Early Saturday morning, just as the sky was beginning to lighten, an inconspicuous black Santana drove out of the city and merged onto the highway heading to the neighboring province. The car was borrowed from Li Xiaodong's friend; he said driving his own car would be too conspicuous. Chen Mo sat in the passenger seat, not saying a word since getting in, just closing his eyes as if dozing.

Li Xiaodong glanced at him through the rearview mirror, without saying a word. He turned on the car radio, tuning it to a station playing old songs. The gentle music flowed through the narrow cabin, slightly alleviating the awkward and tense atmosphere. He could feel that the man beside him called Chen Mo was like a block of silent meteoric iron, neither emitting heat nor releasing cold, just quietly existing, yet with an unmistakable weight.


The highway conditions were good, and the vehicle moved steadily. But as the place names on the signposts became increasingly unfamiliar, the road conditions began to deteriorate. After exiting the highway, the car entered a winding provincial road. The scenery on both sides of the road changed from high-rise buildings to low houses, and then from houses to undulating barren mountains. The road surface became bumpy, causing the car to bounce violently.

"Brother Chen, hold tight." Li Xiaodong gripped the steering wheel firmly, carefully avoiding a large pothole, and gave a verbal reminder.

Chen Mo opened his eyes, glanced at the yellow earth and sparse trees rapidly receding outside the window, then closed his eyes again. He seemed indifferent to it all.


After driving for nearly two more hours, the car finally left the provincial road and turned onto an even narrower dirt road. On the road sign, the three faded characters for "Hekou Town" flashed by. This was their destination. The dirt road was bumpy and uneven, and the car kicked up clouds of yellow dust, like a yellow dragon struggling to move forward on the parched land.

When they found the village of Hou Liang's hometown according to the navigation, it was already noon. The village was nestled in a small hollow, with several dozen households. Most houses had mud walls and asbestos tile roofs, looking dilapidated and desolate. The village was quiet, eerily quiet, without even the sound of a dog barking. A strange, slightly chemical pungent smell permeated the air, mixed with dust and the stench of animal manure, making it very uncomfortable.


Li Xiaodong parked the car under a dead locust tree at the village entrance and turned off the engine. The two got out of the car, their feet making a rustling sound as they stepped onto the soft yellow soil.

"I'll go ask first." Li Xiaodong said as he walked toward the only small flat house in the village with a "Small Store" sign hanging outside.

Chen Mo didn't move. He stood beside the car, surveying the lifeless village. His gaze swept across the tightly closed doors, across the windows covered with newspaper, his brow furrowing deeper. This didn't look like an inhabited village, but more like an abandoned shell.

Soon, Li Xiaodong returned with a puzzled expression. "Brother Chen, something's not right."

"What is it?" Chen Mo asked.

"I asked the shopkeeper where Hou Liang's house was. At first he said he didn't know, but when I mentioned we were Hou Liang's old colleagues who came specially from the city to visit him, he then said Hou Liang's house had been empty for a long time, that they moved away and he didn't know where to. Li Xiaodong lowered his voice, "When I asked if anyone else in the village might know, he just went silent and kept shaking his head. His eyes were shifty, like he was really scared."

Chen Mo wasn't surprised. He pointed toward the depths of the village, "Come on, let's go in and have a look."

They walked side by side along the only main road in the village. Occasionally, a door would open and a head would peek out, but upon seeing these two strangers, it would immediately withdraw, and the door would slam shut. There were a few old people sunning themselves by the roadside. Li Xiaodong approached them politely, greeting them and offering cigarettes. But as soon as he mentioned the words "Hou Liang" or "chemical plant," the old people seemed as if they were being choked. Their already cloudy eyes revealed expressions of terror. Some waved their hands claiming they were hard of hearing and couldn't understand, while others simply got up and shakily walked away.

The entire village seemed to be shrouded in an invisible, enormous net of fear.

They found the address of Hou Liang's home listed in the household registration records. It was a mud-brick house with half of it already collapsed. The yard was overgrown with weeds that reached up to waist height, and a rusty padlock hung on the door. Looking through the dilapidated windows, they could see the interior was completely empty, with nothing but cobwebs and thick layers of dust.

The building was empty. The lead seemed to have gone cold again.

Li Xiaodong felt deflated, leaning against the mud wall and irritably wiping the sweat from his face. "What's going on here? How can an entire village of people, as if by agreement, refuse to say anything?"

Chen Mo didn't answer. He walked to the courtyard wall, crouched down, and rubbed a pinch of soil between his fingers. The soil was blackish-gray with an oily texture. He brought it to his nose and sniffed; the pungent chemical smell was even stronger now.

Just then, a suppressed coughing sound came from nearby. They looked toward the source and saw a man in his thirties hurriedly walking past the alley entrance, carrying a child. The man was thin and sallow, with unsteady steps. The child in his arms appeared to be only four or five years old, with a waxy yellow face, lifeless, letting out weak moans like a kitten.

Chen Mo stood up, exchanged a glance with Li Xiaodong, and quickly followed.

The man seemed to notice the footsteps behind him and walked faster, almost breaking into a run. Holding the child, he turned into a courtyard and tried to close the door. Chen Mo rushed forward and blocked the door with his hand.

"Don't be afraid, fellow villager, we mean no harm," Chen Mo said in a steady voice, trying to calm the man down. "Is your child sick? We're from the city, perhaps we can help."

The man looked at them vigilantly, his eyes full of distrust. The child in his arms started coughing again, this time more severely, his tiny body curled up in pain, looking extremely uncomfortable.

"What's wrong with him?" Li Xiaodong couldn't help asking, seeing how distressed the child was.

Perhaps it was the child's illness that touched the most vulnerable nerve in the man's heart, or perhaps it was the unwavering composure in Chen Mo's eyes that lowered his guard a little. The vigilance and fear on the man's face showed a slight crack. He looked at the sickly child in his arms, and his eyes immediately reddened.

His lips trembled as he looked around, and after confirming no one was there, he opened the door a crack and said in an almost whisper: "You... come with me."

The man led them into the house. Inside, the light was dim, and the walls were bare. He let his wife look after the child, then pulled Chen Mo and Li Xiaodong to a corner of the courtyard and began speaking with a trembling voice.

"Stop asking, you won't get any answers no matter how much you ask. This village is already finished," the man said despairingly. "Can you smell that odor in the air? It's been like this for over ten years, the same smell every day. The river behind the village used to be so clear you could see the bottom, but now? It's as black as ink, and when it rains, there are colorful oil slicks on the surface. All the fish and shrimp died long ago."

"Is it from a chemical factory?" Chen Mo asked.

The man nodded, as if a floodgate had opened, and years of suppressed fear and anger came pouring out. "It's that Taihua Chemical Factory! They discharge toxic water directly into the river, and it seeps into the ground. The water we drink, the crops we grow, they're all poisoned! In recent years, more and more villagers have been getting strange illnesses, dying one after another. When they go to the hospital, it's all cancer! Liver cancer, lung cancer, stomach cancer... every type of cancer! Outside, they now call our place the 'Cancer Village'!"

The three words "cancer village" struck Li Xiaodong like three bullets. He felt his breath stop. He had imagined countless reasons why the villagers remained tight-lipped, but never thought the truth would be so cruel and bloody.

"Doesn't anyone care? Haven't you reported this?" Li Xiaodong's voice trembled slightly.

"Report? Of course we've reported!" The man laughed bitterly, his smile more painful than tears. "Years ago, when Hou Liang was still around, he led us to confront the factory, went to the township, and even to the county office. Did it help? The officials protect each other, and officials and businessmen are one family! We're just peasants, who sees us as human beings? Those who went to complain either came back with broken legs or found their livestock mysteriously dead. Hou Liang... Hou Liang stopped speaking up because of this."

"Then what happened?" Chen Mo asked in a deep voice.

"Later? Later his family also had troubles, so he fled with his wife and children. After that, there was no one left in the village who wanted to file a lawsuit, so everyone just endured it, waiting to die." The man spoke as tears streamed down his face, "My child was diagnosed with leukemia two years ago... The doctor said it was caused by environmental pollution. He's still so young... Even if I have to sell everything I own, I have to get him treatment! If you two bosses really have the ability, please help us! If this continues, this village will truly die out completely!"

By the end of his plea, the man was almost kneeling. Chen Mo quickly supported him.

"Don't worry, we came specifically for this matter," Chen Mo's promise was simple yet firm.

After leaving the man's house, Li Xiaodong remained silent. His expression was grim, his lips tightly pressed together. The scene just now, the man's desperate accusations, the child's weak moaning, hit him like a heavy hammer, shattering his existing understanding of the world. The textbook articles about justice, law, and procedures seemed so pale and powerless in the face of the bloody reality of this "cancer village."

Chen Mo led him to the entrance of the village. There was a small single-story house with a wooden sign hanging at the door, with the words "Health Station" written in white paint. This must be the small clinic in the village that the man had mentioned.

They pushed the door open and went in. The clinic was empty, with just a table and a medicine cabinet making up the entire furnishing. But what truly made Li Xiaodong feel suffocated were the walls of the clinic.

On that mottled wall, all kinds of medical documents were densely pasted. Not certificates of merit, not promotional posters, but diagnostic reports, lab test results, and death certificates from various hospitals. Each piece of paper represented a life devoured by disease, or a villager who was heading toward death.

Li Xiaodong unconsciously stepped forward. He saw those unfamiliar names, followed by shocking diagnostic results: "Late-stage primary liver cancer," "Invasive lung adenocarcinoma," "Acute lymphocytic leukemia"... The black lead type, like sharp knives, stabbed his eyes with pain. He even saw a diagnostic report from a children's hospital, on which the patient's name was that of the man's child he had just met.

Through these cold papers, he seemed able to see countless distorted faces in pain and hear desperate wails. This wall was not a wall, but a tombstone built with lives and tears of blood. This was the horrific crime that Song Wenjie wanted to expose years ago. At this moment, that name which only existed in files and other people's words became concrete and heavy for the first time.

Li Xiaodong felt nauseated. He rushed out of the clinic and leaned against the corner of the wall, retching, but nothing came out except bitter bile rising in his throat. His body trembled violently, half from anger, half from fear.

Chen Mo silently followed him out and handed him a bottle of water. He didn't speak, just looked at Li Xiaodong. He knew that this young man was experiencing the collapse and reconstruction of his beliefs.

After a long while, Li Xiaodong finally straightened up. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, his eyes bloodshot.

"We...... We need to find Hou Liang. As long as we find the evidence in his possession, we can......" he said eagerly, as if clutching at a straw.

"He's already dead." Chen Mo calmly interrupted him.

Li Xiaodong was stunned. "What?"

Chen Mo's gaze turned to the other end of the village. "That man just said Hou Liang ran away. But the household registration system shows he only returned to his hometown. If he really wanted to hide, why didn't he go farther? There's only one explanation: he couldn't leave. He was sick, and very seriously so."

They returned to the village again, and this time, they didn't beat around the bush. Chen Mo went directly to the most senior elder in the village and revealed his identity as a police officer.

"Old man, we are the police, investigating the pollution case at Taihua Chemical Plant. We know you're afraid, but now, Hou Liang is the only witness, and we must find him."

Perhaps it was their identity as police officers that made a difference, or perhaps the old man also wanted to do something for this dying village. He remained silent for a long time, finally sighed, and pointed to a small hill behind the village. "Go find his cousin, he knows."

They found Hou Liang's distant cousin in a dilapidated house at the foot of the hill. He was a middle-aged man with a sorrowful face, who showed no surprise at seeing them, as if he had expected someone to come looking.

"You're here to find my brother, aren't you?" he spoke hoarsely, "It's too late, all too late."

He led them to the back of the house. A simple grave mound with a rough wooden tablet, on which the four characters "Hou Liang's Tomb" were written in black paint. The paint on the wooden tablet had already begun to peel off.

"My brother passed away three years ago." The cousin squatted in front of the grave, rolled himself a cigarette, lit it, and took a deep drag. "Lung cancer, just like my sister-in-law. It was already late stage when they found it, he didn't last half a year. When he was about to go, he had wasted away beyond recognition, but his mind was still clear. He grabbed my hand and kept repeating those few sentences over and over."

"What did he say?" Chen Mo squatted down, meeting him at eye level.

The cousin exhaled a cloud of dense smoke that obscured his face. "He said he was sorry to that reporter, sorry to that young man named Song. He said he was too cowardly and ended up hurting him. He also said that he kept everything, it's in... it's in..." As the cousin spoke, he suddenly gave Chen Mo and Li Xiaodong a wary glance, and swallowed the rest of his words. "He said he regretted it his whole life."

"I'm sorry to that reporter......" Chen Mo silently recited these words in his heart. Song Wenjie was conducting an undercover investigation in the capacity of a reporter back then.

Li Xiaodong stood to the side, looking at the solitary grave, his heart filled with mixed emotions. The only witness they had found with great difficulty now left behind only a handful of yellow earth and a belated confession. The crucial evidence that was said to be able to bring the criminals to justice had once again sunk like a stone into the sea with his death.

The flame of hope had barely been kindled before it was extinguished again by the fierce winds of reality.

On the way back to the city, the car was deathly silent. The sky gradually darkened, and the distant mountains turned into silent silhouettes in the twilight. Li Xiaodong focused on driving, but his thoughts had already drifted far away. That wall covered with medical diagnoses, that frail child, that desolate lonely grave - scene after scene replayed repeatedly in his mind.

He felt like he had just experienced a nightmare. No, it was worse than a nightmare, because it was real. He had always believed that by putting on this police uniform, he was upholding the dignity of the law, bringing criminals to justice. But today he discovered that some evils are beyond the reach of legal statutes, hidden in plain daylight, formed by the massive shadows of power and money.

He had been holding it in the whole way, feeling like a massive stone was pressing on his chest, making it almost impossible to breathe. He needed an answer, a reason to keep going.

Finally, as the car was about to enter the city, he couldn't hold back anymore.

"Brother Chen," he spoke, his voice somewhat hoarse.

Chen Mo didn't respond, continuing to stare out the window.

Li Xiaodong took a deep breath, gathering his courage to ask: "What exactly... are we investigating?"

He didn't know what he was asking, nor what kind of answer he wanted. Was he asking about the nature of the case? Or the identity of the opponent? Or, perhaps, he was just asking about the meaning behind all of this.

This time, Chen Mo reacted. He slowly turned his head, and in the dim light, the contours of his face were distinct. This was the first time he truly looked at Li Xiaodong with an equal gaze.

In his eyes, there was no longer the previous coldness and detachment, nor scrutiny and wariness. There was only a bottomless calmness, and a stillness that came after everything had been burned away.

He looked into Li Xiaodong's eyes and answered, word by word:
"It's human lives."