Volume 36: Why Did Ah Zhen Die?

Ah[1] Zhen: Are you there?

Ah Zhen: I can’t sleep. I’m so miserable. Can you talk with me?

Ah Zhen:?

Mieba: Fuck. Do you have to be like this? You just got jilted. Why haven’t you gotten over it yet? You’re too narrow-minded, aren’t you?

Ah Zhen: I want to die!

Mieba: Oh save that crap. Go wash up and go to sleep!

Mieba: When you’re sad, try not to listen to sad songs and watch those weepy Korean dramas. You should read more unconstrained poems. A person needs to look further ahead and just be heartless like me. See how well I live!

Ah Zhen: Thank you!

Mieba: It’s okay, don’t think too much. Just go to sleep. That man is a scum. There’s no need to shed tears for him. Who hasn’t experienced such a thing as a breakup? Be more mature!

Ah Zhen: Alright.

Ah Zhen: Sorry for bothering you.

...

Ah Zhen: Hello, this is Zhang Jianjun, a policeman from the Long'an Public Security Bureau. The owner of this phone died after falling off a building half an hour ago. I need to verify her identity with you.

Mieba: *A message was withdrawn*

Mieba: Stop teasing me. How could she commit suicide.

Ah Zhen: Please tell me your mobile phone number!!!

Mieba: Fuck, really?!

In the middle of the night on September 25th, there were police sirens flashing in the Taohuayuan housing district. The woman who had fallen from the building was surrounded by the police cordon. The police were taking photos and fixing the area. Some residents ran down to watch in their pajamas and were stopped by the police outside the cordon.

Old Zhang had a mobile phone with a broken screen in his hands. On WeChat, the friend who had chatted with her last finally sent over information on her identity. The deceased's name was Ai Lizhen. She graduated from XX University and had been working for three years. She worked as a telemarketer in an investment company.

Old Zhang copied the information down and looked at the female corpse on the ground with emotion, "Haii, so young."

A policeman came down. "No outsiders have been in the house. The door was locked from the inside and the window was open. This was found on the table!" It was a suicide note, and some of the writing had already been blurred. Old Zhang sniffed it to confirm that it was wet from tears.

"It seems to be a suicide. Take the body away quickly! Hey, don't take pictures. There’s nothing to see here. Go back to sleep!" The last sentence was directed towards a grinning young man who was taking photos just outside the cordon.

A car drove into the housing district and two youngsters came out, rushing into the cordon regardless of the police's obstruction. Old Zhang said, "What are you doing? Hurry and get out. The police are handling the case!"

A guy in a red plaid shirt who reeked of alcohol cried and pointed at himself. "I was the one on WeChat just now, Mieba. I killed her! I should have figured it out earlier, why didn't I figure it out... Ah Zhen, Ah Zhen, wake up!"

The guy knelt beside the body and cried. The guy in the leather jacket stood next to him, looking sad. He shook his head and sighed for a while, then took out a cigarette and got ready to light it up.

Old Zhang said, "No smoking here!"

"I’m not trying to smoke. I want to mourn Ah Zhen."

"Stop shedding crocodile tears!" The guy in the red plaid shirt stood up and pushed him. "Officer, arrest him. It was this scumbag who played with her emotions and caused Ah Zhen to commit suicide! It's all your fault!"

"What do you mean? The last person that she contacted was you. If it weren't for your words, would she die?" The guy in the leather jacket countered.

The two of them looked like they were about to get into a fight. The police quickly persuaded them to stay away from each other. Old Zhang smelled alcohol on them and asked, "Who drove the car?"

The guy in the leather jacket pointed to the guy in the red plaid. "He did!"

"Drinking and driving? Take him away!"

The guy in the red plaid wailed and shook them off, trying to kick the guy in the leather jacket in order to vent his anger. When he was taken into the police car, he was still shouting, "Ah Qiang, karma will get you! It definitely will!"

Hearing the word "karma", the guy in the leather jacket felt a little lingering fear. Old Zhang came over and asked, "What is your name? What is your relationship with the deceased?"

"Gu Daqiang. I just broke up with her."

"Because of what?"

"Because I had found someone else. You can ask any one of our friends and they’d tell you that, but it’s not true! I know it’s bad to speak ill of the dead, but Ah Zhen was too insecure and was suspicious of everything. As long as I was one second late replying to a text message, she’d suspect that I was with another woman. Do you know what the reason the last time that we quarreled was? Wasn’t a province in the south flooded? Everyone in our company donated as a group. I donated a thousand dollars. After she found out about it, she started overthinking. She said that my ex-girlfriend was from that province and asked if it was because of this reason that I donated so much. I said that she was mad and refused to answer her unreasonable questions. She cried and scolded me. I couldn't stand it anymore, so I suggested that we break up. About a week after the breakup, I found another girlfriend. This incident reached her ears, and she started to overthink it, thinking that I had met someone else long ago, which caused us to break up. She would vent her grievances to people everywhere, just like Xianglin’s widow[2]. Our friends all came to criticize me. Don’t you think I’m being wrongly accused? Officer, she committed suicide, right? It’s got nothing to do with me!”

"We’re still investigating whether she committed suicide. What is the name of the guy from just now?"

"Liu Qin. We were all classmates."

"You two were together?"

"We were just drinking, and we were at the Bluebird Bar on Erma Road from 10:00 in the evening until we received the text message."

Old Zhang recorded the information down while listening. He finally said, "Okay, thank you for your cooperation. Leave down your contact information and we will inform you if there’s progress."

Gu Daqiang shook his head. "No need, she must have committed suicide. I should have known. I want some peace and quiet for the next two days."

Gu Daqiang took his leave.

After the site investigation was completed, the police loaded the body into the van and returned to the bureau. Old Zhang was on duty that night. In fact, he had been exposed to too many such suicide cases ever since he became an officer. Compared with those earth-shattering murders, it didn’t seem like a big event.

Back at the bureau, a police officer brought a detention document over and asked Old Zhang to sign it. When he read "Liu Qin" on it, Old Zhang said, "He’s a drunk driver. Why was he detained here?"

"You didn't tell us earlier!"

"Forget it. Leave him here first. Tomorrow, I’ll contact the traffic department and let them deal with it."

Just before he got off work, Old Zhang went to take a look at Liu Qin. He sat very dejectedly in a solo detention room. Old Zhang asked, "Are you sober yet?"

Liu Qin nodded.

"Although there aren't many cars at night, it was still too dangerous for you to do so. I know that things have happened suddenly, but there are no exceptions before the law."

"Did she leave a suicide note or something?"

"She did, but I can't show it to you right now. We have to wait until we’ve completely ruled out homicide.”

"I really shouldn't have said those words back then, really... I'm practically a pig, why didn't I notice it?!" Liu Qin covered his face with great pain. "You can punish me. Shoot or jail me, I’d take it. I was the one who killed her!”

Old Zhang shook his head. "Don't blame yourself. She’s already gone. Get some rest!”

1. Used in front of a shortened form of peoples' given names to express familiarity

2. A very pitiful woman who complained to everyone about the misfortunes in her life. To be fair, she did meet with a lot of misfortune.