Good and Evil Chapter 150: Resolving Doubts, New Doubts

Solving a criminal case is much like assembling a jigsaw puzzle; piecing together and connecting fragments that appear completely unrelated yet are intrinsically linked reveals the ultimate truth.

After stepping out of the interrogation room, Xu Lang immediately sought out Ning Yanran. He now needed all available records concerning Su Jiayi. This woman was the catalyst behind Chen Zhi’s disappearance and potentially the last person to see him alive before his death. Whether Su Jiayi was involved in Chen Zhi’s murder was a matter that still required further investigation and evidence gathering.

Upon bringing Su Jiayi to the municipal public security bureau for questioning, the police immediately initiated a comprehensive background check on her.

Su Jiayi, female, thirty-five years of age, standing one meter sixty-two centimeters tall, weighing eighty-five catties, with her vital statistics requiring no investigation. She currently worked at a factory in City S, having married a fellow factory worker three years prior. They had a two-year-old daughter and had settled permanently in City S.

Su Jiayi and Chen Zhi were college classmates, having attended not only the same university but also the exact same major and academic year. Much like Chen Zhi, Su Jiayi possessed a relatively simple and kind-hearted nature. Upon graduating from college, she traveled to City S to find work. Being freshly graduated and newly stepping into society, she understood very little about the world, felt deeply bewildered, and struggled to adapt to the social atmosphere—which was entirely normal.

It was precisely during this period that Su Jiayi inadvertently took a job at a company. At first, she had no idea it was a pyramid scheme. For someone just stepping into society with zero work experience and no social awareness, this was understandable. It was only long afterward that she realized the company she worked for was actually a front for pyramid selling. Upon discovering this, she secretly placed a call home, and after considerable effort, her family managed to rescue her.

According to the dossier compiled by the police through their investigation, the facts matched everything Su Jiayi had stated in the interrogation room. This essentially confirmed that Su Jiayi was not lying.

After escaping the pyramid scheme, Su Jiayi initially returned to City N and lived there for a period. Later, finding that she still preferred City S, she returned there to work as a factory laborer. It was during this time that she met her current husband. After dating for a while, the two eventually married. Following her marriage, Su Jiayi settled down in City S indefinitely. From that point onward until the police located her to inquire about Chen Zhi, every step of Su Jiayi's life path was exceedingly clear.

Upon encountering the mention of a pyramid scheme, Xu Lang felt a subtle sense of displeasure. While he could not claim to know everything about pyramid schemes inside out, he possessed a fair amount of understanding regarding how they operated.

The operational model of a pyramid scheme closely mirrored the biological chains found in nature, adopting a strict pyramidal structure. Rather than trading or selling any legitimate commodities, these organizations survived purely by recruiting new members and pocketing so-called membership fees. To put it bluntly, it was merely a multi-participant scam.

They would first concoct a completely fabricated project—one that might theoretically exist or be entirely fictitious. Regardless, whenever they reeled new recruits in, they would paint a dazzlingly bright picture of this project or venture, making its future prospects appear immensely lucrative and promising. Naturally, these claims existed entirely as empty rhetoric; if anyone asked them to produce actual tangible products or concrete deliverables, they were completely incapable of doing so.

Calling a deer a horse—everyone understands the meaning of this idiom. In an ancient dynasty, a powerful eunuch who wreaked havoc across the imperial court assisted a new emperor in ascending the throne following the old emperor's demise. The new emperor's accession was achieved through extremely bloody and dishonorable means. Naturally, those details were secondary; once enthroned, every ruler was destined to ignite one or several storms of blood and slaughter. Deeply grateful to this eunuch for his assistance, the new emperor bestowed immense authority upon him.

One day, while out on a royal hunting expedition, the eunuch led a deer before the emperor and declared to his face that the creature was a horse. Anyone with clear vision could instantly tell it was a deer, not a horse. However, because the eunuch wielded immense power and held the life-and-death authority of many high-ranking court officials in his hands, those officials, desperate to save their own skins and eager to ingratiate themselves with the eunuch, chimed in one after another, declaring that it indeed was a horse. The idiom "calling a deer a horse" originated from this historical event.

The operational model of a pyramid scheme operated in much the same fashion. Although the context differed, the execution was identical. The founder of a pyramid scheme desired to generate wealth out of nothing, which first required convincing the lower tiers of participants that this nonexistent entity was real. Next, they had to persuade these individuals that this entity could generate wealth for them, provide them with a small taste of success, and then instruct them on how to reap even greater rewards. Throughout this process, they subjected the lower tiers to relentless brainwashing, instilling an unwavering belief that profits were genuinely attainable. Over time, if one compared the founder to A and the recruits below to B, B needed to recruit C in order to make money, while C needed to draw in D, and so on. As the organization expanded, the wealth accumulated by A multiplied, whereas the lower-tier members had no choice but to continuously drag new victims into the fold until they could no longer extract any value from them, at which point they were cast out. It was precisely at this final juncture that many victims experienced a sudden awakening, realizing the entire enterprise was a scam.

Pyramid schemes are not particularly sophisticated swindles. In the past, an individual in country F once managed to sell France’s iconic landmark, the Eiffel Tower, twice over, thereby defrauding massive sums of money. While such a feat sounded like an absolute fable of extreme difficulty, the actual execution by this individual was remarkably simple. He first impersonated a high-ranking government official, and under the pretext of demolishing the tower, he gathered numerous steel merchants, offering to sell the structure to them at a price far below market value. These steel merchants coveted the massive quantities of scrap metal that would remain after the tower's demolition, calculating that the profit margins would be enormous. Consequently, despite the glaring loopholes riddling the scam, these greed-blinded merchants believed the con artist, signed fraudulent contracts, and handed over vast fortunes. Once the money was secured, the swindler vanished without a trace, hiding away to squander his ill-gotten wealth, while the steel merchants stood waiting eagerly for the demolition date to arrive.

Pyramid schemes bear a striking resemblance to this case. They merely substituted a tangible physical structure like an iron tower with an invisible, intangible, and previously unheard-of project or venture, luring in crowds of individuals desperate for overnight wealth or unwilling to earn an honest living through legitimate labor. To the scammers standing at the peak of the pyramid, these recruits were nothing more than lambs waiting to be slaughtered. Once inside and subjected to rigorous brainwashing by the scheme's operators, these victims developed an unshakable conviction that they had stumbled upon something high-end, sophisticated, and immensely profitable. Driven by the desire to get rich faster than others, they dragged in people they knew—parents, siblings, relatives, friends, classmates, and childhood companions—harming others and themselves alike in the pursuit of wealth. Many individuals rescued from pyramid schemes remained firmly convinced even upon their release that pyramid selling was the sole pathway to riches, occasionally even blaming their families for cutting short their path to prosperity. Furthermore, lacking any specialized skills upon re-entering society, and unwilling to work down-to-earth jobs while daydreaming constantly about making a fortune—how could vast fortunes be so easily acquired? Even if such fortunes existed, they certainly would not fall into the laps of the idle and lazy.

This clearly demonstrates that pyramid schemes bring profound harm. Countless tragedies across the nation saw families torn apart, marriages shattered, and lives ruined entirely because of pyramid schemes. Many individuals who spent prolonged periods inside these organizations suffered severe mental breakdowns or descended into madness, while others even lost their lives. Such bloody and agonizing lessons were numerous. Yet, there remained an endless stream of individuals who, refusing to work honestly, harbored fantasies of overnight wealth and continually walked into these traps, ultimately ending up destitute with empty hands and desolate futures.

Naturally, not everyone who entered a pyramid scheme did so voluntarily; some were deceived by family members, while others entered unknowingly—much like Su Jiayi—while still others stumbled in due to various external factors. Regardless of the reasons for entry, involvement in pyramid schemes was fundamentally unacceptable, unlawful, and constituted a form of organized criminal offense.

The pyramid scheme Su Jiayi had entered years ago belonged to this exact category. At the outset, she had no idea it was a pyramid scheme; possessing virtually no social experience or worldly wisdom, she drifted into it innocently and remained trapped inside for a full four years before accidentally discovering its true nature. Reading this, Xu Lang could not help but feel utterly speechless at the sheer obliviousness of this young woman—no, this adult woman, this mother.

According to Su Jiayi's recollection, their pyramid organization was neither referred to as an organization nor a company or enterprise, but rather a "home." More than a dozen of them lived together under one roof, overseen by a manager surnamed Qiu, whom everyone addressed as Manager Qiu or "Parent." At the time, this Manager Qiu was a youth in his twenties who personally managed Su Jiayi and the others. Above Manager Qiu stood the director, the rarely seen Director Wu. As for whether anyone stood above Director Wu, Su Jiayi's position within the scheme back then was far too low for her to know.

On a daily basis, the movements of Su Jiayi and the others were severely restricted. Manager Qiu forbade them from leaving freely; food, water, and daily necessities were delivered exclusively by designated personnel. Even when they had urgent matters requiring them to leave, Manager Qiu would assign several senior members to accompany them. Moreover, whenever they managed to lure an acquaintance into the fold, Manager Qiu and Director Wu would immediately separate the newcomer from the person who brought them. As to where the newcomers were taken, nobody knew. This was precisely what happened to Chen Zhi after Su Jiayi brought him in.

According to Su Jiayi’s recollections, eleven years ago, after Chen Zhi and Su Jiayi graduated from college, they maintained contact with each other. At that time, Su Jiayi was still unaware that her company was a pyramid scheme. She knew Chen Zhi was living alone in City S—wait, City G—with no relatives or friends, entirely isolated and desolate. Su Jiayi was in a similar plight, working entirely alone in City S.

When Chen Zhi called her to complain that he was unhappy with his job in City G and wished to change careers, yet hesitated because he could not immediately find new employment, Su Jiayi, who was likewise living alone, suggested that he come to City S. Having known each other in college and both working in unfamiliar cities, since Chen Zhi wanted a career change, he might as well come to City S. That way, the two could keep each other company, chat, and dispel their mutual loneliness.

Upon hearing Su Jiayi's proposal, Chen Zhi traveled from City G to City S. Su Jiayi met him at the station in person, arranged his accommodation, and spent several days showing him around City S’s famous scenic spots, treating him to local delicacies and taking him to the movies. Under Su Jiayi's warm companionship, Chen Zhi’s depressed spirits gradually lifted. It was during this time that Chen Zhi expressed his desire to remain in City S to work alongside Su Jiayi, an idea to which she naturally raised no objections.

Consequently, Su Jiayi introduced Chen Zhi into her company—which was, in reality, the pyramid organization. Because company regulations prohibited acquaintances from working together, Chen Zhi was led away by Manager Qiu and Director Wu to a different location immediately after entering the organization. As for where Chen Zhi was taken, Su Jiayi had no idea. She only overheard a conversation between Manager Qiu and Director Wu on one occasion.

The two men were discussing the fact that Chen Zhi refused to work there. Upon hearing this at the time, Su Jiayi remarked that if Chen Zhi was unwilling to work there, they should simply let him return. Manager Qiu and Director Wu readily agreed. Consequently, Su Jiayi assumed that Chen Zhi simply could not adapt to the company's environment, had decided against staying in City S, and had returned to City G to resume his career. Therefore, when Chen Zhi subsequently ceased contacting her, Su Jiayi found nothing strange about it.

It was only much later, after Su Jiayi realized the true nature of the pyramid scheme and was eventually rescued, that she finally understood why Chen Zhi had sought to leave shortly after arriving. Overwhelmed by a preexisting sense of guilt toward Chen Zhi, the discovery of the truth deepened her remorse, making her feel too ashamed to seek him out. Thus, the matter faded into oblivion.

Later, while living in City N, Su Jiayi happened to run into Liu Fang. Liu Fang was Chen Zhi’s sworn older sister, a fact known to everyone in their college class at the time. Consequently, after Chen Zhi went missing, Liu Fang had asked Su Jiayi if she knew of his whereabouts. Su Jiayi, somewhat bewildered at the time, replied that Chen Zhi had long since left City S and returned to City G for work.

Failing to obtain answers from Su Jiayi, Liu Fang pressed no further. For one thing, Su Jiayi was an exceptionally naive young woman—polite phrasing called it innocent, while harsher phrasing termed it dense or utterly oblivious; otherwise, she would not have spent four years in a pyramid scheme without realizing what it was. For another, the relationship between Su Jiayi and Liu Fang was merely that of ordinary classmates.

From that day forward, Su Jiayi lived her small, quiet life, and Liu Fang lived hers. Although Liu Fang, acting as a devoted sworn sister, occasionally attempted to track down Chen Zhi’s whereabouts, eleven years had slipped by without a single trace of him. Faced with the reality of her own life, Liu Fang eventually abandoned the search entirely.

Upon digesting these details, Xu Lang established several key points.

First, Chen Zhi had traveled to City S from City G of his own accord, contradicting earlier hypotheses by Xu Lang and the police that he had been murdered in City G and transported to City S for disposal.

Second, Su Jiayi was indeed the last acquaintance Chen Zhi saw, but she was neither present nor aware of the situation at the time of his death. Through his personal observation of Su Jiayi, investigations into her past, and testimonies from her relatives and friends, Xu Lang confirmed that she possessed a somewhat foolish, perpetually scatterbrained demeanor, leaving her with no plausible motive or reason to lie.

Third, the final profession Chen Zhi encountered was related to pyramid schemes, rendering it highly probable that his death was linked to the underground organization.

Fourth, police investigations and Su Jiayi’s recollections confirmed that Chen Zhi’s remains were discovered in City S, and his final recorded appearance was likewise in City S. This indicated that Chen Zhi was murdered within City S. As for the location of the primary crime scene, it remained unknown; even if discovered, investigating and gathering evidence after an interval of eleven years would prove immensely difficult.

Although ongoing police investigations and Su Jiayi's recollections cleared away several previous doubts, a cascade of new questions immediately surfaced.

First, who murdered Chen Zhi? Could the perpetrator be someone from within the pyramid scheme?

Second, what was the killer's motive? Was it robbery, a sexual assault, or an act of passion?

Third, what were the true identities and current locations of Manager Qiu and Director Wu, as mentioned by Su Jiayi? Did they bear any direct connection to Chen Zhi's death?

Fourth, if members of the pyramid scheme were responsible for Chen Zhi's murder, burying his body or sinking it into the ocean would have sufficed; why go to the lengths of dismembering the corpse, and why scatter the body parts across separate locations?

These emerging puzzles perplexed not only Xu Lang but every single member of the Second Serious Crime Investigation Squad. With half a month having already elapsed since Ning Yanran and her team took on the case, and the Lunar New Year fast approaching, the pressure weighing on everyone intensified dramatically.