Have you ever heard of an extremely dangerous sport that has become very popular in recent years, and it is called urban exploration.
Just this week, I've already seen several short videos in the same city-
Some people formed a team to get into Beijing's abandoned Fushouling subway entrance, abandoned amusement parks, and even a two-kilometer-long underground palace. These places, which are considered worthy of adventure, have one characteristic: hidden, yet hidden from people.
Some say that behind the popularity of this kind of movement is the distrust of contemporary young people towards the appearance of the city.
Therefore, enthusiasts are eager to go deeper and darker and see the truth that ordinary people can't see.
I told 800 about this, and he was silent for a while, and only replied to me with two sentences on WeChat: If you really want to explore...
"Please don't go to the unfinished building. ”
I asked why, and instead of answering right away, he told me today's story.
Someone once asked me what was the most dangerous place in the city in the eyes of forensic doctors.
Many scenes flashed through my mind, and the picture that finally stopped was the unfinished buildings in the city. In the building in the west of the city, I dragged out a woven bag, which looked unremarkable, but when it was opened, it was a corpse, and in the unfinished building in the north of the city, I was more frightened, and I dug out a young girl in the cement pile downstairs.
This year, there seem to be more and more unfinished buildings, which are desolate, high in weeds, and scarce in passers-by, which is too suitable for hiding corpses.
I was also forced to be a "regular" to these places.
Just a few months ago, Riverside Gardens, the most promising neighborhood in our local area, was also unfinished.
This community is next to the largest landscape river in the local area, and the developer is also very famous, undertaking a lot of real estate projects, and the nearby hospitals, schools, and shopping malls are fully equipped, and they were sold out when they opened a few years ago.
No one expected that the developer's capital chain here would suddenly break, making Riverside Gardens a well-known local unfinished community.
It didn't take long for murders related to Riverside Gardens to happen one after another.
In May, a well-known real estate developer in the city and his wife jumped from the 16th floor of the hotel. When we went to the room to investigate, we found their three-year-old twin daughters still lying on the bed. They were still warm, but they were out of breath.
This real estate developer participated in the construction of part of the Riverside Garden project. The unfinished end of the riverside garden also drove him to a dead end step by step.
Not long after I finished handling this case, I had just come home from work when I received a call from a colleague.
Riverside Gardens has had another incident.
This time, the corpse appeared in the grass in the community, and colleagues at the scene said that they could not determine how long the corpse had been there, but only saw that the grass was particularly green. The kind of green that is mad.
The informant's name is Li Jinshun, and he is a nearby waste picker. That day he decided to go for a walk around Riverside Gardens.
The riverside garden is very large, with more than 30 buildings, and when Lao Li walked in front of an unfinished building to "pick up leaks", he suddenly tripped and fell.
There was weeds all around, and when he got up and turned around, he was so frightened by the sight that he sat on the ground.
When we arrived at the scene, it was already dark.
The moment I stepped into the riverside garden, I shivered in the middle of summer.
I have been working as a forensic doctor for a long time, and when I enter the scene of a murder, I often have some strange feelings. Sometimes I feel very depressed, I can't even breathe smoothly, and sometimes I feel cold, and no matter how thick my clothes are, I can't stop it.
Even when the body was no longer there, the feeling remained.
The sky was pitch black, and the survey lights formed pillars of light, interweaving and illuminating the road under my feet and the scenery on the side of the road, and I also looked at my surroundings.
The buildings were overgrown with weeds, about 1 meter high, and various insect chirpings were heard from inside. Suddenly, a black shadow popped out of the grass and quickly ran into another bush, and the sharp-eyed forensic doctor Xiao Li exclaimed, "Hare!"
The unfinished community is not very friendly to people, but it has become a paradise for animals and plants.
The police from the police station took us to a building on the east side of the community, and he pointed to the grass, "right there."
The weeds grew extraordinarily luxuriantly, and the green was black and shiny. The grass had been trodden out of a narrow path, and it was impossible to see what was at the end of the road.
The police at the police station reminded us, "Be careful of shells!"
His black police uniform pants were stained with green and yellow grass clippings, and there were several thin blood marks on his ankles.
We walked cautiously deeper into the grass, and the sound of insects sounded, and the smell of grass in our nostrils became weaker, and a stench gradually became stronger.
A few meters further, a figure appeared in sight, like an assassin crawling in the grass, motionless.
It is a "semi-white ossified" corpse, in a prone position, with a skull basically in the shape of a skeleton, a thin layer of scalp clinging to the skull, and dark brown clothing. It was the liquid of the corpse's decay, weathered, and the light reflected the oily light.
The sneakers on the deceased's feet were faintly visible in white, and the shoe size was very large.
After the photo was fixed, Xiao Li and I "squared" the body and tried to see his face clearly.
The deceased's face was only a little leather-like skin, his nose and mouth were gone, and his eye sockets were deep and hollow, as if looking up at the sky.
In an instant, something crawled out of the deceased's right eye socket. At the same time, my arm was suddenly grabbed by something.
"I'm sorry", Xiao Li saw clearly that the thing that crawled out was a centipede, and finally let go of his hand, his voice trembling a little.
My heart was beating harder.
Only a small amount of soft tissue remained in the limbs of the deceased, and only a small amount of dark brown soft tissue remained in the chest and abdomen.
During this time, it is estimated that many insects relied on this corpse for their survival. I have a teacher who is one of the top forensic entomologists in China, and if he was at the scene, he would probably be able to immediately recognize the species of insects and deduce the time of death of the deceased.
Unfortunately, he died of illness this spring.
I took out a couple of evidence bags and used tweezers to clip some insects and a couple of maggot pupae in the hope that they would come in handy.
The deceased was male.
Forensic doctor Xiao Li estimated that he was about 1.9 meters tall and no more than 25 years old.
His remaining skin is full of holes drilled by maggots, which may not be friendly to dense and fearful crowds.
Except for these small holes, no other obvious damage can be seen on the skin, and this highly decomposed corpse itself is very difficult to examine, and we can only observe the damage to his bones.
Left tibial fracture, pelvic fracture, thoracic vertebra compression fracture.
These fractures are supposed to be formed at one time, and the stubble of the bones is obliquely dislocated, presumably due to longitudinal external forces.
"It's not going to be another high fall. ”
Forensic doctor Xiao Li raised his head and looked at the unfinished building that had been capped, and we all remembered the case of the real estate developer and his wife jumping off the building not long ago.
To remove the body, we surveyed the area where the body was covered.
The soil was noticeably darker than the surrounding color, and a pit had been crushed out of it by the corpses, glowing with oil in the light, and many black bugs were crawling around with their heads emerging from the soil.
According to the preliminary autopsy, Xiao Li and I both felt that the deceased looked like a high fall. So we worked with Ah Liang, a trace examination technician, to investigate the unfinished building closest to the body.
We found a pile of dry poop on the ground on the 2nd floor, a promotional post on the wall on the 7th floor, an empty wine bottle on the balcony on the 13th floor, and 4 cigarette butts on the 19th floor.
At this time, we have not been able to determine whether the body, or the boy, died by suicide or homicide.
It's such a dark place, so suitable for killing people and throwing corpses.
He was most likely pushed down from a certain floor. Therefore, we put all the physical evidence that could be extracted into the physical evidence bag.
Leaving Riverside Gardens, we immediately rushed to the dissection room. Looking through the car window, the surrounding lights are bright, but the riverside garden is dark.
The corpse and we arrived in the dissection room almost at the same time.
The deceased was tall, and the two-meter-long autopsy table was a little cramped. Based on the degree of tooth wear, we deduced his age to be around 22 years old.
This is a 22-year-old boy who is 1.9 meters tall.
For some time, he quietly "lay" in the grass. Natural decay and insect gnawing have hollowed out his body little by little, and his organs have basically disappeared.
It wasn't until there was only an empty shell left that he was finally discovered.
For such a "hollow" corpse, the autopsy is very difficult.
Typically, we start by considering three directions of cause of death.
The first category is death by asphyxiation, the second category is death from mechanical injury, i.e. death from violent injury, and the third category is death from poisoning.
The only thing that is clear at the moment is mechanical damage.
In this boy, we found no obvious signs of suffocation. As for deaths from poisoning, further testing is needed.
That night, we briefly discussed the situation at the case meeting, and the technical work came to an end for the time being. When I got home at about 2 a.m., I opened the door softly and tiptoed to drink water, for fear of waking my sleeping wife and daughter.
Early the next morning, my mobile phone rang, it was Xiao Li calling, "Master, hurry up and come to the unit, it's about to start fighting here!"
When the police station visited the nearby people to find the source of the body, two groups of people thought it was their own body and were arguing in the public security bureau.
This thing has confused me, and someone will rob the corpse?
I hurried to the unit, and as soon as I entered the corridor, I heard a loud noise, both men and women, young and old.
Two groups of people gathered at the door of the office, and the police from the police station were separated between the two groups of people, and kept stretching out their hands to signal everyone to be quieter, but the effect was not obvious. When they saw me coming, they seemed even more excited.
I told everyone to stop arguing, and one representative from each side came into the office, and one of the middle-aged women was familiar.
She was tall, dark-skinned, with a ponytail and a thick lipstick, somewhat like the color of blood.
On the other side was an old man, who looked a little sad.
There were fewer people in the room, but they quieted down and didn't speak, but they distanced themselves from each other, and they were obviously a little hostile.
Trace technician Ah Liang found the autopsy photo, and the two of them were silent after reading it, and it was obvious that they were not sure if the person they were looking for was the half-white ossified corpse.
"The deceased was about 22 years old and more than 1.9 meters tall. Forensic doctor Xiao Li added the autopsy, "Initially it looks like a high fall, and the case is still under further investigation." ”
"Maybe it's my grandson Haitao," the old man sighed, "I haven't seen him in two months." ”
"Impossible, absolutely impossible!" The woman stared straight at the photo and muttered, "This is my son Xiaodong." ”
"We've searched that place several times, how did you find it?" the woman seemed to assume that the photo was her son.
I suddenly remembered why I saw her familiar face, a month ago, the police from the police station brought her to me.
This woman's name is Zhao Aimei, she is from Zhaojia Village on the outskirts of the city, she is black and fat, with golden earrings and rings, and green bracelets, which looks expensive. I was impressed with her bright red lipstick.
Over the years, many people have come to me to report their disappearance, but very few have actually disappeared. Usually they run away in a negative mood or don't return to play, and they go home after a day or two.
Two days after Ma Xiaodong's disappearance, his mother, Zhao Aimei, went to the police station to report the case.
The police at the police station asked if Ma Xiaodong had any abnormalities recently, Zhao Aimei shook her head, saying that her son was very obedient and there was nothing abnormal.
How could a young man who was mentally and intellectually normal suddenly disappear?
The police at the police station were suspicious and took her to me to collect information on the missing person according to the process.
I remember that the boy in the photo was tall and thin, but it matched the bones found, but the old man's grandson, Yang Haitao, was also tall and thin, which was a little difficult to distinguish.
The next day, the DNA results came back.
The deceased was Zhao Aimei's son Ma Xiaodong, and Yang Haitao's family members left the public security bureau with complicated expressions.
After Ma Xiaodong's disappearance, his family had the police station call up a lot of surveillance, and Ma Xiaodong was last seen on Riverside Avenue, where he turned from the main road into a small road and has not been seen since.
A five-minute walk along the path in the surveillance will take you to the unfinished community at the scene.
Ma Xiaodong's relatives searched along the path for many days, and they also went to the riverside garden to look for it, and searched all the unfinished buildings in the community, but they didn't find Ma Xiaodong quietly "lying" in the grass.
Later, Zhao Aimei and several relatives looked for many places, and even went to Aunt Ma Xiaodong's house more than 100 kilometers away. Because my aunt used to be very good to Ma Xiaodong, Ma Xiaodong would visit her during the New Year's holidays.
They also inquired that Ma Xiaodong often went to visit a lonely old man, so he went to turn the old man's house upside down, and the old man was so angry that he called the police, but in the end, it didn't work, after all, people are looking for a baby.
As for why Zhao Aimei didn't find Ma Xiaodong in Riverside Garden, this is actually normal. Weeds like this, which are more than 1 meter high, are difficult to find to hide a large living person, let alone a motionless corpse.
"Where did Xiaodong's phone go?"
Zhao Aimei's loud voice made everyone frown, and colleagues all knew that this Zhao Aimei was not a good stubble.
"My son must have been killed, and your Public Security Bureau has to call the shots for me!" Zhao Aimei did not show too much sadness, but instead put the responsibility on the Public Security Bureau.
Although it was preliminarily judged that the deceased was a high fall, there were still many doubts in this case.
We retrieved the surveillance around the scene, combined with the surveillance found by the police station before, and found the last "image" of Ma Xiaodong before his death.
The last time Ma Xiaodong appeared in the surveillance was 33 days ago. Coincidentally, the tragedy of the "real estate developer" family also happened on that day, when the 3-year-old twin girls were "taken away" by their parents.
appeared in the surveillance with Ma Xiaodong, and there was a man in black clothes and a woman in a flower skirt.
Ma Xiaodong appeared on surveillance at 4:27 p.m., walking south to north along the main road and turning into a small road at 4:39.
In front of Ma Xiaodong was a woman in a flower skirt, and behind him was a man in black, and the three of them turned into the path one after another.
More than 20 minutes later, the woman in the flower dress appeared in the surveillance on the other side of the path. More than an hour later, the man in black returned the way he came, a cigarette in his mouth. And Ma Xiaodong has not appeared since.
In addition, according to the inference of the reconnaissance experiment, during the time when Ma Xiaodong appeared, a total of 5 cars turned into the small road.
"Is it possible that there was a traffic accident?" colleague Dahan slapped his thigh, "Ma Xiaodong was hit by a car and then transferred to an unfinished building." ”
I nodded, it was a possibility.
It is not difficult to find the vehicle, and the owner can be determined with a license plate. Through the inspection of the vehicles, we preliminarily ruled out the suspicion of these five vehicles.
At the same time, after visiting, we found that the man in black and the woman in the flower skirt are also residents of the neighborhood.
They happened to pass by that road. The man in black went to a nearby store, bought cigarettes and alcohol, and went home, while the woman in the floral dress crossed the path to the nearest bus stop and took the bus to the park.
The task force followed up and visited all the way, retrieved relevant surveillance, and found that they did not have the time to commit the crime, and the suspicion of the man in black and the woman in the flower skirt was also ruled out.
The clues in the surveillance are completely broken.
The task force called Ma Xiaodong's parents separately and asked them to come to the public security bureau to talk about the disposal of the corpse.
Ma Xiaodong's father, Ma Yongjun, has been working in other places for many years, saying that he doesn't care about family affairs, while Ma Xiaodong's mother Zhao Aimei said that she has been in poor health recently and doesn't want to go out.
The next morning, together with investigator Han Da, I went to Ma Xiaodong's house under the leadership of the police from the police station, preparing to inform Ma Xiaodong's mother, Zhao Aimei, of the autopsy and the investigation of the case.
The gatehouse of Ma Xiaodong's house is very tall and looks magnificent, like most people's homes, with the words "Home and everything is prosperous".
Nearby villagers said that Zhao Aimei's father was a well-known wealthy man who used to be a village director and later ran some industries. After his father's death, most of the family property was given to Zhao Aimei. Later, we investigated Zhao Aimei, and her total assets added up to nearly 10 million.
Looking at this situation, Ma Xiaodong was a proper rich second generation during his lifetime.
At first, when his mother reported her missing, we wondered if he had been kidnapped, but the family never received a ransom call, and the police station searched for some time without any results.
Unexpectedly, there was no more news, Ma Xiaodong was already a corpse.
We knocked on the door for a long time, and a bald man poked his head out of the crack in the door, looking about his forties, and asked who we were looking for.
After leading us into the hospital, the man walked with his trouser belt on his belt, he was strong and had a big waist and a round waist.
The man sat down in the hall with us, his expression a little unnatural. Han and I glanced at each other, this man should be Zhao Aimei's good look.
The interior decoration is very luxurious, and after a while, Zhao Aimei came out of the back room.
After listening to our investigation, Zhao Aimei crossed her hands on her waist, "His mobile phone was not found, I think he was killed." ”
"Rest assured, we will continue to investigate. Dahan said.
If this is really a murder case of murder for money, will there be any clues hidden in Ma Xiaodong's disappeared mobile phone?
After the confession was recorded, we had a brief chat with the nearby villagers.
Many villagers reported that Ma Xiaodong had a general relationship with his family, his mother Zhao Aimei had a hot temper, and often beat and scolded Ma Xiaodong when she was a child.
I followed the task force to visit the lonely old man.
The old man's name is Zhao Jiande, who lives in the east of the village and has a single family. I heard that he was the village party secretary in his early years, but later his son died in a car accident, and his wife went in a few years, and now he is alone.
When we met Zhao Jiande, he had a bald head, gray stubble, a pair of reading glasses, and a book in his hand.
After explaining his intentions, Zhao Jiande sighed while leading us into the house, "No wonder I haven't seen him for a few days." ”
Zhao Jiande and Ma Xiaodong are old friends, and the two met in the park.
"Young people are generally busy," Mr. Zhao said, curious about Mr. Ma, who often wanders in the park, and once asked him where he worked.
Ma Xiaodong sometimes came to Zhao Jiande's house to chat with him, brought him some fruit snacks, and occasionally helped Zhao Jiande with some housework, and he would ask Zhao Jiande some questions, sometimes just chatting.
"He's not having a good time. Zhao Jiande took a sip of tea, "I often persuade him that life is just a formality, and everything must be seen openly." ”
Zhao Jiande found that in recent times, Ma Xiaodong has become thinner and thinner, and his face has become more and more pale. He often reminded Ma Xiaodong to pay attention to strengthening nutrition, but it seemed to be of little use.
Zhao Jiande helped his glasses, "Everyone has their own fate, I don't want to interfere too much, I just persuade him to try to open as much as possible." ”
Through Zhao Jiande, we only learned that Ma Xiaodong had "troubles" and was excessively pale. There has been no progress on the merits.
Another clue is that two years ago, Ma Xiaodong talked about a girlfriend named Dai Wenwen, who was a waitress in a restaurant in the city.
We quickly found Dai Wenwen, a goose egg face, big eyes, a tall, thin and quiet girl.
She and Ma Xiaodong were junior high school classmates, and they had a good impression of each other during school, but they never confided in them back then. The two reunited while working at the same restaurant, and soon, they fell in love.
"We really love each other, but we can't be together. Dai Wenwen said.
The two have talked about marriage in private, but Ma Xiaodong's mother resolutely disagrees with the two being together. Zhao Aimei even found Dai Wenwen in private, saying that she was not worthy of her son, so angry that Dai Wenwen couldn't say a word.
On the night of more than a month ago, Ma Xiaodong found Dai Wenwen and proposed to break up, "I don't deserve to be with you." ”
The two of them cried a lot that night, and Dai Wenwen really didn't have the courage to persevere.
But she seems to have a premonition about Ma Xiaodong's accident, "I persuaded him many times to stop selling blood, but he just didn't listen." ”
Selling blood?
Isn't Ma Xiaodong a rich second generation?
I returned to the unit with doubts, and met the master, who had just finished his vacation, and was distributing special products to everyone. Master asked me what I had been up to lately, and I told him about Ma Xiaodong's case.
"Ma Xiaodong, this name sounds familiar, have you ever been here? ”
A few minutes later, Master led me to the archives and found a copy of the appraisal volume.
The summary of the case reads: On June 3, 2021, at the gate of Wanjiafu Community, Xicheng District, Ma Xiaodong, a delivery man, and Zhang Zhihua, a security guard, had a dispute, and Ma Xiaodong was beaten by Zhang Zhihua with a rubber stick and injured his body in many places.
It turned out that two years ago, Ma Xiaodong had a fight with others, and afterwards he went to the forensic clinic to have his injuries examined.
In the injury examination photo, Ma Xiaodong is skinny, he is naked, he can see protruding ribs, and there are hollow strips of subcutaneous bleeding on his chest and back, which is consistent with the characteristics of a stick injury.
At that time, the master also took a detailed photo of Ma Xiaodong's arm, there were many old scars in the elbow socket, as well as fresh healing needle eyes, the master suspected him of taking drugs, and privately reminded the police handling the case.
The cause of this case was that Ma Xiaodong wanted to enter the community to deliver takeaways, but the security guards stopped him from entering, and the two began to do it arguingly.
Later, the police station conducted mediation, and the property in the community compensated the medical expenses for the security guard, and gave Ma Xiaodong an additional 1,000 yuan.
We asked Ma Xiaodong's girlfriend Dai Wenwen to verify the situation, Dai Wenwen said that there was indeed such a thing, she was very angry at that time, and wanted to go to the security guard who beat the person to ask for an explanation, but was stopped by Ma Xiaodong.
During that time, Ma Xiaodong was very busy, busy delivering food during the day and night, and regularly went to "donate" blood twice a month, and his income increased significantly, and he could earn thousands a month.
But shortly after Ma Xiaodong was beaten into the hospital by security guards, his motorcycle was stolen, and without it, the takeaway could not be delivered.
Ma Xiaodong wants to continue to deliver food, he has to buy another motorcycle or electric car, he doesn't have enough money, his girlfriend Dai Wenwen said that she can lend it to him, but Ma Xiaodong can only accept half at most, and the other half he has to figure out by himself.
Dai Wenwen recalled that Ma Xiaodong discussed with his mother Zhao Aimei, planning to borrow 2,000 yuan and pay her back after earning the money.
Zhao Aimei refused.
The reason is that Ma Xiaodong's debts have not been paid off, and she will not give a penny.
At the same time, the task force is also investigating Ma Xiaodong's whereabouts during the period before the accident.
We found out that Ma Xiaodong went to the next city every two weeks, most recently just three days before his disappearance.
On that day, Ma Xiaodong arrived at the long-distance bus station in City A by bus, and after leaving the station, he took a motorcycle and three wheels to reach his final destination, the blood station.
Ma Xiaodong's secrets for more than three years are hidden here.
Forensic doctor Xiao Li and I followed Dahan to the blood station in City A. According to the blood donation records of the blood station, Ma Xiaodong has made a total of 72 visits to the blood station in the past three years.
Blood banks stipulate that two blood donations must be made at least two weeks apart.
In other words, in the past three years, as long as the regulations allow, Ma Xiaodong will go to the blood station in City A every two weeks.
The reason why he went to City A, which is more than 80 kilometers away, to donate blood was probably because of the generous policy of the blood station in City A. For one blood donation, he can get more than 200 yuan for nutrition.
Each time, Ma Xiaodong donated 200 milliliters of blood.
Over the years, the total amount of blood he donated is about three times that of an adult's whole body blood volume. He used three times the blood of his body in exchange for about 17,000 yuan.
In City A, there are more than 100 people like Ma Xiaodong who come to donate blood regularly, but Ma Xiaodong is the one who comes most frequently.
On the way back from City A, forensic doctor Xiao Li kept staring out the window, his brows were tightly locked, and my mood was very heavy.
Ma Xiaodong's behavior is not so much about donating blood as it is about "selling blood", after all, he is in it for money.
But what debt did he owe?
When I was on duty at night, I suddenly remembered the insects that I had extracted at the scene before, and I quickly ran to the evidence room, where they were still lying in the refrigerator, and I breathed a sigh of relief.
I consulted the literature and took a closer look at the insects that had been extracted from the site.
It is roughly inferred that the time of Ma Xiaodong's death was about one month, which is basically consistent with the current investigation. Based on this, we speculate that Ma Xiaodong went straight to Riverside Garden, and then died in the community.
At the same time, we have two major findings.
When Ah Liang, a trace inspection technician, revisited the scene, he found several dust-covered footprints in the living room and balcony of the west household on the 14th floor of Unit 2 of Building 11, which were consistent with the pattern of the soles of Ma Xiaodong's shoes.
There was no sign of anyone else at the scene.
Our analysis believes that Ma Xiaodong's death should have been a suicide or accident, and the possibility of homicide has basically been ruled out.
Another major discovery is that the owner of the 14th floor of the west household of Unit 2, Building 11, Riverside Garden, is Ma Xiaodong's mother, Zhao Aimei.
Ma Xiaodong fell from his home.
Selling blood, paying off debts, and mobile phones that have not been found so far. Is Ma Xiaodong's death just an accident?
With the assistance of the technical investigation department, a week after the body was found, we finally found Ma Xiaodong's mobile phone.
The person who picked up Ma Xiaodong's mobile phone is a junior high school student, he likes urban adventures, and usually goes to the wilderness, especially to go to unfinished buildings, abandoned factories and other inaccessible places.
On the fifth day after Ma Xiaodong jumped off the building, the junior high school student went to play in the riverside garden and saw a mobile phone on the ground, picked up the mobile phone and found that it had been turned off. After the repair was turned on, the task force located the missing mobile phone.
Combined with the previous surveillance, we found that after Ma Xiaodong entered the Riverside Garden, he stayed for nearly two hours.
In those two hours, no one contacted him, and no one knew what exactly he was going through.
Two hours later, Ma Xiaodong's phone was completely turned off. His last connection to this world is gone.
In Ma Xiaodong's mobile phone memo, we found a short article similar to a suicide note.
In this short article, his aunt, girlfriend, and his old friend Zhao Jiande are mentioned.
Ma Xiaodong wrote:
"Aunt, I won't be able to see you again in the future. You have to take care of your body and don't be reluctant to spend money on yourself. ”
"Wenwen, I'm sorry, you're a good girl, you should find someone better, I'm not worthy of you. ”
"Thank you, Lao Zhao, if there is an afterlife, I want to be your son. ”
And in this short article, the longest is written to her mother Zhao Aimei.
"Mom, I have a lot of things I want to say to you, but I don't know how to say them. I would love to make my world a little better. ”
"I've tried a lot of ways, but I can't get through, and I don't have any other skills but to sell blood. ”
"I've tried my best, but I can't hold on anymore, maybe I shouldn't have come to this world in the first place. ”
We realized that Ma Xiaodong's death must be inseparable from his mother Zhao Aimei.
According to the investigation, when Riverside Garden was opened that year, Zhao Aimei bought 3 houses and 6 parking spaces at one time, and the total value was not less than 5 million according to the price at that time.
Of these three houses, one is intended for his son Ma Xiaodong, and it is also the one where Ma Xiaodong jumped off the building. But the house is not for nothing, Ma Xiaodong needs to pay half of the house price to move in, and then he has to return the other half of the house payment to his mother.
Ma Xiaodong has mentioned many times to repay debts, one of which is to "repay" the house payment.
In order to repay the money, Ma Xiaodong tried a lot of jobs, such as delivering takeaways, doing odd jobs, and setting up stalls, but he couldn't do it for long, and the only thing he stuck with was "selling blood".
When we approached Ms. Zhao, she said she had no idea about her son's blood sales.
But no one expected her next reaction.
"Comrade policeman, isn't it illegal for my son to donate blood?" Zhao Aimei said, "I think this is not only not illegal, but also a good deed." ”
"As long as my child doesn't break the law, you can't take care of it. ”
Zhao Aimei's words made us speechless, feeling that she not only didn't care, but also wanted to get rid of responsibility.
As for repaying debts, Zhao Aimei said, "I want to cultivate his ability to be independent, and boys can't rely on their families for everything." Between the words, Zhao Aimei did not feel a trace of distress, as if she was talking about a stranger.
This mother's attitude is too strange.
In order to completely restore Ma Xiaodong's life experience, the task force contacted Ma Xiaodong's father Ma Yongjun again. He hesitated for a long time, but finally agreed to come back to see his son.
Ma Yongjun is tall and has an angular face. When he saw us, he said directly, "I know Xiaodong is having a hard time, but I can't help him." ”
Ma Yongjun knew that his son worked hard to make money, and even did not hesitate to sell his blood, because he was burdened with a debt of a house.
Ma Xiaodong once told his father Ma Yongjun about these things.
"This child died for me. Ma Yongjun's eyes fluttered, and his cheeks twitched from time to time, "If I didn't leave back then, I would be forced to death by her sooner or later." ”
Through interviews with Zhao Aimei, Ma Yongjun, the police who have contacted them, and the villagers of Zhaojia Village, we try to restore the original face of this family and uncover the truth about Ma Xiaodong's death.
23 years ago, Ma Yongjun, a young man from other places, came to work in the local area, and was introduced to a local girl, Zhao Aimei.
"I didn't have a mother since I was a child, and I didn't have a strong old man", Ma Yongjun didn't have a mother since he was a child, and his father also died of illness after pulling a few children to adulthood.
Ma Yongjun is tall and handsome, Zhao Aimei is a local and has a good family, with a small factory and a small supermarket.
The two soon went to the marriage registration office to get the certificate, Ma Yongjun became the son-in-law, and the two of them ran the small supermarket together, and their lives were rich and ordinary.
A year later, Ma Xiaodong was born, Zhao Aimei concentrated on taking care of the baby at home, and the supermarket was handed over to Ma Yongjun to take care of alone.
Soon, rumors spread to Zhao Aimei's ears, and some people said that Ma Yongjun and supermarket cashier Fang Xiaoting got along.
Supermarket cashier Fang Xiaoting is a distant relative of Zhao Aimei, who graduated from high school and had nowhere to go, so she came to work in Zhao Aimei's supermarket.
Zhao Aimei rushed to the supermarket angrily, dragged Fang Xiaoting out of the supermarket, scolded her in public, and scratched her face.
Ma Yongjun stepped forward to persuade him, but was scratched by Zhao Aimei's arm. Zhao Aimei pointed at Ma Yongjun's nose and scolded with her feet, "You dare to fucking break your shoes under the nose of the old lady, I will ...... your eighth-generation ancestors"
Many people who witnessed this incident still remember it very clearly, and a villager once said to the police at the police station, "Zhao Aimei is not a fuel-efficient lamp, and she forced her men to run away." ”
No one knows if Ma Yongjun and Fang Xiaoting have anything to do, they have a common language, and they like to chat together when they are idle, but they were caught by people who do good things, add fuel and vinegar, and spread to Zhao Aimei.
As a result, Zhao Aimei firmly believed that Ma Yongjun had betrayed her and that he was guilty.
This incident made Ma Yongjun very faceless, he wanted to explain it to Zhao Aimei, but he knew Zhao Aimei's temper, and he launched a surge, and he couldn't listen to anything.
Regardless of whether there was adultery or not, Fang Xiaoting couldn't stay in the supermarket any longer, she called a group of relatives from home to support her, and Zhao Aimei lost a sum of money.
Zhao Aimei recorded this account on her husband Ma Yongjun again, and did not let Ma Yongjun go to bed at night, telling him to kneel naked by the bed to "confess", and let him describe the details of being with Fang Xiaoting word for word, including every word he said.
As long as Ma Yongjun showed a little dissatisfaction, Zhao Aimei twisted it on him, "If you can't fucking stand it, get out, the house, car, and children are all mine, what is not mine in this family?"
At first, Ma Yongjun endured it, he didn't want to lose this home.
But since then, Zhao Aimei seems to have grabbed Ma Yongjun's pigtails, as long as the two of them have a little contradiction, they will pull out the past and brush it again, and every quarrel ends with Zhao Aimei's victory.
Over time, Ma Yongjun lost confidence in this family.
When Ma Xiaodong was 6 years old and in elementary school, Ma Yongjun left a letter and went to work in the south. Since then, he no longer cares about all the things in this family, occasionally comes back for the New Year, and leaves in a hurry after a few days.
No matter how Zhao Aimei lost her temper, Ma Yongjun was no longer angry, and just put down the sentence, "If you feel that you can't get by, let's divorce, and I'll leave the house." ”
"You want to be beautiful!" Zhao Aimei resolutely disagreed with the divorce, "You a, my mother knows what kind of wishful thinking you are playing!"
"It's okay if you don't leave, you can't control me anyway. ”
Although Ma Yongjun still sends money to the family regularly, Ma Xiaodong is equivalent to having no father.
There are people in the village who work in the south, and they once saw Ma Yongjun shopping with a young woman, who was carrying Ma Yongjun's arm.
This incident reached Zhao Aimei's ears, and she was so angry that she smashed the belongings at home, so frightened that Ma Xiaodong hid in the neighbor's house and didn't dare to go home.
Ma Yongjun no longer accepted the offer, Zhao Aimei didn't want to divorce, and she was helpless against Ma Yongjun, so she transferred her hatred for Ma Yongjun to her son Ma Xiaodong.
I am very puzzled, how can Zhao Aimei be so arrogant and unreasonable all these years?
But it was only after Zhao Aimei's "good sister" told us something that I got to know this woman further.
In Zhaojia Village, Zhao Aimei is a well-known "eldest lady".
Her father had a successful career, and by the time Zhao Aimei was born, he already had his own industry. Zhao Aimei has been favored since she was a child, and her personality is also strong, she has been a class leader since kindergarten, and she has the final say in everything.
When she was a teenager, Zhao Aimei's mother died of illness, and during the period of filial piety, many matchmakers came to the door to talk about matchmaking. Soon after, Zhao Aimei's stepmother came to her house with her little sister.
Zhao Aimei's stepmother is a cultural person, working as a private teacher in the next county, her husband died in a car accident, and Lao Zhao is a good match, and after her stepmother came to Zhao's house, she soon became a family.
Zhao Aimei got out of school, she likes to run out to play for a while, and then go home for dinner, she has a group of "good sisters" who have nothing to talk about.
Zhao Aimei occasionally mentions her stepmother and sister, and thinks that her stepmother is good, always smiling, treating herself well, and sometimes tutoring her in her homework.
Immediately, a "sister" advised her to be careful and not to fall for other people's sugar-coated shells.
Some people even said a case: a stepmother added sleeping pills to her meals, and while the child was sleeping, she hacked the child to death with a kitchen knife and chopped it into meat filling, and wrapped it in adult meat buns.
This hearsay case was later used by Zhao Aimei to "educate" her son Ma Xiaodong, and at the same time denounce the negative man Ma Yongjun.
Since then, when the stepmother took care of Zhao Aimei and asked Zhao Aimei to study hard, Zhao Aimei behaved very resistantly, and once even quarreled with her stepmother, telling her stepmother not to meddle in her affairs, and then ran to sue her father.
Zhao Aimei's father told her not to make her stepmother angry, but after a while, her stepmother really didn't care about her.
Originally, her father didn't discipline her much, and no one cared about Zhao Aimei anymore. Her personality has also become more and more domineering.
Zhao Aimei was very disgusted with her cultured stepmother, and even became more and more disgusted with learning, and did not continue to go to school after finishing junior high school.
In a blink of an eye, when it was time to talk about marriage, Zhao Aimei fell in love with the tall and handsome Ma Yongjun, Ma Yongjun has no parents, and Zhao Aimei has parents but is not close, so the two of them are considered to be in sympathy with each other.
Ma Yongjun has no serious career, Zhao Aimei is unwilling to live a poor life, and goes to his father to make trouble in three days, and finally his father handed over the small supermarket to Zhao Aimei and his family to operate.
A few years later, Zhao Aimei's father was diagnosed with advanced esophageal cancer and died soon after.
When the negotiation failed, Zhao Aimei held a megaphone in her hand, blocked the door of the house and accused her stepmother of not, scolded her for being a broom star, killed her man, and made everyone in the village know.
The stepmother couldn't stand it, so she splashed a basin of water on Zhao Aimei, and then prepared to close the door, Zhao Aimei rushed over and didn't let it close, was caught by the door, rolled on the ground in pain, went to the hospital to take a film, and broke two ribs.
After calling the police, because it was a family dispute, the police station mediated, and Zhao Aimei took the opportunity to propose to get the small factory under her own name, otherwise she would let her stepmother go to jail.
The policemen who went to the police back then still have an impression of this incident.
In the end, the stepmother sold part of the family property and took her sister away from home, and never had any contact with Zhao Aimei. Almost all of the Zhao family's industries fell into the hands of Zhao Aimei, and she became even more arrogant.
Zhao Aimei's good sister told me this, and it is difficult to explain directly why she is so arrogant. But the side left an impression in my heart: she is a person who is always on guard in interpersonal relationships and never suffers.
Such people are good at protecting themselves, but correspondingly, they are also more likely to hurt the people around them.
During the visit, the testimony of neighbors confirmed that Zhao Aimei's husband was not lying.
She drove away her stepmother's monopoly on the family property, and she should have no worries. But the neighbors reported that for a period of time, they often heard beatings and screams from Zhao Aimei's house, the beating and scolding were Zhao Aimei's, and the screams were Ma Yongjun's.
Everyone knows that Ma Yongjun is the son-in-law, but they didn't expect Ma Yongjun to be so miserable, so the villagers found it difficult to understand, and some people felt that Ma Yongjun must have done something sorry for Zhao Aimei.
What the villagers also don't understand is that after Ma Yongjun left, Zhao Aimei dressed up all day long, while Ma Xiaodong, who was supposed to be dependent on his mother, looked like a person and a ghost all day long.
In Zhao Aimei's opinion, Ma Xiaodong has the blood of Ma Yongjun, and he is the same as his father in his bones, he is a bad breed, and he must be rectified well.
She had no choice but to impose "punishment" on her son.
At the beginning, Zhao Aimei would call Ma Xiaodong, who was doing homework, to him, slap him, or screw a few handfuls. As long as Ma Xiaodong cries, Zhao Aimei will make him kneel.
In her opinion, Ma Xiaodong has Ma Yongjun's blood and is the same as his father in his bones.
Later, she began to strictly control her son's diet.
"You can't eat white food at home. Zhao Aimei often took away half of the food that Ma Xiaodong ate, and Ma Xiaodong was so hungry that his face was yellow and thin. The relatives around couldn't stand it anymore, so my aunt paid out of her own pocket and ordered a meal for Ma Xiaodong at school, so that he could finally eat enough.
Ma Xiaodong graduated from junior high school and was not admitted to high school, Zhao Aimei arranged for him to help in the supermarket, and he was full of food, but he was not paid.
Ma Xiaodong, who was well-fed and drunk, jumped on the ground and soon grew taller than his father.
Since then, Ma Yongjun has stopped sending money to his family on the grounds that Ma Xiaodong has left school (meaning that he will no longer go to school) and can support himself.
This incident stimulated Zhao Aimei again, "Both of them owe me debts, my father is ruthless and unjust, don't want us, but you have to repay the debt." ”
The more Zhao Aimei spoke, the more angry she became, crying and scolding, "You just follow him, I get angry when I look at your face." ”
Since then, Ma Xiaodong has to eat at home for 10 yuan a day, Ma Xiaodong didn't make money at that time, and Zhao Aimei kept an account for him. In just a few years, Ma Xiaodong has already owed his mother a huge debt.
Later, Zhao Aimei found a new man, named Wei Xueming, who was a second-rate man and the bald man we had seen in her house.
At that time, it coincided with the demolition and reconstruction of the old city, and Zhao Aimei's small factory was also in the scope of demolition, so Zhao Aimei made another profit.
She wanted to wash her money by buying a house and investing, so she chose the riverside garden, which had the most potential at that time, and invested 5 million yuan in it.
Unexpectedly, Riverside Garden finally became an unfinished building, and more than 5 million assets were completely trapped.
And it was Ma Xiaodong who silently endured all this.
Since then, Ma Xiaodong's WeChat name has been changed to "atonement".
After buying a house in Riverside Garden, Ma Xiaodong's arrears have one more item, the house payment.
These debts were like a mountain, weighing him down, and he had to do everything he could to make money.
He has become the saddest rich second generation.
The restaurant where he used to work closed down, his girlfriend Dai Wenwen changed jobs in a restaurant, and Ma Xiaodong went to work as a security guard in a newly developed real estate.
But soon after, they were replaced by a group of low-paid, elderly security guards. Ma Xiaodong wanted to reduce his salary and stay, but he was still fired.
Ma Xiaodong went to the construction site to work as a small worker, because he was very thin, had little strength, and worked slowly, and was often scolded by the foreman and deducted his wages.
While working at the construction site, Ma Xiaodong heard a worker talk about a way to make money without working hard - selling blood.
With the idea of giving it a try, Ma Xiaodong got on the bus to City A.
At the beginning, Ma Xiaodong was not unwell, but unfortunately he could only sell blood twice a month at most, and at other times, Ma Xiaodong had to find a way to make money.
Ma Xiaodong wanted to engage in car delivery, and it happened that Wei Xueming was planning to buy a new car at that time, and it turned out that the old motorcycle could be lent to Ma Xiaodong.
Ma Xiaodong delivered takeaways, and his income increased significantly, during that time, Dai Wenwen felt that the smile on Ma Xiaodong's face had become more, but she looked at the thin Ma Xiaodong, and was still vaguely worried, so she persuaded him not to sell blood anymore.
But Ma Xiaodong believes that four or five hundred per month is also a lot of income, and he wants to earn the house money as soon as possible. This time last year, Ma Xiaodong took Dai Wenwen for a walk in the riverside garden, and he pointed to one of the buildings and said, "This will be our home from now on." ”
But life only gave Ma Xiaodong tribulations.
Soon after being beaten, Ma Xiaodong's motorcycle was stolen and the takeaway could not be delivered.
Ma Xiaodong used the compensation money to wholesale some toys and set up a stall in the square, but he didn't make any money, and he was often chased around by the chengguan.
When he was in school, Ma Xiaodong's English grades had always been good, and Dai Wenwen's little niece was planning to find an English tutor, so she persuaded Ma Xiaodong to learn English again.
Ma Xiaodong learned English, but in the end he still didn't become a tutor, and people thought that his education was too low.
Ma Xiaodong worked hard to make money, and he worked hard to save money.
According to Ma Xiaodong's plan, his daily living expenses do not exceed 8 yuan, and he generally spends 2 yuan on breakfast, 3 yuan for lunch and dinner, and sometimes eats two meals together.
Despite his poverty, Ma Xiaodong has a good face. Dai Wenwen occasionally invited him to dinner, and he had to find a way to invite him back.
He can endure his mother's downfall, and he doesn't even dare to say a word at home, but he can't bear to be scolded by outsiders, which is why he fights with the security guard when he delivers takeaways.
Later, Dai Wenwen helped Ma Xiaodong contact a job as a chef apprentice, and he needed to pay 1,000 yuan first.
Dai Wenwen originally planned to help Ma Xiaodong pay in advance, but he refused.
He was ready to open his mouth to his mother, but it may have been the last straw that overwhelmed Ma Xiaodong.
On Mother's Day, Ma Xiaodong used all the money at hand to buy a bouquet of flowers and a small cake to wish Zhao Aimei a happy Mother's Day. He only had 11 yuan and a dime left in his WeChat change, and he didn't even have enough money to take the car to sell blood.
When he proposed that he wanted to borrow money from Zhao Aimei to learn to cook, Zhao Aimei lowered his face, "You have eaten and drunk me all these years, and you still want to loot my money?
On that day, Ma Xiaodong may have really given up.
In our investigation, we found that three months before Ma Xiaodong's death, he used the only few hundred yuan he had left to buy himself a personal accident insurance, and the beneficiary was his mother Zhao Aimei.
He recorded an account in his mobile phone, and as of the last moment of his life, he had "returned" more than 126,000 yuan to his mother. That's almost the same amount as his entire income over the years.
As for the rest of the "debt", he may want to use insurance to pay it off.
We finally determined that the cause of Ma Xiaodong's death was suicide, so Zhao Aimei would not get the insurance money.
Ma Xiaodong's final "atonement" fell through.
In the process of investigating Ma Xiaodong's case, the task force made a new discovery, Zhao Aimei and Wei Xueming had been engaged in the black industry together.
A few years ago, Zhao Aimei's small factory closed down, and at Wei Xueming's suggestion, they transformed the idle factory into an "entertainment venue", half of which was a casino, and half of which was a "gun room".
Zhao Aimei and Wei Xueming are lucky, their black industry has been in business for more than two years, and no one has reported it.
Later, a brawl broke out in the factory, and several people were injured. Although the matter was settled, Zhao Aimei and Wei Xueming heard some rumors and decided to quit.
More than three months after Ma Xiaodong's death, the relevant evidence was collected, and Zhao Aimei and Wei Xueming were formally arrested and handed over to the procuratorate for prosecution for the crimes of organizing prostitution and opening a casino.
Justice will not be absent, and it is time for this family to atone for its sins.
That weekend, the case was finally closed.
I finally had time to eat with my family, and my daughters asked me what I was up to during this time.
I don't know why, I really want to tell my two daughters about Ma Xiaodong's case. I slowly recounted to them the story of a young big brother who had been there.
"He's so stupid. ”
The eldest daughter took a sip of porridge, looked up and said to me, "A big living person has hands and feet, and he can't support himself by doing something." ”
Then she pursed her lips and said, "But he's quite pitiful, I guess there's no way to do it." ”
"Mom will definitely not let me sell blood", the youngest daughter did not look up, she has always been very attentive to eating, "I was sick a few days ago, I went to the hospital to have two tubes of blood drawn, and my mother was so distressed that she shed tears." ”
"Yes, although Dad didn't shed tears, he was also very distressed. I took my daughter's little hand and rubbed it on my stubble, and my daughter withdrew her hand with a look of disgust, frowned and said, "Dad, you are so annoying!"
I didn't tell my two daughters what they should think of this story, and I'm sure they'll have their own judgment when they grow up.
In the years that Liu Babai has been in the industry, he has long been "commonplace" to cases of unnatural death.
But Ma Xiaodong's suicide still made him feel that it was more sad than the murderous and bloody murder.
When the manuscript was delivered, there was a song called "People Like Me" along with the manuscript.
He said that when he heard this song, he thought of Ma Xiaodong.
I didn't understand it at first, until I opened the comment area of the song, and there seemed to be a lot of living "Ma Xiaodong" gathered here-
"At the age of 23, I supported 6 people, paid my brother's tuition, paid my brother's bride price, opened a barbecue restaurant for my sister, and took care of my father, uncle and sister-in-law. It's not that I like to endure hardship, but I'm afraid that they will work hard. ”
"At the age of 16, the salary is 4,000 yuan, for my sister to study, to help the family pay off debts, to pay off the parents' 500 to 1000 a month, everything is carried by myself, so tired. ”
Most of the narrators are post-00s or even post-05s.
Seeing these words, I would love to say to them, don't forget yourself when you are busy taking care of your home.
Finally, I also want to ask those parents like Zhao Aimei - do the grievances of adults have to be borne by their children?
(Some of the characters in the article are pseudonyms)
Editor: Little Whirlwind Zhao Daoni
Illustration: Big Five Flowers
This article is 14154 words
The reading time is about 36 minutes