The Key

Bai Yanliang fell silent and turned slightly to look out the car window.

Bright sunlight spilled into every corner of Ye City, seeming to illuminate even the tiniest speck of dust.

"Thank you, Uncle Yang."

"What are you thanking me for, you silly kid?" Yang Wanlong finally gave in and tucked an unlit cigarette into the corner of his mouth, just to enjoy the sensation.

"Ten years." Bai Yanliang's voice was very soft. He quietly watched the rows of high-rises. Ye City had changed so much in the past ten years.

But some things never changed.

"Uncle Yang, why have you always believed I had nothing to do with Yanren's case ten years ago?"

Bai Yanliang finally looked away and turned toward Yang Wanlong, who was focused on driving.

"Tsk... If I had to say why..." Yang Wanlong lifted his right hand to scratch the back of his head. "I guess it's because I saw a similar case when I was a kid."

"When you were a kid, Uncle Yang?" Bai Yanliang had considered many possibilities, like Yang Wanlong finding some clue, but he had never thought of this reason.

The middle-aged detective was already forty-two. His childhood had to have been at least thirty years ago. A case from thirty years ago...

"Yeah. That kid went through something similar to you, but I saw it with my own eyes." Yang Wanlong finally lit his cigarette. In the rearview mirror, Bai Yanliang saw Yang Wanlong's pupils contract slightly, as if he had remembered something that frightened him.

What could make a middle-aged detective, accustomed to all kinds of bizarre murder cases, look afraid?

Bai Yanliang was curious.

"Back then, my family was poor. I went to school for half the day and herded cattle for the other half. That afternoon, I went to graze them on the hillside like I always did, and then... I witnessed a bizarre murder." Yang Wanlong's hand trembled slightly. Clearly, though more than ten years had passed, the memory hadn't faded at all with time. Instead, it was like an aged liquor, its aroma detectable even before the seal was broken.

"Yang Erwa from my village killed his father, Yang Laocheng, in the mountains! I still remember what he looked like: his face twisted into a terrible snarl, his movements strange, like... he was possessed by a ghost."

As he spoke, Yang Wanlong put out his cigarette and swallowed. His mouth seemed dry.

Bai Yanliang could see that his lips were parched, so pale they were almost white.

"I hid behind the cow, too scared to breathe. I didn't even care about the cow anymore. I just ran home as fast as I could."

"What happened after that?"

"After that... Yang Erwa was arrested. When they caught him, he was exactly like you back then: sitting dazed beside his father's corpse, neither crying nor laughing, not answering any questions. Later, I heard the kid hanged himself in prison." Yang Wanlong glanced at Bai Yanliang in the rearview mirror, but couldn't read anything in his expression.

"So you were worried I'd kill myself too, and that's why you made time to visit me at the psychiatric hospital every year?" Bai Yanliang asked with a smile.

"Something like that," Yang Wanlong replied noncommittally.

Bai Yanliang knew what Yang Wanlong wanted to ask: how could a human being have that much strength?

Although they had found a fruit knife at the scene of Bai Yanren's case, could a young boy really have done something so brutal with nothing but a small fruit knife?

What was more, judging by the condition of the scene and the autopsy report, Bai Yanren's body didn't look as though it had been cut open with a sharp weapon. It was more like... it had been torn apart by immense force...

It was almost exactly like the case Yang Wanlong had witnessed as a child. Bai Yanliang seemed to be like Yang Erwa: someone who had suddenly gone mad and killed a close family member.

Bai Yanliang wanted to know what had happened too, but... he truly couldn't remember a thing.

There wasn't the slightest memory in his mind of the crime scene back then.

"Oh, right. Like Yang Laocheng, your brother was confirmed dead, but his body disappeared," Yang Wanlong suddenly said. "They still haven't found it."

Yang Wanlong seemed to glance at Bai Yanliang, perhaps intentionally, perhaps not.

"Yanren's body?" Bai Yanliang had never heard this.

"Yeah. They searched every inch of the apartment you shared, but couldn't find it. They even turned over the sewers and garbage bins on several nearby streets. Nothing."

"..."

Bai Yanliang fell silent.

Yang Wanlong said nothing more and drove on without a word.

Twenty minutes later, the car stopped outside a rather upscale residential complex.

"Wait here. I'll go park."

Bai Yanliang nodded, got out with his luggage, and stood at the complex's entrance.

Rongyuan Residential Complex.

Bai Yanliang glanced at the complex's name. It seemed to be in a prosperous part of town, next to Ye City's well-known JB District commercial center. There were all kinds of places nearby, from pedestrian streets to entertainment centers.

He didn't have to wait long before Yang Wanlong returned.

The two of them carried their luggage toward a thirty-story apartment building, one behind the other.

"This is the place. Your aunt died young, so it's just me and my two girls in this big house. My eldest works at the affiliated hospital in the South District and hardly ever comes home. Now it's just me and that girl, Yang Yiyi. She's busy with her studies this year too, so she won't be home until nine tonight." As he spoke, Yang Wanlong pressed the button for the eighteenth floor.

Bai Yanliang listened quietly. Yang Wanlong's voice had noticeably brightened when he mentioned his two daughters. Clearly, he treasured them dearly.

He didn't say anything, but Bai Yanliang had already decided to find a job and move out of Uncle Yang's home as soon as possible. After all, they weren't related, Uncle Yang was busy with work, and it wouldn't be right for him to stay in the same house with the man's daughters for long.

"Come on in."

By then, they had reached the eighteenth floor.

Yang Wanlong opened the door and switched on the living-room light.

"Make yourself at home. I'll get your brother's things for you."

Bai Yanliang nodded and looked around the room.

It had three bedrooms and a living room, and was about 120 square meters. In Ye City, where every inch of land was precious, it was a pretty nice home.

"Here. Your brother was working as a private detective ten years ago. Before he died, he seemed to be investigating a case, but it didn't have much to do with his own. Take a look. These are the work documents he left behind, and there's this too." As he spoke, Yang Wanlong handed something over.

Bai Yanliang first took the documents, then accepted the small object Yang Wanlong held out.

A chill ran through his palm. He looked down and froze.

"A key?"

What did it unlock?

Seeing his puzzled expression, Yang Wanlong spread his hands. "I don't know. No one's ever tried to see what it opens."

Bai Yanliang held the key and examined it closely. It was silver all over, with a round handle carved with mysterious patterns at one end and three raised points at the other.

It was clearly finely made, but looked old. It wasn't a key for a door lock.

Bai Yanliang furrowed his brows. For some reason, as he held the exquisite yet strangely unsettling key, an unfamiliar sense of dread began to rise within him, as if... something had just been unlocked.