Chapter 157: It is Time for Dawn

Someone once said that when you can no longer possess something, the only thing you can do is to make sure it is never forgotten.

At the very end of his life, Zhu Dachang told Hou San that there was still one thing he had lied to everyone about. In truth, there was no such thing; Zhu Dachang had not lied to Hou San at all. He simply wanted to spark Hou San's curiosity so that he would remember him forever.

On the contrary, Hou San really did lie to Zhu Dachang. He had said he would hand the black USB drives over to Zhang Xiaoman, and he had said he would return to Elm Willow Village. All of this was false. He knew Zhu Dachang did not want him to plunge back into trouble and danger, but if he truly returned to Elm Willow Village just as Zhu Dachang had instructed, acting like a monkey who turned a blind eye to everything while holding himself high above the fray, he would never forgive himself for the rest of his life.

As Zhu Dachang breathed his last, Hou San found himself utterly unable to swallow this bitter pill.

After hugging Zhu Dachang's freezing body and weeping silently for three minutes, Hou San heard the wail of police sirens approaching from not far away. He sniffed, walked over to the dark corner Zhu Dachang had pointed to earlier, and scraped away the accumulated snow. Sure enough, he spotted two black USB drives.

Tucking the drives into his pocket, Hou San cast one last lingering, reluctant look at Zhu Dachang. He took off his own coat, draped it over Zhu Dachang's abdomen, and turned to pace over to Yang Wei. Fumbling around for a moment, he yanked a kraft paper file bag out from Yang Wei's chest, his eyes turning ice-cold. "I don't give a damn what kind of scheme you're plotting by not taking this thing, but I'll make sure you bastard don't get your way!"

The sirens grew closer and closer. Hou San grabbed a handful of snow from the ground and scrubbed his face with it to snap himself more fully awake. Straightening his posture, he broke into a fast run toward the mouth of the alley. The farther he ran, the colder his heart felt; the more he charged into the biting wind, the more his eye sockets burned. For starting today, there would never again be a chubby guy following closely behind him like a tail. As he ran, Hou San let out a painful, suppressed, and hoarse howl.

"Ahhh!"

Another mournful cry rang out within the alley. Zhang Xiaoman slumped hard onto the snow-covered ground, clutching Zhu Dachang's corpse. Tears streamed down his aged face as his hands trembled continuously. "Damn it! How dare they gut my brother!"

Sun Tiantian stood to one side, holding a small packaged portion of braised goose in an iron pot. Her eyes were red. Even she, someone long accustomed to life and death, felt a suffocating tightness in her chest at this moment. She placed the braised goose on the ground, turned her face away in profound grief, and tilted her head up hard to keep her tears from falling.

She still remembered the first time she had met this chubby fellow, and she remembered how, upon discovering he had been tricked by her, he had indignantly thrown her lollipop back at her.

On the way to the hospital, she had listened as Zhang Xiaoman recounted many amusing anecdotes from Zhu Dachang's childhood. She had already grown rather fond of this honest and foolish little fatty, and had planned to offer Zhu Dachang a sincere apology once everything was over, treating him to a lavish feast packed with chunks of fatty meat.

She simply hadn't expected that this wait would stretch on infinitely, and that she would never wait for it. Meeting Zhu Dachang again meant they were now separated by the vast chasm of life and death, drifting in two different worlds. When the gunshot rang out, they had just arrived at the hospital. In that instant, she distinctly saw Zhang Xiaoman's face turn abruptly pale as he panicked and sprinted toward the alley. She had never seen Zhang Xiaoman look so flustered before, and at the time, she had even harbored a faint, secret anticipation, thinking something momentous was happening—never imagining she would find Zhu Dachang with his intestines severed.

Zhang Xiaoman wiped the tear tracks from his face with his sleeve, picked up the iron pot of braised goose from the ground, and opened the packaging. He pinched out a small piece with his fingers and placed it into Zhu Dachang's slightly parted lips. "Dachang, look, I didn't lie to you. I really brought you a portion of braised goose... and it's still warm."

"Hurry up and eat. This was made by my wife, and her cooking is so good..." Zhang Xiaoman grabbed another piece of goose meat with his hand and shoved it into Zhu Dachang's mouth. "I specifically had her pick out the parts with more meat, knowing you love eating the fat... But you need a balanced diet too. Look at how fat you've gotten—you're almost as heavy as the pigs in the pen."

"Tastes good, right?" Zhang Xiaoman grabbed a large handful of the braised goose and crammed it into his own mouth, mumbling indistinctly, "I think it's delicious too, full of color, aroma, and flavor... Actually, my wife knows how to make many other dishes: braised pork belly, stewed pig trotters, boiled sliced pork in hot chili oil, leaping frogs... Of course, her absolute specialty is braised pork intestines."

"Later on, I'll have her make a portion of everything for you. Don't be polite—after all, I'm the head of the household, and you're my friend. There's nothing you can't have if you want to eat it... When the time comes, stuff yourself until you're completely full!"

"Back in those days, I originally intended to take both you and Hou San away with me, but then another case suddenly cropped up, and it would have been far too dangerous for you both to come along on the road with me... Later on... Alright, I admit I forgot. I'm sorry... I'm sorry... How the hell could I have forgotten that there were two kids waiting for me to come back..."

"Why aren't you eating? Go ahead and eat! Didn't you love eating fatty meat the most? Goose meat is fatty too, eat more, eat more... Only girls need to keep a figure, a real man like you doesn't need to worry about that!"

"You're really not going to eat? If you don't eat it, I will! Cough, cough, cough... Are you angry with me? Don't be so petty, you're not a little kid anymore, why are you copying others and sulking... If the worst comes to the worst, I'll treat you to hot pot tomorrow. There's nothing in this world that can't be resolved with a hot pot; if there is, then two pots!"

"I know you were going to get married to that widow. I've already prepared the three gold pieces for you. You have no parents, so I am your elder; you can't afford to make me lose face. It cost me quite a bit of the private stash I saved up against my own conscience."

In the heavy snow-filled alley, Zhang Xiaoman's rambling soliloquy echoed endlessly. Several police officers, who had arrived just a step behind Zhang Xiaoman and Sun Tiantian, froze in their tracks, utterly at a loss for what to do.

Chang Ping stepped out from the last police car, pushed aside the officers clustered at the front, and took in the scene inside the alley. His gaze finally settled on Zhang Xiaoman, who was alternating between laughing and crying, and the silent Zhu Dachang. A trace of unbearable sympathy flashed in the depths of his eyes, but he still walked forward, patted Zhang Xiaoman on the shoulder, and said softly, "Step aside for a moment. I need to start gathering on-site forensic evidence."

Sun Tiantian turned her head back, her delicate brows knitted tightly together as she stared coldly at Chang Ping and asked, "Would you die if you waited a moment longer?"

"Sometimes, you really do," Chang Ping pointed at Zhu Dachang. "He is the living proof... Therefore, whatever you want to do, whatever needs to be done, don't wait. Do it right now!"

Just as Sun Tiantian was about to say something more, Zhang Xiaoman stopped crying and laughing. He waved his hand and said with a desolate expression, "Chang Ping is right. I lost my composure." He turned his head to look at Chang Ping. "Give me ten more seconds. I have one last whispered word to say to Dachang..."

Chang Ping's Adam's apple bobbed a few times. In the end, he didn't say a single word, merely nodded, and turned his face away.

Zhang Xiaoman leaned down close to Zhu Dachang's ear, his lips brushing lightly up and down as he murmured something. A moment later, he stood up, wiped his greasy mouth a few times, and walked past Chang Ping with a dark, chilling expression on his face as he headed toward the mouth of the alley. "You can start your work now. But I already know who the killer is—I don't even need to guess. I am going to make both him and her kneel before Dachang and sincerely beg for forgiveness. If their hearts aren't sincere, they aren't allowed to get up, even if they have to kneel until they turn into two stone statues!"

Sun Tiantian glared at Chang Ping before hurriedly following in Zhang Xiaoman's footsteps.

Chang Ping took a deep breath, his back to Zhang Xiaoman, and called out, "Since the honey trap didn't work, I'm guessing you don't want to take your time anymore either. Since you want to sweep them all up in one go, we'll set an inescapable net at the masquerade ball. I'll help you, just like my dad helped Luo Ci back then... But let me give you one final warning: even though you've been plucked of your feathers and had your intestines severed, you must keep a clear head. If you lose your cool, the next person to sacrifice themselves for this might be me, or Nie Yi."

"No one else will ever be sacrificed..." Zhang Xiaoman stood at the alley entrance, gazing up at the gloomy, heavy sky. "It has been dark for far too long. It's time for the dawn to break!"