Book Synopsis
Book Tags
Donation Rankings
Comment
0 Comments
You May Also Like
墨書 Inktalez
After enduring countless hardships and inquiries, Zhang Mingda finally located the relatives of the female patient who had committed suicide by cutting her wrists years ago.
The patient was named Ping. On a night when the rain had just ceased, Zhang Mingda arrived at Ping's mother's residence with a secretly hired Thai translator, raising his hand to knock on the door.
A Filipino maid answered the door.
The maid led Zhang Mingda and the translator into a vast garden.
The garden was filled with banana plants and vines, and when Zhang Mingda first stepped in, he thought he had mistakenly wandered into a tropical rainforest.
After winding through a series of twisting paths, a two-story wooden house with a Thai-style flat roof and upward-curving eaves stood prominently before them.
The wood was intricately carved with elaborate patterns, showcasing the owner's wealth.
Zhang Mingda marveled internally; it was indeed rare to find a family that owned such a mansion in the Bangkok area.
They were greeted by Ping's mother, a slender woman whose veins resembled worms, faintly visible beneath her dark skin.
After some conversation, Zhang Mingda learned that when Ping was young, her father was addicted to gambling and had incurred massive debts from loan sharks. Not only that, but he was also lecherous; on one dark night, he left with another woman, callously leaving behind the heavy debts for the mother and daughter to bear.
From that point on, the two relied on each other for support.
Ping's mother was originally from the countryside and illiterate; all household matters depended on Ping's management, as did their income. To repay her father's debts, Ping ventured alone to Bangkok to work hard, and before long, she had managed to pay off the loan sharks.
Zhang Mingda inquired about Ping's occupation, and Ping's Mother shook her head, speaking vaguely, "It seems she was involved in import and export trade."
Later, when she learned that Zhang Mingda was investigating Ping's suicide, Ping's Mother expressed her gratitude. She slowly approached a red wooden box, crouched down, and carefully opened it, retrieving a cloth bag from inside.
As she opened the cloth bag, an old and worn book was revealed. She gently handed it to Zhang Mingda, saying, "Ping often read this book while she was alive; she was even holding it when she died."
Zhang Mingda solemnly accepted the book, noticing that the characters on its cover resembled twisting tadpoles. He could tell that this was not Thai.
He requested to take the book with him and promised to return it to Ping's Mother after the investigation concluded. Ping's Mother nodded in agreement.
After leaving the residence, the translator suddenly slapped his forehead in realization, exclaiming, "The writing on that book is Sanskrit."
Through the translator's connections, Zhang Mingda visited a High Monk.
Under the temple's serene orange light, the High Monk took the well-worn book from Ping and said slowly, "This is the Heart Sutra. The Dharma is wisdom; wisdom is the Dharma."
Hearing this only deepened Zhang Mingda's confusion. How could someone who devoted themselves to studying Buddhist scriptures choose to take their own life?
That night, Zhang Mingda lay in bed, flipping through the pages of the scripture repeatedly.
Suddenly, his finger brushed against a page that felt slightly thicker than the others. He quickly turned on his desk lamp and examined it closely, discovering that two pages were stuck together.
He brought over a glass of water and gently moistened the edge of the pages with his finger before carefully tearing them apart. Inside was a thin piece of paper with dates, numbers, and some disconnected Thai characters written on it.
Zhang Mingda immediately jumped out of bed upon seeing the situation. He grabbed some paper and a pen, meticulously transcribing the Thai characters, and then sent them via fax to the translator.
The translation came back quickly.
Zhang Mingda glanced at the response, which was filled with names of women.
The translator then called him, informing him that all these were women's names.
The next day, Zhang Mingda sought out the Senior Officer he had previously bribed. Upon investigation, he discovered that all the women associated with those names had gone missing, and their disappearance dates were all before Ping's suicide.
Zhang Mingda keenly sensed that there must be a hidden secret behind this.
He wanted to inquire further with the high-ranking police officer, but the officer sighed and said, "What I'm about to tell you is internal confidential information."
"Peng Kao Zhai," Zhang Mingda replied in somewhat broken Thai, meaning "I understand."
As he spoke, he took out a thick envelope from his bag and handed it to the officer with both hands.
The officer patted the envelope, seemingly satisfied with its thickness, and said, "Actually, we have been secretly monitoring Ping for some time. We suspect she was involved in an international human trafficking case, where many Thai women were sold into Western countries and forced into prostitution. However, her death has cut off our leads."
"Is her death confirmed as a suicide?"
Comment 0 Comment Count