Zhou Yan, who has returned home, is still in serious condition.
"Follow-up on the 17-year-old boy from Hefei who burned a girl": The disfigurement of Zhou Yan, the girl from Hefei, has tugged at people's hearts. Last night, the Hefei police confirmed that the forensic doctors had assessed the severity of the facial and ear injuries sustained by Zhou Yan, concluding that they constituted grievous bodily harm. Since Zhou Yan's neck and hands are still in the recovery phase, it is not yet appropriate to conduct an assessment of the injury level; once her condition stabilizes, a supplementary evaluation will be carried out.
Zhou Yan's lawyer, Li Zhi Xian, said there was no objection to the determination result.
Hefei media reported that yesterday afternoon, the Yaohai Branch of the Hefei Public Security Bureau had transferred this case to the procuratorate for review and prosecution. Tao Rukun, the perpetrator, is suspected of the crime of "intentional injury."
School: Had attempted to correct the perpetrator's behavior
Zhou Yan's mother, Li Cong, said that Tao Rukun had not left a good impression on her before. Once, Tao Rukun took a call at her house, "He was knocking on the wall to create noise while pretending that the signal was bad."
Tao Rukun's passionate pursuit of Zhou Yan also left Li Cong feeling incredulous. "He thought Zhou Yan was exceptionally beautiful and feared that she would be 'taken' by other boys," Li Cong said. Tao Rukun had already promised Zhou Yan, "In the future, my mother can help you find a job working in an office."
"If it weren't for our attempts to correct Tao Rukun's behavior, he might have gotten into trouble much earlier," a responsible person from the Shouchun Middle School in Hefei repeatedly complained. Since both Tao Rukun and Zhou Yan had studied here, many netizens blamed the school.
This responsible person said that Tao Rukun had many small faults when he entered the school, such as fighting, smoking, and not listening to teacher advice. A psychological counselor at the school conducted a one-on-one psychological follow-up with Tao Rukun for an entire semester. "At that time, this teacher wrote a very thick counseling diary, which was handed over to Tao Rukun for safekeeping."
Zhou Yan's aunt confirmed that Tao Rukun had already been verbally abusing Zhou Yan privately. On February 27th, news emerged that Tao Rukun's parents had applied for a psychiatric evaluation for him, but this was denied by the Hefei police the next day.
Urban Express reporters tried multiple ways to contact Tao Rukun's parents to verify the situation, but their phones were off and they had taken leave from their workplaces.
Zhou Yan may head to Beijing today
On the afternoon of February 28th, Urban Express reporters saw at Zhou Yan's home that due to the arrival of numerous well-wishers and media, it wasn't until 5:30 PM that Li Cong cooked a bowl of noodles with a few leaves of vegetables and fed them to Zhou Yan.
This was Zhou Yan's first meal of the day. "After the incident, her appetite is smaller than before," Li Cong said. She noticed that Zhou Yan's neck, which had already shown some signs of infection, now had a large blister.
In recent days, Zhou Yan's emotions have been very unstable, and her condition has worsened. Last night, Li Zhi Xian said that a hospital in Beijing had promised to treat Zhou Yan for free. If the treatment plan is feasible, Zhou Yan may depart today.
Yesterday afternoon, Li Zhi Xian announced the total amount of donations received via Weibo. Currently, Zhou Yan has received over 830,000 yuan in donations. Intern reporter Huang Xiao Xing, text and photo.