Volume One, Chapter Five: The Suspect and His Hidden Blade
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Jiang Shishi realized the situation was not good and paused for a moment before asking, “What’s wrong?”
Fang Yi held her tightly. After a long while, he said, “Come back with me?”
Without much thought, Jiang Shishi replied, “Okay.”
Then she got up from the bed and quickly began packing, preparing to return to their country.
Throughout the entire process, Fang Yi remained silent.
In the midst of that prolonged silence, all the sweetness and joy once felt now crystallized into icy stillness in the surrounding air...
It wasn’t until they boarded the plane that Fang Yi finally spoke: “She’s in trouble.”
“Who?” Jiang Shishi asked.
Fang Yi was silent for a few seconds before answering, “Lin Xiaoyang.”
Jiang Shishi looked at Fang Yi’s furrowed brow and grave expression and asked, “What happened to her?”
Fang Yi took a deep breath silently before recounting the entire sequence of events.
During his narration, Jiang Shishi didn’t interrupt, but the fear in her eyes was impossible to conceal.
When Fang Yi finished, he cautioned her, “When we return, the police might question me about some things. Including you — you might be questioned too... Are you nervous?”
He turned to look at her as he spoke the last three words, his eyes filled with concern.
She looked at him, fragments of the moments they shared at the Ritz flashing through her mind.
For a moment, her thoughts were in turmoil.
After about half a minute, she asked, “Fang Yi, will the police suspect us?”
“Yes,” Fang Yi nodded. “But that’s normal, no need to worry.”
Jiang Shishi fell silent for a few seconds, then asked, “Fang Yi, do you love her?”
Fang Yi answered almost without hesitation, “Of course.”
She looked at him for a while longer, wanting to comfort him but unsure how to begin, so she simply asked, “Fang Yi, you must be very sad, right?”
Without turning to her, Fang Yi gave a slight nod. “Yes.”
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...
While Fang Yi and Jiang Shishi hurried back home, Lin Xiaobing had already been discharged from the hospital.
Her first act after leaving was to post missing person notices for Lin Xiaoyang, her eyes swollen and dry from crying.
Neighbors familiar with the family helped her put up the posters, sharing their thoughts and murmurs as they worked:
“How can such a grown person just disappear like that?”
“Don’t jump to conclusions. We don’t know the full story yet. Maybe Xiaoyang will come back in a few days.”
“I don’t think so. It’s been so many days already. What kind of modern times are these? If she were fine, wouldn’t she have at least called? It’s impossible...”
“Shh—lower your voice! Imagine how painful it would be if Xiaobing heard that!”
“Ah... Xiaobing and Xiaoyang are such close sisters, always together, like conjoined twins. Now that Xiaoyang’s suddenly missing, Xiaobing must be devastated!”
...
Lin Xiaobing left halfway through posting the notices after receiving a call from her father, who told her Zhang Lei had returned from a trip to Tibet.
Upon hearing this, Lin Xiaobing immediately contacted the police and went with them straight to Zhang Lei’s home.
When Zhang Lei opened the door after hearing the doorbell, he was holding a box of cordyceps and looked surprised to see several people standing there. “You... you must have the wrong place,” he said.
Zhang Lei was tall, his skin tanned and weathered from the sun and wind in Tibet, with a long, thin face, a high nose bridge, thin lips, and sparse, light eyebrows. But his eyes were particularly sharp.
Zhuang Jie and Yang Chenxu showed their police badges one after another. “Are you Zhang Lei?”
“Yes,” Zhang Lei said, a bit bewildered but not panicked. “What’s this about? How did you find me?”
“We’re staff from Guangnan Public Security Bureau. We need to ask you some questions,” Zhuang Jie said.
Zhang Lei stood still, not inviting them in. “What kind of questions?”
Before he could finish speaking, Lin Xiaobing came down the stairs. Seeing Zhang Lei, she suddenly lunged forward, grabbing his collar and asking, “Zhang Lei... you’re the one responsible for my sister’s situation, aren’t you? Tell me... is it you or not...”
Zhang Lei was startled and stepped back. “Lin Xiaobing, what are you talking about? What happened to your sister?”
“Don’t play dumb with me!” Lin Xiaobing’s eyes were red, and her hand trembled as she pointed at his nose. “You always hated my sister... You suspected her of hiding things from you financially, and because of that, you hurt her... How can a grown man be so petty? No matter how troubled you were, you shouldn’t have harmed her...”
Her voice broke off, choked with sobs, but she still gripped his collar tightly, as if trying to strangle him.
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“What are you doing, Lin Xiaobing?” Zhang Lei grew annoyed. “What exactly are you saying? Are you crazy?”
Seeing the situation escalating, Zhuang Jie quickly stepped in to separate them. “Calm down, please. Let’s go inside and talk slowly...”
Once inside, they noticed Zhang Lei’s living room table was full of specialties brought back from Tibet: saffron, yak meat, highland barley wine, matsutake mushrooms, Tibetan knives...
Just as Zhuang Jie’s gaze fell on one of the Tibetan knives, Zhang Lei said, “Sorry, officers, I just got back from Tibet and haven’t had a chance to unpack...”
Before he finished, Yang Chenxu picked up the Tibetan knife from the table. “A Tibetan knife?”
“Yes, I like collecting little trinkets,” Zhang Lei said.
Yang Chenxu examined the knife carefully and asked, “Are you allowed to bring this out of Tibet?”
“Well...” Zhang Lei smiled. “I drove myself and figured out a way to bring it out... Officers, don’t tell me you’re here because of this Tibetan knife?”
Yang Chenxu continued inspecting the knife, while Zhuang Jie turned to Zhang Lei and said, “Zhang Lei, Lin Xiaoyang is missing. We want to ask you about it.”
Zhang Lei immediately furrowed his brows. “Lin Xiaoyang is missing? When did this happen?”
“A few days ago,” Zhuang Jie replied.
“How did she go missing?” Zhang Lei’s expression was still full of surprise. “Missing... what do you mean missing? Suddenly nobody knows where she is?”
“We suspect foul play,” Yang Chenxu said, putting down the knife and turning to Zhang Lei. “We heard you had a dispute with her before she disappeared—is that true?”
Zhang Lei was momentarily stunned. His eyes quickly shifted to Lin Xiaobing, as if suddenly understanding something. “You... you don’t suspect I made Lin Xiaoyang disappear, do you?”
Lin Xiaobing stared at him with pure hatred, as if Zhang Lei were the culprit!
“It’s normal to suspect,” Yang Chenxu said calmly. “But we are capable of distinguishing right from wrong. Just cooperate with us from now on.”
Zhang Lei’s expression returned to calm. “Alright.”
“I heard you had a conflict with Lin Xiaoyang before you went to Tibet?” Yang Chenxu asked.