Case Files 013

Dai Yu had all the reasons to believe that Zhao Mingkun and I were still inside the cellar and her secret had died with us. With that confidence, Dai Yu naturally would not run away, it would arouse suspicion if she did. When we found Dai Yu, she was in that same red dress, standing in the yard. She started to twirl and pirouette, the yard was her stage. I shared a look with Dai Yu, she visibly flinched when she saw that I was still alive. However, that did not stop her movements. She continued to dance and leap in the yard. Dai Yu's dance looked like ballet. The fiery red dress flowed with her movement like a blazing star crossing the sky. It was beautiful… if you stopped right beneath her face.

"Is that from Swan Lake?" Guan Zhenglin observed. Gu Chen couldn't care less. "Swan Lake or Duck Lake, we're arresting her." I pulled on Gu Chen's arm and he turned back to look at me with confusion. I said softly, "Just let her finish."

2 cigarette smokes later, Dai Yu finally finished her dance, or more precisely, her dance was cut short when she tripped on the edge of her dress. Her long gown was definitely not suitable for a ballet, much less one that was so technically demanding. Dai Yu, who fell to the ground, turned to look at us and said, "Shall we go?"

"We shall." I said. Dai Yu was brought into interrogation. The police had done a full investigation of Dai Yu's old hut. Under Dai Yu's mud abode, the police dug out many sets of white skeletons. Based on the coroner's report, they were all females. The time of death varied. They should be the bodies of the female brides stolen from Minghun held over the past 5 years. Dai Yu admitted the crime levelled against her. She killed Chu Mei, she killed the organizers of Minghuns, she stole the brides' bodies. After Ol' Six started his killing spree, it was Dai Yu who lent Ol' Six the music player with the female ghost wailing. Everything was done by Dai Yu.

"But why would you do all those things?" I asked.

This was Dai Yu's story. Dai Yu's original surname was not Lin, her original name was not Lin Dai Yu but Chu Dai Yu. When Chu Ye separated from his lawful wife, they already had a daughter. That daughter was Dai Yu. Dai Yu was unable to make Chu Ye stay with the family. He left, with the baby he found by the roadside with 6 toes.

For 27 years, Dai Yu had never seen her biological father. When she was in primary school, her mother remarried. Her stepfather had the Lin surname and that was how she changed from Chu Dai Yu to Lin Dai Yu. It was also during primary school, that she met her best friend for life. The girl's name was Chu Mei. Chu Mei had the surname Chu too. For some reasons, Dai Yu had a natural affinity for people with the surname Chu. Dai Yu and Chu Mei hit it off and quickly became good friends. Chu Mei told Dai Yu that her parents were not her biological parents, they were just the couples living at the house she rented. She told Dai Yu that she had no mother and only a father. Everyone called her father Chu Ye so she had no idea what her father's real name was.

Chu Mei also told Dai Yu that her father was a very mysterious person. Sometimes he would leave for work for months and he'd return carrying golds and treasures. Her father had a disciple who was just slightly older than her. However, the disciple didn't attend school like she did, instead, she would spot him digging up holes on the mountain. Chu Mei once jokingly told him that he was too old to play with sand but the disciple countered that he was not playing, he was training.

Dai Yu once asked her mother what her father did for a living. Her mother told her that he was a grave robber. Therefore, when Chu Mei told her these stories, the link immediately bridged. Could things really be that coincidental? Could Chu Mei's father be her own father too?

Dai Yu's mother told Dai Yu that their father had to leave because he loved them, and not because he no longer wanted them. Dai Yu's mother told her that those in the grave robbing business would inadvertently make some enemies along the way. Chu Ye did not want those people to target Dai Yu and her mother so that was why he had to break up with them. Dai Yu's mother told her that Chu Ye only adopted that girl with the 6 toes because if his enemies ever wanted to take revenge, they would target that girl and not the two of them. So the truth was Chu Ye did not abandon them, if anything, he loved them so much that the only way to protect them was to disappear from their lives.

Dai Yu once asked Chu Mei whether she had 6 toes or not but Chu Mei shook her head no. Dai Yu did not believe her. Not everyone would admit to such a shameful secret or perhaps Chu Mei had taken surgery to remove the extra appendage when she was too young to remember.

Dai Yu stayed friends with Chu Mei because from Chu Mei, Dai Yu could get bits of updates about her father. Dai Yu was comforted that her father was still alive and was silently protecting them. The two girls went to the same primary school, high school and then university.

One day, Chu Mei came to tell Dai Yu that her father had died. Chu Mei cried horribly and so did Dai Yu. Others were saying how good a friend Dai Yu was to share in Chu Mei's sadness but Dai Yu was actually grieving for her own father. The two of them decided to return home at first notice. When they reached the small path that led home, it was already almost midnight. Then they were pulled into the cornfield by the 6 brothers.

After the 6 gangraped Chu Mei and left, she was already no different from being dead. The six disappeared into the darkness. Chu Mei twitched involuntarily on the ground. Chu Mei's father was dead, Chu Mei was raped on the way home to attend his funeral. Chu Mei could barely bring herself to cry anymore. She mumbled, "Kill me, I don't want to live anymore, kill me."

The night was silent. Lin Dai Yu sat on the ground and heard her best friend beg her to kill her. The biggest misfortune descended on Chu Mei that day, it was as if all of her luck had been exhausted. She was clever, kind, pretty, she was popular. Before 22, Chu Mei had no idea what misfortune and unhappiness was. But that day, Lady Luck turned her back on Chu Mei.

Dai Yu raised a large rock. She looked at Chu Mei and Chu Mei looked at her. The large rock fell on the back of Chu Mei's head. Instantly, the brain and blood splattered everywhere. Thankfully, Chu Mei died instantly. Then Dai Yu called the police and lied to them. From then on, Dai Yu had to live with the guilt of having killed her best friend, even though it was Chu Mei who begged her to do it. She did not wish for her best friend to die but she also knew living would be a heavier punishment for Chu Mei. It was from then on that Dai Yu started to face mental issues.

Chu Ye was dead, Chu Mei was dead. Someone was there to handle Chu Ye's funeral, but what about Chu Mei? Naturally, it fell onto the shoulders of the couples who owned Chu Mei's rentals. Based on Ba Jia Zi's culture, they had to hold a Minghun for Chu Mei. Their goal was simple, as long as there was a wedding, there would be dowry. Furthermore, Ol' Huang had already promised them 300000 RMB. They didn't have the Chu surname, but for 300000 RMB, they could easily pretend that they did. Who would really care?

Well, someone did, that someone was Dai Yu.

Dai Yu naturally knew that these two were not Chu Mei's parents and the real goal behind the Minghun. Dai Yu hated Minghun the most, it was already hard enough to find love when alive, one had to be forced to live with a stranger in the afterlife? That was just cruel. She decided to eliminate this backwards culture at Ba Jia Zi once and for all and the way she decided to go about accomplishing that was to kill anyone who dared to organize Minghun. Everyone was invited to this Minghun of the century and that included Dai Yu.

Dai Yu arrived early at the venue to mess with the structural beams of the tent. A taut fishing line was placed behind Ol' Huang's neck. The moment Dai Yu cut the other end which was extended out from the tent, the line would lash forward. A fast-flying fishing line could cut as hard as a sharp dagger. The fishing line was so thin and the tent so dark that no one spotted it.

The Minghun started and everyone's attention was on Chu Mei's body. Ol' Huang's head fell. No one saw the fishing line shoot out. As the villagers rushed out from the tent, the wind blew out the candles. This was the perfect aid for Dai Yu. Darkness was her best disguise. Dai Yu sneaked into the tent to carry Chu Mei's body. The mortician had done wonderful work, Chu Mei looked as pretty as when she was alive. "Friend, let's go." Dai Yu whispered gently.

The young man who hid under the table saw the body move on her own. It was actually Dai Yu carrying Chu Mei. Chu Mei's long bridal gown had perfectly covered Dai Yu's feet and the young man's line of sight. In any case, that was how Chu Mei's curse started.

Whenever a Minghun was organized, Dai Yu would make her move. The organizers were all killed by Dai Yu and no one would suspect a crazy woman to be a murderer. To be honest though Dai Yu was not crazy at all, if anything, she was incredibly brilliant. Humans always saw what they wanted to see. The eyes were often the things that lied to us the most.

5 years later, a gang of grave robbers came to infiltrate Chu Ye's tomb. They had no idea Dai Yu was actually inside the tomb at the time. Over the past 5 years, whenever Dai Yu missed her father, she would visit him at his grave so no one was more familiar with its layout than she was. While she hid in the dark, Ol' Six confessed their sin and regret before Chu Ye's tomb. She heard everything that the other 5 brothers did not, including the plan they had to kill Chu Ye and rape Chu Mei. She finally knew the truth.

So Chu Ye did not die from illness as these animals claimed to Chu Ye's friends, he was actually killed by his own disciples. The 6 of them had no idea that Chu Mei had already died 5 years ago. Therefore, Dai Yu decided to make use of that. She used Chu Mei's identity to help Ol' Six who wanted to kill the others, to make them believe that Chu Mei had returned. The 6 brothers turned against each other because that was the kind of individual they were.

This was a case that lasted for 5 years and it ended with the story told by Dai Yu.

A biological daughter, an adopted daughter, a disciple who cried for a noodle shop, the other 5 disciples who carried their own secrets, the Minghun tradition that lasted for thousands of years, they were all mixed together.

"Why do I feel sorry for Dai Yu?" Guan Zhenglin sighed when we left the interrogation room. I nodded and then shook my head.

"Have you ever considered that there is another version to this story?"