Chapter 14
Chapter 14
Liang Anping died in a pool at the psychiatric hospital.
The hospital staff obtained Song Tangyan’s phone and opened the contacts, only to find a single entry:
“Beloved.”
They called this supposed beloved. A man answered.
That man was Tang Shaoxuan.
“Hello? Are you a relative of Mr. Liang Anping?”
“No. What happened to him?”
“Mr. Liang Anping has passed away.”
“What does his death have to do with me? I don’t run a funeral home. Do you expect me to bury him?”
“But…”
“There is no but. You should call a funeral home, have them collect the body, and cremate it instead of wasting my time.”
“…”
“Fine. Since he was a bed partner I found reasonably satisfactory, I’ll be generous and spend a thousand yuan on a better urn.”
“Nothing more. Don’t call me again.”
Beep. Beep. Beep.
“Forget it. Have someone take the body away.”
…
After Liang Anping’s death, the gay conversion center was reported to the authorities. Boss Lu and his lackeys were sentenced to death for murder and executed immediately. The other people at the center received prison terms ranging from five to ten years for covering up the crimes.
The gay conversion center was forced to close.
The case rose to number one on the Weibo trending list and remained there for more than three months.
Countless people sympathized deeply with what Liang Anping had endured and spoke out on his behalf. Even when dissenting opinions appeared, they soon fell silent and vanished without a trace.
Liang Anping’s university released a statement on Weibo expressing sorrow and anguish over his death. It stressed: “Love is not divided by gender; gender distinguishes restrooms. We should respect and protect people like them, and learn from this tragedy.” The message gave many people pause.
Liang Anping’s students posted across Weibo, Qzone, and WeChat Moments to commemorate their beloved Professor Liang.
…
While investigating the case, the police followed the evidence to the Tang family and uncovered repeated instances of tax evasion. They brought the Tang family to court.
At first, the family flatly denied that the gay conversion center belonged to them. The allegations of tax evasion, they insisted, were even more absurd: pure fabrication.
Then Old Wang, or rather Officer Wang now, produced the evidence. Only then did they fall silent, unable to offer a single word in reply.
Tax evasion and secretly operating a gay conversion center would not, on their own, have earned Tang Shaoxuan’s mother a death sentence. But the police used those offenses to uncover more than thirty old cases, large and small. Eighteen involved loss of life.
Together, those eighteen cases had claimed more than a hundred lives.
Heaven’s justice turns in its cycle. Good and evil both receive their due.
Commit enough evil, and eventually the wheel carries you to the execution ground.
With its head gone, the Tang family soon collapsed.
Tang Shaoxuan and his father moved out of their villa and into a dilapidated rental. The two fought constantly, with one enormous argument every three days and a smaller one every five, turning the place upside down.
Then, one night, Tang Shaoxuan failed to come home. His father didn’t bother wondering why. He took the money and ran off with his mistress, stripping the house bare.
As it happened, Tang Shaoxuan had broken up with his girlfriend that same night. Someone pulled a sack over his head, beat him, and abandoned him in a suburban park to freeze until morning.
By the time someone rescued him and he made it home the next day, his father and the mistress had vanished without a trace.
Blind with rage, he charged straight out of the apartment complex, determined to catch the wretched pair.
But as the saying goes, when your luck turns bad, everything you do goes wrong.
The moment he stepped through the gate, a car with failed brakes struck him and sent him to the hospital.
…
Late that night, Tang Shaoxuan lay pale-faced in a hospital bed with an oxygen mask over his mouth. The room was deathly silent except for the steady beeping of the machines.
At that moment, a stranger entered from outside. After murmuring something under his breath, he gently moved Tang Shaoxuan’s oxygen mask aside.
…
By the time anyone discovered him, Tang Shaoxuan’s body had gone cold.
Strangely, the surveillance cameras had recorded no one entering the room. In fact, they had captured nothing unusual from beginning to end.
Perhaps heaven had lent a hand and the police couldn’t be bothered to investigate. Or perhaps, by some twist of fate, the stranger truly possessed power beyond imagining.
Whatever the truth, the case was ultimately blamed on malfunctioning hospital equipment. The hospital paid a fine, and the matter was closed.
The story nevertheless caused an uproar on Weibo, where one theory after another spread like wildfire.
Meanwhile, at the Qian family villa:
“Is everything taken care of?” Qian Mu sat at his desk, fingers rattling over the keyboard. Without looking up, he asked, “Are you certain doing this won’t damage your virtue?”
“For the moment, the Underworld still answers to me. Young Master Qian has nothing to worry about.” The man lounged before Qian Mu’s display cabinet, studying one of the containers inside with interest before glancing back at him.
“Well, Qian, I never expected your collection to contain anything that could just barely catch my eye. Not bad.”
“Speak properly.” Qian Mu finished his work, gave the man an impatient look that plainly said either state your business or get out, closed the computer, and stood. “Since you helped me, take whatever you want.”
“Since when were you this generous?” The man opened the cabinet, removed an ordinary-looking box, and handed it to Qian Mu.
“Are you sure you don’t want to bring him back? This box could return him to the mortal world.”
“Yegui, he wouldn’t want to come back.” Qian Mu took the box from Lin Yegui, returned it to its place, and locked the cabinet. Then he said something Lin Yegui couldn’t understand.
Qian Mu offered no explanation. “Doing things like this too often will harm you. Even if you rule the Underworld, you still have to obey the laws of nature… Letting Tang die a few hours early has already brought a backlash upon you. Returning someone to life would be far worse.”
“All right. Since this is the first time you’ve ever shown such concern for me, I won’t insist.” Lin Yegui glanced toward a certain spot but said nothing more. He patted Qian Mu on the shoulder, then went downstairs to find Lou Jin.
Qian Mu was left alone in the study.
“…Anping, you’ll understand me, won’t you?”
“Mumu! Come downstairs. It’s time to eat!”
The man in the study left. Only then did the underworld constable behind the soul floating in midair tug at his sleeve. The soul lingered another moment before saying reluctantly, “Let’s go. It really is time for me to leave.”
The Following Year – Qingming Festival
“Anping, it’s Qian Mu. Liao Jun and I came to see you.”
“Are you doing well over there?”
“Listen, that gay conversion center where you were held was reported. The police arrested everyone involved. An old man was the one who turned them in.”
“I think his surname was Wang.”
“Anyway, you’ve been avenged. Live well over there. If you need anything, remember to tell me in a dream.”
“All right. I have something to do, so I’m leaving.”
…
“You brat. It’s your Uncle Wang.”
“I avenged you and the Song girl.”
“By the way, my true identity is that of an undercover police officer. I worked at the gay conversion center partly to expose their crimes and partly for revenge.”
“Not only for you and the girl. For Yangyang too. And for my late spouse.”
“I avenged all of you. You can rest easy now.”
“I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you.”
“Live well over there. If you see my spouse, please give them my regards.”
“I should go. I won’t disturb you any longer.”
How absurd, to call one person the love of a lifetime,
only to leave them wandering alone.