Chapter 5
Edward Quan ·
21
Outside the room, we spoke with her parents.
They were hesitant.
“Does she have to make it public?”
“These children have suffered enough. I can't let her be hurt all over again!”
Her mother's eyes were swollen. She staggered, needing the wall to keep herself upright.
“I just want her to be well...”
“If this thorn isn't pulled out,” I said softly, “the pain will stay with her.”
Her voice broke.
“But what are we supposed to do? She's nearly lost her life already. What if people call her stupid? What if they call her filthy?”
“She only just turned eighteen! She's not mature enough to know how frightening online rumors can be. Those people could crush her!”
Inside the room, Lu Yu began to cry loudly.
It sounded as though she was protesting.
My mentor gave a solemn promise.
“We'll protect her.”
“Without her, perhaps the people who did this will never be punished.”
Her mother stared at him, tears filling her eyes.
It was a long time before she could speak.
“All right.”
“But you must protect her personal information.”
I bowed deeply.
“Thank you.”
22
As soon as we returned to the bureau, my mentor received a call.
The voice on the other end carried a warning.
“Old Yang, stop digging. Once you start pulling at the roots, nobody will be able to protect you.”
My mentor laughed lightly.
“I'm following the evidence to arrest a criminal. Who have I offended?”
A few seconds of silence.
Then a laugh.
“As long as you understand.”
The call ended.
At the same time, Lu Yu began speaking out online.
We made a show of warning her. Advising her against it.
But she wouldn't listen. She insisted on making her accusations.
Public outrage snowballed.
My mentor's phone rang incessantly.
The businessman called in favors everywhere. He even sent over a card.
My mentor returned it.
Then the threats began. They seemed ready to force us out of our jobs the next day.
My mentor had Liu Changming watched in case he tried to flee.
For days, we crowded into the technical team's office, watching them work on the phone.
We shut out everything else.
My colleague held a cup of instant noodles. He sneezed and scratched his neck.
“They're not really going to fire me, are they?”
“I've only been here three months.”
I took a bite of grilled sausage. I was frightened too.
“I've only got a month on you. After this case... our careers might be over.”
At some point, my mentor had come up behind us.
He smacked the backs of our heads.
“What nonsense are you thinking?”
“They'll have to get through me before they fire either of you.”
I grinned foolishly.
Then the technician shouted.
“Got it! We've found the video!”
“It was in a scheduled email. No wonder we couldn't find it.”
23
He copied the video to the big screen.
“It's the twenty-ninth today. Five twenty in the afternoon.”
“Does that time mean something?”
The video began.
Li Yun's bedroom filled the screen. Physics problems covered the walls on countless sticky notes.
He wore his school uniform and sat straight in his chair.
Then he looked into the lens.
It felt as though he were speaking to us across a distance he could never cross.
My breath caught.
Until then, I'd only seen photographs and grainy footage. This was the first time Li Yun had seemed so clear.
So alive.
“I don't know if Lu Yu has given you my phone.”
His voice was clear and young, with a little resonance.
“Everything I'm about to say is true.”
“Mr. Liu used to be very good to me. He tutored me for free. Helped me with physics. Our team won lots of awards together.”
“He wasn't like my dad. He was always gentle. He didn't insist that I come first.”
He wiped his face. When he looked up again, his eyes were bloodshot.
“Sometimes, I was so tired.”
“My parents expected so much. I know they wanted me to have a future. They wanted to give me a way out... but it was too much to carry.”
“On August twenty-ninth last year, Mr. Liu asked me to his house alone.”
“After the lesson, he smoked a cigarette. He seemed so grown-up. He said he was sweaty and went to wash.”
“When he came back, he crossed a line.”
Li Yun's voice grew rough.
“He made sexual advances. I said no. But he told me he really liked me. That he felt for me. He said I worked so hard to improve, to live up to my parents' hopes...”
“I'm sorry... I didn't keep refusing firmly enough.”
“He used threats and promises to sexually abuse me. He said he'd take responsibility.”
“He never ran out of students. Never ran out of people to exploit.”
“Later, I found out... he'd used the same methods to manipulate and force other students.”
“We were all cowards.”
Li Yun's hands shook.
“I thought he loved me... and that I loved him...”
“I kept trying to be number one in Paradise. I thought he'd love me a little more.”
“To prove it, I confessed to him in front of the class.”
“But he was bored. He said I had to keep giving him my body if I wanted to come first in his heart.”
Tears spilled from Li Yun's eyes.
“Did I really love him?”
“I don't know anymore.”
“I feel as though I've split in two. One half is disgusted with me. The other shuts its eyes and says it loves him.”
He wiped his tears on his sleeve, exposing part of a scarred wrist.
Sniffed.
“I'm going to die at Fuhai.”
“End all this... free Lu Yu and the others.”
Behind him, I caught sight of a glass bottle on the desk.
Li Yun stood.
Before stopping the recording, he left us one final plea.
24
“Please arrest him... he drove me to this.”
My mentor's face was dark. He straightened his collar.
“Bring him in!”
We took our weapons and went out, heavy-hearted.
The public pressure was too great.
The businessman decided to protect himself. He abandoned Liu Changming.
Liu was strangely calm when we took him into custody.
“Even a dog locked in a cage,” he said quietly, “will turn around and bite.”
My mentor lit a cigarette.
“You're the dog.”
He cut Liu off coldly.
“Go to hell.”
25
Later, we found several phones at Liu Changming's sister's home.
They held all the photographs and videos of his victims.
There was even a group chat.
Sweet Paradise.
Liu regularly drew lots to choose which victim he would summon.
He would speak in a gentle tone.
[I hurt you like this because I love you.]
[I love every one of you equally.]
[You love me too, don't you?]
[If anyone betrays me, don't blame me for being cruel.]
[I'll send the pictures to your parents first. Then I'll put the videos on the big screen in the square for the whole school to see.]
[Everyone will see your faces. Every humiliating detail.]
[Forget the university entrance exam. You can spend the rest of your lives in a dog cage.]
[Even if I go to prison, they won't sentence me to death. I'll find you when I get out.]
[I'll never let you go.]
[I'll stay with you all your lives. Watch you marry and have children.]
26
On the day the official announcement came out, the school closed for two days.
Teachers and administrators were disciplined.
Some were suspended. Others received verbal warnings.
There were leads on Lu Yu's abductor, but he hadn't been caught.
After the disciplinary proceedings, Lu Yu and the other victims transferred to different schools.
I was on leave, so I went to see her.
She wore a mask and stood beside her mother, her gaze empty.
She'd tugged her sleeves down to hide her hands.
“Lu Yu!”
I called from a distance.
She turned blankly, then spotted me in the crowd.
“Big... sis...”
Her words were slurred and halting.
Her mother looked worn out.
“The doctor says she can still just about speak despite the injury under her tongue. But she mustn't get too upset.”
I smiled, took a box of sweets from my pocket and placed it in her arms.
“When things feel hard... have one.”
She blinked. Tears clung to her long lashes.
“Th... thank you... and... Li Yun.”
Grief caught me so sharply I could hardly bear it.
It felt like ants biting all over me, a numbness climbing from my toes to my scalp.
I leaned close and whispered in her ear.
“Have a happy life.”
She nodded hard.
I watched mother and daughter merge into the crowd.
Then disappear.
27
It took the recovery team half a month to find Li Yun's body, northeast of Fuhai.
His decomposed remains ruptured as they reached the surface.
He drifted with the waves.
Like a bottle set afloat.
I stood on the shore, frowning in thought.
What did a message in a bottle mean?
Hope. Romance. Waiting. Love...
Where would his bottle go?
Was he still waiting for an answer?
The bureau called. My colleague urged me to come back.
“We've got another case.”
The End
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