48 Choice

 

Sometimes, I felt there were reasons for my schizophrenia. On one hand, I hated those criminals, hated them for the danger they brought to society. I hated how inconsiderate they were, how callous they were to others, especially their loved ones. But on the other hand, I pitied many of them. I knew most of them were forced to resort to crimes out of circumstances. If they had a better choice, they wouldn’t end up on the criminal path. So I hated them and I loved them, they were my heaven and hell.

I was unable to be like Captain Zhao who had a clear goal in life, who knew they were always on the side of justice; I wasn’t like Zhao Mingkun either, who chose to be forever in the dark after she abandoned the light. I was just a normal human, with his own conflict and sensitivities.

“Do you like to stargaze?” I asked. Zhao Mingkun was clearly taken aback as she gasped, “How did you know that?” I didn’t answer because I already got everything I needed.

“I have a solution but the chance of success is very low.” I stood up and said slowly. “But if we fail and when people eventually discover our bodies, we’ll be caught in a very awkward position. However, if we do not give this a try, I can only see two endings for us.” I lifted one finger, “1, we will die here.” And then another, “2, we will be captured by the police.”

Zhao Mingkun laughed. “If that’s the case, I’d rather give your solution a try.” This was a very risky and embarrassing method. Based on my calculation, Guan Zhenglin should have led Gu Chen and the team to this tomb to find me by now. Among them would be Doggie Wang Er. If there was someone who could save us in this world, it would be Doggie Wang Er. When I was still at the mental hospital, I personally witnessed how Doggie Wang Er managed to locate a patient who was stuck in the underground sewer for 3 days with just a sniff of his shoe. Doggie Wang Er’s nose was very sensitive, perhaps his mental illness had caused actual transformation to his senses. But most importantly, Doggie Wang Er was a dog who was familiar with tomb-raiding technique. His understanding of tombs would be far greater than any of us.

And my plan was for us to defecate and pee in the cellar and pray that the smell would get Doggie Wang Er’s attention. This was undeniably a crazy and shameless plan but I was a verified mental patient and I already lost my sense of shame when I was young. In any case, we put the plan into action and used the fabric of the bags to smear the faeces and urine on the ceiling.

Silence.

Perhaps to shatter the awkwardness, Zhao Mingkun said, “I happen to see there is a birthmark on the underside of your penis.” For some reason, it only made me feel even more awkward. I chuckled half-heartedly and said, “Actually, my father is a murderer too and I spent my childhood in prison. Do you know what the other inmates say when they saw that birthmark? They said I was lucky. If I was killed, and had my fingerprints sawn off or beheaded, that birthmark would help identify my body.”

I said that to lighten the mood but for some reason, Zhao Mingkun suddenly broke into tears. That took me by surprise. Women truly had inexplicable mood swings. “Are, are you alright?” I asked tentatively. Zhao Mingkun looked at me with complicated emotions. Eventually she said, “If we ever leave this place, stop being a grave robber. The things in these sacks are more than enough for you to secure a comfortable life. You have not murdered anyone, you have a chance to start anew. Being a normal citizen is not so bad. Listen to my advice, marry that little girlfriend of yours and settle down, okay?”

Honestly, I didn’t know what to say. Zhao Mingkun seemed to treat me differently from how she treated others. She was an ice queen with others but when she was alone with me, she would reveal this softer side to her personality. Sadly, I was never a grave robber, I was someone the police hired to capture her. So I didn’t say anything. Wait, all we could do now was wait.

After who knew how long, suddenly I heard something moving across the steel board. It wasn’t loud but it might as well be a boom considering how silent the tomb was. “Is someone up there? Please open the latch!” I quickly stood up and shouted. The steel board was pulled back and I shone my flashlight at the hole. Doggie Wang Er’s face poked out to look at me. I had never seen Doggie Wang Er so handsome before, I couldn’t wait to run up there to slobber kisses all over his face.

“Master?” Doggie Wang Er shouted.

“Come, step on my shoulders and get up.” I told Zhao Mingkun. She shook her head. “If I do that, how do you plan to leave this place? I’ll help you get up there first.” Indeed, even though the height of the wall was only 3 metres, I had no idea how to climb up the wall. Therefore, I stood on Zhao Mingkun’s shoulders and she slowly climbed up. With Doggie Wang Er’s help, I was half-yanked, half-pushed to freedom. When I turned back to look down the hole, I saw Zhao Mingkun shove the flashlight into her pocket, took a few steps and then began with a running start. She kicked on the wall and used the rebound to grip her fingers at the edge of the hole. Before Doggie Wang Er and I moved to help her, she already climbed onto the surface. I was mightily impressed.

But since Doggie Wang Er was here, it meant that Guan Zhenglin and the police wouldn’t be far behind. Soon they would come here following Doggie Wang Er’s trail. If we stayed, Zhao Mingkun wouldn’t have the chance to escape. With that in mind, I said, “We better leave now.” Zhao Mingkun frowned but she didn’t say anything. She followed me as we ran out. When we reached a fork, a ray of light hit the wall. ‘Our’ pursuers would be arriving soon.

“Let’s split up.” I told Zhao Mingkun, “Only the police will come at a time like this. We shan’t stick together. By splitting up, our trail will be blurred further.”

Zhao Mingkun patted my shoulders. “Be careful.”

For some reason, I felt sombre. “Would we meet again?”

“We would.” Zhao Mingkun landed a kiss on my forehead and disappeared down one of the forks. I led Doggie Wang Er towards the ray of light, hopefully that would give Zhao Mingkun more time to escape. That was the only thing I could do for her now, if she was still unlucky enough to run into another team of the police, then she had no one but to blame but herself. I saw too many similarities between the two of us, I seemed to witness another version of myself on her. How bad could she really be, when she had that passion for justice within her?

In that case, we better not meet ever again.

…

“What the hell?!” Captain Zhao slammed on the table until it creaked. I had never seen Captain Zhao so angry before. The office table felt like it was about to fall apart. “How can you let her escape? Haven’t I told you to keep a close eye on her? How did she manage to escape?”

I kept my head lowered like a chastened boy. “She is too cunning. When Doggie Wang Er saved us from the cellar, I let my guard down. At that moment, she took off down one of the passages. When Doggie Wang Er and I moved to chase after her, she was already gone. This is all my fault…”

Captain Zhao stared at me for a long time before he turned to Doggie Wang Er, “Doggie Wang Er, is that true?”

“Yes!” Doggie Wang Er nodded vehemently. He was such a loyal dog, unfortunately he would be returning to the mental hospital soon. I would miss him a lot because Doggie Wang Er had many qualities that human beings were lacking or else Xiao Cui wouldn’t have stayed with him for so long. Unfortunately, the doctors said that there was basically no hope for Doggie Wang Er to recover. The more humans I interacted with, the more I appreciated Doggie Wang Er.

Mary tried to put in a good word on my behalf, “You can’t really blame Xiao Wu for this, after all, Zhao Mingkun has slipped away from us so many times. Plus, this is already the freshest trail we have of her. I believe we’ll encounter her again soon.”

Was that true? If there was a next time, what kind of choice would I make? I shook my head, that was a problem for future me to worry about.

Captain Zhao sighed and then picked up the tea cup again. “I suppose. But I do have to praise you for coming up with that idea as a solution to escape the cellar. That was rather unusual.” Sometimes, to survive, one had to be shameless.

“By the way.” Guan Zhenglin chimed in. “What exactly happened inside the tomb, there are dead bodies everywhere.” I explained everything that happened inside the tomb to the group. Then I asked, “Also, where is Gu Chen?”

Guan Zhenglin answered, “When we arrived, someone in red raced out from the tomb. Due to the distance, we couldn’t tell who it was. However, Gu Chen chased after them immediately. But based on what I saw, it should be the female ghost that we saw in the yard that night.”

I nodded. “I already figured out the truth, the person in red is Dai Yu, everything has to do with her. Qian Er thought he was the ultimate strategist but he was wrong, the true strategist was this woman because the 6 brothers were all pawns in Dai Yu’s game. She turned them against each other to silence everyone who knew about the truth. If not for Doggie Wang Er, no one would know about her secret anymore.”

“Dai Yu?” Guan Zhenglin was shocked.

“Yes!” I turned to Mary. “Sister Mary, can you help me check the identity of Lin Dai Yu and Chu Mei’s parents? Even though I know Dai Yu is the killer, I have no clue why she did that. Also help me look up the actual relationship between Chu Mei and Chu Ye.”

Mary gave me an okay sign and turned to her computer. Gu Chen returned without any reward. But when he saw me, he still broke into a big grin. “Yo, I thought you were dead already.”

I laughed and said, “I would be if I brought you with me. We would die on the first day if you went undercover with me. Thankfully you weren’t there. The callous on your fingers would have exposed your real identity, sorry to say but you’re not suitable for undercover work.”

Gu Chen looked at his finger and said, “You’re right.” Then with a sigh, he added, “The person slipped away from me. I was unable to keep up with them.”

I patted him encouragingly. “Don’t look so sad, I’ll bring you to capture her now.”