Chapter Twenty: Lu Xiaodong

Just now, didn’t Li Jialong say that after breaking up with him, Lin Zhen dated another boyfriend? Yet when she was in front of us, she never breathed a word about it.

“We were thinking of the same thing,” Kang Ge said with a faint smile. “She made such a fuss over that strange delivery package that stopped appearing three months ago, and even Li Jialong, who was with her at the time, didn’t mind bringing it up. So why is she completely silent about the relationship that came afterward? Besides, her earlier explanation was that while she had a boyfriend, receiving those packages did not scare her much; only after they broke up, when she was single, did she begin to feel frightened. That doesn’t hold together at all, because she later had another boyfriend.”

“Do you think Li Jialong just made up some random person to fool us? These days there’s software for everything. Faking a chat record or something like that is ridiculously easy.” Yan Xue was a little worried. She simply did not trust the unconventional Li Jialong from earlier; she kept feeling that he was the sort of man you could not rely on.

On this matter, Kang Ge disagreed. “Not likely. It’s not that Li Jialong is especially trustworthy; it’s mainly that he gains nothing by doing that.

“In other words, if Lin Zhen had broken up with him and then stayed alone, never getting involved with anyone else, a man as self-serving as he is would surely have done everything he could to win her back himself, rather than so generously handing over the fattest piece of meat to his buddy and calling it shared resources.

“The very fact that he was willing to act as a go-between for a friend so that the friend could get close to Lin Zhen, in exchange for help finding other possible targets later, probably means he knew perfectly well that he had no chance with Lin Zhen anymore.

“A guy with that much confidence, who even went so far as to admit he had been too clingy and used the wrong approach, then deliberately arranged for two friends with very different styles to go and strike up conversations, clearly had concrete proof that the odds of reconciliation were slim to none, and that Lin Zhen’s tastes in boyfriends had changed.”

“Lin Zhen and Li Jialong really have opened my eyes,” Yan Xue said, clicking her tongue.

After a while, Li Jialong came back, clutching a phone in his hand. As soon as he reached them, he shoved it directly into Kang Ge’s hands. “Here. See for yourselves. This guy looks so sleazy, can you blame me for overthinking it?”

Kang Ge took it and saw that the phone displayed a photo, clearly taken secretly without the person’s knowledge. The background was Lin Zhen’s home. In the picture was a young man of about twenty-seven or twenty-eight, someone one could only call plain, even a little ugly. He was short, with a large head, dark skin, a round nose, and thick lips.

Though his looks were hardly impressive, they were unmistakable at a glance and stuck in the mind at once.

What drew the eye most in the photo was the man’s gaze. He was slanting his eyes toward the right side of the image, expressionless, yet with a faint look of malice in his eyes, as if tinged with contempt.

Toward the direction he was looking, along the edge of the photo, there was a vague and incomplete figure.

“Is this Lin Zhen?” Yan Xue leaned close to Kang Ge to look, then asked Li Jialong.

“Exactly! It’s Lin Zhen. That man always stares at her fiercely whenever she can’t see him, but the moment he’s face-to-face with her, he smiles like a big, honest fool.

“And it wasn’t just Lin Zhen. He treated me that way too. In fact, he treated me even worse than he treated Lin Zhen. At least in front of Lin Zhen he knew enough to put on an act. With me, he didn’t even bother pretending. He just wore that dark expression and acted all weird for no reason!

“I told Lin Zhen more than once that something was off about him, that his eyes on people were creepy and a little frightening, and I worried he might be one of those antisocial psychopath types. What would we have done then?

“But Lin Zhen wouldn’t listen to me at all. Every time I said it, she laughed and told me I was a grown man being paranoid. After that I stopped bothering to tell her. Then later Lin Zhen broke up with me, and since we weren’t together anymore, I stopped caring about all that.

“But tell me, doesn’t this guy’s way of looking at people seem seriously wrong? It’s obvious he looks as if he wants to bite Lin Zhen to death, and yet every time he still comes running over to stay at her place. That’s not just my subjective guess or prejudice, is it?”

“Well, looking at this photo, your earlier suspicions really weren’t groundless,” Kang Ge said with a nod, affirming Li Jialong’s judgment. “Would it be convenient for you to send me this picture? We can take it back with us as part of the investigation evidence.”

“Sure, of course. What’s there to say? Absolutely!” Li Jialong agreed readily, extending his phone. “Come on, add me!”

Kang Ge naturally did not stand on ceremony. That was exactly what he wanted. The two added each other as contacts in short order, and Li Jialong sent the photo over to Kang Ge. After that came a long stream of reminders: if there was anything he could help with, Kang Ge had to tell him, and once he had helped, he must be sure to pass the message on to Lin Zhen as well.

Kang Ge agreed to all of it with great ease. Like a good brother, he draped an arm over Li Jialong’s shoulder and gave him a friendly pat. “Easy. With your sincerity, if there’s anything you can help with, I should create some chances for you to shine, shouldn’t I?”

“That’s the spirit! That’s the spirit!” Li Jialong said, his face lighting up. “I used to think cops were all gloomy and rigid, doing everything by the book, not lively at all. Only today did I realize you’re nothing like that!”

Yan Xue said nothing beside them. In her heart she thought: I used to think that people who wanted to struggle as little as possible and live off others would at least have some shame left from traditional values and keep a low profile. Today, after seeing you, I’ve learned that’s not necessarily true either.

After Li Jialong left, Kang Ge and Yan Xue headed toward the parking lot. As they walked, Kang Ge quickly scrolled through Li Jialong’s social feed and told Yan Xue, “The photos this kid posted while he was dating Lin Zhen and the ones after they broke up show an obvious drop in his standard of living, and it’s clear he hasn’t recently found a better meal ticket.

“So I still hold to my original view. For a guy who has set himself such a grand ambition, he probably wouldn’t do something as foolish as killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. Let alone the fact that he hasn’t completely given up hope of winning Lin Zhen back. Even if Lin Zhen were absolutely certain not to return, look at how much importance Li Jialong places on material comfort—he’d definitely be actively looking for his next rich girlfriend. He would never, for the sake of an ex who can no longer provide him with material security, dig his own grave and end up behind bars.”

“Unless prison accommodations and food can reach the standard of a five-star hotel,” Yan Xue said lightly, taking Kang Ge’s phone and glancing through Li Jialong’s feed as she made a teasing joke.

No sooner had she spoken than the photo feed on Kang Ge’s screen vanished, replaced by an incoming call. The caller name displayed was Qi Tianhua.

Yan Xue handed the phone back. Kang Ge answered and, at the same time, turned on the speaker. Since it was Qi Tianhua calling, it was certain to be work-related. There was no one else around them, so listening together on speakerphone would save Yan Xue from having to hear it all repeated later.

“Brother Kang, we’ve got a photo of Lin Zhen with someone else on our side. I’m sending it to you—take a look,” Qi Tianhua said. He had always been straightforward and reliable in his work, so as soon as the call connected, he stated his purpose plainly.

“Is there something special we need to pay attention to?” Kang Ge asked.

“Not us, you. There’s someone in the photo that Luo Wei says he’s seen before—a little girl who once came to our bureau to bring you food. He said you told him she was your sister.”

“I’m sending the photo to you. Have a look and see if it’s her. After all, Luo Wei only saw her once and might not recognize her accurately. If it really is your sister, then it would be perfect for you to help us understand more about Lin Zhen.”

“Oh? All right, send it over. I’ll know as soon as I see it,” Kang Ge agreed, then hung up.

A few seconds later, his phone chimed with a notification, and a photo arrived from Qi Tianhua.

It was a group picture. The background looked like a fairly upscale Western restaurant, and on the table were not full meals but elegant afternoon tea pastries. There were seven or eight people in the photo, all rather young. Lin Zhen stood first from the left. Judging by the posture, she was the one who took the picture; she was holding a selfie stick, and the others stood in a line beside her.

Kang Ge looked over the group and quickly fixed his gaze on the second girl from the right. “It really is my sister!”

Yan Xue leaned in to look as well. Kang Ge enlarged the photo for her so she could see more clearly.

She had originally imagined that Kang Ge’s sister would resemble him somewhat, a girl likely tall and slender, with fair skin, maybe a touch of barely noticeable natural wave in her hair, and a pair of lively eyes full of laughter.

Yet the girl Kang Ge pointed out in the photo, who seemed to be around twenty, was certainly young and fresh, for no other reason than that youth itself bestows its own undefeated advantage. But her appearance was nothing like Kang Ge’s at all.

Kang Ge’s sister was of average height, with fair skin and a round face. Her cheeks were full, and her features were genuinely small—small nose, small eyes, small mouth. Unlike her brother, whose face looked as if it had been carved for a shining and righteous leading man, this girl could not exactly be called beautiful, but she gave off a naturally cheerful air.

“Your sister actually knows Lin Zhen? Should I be sighing at how small this city is?” Yan Xue said with a smile.

“Not at all, not at all. It’s not that this city is small—after all, there are still ten-odd million people here. In the end, it’s because the circles these girls move in are too small,” Kang Ge said with a wave of his hand. “The first condition for people to play together is not necessarily shared values; the most important thing is whether they can afford the same level of spending. In the end, that comes down to material conditions.

“So you see how clearly Li Jialong has thought this through. As long as one of his friends can still get into Lin Zhen’s circle, sooner or later he’ll find the right opportunity to pull himself back into that little group.”

“That makes sense. Rich kids probably do spend more time with other rich kids,” Yan Xue said, finding Kang Ge’s analysis quite reasonable. It also stirred her curiosity. “Come to think of it, you and your sister came from the same family, so your circumstances must be the same too. Why is it that last time, with your sister’s clothes and the circle of friends around her, the difference between you and her was so huge?”

“Because we’re not the same sort of people!” Kang Ge said, waving his hand with an expression of polite refusal. “If you asked me to mingle with her friends, I’d work harder than a nursery teacher looking after a kindergarten class! Once you meet her, you’ll immediately agree with how I just described her. The environment you grow up in has too much influence on the kind of person you become later.”

“So we’re going to find your sister now? Where is she?”

“She studies at a school nearby—not too far away. When we head back, we can just swing by on the way.”

Kang Ge’s sister, Lu Xiaodong, attended an ordinary local university in W City. It was said that, on the one hand, her grades were indeed just average, so even with her own effort she could not have gotten into a school with a higher admissions threshold.

On the other hand, she was a homebody and did not want to go to a university of comparable level in another city. She insisted on staying in W City, in the familiar environment where she had grown up.

Just hearing that much, Yan Xue already formed a preliminary impression and thought of her as a girl raised in a honey jar.

If this had been before, following Kang Ge to meet Lu Xiaodong might have been something Yan Xue would do without much thought. But now things were different. After the two of them had spoken openly about their feelings, meeting Kang Ge’s closest family carried a somewhat different meaning for Yan Xue. Even though they still had no official relationship, only using this as a way to deepen their understanding, many things had already changed in nature.

The school Lu Xiaodong attended was indeed nearby. Kang Ge drove for seven or eight minutes, took one turn, and arrived at the university. He had called ahead to confirm that Lu Xiaodong was on campus, and then they went straight over.

Clearly, Kang Ge often came to his sister’s school; he knew the place well. After speaking with Lu Xiaodong on the phone, he quickly drove along a small road outside the school wall. They had not even reached the gate when they already saw a girl standing by the entrance in the distance, looking around and searching for someone.

Very soon, that girl made out that the approaching car belonged to Kang Ge, and immediately began bouncing in place, waving both arms excitedly.

“Today I’ll show you something!” Kang Ge said with a helpless smile after seeing her, turning to Yan Xue. “I’m going to let you see what a true and proper silly girl looks like!”