The orange lights in the room created a warm atmosphere inside. An Xiaoning sat right opposite him, the coffee table between them. She did not beat around the bush and immediately stated her reason for coming. “I got the police to check your information, and I could not find any name with a similar pronunciation to yours. Don’t tell me you gave me a fake name?”
“Why would I give you a fake name? I still need your help; giving you a fake name is insincere behavior, but I am very sincere about this.”
With her bag placed on her leg, An Xiaoning clutched onto it and stared straight into his eyes. “Then why couldn’t they find your name? I also found out that this room is registered under the captain of B City’s elite military commando unit, Liu Dasheng. But you aren’t his subordinate. Do you understand all the questions I have in my head?”
“I can answer all your questions, but there’s something that I need to ask you.”
“What is it?”
He handed her a document from the table. “This is your personal information that I obtained. I received this twelve minutes before you came and I’ve read it. It contains details about the cases you previously cracked for the police. It also says that you haven’t been helping the police crack cases for a long time already and that you may not get involved in their work anymore in the future. Is it true?”
“Where did you obtain these pieces of information from?” An Xiaoning could not help but laugh as she read through a few pages of it. “Did you get these from searching online? I can clearly answer your question, it isn’t true.”
“You mean, you’ll still help out the police in investigating cases?”
“Of course. If there are very special cases that need my expertise, I’ll take time out to help them no matter how busy I am. If the case is an ordinary murder case, I’ll just leave it to the Serious Crimes Investigation Unit to investigate. I used to lead them, but I don’t anymore.” An Xiaoning could vaguely guess that the help he needed from her was about solving a case.
“I’m not Liu Dasheng’s subordinate indeed. The only reason why I was in a military outfit is because I think that I’m still a military officer.” His tone was obviously cold. “You must be curious about my relationship with Liu Dasheng. I won’t hide it from you, then. He’s my brother-in-law.”
“He’s so fortunate to have married a young wife when he’s already in his forties to fifties.”
“It’s not like that,” he corrected her. “My younger sister is the same age as him.”
An Xiaoning was at a loss for words for a moment. Her heart skipped a beat as she asked, “Aren’t you around the same age as me? How can your younger sister… be older than you?”
With sparkling eyes, he remarked with a faint smile, “Didn’t you already guess something?”
An Xiaoning abruptly stood up and stared straight at him. “You… you…”
“I’m a living person.” He added, “So you should be very clear of what’s going on already.”
“…”
An Xiaoning was in disbelief as she approached him and grabbed onto his arm, then placed her finger on his wrist. There was a pulse indeed, and he was obviously breathing. These were signs of a living person. But why…
Zong Jingyi seemed to notice the doubtful look she had and reiterated, “I’m really a living person. I’m not the owner of that tomb either. I’m just someone who was enclosed there more than ten years ago.”
An Xiaoning went back to her original seat and sat down. “Was Liu Dasheng the one who gave you this information?”
“Yes.”
“It was obviously searched online and printed out.” Upon knowing that he wasn’t the one buried in that tomb, An Xiaoning heaved a sigh of relief. “Did you meet me by accident in the tomb, or were you there intentionally to wait for me?”
“I was there to wait for you. Dasheng received news that you would be going there today and made me wait for you there. He only showed me a picture of you and didn’t even tell me your name. He just said that maybe you would be able to help me.”
With her arms crossed and resting on her leg, she placed her hand below her chin and said, “Tell me about your problem.”
He did not know if this woman before her was reliable, but it seemed that he did not have any other option either. He could only pray that by a stroke of luck, she was someone who could help him.
“Sixteen years ago, I was already a lieutenant with three stars in the A City military…”
An Xiaoning silently listened to him speak and did not say a word throughout. When he was done, a few sentences in her head were able to summarize the story he had told her.
This man had been abandoned during an internal struggle for power, and his girlfriend back then was actually someone the enemy force placed around him.
This matter escalated to a point where there had to be someone who’d sacrifice themselves for it to end, and he became the most suitable target to play the role of the sacrificial lamb.
The one who executed this order was his brother-in-law and another military officer. However, he was lucky that he had taken extra care of this other military officer, who decided to take the risk to repay his kindness. The officer and Liu Dasheng found a witch to carry out a ritual and, thereafter, Liu Dasheng hid him in the tomb at the lake for a whole sixteen years.
What was truly unbelievable was that Liu Dasheng had long known about the fact that the land near the lake could allow corpses to mutate. However, not only did information not travel fast back then, most people also avoided talking about such strange places. Moreover, only Liu Dasheng had found out about the tomb, so apart from him and his wife, nobody else knew about it.
“That tomb is like a maze inside. How was Liu Dasheng able to walk around inside and come out?”
“From what he told me, it was also the first time he went in when he sent me there. He thought that it would be around the same as any other tomb, but he did not expect it to not be that case. If he had not brought much food and drinks then, he wouldn’t have been able to come out of that place. Back then, he stayed there for almost a week before he was able to come out. Ever since then, he had never gone in again. Although he didn’t kill me, he still felt that when I woke up one day, it would be highly unlikely for me to walk out of that place. So, in his heart, he took it that I was dead. It was I who walked out of there by myself.”
An Xiaoning was perplexed. “Why did he bring food and drinks in when he sent you inside?”
“He thought that since the land there could mutate corpses, the dead wouldn’t decompose there, so food and drinks could probably remain fresh there for a long time as well. He said that the food and drinks were prepared for me, but in the end, it came to good use for himself.”
Zong Jingyi’s handsome face remained calm and composed throughout and did not seem to show any change in his emotions. It was as if he was talking about someone else’s matter.
How huge of a blow did one have to receive to come to this state that he was in!
“Your eyes… what’s wrong with them?”
“I was born like this.” He went on, “Back then, when I entered the military, it became a huge obstacle. But later on, because I performed a deed of merit by accident, the higher-ups decided they would not pursue it and granted me permission to stay.”
“Do you know anything about the owner of that tomb? Don’t hide this from me. I may be able to help you with this, and I’ll definitely teach you a lesson if you dare hide it from me.”
