Sweeping Mouse Ridge – Epilogue

Years later, those who witnessed the entire tragedy still felt lingering fear when recalling the events that occurred at the Mingshan Funeral Home at six o’clock that morning.

The first person to see Zhou Liping was a female employee surnamed Wei in the funeral home’s personal belongings storage department. This department was located in a room on the left side of the funeral home’s entrance, containing several rows of self-service lockers. At the time, Ms. Wei, wearing a gray uniform, was leaning against the door eating an egg pancake and fried dough stick when she saw “that man with a shovel-like chin” brush past her shoulder and walk in.

According to her recollection, Zhou Liping was expressionless, and his gait wasn’t hurried but rather somewhat composed. “He walked to the innermost row of lockers, beeped a few times, and then I heard the locker door ‘bang’ open and quickly close again.” A moment later, when Zhou Liping walked out of the storage department, his right hand was in his slightly bulging jacket pocket.

The female employee surnamed Wei felt he looked familiar, but only after the incident did she recall that about two weeks prior, early in the morning, around 6:00 a.m., this man had come to the funeral home, deposited something in a locker in the storage department, and then left.

According to protocol, the farewell ceremony always began at 6:00 a.m. Love Charity Foundation had prebooked Hall Number One at the funeral home and meticulously decorated the mourning hall for Xing Qisheng. The hall was filled with elegiac couplets and wreaths donated by various sectors of society. On the altar were Xing Qisheng’s urn and a large black and white portrait. Surrounded by flowers and incense, he smiled contentedly and kindly in the photograph.

As the funeral music played, the leaders and subordinates of the Love Charity Foundation entered the mourning hall one after another: Tao Zhouyao, supporting her father, Tao Bing, walked at the front, followed by Cui Wentao, Zhai Qing, Old Liao, Old Dou, Love Hospital Director Li, and others. Xing Qixian and Xing Yunda, dressed in black with black armbands, stood to one side of the hall, heads bowed, awaiting the guests’ condolences.

Zheng Gui, who was responsible for receiving guests at the entrance, was startled when he saw Zhou Liping. Although the time and place of Xing Qisheng’s farewell ceremony hadn’t been kept secret, the foundation hadn’t notified Zhou Liping. Why was he here?

A sense of foreboding suddenly rose in Zheng Gui’s heart; he felt a little scared. He stared intently at Zhou Liping but dared not stop him. Zhou Liping, with a calm expression, nodded politely and entered the mourning hall.

At first, no one noticed Zhou Liping.

Tao Zhouyao, supporting Tao Bing, was bowing in the first row and shaking hands with Xing Qixian and Xing Yunda when Cui Wentao and Zhai Qing, who were bowing in the second row, turned around. Zhai Qing, sharp-eyed, saw Zhou Liping. He strode forward, his face contorted with rage, pointing at Zhou Liping’s nose and yelling, “What the hell are you doing here? Get out—”

Before he could finish the word “get out,” a loud crash was heard! Bang!

Zhai Qing’s skull exploded! Brain matter and blood splattered, creating a splattering mess of red and white, and fragments of his skull crackled and popped on the ground!

Only then did people notice that Zhou Liping was holding a gun.

Zhai Qing’s body lay limp on the ground.

The echo of the gunshot lingered.

Everyone in the mourning hall stood frozen, as if dead.

Until Tao Zhouyao let out a piercing scream, people seemed to snap out of their daze and rushed towards the door, screaming!

Zhou Liping ignored Director Li, Old Liao, Old Dou, and the others, letting them scatter and flee, and continued walking straight ahead. Seeing the situation was bad, Cui Wentao turned to run, but just as he turned around, Zhou Liping raised his hand and fired two shots, hitting him squarely in the back. He was struck as if by a boulder, fell to the ground, struggled a couple of times, and then lay still.

Tao Zhouyao abandoned her father and ran into the mourning hall, knocking over a cluster of wreaths, tripping over them, and crawling forward on all fours.

Tao Bing stared in terror at Zhou Liping approaching, his stubble trembling, his lips shaking as if pleading but unable to utter a sound. His knees buckled, as if he were about to kneel before Zhou Liping.

Zhou Liping, without mercy, fired a single shot!

The bullet pierced Tao Bing’s throat. He clutched his bleeding throat, let out two gurgling cries, and collapsed to the ground, dead.

Just then, something unexpected happened!

Xing Yunda suddenly pulled a gleaming dagger from his waist, yelled “Ahhh!” and lunged forward, stabbing Zhou Liping. Caught off guard, Zhou Liping had no time to dodge and watched helplessly as the dagger plunged into his abdomen with a “thud!”

The intense pain made him cry out.

Xing Yunda’s hand was still gripping the hilt of the knife, his bloodshot eyes staring into Zhou Liping’s eyes.

Zhou Liping raised his gun, pointing it at Xing Yunda.

Only then did fear appear on Xing Yunda’s face.

However, Zhou Liping didn’t fire; he simply shoved Xing Yunda’s shoulder and muttered, “Get out of my way!”

Xing Yunda couldn’t withstand the shove and stumbled backward, pulling his tightly clenched knife out with a sudden jerk. Blood gushed from Zhou Liping’s abdomen, leaving a red trail on the ground.

Zhou Liping groaned, bent over, his gun grip on his knee, his other hand clutching his still bleeding wound, panting heavily, large beads of sweat forming on his forehead.

Xing Yunda collapsed to the ground with a thud, bursting into tears, crying like a child, “Brother Zhou! Brother Zhou!”

Taking advantage of this moment, Xing Qixian passed his nephew and ran towards the entrance of the mourning hall. He ran incredibly fast, only three steps away from the door; if he could get out of there, he would escape!

Unfortunately, he was short those three steps.

Zhou Liping raised his head, staring at Xing Qixian’s back, straightened his body with all his might, gritted his teeth, and raised his pistol. The excruciating pain in his abdomen made his arm tremble so badly he couldn’t aim. So he released the bloodstained hand that had been covering his wound, gripped the wrist holding the gun tightly, and aimed at Xing Qixian’s back—

“Bang!”

The whistling bullet pierced a bloody hole in the back of Xing Qixian’s head. He staggered forward, grabbing a white cloth splattered with blood hanging at the entrance of the mourning hall. The immense force ripped the cloth down, covering him…

Zhou Liping slowly sat down on the ground.

It wasn’t until they had run quite a distance that Huyan Yun and Li Ziyong managed to hail a taxi at an intersection. Once inside the car, Huyan Yun tried to speak, but he was panting heavily and unable to get a coherent sentence out. After a long pause, he finally recounted his meeting with Zhou Liping at Sweeping Mouse Ridge the previous night. Li Ziyong listened, stunned: “So, he killed Xing Qisheng and Zhang Chunyang?”

“Yes!” Huyan Yun said, “And this isn’t over yet!”

“Not over? What do you mean?”

“I’ve found answers to most of the mysteries in this case, but there are two things I still don’t understand,” said Huyan Yun. “First, on the day of the incident, under such tight time constraints, why did Zhou Liping drive away in that Spire? There was no evidence against him on it. Even if his fingerprints were found, he was the driver of that car, which makes perfect sense. Why go through all that trouble? Second, he was detained for so long and never mentioned moving Zhang Chunyang’s body. Why did he confess immediately after Tao Zhouyao returned to China for trial? This was a bombshell; Zhou Liping must have meticulously planned it, setting a timer! So what was his purpose in choosing that time to detonate it? I asked Zhou Liping, but he wouldn’t answer. Only just now did I understand!”

“What have you finally figured out?” Li Ziyong was still completely bewildered. “The more I listen, the more confused I get.”

“Zhou Liping’s entire scheme, in short, was to give us a false answer before revealing the real mystery. Who’s the real culprit in the Sweeping Mouse Ridge Case? That’s the mystery. Zhou Liping had already figured it out before committing the crime. That night, he drove all the way from Tongyou Nursery to Sweeping Mouse Ridge, and it was impossible for him to escape the surveillance system. He would definitely be arrested, so he simply surrendered.

“During the interrogation, he fabricated absurd lies, such as running to Xingyu Road, making the police believe that he was the ‘answer.’ Then he gradually revealed the truth, confusing the police. His presence shook the police’s resolve, causing them to gradually doubt themselves as the investigation expanded, until he produced an alibi of moving Zhang Chunyang’s body, completely overturning the original mystery and allowing him to escape punishment.

“But—” Huyan Yun suddenly emphasized, saying each word carefully, “But the most terrifying thing is—just like the question Xiangming gave you. Zhou Liping set up two false answers in this case, and he used the first false answer to cover up the second!”

“Two false answers?!” Li Ziyong exclaimed in astonishment, “Then… what’s the second false answer?”

“The second false mystery is that he made everyone who doubted him—including myself—think that his alibi was simply to escape punishment!” Huyan Yun said, waving his hand vigorously. “That’s not true at all! In fact, everything he did was for a far more terrible purpose! Once we understand the two unresolved mysteries I just mentioned, the truth will come to light. First, why did he go to such lengths and risks to hide that Spire on the night of the incident? Because if he did not, leaving the car where it was, even with the license plate removed, the police could still quickly identify the vehicle’s owner or organization through other markings inside the car—such as the engine number.

“In other words, the police could pinpoint him in less than three hours, dragging him out of bed. This wouldn’t do, absolutely not! Because Zhou Liping needed more time; there were still some things he had to do until the next morning. For example, under the cover of darkness, he could go to the newly opened Mingshan Funeral Home, pretend to be a mourner, and hide a murder weapon in a locker or similar place where the police couldn’t find it but he could easily retrieve it when needed.

“Secondly, why did Zhou Liping choose to reveal that bombshell after Tao Zhouyao returned to China? Because he knew that by confessing to moving Zhang Chunyang’s body into the freezer, he would further prove Tao Zhouyao’s innocence, leading to her immediate release, and he himself could be released quickly as well. This was how he could ‘catch’ that crucial timing!”

“Timing?” Li Ziyong still didn’t understand. “Which timing?”

“As soon as Tao Zhouyao is released, there’s an essential event for her to begin—no matter how much infighting there is within the Love Charity Foundation, a compromise will eventually be reached quickly. This compromise often requires the leaders of both sides to attend a public ceremony together to demonstrate it, thus avoiding external suspicion. The most suitable event is Xing Qisheng’s funeral.” Huyan Yun let out a long sigh and said, “Do you remember the phrase Xing Qisheng loved to say more than once during our investigation?”

“You mean—’Besides weddings and funerals, there’s very little else that can bring us all together’?” Li Ziyong looked at Huyan Yun.

Huyan Yun nodded: “I believe that sentence must have inspired Zhou Liping. His killing of Xing Qisheng on Sweeping Mouse Ridge wasn’t just a momentary outburst of righteous indignation; it was a ploy to lure a whole bunch of corpses with one.”

“My God! My God…” Li Ziyong murmured to himself.

When they rushed into the funeral home’s main hall, they were stunned by the scene before them:

At the entrance, a blood-stained white drape covered Xing Qixian’s body; Zhai Qing, his head severed in half, lay on the ground, the remaining half of his face a bloody mess, unrecognizable; not far from him, Cui Wentao lay face down, blood pooling beneath him like tar; Tao Bing lay face up, clutching his throat, eyes wide open, as if strangling himself; Tao Zhouyao crouched in a corner of the hall, clutching her head and screaming incessantly, her mind broken, her eyes gleaming with a terrifying light; and Xing Yunda knelt not far from Zhou Liping, crying and calling out, “Brother Zhou! Brother Zhou!” A blood-soaked, sharp knife rolled to his feet.

Zhou Liping sat on the ground, leaning against the wall strewn with countless fallen white wreaths, his mouth opening and closing as he gasped for breath. One hand clutched his abdomen, blood gushing from between his fingers like a stream. The other hand gripped the Type 92 police pistol that Li Ziyong had been searching for for many years. Seeing Li Ziyong approach, he opened his mouth wide, as if he wanted to say something.

Li Ziyong walked blankly to him and squatted down.

Zhou Liping slowly straightened up. Perhaps because he was bleeding so much, the movement was difficult, and although it touched the wound in his abdomen, no pain was visible on his pale face.

Li Ziyong reached out and supported him. He pressed his lips to Li Ziyong’s ear, took a few deep breaths, and whispered, “They…they are the bad guys.”

Then his heavy head slumped onto Li Ziyong’s shoulder.

“I know, brother, I know…” Li Ziyong said, repeating again, afraid Zhou Liping hadn’t heard him, “I know, brother, I know…”

When the police, who had been lying in wait outside, preparing to apprehend Tao Bing, Xing Qixian, and others after the funeral service, stormed into the funeral home, they saw Li Ziyong, his face streaked with tears, tightly embracing the already cold body of Zhou Liping, still repeatedly saying:

“I know, brother, I know.”