Chapter 22: The Corpse of Principal Zhang

2022-05-20

All the evidence pointed straight at Principal Zhang. With just one more piece to this puzzle, the case could be closed for good.

Guan Zengbin had DNA samples from inside Zhang Mingliang’s body. If they matched Principal Zhang’s DNA, then everything would fall neatly into place.

Half an hour later, Guan Zengbin compared DNA from Principal Zhang’s personal items to what was found in Zhang Mingliang. As expected, they were a perfect match.

So, this led us to a clear conclusion:

Four nights ago, Principal Zhang saw a note Zhang Mingliang left for him. He assumed it was from Hu Jiajia. Keeping his promise, he showed up at the long-abandoned construction site. In the dark, he met Zhang Mingliang, but mistook him for Hu Jiajia.

Worried Old Zhang, the gatekeeper, would spot them, Zhang Mingliang led Principal Zhang inside one of the buildings and began to climb the stairs.

When they reached the fifteenth floor, Zhang Mingliang figured the height would keep Old Zhang from noticing anything, so they stopped.

Principal Zhang followed behind, trailing after nothing more than a silhouette in the dark.

That night, Principal Zhang kept his promise.

He clamped a hand over Zhang Mingliang’s mouth. Zhang Mingliang had just come out of surgery—weak, no strength left to fight back.

In the darkness, Principal Zhang didn’t even realize he was actually facing a transgender person.

Zhang Mingliang died never knowing what truly led him to his own death.

Principal Zhang laughed as he looked out at the bright moon. Clutching Zhang Mingliang’s neck, he scrawled a famous love poem on the wall:

“What is love, that makes people vow life and death together?”

Then he threw the body from the fifteenth floor. At that same moment, a thief got caught by Old Zhang’s dog trap.

When Old Zhang came upstairs, Principal Zhang was hiding on the sixteenth floor. Once Old Zhang went downstairs, Principal Zhang followed quietly behind. Maybe he even thought about killing Old Zhang, but in the end held back.

After making his way down, Principal Zhang picked up Zhang Mingliang’s body—now headless—carried it to a drainage opening in the construction site, and disappeared into the sewers. He walked along those dank tunnels for over a kilometer before dumping the body, confident it would never be found.

Then, he vanished in another direction.

“So that’s your conclusion?” After hearing all of Guan Zengbin’s deductions, I couldn’t help but ask.

“Yeah, it all makes sense, doesn’t it?” Guan Zengbin nodded.

I shrugged and sat down on the sofa, holding up three fingers. “Okay, I’ve got three questions about your theory. If you can answer them, I’ll go with your version of things.”

“Bring it on!” Guan Zengbin sat across from me, arching an eyebrow and staring at me with her big eyes.

“First question,” I began. “Whatever happened to the bucket Old Zhang mentioned before? You left it out of your story.”

Guan Zengbin thought for a bit, then smacked her forehead. “Got it! The weapon used to cut off Zhang Mingliang’s head was super sharp—no way Principal Zhang would’ve carried it openly. He must’ve put it in that bucket. It would explain why Zhang Mingliang didn’t get suspicious.”

“But wouldn’t carrying a bucket actually be more suspicious?” I pressed on. “Second question: If Principal Zhang killed someone, then hid out on the sixteenth floor, he’d leave some kind of trace. But aside from the fifteenth floor, there wasn’t any blood anywhere. And since he’d gone so far already, why not just kill Old Zhang too? Wasn’t he afraid Old Zhang would notice something?”

Guan Zengbin’s face fell. She frowned, propping her chin with one hand. “Principal Zhang only wanted to kill Hu Jiajia. No one else.”

“Third question,” I continued. “If Principal Zhang really thought dumping the body in the sewers would hide it forever, why did he suddenly disappear? Wouldn’t that just make people suspect him even more?”

“Maybe he figured Old Zhang had seen him…” Guan Zengbin scratched the back of her head.

I shook a finger back and forth. “Then why not just kill Old Zhang too?”

Guan Zengbin grabbed a pillow and tossed it at my head. “You’re impossible!”

I hugged the pillow, mulling over the details of the case.

There’s no question Principal Zhang did something to Zhang Mingliang, but he may not actually be the killer. Could someone else be behind the murder? Maybe that young guy Old Zhang caught in the trap?

No, the timing just doesn’t fit.

Old Zhang heard something around ten at night and reached the scene by about ten past ten. That was when the young guy got out of the trap and ran off. Old Zhang was about to go back but then heard noises upstairs—it was around a quarter past ten.

Given how slow Old Zhang moves, climbing up and checking each floor, he probably didn’t reach the fifteenth until close to eleven. Based on Guan Zengbin’s autopsy, Zhang Mingliang died right around then. So, even if there’s a few minutes’ error, it’s impossible for the young guy below to be the killer.

He couldn’t have flown upstairs.

Just like that, the long night passed.

Team Leader Shao’s Office.

The citywide search for Principal Zhang was already underway, but he was nowhere to be found—as if he’d vanished from the earth. Mary pulled up data from the train station, bus station, and airport, but there wasn’t any record of Principal Zhang buying a ticket with his ID. City cameras didn’t pick him up going back to his office or his home, either.

Strangely enough, the security cameras near Principal Zhang’s home seemed to have been sabotaged those few days.

“I bet Principal Zhang killed himself out of guilt.” Mary muttered this as she took a big bite out of her watermelon.

“Wu Meng, Team Leader, we’ve got a lead.” Xiao Liu rushed in the door.

Team Leader Shao was still holding that white tea mug. “What’s got you in such a hurry?” he asked. “Somebody die?”

Xiao Liu wiped the sweat from his brow. “That’s right. They found a body on the mountain. It’s decomposed—practically unrecognizable.”

“Oh, Guan, bring that box with you,” Team Leader Shao said.

Guan Zengbin’s eyes lit up. “Is that the custom toolkit Dr. Yang used before?”

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“That’s right, it’s specially made,” Team Leader Shao replied. “I always said someday this toolkit would end up in your hands.”

“And Dr. Yang?” Guan Zengbin asked. “I haven’t heard anything about her in years.”

Team Leader Shao waved him off, obviously not wanting to discuss it. “Let’s go. There’s a corpse waiting for you at the scene.”

It was still blazing hot, like something out of an oven. Gu Chen and I just stripped off our shirts and lounged under a makeshift canopy while Guan Zengbin got to work on the new corpse.

Compared to Zhang Mingliang’s remains, this one was in even worse shape. The face was so badly decomposed there was no way to recognize who it was. But after the last case, Gu Chen and I were handling it much better.

Watching the sweat pour down Guan Zengbin’s face, Gu Chen and I felt pretty ashamed, just sitting there doing nothing. So I grabbed a towel, doused it with some bottled water, and walked over to her.

While Guan Zengbin meticulously dissected the body, I wiped the sweat from her face. “Anything yet?” I asked.

Guan Zengbin kept her hands steady on her tools, letting me dab away the sweat. After a moment she replied, “Yeah, I’ve got something—actually, it’s a big discovery. Do you know who this is?”

“Who?” I asked.

“This is Principal Zhang.” Guan Zengbin glanced up at me, her face calm.

Principal Zhang’s body had been found. Judging by the state of decomposition, it had been there a while.

“Do we know the time or cause of death?” I asked hurriedly.

Guan Zengbin nodded, fiddling with something inside the toolkit. “He died a few days ago, just hours after Zhang Mingliang. Cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head.”

So Principal Zhang killed Zhang Mingliang, then someone else killed him?

“Xiao Liu, how was the body found?” I called over to Xiao Liu, who was taking statements.

“Somebody in the mountains spotted it. There was a shallow grave, but not deep enough. Someone walking by noticed a bit of clothing sticking out and that’s how it was found,” Xiao Liu shouted back.

“Shallow grave?” I repeated.

“Yeah,” Xiao Liu answered. “The villager said it was easy to spot, just not many people pass through there.”

One thing after another.

Just who knew about Principal Zhang’s movements?

Whoever it was, they had to have been close to Principal Zhang. I happened to know one such person.

Could this person be the real killer?