One person and one cat read too late into the night. Jiang Xiaoyu curled up beside Ye Lian’s pillow and fell into a deep sleep, not even woken by the usual crow of the rooster. When he opened his eyes again, the man was no longer by his side.
He rested his head on his paws, gazing drowsily out the window. A ray of light was tugged along by the clouds, faintly dancing across his face. He let out a big yawn and jumped down from the bed.
Chen Yiqu stood by the stairs, dusting with a feather duster. When he saw Jiang Xiaoyu come down, he put on a stern face, ready to scold, but the words caught in his throat as he remembered how distraught he had looked last night. His voice took a turn: “Breakfast is in the food bowl. Go eat it yourself!”
Jiang Xiaoyu tilted his head and eyed him sideways, suspecting he’d been infected by Yan Feilang. Chen Yiqu flew into a rage out of humiliation and kicked his butt with his foot, urging, “Hurry up and go!”
“Got it.” He stumbled on all fours from the push, mumbling as he stepped on Chen Yiqu’s foot.
Sometime in the courtyard, several vats of lotuses had appeared—purple, white, yellow. The air was filled with a quiet floral fragrance tinged with green, somewhat like the scent on Ye Lian last night.
Thinking of this, Jiang Xiaoyu paused his chewing and scratched at his somewhat feverish ear with a paw.
A dog’s head poked over from the side, staring at the egg in Jiang Xiaoyu’s bowl and barking once: “Dog wants to eat too!”
Jiang Xiaoyu smacked his lips and made room for it. “Eat it all, the cat’s full.”
The silly dog wolfed it down without lifting its head. Jiang Xiaoyu asked, “Husky, what did you go out for before?”
The dog’s face went blank as if recalling, and after a long moment, it barked: “Dog went to a competition! Got first place!”
“…You can compete?” Jiang Xiaoyu was shocked. “What kind of competition?”
“Don’t know, but dog is awesome, dog got first! Big brother said dog was great too!”
“…Who’s your big brother?”
Husky twisted its head and snorted toward the back: “Dog’s big brother!”
Yan Feilang, passing by with a cigarette in his mouth, felt smug inside. All the other dogs had lost their composure from the pheromones he deliberately released, letting Husky pick up the landing championship for free. He wanted to brag but was afraid of giving himself away if he chimed in, his face twisting for a moment.
Luckily, Jiang Xiaoyu was used to this guy’s verbal stumbles and facial tics. He just muttered to himself inwardly and didn’t take it to heart. Hearing a noise from the front courtyard, he dropped his paw and went over.
It was Ji Wangan, holding Teddy. Neither man nor dog looked spirited.
“I took Cotton for a SPA and bought quite a few things. Give them to the little cat.” He handed the gift bag to Chen Yiqu. Seeing Jiang Xiaoyu, Cotton jumped out of his arms.
“Hey, why does Second Master’s face look so awful?” Chen Yiqu didn’t know the details, but since they were both Ye Lan’s dogs, he felt some sympathy. “Come in for some tea to cool off.”
Seeing its owner enter the house, Cotton hung its head and asked Jiang Xiaoyu dejectedly: “Cat Boss, why did you steal owner’s phone?” That day was chaotic, but it had seen clearly—the black cat in front of it had seized the chance to steal it.
Jiang Xiaoyu’s mouth twitched a few times before he finally said, “The cat had a reason it had to take it.”
Teddy opened its eyes and looked at him: “Are you going to hurt dog’s owner?” It wasn’t stupid. It knew its owner hadn’t slept well for a long time because of the lost phone. He would wake up startled at night and then hold it while crying.
Jiang Xiaoyu didn’t know how to respond. He knew what he did was justice, but what did the dog know? It just loved its owner wholeheartedly.
“Sorry.” Cold air surged from the vent. He lowered his head to look at his black paws, stiffly flexing them a few times.
Big teardrops fell from Teddy’s eyes. It wasn’t much bigger than Jiang Xiaoyu, but it cried heartbreakingly, scaring Husky behind Jiang Xiaoyu so much it didn’t dare approach.
“Woof! Bad dog got beaten and cried by the little cat!” It had been bitten by Teddy before.
Yan Feilang stubbed out his cigarette. He didn’t feel much melancholy; he wasn’t overflowing with compassion. Ji Wangan had brought this on himself, it was just pitiful for the dog—it was a sentient one.
“Let’s go, bro’ll take you running.” He tugged Husky and turned to leave.
Teddy lay on the ground sobbing in hiccups, choking out: “It’s dog’s fault… Dog didn’t stop you from entering the room, so you could steal the phone. Dog was bad. Don’t hurt owner, hurt dog instead.” It had clearly seen Jiang Xiaoyu steal the phone but hadn’t reacted in time to make a sound. If it had stopped him, owner wouldn’t be this scared.
Jiang Xiaoyu said, “It’s not your fault.”
“Then it’s your fault, all your…”
“It’s not my fault either.” He suddenly understood. The fault wasn’t Teddy’s, nor Ye Lian’s for lending the car, nor Ye Lan’s for handing over the phone, nor his own—Jiang Xiaoyu. The fault was Ji Wangan’s. He hadn’t only hurt others but turned his mistake into a spear to wound those who loved him, even if not intentionally.
He thought of Ye Lan, her actions—she must be suffering too. But she was Sonia, persuading Raskolnikov to turn himself in through some method.
“Your owner made a very serious mistake.” Jiang Xiaoyu lay down in front of Teddy and patted its head. “He has to take responsibility for it.”
“It might be a few years, or even longer. But the person he hurt will never come back.”
—
Jiang Xiaoyu waited a long time but heard no movement from Criminal Investigation. Unable to hold back, he called Jin Ge: “Hasn’t it been handed over to the prosecutor’s office yet?”
“Not for now. Missing key evidence.”
Jiang Xiaoyu found it absurd. “Then tell me, what evidence is still needed?”
Jin Ge sighed: “Master knows you’re upset, but calm down first. Zhou Xu’s body and autopsy report are destroyed. The official verdict on his cause of death is drowning. Even if the existing video proves he suffered sexual assault before death, there’s no direct evidence that he died in the process and was then dumped. If we rashly hand the case to the prosecutor’s office without sufficient evidence, it might get rejected for lack thereof and alert the snake in the grass.”
“And…” His voice sounded irritated: “The deceased’s family’s wishes have changed.”
“What do you mean?”
“The deceased’s grandmother doesn’t plan to pursue the case anymore.”
Blood rushed to Jiang Xiaoyu’s head: “This is a criminal offense! Can she pursue it when she wants and drop it when she doesn’t?”
“They have their own difficulties.”
Jiang Xiaoyu couldn’t understand. He decided to go find her himself.
Zhou Xu was a local, his home in a relatively rundown old neighborhood. Jiang Xiaoyu climbed to the fifth floor in one go. Right before knocking, he felt a bit awkward.
He’d rushed over on impulse but didn’t know what to say after the door opened. After hesitating, he still pressed the doorbell. But it didn’t ring—probably broken. In those few seconds, his courage deflated completely. He turned dejectedly to go downstairs, only to hear the door open behind him.
“Who are you?” Zhou Xu’s grandmother happened to be heading out to throw trash. Her aged face showed a moment of hesitation before she asked: “Officer Jiang?”
Jiang Xiaoyu was stunned. “You know me?”
“Officer Jin showed me a photo when I reported the case back then.” She remembered him saying: “See that person? His name is Jiang Xiaoyu. He’ll get justice for your grandson.”
Jiang Xiaoyu took the trash from her hand and said, head lowered: “I’ll throw it out for you.”
Zhou Xu’s grandmother said from behind him: “Thank you.”
When Jiang Xiaoyu went back upstairs, just at the corner, he saw her still standing in the doorway, like she was guarding something.
“Come in.” She turned on the air conditioner. “The old folks like us can handle the heat. You young people have hot tempers—rest a bit first, I’ll wash you an apple.”
Jiang Xiaoyu stood up hurriedly. “No need, I’ll be leaving soon.”
The old lady didn’t listen and still washed a bright red apple, handing it to him. When their hands touched, Jiang Xiaoyu felt her skin—aged, lusterless, lifeless.
“Is Officer Jiang here for something?”
Jiang Xiaoyu gripped the apple, head down: “I heard you don’t want to pursue the case anymore.”
“Yes.”
“Why?” He looked up, a bit urgently: “I’ve already found leads. We can apprehend the suspect soon. Why don’t you want to pursue it?”
She smiled at Jiang Xiaoyu, and instantly, tears slid down her sagging cheeks along the curve of her upturned mouth. “Because I’ve already lost my grandson. I can’t lose the old man too.”
She led Jiang Xiaoyu into the bedroom and pointed at Zhou Xu’s Grandfather, paralyzed on the bed: “Early-stage colon cancer. The doctor says early treatment has a high cure rate. Little Xu was desperate to work because there was no money to treat his grandfather.”
“Officer Jiang, I don’t want to live the rest of my days alone.” She turned her head to wipe the tears from her face, gently closing the door as if afraid to wake the old man. Holding back her sobs, she smiled: “I got a text. As long as I drop the case, he’ll give me a large sum of money—enough for Zhou Xu’s grandfather’s surgery and stroke rehab.”
Jiang Xiaoyu knew this must be Shen Qie’s group’s countermeasure after discovering the missing phone. He felt some anger, some panic. “Then… you’re not pursuing it?”
The dead were gone, but the living still had to live. He felt he could understand, but he also felt a bit of hate. It was like when that little white dog died—he hadn’t been able to raise it, hadn’t been able to stop others from harming it, could only watch as it was cooked, its bones tossed into the trash as kitchen waste.
“Officer Jiang, thank you, thank you for working so hard for Zhou Xu all this time.” She choked with sobs, barely able to speak, “But I, but I don’t want to be alone. I thought about dying together with the old man, but then who would sweep the tomb for Little Xu? He was just buried, just buried. If he doesn’t get any paper money, what will my Little Xu do down there?”
Ah? What should he do?
Jiang Xiaoyu was cornered by her questions, and never had there been a moment when he realized as profoundly as he did now: to the bad guys he was a toy, in the case he was a victim, to Lu Wanhui he was an achievement, and to Jiang Xiaoyu he was the first case he had ever handled.
But he, in truth Zhou Xu, is a man beloved by all.
