After the resolution of the Xu Gang case, I only had a few final exams left. On the last day of exams, Dali and I walked out of the exam hall feeling like a heavy weight had been lifted off our shoulders. We debated where we should get our lunch. It would be our last winter in college, and who knew when we’d meet each other again after graduation? Thinking that it might be our last chance to get together, Dali and I invited all our roommates to go out for a drink at the bar.

As we walked downstairs from our room, I saw a woman wearing a luxurious mink fur coat and a pearl necklace around her neck standing near the dorm entrance as if she were waiting for someone. I assumed that she was one of the students’ parents until she called my name when she saw me.

“Are you really Song Yang?” she asked almost breathlessly. “I’ve finally found you!”

I froze for a while when I realized that she was the rich lady. She’d made full recovery it seemed, and looked just as she did before the tragedies occurred. I could tell that she had come here to thank me, but to be honest, her presence here made me feel slightly uncomfortable.

“Should I leave?” whispered Dali.

“No!” I quickly responded. “Stay here with me!”

The rich lady slowly approached us and said, “Oh, you have no idea how hard it was to finally locate you! I didn’t expect to find the great detective to be such a handsome young man! I must properly thank you for saving my life that day!”

I humbly replied that it was nothing at all, and that I was merely doing my job as a detective. Besides, it wasn’t like I was the only one responsible for saving her. Still, she was adamant in calling me her saviour. She was trapped in that wall, she said, neither living, nor dead. With no idea what would happen to her, she couldn’t see anything, nor could she scream or make any noise. She desperately tried to knock on the wall to get the attention of the people outside when she heard movement during the day, but no one seemed to hear her. It was simply hellish torture!

Then, one day, I found her. My voice was like the voice of God in that moment, she said. She had been thinking about me all the while she was in the hospital, and she vowed to find me so she could repay my kindness in any way she could.

She then pulled out a check and a pen from her handbag and handed them to me with a smile, “This is the only way I know how to repay you. Please, write whatever amount you wish on this check and it’s yours.”

“I’m sorry,” I smiled wanly. “I’m with the police. I can’t possibly accept your money just for doing my job!”

“Oh, I’ve asked around about that, too,” she replied. “You’re a special consultant, so you’re not exactly an officer. Please accept the money! I don’t know how I’ll live with myself if I don’t repay you somehow!”

“It’d be rude to refuse her, dude!” whispered Dali. “Just take it!”

I sighed, knowing that she would never leave if I don’t accept her gift. I wrote one hundred yuan on the check and returned the pen to her. The woman frowned, “You’re not mocking me, are you?”

I then added two zeros behind the hundred yuan, making it ten thousand yuan[1], but she still shook her head and cried, “Still too little!”

“I know you’re rich, ma’am,” I told her, “but ten thousand yuan is a fortune to me. I can’t possibly accept any more than this. It’s already against my principles to accept money from the victim…”

“I don’t care!” the rich lady interjected. “You saved me from a fate worse than death! No amount of money is enough to repay you for what you’ve done. Please just accept a little more money than this, if only for the sake of making me feel better!”

I put the check into my pocket and firmly told her, “Please excuse me!” Then I turned around and went back to my dorm room.

After a few minutes, Dali came up and placed an ATM card on my desk. “I told her you would never agree to it,” he said, “but she insisted on giving this to you, otherwise she’d never let me go.”

“Where’d she go?” I asked.

I ran to the balcony and saw the rich lady driving away. I checked the card on my computer and found out that it contained a million yuan[2] of cash deposit in it.

It didn’t feel right to accept this much money from her, so I said, “Maybe I should donate it?”

“All the same. If you donate the money, then it means that you’ve accepted the money anyway. You know, if you really don’t want it…” I could guess what was going to come out of his mouth, so I glared at him.

“Uh…” he continued hesitantly, “maybe you can ask Xiaotao-jiejie what she thinks! But seriously, dude, I see no problem in just accepting the money anyway. You saved her life, after all!”

“No one should owe anyone just because someone did the right thing!” I argued.

“Wow, how noble of you!” teased Dali, though not without an undertone of admiration. “If I were a girl, dude, I would’ve fallen in love with you right then!”

“Shut up!” I laughed and shooed him away.

It’s not that I was trying to be a noble knight or anything like that at all. In fact, the amount of money was indeed tempting, but Grandpa had always warned me not to treat the solving of murder cases as a business venture, otherwise it would sooner or later bring calamity to myself and those around me. Besides, it was also a matter of principle.

Even so, I received a whole bunch of gifts from various people around New Year’s Day, including a VIP Gold Member Card for a nightclub in the city. You could probably guess who sent me that gift. In the end, I returned them all except for a New Year’s greeting card sent by the Wuqu City police force.

Now that final exams were over, the college looked half-deserted. My family called me to urge me to return home in time for the new year celebration. After two of our roommates had gone home, Dali and I had a hot pot meal in our room together one last time before the end of the semester. We chatted well into the night, and on the next day, I saw him off at the train station before we parted ways.

Coincidentally, it was the day that I was to go on a date with Xiaotao, so I was a bit more nervous and agitated than usual. Dali noticed this, but thought that I was upset that we wouldn’t be seeing each other for quite a while. He was moved by it, and assured me that we’d meet again in no time and went on about the beauty of friendship and other nonsense like that before getting on the train.

As I left the train station, I received a call from Xiaotao. “Sorry, Song Yang,” she said. “We’ll have to cancel our date today.”

“What’s wrong?” I asked. “Another case?”

“Sun Tiger invited everyone to lunch,” she replied. “He asked you to come too.”

“So we’ll still be seeing each other then, right?” I laughed. “Where is it? I’ll get there right away.”

She told me the address and added, “Hurry up, everyone’s already waiting for you. The party won’t start until you get here!”

I was flattered. I called a cab with haste and headed to the restaurant. The waiter at the entrance brought me to a private room, where I found familiar faces waiting for me. There were Sun Tiger, Xiaotao, Yuanchao, Xiaozhou, several other police officers, and even Bingxin was there. I was mildly surprised at her presence.

Bingxin was very glad to see me. She dragged my arm and led me to the seat next to her. Xiaozhou was on my other side.

“Change seats with me, Xiaozhou,” Xiaotao ordered.

“Yes, ma’am,” replied Xiaozhou with a mocking grin. As Xiaotao sat down next to me, Bingxin stared daggers at her. Xiaotao returned the glare. I was caught right in the middle and it was an embarrassing position to be in.

“How are your legs, Uncle Sun?” I asked with genuine concern.

Sun Tiger laughed. “I recovered a long time ago, kiddo! You know I’m made of iron! I can take the same car crash twenty more times and I’d be fine! Come, let’s enjoy ourselves today! Order anything you like, kiddo!”

Once the food had been ordered, Bingxin said to me, “Are your final exams over, Song Yang-gege? Why don’t you come over to my house to celebrate the new year?”

“I’m not homeless, you know?” I laughed. “I’ll be back home with my family for the new year of course!”

Bingxin sighed. “I’m always so lonely around New Year’s. Last year, Dad was still working on New Year’s Eve and I had to spend the night alone at home, eating instant ramen. Can you imagine how sad it was? Anyway, can I go celebrate with your family this year instead?”

Xiaotao’s face fell. “Are you completely shameless? Who would invite themselves over to other people’s homes?”

Bingxin scrunched up her nose and stuck out her tongue. “Well, I have that privilege because I’m Song Yang-gege’s childhood sweetheart!” She then chirped to her father, “Dad, can I go spend New Year’s Day at Song Yang-gege’s home please?”

Sun Tiger was in a drinking competition with Yuanchao. He distractedly replied, “The train is packed this time of the year! Probably not a good idea!”

Bingxin pouted and replied, “You can just drive me there! It’s not that far away!”

“Ah, right!” nodded Sun Tiger. “Okay, then!”

I didn’t expect Sun Tiger to agree to it so easily. He was probably planning to work on the New Year’s Day again. Bingxin turned to Xiaotao and smirked, which angered her.

“Aren’t you going to ask me if I agree?” I asked.

Bingxin laughed. “But of course you’ll agree!”

I myself saw no reason to refuse her, to be honest. It would be her last chance to relax and have fun, because once she graduated and became a coroner, she would barely have time to breathe. Still, Xiaotao was right there next to me! What could a guy do in this situation?

1. About 1,400 USD.

2. About 140,000 USD.