The person identified by the drug dealer was not Xu Shijin, but Yu Xiaoyu.
“Why would Yu Xiaoyu be the one buying drugs?” Ji Xun muttered to himself. “Is Xu Shijin not worried about her introverted and timid friend getting into trouble? Or perhaps Yu Xiaoyu isn’t as timid as we thought. She’s not just a messenger, but deeply involved in Xu Shijin’s revenge plot… If that’s the case, wouldn’t Xu Shijin and Yu Xiaoyu be accomplices?”
That would also make sense. One of them in the open, the other in the shadows.
Everything that happened to Xu Shijin resonated with Yu Xiaoyu’s own sadness. The anguish of being isolated, bullied, and surrounded by ever-present malice was identical to the repression Yu Xiaoyu had felt inside.
Back then, only Xu Shijin stood by Yu Xiaoyu’s side. So now, even if it meant breaking the law and facing great danger, Yu Xiaoyu chose to stand by Xu Shijin’s side…
Ji Xun suddenly found himself studying Zhou Zhaonan, who was standing beside him.
“?” Zhou Zhaonan responded.
“It’s nothing,” Ji Xun said.
He retracted his gaze, thinking to himself: Hmm… while I wouldn’t break the law for Zhou Zhaonan, and on the contrary, would do everything in my power to stop him from breaking the law; Xu Shijin and Yu Xiaoyu are different. For high school students like them who haven’t fully grasped the legal implications, perhaps this is the only way they know how to support each other.
The desperation and anger of helping a friend, regardless of the consequences, staking their future on it.
Ji Xun recalled the second stanza of the Hsi Muren poem Yu Xiaoyu was reading that day.
And in that crowded throng
Who would notice
Your suddenly darkened face?
Who could know
The momentary pain in your heart?
Only Yu Xiaoyu would notice, would care about Xu Shijin’s pain.
“What accomplice?” a familiar voice rang out.
Ji Xun looked up and saw Officer Qin, his expression somewhat unnatural. He smiled. “Yo, senior. Not off work yet?”
“Soon, soon,” Officer Qin replied dismissively, but he didn’t leave. He kept staring at Ji Xun. “What were you muttering about just now? I thought I heard someone buying drugs, and something about a plan, and an accomplice?”
“Officer Qin,” Ji Xun, not one to let a grudge go, put on an official air like Zhong Youdao, his hands behind his back. “Mind the discipline. Don’t go prying into the anti-drug squad’s business.”
“You little rascal…” Officer Qin almost raised his hand to give Ji Xun a rap on the head. “Holding a grudge like that, who taught you!”
Ji Xun just smiled at Officer Qin.
“Alright, alright…” Officer Qin huffed. “Tell me again what you wanted to say this morning. I’ll listen carefully this time.”
Although the events of the past few days were enough to make a movie, the summary was simple. Ji Xun briefly described the cause and effect and asked Officer Qin, “So I want to see the case file. I want to know what Duan Huiwen actually said.”
“Are you kidding me?” Officer Qin rolled his eyes at the ceiling. “Have you lost your mind? Can a police testimony just be shown to any unrelated person? How could I possibly show you Duan Huiwen’s testimony?”
“Bend the rules a little.”
“Bend my ass.”
“Not even a slight possibility?”
“Not a single one,” Officer Qin said with finality.
Ji Xun narrowed his eyes, a dangerous expression on his face, and stared at Officer Qin.
Officer Qin was unfazed.
“Fine, if you won’t say, you won’t say. I can’t let my senior make a mistake, after all. But I suddenly remembered some clues, but, oh dear, my brain is overworked today, it’s not turning anymore—” Ji Xun suddenly raised both hands, holding his head like a Psyduck.
“…” Officer Qin.
“Who am I, where am I, what do I want to do…” Ji Xun suddenly turned to Zhou Zhaonan. “By the way, shouldn’t evening self-study be over by now? I’ll walk you home!”
Zhou Zhaonan gave Ji Xun a cool look, his eyes seeming to say: Now you remember me?
“You little brat…” Officer Qin said. “Is this really necessary?”
“Sigh, I’m in great pain too. This old problem of mine, it acts up every now and then…”
The rap on the head finally landed on Ji Xun’s head. Officer Qin said fiercely, “Fine, I’ll tell you what I can. Now you better tell me everything you’re supposed to say, clearly!”
Ji Xun immediately dropped his frivolous act. “Alright, officer. First, tell me why you went to that school four or five times. What were the reasons?”
Officer Qin pulled out his case notes and flipped back a few pages.
On October 18th, Zhen Huan drowned. Their station responded and made a simple determination that it was a normal suicide. The school was cooperative and repeatedly stressed the possibility of copycat incidents, hoping to handle it low-key and avoid publicity.
The matter should have ended there, but on the evening of October 25th, a call from the Education Bureau came directly to their chief, saying there were suspicious points in the case and asking them to investigate further.
So on October 26th, their station sent people to the school again to take statements from relevant personnel.
“October 25th,” Zhou Zhaonan suddenly interjected. “That’s the day the Education Bureau came. Xu Shijin wrote a letter to them reporting Jiang Jie for bullying her, and that Jiang Jie’s official father was abusing his power to oppress common people. So the Education Bureau came to investigate and mediate. Jiang Jie’s father forced her to apologize to Xu Shijin.”
“Jiang Jie’s pretext for bullying Xu Shijin was Zhen Huan’s death. The Education Bureau came to investigate, and so the rumor of her watching someone die without helping reached their ears… and then the police’s ears.”
At this point, Officer Qin suddenly coughed, offering a small hint. “Think about what you just asked… um… you get it.”
Ji Xun felt as if his meridians had been cleared, his thoughts instantly becoming clear and smooth. “So, during their investigation, the Education Bureau questioned Duan Huiwen. The autumn trip was her last-minute decision. The police wouldn’t care, but the Education Bureau would. She had to take responsibility, so she wanted to shift the blame. The death couldn’t be due to her lack of supervision; it had to be caused by a student from another class, not one of hers. The police kept receiving new leads, so they had to keep going back—senior, is that the line of thinking?”
“Hehehe, you continue, continue. You can think more… ahem.” Officer Qin couldn’t say it outright and could only be a riddler. He did it with great effort and a guilty conscience, looking at the sky, the ground, left and right, terrified that an inspector would pop out of a crack in the floor like a ghost and give him a demerit.
“Ha! I get it. ‘Watching someone die without helping’ can be ambiguously interpreted as ‘deliberately delaying rescue.’ In the latter case, the responsibility for the death isn’t even Zhen Huan’s anymore, it’s straight up Xu Shijin’s—”
“Hey—yah!” Officer Qin shouted loudly, as if emphasizing his own investigative discipline. “We, of course, can’t just listen to one person.”
Ji Xun frowned. “You also questioned students from Class A. Was their account the same as Duan Huiwen’s? Were they… influenced by Duan Huiwen?”
Officer Qin’s face wrinkled like a wave. After thinking for a long time, he said vaguely, “Well, we didn’t ask every single person…”
“The class officers?”
“That’s going too far. Let’s move on,” Officer Qin quickly interrupted. “Originally, on October 27th, which was a Saturday, we went to Xu Shijin’s house to talk to her and her parents again, but she wasn’t home and we couldn’t find her. Her parents said she was being temperamental and had fought with a schoolmate, so she was staying at a friend’s house to cool off. Xu Shijin refused to give them the friend’s contact information, saying it was an invasion of privacy. Her parents suggested we find her at school on Monday. On October 29th, we—”
“Where did you meet Xu Shijin? The teachers’ office? Or the building with the principal’s reception room?” Zhou Zhaonan asked.
Officer Qin recalled. “It wasn’t your academic building, anyway.”
Zhou Zhaonan nodded. “Zhen Huan’s parents came to the school that day with the autopsy report to demand compensation. If you were in the same building, Xu Shijin might have run into them then and gotten Zhen Huan’s autopsy report.”
Ji Xun added a question, “Did you suggest the autopsy to Zhen Huan’s parents?”
“Yes.”
Ji Xun gave him a thumbs-up. “Well, well, so you were the ones who tipped off Zhen Huan’s parents, setting off a chain reaction that led to them extorting Xu Shijin’s parents. Your contribution to the pressure on Xu Shijin was even stronger than Duan Huiwen’s. Be careful of retaliation.”
“…” Officer Qin’s face darkened. “Watch your words. How can you call it tipping off? And retaliation, is that something you kids should be thinking about?”
“Then let’s use ‘inconsiderate’,” Ji Xun said, looking down on Officer Qin’s self-deception. “What happened after that? Did you go to the school again?”
“We responded to a call on November 2nd. Xu Shijin was threatening to jump. The school called the police. We went up and told her the case was closed and she had nothing to do with it. She listened and came down—”
Ji Xun: “Wait, you went up and told her the case was closed? Why would you say that?” This was different from Zhou Zhaonan’s account of her giving up because she was promised a spot in Class A.
“At the time, the grade level director told us the girl was threatening to jump because people were calling her a fugitive for running away from home. Ai, you know how these rumors get more and more absurd as they spread.”
“…The police told her the case was closed. She was comforted by you, thought it was over, and came down,” Ji Xun said slowly after a long silence. “But in reality, nothing was over at all. You left… no, maybe even before you left, Xu Shijin had to face the gazes of others—gazes that didn’t believe her and were filled with malice.”
That was the last time Xu Shijin was seen at school. When she got home, she still had to face her parents, a face-saving couple who had just been extorted by Zhen Huan’s parents and would likely continue to unconsciously vent their emotions on her.
In the beginning of this story, only Jiang Jie’s malice towards her was conspicuous, visible to the naked eye. But with Xu Shijin’s one act of resistance—a resistance she thought was perfectly reasonable—she inadvertently tore apart the invisible fig leaf the school used to cover things up. The overwhelming malice dragged Xu Shijin to the judgment stand again and again.
Everyone was secretly shifting the blame, but she was the only target in the spotlight.
Xu Shijin’s revenge was by no means random. Her hatred was so intense, her target so clear, so precisely aimed at destroying what the people who mistreated her cared about most!
He looked at Zhou Zhaonan, the expressionless Zhou Zhaonan, the Zhou Zhaonan who seemed intimately familiar with all of this. He suddenly thought… maybe at this moment, Zhou Zhaonan could empathize with and understand Xu Shijin more than he could.
The police already said it was over. I’m obviously innocent.
Why does no one believe me?
Why do you keep pushing me again and again?
If even the police can’t help me, who can?
…
Then I’ll help myself!
