Skin - Chapter 91

Chapter 91 – A Possible Lead

　　After running around all day, several members of the task force responsible for questioning the victims of the dark cage returned to the office one after another.

　　When Zhou Qiyang returned, he first took a cup of water and drank it in one gulp. He then said, “The seven girls Xiao Cheng and I interviewed couldn’t confirm whether Wu Jiayi was the rapist. A few girls said the person looked like him, but they couldn’t be completely sure, so it can’t be used as evidence at all.”

　　”It’s the same with the girls we’re in charge of,” Xiao Song echoed. “At first they said they seemed to have seen this person, but when we asked them if they were sure, no one dared to confirm.”

　　”Aside from his hair color, Wu Jiayi’s face doesn’t have any other distinctive features. Only part of his face was exposed, so it’s really hard to determine…” Zhou Qiyang put down the water cup in his hand. “In fact, if the sexual assault was carried out in a dimly lit place like that, it would have been even harder to notice anything.”

　　Several people who went out to investigate reported the situation. Ultimately, they arrived at the conclusion that no victim could accurately identify their rapist as Wu Jiayi.

　　The office fell into silence. Meng Zhao leaned against the edge of the table, pondered for a moment, then looked up at Cheng Yun: “Is Shao Qi still conscious?”

　　Cheng Yun shook her head: “No.”

　　Without a confession of identification, it is impossible to prove that Wu Jiayi participated in the secret operation and sexually assaulted these girls. It seems that this path is blocked before Shao Qi wakes up. Meng Zhao feels a headache.

　　As dusk deepened outside the window, the case once again fell into the dilemma of being unable to obtain any evidence. Unable to find a breakthrough, Meng Zhao had no choice but to say, “Thank you for your hard work today. Everyone, go home first. I’ll sort it out carefully.”

　　”Okay, Brother Zhao, you should go back early too.” Seeing Meng Zhao frown again, Zhou Qiyang said comfortingly, “Wu Jiayi is under surveillance anyway, so there’s no need to rush.”

　　The others also responded and packed up their things and left work one after another.

　　Most people in the office had left. Meng Zhao sighed, walked to his office, slumped down in his seat, and leaned his head back.

　　He couldn’t care less about his physical discomfort now, only a lingering feeling of powerlessness. He knew there were countless connections between Wu Jiayi and the dark cage, but when he reached out to reel them in, those extremely thin threads would snap the moment he touched them.

　　This happened with Zhang Linqing’s recorder, the Left-behind Children Foundation, and now, Wu Jiayi’s alleged sexual assault on the victims of the Dark Cage…

　　Lu Shichen, who had been silently listening to everyone’s reports, looked at Meng Zhao and asked, “Still haven’t found any evidence that directly points to Wu Jiayi?”

　　Meng Zhao shook his head. “Although all the evidence we have is related to Wu Jiayi, none of it directly points to him. This is the biggest problem.”

　　Lu Shichen also fell into deep thought. After a moment, he said, “If we can’t find the current evidence, why not think about whether there are any details that we have missed before?”

　　”The details we missed before…” Meng Zhao repeated his words. This case had come to this point, and a lot of things had happened in the between. He closed his eyes, and scenes emerged in his mind…

　　In the corner of the dilapidated old building, Zhou Yan, wearing a red dress, had several marks left on his neck…

　　On the rooftop of the crude, unfinished building, Zhao Yunhua retreated step by step until she fell off the building…

　　In the basement of the sanatorium, those beds were placed side by side and the unconscious people were lying on them…

　　And in that low gray-white building hidden in the woods, more than thirty girls huddled together in a room…

　　All the images flashed through his mind like old photo albums. Suddenly, his mind froze on the thought of the huge conference room—the aggressive reporter, the crying little girl, and his own furious self…

　　Meng Zhao suddenly opened his eyes: “Press conference!”

　　His brows slowly furrowed: “That reporter…”

　　Lu Shichen nodded: “Yeah.”

　　”You discovered it too?” Meng Zhao looked at him, “Why didn’t you tell me before?”

　　”When the incident first happened, I noticed that there seemed to be a problem, but then the Yancheng incident happened, and the matter was put on hold. I only remembered it just now.” Lu Shichen said.

　　Meng Zhao stood up, shook the mouse on the desktop a few times, and the computer screen lit up. He typed quickly on the keyboard while saying, “What do you think?”

　　Lu Shichen pondered for a moment and said, “Ordinary TV stations still have to act according to the police’s wishes. To openly question the police and oppose them under such circumstances is not something anybody would normally do, and it’s definitely not something a small media reporter would dare to do. They went to great lengths to orchestrate such an incident to bring you down and hinder the investigation. It’s very likely that this incident touched the interests of someone in power at the TV station. We should be concerned not with this reporter, but with the people behind him.”

　　As Lu Shichen finished speaking, Meng Zhao also searched for relevant information on the computer. He browsed the webpage and said, “Indeed, this director has a close relationship with Wu Jiayi.”

　　Lu Shichen stood next to Meng Zhao, supported the back of the chair behind him with one hand, and leaned slightly to look at the computer screen.

　　”Zheng Yongnian.” He repeated the keywords in the search box, “Mingji TV.”

　　”Well, the reporter who questioned me that day was from Mingji TV, and Zheng Yongnian is the director of Mingji TV. Mingji not only has a TV station, but also newspapers and news video platforms. While the TV station’s influence is limited to the province, the influence of all media radiates nationwide.” Meng Zhao explained to Lu Shichen while opening several photos of Wu Jiayi and Zheng Yongnian. The two often appeared together at different occasions, and they seemed to have a very close relationship.

　　Meng Zhao opened another report about the Left-behind Children Foundation. The news said that Wu Jiayi donated 20 million yuan to the foundation and personally went to the countryside to visit these left-behind children.

　　The photo below the news is a group photo of Wu Jiayi, Zheng Yongnian, and the head of the foundation.

　　After staring at the photo for a few seconds, Meng Zhao picked up the phone on the table and called Zhang Chao: “Brother Chao, are you still at the bureau? Okay, I’ll come find you right away.”

　　After hanging up the phone, Meng Zhao stood up, said to Lu Shichen, “I’m going to do some technical investigation,” and walked out in a hurry.

　　Pushing the door open and entering, Meng Zhao didn’t bother to exchange pleasantries with Zhang Chao. He went straight to the point and said, “Brother Chao, search for Zheng Yongnian, the director of Mingji TV Station, and compare him with all the clients of Dark Cage to see if there is a match.”

　　”Is the director of Mingji TV related to Dark Cage?” Zhang Chao asked in shock as he operated the identification system. “Did he accept sexual bribes from Wu Jiayi?”

　　”Not necessarily yet.” Meng Zhao walked over and looked at the progress bar flashing on the computer screen.

　　The system was performing high-speed calculations. After about two minutes, the progress bar reached 99%. The three people were now staring at the screen.

　　The next second, a photo of a dark cage customer wearing a black mask popped up on the right side of Zheng Yongnian’s photo – the similarity was 99.99%!

　　”Fuck, as expected.” Meng Zhao cursed in a low voice.

　　He immediately picked up his phone and called Zhou Qiyang: “Xiao Zhou, call Xiao Song and go to Zheng Yongnian’s residence immediately to summon him in person and bring him to the police station.”

　　After leaving Zhang Chao, Meng Zhao quickly walked back to the criminal investigation office.

　　Lu Shichen pulled up a swivel chair and sat down, looking through the stack of foundation materials. Seeing Meng Zhao come back, he looked up and asked him, “How did it turn out?”

　　”This Zheng Yongnian is indeed one of the secret clients,” Meng Zhao sat down in front of the computer, “little did he know that while accepting sexual bribes from Wu Jiayi, he was also caught by Wu Jiayi, and finally became a running dog, released by Wu Jiayi to bite people at the press conference. I have asked Xiao Zhou to catch him. Let’s think about the interrogation ideas for a while.” After Meng Zhao finished speaking, he formed an interrogation plan in his mind while flipping through the information.

　　He was leaning back in his chair with his eyes closed, lost in thought, when something suddenly touched his lower lip. He opened his eyes and saw Lu Shichen holding a peeled chestnut and bringing it to his mouth.

　　After a pause, Meng Zhao opened his mouth and ate the chestnut.

　　After swallowing the chestnuts, Meng Zhao looked up at Lu Shichen: “Are you hungry?”

　　”No.”

　　”After I finish interrogating this director, I’ll take you out for some delicious food.”

　　”Yeah.” Lu Shichen said, peeling another chestnut and handing it over.

　　After eating a few chestnuts, Meng Zhao’s phone on the table vibrated. He took a look and saw that it was Zhou Qiyang calling. He picked up the phone and asked, “What’s going on?”

　　”Brother Zhao, Zheng Yongnian isn’t home,” Zhou Qiyang said on the phone. “His wife said he’s on a business trip and left this afternoon. Please check his personal schedule in the system.”

　　Meng Zhao immediately opened the internal system and typed the three words “Zheng Yongnian” in the search box.

　　”I couldn’t find his personal schedule for today.” Meng Zhao’s expression became a little serious. “When did he leave?”

　　”This afternoon, around three or four o’clock.”

　　Where on earth did Zheng Yongnian go… Meng Zhao’s mind raced through various possibilities, and he made a snap decision: “As long as he’s in China, it’s easy. I’m worried he might have fled the country. And for someone of Zheng Yongnian’s status, if he’d already planned to flee, it wouldn’t be difficult for him to forge a false ID. I’ll have someone send out a joint investigation notice to all checkpoints and airports. Xiao Zhou, you and Xiao Song should rush to the airport immediately and contact the surrounding police stations to conduct a comprehensive search.”

　　”Okay.” Zhou Qiyang responded.

　　After hanging up the phone, Meng Zhao called the detective on duty that night and assigned him the task of issuing a joint investigation notice. He then posted a message in the task force group: “Everyone, go to the airport immediately to cooperate with the search and arrest.”

　　After finishing all the work, he stood up and pulled Lu Shichen out: “Let’s go to the airport now.”

　　After going downstairs, Meng Zhao and Lu Shichen quickly ran to the parking lot, opened the car door on each side and got in.

　　Meng Zhao started the car and cursed, “Fuck, this Zheng Yongnian, he got away really fast.”

　　Lu Shichen sat in the co-pilot seat and took out his phone to search for international flight information. “There’s an international flight at 4:55 pm. If Zheng Yongnian misses it, he’ll most likely have to take the 7:45 pm flight.”

　　”The notice for the joint investigation has been issued,” Meng Zhao stepped on the accelerator and overtook the car, heading straight for the airport. “He definitely won’t be able to take the 7:45 flight.”

　　The night was pitch black, and the road to the airport was deserted and silent. Meng Zhao sped up, compressing the original half-hour drive to just over twenty minutes.

　　After getting out of the car, Meng Zhao and Lu Shichen strode into the venue.

　　Police from the airport police station were moving around the hall, searching for Zheng Yongnian among the crowd.

　　The precinct’s operations team leader saw Meng Zhao approaching and walked over to report the current situation to him: “Captain Meng, all gates at the airport have been closed. Two officers have been assigned to each exit to verify identities, and the remaining officers are responsible for searching the hall.”

　　”Yeah.” Meng Zhao responded, then walked around the hall with Lu Shichen, searching for Zheng Yongnian’s figure.

　　In the huge airport, dense crowds of people are moving around non-stop.

　　Because all boarding gates were suddenly closed and all flights were delayed, the hall was filled with passengers’ anxiety, and several passengers argued loudly with the staff at the service desk.

　　After searching all three floors, the police still found no suspicious target. Could it be that Zheng Yongnian didn’t go to the airport? Meng Zhao’s eyes swept across the crowd in front of him, staring at everyone’s face. At this moment, Lu Shichen, who was walking by the window, suddenly said, “Look over there.”

　　Meng Zhao then turned his head and followed Lu Shichen’s gaze.

　　Just outside the window, in the empty night, in the northeast corner of the airport parking lot, a man wearing a mask was hiding behind a car. He looked suspicious, and it was clear that he was deliberately avoiding the sight of nearby police, waiting for an opportunity to strike. Meng Zhao’s expression was stern: “Catch him!”
　　Meng Zhao and Lu Shichen both took off at the same time and quickly chased after him. Seeing this, the other police officers who were around immediately followed.

　　Meng Zhao and Lu Shichen quickly went downstairs and arrived near the car, but in just a few tens of seconds, the suspicious man disappeared!

　　”He hasn’t gotten far. Search quickly.” Meng Zhao picked up the intercom. “Everyone, come out! Spread out and block off every corner of the airport. We absolutely cannot let him escape!”

　　After saying that, Meng Zhao began to carefully observe the surrounding environment: There was no shelter nearby except for the cars, so where could he hide?

　　Suddenly, Meng Zhao saw a figure that seemed to be crawling suddenly appear at the westernmost end of the parking lot and rushed towards the southwest with all its strength.

　　This Zheng Yongnian actually crawled all the way under the car to the other side!

　　Seeing this, Meng Zhao and Lu Shichen took off, chasing after their target with all their might. At the same time, Meng Zhao immediately used his intercom to summon the police stationed in the southwest to come and block the area.

　　The further they got from the main airport area, the fewer streetlights there were. Furthermore, the target, dressed in black, became increasingly blurred, making pursuit difficult for Meng Zhao and Lu Shichen. However, as they pursued, they gradually forced the target into the southwest corner of the airport, a dead end with no exit and housing for airport staff.

　　Seeing nowhere to escape, the man plunged into the dormitory building and desperately fled up the fire escape. Lu Shichen pursued him relentlessly, from the second floor to the third floor to the fourth floor… When he reached the top floor, the man had nowhere to retreat. Without a second thought, he flung open the door. Lu Shichen followed closely behind him, and the moment he opened the door, he finally saw the man in front of him clearly – Zheng Yongnian, the director of Mingji TV Station.

　　When he reached the rooftop, Lu Shichen stopped and looked back. Where was Meng Zhao?

　　Just now, he and Meng Zhao got separated during the chase, and Meng Zhao is now nowhere to be found.

　　Not far ahead of him, Zheng Yongnian retreated step by step, gradually approaching the edge of the rooftop. Realizing that Zheng Yongnian wanted to commit suicide, Lu Shichen could not think of anything else. Zhao Yunhua’s death was still before his eyes. If Zheng Yongnian fell downstairs, the trail of clues would be interrupted again.

　　On both sides of the rooftop, two men, who were more than twenty years apart in age, stared at each other from a distance of five or six meters.

　　The TV station director, who was in his fifties, was out of breath and was in an embarrassing state, but he still tried to maintain his dignity. He stood there and looked at Lu Shichen and said, “Don’t come over, I will jump down.”

　　Lu Shichen looked at him and observed him: “Why are you running away?”

　　Zheng Yongnian was still panting: “If I don’t run away, do I have to wait for you to catch me?”

　　Lu Shichen looked at him and asked, “Are you confessing to your crimes?”

　　Zheng Yongnian threatened again: “Don’t push me. I know what you want to get out of me. If you take another step forward, I will jump down immediately!”

　　”It’s up to you whether you want to jump or not. I’m not a policeman, and your life has nothing to do with me.” Lu Shichen’s tone seemed to be free of any emotion. “Besides, I’ve seen people commit suicide, and those who really want to jump wouldn’t be like you.”

　　Zheng Yongnian glanced behind him. The distance of thirty or forty meters from the ground made him take a step forward involuntarily in fear.

　　”You’re not a policeman?” Zheng Yongnian looked at him, his rapid breathing slowly calming down. “Then who are you, and why are you chasing me?”

　　Lu Shichen didn’t answer his question. He just looked at him and said calmly, “Your jump may not be a relief. The buildings around the airport are of limited height. If you jump thirty or forty meters, you could die or become disabled. Have you considered the consequences?”

　　At this moment, footsteps were heard behind him, and Lu Shichen knew that it was Meng Zhao who came.

　　Zheng Yongnian immediately tensed up again and looked at Meng Zhao who walked onto the rooftop with vigilance.

　　”Even if you want to commit suicide, there must be someone you want to see before you die, right?” Meng Zhao stopped and stood next to Lu Shichen. He put his mobile phone on the ground and pushed it forward with his hand. The phone slid along the ground to Zheng Yongnian’s feet.

　　The phone was making a video call. On the screen, his daughter looked anxious, holding his newborn granddaughter in her arms.

　　Zheng Yongnian looked down at the two people on the screen, and his hands hanging by his side began to tremble slightly.

　　”Dad,” the young woman’s voice came from the receiver, “where are you?”

　　Zheng Yongnian didn’t say anything, but his lips and chin began to tremble slightly.

　　”Dad, don’t die,” Zheng Yongnian’s daughter shed tears on the screen, “No matter what wrong you have done, things have not come to that point. You must live first…” Before she finished her words, the baby in her arms began to cry violently.

　　Zheng Yongnian looked at his daughter and granddaughter on the screen, and two lines of tears slid down his aging cheeks.

　　Meng Zhao looked at him. Although the man in front of him made him extremely disgusted, he had to control his emotions at this moment: “Your death will be a lifelong shame for them.”

　　Zheng Yongnian looked away from his phone screen and towards Meng Zhao, calming himself down. “As long as I don’t die, I have to continue to face this matter. They will still be nailed to the pillar of shame.”

　　”While some things are unforgivable, they can still be redeemed. You can choose to live a less shameful life.” Meng Zhao knew that if Zheng Yongnian survived, the case might progress beyond expectations. He had to persuade Zheng Yongnian to survive. “Think about your original intentions for entering the media industry. You wouldn’t have started out this way. If your conscience hasn’t completely faded, I believe you’ll make the right choice.”

　　Meng Zhao’s final words brought back memories of Zheng Yongnian’s thirty-plus years in the industry. Once upon a time, he’d been full of vigor and ambition, like a young man, microphone in hand, exposing the injustices and darkness of society. When had he taken that wrong step? When had he put down the microphone, betrayed his conscience, and accepted everything that was readily available?

　　The mixed cries of a young woman and a tender baby coming from the receiver of the mobile phone at his feet put him in a dilemma.

　　Then he thought of the despair of being on public trial and all the shame his family would have to endure for him. Zheng Yongnian closed his eyes, took a step back, and stepped into empty air.

　　This moment was very similar to the scene when Zhao Yunhua committed suicide. Meng Zhao and Lu Shichen rushed over in an instant and tried to hold Zheng Yongnian, but it was too late. Zheng Yongnian had already jumped down.

　　Meng Zhao took a step forward, and Lu Shichen subconsciously held his hand. Standing on the edge of the rooftop, Meng Zhao looked down at the building below.

　　About thirty or forty meters from the rooftop, a giant air mattress caught Zheng Yongnian as he fell. Zhou Qiyang, standing downstairs, gave Meng Zhao an “OK” sign.

　　Meng Zhao closed his eyes and breathed a sigh of relief. This time, he finally caught up.