The interrogation room at Feiyun County Bureau was much more rudimentary than the city bureau’s. Qiang Chunliu sat awkwardly inside, while his son and daughter-in-law anxiously waited out in the hallway.

The county police were not involved in the investigation and knew little about the case. Qiang Chunliu’s daughter-in-law, in a panic, stopped the officers and asked, “They won’t report about my mother-in-law, right? She’s not the culprit. Could you please not write in the police notice that she did it?”

The officers were confused, not knowing what to say. They explained they were only the Feiyun County police assisting with the case, and the reports and notices were decided by the homicide squad. The daughter-in-law, frantic, kept insisting and demanded they promise not to mention Qiang Chunliu’s involvement.

Police: “…”

Zhu Jie quickly pulled his wife aside, both angry and anxious. “Why are you saying this? Don’t you hear? They have no say in my mom’s case!”

The daughter-in-law, still furious, was already displeased with Qiang Chunliu as a mother-in-law. Now her husband was scolding her, and all her anger shifted onto Zhu Jie. “Is it my fault your mom got arrested? I married into your family but never had a good life or any happiness…”

Grassroots police often dealt with domestic quarrels, neighbor disputes, and mother-in-law versus daughter-in-law conflicts. Seeing the situation escalate, several officers stepped in immediately to separate and mediate the couple.

Meanwhile, behind a thin wall, Qiang Chunliu was recounting what she had done to Liu Yuchun.

“After the man died, life at home became unpleasant. My son and daughter-in-law are family, and I did all I could for them. It wasn’t bad at first, but I always felt life was meaningless. Then I started a waist drum troupe with some sisters. At first, we just played around. They were half-hearted, and in the end, only I remained.

“I was the one who developed the troupe—making uniforms, choreographing, taking gigs, recruiting people… all done by me. This waist drum troupe was like my child. Who doesn’t want their child to be the best?

“But once Liu Yuchun appeared, all the benefits were snatched away by her Hongyun troupe. Especially this year, we couldn’t get any gigs. The merchants said our drumming sounded rough and uncultured, not as elegant as the ‘Queen of Hats.’

“I tried to change. We bought hats and dresses and practiced every day, but still couldn’t compete with Liu Yuchun. It hurt inside. Whenever I told Xiao Ling about it, he comforted me, and I felt better at the time. But after a while, the hurt returned.

“I just… I felt it was unfair! I can’t do anything else, so I could only curse her under her videos. That made me feel a bit better.”

Shen Qi found that Qiang Chunliu’s harshest curses were in early spring this year. There were a few scattered ones later, but after April, she never cursed Liu Yuchun again. Zhou Qingxia said she saw Qiang Chunliu secretly following Liu Yuchun only after April.

One possibility was that Qiang Chunliu knew what she was about to do, and to avoid leaving traces online, she stopped attacking Liu Yuchun. This was a crude anti-surveillance measure. But Ji Chenjiao thought the truth might not be so simple.

“Around April, why did you stop?”

Qiang Chunliu said, “Xiao Ling kept advising me, saying it was fine as it was—everyone should live their own way. I knew what I was doing was wrong. I still hated her inside, but someone patiently comforted me. The more I cursed Liu Yuchun, the more guilty I felt.”

Ji Chenjiao asked, “Did you feel you had let Ling Lie down?”

Qiang Chunliu nodded. “You could say that. My son and daughter-in-law never patiently consoled me like he did. They never really listened. My sisters and I just cursed Liu Yuchun together, getting angrier and angrier. Only he was different.”

Ji Chenjiao understood the feeling, but as soon as he connected this person with the “temp worker” Ling Lie, a subtle twitch appeared at his temple.

How many faces did Ling Lie have? What kind of person was he really?

Ji Chenjiao quickly realized he shouldn’t get distracted and continued questioning, “But if you stopped attacking Liu Yuchun, why did you sometimes follow her?”

Qiang Chunliu was surprised. “You know about that too?”

Ji Chenjiao didn’t explain. “Answer my question.”

Qiang Chunliu didn’t avoid it. “I saw a phrase online young people say—‘If you can’t beat them, join them.’”

The policeman taking notes almost laughed aloud.

Qiang Chunliu continued, “I didn’t want to see the waist drum troupe decline. Since merchants liked her style, I decided to learn properly, seriously! I couldn’t afford those expensive clothes, but I could learn how to dress and behave. Liu Yuchun didn’t wear brands either, but she knew how to present herself. I knew she lived on Ganzi Street and danced in the square every day, so I wanted to watch and learn from her.”

Ji Chenjiao silently studied Qiang Chunliu for a moment. On one hand, her attitude in questioning didn’t resemble that of a culprit, and her story was logically consistent. On the other, he felt uneasy. By now, Qiang Chunliu was the third person under serious investigation. If she wasn’t the murderer, then the real killer was hiding very deep.

“Why did you suddenly leave home yesterday?” Ji Chenjiao asked. “Was it to go to the mountain and repent?”

Qiang Chunliu quickly shook her hand. “I didn’t kill anyone. I wasn’t repenting for murder! I knew Liu Yuchun was dead, and thought about all the things I cursed her for. The more I thought, the more scared I felt—guilty and afraid she’d come back to get me. You can ask my master. What I was repenting for was cursing Liu Yuchun!”

Her master was the old man who had guided them earlier. Ji Chenjiao sighed. “You went pretty far.”

Seeing the police not pressing her about murder, Qiang Chunliu relaxed a bit. “When I was young, I worked around here and often picked bamboo shoots in the mountains. The locals say this mountain is especially effective for prayer and repentance.”

The interrogation ended late at night. Tomorrow, back in the city, the homicide squad would continue investigating Qiang Chunliu. The county bureau arranged lodging for Ji Chenjiao and his team, but there was no food service. They could either eat instant noodles or find a barbecue stall.

A quarter hour later, the group sat at a barbecue stall in Feiyun County night market. Apart from alcohol, they ordered nearly everything on the menu.

Before coming, no one expected Feiyun County to be so lively at night. Various stalls stayed open until 3 a.m., and some even until dawn, then turned to selling breakfast before closing.

The surroundings were full of loud chatting and dice games. As summer approached, the warmth of life rose just like the temperature.

Though the case remained unsolved, even eating grilled skewers and sipping cola, the detectives’ minds were fixated only on the investigation.

“Wang Xiaowen, Zhou Qingxia, and Qiang Chunliu—these three have been our main suspects with the strongest motives. Wang and Qiang were both on Ganzi Street on the 26th. If none of them is the murderer, then this case will be very difficult.”

Everyone began discussing.

“We don’t have much evidence yet. I still think the killer is among them, especially Zhou Qingxia and Qiang Chunliu. Think about the crime scene, with all that ritual. Besides them, others’ motives aren’t strong enough.”

“True, the killer must be someone in their circle. I’ll continue investigating Zhou Qingxia tomorrow. Qiang Chunliu’s ability to commit the crime isn’t as strong as Zhou Qingxia’s, but I feel she’s hiding something.”

“Wang Xiaowen and Wang Huqiang, the father and daughter, also have some unclear details. We suspected Wang Xiaowen acted alone. Could Wang Huqiang have helped her? They were both unhappy with Liu Yuchun…”

Ji Chenjiao listened while eating grilled fish. The fish here was a Feiyun County specialty, but he couldn’t taste much in it. His mind was tangled with all the branching clues and leads.

If the three people with the strongest motives were not the real culprits, then rewind, rewind again, stop—

Time rewound to the moment the Major Crimes Unit arrived at the scene. Liu Yuchun wore a dress that had recently gained a lot of attention. She lay among dozens of hats, her neck pierced, the dark red blood soaking through the dress and the bedsheets.

The dress, the hats, the ritualistic feeling.

It was precisely because of this scene that the Major Crimes Unit made a preliminary profile of the murderer and determined the focus of the investigation.

The killer was someone within Liu Yuchun’s retired photography circle, harboring deep hatred toward her. Extending further, if not from the same circle, at least someone connected to her filming or video work.

Wang Xiaowen and two others surfaced during this round of investigation—each had sufficient motive, and all had alibis.

The image of Liu Yuchun lying among the hats grew clearer and clearer. Ji Chenjiao paused mid-bite. What if this ritualistic scene was deliberately staged by the murderer to mislead the police? What if the killer had nothing to do with filming or videos, and the motive was completely contrary to what the police had grasped?

Then what would it be? Liu Yuchun was just an ordinary retired worker. Though she was pretty when young, she had always been inconspicuous at the factory. No conflicts had been found during the investigation until recent years, when she began to “show off.”

Ji Chenjiao had a strong intuition that they needed to quickly break out of their previous thinking and re-examine Liu Yuchun.

They had almost finished eating, and everyone was about to pay and leave, when Ji Chenjiao suddenly spotted a familiar face among a group playing finger-guessing drinking games—indeed, it was Ling Lie!

Under the outdoor lights, Ling Lie sat among a group of older men, blending in naturally. He rolled up his sleeves and shouted: “Brothers, cheers! 666!”

A team member also noticed Ling Lie. “Captain Ji, isn’t that Ling Lie? Did you bring him here?”

“No,” Ji Chenjiao replied, then walked toward Ling Lie. Ling Lie had just won a round and was happily watching others drink.

Ji Chenjiao said, “You’re really ‘six’ [slang for cool/lucky].”

Ling Lie looked up, pretending to be surprised. “Captain Ji, what are you doing here?”

“I want to ask you the same.”

Ling Lie bowed to the older men, “My friend invited me, I’m leaving now!”

“Come drink with us again next time, bye!”

Ji Chenjiao couldn’t help but wonder, “You used to stay in Feiyun County.”

“No, I just got here today.”

“Then do you know them?”

“No.”

“…Then why are you inviting each other next time?”

“Isn’t it just a polite gesture? Hey, Captain Ji, where are you taking me?”

When Ling Lie said this, Ji Chenjiao realized he had been holding Ling Lie’s arm the entire time since the stall, and now they were already on the roadside.

Releasing Ling Lie’s arm, Ji Chenjiao asked unfriendly, “What are you doing here? What were you doing just now? Following me?”

Ling Lie widened his eyes; the street lamp light collected in his deep brown eyes, shining like gems.

Then Ji Chenjiao saw him suddenly burst into a small snicker.

Ji Chenjiao: “…”

“Ha ha ha ha!” Ling Lie couldn’t hold it, laughing and bending over. “Captain Ji, you’re so confident.”

Ji Chenjiao pressed his finger on Ling Lie’s forehead, “Stop laughing.”

Ling Lie really stopped laughing but hiccupped, sounding a bit ridiculous. Ji Chenjiao couldn’t help but smile, “Tsk.”

By then, the other team members had all returned to the lodging; they were not surprised to see Ling Lie’s presence—after all, to them Ling Lie was familiar to Ji Chenjiao.

Ji Chenjiao asked, “What exactly are you here for?”

“I guessed Sister Qiang Chunliu might be in Feiyun County, so I came to check,” Ling Lie shrugged. “I was going to confirm she was here and talk to her, convince her to come to your Major Crimes Unit to explain the ‘Queen of Hats’ matter. But you guys were quick—when I arrived, the temple people said you’d already taken her away.”

Ji Chenjiao felt a vein throbbing in his temple. “How did you know she was in Feiyun County? Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”

“Well, who told you to treat me like that? I’m just an ordinary person who likes to hear nice things. If you’d sweet-talked me this morning, I might have told you.”

“…”

“Gnash your teeth, gnash your teeth!” Ling Lie laughed and calmed down a bit. “I was worried you might be wrong. If she wasn’t here, you guys would have wasted your effort.”

Ji Chenjiao calmed down and saw from Ling Lie’s slightly evasive gaze that something was off. Ling Lie wasn’t just worried about a mistake, but—

Ji Chenjiao recalled how Qiang Chunliu spoke about Ling Lie. In her eyes, Ling Lie was gentle and considerate, though they had only known each other a short while, he cared for her more than her own children.

“You want to find her before me, accompany her to the station, rather than let her face the police unprepared?”

Ling Lie was momentarily stunned, then laughed.

“Hmph—” Ji Chenjiao saw that uneasy little expression and knew he was right. No matter what, this guy was unexpectedly warm in some ways.

Thinking this, Ji Chenjiao’s annoyance eased considerably. He asked, “You only drank, didn’t eat?”

There was a noodle stall nearby. Ji Chenjiao ordered a bowl of beef noodles and “interrogated” Ling Lie through the rising steam.

“Did Sister Qiang Chunliu tell you in advance she’d come to Feiyun County?”

“No, but when we chatted before, she mentioned the mountains here are very spiritual, that when she had things to say, she’d talk to the mountain gods.”

“How did you get here?”

“By bus—waiting for buses, transferring buses, the ride was slow. I left earlier than you, but arrived later. What a waste!”

Ji Chenjiao was about to ask how Ling Lie could guess Chunliu would run to Feiyun County just from her casually mentioning the mountain spirits, but then thought it was unnecessary. Ling Lie’s thinking was so jumpy and detailed that nothing was surprising—he had proved that in a previous missing person case.

Ling Lie finished his noodles and sat up straight. “Captain Ji, since you bought me food again, I’ll give you some information, to not disgrace our police relations.”

Ji Chenjiao: “Hmm?”

“Actually, my trip here isn’t just because of Sister Chunliu.” Ling Lie’s eyes narrowed slightly, the corners of his long eyes lifted under the light, and the shadow made him look sharper and more cunning than usual.

Ji Chenjiao immediately became alert.

“Sister Chunliu did something bad and came to this mountain to repent, but what about the others?” Ling Lie spoke calmly: “When I heard her mention this mountain, I got very interested. Whether the mountain is really ‘spiritual’—that’s not just her idea, but many people say it, passing the word from one to another. Such a mountain that sounds so pure often knows many dirty secrets.”

Ling Lie spread out his hands like someone who sees through all human affairs, his eyes showing an unusual calmness for his age—or perhaps it was cold indifference?

“I wanted to take a look and see who else came here to repent.”

Jì Chénjiāo had to admit that at this moment, he felt drawn into another space by Ling Lie’s gaze. He no longer wanted to ask: why are you interested in this? Don’t you have anything better to do?

He only wanted to know: who exactly is Ling Lie? What had he been through to become so different from others?

Soon Ling Lie’s tone brightened again, as if the cold, aloof man had vanished, “I knew you’d take Sister Chunliu away, so I had no use here. I just wandered the mountain a bit, saw someone I knew, and followed him to the night market street, but unfortunately we got separated after a few punches.”

Ji Chenjiao interrupted, “Who?”

“My landlord’s son,” Ling Lie smiled, “He also came here to repent.”

---

At the motel beside the night market street, Ji Xing nervously closed the door behind him, leaning against it, breathing fast, sweat soaking his T-shirt.

Not long ago, he saw the police at the night market! Why were they here? Were they coming for him?

The night grew deeper. He lay on an uncomfortable mattress, clenching his fists tightly, unable to sleep.

Meanwhile, in Xiarong City, someone else was also awake late.

He stood up from an ergonomic chair, stretched lazily, wearing loose long-sleeved and long pants homewear, but slippers on his feet.

He walked to the table with a chessboard, turned on the hanging lamp above it, light pouring out. It was a game of military chess, with various ranks of soldiers and outdated weapons. Such games were rarely sold nowadays.

He picked up a cannon piece, moved it around the map for a while, got bored, and casually tossed it, knocking over a soldier piece.

“Tsk.” He chuckled. His phone buzzed with a notification — a subscribed novel updated.

The author was a newly popular writer named “Lying Flat in the Wind.” He was just one of thousands of readers, but unlike others, he had followed the author for a long time and knew the author wasn’t new — before gaining popularity, many of his works had failed.

He opened the update without much interest, as if going through the motions rather than enjoying reading.

“Ji Xing is in Feiyun County?” The news surprised Ji Chenjiao.

Although clues in the Liu Yixiang case were scarce and the investigation was nearly at a dead end, before the Liu Yuchun case occurred, the major crimes unit never stopped. They had been investigating around the Ji family, verifying where Ji Ke had traveled on business, about to proceed with the next step, but then had to divert their attention to the Liu Yuchun case.

Ji Chenjiao’s suspicion of Ji Xing had never diminished, and he had even talked to Ji Xing’s older sister about him. Ji Zhan didn’t like his youngest son, thinking he had a bad character, didn’t want to do family business, and was quiet even at home, less warm than a stranger.

However, Ji Xing’s sister was understanding: “Parents, really, Xiao Xing is grown up, it’s good he likes living alone. No rule says he must be outgoing and lively. They say grandparent-grandchild relationships are close. Xiao Xing is like grandpa, introverted and quiet — nothing wrong with that.”

Ji Xing was like Ji Ke. This was another point Ji Chenjiao could not ignore.

The police did not restrict Ji Xing’s freedom. After surveillance yielded no results, they withdrew the police presence. Wherever Ji Xing appeared, police had no right to interfere. But at this time and place, coinciding with Qiang Chunliu’s “repentance,” Ji Chenjiao’s mind raced through all possibilities, and he asked Ling Lie, “Are you sure he came here to repent?”

“I felt so. Feiyun County isn’t some tourist spot. A young guy like him wouldn’t come all this way for nothing. I talked with locals while drinking. They said whoever’s done bad deeds goes up the mountain to confess; praying is less common.”

Ji Chenjiao fell silent, checked the time, and decided to call Shen Qi to verify whether Ji Xing was really in Feiyun County.

Shen Qi: “Damn! Bro, Ji Xing really went to Feiyun County!”

Ling Lie: “Didn’t lie to you, huh?”

Shen Qi gave an address. “He’s staying there. Take action?”

Without concrete evidence, no arrest could be made. Ji Chenjiao said, “I’ll handle it.”

Leaving the night market street, Ji Chenjiao did not return to the motel but subconsciously looked at the row of motel signs on the street, his gaze fixed on one.

Ling Lie: “What a coincidence, I’m staying there too.”

Ji Chenjiao: “…”

“Are you going up to see Ji Xing? Can I stay here too?”

At the front desk, they registered and got a standard room. Ling Lie looked puzzled: “You asked him and didn’t go back? Isn’t the county bureau motel nicer than this little inn?”

Ji Chenjiao stood by the window, looking out, “Who said I’m going to ask now?”

The clue came suddenly; Ji Chenjiao didn’t plan to knock on Ji Xing’s door immediately. He had a more natural way to appear before Ji Xing and observe his reaction.

A team member called: “Captain, you’re not coming back? You’re staying with Ling Lie?”

Ji Chenjiao said simply, “Yeah, the bed here is more comfortable.” He glanced back and saw Ling Lie had already put on a sleeping eye mask and was sleeping peacefully.

The next day before dawn, Ji Chenjiao sat in the motel lobby on a sofa. People dragged luggage down the stairs one after another. At 7 a.m., Ji Xing appeared.

He wore a baseball cap, kept his head low, didn’t look around, and went straight to the front desk. Ji Chenjiao stood up and blocked the way between him and the door.

“I’m checking out too.”

---

Author’s Note:

Captain Ji: Be confident.