Hong Kong

hong kong

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A twenty six years old young wife, unable to bear living in a public housing unit with her husband's family of seven, filed for divorce but was refused. Her husband said, "If you want a divorce, then come and have sex with me one last time." She thought he was pleading for reconciliation and went to a hotel with him—the next morning, she never came out.

When the hotel staff entered the room, she was lying face down on the bed, with obvious strangulation marks on her neck; she was already dead.

Her husband, who had left alone a few hours earlier, went to the rooftop of Rainbow Village to drink.

His last words to the negotiation expert were, "I've done some irreversible mistakes," before he jumped.

The couple, the husband named Huang Zhengyao, 30, worked as a construction worker.

The wife, Chen Xiangzhao, 26, worked as a cashier.

They had been married for many years and had a 6-year-old son.

The family of three lived in Huang Zhengyao's mother's public housing unit, along with his two younger brothers and their wives—seven people crammed into one unit, barely able to turn around.

Back in 2007, they had applied to the Housing Authority for public housing, hoping to have their own space.

But by January and February of this year, when they finally got a place to move into an apartment, their relationship had already cooled.

Chen Xiangzhao couldn't bear the situation and filed for divorce.

Huang Zhengyao refused to let her go.

In February, he even sought help from a district councilor, saying that their marriage was in trouble and there were conflicts with his mother, requesting immediate arrangements for moving into an apartment and improving their living conditions.

The councilor referred the case to the Social Welfare Department.

Unexpectedly, less than two months later, tragedy struck.

A few days before the incident, Chen Xiangzhao left home and checked into a love hotel on the second floor of Hengcheng Building on Guilin Street in Sham Shui Po.

She only told her family the hotel name, not the room number.

She probably wanted to calm down, or perhaps she had truly decided to end the marriage.

On April 12th at 10:11 PM, Huang Zhengyao found her. Surveillance footage showed the two entering the room together.

Three hours later, at 1:10 AM, he left alone.

She was left alone in the room and never came out again.

Around 3 a.m. on the same day, a security guard at the Ziwei Building in Rainbow Village found a man drinking in the stairwell, carrying a backpack and appearing agitated.

When the guard approached to inquire, he suddenly rushed to the rooftop and sat precariously.

Negotiators arrived, and his family was also called in to try and persuade him.

He kept repeating, "I've done some irreversible mistakes."

At 6:30 a.m., he jumped and died instantly.

Police learned from his family that Chen Xiangzhao might be staying at a love hotel on Guilin Street and dispatched officers to search for her.

At 12:42 p.m. on April 12, they found Chen Xiangzhao's body in her room.

She was lying face down on the bed, her body already showing signs of rigor mortis, with obvious strangulation marks on her neck.

The forensic doctor determined that she died of asphyxiation, and the time of death was approximately in the early morning hours—shortly after Huang Zhengyao left alone.

He entered the room and begged her not to divorce him.

She refused.

He reached out and strangled her until she stopped moving.

Then he closed the door, left, went to drink, and then jumped.

What was left for his son were parents who died on the same day.

The Social Welfare Department confirmed that they received a referral in mid-February and are assisting the couple in applying for a new public housing unit.

Wong Ching-yiu's request was simple:

he wanted a new unit near his mother's residence so he could easily care for his family.

The application is currently being processed and there is no result yet.

If the housing had been allocated sooner, if they had their own space, if the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law didn't have to live together—would things have been different?

No one knows.

Their six-year-old son has been placed in the care of his grandmother, and the Social Welfare Department is following up.

He doesn't understand why his parents left him on the same day.

One strangled someone, the other jumped from a building.

The six-year-old child can only ask:

Where did Mom go?

Where did Dad go?

No one dares to answer.