Chapter 11

Chapter 11

I think I must have really gone mad.

For the next three days, I never left the house. Day and night, I searched for information.

Afraid my uncle might forget about it, I called him at least five times a day to hurry him along.

Not only that, I downloaded the few old photos of Bai Yanmei I could find online and found experts to restore them.

Rush job. Name your price.

I even set the restored photos as my screensaver, so I could see her every moment of the day.

I thought that if you dwelled on something by day, you would dream of it by night.

So why hadn’t she appeared in my dreams again?

If she would not come to me, then I would go find her.

Before dawn, I drove to the former site of the Cang City Second Machinery Factory residential buildings.

That night, while drinking with my uncle, I had heard him talk about the Second Factory’s “history.”

Thirty-two years ago, the Second Factory was ten kilometers outside Cang City. It was practically its own “small town.”

I remembered that when he got to this part, my uncle’s bulbous red nose grew even redder, and he said proudly, “Our factory was huge! Not only did we have our own hospital, we even had a kindergarten and an elementary school! Every afternoon when school let out, the whole area outside would be packed with kids. What does that tell you? It tells you our factory workers were good at making products, and even better at making the next generation!”

At the end of all that glory, only sighs remained.

After 1993, life at the Second Factory became harder and harder. Orders dwindled, and wages were delayed.

By 1995, the city began pushing for “strong enterprises to merge with struggling enterprises.” By the end of that year, the Second Factory had become a department under the First Factory, and quite a few employees were laid off.

That same year, the damned Second Factory leader, Manager Ma, fled overseas with a huge sum of money, ruining the lives of countless workers.

After the new millennium, the Second Factory was “sold off as a whole” and became a private enterprise.

Within a few years, the new private owner could not keep it going anymore. He decided to shut down the factory and sell off the equipment.

After more than thirty years of change and urban expansion, by 2025, the original Second Factory site had already been absorbed into the city’s new district.

Schools, shopping streets, and high-rise apartment buildings had been built here. Not the slightest trace of those days remained.

As for the scene of that murder case, Building No. 5 in the Second Factory Residential Area, I had asked my uncle for the exact location.

At the time, he had said drunkenly, “I think… it’s that public restroom in the garden?”

…

July rain came whenever it pleased.

I stood beneath a flowering tree and looked through the curtain of rain at the public restroom in the distance. For a moment, a thousand emotions surged through me.

Time was cruel. Reality was ironic.

I closed my eyes.

I imagined myself standing there thirty-two years ago, in the very same place. Bai Yanmei must have passed through here again and again. On the night she was killed, how terrified must she have been?

And now, who still remembered her?

Rain fell onto my face, chilling my tears.

Just then, two girls came out of the public restroom. Arm in arm beneath a single umbrella, they were chatting happily about something.

When they passed by me, both girls fell silent at the same time and looked me up and down from the corners of their eyes.

“Why is that guy staring at the women’s restroom like that? Is he sick or something?”

“Come on, let’s go.”

“After hot pot, let’s get our nails done on the third floor.”

“That place is too expensive.”

…

I wiped the rain from my face and ignored the two girls.

Suddenly, it was as if electricity had shot through my brain.

Just now, they had said the nail salon was too expensive. In Chinese, the word for “expensive” sounded exactly like the word for “cabinet.” Cabinet!

My heart began pounding wildly. Talk about wearing out iron shoes searching everywhere, only to find what you were looking for right under your nose. How had I forgotten about this?

I hurriedly pulled out my phone, opened my photo album, and found the photo of Bai Yanmei.

In the photo, she was standing in front of a rosewood cabinet!

For the past few days, I had gone to such lengths searching for Bai Yanmei’s family and begging my uncle for help, yet I had completely overlooked the clue right in front of me.

If that seller was selling the rosewood cabinet, then he had to have some connection to Bai Yanmei, one way or another!

I was just about to contact the seller when my uncle called.

“Yuanshan, didn’t you ask me last time to look into the whereabouts of the Bai Family?”

I raised an eyebrow. “You found something?”

My uncle said, “This person is the son of Bai Yanmei’s cousin, Qi Xin. He’s in the furniture business.”

I gave a cold laugh. Sure enough.

“Uncle, is his surname Lin?”

My uncle sounded puzzled. “How did you know?”

I turned and walked toward the parking lot. “I dreamed it.”

My uncle laughed. “His name is Lin Zhicheng. I’ll send you the address.”