Chapter 7
Chapter 7
One morning at breakfast, Tang Jing asked me about something she’d been considering: the segment about me in the town’s new promotional video would only be a few minutes long. The play I’d adapted was wonderful, and it seemed a shame to show just a brief excerpt. She wondered if I’d allow the whole performance to be posted first on the TV station’s public social account.
After all, it was a major TV station. Even if the original author came knocking, they’d still have to defer to the station’s authority. It wasn’t as if any so-called readers or fans making a fuss could rattle them. In this business, what you fear most is a lack of buzz; even backlash or criticism means you’ve caught attention. I had no objections. I wanted more people to see the play-and that ending-as well.
The shadow puppet sequence was nearly done, so Tang Jing and Lu Ning had started focusing on other local scenes and customs. Ge Wei still came to my room under cover of night. I went from resisting, halfheartedly, to finally giving in.
I kept telling myself I had no choice-this was just a deal I couldn’t escape. My surrender was the price for getting more of her secrets, all those things connected to him.
The adapted shadow play, “Molding the Bodhisattva,” did cause a bit of a stir when it went live on the station’s account. The names and the ending had all been changed. Some people called it plagiarism, some said it was just borrowing ideas; several blamed the TV station for failing to respect copyright as mainstream media. Others argued that the ending I wrote felt even more fitting than the original.
Some even speculated that I might be collaborating with that young writer to create drama and buzz.
The guesthouse felt oddly different from previous winters. Normally, the snow would always draw a few southern tourists eager for the scenery. But this year, the snow was especially fierce, with roads regularly blocked-cutting off every last visitor. Aside from the TV crew that made it during a break in the weather, no one else showed up.
White, suffocating silence pressed down around us, as if something turbulent was building beneath the stillness.
I’d thought I was being drawn into a show, but now I realized: I was actually a chess piece in someone’s game. The answer was right in front of me, just out of reach. Though my mind felt eerily calm, what truly unsettled me was still that corpse.
Who was the person who’d died?
A name surfaced inside me, but I forced it back down.
In the end, it was the police’s return visit that revealed the truth.
This time, twice as many officers came. Word got around that a Joint Investigation Team had been formed in the town.
A gentle-faced policewoman slid a photo across the table. “Do you recognize him?”
I glanced at the photo, briefly shocked. He was exactly one of the people I’d had in mind. Although we hadn’t seen each other in years, my hatred for him was etched in my very bones. I tried to act casual, but my tightened shoulders betrayed me. The name slipped out-almost forced through clenched teeth: “Yes. Shi Jianmin.”
“How are you connected?”
“I once thought we were husband and wife.”
“You thought?”
“Yes. He tricked me into a sham marriage-he only married me to get himself a convenient housekeeper. The marriage certificate was fake. So we were never really married; the law doesn’t recognize it.”
“And after that?”
“When I discovered his repulsive true colors, I secretly left Bei Village.”
“You were swindled like that-didn’t you make a fuss?”
“I wanted to, but I knew nobody would stand up for me. In the end, I’d be the one to lose. I just wanted to get as far away from that family as I could. I considered those years a total waste.”
“Did you ever contact him again after that?”
“No.”
“Are you sure? Think carefully before you answer. Did you really have no contact?”
“I never reached out.” I shook my foggy head. “I left Bei Village when I was thirty-three. It’s been ten years, and I never saw him again.” I looked up, feigning confusion. “Did… Did something happen to him?”
“We’ve confirmed it-the body found on Wild Mountain was Shi Jianmin.”
“How could that be?” My emotions spun out of control, my voice shooting up in pitch.
“And why couldn’t it be?” The male officer beside her suddenly cut in, his gaze sharp and unyielding.