Skin - Chapter 10

　　It seemed that all the high schools in Mingtan City had the same blue and white style uniform. It had been 12 years since he had graduated from high school, but even from a distance, he could make out that the style of the school uniform had not changed much.

　　The boys on the playground were playing basketball. In Meng Zhao’s memory, he had played basketball once in high school.

　　Meng Zhao remembered the incident very clearly because the day before the basketball game, the results of the second trial of his uncle Meng Xiangyu’s case had just come out, and the judge acquitted Meng Xiangyu in court. After that day, Meng Zhao stayed at school and felt that a heavy burden had been lifted off his body. That day, he felt so relaxed as if he was about to fly at any moment while walking on the road.

　　It happened that there was a physical education class the next day. On that day, the physical education teacher arranged activities for male and female students in groups. The boys played basketball while the girls played games on the small playground. Because playing basketball did not require a large number of players, the physical education teacher allowed the boys to join the girls team to play games.

　　The students of the top experimental class were generally not interested in sports activities. Once they heard about basketball, many boys took the initiative to join the girls to play games . The remaining nine boys were in a deadlock due to the lack of numbers.

　　As the only misfit of the class, Meng Zhao had always been unsociable. He didn’t want to play basketball or games. At that moment, he was squatting by the playground enjoying the rare moment of relaxation, thinking about how to escape the sight of the physical education teacher. He planned to go somewhere else to rest, but unexpectedly, those good students of his class had a discussion with each other and actually sent someone over to ask if he wanted to play basketball with them.

　　Meng Zhao was in a rare good mood, and agreed to join them. He could no longer remember the specific battle situation. He only remembered that the people on the opposite side were useless in the game, and only Lu Shichen was the main force.

　　Lu Shichen dribbled over and was about to jump up to shoot. Meng Zhao also jumped up to stop him. At the same time, a person from the opposite side rushed over and tried to block Meng Zhao to prevent him from knocking the ball from Lu Shichen’s hand.

　　The man was too reckless when he bumped into him, and Meng Zhao jumped up again without even touching the ground. The force of the collision was so strong that Meng Zhao stumbled back by two steps, and then he fell to the ground unsteadily.

　　In fact, the incident had nothing to do with Lu Shichen. After all, it was not him who hit him or fouled, but Meng Zhao remembered that it was Lu Shichen who reached out. Lu Shichen opened his palms towards him and looked at him with lowered eyes, looking condescending.

　　Although his gesture made Meng Zhao reluctant to reach out and hold the hand in front of him, but because Lu Shichen’s father, Lu Chengze, had just helped Meng Xiangyu, and in line with the principle of ‘the other party is the son of a benefactor, one couldn’t be too negligent’, Meng Zhao still held the hand and stood up with Lu Shichen’s strength.

　　”Do you want to go to the infirmary?” Meng Zhao remembered Lu Shichen asking at that time.

　　He withdrew his hand: “No need.”

　　Thinking about it now, because he had been in a state of dissociation in the class for three years in high school, there were very few classmates left who he could still remember by name. Looking back on his memories of high school, Lu Shichen actually accounted for most of them.

　　”Dong dong dong.” There was a knock on the door.

　　Meng Zhao came to his senses, turned around and looked over. A middle-aged man in his forties was standing by the door: “Are you Officer Meng? Sorry, I’m a little late.”

　　It was Zhang Yue, Zhao Tong’s class teacher at that time.

Chapter 11

　　”Zhao Tong? Yes, he committed suicide… How should I put it? There was too much pressure in study.”

　　Meng Zhao looked at the man opposite him. He was in his forties and had a slightly fat belly. Unlike the taciturn middle-aged male teachers in his memory, the man even looked a little slippery.

　　”It had nothing to do with study pressure.” Meng Zhao was not going to beat around the bush with him and stated his guess straightforwardly. “As far as I know, Zhao Tong committed suicide because a group of students in his class bullied against him. Since everything would turn too troublesome if the matter was taken to court, you preferred to not know, right?”

　　”Ah…” The person on the other end was obviously startled, and quickly changed his words, “I remembered it wrong. It seems that I went to court. It has been ten years, and I really can’t remember clearly… ”

　　”Have you read the recent news? Zhou Yan was killed.” Meng Zhao quickly figured out the other person’s character. To deal with that kind of person, speaking in a serious and suppressed tone obviously didn’t work well. He changed to a different way to talk to the other person. In a familiar tone, “To be honest, there are no clear clues so far in the investigation. I also happened to know about this incident from back then. I wanted to come over and try my luck to see if there is any relationship between the two incidents… Teacher Zhang, we are also worried about this matter. Tell me the truth, what was the relationship between Zhou Yan and Zhao Tong at school at that time?”

　　Meng Zhao’s tone immediately took effect. The other party was quite satisfied with this, and he tried to think for a while before saying: “Officer Meng, to be honest, my daughter also took the college entrance examination that year, and I really couldn’t care about these things at work, so there was some negligence in management. I only learned about the bullying after Zhao Tong committed suicide.

　　”However, there should be no conflict between Zhou Yan and Zhao Tong…Zhou Yan was not a child who liked to stand out, and his temper was relatively gentle. I still remember one thing. I was the invigilator for the weekly exam in the class, and Zhao Tong’s 2B pencil was lost and he couldn’t draw cards. I asked him to borrow it from the classmates around him, but no one was willing to lend it to him. It was Zhou Yan who threw the pencil at him from a corner away…”

　　What the teacher in front of him said overlapped with the words Zhou Yan recorded in his diary. Meng Zhao knew that he didn’t lie this time.

　　”Do you still remember the student who took the lead in bullying Zhao Tong?”

　　”I really don’t know about this. After Zhao Tong committed suicide, the school banned the discussion of this matter. At that time, the students were all going to take the college entrance examination. Because I was afraid that they would have psychological problems, I never mentioned it again.”

　　Meng Zhao observed the expression of the man opposite him and judged in his mind whether he was lying or not.

　　Was the bullying incident related to the murder of Zhou Yan? If it was irrelevant, even if there were uninvestigated details hidden in the old case that had already gone to court, the city bureau probably wouldn’t deploy police forces to restart the investigation; if it’s relevant…

　　Meng Zhao’s phone vibrated, and Cheng Yun sent a message: “Brother Zhao, look at this photograph!”

　　Meng Zhao clicked on the photo sent by Cheng Yun. The pixels of the photograph from ten years ago were not high, but the key information could still be seen clearly.

　　In the photograph, a woman with messy hair was holding a sign with the four characters ‘Pay for Life’ written on it. The background was Wenzhao High School. In the past ten years, the gate of Wenzhao High School had not been renovated.

　　Meng Zhao used his fingers to enlarge the photo. Although the pixels were somewhat distorted and considering the fact that a person’s appearance would undergo changes in ten years, Meng Zhao was still certain that the woman in the photograph was Zhao Yunhua, the housekeeping aunt Zhou Yan had hired.

　　In the photograph, Zhao Yunhua still had long hair and was in her mid-thirties. Although she looked haggard, she was far from as old as she was presently. It was hard to believe that a somewhat pretty woman would turn into the housekeeping aunt rummaging through trash cans ten years later.

　　…If it was relevant, Meng Zhao continued his thoughts from just some time ago, then why didn’t Zhao Yunhua go find the real instigator of the bullying incident. Why did she target Zhou Yan instead? Could it be a misunderstanding? Or…did Zhao Yunhua plan to start her revenge with Zhou Yan, who was easier to attack, and then kill all the students who participated in the incident one by one?

　　Meng Zhao recalled the information collected in the past two days.

　　Zhou Yan gave Zhao Yunhua his old mobile phone;
Zhou Yan and Zhao Yunhua skipped the housekeeping company and signed the contract privately in order to prevent the housekeeping company from taking a cut of Zhao Yunhua’s salary;
　　Zhao Yunhua began to provide housekeeping services to Zhou Yan four years ago. At first, it was just cleaning once a week. Later, when Zhou Yan’s economic level improved, he began to ask Zhao Yunhua to cook for him at noon every day;
　　Also, when Zhou Yan returned from a business trip, he would bring special gifts for Zhao Yunhua.

　　No matter how one looks at it, their relationship was as close as a mother and child. If the murderer was Zhao Yunhua, during the four years of cooperation, she clearly had countless opportunities to kill Zhou Yan. Why did she choose to kill Zhou Yan four years later??

　　If she had been dormant for four years in order to plan a foolproof murder, but then the method of strangling Zhou Yan was not clever enough…could it be said that Zhao Yunhua had only recently learned the truth?

　　After leaving Wenzhao High School, Meng Zhao planned to go to the court first.

　　Since the school bullying case went to court, there would definitely be corresponding court records. In any case, they needed to first confirm the identities of students who were being prosecuted in that case.

　　-*-*-

　　”Lost?” Meng Zhao frowned, “How could the court records be lost?”

　　If it was in the city bureau, he would have definitely vented his anger, but he was in the court, so he could only suppress it.

　　”This… at that time, the information was not fully networked. The person responsible for organising the information was an intern. The information about the case was placed in a drawer. I originally planned to send it to the archives the next day, but I found that the information had been stolen. Because of this incident, even though the intern performed very well, he was unable to stay and work in the end.”

　　”…Didn’t you report the theft?”

　　”The report was made, but as you know, officer Meng, our building at that time, was not much better than a thatched house. We monitored the damage in many places, but in the end we were unable to find out who the thief was. Because the case was closed, and it wasn’t any big case, and the issue wasn’t taken seriously in the end.” The female staff member in the archives had a good temper, and she spoke kindly, which gave Meng Zhao nowhere to vent his anger.

　　”Officer Meng, this happened ten years ago. Why are you investigating it again?”

　　”It may be related to a recent case.” Meng Zhao didn’t answer clearly. At that moment, his cell phone rang and Zhou Qiyang called.

　　Meng Zhao walked aside and picked it up.

　　”Brother Zhao, Zhao Yunhua is missing!” Zhou Qiyang’s voice on the phone was a little flustered. “She had three homes that needed to be cleaned today, but she asked for leave from the company this morning. I just went to her house and there was no one there, so I tried to call her. The phone is turned off…”

　　Meng Zhao made a prompt decision: “Ren Bin will go back to the bureau first to issue a joint investigation notice and ask the train station ticket gates and bus ticket gates to pay attention. If Zhao Yunhua is found, report it to the police immediately. Also, you will go back to the bureau to apply for a search warrant. Let’s go to Zhao Yunhua’s house first and see if we can find any evidence. If there’s evidence, then immediately apply for an arrest warrant.”

　　”Copy that.” Zhou Qiyang responded briefly.

　　Meng Zhao left the court and drove to Zhao Yunhua’s home.

　　He had handled some similar cases. Once a criminal suspect with a low level of education like Zhao Yunhua wanted to escape, most of the time they would first think of returning to their hometown in the countryside. So, it was very likely for her to appear at train stations and bus stations.

　　If Zhao Yunhua really intended to escape, then it would solidify the possibility that she was the murderer. It wouldn’t be difficult to catch Zhao Yunhua. The remaining mysteries could only be clarified after she was arrested and interrogated.

　　The situation where Zhao Yunhua lived was not much better than the old community where the crime occurred. The sewage from unknown sources left stains on the cracks in the cement floor, and the air was filled with an unpleasant smell of sewage.

　　It was said that Zhao Yunhua
had an old house near Wenzhao High School, but she had never been willing to sell it because there were more domestic service businesses in Huai’an District. Over the years, she had been living in a dormitory provided by her domestic service company.

　　Meng Zhao parked the car downstairs, and Zhou Qiyang and Cheng Yun also happened to arrive at the same time.

　　Several people went upstairs in three steps and two steps at a time. Zhou Qiyang took out the rusty ancestral wire once again and fiddled with it a few times to open the lock.

　　It was an apartment-style dormitory with a long and narrow room. After walking in, the first feeling was that it was a bit stuffy.

　　The room was sparsely furnished, but Zhao Yunhua kept it very clean, with no wrinkles visible on the sheets.

　　Zhou Qiyang and Cheng Yun searched the bedroom, and Meng Zhao walked to the balcony.

　　There were no clothes on the balcony, and there were a few piles of cardboard boxes piled up in the corner by the window. All the boxes had been dismantled, folded flat, and tied into piles according to size with ropes. There were several cardboard boxes next to them that contained empty beer bottles. Bottles were also dug out of the trash can by Zhao Yunhua every day.

　　Meng Zhao noticed that one of the piles of cartons had been dismantled and flattened. The other piles of cartons were all tied together with single-strand nylon ropes. Only one pile of boxes was woven together with several nylon ropes

　　He squatted down and looked at the rope on the carton. It was the kind of nylon rope which was quite common. Some supermarkets and stores would use it to tie it into a mesh to hold the watermelons, making it easier for customers to carry it home. It was actually not very strong as a single strand, but if it was braided…

　　Meng Zhao put on plastic gloves, untied the rope binding the carton, then pulled out the rope, balled it up and put it in an evidence bag.

　　”Brother Zhao, come and look at this!” Cheng Yun shouted from the back room.

　　Meng Zhao took the evidence bag, stood up and walked out: “What did you find?”

　　”I found eyeshadow and lipstick in the closet, both in this bag.” Cheng Yun opened the black plastic bag in her hand towards Meng Zhao, “The brand is consistent with the ones Zhou Yan ordered online.”

　　Zhao Yunhua had no habit of putting on makeup, so it was unlikely that she would spend money on such useless cosmetics, so they must have been the same items ordered online by Zhou Yan.

　　Meng Zhao handed the evidence bag with the nylon rope to Cheng Yun: “Cheng Yun, take the evidence back to the forensic department for inspection. After confirmation, apply for an arrest warrant. Zhou Qiyang, follow me to check the surveillance.”

　　As long as Zhou Yan’s DNA could be obtained from the price of braided nylon rope, the physical evidence would be impeccable.

　　After going downstairs, Meng Zhao opened the door and got into the car. Zhou Qiyang quickly followed and sat in the passenger seat.

　　Meng Zhao drove the car and had a phone call with Ren Bin.

　　”A joint investigation notice has been issued to ensure that Zhao Yunhua cannot leave the city,” Ren Bin reported on the situation there. “I will first go to Zhao Yunhua’s old house to see if she is hiding there.”

　　”Okay, contact me anytime if you have any news.” Meng Zhao said.

　　After finishing the call with Ren Bin, Meng Zhao called his colleagues to check Zhao Yunhua’s hometown. The information he received was that the direct train from Mingtan city to Zhao Yunhua’s hometown only leaves at 4:10 p.m. If Zhao Yunhua tried to escape to her hometown, then most likely she would take a car.

　　It was catching up with the weekend travel peak, and the train station was bound to be crowded.

　　Meng Zhao contacted the staff at the train station in advance. He stood in front of the surveillance monitor to determine whether Zhao Yunhua was hidden in the crowd.

　　While he was watching carefully, Cheng Yun suddenly sent a message, which was about an article posted on a WeChat public account.

　　Meng Zhao only glanced at the title briefly and frowned.

　　The title of that article was: “We interviewed Zhou Yan’s high school classmates and learned a story about school bullying.”

　　”You look at the surveillance first.” Meng Zhao patted Zhou Qiyang’s arm and took a few steps to the side to browse the content of this article.

　　Unexpectedly, the article was extremely detailed and included a photo of Zhao Yunhua standing at the gate of Wenzhao High School holding a “Pay For Life” sign.

　　The content of the article was extremely provocative.

　　”Ten years ago, a suicide tragedy caused by campus bullying occurred in a key high school. A whole class of boys and girls, one month before the college entrance examination, jointly forced a 17-year-old boy to death. When the boy wearing a red dress fell into a pool of blood, all their crimes had reached a climax, and at the same time, the people responsible hid their tentacles. It was not until ten years later, when the boy’s classmate, Zhou Yan, died tragically, that the tip of the iceberg of this crime was revealed. We interviewed an unnamed high school classmate of Zhou Yan to reveal the shocking truth behind this murder.”

　　”The classmate who was bullied to the point of suicide was called Zhao Tong. Although he was usually taciturn and gentle, for some reason, one day, his sexual orientation, which was different from others, became a topic of public ridicule. At the same time, Zhao Tong’s feminine temperament had become a characteristic that everyone was willing to imitate and ridicule, and even the word ‘Tong’ in his name had become a point of ridicule.”

　　”This anonymous classmate told us that the study atmosphere in the senior year of high school was depressing at that time, and everyone had too much time to take care of themselves, so they all tacitly adopted a silent and laissez-faire attitude towards the bullying incident. As for Zhou Yan, although he and the leader of the gang bullying Zhao Tong had a good relationship, he still had a somewhat alright relationship with his classmates, but his attitude toward Zhao Tong was a bit subtle. Zhou Yan was mostly a bystander, and occasionally showed kindness to Zhao Tong. Because of his existence, Zhao Tong’s life was changed during that period. It has become a little better.”

　　”We speculate that Zhou Yan was killed because Zhao Tong’s mother, Zhao Yunhua, was seeking revenge. After all, ten years ago, Zhao Yunhua stood at the school gate for three months holding a sign saying ‘Pay for Life’. There was no doubt that one day if she got to know who the culprit was who forced her son to death, she would definitely kill that person.”

　　”However, what is puzzling is why Ms. Zhao Yunhua chose Zhou Yan to attack first. If she was really close to the truth, she would know that the only person who showed kindness to Zhao Tong back then was Zhou Yan!”

　　”So, we reasonably speculate that there was a deviation in the truth that Ms. Zhao Yunhua had grasped. In other words, her revenge target was wrong— she accidentally killed the innocent Zhou Yan!”

　　”What made people curious now was, assuming the facts are as we guessed, how would Ms. Zhao Yunhua face this ridiculous ending after learning that she accidentally killed Zhou Yan?”

　　Further down, the article also intercepted the content of Zhou Yan’s Weibo, which was the content related to Zhao Yunhua recorded by Zhou Yan.

　　Zhou Yan picked out gifts for Zhao Yunhua on her birthday, showed them a photograph of them taken together on Weibo, and praised Aunt Zhao many times for how delicious her cooking was.