‘It’s in the original direction pursued by Internal Security,’ Qin said, tapping on the desk with his forefinger. ‘From the very beginning, they suspected that it had been done by someone bearing a really deep grudge against Xiang, or against Geng, or against both of them.’

‘So they have discovered such a one?’

‘Yes, they have. It may not have been too difficult for them, with all the information about her at their disposal. Her promotion to the section head meant, as you’d expect, the exclusion of other candidates for the position. In her section, there’s a journalist surnamed Zhou. Having worked there for longer than a decade, he was known as a capable and experienced worker, too. Prior to her arrival at the newspaper, Zhou was acknowledged, though not that officially, as the acting section head in practical charge for the last two years – just like you, in practical charge of your special case squad—’

‘Chief Inspector Chen is a friend of mine. He has just been too busy with so many other things, you know,’ Yu said, feeling obliged to say something for Chen.

‘Whatever you may want to say about your boss, Xiang was not a friend of Zhou’s. Her arrival deprived him of the “acting” status. And a couple of months later, far from as capable or experienced, she was made the section head, which totally ruled out the possibility of his promotion. How do you think Zhou would have reacted?’

‘It’s not fair, but there’re so many things not fair in this world. Old Hunter entered the bureau earlier than Party Secretary Li. Li has never done a real case. But so what? People do not kill simply because of—’

‘But Zhou had his reason to hate her, and for that matter, even to hate the newspaper, right?’

‘Yes, it’s an enormous humiliation for him to have lost it to such a young girl.’

‘Well, it’s more than that. He happened to be the one working with Xiang that evening.’

‘That Thursday evening?’ Yu said, recalling things Peiqin had learned from Lianping the previous night, including the name of Zhou in the background. ‘You mean Zhou worked together with her during the night shift?’

‘He left earlier, but he’s the one familiar with her routine during the night shift, and with what she would do after going through the galley in the early morning. So you see, it really made sense for someone to have planned the attack with the knowledge about her movements that morning.’

‘But others in her office might also have known about her partiality for the Shanghai snack. And it’s not something invariable; she could have chosen the newspaper canteen for a change. Nor could anyone have foretold when exactly she would go down for the earthen oven cake.’

‘With Zhou’s familiarity about her routine, he could have waited for her to come down in the early hours.’

‘A long, long wait it could have been, not to mention a lot of cameras around the area. A lone wolf waiting there would have been so conspicuous in the early morning.’