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墨書 Inktalez
We are currently standing in the backyard of Principal Zhang's house.
Half of the backyard is tiled, while the other half is bare earth. Scattered flowers grow in the soil, but they appear to have been neglected for a long time, their petals dried and shriveled.
Hu Jiajia took a deep breath and pointed towards a direction in the southwest corner.
I used my fingers to scrape away the top layer of soil and pinched a small clump to put in my mouth. This was a trick I learned when I was young from prisoners in the jail. By taste and moisture, I could tell whether the soil had been disturbed. Just as I was assessing the moisture and impurities in the dirt, I saw Guan Zengbin inserting a small, concave iron shovel into the ground.
"Damn, you have a Luoyang shovel and didn't say anything earlier?" I exclaimed. "You made me taste it!"
"You didn't ask me," Guan Zengbin shrugged, acting as if it was none of his concern.
I felt helpless. "Stop digging. The soil underground is loose and contrasts with the top layer; the particles are small, indicating it has been disturbed not long ago. Plus, it tastes like plant roots, which means something was likely dug up."
Guan Zengbin split the Luoyang shovel in half and placed it into his toolbox before speaking up. "Not bad; from now on, I won't need to bring tools when I go out—I'll just bring you along."
"But that means..." Gu Chen glanced at us and then at Hu Jiajia standing beside him.
This indeed suggested that the area had been disturbed, but whether someone had been buried here remained unclear.
We found a tray in Principal Zhang's kitchen where cups were usually placed, but there wasn't a single cup on it.
"This set of cups should have another one; the other letter is W, which is the initial of Principal Zhang's partner's name," Hu Jiajia said, looking at the empty tray with confusion. "But now there isn't a single cup left. I remember he also drank water; where did that cup go?"
Hu Jiajia turned to look at us, and we looked back at her.
As for where the cup went, it was clear that someone had taken it away.
The chaotic clues began to connect in my mind, with only a few points still unclear. However, once I figured out those points, I would uncover the whole truth of the matter. I tugged at my hair while sitting on the sofa that Principal Zhang once occupied.
Some people were alive, and others wished they would die; some had died, yet others wanted them to live.
A corpse might just be a tool.
In the office.
"Gu Chen, check on Gao Rui's long-distance girlfriend," I instructed Gu Chen. "I'll give you a day. Make sure to uncover every detail about him and Gao Rui—leave nothing out."
"Got it," Gu Chen nodded.
"Xiao Liu, take a few people and investigate the attending physician who performed surgery on Zhang Mingliang," I turned to Xiao Liu. "In extraordinary times, we can use extraordinary methods. Get him to pull out all the surgical documents related to Zhang Mingliang's operation, understood?"
Xiao Liu cracked his knuckles and smiled. "Special methods are my specialty."
With Gu Chen and Xiao Liu taking their teams away, only Guan Zengbin and I remained in the office.
"So what do I do?" Guan Zengbin pointed at himself with his index finger.
"You'll conduct an experiment," I said, looking at Guan Zengbin. "Figure out how to disguise someone who died ten days ago as having died only five days ago. You're a forensic expert; I believe you can manage that."
Guan Zengbin stroked his chin thoughtfully and stared at me. "Have you found some substantial evidence? Do you really think Sister Jiajia is the murderer?"
"I believe so," I replied seriously, nodding as I prepared to leave.
Guan Zengbin leaned against the wall, blocking my path. "Why rush when you haven't explained everything? How could Sister Jiajia possibly be the murderer? Let me ask you a few questions, and if you can answer them, I'll let you go!"
Hu Jiajia and Guan Zengbin seemed to have a good relationship, much like my own recent acquaintance with Gao Rui, whom I thought was a decent person. Such emotions might cloud our judgment regarding the case, but people are creatures of feeling; only sages remain unaffected by joy or sorrow.
"Alright, you ask," I said.
"The time of Principal Zhang's death was five days ago!" Guan Zengbin pointed a finger and said, "I checked."
I shook my head and pushed Guan Zengbin's finger back. "I think someone could have forged the time of Principal Zhang's death. You are a Forensic expert; you should know this better than I do. You might not have noticed this yet, but re-examine the body during the autopsy and don't overlook any details."
Guan Zengbin nodded. "That is indeed possible; I suppose that's a valid answer. But why was Principal Zhang able to write those four threatening words on the wall after his death and follow Hu Jiajia?"
"Because it wasn't Principal Zhang who wrote it!" I said firmly. "The Stalker is definitely not Principal Zhang. I smelled the underwear in Principal Zhang's closet; aside from Hu Jiajia's, which had been worn, the rest had no scent at all! Those pieces of underwear were deliberately placed there! Moreover, none of the other teachers have ever lost their underwear."
Guan Zengbin furrowed her brow, seemingly recalling the scene at that time.
"But besides Principal Zhang, who else had a key to his house? It can't be a thief..." At this point, Guan Zengbin suddenly paused. I think she realized who could freely enter and exit Principal Zhang's home.
One hand on her head and the other against the wall, she pondered for a moment before speaking. "Are you suggesting that Gao Rui put those pieces of underwear in Principal Zhang's closet? Is Gao Rui the Stalker? But Gao Rui clearly lives with Hu Jiajia; how could he stalk her?"
"The Stalker is someone else," I said, shaking my finger lightly.
"Who is the Stalker?" Guan Zengbin asked eagerly as she saw me shaking my finger.
I lowered Guan Zengbin's arm from the wall and walked outside while saying, "If my guess is correct, that Stalker should be Zhang Mingliang."
"But Zhang Mingliang only stalked Gao Rui! At that time, Guan Zengbin hadn't even moved in with Gao Rui yet. How could Hu Jiajia possibly see someone who wasn't stalking her?" Guan Zengbin finally caught one of my flaws. "That doesn't make sense; how do you explain it?"
I shrugged and spread my hands. "So I need to verify this point. You need to hurry up with the task I've assigned to you; the truth is already on the verge of being revealed."
"Do you really believe what Hu Jiajia said? She just loves Gao Rui too much, so she forged the scene!" Guan Zengbin asked one last question.
I sighed. "Gao Rui was just arrested; Hu Jiajia came an hour later. In just one hour, how could she forge anything? Perhaps the facts are exactly the opposite of what you described."
"Her description had no flaws, while Gao Rui's account always left one point unresolved. There were no traces of blood above the sixteenth floor of that building. And on the stairs, there were only Old Zhang's footprints. How did the murderer escape?" I took the initiative.
Guan Zengbin pondered for a moment before replying, "Perhaps Old Zhang didn't check the floors carefully; the murderer could be hiding somewhere between the first and fifteenth floors. Or could it be that Old Zhang was the one who committed the murder?"
"Then there's only one possibility, no matter how absurd it may seem," I said calmly.
"What possibility?" Guan Zengbin asked.
I stepped out the door and turned back to say, "I'll let you know once I find out."
When the moon hung high in the eastern sky, I arrived in Gao Rui's city. At Fourth High School, where Gao Rui studied, I finally found the answer. The retired homeroom teacher, a woman in her sixties, revealed to me a secret she had buried in her heart for eight years.
It was a day eight years ago.
In her fifties, she enjoyed taking walks on the playground after evening study sessions, even though it was already eleven o'clock at night. Her husband had often urged her to resign from her position as homeroom teacher; waking up at six in the morning and returning home at midnight was too much for someone her age to handle.
She insisted that she wasn't old enough to retire just yet.
She couldn't bear to leave her students; this was her tenth batch of students.
Looking at them made her feel young again.
"This is my last class," she thought as she walked deeper into the playground.
She heard rustling sounds.
Though she was old, her heart remained youthful. She knew that couples often came here after evening study sessions to express their feelings. As long as they didn't do anything outrageous, she was quite open-minded about it. She quietly hid behind a tree, listening and watching the commotion not far away. Suddenly, she recognized one of them; it was a student from her class, but she didn't know the other person.
There were two young men.
Moonlight Shines Brightly, Stars Are Few., there was silence all around. This classmate in her class actually knelt down in front of her. School bullying, this was her first reaction. But what happened next shocked the fifty-year-old naughty girl who thought she was enlightened. The classmate unzipped the other person's pants, then took out the other person's thing and put it in his mouth. A male classmate in his class was giving oral sex to another boy. She wanted to step forward to stop him, but her legs felt like lead. She wanted to speak, but her mouth felt dry. She stared blankly at the classmates in her class and wiped the corners of her mouth. She heard this classmate say: "I want to be with you forever, and I will do anything for you." But the other party suddenly said He pushed away and then said: "Why are you like this? I have told you this. This is the last time. I am not gay. We were young and ignorant before. How can you rely on me to follow you?" For the rest of my life. This is the last time I will see you. I will never come back to this city." "It's useless even if you are willing to die for me, you know?" The other party suppressed his emotions that were about to break down. : "We can't be together, what do you think!" "Zhang Mingliang, I am willing to do anything for you, including dying!" The voice echoed through the playground, and the other party seemed to be afraid of alerting the security guards and did not speak. , quickly disappeared at the other end of the playground. This student’s name is Gao Rui.
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