Skin - Chapter 26

“No, hackers also have to have professional ethics. Do you think they would really want to continue with this after already leaking enough customer information? This is the limit of asking.”

　　”That’s right.” Meng Zhao nodded. He was too hasty at that moment, thinking that it would be an important breakthrough.

　　However, the clue provided by Lu Shichen was important enough. At least it verified a fact: Zhou Yan’s murder and Zhao Yunhua’s suicide were all carefully planned and manipulated by someone behind the scenes!

　　Meng Zhao was lost in thought when Lu Shichen asked, “Are you satisfied with the results of this investigation, Officer Meng?”

　　”Hmm?” Meng Zhao returned to his senses. “I’m satisfied. It’s not easy to get to this point. When the case is solved, I’ll give you a banner at my own expense.”

　　”I already spent a lot of money to get that clue just now. Since it’s a deal, Officer Meng needs to satisfy me in return, right?”

　　”I’m treating you to a meal. I guarantee that you’ll be satisfied with the meal. Here we are.”

　　Lu Shichen turned around and saw that Meng Zhao had parked the car in front of a Japanese restaurant. Last time it was French food, this time it was Japanese food… Lu Shichen pushed the door open and got out of the car, looked up at the door, and then walked into the store with Meng Zhao.

　　After sitting down under the waiter’s guidance, Meng Zhao took the teapot from the waiter: “I’ll do it.”

　　He poured a cup of tea into the teacup in front of Lu Shichen. “Let me tell you, in order to get you satisfied with this meal, I spent a lot of time asking about this restaurant. You know that we are detectives, and for us, time is more valuable than money.” Meng Zhao began to talk nonsense to fool Lu Shichen, “So no matter what the result is, my sincerity is definitely there in this meal.”

　　In short, no matter whether he was satisfied or not, Meng Zhao wouldn’t treat him to another next meal.

　　Unexpectedly, Lu Shichen ignored him: “I’m not interested in eating just to fill my stomach,” and turned the topic to the case, “Did you look for the people on the defendant list today? How is it going? Is there any progress?”

　　”As soon as we met, we talked about the case,” Meng Zhao picked up the teacup and took a sip of the tea. “I’m serious, why don’t you join our criminal investigation unit? Salary and other things are just external matters.”

　　”One million.” Lu Shichen said.

　　”What?”

　　”I had to hire a hacker to crack the multi-layer encryption network, then to track and locate the virtual server. Then, I spent a lot of money to buy the customer information, a total of one million.” Lu Shichen held the teacup in his hand. “Our deal was that I would find out the source of the call, and you would provide me with clues to the case. If you regret it now, you should pay me back first.”

　　‘Damn you.’ Meng Zhao put down the teacup and cursed in his heart. Sure enough, Lu Shichen had dug a pit for him in advance – a deep pit of the gap between the rich and the poor.

　　”I’m not saying that… But this clue really costs one million?” Meng Zhao looked at Lu Shichen with a puzzled look, “Although it can’t be said to be completely worthless, don’t you feel that you have been taken advantage of?”

　　”Really?” Lu Shichen’s tone faded away with a hint of extravagance. “If you don’t investigate to the end, you don’t know what kind of clues you will buy.”

　　”Capitalism is too deceptive.” Meng Zhao shook his head.

　　”Will you pay back the money or continue with our deal?” Lu Shichen asked again, “Or does Officer Meng have any other solution that will satisfy me?”

　　”You eat to fill your stomach and sleep to survive. What else can I think of to satisfy you?” Meng Zhao sighed, stood up, and went to the car to get a folder containing the information.

　　He planned to show Lu Shichen the defendants’ information collected by Cheng Yun. It was not that important. Compared with the defendants’ list provided by Lu Chengze, it was just more specific. But it was not important, and it could still reveal some things…

　　”Here.” A few minutes later, Meng Zhao slapped the folder of information in front of Lu Shichen, “It’s not that I don’t want to tell you, but there really hasn’t been any progress today.”

　　Lu Shichen flipped through the stack of information: “Are these people unwilling to reveal the truth?”

　　”Yes.” The meals were served one after another, and Meng Zhao started eating with mixed feelings.

　　It was a rare occasion that he had asked Cheng Yun about any suitable places nearby to treat guests to a meal on his way back to the police station. Not only did he get a lot of strange looks, but the Japanese restaurant he had chosen wasn’t much cheaper than the French one from last time, but Lu Shichen actually dared to say that he was eating just to fill his stomach?

　　If he had told him that earlier, he would have taken Lu Shichen to the Municipal Bureau cafeteria!

　　”Among the eleven people, three who had no direct relationship with the case were excluded. Among the remaining eight, one is abroad, two are in other places, and the remaining five are all locals.” Lu Shichen summarised as he flipped through the stack of information.

　　”Well,” Meng Zhao praised, “you were pretty good at maths in elementary school.”

　　”The five of them went to different universities, some went to other places, some went to local places, but none of them were probably that good at studying, right?”

　　”Right.”

　　”But after graduation, everyone returned to their hometown and unexpectedly, found a good job even if they didn’t have the ability for it…”

　　Sure enough, when even the seemingly useless information came into Lu Shichen’s hands, he was still able to identify the clues. Meng Zhao did not intend to hide it anymore, and continued his words: “That means there is a mastermind helping them out.”

　　”The companies these people work for include real estate groups, certification companies, and catering groups,” Lu Shichen looked down at the information, “from all walks of life. It’s probably through personal connections. After all, it’s easy for businessmen with a certain status to get an employee into a company.”

　　”So if we check the family backgrounds of everyone in their class, we can roughly identify the target,” Meng Zhao nodded. “I plan to do this, but the problem is, if everyone chooses to hide the truth, then for that bullying case from ten years ago… even if we find the real mastermind, there may not be much evidence.”

　　”What do you need the evidence for? Your purpose is not to investigate the truth behind the campus bullying case. You just want to find the person who took that photograph and who sent it to Zhao Yunhua.”

　　Maybe it would be easier to be a person like Lu Shichen. Meng Zhao picked up the teacup and took a sip of the tea. Although he was very clear about the purpose of investigating the campus bullying case, he still wanted to know the truth. If possible, he also wanted to find evidence against those people who forced Zhao Tong to commit suicide and make everyone involved in the case get what they deserved.

　　After all, three people had died in the past ten years just because of that case, and the perpetrator was still at large…

　　However, what Lu Shichen told him made sense. Meng Zhao sighed lightly. The most urgent task right now was to get to the bottom of the current case.

　　Lu Shichen turned to the page about Linjiang Real Estate and asked, “Have you been to Linjiang Pharmaceutical?”

　　”Yes, the chairman has retired now, and his son is managing the company’s affairs. I called Ren Hai this afternoon, but he didn’t answer.” Meng Zhao shook his head. “Tsk, this is so difficult.”

　　”Linjiang Pharmaceuticals was most likely just a matchmaker back then. If the two parties were business partners, Ren Hai would probably not have disclosed the news.” Lu Shichen’s eyes moved from the paper to Meng Zhao’s face, “First, find out the powerful people in that class.”

　　”Yes, Mr. Lu.” Seeing that the other party was not only very interested in the case, but even began to direct his next move, Meng Zhao felt funny and helpless. ‘Just, who was the detective here…?’

“Okay, let’s eat.”

　　Lu Shichen started eating only after he finished reading all the information.

　　Meng Zhao looked at the person across from him who was eating quite leisurely, and it seemed that the meal was really just enough to fill Lu Shichen’s stomach.

　　Putting Lu Shichen in a 3D movie would definitely not seem out of place at all. He looked delicate and sophisticated, just like a flawless AI.

　　”What’s wrong?” Lu Shichen raised his eyes and looked at him.

　　”Lu Shichen,” Meng Zhao put down his chopsticks and asked a question that he, as a criminal police officer with seven years of criminal investigation experience, still couldn’t figure out— “What do you like to eat? You don’t dislike anything, do you?”

　　“I don’t really have anything in particular that I like to eat.”

　　”…Did you grow up drinking dew?”

　　Just when Meng Zhao had made up his mind that he would never eat at the same table with Lu Shichen, the person sitting in front of him spoke up: “Last time, the food that yellow-haired guy was eating, was it delicious?”

　　”Huh?” Meng Zhao was stunned. “You mean the barbecue stand on the roadside?”

　　”Um.”

　　”You’ve never eaten barbecue?” Meng Zhao was almost shocked. “You really don’t care about worldly things. Did you really grow up drinking dew?”

　　”I went abroad when I was 17.” Lu Shichen said calmly.

　　”That’s right.” After a moment, Meng Zhao put down his chopsticks and looked at the other party: “Okay, I’ll take you to eat barbecue when I have time.”

　　After stepping out of the Japanese restaurant, the two got into the car.

　　Meng Zhao threw the stack of documents onto the backseat and asked, “Should I send you home?”

　　”Nah. Let’s go to your house.” Lu Shichen said.

　　”Why do you want to go to my house?” Meng Zhao glanced at him. “My house is only the size of your bedroom. You won’t be able to spread your legs if you go there.”

　　”I want to go and have a look.”

　　”Ok. First, we’ll go to my house, and then I’ll drop you off, and then I’ll drive back?”

　　”Um.”

　　Meng Zhao felt that he was about to be defeated by Lu Shichen. The man’s style of speaking seemed to always be like that. Even though there was obviously no reason, everything he said seemed particularly natural.

　　”Okay.” He didn’t know why he agreed.

　　Since it was a Friday, the city’s nightlife was obviously more lively than other weekdays.

　　The parking lot was full, and a few cars were squeezed in at the side of the aisle, so reversing the car was quite a challenge. Meng Zhao was looking at the reversing image and the rearview mirror when his phone vibrated. Someone had called him up.

　　Meng Zhao had no time to see who it was. Lu Shichen glanced down and said, “It’s Lu Yang. Should I switch on the speaker?”

　　”Do it.” Meng Zhao instructed as he backed the car into the narrow space.

　　”Officer Meng.” The call was connected, and Lu Yang spoke on the other end.

　　Meng Zhao smoothlyreversed the car out of the parking lot and finally breathed a sigh of relief: “Yeh. Speak.”

　　”I went to Lin Lang’s home, according to her high school address, but no one was there. It seemed that she had moved. I haven’t found her current address yet. However, I heard from her neighbours that Lin Lang seemed to be suffering from mental illness. Her condition worsened in high school and she couldn’t even take the college entrance examination… Do you think it could be related to the campus bullying case? They also said that Lin Lang had a boyfriend in high school, and it was because of that boyfriend that her mental illness worsened…”

　　”Lu Yang.” Meng Zhao interrupted him.

　　”Officer Meng, you have something to say. I’m listening.”

　　”The police will look into everything you said,” Lu Yang’s voice sounded full of energy on the phone. Meng Zhao was a little confused as to why he was that enthusiastic about this case. Was he really trying to make up for his mistake as he said, or was he taking the opportunity to publish another eye-catching article, or was he doing something else… Meng Zhao’s words of dissuasion were quite tactful: “You don’t need to worry about this case anymore. Don’t simply tire yourself because of it. Writing articles is not an easy job. Go back to your job.”

　　Unexpectedly, Lu Yang really didn’t understand his implication: “I’m not tired, Officer Meng. Besides, after investigating these two days, I think solving the case is quite interesting. Tomorrow, I will go and inquire about Lin Lang’s high school boyfriend. Maybe he has clues, and also Lin Lang’s address after moving…”

　　”Then let me explain it more clearly,” Meng Zhao’s voice lowered, “Lu Yang, stop interfering in this case. I’m not kidding you. This is an order. Do you understand?”

　　”But……”

　　”No buts. Get back to writing on your public account from tomorrow. How many days has it been since you stopped? You are not doing your job and are interfering with the work of the police. Are you trying to steal our jobs? If you really want to investigate the case, you can. The public security system welcomes you to apply at any time. As long as you pass the exam, I will be responsible for transferring you to the field.”

　　”I…” The voice on the other end sounded reluctant, “Okay.”

　　There was a beep from the other end of the phone, and Meng Zhao muttered, “Addicted to investigating cases…”

　　”You were quite fierce.” Lu Shichen commented from the side.

　　Meng Zhao was still angry and then choked on Lu Shichen’s words. He glanced at Lu Shichen: “What…” Before he could finish his words, he saw Lu Shichen smile.

　　The smile was barely perceptible, without any hint of sarcasm, but rather it seemed as if he really found it very interesting.

　　‘What the hell is going on…’ Meng Zhao thought to himself. For some reason, the anger inexplicably subsided.

　　The car stopped at Yangting Community.

Meng Zhao turned off the engine and unbuckled his seat belt: “We’re here, get out.”

　　He walked ahead, unlocked the door with his access card, and spoke as he walked toward the elevator, “You have to pay for a ticket to visit my home.”

　　”How much?” Lu Shichen asked.

　　”You decide what to give,” Meng Zhao stood in front of the elevator and pressed the button. “We’re old classmates, so I won’t cheat you. A few hundred thousand is just a token of my appreciation. Unlike your friend, he actually asked you for a million.”

　　”What’s wrong with one million?”

　　”What’s wrong with one million?” The elevator door opened, Meng Zhao glanced at him and stepped in. “My colleagues from the technical investigation department must not know about it, otherwise they will change jobs and become hackers.”

　　The two stood in the elevator, and Lu Shichen said calmly: “The one million was a lie.”

　　”Fuck it, you’re saying it now?”

　　”I didn’t expect the captain of the criminal investigation team to be so easy to deceive.”

　　”I’m the deputy Captain. Don’t give me a promotion. I was wondering how it is possible that someone would agree to a million dollars.”

　　‘I was actually tricked by Lu Shichen. I was really careless. But I can’t blame myself for this,’ Meng Zhao thought. ‘If I have to blame anyone, I should blame Lu Shichen for buying a bunch of colourful painkillers at the pharmacy last time. It made me subconsciously think that Lu Shichen was a fool who had a lot of money and was taken advantage of.’

　　Standing in front of the door, Meng Zhao entered the password, then opened the door to let Lu Shichen go in first: “Please come in, Mr. Lu.”