Chapter 12

The moment Zhang Liangwei saw Liu Huaixin's body, he was not without fear or panic. His mind was in a mess, but a vague line emerged.

He remembered the anonymous letter.

It was three months after Zhang Xiyu's death. On a hot summer night, Zhang Liangwei pushed open the door and went out to buy beer. His wife was sleeping, and the house was so dead and silent that it was unbearable to stay there.

There was an envelope lying on the floor at the door, the most common yellow envelope, with "To Zhang Xiyu's father" written on it.

He picked it up and opened it, and his pupils suddenly shrank.

There are only two lines of black pen writing on the white A4 paper:
【Zhang Xiyu’s father:

Zhang Xiyu committed suicide for love. She was with an adult, and that person let her down. 】

Zhang Liangwei did not hand the letter to the police.

He often dealt with various disputes at the construction site and knew some law. Zhang Xiyu's body had been cremated long ago. No autopsy was performed before her death in accordance with her parents' wishes. The police had already closed the case. In addition, the school was clearly determined to cover up the case, so he felt that it was useless to hand it in. And even if he found the man, what would happen? His daughter committed suicide by jumping off the building. The surveillance camera clearly showed that she was the only one who went upstairs. The man could have denied it, so what could he do?
At that time, Zhang Liangwei, who had just lost his daughter, was still in a state of emotional confusion and decided to find the man and take revenge on himself.

He almost took it for granted that the "adult" was a male teacher in the school. First, the schedule in high school was very tight, and his daughter had little chance to come into contact with other adult men; second, he knew that No. 29 Middle School had recruited many young masters and doctors from universities in recent years. And aren't there enough such beastly things in the news and on TV?
Zhang Liangwei set his sights on all the young male teachers in the high school who might have had close contact with his daughter, including Fang Chenyu and Liu Huaixin. He would go to the school's residential area and the parents to inquire about their information, deliberately contact them, and even secretly followed them several times, but to no avail. They all looked too normal, busy with work every day, and there were no rumors of any scandals with female students.

Gradually, Zhang Liangwei began to suspect that the letter might just be a prank.

The image of his dead daughter in this father's heart was automatically improved day by day as time passed. He forgot all the bad things about his daughter that made him grit his teeth, and only remembered her beauty, intelligence and kindness. He even clearly remembered what his daughter looked like when she was one or two years old, such a cute little girl. He thought that since she was born, the couple had treated her as a treasure in the world. Why, as she grew up day by day, they only had her grades, dignity and future in their eyes, forgetting that the real treasure was actually her herself?

So he thought, how could such a good daughter do such a thing? This must be slander!

It was not until last night when Zhang Liangwei received the text message from Liu Huaixin that he remembered the anonymous letter he had thrown into the corner of the drawer.

At Liu Huaixin's house, he looked at the corpse in a daze. He really wanted to wake up this "adult" and ask him, what on earth did my daughter go through to be so desperate that she jumped off a tall building?

Why, why do we adults push a child to a desperate situation?

-

Fang Kai sent a scanned copy of the anonymous letter to the group.

Li Qingyao thought for a moment and said, "So this explains Zhang Liangwei's unusual reaction when the body was found yesterday. Liu Huaixin was one of his suspects, and he sent him that text message. He was filled with hatred and suspicion, so when he saw the body, he didn't panic like an ordinary person."

Chen Pu: “Yes.”

Li Qingyao recalled last night at the scene when both of them looked at Zhang Liangwei at the same time and they stared at each other in a tacit understanding.

She raised an eyebrow at him.

But Chen Pu seemed to have forgotten about it and was indifferent to her hint. He leaned back in his chair and said in a businesslike manner, "Go find Zhou Cen and ask for a few copies of the handwriting. We'll take a look first and then submit them to the bureau for appraisal."

"Whose handwriting do you want?"

Chen Pu raised his eyelids, clenched his left fist, and casually pressed the knuckles of his left hand with his right thumb and index finger, making "crack", "crack", "crack" sounds. He asked, "What do you think?"

Li Qingyao stared blankly for a few seconds before answering, "Of course it's the one among the classmates who is closest to Zhang Xiyu and knows her best."

"Why don't you go quickly then?"

According to the information provided by Zhou Cen and Fang Chenyu, there were three girls in the class who were close to Zhang Xiyu, and the boys were all on average. Two or three of them pursued her, but she refused to any of them.

But when Li Qingyao compared the three girls' composition books, he could tell at a glance that the anonymous letter was not written by the same person. Both of them were stunned, and Chen Pu said, "It seems that we have to move all the composition books of the class."

After they spent an hour in the conference room and compared the handwriting of everyone in Class 8 where Zhang Xiyu was, even though they were not handwriting identification experts, they could tell that the handwriting of the anonymous letter was not among them.

This time the clue was broken again. A larger and more professional handwriting comparison would take longer. Chen Pu decided to call Zhang Xiyu's good friend over to have a chat and see what he could find out.

He said to Li Qingyao, "You will be the main questioner later, is that okay? I'll be sitting in the corner, so there's no need to be silent. Female students are timid and will be scared when they see me. Just use your best attitude as a caring young lady and try to dig out as much information as possible."

Li Qingyao glanced at his face. His facial features were handsome, with eyebrows, jaws, and not too dark skin. But he was tall and thin, always dressed in gray, white and black. With his stern expression and his identity as a criminal policeman, he would scare children at first glance.

but……

Li Qingyao: "What do you mean by 'the intimate little sister look that I am best at'? Isn't that what I am?"

Chen Pu pretended not to hear it. He quickly put away his pen and notebook and walked to an inconspicuous corner to sit down.

Li Qingyao laughed: "If you have the guts, explain it clearly!"

Chen Pu held up the black leather notebook to cover his face.

The first person she met was Xu Yinzi, a girl of medium height with a round face and a cute face. When Zhou Cen first told her that the police wanted to talk to her, she was quite nervous. But when she saw Li Qingyao, who was beautiful, gentle and kind, she completely forgot that she was talking to the police after just a few words, and answered whatever was asked, very cheerfully.

"In love?" Xu Yinzi frowned and thought for a while, "Probably not? I haven't heard that Xiyu was close to any boy at that time. In fact, I just lived close to her, and we sat in front and behind each other. Sometimes we went to school together and talked a lot, but we were not good friends. She didn't tell me much about anything, but I think she would tell Li Ziyan. They were best friends."

"What was wrong with her before the accident?" Xu Yinzi tried to recall, her expression darkening. "I didn't expect her to jump off the building. During that period, I remember that she improved by 1000 or places in the grade in both the final and midterm exams. She even won the 'Best Improvement Award' and was awarded yuan. I used her as a goal and reflected on myself to study hard. Maybe she behaved like that... because of too much pressure from studying. There were a few times when I asked her out after school, but she was reluctant to go home. I knew her father always beat her. By the way, during that period, she was actually very unhappy. She was always in a bad mood and her attention was distracted in class."

The second girl she met was Liu Yujia, a girl with thin eyebrows and eyes, wearing a trendy T-shirt under her school uniform. Her statement was completely different from Xu Yinzi's: "Zhang Xiyu is in love."

Li Qingyao: "How did you know? Not many people know about this."

Liu Yujia touched her nose and said, "I observed it. She bought a new brand-name cell phone during that period, which cost at least five or six thousand yuan. She also bought a lot of new skirts and clothes, all brand-name, which cost four or five hundred yuan each even with discounts. Her parents couldn't have bought these for her. I once asked her if she had a rich boyfriend. She just smiled and said nothing."

"Then do you know who that person is?"

Liu Yujia shook her head: "I asked her, but she wouldn't tell me. But she's definitely not a boy from our school."

"why?"

"Because any gossip in school can't escape my eyes."

The last person I met was Zhang Xiyu’s desk mate, who was recognized by everyone as her best friend during her lifetime: Li Ziyan.

Li Qingyao first covered part of the anonymous letter and showed it to Li Ziyan. Li Ziyan shook her head, indicating that it was not her handwriting and she could not recognize whose handwriting it was.

When talking about Zhang Xiyu, Li Ziyan looked dazed and her eyes gradually turned red.

"Zhang Xiyu never had a boyfriend before. That should be her first love. I know who that person is."

Li Qingyao and Chen Pu were delighted at the same time: "Who is it?"

"He was a boy from the Sports University next door, his family was very rich. They must have been together a few months before Zhang Xiyu's death. One time I was on my way to a cram school, and I ran into them on the way..."

"What to do?"

Li Ziyan's tears flowed down, but she didn't know why she was crying. She didn't want to say it, but the policewoman in front of her was so gentle and kind that she couldn't help but feel that no matter what it was, telling her would be right and would definitely be good for Zhang Xiyu.

"I followed them secretly...and saw them check into a hotel. Later, when I asked Zhang Xiyu, she admitted that she had a boyfriend. She also told me not to tell anyone, not even my friends, or she would end our relationship."

Li Qingyao turned the pen around her fingers three times, and suddenly turned back to look at Chen Pu. Chen Pu had been keeping his head down to take notes, but he looked up as if he had noticed something and met her gaze.

She looked at Chen Pu and asked: Are male college students considered “adults”?

(End of this chapter)