Skin - Chapter 14

“Yes…” Although he didn’t receive the punch, Lu Yang was still a little timid.

　　”When did you write it?”

　　”This morning…”

　　”How did the person who provided the information contact you?”

　　”I wrote my contact information in the official account, and she called me.”

　　Seeing Lu Shichen asking preemptively, Meng Zhao remained silent. He calmed down and observed the expressions of the two people in front of him.

　　”Show me the call records.” Lu Shichen said.

　　”This… I want to keep it a secret from the informant.” Lu Yang looked a little embarrassed.

　　”So you actually know something about the quality requirements for media practitioners?” Meng Zhao sneered and took Lu Yang’s mobile phone from the table next to him. “Unlock it and cooperate with the police to investigate the case.”

　　Lu Yang took the phone and muttered: “If others find out about this, no one will be willing to provide me with clues in the future.”

　　”Do you know how Zhao Yunhua is doing?” Lu Shichen looked at him.

　　”What’s the matter? At such an old age, she definitely doesn’t know how to read Moments.”

　　”She committed suicide an hour ago, after reading your article.”

　　Hearing it, Lu Yang’s eyes suddenly widened, and he opened his mouth several times before making a sound: “Then…it has nothing to do with me…”

　　”Really?” Lu Shichen said calmly, “In my opinion, you directly forced Zhao Yunhua to death.”

　　”Don’t spit on others,” Lu Yang took a step back, “Besides, her suicide confirms that she is the murderer, so she deserves to die…”

　　”It’s not up to you whether she should die or not. Your article involves human life. Unlock the phone. Don’t let me rush you a second time.” Meng Zhao stepped forward and said to Lu Yang.

　　Lu Yang became visibly uneasy. Perhaps before publishing this article, he did not expect that he would really push Zhao Yunhua to a dead end, leading to her committing suicide.

　　He unlocked the door with trembling hands. Meng Zhao took his cell phone and pulled up the call history. Lu Shichen lowered his eyes and looked at the screen of the phone in his hand.

　　The most recent call occurred at 9 o’clock in the morning, and it was an overseas call. Lu Shichen tapped the record with his fingertips and asked Lu Yang, “Is this it?”

　　”Well…” Lu Yang swallowed.

　　”Can your phone make calls overseas?” Before Meng Zhao could finish asking, Lu Shichen had already taken out his mobile phone, entered the number on the screen, then called back and put it on the speaker.

　　The beeping sound of waiting sounded in the receiver, and a prompt tone in English came after a moment. With his mediocre understanding of English, Meng Zhao could barely make out the meaning of a few words.

　　He raised his eyes and looked at Lu Shichen: “No one answered?”

　　”Yeah.” Lu Shichen said.

Chapter 15

　　After copying the overseas number, Meng Zhao asked Lu Yang a few more words about the situation, and then left Lu Yang’s house.

　　It seems that, as the publisher of the article, Lu Yang did not know that it would lead to Zhao Yunhua’s suicide.

　　Before leaving, Meng Zhao glanced at Lu Yang. The young man’s face was pale and he looked distracted. He was obviously frightened by what Lu Shichen had told him.

　　He had to say that Lu Shichen’s inhumane way of dealing with things was quite effective sometimes.

　　However, when overseas numbers are involved, the difficulty of investigation increases… He could only wait and see if the number could be connected.

　　When Meng Zhao took the elevator downstairs, he felt a slight stomach ache. He had been suffering from stomach problems for a long time. A few years ago, his mentor Yuan Ge, the then head of the criminal investigation detachment, was diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer. He had to resign hastily because of his ailing health.

　　The deputy detachment leader at the time, Ren Bin, was not good at commanding and made a serious mistake during a case handling process. Therefore, Director. Xu dismissed Ren Bin from his post in anger. Regardless of the objections of others, he insisted on moving the junior Meng Zhao to the high post.

　　Rumours spread throughout the city bureau that Director Xu was determined to make Meng Zhao his son-in-law in the future, so he was eager to let Meng Zhao take over at that moment.

　　But just after a few months, the rumour disappeared. Because Meng Zhao, the deputy captain, obviously proved to be much more qualified than Ren Bin. Meng Zhao was willing to risk his life when handling cases. Not only that, under his management, the entire criminal investigation branch also worked overtime desperately for a while, and there were once complaints over it. Two old officers who couldn’t bear it even applied for transfer.

　　Later, Director Xu personally talked to Meng Zhao, telling him not to drag down the entire department in pursuit of speed in solving cases. He wanted them to develop sustainably and not at the expense of everyone’s sleep and rest. Only then did Meng Zhao try to gradually slow down his tight work pace.

　　However, Zhao Yunhua’s incident made him start to wonder if he had done something wrong… If he had gone to Zhou Yan’s old house on the night the body was discovered and brought back the diary, wouldn’t he have prevented Zhao Yunhua committing suicide?

　　After getting in the car, Lu Shichen put on his seat belt. Seeing that Meng Zhao was not moving next to him, he turned to look at him.

　　Meng Zhao’s face was as white as a piece of paper, a thin layer of cold sweat broke out on his forehead, and one hand was pressing on the upper left side of his abdomen.

　　”What’s wrong?” Lu Shichen was startled. In his impression, Meng Zhao had never been like that. Even in the most difficult days of high school, he could still feel the vigorous and stubborn vitality in Meng Zhao’s black and white eyes.

　　But now Meng Zhao was frowning slightly with his eyes closed, and looked a little painful.

　　”It’s okay, I have a stomach pain,” Meng Zhao gritted his teeth and said, “There seems to be a pharmacy on the left while leaving the community. Please stop the car for a while so I can go buy some painkillers.”

　　Lu Shichen looked at him. Meng Zhao rarely showed any signs of vulnerability. His current appearance had only appeared once in Lu Shichen’s memory.

　　Lu Shichen hesitated for a moment, then leaned towards Meng Zhao, helped him pull the seat belt, and buckled it for him. Because he had never done such a thing for others, the seat belt got stuck when he pulled it over.

　　Sensing Lu Shichen’s approach, Meng Zhao opened his eyes and saw Lu Shichen helping him pull the seat belt. He raised the hand that was pressing on his stomach and helped pull the seat belt. He couldn’t help but laugh at Lu Shichen’s unfamiliar movements. He said, “You are so kind sometimes.”

　　”Let’s go eat nearby first.” Lu Shichen helped him buckle his seat belt and did not reply to him.

　　”Forget it, just let me buy some painkillers,” Meng Zhao reluctantly sat up straight, “I still have to go back to the Bureau to interrogate the thief. I’ll order a takeout when I get back. Thank you for your kindness. Hey, to be honest, you are more likeable if you’re kind-hearted.”

　　Lu Shichen helped him fasten his seat belt and looked up at him: “I don’t need to be liked.”

　　‘Tsk, that’s right’, Meng Zhao thought as he endured the pain in his stomach. Although his words were a bit harsh, they seemed to be true. Lu Shichen also had that kind of virtue in high school, but there were still a lot of girls chasing after him. He really didn’t need to be liked.

　　When they arrived at the door of the pharmacy, Meng Zhao was about to take off his seat belt and get out of the car, but Lu Shichen got out first.

　　Meng Zhao pressed his stomach, trying to relieve the pain. When he saw Lu Shichen pushing the door open and entering the pharmacy, he thought of Lu Shichen’s expression when he interrogated the dying Zhao Yunhua.

　　‘He was really… inhumane at that time, but he is quite kind right now.’

　　‘It’s so unpredictable…’ Meng Zhao hissed and stopped thinking. His stomach really hurt a lot. He might have a gastric perforation…

　　A few minutes later, Lu Shichen came out of the store, opened the car door, sat in, and threw a brown paper bag to Meng Zhao.

　　Meng Zhao opened the bag, which contained five or six boxes of medicine. He lowered his head and dug through it, and took out one of the medicine boxes: “Why are there so many fancy ones…” He felt his stomach hurt even more and gasped. , “Lu Shichen, were you deceived by the clerk? You bought such a bunch of stuff but…” There was another sentence at the end, “Foolish people have too much money.” He held back and did not say it.

　　Lu Shichen started the car: “I didn’t know which one would be effective for you, so I bought them all.”

　　”Are painkillers really classified as effective or ineffective?” Meng Zhao almost laughed angrily at him, “I am a strong-skinned person, and anything I take will be effective.”

　　He took out his mobile phone: “How much does the medicine cost? I’ll transfer it to you.”

　　Lu Shichen drove the car onto the road: “Please treat me to dinner next time.”

　　Meng Zhao: “…” He extremely regretted not insisting on getting out of the car to buy medicine. It was obviously just a box of painkillers worth a few yuan, but now, he somehow owed Lu Shichen a meal.

　　By buying Lu Shichen dinner, he could probably cover the expense of all the painkillers he had taken in his life, right?

　　*

　　When he arrived at the city bureau, Meng Zhao walked to the criminal investigation office carrying a bag of valuable medicine.

　　Cheng Yun stood up as soon as Meng Zhao walked in: “Brother Zhao, I just called you and you didn’t answer. The test results came out. Zhou Yan’s DNA was left on the braided binding rope. It was indeed Zhao Yunhua who strangled Zhou Yan. The murder weapon, I have applied for an arrest warrant…”

　　So far, the result seemed a bit weak. Meng Zhao paused and sighed softly: “Zhao Yunhua committed suicide by jumping off the building.”

　　Not only Cheng Yun, but everyone else in the office was also stunned. They all looked up at Meng Zhao.

　　”Let’s talk about it later in the meeting.” Meng Zhao felt that not only was his stomach hurting, but even his head had begun to hurt. “Where is the thief Xiao Zhou brought back?”

　　”Second floor…” Cheng Yun had not yet digested the fact that Zhao Yunhua had committed suicide, “Is Zhao Yunhua dead?”

　　”Taken to the hospital. The situation is not optimistic.” Meng Zhao broke off two capsules of painkillers with his fingers, swallowed them with mineral water, and handed the phone to Cheng Yun, “Help me order some porridge, the one nearby will do it. I’ll go to the second floor first.”

　　”…Oh, okay.” Cheng Yun took the phone and responded.

　　Entering the monitoring room, Meng Zhao observed the situation in the interrogation room.

　　”I accept the fine. The money is in my car. Go get it and let me go. Comrade policeman, it’s been all afternoon. How long are you going to keep me in custody…”

　　Zhou Qiyang remained indifferent on the opposite side and spent time with him. It seemed that the thief was a habitual offender. He knew that the price of the mobile phone was not enough to punish him with detention, so he seemed confident.

　　In fact, Zhou Qiyang was a little anxious while waiting. The thief would come and scream every few minutes. Normally, such kinds of thieves could just be dealt with by the local police station. Bringing him to the city bureau for review was really a bit of a fuss.

　　Meng Zhao watched in the monitoring room for a while, then pushed the door open and asked the thief, “Where do you want to go?”

　　Seeing Meng Zhao come in, Zhou Qiyang stood up and sat inside: “Brother Zhao.”

　　”Let me go home…” The thief stuttered when he saw the policeman who had pushed him into the car.

　　”What’s the rush to go home in such a hurry?” Meng Zhao sat down opposite him as if chatting.

　　”You can’t keep me locked up here even if there’s no emergency. I just stole a worthless cell phone. I already said I’d accept the punishment. You can’t detain me in disguise…”

　　”Didn’t you just say that you stole a broken mobile phone?” Meng Zhao stared at him, “So you think the mobile phone is worthless, so why bother to steal it?”

　　”This…” The thief was obviously confused, and then quickly said, “Ant meat is also meat…”

　　”Don’t be so playful with me,” Meng Zhao patted the table and his face turned cold, “Who asked you to steal the phone?”

　　”I-I stole it myself…”

　　Meng Zhao bent his fingers and tapped the table: “It involves human life, think about it properly.”

　　The thief was stunned for a moment: “What kind of human life? I just stole a mobile phone, how could it involve a human life…”

　　Meng Zhao stared at him with a stern expression, using his eyes to catch every microexpression on the thief’s face opposite: “The owner of the phone has committed suicide by jumping off a building. The last person she met was you, so now I have reason to doubt, that her suicide is inseparable from you.”

　　His eyes were sharp and his tone was serious. The thief opposite him suddenly panicked: “How did I know she was going to commit suicide? Her suicide has nothing to do with me… Besides, I didn’t steal the phone myself. Someone asked me to steal it at the high-speed railway station and send it to him!”

　　”Who? What’s his name?!”

　　”I don’t know… I really don’t know his name. He suddenly came to find me at noon today. He showed me the woman’s photo and asked me to go to the bus station to steal her mobile phone. He also gave me five thousand yuan. He made a deposit in cash and said that the remaining five thousand would be given to me after I arrived at the high-speed rail station to deliver the goods, and I don’t know anything else!”

　　”When did he come to see you? Where? Please be specific.”

　　”It was around 12 noon, at the snack street behind the Longxing mobile phone store…”

　　”Describe what that person looked like.”

　　”… He wore a hat and a mask, and only his eyes were exposed. I…I didn’t notice what he looked like…”

　　The other party wore a hat and a mask which proved that he was very cautious. It seemed that he had made thorough preparations. Meng Zhao lowered his eyes and thought, and then raised his eyes to look at the opposite party after a moment: “What about his age? Even if he had tightly covered himself, there is always a difference about age that can be noticed. You can probably say, right? Also tell me clearly what kind of eyes were exposed, and how tall the person is.”

　　”The eyes… the eyes seem to be a little sunken. He didn’t look like a young person. He must be in his forties,” the thief opposite tried his best to recall, “Height, probably five or six centimetres taller than me…”

　　While listening, Meng Zhao transcribed the key words onto the paper, tore it off, and motioned for Zhou Qiyang to go out with him.

　　After walking out of the monitoring room, Meng Zhao handed the note to Zhou Qiyang: “Go to the high-speed railway station and check the monitoring to see if there was any person like the one described by him.”

　　”Okay Brother Zhao.” Zhou Qiyang took it and ran away quickly.

　　While waiting for Zhou Qiyang to return, Meng Zhao stayed in the monitoring room to sort out various clues about the case.