Love Me if You Dare: Pristine Darkness

Morning had become afternoon, and the experimental waste dump was bright with sunlight. However, Fang Qing was not the least bit happy. The odour of the different kinds of trash and strange reek of chemical waste had almost made him see stars. He also had to be very careful not to make contact with the nameless acids and poisons employed by the chemistry students.

The garbage collection vehicle had arrived at dawn, but Fang Qing had stopped the worker from taking the garbage. He thought, good thing this wise man* had reacted so quickly, otherwise ‘that thing’ would have been taken away by the garbage collectors, and even many lifetimes of searching would have proven fruitless.

*T/N FQ calls himself 老子 (Lao Zi) i.e. the Chinese philosopher who founded Taoism. Could also be used to refer to himself in an arrogant or joking manner.

However, he was going blind looking for it!

He had already searched through half the garbage bags in the room. He gritted his teeth and resumed his examination of the other half.

He opened yet another black bag and very carefully removed the contents one by one and laid them out. Bottles, tweezers, test strips . . . one hourglass, two hourglasses, three hourglasses . . .

The blood rushed to his head as he was seized by a sudden thought, and his movements accelerated.

An hourglass, the hourglass in Ke Qian’s laboratory . . . as well as the objects in disarray on the shelves, obviously, something had been moved frequently — in the words of Bo Jinyan, Ke Ai, as impersonated by Ke Qian, was a neat and tidy person; her things would not have been so disorganised. Why didn’t he think of this before? Also, the adhesive, found coincidentally in the empty spaces on the shelves . . . what object had been placed there originally, and then taken away?

An hourglass.

Many hourglasses.

After a definite period of time, the bottom half of the hourglass would have become heavier and exerted greater force. What could this have been used to control?

He delved into the garbage bag and continued to rummage through it.

String, it was string. Countless strands of fine, strong white string. He pulled them out of the bag by the handfuls, and finally, pulled out a strangely shaped object.

It was made of iron and looked a little like a crossbow, but it wasn’t. The innumerable strands of fine string he had just pulled out were connected to the two ends of the gadget. Multiple slim iron branches extruded from it; when Fang Qing pulled the strings on one end, the strings connected to the other end moved, and with quite a bit of force.

Fang Qing carefully examined the gadget for a while, then laid it to one side and continued searching inside the bag.

Then, he touched an object that was ice-cold.

Startled, he stood up and pulled the mouth of the bag wide in a single movement. Slowly, he brought out the huge object.

It was a dummy.

It was about the size of an actual person, with black hair down to the shoulders, lightly curled, and pale skin. It was wearing the same clothes as ‘Ke Ai’ had been wearing today: white T-shirt, cropped jeans. Its forehead, elbows, knees, ankles . . . and other places had tiny holes, all connected to the strings attached to the iron gadget.

Fang Qing dug into the bag again, and, this time, retrieved some men’s clothes. He remembered clearly every detail* of Xu Sheng’s account of today’s attack. At one glance, he knew that the clothes matched the account exactly. Needless to say, these must have been worn by Ke Qian as he attempted to murder Xu Sheng! After changing out of them, he had no time to dispose of them properly, so he threw them in here! Fang Qing was pretty certain that Xu Sheng’s fingerprints and DNA would be detected on them!

*T/N 滚花烂熟 (gun gua lan shu) – literally, as ripe as a melon that rolls from the vine; fig. to know something by heart

Fang Qing placed everything on the ground, sat down, and started laughing heartily.

The uncle who was waiting at the doorway to take the garbage away gave him a strange look. He obviously thought this police officer had gone mad!

When Fang Qing stopped laughing, he realised that he was bone weary. How many nights had he gone without proper sleep? It’s ok, he had caught someone today, he would be able to sleep well for a long time!

He pushed himself up with a spurt of energy. At this moment, his cellphone rang. It was An Yan.

“Hi, An Yan.”

“Fang Qing!”

Almost simultaneously, the two of them said, “I know how he did it.” “I know what the diversionary tactic is!”

Both of them paused, momentarily stunned, then said, in unison, “A marionette!”

Fang Qing smiled. “Hey, kid, you’re not bad! Get back to the station straightaway, call Jinyan and the others and tell them what we’ve found.”

“Ok!”

When he had hung up, An Yan hugged the marionette with one arm and looked at Gu Fangfang. “I have to return to the police station right now.”

Gu Fangfang said, “Ah, ok. Don’t worry about me, I can take the public bus home.”

“I’m sorry . . . . and thank you.”

Gu Fangfang just smiled.

Then, both turned and headed for the exit. After a few steps, An Yan suddenly turned around. “You’ve helped us voluntarily, and we’ve even taken away your marionette. In a few days, I’ll treat you to a meal, ok?”

Gu Fangfang felt as if her heart had jumped into her throat. She replied, “All right.”

They resumed their walk towards the exit, when Gu Fangfang abruptly said, “Which day? I have class on Tuesday and Wednesday.”

An Yan turned to look at her and smiled unexpectedly. His smile was bright and gentle, revealing his white teeth. His pale face was slightly flushed.

“There’s been a breakthrough in the case today; it will take two or three days for me to wind up the investigation. Friday night?”

“Yup.” Gu Fangfang’s face was almost completely red.

“I’ll drive to your school gate to pick you up at 6 in the evening.”

“That’s fine.”

——

The sun was high in the sky.

Bo Jinyan calmly and confidently said, “No, continue searching. The world is big, but the only place that Ke Qian would have thought appropriate as a final resting place for Ke Ai, is here. Since we found nothing in the lake, widen the search area to include the surroundings.” His eyes looked into the far distance, to the grassy fields, dam, and low hills beside the lake. “Search those places carefully.”

“Yes.”

The police officers resumed their work, and Bo Jinyan and Jian Yao also joined the ground search team. The sun gradually moved towards the west. Jian Yao was bathed in sweat. When she looked up occasionally, she saw that Bo Jinyan had a sheen of sweat on his face. However, he did not look either hesitant or defeated. His eyes were calm and resolute as he conducted a meticulous search.

This is the man she loves so much. No matter when or where, as long as he is present, there won’t be any departed spirits who are unable to rest in peace.

Jian Yao picked up a bottle of water and offered it to him. “Drink some.”

Bo Jinyan took the bottle, unscrewed the cap and drank, then patted her on the head. “Thank you.”

Jian Yao smiled slightly.

It was at this time that his cellphone rang. He took one look at the caller id and picked up. “Hello?”

Then, surprisingly, he glanced at Jian Yao, turned and walked to one side.

Jian Yao watched him in bafflement. This guy, what game is he playing now?

Bo Jinyan walked a few more steps before speaking. “I’m not at home right now.”

It was a call from an express delivery service. “Mr. Bo, this is an international delivery, the parcel is insured and is of a high value. You have to sign for it personally.”

“All right, you can leave it at the police station, I will pick it up from there.”

He hung up and turned back. The two of them looked at each other.

Bo Jinyan maintained a carefully indifferent expression. “What are you looking at, let’s get back to work.”

“Cheh.”

Right then, there was a burst of activity among the searchers by the side of the dam. Someone yelled, “We’ve found something!”

Bo Jinyan and Jian Yao felt their spirits rising and quickly rushed over.

——

It was an air-raid shelter which had been built under the dam several years ago. It had not been discovered earlier because overgrown weeds and grass had obscured the entrance.

When Jian Yao stood at the shelter’s entrance and looked around, she found that the air-raid shelter was directly opposite the site of the Ke family’s old home, with the lake in between.

Everyone walked slowly into the shelter with flashlights. The shelter was not very deep. After walking ten metres or so, they came to the end.

It was a rough, dark wall.

There was a person sitting quietly against the wall, motionless.

Or, to be precise, it was a corpse which had already begun to decay. It was wearing a white muslin dress, with embroidered shoes on its feet. It’s just that the muslin dress was completely blackened by dried blood. The face was like a skull, and the hands were but bones. In the shifting light and darkness of the shelter, it quietly looked at everyone.

Anyone with a little medical knowledge could look at the skeleton structure and know that it was that of a female.

Thus, it was Ke Ai who was murdered that day in Ke Qian’s place.

Bo Jinyan and Jian Yao stood in front of the corpse and were silent. The others were also strongly affected by this scene.

She had finally been found, a lifeless corpse, two interdependent lives.