Skin - Chapter 3

　　Meng Zhao was not polite to him and sat down on the sofa opposite Lu Shichen. He ignored Lu Shichen’s appraising eyes and casually asked, “How long has it been since you returned?”

　　”Little more than half a year.”

　　”Weren’t you very successful abroad?”

　　The other party was not modest: “It was okay.”

　　Meng Zhao’s eyes fell on the iPad on the solid wood table. The screen was still on. Although he didn’t learn English very well in school, he could roughly guess that it was about finance. Lu Shichen probably worked in the financial industry. Meng Zhao thought it wasn’t unusual. Such an unpopular person was best suited at dealing with money.

　　The bathroom door opened at this time. Meng Zhao didn’t expect that there was someone else, so he turned around and looked over. Probably because Lu Shichen looked rich from head to toe, he subconsciously didn’t think Lu Shichen would share the apartment with anyone else.

　　The woman who walked out of the bathroom was obviously not a roommate of Lu Shichen. She looked like a mixed race. She was wearing a bath towel and her long curly hair was wet. She must have just taken a shower: “Hey? You have a guest?” The tone was a bit unexpected, as if she wasn’t expecting the arrival of an outsider.

　　Meng Zhao looked away, thinking that he might have ruined Lu Shichen’s good deeds. Promoting prostitution during the day was really… besides didn’t he have to go to work?

　　Lu Shichen didn’t answer, but asked Meng Zhao, “Didn’t you say you have something to ask?”

　　The woman probably felt that her attire was not appropriate for the time, so she hurried into the back room.

　　Meng Zhao felt that it was not appropriate to stay for a long time, so he cut to the chase and said, “Have you recently seen the resident from the apartment above yours?”

　　The other party cherished his words like gold: “No.”

　　“Isn’t it quite noisy when someone sings live every night?”

　　”It’s quite noisy.”

　　”I heard that you called the police because of this?”

　　”That time,” Lu Shichen thought for a moment, “it had nothing to do with singing. It was because they held a party until three in the morning, and the level exceeded 60 decibels at night, which reached the alarm standard.”

　　”You haven’t considered moving to another place to live? Are you renting this place?” Meng Zhao observed the room when he entered the house. The facilities were quite simple, like a temporary rental place.

　　”I’ve been looking for another place, but I haven’t found the right one yet.”

　　Meng Zhao nodded and stood up from the sofa: “By the way, the resident upstairs was strangled to death in the demolition area over there last night. If you think of any clues, please contact me at any time.” He said, handing over a business card and observed the expression on Lu Shichen’s face.

　　Lu Shichen didn’t look surprised or interested at all. He raised his eyes and looked at Meng Zhao: “Really, Officer Meng, why don’t you sit down for a while?”

　　Meng Zhao always felt that the title was a bit ironic when the other party said it. He bent down and touched the back of the Border Collie’s neck, squatted down and rubbed it: “No, there’s something else I need to do. Come on, this dog is quite cute, what’s his name?”

　　”Knife.”

　　Meng Zhao’s expression changed again. He didn’t know if it was a coincidence, but his nickname was Xiaodao¹. When Lu Shichen called the dog, it felt as if he was scolding him as a dog.

　　Meng Zhao went out and met Cheng Yun who had just gotten rid of Zhang Chao.

　　”How did it go, Captain Meng? Have you spoken to the resident?”

　　Meng Zhao wrapped the dog hair on his hand with a tissue and said with a worried expression, “I saw a dog.”

　　Cheng Yun followed Meng Zhao: “The housekeeping aunt from Zhou Yan’s house also arrived just now. I asked her to wait in the living room.”

　　Meng Zhao nodded: “Yes.”

　　As soon as they entered the house, Qin Xiaobai and the housekeeping aunt were sitting on the earth-coloured sofa in the living room, looking at each other. After all, it was not that easy to digest the idea of someone around you getting murdered.

　　The housekeeping aunt looked to be in her forties or fifties, her clothes were slightly faded from the washing, but she looked like a clean person. When she saw Meng Zhao, she immediately stood up with some restraint.

　　”Sit down,” Meng Zhao looked at her, “Do you usually come here to clean at this hour?”

　　The aunt sat back on the sofa and clasped her hands together: “Well, Mr. Zhou wakes up late, so I come over to clean at noon and cook for him.”

　　”You still come here as usual when Zhou Yan is away?”

　　”Last week he said he was going on a business trip and I didn’t come over. Yesterday he sent a message asking me to come over today.”

　　”Can I see the message?”

　　Meng Zhao took the mobile phone handed over by the housekeeping aunt. It was an iPhone 5 with a small screen. The mobile phone case was the most common transparent case available in the market, and it had already turned a little yellow. The voice message sent by Zhou Yan on WeChat: “Aunt Zhao, I will return tomorrow. Come over at the usual time.”

　　Meng Zhao copied Zhou Yan’s mobile phone number and WeChat ID, and returned the phone to the housekeeping aunt: “Your child gave the phone to you, right?”

　　Auntie took the phone and said, “Xiao Zhou gave it to me.”

　　Meng Zhao nodded, not surprised. Zhou Yan’s life seems to be quite comfortable. He gave his old mobile phone to his housekeeping aunt as a favour, which proved that he was somewhat a generous person. Moreover, most housekeepers would address their customers formally.

　　”What housekeeping company do you work for?” Meng Zhao continued to ask.

　　”Shunyi Housekeeping Company, but…” Auntie hesitated, “Mr. Zhou and I signed the contract privately without informing the company. Can you please not tell this to our company?”

　　Meng Zhao smiled: “Don’t worry, I won’t tell you.” Signing the contract privately could save a lot of agency fees, but most people still chose to sign with the company because they didn’t trust the housekeeping aunt. However, it seemed that Zhou Yan had a good relationship with this aunt.

　　Meng Zhao finished recording the information in his notebook and closed the cap of his pen: “I’ll contact you if anything happens.”

　　Zhang Chao’s voice came from the bedroom: “Zhao’er, come here!”

　　Meng Zhao informed the aunt and walked towards the bedroom: “Have you cracked the password?”

　　”Does that need to be told?” Zhang Chao was packing the instruments aside, “I even unlocked the pad password for you. Isn’t that awesome?”

　　”Brother Chao is awesome.” Meng Zhao praised casually, picked up the iPad and entered Taobao. His account was logged in, and he opened the purchase history. Sure enough, the dress was purchased online by Zhou Yan himself.

　　”Hey,” Zhang Chao came over to watch with him, “Is Zhou Yan a transvestite?”

　　”Probably not,” Meng Zhao returned to the home screen and looked at the time, “Let’s go back to the bureau and talk.” He quickly disassembled the computer and picked up the host: “Cheng Yun, come here and get the data cable and keyboard. Qin Xiaobai!”

　　Qin Xiaobai sat up from the sofa and trotted to the door of Zhou Yan’s bedroom: “What’s the matter, Officer Meng?”

　　”Help move the monitor.” When Meng Zhao walked out, he saw the housekeeping aunt still cleaning Zhou Yan’s bathroom. He paused and said, “You should go back early for lunch.”

　　”Hey,” the aunt said, leaning on her back, her back a little stooped, “I’ll clean it, it’s all agreed upon.”

　　After leaving the door, Meng Zhao asked Qin Xiaobai as he walked: “When Zhou Yan was away, were you the one who collected his express delivery?”

　　”I want to sleep, so I didn’t accept the express delivery.” Qin Xiaobai bent his legs and touched the small iron door half a metre high on the wall with his knee. “We put them all in the water metre box. The delivery boy knows.”

　　”Aren’t you afraid of things getting stolen?” Meng Zhao glanced at the water metre box.

　　”It’s okay. I haven’t lost any of them. I just put the particularly valuable things in the property.”

　　After entering the elevator, Zhang Chao put the instrument box on the ground and looked at Qin Xiaobai: “Your roommate was killed, and you don’t have any hard feelings. You’re so big-hearted.”

　　”Heyyyy,” Qin Xiaobai hugged the monitor, “We are just roommates. He only moved here three months ago. We have barely met each other. My relationship with him is not as good as his relationship with the housekeeping aunt. It’s not normal for me to act too sad, it’s true that it’s a bit annoying.”

　　Meng Zhao stood opposite him, observing Qin Xiaobai’s expression calmly as he spoke: “What do you do for a living?”

　　”I am…” Qin Xiaobai, who had always been smooth, said, “The lobby manager of a hotel.”

　　Meng Zhao said nothing and nodded.

　　”Officer Meng,” Qin Xiaobai hesitated, “Who is the person who killed Zhou Yan? He won’t attack me next, right?”

　　Meng Zhao looked at him: “We are still checking, so relax.”

　　–·–+–·–

　　Qiao Yu changed her clothes and walked out of the guest bedroom, leaning against the door with her arms crossed: “Who was that just now?”

　　”Police.” Lu Shichen wore silver-rimmed glasses and flipped through the morning’s financial news on his ipad.

　　”Police?” Qiao Yu was startled, stood up from the door, walked over and sat next to Lu Shichen, “You didn’t do anything, right?”

　　”Someone was killed,” Lu Shichen said calmly, “Besides, what are you wearing?”

　　Qiao Yu wore Lu Shichen’s shirt, which was thigh-length, with her breasts half exposed, and looking quite suggestive. When Lu Shichen asked her such a question, she just thought it was a joke: “I didn’t bring a change of clothes, so I have to borrow yours. Didn’t my brother say hello to you and ask you to take good care of me?”

　　Lu Shichen flipped through the pages on his pad, with a noncommittal expression on his face. Qiao Yu was the sister of his former company chairman Qiao Mingjia. Qiao Mingjia had helped him a lot when he was abroad, so when Qiao Mingjia brought his sister over to stay, it seemed quite natural to help.

　　Lu Shichen was not used to living with others. Fortunately, the few days Qiao Yu stayed coincided with him going on a business trip to a neighbouring city. He just returned yesterday, so he only had to send Qiao Yu away today.

　　Qiao Yu tilted his head and leaned against Lu Shichen: “The policeman just now was so handsome. Do you know him?”

　　Lu Shichen said after a while: “Yes.”

　　Qiao Yu looked at Lu Shichen. Lu Shichen’s face looked like a carefully carved work of art. Viewed from the side, the lines from the brow bone to the bridge of the nose were undulating and smooth, somewhat like a Westerner with deep outlines, but there was a bias between the eyebrows and eyes, a subtle sense of alienation from Asians.

　　Qiao Yu felt that she had to take the initiative, so she reached out to unbutton Lu Shichen’s chest.

　　Lu Shichen didn’t stop her, he just leaned over and took a small medicine bottle from the solid wood table and handed it to Qiao Yu.

　　”What is this?” Qiao Yu stopped and took it without knowing why.

　　”The side effects.” Lu Shichen reminded her.

　　Qiao Yu’s eyes moved to the line about side effects, and her face suddenly became unsightly. She saw it read: “May cause anorexia, lack of energy, and loss of sexual desire.”

　　Lu Shichen turned to look at her with a calm expression: “I’m so sorry but I’m frigid.”

　　Qiao Yu sneered: “…Is this true? Are you kidding me?”

　　Lu Shichen continued: “To be precise, it’s erectile dysfunction.”

　　Qiao Yu was speechless for a few seconds. With such a face, Lu Shichen confessed that he was frigid, which made her feel complicated: “…Is it because of this medicine? What kind of medicine is this? Can’t you not take it?”

　　”Antidepressant medicine.” Lu Shichen took off his glasses and pinched his eyebrows with his fingers. “Compared with venting desires, treating the disease is more important.”

　　Qiao Yu was silent for a moment, unable to resist her curiosity, and asked one more question: “So you haven’t done anything in the past few years? Don’t you have that kind of… moment when you really want to vent it out?”

　　”Of course,” Lu Shichen glanced at her and said calmly, “Just kill someone.”

　　His expression was so natural that Qiao Yu couldn’t tell for a moment whether he was joking or not.

　　Lu Shichen stood up and walked to the balcony, leaned down, put his elbows on the railing, and looked downstairs. Looking down from the 17th floor, he couldn’t actually see the people downstairs very clearly, but Lu Shichen could recognize Meng Zhao – the one with the longest legs standing next to the trunk.

　　Except that his legs had become longer and his hair had grown a bit, Meng Zhao had actually not changed much over the years.

　　The 17-year-old Meng Zhao looked the same as the present Meng Zhao. When he stared at people, his eyes seemed to hide a thin blade with a cold light, as if he would be provoked to pull out the sheath at any time.

　　It’s still so interesting, Lu Shichen thought. He liked to irritate Meng Zhao.

　　When he thought of it, life seemed to become a little more interesting.

　　”Then… Do you need to take medicine today?” Qiao Yu walked to the balcony with the small medicine bottle and asked with some worry, “Do you want to go to the hospital and change medicine?”

　　The fact that Lu Shichen was frigid made her feel heartbroken. Qiao Yu felt that the heartache was not for herself, but for all mankind. There were only a few handsome guys in the population, but the rare one in front of her was actually frigid…

　　”There’s no need to eat today.” Lu Shichen straightened up and walked back into the house, “Isn’t your brother going to call someone to pick you up soon? Change your clothes.”

　　Meng Zhao put away the desktop computer, closed the trunk, and looked up upstairs. Just now, he noticed that gaze once again. But of the 25-story building, there was only one person on the seventh floor at the moment. It was an old man holding a kettle to water the flowers on the balcony. Just as he and Meng Zhao looked at each other, the old man shouted to him: “I’m sorry, young man, I’m watering the flowers? Is it falling on your head?”

　　Meng Zhao: “…No, you continue.”

　　”What’s wrong?” Cheng Yun also looked up.

　　”It’s okay.” Meng Zhao shook his head slightly. Was it an illusion? He thought as he walked to the passenger seat, “It’s better that you drive and go to the property manager first.”

　　The property manager was near the gate. Meng Zhao got out of the car and walked in, asking the front desk: “Do you have any rental information of the residents in the community?”