Skin - Chapter 31
Chapter 31 – Xu Yingying
Meng Zhao made a call to Lu Yang, just to enquire about Lin Lang whom he had mentioned last time.
After the call was connected, Lu Yang quickly picked up the phone: “Officer Meng, is there anything you want to ask?”
”Lu Yang, you didn’t listen to me. You went to investigate the case again today.” Meng Zhao tricked him as soon as he spoke.
Unexpectedly, Lu Yang was not fooled and stammered in panic: “I…I didn’t…I really didn’t find anything today.”
”Didn’t find anything? It seems like you really did go out to investigate.” Meng Zhao took out his anger on Lu Shichen and directed it at Lu Yang. His tone was harsher than last time, and he ordered Lu Yang to stop investigating the case immediately.
Lu Yang didn’t dare to breathe, and kept answering the call on from the other end.
Seeing that the other party agreed not to investigate on his own, Meng Zhao didn’t want to waste time scolding him. To be honest, when encountering such a thing, they didn’t have any tricks. As long as the other party didn’t seriously interfere with the investigation process, there was nothing they could do to such people. They couldn’t just lock them up, right? The consequences of restricting personal freedom are too serious.
Meng Zhao got back to the point: “Didn’t you mention Lin Lang before? Tell me what you know.”
”Oh, Lin Lang is Zhao Tong’s neighbor. They are in the same grade, but in different classes.” Lu Yang was quite enthusiastic and told Meng Zhao all the information he had learned. “When I went there that day, I happened to see the residents from downstairs returning to their old home to pick up something. The family told me that Lin Lang used to have good grades, but suddenly in highschool, she began to have mental problems and never left home again. She didn’t didn’t even take the college entrance examination.”
”She hasn’t left the house until now?”
”Most probably. I knocked on the door that day, but there was no movement from inside. The family I met said that they hadn’t seen Lin Lang since then, but sometimes they heard shouting from upstairs, saying those were the sounds made by Lin Lang when she was sick.”
”So her parents still live with her?”
”I heard that, several years ago, her parents moved away with her brother, leaving her there alone. They only visit her to bring her food once a day.”
Meng Zhao asked again: “What about the boyfriend you mentioned earlier?”
”Because the residents downstairs said that before Lin Lang got mentally ill, a boy often sent Lin Lang home. After she got sick, the boy disappeared. So I guess Lin Lang’s illness might have something to do with her boyfriend… But I tried to find out where her high school boyfriend is now, but I couldn’t find out.” After Lu Yang finished speaking, he asked tentatively, “Officer Meng, I promise not to cause any trouble for you, just let me check…”
”No,” Meng Zhao refused bluntly, “Do you know that you are putting yourself in danger? The real culprit in this case is not as simple as you think. If he knows that you are investigating this matter, you will be in danger, so don’t investigate it anymore.”
”Oh…” Lu Yang said from the other end of the phone.
After hanging up the phone, the takeaway ordered by Meng Zhao arrived.
Meng Zhao opened the takeaway and swallowed the gutter oil meal with a tasteless taste while thinking about the clues about Lin Lang that Lu Yang had just provided.
What on earth would cause a girl to lick herself inside her home for ten years? Suddenly, he thought of Meng Ruoshu. After Meng Ruoshu was molested, she was extremely reluctant to go out and have contact with outsiders. She even suffered from stress aphasia.
‘Could it be that… Lin Lang also suffered a similar sexual assault as Meng Ruoshu?’
‘And then there was Xu Yulin, why did her name disappear from the report cards…?’ Meng Zhao put the lunch box aside, tapped a few times on the keyboard, entered the internal system, and searched for the name “Xu Yulin”.
Xu Yulin’s relevant information appeared on the screen, and behind her name, two words were clearly marked – 【MISSING】.
Meng Zhao clicked on the information page, which showed that Xu Yulin’s parents had reported her missing ten years ago.
‘So, Xu Yulin’s name disappeared from the report cards because she disappeared during her senior year of high school?’
Meng Zhao took out Zhao Tong’s diaries, quickly turned to one of the pages, and stared at the sentence 【If I hadn’t helped her at that time, she would have also disappeared】, his expression became solemn. It seemed that Zhao Tong’s experience of school bullying was likely related to Xu Yulin’s disappearance…
Meng Zhao searched for the name ‘Xu Yingying’. Xu Yingying did not encounter any accidents. The information showed that Xu Yingying was currently working in the city at a company called ‘Yun Ya Technology’. Meng Zhao made plans to meet Xu Yingying the next day.
【Lin Lang, Xu Yulin, Xu Yingying…】 Meng Zhao picked up a pen and wrote down the names of these three girls on a piece of paper. He thought it was just a simple case of school violence, but he didn’t expect it to involve a missing case from ten years ago.
What Lu Shichen told him made sense. The circle was really going too far. After going around in circles, there was no telling when they could get back to Zhou Yan’s case.
But Meng Zhao felt uneasy at the thought of ignoring Xu Yulin’s disappearance.
‘Forget it,’ Meng Zhao sighed. Since he had already decided to deviate, he might as well take a longer route and start with the three girls to thoroughly uncover the truth behind the school bullying case.
Meng Zhao picked up his chopsticks and continued eating. He had ordered a big plate of chicken. To be honest, the meal was far from what he could eat in the cafeteria.
‘What kind of feed did this chicken eat to grow so unpalatable?’ Meng Zhao looked at the big plate of chicken that looked and smelled bad and felt that he had no appetite.
He really wanted to eat barbecue and was already prepared for it.
Meng Zhao felt a little regretful because he had lost his temper a while ago. It was true that Lu Shichen was not a human being, but the barbecue was innocent!
Meng Zhao closed the lunch box and was about to ask Meng Ruoshu if there were any leftovers at home when his cell phone rang. It was a call.
Meng Zhao answered the call, tucked the phone between his face and shoulder, and answered the call while packing up his lunch box: “Hello, who is it?”
”Hello, Mr. Meng. The takeaway you ordered has arrived. Can you pick it up at the main gate? I can’t get in.”
Takeaway? Meng Zhao stopped what he was doing. Why was there another one?
”Is it really mine? For Meng Zhao?”
”Yes, Meng Zhao.” The delivery guy said with certainty.
‘Did I just order one more?’ An idea suddenly popped up in Meng Zhao’s mind. ‘Could it be this takeaway…?’
He hurried downstairs and took the takeaway from the delivery boy. With just one glance at the exquisite paper bag, he knew it was the same Chaoshan clay pot porridge with rich ingredients and extremely expensive taste as the last time.
‘Sure enough, I guessed right, it was Lu Shichen who ordered it.’
Meng Zhao felt mixed emotions as he carried the takeaway back to the office.
He realized belatedly that although Lu Shichen treated other people’s lives as worthless, he was unreasonably good to himself. Whether it was Meng Xiangyu’s case, the notebook from back then, or the porridge now.
Meng Zhao’s heart moved
‘Is it because we are old classmates?’
‘Or is it because of this case?’
‘Or… because of something else?’
Chapter 35
In the Criminal Investigation Office, Meng Zhao projected a character relationship diagram onto the display screen.
In the middle were Zhou Yan, Zhao Yunhua and Zhao Tong, and in the outer circle were Lin Lang, Xu Yulin and Xu Yingying. All the lines pointed to a question mark.
Meng Zhao first gave a brief account of Lin Lang’s situation, and then asked Cheng Yun to explain the information he had found about the other two people.
Cheng Yun picked up the information on the table and walked to the display screen. “Xu Yulin and Xu Yingying are both girls, and they were the classmates of Zhou Yan and Zhao Tong. Captain Meng found all the report cards of the monthly exam of the senior year in Zhao Tong’s home. He discovered that Xu Yulin disappeared from the list after the winter break. Then, in the first month after the winter break, Zhao Tong became a victim of campus bullying.”
”What do you mean by disappeared from the list?” Ren Bin asked, “Did Xu Yulin transfer to another school?”
Cheng Yun shook her head and replied, “The police system shows that Xu Yulin is currently missing. Ten years ago, her parents reported her missing to the Wenzhao District Police Station. Unfortunately, there has been no news about her in the past ten years.”
Seeing Ren Bin nod, Cheng Yun continued, “As for Xu Yingying, judging from Zhao Tong’s diary, it is very likely that she is directly related to the cause of the bullying.”
”Xu Yingying?” Zhou Qiyang interrupted, “Could it be Xu Yingying from Yunya.com?”
”Hey?” Cheng Yun looked at him. “I was just about to say that the information shows that she works at Yunya Technology Company in this city. How did you know that?”
”She used to sing live in Yunya. I’ve seen it a few times.” Realizing that everyone was looking at him sideways, Zhou Qiyang quickly explained, “What’s wrong? I just listen to some songs before going to sleep so that I can sleep better… Hey, don’t look at me like that. Listening to a sweet girl singing is very relaxing, okay? And I just listened to it a few years ago. I don’t listen to it anymore…”
”Why are you feeling guilty about not listening?” Someone asked.
Meng Zhao turned his head and looked at him: “Xiao Zhou, tell me what you know.”
”Oh, OK,” Zhou Qiyang responded. “This Yunya Live is a niche live broadcast APP. Although it is not as good as those top live broadcast softwares, it has developed steadily in the past two years. So many live broadcast websites are not doing well, but Yunya has always been profitable. Yunya Technology is an MCN agency that specializes in incubating Internet celebrities. Xu Yingying is one of the singers signed by Yunya, and she sings on Yunya Live every night. The nature of her singing is different from that of Zhou Yan. Zhou Yan is a singer-songwriter, and his songs are basically his own original works. Xu Yingying is a pure singer. She sings everything, most of which are songs requested by her fans, and she even chats with her fans in between singing. I remember that she doesn’t have many fans, maybe a few hundred thousand, but I really only paid attention to her a long time ago. So, I don’t know if she has gained fans now.”
While Zhou Qiyang was talking, Cheng Yun had already picked up her phone. When he finished speaking, Cheng Yun turned the phone screen to other people and said, “I looked up about this Xu Yingying. I just checked her live broadcast records. She hasn’t done any live broadcasts in the past few days.”
At the same time, Meng Zhao also downloaded the Yunya live broadcast software on his mobile phone. After successfully registering with his mobile phone number, he began to browse through Xu Yingying’s homepage.
”Besides, even her homepage doesn’t explain why she hasn’t been online,” Cheng Yun put away her phone and continued to scroll down. “In the comment section, her fans are asking about her whereabouts and some people even scolded her for not telling them in advance that she wasn’t going to be online…” Cheng Yun quickly scrolled through Xu Yingying’s homepage and spoke in confusion, “Zhou Yan was killed on the 13th, and Xu Yingying hasn’t been online since the 16th… How strange….could it be that she also encountered an accident like Zhou Yan?”
The whole room fell silent for a moment, and everyone started downloading Yunya Live and browsing Xu Yingying’s homepage.
After a moment, Zhou Qiyang said, “That’s true. Streamers like her should have a fixed live broadcast schedule. Not broadcasting for no reason is the same as skipping work…”
”Don’t make unfounded speculations for now. “Meng Zhao proclaimed, interrupting several people’s speculations.
”I’ll assign the tasks now. Zhou Qiyang, you will be responsible for investigating Xu Yingying. Find out why she hasn’t been online recently. Ren Bin, you will be responsible for Xu Yulin. Investigate her situation before her disappearance. Cheng Yun, you will be responsible for Lin Lang. Go visit her parents and inquire about the specific reasons for her sickness at that time. Everyone, let’s go and get to work.”
Several people walked to their desks and began to prepare for field work.
Cheng Yun came over and asked eagerly, “Brother Zhao, you will go with me to investigate Lin Lang’s matter, right?”
”No,” Meng Zhao flipped through the information in his hand, “I’m going with Xiao Zhou.”
”Xiao Zhou can work independently…”
Meng Zhao glanced at her: “Can’t you?”
Cheng Yun’s momentum weakened after he glanced at her: “I’m still an intern, and I haven’t investigated the victim’s family myself. I’m afraid I’ll miss some details…”
”Then think about the questions in advance before asking them,” Meng Zhao closed the folder containing information and thought for a while. “Since you said so, let’s consider this as an assessment. If you don’t do well, don’t go out on field missions in the future.” He said and walked towards Zhou Qiyang. “Let’s go.”
Cheng Yun stood there, wanting to cry but unable to do so. Zhou Qiyang turned around and made a gloating face at her.
*
Yunya Technology.
”Xu Yingying?” The HR manager who was called over hurriedly greeted Meng Zhao. “She really hasn’t been going live recently, and neither has she asked us for leave. We have no idea as to what happened to her.”
”You didn’t contact her?” Zhou Qiyang asked.
”Of course we tried to contact her, but we couldn’t get through. We called her many times but she never answered. In fact, we also sent someone to her house, but no one was there. We have no idea what to do. It’s been a week now, and if she doesn’t show up by next week, we plan to call the police…” As he was speaking, the sliding door near the front desk opened and a man walked in.
The HR manager, who had just been bashful, immediately smiled: “Mr. Wu, you’re here.”
Meng Zhao turned his head and followed his line of sight. The man in front of him was quite young, about twenty-five or twenty-six years old, about the same height as himself. He was wearing a suit that looked very expensive, and there was a hint of cynicism between his eyebrows.
The man called ‘Mr. Wu’ nodded, and when he came over, he glanced at Meng Zhao and asked casually to the HR manager: “We have clients?”
”It’s the police,” said the HR manager.
”Hmm?” The man stopped. “What’s wrong?”
”It’s about Xu Yingying’s matter.”
”Xu Yingying?” That ‘Mr. Wu’ came over. “What happened to Xu Yingying?”
”Xu Yingying hasn’t done any live broadcast for several days, and we can’t contact her…” The HR manager explained, and then introduced the two parties attentively, “This is our company’s CEO, Mr. Wu, and this is Captain Meng and Officer Zhou, from the Municipal Bureau.”
’Mr. Wu’ stretched out his hand to shake hands with Meng Zhao, looking very polite.
Meng Zhao looked at him and said, “Mr. Wu remembers all the anchors of the company very clearly.”
”We’re just a small company and there’s not many people,” the other party said modestly, “and every anchor who signs a contract must be approved by me.”
Meng Zhao nodded and said perfunctorily: “That’s quite some hard work.”
”You guys are working harder. When the results of Xu Yingying’s investigation are out, please let us know… I won’t bother you any more. I’ll go in first.” After the other person finished speaking, he turned to the HR manager and said, “Cooperate with the police.”
The HR manager nodded hurriedly: “Of course, of course.”
After Mr. Wu turned into the company, Meng Zhao said, “The hierarchy in your company is very clear.” Even when he was in the Municipal Bureau, he had never been that fawning to Director Xu.
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