Long Ge ended the call from Diao Zhuo and fixed a cold gaze on He Zhengren, whose face had gone pallid with pain.

“You can’t even take that little amount of pain — what are you going to do when things get worse?” He said with a cold laugh, resting on the coffee table. “You’re not a member of an underground resistance, and I’m not a Japanese soldier — so why the ‘die before I talk’ attitude? I don’t want your damn money. I just want you to tell me how that vehicle ended up going over the side.”

He Zhengren gasped for some time as though his last breath were coming, but still did not change his account. “I wasn’t in that vehicle. What I heard was that Ba Junyi and Ba Xiye were fighting over their relationship — he wouldn’t divorce, she kept demanding it, threatening to go to the papers, threatening to make a scene at his house. It came to blows. She lost control of herself, demanded the driver stop the car, and grabbed at the steering wheel… A mountain road like that — you’ve driven it enough times yourself to know what a vehicle can and can’t handle when someone starts yanking the wheel back and forth…”

Long Ge waved a dismissive hand. “That’s Song Fan’s one-sided account — and Song Fan was in your camp.”

“I don’t know Song Fan.” He Zhengren said with a cold, flat face. Under Long Ge’s “coercive interrogation,” he maintained the expression of the wrongly accused. He was not the kind of man to crack easily — if he were, he could never have kept things concealed this long, let alone commanded a network of people to do his bidding.

A successful lie is one you have come to believe yourself.

“I don’t know why you would take those two young people’s one-sided account on faith, and resort to illegal means like this — kidnapping me, demanding answers by force. Their relatives committed such shameful acts, caused the deaths of so many brilliant experts and talented people, and then, to save face, went around telling everyone it was all a misunderstanding, a setup. You think of yourself as some kind of big brother from the underworld — but you don’t realize you’re being used as a weapon by others.”

“That vehicle carried more than just your colleagues and friends.” Long Ge narrowed his eyes at him and said quietly: “…It also carried my wife.”

That stopped He Zhengren cold. He turned it over carefully in his mind for a long while, but could not bring to mind any female colleague or student whose age matched Long Ge’s.

“My wife flagged down that vehicle the same way Song Fan did — as a hitchhiker.” Long Ge said through gritted teeth. “I was still serving in the military then. She was coming to visit me. She wanted to save a little money, and insisted on hitchhiking part of the way…”

He Zhengren had some vague impression of it, but too many years had passed, and he could not summon the woman’s face. In his heart, shock and dread rose in equal measure. If Long Ge’s wife had died in that accident, then his purpose in coming here was perhaps…

“Because of your contemptible scheme, she paid with her life! She was only twenty-three years old! Twenty-three!” Long Ge shot to his feet, glaring at He Zhengren with bared teeth. “I was almost out of the military! We had it all planned out! I had been saving every yuan! All I wanted was to give her a decent life! Do you understand?! Do you have any idea what I felt when I heard she had been in an accident, that the vehicle had gone over the side?! She was gone immediately! She was only twenty-three years old! I hadn’t given her a single day of good life! I have a lot of money now! But she can’t use a single yuan of it!! If I’d had money back then, I would have bought her a plane ticket! Then none of this would have happened! None of it!”

He Zhengren swallowed hard, his expression dark and shuttered. “I am sorry. But that accident was just that — an accident. I was injured in it too. Every day in this world, accidents happen. People die from accidents every day. When an accident occurs, who is truly at fault? One or two people cannot possibly account for it all. If you have grievances, you can only blame fate — if every bereaved relative in the world behaved as you do…”

“An accident. A vehicle accident. Just that, and it’s done?!” Long Ge wiped the moisture from the corner of his eyes, both eyes blazing red again. “Someone must pay for this!! You!!” He jabbed a finger at He Zhengren and spat on the floor. “I’m no judge! I don’t need evidence! Whether you did it for fame, for money, for some academic standing — it makes no difference to me! You got other people killed and I could let that go, but you got my wife killed, and for that I want your life!! I want you to pay with your life!!”

“Why do you say that I killed your wife? I didn’t know her. She didn’t know me. Are you the kind of madman who would rather kill the wrong person than let the guilty one go free?” He Zhengren said in a measured, reasonable voice. “Your wife would want you to become a murderer…”

“Save your breath! You’ve been watching too many soap operas! You are not worthy of speaking her name! If you could bring my wife back to life, I would kowtow to you ten thousand times!” Long Ge advanced one step at a time toward He Zhengren. “There is no ‘if.’ The dead cannot return. Whether I become a murderer or not — she won’t come back either way. I’ll kill you, then turn myself in, and tell the police everything about you, Song Fan, Li Haozhang, He Ma — the whole dirty business! Let them investigate you all and dig out exactly what you’ve been up to! Even if they put a bullet in me — it’ll be worth it!!”

“No — don’t! Don’t!” He Zhengren began to panic now, crying out in a hoarse and desperate voice — but he could not stop Long Ge from wrapping both arms around his neck and wrenching with full, crushing force. The enormous sensation of suffocation and the terror flooding his chest sent his legs flailing wildly; his face ballooned red, his eyes bulged, his tongue began to push out involuntarily, and he lost control of his bladder.

He had calculated everything, and never calculated that Renlong Duoji’s help to Ba Yunye was not out of brotherly loyalty — but for his wife.

Long Ge at this moment had become a wrathful spirit incarnate, his face twisted, every ounce of his strength pouring into the choke hold.

Bang — bang — bang! A violent pounding suddenly erupted from outside the front door.

“Professor He! Open up! We’re the police!!”

Long Ge was no career criminal. At the word “police” he could not help but freeze for an instant, and the force in his arms momentarily slackened. Then a thought: he was going to face the police one way or another — he may as well finish off He Zhengren first and then go straight to turn himself in. Wouldn’t that be cleaner?

“Police! Open the door!! He Zhengren! Renlong Duoji! Open up! We know you’re both in there!”

He Zhengren seized on this hair-thin thread of a chance and summoned every last reserve of strength. “The only survivor of the accident is me — you can kill me if you want, but don’t you want to know the truth? If I die, Ba Junyi and Ba Xiye will never be cleared. They will be the guilty parties for that accident forever, and Diao Zhuo and Ba Yunye will spend the rest of their lives as children of the guilty. You only think about your wife — what about them? You’re not afraid there’s still a real enemy unpunished? You’re not afraid they’ll spend the rest of their lives cursing you and your wife’s names?”

Long Ge had killed before with his own eyes blazing — yet now he went utterly still, staring at He Zhengren and saying nothing.

“I… I’ll tell you everything! I’ll tell you whatever you want to know! I was forced into it by Zhang Chenguang too — I don’t want to be an innocent corpse!! The police outside sound more terrifying than you right now —” He Zhengren said, as the officers outside appeared to have given up on receiving an answer and were beginning to pick the lock.

He Zhengren saw life where there had been none — all he needed to do was stall. He tried a different angle: “The police will come in and see you like this. To rescue a hostage, they’ll shoot you dead. Why not — while they haven’t forced their way in yet — let’s clean this place up and get rid of them. I’ll tell you honestly: just like you, I don’t want to see the police. You and I — we want the same thing.”

Long Ge thought for a few seconds, then finally relaxed his grip. He found a pair of scissors and cut the ropes free. He Zhengren, barely pausing for breath, hurriedly kicked the ropes under the sofa. Long Ge saw this gesture and felt a measure of relief — He Zhengren clearly had a guilty conscience and wanted the police to ask as few questions as possible even more than he did. He gave a subtle twitch of the corner of his eye and stepped to one side for the moment. He Zhengren smoothed his hair, stumbled and lurched to the door, and opened it.

Through the security door, he said: “Officers, what can I do for you?”

The officers outside showed their credentials, then asked: “Professor He, is Renlong Duoji in your home? Why did it take you so long to answer the door?”

“A’Long? He’s here, yes! We were over there eating and drinking. We didn’t hear the door. What is this… what is this about?”

“Please ask him to come out.”

Long Ge walked over unhurriedly and stood behind He Zhengren, took one look at his soaking-wet trousers, and let a faint edge of contemptuous amusement settle in his eyes.

“Renlong Duoji, someone called in to report you missing — there was concern for your safety,” said the officer.

“Ah, A’Long — this is your own fault, you know. I understand you’ve had some trouble with your family, but you can’t go switching your phone off and ignoring people.” He Zhengren delivered his performance with great conviction. “Officers, his state of mind hasn’t been great — he came to talk to me. You needn’t worry. I’ll make sure he heads home soon.”

The officer remained unconvinced. “You’re sure everything is alright?”

“Who made the report?” Long Ge was in no mood to perform. He asked with a cold face.

He Zhengren quickly added: “He’s a grown man — what could possibly happen? Officers, you’re all busy people. Don’t let this little matter of his hold you up. A’Long, I think you really should go home soon. Family is family — there’s no such thing as a grudge that can’t be smoothed over by morning.”

The elevator doors opened. He Ma and Li Haozhang came rushing out, caught sight of the cluster of police officers at the door, and both stopped short and took a step back. The officers also spotted the two of them, clearly in a rush and looking distinctly uneasy, and turned to ask: “Who are you? What’s your business here!”

“Oh — Xiao Ma! Xiao Li! Come, come, come in!” He Zhengren was genuinely delighted in that moment. “Officers, they’re also here for our gathering.”

He Ma and Long Ge stood on opposite sides of the security door, facing each other, both watching the other in complete silence.

After arriving in Linzhi, Ba Yunye and her group brought the clients to the old Gongbu Street for dinner. Diao Zhuo received a call saying that Long Ge had been found — as he had predicted, he was indeed at He Zhengren’s home. He Zhengren claimed that he and Long Ge were having a few drinks and catching up, and with a few words sent away the local police officers who had come to make inquiries. Diao Zhuo knew the matter was far from over — how to persuade Long Ge to hold back and use the right means to expose He Zhengren was now the most pressing concern.

Even if Long Ge had confirmed that He Ma, Li Haozhang and He Ma were all He Zhengren’s people, that still did not prove that everything else had been orchestrated by He Zhengren. In a way, Long Ge’s action had been impulsive and reckless — an outburst of passion without real strategy.

Ba Yunye was still in a foul mood — and especially since Diao Zhuo had not offered a single word of apology afterward, her fury knew no bounds. In an unprecedented move, she went and sat at a table with some of the clients instead.

When the clients finished their meal, the other drivers took them to walk around the area. Ba Yunye tried Long Ge several more times and still got nothing but a switched-off tone. Someone pulled out the chair beside her and sat down. Without even looking up, she knew from intuition alone it was Diao Zhuo.

She did not raise her head. “Calling the police — done. The snake — suitably disturbed. He Zhengren is safe and unharmed, and Long Ge won’t be arrested. Excellent. Well done. I know you’re the embodiment of righteousness, but please don’t be so upright and principled every single moment of every single day. I don’t know what your reasoning was — but for my part, I can understand Long Ge’s feelings completely. He’s the kind of man who lives by loyalty and honor — taking personal revenge was exactly the thing he would do. The accident — for me, it meant losing an elder sister who had always been kind to me. For him, it meant losing the person he loved most. For you, it meant losing a father.”

“So I should have grabbed a knife and gone to He Zhengren’s place to stab him too?”

“If you’d actually gone and done it, I would respect you as a real man.”

Ba Yunye was baiting him with petty anger. But ever since Diao Zhuo began to suspect that He Zhengren and his associates were involved in a “hooks” operation, he had realized things were not so simple. Whether more dangerous figures existed in the shadows behind He Zhengren was still an unknown. If Long Ge rushed in blindly to take revenge and somehow triggered a retaliation from some criminal network, those in harm’s way would not only be Long Ge. The “hooks” matter was deeply dangerous, and Diao Zhuo didn’t want Ba Yunye drawn into it any further. He could only say: “Life is not a martial arts novel. Going off on your own and killing for revenge — what kind of vengeance is that?”

“Fine then — you tell me. What should Long Ge do now?”

“Turn himself in.”