Chapter 33

Chapter 33: Ominous Joy (33)

The investigation into Moonrise Villa was still ongoing. Based on Guang Yongguo's confession, Criminal Investigation Team 1 found the transferred freezer in a warehouse in the city. The mountain search team continued looking, but no other bodies were discovered.

The remains whose identities had already been confirmed were Fu Jingjing (from Beixin City, female, 21 years old when missing), Dai Zhenzhen (from Suizhi City, female, 23 years old when missing), Wang Huai (from Jiahe City, female, 23 years old when missing), and Kou Feng (from Yejun City, male, 22 years old when missing).

Criminal Investigation Team 1 had already contacted the brother units in the relevant cities and passed the leads to them. How they went missing, what they experienced before disappearing, and their interpersonal relationships—all of these required cooperation from the brother units for investigation. Criminal Investigation Team 1 could not personally go and investigate for the time being.

Hai Shu had not yet received any feedback, and the remains from Pit A in full, plus the one remaining body in Pit B, had still not had their identities confirmed.

Criminal Investigation Team 1 held a meeting. Wen Xu arrived early and chatted with Hai Shu for a bit: “I thought this time we would find those few missing university students.”

Hai Shu said, “Not finding them is a good thing—it means they still have hope of being alive. Guang Yongguo and the others at Moonrise Villa also said they had never seen Xue Ninglin and the rest.”

Wen Xu nodded. “Let’s hope we can still find them alive.”

The Xu Qiao case had now been fully investigated and clarified. Soon, Xu Qiao’s father, Xu Xiu, would be notified to come and take his daughter’s remains for burial. Hai Shu suddenly thought of Yin Canxi and wondered what she would think when she learned that the police had found Xu Qiao’s bones under such unexpected circumstances.

The Wan Zeyu case and the missing persons cases had still not been solved. The connection between Xue Ninglin and Liu Xiang had originally made everyone feel that the case was about to be cracked, but now the leads had suddenly broken off. Guang Yongguo refused to confess the origins of the bodies, the unidentified dead could not be confirmed, there were the mysterious emails, and that pinhole camera installed by who-knows-who—all of these stood like a massive wall suddenly blocking the police’s path. It was truly one wave after another without peace.

Qiao Heng came to cheer everyone up, smiling as he said, “What’s there to feel down about? Think positively—we’ve cracked a major case! Have you counted how many people we arrested? These people who occupied key positions in enterprises—how much filth will they drag out? Of course, the follow-up investigation into the enterprise isn’t our responsibility anymore. We’ve smashed open a breach for cleansing the dark side of society.” As he spoke, Qiao Heng looked at Hai Shu. “Right, Captain Hai?”

Hai Shu had been thinking about something else. Hearing this, she came back to herself and nodded lightly.

Qiao Heng continued, “This time we uncovered several old cases—that’s also a big gain. Hand them over to the brothers handling cold cases; it’ll give them several months of work. Now, let’s pull ourselves together. I have a feeling the missing persons cases will soon see some progress. Captain Hai, you’ve been distracted for half the day—what were you thinking about? Share it with everyone.”

The atmosphere in the meeting room lightened a bit, and several team members laughed.

Being called out by the boss for zoning out, Hai Shu cleared her throat. She didn’t seem particularly embarrassed. “The connection between Xue Ninglin and Liu Xiang actually hasn’t been broken. Xue Ninglin went to the book café to find Liu Xiang, and that had nothing to do with Liu Xiang’s suicide. Xue Ninglin also has no connection to Moonrise Villa. Between them it was… think about it. When Xue Ninglin heard Huang Yiya mention Liu Xiang, she was very unhappy—even argued and gave Huang Yiya the cold shoulder. What reason would cause that?”

Qiao Heng said, “The thoughts between best girlfriends are hard to guess.”

Sui Xing followed Hai Shu’s line of thought. “Xue Ninglin had a conflict with Liu Xiang. She extremely disliked this junior, to the point that even though Liu Xiang was already dead, when Huang Yiya wanted to organize a fundraising performance to help Liu Xiang’s family, she was still very dissatisfied?”

Hai Shu said, “Starting from the angle of disgust, when Xue Ninglin went to find Liu Xiang, it was possibly a warning? An argument? Resolving the issue?”

Sui Xing said, “According to the book café manager, they were no different from ordinary customers—there definitely wasn’t an argument.”

“And after that, Liu Xiang showed no abnormalities either,” Hai Shu continued. “Everyone, don’t forget—there’s still the thread of Liang Lanjun and Zhao Yue in Liu Xiang’s network of relationships.”

The team members discussed for a while and confirmed the next division of labor. Hai Shu looked at the duty roster and vaguely felt a tearing sensation, because whether it was keeping an eye on Liang and Zhao, or digging into Gray Surge University’s past events from Gong Zhao and Ju Ning’s mouths, or excavating deeper clues around the three missing persons—none of it connected obviously to the bodies in the villa or the mysterious emails. This brought a heavy sense of being out of control.

Qiao Heng naturally had similar thoughts. “For now, don’t worry about what Guang Yongguo is concealing. I’ll first go ask for instructions from above.”

After the meeting adjourned, Sui Xing sat down on the edge of Hai Shu’s desk. “What do you think is behind Guang Yongguo?”

Hai Shu stretched her neck. “Some people whose abilities far exceed his. Ever since we found the pinhole camera, I’ve felt something was off. Guang Yongguo is a very cautious person, but that camera had been installed for a long time. Being monitored like that—Guang Yongguo’s reaction is very thought-provoking. He was surprised when he found out, but he wasn’t particularly angry. That’s not normal, right?”

Sui Xing nodded. “If it were me, I’d definitely be more angry than surprised.”

Hai Shu continued, “But he calmed down soon after. That kind of psychological shift reveals that he understood who was watching him. He didn’t dare get angry—and there was even a hint of dependence.”

“Then isn’t that just his backer?” Sui Xing said. “He’s already confessed to the Moonrise Villa matter, but as soon as it touches those body pits, he doesn’t dare fart. He’s just a lackey for the group behind him.”

Hai Shu said, “There’s another possibility: he’s working for certain people, but he may not even know their real identities. And their surveillance of him is comprehensive.”

Sui Xing said, “So the ones who sent me the anonymous email could be these people? But wouldn’t that be deliberately exposing themselves?”

Hai Shu shook her head. “I can’t figure out the motive either. Or maybe the people behind wanted to use the police’s hand to get rid of Guang Yongguo? They had absolute certainty that Guang Yongguo wouldn’t be able to say anything about them. Those cameras were all inside Moonrise Villa—if they didn’t already control Guang Yongguo, it would be very hard to pull off.”

Sui Xing thought for a moment. “Hacker methods could do it too.”

Hai Shu pressed her forehead in frustration. “True.”

“Forget it.” Sui Xing jumped down from the desk and put her hands on her hips. “Old Qiao said we should temporarily not worry about it, so we won’t. I’m going to go see Ju Ning’s wife.”

Hai Shu said, “That researcher?”

Sui Xing said, “We considered earlier that Gong Zhao and Ju Ning might be a gay couple, right? I suspect Ju Ning’s wife is a victim of a sham marriage. She was very cold toward Ju Ning but never sought divorce. They’ve lived under the same roof for a long time—how much does she know about Ju Ning’s secrets?”

Outside the family compound of the Academy of Sciences, Ju Ning’s wife Zhao Yu looked calmly at Sui Xing. “Ju Ning isn’t here.”

Sui Xing said, “I’m not looking for him today. I want to chat with you.”

Zhao Yu said, “Let me state in advance: I am me, he is him. Anything he’s done has nothing to do with me.”

Sui Xing said, “You two draw a very clear line. Let’s go sit in that milk tea shop—it won’t take too much of your time.”

Zhao Yu instead pointed at the car by the roadside. “Yours?”

“Mm?”

“Let’s just talk in the car. I don’t like sweet things.”

The car door closed, shutting out the noise. Zhao Yu said, “Ask whatever you want to ask—just don’t call me Mrs. Ju or anything like that, and we’re good.”

Sui Xing caught the rejection in her tone toward Ju Ning. “Professor Zhao, how did you and Ju Ning meet?”

“When the age came, my parents urged marriage, and the leaders in the institute were urging too. In our profession, not settling down causes a lot of trouble. At the time I knew of Ju Ning as a person but didn’t really know him. The leaders arranged a blind date, we dated for a while, and then got married.”

Sui Xing: “Just like that?”

Zhao Yu laughed. “What did you think—I was pursuing romantic love and family? No, I don’t need that. If it weren’t for those ingrained social pressures, I wouldn’t possibly stay with Ju Ning.”

Sui Xing asked, “Were you reasonably satisfied with him back then?”

Zhao Yu said, “What kind of question is that? I’m still quite satisfied with him now.”

“But you two…”

“We’re only nominally husband and wife. We each do our own research at work, no interference. In life… last time you came to our house, didn’t Ju Ning give you a tour? We have separate rooms.”

When Zhao Yu spoke about Ju Ning, her tone was like talking about an unfamiliar colleague. During the blind date, she had already told Ju Ning that she only wanted the shell of a marriage and was not considering having children. Ju Ning had the same idea, so they hit it off immediately. In all the years they’d been together, they had never even stayed on the same bed.

“I think he’s gay,” Zhao Yu said very straightforwardly. “But I don’t think I’m a ‘trophy wife’ in that sense. We’re just roommates using each other.”

Sui Xing asked, “Then the one he has outside…” She suddenly couldn’t find the right word. “Do you know who that person outside is?”

Zhao Yu shook her head. “I don’t care about him. Officer Sui, the leads you get from me might be fewer than from his other colleagues. After all, we really aren’t close—our research directions are different.”

Before Zhao Yu got out of the car, Sui Xing said, “No, thank you. The fact that you were willing to get in my car and talk to me for this while has already been very important help.”

Zhao Yu raised an eyebrow, not quite understanding what Sui Xing meant, but she smiled anyway. “Then good luck to you.”

Sui Xing didn’t get out of the car. She watched Zhao Yu cross the road and head toward the Academy of Sciences. Then she turned on the car radio and switched to the news channel. The anchor was discussing with a criminal expert the penalties Gong Zhao and his accomplices faced. The expert said the possibility of Gong Zhao receiving the death penalty was not high—he had confessed to quite a few people during the trial phase…

Lately there had been a lot of reports about Fengman Real Estate. Ju Ning often saw them on the television in the cafeteria and was almost becoming neurotic, always feeling that people around him were gossiping—“Professor Ju is in a tough spot now, right? The funding for his projects won’t have problems too, will they?”

He felt he was about to break. That police officer kept appearing near the Academy of Sciences—what was she still investigating? Had Gong Zhao said something in detention? The expert said Gong Zhao had confessed many people. Was he included?

He shook his head violently, talking to himself like a mental patient: “I have no problem! Whoever has a problem, I have no problem! This has nothing to do with me!”

He suddenly lifted his head and stared blankly ahead, his eyes empty. Yes, he thought, what does this have to do with me? Isn’t the source of everything Gong Zhao himself? He was just a tool in Gong Zhao’s hand—Gong Zhao used him up, gave him benefits. The one who really harmed people wasn’t him!

“What are you doing here?” Zhao Yu appeared in front of Ju Ning, already changed into her white work coat.

Ju Ning’s eyes slowly focused. Seeing it was Zhao Yu, he subconsciously smoothed his hair. “Came to do an experiment?”

Zhao Yu looked at him for a couple of seconds, nodded, and as she passed by, she suddenly stopped. “By the way, that police officer came again.”

Ju Ning’s breathing tightened.

Zhao Yu said, “You didn’t get into any trouble, did you?”

Ju Ning forced a smile. “How could I?”

Zhao Yu said, “We agreed from the beginning—no mutual interference. If you have any trouble, resolve it quickly. Don’t drag me into it.”

Ju Ning quickly asked, “What did she say to you?”

Zhao Yu had originally not wanted to answer, but remembering what Sui Xing had said to her when getting out of the car, she suddenly understood a little. She turned back, looked into Ju Ning’s eyes, and said, “She asked how you and I met, and whether our marriage was happy.”

After Zhao Yu left, Ju Ning felt even more chaotic inside. Sui Xing was watching him even more closely now—there was no peace left in his life!

“It’s not my fault!” he started muttering again under his breath. “It was all Gong Zhao’s doing—it has nothing to do with me!”

Sui Xing hadn’t left yet. Today she still needed to see Ju Ning. This weak link of Ju Ning’s might soon be kicked open by her.

A familiar figure appeared not far away. Sui Xing immediately got out of the car, smiled, and waved. “Professor Ju, what a coincidence.”

Ju Ning was like a startled bird, his face covered in fine, dense sweat. He glared at Sui Xing in fear and trepidation, as if making a final struggle.

“You want to know what happened at Gray Surge University that year, right? I’ll tell you! Just stop harassing me!”

Sui Xing studied this anxious man who hadn’t even shaved. “Wait a moment—you’d better come back to the city bureau with me.”

Under the bright lights of the interrogation room, Ju Ning looked exhausted, like a man who had carried a heavy burden across mountains and rivers for more than a decade. He finally decided to throw it all down and expose that ugly act of aiding tyranny.

“You’ve got it wrong. I’m not gay. I just attached myself to Gong Zhao. He likes men—but the one he likes is Liang Lanjun!”

At Gray Surge University’s Agricultural College, Liang Lanjun was a conspicuous yet easily overlooked figure. He was very tall, with sharp features. In the eyes of most female classmates, he was definitely not handsome. They preferred someone like Ju Ning—gentler lines, better temper, able to chat with both boys and girls.

But Liang Lanjun seemed to carry a special masculine aura. At the beginning of school, when male classmates played basketball or soccer, they loved calling him. Yet he didn’t fit in, thinking that playing around was a waste of time. Most of the time, he stayed away from crowds, alone in the library or laboratory. Compared to building good relationships with classmates and enjoying university life, he preferred to keep company with books and data.

Over time, the boys stopped calling him. He became the invisible man of the Agricultural College.

Yet his grades were far from invisible. Apart from the publicly acknowledged genius Sheng Kuiran in the college, he lost to no one. This meant he couldn’t truly be invisible—every time grades came out, classmates would discuss him. Even in daily life, people occasionally mentioned how boring he was.

Ju Ning’s feelings toward Liang Lanjun were even more complicated, because Liang Lanjun was always pressing ahead of him. He knew very clearly that he was not inferior to Liang Lanjun. If he could be as diligent as Liang Lanjun, he might even score better.

But he couldn’t do it—not because he was unwilling to work hard, but because he had too many other things he wanted to balance: he wanted to master foreign languages, get along well with classmates, make teachers like him. He felt 24 hours were too short; he couldn’t bury himself in the lab the way Liang Lanjun did.

People are like that—he would never envy the genius far ahead, but he was very sour about Liang Lanjun. “You’re not smarter than me. If I studied like you, my grades would definitely be better than yours.”

In the blink of an eye, third year arrived. The gap between Ju Ning and Liang Lanjun grew even wider. And at that moment, the college issued a notice: there were two spots to participate in research in Country F.

Ju Ning was extremely envious of this opportunity. He had reached this point through his own hard work. If he could go abroad, he might even get a scholarship to study further in the future—an opportunity that poor students like him dreamed of.

But everyone knew one of the two spots was already locked in by Sheng Kuiran. He could only fight for the remaining one. Standing in his way was Liang Lanjun.

If it was purely based on grades, he had no chance. But the college didn’t say the selection criteria were only grades. He began frequently participating in college activities, pulling connections everywhere. Deep down he had no confidence and regretted not spending more time on studying.

Just as he was racking his brains over the spot, Gong Zhao appeared and told him: “The spot is yours, but you have to listen to me.”

That was the first time he met Gong Zhao. Before, he hadn’t even known there was such a thing as a “touring student” at the school.

Gong Zhao’s temperament screamed rich—one piece of jewelry was worth a year of his food expenses. For a few minutes he didn’t dare speak. Gong Zhao gave a contemptuous smile and told him to follow.

The two left campus. On the road was parked Gong Zhao’s luxury car. He dazedly got in and was taken to a hotel he had never been to before.

The dishes on the table were ones he had never even seen. Gong Zhao then took him for a massage and hot springs. He felt everything was unreal. Finally, he couldn’t help asking: “Why are you helping me? Can I really get the spot?”

Gong Zhao smiled. “Not only can I give you the spot, I’ll cover all your future study-abroad expenses.”

“Then… then what should I do?”

“Very simple. Show everyone that you’re worthy of that spot—make the doubters shut up. Of course, your grades alone can’t snatch the spot from Liang Lanjun. What I’m going to do is make the decision-makers change the rules.”

After he really got the spot, Ju Ning still didn’t understand why Gong Zhao helped him. He only vaguely realized that Gong Zhao seemed to hate Liang Lanjun very much. Blocking Liang Lanjun made Gong Zhao happy.

As for how Liang Lanjun—who barely interacted with people—could have offended Gong Zhao, he racked his brains and still couldn’t figure it out.

He was very happy. Although he knew clearly there had been under-the-table dealings for his spot, he kept brainwashing himself: This is what I deserve. My overall quality is higher than Liang Lanjun’s.

But he also felt some unease, wondering if Liang Lanjun would come looking for trouble because of it.

Liang Lanjun was indeed dissatisfied with the result, but he didn’t come directly to him. Instead he went to argue with the college administration. The college said the spot wasn’t assigned based only on grades. Liang Lanjun refused to accept it and went around asking teachers for explanations.

At that time, in his eyes, Liang Lanjun was like a clown jumping around. Who told you not to build good relationships with the teachers before? Ah, now you’re panicking? Now you know to find people?

He originally thought it would end there. After some time, who would still care about Liang Lanjun? But Gong Zhao found him again and told him to go provoke Liang Lanjun—ideally to stir up some incident.

He wasn’t a confrontational person and didn’t want to. But Gong Zhao threatened him: “You took my benefits but aren’t willing to help me. Is there such a good deal in the world? I can give you the spot, and I can make you lose it. Since Liang Lanjun isn’t convinced, why don’t I just give it to him?”

“No no! I’ll listen to you!” Ju Ning panicked immediately.

Back at school, Ju Ning clumsily provoked Liang Lanjun on purpose, letting him know he was already preparing to go abroad. Foreign institutions had sent a lot of materials, and his words were full of the joy and arrogance of soon leaving the country.

Liang Lanjun asked to meet him alone and asked if Gong Zhao was pulling strings behind the scenes. He was very surprised and wanted to ask what exactly the grudge between them was, but in the end he held back. He saw the disgust and revulsion in Liang Lanjun’s eyes when mentioning Gong Zhao—it was completely different from the expression Gong Zhao had when mentioning Liang Lanjun.

For the first time, he realized he might have been wrong.

Gong Zhao invited Ju Ning out for fun again and gave him a task—to force Liang Lanjun to drop out. He was shocked. How could that be done?

“Very simple,” Gong Zhao said. “You just need to ask Liang Lanjun out again, get yourself injured—ideally a knife wound—and you won’t have to worry about the rest.”

In that fight that directly led to Liang Lanjun’s withdrawal from school, Ju Ning was stabbed in the left arm. The teachers who rushed over quickly did not report to the police for the sake of the school’s reputation. Liang Lanjun refused to admit he had hurt anyone, but Ju Ning was indeed injured. Word spread from one to ten to a hundred—everyone said they had seen Liang Lanjun make the move.

“It wasn’t him who stabbed,” Ju Ning said hoarsely. “It was me myself. I was very scared. There was so much blood. I thought I was going to die. But what I was even more afraid of was what would happen if the police came? What if the college found out the truth? But I lay in the hospital for half a month, and nothing happened. Liang Lanjun really was expelled.”

Sui Xing asked, “Gong Zhao was the instigator?”

Ju Ning nodded. “Who else could it be? If Liang Lanjun wants to blame someone, he should blame himself for provoking Gong Zhao.”

Sui Xing said, “You just said Gong Zhao liked Liang Lanjun?”

Ju Ning said, “Later when I went abroad and saw Gong Zhao constantly changing boyfriends around him, I finally figured out what was going on.”

Not long after Gong Zhao started his touring studies, he saw Liang Lanjun in the library—completely to his aesthetic taste. He thought that with his appearance and family background, picking up a poor student would be easy. But Liang Lanjun completely ignored him and was not gay at all.

Gong Zhao had never been frustrated before. He pursued Liang Lanjun even more intensely. Liang Lanjun cursed him as perverted and told him to get lost. After several rounds, the blazing love turned into hate. He wanted Liang Lanjun to know the consequences of offending him.

At that time Liang Lanjun was working hard for the study-abroad spot, desperately wanting the opportunity for further education. The more Liang Lanjun wanted it, the more Gong Zhao wanted to block it. He wanted to destroy Liang Lanjun and then make Liang Lanjun kneel and beg for mercy.

Gong Zhao thought this way he could control Liang Lanjun. But even after losing the spot, Liang Lanjun never took the initiative to find him, preferring to foolishly argue with the teachers. Gong Zhao went mad with anger. If he couldn’t have Liang Lanjun, then Liang Lanjun shouldn’t get what he wanted either. What did Liang Lanjun want most? A bright future! Then he would cut off Liang Lanjun’s future.

Expulsion—for a “bookworm” like Liang Lanjun who buried himself in studies and was completely clueless about interpersonal relations—was fatal. Ju Ning ruthlessly stabbed his own arm, which also severed Liang Lanjun’s path to education.

Liang Lanjun refused to admit it, but what did it matter? Gong Zhao had already bought off a minority of students and teachers. They spread rumors in the crowd, and many classmates already thought Liang Lanjun was a gloomy weirdo. Soon even other colleges knew that Liang Lanjun had cut someone.

Ju Ning never saw Liang Lanjun again after that. After handling the procedures, he went straight abroad. His life embarked on a broad, smooth road, while Liang Lanjun fell into bottomless darkness.

In the monitoring room, Hai Shu finished watching the entire interrogation. Before her eyes appeared the scene on the road to the old workshop when she encountered Liang Lanjun and Zhao Yue. They got out of the car. Their weather-beaten faces hid loneliness and sorrow. In Liang Lanjun’s numb eyes flashed a hatred like a cold wind.