The End of the Night (2)

In fact, this is one of the Red Paint Serial Murder Cases, and also the last one.

In the file, Liu Maoping questioned Xiao Luhe, but the child had severe autism and did not leave any testimony. Later, Xiao Luhe was taken away by Liang Chenghao, an external expert who assisted in the case, and received a good education. After graduating from university, he returned to the Municipal Bureau.

Liu Maoping knew that Lu He came back to find out the cause of his mother's death, but he was worried that Lu He would get too deeply involved and affect his career, so he took out the pages about his mother from the file.

Lu He naturally knew that Liu Maoping was involved in the Red Lacquer Case and would probably link his mother's death to the Red Lacquer Case, so he never explained to Liu Maoping the purpose of his coming to the Municipal Bureau.

Lu He's real purpose was exposed when a case similar to the Red Paint Case occurred for the first time in the city. The body of a female victim was painted with exquisite red makeup, just like the Red Paint Case. The night Lu He got the news, he ran to Liu Maoping's door and told him that he wanted to take over the Red Makeup Case.

It was also from that day that Liu Maoping confirmed the real reason why Lu He wanted to return to the Municipal Bureau to investigate the Red Paint Case. Lu He had been reluctant to leave the Municipal Bureau and rejected various excellent conditions from the Provincial Department just to find out the cause of his mother's death.

Liu Maoping naturally gave him great support, but he did not expect Lu He to fall deeper and deeper into trouble, and even disappeared in the Hongzhuang serial murder case.

This should be a note that Liu Maoping wrote to the police station when he retired. He hoped that future police officers would be able to find out the truth for Lu He, not only about Lu He's mother, but also about Lu He himself.

Meng Siqi's eyes gradually became moist and bitter. She remembered that the first time she met Lu He officially was in the archives, which was right after the first Red Makeup Case happened. At that time, she also wanted to find the file of the Red Lacquer Case, but she didn't expect that Lu He got there first. That meant that he had already realized that the Red Makeup Case and the Red Lacquer Case were related. That was their first official meeting.

After that, Meng Siqi smelled a special woody scent on him again and again. She later realized that it was the smell from the closet in his bedroom.

Lu He often gets sick on rainy nights and then hides in the closet. This may be because when he was five years old, he hid in the closet and witnessed his mother being murdered. He must have nightmares about that night on rainy nights.

Liu Maoping said in his notes that at the scene, Xiao Luhe was reluctant to leave the closet, which seemed to be his shelter, but it might also be that Xiao Luhe's mother told him not to leave the closet before she was killed, so he stubbornly listened to his mother.

So Liu Maoping deliberately kept the wardrobe and later handed it over to Professor Liang Chenghao in the province. Lu He kept the wardrobe with him all the time and later brought it to the rented house of the Municipal Bureau when he came to work there. This shows that he never forgot his mother's death and that his becoming a policeman may have a lot to do with his mother's death.

What made Meng Siqi even more sad was that Lu He once told her that he would pursue her after he solved the Hong Zhuang serial murder case.

In reality, what he wanted to say that day was that once he found the truth about his mother's death, he could pursue his own happiness.

Meng Siqi's turbid tears fell on the yellowed paper and slowly spread over Lu He's name.

At dusk, she sat in the passenger seat of Zhao Leiting's car, looking at the tall buildings and green trees on the roadside, and gradually felt that 1993 and 1994 were just a dream of hers. Maybe she was just such a neurotic old lady. She just had a dream that she didn't want to forget. Now she woke up and had to face real life.

The car stopped. "We're here," Zhao Leiting said, looking out the window, "Do you remember the first time you came here to eat? We were both very young at the time. I remember I was working on a case in which a writer murdered his fiancée. That time, I was outspoken and said I liked girls like you..."

How could Meng Siqi not remember that time when Team Two and Team One had a quarrel at the door of the food stall? However, after that meal, the case made new progress. Liu Yuwei's body was found in Xiaobie Mountain, and the writer Teng Fei's crime was confirmed.

Zhao Lei Ting opened the door and got out of the car, and asked the co-pilot to open the door for her. Meng Siqi stepped out of the car. The weather was very hot in this season. Even at dusk, she could still feel the heat of the sun, and she blocked it slightly with her sleeves.

When she looked up again, she realized that the food stall that had been there thirty years ago had now become a small restaurant. The business was very good, and people were drinking and chatting. The owner of the restaurant was in his thirties and greeted them with a smile: "Brother Zhao, Sister Meng, you are here for dinner."

"Old place, old things." Zhao Lei Ting said in a gentle tone.

"Okay, wait a moment, the food will be here soon."

The boss was very enthusiastic. Meng Siqi felt that he should be the son of the original food stall owner. The two of them went up to the second floor and sat in an open-top private room by the window. These private rooms were separated into rooms, and one could see other private rooms when standing up. The second floor was almost full and very lively. The waiter came and brought teapots and cups.

This was a small square table. The two of them sat opposite each other. Zhao Leiting picked up the teapot and poured her some tea. He said, "Every time I come here, I feel so quiet. Siqi, I really like having dinner here with you. Now, of our group, only the two of us are still in the Municipal Bureau."

"How is Minjia? Won't she come with us for dinner?" She remembered that Lin Minjia was the same age as her and should not have retired.

Zhao Leiting smiled faintly: "Minjia is not in good health, so she retired early. You don't know Minjia yet. She likes quietness, but she wants me to take you out for dinner every day. She says you are too tired. When it comes to the New Year and other holidays, she arranges to invite Sister Siqi to come home for dinner."

"Zhao Leiting, do you think I'm really sick?" Meng Siqi pinched the teacup, looking a little lost, because Zhao Leiting seemed to have been explaining something to her. If she had lived here for thirty years, she would definitely not forget all this, unless she was really sick.

"..." Zhao Lei Ting lowered his head, showing a somewhat apologetic expression, "Siqi, I have some ideas in my mind, and I was planning to talk to you about it during this meal. Are you willing to listen to me?"

"Okay... the dishes should be served." Meng Siqi could probably guess what Zhao Leiting would say.

At this time, the first dish was served and Zhao Lei Ting asked her to start eating. In fact, Meng Siqi had no appetite, but she still remembered the taste of this restaurant and wanted to try it.

After a while, the four dishes were served. It was obvious that these dishes were all to her taste. Zhao Lei Ting remembered what she liked to eat.

After eating a few bites of food, Meng Siqi asked, "Do you have any wine?"

"Uh." Zhao Leiting raised his eyes, "I still have to drive later."

"I'd like to have a couple of drinks."

"Your situation..."

"What's the matter, Zhao Lei Ting..." Meng Siqi interrupted him, "I'm not sick."

Zhao Leiting didn't reply, but ordered two bottles of room temperature beer. Meng Siqi poured himself a glass and said, "Don't drink if you're driving."

Meng Siqi drank a glass of beer and felt better. "Don't you have something to tell me?" Zhao Leiting was silent for a moment before saying, "Siqi, can you accept early retirement? Don't worry, I promise to give you a living allowance."

Meng Siqi put down the cup. She felt like crying. Zhao Leiting noticed and handed her a tissue.

Meng Siqi didn't answer. Her eyes were red. She drank another glass of wine. Zhao Leiting advised: "Slow down."

"Am I really useless now? Am I?" She looked at him with red eyes.

"I'm sorry," Zhao Leiting waved his hands, "I didn't mean that. I just want to say that we should all accept our age. We have been police officers for a lifetime, and we have to live our own lives in the end."

"What's wrong with my life?"

"Ever since your parents and Aunt Chang passed away, and since the day Lu He disappeared, you have been unable to let go of this matter. You have been thinking about the case all day long, even without sleeping or eating, to the point of becoming a little mentally ill. The bureau transferred you to the file room in the hope that you would let go and not be so nervous, but when you arrived at the file room, you still studied the files all day long because you felt that the murderer who killed your parents, Aunt Chang, and Lu He was in the files. No matter what file it was, you memorized it over and over again, as if you could solve the case by memorizing everything."

"Siqi," Zhao Leiting grabbed her bottle, poured a glass of wine, and drank it all in one gulp, his eyes red, "I beg you to let it go. You only have one life, you don't have to spend your whole life on these things. What if, what if, in the end, the truth is not found? What will you do then?"

The back of Meng Siqi's old hands kept shaking, and her whole body was shaking uncontrollably. She felt so uncomfortable. Why did thirty years end like this? She shouted, "You mean thirty years? In these thirty years, you became the director, and you were successful, but you didn't solve any of these cases. How did you become the director? Was it because of your sweet talk or your ability to speak well..."

Zhao Lei Ting lowered his eyes, "Yes, I am not worthy."

"You admit it?" Meng Siqi said ruthlessly, "From the day I met you, I knew you had no ability. I still remember that I gave the credit to you once."

There was a gleam of tears in Zhao Leiting's eyes.

"Director Zhao, don't you feel guilty? Don't you feel uncomfortable sitting in this position? Are you worthy of the Korean team? Are you worthy of my master?"

"You think I don't want to, you think I don't want to find the truth for your parents, find the truth for Lu He..." Zhao Leiting said sadly.

"Then why don't you do it? Isn't thirty years enough?" Meng Siqi roared in pain.

At this moment, all the guests in the private rooms on the second floor were shocked by the two people's voices. They all looked up to see what was going on. The waiter stood aside and did not dare to step forward to persuade them.

Zhao Leiting suddenly held his face with his hands and cried: "You think I don't want to, you think I don't want Yuting to survive..."

"What do you mean?" Meng Siqi was stunned, her anger suddenly torn apart, "What's wrong with Yuting?"

"Yuting is dead, you don't remember."

"How could Yu Ting be dead?" Meng Siqi shook his head in denial, "She was clearly rescued. It was you, me, and Lu He who rushed to the Great World Billiard Stadium..."

"Siqi," Zhao Leiting stopped crying, "How could it be wrong that my sister died? She died in the billiard hall that night, and we only found her the next morning..."

"No, this is impossible..." Meng Siqi stood up suddenly, "You are wrong! I remember that day I saw the scene, I saw someone taking her to the billiard hall with my own eyes, I remember that we rushed to the billiard hall at around 11 o'clock in the evening, I am not mistaken!"

"Why would I lie to you? Yu Ting has been dead for 30 years. Why would I lie to you? My mother also died of illness because of this incident..."

"Zhao Leiting, you are lying to me. I want to see the files..." Meng Siqi refused to believe it. She rushed out of the private room and ran downstairs.

She was no longer young, and her legs were not in good condition. She bumped into the stairs and was in so much pain that she couldn't get up. Zhao Lei Ting rushed over from behind and helped her up, "Siqi, go slower, slower."

"I'm going to prove that you are wrong now!" Meng Siqi said decisively.

"I have her file. I'll show it to you now..."

Back in the bureau, Meng Siqi could hardly suppress her inner uneasiness. Zhao Leiting took out the file from the bottom of the drawer and handed it to her.

Meng Siqi took the file in her hand and turned to the first page. Her fingers were shaking and the file was trembling. The file had the signatures of Lu He and Chen Jierong. The forensic description column clearly stated that Zhao Yuting died of mechanical asphyxiation at around 11 to 12 o'clock on the evening of July 16, 1994.

"I'm going to find Sister Rong. She must have written it wrong..." Meng Siqi yelled.

"Siqi, this is the fact, no one can change it." Zhao Leiting hugged her arms, "Don't be like this, it makes me even sadder if you do this."

"Why, why!" Meng Siqi was sad, confused and desperate.

This is impossible, she was thinking, all that had happened, all that had happened.

That couldn't have been her dream, that was what really happened. It couldn't be wrong, and now it can be proven, didn't all the cases she handled happen, from the first case of Zhou Jie Li's murder, the second case of Liu Yuwei's murder, the third case of Zhu Gongyou's family being murdered... These must have really happened.

She ran back to the filing room frantically to prove that she was right.

Zhao Lei Ting chased after her and watched her rush into the filing room. At that moment he seemed relieved. Maybe she was always like this, but she became like this in the filing room.

Meng Siqi frantically searched through the files from 1993 and 1994, and soon found all the cases she had handled.

She clearly remembers the first case, the murder of high school teacher Zhou Jie Li. There were two murderers. The first was school security guard Mu Zhiquan, and the second was her husband Zhao Guanghui.

She couldn't wait to open the file. Yes, Mu Zhiquan was the murderer and he confessed everything. Moreover, it was she who found the earring that Mu Zhiquan had stolen from Zhou Jie Li's ear. Everything was correct.

But there was no text of Zhao Guanghui confessing his guilt later. That's not right. It was clearly her who brought Zhao Guanghui to justice that time.

When she turned to the last page, she was stunned. Zhao Guanghui turned himself in four years after killing Zhou Jie Li because he was suffering from a terminal illness.

How could this happen? She was the one who got the footage of Zhao Guanghui killing someone, so how did she become the one who turned herself in?

She continued to look through the second file, which showed that writer Teng Fei had killed his girlfriend Liu Yuwei. She remembered that she had personally seen Teng Fei strangling Liu Yuwei to death on the top of Xiaobie Mountain, but there was no such description in the file.

Teng Fei later became a famous writer, and his works were well-known throughout the country. When I turned to the end, it turned out that fifteen years after the incident, Qindongzi Canyon was being developed, and the female corpse was found under the valley of Xiaobie Mountain, thus revealing the mystery of Teng Fei's murder.

Meng Siqi was increasingly unconvinced by what she had seen, and she turned to the third murder case, which was completely different from what she had imagined. The murderer was indeed Xin Tianfei, a high school math teacher, who later killed reporter Wen Huizhi and two other innocent people. Eighteen years later, DNA technology locked him down and he was arrested.

Meng Siqi became calmer and calmer. She began to believe that it was all a dream and that everything before her was real.

She opened the fourth file, which was about the human specimen murder case of Song Xinran and Jin Yaming. The file stated that Jin Yaming was executed by Meng Siqi, but Song Xinran was never brought to justice. It was thirteen years later that the provincial department cracked a large-scale illegal human organ trading case and Song Xinran was arrested.

The fifth case is the murder of Long Shanwen in the B&B. The murderer Kong Yang killed Long Shanwen. It was the case solved by Meng Siqi, but the murderer Gui Xiangyang who killed Kong Yang's father Kong Qushan has never been brought to justice. The file mentioned at the back that it was fifteen years later, when the Romantic Poetry B&B was demolished and rebuilt, that the ashes left by Long Shanwen were dug out in the backyard, and Gui Xiangyang was brought to justice.

The sixth case, the Ruan Mengying case, was a sensation, but Ruan Mengying's head was never found. In the end, Li Muxiao was released from prison due to insufficient evidence, but he disappeared without a trace. Because Ruan Mengying and Li Muxiao disappeared together, the facts of the Seattle club crime were never uncovered, and Longcheng Enterprises' prince Jiang Sheng remained at large until eleven years later, in 2005, when the truth was revealed through a crackdown on gangsters and evil.

The seventh case was the disappearance of a female worker in a textile factory. Yao Renjun, the former deputy director of the Dandelion Textile Factory, was not exposed at all. It was after the Seattle club went bankrupt that the club's general manager Jia Longhui confessed his guilt. However, Yao Renjun had already passed away by then.

The eighth case is the case of Xu Wangtu's indecent assault and murder of a child. The files show that Meng Siqi deduced Xu Wangtu's criminal behavior, but he was not brought to justice due to insufficient evidence. However, ten years later, Xu Wangtu's granddaughter Xu Zhouyi was murdered, and the scene of death was similar to the Hongzhuang serial murder case. After Xu Zhouyi was killed, Xu Wangtu committed suicide by taking poison and wrote a confession letter for the crime of indecent assault and murder of a child.

The ninth case, the Red Makeup Serial Murder Case, had five victims, Du Lianxi, Yin Mo, Tan Xiaoshuang, and Zhao Yuting. Xu Yizhou was the last victim of the Red Makeup Serial Murder Case that was recorded.

The file also mentioned the man in the raincoat who was making “Ah-oh-ah-oh” sounds that Zhao Yuting met after the TV interview. It was later confirmed that he was a passerby who was dragging a suitcase by. He had intended to help Zhao Yuting, but was rejected by Zhao Yuting. The “Ah-oh-ah-oh” sounds were indeed because he had a certain asthma problem.

Meng Siqi finally understood that all the cases she faced in 1993 and 1994 were unsolved cases at the time. However, due to various reasons later, although a long time had passed, the cases were finally solved. Her mysterious appearance was not obtained inexplicably, but was told to her by these files.

Because she has been studying the files and memorizing them for the past thirty years, when she goes back to thirty years ago, she will be able to imagine the scenes in the files, and she can solve the case successfully.

It was she who went back thirty years and brought forward the outcome of the criminals' conviction, thereby reducing the criminals' vicious influence and saving the lives of some victims.

She finally understood why Zhao Yuting of this era died, but she saved Zhao Yuting of thirty years ago. Because she also memorized Zhao Yuting's files, which marked the fact that Zhao Yuting died in the Great World Billiard Stadium, she saw the scene through the files.

But the murderer has not been caught yet, because the murderer is an unsolved mystery. That's why she didn't have any footage of the murderer committing the crime thirty years ago. Because the murderer has not been caught, she couldn't sense it.

Just as Meng Siqi was sighing, something suddenly changed in front of her eyes. The files in the archives suddenly turned into streams of light and began to rush towards her continuously.

Meng Siqi felt very painful and fell to the ground. The pictures in front of her eyes suddenly flashed quickly. There were familiar faces in the pictures, Lu He, Zhao Leiting, Sister Rong, Master, Captain Han, Old Tang, Meng Xinghai and Meng Hui...

All the faces she had ever seen flashed quickly before her, with her own figure among them, as if they were scenes she had experienced before, and their interlaced and overlapping voices.

She saw the footage of the first police call and heard what the Korean team said during the first police call.

"Old Feng, I'll leave Xiao Meng to you. Is that ok?"

She saw the scene of the conversation with the Master.

"Believe that you are on the path of justice. The difficulties ahead are only temporary. The road ahead is full of light, but also full of thorns. Be brave and step forward. Make bold guesses and verify carefully!"

She saw Zhao Leiting hugging her.

"Siqi, you are my greatest benefactor in this life. I will go through fire and water to do whatever you ask me to do."

She also saw Sister Rong's blessing to her.

"Siqi, half a year may sometimes be half a lifetime. If you like someone and he likes you so much, don't think too much. You have to believe that sometimes it is the best arrangement of God."

There were many, many other images, shown above her head and around her, interlaced with each other, and the most numerous were images of Lu He.

"Siqi, give me half a year... Wait until I solve the Hongzhuang serial murder case. Once I solve the case, I will officially pursue you."

"Siqi, I found that I like you. After I solve the Hongzhuang serial murder case, I plan to formally propose to you."

"Siqi, I can't hide my true feelings. Once I solve the Hongzhuang serial murder case, I will formally confess my feelings to you."

"Siqi, after I solve the Hongzhuang serial murder case, can I officially pursue you?"

But Meng Siqi remembered this sentence. Lu He only said it once, so why did it appear four times? No, she found that there were many similar scenes. The faces were theirs, but the words they said were not exactly the same.

She seemed to understand, because she had gone back to thirty years ago, four times in total, and Lu He said similar things all four times. He said he wanted to pursue her all four times.

Why did she have to go back four times? It must be because Lu He died in those four times, her parents died, Aunt Chang died, Zhao Yuting died, and the fourth time was probably the only time Zhao Yuting was saved.

She went back four times just to save them, and she finally understood that maybe she was experiencing the same case again and again during those four times, breaking through herself time and time again. Maybe the first time was not good, but it got better time and time again.

But even after four attempts, Meng Siqi failed to save them. She felt extremely despair. That feeling was extremely lonely. The dark night was long and had shrouded her for thirty years. She was too lonely.

The picture slowly disappeared, and Meng Siqi sat on the ground and cried loudly.

Zhao Lei Ting rushed in, "Siqi, what's wrong with you?"

"Zhao Leiting, I'm so lonely! I'm so lonely!"