by Mi Lei
Widow Cui rose to greet him. "Village Head."
Fang Mu also hurried to stand as the man crossed the room and shook his hand.
"Lu Dachun told me that we have a guest in our village. I just wanted to come by and meet you in person," the village head said as he drew a cigarette from one of his pockets. Handing it to Fang Mu, he continued. "My name is Lu Tianchang. Who are you?"
Fang Mu again introduced himself as a photographer. Lu Tianchang listened to his account, nodding as he inhaled deeply from the cigarette. Fang Mu was well aware that behind the curling smoke, the village head was carefully scrutinizing him.
He took it in stride. In-between the talk and smiles he returned the favor, quietly and carefully studying Lu Tianchang.
From his looks, the elder was somewhere in his 50s, with short, coarse hair clinging to the top of his weather-beaten face. Deep crevices of countless hard years ran across his cheeks and forehead. His massive hands were also covered in wrinkles. His eyes, unlike the rest of him, were almost tiny. Even so, they burned with vigor and determination. Despite the obvious hardship of a long, rural life, the village head's back remained ramrod straight.
It didn't take long for Lu Tianchang to notice Fang Mu's attention. After a few more quick words, he stood. On his way out, he told Fang Mu, "I'm afraid we have little to offer you, Young Fang, as this is just a humble mountain village."
"I couldn't ask for more," Fang Mu replied, pointing at the tray. "Auntie Cui has been wonderfully welcoming; she made all this for me."
Lu Tianchang turned to Widow Cui with a smile. "Yes, she is doing very well." With a laugh, he added, "None of us can even compare."
Widow Cui bowed her head as her entire body began to tremble ever so slightly.
"Rest up," Lu Tianchang told Fang Mu as he buttoned up his heavy coat. "I'll make sure that Lu Dachun comes by first thing in the morning." With a final glance at Fang Mu, he turned and left.
Widow Cui saw him out, leaving Fang Mu sitting alone at the table. Lost in thought, he stared at the dirt-cheap Hongmei cigarette the village head had handed him. Out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly noticed one of the doors move. His head turned immediately, but he only managed to catch sight of a long braid swinging in the dark before the door slammed shut with a bang.
It took a good 10 minutes for Widow Cui to return. Her face was expressionless as she entered the living room.
"Auntie Cui, is there anyone living with you?" Fang Mu asked.
"Eh?" Widow Cui seemed distracted. "Oh, my daughter. You done with those?" She was pointing at the plates and bowls.
"Yes, thank you very much," Fang Mu quickly replied.
The woman was in no mood for further formalities. Reaching past Fang Mu, she scooped up the tray. "Better rest up. You'll be on your way first thing in the morning."
It was the middle of the night and all was quiet in Lu Village. Only the occasional bark of a distant dog broke the silence, but that only seemed to deepen the absolute stillness that inevitably followed.
Fang Mu lay awake, tossing and turning. His body was exhausted by the day's hard hike. His mind, however, was racing and lost in a maze of mounting suspicions.
At a glance, the village might have looked like any other rural hamlet. But considering its isolation, standards of living had no business being as high as they obviously were. Everyone he had met, from Lu Haitao to Widow Cui, appeared positively loaded. And then there was the village head, Lu Tianchang, doing his best to give the appearance of a poor peasant.
Where was the money coming from?
What was the village head hiding?
The more Fang Mu learned, the stranger the little village seemed to become.
A part of him immediately wanted to connect it all to Lu Lu, to Ding Shucheng, right back to Xing Zhisen and the Bay City Hotel, but the cynicism and self-doubts this case had burdened him with made it all seem far too useful of a coincidence.
It was well after midnight when Fang Mu finally fell into a light, troubled sleep. Dozing off, he didn't hear the soft rustling outside his window, or the muted sobs from the room next door.
He wasn't the only one in Lu Village who had trouble finding sleep that night.
CHAPTER
15
Blind Fish
Early next morning, Fang Mu woke to a hazy white glow. Drowsily, he looked around the room to discover the glow was coming from the window. He got out of bed and pulled aside the thin curtains. Outside, a thick curtain of snow was slowly falling from the gray skies.
Half an hour later, Lu Dachun dredged his way to Widow Cui's home. He had come to tell Fang Mu that the mountain road was completely blocked.
"It looks like you're stuck here for a few days," he told Fang Mu, sounding dejected. Fang Mu could not have been happier; this was his chance to investigate the village.
Widow Cui warmly invited Lu Dachun to stay for breakfast, but he declined. Apparently he had urgent business waiting for him.
Fang Mu looked down at Lu Dachun's snow-soaked shoes and asked, "Can I ask why you took all this trouble to come over then? Why not just call?"
"Her home has no phone." Lu Dachun looked over to Widow Cui. "The only phone in the village is in my father's house."
"Your father is?" Fang Mu followed up leadingly.
"Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you; my father is Lu Tianchang, the village head," Lu Dachun answered with a laugh. "If you need to make a call, just go to my father."
"That's all right; I have my cell phone," Fang Mu replied.
Lu Dachun continued to smile. "Those gadgets don't work here. See for yourself."
"Really?" Fang Mu pulled out his phone to check, and indeed, there was no signal.
"Just see it as chance to relax. We'll get you out of here the moment the road is open." Lu Dachun hesitated as his smile faded, and then he said insistently, "My father asked me to tell you to not go wandering about. With the pass closed, the wolves will be looking for food. And they could come looking in the village."
Fang Mu nodded in agreement. Happy with his reaction, Lu Dachun turned to Widow Cui and asked her to take good care of their guest.
Fang Mu accompanied the village head's son out into the courtyard and watched him slowly disappear behind the veil of falling snow. Perhaps it was just the weather, but the village seemed absolutely quiet. He couldn't see a single person anywhere on the street. Looking down the village road, he noticed that all the houses seemed new, just like Widow Cui's. In fact, they all used the exact same design.
A thin layer of snow already covered his head and shoulders. As the cold seeped through his clothes, he felt himself begin to shiver.
That was when he felt the chill of fear.
The mountain was snowed in.
His phone had no signal.
He was completely isolated in this village.
At breakfast, a young woman joined Fang Mu and Widow Cui at the table. As she sat down, Widow Cui curtly introduced her.
"This is my daughter, Lu Haiyan." The woman fell silent again.
Lu Haiyan, too, remained quiet, intently picking away at her food. Fang Mu did catch her occasionally stealing a glance at him from out of the corner of her eyes.
Widow Cui had prepared an impressive breakfast. Even so, Fang Mu couldn't really muster much of his appetite. Caught in the awkward silence between mother and daughter, he tried a number of times to strike up a conversation, but all he got out of them was terse half-sentences. In the end, he just gave up and focused on the food.
After breakfast, there was little to occupy his attention. Lu Haiyan left for her room the moment she had put down her chopsticks, while Widow Cui cleaned the table and then settled down to watch another episode of Princess Pearl. Not in the mood for further futile attempts at communication, Fang Mu decided to get himself a chair and watch the snow fall outside the window.
The white curtain descending outside made it look as if he was staring off into endless space. The entire world seemed bo
th infinitely far away and right in front of his eyes. After a while he felt his heart sink under the weight of the unending snow.
He had done nothing to get Old Xing even one step closer to an acquittal; in fact, the one and only thing he had managed to change was to turn a seemingly simple case into a twisted nightmare. The dead woman from the Bay City Hotel was still missing without a trace; Jing Xu's testimony had meant the end of Zheng Lin and his men; Ding Shucheng was dead and the Baixin Bath Palace had burned to the ground… Every last lead seemed to have taken him nowhere.
But Lu Lu had appeared out of that nowhere and changed everything. Maybe this village did hold the answers to all his questions.
Fang Mu felt a spark of hope ignite in his chest. Lifting his head from his dreary thoughts, he noticed Lu Haiyan standing next to him. She was also watching the snow fall, a forlorn look in her eyes.
The widow's daughter looked to be a country girl in her early or maybe mid-20s. Her clothes were new and fashionable, but surprisingly ill-fitting. Looking up at her face, Fang Mu noticed that her eyes were still puffy from recent tears.
The moment she noticed his eyes on her, she seemed to grow intensely uncomfortable. Fang Mu, however, had no intention of letting the opportunity of her company alone slip away.
"So, you're Lu Haiyan?" he asked quickly, before she could bolt.
The young woman lowered her head and barely murmured. "Mhm."
"How old are you?" he asked, pushing just a little.
"Twenty-three," came the curt reply.
"That makes me older. Call me Elder Brother Fang," he told her with a slight smile.
"Mhm." She raised her head. There was a look of intense curiosity in her eyes. "Are you from the city?"
"Yeah, Changhong City." He was surprised and happy to hear a whole sentence from her.
"Changhong City…" Lu Haiyan mumbled as she lowered her head again. In her mouth the name sounded alien. After a while of perhaps mulling it over, she asked, "Is it bigger than Suijing City?"
"Yes, it is. You haven't been there?" he inquired.
"No." She seemed even more cheerless than before. "I've never even been to Suijing City."
"Oh?" Fang Mu cast a glance at the family's LCD TV. "Your family has a lot of stuff; how come you've never gone along to Suijing City? It's so close."
Lu Haiyan's mouth twitched. When she spoke again, it sounded as if she was talking only to herself. "What good is money, when being stuck here is no better than a prison?"
Taken aback, he asked, "Prison?"
She smiled, which was also dismal, but did not respond to his query. After a moment she asked, "Why did you come here?"
"Oh, I am with the Photographer's Association. I'm here to take a few pictures," he said, sticking to his story.
"Here? In the middle of nowhere? What would anyone want a picture of from around here?" she asked in disbelief.
"There's plenty. The snow outside is rather nice." Fang Mu hesitated. "Would you take me on a little tour?" he asked, sounding as casual as he could manage.
It was Lu Haiyan's turn to hesitate. But in the end, she agreed.
Fang Mu was waiting for her in the courtyard. Lu Haiyan had quickly gone to her room to put on warmer clothes. When she emerged, the young woman was wearing a mink fur coat. Like her other clothes, it was luxurious, but ill-fitting. Perhaps she mistook Fang Mu's bewilderment at her attire for admiration, but a contented smile spread across her face. From that moment on, she did her best to give herself the air of a refined, urbane lady. Unfortunately, the more she tried, the more apparent the rough edges of her rural upbringing became.
The snow was still falling, covering everything in white. It looked like it would go on forever. Lu Haiyan and Fang Mu walked shoulder to shoulder through the streets, leaving a trail of deep footprints in their wake. They seemed to be the only living things in the entire village. Even though it was close to midday, everything in the small town remained silent. Had it not been for the smoke slowly rising from some of the chimneys, it would have been easy to mistake Lu Village for a ghost town.
Lu Haiyan appeared completely indifferent to the silence, the houses, and her fellow villagers. She simply marched straight on, her eyes fixed forward. Careful not to blow his cover, Fang Mu turned and spun in all directions with his camera as he followed her, snapping picture after picture.
The camera's lens did nothing to dampen the strangeness of the place. Not only did all the houses look the same, he also couldn't spot a single pigpen or chicken coop. Judging from the inhabitant's garbage, however, there was no lack of high-end cigarettes and liquor in the village.
He had to wonder: Where did all this wealth come from?
At least the village really was as small as it had first appeared and despite the snow it took them less than 30 minutes to reach its limits. Standing at the village entrance, Lu Haiyan turned to Fang Mu and with a shrug of the shoulder, stated, "See? I told you, this place is boring."
To Fang Mu, nothing could have been further from the truth: To him, Lu Village was as interesting as a place could get.
As they stood there, each seeing an entirely different village, a nearby door opened. A short, plump woman with severely disheveled hair staggered out into the street. She was carrying a large plastic bucket and was obviously struggling under its weight. A few feet from her door, she emptied the entire bucket of dirty water onto the street. Fang Mu pulled Lu Haiyan behind his back, trying to protect her from the foul spray. Nonetheless, a few drops managed to hit her fur coat.
"Oh! My apologies, my apologies," the woman began to stammer. When she realized that it was Lu Haiyan, however, her tone immediately turned cavalier. "Oh, it's you, Lu Haiyan. Girl, when will you learn to look where you're going?"
Lu Haiyan's gaze burned with suppressed anger. Disdain joined her ire as she saw that the short woman was wearing the exact same fur coat she wore.
The woman didn't notice. She had turned her attention to Fang Mu. She let her eyes wander up and down his body with undisguised interest. "Your mother's new son-in-law, Haiyan?" She nearly demanded, snorting a laugh.
"What?" Lu Haiyan's face turned scarlet at the imprecation. "He's a photographer from the city!"
The short woman seemed completely uninterested now in Fang Mu's identity. Leaning in close, she asked Lu Haiyan, "Lu Haiyan, didn't the things come today? Why haven't they been delivered yet?"
"How would I know?" Lu Haiyan replied grumpily.
"Then go, ask Lu Dachun." The woman's eyes narrowed on her. "Go on. Lu Dachun will listen to you."
Something flashed across Lu Haiyan's face as she pulled Fang Mu away. After a few hundred feet, she let go of his arm, but continued marching straight ahead, fighting her way through the snow, swiftly outdistancing Fang Mu.
He quickly caught up with her. Seeing the look on her face, he carefully asked, "Will you show me the fields?"
"Why?" She seemed to barely hear what he said. "There are no crops and nothing else to see, even for you."
She stormed off again, a fierce look of determination on her face. She made her way down the road and turned right at a crossing. Fang Mu had no idea where she was headed or why and just did his best to keep pace.
A few minutes later, Lu Haiyan had led him to the wall of a large courtyard. She didn't enter, instead opting to shout, "Lu Dachun! Lu Dachun!" in front of the gate.
Lu Dachun didn't keep her waiting. He was still slipping into his jacket as he shuffled through the snow to meet her. He beamed at her. "Lu Haiyan ..." That was when he noticed Fang Mu. His smile froze. "You … What are you doing here...?"
Lu Haiyan cut him off. Placing herself right in front of him. "Lu Dachun, my little brother..."
"Let's talk inside," Lu Dachun said hastily. He turned to Fang Mu. "Do you want to make a call? My father's house is the one three doors down to the right. Go if you want to use his phone."
With that he took a hold of Lu Haiyan's arm and led her into his home, slamming t
he door behind him.
Fang Mu looked up and down the street before deciding to take shelter under the eaves of a nearby house to have a cigarette.
Two cigarettes later, he saw Lu Haiyan emerge again. She was practically running and doing the best to wipe tears from her face. Fang Mu waited for a few seconds, but when Lu Dachun didn't come out to follow her, he hurried after her.
"What happened?" he asked when he caught up.
Lu Haiyan did not answer. Instead, she hurriedly trotted off back home.
Once back at the widow's house, Lu Haiyan locked herself in her room for the entire afternoon.
Fang Mu noticed it didn't bother Widow Cui. She remained seated in front of the TV, watching Princess Pearl. Fang Mu was sure that he had seen statues with more animate faces than hers. In another attempt at communication, he asked her why she never watched any other shows. Widow Cui actually gave him a full answer, pointing out that they couldn't get satellite reception up there and that she was therefore limited to her DVDs.
"Oh?" Fang Mu raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Aren't your days..." he hesitated, "a bit dull then?"
He lost Widow Cui's attention.
Turning back to the TV, she mumbled, "I am old. I'm used to it."
Dinner was as opulent as every previous meal, but the mood at the table had somehow managed to turn even more sullen. Widow Cui and her daughter barely seemed to notice the brooding silence. Apparently, they were used to it. After the awkward meal, Fang Mu was happy to return to his room. He had another look at his cell phone, but there was still no signal. He turned his attention to the snow-covered world outside the window. There was a sliver of light against the gray sky. The snow seemed to be falling more lightly than earlier that afternoon. He took a closer look and noticed that the light was actually emanating from somewhere in the village. Then, he heard the sound of voices in the distance.
Intrigued, he made his way into the courtyard. There he bumped into Lu Haiyan. She was staring in the direction of the light, apparently lost in thought.