Or rather, Snow had lived here once.

We knocked on the door.  

A man opened it; he was in his thirties, wearing gold-rimmed glasses, looking scholarly and mild-mannered.  

He was Sean.  

He was stunned to see us.  

When Captain Stone showed his credentials, his complexion shifted.  

"Officers? Is something wrong?"  

"Mr. Sean, we'd like to understand some details regarding your wife, Snow," Stone said, getting straight to the point.  

Sean invited us inside.  

The house was spacious and luxuriously decorated, but it felt hollow, devoid of any signs of life.  

"Snow... have you found any news?" Sean poured us water, his voice carrying a mix of anticipation and exhaustion.  

He looked every bit the husband mourning a lost wife.  

"We've found some clues that might be related to her," Stone said. "Before you answer any questions, I hope you understand that lying to the police carries legal consequences."  

Sean's body stiffened imperceptibly.  

"I understand."  

"Before Snow went missing, how was your relationship?"  

"Very good," Sean answered without hesitation. "We were college classmates; our relationship was always stable. It's just... she developed depression later on, and her moods became very unstable."  

"Did she ever mention her sister, Fiona, to you?"  

"She did." Sean nodded. "They didn't have a very good relationship. Fiona always felt that Snow was marrying 'up' by being with me, and she looked down on us in every way."  

His version was completely different from Fiona's statement.  

Stone continued asking routine questions.  

I didn't intervene.  

I stood up, pretending to examine the room's decor.

On the living room wall hung a large wedding portrait.  

In the photo, Sean and Snow were smiling sweetly.  

Snow was beautiful, bearing a slight resemblance to Fiona, but her temperament seemed gentler.  

My gaze fell on Snow's face in the photo.  

Then, I reached out and gently touched the glass of the frame.  

In that instant.  

Cold.  

A familiar chill struck again.  

But unlike the sinister, resentment-filled cold from the stones, this chill carried infinite sorrow and disappointment.  

Fragments flashed through my mind.  

Arguments.  

Shattered glass cups.  

A man's angry roar.  

And Snow's tear-stained face.  

She was looking at the man before her, but her eyes held neither love nor hate.  

Only utter, ash-grey despair.  

I yanked my hand back.  

My heart pounded against my ribs.  

I turned around and looked at Sean, who was still answering questions.  

He sensed my gaze and looked up.  

A flicker of panic flashed in his eyes.  

I walked up to Stone and lowered my voice.  

"Captain, he's lying."  

"The person he loves is not Snow."

Chapter 6

My words were like a pebble cast into a calm lake.  

Captain Stone's gaze sharpened instantly.  

He glanced at Sean, then at me, but didn't press for details.  

He chose to trust me.  

The questioning of Sean continued.  

But the rhythm had shifted.  

Stone's questions became increasingly oppressive.  

"Mr. Sean, you just said you and Snow had a very good relationship?"  

"Yes... yes, that's right." Sweat began to bead on Sean's forehead.  

"Then why, according to our investigation, did Snow visit a law firm multiple times in the six months before she went missing to consult on a divorce?"  

Sean's face turned pale in an instant.  

"She... she was just depressed, letting her imagination run wild..."  

"Is that so?" Stone sneered. "Then why, a month before she went missing, was a pre-marital property under her name transferred to you at a price far below market value?"  

"That... she gifted it to me voluntarily! She said she didn't want to deal with those trivialities!"  

Sean began to babble incoherently.  

"One last question." Stone stood up, walked over to him, and loomed over him.  

"The day Snow went missing, where were you? What were you doing?"  

"I... I was working overtime at the company! I was there all day!"  

"We've checked your company's surveillance and punch-in records. You left the office at 3:00 PM that day and didn't return until the next morning."  

"Where were you during those dozen or so hours?"  

Sean collapsed completely.  

He slumped on the sofa, panting heavily.  

"It wasn't me... it really wasn't me..."  

He kept repeating it.  

But his eyes darted away, not daring to look at us.  

We knew he was nearing a confession.

But now wasn't the time.  

We didn't have direct evidence to prove he had killed her.  

It was late at night when we left Sean's place.  

In the car, Stone remained silent, smoking one cigarette after another.  

"Julian," he spoke suddenly.  

"Yeah?"  

"What did you touch?"  

"Their wedding photo," I said. "I felt an intense sorrow and despair coming from Snow. And visions of arguments. The way she looked at Sean—it wasn't the look of a lover."  

"So, Sean's claims of a happy marriage were all a lie."  

"Yes."  

"We have the motive, but the timeline doesn't match, and we still lack evidence," Stone rubbed  his brow. "The most critical thing remains the two stones."  

"Why would Fiona carry those two stones tainted with her sister's DNA?"

This question hung over us like a shroud of mist.  

For money?  

Sean seemed much wealthier than her.  

Out of hatred?  

But why take the risk of exposing herself by carrying such critical evidence on her person?  

It didn't make sense.  

There had to be a logic we hadn't accounted for.  

We returned to the city bureau.  

Officer Wang and the others were still grinding away in the interrogation room.  

Fiona remained tight-lipped; aside from insisting Sean did it, she wouldn't say a word about anything else.  

The technical department was ablaze with light.  

Leo and his team were conducting deeper analyses of the stones.  

I told Stone, "I want to look at those two stones again."  

Stone hesitated for a moment, then nodded.  

Inside the evidence room.

The two dusty stones were kept in a sterile evidence box.  

Under the light, they looked as ordinary as could be.  

I put on the specialized gloves.  

Once again, I reached out and grasped one.  

Cold.  

Sinister.  

That pale face submerged in water appeared before my eyes again.  

It was clearer than ever before.  

I endured the pain in my brain as if pierced by ice picks, refusing to let go.  

I had to see clearly.  

I had to see more.  

I had to know where she was.  

Gradually, the imagery before me began to shift.  

It was no longer just her face.  

It was an expansive body of water.  

It looked like a reservoir.  

On the edge of the reservoir stood a dilapidated pump station.  

Next to the pump station was a massive willow tree.  

The willow branches draped over the water's surface.  

As the wind blew, they swayed gently.  

Like a hand beckoning a soul.  

I abruptly let go of the stone, soaked in a cold sweat.  

I leaned against the table, gasping for air.  

"Captain..."  

My voice was hoarse.

"I... I think I know where Snow is."

Chapter 7

Captain Stone immediately grabbed the radio.

His voice was slightly hoarse from excitement.

"Notify the municipal bureau's technical team!"

"Bring underwater search equipment and the divers!"

"Immediately! Right now!"

After he roared these orders, he looked at me.

"The address!"

My brain was still buzzing.

Those images were crashing against my nerves.

"I don't know the specific address."

"But I remember the way."

"Get in the car!"

We rushed out of the municipal bureau building.

The police sirens were not turned on.

This was a secret operation.

I sat in the passenger seat, giving directions based on those fragmented images in my mind.

Out of the city.

Onto the highway.

Turning onto the provincial road.

The road became increasingly remote.

The lights grew fewer and fewer.

The atmosphere inside the car was suffocatingly oppressive.

Captain Stone gripped the steering wheel tightly, the veins on the back of his hands bulging.

He said nothing, but his profile was even more grim than the night outside the window.

Over an hour later.

I pointed to a fork in the road.

"Turn down here."

It was a dirt road, extremely bumpy.

As far as the headlights could reach, there was nothing but wild grass and tree shadows.

We drove for another ten minutes or so.

A vast expanse of water appeared before our eyes.

Under the moonlight, it glimmered with silvery ripples.