Li Heng stood up, her gaze still fixed on the TV screen.
“The cleaner auntie is definitely suspicious — do you remember her name?”
Shen Zhicheng still had a puzzle piece between his fingers, his gaze focused as he slotted it into place: “Wong Chui Mui.”
At the precise reminder, Li Heng recalled that the statement had actually recorded the name as “Wong Sai Mui.” She shot him a glare.
His memory and observation skills were clearly a gift — and yet he always had to use the most mocking tone to say the most infuriating things.
The full dream still lingered in her mind.
All she could see was the ending destined for the two of them as the villain siblings.
Li Heng asked herself — even within a manipulated script, she would never commit any wrongdoing. She was merely stubborn and extreme in nature, and was framed by others, bearing the stigma until her death with no one to defend her. And precisely because of that, everyone saw her as a villain who deserved her fate.
Honestly — it was quite unjust.
As for Shen Zhicheng being regarded as a villain — it couldn’t be brushed off with a simple description of being moody and gloomy. Xu Le’er from Tech — who was the original female lead of the plot — had met him through work. She approached him with the purest, most sincere and passionate affection. And yet he used sharp, blunt mockery to trample all over her sincerity.
In the storyline, Xu Le’er was a very good person.
Even after Shen Zhicheng had hurt her deeply — when, in the end, both siblings died one after another and lay in the cemetery with no one visiting — it was she who came with flowers and bowed gently before their graves. She said they hadn’t been wrong — it was the unpredictable variables of this world that had pushed them step by step to their end.
Years after their deaths, Xu Le’er met the male lead, and the two lived a fulfilling life. Still, whenever she thought of the siblings’ desolate fate, she couldn’t help but sigh.
Li Heng pulled her thoughts back.
From now on, she wouldn’t let Shen Zhicheng hurt anyone else — and she definitely wouldn’t let him destroy himself.
As for her own fate — ending up in prison, expelled from the force — Li Heng didn’t dwell on it.
She could already see the path ahead, and she refused to believe the tragedy would repeat itself.
For now, the case came first. Li Heng refocused: “Let’s go find Wong Sai Mui.”
Shen Zhicheng finally put down the puzzle piece.
“Come on, Madam — we haven’t even finished the puzzle. Who goes to work overtime in the middle of the night?”
But Li Heng was already walking away. From behind, Shen Zhicheng called out: “Wong Sai Mui is definitely fast asleep at this hour.”
At that, Li Heng stopped. “You go sleep too.”
The two argued for a while, but in the end, they didn’t go out.
The spacious private rooftop connected both units. The siblings each had their own place — doors closed, no intrusion — yet they both knew the other was just there.
On their first night in the new home, neither had closed their door.
Shen Zhicheng lay in bed, unable to resist calling toward the balcony: “Are you asleep?”
“No.”
Shen Zhicheng closed his eyes.
He always had trouble sleeping at night — staying awake until dawn, catching fitful naps until the afternoon. This routine had gone on for years; he was used to it. But now it was different — he had a job to go to. He needed sufficient sleep to keep his mind sharp and not drag the team down.
He stared at the ceiling again: “Are you asleep now?”
“Shen Zhicheng — close your eyes immediately.”
Like Li Heng, Shen Zhicheng had always been used to being alone. It was rare for him to act like he had tonight.
She had clearly run out of patience, yet still — after long silences — she responded to him every time.
After who knows how long, Shen Zhicheng spoke again: “Are you ready to sleep yet?”
This time, there was no response from the other side.
Li Heng wasn’t asleep yet.
The image of Shen Zhicheng’s numb, empty eyes in the later part of the dream overlapped with the voice of the man now restlessly checking that she was still there.
She made a vow to herself — this time, she wouldn’t let him become that person.
Li Heng looked out through the glass door.
The rooftop was wide open, the view unobstructed. Moonlight mingled with starlight — quiet and gentle.
“Shen Zhicheng — I’m not going anywhere.”
Across that short distance, Shen Zhicheng clearly knew — she was still there.
He pulled up the covers and fell silent.
At 3:30 AM, his heart was finally at ease.
Though the bed was unfamiliar, he felt more at peace than ever before.
At long last, sleep finally washed over him.
…
Shen Zhicheng didn’t know when he’d fallen asleep last night. All he knew was that when he opened his eyes, the cold air had almost entirely escaped through the open glass door.
The weather had been gloomy for days, but this morning the sun blazed — scorching summer sunlight had managed to bake him awake.
He must have been the first person ever to be woken by the sun.
Irritably, Shen Zhicheng got up. The moment he stepped through the glass door, he looked up — and saw Li Heng standing at the other end of the rooftop, wearing the same annoyed expression.
She was clearly the second person to be woken up by the sun.
This rooftop unit was all show and no substance.
“Morning,” Shen Zhicheng greeted her.
Li Heng could barely keep her eyes open — severely sleep-deprived.
It was hard to imagine how this person had managed to survive over twenty years of this kind of sleepless routine.
Before long, Shen Zhicheng came back after washing up. Droplets of water still clung to his hair, which he shook off carelessly — messy and bold.
It reminded her of how a puppy shakes itself dry.
Li Heng asked: “What’s for breakfast?”
Shen Zhicheng had never been in the habit of eating breakfast.
Both their fridges were empty. Without hesitation, he turned and said: “I’ll go downstairs and buy some!”
In just ten minutes, he came back with bags full of everything — almost every item from the breakfast shop.
That morning, the two sat at the table, quietly eating breakfast and sipping hot soy milk.
Li Heng unwrapped a serving of glutinous rice chicken. The fragrance of lotus leaves filled the air — each grain of sticky rice wrapped around tender chicken.
She’d never had moments like this before. Most days, she’d grab a barbecue pork bun, shove it into her mouth before getting on the bus, and jostle her way to work.
This kind of ordinary routine — so plain, yet it felt incredibly secure.
Li Heng split the portion with her chopsticks and handed half to him: “This is good.”
Shen Zhicheng paused, then said dramatically: “You’re being so nice to me — are you even awake?”
…
At the station, Li Heng immediately pulled out the cleaner auntie’s statement.
It was clearly written there — Wong Sai Mui said that when she got home, her husband was watching TV, and Family Ties had just started.
She was about to head out to find her when Fang Zhishan came running in.
“Madam! We got the department store surveillance footage from that day. The mother-daughter pair who bought the red dress — they were at the counter around three in the afternoon.”
The mother and daughter had been brought to the station. Both looked somewhat confused.
The daughter was only sixteen. The mother, as the salesperson had described, was slightly heavyset.
When it came to the dress, the woman’s tone was full of bitterness.
She had spent her life caring for the family — scrimping and saving, not even buying herself a single piece of clothing. Neighbors and relatives all praised her for being a thrifty homemaker.
But in the end, her family still fell apart.
“He’s with his secretary now. He’s forcing me to divorce him.”
As she spoke, her daughter gently held her hand.
The girl had watched her mother devote everything to the family, telling herself countless times that she would never end up like that. But the pain in her eyes was undeniable.
“I thought — what have I been scrimping and saving for my whole life? I wanted to go to the department store and buy all the things I’d never dared to buy before.”
“But that day, after walking around for hours, in the end I only gritted my teeth and bought this one dress. Four thousand dollars — in the past, I would never have spent that kind of money.” The woman smiled bitterly, patting her daughter’s hand. “It was my daughter who kept saying it looked beautiful — that’s what gave me the courage to bring it home.”
“When I was young, I wanted a red dress like this. I waited and waited — and in the end, no one ever bought me one.”
“My figure’s long gone — I can’t even wear it. It’s been sitting at home all this time, with the tag still on.”
“I did regret it. I even told my kid that I should have thought twice — that maybe I could take the receipt back to the department store and get a refund.”
She pushed the packaging bag toward the officers. The dress was untouched, and the receipt was still inside.
Fang Zhishan checked it, then turned and shook her head at Li Heng.
The dress was still here — which clearly meant it wasn’t the one the victim Ng Mei Yan had been wearing.
With that, the case was inevitably at another dead end.
Meanwhile, the leads on the second victim, Yiu Chun Fai, had likewise made no progress.
Every line of inquiry was narrowing — until it eventually led to a dead end.
…
Li Heng put away the statement and headed out with Fang Zhishan to find Wong Sai Mui.
Before leaving, she instructed: “Jiacong, go verify the alibi of Yiu Chun Fai’s ex-girlfriend Cheung Man Wah again.”
Lin Jiacong acknowledged: “Am I going alone?”
Li Heng added: “Take Shen Zhicheng with you.”
Lin Jiacong sighed silently. He’d opened his big mouth for nothing.
Partnering with that young master — having to cater to him — was really less hassle than going alone.
After quickly assigning the tasks, Li Heng set off with Fang Zhishan.
On the way, she asked: “Did you notice anything off about Wong Sai Mui that day?”
Fang Zhishan thought back: “She was just rambling a lot — every few sentences she’d go on about water ghosts. At the time, I thought, she’s an elderly lady, they tend to be superstitious about these things — so I didn’t pay it much mind.”
They followed the address on the statement, but by their estimate, she should be at Ngong Shuen Chau at this hour.
When they arrived, sure enough — they found her.
Wong Sai Mui was tidying up some odds and ends nearby. When she saw the two familiar faces, her face immediately went pale. She was clearly flustered but tried to pretend nothing was wrong.
Li Heng walked over: “Auntie, in your earlier statement, you said you saw the victim Ng Mei Yan mumbling to herself by the water — was that true?”
Wong Sai Mui avoided eye contact, her head lowered, not daring to look at her: “Y-yes… it’s true…”
“You said you saw Ng Mei Yan wearing a red dress that day — that her skirt was blowing in the wind and she didn’t even bother to straighten it — and that you didn’t know who she was talking to. Later, when you got home, the TV was playing Family Ties. That show airs every night at 11:10, so you estimated that you saw Ng Mei Yan at around eleven at night.” Fang Zhishan flipped through the statement. “But we checked the TV station’s schedule for that night — the original time slot for Family Ties was replaced by the Ullambana Festival special, Tales of the Supernatural. Why did you deliberately give false testimony?”
Li Heng’s tone grew heavier: “Wong Sai Mui, obstructing justice can land you in prison.”
At this, Wong Sai Mui’s expression changed drastically. Her voice turned urgent as she waved her hands frantically: “I didn’t mean to — I was just confused for a moment…”
“Then tell us the truth — what did you actually see that night?”
Wong Sai Mui hesitated for a long time before finally speaking: “Actually — I never saw her that night at all.”
“What do you mean?”
“I didn’t stay to collect cans that night — I went home before dinner… My husband hadn’t been feeling well these past few days. He took his medicine after dinner and went to bed early — we didn’t even turn on the TV.” Her voice grew softer. “It was the next day at Ngong Shuen Chau — I ran into a man.”
“He was a man — I didn’t know him. He spotted the body floating in the water first. He told me that if the police came asking, I should say I’d seen her talking to a water ghost the night before — that every year, water ghosts come to claim lives here…”
“He said if I just said what he told me, he’d give me a thousand dollars.” Wong Sai Mui spoke haltingly. “I thought — I’d heard about water ghosts before. It wasn’t anything strange. Saying that wouldn’t really be a lie.”
Li Heng and Fang Zhishan exchanged a glance.
The rumors had spread so fast — it turned out they hadn’t spread naturally at all. Someone had orchestrated it all from behind the scenes, deliberately steering public opinion.
Fang Zhishan leaned in and said quietly to Li Heng: “Madam — could that man be the killer?”
Wong Sai Mui’s face turned even paler at that.
“I don’t know — I never thought of that… He told me he lived nearby, that he’d passed by the night before and seen that woman talking to herself from a distance. He just wanted me to tell the police what he’d seen.”
“I thought he really had seen it… A thousand dollars is a lot to us. I was just being greedy and did something wrong — I didn’t know anything about giving false testimony.”
“Officer, I don’t know the killer — and I don’t know if he actually killed anyone… This has nothing to do with me. Please don’t arrest me.”
“Do you remember what that man looked like?”
“About… sixty years old, medium build — not tall, not thin.” Wong Sai Mui pointed to the corner of her mouth and then below her eye: “He had a mole here — and one here too. His hair was a bit long, and he was wearing a hat.”
“Take her back to the station first,” Li Heng said.
Wong Sai Mui was terrified. With a pained expression, she begged for mercy, crying that she was too old to go to jail.
“Two officers — I’ve told you the truth now. I won’t dare do it again, never again.” Her lips trembled. “I really didn’t know it was this serious — I’m just an old woman—”
“We’re taking you back to do a composite sketch for identification,” Li Heng cut her off. “As long as you cooperate with the police and tell us everything clearly, there may still be a way out.”
…
Back at the station, Fang Zhishan accompanied Wong Sai Mui into the composite room for the facial recognition sketch.
The weather had been overcast that day, and the man had worn a hat. Wong Sai Mui tried to recall his facial features and contours, sweating nervously.
“Take your time — close your eyes and think,” Fang Zhishan said patiently, sitting beside her. “His eyes, nose, mouth… any distinctive features?”
In the CID room, several officers sat together, discussing in low voices.
“Ngong Shuen Chau is so remote — there’s no way that man just happened to be there by chance.”
“He was clearly the first to discover the body — yet he stayed hidden and made Wong Sai Mui say those things instead.”
“Exactly,” Old You mused. “In a lot of cases, it’s a cleaner, a janitor, or a hiker who finds the body first. In our initial screening, we assume they have no motive — we don’t dig too deep right away.”
“If Madam hadn’t noticed that the show wasn’t airing that night, we’d never have suspected a seemingly innocent cleaner of giving false testimony.”
“Once the composite sketch is done, we can follow that lead straight to the killer.”
“I’ll go check on the composite room — see if we can get the results faster.”
Li Heng stood nearby, her brow slightly furrowed.
Even if he’d killed someone, no one had ever seen his face. This man went through all that trouble, taking the risk of exposure, planting lies in front of an unrelated person to steer public opinion toward water ghosts — what was his hidden agenda?
The group was still discussing when the phone on Wen Jie’s desk rang.
She picked up. After a few words, a puzzled look crossed her face.
“Looking for a Madam sister?” Wen Jie said patiently. “What’s your name? Is something wrong?”
“Nannán? Child — you can’t just play with the phone. Emergency calls aren’t for fun.”
Li Heng paused and walked over: “It’s probably for me.”
Wen Jie was taken aback and handed over the receiver.
Through the earpiece came a small, childish voice — it was Ng Mei Yan’s daughter, Nannán.
“Madam sister,” Nannán said. “I drew Mommy’s yellow dress — I want to help you solve the case.”
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