Chapter 19: Mr. Gao with the Beard

2022-05-20

Two questions remained.

First—did the killer realize they’d targeted the wrong person?

Second—would the killer strike again?

To get answers, we met Hu Jiajia for the second time, this time at the apartment she rented. Over the past few days, she hadn’t received any more threatening letters or noticed anyone tailing her. It seemed the killer had vanished, at least from her world.

Hu Jiajia showed us a photo of the wall in her apartment that she’d taken earlier. Someone had painted three big characters in red: ‘Don’t push me.’

Judging by the writing, this person’s penmanship was decent—a lot neater than what we saw at the construction site, though that’s hardly a fair comparison. You can’t expect clear handwriting in panic. These three characters, though, were different.

Next, she brought out the threatening letter made from colored words cut from a newspaper.

She’d received the letter three days ago—the day before Zhang Mingliang was killed. She’d reported it to the police and had an official record of it. Still, a single letter wasn’t much to go on. None of us expected that the very next day, Zhang Mingliang would wind up dead.

“He wrote three characters before, so why did he switch to cut-out letters this time?” I wondered aloud.

That’s right. Using letters cut from a newspaper meant there’d be no handwriting to trace. Maybe the killer thought writing just those three words was fine, but anything longer risked giving himself away. If the killer really wanted to avoid leaving handwriting, that suggested something important.

The killer was afraid Hu Jiajia would recognize it. The killer was probably someone she knew.

Someone from Hu Jiajia’s own circle.

Just then, we heard the front door open—someone was unlocking it with a key. It had to be the ’male friend’ Hu Jiajia lived with, the one she’d talked about.

He was about 178 centimeters tall, maybe twenty-four or twenty-five years old, with a full beard that somehow looked tidy instead of wild. His expression was serious, and he gave off a quiet authority. He was slim, but the muscles visible through his short sleeves hinted at real strength.

Guan Zengbin leaned over and whispered to me, “Now that’s what you call fit. Clothes hang loose on him, but you can tell his body’s ripped underneath. Plus he’s a teacher—so cool!”

“Doesn’t Gu Chen have muscles too?” I shot back.

“His are too obvious, that’s not the look,” Guan Zengbin muttered, shaking his head.

Hu Jiajia’s face lit up when she saw Gao Rui. “You’re back, Gao Rui.”

I dragged out the words on purpose. “This is your… male friend, isn’t it?”

Hu Jiajia missed the teasing in my tone and jumped right in. “That’s right. Gao Rui is my colleague, and we were classmates in high school. Back then, he always looked out for me, treated me like a little sister—and he still does now. I’m pretty scatterbrained, always forgetting my keys, so he has a spare.”

“Did he have the spare before he moved in?” I asked.

She nodded. “Yeah. Gao Rui, these folks are here helping me catch that stalker.”

We all stood to greet him, and I kept an eye on Gao Rui’s expression. He changed shoes as he said, “You guys are working hard, huh. It’s past ten already and you’re still at it.”

“Look who’s talking—you’re just getting home now,” I joked.

Gao Rui nodded, explaining, “I’m a homeroom teacher for a first-year high school class. The kids get out from study hall around ten. I wasn’t used to it at first, but now, after almost a year, I’m getting the hang of it.”

We asked Gao Rui a bit more about the situation. Since he moved in later, he didn’t know much about what happened before, but he did see the writing on the wall and the threatening letter.Things got better after reporting it, and nothing scary had happened since.

We didn’t plan to tell Hu Jiajia the full story about Zhang Mingliang’s death—no point in causing her needless panic. Besides, Xiao Liu was secretly watching over her now, so there shouldn’t be any danger. And honestly, this bearded Gao Rui didn’t look like someone who’d lose a fight easily.

“Your phone’s been ringing nonstop. Aren’t you going to answer it?” I pointed at Gao Rui’s phone. “We’ve finished most of our questions anyway.”

Gao Rui made a helpless face. “Long-distance relationships, you know? My girlfriend gets worked up every other day. I never know what I did wrong. Sorry, let me take this in my room—if you need me, just call.”

He picked up the call and headed for his room. As he walked away, a woman’s angry voice echoed from inside: “Break up with you? Why are you answering so late?”

Guess every family has its own troubles.

Hu Jiajia watched him go, then sighed. “Doesn’t look like those two will last.”

Guan Zengbin perked up and lightly patted Hu Jiajia’s shoulder. “Jiajia, I bet you like Mr. Gao, don’t you?”

Hu Jiajia blushed and protested, “Of course not.”

“Got all shy, huh!” Guan Zengbin laughed. “Mr. Gao’s handsome, built, and a teacher—that’s a triple threat. Even I’d be interested! If you don’t like him, why did you call him instead of moving out when all this went down?”

“He’s got a girlfriend,” Hu Jiajia replied, collapsing onto the couch.

Guan Zengbin shook his head like an old sage. “Judging by the way that call went, it’s doomed. You should go for it! By the way, you two live together—did he ever make a move on you?”

That was pretty bold. Naturally, Hu Jiajia turned bright red and glanced our way.

Gu Chen and I both pretended to stare out the window.

I said, “Gu Chen, the moon’s lovely tonight.”

Gu Chen replied, “Yeah, it’s almost full.”

Girls, once they warm up to each other, can get close fast—a level of comfort guys only dream of.

Hu Jiajia just shook her head. “I’ll be honest. Back in high school, I really liked Gao Rui. He was always focused on his studies, never dated anyone. Me being a girl, I was too shy to confess. Three years flew by, and he always treated me like a little sister.”

“For college entrance exams, I planned to apply to the same university as him, but by some twist of fate, he ended up not getting into our dream school. He mixed up his application order. I nearly cried, you know? But there was nothing I could do; it’s not like you get a do-over.”

“So I got into the college, but Gao Rui didn’t. Even though we went to different schools, we still kept in touch all four years. Later, I found out he started dating a girl in college. I was so mad—should’ve confessed earlier.”

“My family was fine with me dating in college, but I kept waiting. I figured we’re both from this city and the other girl’s not, so surely I could win, right?”

“When we graduated, Gao Rui started his internship here and I started grad school. Now I’m finally interning at the same school as him. But just my luck—he has a new girlfriend again. When’s it going to be my turn?”

Guan Zengbin said, “You’ve liked him this long. Why not take the initiative?”

Hu Jiajia hugged a cushion, curling up on the sofa, sounding a little resentful. “Gao Rui really is a gentleman. Honestly, living together, I sometimes hoped something would happen, but he’s never once crossed a line. For a while, the whole situation drove me crazy, until I thought of something.”

“Ahem, it’s about a tank top,” she muttered shyly. “I wanted to see what Gao Rui would do, so I left a tank top in the shared bathroom… It sat on the washing machine for a whole week, almost turned moldy, and he never touched it.”

Guan Zengbin’s eyes sparkled. “You didn’t try anything else?”

Hu Jiajia huffed, “How forward do you think I can be?”

I whispered to Gu Chen, “Pretty girls always fall for someone else. Hey, do you have a sister? Set me up?”

Before I’d even finished, both Hu Jiajia and Guan Zengbin were staring right at me.

I scrambled to change the subject. “Gu Chen, the moon really is nice tonight.”

“Absolutely, Wu Meng,” Gu Chen replied. “Almost full.”

It was half past eleven before the two girls reluctantly said their goodbyes. If Hu Jiajia didn’t have class tomorrow, I bet they could have talked for hours more. But I managed to pick up tons of information listening to them.

“Gao Rui had a spare key to Hu Jiajia’s place from the start,” I said. “And I really think the stalker has to be someone she knows.”

Guan Zengbin stopped in his tracks. “You suspect Mr. Gao? Think about it—if he’s living with her, why stalk her? Plus, would he really mistake Hu Jiajia for Zhang Mingliang? Mr. Gao’s got no reason to force anything!”

He had a point. I frowned. “But how could Gao Rui not see that Hu Jiajia likes him?”

Guan Zengbin shrugged. “Love’s tricky. Maybe he’s clueless, or maybe he just acts like it. Some people get all the fun without caring, others fall hard and never even hold hands. Love’s kind of mystical that way.”

I squinted at him. “You’ve got all these sayings. Sounds like you got dumped. Are you still hung up on someone?”

“You’re asking for it today!”

Just as we started goofing around, my phone buzzed with a message.

Mary texted: Found the address of that transgender person.