Sweeping Mouse Ridge – Prologue : 6

Lin Xiangming walked outside the noisy barbecue restaurant and made several phone calls, asking the Special Task Force team to immediately contact the headquarters of Dangdang.com and Amazon.cn to retrieve the order and subscriber name for the Japanese mystery manga purchased online… After everything was arranged, he turned around and saw Hu Yanyun helping Li Ziyong out.

Having just heard Hu Yanyun’s reasoning, Li Ziyong sensed that the real culprit was about to be caught. Instead of rushing to the front line to capture the culprit with high spirits, he felt weak all over and fell into a state of paralysis, drinking one glass after another, and later simply chugging from the bottle. While Lin Xiangming was out making phone calls, he emptied five bottles of liquor. Hu Yanyun could see that he was in pain and didn’t stop him, but he also got drunk. His eyes were glazed over, and he stumbled as he walked. As soon as he stepped out of the restaurant, he squatted by the roadside and started vomiting violently. Lin Xiangming quickly went over and patted him on the back, then asked the waiter at the door to fetch a cup of hot water.

“I don’t know why he drank like this…” Hu Yanyun muttered, afraid Lin Xiangming would blame him.

“His partner was killed,” Lin Xiangming said softly, “during the investigation of this case.”

Li Ziyong had vomited most of it and sat down heavily on the ground. Lin Xiangming wiped his mouth with a tissue and brought him the hot water. He took the cup, his hands trembling, and spilled some before he even brought it to his lips. Lin Xiangming reached out and held the cup for him, essentially feeding him.

After drinking the hot water, Li Ziyong slumped down, his arms propped on the ground, silent for a long, long time, then began to mutter something. Lin Xiangming couldn’t hear him clearly; only when he leaned closer could he make out that he was saying, “At least she didn’t die in vain, at least she didn’t die in vain…”

Lin Xiangming felt the ground was too cold and worried that he would get sick from sitting for too long, so he tried to help him up. But the man not only refused to move but also shoved Lin Xiangming a few times. Hu Yanyun hailed a taxi that stopped right in front of Li Ziyong. Without a word, Lin Xiangming grabbed him and pulled him into the back seat, then sat down next to him.

Hu Yanyun sat in the front passenger seat and asked Li Ziyong where he lived. Li Ziyong mumbled a place name, and the driver glanced back and said, “Don’t throw up in my car!” Lin Xiangming immediately said, “Drive!” His stern tone startled the driver, who quickly started the car. The world fell silent.

Looking out the moving car window, the city sky resembled a slowly flowing black river. The chill of late autumn was causing this river to gradually solidify and freeze. The branches, power lines, and streetlights trembling in the wind, like abandoned children, kept passing by, frozen in the center of the river, lost and helpless, with no tomorrow.

Perhaps fearing the silence in the car, the taxi driver turned on the stereo. An old song began to play softly; it was Kenny Bee singing in a hoarse voice:

“In the wind, in the wind, a cold wind blows through my heart, scattering my dreams.

The event hasn’t passed, yet it’s already gone.

At this moment, there are all sorts of heartaches…”

In the distance, a light in a residential building suddenly went out, like a sleepless eye, appearing lonely, sorrowful, and melancholic. Just then, Li Ziyong, huddled in the corner of the back seat, suddenly started muttering. At first, it was impossible to understand what he was saying, but gradually it became clear it was a long string of ramblings: “Tired, tired, I wanted to grab him myself, but I’m too tired… Busy as a bee, I don’t know what I’m doing it all for… I washed my face, shaved my head, shaved my beard, I’m all tidied up, I won’t embarrass you…” He even sang along with a song playing from the speakers: “So much emptiness, so cold, so cold, the wind blows, the dream in the wind…”

Throughout the entire ordeal, Huyan Yun didn’t turn around, and Lin Xiangming didn’t say a word.

Li Ziyong’s home was in an old building from the 1960s. His father had died early, leaving only his mother, a woman in her fifties with graying hair. Seeing Lin Xiangming and Hu Yanyun bring their drunken son home, she thanked them profusely, first settling Li Ziyong in bed, then closing the door to his room and going to the kitchen to pour them two glasses of water. Hu Yanyun said he wasn’t thirsty, but Lin Xiangming took the glass, drinking while looking at the several framed photos on the cabinet. The small living room was dimly lit. After a long while, he suddenly pointed to one of the frames and asked, “Was Uncle ever a policeman?”

The photo in the frame showed a burly man in an olive green Type 83 police uniform holding a chubby boy wearing a red scarf, both of them beaming with joy.

“Yes, both father and son were destined to be policemen,” the old lady sighed. “The old man is always worrying, and the young man is always causing trouble.”

“How did Uncle pass away?” Lin Xiangming asked bluntly.

“During the 1996 crackdown, the entire city’s police force was mobilized. We worked for over three months, and just as we finished, several more child abduction cases occurred in the western suburbs. His father should have been on leave, but he’s such a stubborn guy. If I tried to reason with him, he’d get angry at me, glaring at me and telling me to mind my own business, as if I were the one he was trying to catch. He investigated day and night, without food or water. Finally, he caught the criminal, but during the interrogation, he got so worked up that he had a heart attack and was delayed in getting to the hospital… It’s all fate.” The old lady sighed again. “Every time Ziyong goes out, I’m on edge. When he comes home at night, I have all sorts of wild thoughts. Thank goodness you brought him back tonight, otherwise I—”

Before she could finish, Lin Xiangming’s phone rang. He picked it up, and his expression turned serious. Before he could even hang up and speak, the old lady said, “There’s a case now, isn’t there? Go on with your work, and be careful.”

Lin Xiangming bid her farewell and walked out the door with Hu Yanyun.

Stepping out of the building, Lin Xiangming said to Hu Yanyun, “You go back to the school first; I have to keep busy.”

“Caught the criminal?” Hu Yanyun asked, somewhat surprised. “So fast?”

Lin Xiangming shook his head. “No, that serial killer struck again.”

Hu Yanyun volunteered, “Should I go with you?”

“That sounds like something out of a detective novel, especially a foreign one.” Lin Xiangming chuckled, then suddenly remembered something and added, “Don’t go too far with your magazine at first; don’t overcomplicate things…”

“Alright, alright, you’re more nagging than my mother!” Hu Yanyun pushed his shoulder forward. “You deal with the bandits in the mountains; I’ll deal with the bandits in my heart. I’ve left the easy stuff to you; why are you still nagging!”