Medicine

Hui Nan and Zhai Jia were still waiting in the dark stairwell, the waiting becoming more frightening with every passing minute. Hui Nan finally spoke. "I'll go check — Xiao Laoshi has been gone too long." Zhai Jia said nothing. She was too scared to wait alone and too scared to go to the bathroom. In the end she could only watch, helpless, as Hui Nan's footsteps also disappeared into the dark corridor. Hui Nan had gone slowly; she came back at a sprint.

Zhai Jia saw Hui Nan emerge from the darkness at a full run, crash into her, both hands seizing Zhai Jia's arms with a grip so tight the nails nearly broke skin. Hui Nan's body wouldn't stop shaking. Finally, out of a trembling mouth: "Xiao — Xiao — Xiao Laoshi is dead."

The bathroom was full of steam. Xiao Jin was kneeling on the floor, hair scattered, head immersed in a basin full of blood-water.

That night several police cars arrived. Hui Nan and Zhai Jia were taken to the station to give statements, and didn't get home until the early hours.

Three deaths at the same school within three days, all teachers. Detective Chief Wu Xian stood at the evidence table, holding a photograph of the crime scene — the last character Xiao Jin had written in her own blood before she died: a red "Medicine".

Wu Xian picked up his phone. "Fei Qiang — help me look through Xiao Jin's personal connections. Especially any students she has taught. Is there anyone with the surname Yao(Medicine)?"

Fei Qiang was a young officer, a few years into the job, tall and powerfully built, enthusiastic about the work, and the sharpest investigator on Wu Xian's team. His research was fast and precise.

The police team returned to No. 4 Middle School. A few minutes later the campus PA crackled to life: "Will student Yao Xing of Class 4, Grade 4 please report to the vice principal's office on the second floor upon hearing this announcement."

Yao Xing was an introverted boy. He came in, sat across from Wu Xian, and looked visibly anxious. "Hello — Officer!"

Standing beside Wu Xian, his assistant Fei Qiang opened the questioning. "You're Yao Xing?"

"Yes, that's me."

"Tell us about your homeroom teacher Xiao Jin."

"Ms. Xiao was a good teacher. She worked very hard for us, she cared very much about our studies. I admired her deeply, and her death—"

"I have a file here," said Wu Xian, who had been silent until now, cutting in. "Two months ago, you forgot your homework notebook and Xiao Jin — the deceased — made you stand in the corridor for a full period. One month ago, you talked during self-study period, and she made you wipe the blackboard for a week. Last week, you didn't go to morning exercises, and she called your parents in. You have repeatedly called Xiao Jin 'the old hag' behind her back, and said her son had no anus. Is that how much you admired her?"

The questions had taken all the air out of Yao Xing. His body had stopped being straight and was sagging back into the chair; the anxious expression had faded from his face, replaced by cold flatness. "Right, I didn't like her. But I wasn't the only one who didn't like her. So why single me out?"

"There were others?" A spark of interest appeared in Wu Xian's eyes.

"Hmph." Yao Xing's smile was cold. "Not a single person in the class could stand her."

The spark went out. "On the evening of the 30th of October — the night of the victim's death — at 9:15 p.m., where were you?"

"That night we went to KTV. Didn't leave until past ten. More than twenty people from our class went. All of them can confirm I was there."

"Why did you go?"

"To celebrate Ma Dahua's death."

"You students—" Wu Xian started to lecture him, then stopped. "You can go. I'll find you again if I need you."

"Sure." Yao Xing stood up and walked out.

Watching Yao Xing's back, Wu Xian shook his head and turned to Fei Qiang. "It wasn't him."

Fei Qiang picked up a file from the desk, flipped through it, and said: "Xiao Jin's husband ran a biotech company ten years ago. He was found to be manufacturing banned pharmaceutical substances and is currently incarcerated. Could the character 'medicine' relate to her husband? Could this be a grudge case — someone from his past coming to settle a score?"

Wu Xian: "A ten-year-old case — the grudge wouldn't conveniently surface right after two teachers at No. 4 have been killed in succession."

Wu Xian turned to look at the sports ground beyond the window, and said quietly: "The killer is somewhere inside this campus."