Chapter 44: 44

“Impossible, other than myself, who else could they hire as the main character? This crew is so poor, do you think they have the money to hire another actor?” Ah Cheng said confidently, “This time I’ll need Jiang Yi to personally come and beg me before I would even consider returning to the set.” With this happy thought in his mind, a smile turned up on Ah Cheng’s face. The manager cleverly did not continue this conversation. They hopped into the car and drove away.

To be honest though, back at the set, no one really cared about Ah Cheng’s departure. Everyone was focused on Director Jiang and Han Fei. Director Jiang was the director, he was the one who would decide the direction of the movie. Even though Han Fei held only a side character, his acting skill had greatly impressed everyone present. Furthermore, if not for Han Fei, the conflict between the crew and the victims’ families would exacerbate to a horrendous level. Han Fei had single-handedly helped the crew solve a giant problem on his own.

“Han Fei, I can see your point, and honestly I admire your determination and fire, but a small compromise like the ones I suggested will not violate your principle. I’m sure you can see that.”

“This is not a matter of principle.” Han Fei shook his head and prepared to leave. “Sir, you’ll understand why soon enough.” Watching Han Fei walk away, Jiang Yi and the crew felt a great regret. The floor manager who was once frightened by Han Fei even rushed after the man to persuade him to stay. Even though Han Fei was not a big superstar, from the way everyone treated him and Ah Cheng, it was clear whom the crew respected more.

“Now I understand why he isn’t famous even though he has such great acting skill.” The female actor who played Wei Youfu’s wife looked at Han Fei with lamentation. “His idealism is touching but his insistence on it will inadvertently make him enemies.”

“To have such a level of acting skill at his age and with his determination and personality, if Han Fei is given a chance to prove himself, he will soar. Someone like Wu Cheng who needed their agency’s support to achieve just a meagre success is not comparable to Han Fei.” After Han Fei left, Jiang Yi shared his opinion with the rest of his crew.

“Director, cough, cough. We still need to depend on Ah Cheng’s company to finish this film.” The cameraman pretended to not have heard Jiang Yi’s last statement.

“We’ll call it a wrap for the day. The shooting will temporarily stop. We’ll use this downtime to discuss the script.” Jiang Yi started to organize the messed-up set.

“Director Jiang, shouldn’t we give Ah Cheng a call too?”

“Why should we? I only gave him the main character role because of his company. It’s perfect since he volunteered to quit.” Jiang Yi glanced at the stairwell where Han Fei took to leave the building, “Actually, I have a better candidate for his role, alas…”

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…

Some blood stains remained on Han Fei’s face and head. He looked quite haggard. As he exited the set for Flower of Sin, a series of snickering came from the opposite street. A very handsome male actor walked out from the set of Secret Urban Romance surrounded by his troupe. They appeared to have purposely come out to watch the show.

“Brother Zifeng, that is Han Fei. I heard that after he left our agency, he had no choice but to be a nameless extra for other movies.”

“Now, why would he do that? Wouldn’t it be easier if he just stayed behind the camera?”

“The moment he joined the crew for the Flower of Sin, people came to create trouble and the progress of the whole shoot was impacted. I’ve interacted with this person before. He is honestly not a bad person but his luck cannot be worse.”

“That is a good thing for us! Of all the films predicted to release around the same period as we do, Flower of Sin is our only competition. Now that this walking disaster is with them, the number one box office will be ours.”

The few from the Secret Urban Romance purposely came out to watch the catastrophe when they heard the commotion on the street. When they saw the state Han Fei was in, they could barely hide the grins on their faces. Human beings were sinful creatures who would stoop so low as to savor their kin’s downfall. In this way, they were worse than ghosts. Han Fei had experienced many similar events since he was fired. He had heard so many snide comments that they barely left a scar on his heart anymore. If anything, he felt like laughing at their juvenile nature. The streetlights of the old city lit up the streets. Light danced between darkness. A group of people in the halo of light mocked and chuckled, Han Fei slithered alone into the darkness.

The phone in his pocket suddenly vibrated. Han Fei stopped at a dim corner and answered the phone.

“Li Xue?”

“Han Fei, you’ve struck gold this time!”

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“There’s been progress in the human jigsaw case?” From Li Xue’s tone, Han Fei could hear her excitement.

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“My teacher went through the original case files and found someone named Jiang Jiang among the suspects. This man was not the killer but he has been recorded to have interacted with all the victims! He showed up at the entrance of the puzzle hobbyist shop and the camera caught Wei Youfu giving him a donation. He also encountered a drunk Gu Hwa at midnight, it was Jiang Jiang who helped send Gu Hwa to the police station. He bumped into Zhang Lingfan, the livestreamer outside the mall and was berated for quite some time by the young woman…

“Jiang Jiang was a drifter who came from a different city, he stayed at abandoned shacks which littered the countryside. He survived by collecting recyclables and trash. The man was mentally challenged but he was a harmless, honest man. He was often bullied by other homeless people and his small income was always stolen.

“Jiang Jiang was a very nice person, he was kind. He never resorted to stealing, when he picked up things that he believed were not trash, he would hand them to the people in uniform. But he’d always confuse normal guards and police officers, so he was often swindled by wicked guards as well.” Li Xue spoke very fast, thankfully Han Fei was able to catch up with her. “The big change in his life happened 11 years ago. There was a private orphanage at Northern Street. The director’s wallet was stolen when he was away on duty. There wasn’t much money inside but it contained all of his documentation.”

“The wallet was found by Jiang Jiang?”

“Correct, Jiang Jiang found the wallet inside a trash can. Since he had no money to use the train, he stayed beside the trash can until the train station worker noticed him and flagged him down. After the orphanage director got his wallet back, his heart went out to Jiang Jiang. Even though Jiang Jiang was a bit too naïve, he was honest and reliable. So the director offered him a cleaning job at the orphanage. Alas, it did not last for long. Even though Jiang Jiang kept the orphanage spotless, his personal hygiene left much to be desired. Due to complaints from the other staff about his body odour, Jiang Jiang was let go. The problem was, after Jiang Jiang left, a child at the orphanage claimed he’d run into ghosts at night.”

“Ghosts?” Li Xue’s words grabbed Han Fei’s attention, “What kind of ghost? Have the police interviewed that child?”

“The child has gone missing but we did locate another child who once shared a room with him. This child told us something very scary.” Li Xue slowed her voice. “Their beds were placed at opposite ends of the room so they could see easily under the other’s bed. The missing child kept saying there was a ghost hiding under his roommate’s bed and the ghost would only appear at late midnight after everyone was asleep.”

“You suspect this so-called ghost was a revenge prank manufactured by Jiang Jiang?” After playing Perfect Life, Han Fei’s analytical skill was as good as a junior detective. “But the police would have investigated Jiang Jiang. He was so obvious a suspect.”

“You’re right. The police did investigate Jiang Jiang but the investigation went nowhere.”

“Why? He had an alibi?”

“Because he’s dead.” Li Xue sent a picture to Han Fei. “This Jiang Jiang was the first victim in the frozen body case.”

“He was the drifter murdered by the Meng Siblings?”

“We have no proof that they are the killers, but you did mention to me that these two cases might be related so we pulled information related to the frozen body case and we came up with something unexpected.” Li Xue sent Han Fei another photo. This was taken at an abandoned bungalow. A strange painting was covered under Jiang Jiang’s tattered mattress. A black house was shielded inside a black forest. Headless children surrounded the house.

“At the time, based on this painting, the police suspected Jiang Jiang might be a deranged murderer and he had been able to hide it behind a harmless front. They believed he was murdered by his enemies. But after hearing what you said, I realized these black trees, the black house and the headless children fitted the hints you gave me perfectly! The painting was not a sign of Jiang Jiang’s wickedness but something else!” Li Xue’s voice picked up pace from excitement. “Once we considered the possibility that Jiang Jiang might not be a killer but another victim, we looked into possible motives as to why he was killed. Jiang Jiang was a homeless guy, there was no reason for anyone to target him. He had no valuable asset. However with this painting as evidence, I suspect the killer murdered Jiang Jiang to silence him. He might have seen the murderer in action! In fact, he probably encountered something worse!”

“I know what you mean. You think Jiang Jiang approached Wei Youfu and the rest not to harm them but to save them!” Only at that moment, Han Fei realized how close the relationship between the human jigsaw and frozen body case was.

“Do you know what is the scariest thing?”

“What?”

“There is a high chance that the human jigsaw case’s killer purposely told Jiang Jiang about his plan to murder those people. He got his kick out of watching the kind man being scolded, disgusted and ignored! Perhaps in the killer’s eyes, Jiang Jiang was kindness manifested in human form. It was ugly, homeless and mentally impaired.” Li Xue’s voice dropped with heaviness. “Jiang Jiang had not done one bad thing in his life. He approached Wei Youfu and the other victims to warn them but he was chased away with disgust and derision. Other than Wei Youfu, no one was willing to stop to listen to him.”

“If a crazy homeless man came to me on the street and told me that I’d be killed, I’d probably be offended as well. The killer was manipulating the human weakness. He knew Jiang Jiang’s words would not be believed and he enjoyed watching the kind man being trampled on.”

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“Indeed, the killer trusted that everyone would treat Jiang Jiang as a nutcase but someone did something unexpected and that person was Wei Youfu!” Li Xue finally reached the key point, “Earlier, you have me focus my investigation on the puzzle hobbyist shop. I went through all the old records. At the shop, other than the staff, the person who interacted with Jiang Jiang the most was Wei Youfu. Wei Youfu was willing to reach out to Jiang Jiang and Jiang Jiang wanted to save him. The latter kept giving Wei Youfu hints. Eventually I think Wei Youfu caught on. A few days before Wei Youfu was murdered, we spotted some discrepancy in his actions. There were two times when he went alone to a nature preserve situated at Xin Lu countryside.”

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