On the evening of the third day, Li Zhaoheng received an express delivery with no sender's name.
Inside was a thick stack of printed documents. The top page showed screenshots from surveillance footage. The resolution was not particularly clear, but it was enough to make out the face-
Shen Yuxing was crouching in a corner of the changing room, holding a small packet and pouring its contents into a pastry box.
A written explanation was attached below, detailing the entire sequence of events after Jiang Yu had eaten the pastries and suddenly gone into anaphylactic shock that day. From his admission to the hospital to his emergency treatment and recovery, the timeline was laid out with absolute clarity, as orderly as evidence prepared for court.
Further down were photocopies of more than a dozen handwritten accounts. The paper varied in age, the handwriting was crooked, and each statement bore a red fingerprint at the bottom.
Their contents were even more jarring: every one was testimony from Shiban Village residents about Shen Wangjing's "patricide."
"The day Shen Wangjing's dad died, only the two of them were by the river. He and his dad were always fighting around that time. His dad beat him all the time. Everyone in the village knew."
"No matter how rotten Shen Dayong was, he was still his own father. Shoving your own father into the river-heaven won't stand for that!"
"The village elders all said the eldest Shen boy brought death to his family. First his mother, then his father. Anyone who gets involved with someone like that is bound to suffer!"
Every word was blunt and coarse, steeped in the most vicious speculation the countryside had to offer.
By the time Li Zhaoheng reached the bottom of the stack, his face had turned utterly grim.