Chapter 43

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Present\nZhou Luoyang motioned for Du Jing to give him his hand. When he saw the bruise on the back of Du Jing’s right hand, he suddenly had a flash of insight. \n

Zhou Luoyang had gradually developed the habit of trying to figure out Du Jing by using his own logic. Often, when mania and depression mixed and manifested, their behaviors were incomprehensible to outsiders, to whom they would only seem frightening.\n

But no matter what they did, they were driven by an innate, subconscious motive—such as Du Jing smashing his own hand in a frenzy. \n

Perhaps even Du Jing himself didn’t know the reasons for his own behavior, but Zhou Luoyang immediately grasped the crux of it—why had Du Jing used his left hand to smash the back of his right hand with the stapler? Why not any other part of his body?\n

Because it was the back of Du Jing’s hand that Sun Xiangchen had grabbed as he drove. In a moment when Du Jing struggled to find relief, he “severed” that connection—an act of self-preservation—through the action of violently smashing the back of his hand.\n

When Zhou Luoyang came to this realization, he said, “Left hand.” \n

Du Jing didn’t react, confused.\n

Zhou Luoyang tugged a rubber band onto Du Jing’s wrist.\n

Du Jing understood now. “It won’t help much. I’ve tried before.”\n

It was a mechanism of self-punishment, a reprimand of one’s emotions. When one’s emotions ran out of control, one would snap the rubber band against a hand, and the mild sting of it would briefly bring one out of that mental space.\n

Zhou Luoyang had come across this tip on an online forum. Frankly, he didn’t think it would be of much help, either. But what he wanted was not to punish Du Jing or for Du Jing to punish himself.\n

“You aren’t allowed to use it yourself,” Zhou Luoyang said. “Only I can.”\n

Zhou Luoyang pulled the rubber band back. With a quiet crack, it hit Du Jing’s wrist.\n

“Alright.” Du Jing sipped his tea, gazing distractedly out of the coffee shop. The rain had abated, yet the wind raged as strong as ever.\n

The trees lining West Lake bowed in the gale. The tall glass floor-to-ceiling windows blocked out the shrieking wind so that it was like a silent movie outside. \n

“What song is that?” Du Jing asked suddenly. \n

“July winds, August rain…” Zhou Luoyang pulled Du Jing’s phone out of his pocket and downloaded the song for him. “Are we running back?”\n

“Let’s finish eating, then take a cab back,” Du Jing said. “Careful you don’t catch a cold.”\n

It came as no surprise that when they got back to their dorm room later that day and Zhou Luoyang took a shower, he discovered that he had a cold.\n

He hadn’t been seriously ill in years, and this time, it hit him with a vengeance. By midnight, he was running a fever that burned through his whole body. Du Jing quickly found a thermometer.\n

“Forty-one degrees,” Zhou Luoyang rasped feebly. “That must be a new record. Sick.”\n

Du Jing: “………………”\n

“You need to get to the hospital immediately,” he said.\n

“Don’t worry about me! I’ll just take an ibuprofen and take a nap–”\n

“Go to the hospital!” Du Jing barked.\n

“Alright, alright…” Zhou Luoyang hauled himself upright. “You’re so mean to the sickly. Do you even have a conscience…” \n

Du Jing didn’t go to the school clinic. He scooped Zhou Luoyang into his arms, carried him down the stairs and into his car, and buckled his seatbelt for him. His face drawn with concern, he hit the gas and they sped away. \n

As he turned the steering wheel, Zhou Luoyang reached for his wrist and snapped the rubber band against it.\n

Du Jing settled instantly. The air of danger that radiated from him dissipated, not unlike a lion’s mane smoothing down.\n

“Slow down,” Zhou Luoyang instructed weakly, eyes closed. “Wouldn’t want to drive into a tree.”\n

Zhou Luoyang was hooked up to an IV all of that night. Du Jing sat in a quiet daze at his bedside.\n

The only sound in the hospital room was of the rubber band. Zhou Luoyang was bored out of his mind. He couldn’t fall asleep, and Du Jing wouldn’t let him use his phone, so he had to entertain himself by snapping that rubber band against Du Jing’s wrist.\n

“Hurts,” said Du Jing.\n

Zhou Luoyang stared up at the ceiling. “Oh,” he said absently. But he didn’t stop, only pulled less forcefully. \n

Eventually he fell asleep. Eyes red-rimmed, Du Jing looked down and rubbed the red spot on his wrist.\n

<hr class="wp-block-separator">\nYears later, the watch Zhou Luoyang gave him now sat where the rubber band used to. \n

The plane hummed. Du Jing was still fast asleep. Zhou Luoyang jerked himself out of his memories and went to the bathroom to wash his face. When he came back out, he saw that Huang Ting had finished watching his movie and was staring out the window.\n

A bright moon was just starting its climb up the sky, lighting up the sea of clouds. Silver glimmered. The plane was an hour away from landing. \n

When Huang Ting spotted Zhou Luoyang walking back, he pointed frantically at the empty seat next to himself. \n

Zhou Luoyang cocked his head.\n

He regarded Du Jing, who sat next to him under a blanket, then looked at Huang Ting. He sat down next to Huang Ting.\n

“What?”\n

“Do you know Lin Di?” Huang Ting asked furtively. “That lovely consultant.”\n

“We aren’t close,” Zhou Luoyang replied. “What do you want to ask?”\n

Huang Ting was silent for a moment, thinking. “Is she married?”\n

“We. Aren’t. Close,” Zhou Luoyang repeated. And then a question came to mind: “Are you interested in her?”\n

Huang Ting’s expression was odd. “Maybe, maybe not. I was just asking.”\n

Zhou Luoyang didn’t know Huang Ting very well; they’d hardly spoken since they met. All Zhou Luoyang could say was: “I wish I could help, but I don’t think I can.”\n

“I wasn’t trying to ask you for help,” Huang Ting said stiltedly.\n

Zhou Luoyang recalled the conversation between Huang Ting and Lin Di that had occurred within a certain twenty-four hour period. Curious, he asked, “You aren’t married yet?”\n

“Married? I don’t even have a girlfriend.”\n

“That doesn’t seem right,” Zhou Luoyang said, giving him an evaluating look. “As a member of the Physical Appearance Association, I say you don’t look at all like someone who can’t find a girlfriend.”\n

Huang Ting smiled helplessly. “I hadn’t put much thought into relationships in the past. But then I got really sick, and my priorities changed.”\n

“I can invite her out when we get back to Wan City,” Zhou Luoyang offered.\n

He had seen Lin Di’s WeChat before, and it didn’t seem like she had a boyfriend. She often traveled all over the world, and her pictures were never taken by someone else.\n

“That would be fantastic,” Huang Ting said sincerely. “You have my heartfelt thanks.”\n

“That’s on the condition that you don’t have ulterior motives,” Zhou Luoyang warned.\n

“Of course not,” Huang Ting quickly assured him.  “I…will be honest. Boss Zhou.”\n

“You can just call me Luoyang,” Zhou Luoyang said easily.\n

“Do you believe in love at first sight?” Huang Ting asked earnestly.\n

Zhou Luoyang: “……”\n

Zhou Luoyang turned and looked at Du Jing. He was awake. In fact, Du Jing had woken up the moment Zhou Luoyang had left his seat. He was listening to the plane’s music with his sleep mask still on, and he hadn’t gone looking for Zhou Luoyang. He seemed to be lost in thought. \n

“I do,” Zhou Luoyang told Huang Ting. “Love at first sight is the only form of love.” \n

Huang Ting would never have thought that Zhou Luoyang’s answer to his question would be so frank.\n

“Oh?” Huang Ting chuckled. “I’ve asked this question many times, but you’re the first to say so.”\n

“Well, everyone’s got their own opinion on love. It varies from person to person. How does Lin Di feel about you?” \n

“She doesn’t hate me,” Huang Ting said. He paused, thinking, and scratched his thick hair. “But I don’t know if she likes me. I think I like girls after all.”\n

What?\n

Zhou Luoyang wasn’t sure why he’d suddenly brought up sexuality. But Huang Ting continued on, as if talking to himself. “I admit, it’s nice, the romance that my brothers have together. But you two…”\n

“Hold up,” Zhou Luoyang interrupted. “We aren’t together like that.” \n

“I know.”\n

They understood each other then. Huang Ting knew that Zhou Luoyang had no reason to deny anything: if he said they weren’t together, that was the simple truth.\n

“I can tell. I am a police officer, after all. You don’t seem like a couple.”\n

Zhou Luoyang hummed in agreement, lost in thought. Huang Ting added, “You two are friends who are even closer than lovers.”\n

This time, it was Zhou Luoyang who was surprised.\n

“I’ve got a friend like you,” Huang Ting said, smiling. “An academic.”\n

“Does he like you?” Zhou Luoyang asked suddenly.\n

“No,” Huang Ting answered. “Nor do I like him. But that doesn’t change our feelings about each other. Sometimes, it really is hard to tell…We have a complicated history. It has to do with the case I took on.” \n

Zhou Luoyang’s interest was piqued. Was there a man in Huang Ting’s life that shared with him the sort of relationship Zhou Luoyang had with Du Jing? \n

“If you take the wrong path, he’ll follow right behind you,” Huang Ting murmured absently, “and bring you home. If he takes the wrong path, then no matter how rocky the road ahead, I’ll find him. Aside from sex, we would do anything for each other.”\n

“Is he married?”\n

“No.” Huang Ting came back to himself. “But I have a feeling he’ll start dating soon. We’ve known each other for about ten years, though we spent a while apart…”\n

“Du Jing and I were apart for a while, too.” \n

Huang Ting hummed solemnly. “When you meet again, you understand: he’s still him.”\n

“Yes.” Zhou Luoyang didn’t really care if Huang Ting liked Lin Di. Rather, he found he now harbored an unexpected interest in Huang Ting’s “friend.”\n

“How did you know that it wasn’t love that you felt for each other?” he asked. \n

Huang Ting thought for a minute. “I couldn’t say, but I remember we did have a talk about sexuality…He’s flawless, a real bookworm, and he thinks things through. He’s exceptional. At the time, he’d returned to China and dated for a while. I jokingly asked him if we should just get together. He said to me, ‘We don’t need to be lovers. Isn’t what we have now even better?’” \n

Zhou Luoyang suddenly became aware of a key point that Huang Ting had not mentioned.\n

“He likes men,” Zhou Luoyang said.\n

“I’m not the one who said it. I never would have thought I’d be someone’s relationship guru one day,” Huang Ting said, deadpan.\n

Of course Huang Ting knew that Zhou Luoyang must have his own worries—why else would he be so curious about his affairs? He sought to understand himself through comparison.\n

“What happens after? Sorry if I’m being nosy; I’m not trying to get at anything. I just…You don’t have to tell me who he is.”\n

“Let nature take its course,” Huang Ting said. “Another brother of mine, the one who likes men, told me that regardless of what feelings develop, we can just do what we want to do and not force ourselves to do things we don’t want. Of course, forcing something isn’t an option. And when you understand what love is, you pursue it, whether it’s with him or someone else.”\n

“But wouldn’t it seem unfair? If he’s dependent on you, but you fall for someone else…”\n

Huang Ting watched Zhou Luoyang silently.\n

Zhou Luoyang got it almost instantaneously. “If such a feeling does arise, then what you feel for each other really is love, only it’s too well hidden.”\n

“Yes,” Huang Ting agreed. “Last night when I told him I met a girl, he understood immediately and said, ‘Congrats, brother.’ So I decided I’d give it my best shot, only girls…er…they’re a whole different world to me…a whole different species. I often…have no idea what they’re thinking.”\n

In that moment, shrouded in Huang Ting’s words, Zhou Luoyang suddenly lost interest.\n

“You’re right,” Huang Ting said. “Love at first sight is the only form of love. It’s just too well hidden sometimes, and it takes time for you to recognize what you’re feeling.”\n

The plane began its descent. Zhou Luoyang let the conversation peter out and returned to his own seat.\n

Du Jing put his seat back up and pulled off his sleep mask. His scar was especially striking under the overhead lights.\n

“From now on,” Du Jing said to Zhou Luoyang, “you be my assistant. You’re an intern. We’ll swap identities. You won’t have to act anymore.”\n

Zhou Luoyang regarded Du Jing dubiously. “Are you sure? Your grasp of Cambodian history…”\n

Du Jing put out his hand. Zhou Luoyang thought for a moment, then clapped his hand, tacitly accepting his proposal without a wasted breath.\n

They passed through customs, and as they left the airport, bid Huang Ting goodbye.\n

Huang Ting had his own duty: to investigate the trafficking route of the antiques in the money laundering case. Once the three of them settled on a mode of communication, Huang Ting flagged down a cab and made for the Interpol office in Ho Chi Minh City.\n

<hr class="wp-block-separator">\n“So you can order me to do anything?” Zhou Luoyang asked. “What’s my salary, boss?”\n

Du Jing leaned in close to Zhou Luoyang’s ear, murmuring, “That depends on your performance, and how far you’re willing to go to fulfill your duties.”\n

Zhou Luoyang: “……”\n

Du Jing slipped on his sunglasses. Lugging their suitcases behind him, Zhou Luoyang flagged down a cab. Their first order of business was finding lodging.\n

It was overcast and raining in Ho Chi Minh City; now was the end of the rainy season. Du Jing’s company had booked a stay for them at a guesthouse in the outskirts of the city, a twenty minute drive from downtown. It was a two-bedroom suite, and food was provided by the locals. It was perched halfway up a mountain. On the other side of their floor-to-ceiling windows was a swimming pool, and when they drew the curtains, they could see farmlands sprawling out beyond.\n

Zhuang Li had arrived a day earlier and had already hooked up to the guesthouse’s wifi and disabled all surveillance. \n

Du Jing told Zhou Luoyang, “Take it easy. You won’t have to be present most of the time, so think of this as a vacation.”\n

“Yes, boss. Sure thing, boss.” Zhou Luoyang felt a weight lift off his shoulders. He gazed at the faraway hills wrapped in hazy fog. The guesthouse had prepared curried crab, rice, and grilled chicken skewers.\n

The glass dining table was covered in files, as well as maps of the missing persons’ routes.\n

“Xiao Wu, the internet celebrity, remains our most traceable missing person, with the clearest motivations,” Zhuang Li said. “I found an account of his on a travel website. His username is his email. Before he disappeared, he posted that he’d visited Mariamman Temple¹.\n

“He disappeared at this temple,” Zhuang Li concluded. “Either that, or shortly after he left it. Ho Chi Minh City doesn’t have too many tourist attractions, and they’re all relatively close to each other, so he wouldn’t have stayed at Mariamman Temple for too long…before leaving for his next destination. But he didn’t indicate that he’d visited any of the other destinations, which means this is where he most likely went missing.”\n

Zhuang Li watched Du Jing expectantly, hoping for his boss’s praise. But Du Jing was too lazy to give it to him. \n

“So your plan is to search Mariamman Temple?” Du Jing asked.\n

“They would have had to find a quiet spot in the temple, knock him…unconscious, then take him away? But where? I just don’t think that’s very likely. The temple is full of tourists, after all,” Zhou Luoyang pointed out.\n

“If someone were traveling with him, they could’ve tricked the victim. For instance…they could have bought a bottle of water, spiked it with an anesthetic, and fed it to him. Then they could have brought him somewhere deserted, waited for him to pass out, and taken him away with no one the wiser,” Zhuang Li said.\n

“And carry a body out of the temple?” Du Jing asked. “The place is crawling with tourists, Zhuang Li. Can’t you use your brain?”\n

Zhuang Li stammered, “Uh…I think, maybe there could be…like a hidden door or hidden passageway? They could have knocked him unconscious and taken him through to a back door? And transported him away?”\n

Du Jing looked a second away from exploding. Zhou Luoyang, on the other hand, found Zhuang Li’s idea quite reasonable. If he were in Zhuang Li’s shoes, he would’ve thought the same thing. Of course, the entire conjecture rested on the premise that the temple was indeed the site of Xiao Wu’s disappearance.\n

Zhou Luoyang looked at Du Jing, then at Zhuang Li. “What’s wrong? I think that makes perfect sense.”\n

Zhuang Li was baffled.\n

With Zhou Luoyang having butted in, Du Jing could no longer scold Zhuang Li. He resigned himself to patiently saying to Zhou Luoyang, “How does it make any sense? You think that makes sense? Bribing a monk, making a scene of abducting a foreigner—how much do you think that would cost?! How likely do you think they could keep it under wraps?!”\n

“A…h.” Zhuang Li now saw that his idea did not make perfect sense. “But what if the monks of the temple were involved with the organization—say, if they accepted donations from them? They might turn a blind eye then. Or…”\n

“Yes,” Zhou Luoyang chimed in. “That’s very likely! What if they’re working together?”\n

Du Jing was close to giving up all hope. It was fine if Zhou Luoyang didn’t understand, but Zhuang Li worked for him.\n

“Why would they overcomplicate such a simple task?!” Du Jing finally exhausted the last of his patience and exploded at Zhuang Li. “How would they transport him after abducting him?! Tell me!”\n

Zhuang Li was afraid of Du Jing. He answered evasively, “Just take him away?”\n

“By lugging him in a sack?!” Du Jing cried. “They used a car!”\n

“Yes!” Zhuang Li hastily agreed. “They drove him away, Jing-ge.”\n

“It’s as simple as bribing an unregistered cabbie! Why are you making it so complicated? You even thought up a secret passageway in the temple?! Are you crazy?”\n

Zhuang Li and Zhou Luoyang seemed to suddenly wake up from a dream. “Yes! Yes!” they chorused.\n

The room went quiet. A solid minute later:\n

“They have to have at least one transfer point,” Du Jing reasoned, “if not multiple.”\n

“That’s right!” Zhuang Li said. “First, they bring victims to tourist destinations. Then, when they’re done sightseeing, they take them into a cab, where they can knock them out and transport them.”\n

Unregistered cabs—especially vans—often milled about tourist attractions, soliciting passengers. People often carpooled, and a single male traveler would not be wary of consuming food or water. After boarding a cab, he would lose consciousness, and then be driven away and passed off at the transfer point to the next group of people.\n

Zhou Luoyang had questions at first: why wouldn’t he simply be taken straight from the airport, or the day after arriving at his hotel? But he soon answered his own questions. Most vehicles at the airport were registered. Furthermore, travelers would certainly have sorted out their lodging for their first night in Ho Chi Minh. If they didn’t check in, it would be akin to leaving behind a trail to aid in tracking them. \n

Unregistered vehicles parked outside of hotels were also likely to be captured on camera and garner suspicion from their victims. All things considered, it was indeed most reasonable and efficient to strike on the victims’ second day in Ho Chi Minh, outside of their first tourist destination. Xiao Wu and his kidnapper would have stayed in a hotel on their first day. The next morning, they would have left their luggage at the front desk while they went out. There, Xiao Wu would have been rendered unconscious and driven away, while his kidnapper collected their luggage with their stub.\n

The victims most likely would not have made very detailed plans for their second stop. Even if they did, they wouldn’t have told their friends about it.\n

In fact, it would be quite difficult to track them down.\n

“Where are the things I asked you to bring?” Du Jing asked.\n

“Don’t worry, Jing-ge,” Zhuang Li said, “I have it all here.”\n

Zhuang Li opened a tiny black box. “Thanks to brother-in-law’s invitation letter, everything we brought got through customs without incident. We just said they were for archeology research.”\n

“What is this?” Zhou Luoyang ate his lunch, looking curiously at the contents of the box. It was full of round stickers.\n

That afternoon, they walked around Mariamman Temple, which was a Hindu temple. As they left, Zhuang Li found the opportunity to slap a sticker on every unregistered cab nearby. \n

When they got back to the guesthouse, Zhuang Li turned on his computer. The routes of seventeen vans each appeared on a large map on the screen. Du Jing began to study them. The unregistered vehicles snaked back and forth between Ho Chi Minh’s hotels, large and small, and its major tourist attractions, creating a large, glowing web that extended in all directions.\n

Each location they stopped at was marked—always a guesthouse, restaurant, hotel, or tourist attraction. The unregistered cabs flitted between these locations after work hours and kept at it until past ten, which was when they finally returned to their homes.\n

Zhuang Li had managed to tag every single van soliciting passengers at popular tourist attractions.\n

“Let’s go out.” Du Jing took off his sunglasses and glanced at Zhou Luoyang. “Rome wasn’t built in a day. Just as there’s time for work, there’s time for rest. I’ll take you around the city.”\n

<hr class="wp-block-separator">\nFootnotes:\n

<ol>For more info on Mariamman Temple, see: http://www.vietnam-guide.com/ho-chi-minh-city/mariamman-hindu-temple.htm [Back]</ol>\n<hr class="wp-block-separator">\nTranslated by beansprout. Edited by opal.\n

<hr class="wp-block-separator">\nnote from the translator: happy new year and thanks as always for your patience! i hope your 2022 is filled with love and joy!\n

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