As soon as Zong Hang and the others left, Yi Sa went to find Ding Xi.

She only remembered the water ghost’s room clearly. As for where Ding Xi and his group stayed, she only knew the general location. As she walked along and turned a corner, she suddenly saw Jiang Xiaoguang.

He looked very nervous, clutching his phone with an expression of uncertainty, lingering for a long time in front of a door. He would reach out to knock, then withdraw his hand, turn to leave, take two steps, then look back – basically unable to make up his mind, caught in indecision.

Yi Sa found it strange and was about to call out to him when he seemed to finally make up his mind, clenched his fist at his side briefly, and left.

What was that all about? And who was staying in that room?

Yi Sa had no such hesitations. She walked up to the door and knocked directly.

Ding Changsheng opened the door.

What’s with these two old men playing at being hesitant to speak? Yi Sa put on a bright smile: “Uncle Ding.”

Ding Changsheng looked a bit surprised: “Yi Sa, you… do you need something?”

Yi Sa said: “Do you know where Ding Xi went? I wanted to talk to him about something.”

Ding Changsheng pointed to the room diagonally opposite: “Where else would he be? After losing such an important person, wouldn’t it be embarrassing to wander around outside? He’s in his room… What did you want to talk to him about?”

Yi Sa smiled: “Won’t you know after I talk to him anyway? There are no secrets between father and son – if I tell you now and then tell him later, that’s twice the effort for me.”

Ding Changsheng gave a bitter smile: “You are something, with your twisted logic.”

He closed the door, and his smile instantly vanished.

Ding Xi opened his door very carefully, just a crack, exactly like when she had hidden Zong Hang in her room.

“Something up?”

He had shaved his head – his scalp had a bluish tinge, but his good looks compensated for it, making it not too unsightly.

Yi Sa leaned against the doorframe: “I wouldn’t come looking for you if there wasn’t something. What, not going to invite me in? Or is it…”

Her gaze drifted inside: “Inconvenient?”

With her saying that Ding Xi couldn’t very well keep hiding: “It’s nothing.”

He opened the door to let her in.

There was indeed someone inside.

A young, pretty girl sat on the bed, wringing her hands together, looking somewhat uneasy.

Yi Sa’s heart skipped a beat – she suspected this was Jing Xiu.

She glanced at Ding Xi: “Your companion? A Dizhi?”

Ding Xi gave a vague “mm” in response: “I can have her step out if you want.”

“No need, I won’t mention the Three Families’ business.”

What exactly was the relationship between Jing Xiu and Ding Xi? Had she revealed any secrets to him, and if so, how much? These were all things Yi Sa wanted to know – though she couldn’t ask directly, having the person here to observe their expressions and reactions was better than nothing.

Yi Sa sat down on the small sofa and got straight to the point: “Ding Xi, Sister Xiang just called me.”

Ding Xi didn’t react at first: “Sister Xiang? Oh, oh, right, her.”

His heart immediately tightened.

“She said Chen Tu hasn’t shown up for over a month, which is very unusual.”

Ding Xi showed great concern: “Really? Wasn’t he supposed to go procure goods? What did the seller say?”

“How could Sister Xiang possibly know about Chen Tu’s channels? She waited and waited without hearing from him, got worried something had happened, so she went to consult a spirit medium in the Gaotai religion for divination.”

The spirit medium was Yi Sa’s invention – since Gaotai was a local Vietnamese folk religion with many regional practices, and Ding Xi knew nothing about it, she could embellish as much as she wanted.

“What did the divination say?”

“The omens weren’t good. The medium pointed out a direction and told them to hurry and search there. Sister Xiang and her people hired some help, took boats to search along the lake, all the way to the peat swamp forest…”

She deliberately paused here.

Ding Xi’s smile was a bit strange: “And then?”

Yi Sa leaned back into the sofa: “They didn’t find anything.”

Ding Xi breathed a sigh of relief.

Not finding anything was normal – given Cambodia’s rainy season rainfall, the boat’s weight, and the speed at which the mud “swallows” boats, if they had just started searching these past few days, the boat would have long since sunk.

Yi Sa carefully observed while appearing casual: “But this reminded me of something, so I did some searching, and I found that that person called Zong Hang is still missing… You remember Zong Hang, right?”

From the corner of her eye, she noticed: that when the name “Zong Hang” was mentioned, the woman suddenly looked up with an expression of shock.

It must be Jing Xiu.

Ding Xi hadn’t expected Yi Sa to suddenly bring up the name “Zong Hang.” His head instantly felt like it was about to explode, and he regretted not having Jing Xiu step out.

Last night, he had questioned Jing Xiu about whether that kitchen worker was Zong Hang.

Jing Xiu had asked in return: “What’s it to you? You know him?”

Ding Xi had deflected: “His father put up a million yuan reward. I was in Cambodia those days too, so it’s not strange that I’d know about him. If it is him, who wouldn’t want to make some money on the side?”

Jing Xiu had said: “It’s not him, just someone with the same name. You’re overthinking it.”

Ding Xi hadn’t exposed her lie, afraid of making her suspicious. Despite his burning anxiety, he had forced himself to make a few more casual remarks before leaving. As soon as he got out, without wasting a second, he had gone straight to the kitchen.

It couldn’t be that he had been careless and sunk living people in the lake: he was one hundred percent certain that during the cleanup, both Zong Hang and Yi Xiao had been dead.

How had they survived? It was baffling.

If Zong Hang was alive, what about Yi Xiao? Was she on the boat too?

Such a major development – he didn’t dare tell Ding Changsheng without confirming first.

At first, everything had gone smoothly – he had subdued Zong Hang, but he hadn’t expected someone to be lying in wait, that woman who had attacked him at the back kitchen door. It must have been Yi Xiao.

After escaping, he endured everyone’s questioning with his partially shaved head, suffering great humiliation and loss of face. Ding Changsheng had also cursed him furiously: “You’re just a childless man. I brought you into the Council, bore so much pressure, and promoted you despite convention – do you know how many people were pointing fingers behind our backs? And you couldn’t even do me proud!”

“In front of so many people from the Three Families, you had your clothes stripped off, your head shaved and were tied up in a vegetable basket… Who the hell is going to take you seriously when you go out to handle business in the future? Did you see how they were all gloating?”

After much hesitation, Ding Xi had swallowed his suspicions: without any evidence, making empty claims would just invite another scolding. After seeing Ding Changsheng off, he had shaved his head in front of the mirror and had also roughly planned his next steps.

He needed a witness.

He had someone fetch Jing Xiu.

Unexpectedly, Jing Xiu had taken the initiative: “Where’s Zong Hang? He hasn’t returned all night. I’ve asked around, and the supervisor said you told them that during these few days of the family gathering, there were many tasks and you needed to borrow him to help around. So where is he now?”

Ding Xi had retreated to advance: “Since you’ve asked around, you must know that I ran into trouble too, right?”

Jing Xiu had glanced at his blue-tinged scalp.

She did know – the boat workers were excellent at spreading rumors, saying he had been stripped down to his underwear, and that his hair had been forcibly pulled out. Hearing this had made her feel somewhat concerned for him.

Ding Xi had lowered his voice: “Last night, I did borrow him to help. After leaving your place, I was going to look for him, but a woman knocked me out and probably took him away too. I haven’t told others yet – you know someone just died on the boat, and now another person is missing. I’m afraid of causing panic if word gets out.”

“That woman looked very strange, with deathly pale skin and many scars on her arms… Jing Xiu, have you seen her?”

Jing Xiu had shuddered.

This must be Yi Xiao – she had taken Zong Hang away.

Ding Xi hadn’t missed any of the subtle changes in her expression: “I now suspect that woman might be the killer. Jing Xiu, if you’ve seen her or know her, you need to tell me. This is a matter of life and death, it’s serious…”

Jing Xiu’s mind was in turmoil.

Yi Xiao… did seem capable of killing. When she had kicked her into the crocodile pool, she had been vicious and cruel, but at the most critical moment, she had still reached out to pull her up…

Ding Xi’s voice was very earnest: “Jing Xiu?”

Should she tell him? Jing Xiu nervously shifted her position, again feeling the piece of persimmon gold stuffed in her back pocket.

She remembered how after returning to China, Yi Xiao had always covered herself completely, seemingly deliberately avoiding and concealing something.

Having taken someone’s money, she should be loyal to their affairs – at the very least, she shouldn’t gossip like a chattering housewife…

This was when Yi Sa had arrived.

Ding Xi was at his wit’s end, struggling to handle both situations: one wrong move in responding about Chen Tu, and Yi Sa would suspect him – perhaps she already did…

He glanced at Jing Xiu, his eyes containing helplessness and reassurance, a silent plea saying “Don’t act rashly, I’ll explain to you.”

Jing Xiu’s face alternated between red and white, her chest heaving dramatically a few times, but she remained silent.

Yi Sa took in everything, but from just these looks and expressions, she couldn’t deduce much information. She could only try to speak suggestively: “Two people mysteriously disappearing – I feel the outlook is grim. After things wrap up here, I need to head back quickly… You were the last person to see Zong Hang, right? Have you seen him since then?”

Ding Xi awkwardly replied: “No… no.”

Jing Xiu lowered her head to look at her wringing hands.

Both hands were wrung white, with veins bulging on the backs.

Ding Xi collected himself: “I think Su Cai can’t be uninvolved. When you go back, you can investigate in that direction. Also, Chen Tu himself… had quite a complicated background. From what Sister Xiang said, he carried a gun with him, so he probably had… many enemies.”

Yi Sa ran her hand through her hair, irritably mussing it a few times: “I thought the same thing. Such a big incident here, and then trouble with Chen Tu – when one thing settles, another pops up. I am unlucky… Your girlfriend?”

Was she… talking to her?

Jing Xiu startled, looked up to see her smiling sweetly, and felt this smile seemed somewhat familiar.

Yi Sa teased Ding Xi: “She’s really pretty, you lucked out…”

Then she bantered with Jing Xiu: “But you’d better be careful – don’t let him deceive you. This guy, out of ten things he says, not even one is true.”

After Yi Sa left, Ding Xi closed the door, his back drenched in sweat. He’d been lucky not to give anything away about Chen Tu but with Jing Xiu…

He turned around.

Jing Xiu was staring at him: “Didn’t you say you didn’t know Zong Hang?”

Ding Xi said: “It’s like this, Jing Xiu, let me explain…”

He got stuck.

It was too sudden – how could he make up a complete story on the spot?

Jing Xiu smiled.

After a while, she sighed, looking dispirited: “Forget it, don’t bother trying. Do you want to know? I’ll tell you.”

“I do know Zong Hang. Remember when I was staying at the Angkor Grand Hotel, how I loved chatting with the neighbor on the terrace, and you said I was just bored? He was the neighbor – his father owns the hotel.”

“Later he went missing, and I was quite concerned. Who knew that after more than a month, he suddenly called me.”

“I don’t know why he wouldn’t contact his family. He gave me quite a bit of money to pretend to be his girlfriend. How to put it – just go to a few places with him, provide cover for his identity. What else did you think? Nothing comes free – I was doing well in Siem Reap, but came to China, taking buses and boats, putting up with those smelly worker dormitories. Who would do that if not for money?”

Yi Sa didn’t hurry back to her room. She went down to the dining room to eat, and thinking that Zong Hang hadn’t eaten either, she bought some snacks from the boat’s shop. She didn’t dare buy much – just one cup of instant noodles – since they were about to part ways, and buying too much might make observant people suspicious.

Back in the room, she didn’t wait long before Ding Yudie brought Zong Hang back. He didn’t even enter the room, shouting that he got sunburned and needed to hurry back to put on a face mask.

After closing the door, she saw Zong Hang’s face full of joy, his eyes sparkling – Yi Sa knew he must have gotten something, but deliberately didn’t ask: “If you’re hungry, boil some water for the noodles yourself.”

Zong Hang quickly handed over a note wrapped in plastic: “For you.”

Yi Sa glanced at it: “What is it?”

Zong Hang wanted to push it into her hands: “She gave it to me.”

He especially wanted to see Yi Sa reunite with her sister Yi Xiao – Yi Sa had lost her family at such a young age, how pitiful.

Yi Sa took it and looked it over repeatedly, finding that not only was it well-wrapped, but it was also sealed with clear tape, unopened.

“You didn’t open it?”

Zong Hang shook his head: “If I had opened it, you might suspect I switched the note. Better to let you open it.”

Yi Sa was a bit surprised: “Oh, getting smart now, are we?”

After thinking, she asked: “How did she give it to you? Didn’t Ding Yudie notice?”

“No,” Zong Hang’s face flushed with excitement, “He was sleeping, and I was resting face down with my hand in the water. Unexpectedly, Yi Xiao… Old K suddenly grabbed my wrist underwater and slipped this between my fingers…”

Yi Sa looked at him skeptically: “You managed not to cry out?”

“I did cry out, but I immediately made up an excuse and covered it up.”

Yi Sa unwrapped the plastic: “If you could fool him, Ding Yudie’s intelligence must have dropped these past two years.”

Zong Hang pretended not to hear, satisfied that she had praised him earlier for “getting smart.”

Yi Sa unfolded the note.

It read: 19th, 10 PM, Duck Head Mountain.

Zong Hang also leaned in to look: “Duck Head Mountain, where’s that?”

Yi Sa walked to the window, looked into the distance, and pointed to the only duck-head-shaped formation visible in the lake: “There, that should be an island.”

Poyang Lake had dozens of islands large and small. During high water they were islands, but during dry season when the water receded, they became mountains. Some famous, larger islands had been developed into tourist spots, while the smaller, unremarkable ones became deserted islands that passing boats never bothered to visit.

Zong Hang wished it was already the 19th: “I’ll go there on time tomorrow. As soon as I see her, I’ll relay your message to her. Yi Sa, I’m sure she’s your sister, I’m certain of it.”

The water ceremony was scheduled for 10 PM.

Given the sudden circumstances, they couldn’t prepare much, so everything was kept simple.

At 9:30, they notified the boat to turn off all lights, inside and out, leaving no light visible.

At the spot where Jiang Jun’s body was found, they set up a round “frame,” filled the channel with oil, and would light it precisely at 10.

Before 10, members of the Three Families each had to bring three “memorial incense sticks” to the site, light them from the fire channel, and then spread out around the area. Those with boats sat in boats; those without floated in the water. No one was allowed to speak – it was meant to be a devout moment of silence.

The incense didn’t need to burn completely – when 1/3 remained, they would throw it into the “frame,” symbolizing: that there’s still plenty left, save it for future use.

During the silence, only Jiang Xiaoguang could speak briefly, saying things like thanking everyone for attending.

That would complete the water ceremony. After all, in modern society, they couldn’t make too much commotion – drawing attention would be problematic.

Zong Hang couldn’t go, so he stayed in the dark room watching the spectacle. The passenger boat was somewhat far from the site – he could only vaguely see the thin ring of fire from the frame. The light from the incense tips was weaker than fireflies, but the gathered incense smoke rising in wisps created quite a spectacular scene.

Zong Hang was mesmerized, thinking the Three Families were quite interesting.

According to Yi Sa, events like the opening of the Jin Tang happened only once every few decades. The families didn’t have major events every day – most of the time, everyone lived like normal people, busy with their own lives, working or studying as they pleased.

They only gathered when needed.

Thinking about it, it was a bit like a mysterious club – low-key and unassuming, with strict barriers to entry, tight-lipped about their affairs to outsiders, protecting their family secrets.

The time had come.

Jiang Xiaoguang stood up from his rowboat. Though the night wind was strong and the boat swayed unsteadily, he stood firm. He cleared his throat: “First, as Jiang Jun’s father, I thank everyone…”

A phone rang.

In the deathly silence, this sound was extremely jarring. No one spoke, but there was clearly a wave of silent commotion spreading – this was a serious ceremony, and many had been told not to even bring phones…

Jiang Xiaoguang fumbled to pull the phone from his pocket.

It was Jiang Gu’s phone – that woman was calling.

The situation was too awkward. He quickly rejected the call and switched it to silent mode before stuffing it back in his pocket: “Well then, let’s continue. Regarding Jiang Jun’s matter, though we still have no leads…”

The phone started vibrating again, continuously buzzing in his pocket.

After a while, the vibration changed to a series of shorter buzzes – probably text messages now.

The surroundings grew even quieter, with almost everyone watching him, their eyes reflecting the dim incense light carrying looks of speculation, amusement, disapproval, and curiosity.

Jiang Xiaoguang had no choice but to take out the phone again. As soon as he opened it, messages filled the screen.

– Not answering?

– Then I’ll call everyone in your contacts one by one.

– Let them know about the deal you made with Ding Changsheng in 1996.

Are you still mourning your fake son?

– After so many years of pretending, have you gotten used to it?

– I want to see Jiang Jun. Answer the phone!

– Answer the phone!

The phone rang again.

This time, Jiang Xiaoguang couldn’t care about appearances anymore. With trembling fingers, he pressed answer and brought the phone to his ear.

He heard that gloomy, hoarse female voice.

“Tomorrow night, 9 PM, Duck Head Mountain. Come alone, don’t let anyone know.”

Jiang Xiaoguang vaguely responded “Mm,” then asked: “What do you want?”

The woman laughed.

She lowered her voice as if blowing into his ear through the receiver: “If we can agree, I’ll give you a gift. It’s perfect – you’ll love it.”