Three months later, Chen Wei stood on the bridge overlooking the Luming River, watching the water flow endlessly toward the sea. The trial was over. Xiaoling had been convicted of manslaughter, sentenced to eight years. The judge had acknowledged the mitigating circumstances-the years of abuse, the genuine threat to her life-but murder was still murder.
Wu Feng had been charged with Su Yue's murder. The evidence, buried for two decades, had finally seen the light of day. He would spend the rest of his life in prison.
Zhao Mingxuan had been fined for obstruction of justice and forced to step down from his company. The glass empire he had built was crumbling, piece by piece.
And Su Xue-
"I wondered if I'd find you here."
Chen Wei turned to see her approaching, her dark hair catching the afternoon light. She carried something in her hands-a small package wrapped in silk.
"I wanted to give you this," she said, unwrapping the silk to reveal a glass sculpture. It was a phoenix, its wings spread wide, its body formed from glass that shifted color in the light-red to gold to amber, like fire given form.
"It's beautiful," Chen Wei said.
"It represents rebirth. Rising from ashes." Su Xue held it out to him. "I made it for my sister. I thought she would have wanted you to have it."
Chen Wei took the sculpture, feeling its weight, its warmth. "You could have killed Mrs. Zhao yourself. You had every reason to."
"I know." Su Xue smiled, and for the first time, it reached her eyes. "But my sister wouldn't have wanted me to become a murderer to avenge her murder. She would have wanted me to live, to create, to be happy."
"And are you? Happy?"
"Getting there." She turned to face the river, the same river where her sister had died. "Justice isn't the same as vengeance, Detective. It took me twenty years to learn that."
They stood in silence for a while, watching the water. Then Su Xue spoke again.
"Do you think Xiaoling will be all right?"
Chen Wei considered the question. "She's young. She's strong. She survived her mother-she can survive prison. And when she gets out, she'll have a chance to build something new. Something better."
"Like the phoenix."
"Like the phoenix."
Su Xue turned to leave, then paused. "Detective? Thank you. For not giving up. For seeing the truth, even when it was complicated."
Chen Wei watched her walk away, the glass phoenix warm in his hands. The case was closed, the files archived, the guilty punished. But he knew he would carry this one with him for a long time-not because of the murder, but because of what it had revealed about the human heart.
How we hurt each other. How we protect each other. How the same love that builds families can also destroy them.
He looked at the phoenix one last time, then tucked it carefully into his coat pocket. The river flowed on, carrying its secrets to the sea. And somewhere in the city, glass furnaces burned day and night, transforming sand into beauty, fire into art.
In Luming, nothing was ever truly broken. Only waiting to be remade.
The End