Skin - Chapter 17

When Zhou Mingsheng and Lu Chengze joined forces to handle the case, everything began to become clearer.

　　At that time, Zhou Mingsheng often told Meng Zhao to do his best and obey fate. Although he didn’t know what kind of outcome the second trial would give, Meng Zhao always felt that the burden on his shoulders had become lighter and he could bear the burden.

　　In the first semester of his senior year of high school, the results of the second trial finally came out. It was the last time Meng Zhao skipped class. When he exited the court building, he met Lu Shichen. At that time, Lu Shichen must have gone to the court to find his father, Lu Chengze. They looked at each other, but no one talked, and then they passed by each other in different directions.

　　When Meng Zhao met Lu Shichen again, it was at the end of the first semester of his senior year. Lu Shichen didn’t show up in class for several days in a row. But unlike the last time he skipped class, the class teacher didn’t have any overreaction this time, so there were rumours in the class that Lu Shichen was preparing to go abroad.

　　A few days later, Lu Shichen appeared again. He had returned to pack his belongings and leave. He moved the textbooks and exercise books to the table. Several good students in the class came over and wanted to say a few words to Lu Shichen. However, Lu Shichen was usually indifferent and had few close friends, so those few people said a few words to him, then dispersed wisely.

　　The class was noisy. Lu Shichen packed up his things, hugged the pile of books and exercise books, and walked towards the back of the classroom – he was going to throw away the things into the trash can. After all, those books and papers were all useless to him.

　　Meng Zhao was sitting next to the trash can in the last row of the classroom, studying the mathematics textbook of the first year of high school. He had a good foundation from junior high school, and other subjects were not that difficult to learn on his own. But in the subject of mathematics, there were some parts that hardly made sense to him even after thoroughly refering the textbooks.

　　Just when he was about to give up on the question in front of him and move on to the next one, a stack of books hit his desk heavily.

　　Meng Zhao looked up and saw Lu Shichen standing in front of him, looking down at him.

　　Although he wanted to punch his face directly, Meng Zhao had to still restrain himself because Lu Chengze had just helped his uncle to overturn the case not long ago. Meng Zhao restrained his disgust for Lu Shichen and asked him without any tone: “Why are you doing this?”

　　”I’m giving you my garbage,” Lu Shichen looked at him at that time, “I don’t need it anyway.”

　　Meng Zhao, who was treated as a garbage recycling bin, clenched his fists.

　　Lu Shichen leaned down and whispered in his ear: “Do you understand where food comes from for wild dogs?”

　　After he finished speaking, he stood up and left. Just as Meng Zhao was about to stand up and fight with him, the head teacher entered the classroom: “What are you doing? The classroom is so noisy. The class representative hurriedly came over to hand out papers! Meng Zhao, come here!”

　　Because the head teacher had something to do with Meng Zhao, the last fight between the two never took place successfully.

　　And Lu Shichen got rid of the pile of garbage from his desk, he left without saying goodbye to anyone, and never appeared in the class again.

　　It was also the last time Meng Zhao had seen Lu Shichen twelve years ago.

Chapter 18

　　When he arrived at his uncle’s house, Meng Zhao raised his hand and knocked on the door. It was Meng Ruoshu who opened the door. Meng Ruoshu, with her face turned to the sky, lazily said: “Brother, why did you come back so early? I thought I was going to starve to death. It’s past eight o’clock, how will I lose weight if I eat so late?”

　　Aunt Song Ning got up and went to the kitchen: “Xiao Zhao is back, I’m going to serve dinner now.”

　　As soon as he entered, Meng Zhao changed into slippers at : “Haven’t you all eaten yet? Didn’t I tell you not to wait for me?”

　　”You have such a high status in the house, don’t we all have to wait for you?” Although Meng Ruoshu complained, she looked very happy, “Hurry up, my mother’s fish is so delicious, why are you not hurrying?”

　　Meng Xiangyu, who was sitting on the sofa in the living room watching TV, saw Meng Zhao and also stood up: “Stop complaining. Your brother is busy with work.”

　　”I know,” Meng Ruoshu walked to the kitchen to help Song Ning serve the food, “He’s a busy man.”

　　Song Ning was indeed really good at cooking fish. The big braised carp could hardly fit in the 14-inch fish plate. It was sprinkled with chopped green onion, which made people have a big appetite at first sight.

　　”How is Zhou Yan’s case going?” Meng Ruoshu asked while putting the fish thorns into the bowl, “Why did the nanny kill him? Was he really the instigator of the bullying incident?”

　　Meng Zhao washed his hands and sat down. Before he could speak, Meng Xiangyu spoke up from the side: “Do you think it’s right for your brother to reveal the inside story of this case to you?”

　　Meng Ruoshu stuffed a big mouthful of rice into her mouth and said vaguely, “I’m just curious.”

　　Meng Xiangyu then asked Meng Zhao if he was very busy at work, and advised him to pay attention to his safety. Meng Zhao nodded in response while eating.

　　Meng Zhao’s mother, Meng Jing, was a police officer and died in the line of duty when Meng Zhao was six years old. Because of that incident, when Meng Zhao showed his interest to apply to the Public Security University, Meng Xiangyu refused to let him do so. Later, Meng Zhao secretly changed his choice to the Public Security University at the last moment and was dismissed. Meng Xiangyu only found out about it after the admission was approved in advance. But the matter was a foregone conclusion, and it was hard for him to say anything more about it.

　　Because of his sister’s untimely death, Meng Xiangyu had always been uneasy about Meng Zhao. Whenever he had the opportunity to sit down and eat together, he always asked Meng Zhao to pay attention to his safety.

　　After dinner, Meng Zhao stood up to help wash the dishes, but was pushed out of the kitchen by Song Ning. Along with him, even Meng Ruoshu was also pushed out.

　　Meng Ruoshu took some sugar-free candies and divided them into two. When they were divided into two pieces, Meng Zhao asked her, “Have you thrown away the notebooks I gave you in high school?”

　　”Ah?” Meng Ruoshu didn’t care at all about learning materials, “I don’t remember about them. It’s been a long time ago.”

　　”I haven’t thrown them away,” Meng Xiangyu said. “They should be in the cabinet under Xiao Shu’s bed. I have not thrown away any of your textbooks and materials.”

　　”Xiao Shu, go find me those notebooks.” Meng Zhao said to Meng Ruoshu.

　　Meng Ruoshu was already lying on the sofa, one slipper had been taken off, and the other was hanging precariously on her toes: “I won’t go, you go by yourself.”

　　”Hurry up.” Meng Zhao showed off his deputy captain’s style. Since the incident with Meng Ruoshu, he had never taken a step forward into Meng Ruoshu’s room.

　　”Go and help your brother look for it.” Meng Xiangyu also sided with him.

　　”You guys are so annoying.” Meng Ruoshu reluctantly got up from the sofa, opened the door and entered her room, and then began to rummage through the boxes and cabinets.

　　Ten minutes later, Meng Ruoshu walked out with a notebook and handed it to Meng Zhao. She sat down on the sofa and asked, “Brother, it’s been so many years since you graduated, why do you still need this notebook? All high school textbooks have been revised now.”

　　”Something happened.” Meng Zhao said, flipping through the pages densely covered with notes, all written by Lu Shichen.

　　The long and thin handwriting was a bit sloppy, showing a trace of undisguised arrogance and carelessness.

　　Compared with the notebook, the handwriting on the piece of paper was more neat and serious. However, although the writer’s attitude was different, there was no doubt that both were Lu Shichen’s handwriting.

　　After chatting with Meng Xiangyu, it was getting late. Meng Zhao stood up, said his greetings and was about to leave.

　　”Xiao Shu, go see your brother off.” Meng Xiangyu called for Meng Ruoshu.

　　Meng Ruoshu didn’t complain about it. She got up and went to the entrance to change her shoes.

Song Ning walked out of the kitchen and handed a bag of garbage to Meng Ruoshu: “Take out the garbage on the way.”

　　”I’ll do it.” Meng Zhao stretched out his hand to take it.

　　Song Ning refused: “No, no, let Xiao Shu go. You have to drive home. It’s hard to wash your hands if they get stained. Drive slower on the road.”

　　Meng Ruoshu carried the garbage and went downstairs with Meng Zhao: “Brother, have you gone on a blind date recently?”

　　”No, what’s wrong?”

　　”Oh, it’s okay. I just care about you.” Meng Ruoshu smiled. In fact, she was getting information from her good friend Xu Yan, Director Xu’s daughter, but she couldn’t make it too obvious.

　　Going down another floor, Meng Ruoshu asked again: “Brother, why do you look worried?”

　　”Those who are careless are fools.” Meng Zhao glanced at her.

　　Meng Ruoshu took the initiative to answer the question: “Hey, why are you swearing?” She quickly thought of her mission and continued, “Tell me what’s on your mind. I’m a beauty and emotional blogger with two million fans. This Lord knows all things.”

　　”Oh, so you’ve gained popularity again?” Hearing the hint in Meng Ruoshu’s words, Meng Zhao gave her a symbolic compliment.

　　Meng Ruoshu studied art. In the past two years, the number of clicks on one of her makeup imitation videos skyrocketed, and since then, she has embarked on the path of becoming a beauty blogger. The little girl had already achieved financial freedom at a young age.

　　Meng Zhao had no intention of telling her about Lu Shichen for the time being, but he suddenly felt that Meng Ruoshu’s female perspective might be useful in analysing Lu Shichen’s unreasonable temper.

　　”Tell me,” Meng Zhao stood next to his car and stopped, “if there is such a person, who usually looks very cold, like a dummy, and occasionally needs a beating, nine out of ten sentences he says irritate you, but behind your back he will do one or two very humane things. Tell me then, what is really going on in this person’s mind?”

　　Meng Ruoshu blurted out: “I’m sure this person likes you!” She consciously grasped the focus of the night’s conversation and immediately climbed up the pole, “Which girl is so wild that she dared to anger you?”

　　Meng Zhao looked at her with difficulty and said: “It’s a man.”

　　Meng Ruoshu took a breath: “Brother, you actually attract both men and women!”

　　Meng Zhao was completely speechless, he should not have tried to involve Meng Ruoshu in analysing Lu Shichen.

　　Seeing Meng Zhao looking at her helplessly, Meng Ruoshu calmed down and became serious: “There is another possibility.”

　　”Um?”

　　Meng Ruoshu said seriously: “He is peeing at you.”

　　Meng Zhao: “…Hurry and go home.”

　　After sending away Meng Ruoshu and watching her walk back to the corridor after throwing away the trash, Meng Zhao opened the door and got in his car.

　　After driving home, Meng Zhao freshened up and looked at the open notebook and the piece of paper next to him.

　　One part was sloppy, the other part was neat. Lu Shichen was really a bit hard to see through.

　　Meng Zhao picked up the notes, which recorded different types of questions and the optimal solution to each question.

　　Meng Zhao remembered that after Lu Shichen left the classroom, he actually wanted to throw away the pile of books into the trash can behind him. But the girl in the front seat turned back at that moment, took away the notebook on top of the pile and read through it: “Can you lend it to me to read? I’ll return it to you after I’ve finished reading it.”

　　”No need to return it.” Meng Zhao said at that time.

　　Having said that, a few days later, the girl returned the notebook to Meng Zhao, and by that time, Meng Zhao’s anger had almost dissipated.

　　”This notebook is amazing. The god of learning deserves to be the god of learning,” the girl said to him in a low voice, mysteriously, “Don’t lend it to others.”

　　Was he really that godly? Meng Zhao originally wanted to throw away the notebook, but the few words from the girl made him change his mind.

　　He looked at the quiet black leather notebook, and Lu Shichen’s condescending look flashed through his mind.

　　Lu Shichen had gone abroad, and they would never have the chance to meet each other again. What was the point of having a unilateral enmity with him? Meng Zhao said to himself.

　　‘If you are regarded as a wild dog, just treat him as a mad dog. Didn’t wild dogs too have the right to struggle to live? There was no need for him to take seriously a mad dog that had disappeared from his world.’

　　With that thought in mind, Meng Zhao opened Lu Shichen’s notes with the belief that ‘if you want to practice this skill, you must first commit suicide.’

　　Not to mention, just as the girl had told him, Lu Shichen’s notebook was really amazing. Compared with the teaching method for top students where mathematics teachers taught which questions they encountered as difficult, Lu Shichen compiled the college entrance examination-type questions, which were more suitable for students with weak foundations like Meng Zhao.

　　Not to mention that Lu Shichen’s solutions to many questions were more concise and clever than the maths teacher’s explanations.

　　Therefore, during the rest of his senior year in high school, his notebook helped Meng Zhao a lot, not only because it helped him overcome the hurdle of mathematics, but it also gave him enough energy to take care of other subjects.

　　Later, he gave the notebook to Meng Ruoshu, which made Meng Ruoshu successfully go from a pure academic scumbag to a second-level art student, which could be regarded as a great contribution.

　　Precisely because of that, when Meng Zhao met Lu Shichen again twelve years later, he found that he was somewhat immune to the other party’s provocations.

　　Meng Zhao looked through Lu Shichen’s notebook and found that, like Zhou Yan’s diary, the title page of the notebook was also folded into the middle layer, but he had never thought of taking it out to look at it.

　　Will you also remember the content? Meng Zhao took out the folded page.

　　Although it was just a momentary thought, Meng Zhao was still slightly startled when he saw that there were actually words on it.

　　The lower right corner of the hidden paper said【Try to be a good adult】.

　　The handwriting was more serious than the rest of the notes, and it was more similar to the handwriting on the paper where the clues were recorded.

　　‘Lu Shichen…’, Meng Zhao stared at the words and thought, ‘was this still the Lu Shichen he knew?’

　　It seemed to be raining outside when he fell asleep. Meng Zhao actually liked the rain when he was a student, but in the past few years as a policeman, he had some occupational diseases when encountering rainy nights. He always felt that criminals would take advantage of rainy nights when it was easy to cover up their crimes and commit crimes secretly.

　　He barely slept well that night. He dreamed of a drunken Zhou Yan staggering into the old neighbourhood. He dreamt of Zhao Yunhua falling from the roof of that building. He also dreamed of Lu Shichen from high school. He whispered in his ear and asked him if he knew where wild dogs got food.

　　He didn’t really fall asleep until the sky outside turned grey and showed signs of the start to a new day.

　　That time he dreamed of the day when Meng Xiangyu’s second trial ended and his innocence was proven.

　　It was a day in December, when the first snow of winter fell.

　　At the moment when the judge declared Meng Xiangyu innocent, both Song Ning and Meng Ruoshu cried. Song Ning cried silently, while Meng Ruoshu cried so much that she could hardly breathe.

　　More than two years of running around made Meng Zhao think he had grown up. He wanted to hold back his tears like an adult, but when he saw the old Meng Xiangyu standing in front of him without handcuffs, he couldn’t help but shed a few tears.

　　When they left the court building, the whole family wiped away their tears. Meng Ruoshu’s stress aphasia suddenly improved. She stretched out her hand to catch the snowflakes and said her first words since the incident: “It’s snowing.”