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墨書 Inktalez
I shared my thoughts with Zhao Mingkun, who fell silent after listening. However, all of this was merely my speculation. Although I believed my guesses were quite accurate, I had no substantial evidence to support them. Faced with such a situation, I realized that I had no way to uncover any concrete proof.
This was a case of mutual consent; Lu Xiangyang had not made any substantial suggestions. Even if Jiang Xiaochun had finally resolved to commit murder because of that phone, it would be difficult to convict Lu Xiangyang of incitement to murder. This was a form of silent instigation, and often, the power of words is weak and insignificant.
All the premeditation was silently completed between two hearts, without any communication laid out on paper. It was precisely because of this that I found Lu Xiangyang even more terrifying. As the saying goes, threats that are overt are never the deadliest. This reminded me of the most famous assassins in the world, who were also the most unsuccessful.
After a long pause, Zhao Mingkun finally spoke, "So you mean we just let it go?"
I shook my head, then nodded after a moment and said, "Even if we don't want to let it go, it's hard to do anything now. However, as long as there are doubts, we can find more evidence. We already know that Lu Xiangyang withdrew fifty thousand yuan from his account, which he used to bribe those people. He won't be able to explain where that money went."
"And," I continued, "since Lu Xiangyang is seeking revenge, he will inevitably leave a record. I think he might believe that online matters are hard to trace, which is why he used that excuse to leave. In reality, anyone who has left comments online or visited certain websites can be traced by hackers if they want to."
After thinking for a moment, I said, "If we contact Mary, we should be able to find out. But the frustrating thing is that even if we do uncover something, it won't change much in the end. These shadowy matters can lead us to suspicions, but ultimately they might let him go due to insufficient evidence. In the end, Lu Xiangyang would be ruined."
I looked at Zhao Mingkun and said, "A high school student taken away by the police—a student involved in a murder case—regardless of the outcome, it will impact his life significantly. He is only in his second year of high school; his life has just begun. Perhaps he is too eager to avenge his sister."
Pausing for a moment, I sent Gu Chen a text message asking him to tell Mary to check Lu Xiangyang's chat records in social games and see if he had made any such agreements with others. If it turned out there were no such agreements, it would clearly indicate that Lu Xiangyang was lying.
However, if it turned out that Lu Xiangyang indeed had such a bet, it wouldn't prove his innocence either because there are countless people online looking for fights; most of them are just boasting and wouldn't take it seriously. With Lu Xiangyang's cunning nature, provoking an online opponent into a duel would be quite easy.
I told Zhao Mingkun, "Regardless of what happens, Lu Xiangyang definitely won't run away. His tactic of using someone else's hand to kill is quite clever. He should have been at school during this time; let's see what Mary finds out and then decide how to proceed."
Zhao Mingkun fell silent for a moment before saying, "But I think Lu Xiangyang seems like a decent guy; he doesn't seem like someone so cruel."
I chose not to respond.
When I texted Gu Chen, he was still on the train. He had already left early in the morning, and it would take almost twelve hours to reach Rob's hometown, followed by a car ride to Rob's house. By the time he arrived, it was likely to be evening.
I advised Gu Chen to rest well on the train, as there would be an investigation waiting for him once he reached Rob's hometown.
Zhao Mingkun and I copied the identification numbers of the middle-aged man and Ms. Wang, informing them that if the police needed their testimonies, they would be notified. After a rather "cheerful" farewell, the two of them left.
Time flew by, and before we knew it, it was evening.
It seemed that checking the chat records from two months ago in the game was beyond even Mary, an exceptionally skilled hacker. However, although we hadn't received any news about Lu Xiangyang, Gu Chen informed us that he was now in Rob's hometown. He then shared some information he had gathered over the phone.
It was a village with a population of several hundred. After a brief inquiry, Gu Chen found Rob's home. When he knocked on the door, only Rob's elderly mother was at home. She was over sixty years old and initially thought Gu Chen was Rob returning home.
Upon realizing he was a stranger, Rob's mother became cautious, but her demeanor relaxed significantly when she learned Gu Chen's identity.
Rob's mother, whose surname was Wu, didn't know her own first name as she had never been educated and couldn't read or write. The walls of their home were cracked and peeling, indicating that no one had come to repair them for quite some time. Dust floated on top of the water in the large water tank in their house. Aunt Wu drank from this water using a ladle. Gu Chen noticed that Aunt Wu had difficulty walking and needed a cane for support.
After some inquiries, Gu Chen learned that Rob had been working away from home for many years. His father had passed away when he was very young, leaving him and his mother to rely on each other for survival. Rob dropped out of high school halfway through because, in Aunt Wu's words, he wasn't cut out for school.
After dropping out, Rob began working with others from the village. His Mandarin was not very standard; he couldn't find a job as a security guard and ended up working at construction sites under a foreman for seven years.
However, seven years ago, at the age of twenty-six, Rob suddenly left the construction site. According to him, he no longer wanted to work there. He took his wages and returned home but didn't stay long before telling Aunt Wu that he had found a new job and would be going away again.
And just like that, seven years passed.
Hearing this from Gu Chen made me curious. It seemed strange that Rob hadn't returned home in seven years; it was quite bizarre. Had he signed some sort of contract that bound him? Did he have no personal freedom? Wasn't there any occasion during holidays when he could come back to see Aunt Wu, who had raised him through thick and thin?
But Gu Chen confirmed that Rob hadn't returned even once in those seven years.
Rob sent letters every month, but the location from which he sent them varied each time. With each envelope, there was always two thousand yuan inside. In every letter, Rob would inquire about his mother's health and reassure her not to worry, promising that he would return home after a while.
However, seven years passed in the blink of an eye, and Rob had yet to come back. Whenever someone knocked on the door, Aunt Wu would hurriedly lean on her cane to open it, hoping that the moment the door swung open, it would be Rob returning. But it was always either villagers coming to help fetch water or another envelope arriving.
Aunt Wu could not read, so she had to wait for someone to help her read the letters whenever they came to assist with fetching water. She also needed help replying to her son. Gu Chen glanced at those letters; they all conveyed similar sentiments, mostly asking about Aunt Wu's situation at home.
Just before Gu Chen arrived, Aunt Wu received another letter from Rob. Gu Chen helped Aunt Wu read Rob's letter. Ignoring Aunt Wu's protests, he insisted on cleaning the water tank thoroughly and filling it up with water. He even built a makeshift canopy over where Aunt Wu slept using a poster, ensuring that if the wall plaster fell off, it wouldn't land on her.
From the address on that letter, it was clear that Rob was in a Southern City far from his hometown. The continuous flow of letters suggested that Rob seemed to change jobs every month since each letter came from a different city. Gu Chen thought about buying a mobile phone for Aunt Wu so she could call her son.
However, Aunt Wu didn’t know how to use one; despite many attempts, she couldn’t grasp it. Moreover, no one in the village had a mobile phone either, so they were left with this oldest method of communication.
On the phone, Gu Chen informed me that he would stay at Aunt Wu's house for a night before heading to the address from which Rob sent his letters. This journey would take quite some time; it required twenty-four hours by train to reach that city and then search for Rob. However, based on previous patterns, Rob would leave his current mailing address only after receiving his mother’s letter.
Thus, Gu Chen helped Aunt Wu write a letter and promised to send it for her. Aunt Wu appeared very pleased.
After hanging up the phone, I pondered over this matter. From what I gathered, Rob's actions were rather strange. His mother had worked hard to raise him; how could he not return home even once in seven years? Moreover, from Gu Chen’s description, we knew that Rob should be quite filial towards his mother; his letters were filled with genuine concern.
What could possibly be the reason for Rob wandering outside for seven years without returning home? As I thought about this, I sensed there must be a deeper reason behind it all. I had a vague answer forming in my mind but wasn't ready to draw conclusions just yet.
However, I now understood that whether it was Lu Xiangyang's situation or Rob's circumstances, uncovering the truth behind Lu Zhiqiu's case was merely a matter of time. The truth was already on the verge of revealing itself; yet when faced with this truth, how should we act? What choices should we make?
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