Restricted Area

There was a large supermarket nearby the community where Jiang Chijing lived, which also sold goods produced in Southside Prison.

Jiang Chijing had long known that the strawberry jam he ate was produced by the prison. But the glass jar in his hand wasn’t quite the same as the ones sold in the supermarket; the jar carried no label, and the pulp wasn’t as finely ground as the ones sold there.

It was apparent that this wasn’t factory-made.

From the message that Old Wang passed on, this was strawberry jam handmade by Zheng Mingyi, and there was indeed some difference when compared against those produced in the factory.

Jiang Chijing placed the strawberry jam in the front passenger seat, started the car, and drove out of the prison carpark.

In recent, Jiang Chijing had a vague conjecture—he kept getting this feeling that Zheng Mingyi knew that he was his neighbour.

Whether it was his cologne, or how far they stayed, the way Zheng Mingyi probed him was far too incisive, as if he had a clear objective all along.

Moreover, Jiang Chijing’s answers were not quite up to standard.

Zheng Mingyi asked him why his bedroom was filled with the scent of his cologne and Jiang Chijing chose to evade the question. In general, he should find Zheng Mingyi’s question baffling instead because he wouldn’t have known that someone had smashed a bottle of cologne into Zheng Mingyi’s bedroom.

As for the question about the proximity of their residences, Jiang Chijing’s answer further exposed that he knew Zheng Mingyi’s address.

He actually had many excuses he could glaze it over with, for example, that he was a prison staff and had seen Zheng Mingyi’s file, but Zheng Mingyi never gave him the opportunity to patch up behind himself, never following up after getting the desired information out of him.

The feeling it gave him was as if Zheng Mingyi already had an answer in his mind, and was merely ascertaining it.

What a pain.

If Jiang Chijing were to say that his first impression of Zheng Mingyi was that of a very sensual man, then his second impression would be that this was a very dangerous man, and subsequently, his third impression would be that this was a very headache-inducing man.

As the car pulled into the community, Jiang Chijing gradually came to terms with the fact that he might already be exposed.

But he really couldn’t get when and how exactly had he exposed himself, and how much Zheng Mingyi knew of his pet hobby.

However, what he could be sure of was that it was because he had first said that he believed in Zheng Mingyi, thus receiving his trust, that Zheng Mingyi would act in such a ‘self-destructive’ manner, giving the game away.

Slowly pulling to a stop in front of the supermarket, Jiang Chijing loosened his seat belt, deciding not to fry any more of his own brain cells over Zheng Mingyi.

Weekends were for letting loose and relaxing; it was unlike Jiang Chijing’s style to bring work from the prison back home.

He went around the supermarket purchasing every item on his list—except for strawberry jam.

One jar of jam could last him half a month. Now, he had a fresh jar in the car, buying extra stock would just be a waste of its shelf life.

Upon returning, Jiang Chijing set the many grocery bags on the coffee table, bringing that dubious jar without production date, without quality checks, without any branding whatsoever to the kitchen.

He took out a spoon from the cabinets and dug a small spoonful of strawberry jam from the jar for a taste. When it entered his mouth, a cloying sweetness exploded in his oral cavity, and only after curling his lips into a thin line was he able to faintly taste the natural acidity of strawberries.

Too. Sweet.

Jiang Chijing frowned, his shoulders shrinking in from the sheer sweetness, gooseflesh rising on his back.

Was Zheng Mingyi trying to murder him by sugar overdose??

Everyone had different taste buds. In any case, to Jiang Chijing, this jar of strawberry jam was way beyond the sweetness level that he could tolerate.

He wavered for a while but still ended up making another trip out to buy a few lemons from the supermarket, further processing this dubious, unbranded, and unlicensed product until it was barely passable by his standards.

Translated on ninetysevenkoi.wordpress

***

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Jiang Chijing spent most of this weekend tending to his lawn, in passing also taking to wash his garage and the pavement in front of his house.

The house across the street was still as dismal as before. The yard was overgrown with weeds and the goose-yellow curtains had turned dark grey. No one had tidied up the ransacked interior. It was quite probable that a thick layer of dust had accumulated in the house.

He wondered how Zheng Mingyi would feel seeing his house in such a state after getting out of prison.

But, then again, this house had already been seized by the court; perhaps it would already be auctioned off before Zheng Mingyi’s release from prison.

Even if Zheng Mingyi ultimately managed to exonerate his name, as stipulated by the law, the person who bought the house wasn’t mandated to return the property rights. By then, Zheng Mingyi would cease to be his neighbour.

His thoughts seemed to be straying a little too far ahead.

In this period of time, the house across the street had remained empty, and Jiang Chijing had gradually gotten used to not having anyone to spy on.

His voyeuristic tendencies didn’t appear to be as severe as he had imagined. Similar to how he couldn’t be bothered to watch inmates smoke and play cards in the recreation room, if there wasn’t anyone who roused his interest, then he would be unable to raise any impulse to peek in as well.

On this night, Jiang Chijing wound his watch before sleeping again.

For some reason, this watch seemed to be ticking slower and slower lately, requiring to be wound every day now when he only had to do so every two or three days before. Perhaps this was a common issue of old watches. If it really couldn’t cut it, then Jiang Chijing might have to buy a new watch still.

Placing his watch on the bedside cabinet, Jiang Chijing lay in bed.

The advantage of living in the suburbs was that the nights were extremely quiet and were also without the annoying light pollution of the city.

After shutting his eyes, only tranquil darkness was left in the world before his eyes, but before he could fall asleep, the darkness suddenly started to flash with unsettling crimson flares.

Immediately sensing that something was wrong, his eyes flicked open and he pulled the curtains open, only to see that the small house across the street was enveloped by a raging fire, tongues of flame wildly licking out of the bedroom window.

“Fire, help!”

Some neighbours had already come out in their pyjamas to help put out the fire, whereas Jiang Chijing speedily called the fire brigade, then leapt out of bed to join the fire-fighting army.

A fire engine quickly arrived. Firefighters took over the hydrant pipes from the residents, and together with high-pressure water jets from the fire engine, eventually extinguished the fire within the hour.

The neighbours standing around were in fervent discussion. Jiang Chijing heard someone say that there had to be an accelerant involved in a fire of such magnitude, or the fire wouldn’t have spread so quickly and taken so long to put out.

Back home, Jiang Chijing gave Guan Wei a call, telling him of the fire at Zheng Mingyi’s house. Guan Wei came rushing over from the city at once, standing in front of the ‘ruins’ of Zheng Mingyi’s house, looking furious.

“I recently brought up HX Management to the higher-ups again, but without evidence, I can’t open a case.”

“What evidence do you need?” Jiang Chijing asked. While wasn’t very familiar with the way financial cases went, he did at least know that the regulatory board wouldn’t review a firm without prompt. It was only with the appearance of something afoot would they have the grounds to open a case for investigation.

“The last time we investigated HX Management was because a few stocks they shorted had noticeably fluctuated in an abnormal manner. The matter was closed with Zheng Mingyi’s sentencing and can’t be reopened. Unless the stock market shows abnormal activity again or if other suspicious clues appear, there isn’t any way to open another case against them.

Jiang Chijing frowned, giving it a brief thought before asking, “So the most critical element is still the clues Zheng Mingyi is holding onto, right?”

“Yes. I’m now inclined to believe that Zheng Mingyi does have clues with him,” said Guan Wei. “The timing is too coincidental, otherwise. I had only just raised it to my higher-ups a few days ago and now someone has come over here to burn Zheng Mingyi’s house down.”

This was already the third time that someone had intruded on Zheng Mingyi’s property. Likely, unable to find what they were looking for the past two times, they couldn’t set their minds at ease and simply set fire to Zheng Mingyi’s house to get rid of it.

“What kind of clues are they?” Jiang Chijing asked.

“In our past communications, he mentioned that they were photos and audio recordings of the CEO of HX Management, Wu Peng, having dinner with someone important.”

“Could it be hidden online?”

“We’ve already checked his computer, there are no records of them being uploaded. Also, it’s easy to wipe stuff like that online, he’s got to be keeping them with him.”

“If that’s the case,” Jiang Chijing mused, “it has to be on a memory card.”

“This is giving me a headache.” Guan Wei rubbed the back of his head frustratedly. “His social circle is small, we’ve already checked everyone there can be. It isn’t possible for him to bring this into prison, could it really have been burnt in the fire?”

Jiang Chijing lifted his chin, gazing at Zheng Mingyi’s house. Even the window frames had warped in the fire. If that something was actually in his house, even if he had hidden it flawlessly, it likely would have lost its value by now.

“Don’t worry,” Jiang Chijing said. “He must have left a backdoor.”

Guan Wei shifted his gaze away from Zheng Mingyi’s house, staring at Jiang Chijing, baffled. “How do you know?”

“Intuition, probably,” said Jiang Chijing.

With how clever his mind was, Zheng Mingyi was sure to have hidden the clues somewhere secure. It mainly depended on whether he was willing to trust Guan Wei enough to hand the clues over.

At this, Jiang Chijing sighed. He glanced at Guan Wei skew. “You know, shouldn’t you check inside your unit first?”

“Goddamnit, I know that we must have a mole too.” Guan Wei couldn’t help but swear.

If it were Jiang Chijing, under such circumstances, he wouldn’t be willing to hand over the chip in his hands as well.

“I’ve applied for a meeting but he didn’t agree to it,” said Guan Wei. “I’m thinking of applying again next week, can you help me put a word in with him?”

Jiang Chijing fell silent. Frankly, he didn’t really want to help Guan Wei with this.

It wasn’t because he couldn’t be bothered, but that Zheng Mingyi didn’t even trust Guan Wei. If he vouched for Guan Wei and something went wrong on Guan Wei’s end, then he didn’t know hold accountable for that with Zheng Mingyi.

“Relax, it’s just a casual chat,” Guan Wei said. “He should want to know the present situation with HX Management, right?”

Jiang Chijing thought it over carefully again. It wouldn’t harm Zheng Mingyi to get a better understanding of the situation outside. Besides, he was a smart guy and could make the call himself, so Jiang Chijing said, “Alright, I’ll bring it up to him.”

Jiang Chijing didn’t like to meddle in inmates’ personal affairs, because the chances of being wrongfully convicted were extraordinarily slim. While he could tell who among them was genuinely remorseful, it didn’t mean that they deserved sympathy.

In the half-year thereabout that he had worked at Southside Prison, only Zheng Mingyi was in prison because he was framed. This was also the first time that Jiang Chijing had encountered such a situation, and his useless sense of justice kept knocking at him. So, perhaps, it was fine if he offered Zheng Mingyi a little help.

Translated on ninetysevenkoi.wordpress

On the Monday of a new week, Zheng Mingyi came to the library as per normal.

As per usual, Jiang Chijing sat in the office area. He looked at the computer screen when turning on the computer and entering the password, and asked, “How do you know that I know to eat strawberry jam?”

Zheng Mingyi wrung the hands that were just released, his tone even as he replied, “I happened to see you buying it at the supermarket before.”

This wasn’t a probe, nor was it a hint. It was blatantly telling Jiang Chijing: I know you live near me.

Inputting the password, Jiang Chijing’s hands paused. He hit the enter button and the merry start-up tune rang from the computer.

He reclined back in his seat, gazing at Zheng Mingyi. “Your house was set on fire yesterday.”

Neither of them brought up the subject of their addresses, but they tacitly completed their information exchange.

They weren’t hiding anymore. They were both voluntarily telling the other: I know that you know that I’m your neighbour.

“What happened?” Zheng Mingyi asked.

“Should be the guy from last time,” Jiang Chijing said.

Hearing this, Zheng Mingyi fell into his thoughts. Jiang Chijing idly used his index to knock the surface of the table, saying, “By the way, the strawberry jam that you made is too sweet, I even had to process it myself.”

“Really?” Zheng Mingyi’s eyebrows lifted. He looked at Jiang Chijing. “I thought that you’d have a sweet tooth, so I deliberately added extra sugar for you.”

Jiang Chijing was speechless. “Which eye of yours did you use to discern that I have a sweet tooth?”

“Dunno.” Zheng Mingyi tilted his head slightly, giving Jiang Chijing a once-over. “I just feel that you’re very sweet.”