Skin - Chapter 76

Chapter 76 – Letting Go of Hate

　　Meng Zhao and Lu Shichen looked at each other and thought of the small flower drum at the same time. Judging from the age, the child should have been born not long ago, or maybe he wasn’t born yet. It was very likely that the small flower drum was prepared by Zhang Linqing for the child.

　　The young man curled his lips, said nothing more, and turned into the next room.

　　”He looks like Zhang Linqing.” Lu Shichen said lightly at this time.

　　The woman said nothing.

　　Lu Shichen looked cold, giving people a sense of oppression for no reason: “Where did you get the money to buy four houses at once?”

　　After a moment, the woman whispered, “I earned it myself.”

　　”Even if housing prices were not high more than a decade ago, four houses would still cost at least hundreds of thousands of yuan, which was a huge sum of money at the time. Ms. Lin, what do you do for a living?”

　　The woman was silent again.

　　Seeing the woman sweating profusely after being asked a few questions by Lu Shichen, Meng Zhao finally spoke up and tried to keep his tone gentle: “We came here just to investigate some things and don’t want to cause any trouble to your life. If you tell the truth, we may not pursue many things, but if you want to conceal it deliberately, the consequences will be more serious, and you may even be held responsible for harboring him. Ms. Lin, let me ask you again, what is your relationship with Zhang Linqing?”

　　The two men’s questions almost made the woman collapse. She kept kneading her fingers, and after a long while she said, “I…I did have a relationship with Zhang Linqing.”

　　Seeing the woman give in, Meng Zhao continued to ask, “Then the young man just now is you and Zhang Linqing’s son?”

　　The woman nodded, then looked up and said, “Officer Meng, what crime did Zhang Linqing commit?”

　　”You don’t know?”

　　The woman immediately shook her head.

　　Meng Zhao observed her expression and said, “Zhang Linqing is suspected of two crimes: human trafficking and intentional homicide.”

　　”Zhang Linqing is suspected of human trafficking?” The woman was stunned and murmured, “He wouldn’t do that. He obviously likes children very much…”

　　”According to our speculation, Zhang Linqing was most likely instructed by someone. We came here to ask if you have any evidence from that year that could help us find the mastermind. Ms. Lin, please tell me what happened that year in detail.”

　　The woman calmed down for a while before speaking up.

　　”I was an orphan from childhood. More than 20 years ago, I had just left an orphanage and worked as a waiter in a restaurant to support myself. At that time, a customer got drunk and made physical advances towards me. Zhang Linqing, who was sitting at the next table, stood up and beat up the drunk in order to help me. Later, he often came to eat at the restaurant. As time went by, we became familiar with each other, got along well, and gradually got together.

　　”I didn’t know how he made his living. When I asked him about it, he told me not to worry, so I didn’t ask any more questions. But I could feel that his job must be very dangerous. He used to only come back every few days and he was often injured. After we lived together for a year, I got pregnant. He seemed very happy and bought a lot of clothes and toys for the child in advance.

　　”Suddenly one day, he came back and stuffed a bag into my hand, saying that the things in the bag were very important. He asked me to keep them safe and not show them to anyone. He also said that he had found a new place to live. He asked me to go there and hide there first and wait for news from him. When he returned, we could live a good life with our children.

　　”I listened to him and went away with a big belly and gave birth to our child in that town. I hid there for more than a year. During that time, there was no news from Zhang Linqing. I couldn’t help but go to his hometown to inquire about him. It was then that I learned about his death.

　　”I remembered the bag he gave me before he left. I opened it and found a bank card inside. I took it to the bank to check the balance and found that there was actually one million yuan in it. I had to take care of my child at the time and it was not convenient for me to find a job, so I bought a few houses in the city and moved in with my son. For all these years, I have been living on the rent from those houses.

　　”I also know that the life I can live now is the result of Zhang Linqing’s death. Although he and I didn’t have time to register our marriage, we were still husband and wife. After his death, I realised that I had to do something for him. I heard that he had a mentally retarded mother in the countryside, so I have been visiting her every now and then over the years…”

　　After her words fell, silence remained in the room.

　　Seeing that no one spoke, the woman looked at the other side timidly: “Officer, this is all I know, I am not hiding anything.”

　　Meng Zhao still didn’t speak. He didn’t know what he should say at this moment.

　　He originally thought that what happened 20 years ago, when told by the woman in front of him, would not cause him too much emotional fluctuation. But the facts proved that he had still overestimated himself.

　　He couldn’t help but recreate the scene in his mind.

　　The man happily took the one million and said to the woman in front of him, “After I finish this, we can live a good life with our children!”

　　At that time, his ten-year-old self should have still been attending school carefree, and could not have predicted that his mother, Meng Jing, was about to fall victim to a carefully planned murder, and an inevitable disaster was waiting for them.

　　The one million in the bank card was the price used to buy Meng Jing’s life.

　　Twenty years ago, his mother Meng Jing died because of this one million, and the mother and son in front of him have relied on this one million to live the way they are now in the past twenty years.

　　Meng Zhao clenched his fists and tried his best to control his emotions.

　　”Do you know why Zhang Linqing was able to get the one million back then?” After a long while, Meng Zhao spoke again. His voice was hoarse and he had to take a breath before he could say the next sentence. “Because someone used that one million to instruct him to kill a policeman.”

　　Meng Zhao paused, his Adam’s apple moving slightly: “The police officer who was killed was my mother.”

　　The woman suddenly opened her eyes wide and looked up at Meng Zhao. After being surprised, she lowered her head and there was silence in the room.

　　Meng Zhao couldn’t control his hatred and disgust for the mother and son. The husband of the woman in front of him had made Meng Jing lose her life for a million dollars so that his wife and son could live a better life, and he had become an orphan ever since!

　　His face turned pale, and the veins on his temples popped out. At this moment, his thoughts were confused and he even had difficulty breathing.

　　Realizing that something was wrong with Meng Zhao’s mood, Lu Shichen reached out and held his hand. He could feel Meng Zhao’s clenched fist trembling slightly.

　　At this moment, the woman opposite suddenly slid down from the sofa and knelt down towards Meng Zhao.

　　”Officer Meng, my husband did this, and I don’t intend to beg for your forgiveness. I am fine with what you decide to do,” the woman said in a very low voice, with a sobbing tone, as if she was afraid that her son next door would hear it. “But I beg you, can this matter not affect my son, can you let him live a normal life…”

　　The woman raised her hand to cover her mouth and cried, “I never told him about Zhang Linqing, and he knows nothing…”

　　Seeing the woman in front of him burst into tears in an instant, Meng Zhao’s brain was buzzing.

　　Should he forgive? Or should he continue to hate? How should he hate? Should he fight with his life?

　　He lowered his head, and raised up Lu Shichen’s hand that was holding his, pressing it against his forehead.

　　Then he remembered the countless times Meng Jing sent him to school and looked at him from behind, and the scene when Zhao Yunhua burst into tears when she committed suicide.

　　The mother in front of him was kneeling down and crying and begging him. Even while begging she tried to control her voice so that her son in the next room would not hear her. This strong emotion made him feel caught in a dilemma.

　　Meng Zhao sighed heavily.

　　When he looked up again, he managed to calm himself down and sighed in an almost desperate tone: “Forget it.”

　　Meng Zhao realized that his emotions were somewhat out of control and he could not continue the questioning normally. He whispered to Lu Shichen, “You ask.”

　　”Yeah.” Lu Shichen still held Meng Zhao’s hand and looked across: “You just said that Zhang Linqing gave you a bag and asked you not to show it to anyone, right?”

　　The woman raised her hand to wipe away her tears and nodded.

　　Lu Shichen felt something was wrong. If it was just a bank card, why didn’t Zhang Linqing give it directly to this woman?

　　He looked at the woman in front of him, his tone cold and inhuman: “Besides a bank card, there should have been something else in the bag, right? What was it?”

　　”Besides the bank card, there was also…” the woman said, “a small black box. I had never seen that thing before and I didn’t know what it’s used for, so I just ignored it.”

　　”A small black box?” Lu Shichen repeated, and then asked, “Do you still have it?”

　　”I haven’t thrown it away,” the woman tried to recall, “but I moved several times before I moved in, so I don’t remember exactly where it is now. It might take some effort to find it.”

　　”Then you go find it,” Lu Shichen said, “We’ll wait here.”

　　”Yeah.” The woman responded, got up and went to the bedroom.

　　Meng Zhao and Lu Shichen were waiting silently in the living room, when they heard the sound of rummaging through drawers coming from next door.

　　After a long while, feeling that Meng Zhao’s emotions had calmed down, Lu Shichen looked at Meng Zhao and asked in a low voice: “Do you want to go out for a walk?”

　　”I’m alright,” Meng Zhao shook his head. “I feel much better now. Let’s wait a little longer. What could the black box she just mentioned be?”

　　”I don’t know, but one thing is certain: this thing must be very important, otherwise it wouldn’t have been placed together with the bank card. As for whether it is related to the case, we can only wait and see when it is found.”

　　”Um.”

　　After a while, Lu Shichen asked in a low voice: “You just said forget it, do you intend to forgive them?”

　　Meng Zhao shook his head and said, “No.”

　　Both of them turned their voices down so that only each other could hear what they were talking about.

　　”Do you still hate them?” Lu Shichen asked again.

　　Meng Zhao’s eyes fell on a certain spot on the floor, and he seemed to be in a trance for a while before he spoke: “I originally thought that twenty years would allow me to let go of my hatred, at least my hatred for the criminal’s family, but now it seems that I still can’t do it. But no matter how much hatred I hold, what’s the use? My mother is gone. As a policeman, do I have to avenge her by taking revenge on this mother and son? If I did that, I believe she wouldn’t be happy.”

　　”So…” Meng Zhao lowered his head and shook it lightly, “I can only forget it.”

　　Lu Shichen tightened his grip on Meng Zhao’s fingers, and the unrelieved dull pain in his chest reappeared, as if only by clenching his fingers could this dull pain be slightly relieved.

　　After a long time, it was already dark outside and the woman came out.

　　”Found it?” Lu Shichen looked at her.

　　The woman shook her head and apologized. “I’m sorry… I really forgot where I put the bag, and now I have no idea where to find it. I’m sorry to keep you waiting here. Can you leave me your contact information? I will look for it carefully tonight. I will find it even if I have to search the whole house. I will contact you as soon as I find it.”

　　It was already dark outside, and Meng Zhao realized that he had waited long enough.

　　”Okay.” Meng Zhao let out a breath, stood up and said.

　　He and Lu Shichen walked out of the house, left his cell phone number to the woman, and said to her: “Then please help me find it tonight. This thing is very important to me. Contact me anytime when you find it.”

　　”Don’t worry,” the woman nodded, “I will look carefully.”

　　The door closed, Meng Zhao turned around and saw Lu Shichen standing in front of the window in the corridor, looking down with a strange look on his face.

　　”What’s wrong?” He walked over.

　　”There is a figure wandering around, and it seems to be staring in our direction. Something is wrong,” Lu Shichen whispered, “and it seems that he just took a photo of this household.”

　　”We are being followed?” Meng Zhao’s expression was startled. “Could it be Wu Jiayi’s men?”

　　If this person is allowed to escape, not only will the mother and child be in danger, but the evidence may also be lost!

　　He immediately ran downstairs and said to Lu Shichen, “I’ll go after him, you stay here.”