Lin Xirou said to herself, “That’s right.” She had never harmed that woman, but once or twice, it was that woman who had made the moves against her. Hadn’t she been courteous to the Yan Huaishan family? She hadn’t used them as blood vessels, and after dying once and coming back, she hadn’t even held a grudge about being pushed into the bathtub and electrocuted—why couldn’t that woman just live quietly without causing her trouble? Why couldn’t she learn to behave and stop hitting brick walls?
Yan Tuo’s words truly resonated with her heart.
“Are you saying you don’t mind what happened in those early years?”
Yan Tuo said, “It’s not that I don’t mind. I spent a lot of time thinking about it. I can’t say who was right or wrong. When my mother tried to kill you the second time, if she had succeeded, wouldn’t you have been the one who died? It was a fifty-fifty situation. I guess heaven just wasn’t on her side.”
“Then how do you see me?”
Yan Tuo was silent for a moment. “The one who raises you matters more than the one who bore you. Aunt Lin, to be honest, you’ve raised me all these years without ever mistreating me.”
“What about your sister then? I took your sister away. What do you think about that?”
Yan Tuo smiled slightly. “Want the truth?”
“Tell me the truth.”
“The truth might seem a bit heartless,” Yan Tuo said. “Before seeing the diary, I wasn’t even sure if I had a sister or not. Later when I found out I did, I couldn’t remember what she looked like anymore. More than twenty years have passed without any interaction—if I claimed to have deep sibling feelings, that would be pure lies.”
“Don’t you want to know your sister’s whereabouts?”
“I’m curious. If you’re willing to tell me, Aunt Lin, you might as well let me know. After all, she’s family. If she’s not doing well, I could help her out.”
Lin Xirou stared intently into Yan Tuo’s eyes. “Why did you hide the diary so secretly, afraid of people finding it?”
Xiong Hei, who had been listening on the side, couldn’t help but interject: “Sister Lin, isn’t that question unnecessary? If he left it by his bedside, wouldn’t that make you uncomfortable?”
Lin Xirou shouted harshly: “Shut up!”
Xiong Hei felt awkward and rolled his eyes toward the ceiling.
Yan Tuo sighed, gesturing at his current situation: “This is exactly what I was afraid of. I feared that once you knew, you’d have misgivings. And I worried you’d think I shouldn’t know your early secrets… Besides, it’s all in the past. I thought not mentioning it, not asking about it, would be better for both of us. So I just left it there.”
Lin Xirou stopped questioning and looked down at the diary on the floor.
No wonder the brick-red cover looked familiar at first glance: Yan Tuo’s mother indeed had a habit of keeping a diary. Several times, she had seen her writing intensely under the desk lamp while she was comforting the restless little Tuo.
After a while, she suddenly threw out another question: “That time at the farm, when we were interrogating Gou Ya, why were you eavesdropping at the door?”
So the farm incident had come to light.
Yan Tuo felt more at ease internally: Earlier, he had felt there were too many “buried mines” around him and had carefully thought through how to explain if things came to light.
“I was curious,” he said. “Gou Ya had been ‘dead’ for so long, then suddenly appeared alive and kicking. Aunt Lin, do you know how excited I was? I’d only seen Brother Xiong’s fingers regrow after being cut off, I’d never seen someone come back from the dead. You wouldn’t let me in, so I could only listen outside—but I listened openly, didn’t I? I knew there were cameras, I didn’t hide or dodge. I thought at the time if I get caught on camera, so be it. After all, I’ve never hidden my curiosity. I’ve told you about it, told Brother Xiong too.”
Xiong Hei nodded unconsciously. It was precisely that attempt to join in and Yan Tuo’s “confession” that had changed his opinion, making him feel that Yan Tuo was quite genuine.
It was rare to find someone who knew the inside story and could still maintain a friendly attitude toward Di Xiao.
What a pity they couldn’t recruit him—wasn’t he much better than failures like Gou Ya or Li Yueying?
“What about Chen Fu and Han Guan then? Were you involved in what happened to them?”
Yan Tuo’s scalp tingled, and he nearly changed color, but he quickly recovered, expressing confusion: “Chen Fu and Han Guan?”
After a pause, he seemed to realize something: “You mean the companions Brother Xiong was looking for in the surveillance footage?”
He smiled bitterly: “Aunt Lin, I only knew what they looked like after Brother Xiong told me they were missing. You never introduced them to me before, how would I know them?”
Lin Xirou could barely contain herself: “Then why did you appear in the area shortly after their disappearance, driving Lu Xian’s car?”
Yan Tuo looked puzzled: “Driving Lu Xian’s car?”
Soon, he seemed to “remember” and turned to look at Xiong Hei: “Brother Xiong knows about this.”
Xiong Hei looked confused: “Me?”
“At the time, I was staying at A-Peng’s place. In the middle of the night, Brother Xiong brought someone who had been shot, telling me they’d taken care of Jiang Baichuan’s people and it was all over. I thought since everything was finished, I should leave too, so I borrowed Lu Xian’s car the next day, planning to drive back to Xi’an—if Brother Xiong hadn’t said anything, I might have stayed a few more days.”
Xiong Hei remembered now and said: “That’s right, that did happen.”
“But I hadn’t slept well the night before, and I wasn’t used to driving Lu Xian’s car. I kept dozing off on the road and almost crashed into someone else’s car. I thought, forget it, in this state, I’d never make it back to Xi’an, so I turned back.”
At this point, he looked up at Lin Xirou: “Aunt Lin, I was wondering why you’ve been acting strange since I came back, hinting at things—so it was all about this? If there’s anything else you’re unsure about, just ask everything at once. Better than keeping it bottled up inside.”
Lin Xirou remained silent.
She didn’t have anything else to ask.
Yan Tuo also stayed quiet, his back feeling uncomfortably cool as his sweat-soaked shirt clung to his skin.
He was determined about one thing: whether it was the farm surveillance, the traffic cameras outside Shi He County, or this diary, none of it could prove anything.
Unless Lin Xirou had concrete evidence, she could only suspect him but couldn’t condemn him.
This was just questioning; if it came to physical confrontation later, he would have to maintain the same stance.
Important matters were in progress, and he needed to keep things running smoothly.
After a while, Lin Xirou instructed Xiong Hei: “Come outside with me for a moment.”
…
Two left, leaving two in the room. Feng Mi’s gun was no longer pointed at him; she was just playing with it in her hand.
Yan Tuo frowned: “Don’t play with the gun. If it goes off accidentally, I’ll die unjustly.”
Feng Mi listened and stopped playing. After a few seconds, she asked: “You just said to ‘ask everything at once,’ so let me ask one thing. Let’s see if you tell the truth.”
Yan Tuo glanced at her: “Go ahead.”
“Do you like me?”
Yan Tuo said: “No.”
Feng Mi giggled, and after finishing her laugh, she sighed softly and commented: “That’s the truth.”
***
The hallway smelled too unpleasant, so Lin Xirou walked outside the building before stopping.
This building was truly quiet. Just beyond the wall was the sound of street traffic, unceasing, which made the building seem even more desolate: though right next to the bustle, it was merely “next to” it.
Lin Xirou asked Xiong Hei: “Do you think his words are believable?”
Xiong Hei scratched his head: “Sister Lin, you’re usually so good at keeping your composure, why make such a big deal over a diary? If it were me, if my parents died and left a diary, I would keep it too.”
Lin Xirou showed some agitation: “You don’t understand. He was so young then, I thought he didn’t know anything! I only told him his mother was paralyzed in an accident.”
Xiong Hei said: “Yan Tuo was right about one thing—people are curious. When he grew up, of course, he’d want to know what happened in that accident. Even without this diary, he would have found out from somewhere else. Besides, having this diary isn’t a big deal. His mother brought it on herself. As Yan Tuo said, she tried to kill you and got killed instead—who can blame anyone for that? His father lost his wife and couldn’t cope, got depressed, and the depression led to a terminal illness. It’s not like you made him sick.”
Lin Xirou shook her head: “No, you’re not involved, you’re thinking too simply. I just feel something’s not right. He can explain everything reasonably because none of these things can prove anything.”
Someone with weak psychological resilience might have been scared into confessing, but someone stronger could easily pass this test.
There must be something most crucial, based on her intuition from living with him for over twenty years.
Xiong Hei spoke reluctantly: “Sister Lin, don’t just go on feelings. You need some real evidence before making accusations. Yan Tuo isn’t like Jiang Baichuan and his people. With Jiang Baichuan, I could strip his skin right away. But Yan Tuo… we’ve known him for so many years, you’re asking me to turn against him, and I can’t even adjust my mindset. Fortunately, I was still polite to him just now. If I had beaten him up right away, I wouldn’t even know how to back down now.”
Lin Xirou bit her lip: “When you dealt with him just now, did he show any unusual behavior?”
Xiong Hei shook his head: “No, he was very cooperative. He kept asking if there was a misunderstanding. When told to lie down, he lay down; when told not to move, he didn’t move. It’s good he didn’t act impulsively, otherwise with Feng Mi’s trigger-happy nature, he’d have several transparent holes in his body by now—he’s not like us.”
Xiong Hei consulted with Lin Xirou: “Should we just drop this? This awful place doesn’t even have a bed…”
Then thinking again, releasing someone right after tying them up would be embarrassing: “Or should we keep him tied up for a couple of days?”
Lin Xirou’s mind was in chaos, unable to sort things out for the moment. After a pause, she said viciously: “Damn it, it’s only because it’s him! If it were anyone else, I wouldn’t care about evidence!”
Xiong Hei gave a dry laugh: “Well, you raised him as your son. But then again, even raising a cat or dog for ten or twenty years creates emotional attachment, let alone a person. I feel the same way—can’t bring myself to hurt him. If it were anyone else, they’d have lost half their life by now.”
Lin Xirou took a deep breath: “Keep him locked up here first, let me think this through carefully.”
When emotions were running high, it was better not to make hasty decisions.
***
Lin Ling was the first to discover Yan Tuo’s disappearance.
It had to be her: living together, when a grown person suddenly disappears, along with Feng Mi, anyone would become suspicious.
During lunch the next day, she carefully observed Lin Xirou’s expression and tentatively asked: “Aunt Lin, where did Yan Tuo go? And that Miss Feng?”
Lin Xirou remained composed: “They went out on business.”
She had left Feng Mi there to watch Yan Tuo and also had Xiong Hei send several capable people over.
Lin Ling responded with an “Oh” and said nothing more.
In the afternoon, she tried calling Yan Tuo’s phone.
This was what Yan Tuo had taught her: call for important matters, and try not to leave sensitive text messages.
The call went through, but no one answered.
She didn’t call again. The night before, Yan Tuo had shown her words written on paper, one of which read: don’t let people think we’re close.
She held out until the evening of the third day when she couldn’t contain herself anymore and sent him a WeChat message.
—Aunt Lin said you went out on business, when are you coming back? Lu Xian is waiting for you to reimburse the car repair money.
Until bedtime, Yan Tuo hadn’t replied. The next morning when Lin Ling opened her eyes and checked her phone, still nothing.
Thinking of everything that had happened, she suddenly panicked. This wasn’t like Yan Tuo at all. Even if he couldn’t handle calls or messages immediately, he would never delay for so long.
For the first time in all these years, she suddenly felt that Yan Tuo was no longer by her side.
Xing Shen was the second to discover Yan Tuo’s disappearance.
These days, he had been busy. From the list Yan Tuo gave him, excluding those who were useless or dead, and those who were difficult to handle like Xiong Hei, Feng Mi, Li Yueying, and Yang Zheng, five remained.
Number 006, Wu Xingbang, was Xu Annie’s “boyfriend,” a taxi driver now living in Anyang, Henan.
Number 007, Zheng Liang, in his forties, ran a fruit wholesale business, now living in Guiyang, Guizhou.
Number 012, Wei Jiao, in her thirties, a private art studio teacher, now living in Tianjin.
Number 014, Shen Lizhu, a hotpot restaurant server, now living in Chongqing.
Number 017, Zhu Changyi, a construction worker, now living in Wuhu, Anhui.
Five people, five locations, and five three-person teams were already in position. Among them, Wu Xingbang and Zheng Liang were relatively young and strong, so as additional force, Yu Rong took Sun Zhou to Anyang, while Xing Shen took Mazha to Guiyang.
On the fourth day of Yan Tuo’s disappearance, Xing Shen used Que Cha’s phone to send the first message to Lin Xirou’s side.
—We can change people, but we decide the location. We won’t go to Nan Ba Houtou, we don’t dare.
After sending it, he also sent a message to Yan Tuo, informing him that preparations were underway on their end, the reconnaissance had gone smoothly, no abnormalities had been detected, and they could proceed according to the original plan within three days.
However, strangely, Yan Tuo didn’t reply.
This wasn’t right. According to their agreement, whenever receiving a message, even if there was nothing to say, they had to acknowledge receipt.
Xing Shen waited for a long time, borrowed a phone, and called Yan Tuo’s dedicated number.
The call couldn’t connect.
Nie Jiuluo was the last to learn of Yan Tuo’s disappearance, and it was Xing Shen who told her.
When she heard the news, she felt confused, then realized she hadn’t contacted Yan Tuo for several days.
—Because she was quite busy, having to go to a private hospital for rehabilitation.
—Because Old Cai had come to see her and had taken an interest in the clay figure she made for Yan Tuo, the one holding a plum blossom. He told her that artists should not only pursue art but also expand their financial channels. She could design some auspicious “Mo He Le” figures, authorize workshops to make molds and earn royalty fees.
—Because she only had one hand, and she had taken on Yan Tuo’s project, needing to photograph the small courtyard, take measurements, and draw drafts, kept her extremely busy.
…
But she knew the real reason herself.
Several times, when her gaze passed over her phone, she felt a bit unhappy.
If you don’t contact me, then I won’t contact you either. You’re busy, I’m busy too. If I’m always the one finding reasons to talk to you, what does that make me?
Xing Shen’s voice crawled into her ear through the receiver. As she listened, her eyes kept wandering, drifting to the custom drawings for the small courtyard, then to the clay figure of a laughing Yan Tuo holding a plum blossom branch.
This wasn’t right. How could he lose contact?
Against her true feelings, she asked: “How long has he been out of contact?”
Xing Shen said: “According to Lin Ling, today makes it the sixth day.”
“Lin Ling?”
“Yes, last night I received a call from an unknown number, saying she was Lin Ling, her voice trembling.”
Over the phone, Lin Ling spoke disjointedly about many things, saying she couldn’t contact Yan Tuo, and one night, without warning, after Yan Tuo called her to give some instructions, he never appeared again.
She said Yan Tuo seemed to have sensed he was in danger and had given her this phone number, and she waited day after day, feeling certain something had happened to him before finally calling Xing Shen as instructed.
She said she was being very careful, Yan Tuo had warned her about possible phone tapping, so she had gone out to watch a movie and borrowed a kind stranger’s phone in the restroom to make the call.
Nie Jiuluo listened, her lips gradually becoming dry.
Six days. It had been so long.
Indeed, it had been quite a while—this morning she had been practicing walking in the courtyard and could already half-manage without crutches.
Xing Shen said: “A-Luo, our people are already in position everywhere. If nothing goes wrong, we can act tomorrow or the day after. But now, this sudden development—has Yan Tuo been exposed? Will he give us up? Will this Di Xiao hunt turn into them hunting us instead? Should I… call it off right now?”