winter past

Zhao You stood outside the large bust window of the Datang barber shop and watched for ten minutes. There was only one male customer in the shop. He was shaving his face. It was already coming to an end. Scoop up the only small piece of shaving foam left on the guest's face, apply it to the towel on the back of the hand twice, pick up a clean towel and wipe it on the guest's blue chin, and clean up the mess The whole face.The barber patted the customer on the shoulder and untied the bib covering him.The guest slowly opened his drooping eyes, shook his head enjoying himself, and smiled at the barber.

Zhao You smiled and waved to the only customer in the barber shop, walked towards the door of the barber shop, and said politely: "Lawyer Zhong! What a coincidence! You come here to shave your face? I am going to play in a nearby stadium."

Zhong Ming walked outside the store and pointed at the shining white sky: "Are you going to the stadium to play now? It's a hot day."

Zhao Youdao: "Hey, I have nothing to do in the dormitory, so I came here by bus. I thought that when I got to the stadium, the sun would be setting soon." He also said, "If we wait for the sun to set before going , then you can only watch the square dance on the side of the basketball court.”

Zhong Ming smiled and said, "It's good to learn square dancing. Anyway, you have nothing to do. It's just killing time." He pointed to the opposite side of the road and said, "I have to go, we can talk another day when I have time."

Zhao You stood at the door of the barber shop and asked him: "Is your house near here? You come here often? This shop has been around for quite a while, and the decoration is retro enough."

Zhong Ming turned around and glanced at him, Zhao You narrowed his eyes and looked at him too.The day was hot enough. It was 05:30 in the afternoon, and the sun was still dazzling. Under the high temperature, the sunlight refracted by the ground became clearly visible, twisting like water waves above the road.

Zhao You smiled and said, "This area is full of old houses, at least thirty years old."

Zhong Ming nodded: "Let's go, let's talk next time, hurry home for dinner." He quickly got into the car and drove away.

Zhao You turned around and went into the Datang barber shop, and greeted the barber: "Master, let's have a haircut."

The barber asked him, "How short is it?"

"Look, it's better if it's shorter. It's too hot, and it's uncomfortable to stretch your neck." Zhao You said.

As soon as he finished speaking, a woman in the room wailed, and the voice came from behind a beaded curtain.But the barber turned a deaf ear, as if he didn't hear anything, and led Zhao You to a small pool, and put a dry towel on his shoulder.

Then the barber said: "I'm sorry, my mother is sick and bedridden at home."

"It's okay, it's okay, do you want to go and have a look?"

The barber is a middle-aged man with much grayer hair and a rough face.He shook his head, patted Zhao You, Zhao You lowered his head knowingly, and put his head under the faucet.

The barber said: "It's okay, she is like this, she can shout, just get used to it."

"She... doesn't need to be hospitalized?" Zhao You asked.

"It's been a while." The barber adjusted the water temperature, "Is this temperature okay?"

Zhao You responded, and the water used to rinse his hair became louder and louder.The barber said again: "Live in Hongfeng."

Zhao You didn't ask any more questions.After washing his hair, the barber led him to sit in front of a barber chair, and the woman behind the bead curtain suddenly let out a long series of hysterical yells.

The barber turned a deaf ear, took a bib and tied it on Zhao You, looked in the mirror, straightened his head, gestured at the length of the hair, focused his eyes, and said, "It's so short, it's okay to reach the neck?"

Zhao You nodded, and he asked, "The one just now was a barrister, right? I've seen him on TV."

The barber pulled a round stool with wheels and sat down on the right side of Zhao You, and nodded.

"He lives nearby, is he a regular customer?"

The barber cleared his throat, but without answering, he turned on a 6-inch TV set on the counter of the barber shop.As soon as the screen lit up, it was the news station that jumped out. In the picture, a young man with his head bowed and handcuffed and shackled could be seen bending over and getting into an escort vehicle.A female voice narrated with emotion: "Cao, known as the mummy killer on the Internet, used to be named Fu Mouqiang. After he surrendered himself on June 16, he was interrogated and investigated by the special task force of the Criminal Investigation Corps of the Provincial Public Security Department. And related physical witnesses, the evidence is solid, the suspect is suffering from serious mental illness, today the police have sorted out the case file and sent it to the prosecution... The following is a quick news, soon, we will usher in the founding of the party..."

At this time, Zhao You said in a tone full of emotion: "This case is settled, otherwise I don't feel at ease when I go out at night. I said that ordinary people can't commit such a case. It turns out that they are not in a good spirit. ..." He lowered his voice, and continued slowly, not without compassion, "Oh, actually, I think it would be fine if this person didn't know that he was mentally ill. If he knew that he was different from others, he would actually be alive It’s very pitiful, it’s very tormenting, you know? This person seems to be aware of some problems, and he turned himself in. How should I say, he should still have a little conscience. It's out of my control..."

The woman started screaming again: "Fuck you! Kill me! You big idiots! Fuck!"

"The lawyer came to ask me about this man," said the barber.

"Ah? The one on TV just now? Do you know him?? Oh, this..." Zhao You was tongue-tied.

The scissors in the barber's hand rattled, and he said humanely: "I've seen it a few times in Hongfeng. He went there to do volunteer work. He used to be a patient there. He recovered later, but his condition seems to be recurring. Recently, he started selling Medical equipment, I bought a nursing bed with him." He glanced at the TV, the news was over, and there was an advertisement for washing powder on the TV, a boy fell into a mud puddle with a smile, and a mother greeted him with a smile hug him.The barber changed the channel, watched the cartoon, and said, "He seems quite honest, but one time, I just talked to that lawyer."

"Ah, could it be that lawyer who helped him with the lawsuit??"

"Ah."

Zhao You turned his head to look at the barber, and the barber turned his head away, Zhao You said eagerly, "I don't quite understand, what is this lawyer trying to do, killing so many people, this must be a death sentence..."

The barber said: "There is no such thing as incapacity. It seems that as long as it is proved that he was ill when he committed the crime, he can be sentenced lightly."

"Hey, you haven't seen him get sick, have you?" Zhao You looked at the barber in the mirror and asked cautiously. The barber also looked at him. Zhao You showed a consciously impolite expression and lowered his eyes wordlessly. .

The barber patted him, switched to his left side, and said: "One time I took my mother to a follow-up visit. When I saw him, he was talking to a woman, and another woman passed by and shouted. He said, probably someone he knew, but he hadn't seen him for a long time. The woman said something, aren't you in Nanjing? You didn't come to the last party. He was stunned immediately, as if he saw something terrible , I knew something was wrong, so I called the nurse and the doctor, but I was a step too late. He really changed his face in an instant, threw the woman down, grabbed her by the neck, and pressed her tightly Hold her. A doctor and I pulled him away. After pulling him away, he recovered after a while, and asked me what was wrong with me, why I was sitting on the ground, and then he saw the girl who was almost strangled by him. The woman who lost his breath, he saw that woman coughing all the time, and he looked scared in his eyes. He probably guessed what happened, so he knelt down immediately, kowtowed to others, and kept saying sorry, I'm sorry. My forehead was bleeding, and I was taken away by doctors and nurses."

Speaking of which, the barber stopped what he was doing, stood up, and scratched the hair on the top of Zhao You's head: "It's very pitiful. When he came back to his senses, that look, that feeling was special. Blame yourself."

Zhao Youdao: "I don't know how he got into what he is now."

"I heard it was a psychological shadow when I was a child." The barber said, "The main reason is that the general environment here doesn't pay much attention to the mentally ill, but it is much better now than before." He smiled, "No one has anything now Depression, anxiety, panic attacks, I see many young people in Hongfeng running to get medicine."

Zhao You also smiled, and after finishing his haircut, he returned to the taxi parked nearby.The driver asked him, "Where else are you going?"

Zhao You took out his mobile phone and took a look. Yin Miaozai sent him two WeChat messages in the afternoon, one at [-]:[-] am, which read: Something seems wrong with Xiao Man, you guys had a fight?

Another one was sent at [-]:[-]: It should be fine, Xiaojing and I went out for lunch.

Zhao You immediately called Xiaoman, but no one answered, he went to Xiao Jing and Yin Miaozai, but no one answered the phone, and no one answered the WeChat.He and the driver said: "Green Hotel, Wuyuan Road, please hurry up, hurry up."

He got in touch with Xing Tianxiang, who was outside and on his way back to the hotel. Zhao You asked him, "Did Xiaoman contact you this afternoon? Have you seen him this afternoon? Do you know where he went this afternoon? Have you met anyone?"

Xing Tianxiang said: "No, no, he doesn't have to report to me for anything, right?" He added: "In the afternoon, he called me and asked me about a case in 06, the Yao Lingdang case, and asked me if I wanted to be the victim. Here comes the photo, I found it and sent it to him, then called him, but he didn't answer."

Zhao You remembered that case, the cold case in Zhan Xuanang's hands, a suspected case that was attributed to the Aegean killer.He said: "Do you know why he suddenly asked you about the case?"

"I do not know……"

"What time is it?"

"At noon, I'll check the call log."

Zhao You hung up the phone, opened Heishan Guiguzi's official account, and contacted the account manager directly: "Hello, I am a criminal policeman from the Criminal Investigation Team [-] of the Qingshi Municipal Bureau. I watched your live broadcast today, and I have something to ask you. If it is convenient, can you give me a phone number?"

The manager responded quickly with a number.Zhao You called, and the man who answered the phone said, "What's your police number?"

Zhao You said: "I'm not a fraudster. I'm really a police officer. My surname is Zhao, and my police number is 860067. Do you want to video confirm my ID? You can also call our city bureau to confirm."

The other party was persuaded and just asked, "Why are you looking for me?"

Zhao You said: "Did you meet a man with long hair during the live broadcast in Montenegro Orphanage this afternoon?"

Heishan Guiguzi became emotional when he heard the words: "Damn, I knew that reporter was a liar! I called the number on his business card! Damn, there is no such person in Legal Weekly! He also told me that several people have called to find this person recently Reporter, suggested that I report to the police immediately if there is any property loss. Hey, you are the police, so can I call the police with you? But I don’t have any property loss here... How about you file a case? Is your city bureau Does WeChat have an anti-fraud applet, you should quickly expose his information on it, maybe someone will be scammed by him!"

Zhao Youdao: "He didn't lie to you for money, so what did he tell you? The news we have received here is that he pretended to be a reporter to defraud column fees. He usually claimed to be investigating a cold case in 06. The victim of the case His name is Yao Lingdang, has he mentioned this name to you?"

"Who? Ringing the bell for what? I don't know. He just asked me about the previous affairs of the orphanage. He probably changed his strategy. This kind of scammer can't go all over the world with one trick, isn't it just talking to people? Hey, is he talking nonsense? Oh! I know him! Did he see the Mummy Killer gaining popularity recently, intending to pretend to be his friend and charge others for breaking the news! No wonder he kept asking me about the past of the orphanage, and I too Talk too much, shit, but it’s okay, I didn’t say too much, I just talked about Xiao Xu, Little Apple, fuck, I even sent him a photo of our party before, yes, I have I can't guarantee that his WeChat account was applied for by his ID number, but I'll send it to you, maybe he can be tracked down!"

"Can you send me the group photo you mentioned? If it's according to what you said, he often changes his fraudulent rhetoric, and he may plan to do something tricky after asking for your group photo..."

Heishan Guiguzi said: "That's right, maybe he intends to put himself into it, and then he will bluff with others! He said that he and the mummy killer used to be friends! I will send you the original copy, and you can keep it there! You can also talk to others later. Explain the situation!"

The two hung up the phone, and Zhao You soon received a group photo. He saw one of the long-haired girls standing beside Xu Luhua at a glance.This girl looks a bit like Yao Lingdang.In the next moment, Zhao You's attention was attracted by the man sitting in the middle of the group photo.He asked Heishan Guiguzi: "Ask me, who is that old man in the middle? It looks familiar."

"Our Dean Cao, the former dean of the Montenegro Welfare Institute."

Zhao You took out the leaflet made by Lao Yao, unfolded it, and compared it, the plain-looking man on the leaflet of Lao Yao, if he was ten years older, would be the same as Dean Cao in the group photo of the orphanage.The two are exactly the same from the shape of the face to the eyebrows to the bridge of the nose.

He knew what Xiaoman was thinking.