Li Xiumei

Li Xiumei is defined less by sustained on-page development than by the lethal consequences of her romantic relationship. She is the girlfriend of the man who murdered another woman, and her connection to Shen Tang becomes the bridge linking the murder investigation to a later attempt at silencing witnesses. Although Li Xiumei remains largely offstage, the revelation surrounding her changes the meaning of the danger Shen Tang has faced and exposes the intimate motive behind it.

Identity and Circumstances

Li Xiumei is identified as the boyfriend of the woman who previously fell from a building, while also being romantically involved with the man responsible for that death. The police later confirm that the fall was not an accident but a murder. This places Li Xiumei within a three-person romantic entanglement whose private relationships have escalated into fatal violence.

The evidence does not establish Li Xiumei as the murderer. Instead, it presents her as the girlfriend whose relationship with the killer forms one side of the love triangle. Her narrative importance therefore comes from her position within the chain of events: the relationship supplies the context for the crime, while her conversation or association with Shen Tang gives the killer a reason to target someone outside the original triangle.

The Love-Triangle Murder

The murder is revealed after the police catch the attacker who had endangered Shen Tang. Shen Tang and Gu Huaian go to the police station because Shen Tang wants to know whom she had offended, expecting an explanation for the threat against her. The investigation produces an answer that is both unexpected in detail and consistent with the danger she has experienced: the woman who fell from the building was murdered by her boyfriend, who was also Li Xiumei's boyfriend.

The police characterize the crime as premeditated and rooted in the love triangle among the three people. That detail shifts the case from an isolated act of violence to a planned effort arising from competing romantic relationships. The killer's actions are consequently connected by deliberate causality rather than coincidence: the original victim was murdered because of the triangle, and the later attack on Shen Tang was another calculated step in protecting the secret.

Connection to Shen Tang

Li Xiumei becomes relevant to Shen Tang because Li Xiumei believed Shen Tang had learned something from her words. Shen Tang was not presented as a participant in the romantic conflict; she was drawn into it because information passed through Li Xiumei's remarks. The killer therefore decided to silence both women, attempting to eliminate two problems with one act.

This connection gives Li Xiumei an indirect role in the threat against Shen Tang. Her words become evidence of how private speech can acquire dangerous significance inside a concealed crime. Shen Tang's own reaction is embarrassed recognition that her tendency to speak freely may have helped expose her to danger, but the underlying responsibility remains with the killer, whose premeditated violence turns knowledge into a death sentence.

Narrative Function and Significance

Li Xiumei functions as a concealed hinge in the mystery. Before the police explanation, Shen Tang's danger appears connected to an unknown personal offense and to an attacker whose motive has not been identified. Once Li Xiumei's boyfriend is named as both the murderer and the man who tried to silence Shen Tang, the separate threads converge: the building death, Li Xiumei's relationship, Shen Tang's incriminating words, and the attempted killing all belong to one plot.

Her limited presence also emphasizes the story's use of peripheral figures to reveal the consequences of central characters' actions. Li Xiumei is not developed through an extended personal arc, but her relationship exposes the destructive force of possessive and secretive romance. Through her, the narrative moves from uncertainty to explanation while showing that a seemingly distant love affair can reach Shen Tang through speech, suspicion, and planned violence.