Lu Linjiang’s biological clock was perhaps the only thing about him that still functioned normally. He woke up at six o'clock sharp, as steady as a rock. After a glance at the soundly sleeping Yang Bo, Lu Linjiang dressed and slipped out quietly. Their group was likely the most disliked presence at Celestial Bliss right now; the early-shift waiter who saw Lu Linjiang coming down the stairs gave him a blatant eye-roll, his entire being radiating the silent question of why they hadn't cleared out yet.
Unfortunately, Lu Linjiang was the type of person who was completely thick-skinned. He even offered a polite greeting before jogging out with a light step. When there were few people about in the early morning, the air of Liucheng Island carried a distinct scent of the sea breeze. Lu Linjiang jogged two laps around the Celestial Abode before turning toward the clinic.
The nurse on duty recognized him at a glance. Before he could even speak, she pointed down the hallway. "Go straight to the end and turn left. The inpatient department is outside there, Room 103."
Lu Linjiang thanked her politely. The young nurse glanced out the window behind her. "Be quiet when you go in. Her mother is there."
Lu Linjiang nodded understandingly and walked quickly toward the back courtyard. The door to Room 103 was closed, and the rooms on either side appeared unoccupied. Standing at the door, Lu Linjiang looked through the transom window. Cui Xiaoye’s mother was standing by her bed, muttering incessantly.
From his angle, Lu Linjiang couldn't see Cui Xiaoye’s face. Fortunately, the clinic was quiet enough that by holding his breath and focusing, he could hear Zhang Di’s words clearly.
"You’ve lost the baby, and there’s no telling if you can even have another one. If you don’t take this chance to make Cui Wenxing and his family cough up more money, what are you going to do when you’re old? Rely on me to support you?" Zhang Di held a disposable food container filled with watery, translucent porridge. She stirred it aimlessly with a spoon, her mouth never stopping.
"Did you hear me? No one from Cui Wenxing’s family has even come to see you yet. Look at you—what 'old feelings' are you still clinging to?" Her hand gradually stopped moving, and she glared at Cui Xiaoye with an expression that suggested she might splash the porridge in her face at any second. "Cui Shihai’s restaurant has been cordoned off, and they’re scrambling everywhere to find connections. This is your chance, don't you understand!"
Zhang Di finally lost her patience and yanked the blanket off Cui Xiaoye. "I’m asking you a question! How much do you actually know about what goes on in his shop?"
Cui Xiaoye remained lying on her side. She slowly reached out a hand, pulling the blanket back to cover herself tightly. This act undoubtedly infuriated Zhang Di. Her face flushed instantly as she tore the blanket away again and followed it with a sharp slap.
The sound of the palm hitting flesh was exceptionally piercing, followed immediately by Zhang Di’s outburst of abuse. "You shameless girl! If you’re really so pure and noble, why were you keeping in touch with that pauper Cui Bin? If you were so high and mighty, you should have stayed obediently in Cui Wenxing’s shop. Why were you so cheap as to run off to see Cui Bin and get your own child beaten out of you? Huh?"
She was about to continue her tirade when Lu Linjiang knocked on the door and walked in. "Quite a lively scene in here."
Zhang Di looked at Lu Linjiang warily. "Who exactly are you?"
"Police." Lu Linjiang felt his pocket. "I didn't bring my ID, but if you don't believe me, I can have someone deliver it."
Zhang Di set the porridge on the table. "So what if you're the police? I haven't done anything wrong; I'm not afraid of ghosts knocking at my door."
"Cui Xiaoye is awake, right? I have questions for her. Please step out."
"Me, leave? On what grounds? This is my daughter, and she hasn't broken the law. If anything, we’re the victims since the baby was lost. Which law says the police can make a victim's relative leave during questioning?"
Zhang Di had clearly watched her fair share of legal education programs; she wasn't easily intimidated by a few words. Lu Linjiang didn't care to argue with her. He looked at Cui Xiaoye, who was huddled under the blanket, and asked, "Are you feeling any better?"
Cui Xiaoye finally moved. She lowered the hand covering her face and propped herself up, trying to sit. Lu Linjiang said quickly, "Don't. If it's uncomfortable, just stay lying down."
Cui Xiaoye shook her head and forced herself up anyway. Lu Linjiang glanced at Zhang Di, who stood motionless, staring intently at him. He grabbed a pillow from the adjacent empty bed and tucked it behind Cui Xiaoye’s back.
"Thank you," Cui Xiaoye whispered, her head bowed as she spoke her first words.
"May I ask, why did Cui Bin ask to meet you that day?"
Cui Xiaoye kept her head lowered, her hand gripping the blanket tightly. "He... he said he had something important to ask me."
"You slut, what 'important' thing could you possibly have with him? Tell me, did he ask you for money?" Zhang Di wore an 'I knew it' expression. "You're just soft-eared. You can't figure out who you should associate with and who you shouldn't. You're just a brainless waste!"
Lu Linjiang’s gaze turned icy as he looked at her. "If you dare say one more word, I will throw you out."
"You wouldn't dare!" Zhang Di glared back, but she soon found her feet leaving the ground. Lu Linjiang tossed her out the door like a piece of trash.
"Stay out!"
Zhang Di watched as Lu Linjiang slammed the door in her face. A surge of indignation blocked her chest, but her instinct to bully the weak and fear the strong forced her to swallow her resentment when faced with a hard case like Lu Linjiang.
Lu Linjiang looked at the quiet door with satisfaction. "Alright, she’s gone. You can speak now."
Only then did Cui Xiaoye raise her head, giving Lu Linjiang a grateful look. "Cui Bin told me that someone had died at Cui Wenxing’s place, and that I had to meet him no matter what."
"When I got to the primary school, Cui Bin told me that the police were carrying a photo of a foreigner, checking if he had stayed at the Cui family’s guesthouse. Although the Cui family runs some businesses that skirt the edges of the law, it isn't a 'black shop.' He felt that if the police were coming to the door, it could only be because that person ate something they shouldn't have and caused trouble."
"He asked me if I knew about the Cui family’s secret dealings, and most importantly, if I was involved in them."
Seeing her voice trail off, Lu Linjiang asked, "And were you?"
Cui Xiaoye bit her lip, a hint of embarrassment appearing on her pale face. "If I said I wasn't, you probably wouldn't believe me. I know a little bit about the business the Cui family does in the shadows. There are two head chefs at Yawei Pavilion: one is Cui Wenxing, and the other is Cui Jinyan. Every few days, Cui Jinyan brings things in through the back door in burlap sacks. No matter how stupid I am, I couldn't be completely ignorant."
"Cui Wenxing..." Cui Xiaoye’s voice suddenly trembled. "Cui Wenxing didn't deliberately hide these things from me, but my father-in-law, Cui Shihai, didn't trust me. He didn't agree to Cui Wenxing marrying me at first. It was only because Wenxing was determined to fight him on it that Cui Shihai finally relented. Once, Cui Wenxing left some meat for me, and when Cui Shihai found out, he nearly broke Wenxing's head. From then on, I pretended to know nothing."
"Meat? What kind of meat?"
"It was some kind of bird." Cui Xiaoye shook her head. "I don't remember. The argument that time was so fierce that I just had to play deaf and mute."
"Do you know how they transport those things?"
"That’s their lifeline. Cui Shihai would never let me know that."
Lu Linjiang looked at the helpless Cui Xiaoye. "Is there anyone Cui Shihai is particularly close to? Or rather, who are his friends?"
Cui Xiaoye thought for a moment. "Not really. My father-in-law has a very bad reputation on the island. People don't say it to his face, but privately they say what he did back then was too much. Especially since most families only have one house where the guesthouse and restaurant are combined, but at my father-in-law’s place, the restaurant is separate from the guesthouse. It’s the most conspicuous place on the island, so no one has anything good to say about him."
Cui Xiaoye’s face was almost as white as paper. After forcing herself to sit for a while, her body began to sink down involuntarily. Seeing this, Lu Linjiang said helplessly, "You should rest then. If you remember anything else, let me know."
Leaving the ward, Lu Linjiang looked around, but Zhang Di had disappeared to who-knows-where. Finding no one, Lu Linjiang made a phone call that jolted Yang Bo out of his dreams.
Half an hour later, clutching two bags of soy milk and two steamed buns, Yang Bo found Lu Linjiang crouching in the bushes near the pasture. He held the plastic bags and stopped five paces away. "Captain Lu, you aren't... taking a leak, are you?"
His tentative expression turned into a sheepish grin under Lu Linjiang’s suddenly fierce glare. "Just kidding! You haven't even eaten, so how could you be using the restroom, right?"
"Are you afraid the zombies will find you too bland, so you filled your head with seawater for seasoning?" Lu Linjiang took the breakfast Yang Bo handed over and sat cross-legged on the ground.
Yang Bo sat down beside him. "With that posture just now, you can't blame me for wondering. And you chose this specific spot..." He looked around. In the middle of the dense bushes, there was a gap right here, which Lu Linjiang had been blocking.
"Is this... a path someone walked out?"
"Yeah." Lu Linjiang took a sip of soy milk. Behind the bushes was a small grove of trees, and on the other side was the main road. Behind the grove was that small hill; because it was so small, it hadn't been included in the development. Consequently, aside from those who liked 'adventures,' almost no one came here.
While drinking his soy milk, Yang Bo leaned forward to look. "Nothing unusual, but for there to be a gap like this in a place like this, people must go in and out frequently."
The look Lu Linjiang gave him finally regained some warmth. "It seems your brain hasn't completely rotted." He crumpled the plastic bag and stuffed it into the soy milk cup. "Finished eating? If you're full, let's get to work."
The two of them walked through the gap in the bushes. As they neared the foot of the hill, the trees began to grow denser. Lu Linjiang carefully identified the vegetation on the ground, trying his best to find traces of human passage.
The ground had very likely been camouflaged. At first glance, the earth covered by loose rocks and vegetation looked no different from its surroundings, but Lu Linjiang keenly found several stalks in a clump of grass that bore obvious signs of being stepped on.
"Someone has been here." Lu Linjiang crouched by the grass, observed for a moment, and then walked forward about ten paces. "They probably walked to here." Then, the two of them crouched next to an unknown wild flower that had been bent over, and there were no further signs of movement.
"Tsk, it stops here? Did they just come here to relieve themselves?" Yang Bo said irritably.
Lu Linjiang glanced at him, suppressing the urge to drain the water from his subordinate's brain. "This person walked in, circled around, and then went back out. Could it just be a curious tourist?" He pondered for a moment. "No. If it were a tourist, the traces wouldn't be this hard to find."
Yang Bo looked up and down like a monkey. "There must be some clues. Captain, should we go borrow a police dog?" Before Lu Linjiang could even consider the feasibility of the suggestion, Yang Bo suddenly jogged forward a short distance. "Captain Lu, over here!"
***
**Glossary**
Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation
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神仙乐 | Celestial Bliss | The name of the resort/establishment area on the island.
神仙居 | Celestial Abode | A specific building or area within the Celestial Bliss resort.
张娣 | Zhang Di | Cui Xiaoye's mother.
崔小叶 | Cui Xiaoye | The daughter-in-law of the Cui family; victim of the assault.
崔文兴 | Cui Wenxing | Cui Xiaoye's husband.
崔石海 | Cui Shihai | The patriarch of the Cui family; owner of the restaurant and guesthouse.
崔金焱 | Cui Jinyan | A member of the Cui family and chef at Yawei Pavilion.
雅味居 | Yawei Pavilion | The restaurant owned by the Cui family.
崔斌 | Cui Bin | A local man, friend/acquaintance of Cui Xiaoye.
