The death of a soulful hair salon girl
By Fu Jianfeng (southweekend)
Updated: 2005-10-20 08:57

But this was their final farewell. Four days later, Chen Xiaolin got the terrible news that Gou Li was killed by a patron.

The hair salon has since been closed by the police

Chen Xiaolin could not figure out why his wife would go back to do the same thing after being incarcerated for four months. "My only explanation is that she did not want to borrow money from her very poor family, and she also wanted to see me in Beijing as soon as possible. That was how she thought she could make some money quickly ..." said Chen Xiaolin who then began to cry.

Among Gou Li's possessions is a ledger which lists her expenses in the month after her release. Chen Xiaolin said that he did not leave her much money so she must have made it on her own. According to the ledger, she did not spend more than 4 RMB on food. The only luxury is 150 RMB for a personal handy-phone system. The clothes and shoes were essential after her release, but none of the items cost more than 50 RMB. In Chen Xiaolin's memory, his wife had never spent more than 60 RMB on clothes. "Last year, the cotton jacket that I bought her when she was pregnant was the most expensive clothing -- 60 RMB."

As Chen Xiaolin recounted these past events to our reporter, he broke into crying very often. He was sometimes repetitious, and also disturbed. He admitted that there were many things that he cannot disclose, and will probably never ever tell anyone. He even admitted that he lied to the CCTV reporters who came to the village to interview him. He wanted to conceal the truth about Gou Li's death from his family. But several days ago, a relative in Lanzhou told the truth to the village folks. Suddenly, public opinion in the village went from sympathy to sarcasm and his mother was in tears. Chen Xiaolin feels too ashamed to go home. He does not dare to return to comfort his grieving mother, and went to Beijing to work instead.

Chen Xiaolin did not want to imagine the struggle and pain that his wife went through before deciding to "do it." He said that he will bury all that in his heart. In her diary, Gou Li did not say a single word.

The only thing that will let outsiders peer into the heart of Gou Li is a rumor from the hair salon workers. The girls said that after each transaction with a client, Gou Li would use paper to create many hearts.

These hearts were for her husband. Each heart carried a small wish of hers. On the other side, there is the fact of a cartoon: the nose is heart-shaped, the face is put together with "kiss you" or "love you", the mouth is a crescent moon ... among the belongings of Gou Li, there is one full bag of these hearts, more than 1,000 of them.