Chapter 5: The Real Killer Is Close at Hand (Part 2)
I gave a cold laugh. "Not in person—but I know plenty. He brought this woman along to fence the gold, and the moment he saw me, he bolted."
Nora Zhao sighed. "You even figured out he was trying to sell the gold. You really do know a lot."
"Talk!"
Faced with my ultimatum, Nora Zhao had no choice but to come clean.
It turned out that even after Tai Sun began working for Victor Li, he'd never kicked his gambling habit.
At first, flush with Victor Li's patronage and rewards, he'd lived large. But losing bets drove him to chase his losses, and his debts snowballed.
Victor Li, however, trusted him implicitly. He'd put Tai Sun's name on numerous shell companies, and when it came to hiding assets from creditors, he'd even purchased the luxury apartment next door and registered it under Tai Sun's name.
That second unit was even more lavishly renovated. Victor Li's own "luxury" apartment was a front—when angry homeowners or debt collectors came knocking, they always ended up at the wrong door. But in the dead of night, Victor Li would slip through the secret passage and enjoy the real high life next door.
When I heard this, everything clicked into place. No wonder Victor Li's apartment had smelled so terrible—the renovation materials had been cheap and pungent. This was supposed to be a luxury residence—who uses such low-grade materials? The answer was simple: the real luxury apartment was next door.
Nora Zhao told me that Tai Sun, driven to desperation by gambling debts, had sworn he'd go straight once he paid them off. And when a six-million-yuan luxury apartment was placed in his name, the temptation became irresistible.
It was already registered under his name—he didn't even have to steal it!
Though Victor Li had been generous to him, Tai Sun knew that if his crimes ever came to light, Victor Li would cut him loose without hesitation. Meanwhile, Nora Zhao had been leading the homeowners' fight, and Tai Sun had grown close to her. Their interests aligned perfectly. They hatched a conspiracy.
Victor Li trusted Tai Sun enough to give him full control over renovation projects. While overseeing the work, Tai Sun and Nora Zhao had the secret passage built—without Victor Li ever knowing that his two apartments were now connected by a hidden corridor.
They hadn't yet found the right moment to act. But recently, Tai Sun had come to Nora Zhao with news: Victor Li had purchased a complete set of pure gold zodiac figurines. That was the perfect trigger. Nora Zhao, tempted by the gold, went to Victor Li's apartment under the pretext of confrontation and set the fire. She and Tai Sun had agreed: after the deed, she would take the blame, and he would ensure she was well compensated and helped her escape.
Something nagged at me, and I had to ask: "How could you be sure you'd burn Victor Li to death? What if he escaped?"
"We never intended to kill Victor Li..." Nora Zhao said. "We just wanted to steal the gold while the fire created chaos. Tai Sun was supposed to flee with the gold, then we'd set the apartment on fire and both escape to a safe place. Later, Tai Sun would find a way to quietly sell the apartment—it was in his name, after all. But we never imagined the front door would suddenly jam!"
My stomach dropped.
"You didn't plan to kill him?"
"Of course not! You always leave yourself an escape route—otherwise, why would I have been so open about having a motive for arson? The plan was that even if I got caught, I couldn't be sentenced to death. Who could have predicted the front door would fail? Tai Sun had already made it out of the complex, but when he heard the news, he rushed back and told me we didn't need to run—Victor Li had burned to death. I've been terrified. I haven't slept in days. We've been fighting about it."
"Fighting?"
"Yes. He said we were doomed—we'd only meant to commit arson and theft, but now we had a murder charge. I was furious too. I deliberately left Victor Li an escape route when I set the fire. How was I supposed to know the front door would malfunction? If I'd known, I never would have gone through with it. Now we might face the death penalty."
I stared at Nora Zhao in silence. So in the end... I was the one who had caused Victor Li's death.
Victor Li, who spent his life plotting against others, had ultimately been destroyed by other people's plots.
He'd used Tai Sun, making the man take the fall for his illegal schemes. He'd cheated the homeowners, refusing to fund the completion of their apartments.
And the three of us had conspired to steal from him—who could have guessed we'd accidentally kill him?
Nora Zhao sighed and told me that after setting the fire, she'd hidden in the adjacent apartment, intending to wait until the heat died down before slipping away. Tai Sun, meanwhile, had been busy trying to fence the stolen gold.
I couldn't resist asking about her relationship with Tai Sun, mentioning the pregnancy test in the bathroom. She froze for a moment, then shook her head—she and Tai Sun were purely business partners. The baby was her boyfriend's.
A heavy silence fell over the room. Because when it came down to it, I was still guilty. At bare minimum, I'd be charged with criminally negligent homicide.
Seeing me go quiet, Nora Zhao spoke up: "Marcus, none of us wanted things to turn out this way. I never expected to drag you into this, let alone have you take the fall for me. What if we do this—Tai Sun is currently arranging for someone to smuggle us out of the country. You could come with us. If I manage to avoid police attention, I'll even give you a cut. Think about it—you're already a fugitive. If you can get out safely, why not take what you can?"
I said nothing.
Nora Zhao's offer was tempting. If I could successfully flee overseas, I could start a new life. But I refused to live in hiding!
Wendy Xu, seeing my silence, thought I was wavering. She jumped in: "Don't trust her! Tai Sun is a double-crosser. I made that mistake—just look at what happened to me!"
She yanked off her sunglasses to show me the bruises on her face.
I said, "If I run, my parents and Elena will be disgraced for the rest of their lives. They're the people I love most. How can I condemn them to a lifetime of shame?"
Wendy Xu looked relieved. "At least you're being sensible."
I stood up. "I'll use these two bastards to bargain for a reduced sentence. A man has to own his mistakes and face them head-on."
"Then we can call the police right now," Wendy Xu said eagerly. "She's already confessed to everything."
I shook my head. "Right now, everything we've heard is just her word. We have no hard evidence. If she changes her testimony in court, it'll be devastating for me. The secret passage and the empty box only prove they committed theft during the fire—not that they conspired to set it. If the trial concludes that I was the arsonist, I'm finished."
Wendy Xu covered her mouth. "How can that be? Would she really change her story?"
I looked at Nora Zhao coldly. "I'm right, aren't I? What matters in court isn't what you told me today—it's what I can prove. If you want my cooperation, you'd better produce some evidence of the arson."
Nora Zhao gave a bitter smile. "How would evidence even exist? We lit a fire and left. We didn't even drop a lighter."
"The air conditioning surveillance footage is evidence."
Nora Zhao fell silent.
I continued: "If you both entered the neighboring apartment and handled the gold, that footage would have captured you. But the version that's been circulating only shows me. I'm guessing the footage wasn't found by the family—you and Tai Sun edited it, didn't you?"
"That's right!" Wendy Xu exclaimed. "I saw that video on my feed—only you were in it! Hand over the original surveillance footage!"
"I don't have it. Tai Sun has it. He edited the video—I don't know if he kept the original. The surveillance footage was always meant to frame me and clear his name. He never expected you to appear in it too..."
The crux of the matter came back to Tai Sun.
Even if I found him, he wouldn't hand over evidence willingly.
I confiscated Nora Zhao's phone and demanded the passcode. Once unlocked, I started scrolling through her messages with Wendy Xu looking over my shoulder. "Let's see if she's exchanged anything with Tai Sun."
Wendy Xu reached over and tapped into Nora Zhao's chat with Victor Li instead. It was nothing but demands for Victor Li to deliver the apartments, and Victor Li's constant evasions.
I said impatiently, "Why are you looking at that? Check her chat with Tai Sun first."
Wendy Xu murmured, "I just find the arson victim fascinating... It's all over my social feeds."
I ignored her and opened the chat between Nora Zhao and Tai Sun. It was scrubbed clean. Their last exchange was three days ago, still about the stalled project.
I scoffed. "They deleted everything."
The homeowners' group chat was still buzzing with messages. I opened it to check what people were discussing—and saw a video of my apartment.