222 Connection

 

After hanging up, we arrived at the activity center Wu Xiufen abandoned. We stopped and got down from the car. Cast in the headlight, a wall appeared before us. Grass grew around the wall, and the tallest was more than 1 meter tall. This proved that no one had been here for a long time already. The village head looked at the singular wall and said, “This is it. But I don’t get why you’re here. The killer wouldn’t have hidden the girl here.”

The mall was 1.5 meters tall and more than 10 meters wide. Red bricks were exposed at certain places. I gripped the edge and climbed to the top. I stood on the wall and looked around. The activity center was on the northwest side of the village, and if one went up the back of this place, one would reach the mountain.

So as I stood there looking up the mountain, I could see the flashlight cutting through the trees, I looked at the ground and could see a road paved with red bricks. The road was about 2 meters wide as it meandered down the distance.

I jumped down from the wall and followed the red brick road. The grass grew from under the bricks, covering the tracks at someplace. If not for the headlight, I wouldn’t have found this road. The road led all the way to the foot of the mountain, and then it just disappeared.

Gu Chen waved the flashlight around. The ray of light danced about. Gu Chen studied the disappearing red brick and said, “This is the first time I’ve seen people use the material to build the road first and not the wall. Also, based on the size of the original activity center, wouldn’t this road be inside the activity center should it be completely built?”

Hearing that, I closed my eyes. In my brain, the different clues started to piece together. The threads became clearer in my mind, but it was not fast enough.

“The activity center is fake.” I looked at Gu Chen and the village head, “Wu Xiufen never wanted to build an activity center. Wu Xiufen created those troubles during the construction so that it would be halted.”

The village head scratched his head. “But if Wu Xiufen never wanted to build the activity center, then go through so much? She paid all the builders their salary. Don’t tell me it was because she had too much money. Furthermore, she even hired some of the villagers to help out. She paid them 50 RMB a day. Then it was lowered to 20 RMB per day. But after the construction halted, she stopped paying.”

I shook my head. “Xing Dong Village is only so big. If one wants to build something, it’ll be noticed by the other villagers. This reminds me of a story.”

“What story?” The two asked at the same time.

I began, “There was an old man who liked peace, but there was always a group of kids making noise in front of his house. So on the first day, the old man gave the children 10 candies each, and he told them that he liked children. He told them that if they come back tomorrow, they would get more candies.”

The two looked at me in confusion, not understanding how my story was related to a brick road. I cleared my throat. “On the first day, the children were very happy, so they returned to the old man’s house to play the next day. The old man followed his words and gave the children candies, but he only gave them 5 each. The children were not that happy, but they still took the candies. I believe you know how the story will go next.” I continued, “On the 3rd day, the old man only gave the children one candy each. Therefore the children got angry. They threatened that they wouldn’t come back to play with the old man again.”

The village head nodded. “That does sound like what Wu Xiufen did with the villagers and the builders.”

I snapped my fingers. “The old man wanted peace, but he didn’t tell that to the kids at first. Instead, he told them the opposite. Because the old man understood the importance of reverse psychology.” I pulled at the weed. “The old man and Wu Xiufen understood reverse psychology well. Human nature is rebellious, the more you don’t want people to do something, the more they would do it. So sometimes you need to pretend to hate something, and there is a greater chance that people would do things your way.”

The village head nodded. “Yes, after Wu Xiufen stopped paying the villagers to help, the villagers stopped coming. She was left all alone. Not long after that, the builders rebelled. At the time, many villagers said this was karma for Wu Xiufen for being so selfish.” The village head soon chuckled. It was a helpless chuckle. “At the time, I was confused. Wu Xiufen wanted to build the activity center to help the village, so why should she be mocked for it? But now that I think about it, Wu Xiufen was too clever.” I shook my head. This happened much too often in real life. A famous artist donated to help fix the roads of his homework, but the people complained that the road was not that good. Sometimes, it was easier to be a bad person than a good person. In Buddhism, you need to do good your whole life to reach nirvana, but for bad people, you only need to stop sinning. So being a good person is truly the hard mode of life. Wu Xiufen must have studied psychology before, or else she wouldn’t have known how to do this.

I said, “As I claimed before, it is impossible to do construction at this place without attracting the attention of the other villagers, so why not be open about it? After having the villagers and builders turn on her, Wu Xiufen would be left alone, and she could do anything she wanted.”

“But it’s still the same question.” Gu Chen asked, “What was Wu Xiufen up to?”

I said, “To build a place where the killer could hide. The killer is 20 plus, so 6 years ago, he would be 15 or 16. It was his coming of age period. Perhaps it was since then that the killer started to scout out his targets.” At that moment, my phone rang, it was Mary.

“Wu Meng, we have some clues,” Mary said directly.

I cheered internally. “What clues?”

“I’ve found the IP that released the stories.” Mary explained, “The killer had encrypted his IP before he released the story. But I have been working on decrypting his real IP since he released his first story. Just earlier, I have found the real IP address! And you are very familiar with it!”

Before she revealed it, I said, “It’s Xing Dong Village, isn’t it?”

Mary gasped, “You already knew?” I glanced at my watch. There were only about ten minutes left until the killer contacted us for the second time.

“Indeed. I understood many things since I arrived at Xing Dong Village.” I said hurriedly, “Now is the time to close the net. Have you pieced together the bowls? The killer requests that the bowls mustn’t need to have any cracks. They must appear unbroken.”

“No problem,” Mary confirmed. “The station has hired the city’s best china recovery expert. He normally works with antiques. Fixing these bowls will be easy for him. Don’t worry.” Mary continued, “Even though you know the IP address is at Xing Dong Village, can you guess who it is registered to?”

I was silent and then said, “Let me guess, Wu Xiufen?”

“You knew that as well?”

I asked to confirm, “It’s really Wu Xiufen?”

“Indeed,” Mary said.

Gu Chen said beside me. “How did you manage to guess that? But why Wu Xiufen? What is Wu Xiufen’s connection to this killer? Why would she help him do so many things?”

I explained, “Do you still remember the USB cable? I believe it was used by the killer to get onto the internet. The killer normally lives at Xing Dong Village. After he released the story, he would travel from Xing Dong Village to Dong Xing City to kill people. After he was done with the murders, he would return to Xing Dong Village to prepare for the next story and murder. But!” I quickly added, “The killer mustn’t show himself around Xing Dong Village because people would notice the outsider immediately. So there has to be someone who can provide the killer with food and water. Wu Xiufen never visited others and never allowed others to visit her. Why?”

“Why?” Gu Chen and the village head asked.

I answered, “Because Wu Xiufen was covering for the killer. She couldn’t let others see the killer. We all know the killer is good at psychology, so I believe it was the killer who taught Wu Xiufen reverse psychology. The killer knew he couldn’t stay with Wu Xiufen. It would be too dangerous, so he needed to build a place no one knew at Xing Dong Village.”

The village head shook his head. “But to my knowledge, there is no such place at Xing Dong Village.” The words Zhao Mingkun once said echoed in my mind. Everything was coming together.