Case Files 013

Xiao Liu was still investigating the 5 junior high students from Yu Cai High School. Gu Chen and I planned to meet up with him. After all, this might be the only case the killer could have tripped on. Was any of the 5 students lying? Were they connected to someone who might have done something like this? Or were they truly innocent?

When we found Xiao Liu, he was spacing out staring at the files of the 5 students. The files were spread before him. Seeing us walk in, Xiao Liu smiled, "Good, please come and help me. I'm out of ideas, I can't see any problem with these kids. Should we move on? Why are we still wasting time on these kids? They're just kids."

I shook my head and said, "They come from single-parent families and their guardians do not have time for them. Where do they go after school, what kind of activity are they involved in? If the killer is really connected to these kids, there are still many things we do not know about them." I turned to Xiao Liu, "We need to follow them, to see what they normally do after school. There are four of us and four of them, it's perfect."

Xiao Liu grumbled, "Really? We're going to follow a few kids? Isn't that pushing it too far? I've never heard of police tracking children of 14, 15 before…"

I tutted and corrected, "Don't underestimate people because of their age, especially in an era like ours. The children nowadays have access to as much information as a normal adult. They too have their own thoughts and worlds."

"Okay, it's decided then." Gu Chen nodded. "Who shall be following whom?" Soon we came up with the plan. Since Lee Taida was still in custody due to attempted murder, we didn't need to follow him. I would follow Zhang Xue, Gu Chen would follow Zhao Erming, Xiao Liu would follow Lin Rou while Guan Zhenglin would follow the least suspicious Zhou Guo. We contacted the staff and headmaster at Yu Cai High School to inform them of this to prevent unnecessary complications.

They were all students in the 3rd year of junior high, they would be taking the middle-year exam soon so most classes were cancelled for revision. The students were basically given free reign which Zhang Xue had taken advantage of. Because when we arrived, she was not in class. "I wonder where that girl is. I'll go look for her while you keep your eyes on Zhou Guo." I spotted Zhou Guo through the classroom window. He wore a pair of thick glasses and his table was covered with notes. If I was a betting man, I would bet that he would be the most successful of our 5 suspects. Hopefully, our investigation didn't intervene with his studies. I didn't want to disturb the boy's studies if he was innocent.

Guan Zhenglin sighed, "Clearly Zhou Guo can't be the criminal. He looks like an exemplary student. He wouldn't have dared to steal the cyanide if not for Zhang Xue. This theft is probably the biggest and riskiest thing he'll ever do in his life. I'll stay here, you better go look for Zhang Xue."

I shrugged and went to ask the class teacher. I was notified that Zhang Xue should be at the school field. She would go there every afternoon. She should be in class but her class teacher had given up on her. As long as she didn't do anything illegal, her teacher would leave her be. When the 50 plus middle-aged woman mentioned Zhang Xue, her face scrunched up with disgust. "As an educator, I shouldn't say things like this but I've been in the educational world long enough to know whether a student can be polished into diamonds or not. This girl is definitely not one of them. She'll become a greater trouble when she enters high school. Do you know Zhou Guo? She has him around her little finger. The poor boy, he could have easily gotten the best result in school, but recently his attention is not focused. If you ask me, it has to be that dastardly girl's doing. I'm telling you…" I quickly waved my hands to stop the teacher from continuing.

It was around 5 pm, the sun was ruby red. Sitting on the steps of the education block, one could have a perfect view of the field. A girl was lying in the middle of the field sleeping. A book was covering her face. The title was too far to be read but it was definitely not a textbook. There were about 3 boys playing basketball at the court next to the field, they were either attending sports class or were also ‘bad' students playing truancy. This reminded me of when I was young. I used to sit or lie down on the grass field to read as well. I felt like the world was within my hands. But then that stopped when I accidentally sat on a pile of dog poo.

I sat on the steps, pulled out my phone and watched the young girl who was sleeping. I wondered how long she would lay there. When the sun was about to set, the sleeping beauty finally awakened. She took the book down, and then stretched lazily. She looked down the distance, I wondered what was on her mind. She placed her book into her bag and then walked towards the gate. I followed her from afar. I wanted to see where she was going. The guards appeared to know her and they didn't stop her even though there were at least 2 hours until the end of school for the junior high students. Looks like this girl really had plenty of unsupervised time to do anything she wanted. I followed behind her, careful not to be seen.

Along the way, Zhang Xue kept stopping. She would squat down to sniff the flowers among the flower beds, stop to play with the passing puppies and kittens. There was even once where she suddenly decided to skip along the tiles that lined the street. When she accidentally stepped outside the line, she sighed with disappointment. She would halt for anything of interest, even just to turn her eyes up to the sky. Even though her actions were quite childish, watching her, there was something prematurely lonely about Zhang Xue. Eventually she walked into the subway station. The station was not close to Yu Cai High School but Zhang Xue appeared to have gotten used to travelling this stretch of road daily. Subway Line 1, this was the station where Lee Zhinan committed suicide. I couldn't help but wonder if this was just a mere coincidence. We took the train and I watched her from the opposite end of the cabin. She took out her book and continued to read. It was inside the train that I realized the book was a masterpiece by Yu Hua, To Live.

The novel was definitely too heavy for a child her age and I doubt she would really understand the message within it as well. However, based on her expression, she was greatly drawn by the story. At parts, there were even tears in her eyes. We stayed in the subway for about an hour before descending. By then, it was already 8 pm and the sky was dark. The night hawkers were already preparing their stalls. There were people selling skewers and beers. Some of them already had customers and the two of us slithered through the burgeoning crowd.

Then Zhang Xue did something that I couldn't understand at all. When she passed a table of bare-chested men, Zhang Xue suddenly leaned to the side and overturned their table. The skewers scattered to the ground and the beers splashed onto the men's bodies. Not only me, even the men as well as the stall owner were shocked.

"Well, aren't you going to do something about that?" Zhang Xue stood where she was and stared at the men. Then, the men came to and one of them demanded angrily, "The fuck, what have we done to you, missy?" The men raised their arms and pumped their muscles but they didn't do anything towards Zhang Xue because what would people say when they saw a group of men bullying a girl. Eventually, one of the men growled, "Give me your phone. I'll call your father and have him come here to explain this to us."

Zhang Xue shrugged and said, "I can make it easier for you. It was my big brother who told me to flip your table. That's him over there." Zhang Xue then pointed her finger right at me. The girl had already noticed me following her and this was her way of taking revenge on me.

"Guys, get him!" The men yelled. It was uncouth for men to bully a girl but it was a different story if the offender was a man. If I fell into these men's hands, it would not end well for me. It was time to run. Chasing after me was the group of angry men and Zhang Xue's loud laughs. The men were large but slow. Even so, it took me a lot of effort before I managed to lose them. I ran until I almost coughed out my lungs. As I made my escape, I recorded the map of the street in my mind. After I made sure I had shaken off the guys, I took a quick detour back to the skewer stall. I looked around and saw a familiar girl in a school uniform walking off. This time, I didn't say anything and charged towards her. When Zhang Xue heard my footsteps, she turned around. When she did, I pulled her into a tight grab.

"Help, someone help me…" Zhang Xue shouted. I scolded sternly, "Stop yelling. I'm your big brother, you're going to make these kind people misunderstand us." Then I turned to the crowd and smiled, "I'm so sorry for my little sister." Since some of the people in the crowd saw Zhang Xue point me out as her big brother earlier, they nodded understandingly.

"He's not my brother!" Zhang Xue shrieked.

I ignored her and so did the crowd. I knew we couldn't stay there for long because the group of men might return at any moment. I dragged Zhang Xue away, screaming and kicking.