”

“Mine hasn’t either.”

As if sharing a telepathic understanding, there was no need to say too much. They both knew what the other meant.

Unconsciously touching the faint pink scar on her chest, Xiang Ling glanced at the time. It was getting late. If she wanted to catch the fastest publication now, it was already too late. It seemed she could only rely on the quality of her content.

A few days later, the Wuyang Newspaper published an article that provided a detailed analysis of the criminal Tang Zhengyi’s psychological state, the triggers for his crimes, and his past life. The content was so thorough that Yu Shi almost thought the author had stolen information from the police station for reference. There were even some details the police hadn’t known, which the author had uncovered.

Tang Zhengyi was born after his biological mother was drugged. From a very young age, his biological mother would call him dirty every time she scolded him. He lived under her shadow until his teenage years, accumulating debts and moving homes. Eventually, his mother committed suicide in the house where Tang Zhengyi now lived. She tied a hemp rope to a ceiling fan, stepped onto a chair, and kicked it away. She hanged herself. Throughout the entire process, Tang Zhengyi watched from a corner, observing as his biological mother died without a single struggle.

After his birth mother died, he lived alone, keeping his head down day after day. In restaurant restrooms and noodle shop kitchens, holding a toilet brush or a dish sponge, he endured the jeers of others and the scolding of his bosses. Later, he saved up some money, bought a sugarcane press, and started a business selling sugarcane juice.

The first time he met Wu Xiaoruo, she was with her boyfriend, coming out of a nearby nightclub. It was eight in the evening. He was preparing to pack up and go home. The two came to his stall and demanded that he take out the machine he had just put away to press two cups of sugarcane juice on the spot. Tang Zhengyi said he was going home and asked them to come back tomorrow. The two drunken individuals cursed and grumbled. Wu Xiaoruo’s boyfriend kicked over the small table where he kept his sugarcane, sending the stalks rolling all over the ground. Tang Zhengyi silently went to clean up the mess.

At that moment, Wu Xiaoruo snapped, “If you won’t sell, then don’t. Do you think I care? Someone as dirty as you—your sugarcane juice must be dirty, too!”

This was the trigger for the first murder. It had been a long time since Tang Zhengyi had heard anyone call him dirty. It was as if he saw his long-lost birth mother again, smashing liquor bottles while cursing him for being dirty.

Later, he strangled Wu Xiaoruo. In her terrified, pleading gaze, he loosened his grip several times, giving her hope of survival, only to snuff it out again. She ultimately died in despair. He took the body home, placed it in the freezer, and surrounded her with the sugarcane she had deemed dirty.

The second murder should never have happened. Yi Ziyun often stopped by Tang Zhengyi’s stall on her way home, sometimes buying several cups of sugarcane juice, other times taking a few stalks of sugarcane home. To an outsider, it might have seemed like her life couldn’t go on without sugarcane, as if she loved it to the bone. Yi Ziyun had been a customer for over two months. But Tang Zhengyi’s relationship with her was nothing more than that of an ordinary vendor and customer. Their conversations never exceeded three sentences, and even then, they were always about sugarcane.

The incident began one day when Yi Ziyun stopped to buy sugarcane on her way home from work. This time, she paid extra and insisted that Tang Zhengyi keep the change. In the midst of their back-and-forth, Yi Ziyun said, “Boss, my company gave out bonuses. I see how hard you work selling sugarcane. You’ve been wearing the same clothes for so long without changing. Take this money and buy yourself some new clothes! Get rid of those dirty, worn-out ones. Come to my shop, and I’ll give you a discount.”

Because of this careless remark, Yi Ziyun lost her life at his hands.

As for Gao Zhenghua, the clothing store manager, he had been rejected after confessing his feelings earlier. On that day, after work, he drank a little to bolster his courage and planned to confess a second time. After being rejected again, he carried out the crime he had long contemplated in his heart, knocking Yi Ziyun unconscious in the process.

Afterward, Gao Zhenghua initially fled out of fear. But, worried about her, he returned to check. Finding Yi Ziyun already dead, he panicked, thinking he had accidentally killed her. He couldn’t help but vomit on the spot, and the vomit soiled Yi Ziyun’s clothes. While disposing of the body, he stripped her completely, leaving behind no money or identification, burning everything. Later, the police inspected his car as a suspect and found trace amounts of Yi Ziyun’s blood in the trunk. After confessing, he was charged by the police with sexual assault and abandonment of a corpse.

The third murder victim was Li Xiaofei. The day before her death, she came to this area with a friend to buy dinner. Their university dormitory was nearby. They occasionally came here to grab food. They bought some fried chicken from a small stall. Li Xiaofei’s friend asked her, “Fried chicken is heavy. Do you want to buy a cup of sugarcane juice to cool down?”

At the time, Li Xiaofei glanced at the sugarcane stall and said, “This stall looks pretty dirty. The owner doesn’t seem to care about hygiene at all. If you want to buy it, go ahead.”

She didn’t lower her voice. Every word was clearly heard by Tang Zhengyi. In the end, neither of them bought anything.

Mie Mie looked at her phone and summarized the report for the others, omitting some of the finer details. “This reporter gives me goosebumps. The number of times this article has been reposted is unprecedented.”

“I remember there’s a program that’s going to talk about Tang Zhengyi’s case in the next episode. Based on experience, this report will likely be cited by them.”

Xiao Lang chewed his gum idly. He’d heard about the program from a colleague in the neighboring team, who was a die-hard fan of the show.

Yu Shi looked at the byline “Yixian” at the end of the report on her phone and said, “I think it’s this report that gave them something to talk about, not the other way around.”

“Isn’t the author from the same newspaper as the one who discovered the body last time? Can I try to get a signature from the author before they blow up?”

Mie Mie read the report and thought Yixian wrote it exceptionally well. Even though it was a case report, it read like a novel, as if the author had been right there watching when the incident happened. The vivid writing made her feel like she was there herself. What she had just read aloud didn’t even capture one percent of its brilliance.

She decided she’d go back and read the report again carefully.

“She probably won’t respond to your request,” Yu Shi closed the report and didn’t tell everyone that Xiang Ling was “Yixian”.

Da Gezi made a surprising remark, “I think the person who discovered the body is Yixian herself. Only someone who’s seen the body could write like that.”

“Sister Yu, what Da Gezi said actually makes sense.” Mie Mie suddenly felt a bit regretful. She had previously treated the other person as a suspect and had been sarcastic during the interrogation.

“Her? She’s just Yixian’s errand runner.” Yu Shi glanced at the clock on the wall and skillfully changed the subject, saying, “Let’s go eat!”

And so, the group headed to the cafeteria in a lively procession.

Xiang Ling turned off her computer. Her phone on the desk rang. Seeing it was an unfamiliar number, she hesitated for a moment before answering.

“Benefactor!”

Xiang Ling recognized the somewhat familiar voice but couldn’t quite place who it was. After a brief exchange—one side cold, the other chattering away with explanations—she finally remembered it was the frail man she had saved a few days ago. At the time, she had asked him about Bao Shihei, and he said he needed some time to look into it. Now that he was calling, he might have found something. So, she arranged a time and place to meet. She changed her clothes before heading out.

They agreed to meet at a café in a relatively bustling area. Even though it was broad daylight, it was working hours, so there weren’t as many people as expected. When Xiang Ling arrived, Hu Kan was already there, waving to her from a secluded corner seat.

The waiter placed Hu Kan’s drink in front of him, then turned to Xiang Ling to take her order. Xiang Ling ordered an iced mocha. Once the waiter had walked away, she finally began speaking to Hu Kan.

“Alright, out with it! What did you find out?”

Hu Kan stirred the drink in his cup with a straw and said to Xiang Ling, “Bao Shihei started as a nobody from who knows where. Some say he was part of a small gang that disbanded, but no one knows the gang’s name. Anyway, later he went solo. No one in the underworld even knew he existed. What he’s most known for is the organ trafficking four years ago, but he got busted.”

Xiang Ling frowned. The information Hu Kan dug up was practically useless. It was as if he hadn’t investigated at all. Under her skeptical gaze, Hu Kan continued, “Of course, I know more than that, but not much. As for why he got busted, I could be considered an indirect cause, but you don’t need to know that. Anyway, some say he spent over two years searching for organs on the black market.”

“Is he sick?” This was Xiang Ling’s initial speculation, as Bao Shihei insisted after his arrest that there were no other organ buyers.

“Not really. I heard he ran through more than ten streets before the police caught him. If he were sick, could he have run that far? Anyway, it’s just hearsay, but there are rumors that someone is backing him, and he’s searching for organs because of that person.”

Hu Kan couldn’t guarantee the accuracy of this information. After all, he had been deceived before. He couldn’t verify every piece of intelligence. Besides, some things were beyond his ability to investigate.

“Judging by your expression, you definitely couldn’t find out who’s backing him either.”

Xiang Ling took a sip of her iced mocha, instantly feeling refreshed. On hot days, nothing beats something cold.

“Even though I couldn’t find out, I can give you a direction.” Hu Kan picked up an ice cube with his straw. He popped it into his mouth and crunched it before continuing, “First, organs aren’t something you can just buy randomly. The organ donor and the recipient need to be a match. Then, during the transplant, you need a professional medical team. Otherwise, would you dare to just find someone and let them replace your organs? Plus, after the transplant, you need all sorts of medical equipment to monitor the patient’s condition. It’s not like you can just swap organs and be done with it. Recovery and observation take time to see if the body accepts the new organ. The patient also has to take a bunch of expensive medications. So, whoever’s behind this is either rich or powerful.”

Everything Hu Kan said aligned with Xiang Ling’s current speculations. There were plenty of wealthy and powerful families in the country. She couldn’t investigate them all. She’d spend her whole life searching and still come up empty-handed. Besides, illegal organ transplants weren’t something people would openly brag about. The only thing she knew was that the person in need of the organ shared her blood type, RH negative.

RH negative is a rare blood type, with fewer than one in a thousand people having it. That’s why Bao Shihei spent over two years searching the black market for a matching organ without success.

“Also, I’ll send you an address. It’s Bao Shihei’s hometown. Most people think he’s an orphan, but he’s not. He came from a rural background. Hardly anyone knows he still has parents living in his rural hometown. Maybe you’ll find something unexpected if you investigate there.” As he spoke, Hu Kan sent Xiang Ling the address.

Xiang Ling glanced at the address. It was far, over ten hours by car.

“Benefactor, I’ve told you everything you wanted to know, so I don’t owe you anything anymore.” Hu Kan thought to himself that he preferred to keep things clear and settled.

“I just helped you on a whim. I never expected you to repay me.”

Xiang Ling thought that if she went now, it would already be midnight, so she decided to head home to prepare and start driving early the next morning.

“Because I have experience. If you don’t repay a debt of gratitude for saving your life, it can lead to trouble later.”

Hu Kan poked the ice cubes in his cup. That trouble still haunted him to this day, though rarely. But whenever it came knocking, he ended up handing over valuable information without a fight.

“Then we have no further ties. You’ve repaid everything you could.” Xiang Ling stood up to leave.

Hu Kan hurriedly asked, “Could you tell me your name, benefactor?”

Xiang Ling shook her head and said, “I won’t tell you. If you’re happy, you can keep calling me ‘benefactor’.”

Xiang Ling wasn’t foolish. The other person knew so much about the organ trafficking case. If she gave her name, he’d immediately figure out who she was. Plus, she had to guard against him selling her out later. “If you investigate me, I’ll know. And then your head won’t stay glued together even with three-second adhesive. The drink’s on me.” With that, she turned and walked away.

Hu Kan watched her back, unconsciously touching his neck, thinking: If I’d known, I would have ordered more food.

Early the next morning, Xiang Ling packed a simple bag and drove to the address Hu Kan had given her. By the time she reached the town an hour’s drive from the village, it was already dark. She went straight to her booked hotel to check in, planning to look for the person the next day.

Sitting on the hotel bed, she pondered deeply. What identity should she use to visit Bao Shihei’s parents? If Yu Shi were here now, using a police identity would make it easy to get information. But she had impulsively come alone. It was too late to change that now.

But then she reconsidered. Asking Yu Shi for help was nearly impossible anyway. She couldn’t just take leave and follow her casually for work. And if word got out that a police officer was asking about Bao Shihei, whoever was behind it might notice and tip them off, causing them to flee.

After waking up, she still hadn’t come up with a plan, so she decided to just go first. She had a simple breakfast, took her camera, and headed out. Driving through fields of rice paddies, one after another, lush and green—a sight unseen in the city—she knew autumn here would bring a different landscape. After asking several elderly folks along the road, she finally found the right direction.

When she reached the village entrance, the roads inside were narrow and full of potholes, making it hard to drive in. So she parked her car beside the entrance and walked into the village alone.

It seemed there had been rain last night. The roads were muddy. Xiang Ling avoided the puddles and holes, but muddy water still splashed onto her boots. Not minding the dirty boots, she asked several villagers. When she mentioned the surname Bao, everyone knew who she was looking for and pointed her to a single-story house at the end of the village. Like the other houses, it was a sturdy adobe brick building, lacking excessive color, simply painted white. In the yard were a rocking chair and small stools, with many farming tools piled in the corner.

Xiang Ling walked in and called out a few times. A woman around fifty came out from inside. “Hello, Auntie. Is Bao Shihei your son?”

“I’m Xiao Hei’s mom. What’s the matter?” Mother Bao immediately showed a panicked expression, as if her child had done something wrong outside and someone was coming to make trouble.

Xiang Ling decided right then not to reveal her identity as a journalist. Instead, she asked, “Hello, Auntie. My name is Li Yan. Brother Shihei helped me a lot before, so I wanted to come and thank him.” Xiang Ling handed the prepared fruit basket to Mother Bao.

It was ironic. The person who had once wanted to kill her was now being described as someone who had helped her.

“Oh…” Mother Bao’s face immediately showed hesitation. She stammered, “Xiao Hei… he’s not home…”

Xiang Ling frowned subtly, then relaxed and asked, “Then when will he be home?”

“This…” Just as Mother Bao was unsure how to answer, a scolding voice came from inside the house: “That bastard is dead. Why are you looking for him?” As soon as the words were spoken, an elderly man with gray hair came out from inside.

Mother Bao seemed afraid that others would gossip, so she quickly invited Xiang Ling inside. After Xiang Ling briefly explained her fabricated story, Father Bao snorted coldly and said, “Hmph! I never knew he was so kind-hearted.” Then he ignored Xiang Ling and walked to the back of the house.

Xiang Ling followed to the back of the house, which connected to a rice field. Father Bao put on his water shoes and went into the field to check on the rice they were growing. Inside the house, Xiang Ling saw a black-and-white photo of Bao Shihei on the table, with an incense burner placed in front of it. The burner held many burnt incense sticks. Mother Bao invited Xiang Ling to sit down and apologized for deceiving her earlier.

“Because of the things Xiao Hei did outside, even we feel ashamed. They were all terrible deeds!”

The Bao couple naturally knew that their son’s actions outside were not good, especially the last incident.

Under Xiang Ling’s guidance, Mother Bao shared quite a bit about Bao Shihei. Bao Shihei hadn’t even finished high school. After helping with farming at home for less than two years, he slipped away to make a living elsewhere. He would write letters during holidays to report that he was safe and would send money every now and then. Living in a remote rural area, they were isolated from the news. Although they wondered how their son had so much money, they believed him when he sent word through others that he was working in a trading company.

Until four years ago, they received a large sum of money. It was more than any previous amount. The person who delivered the money said that Bao Shihei had died unexpectedly in the city, and his body hadn’t been found. This money was what Bao Shihei had earned over the years. They should take it and live well.

Later, the couple felt that even if he was dead, they should find his body. They used connections to inquire about Bao Shihei’s situation and only then learned that his work over the years wasn’t legitimate business. In the end, he was arrested by the police for organ trafficking and sentenced to death. The money sent to them was all blood-stained black money.

“Did the person who delivered the money come to you again afterward?” Xiang Ling seized the key point.

Mother Bao shook her head and said, “No, only that one time. We never saw him again after that.”

“Do you remember what he looked like?” Xiang Ling didn’t care whether the other person would suspect her. She needed to know about the messenger.

“I remember a little. He was tall and thin, wore glasses on his face, and had a faint scar on his mouth, about this long.”

Mother Bao gestured to the right corner of her mouth, indicating that the scar was about the length of a finger joint.

Xiang Ling mentally noted these features and asked, “You mentioned the person who delivered the message earlier. Did you know him?”

“That one I did know. He’s the youngest son of Old Liang from the village entrance, named Liang Wangshan. He said he worked in the same city as Xiao Hei, and Xiao Hei asked him to deliver the message when he returned home for the holidays.” Mother Bao had no suspicions and answered whatever Xiang Ling asked.

After asking the important questions, to avoid raising suspicion, Xiang Ling stood up and said she was busy with work and had to leave. Mother Bao then said, “Miss Li Yan, since Xiao Hei helped you before, if you don’t mind, you could pay your respects in front of his memorial tablet to let him know you came.”

Hearing this, Xiang Ling tried her best to control her expression and not give herself away. She obediently lit a stick of incense and bowed before Bao Shihei’s black-and-white photo, thinking to herself: I will find out who’s behind you.

After bidding farewell to Mother Bao, Xiang Ling walked back to the village entrance and asked for Liang Wangshan’s home. Once she found it, she didn’t have to put in much effort to learn from his parents where Liang Wangshan worked. After cleaning the mud off her shoes on the grass, Xiang Ling got into her car. Gazing at the distant rice fields, she sorted through her thoughts. When Bao Shihei was arrested, due to the severity of the case, no one except his lawyer was allowed to visit. Bao Shihei likely hadn’t anticipated the exposure before his arrest, so how could he have arranged for someone to deliver the large sum of money back to his hometown? This matter could only have been handled by someone behind the scenes.

Based on Mother Bao’s description, the person who delivered the money had very distinctive features but would still be difficult to find. For now, she could only investigate Liang Wangshan first to see how deeply he was connected to Bao Shihei and the case.

She checked the time and decided to return today. Before leaving, she made a phone call.

Yu Shi and Li Yu were sitting around a table, with Yu Shi reviewing the case report Li Yu had written. At that moment, she received a call. Seeing the caller ID, she walked to a remote corner to answer. Li Yu watched his partner’s serious expression and only heard her say a few short phrases like “Mm”, “I’ll try”, and “No problem”. The call ended quickly.

“Is something wrong?” Li Yu thought there might be a new case.

Yu Shi shook her head and said, “Nothing.”

After finishing the case report, she told Li Yu he could submit it.

Following the address she had obtained, Xiang Ling arrived at a logistics warehouse. According to Liang Wangshan’s parents, he worked for a logistics company called “Bada Logistics”. After asking at the headquarters about Liang Wangshan’s workplace, she was told he had been assigned as a manager at a specific warehouse.

Parking her car, Xiang Ling got out and walked around the parked trucks into the warehouse. After asking a few workers, she headed deeper inside, weaving through numerous cargo boxes until she reached the last row of storage racks. A man stood with his back to her, checking inventory.

Xiang Ling knocked on the rack to avoid startling him and asked, “Hello, are you Mr. Liang Wangshan?”

“That’s me.” Liang Wangshan turned around upon hearing his name.

At a glance, Xiang Ling spotted the red scar at the corner of his mouth.

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