Last Words

The history teacher Jia Shi had bought a new phone with a new number. On the very night he got it, he received his first text message. Brief — just a few characters: "Though Chu has but three families, Chu shall be the one to destroy Qin." The message arrived at 3:20 a.m. The sender: Wang Qin.

In the Warring States era, the Qin kingdom attacked Chu, slaughtering its people until all of Chu burned with a hatred of Qin. An elder named Chu Nangong swore a curse: "Though Chu has but three families remaining, Chu shall be the one to destroy Qin." It proved prophetic — decades later, men of Chu, among them Chen Sheng, Wu Guang, Xiang Yu, and Liu Bang, rose in succession against Qin and finally brought the dynasty down.

Jia Shi discovered the message in the morning. As a history teacher, the famous historical allusion was clear to him — but he could not understand why Wang Qin would send it to him. He wanted to go to school and ask colleagues about it. But when he arrived, he heard something terrible:

Wang Qin had vanished from her hospital room during the night. The caregiver Wang Ping had been knocked out with ether and found unconscious in the ward. A sanitation worker discovered a female body in the hospital pond early that morning. The face and body had been severely burned by acid and were unrecognizable — but the clothing pointed clearly to No. 4's chemistry teacher, Wang Qin.

Detective Chief Wu Xian brought the news to the school, arriving early with his team to collect evidence. The cause of death appeared to be strong acid burns, and the concentrated sulfuric acid from No. 4's chemistry lab had conveniently gone missing during the night.

Wu Xian was in the principal's office briefing Principal Chen Daipeng when someone burst in without knocking and immediately demanded: "What time did Wang Qin die?"

Wu Xian was not a patient man, especially on the job — usually only he had the privilege of being rude to others. But this time he didn't react. He even managed a rare smile.

The man who had burst in was Jia Shi. Wu Xian restrained himself because he knew Jia Shi was the son of Jia Lian, the deputy director of the city's public security bureau.

"Xiao Jia, have a seat. Based on initial forensics, the victim's time of death was around 1 a.m."

Jia Shi didn't sit. "Was her phone on the body?"

Wu Xian answered readily: "It was. We checked. All her belongings were with her, nothing missing. But the phone was waterlogged from submersion. Technical analysis is working to recover the data."

Time of death around 1 a.m. — yet a text was sent at 3:20 a.m.? Jia Shi felt a cold run through him. He crossed the room, pulled the phone from his pocket, opened the text message, and placed it on the desk in front of Wu Xian.

"Though Chu has but three families remaining, Chu shall be the one to destroy Qin." Wu Xian read it aloud.

"Fang Chuchua?" The face of Principal Chen Daipeng, sitting across the desk from Wu Xian, gave a sudden involuntary twitch.

"Who is Fang Chuchua?"

Principal Chen sighed. "Fang Chuchua was once a student at this school. Fifteen years ago, as you may know, a magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck Tiecheng. There were many casualties. Fang Chuchua went missing in the earthquake. The body was never found for a long time. Her mother came to the school every day making demands — said the school was responsible for making her daughter disappear. But the earthquake happened after school hours, and other students had witnessed Chuchua leaving the school grounds that evening. The school bore no responsibility. Her mother refused to accept this, kept coming to the school, then went to the municipal government office, then the police station. Eventually she was reportedly committed to a psychiatric hospital, and the matter was finally put to rest. When she was coming to the school to make trouble, the place she went most was Wang Qin's office — Wang Qin had been Chuchua's homeroom teacher at the time. Wang Qin was young and inexperienced at handling things; she argued with the mother several times and said things she shouldn't have, which deepened the grievance. So before the mother was committed, Wang Qin spent months receiving circular spirit-money notes from her — the kind burned for the dead — with a phrase written on them in red: 'Though Chu forgets Qin, Qin shall not escape Chu.' It was her way of invoking the ancient enmity between Qin and Chu to express the enmity between Fang Chuchua and Wang Qin. It caused Wang Qin considerable psychological strain at the time. Is this final message suggesting the case is connected to Fang Chuchua's mother?"

Wu Xian's eyes lit up at the first solid lead in a baffling case. He immediately called Fei Qiang.

Fei Qiang had been investigating Xiao Jin's case and believed he had a promising lead — he was about to request authorization for a search when Wu Xian called and told him to drop the Xiao Jin angle, that there was a more important lead, and to go immediately to Kangping Psychiatric Hospital to look into Fang Chuchua's mother. Fei Qiang believed his own direction was correct and didn't want to abandon it, argued a little, and then with no choice obeyed his superior's orders and went to the psychiatric hospital.

Fei Qiang worked fast. Wu Xian received his call soon: "Chief Wu, I'm at Kangping Psychiatric Hospital. Fang Chuchua's mother's name is Tang Sui. She was admitted fifteen years ago after her husband died early and her daughter disappeared. Her condition has shown no improvement in fifteen years. One month ago, a female student in a No. 4 school uniform came to visit her. Tang Sui's behavior showed no change afterward. But one week ago she suddenly escaped from the hospital. The staff have no idea where she might have gone."

Wu Xian's face brightened. "It has to be her. She escaped a week ago — which lines up exactly with when the first murder occurred. This also explains the text message: Tang Sui killed Wang Qin, then used Wang Qin's phone to send the message to Jia Shi, and then discarded the body in the pond. The message was sent after Wang Qin was already dead."

"Chief Wu — I also found that Tang Sui has a cerebral infarction with lasting damage. All ten of her fingers are immobile. And forensics hasn't found anyone else's fingerprints on the phone, nor any sign of the phone being wiped. We can be reasonably sure the person who texted Jia Shi was Wang Qin herself."

Wu Xian thought for a moment. "Whatever — Tang Sui is still a key suspect. Issue a warrant. Move to apprehend. Once we have her, everything will be clear."

A warrant was issued, but Fei Qiang remained deeply puzzled. An old woman who couldn't move all ten of her fingers — how had she managed to kill four physically healthy people, using four completely different methods?