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Currently only Zhao Xiaoli and myself were inside the office. Zhao Xiaoli was rather shy around me, probably due to our closeness in age but she chose to tell the truth in the end. “Those 10 days are the longest hours of my life. When I woke up, I was tied up. Right then, I knew I was cheated, but I had no idea by whom. The person wore black clothes, mask and cap, blocking his entire face.” Zhao Xiaoli pulled out the sleeves of her shirt, and we saw the sign of ligature around her wrists. The bruises were deep. She must have struggled hard against her restraints. Zhao Xiaoli added, “There are other wounds on my body but I’d prefer if I show it to the female officer.”

We understood that. Having a girl of 18 shed her clothes before Gu Chen and myself were pushing it. I waved my hands and said, “Of course, we’ll have a professional to examine those wounds for you. But for now, can you tell us what exactly happened?”

Zhao Xiaoli rolled down her sleeves. “At first, I was afraid and I screamed for help. The person was probably afraid that my shouts might attract people’s attraction so he came back to gag me. When I struggled against him, he wrapped the rope around me and purposely pinched my waist.” We frowned as Zhao Xiaoli continued, “That was a clear enough threat for me. The more I struggled, the more he would torture me.” Zhao Xiaoli closed her eyes as if refusing to see that image, “So I immediately stopped screaming. He stopped. Then, he asked me for Hao Ren and Wan An’s location.”

“He asked you that?”

Zhao Xiaoli nodded. “My first thought was this was someone my father has offended when he was wrong, but my father has always been a kind person, he is friendly with everyone. He is a good fighter but he has never used it to bully others.

“Then I thought perhaps this was my little brother, Wang An’s enemy.” Zhao Xiaoli thought, “My brother, Wang An likes to use his fist to resolve problems rather than words. However, my brother will never attack unprovoked. He never bullies the other children unless they bullied him or his friends first.” Wang An did have violence issues but all he did was self-defence. That was clear from the way Wang An treated Guo Feng. Guo Feng was mentally challenged, everyone bullied him but Wang An not only didn’t bully him, he befriended Guo Feng and helped him to chase away his bullies. So in a way, Wang An had inherited his father’s spirit.

I looked at Zhao Xiaoli and asked, “You didn’t see the man but did you notice anything special about him? Any strange tick or behavior.”

Zhao Xiaoli thought for a while before she said, “Actually yes. In the first few days, when I was still struggling, he would press his body on me to stop me. I would bump against his left arm and he’d wince and lean back.”

My eyes lit up. Zhao Xiaoli continued, “I believe it was because his left arm was injured. After that, he made sure I wouldn’t be able to touch his left arm anymore.”

“After that?” Gu Chen prompted.

Zhao Xiaoli’s tears finally fell. “I’ve been meaning to escape but the man kept watching over me. After 5 days, I realized the place was too desolate for me to hope for a random rescue. I couldn’t hear any sound from my room. I knew then perhaps I should stop resisting and pretend to abide by his rules.”

I nodded. Zhao Xiaoli continued, “Every day, he would come to interrogate me about my father and brother’s location but I really had no idea. After a week, he became more agitated. He told me that if he ever found them, he would kill him. He said that I would never leave until I helped him find my father and brother. I had no idea why he had such hatred against my family.” Zhao Xiaoli’s brows scrunched with worry. “But I know he really did mean to kill them. On the 10th day, I still couldn’t provide him with the location of my father and brother so… so, he peeled off my clothes.” Zhao Xiaoli’s tears started again. “He said since I couldn’t help him find my father and brother, then I would pay him with my body. He raped me and he left. He didn’t give me any spare clothes, my torn shirt and pants were dropped to the side. I picked up my pants and used the button on the pants to wear down the rope. After I escaped, I ran along the overgrown path until I reached the main road. Luckily enough, a car was passing by. I got the help that I needed.” Zhao Xiaoli shivered. “I was afraid that he might come after me so I had the Good Samaritan drop me off at the police station.”

I frowned. “Do you know the location where you were held?”

Zhao Xiaoli nodded, “Yes! I made sure to remember the route when I was in the good man’s car.”

I asked again, “Was he working alone? Or was there someone else with him? Perhaps they wore the same clothes so you couldn’t tell the difference.”

Zhao Xiaoli thought about it. “No, it was only one person who assaulted me, but the place where I was kept had more than one room. One time, I heard him argue with someone else outside.”

“Did you hear what they were arguing about?” I asked.

Zhao Xiaoli answered, “It sounded like someone was persuading him to stop before someone’s life was lost but he refused to listen and chased the person out. He came back to tell me that no one has the right to go against him and eventually he will have my father and little brother’s lives.”

“Okay.” I told Zhao Xiaoli, “I think we have all we need for now. I’ll have the female officer back to examine your wound. If there’s no problem, we will go to the house where you are kept soon, are you okay with that?”

Zhao Xiaoli nodded. We walked out of the room. I told Guan Zhenglin about the situation with Zhao Xiaoli, and she nodded. After she entered the room, she drew the curtain close. We couldn’t see anything from outside and could only hear the two girls mumble. One hour later, Guan Zhenglin walked out of the room. She looked at us and then said, “I’ve inspected her body. There are many bruises on her body of varying sizes. I asked her about them and she told me, the smaller ones were from pinches and the larger ones were from belt whips. They were old and new wounds so she is telling the truth.” Guan Zhenglin shook her head and turned back to glance at the room, “But…”

“What is it?” I asked.

Guan Zhenglin said, “She said she was raped. So I examined her genitals closely, I didn’t find any sign of tearing. So if there was rape, the sex wasn’t violent. But this didn’t really mean much, she might have been too catatonic to react when the whole thing happened.” Gu Chen and I didn’t know much about this so we only looked at Guan Zhenglin blankly. Guan Zhenglin added, “Plus there isn’t any semen or prostate fluid in her vagina, she said it was because the man wore a condom. In that case, the man knew that we could trace him back through his semen. This man is quite good at anti-surveillance.”

…

Gu Chen drove, Zhao Xiaoli gave directions while Wang An stayed at the station. While we headed to the house, Zhao Xiaoli radiated with fear. With us consoling her, she finally calmed down. When we arrived, Zhao Xiaoli said nothing had changed. Just the man who trapped her had disappeared. The front door was left open, the house was a simple 3 rooms and 1 living room. This place was in Elm Town’s countryside. I wondered how much it would cost to rent a place like this.

I walked in with a frown. Inside one of the bedrooms, we found a cut piece of rope. I put on the gloves and picked it up for a closer examination. From the cut surface, the rope was indeed not slashed by a sharp metal but was grinded down slowly. The other end of the rope was tied to the feet of the bed, the bed was heavy. A girl wouldn’t be able to shake loose that easily.

Guan Zhenglin checked the room for prints while I looked around the house. The house was spotless, it was cleaned often. I sent the house address to Mary and had her check for the owner of the house. Soon she found the owner’s details and gave me the owner’s phone number. On the phone, the owner told me that the house was rented a month ago. The owner himself bought the place for investment, he didn’t live at Elm Town so the house had been left empty for a long time before he found a renter for it.

“Who was the renter?” That was the crucial question.

“I have not met that person before, everything was handled by the housing agent. However, I was told that the renter’s name is Zhang Bin.” The man answered.

Zhang Bin! The man whose arm was cut twice by Wang An.

Guan Zhenglin cut in, “I found a few fingerprints, they match the ones registered by Zhang Bin when he was at the detention centre. But I only found his thumbprint, not his other fingers.”

“Zhang Bin?” Zhao Xiaoli heard this name for the first time. She had no idea about the history between her father, brother and Zhang Bin.

“That’s right, Zhang Bin.”