Tuer l'amour

Chapitre 17

"Afternoon of August 13, 1982."

Liu Er and I both looked at Lao Lu, hoping he could recall something.

"August 13, 1982, August 13, 1980... executed by firing squad..." Old Lu muttered to himself, trying hard to recall.

His thick knuckles tapped on the table, each tap tugging at our hearts.

Will he suddenly remember that he once burned a person covered in hair?

"It should be. It was delivered from Tilanqiao, right?" Old Lu said, stopping his knocking.

“Yes.” Liu Er and I got excited.

"What's your name?"

"Zhang Jinlong".

“Zhang Jinlong, Zhang Jinlong. That’s your father.” Old Lu looked at Liu Er with a strange expression.

"Yes."

"You checked the arson records just now, right? Do you remember the arson records before and after Zhang Jinlong? Weren't those people also executed criminals?"

"Uh..." I couldn't answer, I hadn't noticed.

“Yes, I saw several people being executed by firing squad,” Liu Er said.

"It's probably because no one prepared the body for the deceased."

"Yes," Liu Er nodded. He hadn't expected Liu Er to observe so closely.

“That’s right. I remember now. Do you know why no one prepared their bodies for burial?” Old Lu asked.

"Isn't it because the executed criminals aren't allowed to be organized?" I said.

“Even those executed are usually dealt with, though not as thoroughly as ordinary victims. Once they're dead, even the biggest crimes are absolved, and they can go on their way cleanly. But this batch that day, nobody was willing to do anything for them.”

"Why is that?" I asked. How come no one is willing to sort through a batch? Is there something going on, and it's not just Zhang Jinlong who's involved?

“Back then, all the workers doing this job were women. The reason they refused to do it,” Old Lu said, glancing at Liu Er again, “was because those who were executed were all convicted rapists!”

My mouth dropped open. Zhang Jinlong was a rapist!

After learning that Zhang Jinlong was executed, I imagined many reasons for his execution: murder, arson, corruption, even political prisoners. But I never thought he was a rapist.

Liu Er sat there without saying a word.

"It seems you don't know yet. It's because they were rapists who ruined countless girls that the female workers were unwilling to clean their bodies and let them be burned in the incinerator in the most unsightly way."

He looked at Liu Er and sighed, "Your father, Zhang Jinlong, is one of them. No wonder your mother wouldn't tell you."

My heart suddenly felt like it had been struck by a hammer. Zhang Jinlong is a rapist, so does that mean You Fang was raped before giving birth to her son You Hong?

Think about it again. You Fang doesn't remember Zhang Jinlong's exact date of death or how old he was because he was raped and she didn't know Zhang Jinlong at all before!

Perhaps she knew when Zhang Jinlong was executed, but she forced herself to forget it; she wanted to forget the man and that experience. Therefore, she never mentioned Zhang Jinlong to her beloved son.

Stealing a glance at Liu Er's face, I saw no particularly agitated expression. I found his calmness terrifying, a calmness that... was quite tragic.

He must have thought of that too.

“Young man, your father is your father, and you are you. Don’t get them mixed up. Just live your life properly,” Old Lu said to Liu Er in a hoarse voice.

"Then, do you remember what Zhang Jinlong looked like? Was there anything special about him?" I asked.

"I really can't remember what they looked like. What could be special about them? They all had hands and feet, and a hole in their heads. They were all the same. I only remembered them because they were all raped and executed."

“Master Lu,” Liu Er spoke, his voice a little lower than usual, but otherwise there was nothing unusual: “Thank you for telling me all this, but aren’t rapists usually not sentenced to death by firing squad?”

After hearing what Liu Er said, I realized it too. What surprised me even more was that Liu Er could still think of this in his current state of mind.

"That's why I have such a deep impression of that group. You're too young to know, but back then it was a huge case that caused a sensation. From 1981 to 1982, there was a sudden surge of rampant rape cases, so much so that no woman dared to go out after dark. Every day, rumors circulated in the city about how many girls had been victimized the previous day. It wasn't just Shanghai; it seemed like this happened in many provinces and cities. The impact of these people was so terrible that after they were caught, those with particularly serious offenses were executed. Each of those who died had harmed at least a dozen or twenty people."

"So you're saying it's a gang of thugs?"

Old Lu shook his head: "That's the strange thing. These people were unrelated to each other, yet they all appeared around the same time and committed crimes everywhere. When they were finally executed, it caused quite a stir. Everyone applauded and cheered. Otherwise, it would have been more than 20 years ago, and I would never have remembered it."

As I was leaving the Xibaoxing Road Funeral Home, I was about to comfort Liu Er, but he said it was alright.

"Although the crime he committed was unexpected, it's not something I can't accept. I can accept anything now. That's the fact. No matter what I think, he's there, and it's already happened."

"So...should we continue the investigation?" I asked. Old Lu made it very clear today that none of those executed criminals were special. If, as we suspect, Zhang Jinlong is a Maoist, he would definitely remember.

"Investigate. I want to confirm whether my mother was indeed... by him..."

I was taken aback; things seemed pretty obvious. Then, I cursed myself for being so foolish. It's better not to rely on subjective inferences when you have the ability to find out the truth. Subjective speculation is often wrong; I've encountered it before. Especially when it comes to his own mother's affairs, how could Liu Er not be careful?

Thinking about it this way, it's not entirely without question whether Zhang Jinlong is a Maoist.

I nodded to Liu Er and said, "Okay, and I think that just because Lao Lu didn't say he found someone covered in hair doesn't mean your dad isn't like you. If he really was covered in hair, the police would either handle the body themselves or have the hair shaved off at the funeral home to avoid disturbing the public and spreading all sorts of false rumors."

On the way back, I noticed that Liu Er kept getting distracted. I've seen this happen many times during the times I've accompanied him out, and when I asked him what was wrong, he would just smile and shake his head.

“I feel like you’re hiding something from me.” This time, after he shook his head again, I said to him directly.

Liu Er paused for a moment, then said thoughtfully, "There are some things, but I didn't mean to hide them from you. I'll tell you once I've figured them out myself."

He himself didn't understand what that strange thing was.

Yang Hua's efforts to repair his relationships were not yet fully complete, so when I told him Zhang Jinlong's name, the date of his execution, and the location of Tilanqiao Prison, asking for his help, he said, "I'll try my best to handle it." The addition of "try my best" indicated that he wasn't very confident.

I spoke with Liang Yingwu on the phone and told him that although the investigation was still ongoing, it might not necessarily be hereditary. He replied that heredity could skip generations, and the absence of symptoms in the previous generation didn't mean anything.

That's true, but it's also quite infuriating. How can I find out if it's three to five generations removed?

He suggested I get some of You Fang's blood or hair for testing. This task is really daunting. Blood is out of the question, and where am I supposed to find hair? Should I just ask her directly? She'll definitely ask for the details of this strange request. What if I told her that Liu Er has actually turned into a hairy person? If Liang Yingwu had said so earlier, I could have secretly gotten a few strands when I met You Fang for drinks. Now that my identity is clear, I certainly can't go and ask her to drink with me anymore.

"Why don't you go once?" I asked Liu Er tentatively.

Liu Er shook his head like a rattle-drum: "I'm not going."

"Oh dear, you..." I was racking my brains trying to figure out how to persuade Liu Er when he interrupted me, saying, "I really can't go. Putting everything else aside, do you think I can manage in this state?"

"Why not? If you shave it clean... uh, it seems like it won't work." I then realized how my mother viewed her son, which was very different from how a stranger would see him. Could she really hide all those extra pores on Six Ears?

"Or, hehe..."

"Why are you laughing like that?" Liu Er looked at me suspiciously.

"Then I'll go. Although it's a bit early, some shops have already started selling Mid-Autumn Festival mooncakes, right?"

"What time is it now? It's the end of July, there's still more than a month to go. You're not planning to deliver mooncakes and pretend I bought them, are you?"

I tapped him on the head, and now our relationship seems to have returned to how casual it was when we first met.

"Shouldn't you send it? It's the Mid-Autumn Festival, and you don't want me to send it to you. You should be grateful to have such a good friend like me."

So, the next day I bought mooncakes and delivered them to her before she went to work that evening. While she was using the restroom, I pulled a few strands of hair from her comb, and that was it.

It looked easy, but it was actually quite tiring. You Fang acted exactly like a mother who missed her son terribly. Although Liu Er's refusal to send the mooncakes to her meant he still harbored resentment, the fact that he bought them showed that her son at least thought of her, which made her happier than anything else.

You Fang pulled me aside and asked a whole bunch of questions about Liu Er. I carefully considered my answers, as it often takes a lot of thought to come up with a perfect lie.

She'd be terribly disappointed if she knew I bought the mooncakes. But judging from Liu Er's expression, perhaps I did something he was too embarrassed to bring up.

When I left, You Fang invited me to visit often. I knew in my heart that she just wanted me to keep telling her about Liu Er's situation. She wanted to use me as an intermediary to get closer to her son.

I got some news from Yang Hua, and he introduced me to someone who used to be a psychological consultant for the criminal investigation team, but is now retired. He had also helped with the case analysis for this major case.

This man is named Wang Maoyuan. Yang Hua often consulted him about the psychological issues of criminals when writing long articles, and they were quite familiar with each other. Yang Hua told me that Wang Maoyuan was highly respected in the municipal bureau and had a wide network of connections. He suggested that I go to him first to understand the situation, and that it would be convenient for Wang Maoyuan to handle any requests to review the case files.

That very evening, after Yang Hua told me, I went to visit Wang Maoyuan's home with Liu Er.

He lived on the second floor of an old building on Yangshupu Road, very close to Tilanqiao. It was unclear whether the residence was allocated by the Public Security Bureau.

Wang Maoyuan was in his early sixties, and looked to be about 1.75 meters tall, which was quite robust for his age. His wife warmly served tea and snacks, then closed the door for us and went to watch TV in the next room. She was used to people coming to their home to discuss business with Old Wang.

This reception room is actually Wang Maoyuan's study. Not only are the bookshelves crammed with books, but in several places, books are piled up on the floor, crookedly stacked high.

Before I could even speak, Liu Er nudged me, gesturing for me to look in a certain direction.

There was only a pile of books there, nothing else special.

I felt that was impolite, so I gestured to him with my eyes.

“That pile of books…” Liu Er said.

Wang Maoyuan turned his head to look in that direction, and at that moment the book suddenly collapsed and scattered all over the ground.

“...It’s going to collapse.” Almost simultaneously, Liu Er uttered the last three words.

"Oh dear, I'm sorry," Wang Maoyuan said, and quickly stood up and ran over to tidy up.

Of course, Liu Er and I couldn't just stand by and watch our master struggle, so we went over to lend a hand. When this pile of books fell, it knocked over most of the two piles next to it as well, and we were in a flurry of activity for quite a while.

"How did you know it was going to collapse?" I asked Liu Er softly when I had a moment.

"I have a feeling," Liu Er said mysteriously.

After the books were stacked up, the guests and hosts sat down again.

Wang Maoyuan wiped the fine sweat from his forehead and said with a smile, "I'm really sorry, we asked you to do things as soon as the guests arrived."

"It's nothing, it's the least I can do."

After all that work, the distance between us suddenly shortened considerably.

"You want to know about the '4.23' rape gang, right?" Wang Maoyuan said.

"The '4.23' rape gang?"

"Hehe, it's just a name. Because the earliest case happened on April 23, 1981, that's what it's called." Wang Maoyuan looked reminiscing, and for a while his gaze seemed to wander. Liu Er and I tactfully didn't disturb him.

“Sigh,” Wang Maoyuan sighed heavily, “After all these years, someone has brought up that case again. I’m a psychological researcher, originally specializing in social psychology, but after transferring to the Municipal Public Security Bureau, I also started doing criminal psychology. Over the decades, I’ve come into contact with all sorts of criminals, but the one that I find most perplexing is the ‘April 23’ rape gang case.”

"Although it was called a gang, the perpetrators were actually unrelated to each other. Starting in 1980, the rape rate in Shanghai began to rise, and by the spring and summer of 1981, the number of rape cases reported to the bureau had increased dramatically. On April 23 of that year, a female college student committed suicide by jumping off a building after being raped. The municipal bureau decided to crack down on gang rape cases, but the crime rate not only did not decrease, but continued to rise. Many habitual offenders committed crimes recklessly, without any intention of hiding from the police. It wasn't until 1982 that this trend began to decline, and we arrested nearly a hundred rapists in total."

"So many!" I couldn't help but gasp when I heard that.

"Yes, you can imagine the pressure on the police for such a long period of time. For most rape perpetrators, it wasn't that they were difficult to catch; the problem was that for every one caught, two more would appear, making it impossible to keep up. So, measures to increase penalties were quickly introduced, hoping to deter criminals, but with little effect. We conducted extensive interrogations of the arrested perpetrators, initially assuming that such a large-scale operation would involve connections between them..."

At this point, Wang Maoyuan glanced at us and said, “So much time has passed, and there are some things that ordinary people may not have known at the time, but it doesn’t matter now. Back then, almost simultaneously, eight provinces and one municipality experienced large-scale outbreaks of rape cases. It might sound strange to you, like an epidemic, but that was the situation at the time. Every province arrested a large number of rapists, but rape cases continued to occur. What’s even stranger is that when rape cases began to decrease in Shanghai in June and July of 1982, they also decreased in these provinces. You have to understand that the intensity of crackdowns and the incidence of cases varied from place to place, so this synchronization in time is very strange.”

I was stunned. This was truly a bizarre case. I never imagined that something like this had happened in Shanghai.