His confession was a major step forward. The two interrogators exchanged glances and switched their questions to the nightclub.
Interrogator: Where did the 30,000 yuan for the drinks come from? We asked the manager, and you paid for it in the end.
Chu Jiajun: Yes...I borrowed the capital from the nightclub owner, and I have an IOU.
More than 30,000 yuan for the alcohol has been deposited into the nightclub's account, and no unusual serial numbers were found on the banknotes. Either what "Xu Fei" said was true, or the money had been laundered.
Interrogator: Why did you go to the gold exhibition?
Chu Jiajun: ...I...lost my keys. I went to visit the set the day before, and when I got home I couldn't find them...so I climbed in through the window. The next day I thought I'd go to the exhibition to look for them...and check out the exhibit.
Interrogator: You visited the set outside the exhibition hall, and your key fell outside. Why did you go in?
Chu Jiajun: I was suddenly curious and wanted to see...
Interrogator: Please repeat what happened when you were kidnapped.
Chu Jiajun: I wanted to go upstairs to see what was going on... ahem... as soon as I got upstairs, I heard some noise downstairs...
Interrogator: How many people are there?
Chu Jiajun: How many people?
Interrogator: Robber.
Chu Jiajun: Both... were wearing that mask...
Interrogator: Do you remember what Comrade Liu Weide did in the end?
Chu Jiajun: ...I...can't remember clearly...
Interrogator: Which subject did you get the highest score in the college entrance examination?
Chu Jiajun: ...seems to be...chemistry...
Interrogator: Did both robbers have guns?
Chu Jiajun: I don't remember…
Interrogator: Ask the nightclub owner how much money he borrowed?
…
The people inside came out.
The interrogation ended with Chu Jiajun breaking down, covering his face and demanding to see his mother back home.
Interrogator: We haven't found any hard evidence in our interrogation so far. While we believe the presumption of guilt is warranted, considering he's a university student, we'll proceed with caution.
Ji Yongtao: If he was acting, he acted very well.
Ji Yongtao: If he wants to see his mother, let him see her. Everything will be clear once they meet.
Interrogator: We think so too. He said there were originally two robbers, but at some point only one was left, and the other disappeared somewhere. He avoided or was vague about many questions, but it's not ruled out that he was true. His reactions and answers make it difficult to find solid evidence.
Interrogator: We should contact his relatives in his hometown and have them send photos over, or have someone else come to identify him.
Ji Yongtao: What should he do now?
Li Yu: His current physical condition doesn't pose a serious threat. We'll handle it as normal. After all, as the two comrades mentioned, if he were truly a college student, we would definitely prioritize his care.
Ji Yongtao tried hard to recall their daily interactions. It was difficult for him, his neighbors, and his colleagues to see the laughing and scolding Xu Fei and the murderous Chu Jiajun as one and the same.
He walked into the ward, where Chu Jiajun lay quietly, looking exhausted. Only when he saw Ji Yongtao did his eyes light up slightly.
Chu Jiajun: What did they come here for?
Ji Yongtao: A robber ran away and we are looking for him. They came to question you as a routine matter.
Chu Jiajun: They talked as if I were the robber.
Ji Yongtao: No, if that were the case, you would have been arrested long ago. Why would you be left lying there? You would have been left lying there in jail.
Chu Jiajun's eyes turned slightly red: Will they use me to take the blame in order to gain merit?
Being stared at by those eyes made it hard to calm down. Ji Yongtao sighed. "No, that's not true. You've seen too much nonsense. That's not true. They just finished asking me questions and then came out to accuse me of messing around in school and having a head full of toxic thoughts."
Chu Jiajun's hands were shaking, perhaps out of weakness or fear. "What if the school finds out? Will my family know about my studies?"
Chu Jiajun started to babble again: Also, is Uncle Liu gone?
He was so excited that his breathing became difficult, and the bandage on his wound was faintly bloody. Ji Yongtao held him down: "It's okay, it has nothing to do with you. Your neck is almost broken. Don't move, what if it becomes crooked..."
Ji Yongtao: I begged them not to pursue the matter, it's okay.
Chu Jiajun didn't hesitate: "When will my mother come? Have you told her?" ... I miss my mother. Don't tell my father, he'll beat me to death... My mother won't...
Ji Yongtao: I've already said she will come.
Logically speaking, the real Chu Jiajun would never dare to meet Xu Fei's parents, and would even try his best to avoid them.
But they knew, and Chu Jiajun knew it too. The current situation was like groping for someone's hand in the dark, not knowing whether it was a human or a ghost.
-
Ji Yongtao slept beside the hospital bed because Chu Jiajun held him tightly and refused to let go.
Ji Yongtao is like a talisman to him. As long as this talisman is with him, no other threats will approach.
Ji Yongtao wants to go to the toilet, and Chu Jiajun wants to go with him. Ji Yongtao: Are you crazy? Are you crazy?
Chu Jiajun: I'm afraid.
He was afraid that once Ji Yongtao left his sight, he would conspire with others to reveal his true identity, and might even take the gun back from somewhere...
Chu Jiajun: Let's go pee together.
Ji Yongtao: You can't get up yet. The doctor said we need to see if there's any damage to your spine.
Chu Jiajun: I don't want a urinary catheter. It makes me uncomfortable. Let's go together.
Chu Jiajun: Why don't you open the window and look out…
Ji Yongtao: Okay, stop. What's wrong with you?
Chu Jiajun twisted and struggled to get out of the quilt: What if you leave and people outside say I am a robber and arrest me?
Ji Yongtao: I will take you back.
Chu Jiajun held him tightly and refused to let go: Go and tell them that I am not that person.
He leaned his head against Ji Yongtao's back: Brother Yong, don't let them take me away, please save me...
-
Five minutes later, Chu Jiajun leaned against the wall of the men's restroom, holding the urine bag.
Ji Yongtao's voice came from inside: Okay.
There was the sound of water coming from the sink. He washed his hands and then carried Chu Jiajun back on his back just like before.
Chu Jiajun's voice was tired: I thought I was going to die.
Ji Yongtao: No, the harm will last for thousands of years.
Chu Jiajun buried his head in his shoulder: What will you do if I die?
Ji Yongtao paused. There was a moment of silence, the white lights in the old hospital corridor flickering, blurring his features.
Ji Yongtao: I didn't do anything. I just went back and lived alone.
Chu Jiajun: Would you be more sad if I died, or if Liu Weide died?
Ji Yongtao: I can throw you out of the window, do you believe it? Can you speak human language?
Chu Jiajun stopped talking and rubbed his neck.
After a long time, Chu Jiajun asked: Are we a family?
Ji Yongtao: It depends on how you count them. They are cousins, so they live together. But their household registrations are not together.
Chu Jiajun: What if the household registration booklet is also together?
Ji Yongtao: I will go and ask about settling down someday.
Chu Jiajun: What does it mean to settle down?
Ji Yongtao: College graduates settle down here, you... don't know?
Chu Jiajun: I remember now! The counselor gave me a booklet!
In just a few seconds, a layer of cold sweat appeared on his back. Then, a hand reached out from the front and rubbed his head.
Ji Yongtao: Want to settle down?
Chu Jiajun nodded.
Ji Yongtao: Not leaving?
Chu Jiajun nodded.
Ji Yongtao: Then, I'll go and ask.
Ji Yongtao was very efficient. The next day, Chu Jiajun was taken out of the hospital in a wheelchair and taken to a civil affairs office. The director there was a friend of Ji Yongtao's. They each lit a cigarette and chatted about household registration documents.
Director: Yes, of course. College students are the focus of training. They are outstanding talents and will definitely be able to settle down here after graduation.
The director flipped through Xu Fei's file: "No problem, absolutely no problem. Who is your household registration? Your brother's?"
Chu Jiajun was still stunned, not expecting this to go so smoothly; Ji Yongtao nodded: Leave it to me.
Director: Are they all from the Ji family?
Ji Yongtao smiled and said: They all belong to the Ji family.
The director taught them what to do, such as signing multi-party agreements and what kind of certificates they needed from their employers upon graduation... Chu Jiajun listened blankly, but remembered every word, as if in June three years later, there would be a new name, "Xu Fei", on Ji Yongtao's household registration book.
-
That night, Chu Jiajun did not sleep.
Ji Yongtao fell asleep and felt some movement around him.
It was Chu Jiajun who was pulling him.
Chu Jiajun: Brother Yong, I can't sleep.
Chu Jiajun: Brother Yong, what should we do in the future?
Ji Yongtao: Sleep.
Chu Jiajun: Will you be a policeman for the rest of your life?
Ji Yongtao: What else? How else can I control you?
Chu Jiajun: Let's go do business somewhere else together, okay?
Ji Yongtao was very sleepy, so he sighed and held him under his arm.
Ji Yongtao: Why do you always think about these things?
Chu Jiajun: We are a family, let's live a good life together.
Ji Yongtao laughed: I don't know how to do business. If I lose all my capital, will I sell you to pay off my debts?
Chu Jiajun whispered in a very low voice: This is not the first time I have been sold to pay off a debt.
Ji Yongtao: What?
Chu Jiajun: I'm trying to find some way to get the capital. Shall we go somewhere else?
Ji Yongtao: Going to Guangzhou? Shenzhen?
Chu Jiajun was silent for a long time and then said two words.
Chu Jiajun:——Go abroad.
Ji Yongtao smiled: My mother is still in my hometown.
Chu Jiajun: Is there any difference between having family and not having them? Family is someone who stays with you, helps you, lives with you, and feeds you.
Ji Yongtao remained silent for a while. Suddenly, he asked, "If not going abroad, where else can I go? Wenzhou?"
Chu Jiajun: Shanghai.
Ji Yongtao thought it was ridiculous: What's there in Shanghai?
Chu Jiajun's eyes, shining in the dark, looked at him: Now it's all Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Wenzhou, but there is news that Shanghai is about to rise.
Ji Yongtao was startled and laughed a few times: "You have a fever? Should I call a doctor?"
Chu Jiajun: Shanghai will have everything, and we will have everything.
Ji Yongtao: I don't want that much. I can have nothing.
Chu Jiajun: Then what do you want?
Ji Yongtao: Can you just be good?
The bright eyes blinked and turned away, with a look of happiness in them.
Ji Yongtao: After this matter is over, let's take a train to Shanghai to take a look.
Chu Jiajun: What does "end" mean?
Ji Yongtao: Catch that guy.
Chu Jiajun: What if we can't catch him? What if he dies out there?
Ji Yongtao: That would be the worst. We'd rather he escape than die in obscurity. That would make it a cold case, like so many deaths.
Chu Jiajun: Do you have anything to do with the deaths of those people? Do you know them?
The quilt was gently opened, and he covered Chu Jiajun with it. Ji Yongtao: I don't know them. But they are human beings, and so am I. A person would not wish others to suffer.
Chu Jiajun: They have nothing to do with me.
Chu Jiajun: I only care whether you will accompany me to Shanghai.
Ji Yongtao didn't speak for a long time. He almost thought the man was asleep.
Just when Chu Jiajun was about to fall asleep, he heard a voice coming from beside him.
Ji Yongtao: If one day I stop being a police officer...
Ji Yongtao: If that day comes, we will go to Shanghai.
-
On the third day, Chu Jiajun was discharged from the hospital. He still needed to recover from his injuries for a while, but he no longer needed to stay in the hospital lying flat on his back.
When I got home, I was much more well-behaved than before. I seldom went out, didn't spend money recklessly, washed the dishes after dinner, and combed the dog's hair.
One day, both of them were at home when the door rang. They opened the door and saw two neighborhood committee members and two policemen outside, with a middle-aged woman standing in the middle.
Everyone smiled and invited "Xu Fei" to come out: Come on, Xu Fei, your mother is here to visit you from your hometown.
Chu Jiajun walked towards the door. He looked at the kind woman. Ji Yongtao, who was sitting by the window reading a newspaper, also looked up at the door.
He looked at the woman for only a few seconds. He should have been like a good son, crying and hugging his mother, telling her about his near-death experience...
But he didn't.
Chu Jiajun was confused: Where is my mother?
The expressions of the group of people outside the door froze.
Chu Jiajun: This is not my mother, you got it wrong.
Chu Jiajun's expression showed alarm, and his voice rose: "What do you mean?! Are you still doubting me?!"
The neighborhood committee members hurriedly tried to appease her, and the others took the woman away. A moment later, someone came and apologized for what had just happened: "Sorry, Xu Fei, we got the wrong train and picked up the wrong person..."
Chu Jiajun could sense Ji Yongtao's breath relax from the tense state behind him. He knew he'd won this gamble—this wasn't "Xu Fei's mother," this was an actress brought in to test him. It took at least five days to get from Xu Fei's hometown to City A. A woman who'd spent so many days on the train, feeling so apprehensive, couldn't possibly be so calm.
Ji Yongtao had been holding the gun in his hand, hiding it behind the newspaper. After Xu Fei gave the correct answer, he silently put the gun away.
He took out a snakeskin bag from the entrance cabinet, and inside was a beautifully wrapped Hami melon. Ji Yongtao: Ignore them, come here, Hami melon.
Chu Jiajun opened his eyes wide: I've only seen it on TV, is this a real Hami melon?
Ji Yongtao patted him on the back: I got it with great difficulty. Go get a knife to cut the melon. I bought it for you, a patient.
Xu Fei's mother was about to arrive. Ji Yongtao got the train number and went back to tell him.
Xu Fei was quite happy, helping to clean up the house and remembering to put the glass bottle back into the milk box after drinking milk in the morning. Ji Yongtao accompanied him to buy some new clothes, so that he could at least dress like a student.
Chu Jiajun: I don't want to wear a white shirt like this. It makes me look like an old man, like someone who works at a newspaper. Do I need to wear tortoiseshell glasses?
Ji Yongtao: Don't move. Try putting this pen in your pocket. Remind me, glasses...
Chu Jiajun was fiddled with for a long time, and the salesperson in the department store became impatient: This young comrade needs to have his hair cut to look presentable.
Ji Yongtao: I'll get a trimmer to smooth it out for you when we get back.
Chu Jiajun covered his hair with his hands, his eyes were cold, and he looked like he was ready to fight to the death.
After all the trouble, the man finally felt satisfied. He looked at Chu Jiajun in the mirror. He was wearing a white shirt, black cloth pants, white sneakers, tortoise-shell glasses, and a hero pen in his pocket...
Ji Yongtao looked at him like this and breathed a sigh of relief silently.
Ji Yongtao: I will dress like this from now on.
Chu Jiajun: Do you still dress like this when you're eighty?
Ji Yongtao: At least that's the case before graduation.
Chu Jiajun: My mother has always liked me to dress modernly.
Ji Yongtao: You look like a pile driver. A few years ago, if you walked down the street looking like this, you would probably be taken away as a hooligan.
Chu Jiajun: That's because we've been driving piles at your house for so long.
The two men left the building, carrying two bags of clothes. It was sunset, a fiery blaze across the summer night. A sea of bicycles, packed with people leaving work, streamed across the gray road.
Chu Jiajun tilted his head back. His wound was almost healed, and the scar itched like crazy. He sang Zhang Yusheng's new song softly to the evening sky. In the roadside video rental store, the shelves were filled with videotapes, a dazzling sight.
After a quick look inside, they rented two tapes. Chu Jiajun also rented a few old movies, saying she'd show them to her mother when she got home.
Ji Yongtao: Probably in the next two days. What does your mom like to eat? I'll look for a few restaurants.
Chu Jiajun: I like to eat razor clams and hairy clams.
Ji Yongtao: Maybe we don't have that here. I'll look for hairy clams. Some places have very fat blood clams, and also yellow mud snails.
Ji Yongtao hasn't eaten anything from his hometown for a long time.
There was a train ticket booth near the Aiyahe residential complex. As they passed by, they all looked at the ticket information board.
Ji Yongtao walked to the window and asked about the flight to Shanghai.
Chu Jiajun: Are you really going?
Ji Yongtao: Go ahead. After we meet your mom this time and she's relieved, let's go for a walk.
Ji Yongtao sighed: What on earth is there in that place? It's so gray... I only know the Bund, what else is there?
Chu Jiajun had never been to Shanghai. The Shanghai he saw on television was truly just the Bund, a cluster of old buildings. Leaning on the handrails along the Huangpu River, he gazed towards Pudong, a gray wasteland. Black smoke from factory chimneys filled the sky, wastewater surged, and the Suzhou Creek remained a stinking river.
He didn't know why he wanted to go to this place where there was nothing. In fact, he didn't know what Shanghai would be like, he just wanted to trick Ji Yongtao into going to a new place with him, a place where no one knew them.
The man returned with two train tickets, with a departure date of a week later, Saturday.
In the middle of the night, Chu Jiajun couldn't sleep, so he walked into the bedroom with his quilt and squatted beside Ji Yongtao's bed: his neck hurt from sleeping on the camp bed.
Ji Yongtao moved aside to make room for him.
The night was quiet. On the bedside table lay two cracked CD cases, both containing records by Teresa Teng and Zhang Qiang. Chu Jiajun scratched the cracks with his fingernails and muttered, "We're finally going to have a family."