Wutong - Autumn in the Falling Leaves

Something must have clicked for Yuan Hang. He suddenly grabbed the folder at hand, pulled out an A4 sheet of paper from inside, and showed it to Zhuang Mingqi: "The girl you mentioned, 'Chen Xiaodie,' is this her?"

Shen Zhengning glanced at it and vaguely felt that the woman in the picture looked familiar, but Zhuang Mingqi nodded affirmatively: "It's her."

"Since Chen Xiaodie participated in Ye Tongsheng's plan, logically she should also be one of Zou Jinliang's 'revenge targets.'" Yuan Hang muttered with a frown, "That's strange... This Chen Xiaodie is the witness who borrowed Ye Tongsheng's umbrella and left the park with him on the night he was murdered. Since Zou Jinliang was tailing Ye Tongsheng, it's impossible he didn't see her. Why did he let Chen Xiaodie go?"

"Cough, cough."

Shen Zhengning cleared his throat pretentiously and gestured with his hand to Yuan Hang under the table, brazenly hinting for some reference material. Yuan Hang let out a cough as if he were choking on dog hair and frantically signaled with his eyes diagonally upwards, indicating that such small movements were completely visible to the camera and he shouldn't test their superior's patience.

Dai Lin, annoyed by the successive "coughs" to the point of almost getting laryngitis, finally couldn't bear it and coughed twice into his headset: "Stop your call-and-response singing here. Can you get down to business!"

Yuan Hang hissed softly and tilted his head, stealthily passing the folder to Shen Zhengning under the table as if passing a note in class. He then said casually, just to make conversation, "I think we should also have someone look into that Meng Meng. You know, she's now..."

"There's no need."

Zhuang Mingqi interrupted him almost mercilessly, his tone so cold that even Shen Zhengning raised an eyebrow. Yuan Hang, however, didn't take offense, merely asking in confusion, "Why?"

"Meng Meng has already passed away," Zhuang Mingqi answered him softly. "Just this July. It was suicide."

"So there's no need."

It was as if an invisible bolt of lightning had descended from the sky, striking everyone. The air once again fell into a dead silence.

"I'll continue in chronological order."

In an atmosphere as heavy as poured concrete, Zhuang Mingqi's composure had a strangely terrifying counter-effect: "After the center was shut down, the children sent there for treatment were taken back by their respective parents. But some people, like Ye Tongsheng, would rather run away from home than return to that pit of fire. At that time, my family decided to arrange for me to go abroad to recuperate. Before I left, I entrusted a reliable agent to help set up a donation project to provide short-term financial assistance to victims who had left their families and had difficulty living independently."

"The actual work of this project turned out to be much more detailed than initially envisioned. My agent created support files for the victims, continuously followed up on their lives, and in addition to financial support, also helped connect them with psychological counseling services, regularly reporting the results back to me."

"But unfortunately, from the reports I received, almost everyone was left with severe trauma. Some succeeded in committing suicide, some made multiple attempts. Of the people who escaped that cage, many never made it into the sunlight."

"This August, Ye Tongsheng contacted me via email, and we arranged to meet in London. He and Meng Meng were able to live independently away from their families of origin thanks to the funding. They had maintained friendly contact with my agent, and from her, they deduced my identity. Because he was afraid of disturbing me, he had never tried to get in touch."

"It wasn't until Meng Meng passed away that he himself was hit hard and also became somewhat concerned about my condition. Otherwise, given his personality, he would not have taken the initiative to appear before me. Over these years in the country, he had more or less paid attention to the situation of his former companions. Watching people who shared the same experience pass away one by one, even the strongest heart would inevitably be shaken."

The saying goes, 'Some remain strangers even until old age, while others become fast friends at first sight.' Human relationships are just that strange and incomprehensible. There wasn't much friendship between them; at best, they were a temporary alliance forged in hell. Because they both knew that seeing the other would bring back nightmares, they cautiously maintained the distance of strangers. It wasn't until many years later, pushed to different corners of the world by the tides of life, that they saw their own reflections in their companions' fates and realized they were still locusts on the same rope.

Yuan Hang carefully observed his expression and asked, "Did Ye Tongsheng mention anything unusual or wrong about Meng Meng's suicide?"

Zhuang Mingqi shook his head. "She took her own life at home with medication. It probably has nothing to do with Zou Jinliang; it was of her own volition."

"Ye Tongsheng said the last sentence she left in her handwritten suicide note was, 'The world will not get better. The dream of Zhuangzi's Butterfly Dream is over.'"

The karmic fire burned down the cage that made her life a living hell, but it didn't burn through her nightmares. She could only tear herself apart to find that exit.

A thought seemed to flash through his mind, but the hint of strangeness was too subtle for Shen Zhengning to immediately grasp what was wrong. He looked down, flipping through Zou Jinliang's personal file. It was only three pages long. Beneath it were the photo and information of Chen Xiaodie that Yuan Hang had just clipped in. His gaze paused for a moment on the two characters for "Chen Chun."

He flipped back to Zou Jinliang's file, staring at the line in the work experience section that read 'General Manager of Xingcheng Sihang Education Technology Company.' He suddenly spoke up, "Is the computer connected to the internet? Help me look up this Xingcheng Sihang Education Technology Company."

Yuan Hang pressed his headset, turned his head, and said, "One moment." A moment later, a colleague knocked and brought in a laptop. Yuan Hang went online and searched for the company as he was told. The results were scant. The search showed that the company's business scope was educational consulting, tutoring for elementary to high school students, and vocational skills training, and its operational status was "Deregistered."

"Deregistered at the end of August this year," Shen Zhengning said, tapping the desktop lightly. "Check the legal representative's affiliated companies."

The several companies controlled by the legal representative, Zhao Shun, were all "XX Motivational Education" type companies. Their registered addresses were scattered throughout Xingcheng City, but after locating their actual business addresses on a map, they all surprisingly fell on the same location: Zhenying Vocational and Technical College in Anhe Village, Yuebei County, Xingcheng City, H Province.

Yuan Hang searched for "Xingcheng Zhenying Vocational and Technical College" again. This time, the results were finally on the right track. Although many of the original links had been blocked, there were still numerous accusatory exposés with images and text circulating online—it was a special school that, under the banner of a vocational school, specialized in taking in rebellious teenagers for the purpose of "correcting bad behavior and psychological problems."

This school had relocated several times, repeatedly changing its appearance to reopen. It had registered several different companies to enroll students, using multiple shell corporations to evade punishment. This July, due to a joint report filed by a large number of students, it attracted widespread public attention. The school was shut down after a joint inspection by local authorities. The staff and students were all dismissed, and the companies used for enrollment were also deregistered.

Reading this, Yuan Hang finally couldn't help but curse out loud.

If Zhuang Mingqi hadn't revealed the backstory, if they didn't know what kind of evil acts Zeng Yuancheng had committed, this scene would not have had such a shocking impact. The painted skin was suddenly ripped off before their eyes, and the evil demon hidden deep within was still giving them a hypocritical smile.

It was too absurd.

Zou Jinliang and Zeng Yuancheng were truly father and son, with anti-human genes carved into their bones. He actually had the nerve to call it revenge. Zhuang Mingqi almost let out an inappropriate, cold laugh—it was such a disgusting creature, such an absurd plot, such a fickle and ruthless fate... that had killed Ye Tongsheng, who had never hurt anyone.

You say to patiently endure the pain, but this pain is like a wildfire that can't be burned away, regrowing with the spring breeze. The kind are battered by wind and rain, while the wicked still run rampant outside the law. How am I supposed to persevere? What reason is there to believe this world will get better?

His gradually blurring vision was subtly blocked by the person beside him turning sideways. Shen Zhengning really had nothing at hand to comfort Zhuang Mingqi, so he placed his right hand behind his back, rested it on Zhuang Mingqi's armrest, and patted it gently.

Zhuang Mingqi's lost gaze fell dazedly on the back of his hand, and he stared blankly at his fingers.

Shen Zhengning's hands were well-defined, slender and strong, without any excess flesh, but they didn't look gaunt either. It was just that he had been on an IV drip for the past two days, and the area around the needle mark on the vein was bluish, which slightly marred its appearance.

That slightly jarring needle mark suddenly reminded Zhuang Mingqi that he was supposed to have suffered the same attack as Ye Tongsheng, to be harmed in turn by that deranged father and son. If he were lucky, he would have been bedridden for a few months; if unlucky, he might have been left with a lifelong disability. It wasn't even impossible that he might have hit the smallest probability and just died.

But Shen Zhengning had taken the knife for him, and Silver had driven away the attacker. In that instant when misfortune struck, the two of them had worked together to push him off that absurd timeline of fate—

No, perhaps it could be traced back even earlier, to a rainy roadside where he, without an umbrella, was picked up by Shen Zhengning; or even further back, to a few years ago, on a rainy London street, where he had picked up the stray, Silver.

It was from that moment on that the great detective who defied evil and the brave Samoyed surrounded him, prying open, one by one, the fingers of fate that were clamped around his throat.

"The blogger who first reposted the victims' calls for help and mobilized online public opinion to focus on the special training school incident is called 'Jin Se.' Starting from June 10th, her account was banned several times, and she moved to several other platforms. Despite suffering a great deal of harassment and threats, she persisted in speaking out for the victims, ultimately forcing the school to be disbanded and shut down." Shen Zhengning clicked on the blank profile page. "Perhaps you need to find out who this 'Jin Se' is."

"Okay, I'll look into it right away." Yuan Hang had already begun to grasp his pattern of behavior, so his attitude was positive and very cooperative. He even humbly asked, "Could you please not skip steps and explain what's going on?"

"Let's take it one by one. First, 'Jin Se,'" Shen Zhengning said. "It's from Li Shangyin's poem, ‘Zhuangzi is lost in his morning dream of a butterfly.’ I don't need to explain this much. The key is the names of the four of them: Zhuang Mingqi, Ye Tongsheng, Meng Meng, Chen Xiaodie. Taking one character from each of their names forms the phrase ‘Zhuang Sheng Meng Die’—Zhuangzi's Butterfly Dream—the same one Meng Meng mentioned in her suicide note."

Yuan Hang: "Damn, that works too..."

Shen Zhengning turned his gaze back to the silent Zhuang Mingqi. "If that blogger is indeed someone you know, the name 'Jin Se' might be a form of commemoration..."

"Commemorating the courage you once had to break the cage with your own hands, and then carrying that courage forward to charge at other cages, extending a helping hand to those who, like you back then, were trapped deep in hell with no one to turn to for help."

His calm gaze seemed to physically land on the tips of his hair, like a hand gently stroking his cheek. "Just like your anonymous donation, they are also quietly doing things... kind and selfless things, like a rose."

Yuan Hang only half-understood the latter part of the sentence, and Dai Lin, who was listening in, was also completely baffled. Only Zhuang Mingqi understood what he meant.

Everything humans do is first for the sake of survival, but the color and fragrance of a rose are embellishments of life, not necessary conditions for its survival... "Humanity places great hope in flowers."

Shen Zhengning didn't explain, but continued, "My second speculation concerns Zou Jinliang's motive. Ye Tongsheng returned to his hometown, Xingcheng, in June, which was right before the Zhenying school incident began to brew and erupt. Meng Meng passed away in July. Ye Tongsheng and Meng Meng were likely quite close, and he was hit hard by her death, so he saw a psychologist and was diagnosed with depression. In August, he went to the United Kingdom to see Zhuang Mingqi, and the Zhenying school was completely shut down. In September, Ye Tongsheng was murdered by Zou Jinliang."

"Once the timeline is sorted out, some of Ye Tongsheng's actions can be explained. Zou Jinliang had vested interests in the Zhenying school, while 'Jin Se' was backed by the victims from back then. The two sides were destined to be enemies to the end, with absolutely no room for de-escalation or compromise. Ye Tongsheng participated in exposing the Zhenying school and might have had evidence in his possession. Therefore, Zou Jinliang's murderous intent towards him was not just about avenging his father, but more likely stemmed from a desire for revenge, to eradicate the problem root and stem."

"And one last point, about why Zou Jinliang didn't go after Chen Xiaodie, that is, Ms. Chen Chun."

"This is mostly my speculation: Although Zou Jinliang knew who had participated in the arson back then, Chen Xiaodie had changed her name and left Xingcheng. By the time Zou Jinliang wanted to find her, he couldn't anymore. Then, on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, Zou Jinliang followed Ye Tongsheng to Xinliu Park and also saw Chen Xiaodie. However, he didn't recognize Chen Xiaodie, and coincidentally, out of a tacit understanding, Ye Tongsheng and Chen Xiaodie pretended not to know each other, which, by a strange twist of fate, helped her escape this disaster."

...

Zhuang Mingqi couldn't say a single word. He raised a hand to cover his eyes.

In the blood-red sunset of that year, the scarred boy had lifted his beast-like dark eyes and told him, "It's okay if we fail. As long as the cage is still there, I will fight to the end."

And he truly lived up to that promise, protecting, until the very last moment of his life, the spark of fire who had lit up hell with him.