Qingmu went into the cage and carried Hu Xing out, gently setting her down in a clean corner by the wall. Although there was a mat inside the cage, the smell there was truly awful. He was afraid it would scar Hu Xing for life after she woke up.
He looked at Ma Fuqing and said, "You've been a bit of a failure as a son!"
Ma Fuqing stammered, unable to get a word out. He looked as ill as if he had suffered a serious sickness.
"What drug was in that watermelon of yours?" Qingmu asked.
Ma Fuqing shook his head. "I don't know. I didn't put it in. It was probably the psychiatric medication my brother takes."
Qingmu knew there was no point asking him. He could see that this was a tragic family, and Ma Fuqing's mother didn't care for him at all.
After a while, Hu Xing slowly came to and asked groggily, "What happened to me? Where am I?"
Qingmu knew Hu Xing was all right. Once she was a little more clearheaded, he briefly explained their current situation.
"What?"
Hu Xing found it hard to believe. This dutiful son, who was so devoted that he picked every last seed out of a watermelon before giving it to his mother, had actually been locked up by her and had nearly been shot dead by his own younger brother!
"Are you really her biological son? Why did your mother lock us up?" Hu Xing asked.
"My guess is it was because of you. His mother has gone crazy trying to find his brother a wife." Qingmu glanced at Ma Fuqing as he spoke. "Am I right?"
Ma Fuqing nodded.
Hu Xing immediately grew nervous and frantically felt herself all over. Only after finding that her clothes and trousers were intact and that her underwear showed no signs of having been touched did she relax. She gave Qingmu a grateful look and whispered a "thank you" so softly that even she couldn't hear it.
Yet Qingmu seemed to have heard her. "Don't thank me just yet. First, let's think about how to get out of this godforsaken place. My phone has no signal. Check yours."
Hu Xing hurriedly searched her pockets again. After fumbling around for a while, she said dejectedly, "My phone's gone."
Ma Fuqing sank to the ground in despair, muttering, "It's over. We're done for this time."
Hu Xing said, "Are we going to starve to death here?"
"You won't starve to death. That brother of his may be crazy, but he wouldn't enjoy sleeping with a corpse in his arms," Qingmu said. "My guess is they'll half-starve us, and once we're too weak..."
The more Hu Xing listened, the more frightened she became.
Since joining the criminal police, she had imagined no fewer than a hundred scenes of dying a heroic death, but she had never imagined being sexually assaulted by a lunatic. She pictured herself with chains around her neck, wrists, and ankles, stark naked and locked in an iron cage, forever a mental patient's plaything and slave. She might even end up giving birth to a whole brood of little lunatics for him.
"I'd rather die!" Hu Xing said, her body trembling.
Qingmu looked at Hu Xing and said very seriously, "Better a miserable life than a glorious death."
Hu Xing froze for a moment, then caught on. "Drop dead! You're still joking at a time like this!"
Only when Qingmu saw that she really was getting angry did he say, "All right, all right. None of us is going to die."
Hu Xing and Ma Fuqing asked in unison, "You have a way out?"
Qingmu spread his hands. "I certainly don't."
Hu Xing punched him. "Then why say that?" Suddenly, she understood something from Qingmu's comical expression and snorted. "You're up to something!"
Qingmu laughed. "What could I be up to? But we really aren't going to die. Think about who you are and how we got here."
Hu Xing's eyes suddenly lit up. Of course! Why hadn't she thought of that before?
She was a police officer, and she had driven a police vehicle out on official business today. An officer losing contact while out on duty was no small matter. She had reported Ma Fuqing's situation before setting out, and their car was parked at the entrance to Majia Creek Village. Finding Ma Fuqing's house would be child's play for the police.
They only had to wait until tonight, or tomorrow at the latest. Captain Shi and the others would definitely find this place.
"Doesn't your mother know that detaining a police officer is a serious crime?"
Having worked it out, Hu Xing relaxed as well. She wanted to get up and walk around, but she staggered as soon as she stood.
"If his mother were normal, she wouldn't have locked us up." Qingmu reached out to steady Hu Xing. "The drug hasn't completely worn off yet. Don't move around just yet."
Hu Xing simply lowered herself back down against Qingmu, resting her head sideways on his shoulder. At once, she felt she had someone to lean on.
"How much longer are you going to wait before telling the truth?" Qingmu asked, looking at Ma Fuqing.
Ma Fuqing sat slumped on the ground and let out a long sigh.
"My mother has had a hard life too!" he said. "My father died not long after my younger brother was born. My mother raised the two of us all by herself, working from dawn till dark. Life was very hard."
"Ever since I was little, I swore I'd be good to my mother and give her a comfortable life. But maybe because I was too stupid, my mother didn't like me. She liked my younger brother and treated him like a precious treasure. I dropped out after finishing middle school. I could have gone to high school. My grades weren't especially good, but I worked very hard. If I'd kept studying, maybe I could have gotten into a vocational secondary school or something. My mother wouldn't let me stay in school. She told me to go out and earn money."
"I understood my mother. We were poor, and putting two children through school was very difficult. So I went out to work. My younger brother did us proud and really got into university. I rushed back from out of town to celebrate with him. With the money I'd earned, I hosted a feast of more than twenty tables in the village. Our family really had its moment that year... cough, cough..."
"Every month, when I got paid, I'd send money to my brother. Then, somehow, I lost contact with him. I went to his university, and they said he hadn't attended classes for quite some time. My mother got anxious and made me look for him everywhere. I searched for three years before finally finding him at a garbage station out of town. By then, he'd already gone mad. We took him to a hospital for treatment for a while, but it didn't do much good, so we could only bring him home. After that, my mother's temper grew worse and worse. She treated everyone she saw like an enemy."
Ma Fuqing paused, then asked tentatively, "Um, my brother is mentally ill. He won't be sentenced, will he?"
"Your brother is mentally ill, but you aren't." Qingmu looked at Ma Fuqing. "Tell us about that headless woman's corpse."
Ma Fuqing froze for a moment and said, "It was only a dream."
"Only a dream?" Qingmu said.
Ma Fuqing said nothing. Remembering what had happened in Qingmu's studio, he felt a little afraid. He didn't know what methods this "master" had at his disposal.
"You weren't the one who killed her, but you were the one who dumped the body, weren't you?" Qingmu suddenly said.
Ma Fuqing shuddered and lowered his head. "N-no... nothing of the sort."
Qingmu continued, "The head is buried under that locust tree in the backyard, isn't it?"
Just then, several crow calls suddenly came from the backyard:
Caw, caw... caw... caw...