As expected, the newspapers the next day all covered the Liu Fuqiang case.
Conscientious newspapers wrote politely, their strokes leaving room for interpretation, focusing solely on the fact that a detective was involved in a murder suspicion. Whether it was an accident during the process of apprehending a criminal, or if it was intentional, was not conclusively stated, only discussed and reported based on the current information.
However, some newspapers that were only interested in sensationalism and boosting sales were not so objective. They found all kinds of extreme rhetoric, randomly took a stance, and began to write conspicuously.
Headlines like ‘Murderous Detective’, ‘Homicide Squad Detective Who Pushes Someone to Death’, ‘Police Acting Wilfully, Disregarding the Lives of Citizens’, ‘Murder!’ and other sharp phrases were boldly highlighted and placed in the most prominent positions to attract citizens to buy and read.
Jiayi, when leaving the house in the morning, flipped through the newspapers at Uncle Ah Gan’s stand and finally found a more favorable angle on the case in the Qingcheng Daily.
The newspaper used a photo of Uncle Jiu leaving the police station, holding his son’s hand, and carrying his little daughter on his back.
It was a fleeting image of a family walking through a throng of reporters to the parking lot in the dark.
At the time of the photo, the flash of a media person lit up, coincidentally illuminating Uncle Jiu’s silhouette.
His short hair at the back of his head was mottled, and although he had tidied his clothes and combed his hair with his fingers when leaving the house, there were still signs of disarray and wrinkles.
The little girl rested in her father’s arms, her face buried in her father’s shoulder, with only one small hand grasping her father’s already wrinkled shoulder, creating several deep lines.
The little boy holding his father’s hand looked up at his father. Although the photo did not capture faces, this posture also conveyed the children’s sensitive perception of the atmosphere, worried about their parent.
The perspective of the writer, Nie Weiyan, was that the police are “ordinary people” with this special job that constantly involves them in various malicious cases, inevitably getting them entangled in these conflicts, just like Detective Lin.
They have an aura of “police,” symbolizing justice and fairness, and their duty is to eliminate harm for the people and protect citizens. However, during this process, there are always some who are dissatisfied with the police’s enforcement, and there are many stories to this, not to be elaborated here. The writer only discusses that, stripped of that uniform, the police are also ordinary people, fathers, beings of flesh and blood who feel pain.
Why do some parts of the press feel that police are impervious entities, able to launch verbal attacks when the facts of the case are not yet clear? Not taking the reputation of the police seriously, doesn’t this chill the blood of people and destroy the justice in this world?
Mentioning the aura, Nie Weiyan extends the discussion to other individuals in society who possess auras, discussing that when talking about others, one should put aside those auras and adopt a more tolerant and objective view of matters.
These people with auras include strong mothers; flowers of human wealth and beauty; and the ordinary person beneath the police uniform.
This also includes the fact that, under their hardworking and enduring nature, Filipino maids are human beings who can get tired and depressed. Why should architects assume when designing houses that Filipino maids can live in concrete holes without getting depressed? During construction, a windowless small hole is designed specifically for these middle-class mansions and luxury villas, ostensibly for the Filipino maids…
Nie Weiyan’s pen is always turning, daring to write.
After discussing the halos around these people, he mentions the need for everyone to remove their halos.
He advocates for everyone to actively remove these halos and return to their original selves.
He imagines a world ‘free from social shackles imposed on individuals, without locking oneself in a role due to these halos’, a world that would be much freer, less mentally exhausting, and perhaps happier.
After discussing these topics, the author then brings the article back to the Liu Fuqiang case, focusing on Detective Lin.
He advises everyone, upon hearing rumors, to first be skeptical, then think, wait for the truth, and not to hastily condemn this old policeman based on mere rumors, and not to dishearten every public servant.
“…” Jiayi, reading this report, firmly believes that this writer must be a PR expert hired by Mr. Guo from the public relations department.
This article is heavily filled with motivational clichés, deliberately omitting any possible dark aspects of the case.
Her eyes fall on the byline of the article: [Reporter: Nie Weiyan], Nie Weiyan… a familiar name, isn’t he the one who previously boasted about being some kind of heroic female detective?
As Jiayi breathes in the scent of last night’s lingering dew, she folds up the newspaper, pedals her bike through streets and alleys, and silently awards Nie Weiyan a little red flower in her mind:
A positive-energy journalist who rambles all over the place, keep it up and continue to fill the citizens with motivational clichés!
Nie Weiyan, who hasn’t yet woken up in his bed in Yau Ma Tei, sneezes loudly for no apparent reason.
…
…
In the morning, no matter how late you worked overtime the previous day or how much work you had, as long as the sun rises as usual, workers still have to go to work as usual.
Chen Guangyao, a senior forensic chemist, struggles to get out of bed, remembering how he was dragged out last night by Fang Zhenyue to the Baishana community to do trace detection in the cold wind, feeling his back and shoulders start to ache again.
He quickly diverts his attention and turns on his vinyl record player.
Listening to classic British songs, he relaxes completely, feeling much more comfortable while brushing his teeth and eating breakfast.
In his clean, warm home, only the music and the light clinking of cutlery against dishes can be heard.
With the last bite of his crispy fried egg, he exhales deeply, blissfully thinking about going to Yi Ji to try Sun Xin’s specialties for lunch or dinner.
He plans to order a red bean bun, a plate of mapo tofu, a big bowl of beef with its legs hanging over the edge, accompanied by a bowl of steamed rice that’s soft, sticky, and bouncy.
Pouring beef sauce over the rice and mixing it in.
When almost finished with the mapo tofu, he breaks the bun into pieces, tossing them in to soak up the gravy flavored with soybeans, Sichuan pepper, and the freshness of minced meat…
With this expectation in mind, Chen Guangyao energetically went to work. He felt fortunate that today he only had to methodically complete the lab work in the office, when suddenly another detective from Team B rushed over, pulling him without explanation into the chilly autumn breeze and the tough journey outside:
“Brother Guangming, can you accompany me to the crime scene? I want to reexamine if the footprints, the point of fall, and the movement patterns on site are consistent…”
Chen Guangyao, weary, barely lifted his eyelids to look at the stunningly beautiful policewoman in front of him. With no room in his heart to appreciate the beauty, all that was left was lamentation:
“You folks from Team B just can’t let me be!”
His heart was crying out loud.
“?” Jiayi, “Ah?”
“It’s okay, let’s go.” Chen Guangyao weakly stood up, put on his coat, grabbed his inspection kit, mask, evidence bag, and other items, and resignedly followed Jiayi out to conduct a second inspection of the scene.
Today in Hong Kong, it wasn’t raining heavily, but the sky was overcast, occasionally scaring people with a few drops of drizzle.
Only after pedestrians hurried by for a while would they realize, oh, it actually isn’t raining heavily.
Even the heavens seemed to be playing tricks on people.
Thick crash pads were laid at the bottom of the steps at the crime scene, where everyone stood on the third or fourth step discussing the scenario at the time.
This height was such that even if someone fell, it wouldn’t likely cause injury.
Gary himself acted as the deceased, Liu Fuqiang, while Chen Guangyao pushed from behind.
The first time, Gary fell on Chen Guangyao’s side and didn’t flip over to the other side of the fence.
The second time, Gary still fell on Chen Guangyao’s side.
It seemed that during a chase, pushing someone over the fence from behind to the other side was not easy.
The third time, Gary made a motion as if to climb over the fence while running, and only then did Chen Guangyao push, resulting in Gary finally falling over to the other side of the fence.
However, in this process, since he didn’t know when Chen Guangyao would push, he wasn’t able to make the movements of ‘bending over’, ‘grabbing the fence’, and ‘using the fence to jump’ in time. Instead, he directly hit his knees against the fence and fell forward.
Sitting on the thick pad, Gary loudly shared his thoughts:
“After I bumped and fell, if I wanted to grab the fence, I’d have to turn and bend back to reach it. But within those split seconds, I had already flown out more than a meter. How could I possibly turn back to grab the fence?”
Jiayi helped Gary up, turned to look at the fence, and said, “Let’s try a few more times.”
“Alright.” Gary agreed without hesitation and stepped up the stairs again.
So they went on to the fourth, fifth… nineteenth times…
“Brother Guangming, if Uncle Jiu had been pushed, based on our repeated tests, it’s impossible for the fingerprints to show one hand tightly grasping the rail, twisting to make the marks, and the other hand supporting and lifting up.”
Jiayi stood on the third step, gesturing with her hands while turning back to communicate with Chen Guangyao:
“But the fingerprints our forensic department has collected now are exactly the type I mentioned, right?”
“Yes, according to repeated tests, that is indeed the case,” said Chen Guangyao, and then continued, “If someone was pushed from behind, we now have dozens of test results to corroborate that. What’s left would either be traces of clothing rubbing or just a quick flick of the fingers, which can’t really be grasped.”
Jiayi nodded vigorously.
Gary, who had just gotten up from a thick mat, was holding his waist with one hand and gently rubbing his thigh with the other, tilting his head back and laughing as he watched Jiayi talk to Chen Guangyao, then also nodded emphatically.
“Moreover, if it was a fall caused by being pushed, bruises on the knees or legs would gradually appear post-mortem. But there’s no such autopsy report from Dr. Xu,” Chen Guangyao took a deep breath, suddenly turned to Jiayi with a smile:
“I’m planning to go to the UK for further studies in forensics, why don’t you come with me?”
“Ah.” Jiayi was momentarily stunned, wondering how the conversation had turned to further studies.
“Eleven really works hard, is smart and takes things seriously. I’m going back to have a meeting with the forensic department today and will definitely praise you by name. All the lab technicians should learn from you,” Chen Guangyao stepped down two steps and encouragingly patted Jiayi on the shoulder.
“Thank you, Brother Guangming, then… about the report on pushing and falling…” Jiayi looked up slightly, her eyes full of hope.
“Leave it to me, I’ll make sure to provide a very detailed report for this case!” Chen Guangyao waved the notebook in his hand, he had made detailed notes of each test, and wouldn’t let down Jiayi and Gary who had come to experiment so earnestly.
“Thank you, Brother Guangming!” Jiayi saluted on the spot.
“Thank you, Brother Guangming!” Gary repeated like a parrot, and also clumsily saluted.
“How did you think of this experiment? Did you stay up reading last night?” Chen Guangyao asked as he walked down the steps.
“Um, I borrowed a few books from the library yesterday and read through the night. They contained some methods used by Americans and British in handling cases, only then did I realize that such experiments, as long as accompanied by professionals, can be certified and used as court evidence,” Jiayi smiled with her lips pursed, her mood was sunny, but her head was indeed a bit dizzy from the lack of sleep.
“Haha, indeed.” Chen Guangyao was about to pat Jiayi’s shoulder again, appreciating that young people have a zeal for learning and are brave in delving deep and implementing, which is really great.
And those foreign methods of scientific verification… It looks like he also needs to study more and grow more, otherwise, he might be overtaken by the younger generation.
“Time to call it a day, let’s head back to the station,” Jiayi said, clapping her hands together as the three of them walked towards the bright sedan parked by the roadside.
With the task accomplished, and despite the cool breeze, everyone was in good spirits.
Jiayi and Brother Guangming chatted as they walked when suddenly, a group of five or six people, staggering and making a racket while shoving each other in jest—much to the annoyance of passersby—approached them. It was the notorious Little Ah Fei.