L'amour est toxique

Chapitre 25

Zhou Lan thought about it.

“She said she is very happy and joyful now,” Zhou Lan said gently.

Did she say what made her so happy?

“She said she’d tell me when she got back. Oh, and she also asked me when I was getting married. I said it was still a long way off, around National Day. She said she’d bring the wedding gift money back with her this time she went home.” Zhou Lan smiled good-naturedly, but Jian Dongping could still detect a hint of disappointment in her words.

“Zhou Qin once mentioned a man to me, it seems that this man deceived her, are you aware of this?” He changed the subject.

“Of course I know,” Zhou Lan tilted her head and pouted, “My sister has suffered terribly because of that man.”

"what is going on?"

“Actually, it’s quite simple. That man was a gambler and a conman. My sister stole 5,000 yuan from home to pay off his gambling debts in order to please him. He took the money and ran away without returning a single penny, leaving my sister to be caught red-handed. The casino owner then arranged for her to work as a prostitute at a hair salon he knew. Luckily, my sister was quick-witted and managed to escape and report it to the police when they weren’t looking. After returning, she wanted to start a new life, but as you know, people in our area are very conservative. And since the incident happened in the center of our town, many people gossiped about her behind her back. Because of the 5,000 yuan loss, my mother later went to her school and scolded her. For a family like ours that isn’t well-off, 5,000 yuan is indeed a significant amount. Although my mother went a bit too far, looking back, it’s understandable.” Zhou Lan paused for a moment, then continued:

“My sister felt she couldn’t stay in her hometown any longer, so she left. She said she wanted to settle scores with that man. That man seemed to have told her about his plan, and my sister believed him, so she took a map to find him.” Zhou Lan suddenly thought of something. She took an envelope out of her pocket, pulled out a photo, and handed it to Jian Dongping. “Look, this is the man who deceived my sister. He’s very handsome. My sister said she would be willing to die for him.”

Jian Dongping immediately recognized the man in the photo as Su Zhiwen from six years ago. The tall, slender man was wearing a blue shirt, leaning against the door frame, gazing gently at the camera with a lazy smile on his face.

"Who took this photo?" Jian Dongping couldn't help but ask.

“It’s my sister. He gave her a camera and taught her how to take pictures.” Zhou Lan said with emotion as she looked at Su Zhiwen in the photo. “My sister took a lot of pictures of him. Back then, she would cry and cry every day with these pictures in her hand. It was so upsetting.”

"It's strange. If this man was intent on deceiving your sister, why did he let her take pictures of herself? Isn't he afraid that she might report him to the police or find him later?"

Zhou Lan shook her head blankly.

“My sister said that when that man was with her, he treated her very well and was very obedient to her. She didn’t expect him to leave so suddenly. So she probably wants to find him and ask him for an explanation.” Zhou Lan picked up the photo and shook it. “She gave me this photo so that I could remember what this person looked like, and if he ever appeared in town again, she wanted me to contact her immediately.”

"Did she find this man?"

“She didn’t say anything, and I stopped asking later because I was afraid of hurting her by bringing it up. My sister has had a tough few years. She used to want to go to university, live in a big city, marry a good man, and have a good life, but later…” Zhou Lan’s eyes reddened as she said this, and she didn’t continue.

Jian Dongping couldn't help but recall a passage from "My Absurd Journey".

He kept kissing me, kissing me after every word he spoke, so we always forgot what we were saying. After repeating a sentence three times, he would laugh, a laugh as clear as a stream under the sunlight.

I told him I'd never been with a man before, and he kissed me again, then whispered an apology in my ear. I said it was okay, I liked him, and he laughed again, telling me not to tell men I liked or loved them, or I'd be looked down upon. I asked him if he would look down on me. He said, "In my eyes, you're very, very light." Then he picked me up, put me on his lap, buried his head in my chest, and spoke. I couldn't hear what he was saying; I just felt myself floating.

He's unpredictable. Sometimes, his desires are intense; he's constantly wanting things from morning till night, like a madman. Other times, however, he's completely uninterested, not wanting to do anything, and even the slightest accidental touch will annoy him. He might yell "Get away! Get away!", but he never hits anyone.

Sometimes, he's impatient; he'll take a puff and throw it away, eat only a spoonful of rice and then stop, read two pages of a book and toss it aside. But sometimes, he's more attentive than a woman. The first night we met, he bathed me, washed my hair, and dried it for me. Then, he smiled and stroked my smooth hair, saying, "Little girl, do you like me? Will you always like me?"

You look at me for a while, then at the clouds; when you look at me, I'm far away, but when you look at the clouds, I'm very close. This is a poem he liked; I later learned it was written by Gu Cheng.

"Can you write poetry?" I asked him.

"No," he said, his tone cold.

But after a while, a few words he casually wrote down touched my heart.

"Do you remember, a long time ago?"

You once used a cold knife

A pale blue lotus flower was tattooed on my back.

That night, my pain

Your worries are something I can never forget.

Tattoo

Unfortunately, I only remember these few sentences.

He told me he'd been married and used to love his wife deeply, but one day she left him for another man, a classmate of his. He and his wife had always mocked him for being mercenary, but he never imagined she'd leave with him, just because he could help her go abroad. New York, she liked it there. She looked down on me. He once said, "Maybe all the women I love in this life will look down on me, and those who like me, I can't satisfy them." "I'm not a good person," he often said. "Actually, I'm not bad either," he'd immediately correct. He was that kind of person; everything he did felt natural, no matter how ugly or dirty the thing, it just felt different when he did it.

After Jian Dongping finished talking with Zhou Lan, he received a call from Ling Ge as soon as he got into the car.

"Jian Dongping, I found him." Ling Ge's sullen voice came from the other end of the phone.

"What did you find?" He seemed to see her dejected little face and couldn't help but smile.

“I found Zhou Jin’s luggage. It’s at No. 256, North Alley of the Station, at the Victory Hotel.” She paused, took a breath, and said in a lower, more subdued voice, “Jian Dongping, something must have happened to her, otherwise why would her luggage be there?”

Hearing this, Jian Dongping's heart sank, as if someone had thrown a weight at him and he hadn't caught it, causing him to fall heavily to the ground. Yes, if Zhou Jin's luggage was indeed found, then she was most likely in trouble. But he didn't want to add to her distress.

"Ling Ge, are you sure that's her luggage?" he asked.

"Of course, both large suitcases were full of her things."

"You've already opened it?"

“There was a locksmith right next to the restaurant. I showed him my ID and asked him to cooperate,” Ling Ge said in the tone of a policewoman.

It seems it really is Zhou Jin's.

What's inside?

“There are clothes, cosmetics, toiletries, three pairs of shoes, a Walkman, vitamin C tablets, a scarf, and underwear,” Ling Ge told him while counting the items in the box, “and a few issues of the weekly magazine ‘Letter’, and a copy of… ‘Lady’s House’.”

“Lady’s House?” Jian Dongping’s heart skipped a beat. “Quickly open it and see if there are any markings inside.”

"Wait a minute," Ling Ge said.

After a while, her voice rang out again. Jian Dongping held the copy of "Lady's House" he had bought, waiting for her reply.

“It’s marked. The first mark is on page 34; she underlined the entire second paragraph with a ballpoint pen.”

Jian Dongping immediately turned to page 34 and marked it with a pencil.

"The second mark is... on page 89, she underlined the third paragraph with a ballpoint pen. The whole paragraph." The sound of pages turning came from the other end of the phone. "And on... page 142, she put a star at the beginning of the second paragraph. Okay, that's it."

"Was there any little note tucked inside the book?"

"No," Ling Ge replied after a while.

"You found her mark so quickly, wasn't it a bookmark tucked inside the book?"

“She folded the corners of those pages.” Ling Ge’s voice sounded weak. After a while, she added, “There was only an invoice tucked inside the book. It was an invoice for the book, bought at the bookstore.”

"The date the book was purchased should be on it."

“It was March 2nd,” Ling Ge said weakly.

“Okay, Ling Ge, what you need to do now is make a detailed list of everything in her box and then send it to me via email.”

"Um."

"Be sure to be very thorough. Also, don't forget to carefully check every corner of the box, especially the compartments."

"I know, I know, it's not like I'm a new cop!" Ling Ge said impatiently, then asked, "So what are we going to do with these two big boxes now?"

“Once you’ve finished making the list, report the whole thing to Uncle Lin. They can handle the suitcases. By the way, did you question the shop owner?” “Of course I did. The shop owner said Zhou Jin booked the room on May 4th, and on the afternoon of May 7th, around 3 pm, she came to check in with two suitcases. Zhou Jin said she bought a train ticket for the next morning and would be staying at the hotel for one night. The shop owner led her to the basement, where all their rooms were. Zhou Jin put her suitcases away and left the room after a short while. Before leaving, she paid for the room for one day and told the shop owner that she would come back after dinner, but she hasn’t shown up since.” Ling Ge seemed to be reading from her notebook. Jian Dongping couldn’t help but smile again, thinking of her chubby hands holding the notebook.

"What clothes was she wearing when she left?" he asked.

“I asked about that too. She was wearing men’s clothing. She came in men’s clothing and didn’t change when she left. Didn’t I say that she practically put down her suitcase and left?”

"So, when she came to book the room on May 4th, she must have been wearing women's clothing."

"Yes," Ling Ge answered confidently, indicating that she had asked the same question before.

"Did the shop owner ask her why she was wearing men's clothes?" Jian Dongping felt that they must have talked. Zhou Jin was very good at using her feminine charm to get close to shop owners like this, a mark left by her years of wandering. She knew how to use flirting, coquettishness, and eye-catching gestures to get what she needed, including small conveniences in life, cheaper prices, and useful information and advice.

Ling Ge coughed a few times.

"Why are you coughing?" He couldn't help but feel a pang of anxiety.

"Um, it's nothing, I just choked," she explained, then continued, "The shop owner had spoken to Zhou Jin, and he had a deep impression of her. When Zhou Jin came to stay at the shop on May 7th, the owner didn't recognize her at first because she was wearing men's clothing. Later, Zhou Jin took off her wig in front of him, and that's when he recognized her. Zhou Jin even asked the shop owner, 'You really don't recognize me?' The shop owner said he really didn't dare to. The owner asked her why she was wearing men's clothing, and she said she was playing a 'recognition or not' game with someone. When she left, she asked the shop owner again, 'You really don't recognize me?'"

Do you recognize this game? It's very interesting.

"Anything else?" Jian Dongping asked.

"Zhou Jin made a phone call in his room before leaving. I don't know who he called, but judging from the time, it was probably to the Shen family."

What time did Zhou Jin leave?

"The shop owner said it would be around 3:30. When she left, she asked the shop owner if there was anywhere nearby to make long-distance calls."

"Hotels should all have long-distance calling facilities. Doesn't the one she's staying at have one?"

"The shop owner said he could make long-distance calls from here, but Zhou Jin just smiled at him and left. The shop owner saw Zhou Jin turn into a small alley not far away; there's a phone booth there. Zhou Jin didn't make a long-distance call from the shop, and the owner was quite unhappy about it. I wonder who she was going to call?" Ling Ge paused here and asked, "How's it going on your end?"

"I'm going to wander around Zhou Jin's middle school area later." Jian Dongping planned to walk from Zhou Jin's middle school to Tongqing Road. He wanted to figure out what Zhou Jin meant by "turn left three, turn right four, a bottle of 7UP plus two packs of Double Happiness". He believed that as long as he figured out the meaning of this code, he could find the meeting place on Xincheng Road, and maybe even find Zhou Jin. He didn't know if she was dead or alive... Thinking of this, his heart sank again.

"Jian Dongping, do you think Zhou Jin might already be dead?" Ling Ge asked worriedly.

“I don’t know, and I hope she’s alright, but it seems…” He didn’t want to add to Ling Ge’s psychological burden, so he didn’t finish his sentence. Instead, he changed to a more affectionate tone, “Xiao Ge, I’ll be back soon. I think I’ll be there by tomorrow evening.”

"Ah! Really?" A surprised whisper came from the other end of the phone. Jian Dongping felt a pang of sadness. Ling Ge was waiting for him to come back. Although she hadn't said it, she must have felt very lonely living alone in that dangerous, upscale house. Moreover, ever since that incident on her first night at his house, he felt her attitude towards him had changed. She probably knew what was going on, but he really didn't want her to guess. Please, Rouyuan, don't guess. These things can't be guessed. If you keep guessing, I'll just kill myself.

Actually, he has changed. He knows himself very well, but he doesn't want to think about it anymore.

"Only you and I know I'm back, so don't tell anyone else. I'll be staying out temporarily, and I'll call you when I do." He then added gently, "I'll bring you some good food."

"Yes, yes. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone." Her mood seemed to lift, and she laughed on the other end of the phone.

At 1:30 a.m., Ling Ge quietly got out of bed, walked barefoot to the door, and gently opened a crack to look into the corridor. It was pitch black and quiet there, with only a few rays of moonlight shining through the small wooden window at the end of the corridor illuminating the wooden floor.

Ling Ge gently opened the door and went out. The corridor was eerily quiet. Her heart was pounding, and her legs were trembling slightly. This was the first time she had ever sneaked into someone else's room in the middle of the night. Although she was scared, she knew that Jian Dongping must have his reasons for asking her to do this, and she didn't want him to look down on her, so she had to do it. As she closed her own bedroom door, she kept telling herself, "It's okay, they're all asleep, they're all asleep. It'll be over soon."

Yushan still wasn't home tonight. After dinner, she overheard Yushan whispering to Zhang Yufen in the kitchen, "Auntie, could you help air out the blankets tomorrow morning? I'm coming back to stay with Xiangbing tomorrow night." For the past two nights, Ling Ge had tried to open Yushan's door late at night, but it was always locked. After hearing Yushan's conversation with Zhang Yufen today, she felt her chance had come. She wondered if Yushan wanted Zhang Yufen to air out the blankets the next day, would she leave the door unlocked? Thinking this, she decided to try again that night.

She tiptoed quickly to Zeng Yushan's room next door, glanced around first, then, her hand trembling, placed on the doorknob. She felt her breathing quicken and her palms sweat. "Hurry! Hurry! What are you hesitating for?!" she urged herself, her hand unconsciously turning the doorknob, which surprisingly opened smoothly. Ah, it wasn't locked after all. She was both excited and nervous. She glanced around again, then slowly pushed the door open. When the crack was wide enough for her to slip in, she slipped inside.

The room was quiet and dark. Using the moonlight streaming through the window, she found the phone on the bedside table. Quick, quick, quick, finish the task and end this. She walked to the phone and quickly dialed her cell phone number. As instructed by Jian Dongping, she had already placed her phone in her bag and zipped it up. After the call connected, she put down the phone and listened intently. Nothing, absolutely nothing. No… wait, there was something, but it was very, very faint, extremely faint. She had to strain to hear it. If she wasn't paying attention, she couldn't hear it at all. This must be because it was nighttime; she certainly wouldn't hear anything during the day.

She hung up the phone, went to the door, and just as she opened it to leave, she heard a noise in the hallway. Someone was going to the bathroom? She quickly closed the door, thinking she'd been quiet enough, but oh no! Oh no! The footsteps didn't seem to be going to the bathroom; the bathroom was at the other end of the hallway, next to the window. No, if that person wasn't going to the bathroom, where could they be? Oh no, the sound seemed to be getting closer. She frantically took several steps back. What to do now? What to do? Who was that? Would they come to this room? Or perhaps to my room? Afraid of making noise when she went back, my room was still slightly ajar, not fully closed, and I wasn't there. And the bathroom… if no one was there either… Her heart was pounding. Suddenly, she heard the doorknob turn. Without thinking, she quickly hid under the bed.

She saw Yu Shan's door slowly open, the sound very soft. In the moonlight, she saw a figure slip in. The person didn't turn on the light and moved very quietly. She stood in the middle of the room, seemingly listening for something. Ling Ge covered her mouth with her hand. She couldn't bear to think what if this person suddenly bent down to look under the bed? What should she say? She was on the verge of tears, but kept reassuring herself, "No, no, no."

The person stood there like a puppet for a moment, then walked towards the bed. Ling Ge instinctively crawled back. Was she going to look under the bed? She felt like she was suffocating, but unexpectedly, the person sat on the edge of the bed, opened the bedside table drawer, and began rummaging through it. What was she looking for? Who was she? Ling Ge could only see the person's slippers—a pair of woolen slippers with plastic soles, the kind worn in the bedroom. These kinds of slippers were everywhere in the house; Zhang Yufen had knitted many pairs, probably one or two pairs in each room, even in her current room. The person rummaged through the bedside table drawer but didn't seem to find what she was looking for, then opened the wardrobe, and then the dressing table.

What is this person looking for? The sheet is too short; if she moves, she'll be discovered. She can't climb out to look. What should she do? Ling Ge thought anxiously.

Just then, her hand accidentally touched something in her pajama pocket—a piece of chewing gum. Tonight's dinner was barbecue, and as instructed by Grandma Shen, Zhang Yufen had given everyone a piece of chewing gum at the table. She hadn't eaten any after dinner and had put it in her pajama pocket, intending to chew it before going to bed.

Chewing gum? Ah, right! Jian Dongping once told her that when he was a child, he would stick chewing gum on the floor in front of the communal kitchen cabinet, which led to him catching a neighbor who was stealing Jian's braised pork because the thief had chewing gum stuck to his shoes.

The person seemed completely focused on what she was looking for and didn't notice anything happening in the room. Ling Ge carefully unwrapped the chewing gum, put it in her mouth, and chewed it a few times. Ling Ge guessed that if the mysterious person didn't find what she was looking for in the dressing table, they would probably search the bedside table on the other side of the bed. Luckily, Yu Shan's bed was big enough. She carefully adjusted her position, then stretched out her arm and stuck the chewed gum to the front of the bedside table. She didn't know if the person would come over; she could only rely on luck.

One minute, two minutes, three minutes... tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock...

Ling Ge waited anxiously, and finally, the person came over. She went to the bedside table, opened the drawer, and Ling Ge saw that her shoes were stepping right on the chewing gum. Her heart pounded with excitement.

"ah……"