On the morning of the second day after returning from the police station, Ji Xun and Zhou Zhaonan stood guard in the stairwell on the floor above Yu Xiaoyu’s grandmother’s apartment, patiently waiting for the police to act.
They didn’t wait long. At exactly seven in the morning, Yu Xiaoyu opened the door, put on her shoes in the entryway with her schoolbag on her back, ready to leave.
Her grandmother’s voice came from inside the house: “I’ve put your lunch on the table, packed you plenty of food.”
“Okay,” Yu Xiaoyu said. “Thank you, Grandma.”
Her grandmother was still talking. Old people talk a lot; knowing that when they close their eyes, they might not open them again, they try to say a lifetime’s worth of words in a single day.
“Remember to find a place to heat up your food at lunch. Cold food is greasy and unhealthy…”
Ji Xun looked down through the gap in the stairs. He first saw Yu Xiaoyu’s shoes: a pair of white canvas shoes, scrubbed very clean. Then he saw her gray skirt. Perhaps because she lived with her grandmother, recalling the few times he had seen Yu Xiaoyu, she always dressed very modestly, either in gray or blue, a dull, lusterless color, much like Yu Xiaoyu herself.
Then Ji Xun saw the lunchbox in Yu Xiaoyu’s hand, wrapped in a blue cloth with gold-dusted flowers. Even this cloth was brighter than Yu Xiaoyu’s clothes.
He saw Yu Xiaoyu close the door and hurry down a couple of steps, looking like she was rushing to school.
Suddenly, her figure stopped.
Ji Xun leaned out again, this time seeing a dark blue uniform and a shining silver epaulet.
The police had arrived.
He tugged on Zhou Zhaonan, but Zhou Zhaonan was as still as a rock. He was puzzled and turned his head. “The police are here to take Yu Xiaoyu to her parents’ house. We need to follow them, quickly.”
Zhou Zhaonan seemed to be lost in some kind of confused contemplation. It was only then that he nodded as if startled awake. “Okay.”
Ji Xun had long since memorized the address of Yu Xiaoyu’s parents’ apartment. The taxi driver stepped on the gas, and they arrived even earlier than Officer Qin.
They waited in the hallway, waiting for Yu Xiaoyu to open the door. But that was as far as it went. Officer Qin seemed to have learned how to avoid stepping in a trap and very accurately singled them out.
“Senior…” Ji Xun looked around, trying to change the subject. “What a coincidence! What are you guys doing here?”
“Stop changing the subject!” Officer Qin’s face turned serious, his impartiality like iron. “Police business, no idlers allowed! All students, get back to class. If you dare to cause any more trouble, I’ll take you back to the station and get you a room to cool off and reflect!”
On the stairs, the three were at a standstill until a cry of surprise came from downstairs: “There’s blood!”
Officer Qin was first taken aback, then his expression changed slightly. Just as he seemed to hesitate, Ji Xun had already pulled Zhou Zhaonan, and the two of them, like two nimble little leopards, slipped past Officer Qin and dashed downstairs!
“You two—”
Officer Qin’s voice was carried away by the wind, landing in a distant place that didn’t need to be heeded. Ji Xun and Zhou Zhaonan rushed into the open door of Yu Xiaoyu’s parents’ house and immediately saw the bloodstains.
A pile of bloody tissue wads, most of them on the coffee table in the living room. One was alone by the entryway, in front of Yu Xiaoyu’s white canvas shoes. The blood on the tissue reflected on her paper-white shoes, casting an ugly coppery-red mark.
After a long moment, the quietly hanging gray skirt rippled like a wave. As if she could bear it no longer, Yu Xiaoyu kicked away the tissue wad in front of her feet as if kicking away something filthy.
Taking advantage of this gap, Ji Xun seized the opportunity to quickly observe the house. It was a typical three-bedroom apartment, with ordinary decorations but a good layout, looking spacious. It had all the large pieces of furniture, but was lacking in smaller items. Ji Xun glanced roughly through the rooms. The dust on the tables and chairs was thick enough to leave a mark when wiped with a finger. It really didn’t look like anyone had been staying there.
Could I have guessed wrong? Xu Shijin wasn’t living here… this was just a secret meeting place for her and Yu Xiaoyu?
That seemed plausible too. But it felt a bit convoluted. Xu Shijin’s phone signal appeared here, which meant she had been here. Her family wasn’t very wealthy, and she was young. Staying in a hotel would be inconvenient and unsafe. Why would she abandon a worry-free place to stay?
And the study here… Everywhere else was neat and tidy, but the study still had a lot of things. A large bookshelf against the wall was filled with books and papers. Next to it was a desk with two color printers on it, and a spiderweb of tangled wires underneath.
In the entryway, Officer Qin and his partner exchanged a serious look. Officer Qin bent down, picked up the tissue wad, and asked Yu Xiaoyu, “What’s this about?”
Yu Xiaoyu lowered her head and said nothing.
Officer Qin didn’t press her, but simply began to formally search the house with his partner. Before, when faced with a second-year high school girl, they felt this was impossible, that was unlikely. Now, they were much more serious.
They headed straight for the coffee table in the living room. The pile of tissue wads was thickest next to it, so there must be something there.
With a “swish,” the coffee table drawer was pulled out, revealing its contents. The most eye-catching item was a small, blood-stained knife. Next to the knife was a pack of cigarettes, and next to the cigarettes was a lighter. Beside the lighter, there was a pack of cotton swabs and a small bottle of alcohol. In addition to these, there was even a pair of white headphones coiled in a corner, and a stack of a dozen or so cassette tapes.
Officer Qin had heard Ji Xun talk about Zhen Huan’s parents publicly playing a cassette tape and had also seen the tape Ji Xun had given him as evidence. That tape had the same color label as the ones in the drawer—a blank blue strip with no printed words.
“Explain this,” Officer Qin said to Yu Xiaoyu.
Yu Xiaoyu’s face turned pale, as white as her canvas shoes. A thick look of bewilderment and anxiety appeared on her face. Such an expression on a young girl was truly pitiable.
The two police officers consciously softened their serious expressions.
Officer Qin said, “Don’t be afraid, and don’t lie. Just tell us the facts. Your teachers at school have taught you, right? Making a mistake isn’t scary. We first have to recognize our mistake, and then correct it.”
“Okay, Uncle Police, I’ll talk,” Yu Xiaoyu said with her head bowed, her voice as soft as a mosquito’s buzz, trembling slightly. “Can I come closer, to the coffee table? I…”
“It’s okay, come on over,” Officer Qin said. “We’ll sit on the sofa and talk slowly.”
He moved aside, letting Yu Xiaoyu walk past him to his side… and that’s when things suddenly took a turn!
When she reached the coffee table, Yu Xiaoyu, who had been obedient and timid, her voice barely a whisper, suddenly bent down without anyone expecting it, her hands cupped together like a basket, and fiercely scooped up the tapes from the drawer.
She grabbed the tapes, her fingers like hooks, tearing out all the plastic cases inside, then grabbed the lighter from the corner of the drawer and flicked it on in front of her!
The flame was so close to her, so close that it singed her hanging hair, creating a foul smell of burning. So close that it illuminated her still-beautiful, delicate, and fragile face.
Her hand trembled, and the flame moved away from her face, closer to the tapes.
“Whoosh—”
The black plastic tape inside the cassettes ignited.
A larger flame erupted, a surging fire that burned not only before her eyes, but also within her. She began to scream, to laugh, a wild laugh in a furious rage.
“Burn, burn! You won’t get anything! Ah!—Ahhh!—Get out, all of you, get out!”
The flames finally melted her false frailty like wax.
“What are you doing!”
“Don’t move!”
After a moment of shock, the two police officers reacted very quickly. Officer Qin immediately restrained the suddenly agitated Yu Xiaoyu, while his partner snatched the things from her hands, threw them on the ground, and stomped out the flames with his shoes.
The flames were extinguished, but Yu Xiaoyu, held by Officer Qin, did not stop resisting. The fire had melted her wax-like calmness, but her violent struggles and screams did not cease.
Her hair was flying wildly, her glasses slipped from her ear in the struggle, hanging crookedly on her face. Her struggles had almost surpassed the limits of what a girl could do; even the well-trained Officer Qin was having trouble holding her down.
In the struggle, Yu Xiaoyu’s sleeve was torn up. Ji Xun clearly saw the small knife cuts and cigarette burns that covered her thin arm.
Traces of self-harm. Traces he had glimpsed the first time he met Yu Xiaoyu.
At this moment, after seeing that there were no signs of Xu Shijin living in Yu Xiaoyu’s parents’ house, after seeing the madness beneath Yu Xiaoyu’s gentle and timid facade, Ji Xun’s thoughts were incredibly clear.
In the midst of the chaos, he suddenly spoke: “Yu Xiaoyu, I was wrong. I always thought Xu Shijin did all these things, or that she conspired with you and directed you to do them. I always overlooked one possibility… that all these things were done by you, behind Xu Shijin’s back!”
The drugs were bought by Yu Xiaoyu. The day Zhou Zhaonan said Yu Xiaoyu smelled of smoke, he had thought the cigarette burns on her hands were the source of the smell, but the smell could also have been from setting a fire with cigarettes at Zhen Huan’s parents’ house.
Xu Shijin could have recorded her parents’ private conversations, but so could Yu Xiaoyu. They were so close; as long as she got the key from Xu Shijin, she could have planted the recording device just as easily. The anonymous tip was a letter; the signature was just a name. Besides the people at the Education Bureau, no one saw what the letter looked like. Just because Xu Shijin had reported once before didn’t mean it was definitely her this time.
And the autopsy report. Perhaps Xu Shijin really did take a picture of it by chance that day, but as mentioned before, the two were so close that Xu Shijin probably shared it with Yu Xiaoyu the same day, and Yu Xiaoyu logically obtained this information as well.
The only thing Yu Xiaoyu couldn’t have done herself was probably the call to Chen Ya. But if Xu Shijin knew nothing about this series of retaliatory actions by Yu Xiaoyu, and was simply running away from home, her sudden call to curse at Chen Ya could be understood as a natural emotional outburst, not a premeditated act of revenge. In Chen Ya’s retelling, Xu Shijin was only cursing her for ruining her life, not mentioning anything else.
Looking at the story from this angle, it was just about a heartbroken high school girl who ran away from home. She was crushed by malice, body and soul, and curled up in a corner, licking her wounds. And her only confidante, after listening to all her sorrows and hardships, decided to seek revenge for her.
There was just one more problem… Yu Xiaoyu was usually in class and couldn’t always be there to comfort her. How did Xu Shijin cope with her misery alone? From the series of public suicide notes she had written before, her personality was not the type to lick her wounds in solitude. On the contrary, she was desperate for others to hear her voice, to respond to her cries for help. Running away from home was also, on one hand, an inability to endure the environment at home, and on the other hand, an attempt to elicit her parents’ anxiety and remorse. This was also an act seeking some kind of feedback.
However, during this time, Xu Shijin only contacted Yu Xiaoyu. It was as if Xu Shijin had placed herself on a deserted island with only Yu Xiaoyu. She no longer sought sympathy and understanding from those around her, not even contacting her parents, no longer needing their understanding and remorse… Was it possible for her personality to change so drastically in such a short time?
Ji Xun abruptly thought of what he had casually said yesterday, the pretext for the police to come here—Yu Xiaoyu had kidnapped Xu Shijin.
Yu Xiaoyu’s depression was not mild, having reached the point of self-harm. This series of retaliatory actions was also very crazy and terrifying, including the humiliation of Xu Shijin’s parents. The idea that Yu Xiaoyu, fearing that Xu Shijin might waver halfway, not wanting her to ruin the plan, or worried that she might betray her, had put her under a form of house arrest—kidnapped her—now seemed not like a fantasy, but a completely logical deduction.
He had thought of all this, and Zhou Zhaonan seemed to have thought of it too. As he fully sorted out his thoughts, he saw Zhou Zhaonan’s bright eyes. Those eyes, contrary to their usual dullness hidden under heavy hair, shone with a light like the shadowless lamp on an operating table, a light that passed through Yu Xiaoyu’s body and into her soul.
“You eat in the cafeteria every day at noon.”
He spoke softly, his voice not loud enough to compete with Yu Xiaoyu’s shrill screams, but strangely, the crazed Yu Xiaoyu heard him and suddenly fell silent.
Her fierce gaze, wrapped in thick malice, pierced through her crooked glasses and stabbed into Zhou Zhaonan’s face.
Zhou Zhaonan did not flinch. Ji Xun even thought he saw the same malice in a daze. Zhou Zhaonan’s face was like a mirror, completely reflecting the malice from Yu Xiaoyu… or perhaps, this wasn’t malice from Yu Xiaoyu, but malice originating from Zhou Zhaonan himself.
Zhou Zhaonan said softly, “You eat in the cafeteria every day, so why do you still bring a lunchbox? Unless this lunchbox is for someone else… this lunchbox is for Xu Shijin, whom you’ve put under house arrest.”
“But you can’t deliver her food today,” a faint, pleasant smile spread across Zhou Zhaonan’s face. “The police have discovered what you’ve done. You’ll be taken to the police station for questioning. You certainly won’t talk. If you do, you’ll be guilty. To keep yourself innocent, you’ll have to remain silent, silent for 12 hours, silent for 24 hours. And Xu Shijin, in the place where you’ve confined her, will be starving, waiting for you hour by hour, not knowing when you’ll come…”
“She’ll get hungrier, and thirstier, and lonelier, and more scared…”
“After putting her best friend under house arrest, is she going to forget her, abandon her?”
“How pitiful…”
The evil fire within Yu Xiaoyu was extinguished. She was completely captivated by the scene Zhou Zhaonan described. She was dejected and lost, swaying, and began to sob softly…
Officer Qin breathed a sigh of relief, loosening his grip on Yu Xiaoyu’s arm, and quickly collected the cassette tapes scattered on the floor, which were obviously key evidence… especially the knife from the drawer and the lighter on the floor. He immediately secured all these dangerous items!
It was at this moment that Yu Xiaoyu pulled a small knife from her pocket. No one had expected her to be carrying this sharp weapon.
A beautiful face, a vicious knife. She gripped the small knife and lunged at Zhou Zhaonan, the blade flashing a fleeting silver streak in the air.
