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墨書 Inktalez
I cursed under my breath; sure enough, all the jade in the Jade Exhibition was gone. The Detective Captain couldn't help but curse as well, speaking into the phone, "The police will be there shortly." Without waiting for a response, he hung up. I frowned, feeling that something was off. This Killer, the leader among the three, was far too cunning; he had anticipated our presence here.
To achieve this, he must have known many factors, perhaps even realized that we were onto him. Or maybe he was just being cautious and didn't actually guess our movements? Sitting in the car, I pondered this matter. If the Killer could predict this step, then his intelligence was truly remarkable.
If I were the Killer, what would my next move be? Eliminate Yang Shuai and then escape. How would he choose to flee? Would he return to Myanmar? He didn't have a real identity in our country; he had come here illegally. So who facilitated his arrival? Who brought them here?
Back at the Police Department, a team of officers was dispatched to investigate the Jade Exhibition scene, accompanied by Juan Juan and Yan Junde. The Detective Captain and I were responsible for interrogating the two suspects.
In the interrogation room.
The Detective Captain handled the thin man while I focused on the heavier one. Compared to the thin man, questioning the heavier one was much easier. I stared at him in silence, shaking my head slightly with a smile on my face. The heavyset man didn’t understand my intention and merely looked at me, beads of sweat forming on his forehead.
His legs trembled incessantly as he occasionally glanced at me but dared not meet my gaze directly. He appeared to be indecisive; such people tend to crumble under pressure. My expression and demeanor were designed to create an invisible pressure. In an interrogation setting, this kind of pressure combined with a confined space can make someone feel suffocated. Deep down, he would have an urge for someone to speak.
This moment had to be seized appropriately; if the pressure became too overwhelming, it could backfire. Time passed, and I finally spoke: "I feel sorry for you; it's almost tragic. None of this is your fault. Why are you sitting here instead of your older brother or Second Brother?"
"Your Second Brother just told me that you planned all of this," I shook my head and stood up. "Well, I don’t want to ask you anything more. Someone will come to take you away soon; I never expected you to be this kind of person." With that, I pretended to walk out.
He trembled even more but still remained silent. Without pausing, I opened the door, and only then did the heavyset man speak up: "I don’t know what Second Brother said, but I just listened to them; everything that happened wasn’t planned by me. I don’t know; I just followed them."
He kept repeating this phrase, indicating his anxiety. I nodded and closed the door before sitting back down seriously. "Then why does your Second Brother say it was you? I can even imagine how your days went before—being scolded by your older brother Second Brother for not doing anything right. You desperately wanted to prove yourself like those two, but you couldn’t do it. So you thought about stealing and killing, didn’t you?"
My voice suddenly rose in volume, startling him as he quickly exclaimed: "It wasn’t me! We didn’t kill anyone! No killing!" He wiped his sweating face with his sleeve repeatedly, yet sweat continued to drip down. I noticed tears welling up in his eyes.
"Sigh." I sighed inwardly with a tinge of pity creeping in. I took a towel from under the table and walked over to him, wiping his sweat while saying, "Tell me how you ended up here and what you did once you arrived."
Perhaps my small gesture touched him; he began to sob softly: "No one has ever been this nice to me."
I didn’t know whether to feel happy or sad.
The heavyset man continued: "I grew up without parents; since childhood, I've been with my older brother Second Brother living in their house. Their parents treated me poorly, but I had nowhere else to go. As I grew older, I continued following Second Brother. They took me out to work; we quietly crossed over from Mountain and then took a long bus ride. They taught me how to speak Chinese and made me work while taking my money for food. Every day I could eat plenty of rice; now they even give me meat."
It seemed that Second Brother truly treated this guy like a fool. The heavyset man went on: "Second Brother said we needed to find someone—the one who used to buy jade from our village. He said if we got the jade back, we should also rob him of his jade so we could take it back for our village people. Whatever Second Brother told me to do, I did."
I nodded and asked: "Was it Second Brother who sent you here tonight?"
He nodded and replied: "Second Brother told us to use bugs to get the jade out; but instead of bugs, he gave us mosquitoes! I never thought Second Brother would deceive me! He betrayed us! I don’t want to die; I've never killed anyone."
"Do you know someone named Sun Bikun has died?" I asked.
The fat man nodded and said, "Yes, at that time, Alai from the village found us and said he wanted to take the jade back. My brother knew some things about Yang Shuai Company; he understood that the jade was with a woman, so Alai killed that woman. But there was no jade in the bag; it wasn't in the woman's possession."
"My brother speculated that the jade might be with Zhao Yu," the fat man continued, recalling the events. "So my brother sent me to keep an eye on him. One morning, Zhao Yu left, and I quickly called my brother. He stayed behind while I went with Second Brother and Alai to find Zhao Yu. Then Second Brother had Alai use insects to kill Zhao Yu and take the jade."
I frowned, remaining silent as I listened.
The fat man gradually calmed down and said, "But the police knew we were in that city. Second Brother said they had set up checkpoints on the roads and railways, and we couldn't leave. If the police found the jade, we would never get it back. So Second Brother persuaded Alai to act as bait so we could take the jade back."
"Did Alai agree?" I asked.
The fat man nodded and then said, "At that time, Alai made Second Brother swear to bring back the jade, and Second Brother swore. After Alai left, Second Brother said he was a fool for believing everything others said. When he sold the jade later, no one would know what happened, and he didn't want me to tell my brother."
I couldn't help but shake my head, unsure how to evaluate this young man named Alai. For a piece of jade, he was willing to do anything. Was he simply naive or something else? Perhaps no one had ever told him that human life is far more valuable than jade.
"Did you tell your brother later?" I asked.
The fat man nodded and continued, "When I returned, my brother asked me what had happened in that city, and I told him everything. He said Second Brother was interesting; he could share hardships but not enjoy blessings together. I didn't understand what my brother meant. But my brother never asked Second Brother where the jade was. In fact, Second Brother hid the jade under his bed and would secretly take it out every night to polish it several times."
Everyone involved in this case seemed deeply scheming—except for this fat man.
The fat man looked at me again and continued, "What I'm saying is true; I didn't kill anyone. I know killing comes with a price, so I've never done it. Second Brother wanted me to act as bait to divert the police's attention, but I refused. That's why I told my brother about everything."
"I know there's nothing good about following them," the fat man suddenly changed his tone and said. "They all think I'm foolish, but I'm not stupid. I just have nowhere else to work or eat; otherwise, I wouldn't be following them. They deliberately gave me very little money; I knew that too. But without them, I'd struggle just as much back in the village. I'm timid, but I know how to survive."
I stared at the fat man and pursed my lips. He wasn't as simple as I initially thought. The fat man pretended to be somewhat foolish to avoid being abandoned by my brother and Second Brother because he understood a simple truth: sometimes ignorance is bliss.
"You're not foolish," I said. "You're quite clever."
"Thank you." The fat man had completely calmed down now; he looked at me with a sly smile and said, "Everything I've said is true; if you don't believe me, go ask Second Brother next door. He thinks I'm foolish, but that's exactly why he believes what I say and knows I'll tell the truth. So I must speak honestly, right?"
I increasingly felt that human hearts are truly unpredictable; it's easy to paint a dragon or tiger but hard to depict their bones—knowing someone’s face doesn't mean knowing their heart. If my brother and Second Brother discovered that their perceived fool was actually not foolish at all, I wondered what they would think. I asked, "One last question: where did you tie up Yang Shuai?"
"In New District at a bungalow on Victory Street 128; there are no cameras there," the fat man replied.
"I'm sorry; I really want to ask you more questions," I couldn't help but say. "How long have you been pretending like this?"
The chubby man smiled and said, "At first, you couldn't tell, could you? Honestly, if I didn't know that Second Brother would eventually reveal the truth, I could have kept pretending. I've told you before, I grew up without parents, living in other people's homes. If I didn't act smarter than the other kids, I would have starved to death long ago. Do you understand?"
"Then you must have seen through my methods just now?" I asked, frowning.
The chubby man nodded and replied, "But I did notice a flicker of sympathy in your eyes for that brief moment. That's why I can talk to you so openly."
I nodded and asked, "So you've never thought about leaving them? I can't believe what you said earlier; someone as smart as you wouldn't starve."
This time, it was the chubby man's turn to sigh. He said, "We grew up together. To be honest, they treated me well when we were kids. If they hadn't played with me and taken me home for meals, I wouldn't have made it this far. But people change; they want to kill me now for their own interests. After this, I will leave."
"I recorded our conversations. The recorder is in the Bungalow; you can find it in the tree hollow outside," he said.
I nodded and remained silent.
After leaving, I watched him from behind the one-way mirror. He had returned to that somewhat foolish demeanor, as if the person who had just spoken with me was someone else entirely.
A Charming Widow sent a letter to a Young Man, inviting him to dinner at her house in the middle of the night. Afterward, she let him drive her husband's Gallop. Coincidentally, on the way, he encountered a Young Woman hitchhiking. Her actions after getting into the car made it hard for him to maintain his composure—more benefits for homebodies awaited…
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