Chapter Eleven: Hidden Intentions

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“Comrade Li Yancheng, as we understand it, when he led a team to take you away for questioning about the Duan family just after the New Year, he didn’t use any of those underhanded methods on you. Is that right?”

“Yes.” Li Yancheng was somewhat bewildered by the question. He genuinely could not figure out what it had to do with Cui Haiyang’s death.

“Why?”

“What? Why what?” Li Yancheng was completely at a loss.

“Why didn’t he use those methods on you?”

“How should I know? No, wait, Comrade Zhang, what exactly are you trying to find out from me? Just say it plainly. If I know anything, I’ll tell you everything without holding back.”

Li Yancheng could tell that these two men had not come merely to investigate Cui Haiyang’s murder. They seemed to have another purpose.

The two policemen exchanged a glance. The one surnamed Li, who had remained silent until then, smiled and waved his hand.

“Comrade Li Yancheng, don’t misunderstand us. We have no intention of dredging up old matters. The cases Cui Haiyang handled in the past are not under our jurisdiction either. We’re only asking these questions to see whether we can find any clues among the matters he dealt with.”

Although that was how he explained it, Li Yancheng still harbored deep suspicions. Yet since the man had put it that way, it would have been awkward to press further. He could only nod and cooperate.

“As for why Cui Haiyang didn’t use those underhanded methods on me, I can’t really say. But at the time, he did mention someone in front of me. That person was one of the leaders in my old unit, back when I was still in the army. He transferred to civilian work two years before I did. I heard he’s now the deputy director of your Dianhai Committee. His name is Zhuang Dongwen.”

The moment he heard that name, the policeman surnamed Zhang became visibly uneasy. The man surnamed Li, who had been lowering his head to take notes, suddenly stopped writing and looked up at Li Yancheng in astonishment.

“Director Zhuang was your superior in the army?”

“Yes. I was assigned to the logistics hospital, and Director Zhuang was head of our logistics department. In a sense, he was our direct superior.”

Li Yancheng sighed inwardly. Since he had started borrowing the authority of that connection, he might as well carry it through to the end.

The relationship sounded close, but in truth, Director Zhuang might not even remember him. Logistics work was extremely demanding, and their hospital was merely one unit under the logistics department. There was even a deputy director in charge of their section.

Besides, whenever their leader visited the hospital, he would have dealt with the hospital director. Li Yancheng had only seen Director Zhuang a handful of times during his years in uniform.

But the two policemen did not know any of that. Once he had invoked that connection, their attitude toward him immediately softened. The rest of the questioning became little more than a formality. After asking a few more casual questions, they went to look for Director Liu at the health center.

Standing at the entrance to the examination room, Li Yancheng watched the two men enter Director Liu’s office, which also served as his consultation room, and frowned deeply.

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“They’ve left?”

Hearing the commotion, Zhou Guotao came out of the examination room next door. Seeing Li Yancheng standing alone in the doorway, he walked over and asked.

“They went to Director Liu’s office. By the way, Brother Zhou, they may question you in a little while.”

“Question me about what?” Zhou Guotao asked, puzzled.

“About my whereabouts. Just tell them whatever you know.”

“Yancheng, what exactly happened?”

“It’s nothing major. The team leader who came to question me at the beginning of the year, after my former wife’s family left the capital, was found with his throat slit a few days ago.”

At those words, Zhou Guotao’s mouth fell open and his eyes widened.

Although things outside seemed somewhat chaotic these days, murders were still uncommon, especially when it came to ordinary people.

“So… so he’s dead?”

“Yeah. Since he was killed, the Public Security Bureau has to investigate everyone who had a grudge against him. And I… well, I suppose I’m one of them.”

“But… we came here ages ago, and you haven’t gone back there recently.”

“Exactly. That’s what I told them. But they still have to find someone who can verify whether what I said is true.”

“Oh.” Zhou Guotao nodded as understanding dawned. “I see. If they ask me later, I’ll tell them the truth.”

“Right. If it has nothing to do with me, then it has nothing to do with me.”

“Tsk, tsk. How deep must the hatred have been for someone to go so far as to kill him?”

“Who can say?”

Li Yancheng was not particularly moved. During the past year or so, Cui Haiyang had handled no shortage of filthy business. It was entirely possible that one of his victims had felt wronged and sought revenge. The fact that the police were investigating along those lines meant they must have discovered something.

In fact, Li Yancheng’s instinct had been correct. The police investigation was indeed focused on more than Cui Haiyang’s murder alone.

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They certainly had to solve Cui Haiyang’s death, but another matter that had surfaced because of his death was currently the true focus of the police investigation.

That matter remained highly confidential, and very few people knew about it.

…

The affair had no impact on Li Yancheng’s life providing medical assistance in the countryside. Once the investigating officers had clarified everything and left, he returned to the same work and routine as before.

However, he now had an additional task: studying traditional Chinese medicine. He did not actually need to master it, but he had to make everyone believe that he was studying it seriously.

The days passed one after another. In the eighteenth year after the founding of the country, the first snow of winter finally arrived in the last few days of December.

A snowy year promises a good harvest. For farmers who depended on the heavens for their livelihood, snow was a welcome thing—as long as it did not turn into a disaster.

The first snowfall continued for two days. It was not heavy, but the town’s street, unpaved by asphalt or even gravel, had already become a miserable stretch of mud.

He went to the store for two packs of cigarettes, picking his way through the muck. The distance was barely a hundred meters, yet by the time he returned, Li Yancheng was grimacing from the effort. The road was simply dreadful. If they had laid down even a single layer of gravel, it would not have turned into this quagmire.

When he was still forty or fifty meters from the health center, he saw two young girls standing by the gate. His eyesight was good, and he immediately recognized one of them as the third daughter of Director Duan—the girl who had come to deliver ration coupons to him the day after he returned home last time. Her name was Duan Fengjuan.

What had she come here for? The two girls were standing at the gate on tiptoe, looking in his direction. It was not difficult to guess that they had come to find him.

Li Yancheng’s head filled with question marks.

They were neighbors and knew each other well enough, but he was seven years older than her, and there was naturally a degree of distance between men and women. They had never been particularly close. Whenever they met back home, they would do no more than exchange a greeting. If it had been her elder brother, Duan Zhengyang, that would have been different.

Still, when one was away from home, fellow villagers and neighbors were considered the closest of connections. If a girl had come looking for him, then whatever difficulty she faced, he would have to help if he could.

With that thought, he quickened his pace.

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