Spring in Liangcheng came much later than usual this year.
After that spring snow melted, the temperature was still cold. In winter and spring, the water level of the Yangtze River is low, exposing strips of tidal flats in the middle of the river. There seems to be a hint of green above Jiangzhou, which is better than nothing.
In the city, the sycamores and willows have not yet sprouted and are bare. It is the last breath of winter.
On Friday afternoon, Li Zan was scheduled to get off work at 5:30. He is not on duty this weekend and plans to go back to Jiangcheng to visit his family.
At 5:20, I received a call from the police, saying that someone had abandoned a suspicious item in Baixi Shopping Mall, and told the salesperson that it was an explosive. The salesperson became more and more frightened as she thought about it, so she quickly called the police.
Li Zan and his colleagues rushed to the scene to evacuate the crowd. When they cleared the mall and put up a cordon, the fire, criminal investigation, and explosion prevention departments also arrived.
Under the leadership of the caller, the criminal police and firefighters quickly went to a garbage bin next to the escalator on the second floor of the shopping mall.
Li Zan did not follow him up, but stood under the escalator on the first floor and took a look from a distance.
Someone pushed him behind him, and police officer Xiao Jia raised his eyebrows and pointed to the second floor: "Go over there."
Li Zan scratched the back of his neck and slowly walked up the escalator.
On the second floor, officers from various police departments stood a few meters away from the trash can, discussing the situation. Li Zan took a look and saw that there was a black plastic bag stuffed in the trash can, and the object inside was a cube.
The surveillance video of the shopping mall was quickly transmitted to the criminal police's mobile phone. In the video, you can see a man in black wearing a hat and mask quickly walking over, taking out the contents of the bag and throwing it into the trash can before running away quickly. Tracking surveillance showed the man quickly leaving the mall.
Xiao Jia punched Li Zan's arm and asked, "What do you think?"
Li Zan said: "It should be fake."
His voice was not loud, but the detectives heard him and turned around with unhappy expressions on their faces. Maybe he felt that he was overstepping his duties as an auxiliary police officer.
The anti-explosion officers of the criminal police team were fully armed, wearing anti-explosion helmets and armors, and came over carrying tool boxes.
When policeman Xiao Jia saw this, he asked Li Zan in a low voice: "Hey, you used to be..."
"Quiet down, please!" the detective just now said loudly.
Silence fell.
Policeman Xiao Jia shrank his neck.
Li Zan said nothing and watched calmly as the explosion-proof man walked to the trash can, opened the lock of the trash can, and took out the black plastic bag.
Li Zan thought that if it were him, he would not touch the bag first. He would cut the plastic bag open and observe the situation inside clearly before taking the next step.
Thinking of this, he felt a tiny tearing pain in his ears, like slowly tearing apart a piece of paper. Then he got a headache, his ears started ringing again, and he kept chirping.
Li Zan turned around, pressed his forehead with his palms, and exerted force quietly, trying to control it.
Just then, someone held his hand.
Xiaojia pulled him away.
After leaving the mall, the cold wind blew over, and Li Zan woke up a little. His head still hurt, but at least his ears stopped buzzing.
"Are you okay?" Xiao Jia asked.
"It's okay."
Xiao Jia asked him to go to the car and rest for a while. Li Zan was about to go over, but he heard someone next to him say: "The reporter from Liangcheng TV is coming up."
He looked back, thought about it, and entered the mall involuntarily.
Entering now, the explosion-proof man had already taken off his thick protective clothing. The thing was taken apart, and it was a plastic box containing several bottles of kerosene. It didn't even have basic fuses, so it couldn't ignite, let alone explode.
The so-called bombs are just "hoax" bombs that create a false alarm.
A female reporter and her colleagues were reporting on the scene.
Not Song Ran.
Li Zan remembered that with her current status, she should not need to cover such small news in the city.
He smiled lightly and turned to leave, but was stopped by the criminal police officer: "Comrade!"
Li Zan: "Huh?"
The detective's tone became much better: "How did you know this was fake just now?"
Li Zan said: "The bomb needs a detonation method. In addition to direct ignition, it also needs a detonation device. From the way he randomly placed the bombs, we can rule out the balancer sensor; he did not hold anything in his hand, and It didn't explode after the crowd was evacuated, so I ruled out the remote control. He pretended to run away in a hurry, but the bomb didn't explode half an hour after he left. It was obviously not a timer. In addition, I suggest that the anti-explosion soldier cut the plastic first next time. bag and move the bomb."
The detective was speechless.
Li Zan nodded slightly as a polite farewell and went downstairs.
Xiao Jia caught up and exclaimed: "Hey, Ah Zan, were you the same anti-riot soldier just now? Or are you military more powerful than this?"
Li Zan said, in front of me, he is just a child.
The words came to my lips, but they didn't come out.
Song Ran went to the hospital to see a psychiatrist during her lunch break.
A week ago, the doctor discovered that she was secretly adding medicine to herself and forced her to reduce the dosage.
The side effects of reducing the medication were obvious. Song Ran couldn't lift her spirits all day long and couldn't sleep well at night. Once a person is tired and sleepy, his or her emotional threshold is easily lowered. All kinds of negative emotions come easily.
She had no choice but to run to the doctor to get medicine.
Dr. Liang refused to give her more and chatted with her for a long time, successfully making her fall asleep. When she woke up in the afternoon, she didn't get much medicine and was kicked out of the consultation room by the doctor.
When they were about to get off work in the afternoon, Xiaoqiu and the others came back from an outing and chatted about the news about a bomb threat in Baixi Mall. I don't know which sociopath dropped a fake bomb in the mall.
Song Ran didn't pay attention and returned to his seat to turn on the computer.
While the computer was still starting up, Xiaoxia slipped over and whispered, "Hey, I saw Shen Bei's ex-boyfriend today."
Song Ran turned her head around and realized who her ex-boyfriend was. She wanted to explain, but she had no position and just said: "How did they meet?"
"Baixi Shopping Mall. It's strange, why did he become an auxiliary police officer?"
Song Ran couldn't say that he was not, so he said vaguely: "Maybe it's because of work intensity and safety."
"That's true." Xiao Xia said, "Destroying bombs or something like that sounds cool, but the thought of it is very dangerous. ... But, I guess it must be because he became an auxiliary police officer, and Shen Bei doesn't like him anymore. "
"What's wrong with the auxiliary police?" Song Ran frowned, "Did Shen Bei tell you this?"
"No. I guess, otherwise, why would such a good boy become an ex-boyfriend?"
"What if he doesn't like Shen Bei?"
"Shen Bei has such a good family background and is beautiful. What can he dislike about him? If we don't break up, we can still have nepotism. As for becoming an auxiliary police officer?"
Song Ran suddenly didn't want to talk to her anymore. He turned his head and moved the mouse to open the mailbox.
Xiaoxia saw this and went back to work.
Song Ran's work email is public for the purpose of collecting news materials.
However, more than half of the daily emails are not work-related - those who express their love and support for her, those who criticize her and scold her;
As for work-related matters, many of them are not operable. For example, if her husband cheats on her, she wants her to report the mistress, if the traffic police issues a ticket, she wants her to investigate, if there is a thief at home, the police cannot catch her...
Song Ran had previously replied to the woman whose husband had cheated on her, asking her to resolve the matter within the family, but she could not report it. Unexpectedly, the woman replied: You don't care about the mistress. You have been a mistress yourself, right
The reply to the person who was robbed was to wait patiently for the police investigation. The feedback I got was: That’s right, only war and death-related things can catch your eye, so we little bastards won’t bother you.
After checking the reply email, Song Ran felt a little speechless.
At this time, a new email popped up in the mailbox. The sender is Wang Han, a student from Baixi Experimental Middle School. Wang Han said that just now, a boy named Zhu Yanan in his school committed suicide by jumping off the building because he could not bear the teacher's long-term private abuse and corporal punishment.
Now the police have blocked the school and blocked the news.
Song Ran sensed that the matter was not simple, and immediately called back to learn about the situation.
Wang Han is a boy. He speaks in a low voice, is very flustered, and has poor logic in his speech. However, what he described is basically consistent with what was written in the email, and the incident is very clear.
He prayed: "Reporter Song, please come and take a look, otherwise the truth may be buried forever."
After putting down the phone, Song Ran checked the internal platform.
Wang Han said that Zhu Yanan jumped from the building a quarter of an hour ago, but there were no informants or clues from the public on the internal platform. Really strange.
Song Ran thought for two seconds, put on her bag and got up to go out.
The middle school is not far from the TV station, only one street away. Since it is far away from the main road and school is out, the street is very clean. There are dead trees on both sides of the road and it is a bit depressed.
As expected, several police cars and ambulances were parked in front of the school, holding a cordon.
Song Ran showed his press card and wanted to go in, but was stopped by the police: "Sorry, I received an order from my superiors and reporters are not allowed to interview."
Song Ran asked: "Why? It's not possible to investigate the truth?"
"When the police investigate clearly, they will naturally announce the truth. You are also welcome to come and attend the press conference then."
Song Ran felt more and more something was wrong, but she did not argue. She stepped aside and observed the terrain, and saw a six-story residential building next to the school.
She thought about it and got into the corridor.
There was a middle-aged woman living on the sixth floor. At first, she was reluctant to let Song Ran borrow the window of her home. After Song Ran said he would pay for the clues, she let her into the house.
Song Ran walked into the balcony of the middle-aged woman's bedroom, where she could clearly overlook the school building and the open space in front of the building. The body of the student who jumped from the building was still in front of the building, covered with a white cloth, and the cement floor was covered in blood.
The police were investigating and collecting evidence near the body and on the roof of the teaching building.
While she was filming, there was a commotion behind her.
Two policemen walked in with serious and cold faces. They waved their hands and said, "Delete what you just took."
Song Ran hugged the camera tightly: "Why? That's what the law stipulates?"
Another person yelled: "Delete it if I ask you to, there is so much nonsense!"
Song Ran bit her lip in humiliation and her face was red.
The first policeman also said angrily: "You reporters will write nonsense all day long to discredit the government's credibility."
Song Ran retorted word for word: "Public credibility relies on restoring the truth, not concealing and deceiving."
The other party was too lazy to talk nonsense with her: "Will you delete it yourself or should I delete it?"
Song Ran refused to hand over the camera, and the other party snatched it away.
Song Ran struggled to push the other person away and wanted to run out, but was restrained by the person behind him and fell to the ground. The camera rolled out and hit the feet of another person who came from outside.
The man bent down to pick it up, and Song Ran immediately climbed up and opened his hand, snatched the camera and held it in his arms.
"Reporter Song?"
A voice fell from above the head. Song Ran looked up in panic and saw that it was Li Zan.
He was a little surprised and reached out to help her up: "What's going on?"
"Officer Li..." Song Ran whimpered when she saw him. She couldn't help grabbing his sleeves and hid behind him in a hurry.
The two policemen came up and said, "Do you know each other? That's great. Talk to her and ask her to delete the photos. We are also in trouble with the order from above, aren't we?"
Li Zan looked back at the people behind him,
Song Ran's eyes were red, she grabbed his sleeves and elbows and choked, "I don't want it!"
…
Li Zan looked at his two colleagues and said: "She is a reporter, and it is her right to shoot and report. Will such forced deletion be self-defeating?"
Colleague Xiao Yi said: "I have been given an order from above to inform reporters after the situation is fully investigated. It has happened too many times before, and reporters' random writing has made it difficult to control public opinion. We also have our own reasons."
"She won't write randomly." Li Zan said with certainty, "I know this reporter very well, she is different from others."
The two colleagues got along very well with Li Zan on weekdays, so they couldn't help but betray him and said, "Then you tell her. Otherwise, if something happens, you and I will be responsible."
"good."
…
Li Zan said "Excuse me" to the residents on the sixth floor and closed the door.
Song Ran stood in the corridor, lowering his head and saying nothing.
Li Zan asked: "You weren't hurt by the fall, were you?"
"No." She shook her head and raised her palm to him, "I just wiped my hand."
The edges of her palms were bruised and bruised.
Li Zan took a look, lowered his head and dug into his pocket, and took out a band-aid.
He said, "Hand over here."
She stretched out her hand silently, and he tore off the bandage and put it on her. The girl's hands were so thin and soft that they seemed to melt when she pinched them.
As he pressed against her, he glanced at her face calmly.
Her face was pale, her eyes were downcast, her eye circles were still a little red, her lips were slightly pursed, her small nose was also reddish, and her nostrils were gently wagging to control her emotions.
He knew she had been wronged.
Li Zan said softly: "My two colleagues are good people, but they may be a little impatient. Don't take it to heart."
Song Ran remained silent, her expression clearly showing that she was thinking deeply.
He knew that she wouldn't be able to recover for a while, so he asked, "How do you plan to write it?"
Song Ran said: "I haven't thought about it."
Li Zanhe said: "Just report that this happened. As for the cause of death, don't jump to conclusions before the police issue a notice. Minors and students can easily cause an uproar."
Song Ran didn't know whether to listen or not, and said "hmm".
Li Zan observed her and found that her mood was still a little wrong. He wanted to comfort her a few more words, but someone downstairs called him: "A Zan!"
He had to go down, but he felt uneasy and said, "I'm leaving first."
"Um."
After walking down a few steps, he turned back and said, "Be careful on the road."
"good."
Li Zan's footsteps quickly disappeared in the corridor.
Song Ran picked up the camera and saw a small crack on the camera casing.
Just after leaving the corridor, Xiaoqiu called and said that something happened at the Experimental Middle School. The leader in the station asked her to investigate and record the truth.
Song Ran went online and saw that the news media had published the case of a student from an experimental middle school jumping off a building.
Absurdly, many media and so-called whistleblowers claimed that the student who jumped from the building was depressed for a long time due to too much pressure from his parents. Failure to do well in the monthly exam was the trigger, and he finally committed suicide by jumping off the building.
"You commit suicide if you don't do well in the exam? It's useless for such a person to live. It would be better to die."
"I blame my parents for putting me under pressure if I don't succeed. Your parents might as well have raised a pig in the past seventeen years."
"Everyone who commits suicide deserves to die. It's nothing to pity. It's a waste of attention."
Song Ran exited the social platform, put her phone in her pocket and walked back.
The cold wind blew and the phone vibrated. It was Wang Han.
He was so angry that he cried on the phone: "How could they say that about Yanan?"
Song Ran made an appointment with him at a coffee shop with few customers.
Just as Song Ran imagined, Wang Han was a quiet and thin boy with a small voice and lack of confidence. He was the most inconspicuous and ordinary type among the students.
Wang Han's eye circles were still red and swollen, so he stated what he wrote in the email.
Song Ran repeatedly confirmed the details and found that the time points and events he had about Zhu Yanan's several experiences in private were clear, and his answers were consistent and true. Several times, when he recounted the details of his humiliation, he lowered his head and covered his face, almost unable to continue.
Song Ran asked: "Why were you present when the teacher insulted and corporally punished Zhu Yanan?"
Wang Han raised his head and trembled: "Because the teacher also beat me and scolded me, Zhu Yanan and I were together. He called us pig-brained and retarded, and asked us to kneel down and admit..."
It turned out that he and Zhu Yanan were both students in Class 3 of Senior High School, and special teacher Zhao Yuanli was their class teacher. Because their grades were so poor, their average score in the class was lowered every time they took exams, so they suffered long-term abuse and corporal punishment from Teacher Zhao.
Wang Han wiped away his tears and opened his sleeves to show her: "Reporter Song, I really didn't lie."
There were large bruises on his elbows.
Song Ran was surprised: "Did the teacher hit you?"
"If you still want to see it, I also have it on my waist. The teacher kicked me and I hit the corner of the table." Tears rolled down his eyes. "I was in so much pain that I was about to die. The teacher was still scolding me. I let it go and scolded my parents very harshly... Zhu Yanan did the same."
"I have evidence here." Wang Han showed her his phone. It was the WeChat conversation between Zhu Yanan and Teacher Zhao.
Zhao: "Don't come to school, I'll get angry when I see you!"
Yanan: "Teacher, please..."
Zhao: "There are dozens of students in a class, why can't you learn well? Why go to school if you don't have a brain? Go back to your parents and ask them how they gave birth to you!"
There is also a video of a few seconds, which is very confusing. It shows someone being pushed and knocking over the table. It was probably recorded by accidentally touching the mobile phone. In the video, the boy screams: "Stop fighting!"
The voice in the video is not Wang Han.
"This is Zhu Yanan. He sent it to me before. He also has it on his mobile phone. The police will definitely be able to see it."
Song Ran remained silent, surprisingly calm, and she handed him a tissue.
Wang Han took the tissue and wiped his tears. His shoulders were hunched, humble and ashamed, and he sobbed softly:
"I want to die, but Yanan is dead and I'm scared. Reporter Song, he is a super outstanding teacher, and the director of the teaching department doesn't believe us at all. I went to report it, and the director scolded me for looking for trouble. Please help us. . Yanan has been abused since he was a senior in high school last year. He was forced to death, not like what is said on the Internet."
Song Ran took a breath and said, "First hand over all the evidence in your hand to me."
…
Song Ran and Wang Han said goodbye at the door of the store.
After Wang Han left, Song Ran stood for a long time at night until her teeth chattered and her legs trembled. Looking at the night view of Liangcheng, she suddenly realized that this was also an invisible battlefield.
She wrapped her scarf tightly and walked home, feeling all sorts of emotions in her heart that she couldn't suppress.
She went to the convenience store and bought a bottle of water, unscrewed the cap at the door, took a big sip, took out the antidepressant from her bag, stuffed it into her mouth and swallowed it.
She hung up the phone to Xiaoqiu and asked her to come to her house tonight to help organize information and write a manuscript.
Xiao Qiu rushed over non-stop to help her input text, pictures and audio recordings.
At eleven o'clock that night, Song Ran finished writing the manuscript "Another Voice (Dialogue between Students of Baixi Experimental Middle School)" and published it on major public platforms.
After all, she knew how to restrain herself. She did not say that the teacher was directly related to the student's death, nor did she express any subjective opinions. She just compiled the conversation between herself and the student Wang into a transcript of the interview, seeking truth from facts and recording it without adding any embellishment.
Before publishing, a thought came to my mind whether I should tell Li Zan.
But she didn't,
After it was released, she didn't read the follow-up, took sleeping pills and fell asleep.