Quan Siyun had always been smarter than other children her age, and more composed. Perhaps at that time it couldn’t be called composure, just quietness. She would rather stare at an ant for two or three hours than play house with the other children.

When she was little, there was a large locust tree in the courtyard of the quadrangle where she lived. Its branches were thick and sturdy, its leaves dense like a gigantic umbrella blocking out the sky. Quan Siyun liked to hide under the thick shade of the tree to watch the passing ants. If her parents hadn’t been so busy with work back then, if they had just looked back once more, perhaps everything happening today wouldn’t have occurred.

…

However, before returning to the bureau, Quan Siyun requested to visit the quadrangle where she had lived as a child.

The quadrangle had been renovated, with a morning exercise park next to it. People came and went all around, children ran wildly playing, and that locust tree remained evergreen, standing tall and immortal, like an old sentry guarding the land, standing with the posture of a crane among pines, as if bowing its head to gaze compassionately at them.

Quan Siyun stood in the shade of the tree wearing handcuffs, gazing up at it as well.

She was dressed very simply, not like someone planning to escape overseas. Her entire appearance was clean as if she had been prepared for a long time. Quan Siyun wasn’t particularly beautiful, with a square face, but her features were delicate, an opposite type of woman from Li Lingbai.

Two police officers stood behind her, exchanging glances and conversing in low voices: “What do you think she’s looking at?”

One of the officers pondered and said, “She probably regrets everything, maybe reminiscing about her childhood. After all, that’s when we’re most innocent.”

Police sirens wailed continuously across the city sky, pressing down on all heartbeats of life. Fang Zhengfan personally directed operations, his hat placed aside as if ready to resign at any moment, but his tone remained dedicated and unquestionable: “Have the ambulance follow the police car, open a green channel. Have you contacted Yu Wei yet?”

The office was filled with instant noodle containers, and documents were stacked in disarray, but no one paid attention to them. Liang Yunan scratched his head anxiously and said: “No, Yu Wei is the only one we haven’t been able to contact.”

Fang Zhengfan pondered briefly, then made a decisive decision: “Contact our two colleagues in charge of airport escort. I want to interrogate Quan Siyun directly.”

The airport highway was clear all the way, and police cars sped along. Quan Siyun watched the rapidly receding high-rises and billboards outside the window with a calm heart, occasionally hearing the faint sound of police sirens saving people, with the entire city full of vitality.

“Quan Siyun, I am the Chief of the Guanshan District Public Security Bureau,” she was fitted with earphones, through which came a deep male voice, “I ask you, where is Yu Wei?”

Only silence responded to him.

“In our country, there is no Miranda warning. I hope you’ll truthfully confess to your crimes.”

A few minutes earlier, the police had issued a cooperative investigation notice, and now the entire internet was looking for Yu Wei. Fans left comments with tears in their eyes on her Weibo page, praying, and Yu Wei’s comment count had already exceeded 200,000.

[Little sister, don’t think too much! You’re very beautiful, don’t listen to what those haters say!]

[Wei Wei, no one can be liked by everyone, you’ve already done very well, don’t do anything foolish, please come back!]

[Big Fish, I’ve known you for a long time, your videos are very funny. Your videos accompanied me through difficult times. I hope you’ll definitely pull through, please don’t think too much, okay?]

Even Xu Meilan and Dou Juhua, after hearing about this from Ye Meng in Ningsui, had the elderly aunt register a Weibo account specifically to leave a message for Yu Wei.

[Grandma Juhua: Silly girl, what could be so difficult to overcome? Grandma has lived to eighty and can tell you, when you reach eighty, you’ll realize that some things might be less important than a complete fart at that age.]

[Sister Meilan: Agree with the above.]

Of course, there were still malicious comments—

[Stop the hype already, Auntie Yu has completely whitewashed herself by manipulating her fans this time, so much drama.]

Words can be more terrible than knives because knife wounds heal, and new flesh grows, but knives stabbed into people’s hearts can never be removed. This kind of harm is irreversible. The first time Yu Wei saw such comments, she was upset for a long time and couldn’t understand them, lying awake all night and wanting to argue with the commenter. Then came the second time, the third time… The blows falling on her became more and more numerous and then came knives, and she could even feel people raising guns at her in the darkness. Gradually, she became numb to the pain. Until one time, she cut herself with a utility knife, and the pain in her heart seemed to lessen, so she became addicted to self-harm.

Despite this, Yu Wei was still afraid of death, and many people like her were also afraid. But they seemed to have no choice. Most people in “True Guidance” were depressed patients like her. She had come into contact with them inadvertently in a depression support group.

Yu Wei had tried to seek help from the outside world, but soon after, someone jumped from a building.

Yu Wei curled up in the bathtub, trying to hold herself tightly. The sound of sirens outside the window echoed in her ears again and again, and then she helplessly closed her eyes…

In her heart, she repeated: just hold on until 15:05, just hold on until 15:05…

The sky was still gray, and the sirens continued to wail, like warnings of life.

The office was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Several men either stood or sat, all showing different degrees of anxiety. Quan Siyun maintained absolute silence on the phone, and Liang Yunan couldn’t even hear her breathing. Liang Yunan and Fang Zhengfan exchanged glances, about to speak again when the man on the sofa stood up.

“Teacher Quan.”

Everyone reflexively looked over, automatically giving him the right to speak.

Li Juyu walked over to Fang Zhengfan’s side, leaning against the edge of his desk. The phone was on the table, but he didn’t even look at it. Leaning back, he lit a cigarette for himself, then held it with one hand while putting the other in his pocket: “I’m Li Juyu. Is your son in America now?”

Her breathing became heavier on the other end.

Everyone waited silently for what would come next, their eyes all fixed on Li Juyu, but he maintained a cold, expressionless face as he smoked, appearing casual as he chatted with her.

Liang Yunan quickly flipped through the file, full of question marks. Quan Siyun didn’t have children. She had never given birth. A few years ago, she developed a uterine tumor and had her entire uterus removed. Where did she get a child?

“I don’t have children.” She finally uttered her first sentence since getting in the car.

“You do,” Li Juyu leaned back, looking down to tap his cigarette ash, bringing the hand holding the cigarette to his mouth, his gaze unfocused as he stared at the large bookshelf behind Fang Zhengfan, filled with various honorary certificates and banners, “Want to know how I guessed?”

“Li Juyu, your mother doesn’t hate you without reason.”

He was unconcerned, smiling: “Is that so? She’s mentioned me to you? I thought she was too disdainful to mention me to others.”

Quan Siyun’s voice was cold, “Lu Mingbo also told me that you’re not a good person. He said his biggest regret was teaching a student like you.”

He put out his cigarette, leaning back lazily with both hands in his pockets, speaking in a bland tone: “Hmm, I’ve disgraced my teacher.”

Liang Yunan only now realized that Li Juyu actually had a sharp personality, spoke incisively, and was quite unrestrained. It was just that when he was with Ye Meng, he liked to make himself appear very well-behaved, as if he was inexperienced, looking as if he was the one being bullied by his sister.

The sky seemed to be clearing bit by bit. Everyone held their breath, listening to their conversation, but Quan Siyun no longer spoke.

Li Juyu crossed his arms over his chest. Liang Yunan heard for the first time that his tone was somewhat arrogant and superior: “The person in the car on March 17th was you, Teacher, wasn’t it? That probably wasn’t the first time you used my mother’s car. I remember several times when I was little, I found a toy racing car model in the car that wasn’t mine or my brother’s. At that time, we were both at least in high school, and we had moved several times in between. To be honest, these things had long been thrown away somewhere.”

Everyone in the office was silent. Even the wind in the trees seemed to have stopped at his words. Li Juyu looked down with a self-mocking smile: “At that time, I thought my mother had another son somewhere. I argued with her every day, made trouble for her, and even followed her. She thought I was perverted, monitoring her life. You know all this very well, don’t you?”

Quan Siyun remained silent throughout, eventually even holding her breath.

Li Juyu: “Where is that child now? I remember he wasn’t very old at the time, five or six years old. He should be in high school now, right? Is he in America?”

At that moment, police sirens circled the entire city sky, police cars speeding, busy heading in all directions.

At 15:00, apartment doors were broken open one after another. Some used feet, others used door breakers. Almost simultaneously, the doors of the eight victims who had not reported to the police were forcefully “bang bang bang” broken open by officers one after another. That sound was like a series of fireworks, exploding in the air, exploding in people’s hearts.

The intercom kept sounding—

“Oasis took sleeping pills, has a suicide note, 80-year-old living alone, still has vital signs, being sent to the hospital!”

“Minghui, 56 years old, female, safe.”

“Nanyuan, 16 years old, took sleeping pills, no suicide note. Currently being rescued.”

“Da Mingyue, 32 years old, male, safe.”

“…”

“Forest City, 45 years old, female, safe!”

“Yucheng, 18 years old, male, no vital signs.”

The last case was special. When officers rushed to the door, they could already faintly smell some decay. They had made sufficient preparations before breaking the door, but when the door was smashed open, the odor that hit them drove everyone back. The smell was indescribable as if someone had put surströmming and rotten pork in a pot and boiled them together, mixed with a bit of sewage smell.

The room was small, probably a rental, barren with just a bare bed. A young boy’s T-shirt and jeans lay beside the bed. An officer pulled out a damaged brown wallet from his pocket, took out the ID card and looked at it: nineteen years old. Very young, an age where there was time to do anything.

“No obvious external injuries probably took sleeping pills, and has been dead for at least a week,” the officer said.

The smell in the room wasn’t as unpleasant anymore. The officer found his phone and looked at it, then seemed to freeze, unable to describe the feeling. His heart felt as if it had been grabbed and squeezed tightly. It wasn’t exactly sympathy, just a feeling of heaviness, like dark clouds overhead that made it impossible to breathe.

It was an unsent message, addressed to his mother.

[Mom, I’m really scared. I’ve got depression. I have no money left. The money you gave me for the start of the semester was all scammed away. I only have 300 yuan left. I lied to you. I didn’t pay the tuition fee either. The teacher keeps urging me. They’ll call home soon. I have no choice. I’m sorry, I’m really afraid of your beatings and scolding. I’ll repay you in the next life…]

Just because of a small tuition fee?

Some people found it unbelievable.

“The parents didn’t communicate well. Always beating and scolding, how could the child not be afraid?”

They feared their parents, their superiors, schools, feared friends, classmates, judgmental looks, all the rumors and gossip of the mundane world, feared the light of this city, feared everything. But they did not fear death.

The crime scene was silent. Someone could no longer bear it, crouched down covering his eyes, wiping tears with his arm, cursing in a low voice.

And Fang Zhengfan, who received the message on the phone, tightened his thick fingers holding the phone until the knuckles turned white, his cheeks sucked in until they were numb.

Outside the window, the sky had cleared, pristine blue. Among the treetops, a faint layer of light and shadow gradually fell, and the daylight finally descended as the thin fog dispersed.

Fang Zhengfan thought this year’s winter was long, so long that he thought he would see all the snow and wind. Yet today’s winter seemed very short, so short that some people didn’t even have the chance to meet once.

Li Lingbai turned herself in, completely unexpectedly.

That day, the wind at the police station was particularly strong. She seemed to have been blown in. Liang Yunan told Li Juyu how he saw that woman walking into the police station wearing high heels with an expressionless face.

Li Juyu realized he was wrong. Lu Mingbo didn’t love Quan Siyun as much as he said. He didn’t take the blame for Quan Siyun. It was Li Lingbai who came to take the blame for Quan Siyun.

In the interrogation room, the beam of white light that had nearly pierced his eyes years ago now shone into Li Lingbai’s emotionless eyes. She still held her swan-like neck high, but she confessed to her crimes without reservation.

“Yes, I am ‘True Guidance,’ and it was I who forced Wang Xingsheng and his secretary to commit suicide because they had evidence of my smuggling antiques. Wang Xingsheng and his secretary wanted to report me, to put me in prison.”

Liang Yunan sat in front of her and asked: “What about Chen Qingmei eight years ago?”

The interrogation room was separated by a one-way mirror. Those outside could see inside, but those inside couldn’t see out. Yet Li Lingbai seemed to know Li Juyu was standing outside. She slightly turned her head, as if speaking to someone outside: “You can blame it on me. After all, if it weren’t for me, she wouldn’t have met Wang Xingsheng, and wouldn’t have committed suicide out of guilt after having an affair with him. She probably felt she couldn’t maintain her reputation as a chaste and righteous woman.”

“Chen Qingmei wasn’t a believer?”

Li Lingbai candidly said: “I admit all my crimes, except for one thing I don’t admit: ‘True Guidance’ is not a cult, nor does it have believers. You can say I used them to commit fraud, but I never made them believe in any religion.”

Liang Yunan was impatient. A fire seemed to burst from his chest, burning more fiercely, his volume involuntarily raised by at least three degrees: “So the entire city’s police force is playing games with you today? That nineteen-year-old boy dead in a rental room, Yu Wei still missing, and those people who took sleeping pills and are still being rescued in the hospital—what do you take them for!”

Li Lingbai didn’t speak, nor was there resistance in her eyes. She just silently looked at Liang Yunan.

After a while, in the dim interrogation room, Li Lingbai said: “I want to see Li Juyu.”

When Ye Meng received Liang Yunan’s call, she was just taking a cake out of the oven, preparing to video livestream with the elderly ladies and teach them how to evenly spread thick cream, then use red jam to write Li Juyu’s name. She had written half the name when the phone rang.

“What’s wrong?” Ye Meng tucked the phone between her ear and shoulder, leisurely writing the character “Ju.”

Liang Yunan’s voice was somewhat agitated, “Why don’t you come to the police station? Something’s happened with Li Juyu.”

At the same time, that young and handsome psychologist also met with Quan Siyun. The two were facing off in another interrogation room.

“Long time no see, Teacher Quan.”

Quan Siyun looked at this familiar yet perverse face. Counting back, he was the student she had seen who least resembled someone studying psychology. “Hasn’t this profession made you tired yet? I thought you changed careers after graduation.”

The man sat with his legs crossed, answering indirectly: “If every criminal were like you, Teacher, I’m afraid I could never change careers. I originally couldn’t understand one question: why would Li Lingbai take the blame for you? But now I suddenly understand. As Li Lingbai said, she didn’t know what ‘True Guidance’ was doing. ‘True Guidance’ is true as she said—at most, she committed fraud and didn’t brainwash them.”

“I didn’t either,” said Quan Siyun.

“Yes, you didn’t,” the man said, “You only brainwashed one person—Li Lingbai. It’s easier to brainwash one person than a group. I overthought it before. I thought you were dissatisfied with the social system because of your parents and created such a large suicide event to embarrass the social system or the government. Later I realized that wasn’t it. Your psychology is truly perverted. You did all this just to make Li Lingbai willingly take the blame for you. I didn’t specifically guess why you hate her so much, but Li Juyu and I later found out that your father was indeed imprisoned for economic crimes, and your mother did commit suicide. However, Li Juyu discovered in the archives that you and Li Lingbai were neighbors in that quadrangle for a year when you were children.”

“Wang Xingsheng was forced to death by you. At that time, Wang Xingsheng wanted to report not Li Lingbai, but you.”

“Teacher Quan, you’ve been waiting for this day for a long time, haven’t you?”

Quan Siyun smiled impenetrably, her gaze not even avoiding the handsome man in front of her, saying: “If you wrote books, you would be a bestselling author. You’re so good at making things up.”

A high-end MPV slowly stopped at the entrance of the police station.

In the lobby, a young female officer was lowering her head, preparing to make a call to the municipal bureau. She suddenly heard the sound of high heels from the entrance but didn’t pay much attention. Women often came and went in the lobby. The woman walked past her, and she still didn’t pay much attention, one hand hanging up the phone, the other tapping on the desk out of boredom. Not until she smelled a faint cake fragrance did she instinctively look up, thinking someone had ordered cake delivery.

She had expected to see a face as sweet as cake, but instead, the woman before her wore light makeup, a black suit that looked mature and capable, with a Korean-style bun that might have been a DIY effort at home out of boredom. The craftsmanship wasn’t very mature, but it unexpectedly added a touch of liveliness. Combined with that high-end, cold, lazy face, she seemed to be in a bad mood at the moment. But somehow matched that brother inside.

For some unknown reason, the young officer’s first thought was that she must be related to Li Juyu. Even if she wasn’t his girlfriend, they must at least be friends.

After all, such configurations were rare in life. It was like in student days when those who looked good always found ways to become friends. The young officer instinctively exchanged glances with her female colleague, and obviously, they agreed.

When Liang Yunan saw Ye Meng, he finally felt relieved. “Go in and talk some sense into him. He’s been shut in there for a long time.”

Ye Meng glanced at the tightly closed door. The sleeves of her black suit and shirt were rolled up to her forearms, and she leaned against the wall with her arms crossed, saying coldly: “I want to see Li Lingbai.”

Outside the window was a crimson sunset, gathered at the horizon, with magnificent scenery that couldn’t illuminate the small meeting room. Inside was just a table and a small green plant that had just sprouted, placed on the windowsill, swaying gently in the wind. Faintly, a weak cicada sound could be heard.

When Li Lingbai sat down in front of her wearing handcuffs, Ye Meng leaned back lazily in her chair, with some kind of document folder on the table in front of her. She looked at her, said nothing, slid it over, and pushed it in front of her.

Li Lingbai was caught off guard by her preemptive move, and paused, looking down at the yellow document folder, “What is this?”

Ye Meng said: “A severance of relations agreement. I don’t know what you just said to him again, but to prevent him from being upset because of you in the future, I’ve taken the liberty of helping him sever the mother-son relationship with you. He tolerates you because you gave birth to him and raised him. I don’t tolerate you because I love him. However you want to destroy yourself, I don’t care, but don’t disgust him.”

“Why are there two copies?”

“Can’t you see clearly? The other one is from Grandfather. He’s afraid the company’s stock price will plummet tomorrow, so he can only minimize the losses first. By the way, he asked me to tell you: reform well, start a new life. At least when you get out, Li Zhuofeng can still support you—oh, provided that he has a brain like Li Juyu’s. You just go to prison peacefully.”

The cicada’s call outside the window seemed to be getting clearer. It seemed that summer was coming soon.

Li Lingbai finally lost control, screaming hoarsely, like a skinned crow, shrill and unbearable—

“Li Juyu is a pervert! He monitors me, follows me! You don’t know, do you? When I got married, he knelt and begged me not to abandon him.”

Ye Meng coldly replied: “Fine, I’ll go back to confirm and then break his legs. Anything else you want to say?”