Chapter 8

Chapter 8

I longed to see Bai Yanmei again in my dreams.

But three days in a row, she never appeared.

I couldn’t focus on anything else. I sat in front of my computer all day, searching for the Bai Yanmei case on various websites, forums, and message boards.

The information was more or less the same:

Bai Yanmei, born in 1975, was murdered on September 15, 1993, at the age of eighteen.

The crime scene was the victim’s home, in the Cangshi Second Machinery Factory Family Building.

At the time of the incident, her aunt, uncle, and cousin had returned to the countryside for a funeral. Coincidentally, her nursing school had just started, so she didn’t go with them.

Suspiciously, she took frequent leaves after school started, claiming she needed to return home to help her aunt care for a critically ill elder.

That’s where things didn’t add up.

Bai Yanmei didn’t go back to her hometown or to school. Where exactly was she? And who was she with?

Many people on the forums speculated that Bai Yanmei was probably in a relationship and staying with her boyfriend.

It wasn’t impossible.

I found a news article from 2003 that said the police focused heavily on Bai Yanmei’s romantic relationships at the time.

Bai Yanmei was strikingly beautiful, with many suitors, ranging from male students at school to men outside, even married men.

But she had no known boyfriend, and she was somewhat aloof and cold.

During school, she stuck to a routine between the classroom and the dormitory, and she came home on time on weekends.

Reporters interviewed her classmates, who said they had never seen her with a man.

Her aunt also said that her niece seemed no different before and after the incident, and she had never heard the girl mention anything.

…

The news only mentioned Bai Yanmei’s aunt’s family and rarely mentioned her parents.

I dug deeper online and let out a sigh.

Bai Yanmei’s background was tragic. When she was two, her mother ran off with a Hong Kong businessman, and her father raised her alone from then on.

No wonder she asked me to teach her Cantonese songs in my dream.

She must have missed her mother terribly.

Her father was a teacher at Cangshi No.1 Primary School. He was honest and diligent, well-regarded for his character and teaching both inside and outside the school.

The father and daughter led a calm and heartwarming life.

In contrast, her aunt’s household was chaotic every day.

Both her aunt and uncle worked at the Machinery No. 2 Factory and had one daughter.

When Bai Yanmei was eight, her aunt and uncle got into a fight over a divorce. A neighbor came into town and told Bai Yanmei’s father about it.

After settling his child, Father Bai rode his bicycle through the night to rush to the Machinery No. 2 Factory Residential Area.

Unfortunately, the road was slippery on that rainy night, and the terrain there was relatively high. He rolled off the road into a deep ditch and died from the fall.

And so Bai Yanmei became an orphan.

After that, her aunt adopted her and raised her for over ten years.

Feeling guilty, her aunt treated Bai Yanmei better than her own daughter.

In that era, buying a niece a piano and sending her to dance classes showed just how much she was adored.