I want to take my murdered daughter home. They live stream and sell products. After Zhang Yingying left, she has been a fan for the past six years | USA | Zhang Yingying
"Xiaolin, when will we go to the United States again to find Yingying?" Zhang Yingying's father, Zhang Ronggao, asked again.
On the other end of the phone, Hou Xiaolin replied, "I'll go when things are arranged." In the past two years, the two of them have often repeated this kind of question and answer. Hou Xiaolin understood the other party's constant determination of this matter. He was Zhang Yingying's ex boyfriend.
On June 9, 2017, 27 year old Zhang Yingying was kidnapped and killed by fellow physics PhD student Christensen while visiting the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign in the United States. Considering that Zhang Yingying's parents were not familiar with her hometown and did not understand English, and had hardly ever left Nanping, Fujian before, Hou Xiaolin accompanied them twice to the United States to search for Yingying.
That was a time he didn't want to look back on. From knowing that Zhang Yingying had gone missing, to being murdered and her bones hard to find... Hou Xiaolin didn't know how he had walked step by step, let alone imagine how much pain Yingying's parents had endured.
After Zhang Yingying was killed, they still frequently contacted and cared about each other's work and life. In February this year, Hou Xiaolin went to Nanping City to visit Yingying's parents.
At that time, Zhang Ronggao had just started live streaming sales, and although it was accompanied by controversy, the couple's life had a grasp and a sense of fulfillment, which to some extent eased their sadness.
Hou Xiaolin said that he plans to take the couple to the United States again in the second half of this year to search for Yingying.
"The least talkative anchor"
Suffering is the norm in the live broadcast room of "Zhang Yingying's Father".
Zhang Ronggao and Ye Lifeng are in the live broadcast room.
Zhang Ronggao is very quiet, even when it comes to selling products, he only adds three or four adjectives after reciting the product name. On the prompt board placed directly in front of him, less than one meter away, almost all of his live broadcast "lines" were written with the help of relatives. Ye Lifeng sat next to her husband, silent, pale, and sometimes even dozing off. She is illiterate, unable to understand product introductions and fan messages.
Reminder board during Zhang Ronggao's live broadcast.
At the beginning, the name "Yingying" was occasionally mentioned in the live broadcast room. Ye Lifeng said that every time she heard her daughter's name, she felt heartbroken and couldn't help but shed tears, which forced her to go offline several times. Later on, they stopped mentioning the name of "Yingying" and replied to questions from fans about her before starting to sell their products quietly.
The live broadcast room is about ten square meters, more than one kilometer away from the Zhang family, and is located in a commercial building with a monthly rent of over 500 yuan. They had previously livestreamed at home and only moved here in mid May in order to have a quiet environment.
As early as the winter of 2017, after returning from the United States, some people suggested that they live stream sales. Zhang Ronggao said that he feels uneducated and his expression is not good enough to be competent. At that time, he worked in a power plant for two to three thousand yuan a month, and his wife Ye Lifeng had always been a housewife with no income.
In the past two years, Zhang Ronggao is about to retire. As the retirement pension has not yet been fully paid, he is unable to receive his retirement pension for the time being. Zhang Ronggao began to feel anxious about what to do with his family's life as he had no income in the coming years.
In the spring of 2022, they tried to sell things on the Tiktok platform. At the beginning of this year, Zhang Ronggao started live streaming sales during his off work hours. Starting at 7:30 pm and ending at 11 pm, there will be a break in between.
They didn't know how to load, shoot, edit, etc. They originally wanted their son Zhang Xinyang to do it together, but the other party refused. "Some people say that we use 'Yingying' to absorb flour and eat human blood Mantou." In mid June, Ye Lifeng said that her son refused until he didn't want to hear these voices. Later, they invited a distant relative to help.
For couples, live streaming sales is not easy. On January 16th, after his first live broadcast, Zhang Ronggao immediately filmed a video to apologize to netizens: "This is my first live broadcast, I was too nervous, I'm sorry!" Now, he has broadcasted dozens or even hundreds of times, still worried about saying the wrong thing and not knowing what to say. He claims to be the "least talkative" live streamer on the internet.
There are more than 100 kinds of goods in his Tiktok shop window, most of which are articles of daily use, many of which are products of a few yuan, such as garbage bags, disposable rags, etc. Zhang Ronggao believes that everyone knows how to use these and they are easy to sell. For a period of time, many merchants came over, hoping that they would sell their products in the live broadcast room. Zhang Ronggao is concerned about product quality and specific cooperation issues.
Later, the merchant sent samples and they had used and eaten them before deciding whether to bring them or not.
The products in Zhang Ronggao's live broadcast room.
Live streaming sales are slowly getting back on track, giving the couple a head start and even feeling like they are doing something for Yingying. Zhang Ronggao said that he felt very relieved when he saw that everyone remembered his daughter.
But some people are not familiar with it. Some new fans enter the live broadcast room and see the couple looking tired and sad. They ask in confusion, "What happened to these two people? Why are they sitting here so sad to live?"
Zhang Ronggao and his wife looked very tired in the live broadcast room.
Hou Xiaolin said that it is difficult for people who have not experienced it to understand that kind of sadness. In the late night of the live broadcast, Ye Lifeng needed to listen to her daughter's singing in order to fall asleep. She woke up at three or four in the morning and flipped through her daughter's videos and photos on her phone again and again. Zhang Ronggao ran to the room where his daughter had lived before her death to sleep in the middle of the night.
Zhang Ronggao never dared to tell his wife what his daughter had experienced in the end of her life, which was cruelty he could not face. Ye Lifeng often suspects that her daughter may still be alive or that she may have been scammed to some place in the United States. Once, she saw a girl online who looked very similar to her daughter and sent a message to Hou Xiaolin, asking if he could help find her.
In recent years, the couple has been hoping to go to the United States again to find their daughter. In mid June, a fan left a message in the live broadcast room: We know that you are doing live streaming sales to visit your daughter in the United States.
The sadness of "unable to end"
The country on the other side of the Pacific, the place where Zhang Yingying disappeared, Zhang Ronggao and his wife had previously resented: why did such a tragedy happen to their daughter there?
In 2017 and 2019, the couple, accompanied by Hou Xiaolin, stayed there twice for a total of six or seven months, feeling the kindness of many people. They slowly began to understand that what they hated was not that place, but the murderer who had extinguished humanity.
More than a year after the murder occurred, in the second half of 2018, lawyer Wang Zhidong sent an email to Hou Xiaolin, detailing the prosecutor and police's speculation about the murder of Zhang Yingying. At that time, Hou Xiaolin was studying for a PhD at Peking University. After reading his email, he spent a whole month alone in his dormitory, day and night, with every detail of Yingying's murder rolling in his mind, but unable to tell anyone.
He recalled that the day Zhang Yingying went to the United States, he got up at four in the morning, took a taxi from Peking University to the dormitory of the Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, packed her luggage and sent it to the airport. They had previously agreed that when she returned from the United States in the autumn, the two would register for marriage. But I didn't expect such bad news to come.
Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
In the summer of 2019, a jury in a US court ruled that Christensen was guilty of kidnapping and murdering Chinese visiting scholar Zhang Yingying, sentencing her to life imprisonment and never to bail.
When Christensen learned that he had been sentenced to life imprisonment, he smiled. "That smile, I have always remembered it deeply," Hou Xiaolin said.
Years later, Zhang Ronggao was also indignant about this, unable to accept that the killer had no remorse, "not even a word of apology.". At the trial, he learned the details of his daughter's murder for the first time, and the killer didn't even glance in their direction.
Even more cruelly, they never found the body of Zhang Yingying. When Christensen's lawyer revealed the whereabouts of her body to federal prosecutors, Zhang Yingying's remains may have been covered under at least 30 feet of garbage that was later transported.
Hou Xiaolin said that since Yingying's accident, they hope to sentence the murderer to death and receive some civil compensation, but most importantly, they hope to find Yingying and take her home. But these hopes have all been dashed one by one.
In 2019, before returning to China, they put Zhang Yingying's clothes in a box and buried them in a small garden in the United States. "We all know that this matter is over, Yingying's case is over, but because Yingying's body has not been found, we cannot take her home, and it will never end in the hearts of our uncles and aunts," Hou Xiaolin said.
Six years have passed, and Hou Xiaolin often thinks of Yingying. The days they spent reading, communicating, and going shopping together are vividly remembered. He would occasionally dream of Yingying, who was still vivid and lively as before. When he woke up, he realized it was a dream.
After Zhang Yingying passed away, Hou Xiaolin went to Meizhou, Guangdong to teach for two years in order to fulfill her lifelong wish. He also promised to treat her parents as his own and strive for more time to accompany and care for them. But Hou Xiaolin felt that in the past six years, due to being busy with work, he did not do well.
The classroom during Hou Xiaolin's teaching support.
In late February, he saw Yingying's parents start live streaming and felt it was a good change. "They are working hard on this matter, hoping to do something for their daughter," Hou Xiaolin said, telling his uncle and aunt that the internet is a double-edged sword. It not only encourages, but also accuses, speculates, and engages in online violence. Don't take it to heart.
Zhang Ronggao felt that he no longer cared so much about the harsh sounds in the live broadcast room. What made him most uncomfortable was that in the early years, some people said he wanted to immigrate to the United States and how much compensation he received in the United States. "Neither the killer nor the schools in the United States have given us any compensation," he said.
Time and Progress
Hou Xiaolin later recalled that the reason why Yingying's case attracted attention was because many people saw their own shadow on her. On the one hand, she is an ordinary girl, like many others, born in the countryside, and her parents cannot provide specific advice for her life. On the other hand, she is so extraordinary. After graduating from Sun Yat sen University with a bachelor's degree, she was recommended to pursue a master's degree at Peking University and later went abroad to pursue a doctoral degree, all thanks to her own efforts.
From childhood to adulthood, she has always been the pride of her parents. Not only has she achieved good grades, but she is also sensible and filial. She is the glue of family relationships and strives to make the family better and better. After Zhang Yingying left, the atmosphere of this family became more and more like a silent ice cellar.
Zhang Ronggao.
In the past six years, my younger brother Zhang Xinyang has become increasingly silent, and his friend circle signature has always written the date of my sister's disappearance, "June 9th, 2017". He is three years younger than Zhang Yingying, dropped out of junior high school, and later went to Guangdong to learn how to carve jade. After returning home, he sold his phone and worked as a chef. He is currently a contract worker in a company, often working night shifts with a monthly salary of over 2000 yuan.
He hardly ever expresses emotions. But mother Ye Lifeng knew that the passing of her sister had a great impact on her younger brother. More than three years ago, Zhang Xinyang's son was born. Ye Lifeng said that her daughter-in-law didn't want to have a child at that time, so she gave birth to a grandson in order to bring hope to the family.
There is a grandson's car in the corner of the room.
The birth of a grandson brings a hint of joy to this sad family. For a while, the couple seemed to have forgotten their sadness and wore a rare smile on their faces. Zhang Ronggao continues to work, while Ye Lifeng is busy taking care of her grandson and taking care of the family's daily life. But soon, they found their daughter irreplaceable and fell into sadness again.
Ye Lifeng said that every time she thinks of her daughter, she feels very uncomfortable and can't help but want to shout and smash things. "After venting, her mood will be better.". But he scared his grandson and told his father, "Grandma smashed a hole in the stool."
Zhang Xinyang advised his mother not to smash things in front of her child, and it was only then that Ye Lifeng realized that her actions might have a negative impact on her grandson. She slowly corrected her behavior. A few times later, my grandson saw her shed tears and asked, "Grandma, why are you crying?" Ye Lifeng replied, "Grandma has sand in her eyes."
Hou Xiaolin felt that Zhang Xinyang had been growing up, and his parents were plunged into sadness. He had to accept and digest all the bad emotions, sadness, and despair, but he never complained and had been working hard and changing for this family in his own way.
Previously, Zhang Ronggao and his wife thought about selling their house in the county, leaving the place and living quietly in go home. But time is long, and they have to follow their son's family forward.
At the beginning of this year, my grandson started attending kindergarten, and Zhang Ronggao and his wife became anxious again. Can my son support this family? What should they do in their future life? Whenever this happens, Ye Lifeng thinks of her daughter. When the family encounters any difficulties, her daughter always pats her chest and says to her, "Don't worry, there's still me!"
In April this year, when Jiang Qiulian visited her home, she comforted them: "We have all lost our daughters, and our hearts are in the same pain. I don't know how to persuade you, but I hope everyone can work together!" Her daughter Jiang Ge was killed during her study abroad in Japan. Ye Lifeng said that in the following days, she didn't cry much anymore, but soon, she immersed herself in grief again.
She admired Jiang Ge's mother's strength and told herself to learn from her partner, but she didn't know how to become strong.
Over the years, every time she talked to Hou Xiaolin on the phone, Ye Lifeng would urge her. She was also quite old, so she should get married and have children as soon as possible, so as not to delay major events in life.
Over the years, Zhang Ronggao and his wife have been in contact with Hou Xiaolin.
At the beginning of this year, when Hou Xiaolin returned to visit Nanping, he told Zhang Ronggao and his wife that he had a girlfriend and planned to bring them to see him next time. Ye Lifeng felt both happy and sad.
Hou Xiaolin said that he didn't know what to do, and he didn't want them to worry, nor was he afraid that they would feel sad because of it.
Hou Xiaolin and Pengpai News Journalists.
The daughter's departure almost took away all the hope of the couple, and no one knows how they can overcome their sadness and rebuild hope. Hou Xiaolin plans to take the two of them to the United States in the second half of this year to once again search for Yingying and help them fulfill their wishes, perhaps in order to help them move forward better.
"Perhaps we can't find Yingying, but I think this action itself is its own meaning," he said.
