Return visit | Three years after Zhang Yingying's murder: life and death
"What did she write? You read it to me." Ye Lifeng was illiterate, staring at the diary and asked.
"A lot of things have happened recently, maybe a lot of things have happened, I don’t have time to sort out, but I’m always feeling: I’m often decadent, I don’t do anything, I can’t get the energy, I’m indulging in a day. Why do you work so hard? So tired? For what? The day began and passed, how about me, but the world is still moving forward and motionless...
I called my dad today and said: Dad, you are too tight on your mom’s money. Dad said, "My daughter, Dad wants to save money for you to study!" Yes, what right do I have to be abandoned because of feelings and laziness? "
In that thick diary, the joy, anger, sorrow and joy of her daughter Zhang Yingying were recorded, which Ye Lifeng had never touched before. On July 8, she listened to the mood in the diary and remembered her daughter who was alive and well before. Her happiness, confusion and gains were gone forever. Ye Lifeng burst into tears, shouting: Daughter, where are you? where are you?
In April 2017, the 27-year-old Zhang Yingying flew to the other side of the Pacific Ocean with her dream and planned to have a five-year exchange study at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. One day two months later, she suddenly lost contact.
The matter quickly caused a sensation in China and the United States. The FBI subsequently arrested 28-year-old white man Krent Christensen, a PhD in physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He kidnapped and murdered Zhang Yingying. The case went through investigation, trial, prosecution, and trial. Two years later, Christensen was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.
Before committing the murder, Christensen had been to the school psychological counseling center and revealed that he had psychological problems. On June 24 this year, the US court dismissed Zhang Yingying's family lawsuit against two psychological consultants at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Father Zhang Ronggao said that considering the difference in language and culture across the Pacific Ocean, they finally gave up the appeal.
The case is over, but the pain can never stop. Three years have passed, life and death are boundless, and Zhang Yingying's remains have not been found.
Incident
On April 24, 2017, Yingying Zhang flew to the United States and went to the long-awaited University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
This world-renowned public research university has a lot of origins with China. At the beginning of the last century, the University of Illinois received a large number of Chinese students studying in the United States who were awarded Boxer indemnities.
After her daughter arrived in the U.S., Ye Lifeng was worried and sent her WeChat videos every day. Because of time difference, they often do not distinguish between day and night. After half a month, she changed to calling once a week, and the time was set at 8 to 9 am on Sunday. Zhang Yingying often talked with her mother while preparing dinner and cooking noodles.
Zhang Yingying, who first arrived in the United States, was in a happy mood, mixed with a trace of loneliness and sadness. She recorded her experience and mood during this period in her diary--
"On April 30, 2017, I went to the United States for a week. The University of Illinois is beautiful, with the taste and feel of Sun Yat-Sen University. In fact, I liked it at first sight. But then, I was panicked. It’s the first time for a person to live completely independently in the United States. When I come back from the office, I still face myself. This feeling is a bit lonely. But I still want to try.
She occasionally expressed discomfort in her diary: "It's windy, cold, and rainy. I'm alone in this strange country. I can't see a few humans on the road. There are only cars flying by and flying by... on the road. While waiting for the bus, I froze into a sculpture. If I don’t look back, my hair will be messy; don’t turn around, my steps will be messy.”
Even so, she actively adapts to life in the United States and does not allow herself to have too many emotions. On June 1, she wrote down life arrangements in her diary, including study, running, breakfast... At the bottom, she wrote: life is too short to be ordinary! (The short life rejects mediocrity.)
On June 9, 2017, Zhang Yingying returned to the apartment from school, and went out after lunch. At 1:39 in the afternoon, she sent a text message to the administrator of a rental agency, telling the other party that she was going to sign the house lease at 2:10.
That day, she wore a pink and white shirt, jeans, a pair of white tennis shoes, a carbon-colored baseball cap, and a black backpack on her back. According to monitoring, she got on a bus at 1:35. At 1:52, she got off the bus at the intersection of Springfield Street and Matthew Avenue. After that, she tried to stop another bus without success. She walked north and stopped in a shade of a tree in the southeast.
At 2 pm, a black "Saturn Astra" car appeared. It took a circle, and then stopped next to Zhang Yingying. The two had a simple exchange. At 2:04, Zhang Yingying got into the car and sat in the front passenger seat. The car went all the way north and disappeared on North Goodwin Avenue.
The driver is Christensen and he is a PhD in physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He worked as a teaching assistant in physics at the school and was rated as an excellent assistant teaching assistant for several consecutive years. One student remembered that Christensen looked knowledgeable, gentle, and respected by the students.
On the other hand, this teaching assistant had been to the school's psychological counseling center. He claimed to have been depressed since his youth. He often felt lonely and desperate, didn't want to live anymore, and had a history of alcohol and drug abuse for several years. He has no friends, except for work, he only communicates with his wife. Some time ago, his wife wanted to separate from him, but he disagreed. In the end, the two formed an open marriage and each found a boyfriend and girlfriend.
On the morning of Zhang Yingying's accident, a white girl also encountered a black car on the road. The driver wore aviator sunglasses and claimed to be a plainclothes police officer. He asked her to get into his car and answer several questions about the nearby community. He showed the police badge, but he had no scanning equipment and no radio. The girl found something was wrong, called the police, and wrote about the encounter on Facebook. But Zhang Yingying didn't have time to see it.
At 2:38 pm that same day, the housing management staff contacted earlier sent a text message to Zhang Yingying, but did not receive a reply.
Christensen took her to the apartment and wanted to strangle her with his hands, but Zhang Yingying had a strong will to survive, "She can't die anyway, I can't believe she is still alive, so I carried her into my bathtub. I took a stick and slapped her on the head desperately. Her head split, and I chopped off her head..."
At that time, on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, Zhang Ronggao and his wife in Fujian, China knew nothing about it.
Save, save again
On December 21, 1990, Zhang Yingying was born in Nanping, northern Fujian Province.
His father Zhang Ronggao went to junior high school and helped people drive in a company. His mother Ye Lifeng was a housewife who had never studied. The family lived in Zhang Ronggao's single dormitory.
In 1993, Zhang Ronggao borrowed 30,000 yuan from his father-in-law to build a three-story building with a floor area of 75 square meters. After the house was built, they rented out the first and third floors. At that time, Ye Lifeng's parents made a lot of money by setting up a pole factory in Shuiji Town, where they were born. The design of their house, wood, cement, doors and windows, etc. rely on the help of Ye Lifeng's parents.
That year, his son Zhang Xinyang was born. Zhang Ronggao's salary was several hundred yuan a month, and he borrowed tens of thousands of yuan for the house repair. He was struggling to live a life, but Ye Lifeng was very satisfied. He took care of the housework every day.
Zhang Yingying has been sensible since she was a child and knew that the conditions at home were not good. She saved up the pocket money her parents gave her to buy stationery and pay tuition and fees.
At that time, the two siblings had good academic performance and hardly had to worry about their mother.
Every morning, Zhang Yingying gets up early and quietly climbs to the attic to read English. In order not to wake others, she often reads very quietly, even closing the windows and doors. After breakfast, she took her brother to school with her. She even often urged Ye Lifeng: "Hurry up, hurry up, it's too late..." On the wall on the second floor, she was full of daily plans.
My aunt Ye Liqing remembered that when Zhang Yingying was a teenager, she once sent a letter to her, full of troubles and confusion about her growth. She was surprised after reading it. She didn't expect Yingying to start thinking about life and society at a young age. Ye Liqing went to high school and is a "cultural" person in the family.
When Zhang Yingying was in the second year of junior high, she was the first in the school in English. The school held a parent meeting and invited parents to speak on stage. The parents were not good at words and wanted to ask Ye Liqing to speak. Zhang Yingying said: "No, one of the parents must go." Ye Lifeng remembered that she and her husband didn't want to go, and decided in the room "rock, scissors, and cloth". Zhang Yingying smiled from ear to ear.
She has also complained about her parents. At that time, the couple often quarreled because of various things. Ye Lifeng felt that this had a certain impact on the two siblings. Zhang Xinyang dropped out of school before finishing the first grade. He went to Guangdong to learn how to do jade carving. He found it too boring, so he returned to his hometown a few months later. He followed a relative to advertise for a few years, then went to the mall to sell mobile phones.
Zhang Yingying called those days the "dark time". She protected herself, studying hard until the college entrance examination was over.
In the summer of 2009, she received an acceptance letter from Sun Yat-sen University majoring in environmental science. In the first year of enrollment, she received a scholarship of 5,000 yuan.
After going to college, she never buys clothes and cosmetics. At that time, her tuition fee was six to seven thousand yuan a year, and her living expenses were more than ten thousand yuan. The family often cannot make ends meet, Zhang Ronggao borrowed from the west, and owed more and more debts.
She always warned herself: save, save more, don't spend too much, it's all the hard-earned money of parents.
In the summer of her sophomore year, she went to Guizhou to teach and found that the mountainous area there was poorer than their home. When she came back, she said to her mother, "Sister (sound), our family is not too poor. Many families have a harder life than us." She called Ye Lifeng "Sister A" (sound), and Ye Lifeng called her "Black Girl" (sound). . She would also relieve her mother and say: "Come slowly, there is still me."
In life, she is very dependent on her mother and talks about everything. But in her studies and work, her parents could not give her any advice and support, she could only rely on herself.
Borrow money to go to America
In 2012, Zhang Ronggao entered a power generation company, while working as a doorman, while helping to drive the car, his monthly salary was about 3,000. Prior to this, Ye Lifeng had also gone to work, doing sanitation in a hotel near her home, and had a monthly salary of 1,100 yuan. She is in poor health and has a prominent lumbar disc. After working for half a year, my back pain was unbearable, so I resigned and went home.
Every time Zhang Yingying comes home from vacation, she either reads in the attic or meets with friends and teachers. Ye Lifeng was worried that her daughter would be addicted to studying and would delay major events in her life. When asked if she had a boyfriend, she often did not answer. At that time, she was dark and thin, looked stunted, and did not like to dress up.
In 2013, she was sent to the Shenzhen Graduate School of Peking University to study for a master's degree.
Ye Lifeng remembered that her daughter only started to have the consciousness of beauty when she was in graduate school. She started buying skin care products and wiped her face in the bathroom every day, but she didn't come out for a long time.
Ye Lifeng urged her to get married and have children earlier. She was too unbearable by her mother, so she said, "Well, I'll show you a boyfriend tomorrow."
After a while, Zhang Yingying brought Hou Xiaolin to the house, when she was in graduate school. Ye Lifeng was very happy. She pulled Hou Xiaolin aside and said, "Your home is in the north, a bit far away. But we Yingying likes you, I don't ask for anything, I just hope you can treat her well." Hou Xiaolin promised her that in the future Will be good to Yingying.
In 2016, Zhang Yingying entered Beijing Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, with a monthly salary of 4,000 yuan. "It's higher than her father's salary." Ye Lifeng said, that was the happiest time in their family. When her daughter came back, she bought her a mobile phone, and bought air conditioners, liquefied gas and microwave ovens for her home.
Later, Zhang Yingying went home less and less. Every time she came back, Ye Lifeng always let her sleep together. She said, "I don't want to sleep with you, your ass is up, I can't sleep well." She said that, she usually reads in the attic until 11 or 12 in the evening, and walks gently downstairs to get into her mother. In the quilt.
Ye Lifeng advises her daughter not to be too strong, just have a job, otherwise it will be very hard.
Zhang Yingying's expectations for life go far beyond this. She plans to study abroad for five years, become a talent introduced by the country, build her own team, and become an "academic cow" and a good teacher. In April 2017, she went to the University of Illinois in the United States as a visiting scholar to participate in the project work of the research group, and at the same time, she was preparing for the upcoming doctoral study.
Before going to the United States, she and her boyfriend were already discussing marriage and were planning to arrange a meeting with their parents. Ye Lifeng originally thought that her daughter's wedding was just around the corner, but she didn't expect that she suddenly went abroad. In late April 2017, Zhang Yingying hurried home, "She said she would rush to the United States before the corn is ripe." Ye Lifeng didn't want her daughter to go, but could not stop her.
In fact, Zhang Yingying had also hesitated and felt that the time was too late. In addition, she was worried that she would have a relationship problem with her boyfriend when she went abroad alone. But eventually went to the United States.
Before leaving the country, she went to see her grandpa and grandma. Grandma took her hand and said: "Yingying, America is too far away, shall we go?" She comforted her grandma: "Don't be afraid, someone from my side introduced the past "She asked the elderly to take care of their health, and when she could earn money in the future, she would give them money every month.
Without money at home, Zhang Ronggao went to the bank to borrow 50,000 yuan. Unable to wait for the loan, he borrowed 20,000 yuan from a friend and gave it to his daughter to go to the United States. But the money was still not enough. I borrowed 8,000 yuan from my aunt. Since then, Zhang Ronggao has been regretting that if the 50,000 loan was taken down, his daughter would not have to change to a cheaper house, and perhaps there would be no trouble.
Search, donation and judgment
Ten hours after Zhang Yingying's disappearance, her father Zhang Ronggao received a call from his daughter's boyfriend Hou Xiaolin, saying "Zhang Yingying has lost contact." At that time, he was driving a delivery in Zhejiang. After receiving the call, he immediately returned to his home in Nanping, Fujian. During this period, he called his daughter many times, but no one answered.
His heart twitched, "Something went wrong."
Ye Lifeng fainted when she heard the news of her daughter's disappearance.
They are going to America. Zhang Ronggao borrowed money everywhere. He borrowed it from his brother-in-law, sister-in-law, and even his daughter's friends, and exchanged it for more than 10,000 US dollars. Considering Ye Lifeng's health, the family finally decided that Zhang Ronggao, Hou Xiaolin, and aunt Zhang Yingying would go to the United States first.
Zhang Ronggao never thought that he, in his 50s, would come to the United States under such circumstances. This distant country does not seem to be different, and the surrounding area of the school is even a bit desolate. Soon, he discovered that it was very inconvenient to travel here. The road signs were all in English, and he could not find the direction. If it were not for the help of Chinese, they would not even dare to go out.
In fact, on the second day of the incident, Chinese and overseas Chinese in Illinois began to help contact, and one or two hundred people initiated a "carpet-like" search.
On several occasions, someone said that they saw "Zhang Yingying" and described vividly: "It must be her, exactly the same as her." They ran over to see that, except for an Asian face, they were not like Zhang Yingying at all.
In the days in a foreign country, they felt the warmth of being cared for and the brilliance of humanity; they also felt the tears of being attacked and the complexity of their hearts.
In early July, Zhang Ronggao talked about it again and said that he was very grateful to the Chinese, overseas Chinese, and caring people in the United States. When their family was in the United States, someone gave them food, took them to find and provided clues, and some people gave them donations. However, some people attacked them, saying that they wanted to immigrate to the United States, with five houses and a car, and wanted to take the opportunity to do business in the United States. Others accused them of misusing donations.
Zhang Ronggao explained that he did not want to accept donations, but the family conditions were not good enough to afford them in the United States. They do not have a U.S. Social Security number and bank account, and their donations go to a monitored trust, and each of their expenses has been signed by the director.
Less than half a month after the incident, the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) found the suspect, but it has not been able to break through. The turning point occurred on June 29, 2017, when the Chinese held a vigil for Zhang Yingying. The suspect Christensen also went. He sat on a bench in the distance and looked at the people who came looking for Zhang Yingying. He told his girlfriends around him that these people were all here for him, but they would never find Zhang Yingying.
Christensen did not know that his girlfriend assisted the FBI in recording the process and details of his killing of Zhang Yingying.
The next day, the FBI announced that it had arrested a 28-year-old man suspected of kidnapping Zhang Yingying, a Chinese visiting scholar. The FBI also stated that she may have died.
Ye Lifeng couldn't sleep at night in her hometown. She called to ask about her daughter's situation. After 13 hours of jet lag, she couldn't sleep all night. Two months later, she and her son Zhang Xinyang also went to the United States.
On August 28, 2017, a US federal judge set the trial time for the case on February 27, 2018. On October 3 of the same year, the federal grand jury formally decided to prosecute Christensen for "kidnapping to death".
Zhang Ronggao said that when in the United States, they went to the apartment rented by their daughter every day. At first, he stood outside the apartment, hoping that his daughter would suddenly appear some afternoon. After knowing that their daughter died, they still insisted on going every day because the wife did not believe that her daughter was gone.
At the end of 2017, because their visas expired, their hopes fell through and the family returned home with regret.
After returning to China, the couple often woke up in the middle of the night, Zhang Ronggao ran to his daughter's room to sleep, and Ye Lifeng used her mobile phone to check her daughter's video. On October 22, 2018, they fell from the stairs of the attic. Zhang Ronggao broke 4 ribs and Ye Lifeng was injured in the waist. But the deeper is the hurt in their hearts, they "don't know how to live."
On June 3, 2019, Zhang Yingying's case opened, and Zhang Ronggao and his wife came to the United States for the second time with hope. On June 24, a jury of the U.S. Federal Court for the Central District of Illinois found Christensen guilty of kidnapping and murdering Chinese visiting scholar Zhang Yingying.
On July 18 of the same year, the court formally announced that Christensen was sentenced to life imprisonment and will never be released on bail. On the same day, U.S. Judge Shadid commented that Christensen had no regrets at all, and said to him: "When you are taken away by the U.S. Marshals today, what awaits you will be a lonely, isolated and cold life until you are in prison. Die naturally. Maybe that moment will make you pick up paper and pen and write to Mr. Zhang and his wife: I'm sorry."
Zhang Ronggao recalled that the murderer and his family neither apologized nor made any compensation to them. He wanted to die with them, but he couldn't let go of his wife.
Soon thereafter, the defense lawyer provided the location of Zhang Yingying's remains—in a landfill in Vermillion County, central Illinois. At that time, it was more than two years since the disappearance, because the time was so long, the police could not even find a single hair of her.
They want to let their daughters "fallen leaves return to their roots" hope once again.
Grief and moving forward
Today, Zhang Yingying is still the pain of the whole family.
Above the attic, her room was still the same as before. In the bookcase are "Half Life", "Midnight", "A Hundred Years of Solitude", etc., and a stack of red award certificates are randomly stacked on top of the book. In the center of the room is a 1.5-meter-wide bed with a world map hanging on the head of the bed. There is a desk next to the bed with a green lamp on it. Before that, she always read here until late at night.
After her daughter's accident, Ye Lifeng rarely went to the attic. Occasionally, she would see a photo of her daughter in the middle of the bookcase. She was wearing a white shirt and her hair hanging down to her chest. That was her favorite photo. Ye Lifeng's heart was cut like a knife, and he collected the photo, and Zhang Ronggao quickly put it out again.
For three years, Zhang Ronggao often woke up in the middle of the night and hid in his daughter's study. He smokes here, misses his daughter, looks at her pictures, and lies in bed for a while. Sometimes, he couldn't sleep, so he went to the unit early and squinted in the unit for a while. He was confused every day, surrounded by grief and anger, and felt that he had no life. A psychiatrist called to persuade him to let go of the past. There is a lot of grief in this world. You can't be immersed in grief and want to come out... But in his heart he thought, that is not your daughter, if it is your daughter, can you let it go?
"They persuaded me to let go. I was very uncomfortable and didn't want to listen. What I need is to find her." He said.
Zhang Ronggao often thinks of his daughter. The happy time in the past is more of her last pain-she was choked, sexually assaulted, and her head chopped off... The more he thought about it, the more painful he was, and the more angry he was.
When there was nowhere to vent, he climbed to the top of the mountain to scream late at night.
Ye Lifeng wanted to yell too, but she dared not yell, so she could only cry silently. Every morning, when she goes shopping for vegetables, passing by the school gate, seeing students coming in and out, she always thinks of her daughter-she once wore the same clothes, went in and out of school, and went home from school.
She often thinks: "Daughter, you said you wanted to help many people, but you didn't do it. Where are you, are you in the sky, or where, have you seen me?"
They want to sell the house in the city and return to their hometown of Pengdun Village, far away from the memories of the past. On the ruined walls of his hometown, rebuild a house, grow vegetables quietly, raise pigs, feed chickens and ducks... and spend the rest of my life. When they came back from the United States for the first time, they hung up the house at a price of 800,000 yuan. No one cared about it for months. They later went to the village to find out that Pengdun Village was not allowed to build new houses and had to give up.
Previously, many netizens and even relatives and friends thought they had received huge compensation, but Zhang Ronggao said that neither the murderer nor the school in the United States paid any compensation. They owe 600,000 yuan to relatives and friends and do not know how to pay it off.
On June 24, the US court dismissed their lawsuit against two psychological counselors at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Their last hope was lost.
Occasionally, people from the government will come over and ask about their home. On July 7, Zhang Ronggao went to the Jianyang District Government and then to the Nanping Women’s Federation. The other party said that they would find a way to solve their difficulties in life.
Because of grief and anger, coupled with frequent insomnia, Zhang Ronggao's temper became more irritable, and the couple quarreled from time to time. The more depressing the atmosphere at home, the more silent his son Zhang Xinyang.
Zhang Xinyang makes side dishes at a restaurant near his home. He goes out all year round. He goes out early and returns late every day. He comes back to rest at noon and earns 2,700 yuan a month. Ye Lifeng said that his son went upstairs as soon as he got home, and rarely talked to them.
Zhang Xinyang's wife, Li Li, said that she had persuaded her parents-in-law, but they couldn't listen. She didn't know what to do to get the two old people out of grief.
At the end of last year, Zhang Xinyang's son was born. Ye Lifeng saw a small person, with small eyes, nose, mouth... and showed a rare smile. She hugged her grandson, and the more she looked at him, the more she felt that he was like a son, "babble, cute." At that moment, she even forgot all her troubles.
Ye Lifeng knew that the daughter-in-law actually didn't want to give birth to a child, so she decided to give birth to this child for them to come out of grief, hoping that he would bring hope to the family. She feels guilty for her son because there is no money in the family. They neither offer wedding drinks nor give full moon drinks to the children. "It may be a while."
Ye Lifeng likes girls and thinks girls are more caring, and hope they have another girl. She thought of her daughter again and sighed, "If Yingying is still there, she should have a baby too."
Reporter Ming Que and intern He Peiyun