50 Clues

Zhou Suirong stepped forward to help support Zheng Jiahou, but Zheng Jiahou was as limp as a puddle of mud. Daring not to exert too much force, Zhou Suirong had no choice but to let go. Turning his head, he saw Fang Qingzhou playing with the knife in her hand, her finger pressed right against the blade, and hurried over to disarm her.

Seeing that Zheng Jiahou remained obstinate and deluded, Fang Qingzhou thought him pitifully foolish. Once Zhou Suirong made a fuss about checking her hand, she stared at Zheng Jiahou and scrutinized him for a moment.

Her blunt words were not particularly pleasant to the ear, but Zheng Jiahou's courage to commit suicide seemed to last for only a few seconds. He finally spoke, "If I were you, I would immediately have my son turn himself in and give a full account of the case, rather than harboring the delusion of staying out of the law's reach while hiding at home with the doors shut, pretending to be dead."

Zhou Suirong was also somewhat bewildered and asked, "You broadcasted a live stream to take the blame for your son, turning the situation into a complete mess. Did you actually think your son would accept it with a clear conscience, or were you expecting him to suddenly see the light and choose you as his father?"

Zheng Jiahou's gaze was somewhat absent. The tears that had previously coursed down his face had dried, but his face was stained with dust and soil, leaving his complexion ashen and incapable of any expression other than desolate grief.

Fang Qingzhou could hardly muster much sympathy for his appearance and said indifferently, "Xu Yuan is a master at manipulating rules and exploiting the malice of human nature. How could he have transformed from an undocumented stowaway who didn't even speak the language into a multi-millionaire entrepreneur in just twenty years purely through innocence and kindness? Country Y's public safety is far inferior to ours; the trials he has experienced far exceed those of you and your son combined. And yet you actually believed he would allow himself to be slaughtered like a lamb."

Zheng Jiahou's petrified body shattered and collapsed, turning sluggishly toward her.

Zhou Suirong secretly chewed on these words. Was she praising that pigment-deficient big goose? Though her choice of words was hardly complimentary.

Without casting a glance in Zheng Jiahou's direction, Fang Qingzhou looked away: "As an ordinary family, you have precious little to lose. Xu Yuan has ten thousand simple methods to make you and your son retreat in the face of difficulties. For instance, a simple dispute or a minor accident—can your family withstand external risks? Can your son resist the temptations of fame, fortune, and beauty?

"Yet, before you produced any definitive evidence and while relying merely on verbal threats, he generously fed your greed six times, totaling over fourteen million. Why do you think he did that? Fifty thousand alone constitutes a particularly huge amount, carrying a sentence of over ten years. Could it be that you were still secretly counting this windfall in the middle of the night, rejoicing that he was so easy to control?"

Zheng Jiahou argued in panic, "I didn't..."

Hearing him attempt a flat denial and too lazy to listen to his idle excuses, Zhou Suirong ruthlessly pierced through his hypocrisy: "You don't need to quibble to us that you didn't know. You lack neither common sense nor an understanding of the value of money. That wasn't one hundred thousand, nor was it one million; that was a colossal fortune you had never seen in your entire life. If you intend to use this excuse to deal with judges and the public, you'd better banish that thought as early as possible."

"If even once you had let your conscience awaken and stepped in to stop it, matters would not have reached today's state," Fang Qingzhou said expressionlessly. "If you wanted to share in his misery for your own pleasure, you had to bear the virus he carried."

The sound of the ocean-like wind swept through the mountains. The sky grew overcast and ashen as the sun prepared to set.

Before long, the police station vehicle arrived.

Five or six people stepped out one after another, marching forward with brisk strides.

Among them must have been someone Zheng Jiahou had formerly worked with. The moment their eyes met, Zheng Jiahou turned his head away in shame. First, he tried to block his face with his hand, but realizing the futility of it, he instead began to dust off his grimy shoes.

The soles of his shoes were slightly worn at the edges. He had dressed with this very thriftiness while at work, never once feeling it was a humiliation, yet now even a smudge of dust on his shoes made him feel utterly wretched.

The group surrounded him in heavy silence, their piercing gazes pricking his back like needles and causing Zheng Jiahou's spine to bend lower and lower. Finally, the leader spoke with a detached tone to verify his identity.

Zhou Suirong nudged the arm of a nearby police officer and handed over the fruit knife.

Startled, the officer asked, "What is this for?"

Zhou Suirong nodded his chin in indication, "He intended to use it to commit suicide."

The police officer's expression looked as though he had swallowed a large chunk of bitter coptis, his stomach full of grievances without a way to describe them. Completely disillusioned with Zheng Jiahou, he went back to fetch a bag to store the knife and said to Zhou Suirong, "Please come with us to give a brief statement."

Over there, the police hoisted Zheng Jiahou up to escort him to the car. The old man's steps were unsteady, being half-dragged forward. Halfway there, he called out, "Wait." Turning back to look at Zhou Suirong with a pleading expression, he asked, "Can you let me hear you call me dad one more time?"

Everyone looked over in shock.

Zhou Suirong: "??"

He mercilessly rejected the request: "Do you have zero self-awareness? Of course not!"

Realizing everyone had misunderstood, Zheng Jiahou hurriedly said, "I mean, can you let me make a phone call to my son?"

Zhou Suirong said in exasperation, "Why are you asking me that!" Trying to take advantage of him even now, were they?

Looking abashed and rubbing the corner of his clothes with both hands, Zheng Jiahou fell silent once more.

Everyone understood—he simply lacked the face to make such a request to a former junior colleague.

The police handed him his phone nonetheless.

Zhou Suirong escorted Fang Qingzhou to the car to wait while he went off to give his statement.

President Fang certainly wouldn't grace such dry and tedious work with her presence.

He glanced at the sky and opened the weather forecast to verify, discovering as expected that rain was on the way for tonight.

The sultry heat carried over from summer had finally reached its end, but the seasonal shift was far too ruthless, possessing a destructive and chilling might. Inserting the car keys, Zhou Suirong couldn't help fretting, "If you're cold, remember to turn on the AC. I'll be right back."

Fang Qingzhou pulled out her tablet and searched for Xu Yuan's name online. The various extreme remarks left her feeling oppressed and short of breath. She exited, cleared her search history, and typed in Zhou Suirong once more.

There weren't many people who shared Zhou Suirong's name. After flipping through a few pages, Fang Qingzhou unexpectedly found a video with blurry resolution.

The video actually featured Zhou Suirong as a child.

The boy in the frame was holding up a certificate of merit. The arms protruding from his oversized short sleeves appeared exceptionally lean and gaunt, skin and flesh wrapped tightly around sharply defined skeletal structures.

His hair was frizzy and unkempt, looking as though he had trimmed it himself section by section with a pair of scissors, uneven lengths paired with his tense, solemn face making him look inexplicably endearing.

Zhou Suirong answered the interviewer's questions in a stiff tone, using brief phrasing with heavy emphasis on the endings of his words. At the end of every sentence, he would take a slight breath, avert his direct gaze, and then casually turn it back. This habit of shyness masked by a forced composure remained identical to this day.

Following that was a segment of candid everyday footage.

Zhou Suirong sat by the wall in the back row, head lowered as he did homework, muttering to himself.

The video captured a bit of his voice. Just as Zhou Suirong had mentioned, perhaps due to a prolonged lack of communication, his Mandarin was not entirely standard. During speech, he frequently repeated phrases, and his train of thought was scattered and leaping, possessing an aura that felt completely out of step with his surroundings.

The person behind the camera called his name. He immediately pressed his feet together and sat up straight. After locating the direction of the lens, he raised his hand to greet the teacher according to instructions. He looked exceedingly well-behaved.

Zhou Suirong was a deeply talented individual. Even without channels to acquire knowledge or showcase his talents, he still stood out among his peers like an absolute freak.

In any ordinary family, he probably would have grown into a child adored by his parents. Unfortunately, his parents had a son they favored far more, rendering his innate talent terribly untimely and odious. Even when he tried hard to please others, he still could not bring this grueling ordeal to an end.

Having finished watching this segment, Fang Qingzhou dragged the progress bar back to replay it once more.

At that moment, the car door was pulled open and Zhou Suirong returned. Bending down to reach for the provisions in the back seat, he asked obligingly, "Your Majesty, would you like to eat something to line your stomach first, or shall we set off directly back to the palace?"

He had yet to notice, searching through the bag of snacks for the flavor Fang Qingzhou liked, until he heard his own name and raised his head in a daze.

He grasped Fang Qingzhou's wrist and turned the tablet toward himself, discovering she was watching a video of his childhood. Immediately reaching out to cover the screen, he panicked and shouted loudly, "You're not allowed to look!"

Fang Qingzhou turned her head to look at him. Zhou Suirong's ears were already flushed red. Trying to forcefully snatch the tablet from her grip with a face full of utter mortification, he demanded, "Why are you watching this?!"

"I've already watched it twice." Fang Qingzhou didn't press the matter, complying with his wishes by shutting off the video, though she asked, "Why isn't one allowed to look?"

"It looks too foolish, and very ugly," Zhou Suirong lowered his voice, speaking glumly, "Stop watching."

"Not ugly." Though she had turned it off, Fang Qingzhou disagreed with his aesthetic and worriedly remarked, "Little Zhou, you're just far too vain."

Zhou Suirong laughed in exasperation and said, "Am I vain, or are you vain?"

Thinking that answering this question poorly would evolve into a fresh trouble, Fang Qingzhou preempted him by replying, "I love you, so I think you're beautiful."

With a loud clatter, Zhou Suirong collapsed forward onto the steering wheel and gave her the silent treatment.

Not letting him off the hook, Fang Qingzhou slid her hand under his pinned arm to stroke his cheek, asking in puzzlement, "Little Zhou, you're clearly so vain, yet every time I praise you, you get embarrassed."

Turning his face toward the window and exhaling a breath, Zhou Suirong said, "Don't speak for a moment."

"You said that exact same thing last time." Fearing he wouldn't remember the exact instance, Fang Qingzhou helpfully reminded him, "The time I suddenly became interested in fashion, before we were dating. Back then your face was so hot I thought you were sick and about to infect me."

Receiving no response, Fang Qingzhou rigorously insisted on reviewing the event with him.

Zhou Suirong abruptly sat straight up, reversing his stance to say, "Go ahead and watch the video. I don't mind anymore."

His fickleness wasn't a novelty anyway, so Fang Qingzhou accepted his concession.

She resumed playing the remaining half of the video, and when it concluded, she did not click replay.

Twilight descended.

Under the tree canopy illuminated by the headlights, a hazy mist of rain began to drift. As fine as golden-tailed streams of light, the droplets tapped against the glass one by one, pooling into beads of water that rolled downward.

"I was wondering," Fang Qingzhou offered a philosophical contemplation, "why did Xu Yuan become Yan Jianyuan, while Little Zhou became Little Zhou?"

The flushed heat subsided from Zhou Suirong's face as he chimed in, "Why did Little Fang become Little Fang?"

"I've probably been myself since birth." Reviewing the past, Fang Qingzhou felt she had never encountered setbacks profound enough to alter the course of her life. She asked, "Little Zhou, why are you named Zhou Suirong?"

"Me? Hmm..." Zhou Suirong rubbed the back of his neck, propping one hand against the car window.

The reflective glass fractured the deep night into a surreal, phantom-like landscape, casting the sharp contours of his profile in relief.

Zhou Suirong said, "It means whatever happens, success comes easily."

"Oh." Fang Qingzhou didn't understand why he sounded so melancholy. "Though it lacks poetic depth, the meaning is quite good."

With a forced smile, Zhou Suirong replied, "My mother didn't actually come up with it."

"My mother carried me to register the birth. When the window clerk asked what my name was, she said, 'Suiyi' [Whatever/As you please]."

The clerk, perhaps accustomed to hearing such answers, retorted testily, "How can you name someone 'Whatever'? Parents need to take responsibility."

"Is it a boy or a girl?" Examining the paperwork closely, the clerk asked in surprise, "You'd give a boy a name like that? How rare."

"Just name him whatever," Zhou Mother replied with a haggard head lowered, her bloodless face showing only an eager, perfunctory urge to finish the process as quickly as possible. "If 'Suiyi' doesn't sound good, 'Zhou Sui' is fine too."

"Zhou Sui is too common." Seeing the infant quietly nestled in Zhou Mother's arms, the clerk leaned forward, pushed down the collar of the baby's clothes, and touched the infant's cheek with her finger. Seeing the baby open its eyes and emit a cooing sound, she finally relaxed and said, "Look how well-behaved, not crying at all. The most obedient baby I've ever seen. Take a look."

Zhou Mother lowered her gaze toward the infant in the swaddling clothes, her expression filled with an indescribable sorrow.

The clerk declared, "Then let's add the character 'rong' [Easily/Glory]—success comes easily no matter what he does. You can tell him that in the future."

Without waiting for Zhou Mother's refusal, she registered the name.

Zhou Suirong said, "Do you know why I know this? The day I told her that the teacher asked us what the meaning of our names was, she told me just like that, without any sugarcoating."

Whatever had transpired that day, whatever was causing her grief, when Zhou Suirong asked her that question, her face surged with a resentment she didn't usually display.

Zhou Suirong had sought proof of love with full expectation, only to receive venomous hatred.

Once, she had hesitated for a fleeting moment, bestowing upon him a normal-sounding name. Afterward, she refused to grant even an ounce more. Upon seeing the pained expression on Zhou Suirong's face, she would even derive a sense of retaliatory pleasure from the familiar shadow reflected in him.

"I... that man indeed didn't look like a good person. She probably had grievances she couldn't reconcile with. At least she took me with her when she divorced," Zhou Suirong said with a sense of release. "I left that home long ago, and I don't expect her to call my name."

He accepted the existence of the past; he simply didn't wish to look back at it.

Watching the video, Fang Qingzhou chose to delete it.

·

At 8:00 PM.

Xu Youxiang replaced the master bedroom with a new quilt and moved his own bedding out to the living room sofa.

Not long after he finished making the bed, Lu Shengxing swaggered in from outside.

Patting the rain off his shoulders and kicking off his shoes, Lu Shengxing still wore a look of lingering dejection upon taking in the entirety of the living room.

Xu Youxiang asked, "Is it raining outside?"

"A little." Lu Shengxing displayed his spoils with a surge of excitement, announcing, "I bought a new phone!"

Startled by his extravagance, Xu Youxiang asked, "Isn't your phone already the latest model?"

Lu Shengxing was surprised that he even knew phone models: "That was last year's model. I got too busy this year and didn't manage to buy one."

With that, he tossed his old phone over, declaring magnanimously, "I'm giving you the old one."

Catching it in a flurry of fumbles, Xu Youxiang asked in shock, "How can you casually give someone a phone you've used? Do you know how much private information stays behind in these things? You're not that young anymore—how do you still have zero awareness of danger!"

"I've already deleted the data. Besides, what could you possibly scam from me?" Unaccustomed to being lectured, Lu Shengxing glowered fiercely, "Do you want it or not? If not, I'm throwing it away."

"Give it here then." The instinct of thriftiness took the high ground in Xu Youxiang. He inspected the phone left and right, failing to find a single flaw. It was nearly a generation more advanced than his own museum-piece of a phone nearing the scrap heap. "Let me pay you some money for it."

Lu Shengxing shot him a sideways glance: "Would I take it? I haven't fallen that low yet."

Striding into the bedroom like he owned the place, he swept his gaze around and pointed at a pile of boxes in the corner, asking, "Are there rats in this dumpster of yours?"

Xu Youxiang replied, "There are no rats in this house, only cockroaches."

Lu Shengxing shrieked, "Kill the cockroaches for me too!"

"I can't control them, they crawl over from other places," Xu Youxiang said, his nervous system nearly frazzled by the other's constant shrieking. "Isn't it normal to have a few cockroaches around the house? Don't be so delicate. If you ever became an internet influencer, your days would be much harder than this."

Lu Shengxing felt thoroughly aggrieved.

He was being delicate?! Living in a dilapidated hazard zone built in God knows what decade was giving him work-related injuries.

After taking a shower, Lu Shengxing sprawled out flat on the bed.

The bedroom door lock was broken and could only remain wide open. Lifting his head, he cast a wary glance toward the doorway to confirm that Xu Youxiang was busy tinkering with his new phone in the living room, then stealthily opened an app.

Perhaps because it was his first time doing something underhanded, Lu Shengxing instinctively shielded his eyes, telling himself this couldn't be illegal, right? He was merely installing a few small gadgets onto his old phone, and the phone itself was something Xu Youxiang had accepted voluntarily.

Trembling with trepidation as he checked the transferred data, he was startled out of his wits when Xu Youxiang's voice suddenly rang out from the living room, causing him to dive headfirst under the covers, phone in hand.

"Did you see the live stream broadcasted by that police officer? I didn't manage to catch it, and the video recording online was deleted, leaving only a summarized text version. I'm sending it to you."

Breaking into a cold sweat, Lu Shengxing thought to himself: *I watched it while you were still missing it.*

Xu Youxiang said, "I told you Xiao Yuan's dad was hounded to death. That teacher was probably sent by Liang Yizheng's parents to hound him for accountability, and then had the nerve to extort them later. These people are rotten to the core."

Before Lu Shengxing had recovered from the fright of acting like a thief, Xu Youxiang continued relentlessly reading netizens' comments to him from the outside:

"What good could Tao Danqing have been up to when she went to find Xu Yuan in violation of the rules? Xu Yuan was only fourteen back then, and his strength and build couldn't match an adult male who kept up with fitness. Tao Danqing being counter-killed can only be called God's will."

"If Tao Danqing died in City A, hopefully City A's police can provide a fair and public investigation result."

"Over ten million—Xu Yuan has real skill to earn that. No wonder he went to drag Liang Yizheng down to hell with him. Living without a goal, if you have no way out, taking one person down with you is better than dying alone."

"Don't forget Liang Yizheng has a criminal police officer as a personal bodyguard. How could he possibly accompany Xu Yuan to the grave?"

"City B's public security system is truly rotten to the root. They still haven't released an announcement—is it because they don't know how to write it to keep Liang Yizheng clear?"

His tone was cheerful; clearly, this was his favorite entertainment activity of late.

Directing his annoyance elsewhere, Lu Shengxing snapped, "Xiao Yuan this, Xiao Yuan that. You keep Xiao Yuan in your heart, but Xiao Yuan gives other people tens of millions and doesn't even give you a bite to eat."

Xu Youxiang retorted, "I'm not a beggar!"

Lu Shengxing shrugged indifferently, "Oh, I just said it for the rhyme."

Viewing him as an ignorant child whose brain development was incomplete, Xu Youxiang concluded that was why he was always so erratic and unstable. Comforting himself with this thought, he felt there was no point in getting angry.

"Let me tell you, my brother leaked the case details to me. The guy locked up in the sub-district station right now, and the person who died outside the villa, are both enemies of your precious Xiao Yuan," Lu Shengxing stated sagely. "He's just an evil ghost skilled in manipulating human hearts. Thinking himself a righteous judge, he picked an executioner who equally deserved death and imposed private punishments on them both. In reality, he's no different from them."

Unhappy, Xu Youxiang said, "I can't reason with you. You just want to sign with Liang Yizheng's company to be an internet influencer."

Lu Shengxing: "..."

This guy was truly something else. Having taken too many sleeping pills, he must be sleepwalking right now.

"Can you stop meddling in Liang Yizheng's affairs?" Lu Shengxing addressed the ceiling earnestly. "Whoever your ex-girlfriend signs with is her own choice; you two have already broken up, and whatever she becomes has nothing to do with you. Your job is lost, and since you can't undo that, you'd better hurry up and find a new one. Why are you locking horns with Liang Yizheng anyway? Look at what a state your own life is in."

"That's not how reasoning works; bad people should be brought to justice," Xu Youxiang said dejectedly. "I idolized the police immensely when I was a kid; I even used to fantasize that my dad was a police officer. When I met Liang Yizheng in high school, my entire world collapsed."

Pouring cold water on him, Lu Shengxing said, "But it requires evidence, right? You've said so much, but did a single one of those victims willing to sue him? No."

Reluctant to chat with him any further, Xu Youxiang turned off the living room lights.

Curling his lip, Lu Shengxing instead furiously tapped out a message to Ji He.

Lu Shengxing: Captain Ji, why don't you guys just arrest Xu Youxiang?

Ji He: Reason.

Lu Shengxing: He has criminal tendencies!

Ji He: Don't make work-related jokes with the police.

Lu Shengxing: I'm serious, he definitely has a connection with Xu Yuan! He has a whole stash of Liang Yizheng's data stored on his phone, most likely shared with him by Xu Yuan. Those things are like the carrot hanging in front of a donkey, causing his sense of justice to balloon infinitely. Combined with the radical atmosphere online these days, I feel like he's preparing for martyrdom at any second.

Lu Shengxing: He even called me a disciple of Liang Yizheng. Bah, he's practically a disciple of Xu Yuan himself.

Lu Shengxing: Or you could just arrest Liang Yizheng. That works too, it would solve things once and for all.

Ji He: I'm heading back to City A.

Lu Shengxing bounced straight up from the bed.

Lu Shengxing: Then what about me? Are you just going to abandon your undercover agent here?!

Ji He: Didn't you want to be friends with Xu Youxiang?

Her sophistry was blatant, entirely devoid of moral principles.

Lu Shengxing: [Cat screaming] [Ghost wailing]

Ji He: I'm going through security. Gotta go back for a meeting.

Lu Shengxing: Did you guys find the body?

Ji He: No. We can only rely on a human wave tactic for door-to-door investigations and screening to see if we can gather any valuable clues.

Ji He: According to your leader's theory, Xu Yuan should give us a hint.

Lu Shengxing typed out a line of text, clicked delete, and replaced it with a cheering emoji.

Compared to the pressure of police work, letting him share a bed with cockroaches didn't seem like much anymore.

Switching back to the surveillance software, Lu Shengxing saw that Xu Youxiang was using an anonymous account to reply on a forum thread: *Speaking of which, around this exact time back then, I was driving a delivery truck. After exiting Yanghua Street, I saw a man dragging a child and running along the roadside. That area was already close to the national highway, and since it was nighttime, there were usually no people around. Thinking the man was a human trafficker, I went over to ask what was wrong. The other guy flashed a police badge at me, saying they were catching a runaway child. I didn't pay it any mind and drove off. Could those two people have been Xu Yuan and Tao Danqing?*

Lu Shengxing: "..."

Brother, is the answer really that obvious, yet hidden so deeply?