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墨書 Inktalez
Chu Feifan crouched down and said to the trembling Su Jin'er, "It's not your fault; she committed suicide."
"She's the third one!" Su Jin'er murmured. Wen Shishi, Linyuan, Xu Lingling—they all died in front of her, and she could only watch helplessly. She hated herself for being so useless!
This suicide incident shocked the entire school. Someone must have informed the principal, who hurried over. He looked at the body on the ground and then at Su Jin'er, who was still sitting nearby. He instructed the school staff to draw a circle around the body with chalk and told Chu Feifan to take Su Jin'er away while he hurried to comfort the frightened and agitated students around.
Soon, police cars arrived, and Captain Xing came as well. He glanced at Su Jin'er and Chu Feifan, then ordered the coroner to conduct a brief examination of the body and instructed the students to leave the scene.
Su Jin'er watched as the police, wearing white gloves, carefully lifted Xu Lingling's broken body. It seemed that all her bones had shattered; her body was limp and difficult to lift.
The police struggled greatly to place the body on a stretcher. As they passed by Su Jin'er, Xu Lingling's hand suddenly slipped off the stretcher. A gust of wind blew up one corner of the white cloth, and Su Jin'er caught a glimpse of Xu Lingling's face turned toward her. Her eyes were wide open, glaring viciously at Su Jin'er.
Su Jin'er stepped back; it was the second time she had seen such a malicious look.
"What’s wrong?" Chu Feifan asked, concerned as he noticed Su Jin'er's pale face.
Just moments ago, Chu Feifan had been standing right next to her. If Xu Lingling had truly glared at her, he should have seen it too.
"Did you see Xu Lingling's gaze just now?"
"Gaze?" Chu Feifan paused for a moment. "Her eyes were closed! I saw the police close them earlier."
Chu Feifan’s words made Su Jin'er feel cold all over. If what he said was true, then she was the only one who had seen that gaze—was it possible she had imagined it?
But could she really have hallucinated twice?
Is there really a presence of souls?
She had once heard her grandmother say that after a person dies, they can see things that normal people cannot. But she had never died, so why was this happening to her?
Or perhaps she had died, and just didn't know it.
She felt her thoughts becoming increasingly bizarre, and the more she thought about it, the more fear gripped her. She furrowed her brows but dared not voice her thoughts.
At that moment, Captain Xing approached and asked, "What's going on?"
Su Jin'er took a deep breath and replied, "Her classmates said she went crazy, calling my name. By the time I arrived, she was already standing on the rooftop."
It seemed like saying that took a lot of effort; Xu Lingling's gaze still lingered in her mind.
Captain Xing noticed her trembling body and assumed she was unwell. He asked, "What's wrong? Why are you shaking?"
Su Jin'er shook her head; she couldn't tell him that Xu Lingling had been glaring at her maliciously!
Captain Xing nodded and said, "The report on that head has come back. It died five days ago. We need to find the body to determine the exact cause of death. But don't you have any missing persons at your school?"
"We haven't heard anything about that."
Captain Xing took out a piece of paper and handed it to Chu Feifan, saying, "This is a photo we've restored. Please help us inquire about it."
Taking the photo, he looked at it and then handed it to Su Jin'er. It was a picture of a boy who looked quite ordinary. Both of them indicated that they did not recognize him. At that moment, a girl walked over; she was the one who had called Su Jin'er.
"Hey! Isn't this Feng Liang? How do you have his photo, and why is it just his head?" the girl asked in surprise.
"You know this person?" Captain Xing immediately inquired upon hearing that someone recognized him.
The girl was startled by Captain Xing's imposing presence but cautiously replied, "Yes, he's a very honest student who has always worked hard, but his grades have been quite average. We were high school classmates. I thought he would never get into this school, but strangely, here we are."
"You were high school classmates?"
"Yes, and that's not all. We're also from the same hometown; we've been in the same school since childhood. I thought we would part ways when we went to university, but we still ran into each other," the girl said with an embarrassed shrug.
"Were you childhood sweethearts?"
"Why do people say that? I don't like him," she replied, seeming displeased with the idea of being labeled as childhood sweethearts and was about to leave.
"Wait a moment, we still want to learn more about him. Can you tell us anything?" Captain Xing called out to the girl who was about to leave.
Reluctantly, the girl turned around, appearing unwilling to associate with this boy.
"What happened?"
"He’s missing, do you know?"
"I'm not his girlfriend, how would I know about him? Although he always tries to get close to me at school, I don't like him."
The girl pouted; it was clear that Feng Liang liked her, but she didn't reciprocate his feelings.
"Do you know that he’s already dead?"
The girl, who had been looking down, suddenly lifted her head. She looked at Captain Xing in disbelief, her eyes gradually reddening. "You're joking, right?"
Captain Xing wanted to say that life and death are serious matters and not something to joke about, but seeing the girl's tear-filled eyes, he swallowed his words and gently said, "This photo is what we reconstructed from his skull. If we’re not mistaken, he has been murdered and dismembered."
Tears immediately streamed down the girl's face as she trembled and asked, "When did this happen?"
"We discovered his skull the day before yesterday. He had been dead for five days prior to that. So I’d like to ask you to tell us everything you know about him."
The girl nodded and said, "Okay, I will cooperate with you."
They all went to the Pavilion together. The girl remained silent, only quietly crying while Su Jin'er comforted her by holding her shoulder.
After a while, the girl's emotions stabilized a bit. She said, "My name is Feng Qian. We are from the same village and have studied together since childhood. There were three other kids our age, but they only went through middle school; only Xiao Liang and I went to university. I always knew he liked me, but he never admitted it. So I tried to provoke him by acting like I hated him. But I never expected that it would lead to his harm."
The girl began to cry again. Su Jin'er patted her shoulder, but her eyes were on Captain Xing, expressing some doubt about what she had said.
"Why do you say you harmed him?"
Feng Qian took the tissue that Su Jin'er handed her and continued, "I know he went missing, but before he disappeared, he came to me and asked if I liked him. At that time, I was arguing with a friend and was upset. Since I had bullied him before, I impatiently told him that I didn't like him. Then he told me he would never bother me again. I thought he was joking, so I didn't take it seriously. I never expected he would end up dead."
Captain Xing frowned.
"Did you not look for him afterward?"
"I did. Later, I felt it was unfair to him, so I asked my classmates to help me find him. But his roommate said he didn't come back that night. They thought he had gone home, so no one paid attention."
"So you didn't pay attention either?"
"Yes, I thought he was angry because of what I said and figured a guy would be so petty about it. So I got angry too and didn't look for him again. But..."
The girl suddenly stopped speaking. She wiped her tears and said, "But because I once mentioned in front of my classmates that I wanted to find a rich boyfriend, I didn’t openly look for him. I secretly tried many times but couldn't find him."
Su Jin'er sighed. Was having money really that important? Was it so impressive to have a wealthy boyfriend? She found it hard to understand. Although she thought this way in her heart, she didn’t voice it. Her family wasn't very rich, but she had everything she wanted, so she couldn't know how children from poorer families lived and felt unqualified to comment on anyone.
"Was he killed by someone? But how could that be? He never offended anyone and didn’t have many friends; who would want to kill him?"
Feng Qian asked anxiously.
"We are still investigating this, so if you think of any useful clues, please let us know so we can solve the case as soon as possible."
Captain Xing took out a notebook he carried with him and wrote down his phone number to hand it to her. "Just call this number."
After Feng Qian left, Chu Feifan said, "I have doubts about what she said."
Su Jin'er nodded. "So do I."
"Share your thoughts."
"Her attitude was very unnatural. At first, when we questioned her, she seemed quite disgusted, and that disgust didn't seem to be feigned. After hearing that he was dead, her attitude changed immediately. If she really liked Feng Liang, she should have started to worry when she saw the police holding his photo. But she didn't seem very concerned; in fact, she looked like she wanted to avoid it," Su Jin'er said.
"Also, she mentioned that she said hurtful things to Feng Liang because of an argument with a classmate. They grew up together; how could she not know his personality? From what she said, Feng Liang should be a very introverted person. If an introverted person had the courage to ask if someone liked him, she should have been aware of that. How could she possibly say something hurtful just because of a fight with a friend?" Chu Feifan continued Su Jin'er's thoughts.
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