Wang Bide asked He Yunqin, “Did you examine the scene just now?”

He Yunqin said flatly, “Bai Haili harbored ill intentions and had been secretly watching Hongdou and me these past few days. Before he could get around to harming anyone, he died at the tea party. His people are bound to suspect me. Unfortunately, his subordinates were present when it happened, and they all know I’m at odds with Bai Haili. To avoid trouble, I only had a rough look around before they arrived.”

Wang Bide thought for a moment. “Was that house haunted too? Yunqin, I recall you were once invited by St. John’s Mysticism Fellowship to give a talk at the New Asia Tea House — something about mysterious buildings in Shanghai. You covered several haunted houses back then. Was this house among those you researched?”

He Yunqin glanced at Hongdou, whose face showed confusion, fell silent for a moment, then smiled. “So there was such a thing — I’d forgotten until you mentioned it. Let me see if that stack of documents is still around.”

Hongdou took a sip of tea. He Yunqin’s memory was excellent — having once put in the effort for such in-depth research, how could he possibly have simply forgotten?

He Yunqin indeed retrieved a stack of pages from the study, and coming back over, stood and said, “So there is material on this Western-style house after all. This house really was haunted — here’s the internal layout.”

He pulled out one of the pages, set it on the tea table, and sat down.

Hongdou picked up the page to look — it was a professionally drawn floor plan, quite technical-looking, with a line in the bottom right corner reading “No. 32 Yihai Road, St. John’s.” Gu Yun might not recognize it, but Hongdou recognized at a glance that it was He Yunqin’s handwriting.

So this diagram had actually been drawn by his own hand. Yet in front of her, he’d acted as though he were visiting that mansion for the first time.

Seeing Hongdou staring silently at the diagram, He Yunqin placed the page squarely in the middle and patiently pointed things out on it. “This is the living room, dining room, study, kitchen, back garden — the washroom where Bai Haili’s body was found is here.”

With his explanation, the layout on the diagram immediately became clear.

Hongdou suppressed her anger and, pointing at the washroom, said to Wang Bide and Gu Yun, “The tea party was very lively at the time, guests everywhere. Bai Haili was a big, tall man — after killing him, the murderer wouldn’t have had the chance to move the body around, so the washroom must be where he was actually murdered. When I first arrived at the venue in the evening, I went to the washroom once — from the living room to that spot takes about a minute.”

Gu Yun said, “Wasn’t there a blackout just before the body was discovered? If it was the murderer’s doing, why would he do that? To make it easier to slip away in the dark?”

He Yunqin pointed to a hidden room beside the kitchen. “This is the utility room for the electrical circuits. For an adult male, it would take about 40 seconds to walk from the washroom to here. If the blackout was deliberately caused by the murderer, then he likely didn’t flee through the front door — he should have gone to the utility room to cut the power, then used the darkness inside and outside the kitchen to reach the back door, and left along the lawn. By the time the staff got someone to restore the fuse, the kitchen servants would never have known someone had slipped away amid the chaos.”

Wang Bide was greatly astonished. “So this person must be extremely familiar with the mansion’s layout, and had planned the escape route in advance. And with so many people present at the scene, not a single person heard a cry for help — clearly the murderer didn’t alarm Bai Haili at all, and killed him in one stroke before he could even call out. Strange indeed — if the victim were a woman or child, that would be one thing, but Bai Haili was such a physically imposing, powerful man.”

He Yunqin said, “When Hongdou and I went to check the back door earlier, the area by the kitchen door was covered with the servants’ footprints, all heading from the kitchen corridor toward the washroom after the incident. Only one fresh line of footprints went the opposite direction — coming from the utility room and walking backward all the way to the back door before vanishing. This matches exactly the escape route I hypothesized for the murderer. I measured them — roughly size 39.”

“Size 39?” Wang Bide froze.

He Yunqin’s expression shifted oddly. “What interests me most is that these size-39 footprints were perfectly clean, without a trace of blood. Even though Bai Haili’s head ended up in the toilet bowl after being killed, the wound severed a major vessel in the neck — the floor couldn’t possibly be free of splattered blood. This suggests the murderer put some kind of cloth covers over his shoes before killing him, then took the covers off and left with them afterward.”

He looked up at Wang Bide. “This person is a veteran, extremely professional — nearly every step was calculated. His skills must be considerable too. According to this person’s plan, once Bai Haili’s body was discovered, everyone’s attention would naturally go first to the washroom — no one would think to check the back door for traces. If not for that, by the time the police department’s forces arrived, these footprints would have been thoroughly destroyed. It shows this person, though clever and cautious, is also quite arrogant.”

“But how could such a coincidence occur,” Hongdou said. “That mansion where the nurse died suddenly also had size-39 footprints found upstairs — could it be the same person?”

Gu Yun said, puzzled, “But that nurse named Shi Chunli doesn’t seem to have any connection to Bai Haili, and Shi Chunli died of a heart attack, while Bai Haili was murdered.”

He Yunqin said, “On this point alone, there’s indeed no way to connect the two incidents. As the papers said, Bai Haili had too many enemies — it’s very possible he was simply hunted down by someone seeking revenge, and the cause of death may not be as complicated as it seems. As for the nurse’s case, on the surface, there’s nothing suspicious about it. But there are two strange things. First, before his death, Bai Haili was already secretly involved with Chen Baidie, yet Chen Baidie placed an ad in the papers to sell her house. As far as I know, that house had no history of ill omen before this. I don’t know why Chen Baidie would want to sell it — and since Bai Haili was intimate with Chen Baidie, does he know the reason behind it?”

Wang Bide made a sound of acknowledgment. “What’s the other strange thing?”

Hongdou chimed in, “After Shi Chunli died, the mansion at No. 15 Chengfeng Road sat empty. And now, with what’s happened to Bai Haili, Elder Sister-in-law’s plan to make this place a permanent tea party venue has naturally fallen through too — it seems the house will inevitably sit empty again sooner or later—”

She glanced at He Yunqin. “Am I right?”

He Yunqin looked at her. “Whether or not the two incidents are connected, both deaths ended up leading to the house sitting empty once more. One could say different paths leading to the same destination — it really is too much of a coincidence.”

Just then, a servant brought up the congee. Hongdou, still harboring some resentment, had no appetite. He Yunqin keenly sensed a storm brewing, and simply focused on studying the documents in his hand, not touching the bowl of congee in front of him either. Wang Bide and Gu Yun, however, each finished a bowl.

Before long, someone from the Gu family came to fetch Gu Yun. Wang Bide reminded Gu Yun to be sure to collect the newspapers tomorrow, then drove off together with the Gu family’s car.

Before leaving, Wang Bide spoke privately with He Yunqin for a few words. Hongdou stood on the steps for a moment, and feeling cold, went inside on her own first. Just as she entered, the phone happened to ring. This residence only employed two servants, both busy with other matters and unable to hear the bell, so Hongdou hurried over and answered it at the sofa.

A man’s voice came from the other end. “Hello, I’m looking for He Yunqin.”

There was something oddly familiar about this voice. Hongdou paused, then realized it was the foreign doctor who had examined her before, named Ruide, and said, “Please hold.”

Just then He Yunqin came in, and seeing Hongdou at the table answering the phone, his brow first furrowed, then quickly relaxed. He said gently, “I’ll take it.”

Hongdou had, of course, seen that fleeting change of expression on his face, and it only made her feel more uneasy. She handed him the receiver and turned back into the bedroom, standing by the bed for a moment, feeling stifled and restless, with no thought of sleep. Just as she was about to head into the washroom, He Yunqin came in, closed the door behind him, and looked at her. “Angry?”

Hongdou glanced at him. “Who’s angry?”

“Someone who’s not angry wouldn’t skip supper.”

“Can’t I just not have an appetite sometimes?”

He laughed, his dark eyes gleaming under the lamplight. “You can, but it’s rare.”

Him deflecting with these words again made Hongdou glare at him. “Whether I’m hungry or not is none of your business. Anyway, I’m not allowed to ask too much about your affairs, not allowed to pry too much about your friends, and now I’m not even allowed to casually answer your phone calls—”

Saying this, her heart simply went cold, her throat nearly closing up so she could barely continue. Pushing past him, she opened the door and said, “I used to not understand, but now I do. From now on, I won’t ask about your affairs at all, and you don’t ask about mine either.”

He Yunqin, who had been watching her quite calmly, felt a jolt in his heart at these words. He hurriedly pulled her back, gripping her arm, and looked down at her. “Hongdou, you’re so clever — let me just give you one comparison and you’ll understand. Suppose something concerned Gu Yun’s life, and revealing even a hint of it would bring utter disaster upon your dearest friend — would you casually tell me about it?”

Hongdou froze with anger. “Do you think I’m a fool? Of course I understand that logic. Since we married, however many things you’ve kept from me, I know the stakes involved — when have I ever demanded you tell me everything? But just now, while we were discussing the case, I suddenly understood something. Before, when my mother and brother wanted to move house, you were fully in favor of it, repeatedly urging them to move as quickly as possible. To help Mother make up her mind sooner, you even had someone find a house perfectly suited to her taste. But when it came to reopening the shop, you only said the situation was unstable, and it’d be better to keep the money on hand for emergencies.

“You’d already measured the dimensions of our study before, and you’ve done research on quite a few Shanghai buildings — surely our old family mansion was within the scope of your research too. It’s clear you never cared at all about when or whether the Yu family should buy a house — you only wanted to coax them into moving out, and here I was, happy about it for so long, the whole family so grateful to you, when all along it was something you’d planned out in advance!”

He Yunqin was startled — he’d known she’d figure this out eventually, but hadn’t expected it to be so soon. “Hongdou.”

His expression confirmed her suspicions, and Hongdou grew even more bitterly upset, shoving him away hard. “Don’t call me Hongdou. He Yunqin, I hate you. Get me a car — I’m not staying here, I want to go back to Tongfu Lane.”

She was a true little firebrand — in no time at all, he’d already taken several hits from her. Enduring her onslaught for a while, he said, exasperated, “The money for your mother’s house purchase, I already had it prepared long ago — it’s sitting in your dressing table drawer right now. If you don’t believe me, we can go back to the He mansion right now and you’ll see for yourself.”

Hongdou was stunned for a moment, then raised her voice again. “Who cares about your money, He Yunqin? If you’d told me beforehand that house had a problem, do you think I would have stopped Mother and them from moving? Since marrying you, no matter what you did or said, I always trusted you wholeheartedly — even when we had disagreements, one word from you would dispel my doubts at once. But how have you treated me? I’m your wife. It’s one thing for you not to tell me the truth to my face — but to use this kind of scheme on my whole family? If all you needed was an obedient wife who does as she’s told, why marry me, Yu Hongdou at all?”

The angrier she got, the more her tears finally couldn’t be held back, falling in a rush.

He Yunqin looked on, both angry and aching with concern, and said sharply, “This matter is exceedingly dangerous — however many people have already died over it, one after another. Though there’s no proof yet, I currently suspect both Bai Haili’s and Shi Chunli’s deaths are connected to it. You’re intensely curious by nature — if I’d told you beforehand, and it brought danger down on you, what then? Do you think I could just stand by and watch you get dragged into this?”

Hong Dou Sheng Min Guo – Chapter 80

Wang Bide asked He Yunqin, “Did you examine the scene just now?”

He Yunqin said flatly, “Bai Haili harbored ill intentions and had been secretly watching Hongdou and me these past few days. Before he could get around to harming anyone, he died at the tea party. His people are bound to suspect me. Unfortunately, his subordinates were present when it happened, and they all know I’m at odds with Bai Haili. To avoid trouble, I only had a rough look around before they arrived.”

Wang Bide thought for a moment. “Was that house haunted too? Yunqin, I recall you were once invited by St. John’s Mysticism Fellowship to give a talk at the New Asia Tea House — something about mysterious buildings in Shanghai. You covered several haunted houses back then. Was this house among those you researched?”

He Yunqin glanced at Hongdou, whose face showed confusion, fell silent for a moment, then smiled. “So there was such a thing — I’d forgotten until you mentioned it. Let me see if that stack of documents is still around.”

Hongdou took a sip of tea. He Yunqin’s memory was excellent — having once put in the effort for such in-depth research, how could he possibly have simply forgotten?

He Yunqin indeed retrieved a stack of pages from the study, and coming back over, stood and said, “So there is material on this Western-style house after all. This house really was haunted — here’s the internal layout.”

He pulled out one of the pages, set it on the tea table, and sat down.

Hongdou picked up the page to look — it was a professionally drawn floor plan, quite technical-looking, with a line in the bottom right corner reading “No. 32 Yihai Road, St. John’s.” Gu Yun might not recognize it, but Hongdou recognized at a glance that it was He Yunqin’s handwriting.

So this diagram had actually been drawn by his own hand. Yet in front of her, he’d acted as though he were visiting that mansion for the first time.

Seeing Hongdou staring silently at the diagram, He Yunqin placed the page squarely in the middle and patiently pointed things out on it. “This is the living room, dining room, study, kitchen, back garden — the washroom where Bai Haili’s body was found is here.”

With his explanation, the layout on the diagram immediately became clear.

Hongdou suppressed her anger and, pointing at the washroom, said to Wang Bide and Gu Yun, “The tea party was very lively at the time, guests everywhere. Bai Haili was a big, tall man — after killing him, the murderer wouldn’t have had the chance to move the body around, so the washroom must be where he was actually murdered. When I first arrived at the venue in the evening, I went to the washroom once — from the living room to that spot takes about a minute.”

Gu Yun said, “Wasn’t there a blackout just before the body was discovered? If it was the murderer’s doing, why would he do that? To make it easier to slip away in the dark?”

He Yunqin pointed to a hidden room beside the kitchen. “This is the utility room for the electrical circuits. For an adult male, it would take about 40 seconds to walk from the washroom to here. If the blackout was deliberately caused by the murderer, then he likely didn’t flee through the front door — he should have gone to the utility room to cut the power, then used the darkness inside and outside the kitchen to reach the back door, and left along the lawn. By the time the staff got someone to restore the fuse, the kitchen servants would never have known someone had slipped away amid the chaos.”

Wang Bide was greatly astonished. “So this person must be extremely familiar with the mansion’s layout, and had planned the escape route in advance. And with so many people present at the scene, not a single person heard a cry for help — clearly the murderer didn’t alarm Bai Haili at all, and killed him in one stroke before he could even call out. Strange indeed — if the victim were a woman or child, that would be one thing, but Bai Haili was such a physically imposing, powerful man.”

He Yunqin said, “When Hongdou and I went to check the back door earlier, the area by the kitchen door was covered with the servants’ footprints, all heading from the kitchen corridor toward the washroom after the incident. Only one fresh line of footprints went the opposite direction — coming from the utility room and walking backward all the way to the back door before vanishing. This matches exactly the escape route I hypothesized for the murderer. I measured them — roughly size 39.”

“Size 39?” Wang Bide froze.

He Yunqin’s expression shifted oddly. “What interests me most is that these size-39 footprints were perfectly clean, without a trace of blood. Even though Bai Haili’s head ended up in the toilet bowl after being killed, the wound severed a major vessel in the neck — the floor couldn’t possibly be free of splattered blood. This suggests the murderer put some kind of cloth covers over his shoes before killing him, then took the covers off and left with them afterward.”

He looked up at Wang Bide. “This person is a veteran, extremely professional — nearly every step was calculated. His skills must be considerable too. According to this person’s plan, once Bai Haili’s body was discovered, everyone’s attention would naturally go first to the washroom — no one would think to check the back door for traces. If not for that, by the time the police department’s forces arrived, these footprints would have been thoroughly destroyed. It shows this person, though clever and cautious, is also quite arrogant.”

“But how could such a coincidence occur,” Hongdou said. “That mansion where the nurse died suddenly also had size-39 footprints found upstairs — could it be the same person?”

Gu Yun said, puzzled, “But that nurse named Shi Chunli doesn’t seem to have any connection to Bai Haili, and Shi Chunli died of a heart attack, while Bai Haili was murdered.”

He Yunqin said, “On this point alone, there’s indeed no way to connect the two incidents. As the papers said, Bai Haili had too many enemies — it’s very possible he was simply hunted down by someone seeking revenge, and the cause of death may not be as complicated as it seems. As for the nurse’s case, on the surface, there’s nothing suspicious about it. But there are two strange things. First, before his death, Bai Haili was already secretly involved with Chen Baidie, yet Chen Baidie placed an ad in the papers to sell her house. As far as I know, that house had no history of ill omen before this. I don’t know why Chen Baidie would want to sell it — and since Bai Haili was intimate with Chen Baidie, does he know the reason behind it?”

Wang Bide made a sound of acknowledgment. “What’s the other strange thing?”

Hongdou chimed in, “After Shi Chunli died, the mansion at No. 15 Chengfeng Road sat empty. And now, with what’s happened to Bai Haili, Elder Sister-in-law’s plan to make this place a permanent tea party venue has naturally fallen through too — it seems the house will inevitably sit empty again sooner or later—”

She glanced at He Yunqin. “Am I right?”

He Yunqin looked at her. “Whether or not the two incidents are connected, both deaths ended up leading to the house sitting empty once more. One could say different paths leading to the same destination — it really is too much of a coincidence.”

Just then, a servant brought up the congee. Hongdou, still harboring some resentment, had no appetite. He Yunqin keenly sensed a storm brewing, and simply focused on studying the documents in his hand, not touching the bowl of congee in front of him either. Wang Bide and Gu Yun, however, each finished a bowl.

Before long, someone from the Gu family came to fetch Gu Yun. Wang Bide reminded Gu Yun to be sure to collect the newspapers tomorrow, then drove off together with the Gu family’s car.

Before leaving, Wang Bide spoke privately with He Yunqin for a few words. Hongdou stood on the steps for a moment, and feeling cold, went inside on her own first. Just as she entered, the phone happened to ring. This residence only employed two servants, both busy with other matters and unable to hear the bell, so Hongdou hurried over and answered it at the sofa.

A man’s voice came from the other end. “Hello, I’m looking for He Yunqin.”

There was something oddly familiar about this voice. Hongdou paused, then realized it was the foreign doctor who had examined her before, named Ruide, and said, “Please hold.”

Just then He Yunqin came in, and seeing Hongdou at the table answering the phone, his brow first furrowed, then quickly relaxed. He said gently, “I’ll take it.”

Hongdou had, of course, seen that fleeting change of expression on his face, and it only made her feel more uneasy. She handed him the receiver and turned back into the bedroom, standing by the bed for a moment, feeling stifled and restless, with no thought of sleep. Just as she was about to head into the washroom, He Yunqin came in, closed the door behind him, and looked at her. “Angry?”

Hongdou glanced at him. “Who’s angry?”

“Someone who’s not angry wouldn’t skip supper.”

“Can’t I just not have an appetite sometimes?”

He laughed, his dark eyes gleaming under the lamplight. “You can, but it’s rare.”

Him deflecting with these words again made Hongdou glare at him. “Whether I’m hungry or not is none of your business. Anyway, I’m not allowed to ask too much about your affairs, not allowed to pry too much about your friends, and now I’m not even allowed to casually answer your phone calls—”

Saying this, her heart simply went cold, her throat nearly closing up so she could barely continue. Pushing past him, she opened the door and said, “I used to not understand, but now I do. From now on, I won’t ask about your affairs at all, and you don’t ask about mine either.”

He Yunqin, who had been watching her quite calmly, felt a jolt in his heart at these words. He hurriedly pulled her back, gripping her arm, and looked down at her. “Hongdou, you’re so clever — let me just give you one comparison and you’ll understand. Suppose something concerned Gu Yun’s life, and revealing even a hint of it would bring utter disaster upon your dearest friend — would you casually tell me about it?”

Hongdou froze with anger. “Do you think I’m a fool? Of course I understand that logic. Since we married, however many things you’ve kept from me, I know the stakes involved — when have I ever demanded you tell me everything? But just now, while we were discussing the case, I suddenly understood something. Before, when my mother and brother wanted to move house, you were fully in favor of it, repeatedly urging them to move as quickly as possible. To help Mother make up her mind sooner, you even had someone find a house perfectly suited to her taste. But when it came to reopening the shop, you only said the situation was unstable, and it’d be better to keep the money on hand for emergencies.

“You’d already measured the dimensions of our study before, and you’ve done research on quite a few Shanghai buildings — surely our old family mansion was within the scope of your research too. It’s clear you never cared at all about when or whether the Yu family should buy a house — you only wanted to coax them into moving out, and here I was, happy about it for so long, the whole family so grateful to you, when all along it was something you’d planned out in advance!”

He Yunqin was startled — he’d known she’d figure this out eventually, but hadn’t expected it to be so soon. “Hongdou.”

His expression confirmed her suspicions, and Hongdou grew even more bitterly upset, shoving him away hard. “Don’t call me Hongdou. He Yunqin, I hate you. Get me a car — I’m not staying here, I want to go back to Tongfu Lane.”

She was a true little firebrand — in no time at all, he’d already taken several hits from her. Enduring her onslaught for a while, he said, exasperated, “The money for your mother’s house purchase, I already had it prepared long ago — it’s sitting in your dressing table drawer right now. If you don’t believe me, we can go back to the He mansion right now and you’ll see for yourself.”

Hongdou was stunned for a moment, then raised her voice again. “Who cares about your money, He Yunqin? If you’d told me beforehand that house had a problem, do you think I would have stopped Mother and them from moving? Since marrying you, no matter what you did or said, I always trusted you wholeheartedly — even when we had disagreements, one word from you would dispel my doubts at once. But how have you treated me? I’m your wife. It’s one thing for you not to tell me the truth to my face — but to use this kind of scheme on my whole family? If all you needed was an obedient wife who does as she’s told, why marry me, Yu Hongdou at all?”

The angrier she got, the more her tears finally couldn’t be held back, falling in a rush.

He Yunqin looked on, both angry and aching with concern, and said sharply, “This matter is exceedingly dangerous — however many people have already died over it, one after another. Though there’s no proof yet, I currently suspect both Bai Haili’s and Shi Chunli’s deaths are connected to it. You’re intensely curious by nature — if I’d told you beforehand, and it brought danger down on you, what then? Do you think I could just stand by and watch you get dragged into this?”