Skin - Chapter 13

Meng Zhao jumped out and sprinted towards the building. Lu Shichen slammed the car door and followed closely behind.

　　The cement walls still smelled as if it had not dried yet. In the long staircase of the nine-story tall building, Meng Zhao took three steps at a time, running quickly towards the roof.

　　There was a ladder at the entrance to the rooftop on the top floor, which should have been erected to facilitate the construction workers.

　　The two climbed up the ladder one after another, and then saw Zhao Yunhua standing on the edge of the roof. Meng Zhao knew the direction she was looking at. That was Wenzhao High School, where Zhao Tong studied for three years.

　　”Zhao Yunhua,” Meng Zhao climbed up to the rooftop, trying to approach the woman cautiously without caring about catching his breath. He saw that her face, which was older than her actual age, was already full of tears, “You Calm down, calm down first…”

　　”I know what you want to do, but please don’t do it. The matter has not been investigated clearly yet. The deaths of Zhou Yan and Zhao Tong may not actually be that simple at all. Today, if you choose to jump from here, all the clues will be cut off, and the truth behind it will never be found out! Then how Zhao Tong died and who killed him, all these questions will never be answered… So, please don’t die, please live!”

　　But Zhao Yunhua seemed to have collapsed. She interrupted Meng Zhao and cried out: “Don’t come closer! I saw it, I saw it… I clearly heard it… He is the murderer, he was the one who forced my precious son to death!”

　　Meng Zhao stopped and, at the same time, reached out to stop Lu Shichen who was next to him. In such a case, any blind approach may lead to irreversible consequences.

　　Meng Zhao saw a police car driving towards the building from not far away. He calculated in his mind the time it would take to set up the air bed downstairs. As long as he managed to delay her until then, he would definitely be able to prevent Zhao Yunhua from committing suicide!

　　”Okay, I won’t come close,” he tried to keep his voice as gentle as possible, “You came here to see Zhao Tong, right? I won’t disturb you, you can look at him for a while longer…”

　　Zhao Yunhua burst into tears. She couldn’t hear anything Meng Zhao said. She kept repeating: “He is the murderer, he is the murderer… He is the murderer, I don’t know… I don’t know…”

　　The policemen from the local police station had already begun to set up the air mattress downstairs. Just when Meng Zhao was about to breathe a sigh of relief, Zhao Yunhua seemed to have heard the voices coming from the rescue officers downstairs, and took a step back.

　　Seeing Zhao Yunhua on the edge of the rooftop about to step on the air, Meng Zhao reacted immediately and quickly ran over to try to hold Zhao Yunhua.

　　But it was too late. Almost at the same moment, Zhao Yunhua fell downstairs and committed suicide by jumping off the building!

　　Her desire to commit suicide was too strong, leaving almost no room for Meng Zhao to relax.

　　Meng Zhao stopped at the edge of the roof and looked at Zhao Yunhua, who was lying on the ground in a pool of blood just in an instant.

　　There was a sharp buzzing sound in his head, and he felt that everything was in chaos.

　　What went wrong?

　　How did things turn out in such a way?

　　How could it develop into this scene?

　　He noticed Lu Shichen walking next to him and raised his hand to hold his wrist, as if he was afraid that he would lose his footing and fall.

　　Meng Zhao endured the severe headache and managed to stay rational. It had been less than 48 hours since the discovery of the body. The detection speed was already faster than other cases. He had responded to every step as quickly as possible, but why was it still too late? What had gone wrong?

Chapter 14

　　The police from the local police station did not expect that the suicide would happen that suddenly. The people who were setting up the air bed stopped and looked at Zhao Yunhua who was already lying in a pool of blood.

　　After a long time, Meng Zhao finally sighed. He hadn’t had a bite of food since morning, and now the strong sun above his head was making him feel dizzy. But seven years of his experience from staying in the criminal investigation unit forced him to stay calm and concentrate on the matter at hand.

　　When he left the roof, Meng Zhao noticed that Lu Shichen had let go of his wrist at some point. Was it an illusion? But the slightly cool temperature seemed to still linger on his wrist, not completely dissipated.

　　Meng Zhao quickly went downstairs, pushed aside a few construction workers who were approaching the building, and walked next to Zhao Yunhua’s body.

　　He avoided the pool of blood, squatted down, and stretched out his fingers to test Zhao Yunhua’s breathing.

　　”How is it?” Lu Shichen asked him on the side.

　　”Very weak.” Meng Zhao said.

　　Lu Shichen also squatted down. He looked at Zhao Yunhua’s face. Her eyelids were half closed, revealing some of the whites of her eyes. It was impossible to judge whether she could still see the world in front of her clearly.

　　”Did you put the dog hair on the body?” Lu Shichen asked.

　　Meng Zhao glanced at him.

Regardless of whether the person in front of him was a criminal or not, ordinary people would have some complicated feelings of compassion after reading the article and then facing Zhao Yunhua who was almost dead. But the indifferent look on Lu Shichen’s face reminded Meng Zhao of the way the 17-year-old Lu Shichen looked indifferently at the painfully struggling dog. It had been more than ten years since that incident, but it was still fresh in the back of his mind.

　　At that moment, Meng Zhao noticed the almost invisible movement of Zhao Yunhua’s fingertips. Apparently Lu Shichen also noticed it, so he asked again: “Did you release it? Answer me.”

　　”She is unconscious now.” Meng Zhao couldn’t help but feel a little disgusted with Lu Shichen who was relentlessly questioning a dying person. He stopped him and said, “Don’t ask her now. If she has another emotional fluctuation in this state, it will speed up the passage of her life.”

　　Lu Shichen glanced at Meng Zhao, stood up, and said nothing more.

　　The expressionless and delicate face made him look like a dummy who could not empathise with humans. Meng Zhao had such an association.

　　A few minutes later, an ambulance from the nearest public hospital arrived at the scene. Medical workers carried Zhao Yunhua into the ambulance and promised to notify Meng Zhao immediately if there was any news.

　　When he was sitting in Lu Shichen’s car while returning to the bureau, Meng Zhao forced himself to calm down and sort out the case in his mind. Indeed, the dog hair greatly disturbed his vision at first, causing him to regard Lu Shichen as a suspect in the case. A breakthrough, but not much time was wasted in the meantime. At least the ‘Building 7’ information provided by Lu Shichen allowed him to discover important clues through Zhou Yan’s diary…

　　Obviously every step was correct, and he was approaching the truth step by step. Where did the rhythm start to disrupt… His mind was in chaos. Meng Zhao rubbed his temples with a headache. He leaned back and closed his eyes, leaning on the back of the seat, trying to calm down.

　　After a while, Lu Shichen spoke from the side: “That article was written in a timely manner.”

　　Yes, it was that public account article. Meng Zhao opened his eyes suddenly. That was the most direct cause of Zhao Yunhua’s suicide. It was obvious from the beginning that Zhao Yunhua had gone to Zhou Yan’s house to clean as usual, deliberately pretending that she had no knowledge of Zhou Yan’s death, and then later she planned to keep the murder weapon, the braided binding rope, a secret. Dealing with it, and her attempt to escape to get hometown, all showed that Zhao Yunhua’s suicidal thoughts were initially not that strong.

　　And the release of that mysterious article which insisted that Zhao Yunhua had accidentally killed Zhou Yan directly caused Zhao Yunhua to give up escaping and choose death.

　　As the murderer of Zhou Yan, Zhao Yunhua may deserve to die, but she should never die with hatred for Zhou Yan. Her choice to commit suicide in such way is the cruelest ending for both Zhou Yan and herself.

　　Generally speaking, in order to not interfere with the case investigation process and cause serious consequences for themselves, the media would be more cautious before publishing any kind of news involving homicides. Such articles that directly named and speculated on the identity of the murderer had never come up before.

　　Just thinking about it, one could guess how serious the consequences of publishing such an article would be…

　　If the author guessed wrong and Zhao Yunhua was not the murderer, then it may have very well pushed an innocent person into a desperate situation where he/she would be targeted by the public.

　　On the other hand, if the author happened to guess correctly, then it would directly prompt the murderer to escape, not to mention that the article also adopted a mysterious tone that intensified the development of the situation…

　　Meng Zhao took out his mobile phone and called up the technical department: “Hey Brother Chao, I’ll send you a public account. Help me check the address of the operator behind it.”

　　After hanging up the phone, Meng Zhao tightened his grip on the phone. He had to go see the publisher of the article and teach him a lesson in person.

　　A few minutes later, Meng Zhao’s phone buzzed and Zhang Chao sent the address of the public account.

　　It was a local address. Meng Zhao estimated the location and found that it was quite easy to get to Yuhuwan Community through it.

　　”Excuse me, please drop me off at Yunxi Road.” Because of Lu Shichen’s indifferent face from earlier, Meng Zhao’s impression of him that had improved a while ago suddenly deteriorated once again. He clearly realised again that he and Lu Shichen were not the same kind of people at all. He planned to get down at Yunxi Road and then take a taxi to the location.

　　Lu Shichen tapped the steering wheel with his fingers: “Connect your phone to the car’s navigation system. I’ll take you there.”

　　”No,” Meng Zhao declined politely, “This afternoon has already taken up a lot of your time. There is still some time before the maintenance shop gets off work. Go check on the car’s maintenance status.”

　　Lu Shichen didn’t say anything at first, and then he said it again after arriving at Yunxi Road: “Address.”

　　”Just stop here.” Meng Zhao said, but he noticed that Lu Shichen had no intention of stopping, “Lu Shichen, what do you mean by this?”

　　Lu Shichen’s tone was calm: “Tell me the address and I’ll take you there.”

　　Meng Zhao: “Stop the car.”

　　”Address.”

　　Seeing that Lu Shichen had no intention of stopping, Meng Zhao raised his voice: “Lu Shichen, please stop the car!”

　　”Should we turn left ahead?”

　　”I asked you to stop the car!” Meng Zhao’s temper completely increased, “Do you know that you are obstructing the execution of official duties?”

　　”I thought I was helping you,” Lu Shichen’s tone was as calm as if pouring a handful of ice water on Meng Zhao’s raging anger, “I turned left.”

　　…Okay, Meng Zhao took a deep breath and tried to calm down his emotions so that he would not fight with Lu Shichen in the car.

　　Now was not the time to start a fight with Lu Shichen, he still had to save his energy to deal with more important things.

　　After a moment of stalemate, Meng Zhao couldn’t help but curse: “What’s wrong with you, Lu Shichen? Can this be considered illegal detention of a public official?”

　　Meng Zhao felt that he had a profound understanding of what it meant to ride on a tiger but it was difficult to get off because getting off meant taking a step back to open up the world.

　　Meng Zhao was exhausted both physically and mentally and was too lazy to talk nonsense with Lu Shichen. He connected his mobile phone to the Bluetooth in the car. The navigation sound sounded, and the tense atmosphere in the car dissipated.

　　Meng Zhao took out his mobile phone and opened the public account.

　　He looked through the history of the public account. From the content, it appeared to be a public account specialising in analysing old cases and unsolved mysteries. Many cases mentioned by the operator occurred almost earlier than Meng Zhao’s own birth. Only Zhou Yan’s case was the latest.

　　The reading volume of the account was not very large. Except for the article about Zhou Yan, the word count for others basically just exceeded 10,000.

　　Meng Zhao looked through the articles and wondered why the person who claimed to be a high school classmate of Zhao Tong and Zhou Yan didn’t directly find the police to cooperate with the investigation or the regular media. Instead, he chose an account with articles having a low reading volume. How popular was the account? Meng Zhao felt like something didn’t make sense.

　　According to the address provided by Zhang Chao, the owner of the account lived in a residential area. Meng Zhao showed his police ID to the security guard at the door, then the protective railings were raised, and Lu Shichen was able to drive in.

　　”Drop me under Building 11, and then you can drive back.” Meng Zhao tried his best to sound less aggressive. Unexpectedly, Lu Shichen ignored his words and drove directly into the parking lot near Building 11.

　　When the car stopped, Meng Zhao raised his hand and tried to open the door to get out of the car, but Lu Shichen hadn’t unlocked the central locking yet, so he urged: “Unlock it, brother…”

　　Lu Shichen moved slowly and unfastened his seat belt before opening the door’s central lock, and then got out of the car with Meng Zhao.

　　”You want to come up with me?” After getting out of the car, Meng Zhao took a few steps forward and paused.

　　”Yeah.” Lu Shichen looked matter-of-fact.

　　”No, you are interfering with the police’s handling of the case.”

　　”It won’t interfere with your handling of the case.” Lu Shichen looked at him.

　　Meng Zhao was speechless. He had finally come to the conclusion that no matter how violent his temper was, his always neutral attitude towards Lu Shichen would not have any effect at all. It seemed that the most effective way was to have a fight with Lu Shichen.

　　”Hey Lu Shichen, I remember you weren’t like this before,” Meng Zhao glanced at him as he walked forward, “Just because of that dog hair? You just feel that you have made too many enemies and someone wants to frame you, right?”

　　”Maybe.” Lu Shichen said.

　　When the elevator reached the 13th floor, Meng Zhao and Lu Shichen walked out. When they reached the door, Meng Zhao stood still and raised his hand to knock on the door.

　　”Who?” A voice came from the room. Meng Zhao didn’t answer and knocked twice more.

　　Soon, footsteps approached, and someone came over. He seemed to look through the peephole, and then opened the door: “Who are you two?”

　　”Police,” Meng Zhao flashed his ID, “I want to know something about you.”

　　”What’s going on…” The young man in the room looked like he was in his early twenties. He was short, dark and thin, and looked a little shrewd. When he heard that Meng Zhao was a policeman, his eyes showed some vigilance.

　　Meng Zhao walked into the house and looked around. The house was a two-bedroom house, and the open room looked messy. The computer was on and printed materials were piled next to it.

　　”Is this where you wrote the report about Zhou Yan and Zhao Yunhua?” Meng Zhao walked in and picked up a piece of printed material. “Lu Yang, is that your name?”

　　”Is there any problem…” The young man named Lu Yang followed in, “It’s just a report.”

　　”How are you sure that Zhao Yunhua is the murderer?” Meng Zhao turned around and stared at Lu Yang, “Is there any evidence?”

　　”I’m not sure either… I wrote it all in that article, it’s just a guess.”

　　”So there’s no evidence. It’s just a guess, right?” Meng Zhao took a step closer to him and reached out to grab his collar. “Have you ever thought about the consequences of guessing wrong?”

　　”If my guess is wrong, I will clear her name once the real culprit is caught.” Seeing Meng Zhao approaching, the young man obviously started to panic. “It’s the job of the police to catch the real culprit…”

　　His words immediately angered Meng Zhao. Meng Zhao was a whole head taller than him and he lifted him up from the ground. He pushed Lu Yang against the wall, clenched his fist and was about to swing it over when Lu Shichen raised his hand and grabbed his arm.

　　Meng Zhao was furious. Although he really wanted to beat up Lu Yang , Director Xu had been telling him not to be too impulsive since the past year, so the punch he was about to swing was not aimed at him at all. He followed Lu Yang, just to scare him by hitting the wall next to his ear.

　　Lu Shichen held Meng Zhao’s arm, pulled him away from Lu Yang, and then asked Lu Yang, “Did you write that article?”

Translator Note:

~ Yours Truly,
K. RUEL