Chapter Eleven: A Guilty Conscience

When Lin Zhen explained, Yan Xue and Kang Ge immediately believed her. After all, they'd heard from the property management that the Lin family frequently brought home people of varying ages and styles; to chalk it up to a wide social circle seemed a stretch. Lin Zhen’s answer, oddly enough, made the most sense.

However, treating her own house like a short-term rental apartment—even if it explained the constant flow of strangers—was still puzzling.

“Your family isn’t exactly strapped for cash, so why rent out your own home to others?” Yan Xue asked.

“Do you only eat when you’re hungry? Sometimes you just eat for fun, right?” Lin Zhen curled her lip, as if she found Yan Xue’s old-fashioned viewpoint out of place for her age. “It’s not about making money! I just get bored! My social circle is small, the same group doing the same things over and over. There’s nothing new, nothing interesting!

But listing my place on AirBB is totally different! Guests come from everywhere, do all sorts of things. The house is big—if they want to be left alone, we stay out of each other's way. If they’re friendly, I make friends, chat, have a drink. It’s like a whole new world opens up—so much fun!”

Lin Zhen’s face lit up with a genuine smile; clearly, she loved that life.

“How could you bring strangers into your home so casually? It’s not safe!” her mother chided, anxious.

Lin Zhen shot her mother a look of annoyance. “You don’t understand, you just don’t! There’s nothing in the house to worry about—just some of your clothes and shoes, which I locked up in your bedroom. You always go on about safety, but look, I’m just fine!”

“You said it was just for a while—so you’re not hosting guests anymore?” Kang Ge picked up on the implication. “If you found it so interesting, why stop? Did something happen?”

“Oh, something did—property management kept hassling me. Neighbors complained, the staff said it made their jobs hard, called me all the time! They said I was creating a security risk for the whole building—ridiculous! One short-term rental was a hazard? Eventually, I got sick of it and stopped.”

“How long did you know Bai Yuenie?”

“Not that long. At first, a guest gave me her WeChat—we found each other interesting, chatted now and then, liked each other’s posts. We only met in person later.” As she mentioned Bai Yuenie, Lin Zhen grew uneasy, as if she still couldn’t process that the woman had died in her own home.

“Lin Zhen, this is our first meeting, so of course we don’t know you well. But if you and Bai Yuenie could swap IDs and pretend to be each other, your friendship must’ve had its own quirks. Now she’s had an accident—in your house, no less—so please, tell us everything: how you knew one another, why you swapped identities, and anything else we should know,” Yan Xue said gently, hoping Lin Zhen would open up instead of answering piecemeal.

Lin Zhen bristled. “What kind of question is that? You make it sound like I killed her! We just agreed to swap identities for fun, spice things up. I don’t know what she did before, I was out of town with some new friends, everything was fine—and then she ends up dead in my house! That’s trouble for us—isn’t it? Why act like I’m to blame?”

“Oh, darling, let’s not talk like that! The dead deserve respect. She was a poor girl, after all. If you don’t want to live in that house anymore, that’s fine—we’ll keep it or sell it, whatever you want,” her father interjected, stopping Lin Zhen before she said more. “But don’t speak ill of the dead—it’s bad luck!”

Lin Zhen pursed her lips and turned away, sulking.

“We rushed over here without eating—are you hungry?” Kang Ge checked the time, first addressing Lin Zhen’s parents, then Lin Zhen herself. “What about you? You’ve been in the hotel all day, haven’t gone out—hungry?”

Lin Zhen sized up Kang Ge, her interest in him clearly greater than in Yan Xue. Now, being asked with such kindness by a tall, sturdy, and handsome man, her annoyance quickly faded. She nodded. “I haven’t eaten since this morning. Just some biscuits, and I’ve been hungry ever since.”

“Oh, sweetheart, how can you be grown and still not eat on time?” her mother fussed, clearly still shaken from having almost lost her daughter.

Kang Ge walked over, found the room service menu, ordered food from the hotel restaurant, requested in-room dining, and paid on the spot. Soon, the food arrived. Kang Ge paid the server, divided the meals, and sat with Yan Xue to eat.

Lin Zhen’s parents had been starving but, gripped by worry, hadn’t noticed their hunger until now. With their daughter safe, they could finally relax and enjoy a good meal.

Yan Xue and Kang Ge were used to finding comfort in food, but during work, meals were usually about convenience, not taste.

Of the five, four ate heartily—only Lin Zhen, who’d claimed to be starving, showed no appetite. She poked listlessly at her food, barely touching a bite.

“What’s wrong, darling? Not to your taste? If you don’t like it, I’ll buy you something else—just tell me! Are you feeling unwell?” her father asked with concern.

“No, no! Stop asking, will you? You’re so annoying!” At a few questions, Lin Zhen snapped, pushing her food aside so forcefully that soup spilled over the edge. “I’m not hungry, I don’t want to eat! Why can’t I just not eat without being nagged? I never wanted to eat in the first place—enough already!”

Lin Zhen’s father looked displeased, but quickly suppressed his anger, sighed, and went back to his meal.

Her mother, about to urge Lin Zhen to eat, saw her husband rebuffed and chose to keep her head down, silently eating to avoid upsetting their daughter further.

Yan Xue watched Lin Zhen’s sullen face and realized just how deeply her parents indulged her.

Kang Ge, always efficient, finished his meal quickly, wiped his mouth, and sat upright again.

“You were traveling with new friends on a shoestring, right? Why did you come back early?” Since only Lin Zhen was sitting idle, he struck up a casual conversation. “Backpacking isn’t always as fun as you imagine, is it?”

“Oh, I was so fooled! The travel guides made it all sound so romantic—I was really looking forward to it! But the reality was nothing like the posts. We rode in shabby rideshares, stayed in the cheapest, dirtiest youth hostels—dark and smelly! And there were all sorts of people. The first night, I had to share a room with five other girls—rickety bunk beds that shook if you rolled over! I only knew two of them.

The next day, I told them we should find a cheap hotel—we can’t rest in a place like that! I wasn’t asking for a suite, just a regular hotel. I even said I’d settle for a triple room; splitting the cost would make it affordable for everyone. But you know what? They called me difficult and told me to go home if I couldn’t handle it! Was I being unreasonable? I didn’t ask them to stay in a five-star hotel—just somewhere normal! And they still complained!”

“Don’t go with them again! I’d feel bad letting my daughter stay in a dump like that,” her father chimed in.

“In W City, what did you usually do for fun? Never tried backpacking before, right?” Kang Ge asked, smiling.

“Right, my friends in W City would just drag me to nightclubs—dancing, singing, drinking, the usual. Nothing special. Or we’d go shopping, have a spa day, get beauty treatments—I can’t sit still for long.”

“You’ve been here two days, right? Did you know Y City has a famous nightclub, with top DJs performing? Didn’t you go out at night?”

Lin Zhen’s eyes lit up at first, but quickly dimmed. “I was feeling unwell after staying in that dump—maybe caught a chill. I just stayed in and slept. I’ll check it out another time.”

Kang Ge kept the conversation going. “How long were you and Bai Yuenie planning to swap identities? You’re brave, letting someone else live in your house and drive your car! Weren’t you worried she’d do something behind your back?”

“I wasn’t. Anything valuable my parents own is locked in their bedroom. And anyway, the real valuables—designer clothes, bags—they took with them and never leave in the house. The house is in their name. Even if Bai Yuenie found the deed, could she sell it on her own?”

“True. Now that something happened, the house is a crime scene; you can’t go back. When you check out of this hotel, where will you go?”

“I haven’t decided. Maybe I’ll go with my parents, wherever their business takes them. I’m tired of W City anyway—a change of scene sounds good.” Lin Zhen’s gaze wavered as she spoke.

Her father, however, was delighted. “That’s great! You really scared your mother and me this time. It’s better for you to be with us—you’re twenty-four, done with university, and you’ve had your fun. Maybe it’s time to settle down, learn the ropes with us. We won’t be around forever, and someone has to take over the family business. I used to think maybe you’d find a capable young man to help, but we can’t just hand everything over to an outsider, can we? At the end of the day, no one understands like family—”

“Oh, enough already! That’s exactly why I stayed in W City on my own—I can’t stand all your nagging! If you keep going, I’ll run off so you’ll never find me!” Lin Zhen raised her feet onto the sofa edge, wrapped her arms around her knees, and buried her face.

Her father finally grew a bit angry, but before he could say anything, her mother caught his arm and shook her head. “Let it go—she’s safe, that’s all that matters.”

He remembered the ordeal of identifying the body, his anger faded, and he turned away with a sigh.

“If we hadn’t come today, when were you planning to check out? This is your third day here, right? I called room service and they didn’t even ask about extending your stay—you must’ve prepaid for quite a few nights. Is it that you don’t want to go back to W City, or that you’re afraid to?” Kang Ge asked with a friendly smile.