The first-year section was located in the opposite building. A long corridor connected the two structures from south to north, providing a clear view of the classrooms across the way from the walkway.
Compared to the tense, high-pressure atmosphere surrounding the second-years, the first-year grade seemed slightly more peaceful.
After all, there was a physical distance between them, and no one had witnessed the crime when it occurred. The ones who died were all second-years, which seemingly had little to do with the first-years.
Listening to the rhythmic cadence of students reading aloud, Chi Qing walked along the corridor toward the first-year section.
Inside one of the classrooms, a student was slacking off. Distracted by the horrifying rumors circulating about the second-years, their thoughts drifted away from the exam paper, and they glanced out the window.
Through the glass, the student saw a tall, gloomy-looking man wearing black gloves walking along the corridor. His sharp jawline was accentuated by his thinness, and a black coat was draped over his shoulders. His facial features were strikingly beautiful.
Yet, no matter how good-looking he was… he still gave off the distinct vibe of someone who had walked straight off a true-crime movie set.
“Let’s look at the first question. How many people misread the prompt for this question? Raise your hand if you did; let me take a look.”
“How many times have I said this? You must read the questions carefully, read them carefully! Each and every one of you just leaps straight into the traps. Who wants to explain how to solve this?”
Inside Class 1 of the first-year grade, a female teacher in a tawny coat held an exam paper in one hand while propping her other hand against the edge of a front-row desk, leaning against the corner as she taught. The teacher looked to be in her early thirties, with single eyelids and a gaze that was firm and commanding. She looked incredibly stern and not particularly easy to get along with. Her razor-sharp eyes swept across the students below, finally landing on the one who was daydreaming.
“You, stand up and answer.”
The boy who was called on snapped his gaze back from the window. “Ah…”
“I’m sorry, Teacher Jiang,” the boy lowered his head. “I don’t know how to do this one.”
Teacher Jiang.
Chi Qing heard this name just as he reached the back door of the classroom.
He watched as the female teacher surnamed Jiang gave the boy a fierce glare. She then left the front row, and with fingers sporting bright red nail polish, drew a piece of white chalk from the box on the podium. Turning around, she began writing on the blackboard.
The classroom fell completely silent, with everyone listening intently. The chalk clattered rhythmically against the blackboard.
Soon, a line of elegant handwriting appeared. This script could almost perfectly overlay the handwriting on the three student files they had looked at earlier. Chi Qing recalled that the signature at the bottom of those files read: Jiang Yiyun.
As Chi Qing stood there thinking, a lazy voice rang out from behind him. “For a student she used to teach to meet such a horrific end, she hasn’t even asked a single question about it. Even if those three weren’t ‘good students’ in the strict sense, as a teacher, she shouldn’t have this kind of reaction.”
Chi Qing turned around. Xie Lin was holding the three files he had been reading on the side earlier.
“The moment I look away, you vanish,” Xie Lin said, brandishing the papers. “Next time, no matter where you go, could you check in with your boyfriend first?”
After saying it, Xie Lin realized this request might be a bit difficult for Chi Qing. From the day they met, this person had always been a loner. Compromising for him had long since become a habit.
“Forget it,” Xie Lin rolled up the files. “Anyway, no matter where you go, I can always find you.”
Soon, the dismissal bell rang.
The class monitor took the lead in shouting, “Stand up!” and the entire class rose to their feet in unison, chanting, “Goodbye, Teacher.”
Before the last word even fully faded, the previously quiet classroom instantly erupted into a chaotic clamor.
Jiang Yiyun patted the chalk dust off her fingers and gathered her teaching materials to leave. A girl trotted out of the classroom after her, stopping her in the hallway. “Teacher Jiang…”
Jiang Yiyun slowed her steps. Even though class was over, her unyielding, authoritative aura hadn’t dissipated in the slightest. “What is it?” she asked.
The girl’s face flushed red, and it took her a long moment to stammer out, “Gao Yang and the others… they went through my desk drawer and looked at my diary…”
Xie Lin and Chi Qing were standing very close to them, hearing every word perfectly. Chi Qing didn’t know which boy in the class Gao Yang was, but he assumed it was one of the rowdy boys currently crowding the back of the classroom.
To a teenage girl, a diary was a deeply private thing. It carried many hidden, sensitive thoughts, and anyone who kept one was naturally bound to be more vulnerable. It must have taken an immense amount of courage for her to bring this up to Jiang Yiyun.
However, Jiang Yiyun didn’t take the trivial matter to heart. “Try not to leave your diary in the classroom… They probably didn’t mean any harm.”
After a few more dismissive words, Jiang Yiyun lifted her wrist to check her watch. “The teacher still has a meeting to attend. If you still have concerns, why don’t you come find me after school, alright?”
The girl clearly didn’t want to pursue the topic any further. She lowered her eyes and murmured, “…Oh, alright.”
Even Chi Qing could tell that this teacher was far from “approachable.”
Watching her retreating back, Xie Lin pondered, “An elite teacher with solid professional skills, but she clearly dislikes communicating with students and doesn’t care about their feelings. Her heels must be ten centimeters high, and her press-on nails are quite long—it looked clumsy even when she was holding the chalk just now… This Teacher Jiang is highly likely a polished egoist.”
What exactly was her connection to the three deceased students?
Jiang Yiyun hurried toward the stairs at the end of the corridor. However, before she could even descend a few steps in her sky-high heels, a sudden push came from behind. She lost her footing, her grip loosened, and the documents in her hands scattered wildly through the air.
Just a second before she thought she would plunge down the stairs, the hand behind her deftly and lightly pulled her back. She was about to flare up in anger when she turned around and met a pair of handsome, smiling eyes.
“I’m so sorry, I was careless just now. Are you alright?”
She had originally been about to make a scene. But facing a face like this, she genuinely couldn’t bring herself to say anything harsh.
“I’m fine…” Once Jiang Yiyun regained her footing, she added, “Are… are you a parent?”
The man’s attire didn’t make him look like a member of the school staff.
Xie Lin slipped into his new persona seamlessly. “Ah, yes. My younger brother studies here. He’s always late, so the teacher called me in today.”
Jiang Yiyun looked hesitantly at the person standing beside Xie Lin. “Then who is this?”
Xie Lin pulled Chi Qing closer to his side and said, “He’s also my brother. There are three brothers in our family.”
Chi Qing: “…?”
Chi Qing recalled the conversation this man had with Su Xiaobo in the car earlier. He suspected Xie Lin had been playing this long game for quite a while. After Xie Lin finished speaking, his fingers curled on Chi Qing’s shoulder, tapping it lightly. “Right?”
Chi Qing: “Right your head.”
Xie Lin: “How impolite. You usually call me Gege.”
Have you no shame?
After Xie Lin spoke, he actually waited patiently for a moment, expecting him to call him that. Chi Qing brushed his hand away. “Sorry, I’m going through my rebellious phase. Don’t feel like it.”
With that, Chi Qing squatted down, his pale, bloodless hand picking up the sheets of paper that had fallen near his feet. Jiang Yiyun was wearing a skirt under her coat, making it awkward to bend down, especially on the stairs. Thus, she waited for Chi Qing to finish gathering the papers before thanking him repeatedly. “Thank you.”
Jiang Yiyun noticed that this “brother” wore a black glove on one hand while the other was bare. She rarely saw people wearing gloves in daily life and couldn’t help but linger her gaze on it.
Chi Qing said coldly, “You’re welcome.”
As he handed the papers back, Chi Qing pretended to accidentally brush lightly against the pad of Jiang Yiyun’s pinky finger.
This was what he and Xie Lin had agreed upon just a few minutes ago. If they wanted to confirm in the shortest time possible whether this teacher surnamed Jiang was a suspect or if anything had happened between her and the three victims, this was the fastest method—even though Xie Lin hadn’t agreed to the plan at first.
“Forget it,” Xie Lin had said earlier. “With your severe mysophobia, don’t go touching her. I’ll find a way to get her talking.”
But this was the first time Chi Qing had actively wanted to initiate something like this. Having learned to read emotions a little bit, and knowing that these seemingly contradictory feelings all had a source, he didn’t reject the distorted voices as much as before.
So he had told Xie Lin, “I want to try.”
The instant Chi Qing’s finger made contact, all the surrounding sounds vanished completely. Teacher Jiang’s distorted voice flooded into his mind, but what she was actually thinking was:
Whose parent is he? I wonder if he has a girlfriend…
In just a few seconds, he read three lines of thought. Every single one was about Xie Lin.
Chi Qing’s fingers stiffened slightly. He really wanted to say: He doesn’t have a girlfriend, but he already has a boyfriend.
He couldn’t linger on Jiang Yiyun’s hand for too long. Right before he released the papers and was forced to pull his hand back, Xie Lin suddenly spoke up, “I was wondering why you looked a bit familiar. Wang Yuan was your student before, right? …He had a good relationship with our younger brother and was in the same class. I might have seen you before.”
Wang Yuan was the name of one of the deceased. Sensing that Chi Qing’s reading wasn’t going smoothly, Xie Lin pushed things forward at the perfect moment. If Wang Yuan’s death was connected to her, she would definitely have a reaction upon hearing his name.
Jiang Yiyun froze. She seemed to think of Wang Yuan’s death.
After a long while, she recovered from her dazed state, gave Chi Qing a forced smile, and said with a touch of sorrow, “I’m sorry, I just thought of Wang Yuan… He was a good kid. I never expected something like this to happen.”
Jiang Yiyun still had a meeting to attend. After finishing her words, she took the stack of documents and walked downstairs in her high heels.
Chi Qing stared at his hand, endured the discomfort for a moment, and ultimately went to the nearby restroom to wash his hands thoroughly.
The bell for class rang. There was no one left in the corridor or the restroom; the empty space held only the sound of running water.
Xie Lin held the glove Chi Qing had taken off, watching him. “Did she say anything?”
Chi Qing turned off the faucet. The restroom fell into a brief silence.
After a moment, Chi Qing finally said, “She is happy.”
Xie Lin froze slightly.
“Wang Yuan—and not just Wang Yuan. All three of them are dead, and she is glad.”
The distorted voice belonging to Jiang Yiyun was completely different from the mourning tone coming out of her mouth. There was no sadness, nor any melancholy. In the silence of Chi Qing’s mind, she had let out a low chuckle.
Ha…
The woman was genuinely gloating internally. She had murmured joyfully:
They’re all dead.
