WAM CH53

Ye Qing had a small habit: whenever something important came up, he would write down his schedule the night before and make a mark.

For example, October 24th was Zhou Weiping’s birthday. Ye Qing would draw a small circle above that date to indicate there was something to do that day.

When Zhou Weiping saw that familiar circle, his heart skipped a beat for no apparent reason.

“This is just speculation, and I don’t know if I’m overthinking it, but I always felt that he had no intention of taking his own life that day. Actually, back when I first heard of his death, I already found it strange. Even though it might sound a bit conceited to say this, I was certain he wasn’t that kind of person. He… anyone else might jump off a tall building, but not him. It couldn’t have been him.” Zhou Weiping had gotten up in such a rush earlier, slapping the light switch on with a sharp click without caring about anything else, even putting his slippers on backward.

“I suspect this wasn’t the last sentence he left before he died at all. The page after this one was torn out. We always thought the binding was just too old and poorly made, causing the pages to come loose…”

However, that wasn’t the case. It was simply missing the final page.

Because on the inside of the back cover, several lines of indentations still remained. They were clearly imprints left on the hard cardboard when he had pressed down too hard with his pen while writing.

By the time Gu Yanzhou and Shao Si left Yang Ze’s house, it was nearly one in the morning.

Gu Yanzhou stood at the doorway and nodded goodbye with utmost politeness: “Not a fourth person can know about the contents of our conversation today. Otherwise, on this exact day next year, I’ll come to your grave to burn incense for you, got it?”

“…” Yang Ze took a deep breath. “Just hurry up and leave. When the police come looking for me in a few days, I’ll cooperate.”

With that, Shao Si walked down the steps and gave him a wave: “Take care.”

Yang Ze stood silently at his front door, watching the two walk down the street one after the other, the streetlights stretching their shadows out long.

Shao Si didn’t like watching where he was going when he walked, so Gu Yanzhou kept having to grab him every now and then, yanking him by the collar and questioning: “Can’t you see the cars?”

“I’m just walking too earnestly.”

“No, you’re blind.”

Yang Ze turned back inside and shut the door. He kicked aside the wine bottles piled up by his feet, along with a half-empty bottle of water Shao Si hadn’t finished. Lying down on the sofa, he finally felt a wave of exhaustion and slowly closed his eyes.

“Save me.”

It was that ragged old man. He smelled somewhat foul, clearly suffering from poor hygiene. The shoes on his feet had split open in several places. His fingers dug into Yang Ze’s arm, prickling painfully.

Yang Ze furrowed his brows uneasily in his sleep.

“Save me.”

His voice was too loud, sounding almost mentally deranged, yet also as if he were deliberately trying to attract someone’s attention. Mixed in with all that rambling, he suddenly leaned in close and pleaded in a whisper: “Please help me take this thing out and hand it to the police. Please, you must give it to the police. We’ve been locked up in here for over thirty years… over thirty years…”

He clutched on so tightly, as if he had found a final lifeline.

Wang Shan arrived from outside with a group of men, letting out a sharp roar from afar: “What’s going on? Are you rebelling?! You lot, drag him away!”

“President Wang, he… there’s no way to drag him.” Several burly men stood helpless against a frail old man clinging desperately to the door panel. The old man looked skinny and weak, yet there was no telling where he got such strength from.

“What’s the point of raising a bunch of useless trash like you? If you can’t drag him away, chop his hands off! Do I need to teach you that too?!”

Lying on the sofa, Yang Ze’s breathing grew increasingly labored.

The final image froze on the wide, staring eyes of that man as he was beaten to death alive. Those eyes stared straight at him, the pupils bloodshot, as if holding countless words he wanted to pour out. Yang Ze finally broke out in a cold sweat and woke up screaming.

The hour hand pointed squarely at the ‘3’.

At three in the morning, Yang Ze gasped for air, staring at the ceiling. Then, he dragged himself up with difficulty, walked over to the table, and pulled open a drawer. Lying quietly inside was a yellowed piece of paper covered in stains.

Yang Ze slowly unfolded the paper. Written across it were densely packed… names.

It was a name list.

“These indentations,” the next day, Director Ou and Zhou Weiping sat in the lounge, using a magnifying glass to examine the cardboard cover bearing the pen imprints, “…even if we trace over them slowly with a pencil, they’ll be difficult to restore.”

Zhou Weiping remembered another matter and asked, “Wang Shan didn’t come today?”

“He hasn’t been here for a few days, nor has he contacted Yanzhou.” Based on their observations over the past few days, between Shao Si and Gu Yanzhou, Wang Shan favored Gu Yanzhou more. He even seemed to view Gu Yanzhou as a kindred spirit, showing a sense of mutual appreciation.

Shao Si had to hand it to him for that: “You’re pretty good at pretending to be a pervert.”

Gu Yanzhou patted him on the head: “What kind of blunt truth are you spouting?”

Director Ou studied the cover for a long while before finally setting down the magnifying glass: “This is going to be tricky. All of us assumed Ye Qing truly couldn’t bear the pressure and committed suicide, so we took a massive detour and risked probing Wang Shan’s underground operation. If we overturn our initial conclusion, meaning there was more to Ye Qing’s death and he didn’t commit suicide under oppression, it only proves that we went through all that trouble to circle around and pick the most dangerous path.”

“I think Mr. Zhou’s deduction might actually hold up,” Shao Si added. “In ’98, why would he choose to give up his life right after the country changed its policies and the harsh winter had finally ended?”

In 1998, the country had already removed the crime of hooliganism from the criminal law.

In fact, he only needed to wait a few more years; in 2001, under the third edition of the Chinese Classification and Diagnostic Criteria of Mental Disorders, homosexuality would no longer be classified as a mental illness.

Someone as resilient as Ye Qing had survived even the hardest times, yet in the very year he finally saw the dawn, he jumped off a building?

Just as everyone fell silent, someone knocked on the door a few times, and a production assistant’s voice rang out loudly from outside: “Is Shao Si in? You have an express delivery.”

“…An express delivery?”

Everyone in the room exchanged blank glances.

When Shao Si opened the door, the production assistant hurriedly handed him an envelope-sized package: “I’m not sure what it is either. A courier came by just now asking for Mr. Shao. I walked a circle with him looking for you, and since you weren’t around, I signed for it on your behalf first.”

After saying this, the assistant asked with a bit of curiosity: “Did you buy something online?” After all, very few actors shopped online and had packages delivered straight to the film set during production.

Shao Si took it and weighed it in his hand. It was extremely light, making no sound when shaken: “I didn’t buy anything. Is someone playing a prank on me…”

“Maybe a friend sent it over,” Shao Si patted the assistant’s shoulder and thanked him. “Anyway, thank you for the trouble.”

“No problem at all,” the assistant waved a hand. “I’ll head off first then. Get some good rest; the afternoon scenes are pretty heavy.”

Director Ou looked suspicious as well: “What is this? Who sent it?”

Shao Si shut the door and examined it repeatedly: “We’ll find out once we open it. Why is this thing so light?”

Shao Si tore open the seal without even looking inside, reaching his hand in to fish around for a moment before touching a piece of paper folded into a small square.

“This is…” Looking at the dirty, crumpled piece of paper, Shao Si couldn’t quite process it.

Ye Xuan stepped forward briskly and snatched it out of his hand, her fingers trembling slightly from nerves.

She couldn’t be more familiar with this piece of paper. Over all these years, she had flipped through Ye Qing’s journal back and forth countless times; whether it was the color of the paper or the ruled lines printed on it, she knew it inside and out.

Once the slip of paper was in her hands, she became even more certain.

…This handwriting belonged completely and undeniably to Ye Qing.

The paper was so wrinkled that the words on it were hard to make out clearly. After deciphering it for a few moments, Ye Xuan read out the first sentence at the top: “‘The harsh winter of the crime of hooliganism has passed. There is no longer any need to live in fear, nor any need to be threatened by others. We are free.'”

“And then?”

Ye Xuan said: “That’s it, just that one sentence. As for what’s underneath… I can’t really make sense of it, it looks like it’s all people’s names.”

Gu Yanzhou stood beside Shao Si, speaking only after a long pause: “It’s a name list.”

Before anyone could even open their mouth to ask who had sent this piece of paper, Shao Si slapped a hand onto Gu Yanzhou’s back to remind him: “Yang Ze!”

Last night, Yang Ze had claimed he didn’t know what it was and hadn’t taken it…

That statement had been an outright lie from start to finish.

Shao Si had studied behavioral psychology in his acting classes. Yet last night, he hadn’t caught the flaw in Yang Ze’s story at all.

The whole incident had happened in a split second: the old man stuffed the slip of paper into Yang Ze’s hand, and Wang Shan arrived right after upon hearing the commotion. In that brief window of time, there was zero room for thought. Yang Ze had only one option, which was to clench his fist and hide the paper. It was a subconscious reaction, the fastest and safest method.

Because he didn’t have the time to throw it away.

Wang Shan had appeared in Yang Ze’s line of sight mere seconds later.

Yang Ze had originally intended to keep this matter hidden, yet for some unknown reason, he had a change of heart midway through and decided to hand this crucial clue over to them.

“Let’s investigate this list. Perhaps the truth will come to light very soon.” Zhou Weiping said this partly to comfort everyone, though the moment the words left his mouth, he knew himself that things were moving in an increasingly complicated direction. Perhaps the truth… was far crueler than any of them had previously imagined. Or rather, the truth was already becoming clear, only no one was willing to admit it.

Gu Yanzhou said: “I’ll look into it. I have connections at the Public Security Bureau, so it’ll be easier for me to investigate.”

Director Ou asked quietly: “How many days will it take?”

“Three days at the fastest, or possibly several months at the slowest. After all, aside from the names, the only clue on this list is the ‘crime of hooliganism’, so we can only trace these individuals along that thread. It would be best if the people on this list had criminal records filed back then, though given how many years have passed, nothing is certain.” Finishing his thought, Gu Yanzhou pointed out sharply, “The situation is already very clear, we just don’t dare say it out loud. Aside from Ye Qing, none of the people listed here whom Wang Shan coerced using that charge back then likely escaped unscathed. Their fates might be even more outrageous, and nine times out of ten, Ye Qing was silenced by Wang Shan because of them.”

Because up until the very end, he had never given up hope.

Because even at the very end of his life, the words he set down on paper were: The harsh winter has passed, we are free.