The Coffin

The successive strange deaths of Class 4's teachers had the remaining staff in a state of panic. With Jia Shi and Suo Xin both having fled, the others were making similar plans of escape. But before any of them could act, another terrifying incident struck the campus and made everyone reconsider.

Tuesday morning was overcast. Hui Nan ran into Zhai Jia on the way to school; both women had faces as gray as the sky. Two women from out of town, working in a strange city, could at least give each other a small measure of warmth. But the terror that had been raining down on them was forcing them to think about leaving.

"Hui Jie, have you been looking for another job?"

"Not yet. You?"

"I'm still weighing it. Before I decide, I want to ask Master Liu to tell my fortune one more time. He's the one who helped me decide to come here in the first place, he told me—"

Just as Zhai Jia mentioned Liu Banxian, they spotted the sign for his stall ahead — swinging back and forth in the wind. Then came a commotion: a large group of people running toward them from the direction of the school.

Most of the runners were students. Liu Banxian himself was among them, jogging with the crowd.

"Master Liu!" Zhai Jia called out. "Why are you running?"

"The resentment is too strong — I can't hold it back." Liu Banxian huffed and puffed. "I'm too old for this. Time to retire."

"What? You're leaving? But what will I do?"

"I have one ward here that's followed me for most of my life. It can keep you safe." He began rummaging in his bundle.

Hui Nan, who had never had much patience for fortune tellers, stepped aside and stopped one of the fleeing female students: "What's happened at school?"

The girl was still trembling with shock. She gripped Hui Nan's arm. "Someone died again! There's a coffin in the sports ground!"

The words hit Hui Nan like a death sentence. Fifth pockmark nails the coffin, sixth pockmark carries it. The script was still playing. "Something will find an opportunity — someone among us will still be killed," exactly as Jia Shi had predicted.

This made Hui Nan suspicious of Jia Shi. What was he basing his certainty on? What else did he know? She thought of his defiant eyes — that rebellious streak must have formed young, through school, in the same way Chang Di's had. Both of them seething with resentment toward authority. Then why had Jia Shi become a teacher himself? His father was the deputy public security director — yet Jia Shi had chosen to come work as a history teacher in a school. Was it genuine passion for history, or something else? Had he come to school specifically to exact revenge for injustices suffered in his youth?

The thought broke off the moment she arrived at the sports ground. The speculation dissolved completely. A coffin lay in the center of the field, and inside it lay Jia Shi. Dead. His face as cold and fearless as it had always been in life — as though death held nothing over him.

Looking at Jia Shi's handsome face, Hui Nan felt a sudden pang of grief. A young man of intelligence and conviction, with infinite possibilities ahead of him — gone, just like that, for no clear reason.

Police cars arrived quickly. This time it wasn't Detective Wu Xian who came — it was Jia Lian, the deputy public security director, Jia Shi's father. The old man wept at the sight of his son's body, needing to be steadied by attendants throughout. He eventually left with the body, keeping only two officers behind to gather information.

According to what the police gathered, Jia Shi had seemingly flown back from Country Z the night before, then taken a cab to the school, and then died inside the coffin from poisoning — what appeared to be suicide. The coffin had been made by Uncle Du the gatekeeper, constructed from discarded desks and chairs in the school storeroom. Uncle Du had done carpentry at a coffin shop in the countryside in his youth, a fact many teachers knew. According to Uncle Du, Jia Shi had asked him to build it the previous Friday, without explaining what it was for. He never imagined Jia Shi would use it to bury himself.

Of course, no one believed Jia Shi had killed himself. This was another episode in the serial killings. Hui Nan felt a sense of dread closing around her — because she had seen, with her own eyes, the pair of eyes that Jia Shi had mentioned watching them from the dark.