The photograph in the newspaper wasn't clear.
A white coat had been spread out on the muddy ground along the riverbank.
There was a dark red stain on the right cuff.
The left pocket had been dyed so thoroughly by muddy water that its original color was impossible to make out.
Only the inside of the collar had been deliberately turned outward.
The three words left behind in black marker were still clear even after being rephotographed.
Zhou Yuheng.
Xu Zhiqing stared at the name.
“This coat is yours?”
“No.”
Zhou Yuheng answered quickly.
“I've never worn this coat.”
“Then why was your name inside it?”
He didn't answer.
His eyes remained fixed on the date printed on the newspaper.
Five years ago.
The third day after Lin Yao disappeared.
The police had found the bloodstained white coat by the riverbank.
If the coat in the report was the one Su Yanxi had lost that night, that meant it had appeared by the river after Lin Yao disappeared.
There hadn't just been blood there.
Zhou Yuheng's name had also been left behind.
“Do you know about this news story?”
Xu Zhiqing asked.
“No.”
“After Lin Yao disappeared, you didn't look for him?”
“At the time, I didn't even know he was missing.”
Zhou Yuheng spoke in a low voice.
“After the gathering ended, I thought he'd simply left the group of friends.”
“Weren't you friends?”
“We used to be.”
“Used to be?”
Zhou Yuheng was silent for a few seconds.
“We lived in the same dorm in college.”
Xu Zhiqing froze for a moment.
She had never heard the name Lin Yao before.
Five years ago, she and Zhou Yuheng had been together for two years.
She knew his college friends and had met several people who had started businesses with him.
But Lin Yao had never appeared in any of his stories.
“Why didn't you ever tell me about him?”
“Because we'd fallen out a long time ago.”
“Over what?”
“One person.”
Zhou Yuheng closed the email notification.
“Su Yanxi.”
The sky outside had already darkened.
Only a few lights remained on in the corners of the office.
Xu Zhiqing looked at him.
“You just said you didn't know what kind of relationship she and Lin Yao had.”
“I didn't know they had stayed in touch.”
“So they knew each other before.”
“More than that.”
Zhou Yuheng's voice grew lower and lower.
“Lin Yao used to pursue her.”
Xu Zhiqing didn't speak immediately.
The situation was like a rope hidden beneath the surface of the water.
Only now was it being pulled out, inch by inch.
Every person she had thought was unrelated to the others had been tied together long ago.
“When was this?”
“Sophomore year.”
“You liked Su Yanxi back then too?”
“No.”
“Then why did you fall out?”
Zhou Yuheng looked out the window.
“Lin Yao was very good at photography. He took on a lot of event photography jobs back then and often photographed his friends.”
“One time, he included photos of Su Yanxi in his portfolio.”
“She didn't agree to it?”
“She agreed at first.”
“What happened afterward?”
“After that series was selected for an off-campus competition, she suddenly said Lin Yao hadn't obtained permission and demanded that he withdraw the work.”
“He refused?”
“He said he still had the messages where she'd agreed to be photographed and to submit the photos.”
“Wouldn't those have been easy to verify?”
“The messages were gone.”
Xu Zhiqing frowned.
“How could they be gone?”
“Lin Yao said someone had logged into his computer and deleted the entire chat history and all the backups.”
“He suspected Su Yanxi?”
“Yes.”
“You didn't believe him?”
Zhou Yuheng didn't answer.
This time, the silence itself was an answer.
Xu Zhiqing suddenly gave a small laugh.
“So this isn't the first time.”
“What?”
“This isn't the first time someone told you Su Yanxi deleted the evidence.”
Zhou Yuheng's expression changed.
Five years ago, Xu Zhiqing had said the same thing.
After the stairwell incident, the photos that had originally captured the decorative ribbon suddenly disappeared from her phone.
At the time, she had told Zhou Yuheng that Su Yanxi was the only one who had handled her phone that day.
But he had said she might have accidentally deleted them.
“What happened to Lin Yao afterward?”
She asked.
“He withdrew from the competition and had a huge argument with Su Yanxi.”
“Whose side were you on?”
Zhou Yuheng's Adam's apple bobbed.
“I advised him not to make the situation worse.”
“In other words, you took Su Yanxi's side.”
“At the time, I thought it was just a misunderstanding over authorization.”
“And Lin Yao?”
“He thought I didn't believe him.”
“So you two fell out.”
“Yes.”
Xu Zhiqing stared at the newspaper photograph.
The email subject line read:
You finally remembered.
The sender seemed to know that the coat would make Zhou Yuheng remember what had happened in college.
“What about that name?”
“What?”
“Why did Lin Yao write your name inside Su Yanxi's coat?”
“I don't know.”
“Did you have a habit of writing your name on your clothes in college?”
“No.”
“Was there anything involving clothes between the three of you?”
Zhou Yuheng shook his head.
He enlarged the newspaper photograph again.
Besides the name, there seemed to be a short black mark beside it on the inside of the collar.
But the image resolution was too low.
All they could make out was the corner of something that looked like a number.
“This isn't complete,” he said.
“What?”
“There was something after my name.”
Xu Zhiqing leaned closer to the screen as well.
The black writing really did continue after the character “Heng.”
It was just hidden because the coat collar had been folded over.
“It could be a date.”
“Or someone else's name.”
Zhou Yuheng was about to open the email when his phone suddenly vibrated again.
The same sender had sent a second email.
The subject contained only two words.
Ask her.
There was no attachment.
There was no indication of whom to ask, either.
There was no one else in the office besides them.
“This person knows we're reading the emails,” Xu Zhiqing said.
Zhou Yuheng immediately called the officer who had just left.
After the call connected, he briefly explained that he had received two emails.
The police instructed him not to reply and not to open any new links.
The relevant emails would be preserved and investigated by the cybercrime unit.
“Who does he want you to ask?”
After the call ended, Xu Zhiqing asked.
“I don't know.”
“Maybe Su Yanxi.”
“Or my mother.”
Xu Zhiqing turned to look at him.
“Your mother?”
Zhou Yuheng returned the newspaper photograph to its full view.
Beneath the report was a short, blurry passage of text.
“The police contacted the relevant parties based on the clothing label. The person contacted stated that the coat did not belong to them and that they did not know the missing person.”
“I was still living at home five years ago,” he said.
“If the police found me through the name, my mother was probably the first person they called.”
“She didn't tell you?”
“At least, I don't remember.”
Zhou Yuheng immediately dialed the number.
It rang for a long time before the other end finally picked up.
“Yuheng?”
His mother's voice sounded somewhat tired.
“Why are you calling so late?”
“I want to ask you about something that happened five years ago.”
There was a moment of silence on the other end.
“What is it?”
“Did you receive a call from the police?”
“The police?”
“They found a white coat by the riverbank with my name written inside it.”
His mother didn't answer.
The silence was too obvious.
Xu Zhiqing, standing nearby, heard it too.
“Mom.”
Zhou Yuheng's voice dropped.
“You know about that coat.”
“That was so long ago. Why are you suddenly asking about it?”
“So you really did receive a call.”
“They simply mistook someone for someone else.”
“Why would the police make that mistake?”
“Your name was written inside the coat.”
“I know.”
Zhou Yuheng stared at his phone.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“So many things happened over those few days, and you and Zhiqing had just broken up. I didn't want to drag you into another strange case.”
Xu Zhiqing's fingertips went slightly rigid.
So it wasn't that no one had noticed the coat back then.
Someone had decided on Zhou Yuheng's behalf that he didn't need to know.
“What did the police ask you?”
“They just confirmed whether the coat was yours.”
“What else?”
“Nothing.”
“Mom, did you see the complete writing inside the coat?”
There was another silence on the other end.
“No.”
“You're lying.”
“How can you talk to me like that?”
“Because you always pause before you lie.”
His mother's breathing grew noticeably heavier.
“Yuheng, this really has nothing to do with you.”
“What was written after my name?”
“I don't know.”
“Then I'll come see you right now.”
“Don't!”
She shouted the word almost immediately.
Zhou Yuheng's gaze turned cold.
“Why can't I come?”
“I was getting ready to go to bed.”
“I only have one question.”
“Can't you ask it over the phone?”
“I can.”
He asked, each word distinct.
“What else was written inside the coat besides my name?”
There was the sound of fabric rubbing against fabric on the other end.
Then came the very soft sound of a door closing.
His mother seemed to have walked into another room.
“Yuheng,” she said in a lowered voice.
“Promise me first that you won't go looking for Su Yanxi.”
“Why?”
“Promise me first.”
“What was written after my name?”
“It wasn't a date, and it wasn't a phone number.”
His mother's voice began to tremble.
“It was a sentence.”
Zhou Yuheng tightened his grip on the phone.
“What sentence?”
“Zhou Yuheng knows who I am.”
The office suddenly fell silent.
Xu Zhiqing looked at him.
But Zhou Yuheng's face held nothing but confusion.
“I don't know who he is.”
“That was exactly what the police asked me back then,” his mother said.
“They showed me a missing-person photograph and asked whether you knew that man.”
“What did you say?”
“I said I didn't know him.”
“You'd met Lin Yao.”
“I hadn't!”
“He came to our house in college.”
“So many people came over. How could I possibly remember all of them?”
“Why did you answer for me?”
“You were already in enough of a mess!”
His mother's emotions suddenly flared.
“Zhiqing left the gathering, Yanxi was injured, and you didn't sleep all night. Then someone else went missing, and there was a bloodstained coat with your name written inside it.”
“If the police kept questioning you, what would happen to your life?”
“So you told the police I didn't know Lin Yao.”
“I was protecting you.”
“You weren't.”
Zhou Yuheng's voice was cold and utterly flat.
“You just hid everything you didn't want to face.”
His mother was unable to respond for a moment.
After a long time, she said quietly, “That coat didn't first appear by the river.”
Zhou Yuheng's breathing stopped for a beat.
“What do you mean?”
“I saw it outside our front door the day before the police called.”
A chill ran down Xu Zhiqing's spine.
“When?”
“In the middle of the night.”
“Who left it there?”
“I don't know.”
“Were there security cameras?”
“We didn't have any outside the house five years ago.”
“Did it already have blood on it?”
“No.”
His mother's voice grew quieter and quieter.
“It was clean, neatly folded, and placed inside a paper bag.”
“What about the name?”
“It wasn't there yet.”
“Are you sure?”
“I looked inside the collar.”
She paused.
“There was nothing inside.”
In other words, the white coat had first been delivered to the Zhou family's home.
Then someone had taken it away.
When it appeared by the riverbank again, it was not only stained with blood. Zhou Yuheng's name and that sentence had also been added inside the collar.
“Was there anything else in the paper bag?” Zhou Yuheng asked.
Only hurried breathing came from the other end of the phone.
“Mom.”
“No.”
“You paused again.”
“There really wasn't anything else.”
“I'm coming over now.”
“Yuheng!”
“If you won't tell me, I'll have the police come ask you.”
That finally broke his mother's resistance.
“There was a memory card,” she said.
“It was in the coat pocket.”
Xu Zhiqing instinctively looked at the newspaper photograph.
The left pocket of the white coat was exactly where the brownish stain was.
“Where is the memory card?”
“I don't know.”
“Did you take it?”
“I originally intended to give it to you, but Yanxi came to the house looking for you that night.”
“She saw it?”
“I didn't tell her.”
“Where's the card?”
“It was gone the next day.”
Zhou Yuheng closed his eyes.
“Why didn't you ever tell me?”
“I thought you'd taken it.”
“Did you ever ask me?”
“You refused to come home back then.”
His mother's voice was choked with tears.
“And a few days later, the police found the coat. I was terrified. I didn't know what was on the memory card or why someone had written your name inside it.”
“So you said nothing.”
“I was afraid you'd be treated as a suspect!”
“Lin Yao disappeared,” Zhou Yuheng said.
“You may have been hiding evidence he left behind.”
His mother didn't respond again.
Only suppressed sobs remained on the phone.
“What time did Su Yanxi get to the house that night?” Xu Zhiqing suddenly asked.
It seemed that only then did his mother realize Xu Zhiqing was there too.
“Zhiqing?”
“What time did she arrive?”
“About nine at night.”
“How long did she stay?”
“Less than half an hour.”
“Where did she go?”
“The living room.”
“Anywhere else?”
“Why are you asking all this?”
“Where was the memory card?”
“In the drawer in my bedroom.”
“Did Su Yanxi go into your bedroom?”
“No.”
His mother answered, then suddenly stopped.
“Wait.”
“What?”
“That isn't right.”
“What isn't right?”
“Before she left, she said she wasn't feeling well and asked if she could use the bathroom.”
“The bathroom is right beside your bedroom.”
“Yes.”
“How long was she out of your sight?”
“Only a few minutes.”
Long enough to open an unlocked drawer.
Long enough to take a memory card.
“Did you check right after she left?”
“No,” his mother said.
“I didn't realize it was gone until the next afternoon, when I wanted to give the card to Yuheng.”
Zhou Yuheng looked at Xu Zhiqing.
The day after the stairwell incident five years ago, Lin Yao and Su Yanxi had argued over the photographs.
That same night, Su Yanxi had gone to the Zhou family's home.
And the memory card that might have contained the photographs or other evidence had disappeared that night as well.
“Lin Yao sent the memory card to your house because he wanted you to see the evidence,” Xu Zhiqing said.
“But he didn't give it to you directly.”
“Because he didn't trust me,” Zhou Yuheng answered quietly.
“Maybe he wasn't the one who sent the coat.”
“Who else knew your home address?”
“Su Yanxi.”
“If she sent it, she wouldn't have needed to come back later to steal away the memory card.”
“Unless she didn't know the card was inside at first.”
They both fell silent at the same time.
The coat might have passed through different hands.
Someone had delivered it to the Zhou family's home.
Someone had taken it from the house.
Finally, someone had thrown the bloodstained coat onto the riverbank and written Zhou Yuheng's name inside it.
The situation was far more complicated than a simple fall and a single lie.
His mother suddenly remembered something else.
“There was a convenience-store sticker on the paper bag.”
“Which convenience store?”
“I don't remember the name, but there was a pickup number printed on it.”
“Do you still have the paper bag?”
“Yes.”
The answer left both of them stunned.
“You didn't throw it away?”
“I was afraid to,” his mother said.
“After the police took the coat, I put the bag and everything else that remained away.”
“Besides the paper bag, what else was there?”
“A receipt.”
“What kind of receipt?”
“From a print shop.”
His mother seemed to be recalling what was written on it.
“It was for five photographs.”
Exactly the complete sequence of photos in the hidden folder on the old phone.
“Was there a date on the receipt?”
“Yes.”
“What day?”
“The night of the stairwell incident.”
“What time?”
“11:47 p.m.”
Zhou Yuheng's expression changed instantly.
The gathering venue closed at eleven that night.
The ambulance arrived at 11:15 p.m., after the stairwell incident.
Su Yanxi had been taken to the hospital.
Xu Zhiqing had left alone.
And everyone had believed Lin Yao had already left early.
11:47 p.m.
Someone had taken the complete photographs to a print shop.
“Which shop?” Zhou Yuheng asked.
“The writing on the receipt has faded. I can't make it out.”
“I'm coming over to get it now.”
This time, his mother didn't try to stop him.
She only reminded him quietly, “Your father doesn't know about this.”
Zhou Yuheng ended the call.
Neither of them left immediately.
Xu Zhiqing looked around the empty office.
“Why did the person who sent the emails know that your mother had seen the coat?”
“Because he might be the one who delivered the coat to my house.”
“Or the one who took the memory card.”
“There is one other possibility,” Zhou Yuheng said.
“He was the one who printed the photographs.”
The computer on the desk suddenly chimed with a new-mail notification.
It wasn't Zhou Yuheng's phone.
It was Xu Zhiqing's company email.
A new message appeared at the top of her inbox.
The sender still didn't exist.
The subject line read:
Don't trust the receipt.
The attachment was a still image from the print shop's security camera.
The time in the upper-right corner was exactly 11:47 p.m. five years ago.
A person wearing a hat stood in front of a self-service printer.
They were holding a memory card.
They wore dark pants.
The white coat was draped over their upper body.
Their face was completely hidden by the brim of the hat and their long hair.
But the glass beside the printer reflected another person standing outside the shop.
That person wasn't wearing a coat.
Their face wasn't concealed, either.
It was Zhou Yuheng five years ago.
He was looking into the shop through the glass.
On his wrist was the watch Xu Zhiqing had given him.
“This is impossible.”
Zhou Yuheng stared at the photograph.
“I've never been to that shop.”
Xu Zhiqing said nothing.
Because the date on the security footage was the night they broke up.
That day, Zhou Yuheng had told her himself that he had spent the entire night at the hospital with Su Yanxi.
But at 11:47 p.m.,
he had appeared outside the print shop,
watching someone in a white coat print the five photographs that could prove Xu Zhiqing's innocence.