“Was little Jin Yu taking the initiative?” Ye Meng asked into the camera with a smile.

“…”

The image remained motionless. The room’s light blurred his outline – his skin was cold white, but his eyes glowed with a gloomy, crimson tint, somewhat like a devastatingly handsome vampire from television.

“Can’t you do it yourself?” Ye Meng continued to ask.

Li Jin Yu didn’t want to continue this topic anymore. “No.”

“Come on, don’t be shy, let’s talk,” Ye Meng sat up straight and pursued the question. “The first time I helped you, did you throw up? I heard you in the bathroom that morning. I thought you had an upset stomach.”

“Mm.”

“What about the second time?”

Li Jin Yu leaned over and casually grabbed a shirt from the bed, pulling it over his head, saying: “A bit better, didn’t throw up.”

Ye Meng fell silent, her expression turned somewhat uncomfortable, looking at him as if she wanted to say something but held back.

Li Jin Yu put on the t-shirt, tugged at the fabric around his chest to adjust his posture, and after straightening his shirt, seeing her silent, he looked at the camera and asked softly: “What’s wrong?”

“Do you find me disgusting? Is it because I’ve had several boyfriends? Darling, I—”

He suddenly interrupted, “I find myself disgusting.” Then he quietly gazed at her with deep eyes for a long time, without speaking again.

The room was quiet, occasionally one could hear the sporadic coughing of the old lady next door, and outside the window, wheels grinding over the stone pavement. Ye Meng didn’t know how to continue. Her mind suddenly went blank. After a moment of stunned silence, she heard him clear his throat with his fist loosely pressed against his mouth. Looking down, he said: “I’ve seen a doctor. The doctor said I just have some psychological barriers. After you helped me, I seemed less resistant to it. But it only works when I look at you. When I’m alone, I still feel disgusted. Sometimes it’s not that I don’t feel anything, it’s just that I’m afraid, I’d rather endure it.”

“Why?”

He was sixteen then, just returned from America. For his brother’s sake, he had been abandoned and ignored for three years. Whatever he did was wrong, while his brother was always the family’s treasure. He carefully breathed like an ant under someone else’s roof. He suffered from Li Ling Bai’s domestic violence for over ten years. No matter what he did, he couldn’t gain approval. When people are under great pressure or feeling depressed, they often seek ways to relieve stress.

There is one method, convenient and quick, which is masturbation. At least at that moment, he didn’t have to think about pleasing anyone.

One day, he was playing music, wearing headphones in his room, and forgot to lock the door, when Li Ling Bai unexpectedly pushed it open. The sultry music in his headphones became a death knell, thundering in his ears. His entire body suddenly tensed, all his muscles seemed paralyzed as if injected with botulinum toxin, stiffening to the point he couldn’t move.

He was like a tightly drawn bow, hoping Li Ling Bai wouldn’t say anything unpleasant. However, Li Ling Bai stood at the door for a long while, looking at those messy paper balls, showing an expression of extreme disgust, as if seeing the most filthy corner of the world filled with rotting sludge, emitting a nauseating fishy smell. Covering his nose, as if he couldn’t stand him anymore, he loudly cursed: “How disgusting you are!!”

Li Jin Yu was only sixteen at the time. A sixteen-year-old boy. With pants off or on, boys that age are clean, bright, and occasionally reckless but filled with firm hope – young men in their prime.

But not him. He felt as if his entire body was rotting, like a malignant skin disease patient without a single inch of skin worth looking at. The rot had already penetrated from the surface to the core.

After that, every time, he would recall Li Ling Bai’s words. He would vomit for quite a while after finishing. The doctor said this was because, during a boy’s growth and development, his parents failed to provide proper guidance in sex education, instead using conservative ideas and sexual repression to stifle the child, causing Li Jin Yu to experience abnormal physiological states such as vomiting, nausea, and sexual repression.

Ye Meng was both heartbroken and shocked, momentarily speechless. When she regained her composure, after holding back for a long time, she said: “Darling, why don’t we keep the video on…”

“No,” Li Jin Yu stood up, suddenly leaving the frame, his voice continuing to come through. “I’m fine, I just didn’t want you to overthink. I don’t care how many boyfriends you’ve had, it has nothing to do with you.”

Ye Meng’s voice became meaningful, “Really? You don’t care?”

He didn’t return to the frame, seemingly blow-drying his hair, the sound rumbling through. He casually blew it for a few moments, then with a “thud,” he lightly tossed the dryer back on the table and sat down again. “Yeah, is there anything else you haven’t told me?”

“Alright, I’ll tell you honestly. Don’t get angry, okay?”

“Mm, I won’t be angry.” But his voice had already noticeably cooled.

Ye Meng laughed: “Yeah right, from the sound of your voice, I feel like you’re going to beat me up when I get back.”

“Let’s wait until you come back first.”

Ye Meng pressed further: “Beg me.”

“Tell me first, then I’ll see if it’s necessary to beg you to come back,” Li Jin Yu said coldly.

Ye Meng giggled, “You’re so jealous.”

Li Jin Yu persisted: “I’m not jealous, just tell me quickly.”

Ye Meng couldn’t stop laughing, teasing him: “I’m not telling you.”

Li Jin Yu looked at her with an unhappy expression for a long while, making a move to close the video: “Fine, hanging up, liar.”

Ye Meng hurriedly stopped him: “Darling!”

“Bullshit.”

Ye Meng wheedled: “Aww, darling!”

Li Jin Yu cold-faced: “Go away.”

Ye Meng coquettishly called out: “Husband!”

More fiercely: “Don’t come back!”

“Can you bear it?”

“The next one will be more obedient, isn’t that what you told Fang Ya’en?”

“Fuck, you heard that?” Ye Meng was shocked.

“Chen Jiayu told me.”

“That little brat.”

…The two bickered back and forth for a while. Finally, Ye Meng lay on the creamy white carpet with her phone, laughing uncontrollably. “Alright, I won’t tease you anymore. Go to sleep early. I wasn’t lying to you, I’ve only had those few ex-boyfriends.”

But Li Jin Yu suddenly fell silent, looking at her for a long time.

Ye Meng sat up from the floor preparing to put away her phone, puzzled: “What’s wrong, you still don’t believe me?”

His eyes showed restraint, like containing a thicket of thorny fire. He suddenly asked: “Is your mother very important to you?”

Ye Meng was startled, nodding without understanding, then suddenly thought of his mother. She figured he might not understand why she insisted on staying in Beijing to investigate this matter. Patiently, she explained: “Very important. Have you ever seen a meteor? My mom used to see many when she was in the Northwest. She said there was a type called a four-cornered meteor. There, a four-cornered meteor symbolizes a kind of defect, as if it was not expected at birth. But once it falls, people’s eyes can no longer see other meteors. My mom was a literary person, her words were a bit convoluted. Anyway, I love her very much. No matter how many corners a meteor has, I hope she hangs high in the sky.”

That day, Ye Meng had just met with several antique dealers. Before she could even settle down, she received a call from Liang Yun’an – the case finally had new developments. The police had examined all the surveillance footage from the hotel on the 17th and discovered that after Wang Xingsheng and his secretary disappeared from the hotel’s underground garage, they were hardly captured on any monitoring videos. Due to the enormous workload, the police had been working round the clock for several days, but to no avail.

Until Li Chen provided the dashcam footage that day, which led them to the driver of that car. The driver admitted to picking up Wang Xingsheng and a woman that night. Their destination wasn’t the car factory, but Lishan Village behind the Jiumenling mountain road.

Ye Meng asked: “What were they doing in Lishan Village?”

“Wang Xingsheng’s secretary was from Lishan,” Liang Yun’an took a deep breath and said. “But before they reached Lishan Village, Wang Xingsheng and his secretary argued and got out of the car at Jiumenling. That section of road had been closed for a long time a few years ago due to accidents caused by Li Chen’s group racing there. It only reopened this year, but has been under construction recently, so there are no surveillance cameras. Therefore, we aren’t sure if Wang Xingsheng and his secretary ever reached Lishan Village.”

Liang Yun’an said: “The driver said the secretary was very emotional that night as if she had discovered Wang Xingsheng had deceived her.”

“The secretary is from Lishan? To go to Lishan, just one pass through the car factory and Jiumenling?”

“Yes.”

Ye Meng felt a chill slowly seeping through her at the thought forming in her mind.

“I think internet users are right – Wang Xingsheng’s secretary is highly suspicious.”

“But how do you explain the handwriting on the suicide note?”

“If she was his secretary and lover, it shouldn’t be difficult for her to imitate Wang Xingsheng’s handwriting. Or perhaps she tricked or coerced him into writing it?”

This point needed further consideration. But the amount of sleeping pills in Wang Xingsheng’s body was indeed much higher than in his secretary’s, as shown in the forensic report.

The police had already begun investigating the secretary’s interpersonal relationships, and the case seemed to be making some progress.

Finally, Liang Yun’an reminded Ye Meng over the phone: “If this case was committed by Wang Xingsheng’s secretary, and she wanted to escape punishment this way, then your mother’s case…”

Ye Meng leaned back in her office chair, holding the phone, and looking down with a smile, somewhat disheartened, she said: “Maybe I’ve been overthinking. Perhaps my mother did commit suicide, after all, she had depression.”

Liang Yun’an could only console her gently, “Don’t rush to conclusions. I’ll let you know if there are any developments in the case.”

That evening, while Ye Meng was video chatting with Li Jin Yu, a sudden urgent doorbell rang. Ye Meng put down her phone, hurriedly sat up from the carpet, removed her earphones, and said, “Darling, wait a moment, it might be my takeout delivery.”

Li Jin Yu had a civil service handbook spread out on his table. While casually flipping through it with his head down, he said to the camera without looking up, “Brother wants to advise you, to eat less takeout, it’s not good for your health.”

She replied: “Then come cook for me, brother.”

“I’ll cook for you when you come back,” he responded casually, with a faint smile at the corner of his mouth, looking more radiant than the peach blossoms outside the window.

Ye Meng didn’t believe him and teased mercilessly: “Nonsense, I don’t believe you. Last time you cut yourself while just cutting vegetables.”

Meanwhile, the old lady outside his room called him in a loud voice. Li Jin Yu leaned back in his chair, responding lazily, then put down his book and said to Ye Meng: “I’ll hang up first. Grandma is probably hungry, I’ll make her a bowl of noodles.”

“Don’t let grandma go hungry,” Ye Meng nodded repeatedly with understanding. “Go ahead, darling. Kiss.”

They both quickly kissed the screen. One turned to make noodles for the old lady, while the other hurriedly got up from the carpet to open the door after the kiss, both forgetting to turn off the video.