It wasn’t only Xiao Que who felt that the situation was difficult to handle. In truth, even the special investigation team couldn’t completely convince themselves.
“A fifteen- or sixteen-year-old girl suddenly committed suicide without any reason or warning at all?” The team leader stared at the whiteboard densely covered with clues. The more he looked at it, the more he felt that something was seriously wrong.
But they had already handled the matter according to the standards of a criminal investigation. Not only had they formed a special investigation team and mobilized a large number of personnel, but because they were worried there might be an issue with the forensic examination results, they had even invited a highly experienced forensic examiner in his fifties from the provincial department.
And even after all that, they still hadn’t found the slightest trace indicating homicide.
“You also feel that closing the case like this is unacceptable?” Shu Yu looked at him.
“According to procedure, we really should close the case now and hand the final case report over to you so that you can issue a response regarding the entire incident. But given the current situation, will anyone actually believe the statement you put out?” The special investigation team leader grabbed at what little hair he had left. “Like I just said, a young girl suddenly committed suicide for no reason whatsoever. Even I can’t make sense of that myself.”
Shu Yu fell silent.
The special investigation team leader was thinking exactly the same thing she was. Given the current situation, once they released this statement, it would be very easy for the other side to launch a concerted attack against them.
All the other side had to do was steer the matter toward conspiracy theories, and they would have no way to explain why Yang Jie had committed suicide.
If the other side seized the opportunity to make a huge issue out of this, then their handling of this public-opinion crisis would be a considerable failure.
“How about this? We still have some time, so don’t hand the materials over to us yet. See if you can think of anything else and look for more clues. We’ll also try to think of something on our end.” Shu Yu discussed it with the special investigation team leader. “I know you’re normally very busy too, but given the current situation, problems could easily arise.”
“That’s what I was thinking too. Although we’ve investigated everything we were supposed to according to procedure, perhaps there are still some oversights we haven’t considered.” The team leader helplessly looked at the thick stack of case files on the table. “Since we originally said three days, we still have one day left. If we still haven’t found any other clues by the end of tomorrow, then we’ll have no choice but to close the case.”
Normally, once all possibilities of homicide had been ruled out, the procedure for a suicide case wasn’t particularly complicated. But once a case became entangled with public opinion, it could no longer be handled so simply and directly.
Looking at the special investigation team members whose faces practically screamed that they were about to die from overwork, Shu Yu felt a little bad for them.
After leaving the special investigation team, Shu Yu and the others returned to the hotel.
The four of them gathered in Shu Yu’s room and stared at one another.
“Tell me what you think. If there’s still no progress tomorrow, then we’ll definitely have to issue a response saying that we couldn’t find any reason for the suicide.” Shu Yu opened a can of black coffee for herself. Clearly, she was already prepared to stay up all night.
Feng Tang rubbed at her already messy hair and finally voiced what had been bothering her the most.
“Don’t you think this Yang Jie was too normal?” As soon as she said it, she felt the wording sounded strange, so she continued, “There wasn’t even the slightest complaint about the school or her teachers on any of her social media accounts. She also seemed to have never mentioned anything about academic pressure. It’s almost like…”
She tried to find an adjective, but for a moment, she couldn’t think of an appropriate word.
“Like a female high school student who perfectly fits a template,” Shu Yu finished the sentence for her. “Everything about her seems to have been set according to some kind of template. Her grades were average, she was better at English and history but bad at math. All of those things fit our stereotypes of female high school students.”
Lu Anran slapped her thigh. “Exactly! Now that you’ve said it, I finally understand why I’ve felt something was strange ever since I got this girl’s information two days ago, but I couldn’t put my finger on what exactly was strange.”
“She never kept a diary. There isn’t a single word anywhere that reveals her real personality. Even her essays don’t contain any of her own emotions. This Yang Jie seems almost too stereotypical.” Xiao Que remembered the essays he had read. “And judging from the materials we got from the special investigation team, she never even doodled in her textbooks.”
“Her desk was very clean too,” Shu Yu added.
Sometimes, being too normal was itself abnormal. Humans were a species defined by individuality. It was difficult for anyone to exist entirely according to a stereotype.
But the Yang Jie they had come to know was like a figure carved from a wooden template. From her appearance and clothing to her social life and academic performance, everything seemed to have been set according to some predetermined mold.
A sudden chill ran down Shu Yu’s spine.
This was not a good sign.
“There’s one issue. After Yang Jie finished the high school entrance examination, she went and got her hair permed and even dyed it brown. Although she changed it back before high school started because of the school’s requirements, that at least shows that when she finished the entrance exam, Yang Jie wasn’t someone who fit the ‘ordinary female high school student’ template so perfectly. She had the kind of rebelliousness that’s very common at that age.” Feng Tang remembered what they had previously learned about Yang Jie’s family situation.
The two things seemed somewhat inconsistent.
“I’ll contact the special investigation team first.” Shu Yu made a call. “At the very least, we need to confirm whether they’ve noticed this clue.”
The special investigation team quickly responded.
“We considered this issue too. But just as you said, we don’t have any evidence to determine whether Yang Jie’s personality simply changed after entering high school or whether something else happened to her. Especially when it’s difficult to establish any direct connection between this issue and her suicide.” The special investigation team leader was a veteran criminal investigator. After hearing what Shu Yu had to say, he quickly answered their doubts.
Indeed, the abnormality they had vaguely sensed couldn’t serve as concrete evidence or provide them with a new direction for the investigation.
“We’ll try to conduct some supplementary investigation along those lines, but don’t get your hopes up too much,” the team leader said helplessly. “If there are any new developments, we’ll stay in contact.”
After the call ended, all four of them fell silent at the same time.
Even the only possibility they had discovered was unlikely to yield any clues.
“The internet has also been unusually quiet today. It’s completely different from how lively things should have been. I think the other side is holding back and preparing something big.” Lu Anran pushed her laptop aside. “There’s something wrong with every part of how this case is unfolding. I keep feeling like someone is leading us straight into a trap.”
Shu Yu felt the same way. And ever since they had taken over the case, more and more suspicious points had begun to emerge.
“If we hadn’t gotten involved in this case, do you think they still would’ve used all these complicated tactics?” Shu Yu asked.
The question suddenly occurred to her because, from beginning to end, everything about this incident had carried a faint sense of being aimed specifically at their Public Opinion Response Division.
“I don’t think so. If we hadn’t intervened, this case probably would’ve gone the same way as the previous ones. There would’ve been an uproar across all the major platforms for a while, the marketing accounts on those platforms would’ve ridden the traffic and made a fortune, and then everything would’ve ended once the attention died down.” Lu Anran accurately analyzed how the case should originally have developed.
“If that’s the case, then it looks like the other side is doing this deliberately.” Xiao Que sorted through his thoughts. “And it’s obvious they prepared for both possibilities. Whether or not we took this case, they would’ve been able to move forward smoothly.”
Following this somewhat conspiratorial line of thought made Shu Yu shudder.
“Looks like they might make a new move tomorrow.” Shu Yu sounded very certain. “Everyone should get some sleep early tonight. There’s no way for us to know exactly what they’re planning, so we can only take things one step at a time.”
“I’m feeling a lot of pressure right now.” Feng Tang collapsed onto the bed. “It probably won’t reach the point of an offline, real-life showdown, but I keep feeling like there’s an eye staring eerily at us through the internet cable.”
“That’s a pretty good metaphor,” Xiao Que said approvingly.
Feng Tang didn’t move at all and gave him no response whatsoever.
Shu Yu simply drove all of them back to their own rooms.
“Go catch up on sleep or do whatever you need to do. Standing around in my room isn’t going to help us find any new clues.” She decisively kicked them out.
The others didn’t linger and left one after another.
……
Early the next morning, Shu Yu opened her eyes right on time at seven as usual.
She switched off her alarm before it even had the chance to make a sound, then rubbed her eyes while checking WeChat.
Good. There weren’t any messages for the time being.
At seven thirty, Feng Tang rushed in in a panic.
“The parents brought people with them and went to the school gates with banners to cause trouble!” She was still carrying the soy milk and steamed buns she had just bought.
“What happened?” Shu Yu had still been a little sleepy, but now she was completely awake.
“This is the video I took. Look.” Feng Tang pulled out her phone and showed her a five-minute video filmed from several different angles.
It was exactly when the students were arriving at school. The group had blocked both the main gate and the side gate, leaving students and parents crowded outside, all looking somewhat at a loss.
“They didn’t come and make trouble on Saturday or Sunday. They specifically waited until Monday, when everyone had to go to school.” Shu Yu’s head was already pounding. She could completely imagine what would happen once these videos were uploaded online.
A high-ranking trending topic was practically guaranteed.
“Wait. What does that banner say?” Shu Yu suddenly noticed something wrong in the video.
“‘Evil School, Treating Human Life Like Grass.’” Feng Tang took the phone and looked more closely. “They’ve got more than one banner. This is the biggest one.”
“How did this suddenly become ‘treating human life like grass’?” Shu Yu wondered whether she had somehow missed an important part of the plot while she was asleep. “Wasn’t the family informed yesterday that Yang Jie’s death had been ruled a suicide? And didn’t they have no objections to that conclusion?”
If the family hadn’t already accepted that conclusion, Shu Yu would never have brought up transferring the case materials for final handling in the first place.
It hadn’t even been a full day.
Why had the family suddenly turned against them?
Feng Tang shook her head, indicating that she didn’t know.
Very soon, a call came from the special investigation team.
Xiao Que had only just learned about what had happened and was watching the footage Feng Tang had taken with a puzzled expression, a steamed bun still clenched between his teeth.
“No need to watch the video. An influencer is already livestreaming it.” Lu Anran switched to another screen. “The police have already gone over to maintain order and let the students into the school for class, but there are too many people. It’ll probably be difficult to take all of them back.”
“They can’t just leave them there either,” Shu Yu said with a frown. “The special investigation team just sent word that among the parents and people causing trouble, they found someone who has absolutely no familial relationship with Yang Jie. They want us to go over and discuss the situation.”
The other side’s silence yesterday had clearly been preparation for today’s big move, so everyone was now extremely vigilant.
It was hard to say whether the other side had any other backup plans waiting.
Still, since there was a new discovery, perhaps it would give them a new direction. Fortunately, they hadn’t released the statement yesterday.
Wait…
Shu Yu suddenly stopped just as she was about to leave.
“The special investigation team informed the family yesterday that the conclusion was suicide, right?” Shu Yu suddenly asked.
Feng Tang nodded blankly.
“Under normal circumstances, we probably would’ve chosen a time last night to organize and release the complete response. But because the situation was so suspicious, we delayed it by a day,” Shu Yu continued. “But they couldn’t possibly have known in advance exactly when we would release the statement. So they still followed their original plan and started causing trouble as soon as the family received notice that the case was being closed.”
“So what you’re saying is, they were a little too impatient this time?” Xiao Que leaned against the wall. “Or did they miscalculate our procedures?”
“Probably the latter,” Shu Yu said. “The people causing trouble and those banners all had to be prepared in advance. The other side probably understands our procedures very well. Once the case is closed, the materials are handed over to us, and we organize them and issue the statement.”
“But they didn’t expect us to happen to hold off on issuing a response yesterday or this morning, even though they’d already prepared everyone.” After Feng Tang said this, however, she immediately felt something was wrong. “But since we didn’t issue the statement last night, they could’ve just called everyone back.”
“It’s a timing gap they couldn’t work around.” Shu Yu had already figured out the crucial point. “High school starts too early, but government departments like ours have a habit of releasing statements in the morning on workdays. It was already quite late yesterday when the family was informed that the case was being closed. They probably thought there was little chance we’d release the statement in the middle of the night because drafting and reviewing it both take time. So they assumed we’d issue the official statement at exactly nine or ten this morning.”
“But the high school gates open at seven.” Feng Tang followed Shu Yu’s train of thought. “If they didn’t block the gates and cause trouble now, then by nine o’clock there wouldn’t be anyone outside the school gates, and they definitely wouldn’t achieve the effect of suddenly catching the school off guard and blocking the entrance.”
Once the school discovered that they were coming to block the gates after nine, it could simply have part of the wall separating the school from the construction site taken down and coordinate with the construction site to open a few more entrances so that the students could leave at noon.
There was no reason the construction site wouldn’t agree to such a minor request.
In that case, causing trouble at the school gates wouldn’t block anyone at all. And if they went to the construction site entrance instead, once the footage was posted online, people wouldn’t even know what they were there for.
So they had to block the school gates while the school was completely unprepared.
“Well, that worked out nicely for us. I’m guessing they didn’t expect things to turn out like this either. We haven’t released any statement about closing the case, yet they’ve already brought out banners accusing the school of treating human life like grass.” Xiao Que said, “Looks like our luck isn’t quite that terrible this time.”
Though it isn’t exactly good either, Shu Yu thought to herself.
When they arrived at the special investigation team, Shu Yu saw that they were investigating the man in black who had briefly appeared among the family members.
“You’re here. Sorry to drag you over so early in the morning.” The team leader rubbed his tired eyes as he looked at Shu Yu and the others. “Looks like you already know the general situation.”
“Mm. We saw the video,” Shu Yu said. “Looks like they arrived very early?”
“At 6:43, they got out of an unlicensed van. Of the three people leading the group, two were Yang Jie’s parents. This man in black is the only one whose identity we don’t know. And after arriving at the school gates, he only walked around once. At around seven, he left with the van. We’re currently tracking that van.”
Shu Yu looked at the enlarged image of the man in black on the screen and told the special investigation team about their speculation from earlier that morning.
“Good thing you didn’t issue a response last night,” the special investigation team leader said, sounding extremely relieved. “Otherwise, what happened today would’ve been very difficult to handle.”
“Isn’t this man in black one of those people you usually crack down on? Like the people who organize disturbances at hospitals, or some minor local gang leader?” Xiao Que asked.
“We brought in several veteran police officers to identify him. We originally thought he was the one organizing the troublemakers too, but it turns out these two are the ringleaders who regularly do this kind of thing.” The special investigation team leader pointed at two shifty-looking figures at the bottom of the screen. “These two frequently organize groups of local thugs to cause trouble around the county. The people causing trouble at the school gates are all part of their group too.”
“Then this man in black is very suspicious.” Shu Yu rubbed her chin. “If we can find him, maybe this case will finally have a new breakthrough.”
There was no longer much doubt that Yang Jie had committed suicide, but whether she had been induced by someone to take her own life or had done so because of an emotional disturbance were two entirely different matters.
If Yang Jie had been induced to commit suicide, then this would be a criminal case.
“We’re also worried that this man might have something to do with Yang Jie’s death.” In the span of twenty minutes, the team leader lit his second cigarette. “But he’s very familiar with the surveillance cameras around the county. The van avoided cameras the entire way. We’re trying to find a way to identify him.”
At this point, they had finally found a new lead.
After thinking for a moment, Shu Yu suddenly asked, “Did you investigate whether Yang Jie came into contact with anyone during the summer vacation after her high school entrance examination?”
“We looked into it in general, but her parents were vague about it,” the team leader said with certainty. “All we know is that she didn’t leave F City during the summer vacation.”
“I have a technical question.” Shu Yu looked toward one of the cyber police officers. “If she went online at an unlicensed internet café and never used her own identity information to register anything, would you be able to trace her internet activity?”
“No,” the cyber police officer answered without hesitation. “The IP address would have no connection whatsoever to her home, and if the real-name verification was completed using someone else’s identity, there’d be no way for us to connect an account like that to her.”
So that possibility really did exist.