Shen Xin led Ding Yuwei along the ridgeline, heading for Lotus Peak.

Here, only the mountain path south toward Dingshan Temple had steps. The way to Lotus Peak was just a trail.

"Shen Xin, your theory is that sometime between the 13th and the 15th, Zhu Guishen had an accident on the mountain and died, and his body was never found," Ding Yuwei said as they walked.

Shen Xin nodded.

"You see, first, back then Old Zhou pulled the traffic camera footage from near the farm and checked it thoroughly, but he didn’t see Zhu Guishen or that beat-up pickup truck from his farm."

"He pulled footage from a very wide area and watched it meticulously. If Zhu Guishen had left the farm, it would have been very difficult for him to avoid the cameras."

According to Zhou Zhongyi, he watched an entire week’s worth of footage.

"He didn’t leave town, or rather, he didn’t leave through any conventional means. So how did he disappear?"

Shen Xin asked in return.

This just goes to show that Zhou Zhongyi had good reason to suspect Yang Huixia back then; they couldn’t find a single lead on Zhu Guishen’s disappearance.

They had even checked train and flight records, all related travel routes, and even questioned ticket scalpers, but still found no trace of Zhu Guishen.

So how did he leave Nanjiang? Surely he didn’t just walk out.

Even if someone wanted to disappear, they wouldn’t make things that difficult for themselves.

So there was strong reason to believe Zhu Guishen had been killed. And after investigating everyone around him, Yang Huixia was the only one who seemed suspicious. If not her, then who?

"He could only have gone by a mountain trail. Or rather, he didn’t cross over Dingshan to hide his tracks—he was killed on Dingshan."

"He either had an accident and fell to his death, or something happened and he was murdered."

Dingshan wasn’t high, but a tumble down the side could still kill a person.

But Shen Xin was more inclined toward the latter.

Plenty of hikers wandered about aimlessly. If Zhu Guishen had accidentally fallen to his death, the odds of his body not being found for two years were very low.

Being killed by someone, and the body then disposed of, was a more plausible explanation.

It fit the one-percent scenario: a crime of passion sparked by some unexpected event.

"And I have several reasons for this theory."

Shen Xin continued, "First, his phone."

After the incident, Zhu Guishen’s phone wasn’t found at the farm.

All calls to it went to a ’powered off’ message.

Old Zhou also pulled the phone’s call records from the service provider, which showed that the last call he received was at 3:17 PM on the 13th.

It was a spam call.

They then tracked the IMEI code. The last cell tower it connected to was the one nearest the farm, meaning the phone hadn’t left the range of that tower.

The tower’s connection log showed the phone’s last connection was at 4:00 AM on the 14th.

After that, the phone never connected to a cell tower again.

This also supported the idea that Zhu Guishen hadn’t just disappeared, because he had completely stopped using his phone.

Even if he’d wanted to change his number, he likely wouldn’t have replaced the phone itself, so there would have been subsequent connection records.

Since there were none, the only explanation is that something happened, and the phone was turned off for good.

Of course, based on the phone’s connection log, this didn’t seem to align with the time of Yang Huixia’s unusual activity on the afternoon of the 13th.

But that wasn’t solid evidence.

The time of death and the time the phone was turned off weren’t necessarily linked.

"The fact that the phone was turned off permanently is more proof that he was killed, not that he simply disappeared."

"Second, like I said yesterday, I now believe Yang Huixia deeply loved Zhu Guishen. The motive of killing him for the insurance payout might not be sufficient."

"Then there’s Yang Huixia’s unusual activity on the afternoon of the 13th. Her coming to Dingshan could be interpreted as her covering her tracks to premeditate Zhu Guishen’s murder, but there’s another possibility."

Shen Xin explained how Yang Huixia often went to Lotus Peak to sit and think.

That day, Yang Huixia had argued with Gou Jinlan again. Feeling upset, it would be understandable for her to go to the spot she and Zhu Guishen often visited to sit and calm her nerves.

"Finally, Yang Huixia said that she and Zhu Guishen often went to Lotus Peak to sit. So, could this be a possibility?"

"On the 13th, Zhu Guishen argued with Yang Huixia, his farm was on the brink of collapse, and the 30,000 yuan in cash he’d prepared for his employees had to be returned to a supplier instead."

"Worried about how to pay his employees and feeling frustrated, he also decided to go to Lotus Peak to sit and clear his head."

"And then, on the mountain, he ran into some kind of trouble."

Yang Huixia’s trip up the mountain yesterday answered some questions and gave Shen Xin the foundation for this theory.

Ding Yuwei nodded thoughtfully.

Perhaps lost in thought, she didn’t watch her step. She tripped on a rock and suddenly stumbled forward.

Shen Xin, who was walking ahead, caught her by reflex.

"Are you okay?"

Shen Xin asked.

"I’m fine." Ding Yuwei shook her head, glanced at the rock that had tripped her, and continued, "So, if we go with your theory, Zhu Guishen must have come to Lotus Peak on the evening of the 13th to clear his head, and then something happened."

"Because if Yang Huixia also went to Lotus Peak that afternoon, she would have stayed there until evening before returning to Pingyu."

"So Zhu Guishen could have only gone at night. After whatever happened, his phone either died at 4:00 AM, or the killer took it and destroyed it."

Shen Xin nodded. That was exactly it.

As they spoke, Shen Xin saw an elderly sanitation worker in a yellow vest by the trail up ahead.

He was next to a trash can, leaning against a "Forest Fire Prevention" sign and smoking a cigarette.

"Uncle Wang, is that you?"

Shen Xin walked over.

There were a total of two sanitation workers responsible for the outer areas of Dingshan. One was Fan Ting, who they had questioned before.

The other was named Wang Linhong, who must have been this man before them.

The two of them were responsible for the stretch of ridgeline between Dingshan Temple and Lotus Peak. All they had to do was walk the route a couple of times a day and empty the trash cans.

"What are you two doing here?"

He stamped out his cigarette butt and asked nervously.

Shen Xin flashed his badge. The man seemed to grow even more nervous, grinding the cigarette butt under his foot with more force.

"Sir, I’d like to ask you something. Do you remember anything about the two-day period between May 13th and 14th from two years ago, in ’15?"

"It was around Labor Day. You didn’t get the day off, and they handed out boxes of salted duck eggs. You were late, so you missed out, but they gave you one later to make up for it. Do you remember that?"

If you ask someone to recall a specific day, they might not remember. But if something special happened that day, they usually can.

Sure enough, the moment Shen Xin mentioned the salted duck eggs, Wang Linhong’s memory was jogged.

"That’s right, that did happen."

With that point of reference, it was much easier to recall more.

Wang Linhong furrowed his brow, thinking back carefully.

"The 13th, you say?"

"The two of us are supposed to take turns, but it’s not set in stone. We basically just wander. I actually like coming out for a stroll; nobody’s managing me."

"If you’re asking if anything special happened on the 13th, I don’t think there was."

"As for the 14th... what day of the week was that?"

As he thought, he clapped his hands together. "I remember now! I met someone that morning."

He pointed east and continued, "My home is over by Da’an Bridge to the east. We’re supposed to start work at eight, but we have to get here half an hour early."

"You have to climb the mountain to clock in, you know? I’m getting old and I’m a slow climber, so I usually leave home before six and take the path up by the Li Family Tomb."

He pointed to the south.

Dingshan had several paths leading up it.

Between Lotus Peak and Dingshan Temple, at the lowest point of the ridgeline, there was a footpath leading up the mountain.

Next to the footpath at the base of the mountain was the Li Family Ancestral Tomb, so people usually referred to the path by the tomb.

"The sky’s already light at six, you know. I was about halfway up, probably around six-thirty, when I saw someone coming down the path."

"A young-looking guy. He was carrying a shovel. I had no idea what he was doing."

"The main thing was, it was just past six in the morning. It’s rare to see someone hiking that early, especially carrying a shovel. But I didn’t think much of it and just kept heading up the mountain."

"So, you were asking about anything unusual. Does that count?"

Shen Xin nodded excitedly.

’Oh, it more than counted!’

Just as Wang Linhong had said, even for an early-morning hiker, someone out at six-something should be heading up the mountain, not coming down.

And most importantly, he was carrying a shovel.

It was hard not to suspect he had been up there digging a hole to bury a body.