Chapter 4: The Prodigal Leaves Home (Part 2)
I gave her a hard look. "You've betrayed me twice already. I still can't fully trust you. From now on, you do exactly what I say. If anything goes sideways, I'll sell you out in a heartbeat. Understood?"
She nodded.
Time was running short. I didn't dare waste any and immediately took her to Tai Sun's apartment.
Tai Sun lived in a rental unit near the stalled project. When we arrived, the door was ajar—left unlocked.
My heart jumped. Was Tai Sun home?
I turned to Wendy Xu. "I'll go check first. Hide upstairs. If things go bad, call the police immediately."
She nodded and crept up a few steps, watching me from the landing.
She wasn't much use, but at least she could keep watch or dial for help—minimizing my risk.
I pushed the door open, but there was no sign of Tai Sun. Instead, I found an elderly couple—a man and a woman—sitting stiffly on the sofa, looking somewhat constrained. Several large burlap sacks sat at their feet, bulging with contents.
They looked up at me, wordless. Their eyes were dull, their hands nervously fidgeting.
Thinking quickly, I asked, "Is Supervisor Sun in?"
"Tai Sun's not here. May I ask who you are?"
I breathed a sigh of relief and waved Wendy Xu down from the stairs. I stepped inside, casually kicking off my shoes, and introduced myself as a colleague from the construction site looking for some documents.
Wendy Xu hurried down and joined me, her sunglasses and mask still hiding her bruised face.
The old couple didn't question my story. The elderly woman rose immediately to pour me water. I asked who they were, and she told me she was Tai Sun's mother.
I was floored. As far as I knew, Tai Sun had always presented himself as a lone wolf—that was why he'd been willing to do all of Victor Li's dirty work. Now he had parents?
The motherless child suddenly had a mother. I hadn't seen that coming.
I forced myself to stay calm and led Wendy Xu into the study. The old woman sat back down on the sofa and asked—almost timidly—whether Tai Sun was doing well at the construction site.
I said offhandedly, "He's doing fine, ma'am. Since Supervisor Sun isn't here, I'll just find the documents myself so I don't hold up work."
"Work comes first. Go ahead."
I started rifling through the desk. In a low voice, I told Wendy Xu, "See if you can find any useful leads. Gold zodiac figurines would be ideal—finding even one would earn you credit toward a reduced sentence."
Wendy Xu's eyes lit up. She nodded vigorously and started searching alongside me.
Tai Sun's desk was a mess. On it sat a framed photo of Tai Sun and Victor Li together, and an ashtray overflowing with cigarette butts. These butts were different from most people's—where an ordinary smoker might stub out with a quarter of the cigarette remaining, Tai Sun always smoked his down to the filter before crushing it.
I murmured, "Figures—he used to be a drifter. Probably picked cigarette butts off the ground for so long that his nicotine tolerance became extraordinary. He has to smoke each cigarette down to the last millimeter to satisfy the craving... Does he smoke like that around you too?"
Wendy Xu said, "Not around me. He probably didn't want to look cheap."
As I combed through the desk, I made small talk with the elderly couple. I said Supervisor Sun had been working at the site for years, but I'd never seen them visit. He never went home for the holidays either—and when he was homeless and struggling, where was his family?
I already knew Tai Sun didn't go home for the holidays. Our homeowners' group had been staking out the stalled project constantly.
The old woman still looked nervous, clutching her husband's hand.
The old man sighed and told me their story.
It turned out that Tai Sun's years of wandering had begun with a devastating gambling habit. He'd gambled away everything he could, even stealing his own sister's dowry money. Debt collectors had been a constant, terrifying presence at their door. The whole family had been living under that shadow—a war they couldn't win.
A gambling addict in the household was a curse on everyone. His father, heartbroken and desperate, felt the family was being destroyed. He decided that since he'd created this monster, he'd have to destroy it himself.
One day, while Tai Sun was napping, the old man took a hoe and tried to smash his son's skull in. But Tai Sun woke up and dodged. The hoe missed his head—but shattered his leg. Hearing his own son's screams, the father couldn't bring himself to strike a second time. He dragged Tai Sun to a city hospital, left without paying the medical bills, and ran. The family had been severed ever since.
After his discharge, Tai Sun began drifting through the city. He wandered and begged, moving ever further from home. He never contacted his family again, always claiming to be an orphan. His family, in turn, wrote him off.
But after Tai Sun fell in with Victor Li, something changed. He started sending money home—regular, quiet remittances. Perhaps it was remorse for the damage he'd caused. He wrote letters saying he didn't blame his father, that he'd turned his life around, and that he hoped one day to return and say sorry properly.
At first, nobody believed him. But over time, Tai Sun actually repaid the dowry he'd stolen, settled every debt, and even shared stories in his letters about how Victor Li had taken a chance on him and given him a respected position. He never mentioned what that "position" actually entailed—only that he'd met a benefactor who appreciated him and that he'd risen to management.
The prodigal son was earning his family's forgiveness. Blood is thicker than water—who can truly sever those bonds? If the old man could have, he would have swung that hoe a second time.
His parents were deeply grateful to Victor Li for transforming their son. They were proud of Tai Sun's success. Carrying baskets of homegrown produce, they'd traveled a thousand miles to see him—and especially to thank the man who'd given their son a second chance. In their eyes, they were his birth parents, and Victor Li was his second set.
Tai Sun had been thrilled to hear they were coming. He'd told them he was busy right now, but would take them around the city once work settled down. The old couple had arrived to find the apartment empty, but they knew the door code and had let themselves in.
A wave of melancholy washed over me. I hadn't imagined Tai Sun had a backstory like this. Two words etched themselves into my mind.
Repaying debts.
All those years, Tai Sun probably hadn't helped Victor Li break the law just because he had nothing to lose. He'd been trying to make amends—for the suffering he'd caused his parents. Getting ahead honestly was too slow, so he chose to risk everything, again and again, to pay back what he owed.
Just as that thought crossed my mind, Wendy Xu nudged me. She'd found a card in one of the drawers.
A Sun Casino membership card.
She whispered, "Does this count as evidence? He used to take me to Hong Kong and Macau on trips. He'd hole up in that casino while I went shopping."
I frowned—the brief swell of emotion I'd felt evaporated. So much for the reformed prodigal. A leopard doesn't change its spots. Take him out of the mainland and into a casino, and the gambling addict emerged, same as ever.
"I'm not sure it's relevant to our case. Put it back. Let's focus on evidence that actually helps us get a reduced sentence."
"I'll keep looking."
I slipped the casino card back into the drawer without mentioning it to the elderly couple. Changing the subject, I said: "Boss Li has passed away. I'm afraid you won't be able to visit him."
"Passed away?"
"Yes—he died in a fire yesterday. You haven't heard?"
The old couple exchanged glances, but I'd already stopped mid-sentence, frozen as I stared at a document I'd just pulled out.
I hadn't found any gold zodiac figurines, but I'd found a renovation blueprint, stapled together with a renovation guarantee certificate.
Emblazoned across the top were the words "Orchid Heights," Unit 2 on the 15th floor, registered to Tai Sun.
Victor Li's destroyed luxury apartment had been Unit 1 on the same floor of Orchid Heights!
I couldn't believe my eyes. Why would Tai Sun own the apartment right next door to Victor Li? Orchid Heights cost nearly six million a unit—how could he afford that?
I studied the blueprint intently. At the junction between the two units, there was a small gap in the shared wall.
Wendy Xu had noticed the blueprint too. She said, "This drawing looks strange."
"You can read blueprints?"
"Don't assume a premium hostess is an uneducated one. The more educated you are in this industry, the more you're worth. Low education means you're stuck managing the middle-tier clients. High education means you can attract the big bosses. So yes—women should study hard. It makes them more valuable."
"That's your takeaway from education? Listen to yourself and the nonsense you're spouting."