CM | Chapter 64

When Gu Yao came out of the fork in the road, she just happened to receive a call from Li Huiru.

The assistant she had sent this morning to help with her discharge procedures had come back empty-handed. Li Huiru had thought Gu Yao had gone home after leaving the hospital, but the house was empty too, so she quickly called to ask.

Gu Yao casually made up an excuse. “Mom, I’m fine. I still have some things to take care of, and I’ll be out all day.”

Li Huiru said in confusion, “That job of yours was put on hold for now, wasn’t it? You’re on leave. How can you still have so much to do… A girl doesn’t need to push herself this hard. Sooner or later, you’ll have to…”

Before Li Huiru could finish, Gu Yao cut her off. “All right, you’ve said these things so many times I can recite them by heart. Besides…”

She suddenly stopped there.

She stood frozen in place, staring blankly ahead, only feeling a tingling numbness creep over her scalp and fingertips.

Why had she just said, “you’ve said these things so many times”?

Over the past year, Li Huiru had never said anything like this. The way she and Li Huiru got along had always been distant, not especially close, but at least polite. Even the concern Li Huiru had shown in the hospital room last night had surprised Gu Yao.

And why, the moment Li Huiru started nagging from that familiar opening, had she said she could recite it by heart? The second half of the line that had just popped into her head was clearly, “Sooner or later, you’ll have to marry a good husband and raise children.”

Obviously, her subconscious was extremely resistant to that last half. Could it be that before she lost her memory, this was the kind of upbringing Li Huiru had fed her?

After Gu Yao hung up on Li Huiru and stood there thinking for a while, a WeChat message from Zhu Shengxi came through too.

Zhu Shengxi: “Auntie called me.”

Just eight simple words, without any tone at all, yet somehow packed with information.

Was Li Huiru reporting her?

Gu Yao stared at the message for a moment, then replied, “Does my mom do this a lot, run to you to complain whenever she gets shot down with me?”

A few seconds later, Zhu Shengxi replied, “Auntie is just concerned about you. You just got out of the hospital and you’re already running around outside. She’s afraid you’ll faint again.”

Looks like she had guessed right.

Gu Yao had wanted to reply, “You have your own work too, you don’t need to worry about this anymore,” but after typing it out, she deleted it. She revised it back and forth for a long while, yet still didn’t send it.

It was only when a tall figure approached from straight ahead that Gu Yao looked up and saw it was Xu Shuo. She hurriedly replied on WeChat, “I still have things to do. We’ll talk later.”

Zhu Shengxi only sent back one word. “Okay.”

By the time Xu Shuo drew near, Gu Yao had already put her phone away.

The two of them almost spoke at the same time. “How’s it going on your side?”

Then they both paused.

Gu Yao spoke first. “I found out a little something.”

Xu Shuo nodded. “Me too. Let’s get back in the car and talk.”

“Mm.”

Back in the car, Gu Yao put her phone on silent, then first shared with Xu Shuo the news she had just learned, that when Feng Zhenghui was young, he met Chen Yumin here.

Then Gu Yao asked, “What about you?”

Xu Shuo said, “I found out some things about Chen Yumin’s family. Chen Yumin came here during summer break to look for her maternal grandparents, supposedly to keep them company, but in reality she was being ‘abandoned’ by both of her parents.”

Gu Yao froze. “Abandoned?”

“Yes. Chen Yumin’s father favored sons over daughters and never thought much of the fact that Chen Yumin was a girl. Beatings and scoldings were a normal part of life. He called her a money-loser, said she wasn’t pretty, and that no one would want her in the future. When Chen Yumin came back for summer vacation, her mother had just accidentally miscarried, and the fetus was a formed male baby. That hit Chen Yumin’s parents hard. They both thought Chen Yumin’s fate was too hard and that she had caused her little brother’s death.”

Gu Yao had only just been stirred up by Li Huiru’s nagging, and now hearing about parents who didn’t even treat their daughter like a human being, she immediately got angry. “What kind of parents are those? If they didn’t like her, why did they have her?”

Xu Shuo raised a brow and glanced at her.

Gu Yao looked away and said, “Go on.”

Xu Shuo smiled. “Not long after that, Chen Yumin’s mother ran off with another man and has had no contact with the Chen family ever since.”

Ran off?

Gu Yao was stunned.

Xu Shuo said, “Surprised?”

Gu Yao nodded. “Normally, men are more likely to abandon their wives and children. Women usually feel more responsible for holding a family together.”

Xu Shuo said, “Like how a male leopard will leave right after mating?”

Gu Yao said, “It’s not just leopards. There are lots of animals where the mother is the one raising the young. So Chen Yumin’s mother must have had some unavoidable reason.”

“The old people who told me this version said that woman was naturally restless and had wanted to leave for a long time. She treated Chen Yumin badly too. When Chen Yumin was still very little and couldn’t really talk, her mother would even prick her with needles. Whenever Chen Yumin saw her grandparents, she would just point at her own hand and say, ‘Pain.'”

Gu Yao’s brows were already knotting together. She turned to look out the window, her heart churning violently, unable to settle for a long time.

Xu Shuo then said, “I heard the object of Chen Yumin’s mother’s elopement was actually her first love. The two of them had never ended up together by some twist of fate, and later running away together was just a way to correct that mistake. That man had not been doing well in those years either. The woman he married wasn’t very virtuous, and was a bit materialistic and vain. She spent money recklessly and blew through all the family’s savings, then even complained that he was useless. He and Chen Yumin’s mother both met again when they were at their lowest, and their old feelings flared right back up.”

Gu Yao listened silently to all of that. When Xu Shuo finished, he asked her, “How is it? Any analysis?”

Only then did Gu Yao speak. “Chen Yumin’s mother thought her marriage was a disaster, and just like Chen Yumin’s father, she believed a woman was only as good as the man she married. So for her, the only way out of her current misfortune was to find another man. But before she found one, Chen Yumin became the first obstacle and stumbling block to her leaving. Very few men would be interested in a woman with a child. Whenever Chen Yumin’s mother felt ‘desperate’ or ‘helpless,’ she would start fighting like a cornered animal, and Chen Yumin would become her first target for taking it out on.”

At that point, Gu Yao asked Xu Shuo, “After Chen Yumin cried to her grandparents about how much her hand hurt, what did the two of them do?”

Xu Shuo said, “I heard they talked to Chen Yumin’s parents and told them to get along peacefully. They also told Chen Yumin’s father to spend more time with his wife and daughter.”

Gu Yao couldn’t help but let out a cold laugh. “That kind of approach works in the short term. It would also create a false sense of dependence in Chen Yumin’s mother, making her think that as long as she mistreated Chen Yumin to express her dissatisfaction, she could win other people’s sympathy and concern. So after that, she would only get worse.”

Xu Shuo said, “You’re right. Chen Yumin’s father did favor sons over daughters, but he was often away on business trips and didn’t spend much time at home, so his mental pressure on Chen Yumin wouldn’t have lasted too long. But Chen Yumin’s mother had to see her daughter every day. Whenever she got angry, she’d look for a punching bag.”

Gu Yao frowned, then suddenly asked, “Chen Yumin’s mother sent her here to her grandparents, and then she miscarried? Was it really an accident?”

Xu Shuo paused. “You mean it was deliberate?”

Gu Yao nodded. “Wasn’t she back with her first love not long after the miscarriage? Then let me assume she had already met that man during her pregnancy. But with a second ‘burden’ in her belly, they couldn’t possibly run off with that ‘burden’ in tow. They would either have to leave it behind, or give up the elopement plan. Because once the child was born, Chen Yumin’s mother would be unable to move for at least a year, and she also knew she could no longer endure another round of childbirth pain, followed by her husband’s coldness and disgust afterward. So she made that decision.”

“Also, judging from the timeline, when Chen Yumin’s mother reunited with her first love, the two of them probably didn’t immediately develop the idea of running away. It was just that both of their lives had gone badly for those years, so they became each other’s medicine for healing. If either one of them had been living happily, that relationship would never have formed. After they healed for a while, pity would turn into love, and they would rediscover the simple sweetness of first love. That stark contrast with the cruelty of real life would make their minds heat up, leaving them no time to think about the consequences. They would wrongly believe that as long as they were together, all the cruelty in life would stop, and the only thing they had done wrong was choose the wrong person. But in reality, judging by Chen Yumin’s mother and that first love’s personalities, even if they had gotten together, life still wouldn’t have gotten better. The beautiful illusion would slowly fade, and a new kind of cruelty would soon fill their lives.”

Xu Shuo lowered his gaze and said, “Chen Yumin’s mother resented the unfairness of life, but the way she tried to ‘save herself’ only made things worse.”

Gu Yao said, “She’s avoidant by nature, and once there’s a problem, she dumps the blame on Chen Yumin. She always puts herself in the most ‘innocent’ position.”

Xu Shuo said, “Her first love let his wife spend money recklessly, even blew through all the family’s savings, and then turned around and blamed his wife for being vain.”

Gu Yao said, “That kind of man is insecure to his bones. No matter how materialistic his wife was, there still had to be resources for her to be materialistic over. If he had set boundaries from the beginning and worked out a rule between them, his wife wouldn’t have spent all the family’s money. Clearly, this man was also using that method to please his wife and keep the relationship going. That woman must have been very beautiful. As the husband, he didn’t have the confidence to control her, so he could only indulge her. But over time, that kind of indulgence would spiral out of control. By the day he could no longer give his wife any money at all, their relationship would already have reached its end.”

After that, the car fell into a long silence.

Both of them were looking at the road ahead. A flock of sheep passed by in the village, their bleating rising and falling in waves.

It was only when Gu Yao murmured, “Chen Yumin had grown up watching adults wear such ugly faces. A child like that wouldn’t turn out healthy. When Chen Yumin came here to spend summer break with her grandparents, the green mountains, clear waters, and little animals here, along with a childhood playmate, all became the most beautiful memories of her youth.”

Xu Shuo let out a soft sigh. “Unfortunately, after summer break ended and she went home, the ‘younger brother’ was gone, her mother had run off with someone, and all that was left was a father who was often away on business and favored sons over daughters.”

Gu Yao asked, “What happened after that? Did you find anything out?”

Xu Shuo said, “Chen Yumin started living at school from middle school on, and every year during winter and summer break, she would come here.”

Gu Yao said, “Together with Feng Zhenghui.”

Xu Shuo said, “She must have really looked forward to winter and summer break.”

Gu Yao said, “And Feng Zhenghui was a top student, so his tutoring must have helped too. Chen Yumin lived at school facing books all day, thinking about the tragedies of her parents’ generation. By then she had also reached puberty, the most rebellious age. In her bones, she must have strongly rejected the idea that a woman’s only way out was marriage, so she would have studied desperately, trying to change her fate.”

Xu Shuo said, “Maybe she and Feng Zhenghui had even agreed to attend the same high school.”

Gu Yao said, “But for some reason, they didn’t end up together…”

Xu Shuo said, “Mm. Later, Feng Zhenghui’s mother remarried and took him with her. Feng Zhenghui wanted to resist, but his mother was his guardian, so his resistance was useless.”

Gu Yao said, “And later, the father Feng Zhenghui loved most also died.”

Xu Shuo said, “Under that double blow, the only spiritual support Feng Zhenghui had left was Chen Yumin, but then she ran into an accident during a spring outing.”

At that, the two of them once again fell into silence, both of them reviewing the entire chain of reasoning from earlier.

When the logic was laid out, it was basically smooth. All the opportunities and timings matched.

Now the biggest problem was…

Gu Yao suddenly asked, “By the way, after Feng Zhenghui’s mother remarried, he attended a private school. Actually, based on his grades, he could have gone to a key high school, like No. 171.”

Xu Shuo said, “The man his mother remarried had some money. One reason she remarried was vanity too. That private school had a very large number of foreign teacher courses. She wanted to send Feng Zhenghui abroad for college in the future. But in reality, that school had a rotten atmosphere. A bunch of rich second-generation kids got together, either dating or gambling and drinking. They skipped class all day and no teachers managed them. Locking a group of adolescents who still hadn’t settled down into one place made it very easy for their nature to run wild.”

Gu Yao said, “Human beings have two major instincts, sex and violence, especially men.”

Xu Shuo said, “Xiaochuan investigated that school. Something happened there every year.”

Gu Yao said, “Feng Zhenghui’s later violent tendencies must have been triggered around then too…”

Xu Shuo said, “And Chen Yumin’s accident during the spring outing was the last straw that broke the camel’s back?”

Gu Yao went quiet at once.

She always felt like something was off, especially the final part.

Xu Shuo noticed her odd expression and asked, “Did you think of something?”

Gu Yao lifted her eyelids to look at him, then suddenly said, “Your father was a criminal police officer.”

Xu Shuo paused. “So?”

Gu Yao said, “Then you would be influenced by him more or less too, whether in your philosophy for living or the way you do things.”

Xu Shuo said, “So?”

Gu Yao said, “I can tell that when Feng Zhenghui talked about his father, there was a bit of admiration in it. His father was only an auxiliary officer, but didn’t you once call and ask at Shao Xiaofeng’s crime scene? His father had been able to test into the police force, and he was also the most capable auxiliary officer at the time. Feng Zhenghui was still young then. The first time he met Chen Yumin was because a stray dog was chasing her, and Feng Zhenghui stepped in to save her. Most men fantasize about becoming superheroes in childhood. Feng Zhenghui had an auxiliary officer father as a role model, and he’d already practiced it on Chen Yumin. Chen Yumin was the first person who sparked his urge to be a hero. That kind of first-time experience stays with a person. That’s also why a top student like him became friends with a normal-achieving girl like Chen Yumin.”

Xu Shuo gradually understood. “You mean, after Chen Yumin’s accident, Feng Zhenghui’s first reaction should have been to protect her and find her, not to suddenly develop some kind of psychological perversion.”

Gu Yao nodded. “Something else must still be missing, something that was enough to crush Feng Zhenghui.”

Following that line of thought, Xu Shuo said quietly, “After Chen Yumin’s accident, she stopped living at the school and must have gone home. Four months later, her father handled her leave of absence paperwork.”

By then, the flock of sheep in front of the car had already scattered.

Looking at the sheep disappearing into the distance, Gu Yao said, “During those four months, Chen Yumin definitely wouldn’t have chosen to live with her father, and her father wouldn’t have sympathized with her either. On the contrary, he would have despised her even more, originally a money-loser, and now she’d been bullied too, so she was even less valuable. So Chen Yumin would definitely have come here to look for her grandparents. This was where she had her best memories in life, the best place to heal.”

Xu Shuo said, “Feng Zhenghui knew Chen Yumin would come back here, and he would come too.”

Gu Yao said, “The two of them would lick their wounds just like they did in childhood.”

Up to here, both of them suddenly got stuck.

Xu Shuo said, “Chen Yumin’s ‘disappearance’ should have been four months after the incident, that is, after the leave of absence was handled.”

Gu Yao said, “Strange. Since Chen Yumin had already left school, those few students were still attending classes as usual. That means the matter had already been smoothed over, probably with money… Then why would two of them disappear five years later?”

Xu Shuo said, “If the matter really had been settled, Chen Yumin wouldn’t have disappeared.”

Gu Yao said, “You mean those students were afraid Chen Yumin would eventually talk, so they worked together and struck first?”

As soon as she said that, Gu Yao shook her head. “No. Even if that were true, it still wouldn’t explain why Feng Zhenghui later spent all those years targeting women who shared the same traits as Chen Yumin, even confining and abusing them.”

Xu Shuo frowned, as if thinking of something. “Feng Zhenghui doing that does have a sense of venting anger.”

Gu Yao said, “It shouldn’t be that simple. Besides venting anger, there should also be some kind of transference effect, because he didn’t want to hurt Chen Yumin, or he couldn’t hurt Chen Yumin, so he found other substitutes.”

Xu Shuo suddenly went silent. Even his normally lowered thick brows slowly relaxed, as if he had thought of something. His eyes were full of shock and disbelief.

Seeing that, Gu Yao pressed, “What is it? What did you think of?”

Xu Shuo took a breath and asked, “Just now you said that after Chen Yumin’s accident, she came back here, and Feng Zhenghui ran here after hearing about it.”

Gu Yao nodded.

Xu Shuo said, “If I assume Feng Zhenghui didn’t ‘hear’ about it?”

Gu Yao froze. “What?”

Xu Shuo didn’t answer. He quickly called Xiaochuan and said the first sentence, “Xiaochuan, check the private high school Feng Zhenghui attended. In the year Chen Yumin had her accident, did the school organize a group spring outing? Where did they go, and on what day?”

After Xu Shuo hung up, Gu Yao had already unconsciously wrapped her arms around herself. Goose bumps were crawling all over her arms.

She asked softly, “Are you suspecting that Feng Zhenghui witnessed what happened that day, and that’s what later triggered those acts of hurting other women?”

Xu Shuo only said in a low voice two words. “Not only that.”

It wasn’t until Xiaochuan called back that Xu Shuo answered. “Brother, I found it. The private high school Feng Zhenghui attended also organized a spring outing on the same day. The destination was the same as No. 171 Middle School’s.”

Xu Shuo cut the call, and the car once again fell into silence.

Gu Yao bit her lip and stared at the road ahead. “On the day of the spring outing, the two of them must have been full of anticipation because they could finally meet. But it was also that very day that something happened to Chen Yumin. Seeing the girl he had protected since childhood遭遇不测, Feng Zhenghui was directly traumatized.”

Xu Shuo continued, “There’s still one more suspicious point. The people who should have done it were those two boys, the same ones who later became mentally disabled and died of acute illness. But the names Feng Zhenghui marked with check marks were five people, and among them were three girls, including Shao Xiaofeng. What role did those three girls play in the whole story?”

Outside, the sun was setting, and dusk had arrived.

Broad swathes of orange light poured down, covering the whole village and town, breathtakingly beautiful.

In such a quiet and peaceful place, anyone who came here would feel their mind grow calmer.

The car grew very quiet for a moment. Neither of them continued analyzing the case. Together, they looked at the sunset, and without realizing it, were pulled into it.

It was only when the afterglow gradually faded that the sky slowly darkened.

Xu Shuo let out a soft sigh. “Let’s go. We’ll check the old Li family house first. Tomorrow, we can look into the victims’ lives before they died.”

Gu Yao answered, and the two of them got out of the car one after the other. She followed his steps all the way down the small path deeper into the village.