Chapter 22: Arson Murder |
……
"You mean the world is about to be destroyed, you were chosen as a Wallfacer to save humanity, strange events have appeared around you, there is a way to achieve immortality, and you can control the world's wealth?"
In the dream, light and shadow flickered, voices and colors blurred.
Han Ming shook his head. "I don't know what you're talking about."
The policeman shot him a puzzled look. "Didn't you say that yourself?"
"I forgot, I can't remember clearly. Maybe it was a hallucination."
Bang!
The policeman slammed the table. "You set a house on fire, nearly burned down the whole floor, and you dismiss that with one word — hallucination?!"
"I really don't remember."
The scene increasingly resembled a real police station.
He searched desperately for useful information — text, books, anything related to dates or addresses, even human faces.
But he still couldn't see clearly. Under the glass table in front of him lay an old printed cloth pattern that felt both familiar and strange; Han Ming guessed it might be from the eighties or nineties.
"How come you suddenly don't remember anything?" the policeman continued. "You were just so excited talking about Wallfacers, Wallbreakers, some bank account with limitless wealth. Tell me, which bank account is that?"
"Bank account?" Han Ming feigned ignorance. "I don't know what you're talking about. Maybe I was imagining myself getting rich. After all, who wouldn't want to live forever and never run out of money?"
This time he didn't mention science fiction novels, because anything with a direct reference would have a clear answer — and if he didn't know, it was better not to say.
He also didn't keep staring at the incident logbook on the table.
"Hey, you punk, playing dumb now? How do you explain your wife then, did she hallucinate too?" the policeman pressed.
Han Ming shook his head. "Wife? Do I have a wife?"
The policeman fell silent, fingers drumming the tabletop, eyes in the shadow seeming to scrutinize him.
After a moment, the policeman shouted behind him, "Bring that woman out, let's see what this couple is hiding."
Han Ming felt a chill at the words.
He knew that the woman in red was about to come out.
He looked up. From the shadows, a woman in a long red dress walked out barefoot and silently.
Her black hair concealed her face; her pale arms seemed to emit a sickly glow in the dim light.
The female officer guided her to a stool next to Han Ming. The woman bowed her head and seemed barely to be breathing.
Han Ming glanced across. The policeman then spoke.
"Confess. What exactly happened?"
Han Ming's pupils jolted. He suddenly realized that when the policeman called to the woman, he had clearly mouthed several words before her name, but Han Ming only saw the policeman's lips move and heard no sound!
Terrifyingly strange!
This woman had no name?
No, it had been deliberately erased!
The situation felt unnaturally evil.
Han Ming wanted to speak, but instinctively forced himself to remain silent.
He could not show any doubt or reveal his thoughts.
He sat quietly, waiting for the woman to speak.
"I set the fire."
The woman finally spoke. Her voice was cold, with a strange echo, and the content of her words sent a chill down Han Ming's spine.
Han Ming turned in disbelief and discovered the woman was looking at him; beneath the hair her face emerged.
It was a face so pale it lacked blood, yet astonishingly beautiful. Her eyes fixed on Han Ming with a hollow gaze that seemed not to look at him.
It was looking at the real Han Ming, the one asleep in the dream!
"What did you say?" Han Ming asked nervously.
The woman extended her hand toward him. Her hand was burning; flames turned her icy skin and jade bones into black charcoal at a speed visible to the naked eye.
She tried to touch Han Ming's face. A scorching breath seemed to surge straight into his soul.
"Don't forget me."
Her gaze carried a haunting pity, then she silently turned to ash before Han Ming's eyes.
In that instant, Han Ming felt an indescribable suffocation and sorrow. He turned to the policemen, but found everyone enveloped by raging flames.
Outside the window a red glare flared; the whole sky was ignited!
The world had become hell.
……
Han Ming sprang up. The burning, charred smell affected his body; the dream had become so real it impacted his sense of smell, an alarming realization.
The dream's development did not follow his predictions at all, so what he obtained were large amounts of fragmented information.
The woman hadn't even had a name, yet she confessed and told Han Ming not to forget her.
This dream was growing increasingly bizarre and incomprehensible.
"Playing dumb alone doesn't seem to work."
"If this woman in red dies, the world will end, and the dream will end immediately."
"What should I do then?"
Han Ming recalled the woman's face — an extraordinarily beautiful visage that lingered at a glance.
She resembled a certain celebrity, but Han Ming didn't follow entertainment news closely; he only had a vague impression to use as reference.
He got up, poured himself a glass of water, and opened a blank document on his computer.
'Spreading apocalypse rumors, disturbing the public order, attempted arson by a married couple...'
Han Ming wrote down his summary, thinking this was just a madman.
What secrets did the dream hide, and how did it relate to Wallfacers and Wallbreakers?
Han Ming rubbed his temples, feeling a pounding headache.
……
"I hope what you said on the phone yesterday wasn't just an excuse to get me to meet you."
In the café, Tao Jie looked at Han Ming across the table, her tone edged with seriousness.
"If that's the case, Han Ming, I will be very disappointed in you."
Saxophone music floated lazily in the café. Noon sunlight streamed through the floor-to-ceiling windows onto the table; the dendrobium on the table still held dewdrops, its scent pleasant.
The setting was beautiful, and Tao Jie was beautiful too, but she no longer held the calm expression she showed the last time they met.
Han Ming's topic touched on her painful past.
Han Ming smiled at her. "But you came because you know I'm not the sort to joke."
Tao Jie lowered her eyes for a moment, then spoke after a pause.
"Why do you think that car accident wasn't an accident?"
Han Ming took out his tablet, opened a picture, and handed it to her. "This is a frame I extracted from the crash footage."
Tao Jie resisted looking; clearly viewing that accident scene was not easy for her. Struggle flickered across her face; she took a deep breath and accepted the tablet.
The image caught the very instant the green truck struck the side of her wedding car at high speed.
"I... I don't see anything." She averted her gaze, voice uneasy.
"The main point of this picture isn't the crash itself, but this," Han Ming said calmly, pointing toward another direction at the intersection.
Tao Jie's eyes followed his finger and saw that he was pointing to the opposite lane behind her wedding motorcade, where another green truck had appeared.
Tao Jie looked at Han Ming. "What does that mean?"
"Wait, there's more." Han Ming then pointed to the longitudinal lane. After the green light ended, a blurry vehicle silhouette was disappearing into the traffic. Because it was at the edge of the surveillance, only one third of the rear end was visible.
But even that fragment made it easy to judge: it was a heavy truck, and it was also green.
Tao Jie's brows knit. "Three identical trucks, what... does that indicate?"