Zhuang Yanzheng glanced at Su Miaoyi, whose expression was beginning to waver, then turned his head and noticed Feng Ming trembling.
He yanked Feng Ming up roughly. “What the hell are you doing?!”
Feng Ming had just been about to resist when he was pulled to his feet, his body shaking even harder. “I—I—I didn’t do anything. I just wanted to see my daughter. I only wanted to look at her.”
“Qi Feng, get them both out of here!” Zhuang Yanzheng shouted.
Qi Feng and the other officers immediately dragged them out.
The two of them kept struggling, pulling, wailing, and sobbing.
But Su Miaoyi showed no reaction at all.
The scene before her eyes had transformed into a notebook.
She felt herself curled up in a corner, her back against an ice-cold wall.
A notebook rested on her lap, and she held a blue pen in her hand, writing crookedly across the pages.
[Xiang Lianlian, hold on, don’t die! The people who bullied you aren’t dead yet! You can’t die. You can’t have thoughts of death. And you can’t go crazy either. There has to be a way out. There will be. All the evidence of their crimes is here. As long as you find a way out, none of them will escape!]
Suddenly, footsteps approached.
She tucked the pen between the pages, quickly shoved the notebook under the bedboard…
The wail of an ambulance siren sounded, and Su Miaoyi was pulled out of the vision. She looked at everything before her…
The local police officers had also arrived.
The girl was loaded onto the ambulance, and two female officers from the local station climbed in with her.
Su Miaoyi watched the ambulance drive away.
Then she turned and went back into the girl’s room.
Zhuang Yanzheng followed behind her.
Su Miaoyi first swept her gaze across the room, walked to the bed, and with one hand flipped up the bedboard.
“What do you think you’re doing? Even police can’t just search someone’s home without a warrant! Do you have a search warrant?!” Feng Ming shouted, trying to lunge forward but being held back.
It was precisely because they didn’t have a warrant.
They’d only been walking around and looking.
It wasn’t exactly by the book.
But Zhuang Yanzheng didn’t say anything.
He’d brought Su Miaoyi here directly.
He’d already considered all the consequences.
After flipping up the bedboard, Su Miaoyi pulled out a notebook from inside the bed.
Feng Ming was startled at the sight of it. He’d never seen this notebook before, but he had a very bad feeling about it.
Su Miaoyi opened the notebook, and a blue pen fell out from between the pages.
The handwriting was crooked and somewhat messy, but the contents were completely legible.
She flipped through it, then walked over to Feng Ming and shoved the notebook right in his face.
Her hands were trembling from sheer rage. “Two years! All the harm you inflicted on the victim is recorded right here! What do you have to say for yourself?!”
Feng Ming stared at the writing in the notebook, bracing one hand against the wall. “I don’t know. I don’t know anything. What is all this?! This notebook can’t be hers! Why would she write these things?!”
“You don’t know!” Su Miaoyi stepped forward and threw a punch. “You bastard! You’re worse than an animal!”
The sudden move startled Zhuang Yanzheng.
Qi Feng quickly pulled Feng Ming back.
Zhuang Yanzheng grabbed Su Miaoyi’s arm and held her back. “You can’t hit him!”
“You all can’t hit him, but why can’t I?” Su Miaoyi glared fiercely at Feng Ming, wishing she could tear him apart. She raised her leg to kick him.
But Qi Feng had already pulled the man far away, so her kick missed.
“You came here with us, so you can’t either.” Zhuang Yanzheng paused, then added, “No matter who you came with, you can’t use your hands.”
She looked at him, breathing heavily with anger. She held his gaze for a few seconds, then realized she’d overreacted. She turned to face the wall, trying to calm herself down.
Zhuang Yanzheng looked at her cold, turned-away back and said, “Give me the notebook.”
Su Miaoyi handed it to him.
Zhuang Yanzheng instructed Qi Feng to separate Feng Ming and Zhao Qin into two different rooms.
He also had the others search the premises and check with the neighbors about the situation.
The search warrant would be filed retroactively.
After arranging everything, Zhuang Yanzheng called out to Su Miaoyi: “If you’re calm now, stop staring at the wall and come help.”
Su Miaoyi went outside, put on gloves, and helped collect fingerprints, hair, and other evidence.
At first she stayed behind the forensic team, worried that since she’d never done this before, she’d just get in the way. But soon she was using tweezers and evidence bags, collecting samples with practiced skill.
Zhuang Yanzheng quickly flipped through the notebook.
It began two years ago.
[Year XX, Month X, Day X. My name is Xiang Lianlian. Feng Ming, three days ago, while I was sleeping at night, came into my room and did… to me.
For these three days he hasn’t let me go to school. He hasn’t let me leave the room either.]
[Today is Year XX, Month X, Day X. I am Xiang Lianlian. Feng Ming came into my room again during the night. I screamed. I fought back. I was beaten.
I saw Zhao Qin standing outside the door. She was crying, but she didn’t stop him.
It’s been half a month since I left the room. Feng Ming told the neighbors I have mental problems, that I scream and shout every day.]
[Today is xx year, x month, x day. I am Xiang Lianlian. It has been three months already. Feng Ming, he comes to my room off and on. I haven’t been outside for three months now.]
[Today is xx year, x month, x day. I am Xiang Lianlian. Feng Ming brought a man here. I recognize him—it’s Li Lao’er from the back street. I don’t know his full name. Li Lao’er gave Feng Ming a sum of money. Li Lao’er came into my room.
Zhao Qin doesn’t cry anymore. I heard her laughing outside. I heard them saying how easy the money is to make. I don’t want to live anymore. No! No! No! I must live. I want to watch them all die with my own eyes!]
……
[Today is xx year, x month, x day. I haven’t left this room for over a year now. More and more people come, and I know every single one of them.
Feng Ming’s relatives, bachelors from this village, married men from the neighboring village.
Today Li Lao’er came again. I struggled and fought back, kicked him. I tried to run, but was dragged back. I hit my head, and got slapped across the face.
I thought I was dead. I seemed to see the gates of the underworld. I don’t want to die! They haven’t died yet! I won’t die either! I woke up.]
[Today is xx year, x month, x day. I am Xiang Lianlian. I thought if I was injured, they would let me go. They didn’t. On the third day after being beaten, I stood at the window looking outside. After being hit, I was terrified. Hearing the door open, I fell off my chair and curled up in the corner of the bed.
They were bargaining. Zhao Qin said she had already bathed me!
I hate them! I hate them! Go die! All of you go die! This time it was a stranger. He grabbed my neck. Everything went black before my eyes—that feeling of dying again. I don’t want to die. When I woke up, it was already the next day.]
……
The rest was another year of intermittent records.
The names that appeared more often were the repeated ones.
What Su Miaoyi saw was all from a year ago.
Zhuang Yanzheng took the notebook to the local police station and shared the names and approximate addresses listed in it with the officers, telling them to go directly to bring those people in for questioning.
As for Feng Ming’s relatives and the stranger’s address, those would need to be obtained from Feng Ming and Zhao Qin.
Zhuang Yanzheng went to see Feng Ming first.
Feng Ming had been telling the police he knew nothing.
Zhuang Yanzheng sat across from him.
Feng Ming said, “Officer, I’m innocent! I really don’t know anything!”
Zhuang Yanzheng slapped the notebook down on the cabinet beside him, staring into Feng Ming’s eyes. “You don’t know anything? Then where did this notebook come from! And why was Xiang Lianlian locked in the house for over two years without ever going outside!”
“Lianlian, she’s not right in the head. She’s always screaming and yelling—everyone in the area knows that,” Feng Ming said. “We had no choice but to keep her locked up at home. If there were another way, who would want to live like that?”
“If she was locked up at home, if she’s mentally unwell, then where did she get a boyfriend?” Zhuang Yanzheng asked sternly.
Feng Ming’s eyes suddenly contracted.
“Who is her boyfriend? What’s his name? Where is he from? How old is he?” Zhuang Yanzheng pressed on.
Feng Ming’s lips began to tremble, and his hands started shaking too.
Zhuang Yanzheng suddenly raised his voice: “Speak!”
Feng Ming flinched in fright, his legs starting to shake as well, but he still said, “I’m really innocent, I don’t know anything, I don’t know anything!”
“What were you just trying to do? What were your hands doing under the blanket! Were you trying to silence her right in front of the police?” Zhuang Yanzheng said.
“I wasn’t, I wasn’t,” Feng Ming denied vehemently. “I was just touching her hand, trying to warm her up. Why would I want to kill her? I really don’t know anything. I’m innocent.”
“These names mentioned in the notebook… our people have already gone to their homes.” Zhuang Yanzheng tapped his finger on the notebook. “Fetal tissue can be used to extract DNA. And in this notebook, the last entry was from yesterday. DNA can also be extracted from her room. Are you waiting for the DNA match results? Or will you confess right now!”