October 11, 2006, contact with Guo Tianhua, an agent at a real estate agency with available listings. Audio file: 03820061011.wav.
"Hello, we're the reporters who contacted you by phone."
"Oh, oh, please have a seat. You wanted to ask us about one of our clients, right? We're not actually allowed to disclose that kind of information. We have a confidentiality agreement, and his information..."
"We're not interested in Mr. Zhang Dongliang's personal information. We just want to know if there was anything unusual about the people he rented his properties to."
"That's something we have to keep confidential too..."
"But in our earlier interviews, we got some leads. Mr. Zhang's tenants were mostly young women, and they moved in and out quite frequently. One resident told us that one of his tenants had behaved strangely. When your company takes on a listing, do you check the landlord's background?"
"Of course we check. We verify the landlord's identity and property information, things like that..."
"Is that all? This landlord specifically rented to young women, and he's a middle-aged man himself. Didn't that make you suspicious?"
"It's not as if he only rented to young women. His most recent tenant was a man, and before that he rented to a family..."
"How old was the wife in that family?"
"Uh? Well..."
"So you only realized something was wrong after we asked to interview you?"
"No, no... Sigh, about this... To be honest, it's not that I never had my suspicions. I even contacted some of the people who'd moved out. We sign three-party contracts, though not every deal ends up being a three-party contract. Some people meet the landlord through us, then cut us out and deal with him directly. The landlord will also go around us and cancel the original contract.