Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Jian Yao is standing in the pantry making a cup of tea. She watches her well dressed colleagues through the clear glass panel.  Wang Wan Wei ’s suicide note is very obscure. The reason for her suicide.  The drug network.  Is it related to these people? 

 Bo Jinyan says no one must suspect or know about their operation. She politely greets everyone before going into Bo Jinyan’s office.  

   An uneventful morning.

    -

    Customer 3 division is an elite team.  They are obviously better paid than her previous colleagues, as even the places they have lunch is more expensive.  They are sitting at a buffet house not far from the office.  Manager Lin did not join them.  Apparently she is rarely present at joint meals. Perhaps she wants to keep a distance from her subordinate.

    Bo Jinyan certainly will not come.

    The group sit down at a wooden table near the window. To Jian Yao’s left, it’s Pei Ze, to her right is Mai Chen. Shen Dan Wei is sitting across her.  She does not like to engage with others much.  Zhou Qin is a pleasant guy to chat with.  Qian Yu Wen is a bit stiff and serious, even in a social setting.

    " Shen Dan Wei will only show her nice side to the customers.  She gets a lot of complaints from other departments. " Pei Ze says to Jian Yao.

    Everyone laughs, even Shen Dan Wei.  She sees Pei Ze’s arm resting on Jian Yao’s backseat.  She smiles to Jian Yao: “Little Rabbit, beware of the big bad wolf.” 

    "Me?" Pei Ze stares at her, then turns to Jian Yao, “Just ignore that."

    Jian Yao reaches for her tea cup and raises it in front of her :” It’s my second day on the job.  Here’s to you guys.  Thank you for all your help.  To the future!”  Everyone raises their cups.

   After a bit of wine and dine, Pei Ze asks on behalf of everyone: “Jian Yao, what’s the background of Director Bo? You are working in his office. Have you found out anything about him yet?  Share with us.” 

    Jian Yao thinks for a while what she should share: "He seems to be related to the Chairman.”

    Everyone gets a little excited.  Mei Chen asks: “How do you know this ?”

    Jian Yao: "Yesterday I heard him calling the Chairman ‘sister’ over the phone.” 

    Pei Ze: "Must be a first cousin  because I have not heard about Chairman having a sibling.”

    Jian Yao: "I am not sure.”

    -

   It was a fun meal, but Jian Yao notices that most of the time Mai Chen keeps very quiet. 

    A lot of good salesperson is outwardly attractive.  This theory proves true in this division.  Pe Ze is a rich playboy type. Mai Chen also looks good. He makes Jian Yao feel comfortable - like 

‘the boy next door’. 

    Jian Yao gets a phone call from Bo Jinyan.  She gets up immediately to say goodbye to the rest and hurries to meet him.  Pei Ze stands up with her: "I'm done too.  Let’s walk together."

    Jian Yao is walking quite quickly, Pei Ze laughs whilst following behind: “ Slow down.  Are you so afraid of him?” 

    Jian Yao smiles.  She can see Bo Jinyan’s BMW parked outside the building.  It’s part of his remuneration  package as Director for Customer 3 Division. 

It’s a busy lunch time.  As they were going through the revolving door, Jian Yao was knocked by someone next to her. Pei Ze tries to puts his hand around her waist to give her some support.  Jian Yao moves away quickly: “ Thanks.” She gives Pe Ze a smile. “See you later.” She walks towards the BMW.

   Bo Jinyan is sitting at the backseat.  She sits next to him.   

Bo Jinyan:  "If I were you, I would avoid physical contact with all of them.  Some of them might be drug addicts.  And drug addicts always carry some kind of infectious disease.”

    Bo Jinyan must have seen what happened just now.  Even though Pei Ze’s hand didn’t  end up touching her, it could look different from Bo Jinyan’s angle.

  The driver in front is one of Yin Ziqi’s trusted staff. So the two of them can talk freely.

    Jian Yao: “Stop using that disgusted tone.  He didn’t even touch me.”

    Bo Jinyan closes his eyes and leans back to rest.

    Jian Yao stares at him for a few seconds. She suddenly reaches out and touches his cheek with back of her hand.   He looks at her.

    Jian Yao: "Oh, sorry,  Unintended physical touch."

    Bo Jinyan: "Childish!"

    ——-

    Afternoon. They get off the plane.  They have arrived in Wang Wan Wei ’s hometown.

    Her mother lives alone in an old house.  Bo Jinyan shows her the documents from Ministry of Public Security.  She shows them around the house  She is a quiet and timid lady.  She brings them some tea then she leaves them by themselves in Wang Wan Wei ’s room.   Bo Jinyan says to Jian Yao: “A weak, introverted, and poor single mother with a daughter.  Wang Wan Wei  more or less rubs off some of her mom’s character.” Then he takes a look at her: “Surprisingly, you turned out fine.”

    -

    Bo Jinyan takes a look around.  There are many journals in the room.  She has a habit of keeping a diary. Bo Jinyan: "She likes to use words to express herself - a good habit."

    He finds a chair to sit down, passes a few journals to Jian Yao.  They start to read.  

    The journals start from when she was 14 years old, and stops when she reaches 21, which is her second year in University. 

   Wang Wan Wei  has a delicate and sensitive style of writing.  She recorded a lot of little things in her daily life, Overall, she was a positive but cautious girl.  Nothing truly dramatic happened in her high school years.  She lived a normal life.  

    -

    According to the police records, Wang Wan Wei  gave her mother a phone call on the night of her death.

    Jian Yao asks the mother: “What did she say?"

    With sombre and grief, she says: "...... It’s was around midnight. It’s an unusual time to call.  She knows I rest early….  I should have known… She didn’t say much… just that she is at a company retreat…. ask me to take care of myself.  I didn’t notice anything.  She is always quiet and reserved…. If only I knew….. "

   Jian Yao gets up to comfort her.

    The police records mentioned that Wang Wan Wei  tried to call her mom half an hour before her suicide.  But before the lines were connected, Wang Wan Wei  decided to hang up.  Perhaps this was sign of hesitation and struggle?  But it is too late to speculate now.

    -

After leaving her mom’s house, they visit Wang Wan Wei ’s ex-boyfriend.  They went to high school together, but studied in different universities.  Long distance relationship proved difficult to maintain, they broke up after a couple of years.  They did not keep in touch with each other.

    It is midnight when they return to B city.

    Jian Yao summaries their findings: "No economic pressures. Though her family’s poor, it’s not to the point that they can’t survive.  It’s not to do with relationship issues. They broke up long ago.  No health problems - last medical report shows she is healthy.  So the only possible reason left on the list is pressure from work. We need to keep the investigation confidential.  How are we going to get any information out of the people in the office then? “ 

Bo Jinyan is driving.  

    "I like to take short cuts when I investigate.You need to keep up with me.”

   

   - Isn’t she following closely behind already?

 Jian Yao:   "What is a shortcut?"

  Bo Jinyan:  “The journals."

    Jian Yao thinks for a moment, still puzzled: "? Diary stopped in her second year of university.”

    Bo Jinyan whistles softly.  They are almost home.   The neighbourhood look quiet and picturesque in this time of the night.

    “People don’t change their habits.  She must have some recent diaries somewhere.  We just need to find it."

    Jian Yao nods.

    Surprisingly, Bo Jinyan adds: “You, for example, took three days to choose a toothbrush.  Would you change your habit of taking time to find the right product?"

    Jian Yao: "Why should I change? I like it.  Didn’t you also buy the exact same toothbrush after you saw mine?”  

    Bo Jinyan says proudly: “Short cut.” 

    Jian Yaois puzzled: "What shortcut?"

    "You spend three days to choose, I spend three seconds to copy your choice - this is shortcut.”

    ——

After they get home, Bo Jinyan asks if Wang Wan Wei  owns a laptop.  Jian Yao finally understands what Bo Jinyan is trying to get at.  She probably started to write her diary online.  

Jian Yao says to Bo Jinyan: “You are right.  She probably has a blog or something.  I will go to the tech department and get her IP address.  Then we should be able to find it with the help of your friends at the Ministry of Public Security.” 

Bo Jinyan: “Good.  See you tomorrow.” 

    -

    The next morning, while the others are busy with liaising with customers and making sales for the company, Jian Yao and Bo Jinyan sit in their office to continue with their investigation.  

  They are both looking at Wang Wan Wei ’s blog, but on their own separate desk.

    "September 4, he was wearing a shirt today, very handsome. I met him at the pantry, he said I did a good job taking the minutes of the meeting today. I'm so happy.

    January 12, I am not well today. I didn’t join the others for lunch because of my stomach ache.  The other colleagues did not notice, but he brought back a snack for me.  He is nice to everybody though.  O how I wish I am special to him.

    November 9th, He is wearing a sky blue tie with stripes. I notice that he has a lot of blue colour ties. Does he know, blue is my favourite colour?

    November 15, The assistant from another department broke up with his boyfriend today.  He was cheating on her.  Is there really no true love after all?  Do people not care about ethics and morality anymore? What about you my dear?  Will you love me too?

    November 2, What am I going to do.  I feel my love for him is growing every day.  

    ......

    December 15, too much work.  I forgot to submit  a couple of files to Director Dong.  Manager Lin was criticised because of that.  I feel so bad.

    December 19, Disaster today. I made a mistake with the gift list for our VIP clients.  The computer crashed.  Shen Dan Wei became very angry because of this.  It took me a whole night to fix the file.  I cried in the morning. 

    December 28, Everything went wrong.  Manager Lin says she will give me a C for this year's performance evaluation. I think everyone in the team despise me. He smiles when he is talking to me.  But in his heart, he probably thinks I am useless and stupid.

    Jian Yao moves to the next post.  To her surprise .  It’s her last post.  And it’s six months after  the December post. 

    June 1, 0:37am

  

    The forensic records shows that Wang Wan Wei ’s time of death on that day is between 2-3am.  So this last post is written 2 hours before she died.  

    “It’s been six month since my last post.  

    Nothing has come right for me in this last six months.  I fell into a low life, a dark, cold and dirty place. Those things, I do not want to record on my blog.  This is a clean space.

    And tonight, I have decided to commit suicide tonight ......

    But he came to my room.  To tell me he loves me. 

    He said he has always liked me, ever since the first day I started to work in the company. He said he is still a junior,  his salary is not high, but he will work hard.  He wants to know if I will be his girlfriend.

   Oh my love. Why didn’t you talk to me earlier? 

Oh my love, clean stream of water, handsome and shinning, why do you come now?

    It’s too late.   But thank you, thank you, for letting me know, that  my life is not a total failure. You are the light of my life. 

    Diary stops here.  

    Not quite what Jian Yao and Bo Jinyan have expected.  At least it’s not the short cut that Bo Jinyan is looking for.  He thought it will give them reasons for her suicide, but like her suicide note.  It’s obscure.  

    But there is one unexpected bonus - Someone from the office confesses his love to her on the night of the suicide.  

   This is an important clue, but the man did not mention it to the police.

    Bo Jinyan stands up and draws back the curtain so he can look out into the office.  It’s treated glass.  Only they can see what’s happening outside.  The people in the office can’t see them.  

    In line with the age and job description in Wang Wan Wei ’s diary, it can only be one of the two men - Pei Ze, or Mai Chen.  Of the two, only Pei Ze is wearing a blue tie today.  

Jian Yao says:. "Is Mai Chen.”

    Bo Jinyan looks at her.  

    Jian Yao says softly: "Although Pei Ze has a blue tie today, she said the boy is ‘a stream, handsome and shining’ .  Only Mai Chen fits that description."

    Bo Jinyan laughs: ”Streams, shine, you ladies have strange way of describing people. But I agree with you.  It’s Mai Chen.” 

    Just when Jian Yao is going to ask about t their next steps.   Bo Jinyan takes a seat and asks her: “How would a woman describe me?"

    Jian Yao looks at his face: “Any metaphor?"

  Bo Jinyan:  “Yes, what words will you use?"

    Jian Yao: “Ok.  This is not meant to be derogatory. An arrogant labrador.”

    Bo Jinyan’s eye sinks: “Seems like you are worse than Wang Wan Wei .”

    Jian Yao smiles.

    - Well, it’s because… I like labradors.