Winter Time Rendering

Qingyi shone his phone’s flashlight around.

"We still don’t have any leads on who did this."

Ruoping pinched her nose. She was a little nervous, this being her first time in a men’s restroom. "So, you have a lead?"

Qingyi just smiled. "Have you two noticed? This whole thing is actually a lot like the arson case."

"What do you mean?"

"They both have a so-called mastermind."

Ruoping had thought he’d made some important discovery. She replied, exasperated,

"How are these two things even comparable? One is revenge at school, and the other is trying to burn down someone’s house. To put it bluntly, one is child’s play, and the other is a matter of life and death. How can you connect the two?"

"But what if I told you the two incidents are closely linked? Inseparable, even?" Qingyi asked, raising an eyebrow.

"How are they linked?"

But Qingyi changed the subject.

"Alright, I want you two to think about something. Consider it a little brain teaser for the afternoon. My question is—why was the pork-liver-faced man suddenly absent on Friday?"

"Family emergency?" Du Kang replied without even thinking.

"Wrong."

"He suddenly got scared?" Ruoping chimed in.

"Still wrong."

"Then what was it?"

"Because the pork-liver-faced man never intended to go in the first place," Qingyi said firmly. "If he truly intended to go, he wouldn’t have recruited people from the business street without revealing his identity."

"Wait, what kind of motive is that?" Du Kang asked, a little disappointed.

"Don’t underestimate that motive. He wanted to wash his hands of the whole affair from the very beginning."

Qingyi spread his hands.

"Here’s another hint. Shutong told me at noon that according to the five arsonists, the six of them had originally agreed to make their move on Saturday night. Since none of them knew who the others were, they were afraid of being betrayed. So, they made a pact: it was all or nothing. No one could be absent."

"I get it," Ruoping said, a little quicker than Du Kang. "You’re saying the pork-liver-faced man never intended to go, but if he didn’t participate, his accomplices wouldn’t have gone through with it. Is that what you mean?"

"Exactly. Now for the question: why did the five arsonists still go, even though not everyone was there?"

"I know this one!" Du Kang blurted out. "It’s because Li Yipeng’s mom let it slip! They were afraid of tipping everyone off and having Gu Qiuyan’s dad called back early. If they missed this chance, who knows when they’d get another one. Plus, the business street is about to be demolished, so they just gritted their teeth and went for it, regardless of whether everyone was there."

"Correct," Qingyi said, snapping his fingers. "That’s exactly what happened. The mastermind—the pork-liver-faced man—used this method to keep his own hands perfectly clean."

"But that’s not right," Du Kang said, puzzled. "You just said the pork-liver-faced man never planned on going. But if he hadn’t gotten lucky with that whole Li Yipeng situation, wouldn’t he have had to bite the bullet and go on Saturday?"

"And that’s why I said this is the most brilliant part of the case," Qingyi said excitedly. "It’s almost like something I’ve read in a book! That’s right. On the surface, it was Li Yipeng’s revenge on Gu Qiuyan that led to his mom being called in. She then let slip that a revenge plot was underway, which in turn forced the arsonists to act early. It seems like a chain reaction built on a series of coincidences. But what if I told you to stop thinking of Li Yipeng’s revenge as a sudden event? What if, instead, you work backward from the result and assume it was premeditated?"

Ruoping was stunned.

"Are you saying that even Li Yipeng’s mom was part of the pork-liver-faced man’s plan?"

Qingyi didn’t answer her question. Instead, he took a deep, almost euphoric breath, which immediately made him cough. He suppressed it and forced out each word.

"Everyone, this culprit is far more intelligent and calculating than you or I could have imagined. Far, far more."