Tuesday 7 September 2021

113 All I Want is Company

 

“So?” After I hung up, Gu Chen asked me, “Is the DNA result out?” I nodded and walked away, “The result is out. Liu Fei’er is not Liu Yinyan’s biological daughter, so I believe my speculation will most likely be correct. Do you still remember the questions Wu Zui asked Liu Fei’er at the garage?” Gu Chen thought for a while before he answered, “I do, at the time I was tied to the first floor staircase, I couldn’t see up there but I could hear everything clearly. But is there any problem with the questions Wu Zui asked?”

“Yes, there is a huge problem.” I pulled on my hair and uttered slowly, “The questions Wu Zui asked were extremely personal, so much so that Liu Yinyan didn’t know about them. So how did Wu Zui know about them, I don’t think it was Liu Fei’er who told him.” Gu Chen’s eyes went round. “So who did?”

Everything was coming together in my mind. Now I only needed to see Liu Fei’er with that left-handed man and everything would be cleared. I stopped and turned to Gu Chen, “I still can’t tell you yet. But when we find Liu Fei’er, I’ll tell you everything, okay?”

Gu Chen shrugged. “Fine, you’re always like this anyway.” I smiled. What we needed to do next was to wait for news from Song Ze. We waited for one and a half hours, Song Ze only called us when the sky was almost dark. “Hello, Officer Wu?” Song Ze whispered, but it did nothing to hide the excitement in his voice, “Come to No. 26 Peace Road. I just saw Liu Fei’er and that man enter the building. I have no idea when they’ll be leaving. Come quick. You might miss them otherwise.”

I shook my phone at Gu Chen. “The truth is about to come out soon. Our destination is No. 26, Peace Road. If I’m not mistaken, we’re going to bear witness to a tragedy.”

“Tragedy?” Gu Chen asked plaintively.

“Yes.” I didn’t know how to describe my feelings. “Sometimes, I feel like we police are like doctors, some people look perfectly fine on the surface but when you peel back their skin, you’ll see that their interior is severely rotten. But not everyone can accept when all that pus and guts are exposed before them.” Gu Chen was silent as he drove to our destination. When we arrived at the location given by Song Ze, we spotted Song Ze hiding behind a trash can, but his eyes were fixed on No. 26 Peace Road. This was a shop lot with 2 storeys, the decoration was cute. It was a cake shop, but it had a ‘temporarily closed’ sign on the door. I tapped Song Ze on his shoulder and the young man jumped so high, he almost fell into the trash can.

“Oh, it’s just you guys.” When Song Ze saw it was us, he calmed down, “I thought I had been exposed.”

“You sure they’re in there?” I asked him. Song Ze nodded. “Yes, after I got your message, I skipped school and waited for Liu Fei’er under a tree in front of the school. As you said, she soon appeared. Even though I was standing there in the open, she didn’t seem to see me.” Song Ze sighed, “But it didn’t matter, I didn’t expect to matter to her anyway. In any case, I followed her. After she came out from the school office, she didn’t leave from the front gate but from the side gate.” Song Ze scratched his head. “That was when I realized something was wrong. Her driver was still waiting for her at the front gate after all. I followed her from behind and then I saw that middle-aged man. I trailed them all the way to this cake shop. After the man went in, the cake shop closed for business.”

I nodded, “I don’t think you should stay, you might not be able to survive what might happen next.”

“Really?” Song Ze looked at me with disbelief, “What possibly could happen here? You guys will be here to protect Liu Fei’er, right?”

I didn’t answer but turned to Gu Chen, “Is there any point of entry for us?”

“There is one.” Gu Chen looked at the cake shop. “But there might be consequences. How much do you really need to enter the shop?”

I looked at the closed door and said, “We need to get in there.” Just as I finished, I heard the crack of glass. Before I knew what happened, Gu Chen was already standing inside the cake shop. I was shocked. Gu Chen shrugged and said, “Well, come on in.” Gu Chen kicked the glass door down, the shards scattered everywhere. Once I stepped over the broken glass, I saw something I knew Song Ze would never be able to accept. Man and woman clothes, and underwear littered the floor. From the trail, it was clear that the couple underdressed as they made their way deeper into the shop. As we parted the curtain that separated the front of the shop from the back, the shocking image appeared before us. A naked man and woman were lying in bed. From their frantic actions, it was clear that Gu Chen’s kick had startled them as well. The only thing they could do before we barged in was to use the sheet to cover their most important body parts.

“Fei? Fei’er?” I didn’t realize Song Ze had followed behind us. Then he collapsed to the ground. “How, how could you do something like this? I, I always thought you were different from the others, but, but you’re the same. Even the beautiful, generous, kind girl is like the others…” Then he devolved into a blubbering mess. I did not have the time to deal with his emotions so I moved Song Ze to the side. Then I turned to address Liu Fei’er and the middle-aged man. “Come on, put on your clothes, we need to talk.”

The duo didn’t speak. Gu Chen and I walked out while I had Song Ze deliver the two their clothes from the front of the store. Soon the couple sat before me and Gu Chen. The middle-aged man was around 1.8 metres tall and he was incredibly handsome. He looked around 40 and had a well-kept beard. He was a left-hander. I believed this was Liu Fei’er’s real father, but… What about the shocking image that we saw earlier? This was the story behind it.

Back then, Liu Yinyan was already 50 but Liu Yinyan’s Russian wife was only 20. Quite a number of people talked behind their backs but Liu Yinyan never cared about other people’s opinion and they got married. Mind over body was not a thing when it came to the duty between husband and wife. Liu Yinyan was 50 and he only had 1 kidney left, so the chance of him having healthy usable sperms was extremely low. Therefore, Liu Fei’er’s mother also knew that Liu Yinyan would never have a progeny. Plus, she found out Liu Yinyan was really not good in bed.

In other words, if not for the money, she would not have married Liu Yinyan. However, to ask a woman in her 20s to give up sex, that was impossible. Therefore, Liu Fei’er’s mother had an affair. For such a beautiful, rich and young woman, naturally if she wanted, she would have plenty of suitors. And this man before me used his good looks, perfect body and voracious sex drive to win over the other competition. He hit a hole in one on their first time. Liu Fei’er’s mother initially wanted to have an abortion but she eventually decided against it. She was doing it for the sake of Liu Yinyan because she knew how much Liu Yinyan wanted a child.

The woman broke the news and Liu Yinyan never suspected anything. Perhaps hope had blinded his eyes. After Liu Fei’er was born, he gave her and her mother the best of everything. That was the moment when Liu Fei’er’s mother felt she couldn’t live with herself anymore. Her husband had given her the best of the world, but she repaid him with a horrible betrayal and a big lie. After the child was old enough, Liu Fei’er’s mother moved back to Russia, because she couldn’t face Liu Yinyan anymore. She was too ashamed.

But this middle-aged man had fallen irrevocably in love with Liu Fei’er’s mother. What he didn’t know was Liu Fei’er’s mother was only using him as a sperm donor and a good roll in the hay, but he had placed true feelings into their relationship. Since he could not get the mother, then he would get the daughter. Liu Fei’er at 16 looked just like her mother but younger and prettier. Hate could cross generations and so could love.

Even though Liu Fei’er had the perfect life, she was lacking in her parent’s love. Liu Yinyan was always busy and her mother was absent. At that moment, a handsome uncle appeared. He gave Liu Fei’er a father’s care and a boyfriend’s love. When Liu Fei’er was 16, she volunteered her body to this man whom she had decided to spend the rest of her life with. But at that moment, the man told Liu Fei’er that he was her actual father. Liu Fei’er wasn’t shocked or appalled, in fact, she pushed herself into him further.

This was the life lesson Liu Yinyan learned near the end of his life, “What you have is never what you really want,” Liu Fei’er learned that when she was only 16. She didn’t want money, she only wanted company. Liu Fei’er hugged the man next to her with tears, the man who was both her boyfriend and her father.

Now everything was answered.

Other than Liu Fei’er, no one would have known about their secrets, so naturally the person who revealed them to Wu Zui was this man.

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