Perhaps it was because too many of us didn’t have alibis, but everybody eventually became a suspect. Sometimes, cracking a case was really tough. Either the police had too few clues and didn’t know how to go on, or they got so many clues, they didn’t know where to go from there. It was clear that this case was the latter. Inspector Ji had a lot of experience in solving cases, so he decided to lie low for the time being and wait for the killer to turn up.

After everyone had been questioned by the police, all my colleagues from the Department of Intellectual Property were released and none of us talked about this incident for the next few days. It was only some days later when everyone went back to work with anxious hearts that I finally received a call from Han Shaoqing. She wanted to meet me on the rooftop of the office building after work.

In Infernal Affairs*, the characters usually met each other on the rooftop to clear the air and come clean with one another. In the same way, I wanted to find out what was going on as well, so I agreed to meet her here.

By the time I arrived upstairs, I saw that Han Shaoqing was already waiting for me. I noticed that she had already finished half of the bottle of mineral water in her hands, so she must have been waiting for quite some time.

If she came up early, it meant that she was in a hurry to talk to me, while drinking water nonstop was a sign that she was feeling anxious. These unusual behavioral patterns made me believe even more firmly that Han Shaoqing was the murderer.

While I was thinking about these things, Han Shaoqing walked towards me. She stopped in front of me and decided to go straight to the point by accusing me first, “You’re the one who strangled Guo Jiangyin to death, weren’t you?”

I regretted not opening my mouth earlier. She had taken the words out of my mouth, so I had to turn my attack into a defense. “You’re the killer and you’re accusing me of doing it?! You should be ashamed of yourself!”

Han Shaoqing scoffed. “You still think I don’t know your relationship with Guo Jiangyin?”

I was stunned for a moment and stuttered, “I…we’re…we’re just colleagues! What relationship are you talking about?”

She laughed and said, “Not JUST colleagues, right?”

I became even more uneasy. She spoke as though she knew the secret I shared with Guo Jiangyin very well. Could Guo Jiangyin have betrayed me even before she died?

Han Shaoqing went on, “Given your relationship with Guo Jiangyin, I’m sure you would have known by now that I’ve been blackmailing her recently, right?”

I didn’t say anything.

She continued, “I want to blackmail her some more, so I couldn’t have killed her and there would be no need for me to kill her. But your case is the other way round. In order to hide your relationship with Guo Jiangyin and keep your job, you could have killed her and pushed the blame on me!”

My face turned as white as a sheet. I had to admit that I did think about doing that, but I only thought about it and didn’t actually do it! I quickly told Han Shaoqing that I had an alibi, so I was innocent.

Han Shaoqing realized that my alibi was solid and was extremely surprised. “You mean…you’re really not the one who killed Guo Jiangyin? Then who could it be?” She suddenly thought of something and said anxiously, “Bottles of poisoned mineral water were found near Guo Jiangyin’s body and the brand of the water is the one I usually drink. That’s why the police thought that I could be the one who poisoned the water.

“Oh?”

She continued in a serious tone, “Actually, with regard to this matter, I think there are two possibilities. One is that someone is trying to frame me for the murder, the second is that the person who poisoned the water was actually Guo Jiangyin herself. She did that in order to poison me to death.”

I was horrified that she had thought this far and quickly asked, “Did you tell the police about your conjectures?”

She said, “No, I haven’t. I think things aren’t as simple as they seem, so telling the police these things at this stage might make the real killer more cautious.”

I exhaled heavily and felt a little relieved. Then I heard her continue, “Given Guo Jiangyin’s personality, I’m sure she wouldn’t have dared to kill me all by herself. It’s very likely that she would find an accomplice. Perhaps Guo Jiangyin knows a secret about this accomplice, so the accomplice had no choice but to comply. This accomplice might the one who ended up killing Guo Jiangyin!”

My heart leaped into my mouth again when I heard what Han Shaoqing said and I quickly said, “What do you mean by an accomplice? You’re just making wild guesses now, aren’t you?”

But Han Shaoqing was very sure. “No, I’m sure that this person exists. I initially thought it was you, since your relationship with Guo Jiangyin and what you two have done have gone against company policy. Killing Guo Jiangyin to keep your job and hide your relationship is not an unreasonable conjecture. But your alibi is perfect, so I have no choice but to eliminate you from the list of suspects.”

Han Shaoqing’s detailed and carefully thought out line of logic as well as her objective judgment really impressed me. When she said she had eliminated me from the list of suspects, my heart finally calmed down again.

At this point, Han Shaoqing seemed to have become Sherlock Holmes as she continued with her conjectures, “And so, I had no choice but to look at this matter from a different perspective. I had to look at the people around Guo Jiangyin again and I eventually noticed that something was amiss.”

Now that I was sure that I wouldn’t be suspected anymore, I quickly hopped on the chance to mislead Han Shaoqing further and asked, “Something was amiss? Is this connected to the killer? Tell me about your findings and we could analyze this together.”

Han Shaoqing nodded and said, “Guo Jiangyin isn’t from here, so she doesn’t have any friends or family here. If she wanted to secretly sell our company secrets to someone else, there’s no way she would have been able to find a buyer since she doesn’t know anybody. So, I’m thinking that there’s some middleman here helping to connect her to buyers, and this middleman could very well be a colleague from our department. In other words, this middleman knows that Guo Jiangyin is being blackmailed by me because I know she’s been selling company secrets and he’s afraid that his identity as a middleman might be exposed, so he decided to just kill Guo Jiangyin and put an end to this whole thing.”

At this point, I was completely stunned. The middleman Han Shaoqing talked about was obviously myself. Hadn’t she already eliminated me from the list of suspects? Why did she go one big round only to suspect me again? What on earth was going on?

While I was still figuring out what Han Shaoqing was trying to do, she asked me, “But given your relationship with Guo Jiangyin…you mean she never told you who that middleman was?”

I tried to sound her out, “And what sort of relationship do you think I have with Guo Jiangyin?”

Han Shaoqing snorted and said, “Still trying to keep this a secret? When the police asked me about you and Guo Jiangyin that day, I guessed that both of you must be going out with each other.”

Well, that made sense. I had misled Inspector Ji into thinking Guo Jiangyin and I were lovers, and now, Han Shaoqing really thought we were lovers too. But I still wasn’t certain that I was clear of suspicion, so I asked another question, “Then what did you mean when you said that what we did had gone against company policy?”

“The company has a policy against employees dating each other, so you two have gone against that policy.” She paused for a while, then sighed. “Looks like she must have really fallen for you. She knew that both of you would be fired if the company found out about your relationship, and perhaps that’s the reason why she decided to do something risky like secretly sell company secrets. She was trying hard to earn enough for both of you if you two were asked to leave.”

I…didn’t know what to say to that.

But while I was speechless, Han Shaoqing had more to say to me. “Guo Jiangyin really didn’t tell you anything about who that middleman was?”

Han Shaoqing was so close to the truth, yet she couldn’t see it. I was wondering if I ought to come clean when Han Shaoqing suddenly finished the rest of the water in the bottle and said, “Looks like you don’t know either. Forget it, we’ll just leave this to the police to investigate.” Then she turned and walked towards the stairs.

I decided that I couldn’t let this misunderstanding continue and said, “Wait up!”

She didn’t seem to have heard me and started walking even more quickly than before.

I ran over and pulled her back. “Don’t talk to the police yet, I need to talk to you.”

She pulled her arm out of my grip and started walking briskly without turning back. “We can talk after I get back.”

I ran over and grabbed hold of her arm again. “It’ll be too late by the time you get back from the police station.”

“I’m not going to the police station.”

“I don’t believe you,” I said, then gripped her even harder.

“I don’t care where you’re going. You need to listen to what I have to say first.”

She gave up. “So, you know who that middleman was?” she asked and turned around to look at me.

I was shocked to see that Han Shaoqing’s face was as white as a sheet and said, “Wait, did you already know who the middleman was?! Were you purposely trying to sound me out just now?”

To my surprise, she said, “No, I don’t know who the middleman was!”

I said, “You’re lying! If you don’t know, why do you look so pale?”

“My stomach hurts!”

“What?” I stared at her.

She repeated herself, “My stomach hurts! Maybe it’s because the wind on the rooftop was too strong but I talked so much while facing the wind and drank so much cold water…it was just a little painful earlier, but now…”

I quickly let go of her and said apologetically, “You’d better attend to your stomach first then…please, please go ahead…”

She smiled at me gratefully to thank me for being understanding, then ran towards the stairs.

But she had only taken a few steps when she fell to the floor with a loud thud.

At first, I thought she had run too quickly and tripped over herself. But after I noticed that she hadn’t gotten up or even budged after some time, I felt like something was wrong, so I walked over to check on her.

I wished I hadn’t. Han Shaoqing’s entire face seemed grayish and her lips were almost purple.

In my shock, I happened to notice the empty bottle of mineral water in Han Shaoqing’s hand and a thought struck me. I quickly put a finger under Han Shaoqing’s nostrils to check and confirmed that she was no longer breathing.

Color drained from my face as I began thinking. Guo Jiangyin had planned to kill Han Shaoqing by adding poison to her water. But she had died before she could even do anything. So who poisoned Han Shaoqing?

TL notes:

*Infernal Affairs: a 2002 Hong Kong film about a cop going undercover in a gang and a gang member going undercover in the police force at the same time. It’s pretty good, I recommend it.