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墨書 Inktalez
Captain Shao rummaged through his pockets and pulled out a pack of cigarettes along with a few Plum Candies. He looked at Mary with a hint of embarrassment. We all knew what Captain Shao meant, but unfortunately, all the money I had was given to me by him, so I could only spread my hands awkwardly.
At that moment, Mary and Gu Chen took out several hundred dollars from their pockets and placed it in my open hands.
I stepped forward and placed the money in the old man's only hand. He hesitated for a moment, pushing it away, causing a few bills to fall into the clutter. I bent down to pick them up and noticed a few spoons and some Cigarette Butts under the rickety bed.
As we were leaving, the old man repeatedly thanked us.
Once a model student, he had fallen to such a state today. We had no idea what he had gone through, just as we didn't know why Lin Shu had killed someone at the age of fifteen. In fact, when we found the records about Lin Shu from that year, he had only said three words regarding why he killed—he deserved it.
Captain Shao pressed down on Lin Shu's file, his hand slowly pressing against his Temple: "Lin Shu may have already left Takizawa. Our net was cast a bit late. He must have left by an unlicensed taxi or a bus that doesn't require identification for Transportation."
Had Lin Shu really left?
I closed my eyes, pondering. If I were Lin Shu, what would I do? After a moment, I found my answer: I wouldn't leave. First of all, I was an Addict; if I went somewhere else, I wouldn't know where to find White Powder to consume. Takizawa City was the place I knew best. Secondly, my grandmother was here.
I felt it necessary to investigate why Lin Shu had killed someone back then; it might help with the case.
"Captain Shao, let's split up," I voiced my thoughts. "I want to look into Lin Shu's childhood while you continue investigating his whereabouts. However, I think it's best to send someone to keep an eye on the old man's house; I found spoons and Cigarette Butts under her bed."
"She might be lying," I added.
Mary shot me a glare and said, "Get lost; you think everyone is a bad person."
I shook my head and replied, "I just understand human nature better."
Captain Shao had basically ignored our daily bickering. He glanced at Gu Chen and said, "The task of monitoring this place is up to you. Remember, if you spot Lin Shu, make sure to notify us."
Finding information about a person can sometimes be easy, but at other times, it can be quite difficult. The challenge lies in the school’s unwillingness to acknowledge that Lin Shu was once a student there. After all, having a student commit murder is a disgrace for any school, even if that student had been recognized as an exemplary student for two consecutive years.
I managed to find Lin Shu's homeroom teacher. From the teacher's words, I caught a glimpse of another Lin Shu. We often hear about the same person from different people, and through these varied accounts, it seems we are not seeing the same individual at all. The mountain remains the same, but depending on who is looking at it, it may appear different.
In the eyes of his homeroom teacher, Lin Shu had always been a good child. When Lin Shu was sent to a juvenile detention center, all the students in his class came to see him off. The teacher told him, "Make sure to reform well and come out to be a good person."
But evidently, Lin Shu ended up becoming someone entirely different.
That was nearly ten years ago. It was a scorching summer day, perhaps even hotter than today. The students stared listlessly at their textbooks while the teacher's spittle flew as he lectured at the podium. They were discussing the story of Jing Ke assassinating Qin Wang, just as the teacher reached the part where the dagger reveals itself.
The thrilling tale transformed into an archaic discourse in the teacher's mouth.
Wang Liqun was considered the so-called leader of this class. At just in his second year of middle school, he already stood at around five feet nine inches tall. His words carried far more weight in class than those of the language teacher up front. Wang Liqun had once fought someone in the restroom until his opponent lay on the ground calling for mercy.
What he enjoyed most was gathering a group of his so-called underlings to block hallways. Whenever a girl passed by, he would slap her on the backside and revel in her flustered reaction, feeling an indescribable sense of achievement. Wang Liqun held nothing but disdain for those good students in class; he thought they were merely a bunch of bookworms.
Lin Shu was the top student in this class and was viewed by Wang Liqun as just another bookworm. Wang Liqun often bullied Lin Shu without reason—simply because he couldn't stand him. Once, Wang Liqun poured his urine into Lin Shu's water cup and laughed with his friends as they waited to see Lin Shu humiliated.
Some girls wanted to warn Lin Shu but ultimately chose to remain silent under Wang Liqun's intimidating gaze.
Lin Shu drank from the cup.
Wang Liqun and his friends burst into laughter: "You just drank my urine."
Lin Shu ignored the situation and poured the water from his cup out onto the balcony.
What was supposed to be a moment of humiliation for Lin Shu instead brought immense shame to Wang Liqun. Until his dying breath, Wang Liqun would never understand that shame was something one inflicted upon oneself, not something given by others.
Lin Shu had never bothered to retaliate; different people see the world in different ways, and this was a common truth that many simply failed to grasp.
Wang Liqun had once said, "Look at the graduates of Tsinghua University; in the end, they all end up working for high school dropouts who are now bosses of their own companies."
But what Wang Liqun did not realize was that those high school dropouts who returned home would never utter such words as he did. People loved to hear these so-called stories of reversal, but behind this logic lay their own insecurities. People were too good at comforting themselves and too quick to look down on others.
Lin Shu understood clearly that if he wanted to change his fate, he could only rely on his own hands, and learning was his only way out.
"Jing Ke slowly opened the map," the teacher said. "The dagger was revealed."
At the same time, the dagger hidden within Lin Shu's textbook also shone forth.
"Jing Ke seized the dagger and thrust it!" the teacher continued.
Lin Shu grabbed the dagger and thrust it.
With that thrust, Qin Wang did not die; instead, it struck right at Wang Liqun's heart.
The wind howled coldly by the Yi River; a hero departs and never returns.
Lin Shu stabbed Wang Liqun to death before everyone's eyes.
In biology class, it was mentioned that if someone were to accidentally cut their Aorta, blood would spray out. The textbook was not wrong; when Lin Shu pulled the knife out, the blood within Wang Liqun's body rushed out in a frenzy. Wang Liqun had a few seconds to ponder why Lin Shu had dared to commit murder.
Before anyone could react, Lin Shu threw the knife on the ground and turned to the teacher, saying, "Call the police; I’ve killed someone."
From that moment on, the language teacher could no longer read that lesson without emotion. She saw the raw brutality of murder, bloody and devoid of feeling. It was then that she understood what Jing Ke had truly set out to do all those years ago.
Lin Shu was sent to a juvenile detention center, and Wang Liqun was dead.
"Do you know anyone who was close to Wang Liqun?" I asked.
"I know them; I have their phone numbers," the homeroom teacher replied responsibly. "But I don't know if they've changed them."
Finally, the next afternoon, I found someone who knew about the incident back then. When I located him at a construction site, he was straining to carry two bags of cement to a designated spot. Reflecting on that past event, this twenty-year-old who looked like he was in his forties said, "I didn't understand back then; looking back now, I was really foolish."
I didn't know what he meant specifically, but I did understand what had happened. So much time had passed, yet his memories remained vivid; some things one could never forget.
One day after school, Wang Liqun was at the roadside enjoying skewers with his Fox Bowl Dog Friend when an elderly woman approached them.
The old woman moved Wang Liqun's drink bottle, thinking it was empty.
"Hey, you old hag, what are you doing?" Wang Liqun shouted angrily. "Damn it, don’t you know there’s still something inside?"
His shouting attracted a middle school student carrying a sack of drink bottles.
Seeing this, Wang Liqun burst into laughter and said, "Isn't this our class's good student? Isn't this Lin Shu? So this old bag of junk is your grandma! Ha! An old junker with a little junker—what a family of trash!"
Lin Shu ignored him, helping his grandmother and turning to leave.
Wang Liqun didn’t understand that one’s family background was never a reason to mock someone.
He only knew that he had finally found an opportunity to ridicule someone, so Wang Liqun stepped forward and grabbed Lin Shu's sack, causing a plastic bag full of drink bottles to spill all over the ground. The elderly woman hadn’t expected her simple action would provoke such treatment from this person. She apologized, saying, "It’s my fault, it’s my fault."
Lin Shu glanced at Wang Liqun and then bent down with his grandmother to pick up the bottles.
But at that moment, Wang Liqun exploded. Everyone in Class 140 either admired or feared Wang Liqun, but Lin Shu was the only one who treated him as if he didn’t exist. Wang Liqun couldn’t tolerate this. He kicked a soda can, which hit the old woman squarely on the head.
Lin Shu could tolerate everything Wang Liqun had done to him, but he could not accept this.
Yet Lin Shu remained indifferent. He and his grandmother gathered all the bottles and walked quite a distance away when suddenly Lin Shu ran back from beside his grandmother.
The narrator said he would never forget that night—under dim lights, amidst a noisy crowd, next to a barbecue stall filled with fragrant aromas, stood a boy in tattered clothes with a faint smile on his face. He gently said to Wang Liqun, "Get ready; tomorrow I’m going to kill you."
From that night on, he dreamed of that boy many times. This boy named Lin Shu didn’t talk much, but every word he spoke came true.
He suddenly recalled the first day of middle school when Lin Shu had said, "I come from a small village; my foundation is weak, but I want to be first in the class."
After that, Lin Shu never placed second again.
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