Chapter 12
Chapter 12
“Officer Dong, I don’t follow you.”
He stretched, loosening up his muscles.
“Mr. Lin, you’re a smart man. You know exactly what I mean. Don’t you want to know the truth about what happened back then?”
I remained silent.
He continued to chip away at my psychological defenses.
“What if the person who died back then was Fang Chuan? If that’s the case, it means your father is still alive. Don’t you want to see him again?”
If my father were still alive, I certainly wanted to see him. I wanted to ask him what really happened all those years ago.
I wanted to ask him why he had stayed in hiding for so long.
I wanted to ask him why he didn’t even come back to see my mother one last time when she died.
Furthermore, I still didn’t believe my mother would have actually killed my father.
But if my mother had been coerced into joining Fu Mingshan’s gang and had killed this Fang Chuan, that would be understandable, wouldn’t it?
What if, before the explosion back then…
My father and mother had already conspired together?
What if my father found a reason to have Fang Chuan put on his work uniform and wear his ID badge to go down the shaft just for show, while he found an excuse to leave?
Then wouldn’t the person killed in the blast be Fang Chuan?
This would also explain why my mother was so calm after seeing the body, and why she was so eager to hide the ashes as soon as the funeral was over.
Dad, Mom, what did you two really go through back then?
What could have pushed you both to such extremes?
One forced to commit murder, the other forced to live under a false identity for all these years?
“The reason your mother never left the county was because she was afraid the person she was waiting for wouldn’t be able to find her. She even used her real name for the supermarket-isn’t that obvious enough?”
“All the questions you have now can only be answered by finding your father. Find him in person, or find his ashes.”
“Besides, your mother is already dead. Regardless of whether she actually killed anyone back then, there won’t be any legal consequences for her. But your father… he really might still be alive.”
I raked my stiff fingers through my hair with force.
“Yes… my mother did say back then that my father was still alive.”
Once, during a mock exam in high school, I had performed exceptionally well and ranked first in my class.
The school even gave me a certificate of merit.
I wanted to surprise my mother.
After school on Saturday, I bought a bus ticket home. Carrying my certificate and some local specialties from the city, I took the bus back to our hometown in the county alone.
Since the provincial capital wasn’t close to the county, it was nearly ten o’clock by the time I arrived home.
My family’s small supermarket hadn’t closed yet.
Excited, I wanted to see my mother right away.
Then I saw a man coming out of our supermarket, and my mother was seeing him to the door.
The man was wearing a peaked cap. It was dark, and I couldn’t see his face clearly.
After walking a few steps, he seemed to remember something. He leaned in close, his head nearly touching my mother’s, as he whispered something to her.
When he finished, the man patted my mother on the shoulder. Their behavior was intimate.
My mother even held him and cried for a good while before they parted.
At the time, I assumed my mother had found another man.
I knew she had lived a hard life all these years; if there really was a man who could take care of her, it would be a good thing.
But I was only a high school student back then.
The blow of my father’s death hadn’t yet passed.
When I got inside, I tore that certificate of merit into tiny pieces and angrily demanded to know who that man was.
I asked when the two of them had started their affair.
I pointed at my father’s funeral portrait and interrogated her in a rage.
“Who the hell was that animal just now? I hope he gets hit by a car and dies in a minute!”
“If you’re going to hook up with a man, can’t you do it somewhere else? Is it appropriate to do this right in front of my father?”
My mother slapped me.
I wanted to keep shouting, but before I could, she slapped me again.
Finally, her lips trembling, she said, “That man was your father. Don’t you dare call him an animal again.”
I was completely stunned.
Wasn’t my father dead?
“I don’t believe you.”
“I swear, if that man wasn’t your father, may I die a horrible death.”
She swore a series of vicious oaths, one after another.
In the end, she was shaking so hard from anger that she nearly fainted.
At that time, I barely managed to believe her. I, too, came to believe that the man was my father.
I asked her, if that man was my father, then who was the person who died in the mine shaft?
She didn’t tell me much.
She only said there was something wrong with Mingshan Mining-something majorly wrong.
That day, my father had wanted to quietly gather evidence, so he had a friend wear his clothes to act as a distraction.
As it turned out, the mine exploded, and that man died.
The mine explosion wasn’t an accident; Fu Mingshan had wanted to kill him to silence him.
This story was similar to the analysis Officer Dong had given-the man being the one he called Fang Chuan.
The only difference was that my mother said the explosion was orchestrated by Fu Mingshan.
Officer Dong suspected the explosion was orchestrated by my mother.
“Then why doesn’t Dad come back?”
“Your father can’t come back. The people from Mingshan Mining have been looking for him. Once he has gathered all the evidence, he will definitely come back.”
“Then why won’t Dad see me?”
“You’re still young. Your parents don’t want these things to disturb you. Once your father has all the evidence, he will definitely meet with you.”
“Then why not just call the police?”
“Mingshan Mining is the pillar industry of our county, even a leading enterprise in our city. Without enough evidence, how can we convict them? If we alert the enemy, many things will never be discovered.”
“I still don’t believe it.”
“Next Friday, I’ll have your father go to your school so the two of you can meet.”