It cost more than 20,000 yuan to decorate Zhou Yan's "princess room". Benevolent merchants sympathized with the plight of this family and gave the lowest discount.
[Tracking the Incident of a 17-Year-Old Boy in Hefei Pouring Gasoline to Burn a Girl]
The disfigured teenage girl from Hefei, Zhou Yan, finally had her dream [princess room].
Milky white [Korean-style] furniture, floral curtains, new wallpaper, and a carved single bed. On the small bookshelf stood her favorite books, "Dream of Red Mansions" and "Poetry Annotations of Dream of Red Mansions".
When she was in the hospital, one day Zhou Yan woke up and knew she was going home. She slowly said: "[I... am afraid of plastic surgery prices]."
It was in this room that on the afternoon of September 17, 2011, Zhou Yan, then 16 years old, had her fate suddenly changed. The 17-year-old boy Tao Rukun poured gasoline and burned her, leaving her face severely scarred.
[Mom, I'm finished]
There were no mirrors in the burn ward, so Zhou Yan never saw herself.
[Will she also avoid mirrors when she gets home?] The family thought about it for several nights and eventually made a cruel decision. [She has to face reality sooner or later. We can't escape it; we can only help her learn to accept it.]
When she saw herself, she didn't cry out loud but just kept shedding tears. She told her mother Li Cong: [Mom, I'm finished.] Since then, she never looked at herself in the mirror again.
On the [princess bed], there are now many printed photographs, and the family can only reminisce about the girl's former beauty through these images.
Zhou Yan with a childlike haircut wore a beige sweater. Sometimes she would mischievously pout for a "large head photo"; other times she would lean against the wall, pretending to look melancholic into the distance, exuding an artistic vibe.
These photos were taken in May 2011. Her mother said the shooting location was a nearby upscale neighborhood.
[Going to scenic spots for tourism costs money, but these neighborhoods have mountains and water, and the scenery is quite nice too.] She pointed to a silver chain around her daughter's neck in the photograph and said, [This was bought for a few yuan, but she liked these things.]
Her mother said: [The beauty of the child was too short-lived. If this had happened when she was 28, we would feel better because we could have enjoyed it for a few more years.]
[I'm not strong, I just can't escape]
Zhou Yan once complained to her mother: [Why aren't my hands bigger? That way, they could protect more skin.]
Now, this family fights daily against scars growing like those of a baby, trying to prevent them from invading the remaining beauty of their daughter.
Because of skin grafts, all the skin on Zhou Yan's buttocks was removed, which wasn't enough, and part of the skin on her scalp was also removed.
After the surgery, as her condition stabilized, the scars began to grow, and intense itching started to attack her in waves.
To avoid infection, she had to take a shower every day, but water couldn't directly hit her body. Instead, a large towel had to be placed against her skin, allowing water to slowly drip over it, then soft towels used to gently absorb the water droplets from her body.
The rest of the time, her mother massaged her four to five times a day. Urea gel ointment was applied to the scars, and her fingers pressed continuously until she screamed in pain before her mother stopped. After the ointment dried, silicone gel scar patches had to be applied to all the burn areas, followed by elastic caps, which were removed before eating.
Due to the high costs, her mother would despairingly say: [Child, we can no longer afford to care for the scars on your body; we can only preserve your face first.] However, the child would encourage them instead. Aunt Li Yun said that while in the ICU, Zhou Yan entrusted a nurse to convey a message: [I won't be extinguished by a fire; I will persevere.]
In the difficult dictation by Zhou Yan, her cousin recorded on her Weibo: [I'm not strong, I just can't escape.] [Someone asked me 'Do you hate him?' As a normal person, I do hate him. But I also thank him for letting me meet so many kind people and understand the truth, goodness, and beauty of this world. Is this a blessing in disguise?]
[When I get better, I definitely want to go back to school]
Zhou Yan attended a good private junior high school locally, where she met Tao Rukun.
[In the third year of junior high, I saw bruises on her neck.] Li Cong said her daughter initially dared not reveal the truth but later admitted that a boy often chased after her and sometimes even beat her.
Zhou Yan and Tao Rukun were not in the same class but in the same grade. A teacher recalled: [His study habits weren't very good, he didn't listen carefully in class, and sometimes didn't finish his homework on time, but there were no major violations or disciplinary issues.]
Mother Li Cong didn't want to mention these things. She choked up saying her daughter was filial and obedient. Whenever Li Cong's legs swelled due to excessive fatigue, Zhou Yan would always sit on a small stool and massage her legs. Her daughter didn't talk much, had few friends, wasn't academically excellent, but was very talented, loved singing, wrote good essays, and even won awards at school.
Misfortune interrupted all of this. Now, this girl who read "Dream of Red Mansions" multiple times, liked Jay Chou and Yang Mi, and frequently listened to radio broadcasts at night can only lie alone in bed.
In simple conversations with visitors, she would try her best to answer, but sometimes politely reminded: [Can I stop talking? My throat hurts.]
[I want to become a magazine editor or a radio host. When I get better, I definitely want to go back to school and attend university.] For Zhou Yan, this was already a long sentence.
Police confirmed that Tao’s family had applied for bail
but never requested a psychiatric evaluation
At five in the afternoon yesterday, the police in Hefei, Anhui held a press conference to disclose new information about the case of Zhou Yan's disfigurement.
The police confirmed that Tao's family had previously applied for bail on the grounds that Tao Rukun suffered from skin disease, but the application was legally rejected by the police. The police also stated that they had never received any application from Tao's family requesting a psychiatric evaluation for Tao Rukun.
The police emphasized that the investigation process was not interfered with by external factors. Regarding the six properties belonging to Tao's family mentioned online, the police stated that this was outside the scope of their investigation. The police further confirmed that since September 18 last year, Tao Rukun had been detained in the No. 1 Detention Center in Hefei, without any possibility or conditions to access the internet. The recent login to the Renren account under the name [Tao Moumou] was clearly someone impersonating him, and relevant departments were investigating the matter.
Due to Zhou Yan's severe injuries and treatment in the intensive care unit, the public security authorities found it difficult to enter the ward to conduct a physical examination. If her condition improves quickly after surgery, a comprehensive appraisal conclusion will be made, and based on this, the suspect Tao Rukun will be transferred to the procuratorate for review and prosecution according to law.
Tao Wen, Tao Rukun's father, when speaking about his son on the 27th, said that his son had poor self-control and he himself [felt lost, not knowing how to communicate with his child]. Sun, the vice-principal of Tao Rukun's alma mater, Hefei Shouchun Middle School, said: [This is a tragedy, a tragedy of family education, and a tragedy of school education.]
Zhu, the deputy secretary of the Party Committee of Hefei Audit Bureau where Tao Wen works, said: [Tao Wen is a section-level cadre, just a clerk, who has worked diligently for over 20 years with a monthly salary of a few thousand yuan. Netizens calling his son an 'official second generation' is somewhat confusing right and wrong.]
Tao Wen also said on the 27th: [If I could (interfere with the judiciary), my son would have been released on bail long ago.]