Chapter 7: The Hidden AIDS Patient (2/5)

He Shaobin said, "Compare it with the autopsy report, see if what you've observed matches up with it."

"I have a question."

"Go ahead."

"Dong Qian's body has been kept here for almost a week now. Why did they only find out today that she had AIDS?"

"Anyone who's been through high school knows that a virus needs a living host. Once the host dies, the virus's survival is also affected—both its quantity and activity decrease. HIV is the same way. Before Dong Qian was found, she had already been lying in the mountains for several days. We found anti-HIV medication in her dorm room, so we did a full blood test on her, and today we finally detected the HIV virus."

"So was she infected by someone else? Or did she already have it?"

"That we don't know yet. But I've heard that quite a number of men had sexual relations with her. I think this might be a kind of retaliation against society."

"My god... who were those people?"

"Still under investigation. It's possible some of the male students at your university are among those infected. There's also Dong Qian's boyfriend—her roommate said he wasn't from the school, and the two of them often spent nights out together. I'd guess he's definitely infected."

"Then where is this person? Where is he?"

"Still not found. He's from Henan, and the address on file is also in Henan, but based on the current situation, this guy definitely won't be in Henan. We also haven't found any trace of him in the transportation network so far. He must still be somewhere in Zhuji city."

Zheng Huiwen said nothing. After a pause, He Shaobin said, "All right, let's go, Huiwen. I'll take you to look at the clues and testimonies."

"Okay."

When the two of them came back, Tang Haoyang had just finished having his statement recorded and come out. An intern police officer poured him a cup of water and told him to sit and wait a while. The other clues and testimonies for the case were all on He Shaobin's desk, and he had Zheng Huiwen sit directly at his seat. He himself picked up his work notebook and sat down across from her, writing as he spoke: "There's plenty of material, so take your time looking through it. I'll drive you two back later."

"Can I take photos?"

"You can. These are the publicly released clues, and you can discuss them with your friends, but you can't take them out of here."

"Okay."

Zheng Huiwen began looking through the files, taking photos as she went. First were the student records from the academic affairs office—the 2020 cohort of the Art Design major had seven classes in total, and each class's records were kept in identical kraft paper folders, sorted by label.

The roster for 2020 Art Design Class 3 had 34 students in total, with student numbers ranked according to college entrance exam scores—No. 1 was Lin Zhiyang, No. 2 was Ren Jingting, No. 34 was Dong Qian. Dong Qian's hometown and household registration were both in Zhumadian, Henan, and her ID number also began with 411721.

The students' dormitory information was also in the file. Dong Qian's room was Room 437 on the fourth floor of Building 7, the women's dormitory. Many photos had been taken of the room, each with a corresponding label:

Dormitory building operating hours: 6:00 AM to 10:30 PM.

Room 437 was an ordinary four-person dorm room, with a nameplate on the door listing four female students: Dong Qian, Song Jialei, Zhou Yingying, and Su Shengcheng.

Dong Qian's bed area was very cramped, with her wardrobe and shoe rack packed full.

Clothes, shoes, cosmetics, bags—all of it, without exception, was luxury brand goods.

Her electronics included the full Apple three-piece set and a Harman Kardon speaker.

A poster of Kris Wu was stuck on her wardrobe door.

In a locked drawer, there was a large quantity of HIV medications—tenofovir (TDF), lamivudine (3TC), efavirenz (EFV 400mg), and others.

Zheng Huiwen saw from the photos that every kind of medication had been taken, and a sense of curiosity welled up in her. She asked, "Officer He, have you ever had contact with an AIDS patient?"

"Of course I have. I don't know if you've heard of it, but our country has a little-known law—if a person with AIDS commits a crime, no matter what crime it is, they're sent straight to the AIDS Research Institute. Doctors and scientists study them to try to find a cure and medication for AIDS. It's considered their last remaining value."2

"So has this method or medication been developed yet?"

"Of course not," He Shaobin said with a laugh. "If they'd figured it out, it would definitely be huge news across the entire globe."

"Why do I feel like... it sounds a bit like the 'road warriors'?" [Note: referring to homeless wanderers/vagrants, a Chinese internet term]

"A bit similar, I suppose, but road warriors are innocent. The AIDS patients in the research institute are not."

"So is that where you saw AIDS patients, at the research institute?"

"Yeah. The one I saw most often was in his fifties, very thin—gaunt face, sallow skin, skin and bones, mostly bald, hunchbacked. When he stood, he couldn't even straighten his legs. He was extremely sensitive to cold, wearing a padded cotton coat except in summer. I heard he was detained for soliciting a prostitute when he was young, and that's when they found out he had AIDS. The most terrifying part of AIDS is when it flares up—the whole body festers, high fever that won't go down, teeth falling out, and even more disgusting, the body breaks out in dense rashes all over. In short, all kinds of symptoms can occur. If you went to a proper top-tier hospital to suppress one flare-up and keep the person alive, it would cost at least a hundred thousand yuan or more."

"A hundred thousand plus? So does that mean if you pay that once, it won't flare up again afterward?"

"Of course not. AIDS flare-ups happen at unpredictable times. It's a disease that destroys the immune system—once you have AIDS, it's as good as having every other disease too, and any one of them could kill you. Any factor in daily life can trigger the immune system to break down—things like allergies, colds, or a cut that bleeds. And don't think AIDS is far away from you. Ever since I became a police officer at twenty-four, every year we catch criminals with AIDS. A lot of people who haven't had a flare-up yet look completely normal, no different from anyone else."

"It really is a terrifying virus."

"Yeah. But there's one thing that matches public perception—most people with AIDS got the disease because of sex. Of all evils, lust is the worst. So being conservative isn't necessarily a bad thing, and being open isn't necessarily a good thing either. Even if you really must do it, you should take protective measures, or take post-exposure prophylaxis within 24 hours afterward."

Zheng Huiwen admitted that everything He Shaobin said was correct, but she couldn't help feeling a bit awkward. She said, "I'll keep looking," and ended the topic there.