Skin - Chapter 24

Chapter 26

　　After Lu Chengze left, Meng Zhao pressed another button of the elevator.

　　It was then that he noticed that Lu Shichen had finally let go of his hand. At the same time, his hand reached into Meng Zhao’s trouser pocket on his thigh and pulled out the white paper with the list of names scribbled on it.

　　Meng Zhao hissed and looked at him: “Hey, you are quite conscious!”

　　”So many people?” Lu Shichen directly ignored his words and looked at the list.

　　”Yes, we can only check one by one. After so many years, these people may not be here anymore. It is another big project.” Meng Zhao took the piece of paper out of Lu Shichen’s hand, folded it and put it back inside his pocket.

　　After saying that, Meng Zhao glanced at Cheng Yun. The girl had been hesitating to speak up the whole time. He asked, “What’s wrong?”

　　”There’s nothing wrong…” Cheng Yun raised her eyes and glanced at Lu Shichen, then looked at Meng Zhao and whispered, “Brother Zhao, I have a guess.”

　　”Um?”

　　”It has something to do with that dog hair…”

　　Hearing what Cheng Yun said, Lu Shichen lowered his gaze and looked at her: “What speculation?”

　　Cheng Yun looked at Meng Zhao. She did not dare to speak up without Meng Zhao’s consent.

　　Meng Zhao spoke: “Say it.”

　　Cheng Yun cleared her throat: “Didn’t we think that the dog hair that appeared on Zhou Yan’s body had unknown origins? After listening to Lawyer Lu’s explanation just now, I feel that Zhao Yunhua must have put the dog hair there.”

　　Lu Shichen really became interested and looked at Cheng Yun.

　　Seeing that neither Meng Zhao nor Lu Shichen raised objections, Cheng Yun felt confident and continued: “Lawyer Lu had no choice but to become the defence lawyer for the defendant, but Zhao Yunhua didn’t know the extent of his participation in this case. Considering this, she must have definitely believed that Lawyer Lu and those who forced her son to death were a group. In the failure of her lawsuit, the existence of Lawyer Lu played a decisive role. So for her, not only the people who forced Zhao Tong to death but also Lawyer Lu Chengze is an enemy. So it’s very much possible that he is an outlet for her hatred.”

　　Walking out of the elevator, Cheng Yun continued: “Zhao Yunhua wanted to take revenge on Lu Chengze, but she couldn’t find a way, so she thought of the resident downstairs, Lu Shichen. She herself had suffered for many years because of the loss of her son. So maybe by putting the blame of Zhou Yan’s murder on Lu Shichen, she could make Lu Chengze taste the bitter experience of having his son being stripped away from himself. In this way, she could not only kill Zhou Yan, the supposed mastermind of the campus violence, but also take revenge on the lawyer who helped him commit the crime. Only then, maybe her hatred could have calmed down.”

　　Cheng Yun paused, as the three of them stepped outside the law firm. Realising that they were listening to her attentively, Cheng Yun continued: “Moreover, Zhao Yunhua has always had the habit of digging through trash cans. It would have been easy for her to dig through the trash from Mr. Lu’s house and pick out some dog hair. It would’ve aroused no suspicion.”

　　After she finished speaking, she looked at Meng Zhao, waiting for his judgement.

　　But before Meng Zhao could speak, Lu Shichen spoke first: “It makes sense, but there is another point that you forgot. Zhao Yunhua and I have almost never met. Even if we did see each other in the elevator, I had no idea that she was the housekeeper for the apartment upstairs. Similarly, she probably didn’t know that I lived downstairs, let alone the fact that I’m the son of lawyer Lu Chengze. Moreover, considering Zhao Yunhua’s IQ and ability, she had seen the video of that incident on the night of the 11th and then developed murderous intentions. Is it even possible for her to have access to so much information in the next two days and elaborately hatch a plan to kill two birds with one stone?”

　　After listening to Lu Shichen’s question, Cheng Yun thought for a few seconds and said, “Didn’t Zhou Yan plan to work with Haoze Law Firm regarding the plagiarism case? His friend, Wang Nuo, mentioned during the questioning that Zhou Yan had considered hiring Mr. Lu if it was possible. Could it be possible that Zhou Yan somehow found out that you are Lawyer Lu’s son, then mentioned it while chatting with friends or on the phone, and Zhao Yunhua accidentally overheard it?”

　　”Did Zhou Yan go to Haoze to discuss the lawsuit?” Lu Shichen looked at her and asked.

　　”Well, his work was plagiarised by someone…”

　　In the middle as she spoke, Cheng Yun immediately fell silent upon hearing Meng Zhao coughing from the side.

　　Lu Shichen also immediately looked at Meng Zhao.

　　”Cough,” Meng Zhao made a fist in vain and coughed again, “I talked too much this afternoon so my throat is not too comfortable.”

　　Realising that she had spoken too much, Cheng Yun did not dare to say anything for a while. After a while, she carefully asked Meng Zhao: “Brother Zhao, do you think my speculation is reasonable?”

　　”It’s quite reasonable and well-founded,” Meng Zhao thought for a moment and replied in the affirmative, “especially since Zhao Yunhua has always had the habit of digging through trash cans, it somewhat makes sense.”

　　A smile appeared on Cheng Yun’s face, but then she sighed: “But Zhao Yunhua has committed suicide. Even if that was the truth, there is no evidence to prove it now…”

　　”Yeah.” Meng Zhao responded and raised his hand to touch his chin. Although Cheng Yun’s reasoning made sense, Lu Shichen’s question was the only one that he felt was unreasonable. Not to mention they didn’t even know if Zhou Yan knew of the father-son relationship between Lu Shichen and Lu Chengze, so whether Zhao Yunhua knew about it or not, no one knew for sure…

　　Moreover, with Zhao Yunhua’s constant mood swings, was it even possible for her to have learnt about the father-son relationship between Lu Chengze and Lu Shichen within two days, and then devise a perfect plan to frame Lu Shichen…

　　There was another possibility. Could it be possible that in the USB flash drive obtained by Zhou Yunhua, there was not only the recording from that year, but also an elaborate plan to frame Lu Shichen? So was the mastermind’s target Lu Chengze or Lu Shichen…?

　　Cheng Yun shook the car key in her hand: “It’s almost time to get off work. Brother Zhao, why don’t you take my car back to the city bureau?”

　　”He said he’ll go with me,” Lu Shichen said.

　　Meng Zhao: “…” ‘I don’t think I said that.’

　　Seeing that Meng Zhao didn’t say anything, Cheng Yun took two steps forward: “Then I’ll leave first Brother Zhao.”

　　”Ok.” Meng Zhao said, but he did not leave with Lu Shichen. “The meal I owe you, I don’t think I can treat you today. My car has been repaired and I made an appointment with the 4S store to pick it up after getting off work today.”

　　Lu Shichen didn’t show any displeasure: “Then I’ll drop you there.”

　　Sitting in Lu Shichen’s car, Meng Zhao said, “I think Cheng Yun’s speculation is reasonable. Zhao Yunhua does have the motive to lead the suspicion to you. What do you think?”

　　”Without evidence, speculation is just speculation.” Lu Shichen said.

　　Meng Zhao felt that his words sounded familiar. He thought about why it sounded familiar, and finally concluded that it seemed that he himself had told exactly the same thing to the man long ago.

　　”After all, you have been abroad for so many years. It’s only been three months since you returned. You probably haven’t made any enemies. As for your dad… he has fought countless lawsuits over the years and has offended many powerful people. Could it be that …The purpose of the murderer is not you, but your father? Then the scope is quite large…”

　　”Continue to investigate further.” Lu Shichen said.

　　As the car drove onto the road leading to the 4S store, Meng Zhao put his hand on the car door: “Can you open the window?”

　　”It’s up to you.” Lu Shichen said.

　　Meng Zhao pressed down the window. The temperature was just right in the evening, and a cool breeze followed in. Meng Zhao felt relaxed for the first time in the past few days since the murder of Zhou Yan.

　　He planned to forget about the case for a while and let his tense nerves relax for a few minutes. He leaned on the backrest of the car seat and turned his face to look at Lu Shichen, suddenly becoming interested in chatting with him.

　　”By the way, about what happened back then… I went to see Teacher Zhou a while ago and accidentally learned a little bit about the situation. Your dad also told it today that at first he thought the evidence was sufficient to make my uncle the prime suspect. He didn’t even want to take on the case… It seems that at that time, everyone believed that my uncle was the murderer. After all, the motive was reasonable and the evidence was conclusive. Then Lu Shichen…” Meng Zhao turned to look at Lu Shichen’s side face, “Actually, there is one thing I can’t figure out. Why did you think my uncle was innocent?”

　　”Weren’t you skipping school and running around for him?” Lu Shichen’s eyes fell on the road ahead, his face expressionless.

　　”I did that because he was my uncle, and my mother was a policeman. When I was young, she was too busy to take care of me, so I was almost brought up by my uncle. He said that he hadn’t killed anyone. Of course I believe him unconditionally, but the relationship between you and me at that time…” Meng Zhao thought about it and laughed, “It didn’t seem that good. Just because I skipped class and ran around for him, you believed that he was innocent?”

　　Lu Shichen said “hmm” briefly.

　　Meng Zhao was stunned for a moment.

　　Reminiscing about the period when he was regarded as a ‘relative of a murderer’ during his youth, Meng Zhao never thought that there was such a person at that time who, although there was no evidence, stood with him unconditionally. Coincidentally that person turned out to be Lu Shichen who he had hated for a long time.

　　‘Destiny is truly magical.’ Meng Zhao looked at Lu Shichen’s profile and thought to himself, ‘Lu Shichen… is quite amazing.’

Volume 2 The Dark Cage

Chapter 27

　　As the car drove to the entrance of the 4S store, Meng Zhao received a text message. He picked up his phone and saw that it was from Lu Yang.

　　【Officer Meng, I went to Zhao Yunhua’s previous home today and found out that her neighbour’s daughter is named Lin Lang. She and Zhao Tong were classmates in high school. Although they were in different classes, I think she should know something about the situation back then. I plan to ask about it tomorrow.】

　　”He really began looking into the case.” Meng Zhao looked at the text message and muttered to himself.

　　”What?” Lu Shichen asked.

　　”Lu Yang, the owner of that public account, said last time that he wanted to find out the truth about the bullying case. Unexpectedly, he actually began to investigate. What kind of chaos is this…” Meng Zhao put away his mobile phone. He really didn’t know anything about that case. Why was it so attractive that so many people were rushing over to help him investigate the case?

　　”What did he find out?”

　　Meng Zhao showed the content of Lu Yang’s text message to Lu Shichen: “The idea is correct. We can start from the court and lawyers. But he knew that he had no access to these, so he started from the victim in a roundabout way. This Lu Yang is indeed quite smart.”

　　Lu Shichen returned the phone to Meng Zhao: “Then let him continue. Maybe what he uncovers will be valuable to some extent.”

　　”That won’t work,” Meng Zhao pushed open the car door. “It would be a mess if just a random person went to investigate the case. I still have to talk to him later to convince him to not get involved in the case. I’m going to get the car. Go back first. I won’t forget the meal I owe you, don’t worry.”

　　-·-·-

　　The next morning, at the city bureau’s conference room, the people from the criminal investigation detachment sat in a circle around the long table, and in the middle was Director Xu who had arrived to supervise their work.

　　Meng Zhao sat next to Director Xu and presided over the meeting. He reviewed the progress of the case to everyone in the criminal investigation unit: “…So now, our investigation entry point revolves around this school bullying case. I chose this entry point mainly because of this photograph.” He put the printed photograph of Zhou Yan looking up at the roof of the building on the screen. “The photo was confirmed by Zhang Chao. There is no trace of modification. Judging from the time and angle, the photographer must be one of the students who participated in bullying Zhao Tong at that time…”

　　Meng Zhao had the habit of only talking about the key points in meetings, without any unnecessary nonsense. So after sorting out the case and assigning tasks, he announced that the meeting was adjourned.

　　Meng Zhao packed up the case information and was about to leave the conference room when he noticed Director Xu still standing by the door.

　　No wonder it was too quiet when the meeting ended today. There was such a door god standing by the door. Meng Zhao stopped and asked, “What do you want from me?”

　　”How many days do you plan to solve this case?”

　　”We have just determined the entry point. I can’t say for sure, but I guarantee that if the investigation can be solved in two days, it will not be delayed until the third day.”

　　Director Xu was still assured of Meng Zhao’s ability. He raised his hand and patted Meng Zhao on the shoulder: “Handling cases is important, but we must also pay attention to the balance between work and rest.”

　　Director Xu’s advice was a very universal nonsense, and Meng Zhao responded with a nonsense: “I know this, don’t worry sir.”

　　The next sentence was the key point: “Also, you should also pay attention to your daily lifestyle.”

　　Meng Zhao hadn’t figured out what was wrong with his lifestyle. Director Xu didn’t give him a chance to interrupt and continued: “You were promoted to deputy unit leader at such a young age. Although you were promoted because of your ability, there are many people in the city bureau whose eyes are focused on you, you must not leave any loopholes to add insult to injury.”

　　”…No, what’s wrong with my lifestyle?” Meng Zhao said inexplicably.

　　After Director Xu finished speaking, he gave Meng Zhao a look to let him understand, and then walked away at a leisurely pace.

　　Meng Zhao knew nothing about the fact that he was already suspected of being with a ‘rich woman’. He thought of his own behaviour and asked himself, he had been so busy over the past few years that he had even managed his sex life on his own, so where was there a lifestyle problem?

　　The old man’s menopausal symptoms were becoming more and more serious, and they had begun to appear out of nowhere. He ignored the man’s nonsensical advice, then began to concentrate on the case.

　　Taking advantage of the meeting, Cheng Yun took the list of defendants provided by Lu Chengze and checked everyone’s information on the police system. When Meng Zhao came back, she walked over and reported the progress: “Brother Zhao, I have retrieved the information of these people, and among the eleven, one is abroad, two are in other places, and eight are all in the city.”

　　Meng Zhao took the information and scanned it from top to bottom. Wenzhao High School was a key high school, and its admission rate was comparable to that of Meng Zhao’s alma mater, Mingtan No. 1 Middle School. Therefore, despite its remote location, a large number of parents still chose to send their children to Wenzhao High School at all costs every year.

　　But perhaps because of what had happened to Zhao Tong before the college entrance examination, more than half of the people on the list were not admitted to a proper university. It seemed that most people who engaged in bullying were just following the trend, having no idea that their behaviour would have led to such serious consequences.

　　According to past experiences, after the occurrence of a multi-person crime like Zhao Tong’s case, the people involved in the case would no longer stay in contact with each other for a long time, because they would naturally be afraid of the bloody old incident being brought up once again.

　　However, such was the general situation. No one could guarantee that the people who had forced Zhao Tong to death had indeed lost contact in recent years. Most of them stayed in the city to work after their graduation. Perhaps they jointly planned a revenge, however, to determine anything, the answers were still in the unknown…

　　Meng Zhao took the information and scanned it, and saw the name ‘Linjiang Pharmaceuticals’ at a glance. He looked to the side and saw that the individual corresponding to it was a girl named ‘Fan Xinxin’. She had graduated from college and then begun working under Linjiang, a pharmaceutical giant, doing some personnel related work.

　　Meng Zhao rummaged around and found Fan Xinxin’s information. The information showed that Fan Xinxin’s parents were ordinary retired workers who had nothing to do with Linjiang Pharmaceuticals.

　　”Have you checked the information of Linjiang’s CEO?” Meng Zhao turned over Fan Xinxin’s information and asked Cheng Yun.

　　”We checked it. It’s on the page before Fan Xinxin’s data.” Watching Meng Zhao turn the page and read it carefully, Cheng Yun said from the side, “The CEO of Linjiang Pharmaceuticals is Ren Hai. He is over 60 years old, and his son is over 30 years old, at least five years older than Zhou Yan… I originally suspected that Fan Xinxin was the old man’s illegitimate daughter, but after I checked the photos of Fan Xinxin’s parents…”

　　Cheng Yun helped Meng Zhao turn to the back of the information: “Brother Zhao, look, Fan Xinxin and her father are almost carved out of the same mould. There is no need to check anything at all. Anyone can tell at a glance that they are biologically related…”

　　Meng Zhao looked at the photographs of Fan Xinxin and her father. Indeed, the father and daughter looked alike, leaving no room for doubt. But in any case, ‘Linjiang Pharmaceuticals’ was a clue which overlapped the case,and Fan Xinxin was also somehow involved with both— the case and Linjiang Pharmaceuticals.

　　”Make a few more copies of this information and let Zhou Qiyang and the others check it from back to front. After doing that, you come with me to find Fan Xinxin.” Meng Zhao handed the pile of information to Cheng Yun.

　　Cheng Yun responded and returned to work quickly.

　　While she was assigning tasks, Meng Zhao went to check Fan Xinxin’s information.

　　Fan Xinxin went to university at a private college in the city. She graduated four years ago and directly entered Linjiang Pharmaceuticals after graduation. Linjiang Pharmaceuticals was a major taxpayer of the city. With thousands of employees in the company, it was considered a reputable large enterprise. Although Fan Xinxin went to a rather average school, she still found a comparatively good job after graduation. Her life could be described as smooth sailing.

　　Meng Zhao looked through Fan Xinxin’s information and thought to himself that if she was really one of the masterminds who forced Zhao Tong to death, then the words ‘retribution for evildoers’ was really just bullshit for people to comfort themselves with…

TL’s Note:
Apologies for failing to update last week. I couldn’t do it due to personal issues. Next week, my exams begin. So there are chances that the updates next week will also be delayed.

~Yours Truly,
Ruel