I once handled a case that could be said to have torn apart the bottom line of human nature.
The incident occurred in a certain backward village.
It was the summer vacation at that time. A 12 – year – old left – behind child gave birth alone at home and finally died of massive hemorrhage due to dystocia.
After the event, the hospital that took over the rescue immediately reported the case because, regardless of who the father of the fetus was, it had already violated criminal law.
However, as we delved deeper, we found that the truth was even more shocking than we had imagined.
1
The girl was named Zhou Yun. Her parents had passed away, and she had been living with her grandfather, Zhou Jiandong, who was a farmer in the village.
After the incident, we found Zhou Jiandong, who was heartbroken, for interrogation and learned that:
As the only guardian of Zhou Yun, he was completely unaware that the child was pregnant!
During the eight or nine months of pregnancy, Zhou Yun’s belly had indeed slightly bulged, but Zhou Jiandong thought she was just growing taller and fatter.
So, when Zhou Yun said her stomach hurt that day, he only thought she had a stomachache.
He just told her to have a good rest at home, drink more water, and didn’t pay special attention.
But he never expected that Zhou Yun was actually in labor.
So, as usual, he was busy until sunset before returning home.
When he got home, he realized something was wrong:
Zhou Yun was lying motionless on the bed, and her lower body, as well as the bed sheets and quilt, were all stained red with blood.
She must have been in great pain, and must have endured it for a long time.
Although this death accident could only be finally classified as an accident in the end, due to its extremely bad social impact, our criminal investigation team intervened immediately. My colleague Zhao Jun and I were mainly responsible for handling the case.
Because she was only 12 years old, according to Article 236, Paragraph 2 of the Criminal Law, regardless of whether she consented or not, the person who had a relationship with her was suspected of committing the crime of rape.
We asked Zhou Jiandong if he knew if Zhou Yun had a close relationship with any man, but Zhou Jiandong knew nothing.
Under this premise, although we didn’t directly question him, we had already guessed in this direction in our hearts.
After all, Zhou Jiandong was only 52 years old at that time.
In the past, people in rural areas didn’t have the concept of late marriage and late childbearing. It was very common to become a grandfather in their early 40s.
If it was really him, it would be truly inhumane.
Without evidence to prove that multiple people had violated the child, all we could do was conduct a DNA comparison. The person who was the father of the child was the criminal.
But fortunately, the identification results showed that Zhou Jiandong was not the father of Zhou Yun’s fetus.
So, who was the father?
2
In order to find the truth, Zhao Jun and I decided to visit the entire village, including the primary school in the village.
This was a small village with a high youth emigration rate. Most of the people who stayed in the village were the elderly and children.
Zhou Yun had two inseparable good friends, Yang Huiqiong and Ye Shanshan.
They were classmates and were all left – behind children.
We had a simple conversation with them under the accompaniment of their guardians.
But because of Zhou Yun’s death, they were so scared that they hardly dared to speak. So, after summarizing, we only got a few simple pieces of information:
First, they would occasionally go to the park in the town together on weekends, about once a month. The distance was not far, and it only took 30 minutes to walk there.
And just last weekend, they had also been there.
Second, after school on weekdays, they often played in a small grocery store, bought candies, did their homework, and watched the TV in the grocery store.
We visited the grocery store. The owner was a 60 – year – old farmer named Zhang Shizhen, an old bachelor.
He remembered Zhou Yun very clearly, but he said that the three little girls came to his store, and he basically didn’t see any men accompanying them.
Third, at their school, the principal was already extremely busy because of this matter. After all, with such an incident happening, the public opinion pressure was very high.
And Zhou Yun’s class teacher was a slovenly middle – aged man named Zhou Junyang.
He smoked a cigarette and said that he had to take care of three classes alone and couldn’t take care of everything, so he didn’t know much.
After all, Zhou Jiandong, who lived with her day and night, didn’t notice that Zhou Yun was pregnant. It was understandable that he, a class teacher with a weak sense of responsibility, didn’t notice.
Moreover, there were quite a few left – behind children going to school in this village, but the teaching staff was very scarce. What Zhou Junyang said was not far – fetched.
The above were most of the information related to Zhou Yun under the preliminary investigation.
The reason for listing them all was that the source of all the evil in this whole matter was hidden among them.
Just as we were organizing the materials and preparing to expand the scope of the investigation, a huge turning point occurred.
3
People in the village often act straightforwardly and lack rationality.
After Yang Huiqiong’s parents returned to the village, they quickly took her to the hospital in the county town for a physical examination.
The result was very bad. Her hymen had already ruptured.
Under the beating of her parents, Yang Huiqiong identified someone:
Zhang Shizhen, the old man in the grocery store, the old bachelor.
Instantly, the whole village exploded.
When we received the news and rushed to the scene, the villagers had already surrounded the grocery store tightly.
If we had been a little later, Zhang Shizhen might have been beaten.
Yang Huiqiong’s parents were extremely angry, pointing at Zhang Shizhen’s nose and cursing at the scene, while Yang Huiqiong herself hugged her mother’s thigh and sobbed with her head down.
In contrast, Zhang Shizhen was almost crying anxiously.
He repeatedly explained in his senile accent that he had never done such a thing.
But the villagers were filled with indignation.
We didn’t know what kind of person Zhang Shizhen was usually, but his status as an old bachelor really put him in a great crisis at this moment.
No one wanted to believe him. Although most of the villagers were just joining in the fun, they were all happy to see the result that such an old bachelor was a beast.
We quickly maintained the order of the scene and invited the parties back to the police station for interrogation one by one.
Yang Huiqiong was trembling all the time, and her parents were even worse, constantly swearing.
However, because Yang Huiqiong didn’t say anything when we visited her home the day before, we still had doubts.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t separate her parents and interrogate her alone.
And she only stutteringly told us that Zhang Shizhen used snacks, pocket money, etc. to tempt them into the inner room of the grocery store and then molested and even raped them.
When asked why she didn’t say it before, she explained in horror that she didn’t know that doing those things could lead to pregnancy.
Logically, it made sense.
However, at the moment, there was no physical evidence to prove that Zhang Shizhen had violated Yang Huiqiong.
Zhang Shizhen himself flatly refused to admit it and even burst into tears, saying that he was wronged and crying that it was too unfair for him to be slandered at his age…
And the only thing we could rely on was the identification.
We immediately arranged for the identification work between Zhang Shizhen and Zhou Yun’s fetus. But even though we had our own laboratory, the results still wouldn’t come out until the next day.
And due to various reasons, we couldn’t keep Zhang Shizhen in the police station. We could only warn Yang Huiqiong’s family, who were demanding results, not to take any other actions until we notified them.
But that night, something happened.
4
Early the next morning, Zhang Shizhen’s grocery store didn’t open.
A familiar neighbor knocked on the door and entered, only to find that he had hanged himself in his store.
When we went to the scene, we found that garbage had been dumped in front of his store.
The door of his store was splashed with red paint, and dirty words were written in big letters.
Even the wall next to it was painted with dirty human – body graffiti.
We learned that these were all the “good deeds” done by the villagers to curse him after he was taken away by us yesterday.
However, our identification results also came out. Zhang Shizhen was not the one who had violated Zhou Yun.
So, most likely, he was not the one who had violated Yang Huiqiong either.
Even so, when we were handling his body, there were still onlookers whispering that he had committed suicide out of guilt.
We all knew that he didn’t commit suicide. What killed him was actually the vicious rumors.
But the problem came up again. Since Zhang Shizhen was not the criminal, why did Yang Huiqiong accuse him?
At the same time, bad news also came from Ye Shanshan, another classmate of theirs.
Because Ye Shanshan was also a left – behind child, and there was only a grandmother in her family. Her parents were in another province and hadn’t had time to come back yet. So, when Yang Huiqiong made a scene yesterday, she hadn’t had time to go for a physical examination.
But after such a commotion, her grandmother immediately asked a neighbor to take them to the hospital, and the examination result was the same:
The hymen was ruptured.
We were still negotiating with the village committee about handling Zhang Shizhen’s funeral when Yang Huiqiong’s parents and Ye Shanshan’s grandmother rushed to the village committee to demand justice.
They didn’t bring the children with them. They only brought their emotions.
At first, we thought they were blaming us for the slow handling of the case and our inability to find the real culprit immediately.
But no.
They didn’t seem to care about the real culprit at all.
Because after they vented their emotions, the demand we heard was:
“Zhang Shizhen is dead. How is he going to compensate for the losses of our children?”
Yes, even though we had emphasized that Zhang Shizhen was not the real culprit who had hurt the children, they didn’t care.
And what was even more chaotic was that they started to make demands.
For example, they asked us to unseal Zhang Shizhen’s grocery store, search for his property, and use it to compensate their children.
Of course, we couldn’t agree. After all, Zhang Shizhen’s funeral hadn’t been dealt with yet, and the grocery store was naturally sealed.
The people in the village committee were also quite helpless and could only promise them that they would handle it as soon as possible, find the real culprit as soon as possible, and of course, give them compensation as soon as possible…
After much trouble, they left reluctantly.
This gave me a strange feeling:
At least Yang Huiqiong’s parents and Ye Shanshan’s grandmother didn’t seem to care much about the truth of their children being violated.
They wanted compensation more.
Another point was that during the dispute, we actually proposed whether the criminal police handling the case could communicate with the victim girls again.
But the parents refused.
Looking back, from the occurrence of the case until now, no one among us has been able to talk to the victim girls alone.
Because this requires the authorization of the guardians, and every time we communicate, their guardians are by their side.
At first, I only thought they were protecting the children.
But after this commotion at the village committee, I had another thought:
Maybe they didn’t want us to ask anything from the children’s mouths.
Maybe the identification of Zhang Shizhen was not really the children’s will.
But at the moment, we really had no way to bypass the guardians and talk to the children directly.
So, the case got stuck again.
We could only investigate in another direction.
5
As mentioned before, among the experiences jointly confessed by the two victim girls, there was one item:
Almost every month, they would go to the park in the town together on one of the weekends.
We knew that park. It was an open – style park next to the town square, leaning against a mountain, and was a bit remote.
At first, we didn’t think it was suspicious that the girls went to the park on weekends.
But because there were really no other clues, we could only check that park again.
The park was very old, and there were few visitors.
The artificial greenery inside was almost all supported by camphor trees.
These trees are tall in shape, with full canopies and good shading effects. They are a common and inexpensive roadside tree in the south.
It can be seen that the government didn’t invest much money here, and the maintenance was not very good.
After checking around, we found a suspicious house in the southwest corner of the park.
It was a three – story building, shaped like a villa, but with a lovely orange – colored roof.
This house was located in the old park, and it was a bit out of place.
We went up to knock on the door, but there was no response. It seemed that the house was vacant.
However, according to the on – site investigation, we found that both the road under our feet and the area around the house had much less dust than other parts of the park.
That is to say, someone must have cleaned it recently.
In order to figure out the origin and purpose of this yellow house, we found the management department of the park.
The person in charge of the park was surnamed Zhong, about fifty years old.
Director Zhong told us that this house was originally planned for business use, such as a hotel or a restaurant.
But after it was built, it didn’t conform to the latest national management policy for parks. Business operations were not allowed in open – style parks.
So, this building was sealed by the relevant department on the grounds of being an illegal construction.
I couldn’t help asking such a question:
“Has anyone been there recently? Or is there regular cleaning?”
Director Zhong replied to me very certainty:
“No, it has been sealed, and no one can enter. Even we managers can’t get in. The locks are not ours.”
Obviously, he was lying.
But at that time, we didn’t need to expose him because we didn’t know anything either.
So, we made another request:
“Okay, then please help us adjust the surveillance.”
My original intention was just to see if the three girls had come to the park last weekend.
But Director Zhong gave a long – winded explanation:
“Sorry, there are no surveillance devices installed inside or outside that building… Actually, to be honest, this park hasn’t received any maintenance funds for a long time. The surveillance devices are still the first batch installed, and the number is very small. There are only some at the main entrance and certain places, and there is no surveillance at the back door…”
Zhao Jun also quickly explained:
“We don’t want to see the surveillance of that house. We just want the surveillance at the main entrance, the entrance and exit.”
Only then did Director Zhong nod repeatedly:
“Okay, that’s no problem. I’ll take you to the machine room right away…”
To be honest, this park was really bad.
In such a large park, there were only about ten surveillance cameras, and the retention period was only seven days.
In general public places, it should be retained for at least one to three months.
But seven days was enough. We did find the three victim girls on the surveillance.
Watching them on the screen, walking into the park hand in hand happily, I felt a bit sad.
After all, Zhou Yun was no longer alive, and the future lives of Yang Huiqiong and Ye Shanshan would not be easy either.
I also noticed another problem:
Although there were only about ten surveillance cameras in the park, among so many pictures, we only saw the three of them on the video at the main entrance.
After that, we never saw them again.
Director Zhong explained that it was because the park was relatively large. They might have gone to the pavilion to do their homework or played in other places. It was very normal not to be captured by the surveillance.
Was it normal?
Not necessarily.
We asked for a copy of all the surveillance videos on the grounds of assisting in the case, and then we left.
I knew that the yellow house was very likely to have problems.
But I didn’t know at that time that the problems would be so terrifying.
6
After returning, we sent a document to the competent unit of the yellow house on the grounds of assisting in the case, requesting to enter the house for investigation.
But unexpectedly, this small thing we often did was like touching a bomb.
Our team leader, Lao Xu, was called to a meeting. When he came back, he found Zhao Jun and me, who were in charge of this case, as soon as possible.
He said:
“You can investigate the case, but you can no longer involve that yellow house. Focus on finding that beast.”
We were confused.
Our clue was related to this yellow house. If we were not allowed to investigate it, how could we find the murderer if it was really related?
But Lao Xu couldn’t answer my question.
And we really couldn’t get any information related to the yellow house through any means anymore.
The investigation in this direction came to an end because, coincidentally, something more serious happened.
In the tragedy of Zhang Shizhen above, a person who should have appeared didn’t appear.
That was Zhou Yun’s grandfather, Zhou Jiandong.
When the villagers all believed that Zhang Shizhen was the beast who had violated the young children, Zhou Jiandong didn’t take any action at all. He wasn’t even at the scene of the grocery store. This was very unreasonable.
The reason was that he had another “suspect.”
However, he didn’t tell us at the first time but took action on his own.
This led to the situation getting out of anyone’s control.
When we saw him again, he was already black – and – blue.
He was crying in the police station, saying that he was beaten like this by the criminal who killed Zhou Yun.
“It’s Zhou Junyang! He, he’s not a human being…”
Zhou Jiandong said while weeping bitterly.
I quickly dug out the name “Zhou Junyang” from my mind. He was the class teacher of the three little girls including Zhou Yun, a slovenly middle – aged man.
“He’s not just a teacher, no… He’s also a distant relative of our family. Xiaoyun respected him a lot… I never thought, never thought he would…”
So that’s how it was.
In the following time, Zhou Jiandong described in detail the whole process of how he went to confront Zhou Junyang and was beaten like this.
7
At first, Zhou Jiandong wasn’t sure that Zhou Junyang was the criminal.
He just wanted to find out the situation from this old relative. After all, he had specifically entrusted Zhou Yun to him to teach well.
When Zhou Jiandong found Zhou Junyang in the school dormitory, the other party also showed deep condolences and repeatedly apologized for not taking good care of Zhou Yun.
But Zhou Jiandong didn’t blame him. He just wanted to know who had violated Zhou Yun. Zhou Junyang naturally said he didn’t know.
However, something strange happened next.
Under Zhou Jiandong’s pestering, Zhou Junyang actually said that he would give him a generous compensation, hoping that he could live a good life and stop pursuing this matter.
Zhou Jiandong naturally felt that something was wrong and kept pestering him.
Zhou Junyang gradually lost his patience. Seeing that Zhou Jiandong was unyielding, he tried to drive him away several times.
The two people’s argument escalated from verbal to physical tug – of – war. Zhou Junyang was younger and had an advantage in physical strength.
After knocking down Zhou Jiandong, Zhou Junyang continued to rage and curse at him, saying that he didn’t know what was good for him. In his shouting, he actually admitted one thing:
The three female students were indeed violated by him!
According to Zhou Jiandong, Zhou Junyang’s original words were:
“I did it to all of them! What can you do about it? Old fool! You don’t even want the money. Am I giving you too much face?”
Hearing this, I was shocked.
This case had caused a great stir. Any ordinary person with a brain wouldn’t speak so wildly.
Either he was out of his mind, or he wasn’t an ordinary person.
We comforted Zhou Jiandong and asked him to go back and wait for news. Then we immediately rushed to the school to find Zhou Junyang.
Because if what Zhou Jiandong said was true, then he really had a problem.
For example, why would he use that dangerous sentence to stimulate and hurt Zhou Jiandong?
It was clearly of no benefit to him.
Another example was why he would mention compensation.
Even if the school had such a plan, it wouldn’t be suddenly proposed when the two were alone.
And this meeting with Zhou Junyang really shocked us.
I had been a police officer for many years, but I had never seen such a scene.
8
We saw Zhou Junyang in the primary school dormitory.
He received us warmly but also knew very well what we were here for.
So, before we could even ask questions, he couldn’t wait to show us:
There was a cut on his left forehead.
According to him, at that time, Zhou Jiandong kept forcing him to tell who the person who violated Zhou Yun was. Naturally, he couldn’t say it.
But this angered Zhou Jiandong, who picked up an ashtray and smashed it hard on Zhou Junyang’s forehead, causing this wound.
So Zhou Junyang fought back and beat Zhou Jiandong up.
As for the compensation and the matter of violating the three girls including Zhou Yun, he repeatedly denied it.
He said that this was a rumor fabricated by Zhou Jiandong.
The statements of the two sides were very different, so one of them must be lying.
We made a judgment on the spot.
First, we asked Zhou Junyang to describe again the process of Zhou Jiandong’s attack on him.
He did as we asked, but he made a mistake.
He said that Zhou Jiandong suddenly became violent, picked up the ashtray on the coffee table with his right hand, and smashed it hard on his left forehead.
If it were someone else, it might be okay.
But based on our several contacts with Zhou Jiandong, we noticed something else.
This thing made Zhou Junyang’s description seem less real.
I asked Zhou Junyang:
“Do you know that Zhou Jiandong is left – handed?”
Zhou Junyang shook his head blankly.
Sure enough, they were just distant relatives. Maybe he didn’t even take Zhou Jiandong seriously.
As long as he had ever gotten along with him, he should have known this.
But he didn’t know.
To cover up his lie, he smiled and said:
“A left – handed person can also use the right hand.”
I patiently explained to him:
“That’s true, but if a person suddenly becomes violent, they will definitely use their most proficient hand to act, not specifically use the other less – used hand. Do you understand?”
After saying that, I picked up the crystal ashtray again and said:
“And this thing is very prone to leaving fingerprints. As long as we take it back and check, we’ll know if Zhou Jiandong has touched it.”
Zhou Junyang didn’t say a word, seemingly speechless.
Zhao Jun promptly questioned him:
“Tell us, why are you lying?”
But we found that although he was exposed, he still smiled and remained silent, looking very calm.
We didn’t know why he was so calm, and we even less knew that every word he said next was beyond our expectations.
9
After laughing for a while, Zhou Junyang actually said cheerfully:
“Because what Zhou Jiandong said is all true.”
At that time, Zhao Jun and I looked at each other, both stunned.
“Since you didn’t bring a camera or a recording pen, then I’ll have a good chat with you…”
Zhou Junyang’s observation was correct.
Police law – enforcement recorders were only equipped in 2008. At that time, if we didn’t carry a DV camera when we went out, we had no recording ability.
“Yes, I did those girls. What can you do to me?” Zhou Junyang still said while smiling.
Zhao Jun and I were dumbfounded.
We had dealt with people who surrendered themselves, but we had never encountered someone so arrogant.
For a moment, I even thought my ears were broken.
You know, we were criminal police officers.
Zhou Junyang slowly continued:
“They were so tender. It was so enjoyable to play with them… And they were also very obedient and easy to control. Because at their age, what the teacher said was like the law of the heavens.”
“You fucking…” Zhao Jun almost stood up.
I quickly held him down.
Zhou Junyang was clearly trying to provoke us. I didn’t want to fall for it.
“I’m telling you, the world is hierarchical. Don’t you understand? Teachers and students are like heaven and earth. I can do whatever I want to them…”
Zhou Junyang still looked calm. I didn’t understand why he was speaking so boldly in front of the police and where his confidence came from.
“You don’t think I’m surrendering myself, do you? I won’t go to jail. Don’t you understand the situation? You two are just low – level criminal police officers. Don’t think you can really convict me. Hehe…”
“It’s just about breaking a toy. What’s the big deal? Besides, I didn’t kill anyone. She deserved it. She had bad luck.”
“However, it’s really a pity. Zhou Yun was a good toy. She was very cooperative and exciting…”
Zhao Jun couldn’t bear it anymore. He shouted “Fuck you” and directly punched Zhou Junyang in his fat head.
Although I knew that Zhou Junyang did it on purpose, I couldn’t hold Zhao Jun back anymore. Even I wanted to hit him…
After beating him up, we escorted him back to the criminal investigation team.
We thought this case would come to an end with Zhou Junyang’s self – exposure.
But in fact, things had just begun.
10
After returning, Zhou Junyang refused to cooperate with making a statement, just shouting that he was beaten.
Zhao Jun and I didn’t care. It didn’t matter if he didn’t make a statement because we had other methods:
First, let the other two victim girls come forward to testify against him.
Second, we would forcefully collect his blood sample for testing.
As long as it could match with Zhou Yun’s fetus, he would be completely finished.
After arresting the person, we first had to notify his family, but then we found out –
Zhou Junyang had no family in the local area.
No wonder he lived alone in the classroom dormitory.
His parents had passed away early, his wife divorced him more than ten years ago, and his son and daughter were taken away by his wife, leaving this small village.
This was also the reason why other teachers went home on weekends, but he still stayed at school.
He had no home.
We promptly notified his ex – wife, but the other party was very cold. Hearing that Zhou Junyang was arrested, her emotions didn’t fluctuate at all.
This was a bit suspicious.
But we had more urgent things to do, so we didn’t pay too much attention to it.
We quickly set off to find the families of Yang Huiqiong and Ye Shanshan.
However, things didn’t go as smoothly as we thought.
First, Yang Huiqiong’s family. Her parents firmly refused to communicate with us and firmly believed that Zhang Shizhen was the criminal.
More importantly, they also said that after getting compensation, they would leave here, let Yang Huiqiong stay away from this place, and start a new life.
We didn’t even know who promised them compensation because the case was still under investigation, and the suspect hadn’t been arrested yet. There was no object for compensation at all.
But they refused to communicate and even more refused to let us question Yang Huiqiong.
Not only that, Ye Shanshan’s family was the same. Her parents had come back. Compared with her grandmother, they were even more difficult to communicate with.
They also believed that Zhang Shizhen was the criminal and, under the pretext of protecting their daughter, didn’t allow us to talk about anything related to this.
These parents seemed to have been bribed.
Zhao Jun and I were at our wits’ end.
We went to the village committee again, wanting the village cadres to help mobilize, but we were also persuaded to leave.
What they meant was:
“They don’t care about it themselves. No matter what we outsiders say, it’s useless.”
“You don’t know. Both of their families value sons over daughters… The daughters are not the only children. They are living happily with their sons in other places and deliberately left their daughters here to suffer.”
“You saw how they made a scene before. It was all for money… Since they’ve got the money, they definitely won’t say anything more…”
I was very puzzled and questioned them:
“Who on earth gave the money?”
The several people in the village committee looked at each other, and they even thought for a moment:
“Didn’t you give the money to calm down the case?”
Obviously, they only knew from those two families that they had received money, but they didn’t know which department provided the compensation.
I thought that Zhou Junyang also mentioned to Zhou Jiandong that he would give him money to settle the matter…
Suddenly, I felt that things were even weirder.
We went to the principal of the village primary school, wanting to find out if they had made the compensation, but the result was also:
It wasn’t them.
We couldn’t find any clues at all.
That day, we returned in defeat, without getting any witnesses who could testify that Zhou Junyang was the criminal.
The next day, even more unfavorable news came one after another.
The DNA identification results came out.
Zhou Junyang was excluded from being the biological father of Zhou Yun’s fetus.
11
Suddenly, we lost all the ways to convict Zhou Junyang.
We had no physical evidence, no witnesses, and what was more fatal was that we didn’t get Zhou Junyang’s confession.
Yes, both Zhao Jun and I heard with our own ears that he admitted that he was the criminal.
But the problem was that since he came to the criminal investigation team, he immediately changed his words.
Plus a very important point:
He had injuries on his body.
He also used this as a reason to accuse us of violent law – enforcement and extorting confessions by torture.
Lao Xu talked to us.
Of course, he believed us, but the problem was that the pressure came from above.
“You two have caused big trouble.”
Lao Xu sighed and then continued:
“The chief received a complaint from the city criminal investigation detachment, saying that we tried to extort a confession by torture without evidence, that is, the case of Zhou Junyang. Which one of you, did you touch that ashtray?”
I touched it. There were my fingerprints on it.
Zhao Jun wanted to refute, but I knew things were bad and immediately held him down.
It was very bad.
Both the wound on Zhou Junyang’s left forehead burst by the ashtray and the minor injuries left by Zhao Jun’s beating him could fully confirm this accusation.
I immediately took over and said:
“I accept the punishment.”
At that moment, I suddenly understood why Zhou Junyang was so arrogant.
Maybe, maybe he just wanted to give me a warning.
Let us know that this case would have no result if we continued to investigate.
Hearing me say this, Zhao Jun looked at me in disbelief.
Lao Xu gave me a meaningful look and then said:
“You take a few days off. What about you, Zhao Jun? You go deal with other cases. You don’t need to follow this case anymore…”
Zhao Jun still wanted to say something, but I still held him down.
I didn’t want both of us to be suspended. Then there would really be no one to take care of it.
After Lao Xu finished speaking, he left. He probably knew something, but it was not convenient for him to tell us directly.
As soon as he left, Zhao Jun started to complain about me, but I only told him one thing:
“You can’t be suspended. You have to stay here and keep an eye on this case. No matter who takes over, it must be investigated. Understand?”
Only then did Zhao Jun realize that I was suspended.
And if he had reacted more strongly just now, maybe Lao Xu would have directly suspended him.
At that moment, he also realized that things were really not simple.
Zhou Junyang was not exaggerating. The world really was hierarchical.
At first, we didn’t understand this sentence and thought it was just about teachers and students.
No, he was hinting that he had the protection of the upper – class.
Just like this interference in the case, the pressure came from above.
Although it was very unwilling, this was the reality. We were likely to lose the right to continue the investigation.
Besides Zhou Junyang, who else had violated those three girls?
Was this matter related to that yellow house?
What was the origin of the yellow house?
Originally, I thought I would never know.
But, there was another turning point.
12
In the afternoon, I received a call from Zhao Jun. His voice was very aggrieved.
He said that he not only had to release Zhou Junyang with his own hands but also had to apologize to him face – to – face.
Otherwise, he would also be suspended.
And Zhou Junyang smiled and waved his hand generously at him, saying:
“I forgive you. Be more careful in handling things in the future. Don’t wrong good people.”
Zhao Jun almost gritted his teeth.
I told him to be patient. Things definitely wouldn’t end like this.
Because I thought Zhou Junyang was not only bad but also stupid.
He had full confidence that the people above him would protect him.
And the reason might be very simple:
He had evidence of others’ joint crimes with him and could threaten others.
But he was still too stupid. A trouble – maker like him who caused such a thing, even if they protected him, it was only to prevent him from causing more trouble.
People who could sit in high positions were not stupid.
Sure enough, a big event happened that night!
I didn’t expect things to come so quickly, and I could do nothing.
Zhou Junyang died.
At the same time, it was confirmed that he was one of the criminals who violated Zhou Yun.
We didn’t arrest the wrong person.
Therefore, Lao Xu called me and asked me to come back and help quickly.
When I went back, my colleagues had already completed the investigation of the homicide scene.
First, Zhou Junyang died in his single – person classroom dormitory.
The scene was very bloody.
He was obviously murdered because he was tied to the computer chair in the bedroom.
The fatal injury was a blunt – force injury to the back of the head, and the murder weapon was a household hammer.
The murderer was determined to kill him because the back of his head was almost pierced.
In addition, there were various wounds on his body.
Not to mention the internal injuries that could only be confirmed after the autopsy, even the external injuries amazed us.
For example, there were a large number of cuts all over his body caused by a machete.
For example, there were visible bruises on his face and teeth that were pulled out alive.
And almost all of his fingers and toes were broken, and the murder weapon was also that hammer.
And the most cruel one was the physical castration injury caused by scissors.
Moreover, judging from the splattered blood at the scene, the injuries on Zhou Junyang’s body were most likely caused when he was alive.
The murderer must have had a deep hatred for him.
Because it was summer vacation, there were almost no other residents in the teacher’s dormitory, so there were no witnesses.
At that time, the surveillance cameras in the school did not have night – vision function, and the old man who guarded the gate that night left his post without permission and went to drink. It was as if the school gate had no function at all.
But it didn’t matter. It wasn’t hard to guess who the murderer was. It was Zhou Jiandong.
After the crime, we tried to contact him immediately, but to no avail. His home was already empty.
Fortunately, there were many clues left at the crime scene. The murderer had almost no anti – investigation ability. We found his footprints, fingerprints, hair, and other evidence at the scene. Even on the murder weapon, fingerprints were left bare. And these evidence could all match those collected from Zhou Jiandong’s home. This showed that Zhou Jiandong was undoubtedly the murderer.
13
As for how we determined that Zhou Junyang was the perpetrator of the child sexual assault case? Besides the physical evidence at the murder scene mentioned above, we also found other things in Zhou Junyang’s home. Dark and filthy discoveries.
At that time, computers were gradually becoming popular, and there was a personal computer in Zhou Junyang’s dormitory, but it was password – protected. This was something that Zhao Jun and I hadn’t been able to access before. One reason was that there were so many things going on at that time, and the other was that we didn’t have time to get a search warrant. Forcibly searching, we definitely couldn’t break the password.
But after a murder occurred, the situation was completely different. The technical investigation colleagues could intervene quickly and break the password.
After that, in the hidden files of the computer hard drive, we found some very terrifying videos. To sum it up in four words: child molestation.
We saw familiar faces in the videos. Zhou Yun, Yang Huiqiong, and Ye Shanshan were all there. They were all Zhou Junyang’s students.
Based on this, it could almost be inferred that Zhou Junyang was the perpetrator who molested several young girls.
And Zhou Jiandong’s motive for killing Zhou Junyang was obvious. He was avenging his deceased granddaughter.
In addition, I also thought about the fact that Zhou Junyang had divorced more than ten years ago, and his children no longer lived with him. When we notified his ex – wife, she was very indifferent and hardly cared.
The divorce, and the ex – wife’s indifference, perhaps for the same reason – she should have noticed Zhou Junyang’s perverted and disgusting habits and left him, taking their young children away.
I called Zhou Junyang’s ex – wife again, implicitly asking if she knew about this. She only hinted in her words that she knew about it and clearly expressed that she didn’t want to talk about it much.
This was normal. She should have had a hard time escaping from this devil. I didn’t pester her anymore. After all, there was no need to add more bad memories for her.
The reason for confirming this was actually to determine the length of time Zhou Junyang had been committing the crime. According to past experience, such criminals, if they commit crimes for a long time without being caught in time, are very likely to find “like – minded” accomplices.
Because we still had very important evidence: the biological father of Zhou Yun’s fetus was not Zhou Junyang. That is to say, Zhou Junyang was very likely to have accomplices.
And the evidence extracted by colleagues later also confirmed my guess from the side.
14
The technical investigation colleagues sorted out those dirty videos. Besides the victim girls, no perpetrator appeared in the videos. But they found that the shooting location was not in any part of the primary school. The places were mostly the same, so it could be judged that Zhou Junyang and his accomplice should have a fixed crime base.
In one of the videos, the window could be seen, and outside was a tall camphor tree. This kind of tree is mostly planted as a roadside tree in the south and can’t be used as a landmark for identification.
However, I immediately thought of that park. The yellow house. Not only because there were camphor trees everywhere there, but also because Zhou Yun and the others would go to that park “to play” every week.
Perhaps Zhou Junyang and his beastly accomplices committed crimes together in the yellow house. Therefore, we all thought it was very necessary to investigate further.
So, I immediately reported this to Lao Xu. But before I could finish, he interrupted me harshly:
“Don’t put the cart before the horse. The criminal on the run is not caught yet. What are you thinking? Where is Zhou Jiandong? Catch him for me first. He’s a murderer!”
Yes, at that time, Zhou Jiandong was still on the run. But I thought he couldn’t escape for long. Judging from the crime scene of Zhou Junyang’s case, he had no anti – investigation ability at all. It was only a matter of time before we caught him.
And during his escape, he was unlikely to hurt others because the fundamental motive for killing Zhou Junyang was to avenge his granddaughter. He was a murderer, but not a villain who hurt people randomly.
I had contacted him before, and at least I thought so. But when I said this, I was scolded by Lao Xu again.
And as it turned out, I was wrong because Zhou Jiandong really committed another crime.
I thought Zhou Jiandong escaped just to avoid punishment, but I didn’t think of another possibility. Because we didn’t know what Zhou Junyang had told Zhou Jiandong when he was tied up that night.
15
Although Zhou Jiandong had no anti – investigation ability, he could run and hide. He was extremely familiar with the mountains and forests near the village, and it was very difficult to find out his whereabouts. He was in his prime at fifty years old. After working hard for most of his life, he had a strong body. Otherwise, he couldn’t have controlled Zhou Junyang so well and killed him so easily.
Precisely because of this, we didn’t catch him before he committed the next crime. And this time, the target he attacked was someone we knew. It was Director Zhong, the person in charge of the small park in their town.
But fortunately, Director Zhong was relatively lucky. He wasn’t killed, just hacked and sent to the hospital. According to his description, it was around eight or nine o’clock at night. He came out of the unit after overtime, walked through the park, and wanted to take a shortcut home from the back door. Suddenly, a figure jumped out in the dark.
The figure didn’t say a word, just chased him with a fruit knife. Although Director Zhong ran away immediately, he was still cut several times. He was injured on the shoulder and back.
Fortunately, before he fell, he shouted for help. Two security guards in the park heard the sound and rushed over. The knife – toting thug then let him go and quickly fled.
In the hospital, we showed Director Zhong a photo of Zhou Jiandong, and he firmly identified him as the attacker.
So, a large – scale manhunt began. After such a heinous case occurred, the higher – ups naturally attached great importance to it. Team leader Lao Xu personally led the team, and various units were united to hunt down Zhou Jiandong.
Including security cameras and traffic cameras, all were in place, just to catch Zhou Jiandong.
With such a big operation, I thought the opportunity had come. I mentioned to Lao Xu that we had to figure out why Zhou Jiandong attacked Director Zhong. There must be something fishy about it. That night, under Zhou Jiandong’s brutal torture, Zhou Junyang must have revealed a lot of things to him.
Perhaps it included Director Zhong, perhaps also the yellow house. Even the beasts hiding behind all this, those scum who had no bottom line in molesting young children.
But Lao Xu completely ignored me and sternly told me: currently, the most important thing was to catch Zhou Jiandong. Other things could be discussed later. This was an order.
16
With the order, we conducted a city – wide search overnight. Relying on various cameras, we located Zhou Jiandong on a small mountain in their village. That was a place Zhou Jiandong was familiar with. It was very logical that he would hide in a familiar place after the failed crime.
Moreover, we found fresh footprints on the way up the mountain and bloodstains on the leaves of the plants beside the footprints. This should be the bloodstain left when the bloody blade in Zhou Jiandong’s hand touched the leaves during his escape. This showed that our investigation direction was correct.
This mountain was not big, and the exits were clear. We immediately blocked the entrances and exits to search the mountain. We gathered hundreds of police officers and used searchlights and other lighting tools to search on the dark mountain.
It was ironic that we would rather mobilize the city’s police force to arrest a farmer who avenged his granddaughter, but were not willing to spend some of the police force to find out the whole incident and protect the future of the country.
With such a big operation, to be honest, as long as he still had a weapon in his hand and didn’t surrender immediately, there was a possibility of being shot dead on the spot.
For this reason, Zhao Jun and I almost rushed to the front.
The whole mountain was not big. The police officers were searching the mountain while going up, and we deliberately kept a distance from them.
Fortunately, we really found Zhou Jiandong first. He was hiding in a dilapidated cowshed.
This mountain had once been used for livestock farming for a short time, so the cowshed was left.
We shone our flashlights on his figure, and he immediately wanted to run. Zhao Jun immediately fired a warning shot and shouted:
“Zhou Jiandong! Don’t run! Put down your weapon! Kneel on the ground!”
Only then did I see that he was still holding a knife in his hand.
Hearing the deafening gunshot, he didn’t run away, but directly faced us and knelt down with a thud.
I thought he would surrender, but he was still holding the knife in his hand.
“I say it again! Put down your weapon!”
We approached him little by little, but didn’t dare to get too close.
Then, I heard Zhou Jiandong’s hoarse voice. He said:
“Let me go… Let me go… I, I still have things to do…”
He actually thought that he could be let go after killing someone.
Zhou Jiandong continued to speak in a hoarse cry:
“Please, please… I, my Yun’er… She can’t rest in peace. There are still others, there are still others…”
I understood. What he meant by “still have things to do” was to kill Director Zhong, who was not dead yet, and all of Zhou Junyang’s accomplices.
Did this mean that while torturing Zhou Junyang, Zhou Jiandong forced him to tell all his accomplices?
I also quickly shouted:
“Zhou Jiandong! Please put down your weapon immediately! As long as you tell us what you know, we will handle it later! Please trust us!”
And Zhou Jiandong’s answer to me was a bit angry:
“You? How is that possible… You couldn’t even touch that bastard Zhou Junyang!”
This sentence really stopped us.
Zhou Jiandong’s tone softened again, as if he was pleading with us:
“Let me go. I can’t die yet… Let me kill a few more. I’ll kill a few more… I’ll kill them all, and then I’ll die myself!”
He no longer cared about his own life. He just wanted to kill a few more beasts.
But I knew very well that this was impossible. Zhao Jun also knew this. He continued to shout:
“Zhou Jiandong! Put down your weapon immediately! You can’t escape! The whole mountain is surrounded!”
However, Zhou Jiandong didn’t obediently listen. He actually stood up slowly again.
He seemed to know that pleading with us would be of no use anymore. He started to growl and question us through gritted teeth:
“You tell me! Don’t they deserve to die? Ah? Don’t they, don’t they deserve to die for what they did, for killing my granddaughter…”
Yes, didn’t they deserve to die? Zhou Yun was only twelve years old, just twelve.
But because of their abuse, she didn’t even know she was pregnant, and when she died of dystocia, she was discarded like trash.
I couldn’t answer Zhou Jiandong’s question. And Zhao Jun could only repeat the order again:
“Put down your weapon! Put it down! Put it down quickly!”
I think Zhao Jun knew that the time for Zhou Jiandong to surrender was running out. Because all the other team members could hear the warning shot just now.
But Zhou Jiandong became even more angry. He seemed to be crying bitterly because his growl was filled with sobs again:
“I have to give Yun’er an explanation! I have to… I have to give her an explanation! I can die, but I have to kill them all. I must kill them all…”
He was already a bit crazy. But somehow, to a certain extent, I could understand this madness.
And Zhao Jun was still repeating:
“Put down your weapon!”
But it was too late. I had already seen many flashlight lights approaching us quickly. From several different directions.
Zhao Jun also shouted hysterically:
“Put down the knife! Put it down! Put it down quickly!”
The tone was so urgent that it was almost like begging him.
But Zhou Jiandong didn’t want to. Maybe he didn’t understand our intentions.
He didn’t know that in this wilderness, once hit by a bullet, it was 100% impossible to get medical treatment in time.
He actually started to move forward. He still had a weapon in his hand.
“I must! Kill them all! I’m useless alive. I must, I must…”
“Put down your weapon! You have to! Trust us!” Zhao Jun was still shouting hoarsely.
“Bullshit! You’re all in this together!”
He rushed towards us.
“Bang!” Another gunshot.
It wasn’t me, nor Zhao Jun. It was a colleague who came.
The bullet hit Zhou Jiandong’s thigh, and he immediately fell to the ground.
Zhao Jun and I immediately rushed up, kicked away the machete in his hand, and gave him first – aid treatment.
But despairingly, this shot actually hit the artery in the thigh. The bleeding couldn’t be stopped at all.
We carried him down the mountain and sent him to the nearest hospital, but it was of no avail.
He died.
In the hospital, outside the emergency room, under the bright white lights, Zhao Jun and I stood there stupidly for a long, long time.
“You’re all in this together!”
These words kept echoing in my ears.
I couldn’t help but feel sad.
Who on earth were we in this together with?
17
The murderer was brought to justice, and the case was quickly controlled without causing too much social unrest.
The families of the victims were emotionally stable, and the deceased was even more “stable” (in a sense).
The people above were very satisfied.
But during the follow – up, even bigger problems emerged.
Yes, there was another twist. There definitely would be.
Because we still didn’t know who “lived” in that yellow house in the park.
I found Lao Xu again, determined to get the permission to continue the investigation even if it meant having a showdown.
But unexpectedly, this time, there was a reversal.
Lao Xu was pestered by me and had no choice but to close the door of his office and say to me:
“Don’t be impatient. Actually, I’m working with other departments on this case. If you act rashly, you’ll alert the enemy. That’s why I didn’t let you run around and investigate casually before.”
I was shocked and quickly asked him about the progress.
Lao Xu explained:
“The progress is very good. We can close the net in less than two days. Zhou Junyang definitely had accomplices. Director Zhong of that park is one, and there are several teachers from primary schools in other towns. If we don’t figure out all of them, how can we catch them all?”
“That’s great!”
I suddenly understood, and the doubts in my heart were finally put to rest.
And next, things seemed to go extremely smoothly.
However, it was too smooth. There were still some flaws hidden in this smoothness.
18
Two days later, Lao Xu led us to close the net.
This case involved many underage girls and four teachers from different town primary schools within the jurisdiction, not to mention Zhou Junyang, who had already been killed.
So everything was done in a low – key manner to avoid causing public opinion and social instability.
Yes, maintaining stability was our top priority.
According to the confessions of these four teachers and Director Zhong, the person in charge of the park, they colluded with each other, brainwashed and controlled female students by means of coercion and inducement, and ultimately achieved the goal of playing with their bodies.
They were simply worse than animals.
And Director Zhong was responsible for providing the venue, that is, the yellow house.
After being arrested, the suspects had a very good attitude. Although some evidence was not conclusive, they all took the initiative to plead guilty.
You know, this was the crime of rape, and they were likely to be imprisoned for more than ten years.
But these eloquent teachers didn’t make any defense for themselves.
It wasn’t that taking the initiative to plead guilty was not a good thing, but their situation made people feel as if they were under great restraint.
This restraint was even more terrifying to them than being imprisoned for ten years.
For example, threats to their lives or even threats to their families’ safety.
This made me think of Zhou Junyang’s death.
Yes, he was killed by Zhou Jiandong.
But was he really killed because of Zhou Jiandong?
Could there be other reasons?
For example, someone above wanted him to die.
Because he spoke too wildly.
No one would be as arrogant as him in front of the police. It was easy to protect him this time, but what about next time?
Next time, what if he caused an even bigger mess?
So he died the night he just walked out of the police station.
So, Director Zhong and the other criminals pleaded guilty without hesitation and with great “sincerity.”
But I had no evidence.
Another point was still about the yellow house.
Director Zhong said that the house was just a place where they gathered on weekends to exchange student resources and had no other functions.
I didn’t believe there was no money – related transaction.
Even money – power transaction.
You know, it wasn’t something that Director Zhong could manage alone to take the yellow house for their own use.
At the same time, the incomes of those teachers were not high, and they couldn’t afford much money. And it was very unreasonable that they provided the yellow house for a group of perverted beasts to play with children without getting huge economic benefits.
No one would take great risks to do something with minimal returns.
Moreover, there was something I still couldn’t get over.
That was when I wanted to investigate the yellow house, as soon as I contacted the relevant department, Lao Xu was immediately called to a meeting.
This kind of influence was not something Director Zhong could have.
I continued to give feedback to Lao Xu, and he agreed with me, saying that he would report it upwards and that if it needed to be investigated in depth, it should be.
Unfortunately, as soon as we reported it, both Lao Xu and I were called into the office by the chief.
19
The chief first gave a series of praises, highly commending the criminal investigation team led by Lao Xu and praising us for solving several cases in a row.
Then, the conversation took a turn, and he began to talk about the role we played in society, emphasizing that contributing to society was the most important thing.
Lao Xu argued reasonably, emphasizing the need to find out the truth.
The chief’s words became more and more incisive. On the surface, he was talking about the case, but in fact, he was talking about deeper things.
One sentence was particularly harsh. He said:
“As long as the victims’ families are compensated properly, what’s the need for the truth? We? We’re just tools for maintaining stability. What right do we have to access the truth?”
This left Lao Xu and me speechless.
Because what he said was right.
After the compensation was in place, the families of Yang Huiqiong and Ye Shanshan no longer pursued the matter.
Although we didn’t even know which department provided the compensation or how much was compensated.
But everything the chief said was right.
Just as Zhou Junyang said, our world was hierarchical.
And the law – enforcement agencies were just tools to maintain the bottom – level stability.
For our level, as long as there was stability, it was fine.
The chief also said another sentence:
“There will definitely be a truth, but this truth shouldn’t be uncovered by us. Don’t worry, I will definitely give you an explanation.”
This sentence implied that the people involved in this case were at a higher level.
And matters at the upper level could only be resolved by the upper level.
Not to mention letting us solve it, even exploring the truth was not allowed.
After coming out of the chief’s office, Lao Xu immediately lit a cigarette, not caring whether it was indoors or not.
As we walked, we talked.
I told Lao Xu my speculation. I thought that whether it was Zhou Junyang or the other teachers who committed crimes, perhaps they were, at most, just pimps, pulling in “sources of goods.”
The yellow house was a “consumption place.”
And the “consumers” were at a higher level.
He, or they, had money and power.
In that era, they even had the power to take away other people’s lives.
Lao Xu remained silent, just smoking heavily.
Maybe he had also guessed it, but he was thinking more.
“Maybe it’s a good thing.”
I was very puzzled.
Lao Xu frowned, exhaled a puff of smoke, and then slowly said:
“Even if we figure out everything, it won’t be of any use. Do you know about that outrageous legal amendment a few years ago?”
I immediately racked my brain, associated it with the current case, and immediately thought of it.
The crime of soliciting prostitutes among young girls.
In 1997, five years before this case occurred, the criminal law was amended, making the crime of soliciting prostitutes among young girls a separate criminal law charge.
This charge was different from the “crime of rape” in the original criminal law.
That is to say, taking this case as an example, if it was as we guessed, the masterminds behind the scenes would no longer be punished as rape but would be convicted of the crime of soliciting prostitutes among young girls, generally starting from five years in prison.
I suddenly understood.
Even if we caught those people, we couldn’t severely punish them.
Maybe the chief was right.
“Wait, wait for a truth.”
Lao Xu exhaled another puff of smoke, and the smoke engulfed his face.
20
About half a year later, a strong wind blew from above.
Several big leaders in different fields fell from power one after another.
Several big bosses ranked among the top in terms of assets were also arrested.
Both the discipline inspection and economic investigation departments intervened.
All of them were convicted.
Most of the charges were serious, and some even faced the death penalty.
Maybe it could be considered that the wicked were finally punished.
At the same time, that yellow house was finally demolished.
I don’t know if this was the “explanation” the chief mentioned.
Maybe it was.
But we will never know what kind of dirty and filthy transactions took place in that yellow house.
Maybe the truth really exists.
But some truths, we will never see.
– End –
