On April 28, 2014, we contacted Ye Xin's father, Ye Zhengping. Audio file 08220140428.wav.
"Hello, Mr. Ye."
"Mm, hello. You said on the phone that you wanted to ask me about my son? What is it you wanted to know?"
"Please don't be nervous. We just wanted to ask whether he had been interested in buying a home back then. Do you know about the apartments at Zhuangcheng Xinyuan?"
"An apartment? That's impossible. He'd only just graduated then, and our family wasn't that well-off. This... He probably didn't... Uh..."
"Did you remember something?"
"There was one thing... Back then... He'd only graduated recently and wasn't planning to buy a home. But one of his classmates had a pretty wealthy family and was planning to buy a place. I think it was on Minqing South Road... It was Minqing South Road, wasn't it?"
"Yes, Zhuangcheng Xinyuan is near Minqing South Road."
"Mm. He went with his classmate to look at the apartments. When he came back, he mentioned it. He said we could buy a place there someday, too. The surroundings were nice, it was a newly built complex, and the apartments had good layouts and were very spacious. Everything was convenient nearby... If we saved for two or three years, we should have enough to get a mortgage and buy a place there. We could sell our old house and use the money for a down payment... He even talked about getting married someday... Who knew that, in the blink of an eye... He was still so young, just starting work, and he hadn't even had a girlfriend..."
"My condolences, Mr. Ye."
"Ah... Mm... You're asking all this because you want to... Are you from a real estate company? My son..."
"We're real estate agents. We contacted you because your