In 2009, on the day I graduated from college, I was arrested by the police.
My adoptive father was found brutally dead at home, and my skin tissue was detected under his fingernails.
But the next day, the police declared me innocent.
However, seven years later, when I was about to go abroad, a police officer came to me.
1
” You still suspect that I killed him, don’t you?”
I said coldly, looking at the strange man who suddenly approached me and claimed to be Officer Zhong.
” Don’t be nervous. I’m just curious about this case,” he smiled casually. ” You’re about to go abroad, right?”
” It’s none of your business.”
” What if I have evidence that your father didn’t commit suicide?”
He stared at me. ” Although the case is seven years old, it’s not impossible to reopen it.”
” What do you want?”
His eyes fixed on me. ” The truth.”
2
The coffee shop was deserted.
Officer Zhong pushed aside the coffee that was served, took out a notebook and a pen, and took on the manner of taking a confession from a criminal suspect.
” Well, what kind of story do you want to hear?” I sneered. ” Fighting for the family property? High – value insurance?”
” Mr. Liang, you’re not being sincere.”
Officer Zhong sighed and said casually, ” Fortunately, I’m the only one who accidentally found that the DNA of the evidence from seven years ago doesn’t match yours, Mr. Liang, who’s sitting in front of me.”
“…”
I subconsciously tightened my fingers.
The tablecloth wrinkled slightly.
” So, are you here to arrest me or blackmail me today?”
After the initial panic, I calmly asked this question.
” I said, I just want to know the truth.”
He raised his wrist to look at his watch. ” After you board the plane at 4 p.m. to leave the country, you probably won’t come back. So you have two hours now.”
The implication was clear.
I took a deep breath and asked, ” Which part do you want to know?”
” All of it.”
3
I was an orphan.
I had lived in the orphanage since I could remember.
At that time, I was ostracized by other children because of my appearance. The only one who was willing to play with me was the director’s daughter.
That girl was often brought to the orphanage by the director.
She said her name was Chen Yu.
” Yu as in melancholy?” I asked her.
” Wrong. My mom said it’s Yu as in lush and green!”
Lush and green?
It sounded as thick as her hair.
During my days in the orphanage, I always envied her.
I envied that she could wear clean clothes and eat candy.
What I envied most was that the director, who was like a mother to her, wouldn’t beat her black and blue.
4
At that time, many children around me were being adopted one after another.
I thought, if only someone would adopt me too. I also wanted to eat a lot of candy.
– And I did get my wish.
One day, a car stopped at the gate of the orphanage.
I secretly watched from the windowsill. A middle – aged couple got out of the car.
The woman spoke fluent English – because I heard her say ” Hello” to the director. The director had taught us that.
Since many foreigners came to the director to adopt children.
She said only well – behaved children could be taken away, and those who were disobedient would be beaten to death.
I didn’t want to die, so I remembered it.
5
The director, with an obsequious smile, led them into the yard. Among a group of children, they finally chose me.
The man squatted down to look me in the eye. His suit was neatly ironed, and he seemed quite cultivated.
He gently touched my head and said a few words to the woman beside him.
What was I thinking at that moment? I thought, I’m finally going to have a home.
Yes, I’m finally going to have a home.
Am I finally going to have a home…?
At that time, I was too young to know that all the gifts bestowed by fate had already been secretly priced.
It was only much later that I understood why this man – my adoptive father, my nominal father – would keep staring at Chen Yu, who stuck her head out of the office because she was reluctant to let me go, when he took me away.
The year I was adopted was 1993, and I was seven years old.
6
” Chen Yu… I don’t seem to have seen this name in the files.”
Officer Zhong looked at me with a meaningful gaze.
I lowered my eyes and said coldly, ” Don’t you want to know the truth?”
” Haha.” He smiled playfully. ” It seems she’s a key figure. Go on.”
7
I got into the back seat of that car.
On the way, I secretly looked in the rear – view mirror and occasionally met the eyes of the man driving.
The woman in the passenger seat seemed to notice my actions. She looked at the man and then turned around and smiled gently at me.
She said in broken Chinese,
” You’re a pretty child. We, like you.”
A string of Buddha beads hanging on the mirror swayed with the bumping of the car.
I didn’t like it when others said I was ” pretty”.
” Pretty” was used to describe girls, and I didn’t like that.
So I whispered in retort, ” I’m a boy.”
The woman was stunned for a moment. She stopped talking and turned back to look at the road ahead.
I quietly looked at the back of the woman who was about to become my adoptive mother.
Her neck was very white. A wisp of hair slipped out of the coiled bun and fell on the skin of her neck, yet she still looked dignified and elegant.
At that time, I thought, if I had a mother, what would she be like?
I didn’t know.
8
My adoptive father’s surname was Liang. He was a professor who had lived overseas for many years and had recently decided to return to China to work with his wife.
He named me ” Liang Qi”.
As for why this name, I once asked him.
He explained that it meant ” prosperous”.
If I hadn’t known what happened later, it would have been a very beautiful meaning.
I was named Liang Qi just because I was the seventh one.
9
I stopped telling the story and took a sip of coffee.
” The seventh one?”
Officer Zhong looked puzzled. I knew many speculations must have flashed through his mind.
He asked eagerly, ” And then?”
The white latte art floating on the coffee was stirred by my coffee spoon, interlacing and blending with the brown in the cup.
I slowly said,
” During the time they were raising me, one day I accidentally discovered their secret.
” You know, actually I’m the seventh adopted child…
” You ask me where the first six children went?
” Actually, I don’t really want to know, because that day I saw something in the basement of my home that still terrifies me to this day…”
I put down the coffee spoon and looked into Officer Zhong’s eyes and sneered.
” Is this the answer you want to hear, Officer Zhong?”
10
He was stunned for a moment before realizing that he had been tricked by me.
” You’re something else,” he said through gritted teeth.
A sense of pleasure of getting one back surged in my heart, and my tone became relaxed. ” Just kidding. Don’t mind.”
” But what I said about my experience is really true, and my name is indeed related to ‘seven’. That’s because my father believes in Buddhism. In Buddhism, the number seven represents perfection.
” But he thought it was disrespectful to Buddha to directly use the number seven, so he chose the character Qi as a compromise.”
Officer Zhong chuckled twice. ” Then it sounds like you had a good relationship with your father.”
” It was good.”
” Then why did you kill him?”
My hand that was shaking the coffee spoon stopped.
11
” Officer Zhong, the fact that I’m willing to tell you the ‘truth’ you want here doesn’t mean I’m willing to be labeled as a murderer,” I said coldly.
He narrowed his eyes, and his gaze was still a straightforward scrutiny. ” I’m just asking. Why are you so excited?”
I looked at him without emotion. ” Officer Zhong, you’ve forgotten one thing. I’m the victim of this case. Your so – called charge simply doesn’t hold up.”
12
” Alright, let’s not discuss this for now. First, listen to you finish,” Officer Zhong changed his previous seriousness and assumed a posture of listening attentively.
I pursed my lips and gently exhaled. ” Where should I start?”
” Then let’s continue from where you were picked up by your adoptive parents.”
13
My adoptive parents were both elites of that era.
My father managed to get out of a small mountain village in the central region through hard work. Later, he was sent abroad on a government – sponsored study program and met my mother, who grew up abroad.
The two of them had no children.
Later, when they returned to China, they adopted me and settled down in the country.
My adoptive parents were very good to me.
They provided me with a sufficient material life.
New clothes and shoes that I had never dared to dream of before, my adoptive parents prepared a whole cabinet for me.
If I wanted to eat candy, I just needed to open the living – room drawer.
But my adoptive mother didn’t let me eat too much. She said eating too much would cause tooth decay and took me to the hospital to see a child having a tooth pulled out.
Seeing me grab her sleeve in fear, her always – dignified smile actually had a hint of mischievous success.
14
They sent me to primary school.
Although I was a bit older and had never received education before, and I couldn’t keep up with the teacher’s teaching speed at first.
But I cherished this learning opportunity very much, so I studied extremely seriously.
Even though my adoptive parents were usually very busy, they would teach me knowledge in their spare time.
So I quickly caught up with the missed courses and soon got excellent grades in the exams.
For me at that time, 100 points was the only thing I could give back to this couple.
Even though they always advocated happy education.
I was grateful to them for pulling me out of the quagmire and giving me a different life.
If only it could have gone on like this forever.
15
I met Chen Yu again when I was in the third year of junior high school.
As a childhood playmate, when she accidentally bumped into me and apologized, I recognized her at a glance.
Chen Yu’s appearance hadn’t changed much, just that she had grown a bit taller.
If there was anything different, it should be her eyes.
It was strange. I couldn’t put it into words.
But it was definitely not the way she looked when she told me that ” Yu represents lush and green” back then.
At that time, I was wrapped in happiness. How could I have noticed the specific changes?
” Xiaoyu! It’s me. From Liangjia Village Orphanage. Do you remember me?”
I excitedly grabbed her arm, and then suddenly realized it was inappropriate and let go.
But Chen Yu lowered her eyes in a panic and whispered, ” You’ve got the wrong person,” then turned and ran away.
16
A friend put his arm around my shoulder and asked me who that was.
I looked at her back and said she was a childhood friend.
” A childhood friend? She doesn’t seem to remember you.”
” Forget it. Let’s go,” I shrugged helplessly. ” Let’s go eat.”
I casually touched my pocket.
My wallet was gone.
Realizing something was wrong, I left a sentence ” You go first. I’ll be right there” and chased in the direction Chen Yu left.
17
Chen Yu didn’t run far. I easily caught up with her.
” Chen Yu!” I grabbed her shoulder.
” Don’t pester me!”
She suddenly turned around and shouted at me.
The eyes of the people on the street immediately turned towards us.
In that era, the crime of going against a woman’s will was very serious.
I had no choice but to stop.
Chen Yu was panting, and there seemed to be tears in the corners of her eyes.
She looked at me deeply, threw the wallet on the ground, and left without saying a word.
18
I didn’t follow her anymore.
What had happened to her?
Deep doubts lingered in my heart.
But I never met her again later. Even if I wanted to find her and ask clearly, I had no way.
At that time, it was the senior high school entrance examination, and this matter was quickly forgotten by me.
19
” Let me guess. Your father’s death is related to her, right?”
There was an unclear light in Officer Zhong’s eyes.
Suddenly interrupted, I looked at him with some displeasure.
But he continued to guess on his own: ” You mentioned that the former orphanage director would beat children, but was very good to Chen Yu. But when you met her in the third year of junior high school, she became a thief.”
” What happened to her?” Officer Zhong said. ” Did something happen at home? Did she degenerate?”
I wasn’t angry because of his speculation. Instead, I calmly picked up my coffee and took a sip.
” Officer Zhong, you’re not like a police officer when you make such random guesses. You’re more like a writer of suspense novels.”
” You continue.”
20
On the day I was admitted to a key high school and went to report, it rained heavily.
My adoptive mother drove me to school.
She had lived in the country for quite a few years, and her Chinese was getting more and more fluent.
Just like at this moment, she was chattering about her high – school stories:
” Xiaoqi, your mom was a bassist when she formed a band in high school. And then…”
” And then you met my dad, who also played in a band in college, and you two fell in love at first sight,” I naturally said the rest of the sentence before she could finish it.
” Oh, am I such a shallow person? It’s not like…”
My mother’s always – gentle voice was in my ears. I looked at the scenery passing by outside the window and couldn’t help but smile.
The sound of the rain gradually became louder, pounding on the roof of the car with a crackling sound.
” Boom!”
A huge thunderclap split the sky and penetrated into the car.
” Mom, after you drop me off at school, you’ll…”
” Xiaoqi!”
” Boom!”
21
The sudden loud noise and the ” crackle” made my ears ache and my mind go blank.
This was not thunder.
It was the sound of a violent vehicle collision.
22
I saw blood.
Blood.
A lot of blood.
The intense pain made it impossible for me to think anymore.
And then I lost consciousness.
23
When I woke up, I was already in the hospital bed.
My father was lying in front of the bed. When he heard the movement, he immediately raised his head.
I had never seen him so haggard.
His rough stubble trembled a few times, and warm liquid wet the bandage on my hand.
The man who had ironed his suit neatly and was full of high – spirits when we first met was now curled up like a child less than half a month old and crying.
” Xiaoqi…
” Your mother she…”
Suddenly, he wiped the tears on his face fiercely and rushed out of the ward.
I lay on the bed in despair, staring at the white ceiling.
Outside the door, there were faint wails.
24
It was a long time later that I learned that the fatality rate of the passenger – seat is the highest.
Because when a car accident occurs, the driver will subconsciously turn the steering wheel to the left.
But on the day my mother had the accident, the front of our car was facing right.
25
My father was depressed for a long time.
He placed a Buddha statue in the study. After my mother passed away, he worshipped Buddha more and more often.
I took a year off from school. Watching my father change from his former high – spirited appearance to his current emaciated look, my heart felt like it had been hit hard.
” Dad, Mom wouldn’t want to see you like this,” I knelt beside my father in front of the Buddha and said softly.
My father closed his eyes tightly, his hands clasped together, and kept murmuring sentences that I couldn’t understand.
I clearly saw that his hands were shaking.
” Xiaoqi,” my father finally turned to look at me. ” I’m confessing my sins.”
” Dad, it’s not your fault! If it weren’t for me that day…”
” It has nothing to do with you,” he said unsteadily. ” Your mother’s death was not an accident.”
26
I stopped telling the story and lowered my head to take a sip of coffee.
It was a bit cold.
Officer Zhong was holding a pen and looking at me in rare silence. ” I’m sorry.”
I looked up. ” It’s been many years.”
He looked down at the notes in the notebook. ” Mr. Liang, do you mind if I make a call?”
” Please do.”
It was a while before he came back.
” I called my colleague to confirm. The record shows that your mother did die in a car accident. But according to what you just said, there seems to be more to it. This may involve a criminal case. I hope you can tell the truth clearly.”
I looked at him deeply. ” Are you sure you just want the truth?”
He smiled. ” You can rest assured ” My colleague won’t know about today’s matter.
I’m just really interested in your story.”
” You’re really a strange person.”
I stared at the nearly empty coffee cup, lost in thought.
My mind wandered.
” Then listen to me continue.”
27
Father told me all the truth.
It all started a long time ago.
28
Father came from a small mountain village. It was backward and isolated.
But with his extraordinary talent and hard work, after the resumption of the college entrance examination, he became the first college student to walk out of the mountains.
Back then, ” the college entrance examination changes fate” was really not just a saying.
29
” Wait a minute.” Officer Zhong interrupted me again.
” You said before – ” He flipped through the records in his notebook. ” Your mother and father fell in love at first sight in college because of the band?”
” Yes.”
His eyes suddenly looked a bit strange.
” Your mother grew up abroad all the time. How did she meet your father who was studying in China? If your father was a college student from a mountain village, how did he know about the band and have the money to play in a band?”
Officer Zhong seized on the loopholes, speaking very fast.
” Calm down, Officer Zhong.” I continued to stir the coffee spoon. ” First of all, my father was a government – sponsored overseas student. And although he might not know about the band at first, he was good – looking and knew how to deal with women.
” It was easy for him to approach a simple and naive rich girl.”
30
” I didn’t want to say these things. He has always been a great and reliable figure in my eyes.”
I looked at Officer Zhong. ” Father was twenty – five years old when he was admitted to college, which was exactly the age limit for the resumption of the college entrance examination.
” You tell me, in that era of ‘arranged marriages by parents and matchmakers’ in rural areas, were there many unmarried, educated 25 – year – old eligible young men?”
Officer Zhong pondered for a moment.
” That means – ” He muttered to himself. ” Your adoptive father might have had a family before the college entrance examination, but after being admitted to college and going abroad…”
He didn’t finish.
My silence seemed to acquiesce to his inference.
” This is really interesting.” He laughed out loud. ” So Professor Liang also made his fortune through a woman.”
Facing his rather impolite teasing, I didn’t reply and just continued to recall the past.
31
If we look at father at that time from the perspective of now, he could be regarded as a model of class – crossing.
However, perhaps the only stain on his perfect life was Liangjia Village.
He had a wife in Liangjia Village.
That poor and honest woman was abducted to Liangjia Village and gave birth to a daughter for him.
32
The woman was looking forward to her husband coming back to take her to a good life after he was admitted to college, but the “phoenix” that flew away never returned.
She finally died of depression.
And that daughter was adopted by Liang Ma, who was a child – trafficker in their village.
What was the use of adopting a girl in that era?
Liang Ma had been a trafficker for so many years. She was as shrewd as they come.
She adopted this girl just in case she could use her to get something from the “phoenix” in the future.
After all, the “phoenix’s” parents were still in the village.
The “phoenix” would always come back.
33
Many years later, father really returned to China with his mother.
It was such a coincidence.
One day, when father was walking on the street with his mother, he was spotted by Liang Ma, who was looking for children in the city.
After some twists and turns, Liang Ma contacted father alone.
34
She asked father to come to her place for a detailed talk, or she would tell his current wife about him abandoning his wife and child.
Not to mention that father could be arrested for “abandonment”.
He knew very well that his wife, who came from a well – off family and had received a high – level education, would never tolerate his behavior.
Once discovered, his reputation and status would be completely ruined.
Everything he had obtained through his wife would be gone.
And if Liang Ma was caught, the criminal gang behind her wouldn’t let him go easily.
So father went.
He went to the address Liang Ma gave.
35
It was a large courtyard with high walls. There were many children in the courtyard.
Liang Ma brought out a girl in old clothes.
Father looked at the girl who resembled him by seven – tenths, and his hands trembled slightly.
He heard the girl greet him timidly.
36
” Hello, uncle.
My name is Chen Yu.
Yu as in lush and green.”
37
” Waiter, please bring me another cup of coffee.”
The white latte art had completely merged with the brown coffee and disappeared, leaving only a thin layer of black sticking to the cup wall.
Officer Zhong looked at me in silence as I gently blew on the steam of the new coffee.
” Officer Zhong, would you like another cup too?”
” No, thank you.”
He opened his mouth, wanting to say something but stopping several times.
” Just say what you want to say.” I didn’t look up.
” So, the orphanage you grew up in was actually a child – trafficking den?”
” Sort of.”
” Bang!”
38
Officer Zhong slapped the table, immediately attracting the attention of everyone in the coffee shop.
” I’m sorry. I’ve always hated those who traffic children.”
He sat down, his tone a bit cold.
I looked at him somewhat amusedly. ” So you’re quite righteous.”
Officer Zhong ignored the sarcasm in my words and continued,
” No wonder I felt something was off when you talked about the orphanage. It turned out to be a trafficking den.
” Tell me all the details related to that orphanage. I’ll ask my friend to pay more attention when I get back.”
” No need, Officer Zhong.”
” How can it be unnecessary? This is…”
” That den and the organization behind it were already taken down seven years ago.
Liang Ma was also among them.”
39
Liang Ma was indeed a shrewd person among the bad guys.
She disguised the trafficking den as a private orphanage and only abducted children who couldn’t remember things. After abducting them, she kept them in the den waiting for buyers to choose.
One child could earn her a considerable amount of ill – gotten money.
She threatened father with exposure, asking him to pick a child from the orphanage and buy it.
In this way, father became a “buyer”.
They both knew what this meant.
Father weighed the pros and cons.
On one side was reputation and status, on the other side was conscience and morality.
In the end, he followed Liang Ma’s words, brought his wife to the so – called “orphanage”, and chose me.
40
If father had chosen to call the police at that time, perhaps things wouldn’t have developed to what they became later.
Unfortunately, there was no “if”.
41
The bottom line was lowered step by step.
With the start of his identity as a “buyer”, he wouldn’t cooperate with Liang Ma only once.
Liang Ma wouldn’t let go of such a “fat sheep”.
Under repeated threats and probes, father’s weakness and compromises made him completely become Liang Ma’s accomplice.
He helped Liang Ma abduct children.
After that, she became even more unscrupulous.
She treated Chen Yu more and more casually, beating and scolding her at will.
Chen Yu couldn’t figure out why the “mom” who had been so good to her before would force her to steal money.
If she couldn’t steal money, she would get a severe beating.
Chen Yu gradually became numb after repeated scoldings and beatings.
Until that day.
She accidentally stole my wallet.
42
She looked at the little boy who used to be a head shorter than her. Now he had become a sunny and tall teenager.
After the boy chased after her, she returned the wallet to him.
Although she was beaten that day because she didn’t steal any money after a muddled day, something different grew in her heart from that day on.
Why could he live such a good life?
So Chen Yu began to secretly follow me on purpose.
She learned all my habits.
She saw that I had a lot of clothes and shoes, and I had an endless supply of candy.
I also had all the love of the man who looked like her, and the love of that gentle woman.
Combined with the conversation she had overheard between that man and Liang Ma,
she understood everything.
43
Dad.
I’m your real daughter.
Why have you never chosen me?
44
She started approaching father frequently.
At first, father strongly resisted her approach.
He would rage and tell Chen Yu to get lost.
But Chen Yu was always very submissive to father – just like his wife in Liangjia Village.
She told father that she didn’t want anything, she just hoped that father could give her a little bit of fatherly love.
Perhaps out of guilt.
Or perhaps out of fear of being discovered by his wife.
Father finally softened his heart.
45
He thought he had everything under control.
But he didn’t know.
After a heavy rain, not only the grass grew wildly.
Hatred also grew.
46
Chen Yu knew that father actually hated Liang Ma very much.
He thought that Liang Ma had ruined his life, and he was forced to help Liang Ma because he had no choice.
But it wasn’t like that, father.
It was your weakness, your greed, and your weighing of pros and cons that ruined you.
47
Chen Yu secretly approached father and told him about Liang Ma’s movements.
This made father start to waver.
Actually, Chen Yu didn’t do much.
She just told father that she was very worried that Liang Ma would be caught. If caught, the organization behind her would surely kill Liang Ma to silence her.
Dad, then I’ll only have you.
At that time, the law was far from as perfect as it is now.
So once some seeds were planted, they would secretly germinate.
48
Chen Yu did succeed.
But she didn’t expect that Liang Ma would hit my adoptive mother who was driving me to school to report while fleeing by car.
When she rushed to the scene, the wreckage all over the place showed how tragic the scene had been.
In that car accident, it wasn’t just my adoptive mother who died.
There were also many innocent passers – by.
49
” The car accident you mentioned… I seem to have an impression. Is it called the 625 Tragedy?” Officer Zhong’s eyes looked a bit complicated. ” I was not very old at that time.”
” Yes, my adoptive mother died in this car accident.”
” It really connects with what you said before…” He rubbed his chin. ” But it still has no direct connection with your father’s case.”
I neither affirmed nor denied. ” Just as father said, he was confessing his sins. He felt guilty for his wife’s death – because he really loved my adoptive mother. My adoptive mother’s death hit him hard, so he worshipped Buddha all day long, trying to find some peace of mind. At that time, I took a year off from school and accompanied him all the time.”
” What about Chen Yu? What was she doing after that?”
” This is related to the final story.”
50
One day after being depressed for a long time, father suddenly cheered up.
He told me that he still had something to do.
During that period, he seemed to have suddenly found his life goal and was in high spirits.
I didn’t know what he was doing, and I didn’t ask.
Because I thought that as long as father could get out of the shadow, that would be the best.
Father returned to his previous job position and worked seriously. He seemed to have really moved on.
Until seven years ago, a major news was published in the local newspaper.
I then knew that he had been atoning for his sins all these years.
51
” College Professor Helps Solve a Major Child – trafficking Case”
Such a big headline stayed in the newspaper for a long time.
52
I knew that father’s confession had ended.
53
The moment I saw the newspaper, I almost ran away from the graduation ceremony.
When I got home, the taxi driver shouted that my hat had fallen off, but I didn’t notice. I rushed into the house like crazy.
– Just in time to see father, holding a knife handle and aiming at his heart.
54
” Dad, put down the knife.”
I said softly.
Father looked at me sadly and almost begged me, ” Let me go.”
He raised his hand, and the string of Buddha beads on his wrist broke. The sound of the bodhi seeds falling to the ground was clear and desperate.
The moment the knife was about to pierce his heart, I rushed forward.
55
The sharp knife stabbed into his arm.
Perhaps because I had broken his wish to die, father suddenly dropped the knife and rushed towards me angrily.
We wrestled together. His long – untrimmed fingernails deeply dug into my skin. The piercing pain couldn’t overcome the trauma in my heart.
I watched the blood seep out little by little.
There was his blood, and there was mine.
I couldn’t match his strength. He dragged me into the room and locked me up.
I slapped the door frantically, trying to wake up a bit of father’s sanity.
“Puchi”
The sound of the blade piercing the skin clearly reached my ears.
Through the door, I heard father’s weak voice.
” Dad is sorry for you.
Live a good life.”
He said.
56
” Later, the taxi driver helped me call the police. Because the fingerprints and witnesses were enough to prove that my father committed suicide, so I was released by the police the next day. As for the many speculations from the outside world later, I was quite helpless.
” This is all the truth you want to know, Officer Zhong.”
I drank the last sip of coffee.
Officer Zhong fell silent. The emotions in his eyes intertwined, and finally turned into pure excitement.
” What about Chen Yu? You haven’t said what happened to her in the end…”
” Chen Yu has always been in the story.” I interrupted him, then suddenly changed the subject. ” Now can I see the evidence you mentioned?”
His eyes froze. ” Well…”
I smiled and didn’t make things difficult for him. ” Your files record all the evidence and exhibits from that year, including the DNA comparison test. My father really committed suicide.”
I looked out of the window.
A lame bird hopped a few times on the street lamp and then flapped its wings and flew into the distance.
” I really haven’t told these things to anyone for many years.” I turned back, stood up. ” Consider this as a gift I give you before I leave, Officer Zhong.”
Officer Zhong also stood up.
He was almost half a head taller than me.
” Mr. Liang, I’m sorry to have disturbed you today.”
He looked serious. ” I’m really interested in this case, but I… don’t have the authority to access the files. I’m sorry to have taken up so much of your time. Thank you.”
I smiled at him. ” I hope you’ll be a good police officer.”
57
My name is Zhong Yun, and I’m a well – known novelist.
I’m passionate about writing suspense novels, but recently I’ve been suffering from a lack of inspiration, and my new work has been delayed.
One day, I went out for a meal with a police friend. I accidentally heard him mention a case from seven years ago.
It was a case of a college professor’s suicide.
He was drunk and started complaining to me about that case.
” A returned doctor, with such a high social status. Hic, saying he committed suicide, who would believe it?”
He slurred his words as he revealed the details of the case to me. ” It wasn’t allowed to be reported back then… I think his adopted son killed him, but he was released the next day. There must be some inside story…”
At that moment, my eyes lit up.
A story full of doubts based on a real event, wasn’t this exactly what I had been dreaming of?
I couldn’t wait to hear more details, but my friend fell asleep all of a sudden and lost consciousness.
When I asked him the next day, he flatly denied revealing the details of the case.
Helpless, I could only look for information myself.
There were many reports about this case on the Internet, but most of them were just based on the official conclusion.
This wasn’t the “story” I wanted.
People who know me well know that I’m a person who will stop at nothing for writing.
My intuition told me that there must be more to this case.
So I paid someone to find out the whereabouts of the person involved in the case.
Then I forged a police officer’s certificate and knocked on his door.
I did a lot of research, starting from the identity of the “adopted son” and fabricating the illusion that I had found evidence.
Actually, I was prepared to be rejected by him.
But he agreed.
Then I sat in the coffee shop and heard the original appearance of this “crime” story that lasted for twenty – three years –
…
After he left, I started to organize my notes and casually called my friend.
” Hello, Lao Li. Do you remember the 625 Tragedy?”
” Of course I remember. We handled this case.” Lao Li’s voice on the other end was a bit noisy. ” The person you asked about not long ago, oh yes, Liang Qi’s adoptive mother died in this car accident.
” At that time, that damned human – trafficker drove a large vehicle and crashed into several cars. All those cars caught fire.
” There were several burned – beyond – recognition corpses at the scene.
” There was one in Liang Qi’s mother’s car. At that time, our bureau’s system wasn’t sound, and we couldn’t find out the identity of that corpse in the end. No one came to claim it, so we directly sent it for cremation.
” You know, fortunately Liang Qi wasn’t in the car, or his father might not have been able to bear it at that time.
” Liang Qi is really pitiful. His parents passed away one after another, leaving him… Hey, Zhong Yun, are you listening?”
” Is the signal bad?” Lao Li mumbled a few words and hung up the phone.
I froze in place.
A strange sense of excitement and horror intertwined, making my body tremble slightly.
I seemed to have a premonition. I looked up and out of the window.
An airplane sliced through the vast blue sky and flew into the distance.
Just then, I suddenly received a timed text message:
【I’m your loyal reader.
However, I don’t look like the photo.】
– End –
