The curtain of rain divided the world in two.
Inside the police station, the lights were bright and steady, standing like a lonely lighthouse holding its final position amidst the chaos. The circular clock on the wall emitted a faint, rhythmic ticking that formed a strange harmony with the howling wind and torrential rain outside.
Through the blurred glass windows, one could only see the hazy outlines of the downpour. The raindrops were like countless transparent arrows, ruthlessly striking the panes with a rhythmic pitter-patter. The world outside was completely swallowed by darkness; save for the occasional flash of lightning, it was nearly impossible to discern the shape of any object.
The water on the streets rose rapidly, merging into swift currents that carried fallen leaves and other debris toward an unknown destination.
Wei Zhi was soaked to the bone, shivering as she sat in the interrogation room, which was as bright as day.
Two male police officers sat opposite her.
"My brother... has my brother been found?" Wei Zhi asked, her voice trembling along with the terrified tears in her eyes.
One of the men whispered something to his colleague, then stood up and walked out of the room. He was lean, his angular face devoid of any excess fat.
"Our rescue personnel are currently searching. For now, answer our questions," the younger officer said. "Tell us again, in detail, exactly what happened before the police arrived."
The officer who had stepped out returned with a blanket and handed it to Wei Zhi.
"...Th-thank you..."
Wei Zhi took it with trembling hands and wrapped it around herself.
Once the older officer sat back down, the younger one spoke.
"Go ahead."
Wei Zhi forced herself to calm down, searching through her tangled thoughts for the very beginning.
"My name is Wei Zhi... The person who fell through the manhole is my younger brother, Wei Lai."
She started from tonight, and to speak of tonight, she first had to address the reason they were meeting despite the thunderstorm.
"What was the reason for your meeting tonight?" the younger officer asked.
Messages, calls, transfer records—the truth would come out as soon as they checked. Concealment was foolish.
Wei Zhi couldn't stop her tears from falling.
"He insisted that I transfer forty thousand yuan to him tonight. If I didn't, he said he would tell my fiancé my secret..."
"What secret?" the younger officer pressed immediately.
"I... I have online loan debts. I owe over a million yuan. My fiancé doesn't know yet..." Wei Zhi pleaded, "Please, don't tell him about this, I beg you—"
The younger officer remained unmoved. "That depends on whether it's relevant to the case. How long has he been extorting you?"
"I don't know..."
"You don't know? What does that mean?"
"Ever since he found out about my debts, he's been asking me for money from time to time, but it was usually small amounts."
"When did he find out about your debts?"
"Late August... the twenty-fourth."
"Why do you remember it so clearly?"
"Because that day... I had a huge fight with my family. My father wanted me to take out a loan to buy my brother an apartment. I refused. Then they discovered my online loans... They were very angry."
"Why did you take out those loans?"
"My mother had a gastrointestinal stromal tumor. She needed to take a targeted drug called Imatinib every month. One box costs over twenty thousand yuan. She needed two boxes a month... My entire salary plus what I made delivering food at night wasn't enough. I had no choice but to keep borrowing, over and over..."
"A month ago, my mother found out the real reason I was in debt... and she committed suicide. She didn't want to be a burden to me. After that, my brother started making outrageous demands. He said... if I could spend forty thousand a month on our mother, I could spend forty thousand a month on him."
Wei Zhi’s voice grew lower and lower as she desperately fought back a sob.
The two officers remained silent. The younger officer’s tone softened significantly, his face showing a trace of sympathy.
The older officer, who hadn't spoken until now, asked, "Do you remember the exact time he fell?"
"I called the police immediately. The time of the call should be the time he fell," Wei Zhi choked out.
"During your conversation, or when he fell, was there anyone else nearby?" he asked.
"No, just the two of us."
The younger officer looked at the older one, who stood up and said, "We'll stop here for now. You can rest here for a while. We may have more questions for you later."
Wei Zhi nodded, wrapping the blanket tighter around her, yet the chill continued to seep from her wet clothes into her body.
She guessed there must be many people outside already. Thinking about having to face Wei Shan’s fury and Ji Qikun’s questioning once she left, this interrogation room actually felt warmer by comparison.
After the two officers left, Wei Zhi was alone in the room.
The scene of Wei Lai vanishing kept replaying in her mind, refusing to leave no matter how she tried to banish it. She curled her trembling body into a ball, huddling inside the blanket.
The older officer walked back into the room carrying a cup of hot water. Seeing her like this, he silently left the water on the table and quietly stepped out.
The younger officer was a rookie who had just become a full-fledged officer this year. He was waiting in the hallway for the older officer to emerge and hurried forward. "The scene investigation just finished. Their opinion is that the heavy rain caused the manhole cover to shift. There were no signs of a struggle at the scene; the victim fell into the drainage system in an instant."
"Has the surveillance footage been sent over?"
"Yes, it matches the scene investigation's conclusion. Do you want to see it?"
The older officer nodded and watched the footage again with Xiao Chen.
In the video, although the clarity was somewhat blurred by the storm, Wei Zhi’s figure standing in the stairwell was clearly visible. From the moment Wei Lai walked out of the stairwell until he slipped into the manhole, she remained in the same spot without moving.
After Wei Lai fell, she seemed stunned for a moment, but she reacted quickly and called the police.
"How are things on Team Leader Wu's end?" the older officer asked.
***
In the second interrogation room, Old Wu was frowning as he listened to the witness in front of him talk grandiosely. The young officer beside him was hurriedly recording the testimony, his writing speed unable to keep up with the man's speech.
"Hey, hey, don't write down every single word!" Old Wu impatiently stopped the young officer, who had already made a typo, then glared at the witness. "And you, stop rambling about every trivial little thing! Just tell me what happened before and after the incident tonight!"
"Oh, oh—right. Tonight—tonight, around eight o'clock, I think. I come out to have a couple of cigarettes every night at that time. My wife just gave birth, so she won't let me smoke in the house. I have to go out."
"Where were you smoking?" Old Wu asked.
"In front of the window in the third-floor hallway, because I live on the third floor!" the middle-aged man said readily.
"Go on."
"Then, while I was smoking, I heard someone enter the stairwell. I thought it was a resident coming home, but they didn't keep going up. They just started chatting right there. Now, the content of the chat was a bit... private. Officer, you know how it is, everyone likes a bit of gossip, so I didn't leave. I stayed quiet and kept listening."
"What did you hear? Be specific."
"I heard the man using something to threaten the woman, demanding she transfer money to him! And it wasn't a small amount either. The woman only had ten thousand or so, and the man made her go borrow another thirty thousand."
"Anything else?"
"In the middle of it, they said something about an autumn school trip when they were kids, and some bread rolls or something. Just reminiscing about the past. Officer, you know, people our age like to look back—but that guy wasn't having any of it. No sentimentality at all, just wanted the woman to transfer the money. I even heard him call her 'Sis'!"
"And then?"
"The guy got the money, and that was that. Oh, wait—I'm guessing he got the money, you'll have to verify that yourselves, officers."
"Why do you think he got the money?"
"Because first the guy made the woman enter a password, and then after a bit, his tone got better. He even said something like 'See you next month.' That means he got the money, right? I saw from the window that the man walked out first—"
"Was he alone?"
"Yeah, he left by himself!" the middle-aged man said with certainty. "Then he stepped right onto the manhole cover. Before I could even react, he was gone! Scared the life out of me. Then I heard the woman scream, and a moment later, I heard her calling the police."
"Why didn't you call the police?"
"I knew someone else was calling, so why would I? Making duplicate calls—isn't that a waste of resources?" the man said with a sheepish grin.
"Then why didn't you come forward immediately?"
"I'd been eavesdropping on their conversation; how could I have the face to show up?" After saying this, the man realized it sounded bad and quickly added, "But I definitely intended to provide information to the police. See? Didn't I come here on my own?"
"Do you have anything else to add?" Old Wu asked.
Although the middle-aged man wanted this spotlight to last a bit longer, he racked his brain and couldn't think of anything else he’d missed.
"No, that's everything..." he said with a face full of regret.
"Fine. Wait here for a moment. Once we confirm there are no follow-up questions, you can go." Old Wu stood up.
After walking out of the interrogation room, Old Wu met up with the other two officers.
They exchanged their findings; everything pointed to this being a simple accident.
Old Wu asked, "Has the person who fell into the sewer been found yet?"
"Not yet. The current is too strong," the young officer said.
"...It'll be hard." Old Wu glanced out the window. "With rain this heavy."
"The family is making a scene outside. Do you want to take a look, Team Leader Wu?" the young officer asked.
"I won't go. Xiao Zhang—you go." Old Wu lightly patted Zhang Kaiyang’s shoulder with his folder.
Zhang Kaiyang nodded and led the young officer toward the police station's service window.
The further out they went, the more obvious the commotion became.
At the window, a short man was pounding on the glass, creating a dull thudding sound. He was shouting and highly agitated, his eyes swollen and bloodshot like a bull's. Two officers were standing beside him, trying to stop him from hitting the glass, while the officer on duty inside the window looked accustomed to it, calmly explaining something to him.
The young officer was about to head toward the victim's family member when he noticed his senior suddenly stop in his tracks.
"...Brother Zhang?" he asked, surprised.
Zhang Kaiyang stared fixedly at another figure sitting on a bench, his heart churning like a stormy sea.
The person seemed to sense something and lifted his bowed head. Their eyes met in the air thick with the chill of the rain.
He saw a flash of surprise cross the man's face, followed by a refined, elegant smile.
Ji Qikun stood up. He was wearing a well-fitted, high-end bespoke suit, his tall and slender frame appearing even more sophisticated in the attire. He was completely out of place next to the man being forcibly held down at the table to calm him, and out of place in this ordinary police station.
He walked toward Zhang Kaiyang, while Zhang Kaiyang stood frozen in place.
"Long time no see, Officer Zhang." Ji Qikun extended his hand.
Zhang Kaiyang looked at him but didn't move. The young officer watched the scene in astonishment.
Ji Qikun smiled, seemingly unsurprised, and withdrew his hand. He observed the fatigue on Zhang Kaiyang’s face and the premature wrinkles at the corners of his eyes with interest.
"Officer Zhang, I didn't expect to see you again. Could this be fate?"
"...What are you doing here?" Zhang Kaiyang asked.
"The police summoned me, of course."
Zhang Kaiyang looked at the young officer beside him, who quickly said, "He is the fiancé of the person who reported the incident, Wei Zhi."
Zhang Kaiyang’s expression changed.
Ji Qikun took a business card from his pocket and handed it to Zhang Kaiyang.
Zhang Kaiyang saw the shimmering gold lettering on it:
"OCEAN Art Center."
"Artistic Director: Ji Qikun."
Memories of the past began to surge. The image of the last time he had seen him appeared before Zhang Kaiyang’s eyes.
The young university student had stood in the courtroom, watching the security guards drag away an emotional Weng Xiuyue. He had watched it all, and when his gaze shifted to Zhang Kaiyang sitting in the gallery, he had slowly broken into a smile.
He would always remember that scene.
The contempt and pride at the corners of his mouth.
Since that day, eight years had passed in the blink of an eye.
***
| Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 胃肠道间质瘤 | Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor (GIST) | A type of tumor that occurs in the gastrointestinal tract. |
| 伊马替尼 | Imatinib | A targeted therapy drug used to treat GIST (brand name Gleevec). |
| 现勘 | Scene Investigation | Short for 现场勘查 (xiànchǎng kānchá), forensic investigation of a scene. |
| 张开阳 | Zhang Kaiyang | The older police officer involved in the case. |
| 老吴 | Old Wu | A senior police officer/Team Leader. |
| 翁秀越 | Weng Xiuyue | A woman mentioned in the flashback from 8 years ago. |
| OCEAN艺术中心 | OCEAN Art Center | The place where Ji Qikun works. |
