26 The Boys on the Field

 

We were currently standing in Headmaster Zhang’s back garden. Half of the garden was tiled and the other half was soil. There were some scattered bushes in the yard, most of the flowers were already dead and wilting. It had not been taken care of in quite some time. Wu Jiajia took a deep breath and pointed at a corner south-western of the plot. I used my finger to dig away the surface layer, pinch a small soil sample from underneath and placed it in my mouth. This was another trick taught to me when I was still young. Based on the soil’s taste and moisture, you could tell whether the ground had been tampered with or not. While I was tasting the soil, I saw Guan Zhenglin stuffed a steel shovel into the ground.

“Fuck, why didn’t you say you have a shovel with you?” I groaned.

“You didn’t ask.” Guan Zhenglin shrugged like this was not her problem. I sighed. “Save your energy. The soil underneath the ground is loose and of a more granular state compared to the soil on the surface. Plus, I also tasted root fibers. That means that this patch of land has been worked on recently.”

Guan Zhenglin folded the shovel over itself and replaced it inside the toolbox. “Not bad. Looks like I don’t need to bring any tools with me in the future, we already have you.”

“But that means…” Gu Chen looked at us and then at Wu Jiajia who stood beside him. It proved that the soil here had been tampered but whether it was genuine garden work or it was to bury a person, that was unclear. We found a tray in Headmaster Zhang’s kitchen but there was no mug. “The set of mugs sat on this tray. There’s another one with a letter W, meant to represent Headmaster Zhang’s loved one.” Wu Jiajia stared at the empty tray and mumbled dumbly, “But there’s nothing here. But… I remember him drinking from it. Where are those mugs now?” Wu Jiajia turned to look at us and we looked back at Wu Jiajia.

Where were the mugs? Clearly they had been taken from the scene. The clues started to connect in my mind but there were a few that still eluded me. I pulled on my hair and plopped myself down on the couch where Headmaster Zhang once sat. When one was alive, everyone hoped that they’d die; but when they died, everyone hoped that they would come back alive. The dead body might only be nothing more than a tool.

…

Back at the office.

“Gu Chen, I need you to go and investigate Gao Rui’s long-distance girlfriend.” I told Gu Chen. “Get it done in one day, I want to know everything between her and Gao Rui, no details are too small.”

“On it.” Gu Chen nodded.

“Xiao Liu, I need you to bring some officers with you to find the main doctor who performed the surgery on Zhang Mingliang.” I turned to Xiao Liu. “Desperate time calls for desperate measures. Get him to hand over all the documents related to Zhang Mingliang’s surgeries, can you do that?”

Xiao Liu grinned and said, “You know I am best with desperate measures, right?”

After Gu Chen and Xiao Liu left with a team of their own, only Guan Zhenglin and I were left in the office.

“Then what about me?” Guan Zhenglin pointed at herself.

“I need you to answer this question for me.” I told her. “How to make it look like someone who had died 10 days ago appear like he had perished only 5 days ago. You’re a coroner, you should be able to do that, yes?”

Guan Zhenglin scratched her chin and stared at me. “Have you found any concrete proof? You’re certain that Sister Jiajia is the actual killer?”

“I think so.” I nodded as I made to leave the office. Guan Zhenglin used her body to block the door. “Where are you going? How can Sister Jiajia be the killer? If you can answer all of my questions, only then I’ll let you go!” It was clear that Guan Zhenglin had bonded with Wu Jiajia. Humans were emotional creatures and these emotions could sometimes cloud our judgement.

“Okay, shoot.”

“Headmaster Zhang’s time of death was 5 days ago!” Guan Zhenglin extended her first finger. “I’ve checked.”

I shook my head and closed her finger back up. “Then check again. I believe someone in this case is brilliant enough to manipulate Headmaster Zhang’s time of death. You’re a coroner, you should be more sensitive to this than I do. So I need you to redo the autopsy on the dead body and do not miss out on any detail.”

Guan Zhenglin nodded. “That is indeed possible, I’ll give you that. Then how do you explain the stalker activities on Wu Jiajia, the red warning paint on the wall and the threatening letter if Headmaster Zhang had died 10 days ago?”

“Because they were not Headmaster Zhang’s doing in the first place!” I said confidently. “The stalker was never Headmaster Zhang to begin with. I took a sniff at the undergarments inside Headmaster Zhang’s closet. Other than the ones belonging to Wu Jiajia, the rest are brand new! Those were planted there! Furthermore, we did have confirmation from the other female teachers that none of them has lost any personal effects.”

Guan Zhenglin frowned as if trying to think back to that day. “But who would have planted the undergarment there if it was not Headmaster Zhang? This person would have to have the key to Headmaster Zhang’s place. The thief wouldn’t have…” At this point, Guan Zhenglin stopped. I believed it had already dawned on Guan Zhenglin who was this person who could enter Headmaster Zhang’s place freely. Guan Zhenglin placed one hand on her forehead and the other was used to support herself against the wall. She thought about it for a while before saying, “You mean it was Gao Rui who planted the undergarment inside Headmaster Zhang’s closet? Gao Rui is the stalker? But Gao Rui was already living together with Wu Jiajia, why would he stalk her?”

“Easy, because he is not the stalker.” I said evenly.

“Then who the hell is the stalker?” Guan Zhenglin demanded with exasperation. I moved Guan Zhenglin away from the door and started to head out. “If my suspicion is not wrong, that stalker should be Zhang Mingliang.”

“But Zhang Mingliang was only stalking Gao Rui. At the time, Gao Rui hadn’t moved in with Wu Jiajia yet so why would Wu Jiajia say that she has been stalked?” Guan Zhenglin finally caught the loophole in my explanation. “That doesn’t make sense. How are you going to explain that?”

I shrugged and opened my arms. “That’s why I’m going out to verify that. After you’re done with the task I’ve given you, the truth should be out already.”

“You really think Sister Jiajia is the killer? She faked the crime scene and her story because she is in love with Gao Rui and doesn’t want him to go to jail!” Guan Zhenglin stressed.

I sighed. “She literally came moments after Gao Rui was captured. How could she have faked the crime scene in such a short amount of time? If anything, perhaps the reality is the exact opposite of what you’ve described. Her version of the story makes perfect sense while Gao Rui’s version has one big problem. There are only blood traces on the 15th floor, there are none on the floors above that and the only footsteps on the staircase belong to Ol’ Zhang so how did the killer leave the crime scene?”

Guan Zhenglin thought about it and answered, “Perhaps Ol’ Zhang didn’t check the place as detailed as he thought, maybe the killer was hiding below the 15th floor. Or it was Ol’ Zhang who killed Zhang Mingliang!”

“Now why would Ol’ Zhang do that? Furthermore, haven’t you and Gu Chen inspected the building site yourselves? There are no other blood traces on the other floors. There can only be one possibility no matter how absurd it might be.” I said softly.

“What possibility?” Guan Zhenglin asked.

I walked out and turned back to say, “I’ll tell you after I confirm something.”

…

When the moon rose to the sky, I arrived at Gao Rui’s hometown. At Fourth High School where Gao Rui studied, I finally found the answer. Gao Rui’s retired class teacher was now an old woman in her 60s. She shared with me a secret that she had hidden inside her for 8 years.

8 years ago, she still hadn’t retired. As an old lady in her 50s, she liked to come to the school field for a walk after the student’s night revision even though it’d be almost 11 pm by then. Her husband advised her to take an early retirement, the work of a teacher wasn’t easy. She said since she still had her faculties, why should she retire early. The real reason though was she’d miss her students. This was the 10th batch of students she taught. When she was around them, she’d feel younger.

‘This will be the last batch.’ Her official retirement would be coming next year. That was what she thought as she walked towards the field. Then she heard a rustling. As a high school teacher, she was familiar with teenage antics. She knew sometimes young couples would come to the field to meet after revision. As long as they did not do anything too over the line, she would pretend not to see anything. She moved behind a tree and it was then that she caught sight of the offending couple. She recognized one of the couple as a student from her class but she couldn’t recognize the other one.

It was two boys.

The clouds were thick and the moon dim. Suddenly the student from her class knelt down to the ground before the other. Bullying, that was the teacher’s first reaction. But what happened next stunned this woman over 50. The student pulled down the other man’s zipper, yanked out the penis and placed it into his mouth. The male student from her class was performing fellatio on the other young man. She thought about announcing herself to stop this but her mouth was dry and her legs leaden. She watched dumbly as her own student wiped at the corner of his mouth. Then she heard him say, “I want to be with you forever, I can do anything for you.”

The other person though pushed him roughly away and said, “What’s the problem with you? I’ve already told you, this is the last time. I’m not gay. Forget about everything that happened in the past, that was because we were too young. How could you possibly think that two men could spend their lives together? This will be the last time I’m seeing you, I won’t return to this city ever again. Even if you threaten to die for me, it won’t change anything, do you understand?” The other person’s voice was heavy with fraying emotions. “We can never ever be together! What will make you understand that?!”

“Zhang Mingliang, I am willing to do anything for you, even if you want me to die for you!” The male student’s scream echoed around the field. The other young man did not respond and immediately disappeared into the night, worried that the shout had attracted the attention of the guards.

The male student who was stranded alone at the field was… Gao Rui.