“I’ll arrange a time…” Ren Yi’s hand slipped, scattering the few bones he had just pieced together. He let out an annoyed mutter.
“Forget it. I’ll take it home and fix it. There aren’t any suitable tools here.” Gong Yingxian gathered up Lily’s skeleton and put the pieces into a bag.
Seeing how dejected Gong Yingxian looked, Ren Yi asked, “You can fix it, right?”
“I’ll definitely fix it.” The gift carried a special meaning, but now its original shape was unrecognizable. Otherwise, Ren Yi would have understood his feelings at a glance.
“All right,” Ren Yi said. “You’ve put the recording away too. It should come in handy.”
“It will.” Gong Yingxian spoke with certainty. “We’ve already narrowed it down to several arson suspects, and we’re planning to have Fang Zhixu identify them.”
“You’ve identified suspects?” Ren Yi’s breathing grew cautious.
Gong Yingxian nodded. “We took a large number of photographs at the scene. You probably know that pyromaniacs like to return to the scene to admire their ‘masterpiece,’ so there’s a good chance he was among the crowd. There were too many onlookers at the time, so we brought in an expert in microexpressions to assist us. There was one person we all agreed was the most suspicious, and we’ve already begun making an undercover arrest. Also, I’m not sure whether Fang Zhixu has had closer contact with the organization. We can use this opportunity to test him.”
“If he really is involved, what are you going to do?”
“If he’s broken the law, of course we’ll arrest him.” Gong Yingxian continued, “We’ve also made progress on the unidentified charred corpse case and Wang Minde’s case.”
“Tell me about it.”
“We’ve confirmed the identity of the unidentified charred corpse. We found his family members and had them undergo DNA testing. It’s the same person we’d been investigating.”
“Captain Qiu said someone had accessed his account and withdrawn money after he died.”
“Right, but it wasn’t a direct withdrawal. There were several large transactions first, and then the money passed through multiple accounts, eventually being divided among a number of smaller accounts. Finally, it was withdrawn from more than sixty ATMs across the country. This is a typical method used to cash out the proceeds of telecommunications fraud. The bank is cooperating with us to trace the origins of the transactions. We suspect this was operating capital for the X cult.”
“If they could use his account after he died, that means they knew the victim well—or had planned it in advance?”
“Very likely. We now have another lead to help us track them down. The people withdrawing cash from ATMs are the final link in the telecommunications fraud chain. Each link takes a cut as a handling fee. By the time the money reaches this stage, it becomes untraceable cash, which is then transferred to the client through other means,” Gong Yingxian explained. “This is the riskiest link, but it requires the least technical skill. It’s mostly made up of local thugs and petty criminals. The people involved change frequently, and the organization is loosely structured. They’re relatively easy to arrest, but tracking down the core leadership higher up is much harder. Fortunately, a department specializing in telecommunications fraud is now helping us.”
“Then what’s the relationship between this money-laundering organization and Purple Flame?”
“My guess is that they’re working on a contract basis, so there’s no loyalty involved. As long as we catch someone from the money-laundering organization, we should make significant progress. At the very least, we’ll be able to trace Purple Flame’s source of funding.”
“That’s good news.” Ren Yi was encouraged by what he heard.
“As for Wang Minde, we’ve gone through his social connections over the past twenty years. There’s one person…” Gong Yingxian’s expression grew grave. “Someone who’s caught our attention.”
“Who?”
“Feilan’s father.”
Ren Yi immediately sucked in a sharp breath.
Gong Yingxian continued, “Feilan’s father married into the family. All these years, he’s felt that he hasn’t gotten anywhere in the Gong family, and he complains about it from time to time. His relationship with my aunt is also terrible. They’ve lived separately for years, but they’ve never divorced. I found out that he had contact with Wang Minde back then.”
“As your relative, he wouldn’t have aroused suspicion by approaching the doctor who was providing you with psychological intervention.”
Gong Yingxian said coldly, “He’s a very weak man. If it really was him, and he dared to do something like this right under my grandfather’s nose, then someone must have been directing him.”
“…Does your aunt know?”
“They rarely speak these days. Apart from company matters and Feilan, they try to keep their interactions to a minimum. I don’t intend to tell her either.”
In fact, Ren Yi’s question had a double meaning. He wasn’t only asking whether she knew now, but also whether she had known back then. Yet even someone as intelligent as Gong Yingxian automatically overlooked that other implication. It was enough to show how family ties could indeed cloud a person’s judgment. Thinking about this, Ren Yi couldn’t help reflecting on it himself.
After a moment, he said, “His target wasn’t you. He wanted to prevent you from investigating the case more deeply through your own experiences, which might eventually lead to an investigation connected to the Baosheng Chemical Plant explosion. It all goes back to the chemical plant.”
Gong Yingxian lowered his head heavily. “Yes. But the chemical plant case is even harder to investigate than my father’s case. The major crimes task force was assigned from higher up at the time, and none of its members had any ties to the local political or business interests. So I believe the task force was impartial. But what if the evidence had been altered? What if the truth had been covered up? What if they’d been misled?”
“That’s why the investigation has to be reopened,” Ren Yi said firmly.
“Mm. We’re getting better and better prepared. We just need to find a major breakthrough—a crucial piece of evidence—in my family’s case.”
Ren Yi said with a sigh, “I feel like things are becoming clearer and clearer. At the beginning, we had no leads at all. Now we can investigate along several different lines. All the effort you’ve put in hasn’t been wasted.”
Gong Yingxian gazed deeply at Ren Yi. “Because you’ve been helping us all along.”
Ren Yi avoided his gaze. “It’s nothing. It’s the right thing to do. I’ll coordinate a time with my dad and let you know. You should get back to the precinct.”
Gong Yingxian said reluctantly, “What about Miaomiao? I haven’t seen it yet.” He remembered how, in the past, they had always felt that they didn’t have enough time together, making every second count just to be with each other. When had Ren Yi ever主动ly asked him to leave?
Ren Yi glanced at his watch. “After lunch, they took Phoenix out for a walk. Miaomiao would have gone along with them, so it’s not at the station right now.”
“…All right, then I’ll go.” Gong Yingxian picked up the gift bag and instinctively held it protectively against his chest.
Ren Yi walked Gong Yingxian all the way to the gate, watched him get into his car, and stood there watching him drive away, his heart a jumble of emotions.
He hoped he hadn’t made the wrong decision. He hoped that, through their conversation, his father could release some of the pressure he’d been carrying, and Gong Yingxian could get the answers he wanted.
When Ren Yi returned to the dormitory, he remembered that he hadn’t eaten. Only then did he finally feel hungry. He cooked himself a bowl of instant noodles and sent Yan Jue a message apologizing.
Regardless of what had happened, someone had been treated rudely at his station, and he had a responsibility for that.
Yan Jue replied, “You don’t need to apologize on someone else’s behalf.”
Ren Yi replied, “I’m apologizing on my own behalf.”
“Then there’s even less reason to.”
Ren Yi shook his head helplessly, put down his phone, and started eating.
Before long, his phone rang again. It was another message from Yan Jue.
“I bet you two won’t work out. Remember, I’m always here.”
Ren Yi didn’t reply. He concentrated on finishing his noodles.
On the appointed day, Gong Yingxian arrived early in the morning to pick Ren Yi up. When they reached their destination, Ren Yi asked Gong Yingxian to wait while he went inside first.
Over the phone, Ren Yi had already prepared his father for the conversation, but he hadn’t explained things explicitly. He’d only said they would talk more once he arrived.
On the way there, Ren Yi had checked with the caregiver again about his father’s condition that morning. If his father had another episode, the whole trip would have been for nothing.
When Ren Xiangrong saw his son, he said excitedly, “You’re here! I won several hundred yuan playing mahjong yesterday. Want me to give you some pocket money?”
Ren Yi’s heart sank, and his expression changed.
Ren Xiangrong paused, then burst out laughing. “I’m just kidding! How many times have I told you not to keep taking leave to come see me? I’m doing fine.”
Ren Yi immediately breathed a sigh of relief. “Old Ren, you’re getting cheekier by the day. Have you got your eye on some pretty auntie?”
“Get lost.” Ren Xiangrong took a sip of water and looked out the window. “Spring’s here. It’s time to go visit your mother.”
“Mm. I’ll come pick you up early that day.”
Ren Yi sat down beside him and began peeling a mandarin for his father. “Dad, I told you yesterday that I’d be bringing Gong Yingxian today.”
“Oh, right. We’re staying in his hospital, and I haven’t even thanked him in person. Is he too busy? He hasn’t shown up once.”
“Mm.” Looking at his father’s calm expression, Ren Yi found it incredibly difficult to tell him the truth.
If he told his father that the child he’d rescued from the fire all those years ago now suspected him of being an arsonist, could his father bear it?
“Where is he, then?” Ren Xiangrong looked toward the door.
Ren Yi took a deep breath and opened his mouth, but still didn’t know how to begin. Before coming here, he’d thought he had a plan—or at least, he’d thought he did. But looking at the medals and photographs on his father’s table, the things he took with him wherever he went, he realized just how difficult this was.
Ren Xiangrong noticed something was wrong. “What’s the matter?”
Ren Yi said in a low voice, “I… actually…”
“Why are you stumbling over your words? Just say it. While I’m still clearheaded, that is.”
Those words only made things harder for Ren Yi. He struggled to speak. “It has to do with Gong Yingxian.”
Ren Xiangrong looked at him. “It has something to do with why I suddenly moved here, too, doesn’t it?”
Ren Yi said nothing.
“I’m not senile, you know. Do you think I’d believe your explanation? Something must have happened between the two of you. What is it? Go on and tell me. What storms and what hells hasn’t your dad weathered in his life? And here you are, acting as though you’re afraid to let me know. You’re underestimating me.”
Ren Yi managed a strained smile. “Old Ren, you know that no matter what happens, I’ll always support you and believe in you. You’ve been my hero since I was a kid.”
“Oh, come on! Why are you suddenly saying things like that? What is this, did the doctor give me a terminal diagnosis?”
Ren Yi burst out laughing. “Don’t talk nonsense.”
“Get on with it. Stop dragging this out.”
Ren Yi took a deep breath, carefully choosing his words, and cautiously told Ren Xiangrong the whole story.