Chapter 20: The true unmasking

Translator: Abo Dammen

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Case One: The Phantom Sniper

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Xu Pei’s certain tone caused a flicker of hesitation to cross Ma Jing’s face, but it quickly returned to normal.

Like a top student reviewing an exam, he effortlessly listed possible flaws he might have revealed, “Gunshot residue? I don’t have any on me. Even if there’s a trace, it’s from the casino. Things like fishing line, tape, you can search my room next door all you want. But as Officer He said, if I really had those things, I would have thrown them into the sea long ago. As for Professor Xu saying I handled the sugar pellets in the bathroom, liquid cyanide is highly volatile. Are you sure you can still detect it?”

The sharp question was thrown back to Xu Pei. He Yixun’s gaze also shifted to Xu Pei. 

At least before entering the room, the two of them hadn’t found any key evidence. He Yixun didn’t quite understand what act Xu Pei was putting on. But he believed Xu Pei must have his reasons for doing this.

Even though he couldn’t explain where this inexplicable trust came from.

“Yes, you’ve disposed of everything you needed to, leaving no handle,” Xu Pei agreed. “But one thing puzzles me: why did the killer have to approach He Jun quietly from behind?

“Even if He Jun saw you, you could just greet him casually, say, ‘Young Master He, here for a drink too?’, and then give him a sudden shot. What’s so difficult about that? 

“It wasn’t until I saw your trouser leg that I figured it out.”

Xu Pei had felt he’d seen He Yixun’s wrinkled trouser leg somewhere before. Now, after seeing Ma Jing, he finally remembered.

When He Yixun noticed Lin Mei was barefoot, Xu Pei had looked down too, and his peripheral vision had caught Ma Jing’s trouser legs.

Unlike He Yixun, both of Ma Jing’s trouser legs had creases from being rolled up. 

“Anyone who fires a gun will have gunshot residue on them. Especially on the windward deck, the residue would be more severe. Normally, you wouldn’t need to worry about this, because there wouldn’t be any test kits on the ship. But my acute sense of smell was an unexpected variable for you. You had to be cautious.

“To remove gunshot residue, the methods are simply bathing and changing clothes. But you didn’t have spare clothes prepared, and you couldn’t wash your clothes either. You could only avoid getting the residue on you in the first place. Either you go to fire the gun completely naked and take a shower afterwards, or you suit up fully, wrapping yourself tightly. Most people would choose the second option.

“The supermarket had the most useful tools, which were raincoats and gloves. I think when you went to get the tape and fishing line, you took those things as well.

“But the raincoat only reaches below the knees. Your lower legs and feet couldn’t be completely covered. Perhaps you could take a few towels, wrap everything below your knees, and secure it with tape. But that’s very laborious. Compared to that, ‘leaving the area below the knees completely exposed’ was undoubtedly the optimal solution, and it had the added benefit of eliminating your footsteps. 

“In other words, you combined both methods. Fully suited up above the knees, completely naked below. After finishing, you could simply discard the raincoat and gloves, then return to your room to wash your legs and feet.

“But no one strolls around the ship in that state. That’s why you couldn’t let He Jun see you, because he would find you highly suspicious.”

Xu Pei said all this in one breath. Ma Jing fell silent again. The shrewdness behind his lenses, lacking the support of confidence, gradually grew dim.

“Completely naked below the knees,” He Yixun spoke up, “means rolling up the trouser legs and taking off shoes and socks?” 

“Yes,” Xu Pei nodded. “He had to create the gunshot immediately after returning to his room. Otherwise, the body, without cover, could easily be discovered. At least at that time, he hadn’t had time to wash his feet. And when we saw him, his trouser legs were down, and he was wearing shoes and socks. That means…

“The inside of his trouser legs and socks would have gunshot residue on them,” He Yixun concluded.

Even though going to the casino could also potentially get gunshot residue on trouser legs and socks, Ma Jing could never explain why it would be on the inside. The others finally caught up with the duo’s reasoning. They gasped one after another, digesting this astonishing information.

No one spoke to share their thoughts. Even He Maohu remained silent, seemingly lost in memories from four years ago. 

“Her name was Ma Ke. My younger sister.” Ma Jing took off his glasses. His shoulders seemed crushed by the night, and his voice took on a hoarse quality. “One day, she said she wanted to give me a surprise. And then she disappeared.

“I asked her classmates and found out that, to buy me a birthday present, she had taken a summer part-time job as a service worker on the Lucky Number.

“That was her first job ever. She had just turned sixteen, merely a high school student who knew little of the world. I had told her that her brother would work hard so she wouldn’t want for food or clothes. Who would have thought that to earn money for my gift, she would end up on this devil’s lair, the Lucky Number.

“After that, she vanished as if evaporated from the earth. 

“I reported it to the police, sought out journalists, posted online… but it always felt like an invisible wall stood in front of me. I even quit my job and took a part-time position on the Lucky Number. But the turnover rate on the Lucky Number is extremely high. Almost every voyage has different staff. So even though I learned the ship inside and out, I couldn’t find any news of her.

“Months passed. I had gained nothing. I gradually began to realize that without accessing the core circles of power, I would never learn the truth about my sister’s disappearance.

“Coincidentally, around that time, Lin Mei was hiring a public relations team. This matched my professional skills, and Lin Mei also had countless connections to the Lucky Number. So I submitted my resume to her office.

“The competition for the position was exceptionally fierce. But for someone like me, a ‘small-town problem-solver’, competition is the last thing I fear. 

“I was hired into Lin Mei’s PR team with the top scores in both the written exam and the interview. Fortunately, no one connected me to the girl who disappeared on the Lucky Number.

“Perhaps those who knew the inside story had long since forgotten about it.

“In my subsequent work, I had many opportunities to interact with Lin Mei. I also tried, both intentionally and unintentionally, to probe for information about people who disappeared on the Lucky Number. But such things seemed a common occurrence to her; even indirect questioning yielded nothing. So I could only work diligently by her side, gradually becoming the leader of the PR team, and in this election cycle, I became her campaign secretary.

“I had finally gained enough of her trust. 

“Then, as luck would have it, at this critical juncture in the election, Li Menglan’s son had an incident on the Lucky Number. Because Lin Mei responded promptly and handled the crisis PR very well, her approval ratings soared, looking like they were about to surpass Li Menglan’s.

“Lin Mei called me and a few other trusted aides to an emergency campaign strategy meeting. It was at this meeting that she said these words.

At this point, Ma Jing’s gaze suddenly turned cold. The shadows on his face deepened, as if a bleak late autumn had overnight turned into the extreme cold of deep winter.

Lin Mei, sitting in the chair, looked inexplicably grim. Her lips were pressed tightly together, her face turned towards the white wall, clearly unwilling to respond. 

“She said, ‘Li Menglan’s son is stupid, not as clever as He Jun. Harassing someone in plain sight of everyone… unlike He Jun, who knows to take people into a room.’

“She also said, ‘If Li Menglan’s son and the service worker had fallen from a room, then we could have handled it like before, made them disappear, let Li Menglan search frantically. That way, not only could Li Menglan not make an issue out of it, she might not even have the heart to campaign properly.’

“Then someone reminded her that you can’t fall into the sea from a room. If someone falls, they land on the deck. The girl who fell into the sea before had jumped in herself.”

Ma Jing closed his eyes. The extreme suppression of his emotions made his voice tremble uncontrollably, forming a sharp contrast with the indifferent Lin Mei beside him. 

Xu Pei suddenly understood a little why He Yixun and Lin Mei didn’t get along.

“I asked what had happened before,” Ma Jing took a deep breath, adjusted his emotions, and continued. “‘Because this meeting was all core members of Lin Mei’s team, and they were discussing matters that couldn’t see the light of day anyway. He Jun wasn’t some unmentionable figure, so someone told me that on the Lucky Number’s first voyage, He Jun made a move on an underage service worker. The girl refused and jumped into the sea.’

“The timing, the age, the disappearance… all the information matched. I didn’t believe such a coincidence existed in the world. I pretended it was casual chat and asked if this kind of thing happened often. That person said harassing service workers was common, but only He Jun and Li Menglan’s son had actually gotten someone killed.

“At that point, I could confirm that the girl was Ke Ke.” 

Ma Jing, holding the railing, turned around to face the vast, all-consuming sea. “Do you know? The deck below the guest rooms is over two meters wide. It’s not easy to jump from there into the sea. She must have thought jumping into the sea would take her far away from the devil He Jun, and she leaped with all her might… But she didn’t know the sea is equally merciless. What awaited her was the piercingly cold seawater.

“She thought she had found hope for life, but the final result was sinking alone to the seabed. How hopeless she must have been then…”

Ma Jing bent over, hands braced on the railing, covering his face, and sobbed, “Such a foolish girl.”

Xu Pei felt a bitterness in his throat. He wanted to say something but didn’t know what. 

Out of the corner of his eye, he glanced at He Maohu, who had earlier wanted to kill the murderer with his own hands. His expression was inscrutable. One side of his face held the arrogance unique to those in power, as if to say the condemnation of those below meant nothing to him. The other side, however, showed a contradictory sense of remorse—an empathy and understanding for the killer born from losing a loved one.

As he had said, He Jun did indeed die because of a woman. It was just that the cause was planted four years ago, and the result only came now.

“My sister lost her life just like that,” Ma Jing turned around again, his eyes bloodshot, glaring at Lin Mei with hatred. “But Lin Mei’s comment on this was, ‘Still, the girl from before died more sensibly.’

“You are a murderer, just like He Jun!” 

“Enough,” Lin Mei, who had been silent until now, finally spoke. Her eyes showed little change. “In my position, I cannot afford to think with emotional logic. You’ve been by my side for so many years, don’t you understand that yet?

“Regarding your sister’s matter, I am sorry. But if I had to do it over, I would still make the same choice. However, if I had known about your situation beforehand, we could have sat down and talked it out. There was no need to go this far.”

Xu Pei suddenly felt Lin Mei’s attitude was a bit strange.

It seemed both uncompromising and soft. 

Being uncompromising was Lin Mei’s consistent style, so seeing her still asserting “what I did was as a matter of course” didn’t surprise Xu Pei at all.

But since her attitude was already so tough, why add the line “we could have talked it out”?

It felt like saying “You are worthless in my eyes, but we could still sit down and talk.”

It carried a hint of appeasement, which was quite subtle. 

“Now He Jun is dead, your goal of revenge is achieved. All I did was block the news. You don’t need to harbor such deep hatred towards me.”

This was truly off.

A detail surfaced in Xu Pei’s mind.

He remembered when He Yixun first pointed out that Ma Jing wanted to kill Lin Mei, Lin Mei’s first reaction was to protect Ma Jing. 

Before Xu Pei could sort out his thoughts, He Yixun suddenly spoke, his words meaningful, “What deep hatred could he possibly have towards you? He even took a bullet for you.”

The corner of Lin Mei’s mouth twitched very slightly, and she averted her eyes. “‘Secretary Ma has always been responsible. It was just a subconscious reaction.”

An undercurrent stirred in the air. The atmosphere underwent a sudden change.

Ma Jing reined in his overflowing emotions and looked coldly at Lin Mei. His gaze seemed to say, ‘Don’t think you can stand apart from this either,’ giving off a strong sense of handing the stage over to He Yixun to perform. 

“Do you think that reason can convince even yourself?” He Yixun asked.

Hearing this, the others also found it strange.

Ling Feng said, “Right, if Ma Jing hates Mayor Lin so much, why did he take a bullet for her?”

He Maohu, temporarily detaching himself from his conflicted emotions, asked in a weary voice, “Is there something else going on behind the scenes that we don’t know?” 

“Will you tell it, or shall I?” He Yixun asked Lin Mei with a detached expression.

Lin Mei maintained her attitude, slightly raising her chin, replying displeased, “There’s nothing to say.”

He Yixun seemed to have anticipated that Lin Mei wouldn’t give up until faced with the undeniable truth. He let out a very soft breath. “Fine, then I’ll say it.

“Initially, when I went to the hospital to see you, one reason was to find out if you and your backer sponsor had a conflict. The other was to bring Professor Xu to see you, to check if there was anything unusual.” 

Xu Pei glanced at He Yixun upon hearing this.

This guy was the one who wanted to see if there was anything unusual, but he’s making it sound like he took me along for the investigation from the very start.

“But I found your attitude very strange,” He Yixun said, looking down at the floor. He took two steps forward, closer to Lin Mei, and looked down at her with a sense of intimidation. “I clearly told you that the person who wants to kill you might be on the Lucky Number, yet you showed no concern and were utterly convinced the mastermind was Li Menglan.

“Li Menglan’s popularity has been rising steadily. There’s absolutely no need for such a drastic move. I don’t believe that after all these years in politics, you can’t even figure out your opponent’s intentions. 

“Besides that, you pressured the Chief to put me on leave, trying everything to stop me from getting involved in this case, and your team had the next day’s headline article ready the very night of the sniper attack. All of this gives me reason to suspect—

“—that this sniper attack was staged by you yourself.”

His heavy words still failed to elicit any reaction from Lin Mei. Instead, it was He Maohu whose eyes widened in surprise. “What?”

Perhaps in He Maohu’s view, as someone concerned for Lin Mei’s safety as family, and as a sponsor whose interests were closely tied to hers, he had a right to know these inside details. 

But clearly, Lin Mei didn’t consider him one of her own and had kept him in the dark.

“I insisted on boarding the ship precisely to confirm this,” said He Yixun.

“At least during the socializing in the restaurant, your demeanor was still quite normal, not at all like someone who had just narrowly escaped death. But after the poisoning attempt, you became visibly anxious. In my opinion, that aligns more with the psychological state of someone whose life is truly threatened.

“Why didn’t you emphasize your ‘tough luck’ anymore then? 

“Being saved by Professor Xu, escaping death a second time, wouldn’t that further prove you were ‘chosen by heaven’?

“But you retreated. The only reasonable explanation is that your first ‘tough luck’ was an illusion.”

“True enough,” Ling Feng said, stroking his chin as he recalled. “It’s hard to say which is more serious, poisoning or a shooting. Both are a hair’s breadth from death. But Mayor Lin’s reaction was clearly different.”

Seeing that Lin Mei showed no intention of responding, He Yixun continued, “Once I confirmed this point, all the suspicious aspects became explainable. 

“Why did the shooter miss at a distance of over 800 meters? Actually, he didn’t miss. Choosing this distance was to ensure the performance looked realistic while absolutely preventing any real mistake.

“And the sniper rifle the shooter used. Our initial line of thinking was that the shooter obtained a banned military-grade sniper rifle from the black market. It wasn’t that complicated. You have plenty of connections in the military; getting an unregistered sniper rifle is a trivial matter. Even the shooter cooperating with your act, I suspect, is a former colleague of yours, a retired gold-medal sniper.

He Maohu couldn’t help but ask, “Lin Mei, is this true?”

With everything already exposed, persisting would be undignified. 

Lin Mei finally broke her silence, her face somber as she spoke, “I knew I shouldn’t have let you investigate my case.”

“Wait,” Ling Feng remembered the other person involved, Ma Jing, who was observing all this. “If the sniper incident was staged, why did Ma Jing take a bullet for Mayor Lin?”

“Because he wasn’t taking a bullet for me,” Lin Mei said coldly, glancing at Ma Jing. “He was trying to push me into the bullet’s path.”

Letting out a heavy sigh, Lin Mei began recounting the sequence of events. 

“Finding a sniper was indeed not difficult for me. Many trusted colleagues could do me this favor. The one I finally approached was indeed the person you mentioned.

“The original agreement between me and the sniper was: the first shot would hit the podium. I would hide behind the podium, exposing a small part of my body. The second shot, he would aim about ten centimeters away from my body to create a sense of danger. After that, I would fully retreat behind the podium, and he would abandon the shot.

“The first shot went smoothly. The bullet came, my reaction was flawless, and the position where I crouched was appropriate. But Ma Jing rushed over and pushed me down. Wearing high heels, it was hard for me to control my balance, so I fell sideways. Luckily, the sniper was slow to fire the second shot; the bullet flew over after I had already fallen, so it didn’t hit me, only grazing Ma Jing’s arm.

“I always thought Ma Jing pushing me down was part of the act, as it was a normal reaction. He didn’t shove me. I lost my balance and fell in the wrong direction. Plus, he got injured himself, so in the end, I just scolded him and didn’t think much more of it. 

“It wasn’t until recently, when I realized the killer’s targets were me and He Jun, that many things started feeling wrong upon reflection.

“He Jun isn’t my biological son. I rarely interact with him. For the killer to target both of us, the only connection I could think of was the recently mentioned female service worker killed by He Jun. And it was precisely in that meeting that Ma Jing proposed staging an incident to recover popularity.

“Including this voyage, it was he who suggested I invite He Maohu and Ling Feng to pacify these sponsors. Thinking about it now, it was just because he had no opportunity to get close to He Jun, so he found a reason to gather me and He Jun together.

“It took me some time to string these details together. By the time I figured it out, it was about half an hour ago. Ma Jing came to me on his own initiative and actually wanted to confront me directly.” At this point, a flash of disdain appeared in Lin Mei’s eyes. “He should thank me for my mercy. Otherwise, the first shot earlier would have sent him to meet God” 

That was the gunshot everyone heard downstairs.

When the group arrived at Lin Mei’s room and saw her pinning Ma Jing against the balcony railing, it was her lecturing him for overestimating his abilities, a desk worker daring to brandish weapons against her.

And before holstering her gun, she pressed it hard against the center of his forehead as a warning not to speak about the staged incident. 

All the truth had surfaced, and simultaneously, the first hint of dawn tinged the horizon.

However, things didn’t conclude as smoothly as Xu Pei had anticipated.

“You don’t need to be merciful to me.” Ma Jing’s voice drifted over from the balcony. Everyone turned to look and saw he had somehow drawn a gun, the one he had collected from the armory with the others, not the one used in the crime and thrown into the sea, and was now aiming it at Lin Mei. “I want to see if luck is always on your side.”

Xu Pei gasped. He Yixun quickly raised his gun, aiming at Ma Jing, and warned, “Ma Jing! It’s over. Put the gun down!” 

At this moment, no one wanted the conflict to escalate—except for Lin Mei, who never backed down.

She unceremoniously drew her own gun, chambered a round, and pointed it at Ma Jing. “We can test who’s the better shot.”

“Enough!” He Yixun coldly rebuked. He used his free hand to push Lin Mei’s gun down and said to Ma Jing, “There’s no benefit in doing this. You’re not a regular gun user. What’s the probability you can land a fatal shot on Lin Mei? I can tell you clearly, the moment you decide to pull the trigger, I will fire, not giving your bullet a chance to leave the barrel. So analyze this properly. Is it really worth it?”

Xu Pei was stunned. Probabilities? Analysis? At a time like this? Is this guy a robot? 

He suddenly remembered that He Yixun had shot and killed a criminal at the hospital, and a faint worry rose in his heart. Even though he had no experience in such situations, he spoke up, “Ma Jing, think about it. Do you really want to throw your life away for someone like Lin Mei?”

He Yixun looked at Xu Pei in surprise upon hearing this. Lin Mei naturally looked over too, her gaze unfriendly due to the wording.

“If you insist on resolving things this way, the outcome is clear. Lin Mei might not die, but you will pay a heavy price. Do you think it’s worth it?”

The eyes behind the glasses showed signs of wavering. Seizing the opportunity, Xu Pei pressed on, “In my view, things don’t have to go to the extreme. Haven’t you worked by Lin Mei’s side for many years? You must know a lot of dirty secrets, right? And this staged sniper incident—you can expose it all. What Lin Mei cares about most is her political career. Ruining her career is the best revenge, isn’t it?” 

“Pro.fes.sor Xu.” Lin Mei looked at Xu Pei with a darkened face, the loaded gun in her hand gleaming ominously.

Xu Pei quickly hid behind He Yixun, peeking his head out to say to Ma Jing, “We all sympathize with your situation. That’s why we don’t want to see you do something rash in the heat of the moment. He Jun has already paid with his life, there’s no need to sacrifice your own as well. If Ke Ke has a spirit in heaven, she wouldn’t want to see you like this.”

A quiet sea breeze blew past, like a young girl’s gentle whisper.

The hand holding the gun trembled a few times, finally dropping powerlessly. Ma Jing leaned against the railing, not wanting anyone to misunderstand that he was sparing Lin Mei just to save his own skin. He turned his head away to look at the vast sea. “I just think your proposal is more useful, that’s all.” 

The first ray of light crossed the sea’s surface, illuminating the ship’s pristine white hull.

The sun had risen.

It was time for the Lucky Number to return.