Skin - Chapter 27

Chapter 27 – “When Will We Meet Again?”

Lu Shichen stood at the entrance and looked at Meng Zhao’s house. It had two bedrooms and a living room, and was decorated in a very simple manner. Although the house was not big, it looked a bit empty at first glance.

　　”Did you buy this house?” Lu Shichen asked.

　　”Rented.” Meng Zhao took out a pair of slippers from the shoe cabinet and threw them on the floor in front of Lu Shichen.

　　The slippers were grey men’s slippers and Lu Shichen was casually changing his shoes. When Meng Zhao closed the shoe cabinet, Lu Shichen noticed that there were two pairs of women’s slippers inside. He asked, “Do you often have guests here?”

　　”What guests? My friends are all policemen. They are so tired every day that they don’t have time to even clean their own house, forget about visiting each other.” He quickly realised where Lu Shichen asked this question from. “You asked because of the slippers? My uncle and his family come over occasionally, and those slippers are prepared for them.”

　　”Oh.” Lu Shichen responded and walked into the living room.

　　”Please sit down.” Meng Zhao also changed his shoes and walked in.

　　“Can I look around?”

　　”There’s nothing to see,” Meng Zhao went to the kitchen to get a cup of water, “You can if you want to.”

　　Lu Shichen was not shy. When Meng Zhao put the cup on the coffee table, he saw him enter his bedroom.

　　He walked over with the cup of water and leaned against the door frame.

　　Lu Shichen walked to Meng Zhao’s desk and glanced at the books on it. All of them were related to criminal investigation, as well as some related to forensic and material identification. His eyes fell on a certain place on the bookshelf, and he raised his hand, put his fingers on it, and pulled out the notebook.

　　Lu Shichen opened the notebook, looked down at it, and then used his fingers to pull out the piece of paper with the clues inside.

　　Perhaps because the lighting and angle were very similar to the scene during evening self-study in their high school classroom, Meng Zhao looked at Lu Shichen’s profile from the side and back, and felt that Lu Shichen seemed to have not changed at all, and yet seemed to have changed a lot.

　　Lu Shichen’s aloof and cold temperament had not changed, but Meng Zhao felt disgusted when he saw him more than ten years ago, but now he had the urge to get closer to find out what was going on in his mind.

　　He really didn’t know if it was Lu Shichen who had changed it himself.

　　”When did you get it?” Lu Shichen asked, holding the paper.

　　”Just a few days ago,” Meng Zhao leaned against the door frame, “Teacher Zhou had a stroke a while ago, and it was his wife who gave me the case materials from that year. I accidentally found the paper in it. It’s been more than ten years, so it seems a bit late to talk about it now. But still, thank you.”

　　Lu Shichen didn’t say anything. He put the paper back into the notebook and then put the notebook back to its original place.

　　Lu Shichen had always been like that, having helped him a lot, yet never mentioning it. Meng Zhao looked at Lu Shichen calmly.

　　After Lu Shichen put down his notes, he moved his eyes to the photo frame on Meng Zhao’s bedside table and looked at the young woman in it: “Is this your mother?”

　　”Yeah, my mom is beautiful, right?”

　　”Well,” Lu Shichen said, “you look like her.”

　　Meng Zhao laughed: “Is this a disguised way of praising me?”

　　”Where’s your dad?”

　　”My dad… they divorced before I could remember much. My mom was a police officer and was too busy to take care of the family, so my dad… cheated on her. My mom is a straightforward person, so she chose to divorce my dad without saying much.”

　　”So your mother raised you all by herself?”

　　”She has always been alone… But,” Meng Zhao paused and said, “She passed away before she could raise me. My mother was also a police officer. She died while chasing a fugitive. Isn’t that impressive?”

　　”So that’s why you chose to be a police officer?”

　　”I guess so.” Meng Zhao said. Although it had been nearly 20 years since his mother passed away, when Lu Shichen mentioned the photograph, Meng Zhao couldn’t help but recall the scene when it was taken, when his mother, Meng Jing, held his hand and took him to the amusement park.

　　”How do you feel when you think of her?”

　　Meng Zhao paused before laughing and said, “This question is… you are here to hurt people’s hearts, right?”

　　”Are you sad?”

　　”…” If Lu Shichen had asked that question twelve years ago, Meng Zhao felt that he would have punched him. However, now he just felt a little speechless. Did Lu Shichen know what it meant to put oneself in someone else’s shoes… “What are you thinking?”

　　”My mother also passed away,” Lu Shichen said calmly, “But, I don’t feel sad when I mention this.”

　　This time, Meng Zhao looked at Lu Shichen as if he was looking at a freak: “Are you serious?”

　　”Is it strange?” Lu Shichen glanced at him. “If you can’t remember a person’s appearance and the details of your interactions with them, then that person is like a stranger to you. If a stranger dies, would you be sad?”

　　Meng Zhao found it more and more unbelievable: “She was your mother, how could she be a stranger?” After asking it, he realised that something was wrong, “You said you don’t remember the details of your interactions with her?”

　　”Well, didn’t I tell you about it. After the car accident, I couldn’t remember anything from before I was ten years old?”

　　Meng Zhao was a little surprised. Although he knew that, after the accident, Lu Shichen suffered from stress-induced amnesia, he did not expect the matter to be so serious. Lu Shichen did not remember his mother at all. Meng Zhao had no idea how it felt.

　　After being silent for a few seconds, Meng Zhao changed the subject: “There’s nothing to see in my bedroom. Why don’t we go sit in the living room?”

　　Lu Shichen said “hmm” and followed Meng Zhao to the living room.

　　The two sat down on the sofa. Meng Zhao poured a glass of water for Lu Shichen and placed it in front of him: “Are you not planning to go back this time?”

　　Lu Shichen took a sip of water, then held the cup and rubbed his fingers on the handle a few times: “Not necessarily.”

　　”You don’t have any plans for the future? That’s not like you.”

　　”Do you want me to stay?” Lu Shichen looked at him.

　　”Me?” Meng Zhao laughed, “How can I decide whether a talent like you stays or leaves?”

　　”Do you want me to stay?” Lu Shichen repeated his question.

　　Meng Zhao realised that Lu Shichen was serious. The look in his eyes seemed like he was really waiting for an answer. It made Meng Zhao unconsciously avoid his gaze.

　　The atmosphere was a bit strange, and Meng Zhao tried to change his tone to a relaxed one: “Do you want me to make a career plan for you? Just follow my advice, and go to the place that offers the highest salary.”

　　Lu Shichen did not respond immediately. After a few seconds, he hummed very softly, as if he was laughing: “Yeah, that makes sense.” After that, he stood up and said, “Let’s go.”

　　”Leaving now? Won’t you sit for a while?” Meng Zhao stood up and asked him.

　　”No,” Lu Shichen said, “I still have work to do after getting back.”

　　The two didn’t talk much on the way back, and Meng Zhao noticed that Lu Shichen seemed to be in a bad mood.

　　It was not until they arrived at Yuhu Bay when Lu Shichen opened the door and got out of the car that he spoke: “When will we meet next time?”

　　His question made Meng Zhao unable to react for a moment: “Next time… any time is fine, just contact me if you have anything.”

　　”Ok.” After Lu Shichen finished speaking, he pushed the door, got out of the car, and walked towards Building No. 3.

　　‘When will we meet next time?’ Meng Zhao pondered over the question that made him for a moment. When Lu Shichen asked him that question, he himself didn’t know when he would meet Lu Shichen next time. But he couldn’t help but wonder, how did Lu Shichen come up with that question?

　　Looking at the broad-shouldered and long-legged figure walking away, Meng Zhao thought of the amnesia that Lu Shichen had mentioned more than ten minutes ago.

　　He had originally thought that amnesia was a rare event that only happened in TV dramas, but he didn’t expect it to happen to Lu Shichen. But… after a person lost his memory, would he really have no feelings for his deceased mother?

　　Meng Zhao had no way of understanding that feeling, but he always felt that if it was true, then Lu Shichen was really a bit pitiful. After all, what supported him most of the time was actually the strength that his mother had given him through his memory.

　　It wasn’t until Lu Shichen walked into Building 3 that Meng Zhao withdrew his gaze.

　　The phone on the dashboard vibrated, interrupting his thoughts. He lowered his head and took the phone over. Someone had sent him a text message: 【It’s not Zhou Yan.】

　　Based on his past experience, Meng Zhao deduced that it was an Internet number. Sure enough, after trying to reply, an advertisement for an Internet phone appeared on the phone.

　　‘It’s not Zhou Yan’, Meng Zhao stared at the four words on the screen. Did it mean that Zhou Yan was not involved in the bullying case?

　　Who was the person who had sent him the message? Was it some insider who had a sudden change of heart? He was staring at the screen when another message came in:
【Report Card】

Chapter 30

　　Lu Shichen dreamed of that woman once again.

　　It was winter in his dream, the weather was freezing cold, and the temperature was below zero. There were many people standing in the wind at the school gate, their faces obscured by the white air they exhaled, and the woman waved at him: “Xiaochen, here!”

　　Lu Shichen was like a bystander, watching the little boy run towards the woman and throw himself into her arms.

　　”Are you cold?” the woman asked, untying the scarf from her neck, bending down to wrap it around the boy’s neck, and then hugging him, “It’s warm in the car, come on, let’s run.”

　　What was strange was that he, as a bystander, could actually feel the body temperature brought by the scarf and the warmth of the woman’s palms.

　　The moment the alarm on his cell phone rang, he even became a little greedy for that warmth and wanted to run away with the woman, to the warmer place she mentioned.

　　Although he was awake, Lu Shichen still closed his eyes and recalled the dream for a while.

　　The woman was his mother. He had seen her photograph and knew that her name was Shi Xin and that she was a graphic designer.

　　After surviving the car accident, the psychiatrists had tried to use his mother’s photograph to evoke his memory, but every time Lu Shichen saw her photograph, he would only feel a severe headache. And, the treatment process could not proceed smoothly.

　　He didn’t know when it started, maybe two years ago, he began to occasionally dream about his mother, sometimes a few months apart, sometimes a few weeks apart.

　　His mother’s face was a little blurry in the dream, but he could feel her body temperature. That familiar yet strange feeling made Lu Shichen desperately try to recall his memories before the accident, but if he tried too hard, his headache would flare up again.

　　Perhaps it was because he saw the photograph of Meng Zhao and his mother, he ended up dreaming about his mother again. Lu Shichen sat up from the bed, pinched his eyebrows with his fingers, picked up the watch on the bedside table, glanced at the time, and then got out of bed.

　　He walked to the window, opened the curtains and looked out. The green light seemed to be on at the intersection not far away. A crowd of people was surging, and pedestrians rushing to work were crossing the road in a hurry.

　　Lu Shichen felt quite relaxed. Over the years while he was abroad, he had maintained the habit of sleeping only four hours a day. He didn’t need much sleep and only needed high-concentration coffee to maintain his energy.

　　His psychiatrist had told him that such a lifestyle was not only not conducive to the improvement of his mental state, but may also accelerate the consumption of life and lead to a short life. He didn’t know if that doctor was an alarmist or not, but anyway, Lu Shichen didn’t take it seriously. Living too long in this world and becoming old and weak would be a boring and terrible thing in his opinion.

　　However, after returning to China, in the past few months, he began to sleep in. Perhaps because his daily routine gradually became regular, his mental state gradually improved, and his psychiatrist even reduced the dosage of his medication last time.

　　Lu Shichen saw the black Highlander drive into the Municipal Bureau, and then the car stopped in the parking lot. Meng Zhao stepped out of the car, greeted his colleagues, stepped onto the steps in front of the Municipal Bureau building, and then disappeared into the lobby of the Municipal Bureau.

　　The cell phone on the bedside table buzzed twice. Lu Shichen retracted his gaze, turned around, walked to the bed, bent down and picked up the phone.

　　It said: 【Wen Yi Nursing Home, I’ve sent you the address】

　　*

　　At eight o’clock in the morning, everyone in the Criminal Investigation Office started working according to their respective duties.

　　Zhou Qiyang and Ren Bin continued to visit the defendants from that year. Cheng Yun sat at her workstation, biting a bun while checking the background of all the students who were in Zhao Tong’s class that year.

　　Meng Zhao called Zhou Yan’s stepfather and asked him to find Zhou Yan’s high school report card. The other party was very concerned about this matter. Shortly after he hung up the call, three report cards from Zhou Yan’s senior year in high school were delivered.

　　Meng Zhao printed out the report cards and looked at them several times, but he couldn’t see any clues. But he could see that his grades were declining rapidly. In March, he was in the top ten in the class, but in April, he fell to the middle. By May, his grades were the last in the class. He even handed in a blank paper.

　　But this was not a valuable clue at all. Meng Zhao looked at the three report cards back and forth, wondering what information that person wanted to provide.

　　”Brother Zhao, I’ve checked all the information,” Cheng Yun came over with a stack of information, “There are really a lot of rich and powerful people in this class. It’s definitely a ‘special care’ class. We had this kind of class in high school. All the good teachers in the school would take care of this class…”

　　Meng Zhao flipped through the information and found that Cheng Yun had already sorted the information based on whose background was the most influential. Among them, there was the son of the district head, the daughter of the director of the Education Bureau, and the son of the owner of a huge company…

　　With their power and influence, it was not difficult for them to help arrange the aftermath of the incident. Although the scope had been narrowed, it seemed that things would definitely not go smoothly.

　　Meng Zhao picked up a pen, marked a few names, and handed the file back to Cheng Yun: “Check the call records of these people to see if they have had any contact with the defendants recently.”

　　After assigning the tasks one by one, Meng Zhao drove to Wenzhao High School once again.

　　Perhaps because Wenzhao High School was the most prestigious private high school in the city, the school’s level of cooperation with the police’s questions and requests was not very high.

　　When Cheng Yun called the school to ask for the report cards and graduation photographs, the school staff had refused to fax them on the grounds that ‘relevant documents’ were required.