Chapter 4
Edward Quan ·
15
By the time I finished reading, goosebumps covered me.
I hurriedly took out Li Yun's rough work to compare it.
The drawing was his.
As I examined the material in the collage, something clicked into place.
My hand shook.
“These traces... I think they came from Liu Changming.”
Everyone looked sick.
“Christ. That's disgusting.”
“And the rest of it...?”
“Biological evidence of sexual contact.”
My mentor took the diary, said goodbye to Lu Yu's parents and led us back out.
“We have evidence now. We can detain Liu Changming.”
We finally breathed a little more easily.
Then he struck the seat and shouted, “Lu Yu! We have to find her!”
“Bring her back alive!”
16
On his third visit to the bureau, Liu Changming was as courteous and polished as ever.
He'd changed his shirt again. His hair was styled with gel. He looked positively refreshed.
My mentor stayed to question him.
The rest of us searched his home for leads.
His browsing history showed repeated searches for material involving teachers and students, same-sex relationships—and even children.
My colleague snorted, photographing the evidence.
“Sanctimonious bastard.”
My gaze settled on a laundry basket in the corner.
“Teachers are human too,” I said quietly. “And people can be rotten.”
The camera kept clicking. The flash fired again and again.
There was a black shirt in the basket.
I picked it up and pulled the collar open.
Fine traces of powder clung to the fabric.
As a woman, I recognized it at once.
Concealer.
No wonder the scar on his neck had vanished in two hours.
He'd covered it with makeup.
People said studying physics made you rational and composed.
He certainly fitted the description.
We bagged the evidence and drove straight back.
17
The interview-room door was shut. From time to time, my mentor's stern voice carried through it.
When he put someone under pressure, he could be terrifying. It sent a chill down your spine.
I poured hot water to soothe my dry, cracked lips.
My colleague came over, waving a report.
“The results are back.”
“The biological traces are Liu Changming's. They found silicone too. The sample appears to have come from a condom.”
He was breathless.
I lowered my head and gripped the report.
Why had Li Yun done it?
Was it love?
He seemed to have believed he loved Liu Changming. An attachment that had become horribly twisted.
My colleague gulped down some water and caught his breath.
“And they've found Lu Yu!”
“Thank God the cameras are good these days.”
My eyes lit up.
“Where?”
“An abandoned construction site on the outskirts. She was abducted. Whoever did it was clever. Kept to the blind spots.”
“Xiao Li said that when they found her, she'd already...”
He sighed heavily.
“She's in hospital now. But she's... in a bad way.”
I frowned. Before I could ask more, the interview-room door opened.
Thinking it was my mentor, I turned eagerly.
Then froze.
Liu Changming walked out.
His handcuffs had been removed.
He rubbed his neck and tilted his head at us.
“Officer, your chairs really are uncomfortable.”
I drew my weapon.
“How did you get out?”
18
“Where's my mentor?”
My colleague blocked the other exit, his eyes fixed on Liu.
Liu spread his empty hands.
He smiled pleasantly.
“In there. I haven't attacked a police officer.”
For two seconds, we stared at him.
We kept our weapons up.
“Into the corner! Crouch down!”
Liu gave a few helpless chuckles, raised his hands above his head and obeyed.
My colleague signaled to me.
Keeping close to the wall, I moved quickly into the interview room.
“Sir!”
My mentor sat silently, solid as a mountain.
His voice was rough.
“Let him go.”
I stared, furious.
“Why? We have evidence to hold him!”
He turned to me, exhaustion on his face.
“Let him leave for now. We'll follow the other leads.”
“Lower your weapons.”
Behind me, my colleague ground his teeth. His arm fell to his side.
Liu stood and stretched.
“Call me if you need anything else, officers.”
He strolled out of the bureau.
“Why did we let him go? He's clearly a predator exploiting his students!”
My mentor clasped his hands in front of him.
“Do you know why the school isn't taking this seriously?”
“Liu Changming's sister is the principal's mistress.”
“And the principal's brother is...”
He pointed upward.
“The business magnate.”
I pictured the face that appeared so often on the financial news.
“He just called. He wants the case closed quickly. They've even drafted the announcement: Li Yun harassed a teacher, was rejected, suffered a relapse of depression and took his own life.”
The atmosphere was leaden. Everyone was stretched taut.
My chest felt painfully tight. Bitterness rose in my throat.
My mentor sighed.
“What we need now is evidence they can't wriggle out of.”
19
“And the public has to see it.”
“Have we found Lu Yu?”
The next morning, we all went to the hospital.
A nurse led us to her room.
Through the small window in the door, I saw her lying in bed, her parents beside her.
Tubes ran from her body. Her dark eyes moved around the room, then found me.
We opened the door and approached quietly.
Her parents turned.
The instant they saw us, they dropped to their knees.
“Officers! Please help our daughter!”
“She should be studying at school. Now look at her...”
Her mother's cry was full of anguish.
“I can't bear this!”
I hurried to help them up and tried to calm them.
My mentor wanted to speak to Lu Yu alone.
My colleague led her parents outside. The room fell into a cold silence.
Both her hands were swollen and thickly bandaged.
The nurse said all ten fingers had been broken.
Tears streamed down her face. Her lips parted, but only muffled sounds emerged.
Cold sweat broke out along my spine.
“You... can't speak?”
Lu Yu opened her mouth.
The tissue beneath her tongue had been severed.
“Do you remember who abducted you?” my mentor asked gently.
She shook her head.
She couldn't speak.
Couldn't write.
She could give us no leads at all.
We were stuck.
Then my mentor got up and borrowed several sheets of blank paper and a pen from a nurse.
He placed the pen between Lu Yu's teeth.
Spread the paper on the table and held it steady.
“Write. Everything you know.”
20
I recorded it on my phone.
Her tears fell onto the paper, spreading into wet patches.
I wiped her face.
“Don't be afraid. We're all here.”
More than ten minutes passed before she stopped, her forehead covered in sweat.
The words she wrote with her mouth wandered crookedly across the page, but we could just make them out.
[Liu Changming sexually abused the physics competition students. He called us the children of Paradise. He made us write diaries so he could monitor us. He forced us into sexual contact and threatened to release photographs and videos anonymously if we refused. He said we would never be able to take the university entrance exam.]
My mentor's face was grim.
“Where were you when we called two days ago?”
“Had Liu Changming told you to go to Paradise?”
“Did he threaten you if you didn't?”
She nodded faintly.
“The man who abducted you wasn't Liu Changming, but he was connected to him?”
Another nod.
“Do you remember his face? Anything distinctive?”
She shook her head.
“Did Li Yun go into the sea because of Liu Changming?”
She was silent for a long time.
Then nodded.
Taking the pen between her teeth, she wrote again.
[He fell in love with him.]
[He said he'd left a video.]
I leaned forward.
“Where is it?”
[Phone. Email.]
The phone was at the bureau.
My mentor immediately arranged for officers to protect Lu Yu.
Before leaving, he crouched down to meet her eyes.
“Would you be willing to tell people online what happened?”
“You'd have to appear publicly and expose all this. People might attack you, criticize you. You could lose the last bit of dignity you've managed to hold on to.”
He looked directly at her.
“Do you want to speak out?”
Lu Yu sobbed and nodded desperately.
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