Chen Xiangrong received the phone call and quickly tidied his clothes before going out. Just as he left the building, he saw a black car—a huge thing with a strange shape and a row of lights on top. He had no idea what they were for.

In all his time in Nantian County, this was the first time he had seen such a car.

The car door opened, and Luo Ren waved to him. Chen Xiangrong trotted over and sat in the passenger seat, his hands and feet awkwardly positioned, not knowing where to place them.

Luo Ren glanced at him. This Chen Xiangrong looked honest and straightforward. According to the information from Ma Tuwen, he was around forty, but he looked much older than his actual age. His face was lined with furrows, his hands rough, with one finger wrapped in tape.

He asked: “You work at the county Public Security Bureau?”

Chen Xiangrong answered honestly: “No, it’s impossible to get into the Public Security Bureau’s official staff. I sign contracts with a cleaning company that’s outsourced to clean the Public Security Bureau building.”

Luo Ren made a sound of acknowledgment, stepped on the gas, and the car drove straight out of town.

Chen Xiangrong was a bit nervous. Last night, a relative had asked him if he happened to be present when that incident occurred at the bureau, then mentioned that someone wanted to inquire about the details and would give him a thousand yuan.

That was more than a month’s salary, and Chen Xiangrong had immediately agreed.

But now, sitting in the car, he suddenly felt uneasy.

He swallowed and turned to Luo Ren: “Um… I just talk about what happened, I don’t do anything illegal.”

He emphasized: “What I’m telling you can be shared publicly. Many people know about it, so I’m not breaking any rules.”

Luo Ren didn’t look at him: “Fasten your seat belt.”

Chen Xiangrong had barely ridden in cars before. He fumbled several times but couldn’t find the seat belt. When he finally found it, he didn’t know how to fasten it. After hesitating twice, the car had already stopped.

They stopped at the bridge, the boundary between urban and rural areas. Because of the recent murder case, many people have been wandering around the bridge these past couple of days, seemingly treating it like a curiosity to see the scene. Everything had been cleaned up long ago—the bridge was just a bridge, the embankment just an embankment—but everyone still looked with fascination, speaking as if they had witnessed everything firsthand.

Luo Ren remained silent, looking at the bridge through the car window.

“I heard she escaped?”

“Yes, she ran.” Finally hearing his question, Chen Xiangrong couldn’t wait to spill everything he knew. “Nobody thought she would run. I heard she was very cooperative at first. She was beautiful and educated-looking. Who would have thought she would escape, and…”

Recalling it now, he still felt a shock: “She jumped directly from upstairs…”

When that girl was brought in, Chen Xiangrong and a coworker were on duty. As usual, the two pretended to mop the floor while their eyes darted left and right, missing nothing.

His coworker had commented with great feeling: “I used to think all criminals looked fierce. Now I know that those who look refined and quiet are the most troublesome.”

The two had sighed for a while, then cleaned the entire corridor before moving on to clean the restroom garbage.

While wiping the sink counter, an officer who had been questioning her came in. After using the facilities and washing his hands, he suddenly became angry and slammed his palm on the counter.

Chen Xiangrong had worked there long enough to be somewhat familiar with everyone and occasionally chatted with them.

He remembered asking at the time: “Is she not confessing?”

This was commonplace at the bureau.

The officer’s face flushed red with anger: “She’s refusing to talk. These are the most hateful kind.”

His coworker chimed in: “Yes, opposing the people.”

The officer said, “We spoke to her nicely, telling her that if she had a good attitude, actively confessed, and cooperated, there could be considerations during the future trial. Doesn’t she understand the consequences of stubbornly resisting?”

The coworker said, “Exactly.”

“She said she was sleeping at the time of the incident, but there’s no evidence. The young girl who shared her room slept more deeply than her and couldn’t prove she didn’t go out. On the other hand, Ma Chao is a direct eyewitness who saw her commit the crime, and there’s more than one witness.”

Hearing this, Luo Ren looked up: “More than one witness?”

Chen Xiangrong said, “Yes, that young Ma Chao saw her commit the crime. Then, supposedly about ten minutes after the incident, someone returning late from a mahjong game also saw her nearby.

Ma Chao went for the in-person identification. After she was brought to the bureau, the mahjong player, named Song Tie, also came to identify her through the glass. There was no mistake.”

Luo Ren made a sound of acknowledgment, then, after a pause, said: “Continue.”

Chen Xiangrong remembered that his coworker had encouraged the officer not to be disheartened: “We must severely crack down on the criminal’s arrogance. Don’t speak to her nicely. Be stern! Severe! Even more severe if she resists!”

After two years of outsourced work at the bureau, his coworker spoke fluently enough to give a report directly.

The officer had pointed his lips toward the other side: “The chief is talking to her now. She’s young, and we’re operating on the principle of salvation, hoping she’ll understand the severity of the situation.”

“According to Article 53 of the Criminal Procedure Law, even if the defendant doesn’t confess, if the evidence is sufficient and solid, the defendant can be found guilty and sentenced. And now there isn’t just one witness, but two! Two people who don’t know each other, with no possibility of collusion, whose testimonies can corroborate each other, forming a chain of evidence. So if she continues to be uncooperative, she’ll bear the consequences.”

Chen Xiangrong said, “That’s right.”

The officer said a few more words and then left.

Coincidentally, as Chen Xiangrong was finishing his shift, he encountered Mu Dai again.

With police officers before and behind her, she walked slowly with her head down, her face a bit pale, occasionally lifting her eyes, looking lost and bewildered.

Chen Xiangrong felt a slight pang of sympathy and paused for a few seconds.

It was during these few seconds that he witnessed the entire incident.

While passing an office with an open door, Mu Dai glanced inside.

It was one of the inner offices at the bureau. Because she looked, Chen Xiangrong also looked. Of course, there were people in the office—two clerks, heads down, writing something. Probably because of the hot weather, the windows were completely open.

What happened next left him dumbfounded: Mu Dai suddenly rushed into the office.

This was the third floor, with exits at both ends of the corridor, so the guards were positioned at the front and back to prevent escape. No one expected her to enter an office.

Even more unexpected was her speed. Before the two clerks could even look up, she had already leaped out the window.

Chen Xiangrong looked at Luo Ren: “I didn’t expect she knew martial arts. I didn’t. I thought it was all just a show on TV. At that moment, I didn’t think she was escaping—I thought she was committing suicide.”

He truly believed that and had shouted: “Someone’s jumping!”

He didn’t have the chance to rush to the window to look. He only heard later that the first officer who rushed to the window and looked down saw her already on the ground, then she ran to the wall, barely touching the ground, and flipped over it.

By the time everyone reacted and ran out to chase her, she had completely vanished.

This was the most astonishing case in Nantian County in recent years. Although the authorities said to minimize spreading the news, this was a small county. When someone falls to their death from a bridge, crowds gather to see the aftermath, let alone such an extraordinary event.

Luo Ren gave Chen Xiangrong an extra hundred yuan for a taxi back, saying he wouldn’t drive him.

Chen Xiangrong was quite happy. The distance wasn’t far anyway. He carefully tucked the money into his inner pocket and walked back.

Passing by the bridge, like those curious onlookers, he also leaned over to take another look.

Luo Ren sat in the car for a while.

Chen Xiangrong wasn’t the first person he had approached. Before him, he had talked with Zheng Li.

Zheng Li had been quite nervous, initially thinking he had come to investigate, and repeatedly distanced herself from Mu Dai.

“I’m not very familiar with her,” she said. “She’s only been working at the restaurant for a few days. I don’t know where she’s from or what she did before. I asked, but she wouldn’t say.”

But she was just a young girl after all, unable to withstand his probing and leading questions. Gradually, her words began to betray her concern for Mu Dai.

“My Sister Mu doesn’t have much money. I met her on a long-distance bus. She was like that—alone, without even a bag. No money either. Later, my aunt gave her a little, but not much.”

Luo Ren took this to heart: Without money, she couldn’t have gone far in such a short time. And since she had jumped so blatantly to escape, the police would have taken precautions, immediately checking all transportation stations. So Mu Dai was most likely still in Nantian.

“Does she have any other friends in Nantian?”

Zheng Li thought for a moment: “No. She never mentioned her family either, only that she had a boyfriend who was handsome, seemingly quite wealthy, and good to her.”

A soft corner in Luo Ren’s heart stirred.

“She was always looking for someone, a woman who used to live in the old building that was demolished twenty years ago, someone who liked to wear red high heels. But it seems she didn’t find her.”

It seemed he couldn’t get much more information from Zheng Li. Before leaving, Luo Ren asked one last question: “How is her mental state?”

Zheng Li didn’t understand.

Luo Ren rephrased: “What kind of person do you think your Sister Mu is? Is she tough, or the weak type?”

Zheng Li said, “How could my Sister Mu be weak? She’s very tough.”

After thinking for a moment, she added: “I can’t quite explain it. Sometimes you might think she’s fierce, but then she can be very kind to you. She’s the type who’s hard on the outside but soft on the inside.”

Luo Ren drove around Nantian County all afternoon, passing through every street and alley, more than once.

Sometimes he would stop to buy a drink, then turn around and throw it away. He also went to the outskirts, his car speeding along, raising dust on the road.

He somewhat missed his time in Xiaoshang River, racing across the desert, surfing the dunes, spinning the car to kick up sand, making a whooshing sound like the rising wind.

He drove in circles until very late, then went to the night market. He bought some daily necessities, alcohol, beer, and liquor, meat dishes, roast chicken, roast goose, salt shrimp, several vegetable dishes, and packed white rice. Passing by a fruit stand, he also bought some fruit.

Then he drove to a small hotel he had spotted during his daytime exploration.

It was truly small and simple, with hardly any guests. ID registration was done by hand, there were no surveillance cameras, and the bathroom didn’t even have instant hot water—it had a water heater that needed to be turned on.

After checking in, Luo Ren first boiled water, then opened his computer, set up a web page, and finally arranged the food on the table without touching it. He turned on the television to watch, but the signal was poor, the screen jumping with static noise. The local news happened to be reporting on yesterday’s case, with the host emphatically stating: “The case has made significant progress.”

After midnight, there were fewer channels with programs. Luo Ren randomly tuned into an emotional show featuring the familiar conflict between a wife and a mistress. A man with his face blurred sat calmly while the original wife sobbed: “When you pursued me back then, you were so sincere…”

Yes, yesterday’s treasure in hand, today’s spit in the mouth. Both parties are tearing into each other, almost as if wanting to spit on the ground.

There was a knock at the door, very light, mixed in with the host’s earnest babbling.

Luo Ren was immediately alert. The next moment, he turned off the television, paused, walked to the door, and gently turned the handle.

In the dim yellow corridor light, Mu Dai stood there. She seemed even thinner, wearing a large mask that revealed only her eyes, like a small animal startled but without malice, with shadows of sleep deprivation under her eyelids.

She said: “I saw your car driving around and around in the streets. I thought you might be looking for me.”

Luo Ren took a step forward, and Mu Dai, very sensitive, immediately stepped back.

Luo Ren smiled slightly and said, “Mu Dai, I’ve held you, embraced you, and kissed you before. If you think this disease can be transmitted through close contact, isn’t it a bit too late to take precautions now?”

Mu Dai didn’t speak, her head slightly lowered, her long hair falling forward, revealing a delicate, fair neck, pale and fragile, as if it might break with the slightest carelessness.

Luo Ren asked: “Have you eaten these past couple of days?”

She thought for a moment, then shook her head. Her clothes were torn in several places, with dirt around the edges of the tears. It was hard to imagine where she had been hiding for the past day and night.

Luo Ren reached out, took her arm, and brought her in.

The room smelled different—the aroma of food stimulated taste buds that had been deprived for several meals. Mu Dai’s gaze fell on the table full of late-night snacks, mostly in plastic containers, but to her, it was an elaborate feast.

Her view was blocked as Luo Ren stepped in front of her, standing between her and the inner room, gesturing toward the bathroom: “Take a shower.”

Mu Dai said, “I don’t have any clothes to change into.”

“I’ve heard about you—not bringing a single piece of luggage, not having a penny, just bringing your brain and hands. You think you’re quite carefree, don’t you?”

He gave her some clothes, men’s clothes, along with disposable travel underwear bought from the supermarket.

Then he pushed her into the bathroom: “Shower, eat after you shower, then we’ll talk.”