We would never know when Hao Ren captured those thieves, he was trying to win back justice or to gain fame; just like how we would never know Zhang Bin was only joking over dinner, or he coaxed Du Zigui with sinister intention.
It had already been a week since Hao Ren left. Mary also posted the station’s official case statement on it but it was soon submerged under so many different threads. Compared to the murder video, Mary’s official truth basically had no reader.
This was not Mary’s technical deficiency or because we couldn’t afford 50 cent army, but over the past week, something more explosive happened. A celebrity had died. The celebrity was famed for being kind. The celebrity died despite the young age. This caused quite a ripple online and everyone was in mourning.
Guan Zhenglin looked at Auntie Lee’s social media. “Auntie Lee hasn’t even heard of this celebrity but she has shared most of the news like she was the celebrity’s loyal fan. But I guess this is good too. Now the focus is off us or else I don’t think Gu Chen will be able to go out anytime soon.”
I was reminded of the headlines that exploded on social media a few days ago, ``The Good Samaritan beaten up by the Police!” The image attached was Gu Chen pulling on Hao Ren’s collar. In just a few days, no one talked about it anymore. Even the incident about Hao Ren and Zhang Bin also stopped circulating on social media.
Gu Chen shrugged, “Actually if you don’t mention it, I’ve already forgotten all about it.”
I sighed, “Society nowadays moves too fast. News articles might not last longer than a minute. We’re in the informational age where we’re inundated by information. I believe this is where the case officially ends.”
The chief walked over and told us. “Just now Hao Ren's lawyer just sent an invitation to us to attend his dojo’s opening ceremony tomorrow. Most of Elm Town’s famous characters will be there. He has also apologized to us, claiming that the things he said inside and outside the station were taught to him by his lawyer.”
I shook my head. “Hao Ren sure is a master at this, what’s the point of apologizing when no one cares about it anymore? Plus he didn’t kill anyone, why apologize? He didn’t owe us any apology. He just wants to use us again to bring the focus back on himself.” Everyone was silent.
Guan Zhenglin added, “Such is how the world works. A hot topic might last for a minute or a week, but it won’t last longer than a month. Like now, no one is even talking about Hao Ren anymore. No one cares about Zhang Bin. Who is right, who is wrong, is that really important? Perhaps Zhang Bin has moved to a new city, a place where no one knows his name. So shall we accept Hao Ren’s invitation?”
“Of course, if not, he’ll just have more leverage to use against us.”
Early the next morning, we arrived at Hao Ren’s dojo. The firecrackers were popping. It was an auspicious day for the grand opening. The supposed famous people were not there, even the crowd was extremely thin. We met Hao Ren at the door, he was smiling brightly. When he saw us, Hao Ren walked over. “I know I did wrong but I just wanted to teach Zhang Bin a lesson. Look, in the end, I got my dojo and Zhang Bin will never forget this lesson as long as he is alive. I turned him into a good man, isn’t that a win-win situation? Don’t look so sad. Look at the people around us. Human beings are forgetful creatures. In a month, people will forget about me and Zhang Bin.”
Then Hao Ren gave us 50000 RMB. “Please give this to Zhang Bin. If I wanted him dead, he would be dead already. Du Zigui indeed wanted to take Zhang Bin’s life, I was the one who stopped him. Du Zigui wasn’t an addict for long, he worked heavy labor and most importantly, he studied martial arts since he was young.” Then Hao Ren shook his head, revealing a sad smile, “If I didn’t stop him, Zhang Bin wouldn’t be alive. Even though Zhang Bin is a horrible person, he doesn’t deserve to die. But I still needed to teach him a lesson. Can you not empathize with the feelings of a father? Not killing him is the biggest kindness I can give him.” Melancholy phased through Hao Ren’s eyes. “Call me evil, call me good. At the end of the day, my conscience is clean. Xiao Qi and Zigui just had their Tou Qi (The seventh day after death) a few days ago, according to my family’s custom, that means that they have officially passed on. So we shall let this incident end here.” Hao Ren turned to walk into his new dojo. “Give the money to Zhang Bin, and tell him that it’s now over between us. The enmity in Jiang Hu has been solved the Jiang Hu way. No matter what, as long as your conscience is clean, if you can be good, why not do it?” Hao Ren walked away without turning back.
I looked at the name of the dojo, Hao Ren’s School of Martial Arts and Virtue.
Gu Chen studied the money I held and then he asked, “He didn’t sound like he was being insincere, so is he a good or bad person?”
I didn’t answer because I didn’t know how to answer. Most of the time, we saw the world in black and white but the world was grey. There was no absolute goodness or absolute evil. We forgot about that too easily. Perhaps when he wanted to frame Zhang Bin, he was bad; but at this moment, he was good.
We left with the money to find Zhang Bin. We hadn’t seen Zhang Bin for 2 weeks already. Ever since the debacle at the station, we lost track of the man, perhaps he had already left the city. We went to Shun Chang Daily Rental but he was not there.
“How are we supposed to find him, his phone number is not in service. Perhaps he has moved to another city already.” Gu Chen frowned. “After all, Zhang Bin is not a local and for an orphan, every city is the same.”
I thought for a while and said, “Do you still remember the drug den? We’ll head there. If Zhang Bin is not there, we’ll return the money to Hao Ren.” We came to the container home of Zhang Bin. The door was locked on the inside. The container house had no window so if it was locked from inside, there had to be someone home. Strangely enough, Gu Chen slammed on the door several times but there was no answer. In his frustration, Gu Chen slapped a bit too hard and the door fell off the hinges.
A horrible stench leaked out.
A pair of legs appeared before us, swinging in the air.
As the sun shone into the room, we finally saw the owner of the legs. It was Zhang Bin. A noose was tied around his neck, he was dead. The body was there for quite some time already. It was winter so the decomposition was not serious. But even so, there were already maggots in his body. It made the room even dirtier.
We were silent as if unable to believe that Zhang Bin was dead. The man who begged to live at the station died just like that. There was no sign of struggle in the house. Guan Zhenglin walked forward, looked at the body and said, “Bring him back to the morgue.”
The autopsy result soon arrived. Guan Zhenglin said emotionlessly. “The time of death was around 10 am one week ago. The cause of death is suicide by hanging. There is no other fingerprint at the crime scene so…”
I finished for her. “This is a suicide. The container wasn’t damaged. I examined the lock of the door. Gu Chen broke it down with brute force, there was no sign of tempering before that. And there is one last clear piece of evidence.”
“What is it?” The duo asked.
I answered, “He changed into a new set of clothes.”
“Is that relevant?” Gu Chen asked.
I nodded, “It is for a person seeking death.”
“Why?”
I looked at the icy body and said, “It means that he wanted to bid farewell to his old self. Perhaps those accusations that we thought a thief would have gotten used to, have left a deeper scar than we thought.”
“What are we supposed to do with the body?” Guan Zhenglin asked, “He’s an orphan, if no one came to claim him within the week, the body will probably be donated to the university. In fact, most of the bodies I dealt with in classes were bodies like these.”
Only then I realized Zhang Bin was also an orphan. Before he was a thief, he was an orphan. Unfortunately, he didn’t meet a father like Hao Ren so he had to depend on himself. So in a way, Zhang Bin was not that different from Hao Ren’s four adopted children.
Zhang Bin died literally hours apart from the celebrity but no one mourned his death.
The body was left at the morgue for a week, all of us believed no one would come to claim him. But God was always ready with a surprise. One week later, a girl came to claim Zhang Bin’s body. She looked shy and her clothes were tattered.
“I hear, I’m supposed to come here to claim my big brother’s body?” She asked with a shaking voice.
“Your big brother?” I asked for more confirmation.
“Yes, my stepbrother.” She looked at us with frightened eyes. “His name is Zhang Bin. I saw him on the tv news so I came.”
I nodded. As I led her to the morgue, I asked, “How did Zhang Bin become your stepbrother?”
She answered softly, “I have followed him since I was young, he adopted me. I have a very fragile constitution and have to spend a lot of time in the hospital.” Then she showed me the scar on her stomach.
“My father did this to me when I was young. My mom was afraid that he might accidentally kill me so she snuck me out and left me by the roadside.” She said with a lack of emotion. “I had no money until recently. My stepbrother suddenly had a windfall and I finally got to do the surgery to save my life…”
At that moment I understood where Zhang Bin had spent all of his money and who Zhang Bin had been hiding from.
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