Chapter Fifty-Four: Questions of Origin

Ning Shuyi nodded thoughtfully. “So this is another form of ‘it is harder to return to frugality after becoming accustomed to luxury’?”

“Exactly. Never having had anything does not cause much suffering. Having something and then having it taken away—that sense of gain followed by loss is what truly torments people.” Huo Yan tapped his fingers lightly against the case file. “That may be why Chang Junchao went from being able to endure to being unable to endure any longer.”

Ning Shuyi did not answer. Resting her chin in her hand, she thought in silence, then took out her notebook and went over all the scattered bits of information she had recorded earlier.

“What you said makes sense, but it still isn’t enough.” After a while, she looked at Huo Yan again. “You’re right. Deng Qingrong may have been exerting psychological pressure on Chang Junchao for all these years.

“Just as Zhang Guanghui was able to figure out in such a short time, Deng Qingrong did not dote on her son out of love. She treated him as a means of securing her old age.

“Having a mother like that must indeed have been terribly painful.

“When his mother finally left home, Chang Junchao was freed from that burden. But before he had enjoyed even half a year of relief, the ‘burden’ came running back on its own. That kind of departure and return, that pattern of gaining and losing, would certainly have deepened his suffering.

“But he was an honest man who had grown up without a single stain on his record. Apart from his female coworkers thinking he was a mama’s boy, and apart from going to work and then returning home every day to care for his mother, no one could point to anything else wrong with him.

“If someone like that had been subjected to a particular shock, causing all the emotions he had suppressed for years to erupt at once, sending blood rushing to his head until he stabbed his mother to death in a fit of rage, that would actually make more sense.

“Yet the case we have before us was handled with extraordinary calm at the scene. There is not the slightest trace of impulsiveness.

“The more calmly planned a murder is, the deeper the hatred it contains. That kind of hatred has gone beyond impulse. It does not drive someone to kill without regard for the consequences; it makes them carefully consider everything and still decide to do it.

“I keep feeling that all the cruelty Deng Qingrong inflicted on him is not, by itself, enough to reach that point.”

“Do you think there is another root cause behind it? For example, the questions surrounding Chang Junchao’s blood type and date of birth?” Huo Yan immediately understood what Ning Shuyi meant.

“Yes. As outsiders, we can tell that something is wrong when we look at the blood types of the three members of the Deng family. Whether Deng Qingrong and Chang Rong ever noticed anything unusual over the years—or whether they knew something was wrong but, for some reason, could neither raise the issue nor speak about it—is another matter.

“Zhang Guanghui became suspicious because her blood type was incompatible with those of her parents. Later, she learned from her adoptive parents that she had been adopted.

“Chang Junchao attended school for so many years that it is unlikely he lacked such basic knowledge. If Zhang Guanghui could notice the problem while she was still a student, there is no reason to assume he never wondered about it himself.

“On top of that, Deng Qingrong had been harassing Zhang Guanghui for much longer than we originally thought. Zhang Guanghui’s appearance at their door was merely the act of someone who could no longer endure it. Before that, Deng Qingrong had repeatedly contacted Zhang Guanghui, desperately trying to prove that they were mother and daughter.

“And none of those actions were hidden from Chang Junchao. That means there is a good chance he knew many details about Zhang Guanghui, including her date of birth.

“We have also realized that Chang Junchao’s blood type and date of birth do not make sense. No matter how healthy Deng Qingrong was, she could not have given birth to a third child only nine months after her second daughter was born. So the relationship between Chang Junchao and the Deng couple, as well as his own origins and background, must have been more than a matter of suspicion to us. He himself may well have wanted to get to the bottom of it.

“Especially when Deng Qingrong had brought him an oppression and suffering that seemed to have no end, perhaps discovering the truth about his origins became the only thing giving him the strength to go on.”

“Zhang Guanghui’s adoptive mother said that after giving birth to Zhang Guanghui, Deng Qingrong deliberately worked outside because she was trying so hard to conceal the fact that she had been pregnant and given birth. She suffered massive bleeding, was hospitalized, and underwent surgery, after which there was a risk that she would never be able to bear another child.” Huo Yan brought up what Zhang’s mother had said earlier. “So there really is something hidden here.”

“Think about it. It is easy enough to understand why Zhang Guanghui’s parents took her far away. They were afraid that if Deng Qingrong could no longer have children, she would try to get back the daughter she had lost.

“But why did Deng Qingrong and her husband also leave their hometown with the child? They had no roof over their heads and no land beneath their feet, yet they took the child to another place and wandered from city to city. When Chang Junchao was young, they even changed their place of residence frequently, only settling down in this city after he had grown older.

“Our investigation also showed that the social circle of the three of them was unbelievably narrow. They rarely interacted with outsiders, and they had no fellow townspeople with whom they maintained any contact. All of that is highly abnormal.”

“Chang Junchao’s background is probably not as simple as merely being someone’s illegitimate child or an adopted child, as in Zhang Guanghui’s case.” Huo Yan reached his conclusion.

“It seems we should contact the police bureau in Deng Qingrong’s hometown and find out what happened back then.” Ning Shuyi murmured, then asked Huo Yan, “If our speculation is correct, where do you think Chang Junchao is now?”

Huo Yan thought for a moment. “He should still be near the crime scene. He probably hasn’t gone far.

“Do you remember what that old man told us before?”

“Of course I do! How could I forget? That was the time we came up empty-handed and spent half the night waiting without seeing anyone!” It had happened only recently, so Ning Shuyi remembered it perfectly.

“I suspect he is somewhere nearby, in an elevated position.” Huo Yan proposed a highly audacious theory. “His original hiding place may have been on the roof of the building where the crime occurred.

“But after being disturbed, he changed locations out of caution. The new place would still have allowed him to keep watch over the area, so whether you and I were keeping vigil there that night or Luo Wei and the others were waiting for Zheng Chuan, the friend of the habitual thief Li Wei, Chang Junchao could avoid revealing himself completely.”

Ning Shuyi carefully recalled what the old man had told them that day, especially the part about his wife being frightened.

“It was the deliveryman!” After going over the old man’s story in her mind, Ning Shuyi suddenly understood. “The person the old man encountered in the corridor, knocking on doors upstairs, was not a real deliveryman at all. It was very likely Chang Junchao in disguise!

“With a helmet and a mask, and in the dead of night when the lights were out, even an old neighbor who knew him might not have been able to recognize him at a glance.

“I didn’t think much of it at the time, but now that I look back, that deliveryman’s behavior was extremely suspicious!”