1

On March 20, 2003, Sun Lusong received a call at his home in Huanggang, Hubei Province from a female classmate of his eldest son, Sun Zhigang.

The girl said, "Uncle, something happened to Sun Zhigang in Guangzhou. He was taken by the police station for some reason, then sent to a detention center. Now, he's in the hospital. Please come quickly."

She hesitated for a while, then finally said, "Uncle, Sun Zhigang is dead."

Sun Lusong couldn't believe it but also couldn't dismiss it. Keeping it from his wife, he hurriedly took a taxi to Wuhan to meet his younger son, Sun Zhiguo, who was working there. Along with several uncles of Sun Zhigang, five or six of them rushed to Guangzhou by train overnight.

On the train, he cried incessantly. When the conductor asked what happened, he said, "It can't be true. If your son had really died, the police would have called you. Why would a classmate call?"

By dawn, they arrived in Guangzhou. Sun Zhigang's classmates received them and took them directly to the funeral home. All along the way, they wept, gradually realizing that the bad news was true.

At the funeral home, Sun Lusong saw Sun Zhigang's body covered in white cloth.

Sun Zhigang had indeed passed away.

With something as significant as someone's death, no one told the family what exactly had happened. Instead, the funeral home urged them to hurry up with the cremation, claiming they couldn't keep the body any longer.

All they received was an extremely brief explanation, stating, "Sudden death, cerebral vascular accident, sudden heart attack."

This was a lie. The family knew that Sun Zhigang was very healthy and had never had heart problems.

More terrifyingly, Sun Lusong saw many bruises on Sun Zhigang's body at the funeral home, believing that there must be some horrifying hidden truth behind his son's death.

Before getting any answers, Sun Lusong vehemently refused to cremate the body. He later felt relieved; it was the most correct thing he did.

2

What really happened to Sun Zhigang?

For a long time after his death, neither his family nor friends knew anything besides his detention. Even his experiences after being detained were only pieced together vaguely through accounts from Sun Zhigang's friends.

On the night of March 17, at 10 p.m., Sun Zhigang left his residence to go to an internet café. He had been in Guangzhou for just over 20 days and hadn't obtained a temporary residence permit yet. He also didn't have his ID with him when he went out.

He encountered public security personnel checking IDs. After being questioned, they took him to the Huangcun Street police station. At 11 p.m., Sun Zhigang called Mr. Cheng, his roommate, asking him to bring his ID and money to bail him out.

Close to midnight, Mr. Cheng arrived at the police station, but the police didn't release Sun Zhigang, only saying, "This person won't work." Mr. Cheng saw Sun Zhigang through a window and asked him what happened. Sun Zhigang said he had argued with the police.

Mr. Cheng had to leave the police station, and he never saw Sun Zhigang again.

On the 18th, Sun Zhigang was taken to the Guangzhou Municipal Detention Center. There, he contacted another friend, who remembered Sun Zhigang speaking rapidly and stuttering on the phone, conveying extreme fear.

On the 19th, the friend wanted to bail Sun Zhigang out from the Detention Center but learned that he had been transferred to the Jiangcun Ward of the Guangzhou Brain Hospital, more than an hour's drive from the city center, at 11:30 p.m. the previous day. The hospital, which served as a place for treating detainees, told them they couldn't see him and only family members could bail him out.

On the 20th, the friend called again, trying to find a way to get Sun Zhigang released. This time, they received an unimaginable and unacceptable response – Sun Zhigang was dead.

How could a healthy person suddenly die!

Over the next few days, the family went to the police station, the Detention Center, the hospital, as well as the procuratorate, court, municipal people's congress, civil affairs bureau, and health bureau. As rural folks unfamiliar with the city, they came back empty-handed after several days.

They went to all the government departments that they could, but no one cared, no one took them seriously, and no one felt it necessary to explain Sun Zhigang's death. It seemed that his death was justifiable; they provided a reason, and they were expected to accept it.

If it weren't for the intervention of two individuals, the truth behind Sun Zhigang's death would have remained forever concealed.

3

These two individuals are Chen Feng and Wang Lei.

They are reporters for the local newspaper "Southern Metropolis Daily" in Guangzhou. Their involvement in the Sun Zhigang case was entirely accidental.

In late March 2003, Chen Feng saw a post on an online forum where a netizen mentioned that a friend of a friend had mysteriously died in Guangzhou, and the family was tirelessly seeking answers.

While no one else seemed concerned on the forum, Chen Feng paid attention. He managed to contact Sun Zhigang's family, inviting them to the newspaper office to understand the situation.

After hearing the family's account, Chen Feng had a vague sense that something significant lay beneath the surface. However, he also had another thought: this might not be a story they could publish.

He told the family, "We'll do our best, but it might not be possible to report. Don't give up on complaints to the authorities, try finding a lawyer, and get a forensic examination as soon as possible."

Disappointed, the family left, but they remembered Chen Feng's advice. They borrowed money and spent 4000 yuan for a forensic examination of Sun Zhigang's body.

During that period, Chen Feng was on successive business trips for other interviews, so he handed the Sun Zhigang case over to Wang Lei, who continued to follow up on it.

On April 18, the autopsy report from the Forensic Examination Center at Zhongshan Medical School of Sun Yat-sen University was released.

It was a report too distressing to read in one go, shocking everyone who laid eyes on it. Even the forensic examiner was taken aback by the condition of Sun Zhigang's body during the autopsy:

Two circular black marks, about 1.5 centimeters in diameter, were found on each shoulder, with five or six similar marks on the knees, as apparent as black paint drips on a white wall. One person involved in the autopsy stated that it was definitely caused by burns;

There was a fist-sized red swelling on the left rib area;

When the skin on the back was peeled, clusters of coagulated black blood were exposed, indicating subcutaneous tissue bleeding. The blood clots were as thick as 3.5 centimeters, spanning an area of 60 cm * 50 cm - in other words, the entire back was an area of bleeding.

This kind of bleeding is a consequence of blunt force trauma, and it wasn't just once.

After being assaulted, extensive damage to soft tissues led to cell necrosis, internal bleeding, and a drop in blood pressure, resulting in traumatic shock. This was a precursor to extensive intravascular hemolysis, requiring immediate rescue; otherwise, once hemolysis occurred, the patient would rapidly die, making treatment extremely challenging.

However, from the hospital records provided, there was not a trace of evidence indicating that Sun Zhigang had been assaulted.

On the evening of March 18, Sun Zhigang was taken to the hospital. The attending physician that day recorded only one word under the surgical condition column of his examination record: "none." The next morning at the hospital, he was listed as "asleep." In hindsight, this so-called "sleep" was likely shock.

It wasn't until 10:15 a.m. on the 20th that "his condition changed rapidly; he was pale, unresponsive, breathing faintly, and his blood pressure couldn't be measured." The doctor administered adrenaline, and after 10 minutes, all treatment was halted.

Sun Zhigang's life came to an end.

This meant that not only did the hospital overlook Sun Zhigang's assault and fail to treat him promptly, but they also concealed his true cause of death.

Fortunately, there was the forensic report, and the most crucial sentence in it was: "After comprehensive analysis, Sun Zhigang suffered extensive soft tissue injuries leading to traumatic shock and subsequent death."

In simpler terms, this sentence means — Sun Zhigang was beaten to death!

This definitive report became the solid foundation upon which the truth about the Sun Zhigang case finally came to light.

The journalists responsible for reporting the truth would now dig out the darkest facts starting from this foundation. This heavy burden now rested squarely on the shoulders of Wang Lei and Chen Feng.

As soon as Wang Lei received the forensic report, he called Chen Feng, who was away. He said, "The results are in. Sun Zhigang was beaten to death."

Chen Feng felt a chill run through his body. He had anticipated this might be the outcome, but at the moment of confirmation, he still couldn't accept such a brutal reality.

Chen Feng and Wang Lei reported the forensic results to the newspaper leadership and once again sought permission: could they report on the Sun Zhigang case?

They got the response they hoped for: they could report it.