At five o’clock in the afternoon, Su Hui said goodbye to the prison guards. When he walked out of the corridor of Baihu Mountain Prison, the sky had already started to darken.

At this time, normal family visits had already ended, and free activities had also come to a close. Perhaps the prisoners had been locked in one place for concentrated study, and the whole administrative district was extremely quiet. It was empty everywhere, like a world that no one had visited.

It looked clean, standardized, quiet and tidy here.

But here, locked behind the iron fence not far away, were the deepest sins in the world.

Su Hui straightened up and walked through the deserted corridor. His metal cane touched the ground making a light noise. This cane helped him identify those roads that he couldn’t see clearly. Now he had formed some dependence on it when walking.

He walked all the way through the long corridor, through the high iron gate, and continued forward. His sight was filled with a hazy gray. He knew that it should be green in the mountains, but his eyes could not distinguish it.

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The sun cast long shadows behind him.

He looked back and saw that the prison was shrouded in mist, as if this place was illusory and non-existent.

Su Hui waited alone at the bus platform for a long time before he got to the bus going down the mountain.

There were only a few people on the bus except him.

Su Hui soon realized that the aunt had been right. When he went down the mountain, the driver drove harder by virtue of inertia.

The whole journey was like an enhanced and extended roller coaster, with sudden braking and acceleration alternately. His internal organs feel tightly held by an invisible hand, making him breathless. His brain had not adapted to one turn, and then was ushered into the next.

Su Hui was grateful to the aunt for giving him a plastic bag when he came. He took it, which was a great pychological consolation.

He had already been nauseous. That kind of nausea did not only come from this section of winding mountain road, but more so from the two-hour conversation, he had in the afternoon, the photos of the victims, the *shocking experiences, and the words that constantly occupied his mind.

Show/Hide Note

*Shocks the eye, astonishes the heart (idiom) – shocking; horrible to see

When you want to understand the darkness, you need to step into it step by step, immerse yourself in the black, and then try to communicate with it.

That darkness seemed to cover his mouth and nose, suffocating him, and even constantly trying to invade his body.

Su Hui sometimes felt powerless because of his insensibility to the world, but sometimes it was precisely that insensibility that cut him off his connection with evil and isolated him from it.

His world was frozen in ice.

He felt like a mobile phone that had changed into flight mode, cut off the signal and lost contact with the world.

Su Hui guessed that this might also be a self-preservation mechanism, so that he would not collapse psychologically.

Su Hui didn’t vomit in the end. After all, he had only had breakfast today. He should be hungry, but he didn’t feel anything.

The result of inhaling secondhand smoke all afternoon was that he kept coughing. It felt like his breath was suppressed. He got out of the car and walked home step by step. His steps were weak. The old wounds in his lungs seemed to be torn apart by a pair of hands, making him feel like he was about to suffocate at any moment.

At the end of the cough, he even sensed a bloody smell, as if he would vomit blood if he opened his mouth.

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It was already past six o’clock when Su Hui returned home. The room was pitch black, so he turned on the light.

The house he lived in was nearly 130 square meters, which was a bit luxurious to live alone in. The house had only two rooms, which was a very popular high-end apartment type nowadays. The living room and dining room are very large. Behind the sofa in the living room, he placed a huge desk, and turned the wall behind it into a bookshelf.

Su Hui spent most of the day in bed. Other times, he would sit at his desk. The sofa was full of clothes and unwashed sheets.

Su Hui turned a blind eye to the mess in the living room. He casually put his things down on the dining table and chair, took off his clothes and threw them on the sofa, and then went to take a bath.

Twenty minutes later, he came out wearing a bathrobe and slippers, exposing his thin ankles.

It was sunset now and the thick blackout curtains were drawn in the room so no sunlight shone in.

Su Hui also liked the darkness. He rarely opened the curtains or windows in broad daylight. For this reason, he specially installed a fresh air system in the house. The ventilation relied on the holes on the roof, and the lighting was reliant on the white lamps.

This artificial light and wind gave him a sense of security.

Su Hui sat on the swivel chair behind his desk. The huge desk was full of books, some of which were stacked high and a little rickety. Many of them were works of various countries on criminology, some of which are simply original works in foreign languages. Some of the books were opened, some were folded, and some were marked with colored sticky notes.

On the light beige wooden floor of the house were some unpacked express boxes, and some clothes that needed to be washed. The students would not come to help him clean his room until Monday afternoon, which was still two days away.

Su Hui suddenly remembered that there was something missing. He went around to the side of the sofa and saw that the cat litter box and the cat’s nest were empty.

So, Su Hui lay down and whispered, “Meow meow…”

The gap under the sofa was a bit large. It was dark and he couldn’t tell if the cat was in it.

Su Hui called again. The only ear he had left that could distinguish sound finally caught it, a thin response came from the clothes on the sofa.

Hearing the cat’s cry, Su Hui felt relieved and straightened up.

Once, when he was not at home, the cat somehow escaped to the outside but a kind-hearted student found him and caught him.

Su Hui got up and went to the kitchen to take out cat food, filled the bowl, and then added some water to the automatic water feeder.

The kitten finally crawled out of the clothes slowly. It ran to the bowl, looked back at its owner, and then bent down to enjoy dinner.

Su Hui went over and squatted down. He reached out and rubbed the cat’s head. The cat looked up at him, then put out his tongue and licked Su Hui’s hand.

Looking down from this angle, Su Hui could not see the expression on the cat’s face clearly, but he could feel that the little thing in his hands was warm and soft. It was a small life.

Su Hui had picked up this cat at the corner of the school. It was only a one-year-old male cat. Su Hui had neutered it, dewormed it, and vaccinated it. It was named Aristotle.

Aristotle had a pair of watery eyes, and was not like a wild cat.

Su Hui’s students all liked it. They often brought it all kinds of canned cat food and snacks hoping to make t fat. But Su Hui always forgot to feed it, and he himself forgot to eat, so it lived a life of hunger and satiety with its master.

After feeding the cat, Su Hui poured himself a glass of milk, soaked some cereal and ate two slices of bread.

The room was very quiet. For a moment, there was only the sound of one person and one cat eating. He and Aristotle had dinner together.

Aristotle was born as a wild cat. He was a happy go lucky character. When he was full, he went to his cat’s nest and fell asleep. Su Hui took the materials he brought back to his desk, opened his laptop, and brushed his Weibo.

The first item on today’s hot search was the one Su Hui saw when he left home this morning: 100 days since Pei Weiwei’s Disappearance#.

Correspondingly, # Song Rongjiang, the taxi maniac, is about to be executed # This hot search had also risen to the tenth place.

Pei Weiwei.

During this period, everyone in Huadu remembered this name.

Since the girl disappeared, her family and friends had never given up looking for her.

As early as more than three months ago, the # Search for Pei Weiwei # had long occupied the first place in Huadu City’s super talk.

There are frequent hot searches on Weibo. The public welfare column of the advertising column had been replaced by a photo of Pei Weiwei. Students often sent out missing person notices spontaneously at various intersections.

Under such circumstances, even the most sluggish and closed-off people remembered Pei Weiwei’s name.

People were afraid that time would dilute the hatred and that the dead would be forgotten forever. Now, for 100 days, the people who were actively looking for her had no news about the whereabouts of the girl.

She seemed to have evaporated in this sleepy city, this world full of fireworks.

This shouldn’t be her twenties…

Su Hui held his cheek in his left hand and clicked on the hot search with his right hand. The first video that popped up was an interview video from an official media platform, in which someone visited Pei Weiwei’s classmates and parents.

The reporter first interviewed several of Pei Weiwei’s classmates, who said, “Although it has been a hundred days, we have never given up looking for Weiwei.”

“Sometimes I feel like Weiwei is still with us, and she will come back…”

“I regret that I didn’t write down the license plate number that day.”

“Everyone should pay attention to safety while taking a taxi. Before getting on the car, you should take a picture of the license plate number and send it to your friends. You must be alert at all times…”

“I miss Weiwei… Our dormitory has kept her bed empty, waiting for her to come back.”

Su Hui pulled the progress bar, and the people on the screen become Pei Weiwei’s parents. A middle-aged woman cried bitterly: “As a mother, I beg you, kind-hearted people, to help me find my Weiwei… I really want to hear her call me mom again… Up to now, we still don’t know whether our daughter is alive or dead, and I hope we can find her… Weiwei has been missing for 100 days, and someone has advised us to give up, and I know that the hope is getting slimmer. I think even if it’s to just find her body, it would be good if she could be buried properly…”

Pei Weiwei’s mother broke down in tears. Her husband then said, “This is my contact information. I hope someone who knows the truth can contact me and provide any clues. As long as the information is true, I am willing to pay, I am willing to sell my house and company, I am willing to lose my fortune, and I am willing to exchange everything. Whoever knows about my daughter, please contact me!”

Su Hui looks at the excited middle-aged man on the video and then scrolled down to read the hot comments.

“Shit, it breaks my heart! What kind of beast is the murderer?”

“Auntie, don’t cry! We won’t give up, we will work hard! Weiwei will definitely be found!”

“A murderer like Song Rongjiang, go to hell! Die! Die!”

“Song Rongjiang has already been sentenced to death. He is dead anyway, and will he die again?”

“Upstairs, do you have a heart? Song Rongjiang was sentenced for killing two other people! It’s not the price paid for Pei Weiwei’s death! The meaning is completely different!”

“If Song Rongjiang killed or imprisoned Pei Weiwei, if he deliberately didn’t say anything, will we never find Pei Weiwei after his death? “

“Have you ever thought about the possibility that the killer was someone else?”

“Pei Weiwei may have been killed by now, but where is the body? I think if this matter is not investigated clearly, that girl will not be able to *close her eyes!

Show/Hide Note

*to close one’s eyes – fig: to be contented at the time of one’s death. Dying without closing one’s eyes would signify having unresolved grievances.

“Pei Weiwei has been missing for so long. It’s the police’s inaction!”

“The police have made great efforts; otherwise, how could they have caught that pervert so quickly? Now that there is no evidence, shouldn’t you blame the criminal and not the police?”

People on Weibo *stuck to their own words. Su Hui looked at it for a while, closed the webpage, opened the document, and began to sort out the information from that afternoon. He opened the information given to him by Tan Bureau, put it aside, stretched out his right hand, habitually touched the pen container on the table, and then grabbed at empty air.

Show/Hide Note

*Lit: A dialogue of the deaf (idiom) – Each sticks to his own version. (no one is willing to listen to and accept the opinions of others. The English equivalent would be ‘to turn a deaf ear’.)

Su Hui looked up and found that the pen holder was *empty.

Show/Hide Note

*As empty as anything (idiom) – to have nothing/empty

Would he have to buy a felt-tip pen again? Su Hui thought with a sigh.

It seemed that there was a black hole in this room, always eating those small things, especially pens. No matter how many he buys, he will never find them after he uses them.

Su Hui took out a felt-tip pen he had brought with him from his schoolbag and was finally able to proceed with the work. Then, his fingertip traced the name signed on the police document – the Captain of the Major Crimes Unit: Lu Junchi.

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After the second victim was discovered, the case was transferred to the Major Crimes Unit, and Lu Junchi was responsible for the investigation and arrest. He quickly arrested Song Rongjiang, but even Lu Junchi, who was quick to solve the case, did not ask about Pei Weiwei’s whereabouts, nor could he prove whether Song Rongjiang was responsible for the third case.

Later, Lu Junchi received a new case, and the case of Pei Weiwei’s disappearance was transferred back to other groups of the General Administration, all in line with the procedure.

Then Song Rongjiang was transferred to the prosecutor’s office, where he was tried by the court, and sentenced…

Su Hui’s pen touched the name of “Lu Junchi”, leaving a black ink mark.

Su Hui had just met him today. This is the first time he had met him face to face. The distance between them seemed to be very close, but at the same time, it seemed very far.

This name had not appeared in his life for a long time.

His memory of the name was from a few years ago. At that time, Su Hui met Lu Junchi several times. He remembered that he was a handsome and outstanding man, and he was also very bold and smart. He had a good impression of him. This time, it seems that he had matured a lot.

The young policeman of that year had grown up and was the captain of the Major Crimes Unit.

At the thought of this, Su Hui felt a dull pain in his head, something seemed to be missing from his mind.

It seemed that some of his memories had been lost since the accident. Many things in his mind were like waste paper being crumpled into a ball. He knew that those memories were there, but he could not restore and unfold them.

Su Hui sighed and gave up thinking. He opened a small express carton beside him. It was his new puzzle.

Su Hui liked jigsaw puzzles, especially after the accident two years ago. These puzzles were like a signpost on his lost road, which could guide him on the right path to follow.  

The two puzzles he bought this time were named Wave Puzzle. One was five pieces, and the other was seven pieces. They were from the same series, both works of Yuu Asaka, a famous Japanese puzzle designer.

Su Hui bought one blue piece and one orange piece. As long as he put some colored pieces into the white plate, they could be considered complete. He first picked five-piece piece one and seven-piece one aside.

Rather than saying it was a jigsaw puzzle, it was more of an intellect-growing type of game. The puzzle looked very simple, like a child’s toy. However, the level of the puzzle was not low, and there were also mysteries in it.

Its aim was not to fit tightly, but rather to be able to put those geometric figures in.

Show/Hide Note

*to fit tightly (idiom) – to join seamlessly

Su Hui took some pieces of the blue jigsaw puzzle and tried it. Whether it was horizontal or vertical, there were always gaps, as if something was forever missing.

Every time, it seemed to be infinitely close to the answer, but also very far away from the answer. The truth seemed to be right in front of him, but it couldn’t be seen through.

Su Hui stared at the puzzle in front of him and suddenly had an idea. He tilted the puzzle at an angle with his hand…

It seems that this was the right way to solve the problem, and soon the other pieces were put together.

It took a few minutes. The blue color was like the shape of waves. When the conventional practice has no result, sometimes you just need to deflect and change your mind to find the answer you want…..

TN:

Wish I was as smart as Su Hui. Maybe then I could have been a doctor or something

Next Update: Friday