17 The Man and the Woman

 

When the third nurse came to ask Guan Zhenglin whether she was there for a consultation about a breast implant and the latter was about to explode, we finally got the victim’s identity. Zhang Mingliang had undergone a gender reassignment surgery 3 weeks ago and he had plastic surgery as well. Similar to what I expected, this was the only hospital in our city who would offer this surgery. During consultation, Zhang Mingliang pulled out a picture and told the doctor, “Make me look like her.”

The picture was that of a pretty young woman, she looked around 23. She wore a white summer dress and was sitting on a vine-knitted chair outside a café, drinking coffee. Only 2/3 of the woman’s face could be seen and the picture was taken from a distance. Thus it was confirmed that this picture was taken without the subject’s consent. Certain individuals tried their whole life to try to become another person. When a man used all of his savings to become a woman, it was hard to imagine what kind of struggle he must have gone through. The doctor said he would only do his best and make Zhang Mingliang look as close to the woman as he could, the doctor couldn’t guarantee a 100 percent resemblance. Even so, Zhang Mingliang was already very glad.

“What do you plan to do with this?” The doctor referred to Zhang Mingliang’s severed male genitalia. When Zhang Mingliang saw his former reproductive organs, his eyes watered. This flustered the doctor because they were most afraid of their patients having regrets the moment they finished the surgery. The doctor consoled quickly, “Look, you look so pretty now. I even threw in a free boob job for you…”

“I don’t need them anymore.” Zhang Mingliang stared at the organs cut from his body and chuckled, “Feed them to the dogs.”

“Are you sure…” Seeing the seriousness on Zhang Mingliang’s face, the doctor said, “Okay, come back 3 weeks later for a follow up inspection.” But 3 weeks later, Zhang Mingliang returned as a head.

“We need to find this woman.” I pointed at the woman inside the picture. “Since Zhang Mingliang has chosen to model his new life after her, then we have to find out who she is and is she related to Zhang Mingliang’s death? Furthermore, was Zhang Mingliang the killer’s intended target? What if the killer’s actual target is not Zhang Mingliang but this woman here!”

“So this is a case of mistaken identity turned bloody?” Gu Chen questioned my supposition which was rather out there. I wouldn’t blame him for it.

With Mary’s help, we soon identified the woman in the picture. This beautiful woman was called Wu Jiajia, 23 years old and a postgraduate student. She was also interning as a language teacher at a high school. When we found Wu Jiajia, she was lecturing a class. From the side profile, Wu Jiajia indeed looked pretty and she had enviable body proportions.

I whispered to Guan Zhenglin beside him. “How is it that both of you are the same age but she looks her age but you look like you’re 14?”

“Do you mind?” Guan Zhenglin stepped away. “Do I know you?”

Wu Jiajia had no idea who Zhang Mingliang was, but when she was told that Zhang Mingliang had undertaken plastic surgery to look exactly like her, her face scrunched up with disgust. Then Wu Jiajia told us something interesting. For the past few weeks, Wu Jiajia noticed something unusual. Wu Jiajia claimed confidently that someone was stalking her. Wu Jiajia did not stay at the shared hostels the school arranged for its staff, instead she rented a room not far away from the school. To quote Wu Jiajia, this was because she ‘appreciated her privacy’. Her monthly salary was just enough to pay the rental.

Starting from 1 month ago, whenever she went to and from work, she would notice someone trailing behind her. The person was always dressed in a trenchcoat and low cap so she could not see their face. The person was about 1.75 metres tall and their body was on the thin side. Whenever Wu Jiajia spotted them, they would hurry away. At the start, Wu Jiajia was afraid and she did call the police. However, since the stalker did not do anything harmful to her safety, there was nothing the police could do. It was not a crime to walk the same road every day at the same hour. Wu Jiajia had no choice but to ignore the person but things slowly escalated. Wu Jiajia lived on the 2nd floor of an apartment, and recently, a few of her panties started to go missing. Other times, she would find her missing panties reappearing on her balcony, dirtied with unknown liquid, it gave off a horrible smell. That was it for Wu Jiajia, she called the cops. The police helped guard her place for a few days and she finally had a few days of peace. However, the police couldn’t be her personal guard forever.

When the police had no choice but to withdraw, Wu Jiajia felt like the sun had gone down on her world, she considered moving away but the internship at the school was a very rare opportunity, she did not want to lose it just like that. This was a very prestigious school. Liu Jiajia did not graduate from a famous university but she was offered an internship at a high calibre high school, this was a chance that people would kill for. Wu Jiajia appreciated the opportunity which was given to her by Headmaster Zhang, the 50-year-old Headmaster Zhang who was always gentle and kind to her. Despite their age difference, Wu Jiajia even found this mature man quite handsome.

Without any other choice, Wu Jiajia moved away from her apartment and moved to a place further from school. Wu Jiajia finally had her peace, the feeling of being scrutinized disappeared, she did not need to turn around every few seconds to check if someone was following her. She could move on with her life again, or so she thought… One week later, the stalker returned. She would run into them going to and from work again. Similarly, her panties started to disappear again.

One night, when Wu Jiajia woke up from her sleep, someone was standing beside her bed. Wu Jiajia was so shocked that she was frozen in bed. When her mind started working again, Wu Jiajia pretended like she was still asleep and turned away from the figure in her bedroom. Wu Jiajia was a clever woman, she knew that if she screamed, then the person might harm her to keep their identity hidden. Through the wisp of weak moonlight, the person studied Wu Jiajia and Wu Jiajia was silently observing the person inside her room. Wu Jiajia couldn’t see the person’s face without giving herself away. She only caught the silhouette. The person stood facing Wu Jiajia’s bed and held one of her panties up against his nose. The man was breathing heavily. Wu Jiajia’s eyes wandered downwards and noticed the man was pumping something near his crotch area with his hand. Soon, the man stopped moving and he shivered. Then the man used Wu Jiajia’s panty to wipe off the semen as he slowly retreated backwards. The bedroom door closed with a soft click.

That was the night Wu Jiajia lost her sleep. How did he get in? Would he return? Many questions kept Wu Jiajia awake. To solve this problem, Wu Jiajia found herself a male roommate. She believed that would stop the stalker from trespassing into her place.

“Wait, the new roommate is not your boyfriend?” Guan Zhenglin stopped the story to ask.

Wu Jiajia shook her head. “No, he’s just a male friend of mine.” Then as if to explain herself, Wu Jiajia added, “I know this is an unbecoming behavior for a teacher but I am running thin on options. The police have been to my place several times already and they still fail to catch the stalker. Furthermore, I trust my roommate implicitly. He only has good intentions for me.”

“So did the stalking stop?” I asked.

“Actually.” Wu Jiajia sighed, “That was only the start of the nightmare.” A male person moved in with Wu Jiajia. Even though they slept in separate rooms, this had clearly angered the stalker. The second day after her new roommate moved in, Wu Jiajia received a call, this number showed that the call came from a public telephone. “I will not allow you to stay with another man.” The male voice growled angrily.

Wu Jiajia demanded, “Who are you?” All she got was the dial tone. But she knew that it had to be her stalker. The stalker would not show himself but he would not allow Wu Jiajia to stay with another male either. When Wu Jiajia’s new roommate heard about this, he suggested that they play into the stalker’s psychology. Since Wu Jiajia’s stalker hated that they had moved in together, then they would continue doing that. In fact, they would make it look like they were a real couple. That would push the stalker’s buttons and cause him to be careless and maybe even appear in person. When that happened, they would be there to capture him.

Unable to stand the harassment anymore, Wu Jiajia agreed. Wu Jiajia knew her every action would be captured by her stalker so Wu Jiajia purposely acted flirtatiously around her male roommate, the goal was to lure her stalker out.

It worked like a charm, the stalker was incensed. One day, Wu Jiajia left her home and she found written on the wall the warning, ‘Don’t push me.’

Wu Jiajia ignored it. She continued with the charade. Soon Wu Jiajia received a letter, it was quite short. It said, ‘One day, I will rape you and then cut off your head and write with it.’ The letter was pieced together using letters from magazines so the handwriting could not be traced. Wu Jiajia received the letter 3 days ago and she already called the police. However, since there was no actual murder, the case did not get pass to our unit. It was not until Ol’ Zhang discovered the intruder at the building site and we found the human head that all the links were tied together. However, we still had no idea where the actual victim’s body was.

“Can it really be a case of mistaken identity?” Guan Zhenglin pondered.

A stalker swore to kill Wu Jiajia and a different person made himself into Wu Jiajia. This stalker driven by mad jealousy killed a transgender woman who looked like Wu Jiajia. Zhang Mingliang was taken as Wu Jiajia. Zhang Mingliang was extremely unlucky, or rather, Wu Jiajia was extremely lucky.

Even in broad daylight, Gu Chen and I thought Zhang Mingliang looked like a woman, much less at night. So it was not hard to believe that the killer had taken Zhang Mingliang for Wu Jiajia. But why would Zhang Mingliang make himself look like Wu Jiajia?

My phone rang.

“Mary, what’s up?” I joked, “Why are you calling me all of a sudden? Did you miss me?”

“We’ve found the victim’s body.”