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墨書 Inktalez
When those tragic lives are far away, we often feel no ripple of emotion. It's like knowing there is war in the Middle East, or that people are starving in Africa. But these things seem too distant, too removed from our own lives. Yet when a corpse is laid before Maliang, he feels death in a way he never has before.
Without any struggle, the person died right in front of him.
Maliang remembers that he was not the first to utter such words. He recalls men and women, old and young, all pleading: "That money is our family's lifeline, please."
Lifeline money?
Before this moment, Maliang had never paid much attention. He had heard it too many times; was it really lifeline money? Maliang didn’t know, or perhaps he didn’t want to know. He thought of that money as just something these people were playing with. How could seventy thousand be a lifeline? What could seventy thousand do in Dongxing City? Buy five square meters of a house?
Maliang comforted himself like this for three years.
But now, he could no longer find solace.
Maliang dreamed that his father jumped from a building, and he was terrified. He called his father, and during the call, his father assured him that everything at home was fine and not to worry. His father told him to work hard in the big city and not to learn bad habits from unsavory people.
"Okay," Maliang replied.
At that time, Maliang's family was very poor.
He had only eaten chips once. One day, while passing by the village store, he secretly hid a bag of chips in his clothes while his father chatted with the store's owner.
Not far down the road, his father heard the crinkling of the plastic bag. After discovering the truth, his father slapped him hard across the face. Then, he paid double the price back to the store. The store owner insisted it was fine; if the child wanted it, let him have it; they were all from the same village.
But his father firmly disagreed. He told Maliang that although they were poor, they did not steal or rob. "I’ve never been educated," he said. "I can't teach you much about learning, but I can impart to you the most basic principles of being a person. Remember this lesson for whatever you do in the future."
That bag of chips remained unopened by Maliang.
Maliang enrolled in Key High School and managed to get into a Second-Tier University. Although it wasn't a prestigious institution, his family was very happy. His father and younger siblings looked up to him as a role model.
But only Maliang knew that as a graduate from a second-tier university, coming to the big city meant he would hardly earn any money. His younger siblings still needed to go to school, and his father was gradually aging. The family's savings had been depleted just to get him through college. Maliang had to find a job that could earn money; he had to take on the responsibility of supporting his family.
After several failed interviews, Maliang felt disheartened. He questioned the purpose of his university education.
Then, an opportunity appeared before him.
On the surface, Maliang worked as a Real Estate Agent at a company, but in reality, he had been deceiving everyone.
This past month had been unbearable for him.
Maliang had kept a bag of chips, even though it had expired and gone stale over ten years ago. Despite its shriveled state, he never threw it away. For the entire month, he stared blankly at that bag. His father had always taught him to be true to his conscience in everything they did.
But in truth, Maliang hadn’t really absorbed those lessons.
Back then, Maliang secretly vowed that when he grew up, he would make money—lots of it. He would never let his son be unable to afford even a bag of chips and resort to stealing. He had to rise above it all—not for any particular reason, but because of the harsh gaze of the Store Boss who looked down on someone who would steal even chips. It pained him to see his father painstakingly digging out loose change from his pocket and counting it out for the Boss.
Maliang was terrified of being poor, so when he plunged into society, he was determined to earn money—desperately earn money.
He opened that bag of chips and took a bite. The stale, moldy taste was awful, yet Maliang felt it was the best chip he had ever eaten in his life. As he munched on those expired chips, he began writing a Suicide Note. He finally understood why his father had become the way he was.
Because one cannot deceive oneself.
Maliang was not inherently heartless; he had relied on indifference to numb himself. Yet his nagging conscience told him that he could not turn a blind eye. In his lengthy Suicide Note, he wrote about how envious he was of his Boss because his Boss truly embodied ruthlessness.
In a society that devours its own, only the most ruthless and cruel can survive.
Maliang had deposited his savings of two hundred thousand over three years into his father's bank account.
"Perhaps he will only realize it when he has to pay for my younger siblings' tuition. By then, I will have already taken all the sins and torment down to hell with me. I don't know what it feels like to jump off the rooftop; maybe I will finally have the chance to find out."
"There are still fifty thousand left, which I hope to donate to the Hope Project. I know my sins are deep, and this won't make up for anything. I'm leaving now, to atone for them."
So he donned the suit he wore to work and stepped onto the stage with his gold-rimmed glasses.
Perhaps in his final moments, Maliang experienced the feelings of that nameless person he could never identify.
Death may be the same, but how could emotions possibly be alike?
How much harm can poverty inflict on a child? Does it not weave a web of shackles in places that should be free? It breeds self-doubt and contempt within, turning him into a slave to money while blaming him for valuing it too much.
He just wanted a bag of chips.
After reading Maliang's suicide note, I found myself at a loss for words. For every pitiful person, there must be something despicable about them; for every despicable person, there must be something pitiful. Perhaps that is the truth. Maliang finally finished his tangled three years; I wonder if he felt regret and sorrow at the moment of his suicide.
But now that he is gone, let everything fade into the past.
What is right? What is wrong? Who is good? Who is bad? How can we easily distinguish between them? We are all ordinary people who can be both kind and evil in an instant.
I placed the suicide note on the table and said lightly, "Although he finished that expired bag of chips, the packaging is missing. This must be what was taken from him; there are no more clues in the room."
Gu Chen nodded and said, "There isn't much else to report, but seeing your changing expressions, don't think too much about it."
I replied, "I just have some feelings about it. It seems that every family has its own difficulties. I wonder how Captain Shao manages to remain unemotional in the face of all this. Does he ever feel sympathy for those criminals, like I do sometimes?"
Gu Chen scratched his head and said, "From what I know, I've never heard anyone say he's indecisive. He's much more decisive than you; if someone commits a crime, even if it's his mentor, he won't hesitate to arrest them."
"Mentor?" I asked in confusion.
"You didn't know?" Gu Chen glanced around at the other officers and continued, "I've only heard about it. There was a mentor who taught him how to shoot and solve cases. Captain Shao followed this mentor for four or five years. In the end, this mentor committed a crime because of his daughter or something like that, and Captain Shao ended up arresting him himself..."
I shook my head; perhaps this was the quality a detective should possess. I still had a long way to go to reach that level.
"Let's go," I said.
"Where to?" Gu Chen asked.
I tugged at my hair as I walked toward the door and said, "This case is becoming easier for this murderer. Do you know what the hardest cases are like?"
"The hardest cases?" Gu Chen stroked his chin thoughtfully. "The hardest cases would be those where the murderer meticulously planned everything for a long time, avoiding surveillance, creating perfect alibis, using methods that are hard to identify, and then hiding very well..."
"Is there really such a murderer in the world?" Gu Chen asked back.
I shook my finger and replied, "No, that's not the hardest case. The hardest cases often don't involve much thought or complex calculations. Imagine walking alone at night when suddenly someone stabs you from behind."
"He has no purpose, no motive; he just wants to kill." I looked at Gu Chen and continued, "You happen to be his target, and then he disappears into the city without committing another crime. There are no surveillance records, no identifiable motive, and no social connection with you at all. How are we supposed to catch him?"
Gu Chen furrowed his brows and said, "It seems like you have something to say."
I nodded, looking at the confused Gu Chen. "Previously, the Murderer would provide tools, like ******, ropes, and knotting techniques. But now, the Murderer offers nothing at all. There are no surveillance measures, no understanding of the motive; he has become increasingly cautious."
Gu Chen's eyes lit up. "Are you suggesting that he knows we are onto him?"
"What if he doesn't show up from now on?" I stared at Gu Chen. "How are we supposed to find him?"
"******?" Gu Chen pointed with his hand.
I nodded and replied, "Exactly. Ropes can be obtained from anywhere, but ****** is our biggest breakthrough. We must hold onto this point tightly; if we let it go, finding the Murderer will become nearly impossible. Those five ghosts must be interrogated again."
"By the way, we need to add another person to the background investigation of the deceased," I said while dialing Mary's number. "Mary, there's a deceased named Maliang who worked for a Real Estate Agent. Please check his background information. Also, look into the clothing company he worked for and see if there's any way to bring it down."
"Bring it down?" Mary didn't understand what I meant.
"Yes, it's a shell company that specializes in scamming franchise fees."
After hearing my words, Mary fell silent for a moment before saying, "Our country has 1.4 billion people. Do you know how many of these shell companies exist? Even if we uncover something, they just change their company name and continue their scams. With so many of them, how can you possibly manage?"
At Mary's words, I fell silent.
Human greed—how could it ever be managed?
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