“Damn it, I hear sirens…”
In the heat of the moment, killing had felt like a surge of adrenaline. But now the deed was done, the item hadn’t been found, and the sound of police sirens brought Qin Wenbang and Qin Wenqiang back to their senses.
The two exchanged a glance, simultaneously letting go of each other, then bolted toward the back door.
Seeing this, Qin Sang had no time to block them. But by now, some villagers had already come outside to see what was going on.
When they killed Manman, the two had been quiet. But afterward, when they couldn’t find the space, they’d started fighting tooth and nail—and that had been loud. Add the sirens to the mix, and the moment the two ran for the back door, the neighbors had locked onto their location.
As soon as they ran into them, a man shouted, “Hey, hey, you two been fighting?”
Both Qin Wenbang and Qin Wenqiang were bruised and swollen, so the villagers who saw them assumed they’d been in a fight.
Without answering, the two kept their heads down and kept running.
More and more people poured out of their homes to gawk. Suddenly, nobody minded the sun beating down. Everyone in the village knew about the grudge between Qin Wenbang and Qin Wenqiang, and they were all eager to see what would happen next.
Some people even pulled out their phones and started livestreaming to the village group chat.
That was when the police arrived.
Leading the way was Brother Fa, captain of the village patrol. He had received a call from the police a few minutes earlier, saying there was a killer in the village. They told him to keep watch and make sure the suspects didn’t escape. After hanging up, Brother Fa immediately arranged for surveillance, reported the situation to the village chief, and then led his men to meet up with the scouts he’d sent ahead.
Just then, officers from the local police station also arrived.
The two groups converged less than a hundred meters from Qin Wenqiang’s house.
—
This was Qin Sang’s first time witnessing an arrest scene firsthand.
The two leading officers produced steel prongs and pinned Qin Wenbang and Qin Wenqiang to the ground. The entire process took less than five minutes.
The gathered villagers finally snapped out of it and started asking what was going on. A fight between relatives—did that really require steel prongs?
Then Brother Fa announced loudly, “These two killed someone in their home!”
The crowd erupted in shock.
Everyone knew Qin Wenbang—a good-for-nothing who owed debts all over the village and liked to bully people. But they’d never heard of him committing murder or arson.
As for Qin Wenqiang, even more so. He was a top student—a graduate of a prestigious 985 university who’d landed a bank job right after graduation. In the villagers’ eyes, he was a real success story.
That two such people could be killers? Nobody believed it. But the words had come from Brother Fa, a fellow villager who had no reason to lie.
Someone immediately asked who they’d killed, but Brother Fa stopped answering. Instead, he organized a team to head straight to Qin Wenqiang’s house and shooed the crowd away to keep them from contaminating the crime scene.
The front door of Qin Wenqiang’s house was still shut, but the police found the keys on him and opened it.
As the door swung open, the villagers who hadn’t left let out a collective gasp. The faint-hearted screamed.
A woman’s body lay on the floor. Now, no one doubted that Qin Wenbang and Qin Wenqiang had committed murder.
Seeing this, a handcuffed Qin Wenqiang immediately turned on his accomplice.
“I didn’t kill her—Qin Wenbang did. Manman and I were talking, and he stabbed her in the back from behind. The wounds on my body are from trying to fight him off.”
It sounded plausible enough. Several relatives from the Qin family started speaking up to the police.
But Qin Wenbang wasn’t stupid. With Qin Wenqiang betraying him like this, he threw caution to the wind and shouted, “Qin Wenqiang told me to kill her! He said Manman’s space came from a jade plaque that recognized her by blood. Kill her, and the space would drop—along with all her supplies…”
He couldn’t finish. The lead officer gagged him on the spot.
But there were too many onlookers. Many people’s eyes flickered with interest at those words.
Even worse, when the incident occurred, some villagers had been livestreaming the scene in the village group chat.
Now, the secret of the jade space was out.
—
“Did you hear? Apparently, if a piece of jade recognizes you by blood, you can get a space.”
“I heard that if you kill someone who has a space, the space and all their supplies drop.”
“No, no, you’ve both got it wrong. Both things are true. Let me tell you…”
“People are already on their way to buy jade—ten or eight pieces to try out.”
“Maybe we should find someone with a space and kill them to see…”
—
That very day, the authorities had announced point-based shopping. Now, Qin Wenbang’s words were spreading online, and countless people were intrigued.
“How to obtain a space” was still trending. Qin Wenbang and Qin Wenqiang had just pointed out two paths. Though the authorities immediately debunked the claims across all major platforms, many people were skeptical of the official denial.
The comments saying, “Let’s kill someone and try it out”—those came from the very people who didn’t trust the authorities.
After scrolling through several social media apps, Qin Sang helplessly realized that this dangerous trend had already taken off. By comparison, buying a piece of jade and trying the blood recognition method actually seemed like the legitimate path.
“Mom, Dad, come back quickly. It’s not safe out there.”
Qin Sang grabbed her phone and told her parents to hurry home. They had gone out that day with relatives to barter goods at a few nearby private shops.
As soon as the authorities announced the points mall would open, the only supermarket in town had shut down. And private shops had started closing their doors one after another right after the official announcement of the coming disaster.
Still, these shops were accepting barter trades.
Otherwise, a stationery store owner couldn’t just sit on a room full of notebooks and wait to die. A pottery shop owner couldn’t do anything with a room full of clay pots either.
Qin Sang’s parents had taken grain that day to trade for some clay pots to pickle vegetables in.
The two elders had no idea something big had happened in the village. But after getting Qin Sang’s call, they started preparing to head back.
Second Aunt was with them. She had come to help pack supplies for several relatives.
“Did something happen? Why the rush?” Second Aunt asked as she stuffed the relatives’ things into her space, not forgetting to find out what was going on.
One of the relatives on the trip pulled out their phone and opened the village group chat. And then they all knew what had happened.
On the road, a few of them discussed what the fourth brother and his wife would do now.
Qin Sang waited at home for her parents. She breathed a sigh of relief when they returned safely. She warned Second Aunt, who had come with them, “Some people are saying out there that if you kill someone with a space, you can get their space and supplies. Second Aunt, don’t go out these days.”
Second Aunt was warm-hearted. Whenever someone in the village needed supplies, she’d help carry them back for free, not to mention she had rented out a lot of space in her dimension at a low price.
“Alright, alright, this old lady won’t go out. Your parents too—tell them to be careful. Qin Wenbang has been arrested. His parents will probably come looking for trouble at your house.”
Qin Sang knew perfectly well that Second Uncle and Second Aunt would come. Their son had been arrested, and they had no one else to turn to. They would come begging at the doorstep of his father, the eldest brother.
What rotten luck to have people like that as family.
Qin Sang grumbled inwardly while giving her parents a detailed account of the killing and the extreme online rhetoric circulating now.
“Anyway, we’re really not going out these days.” Qin Sang’s mother valued her life, and there really were people out there killing indiscriminately. They wouldn’t stand a chance. Especially since the authorities had already registered everyone with a space. Acquaintances also knew that two people in their family had spaces. So there was no such thing as keeping it a secret anymore.
That was exactly what Qin Sang worried about most.
Space owners were now out in the open. If people without spaces decided to ambush them from the shadows, there was no real way to defend against it. You could guard against thieves for a thousand days, but a thief wouldn’t be on the lookout for you.
Just then, Qin Sang’s phone rang.
—
Seeing it was Da Linzi, Qin Sang immediately guessed why he was calling.
And she was right. He was reminding her family to stay safe.
“The posts about killing to get a space keep getting taken down, but there are too many of them. And this kind of behavior—it’s not just Qin Wenqiang and the others doing it. It’s happening all over the country. Before, it was just one or two cases happening in secret. But this one in the village got posted online directly. That’s why it’s caused such a huge uproar.”
Mentioning this gave Da Linzi a headache.
Last time, someone in the village had stirred things up by posting online. And now, just days later, even a killing to get a space had been posted online. The consequences were disastrous.
Those who were desperate, or who craved a space but couldn’t get one—they really might kill someone just to try. Their minds would run wild with the thought: what if it works?
The only good news might be that the jade space secret had been exposed too.
The authorities had kept this secret under wraps, quietly collecting a lot of jade. Maybe it was better that it was out now—it might at least deter some people from taking matters into their own hands.
Da Linzi mentioned a few killing-for-space incidents from around the country to Qin Sang. Only then did she realize that things outside their village were far more chaotic.
What was happening in reality was much worse than what appeared online.
“The price of jade is skyrocketing right now. No one wants to sell. Everyone wants to try the blood recognition to see if they can get a space. You and your uncle and aunt should not go out for the time being. I’ll be home the day after tomorrow. Wait until I get back before we do anything.”
A lot of things couldn’t be discussed over the phone. He would have to explain clearly to Sang Sang in person.
“Team Leader Xu, there’s a problem with dismantling the equipment…”
Da Linzi wanted to say more, but his subordinates were calling for him. He had to say goodbye to Sang Sang for now: “I’ll be back soon. We’ll talk about a lot of things face to face then…”
—
Staring at the hung-up phone, Qin Sang was dazed for a moment.
Sure enough, she had been stuck in the urban village and didn’t know much about what was happening outside. And Da Linzi was practically part of the authorities now—he surely had access to much more information.
Qin Sang really wanted to learn more about the outside situation. Unfortunately, she would have to wait two more days.
Just then, someone pounded heavily on the door.
Qin Sang opened it and wasn’t surprised to see Qu Meijing.
The woman glared at her, face full of anger: “Did you already know there are spaces inside jade and that blood recognition works?”
Qin Sang leaned against the doorframe and said coolly, “So what if I did? So what if I didn’t?”
“You… isn’t that fraud?”
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