The Dark Campus

Gu Qing, the female student of Class 4, hangs herself in the classroom.

A pair of dead hands appears on Su Meng's desk and draws a picture of the place where Gu Qing's ashes are buried.

Chang Di takes over Gu Qing's old seat and from that day on buys notebook after notebook to burn.

A sketch of Ma Dahua appears in the Chinese lesson — the Ma Laoshi in the picture has no head.

The school is decorated as Gu Qing's funeral hall; that same night, Ma Dahua is found hanged.

Huang Lu has a sketch by Gu Qing — a small figure cradling a bloody eyeball.

Huang Lu dies, a shard of glass through her eye.

Xiao Jin's face had gone bloodless as she finished telling the other teachers at the dinner table what had happened in Class 4 over these past days. The story itself sounded unreal and dreamlike, yet the two dead teachers were a bloody and undeniable fact.

Principal Chen Daipeng frowned. "By all indications, Chang Di is the most likely suspect. Suo Laoshi — can you confirm that Chang Di did attend your tutoring session on the night of the first murder?"

"Yes, he was there. He definitely came to the session that day." Suo Xin's answer came with a hint of awkwardness.

Suo Xin had transferred to No. 4 from another school two years ago — in her early forties, almost twenty years in teaching. She didn't manage a homeroom class and rarely raised her voice at students. If any student disliked her, it was almost certainly because of her steep tutoring fees. Smart property developers hold back the best units and release them slowly; smart teachers hold back the key knowledge points and save them for their paid tutoring classes.

The principal had always turned a blind eye to teachers running private tutoring, but hearing it mentioned directly, Suo Xin still felt a flicker of discomfort.

The principal seemed completely unbothered. "Think again — was there anyone who didn't come to your session that night?"

"No. The students in my tutoring class are all high performers — absences are rare."

So who did it? A few teachers began murmuring theories among themselves.

"Could it be Gu Qing?" The young geography teacher, Zhai Jia, suddenly blurted it out.

"Watch what you say!" Zhang Yao turned on her immediately, using his habitual student-disciplining tone.

Principal Chen Daipeng waved him off at once and glanced at the frightened Zhai Jia. "No need to be nervous. Ghosts are just superstition."

He paused, then continued: "Wang Laoshi, you know Huang Lu best. Did you know of any conflict she had with anyone?"

Hui Nan was puzzled — what was the connection between Huang Lu and chemistry teacher Wang Qin? She'd never heard Huang Lu mention anything.

The homeroom teacher Xiao Jin, sitting beside her, noticed the confusion. She whispered: "Huang Lu used to be Wang Laoshi's student. Her mother passed away when she was young, and her father never took care of her. Wang Laoshi supported her through school and later introduced her to a position here. She treated Huang Lu like her own child."

At the mention of Huang Lu, Wang Qin closed her eyes and adopted an expression of deep sorrow. "That child was never much for talking — she rarely argued with anyone, and she kept a very loose hand in her classroom, never scolded students. It's hard to imagine who she could have made an enemy of. I can't understand it. Such a good child — who would want to hurt her?"

Her words drew a wave of feeling from the table. Can a person who has offended no one really be killed? Can someone be killed for no reason? Hui Nan firmly believed not — there was simply a reason that hadn't been found yet.

The dinner ended. The exchange among the teachers had done almost nothing to help solve the case, and if anything it made everything feel more tangled. On the way home, Hui Nan walked with Zhai Jia and Xiao Jin, needing to circle past the school campus to reach the front gate and catch the bus.

"I kept feeling throughout that whole dinner that some of them were deliberately hiding something," Zhai Jia said as they walked.

"That's not it," said Xiao Jin. "In a situation like this, with lives on the line, anyone who had a clue would speak up and share it."

"I didn't pick up on anyone deliberately hiding anything either," said Hui Nan.

"Some things you can't see," said Zhai Jia. "But you can feel them. That dean, Zhang Yao — I kept feeling he was working very hard to hide how panicked he was inside."

"You're still holding it against him for snapping at you," said Xiao Jin. "He's always been like that. Don't pay attention to him."

"I'm not holding it against him," Zhai Jia said quickly. "I just feel he has something to hide. On the night Ma Laoshi was killed, it was him who told her to swap out the memorial portraits. Tonight as soon as I mentioned Gu Qing, his reaction was the biggest in the room. He's hiding something — I'm sure of it."

Hui Nan smiled. "You're describing a feeling to two science teachers. We only accept rigorous reasoning."

"My instincts are usually right," said Zhai Jia. "And I feel that Gu Qing's death—"

"Hold on!" Xiao Jin stopped suddenly.

"Did you think of something?" Zhai Jia asked, wide-eyed.

"No," said Xiao Jin. "My stomach is bothering me. I need to use the bathroom."

They had arrived at the school's main gate. The nearest bathroom was the one inside the school. When all three turned to look at the campus, a single, incongruous light was shining out from the dark building. The lights in the classroom of Class 4, Grade 4 were on. Why was there a light burning in a room where two people had died?