Cause of Death

To put Hui Nan on alert, Fei Qiang finally revealed what the station knew internally: "Xiao Jin's autopsy report has come back. I know a police officer isn't supposed to share this — but I genuinely don't want you to be the next victim."

He paused briefly, then continued: "You remember? Before she died, Xiao Jin wrote the character 'medicine' in her own blood on the floor."

"Third pockmark buys medicine, fourth pockmark brews it." At the mention of the word, Hui Nan's body gave an involuntary shudder.

Fei Qiang went on: "Xiao Jin's cause of death was drowning — but we found two substances in her blood. One was a laxative. The other was a common club drug, flunitrazepam — also called 'roofies.' After ingesting it, a person's limbs go completely weak. We believe making the victim take these two drugs was a key step in the killer's plan. So Xiao Jin's last message was intended to tell us she had been drugged — and the person who drugged her was very likely the killer. Based on the food contents in the victim's stomach and the timing of digestion, the drugs were taken during the dinner. Everyone at that dinner was a teacher of Class 4, Grade 4 — the killer was one of them."

"That's enough to make us all killers? The poison was in her food during dinner, so it had to be one of us at the table? Couldn't it have been put in outside the private room and then brought in?"

"One person at a table is poisoned while everyone else is fine. Precision targeting like that — only someone already inside the private room could manage it."

"Does the poisoning need to be precise? We were all on the list to die anyway — what does it matter who goes first?"

Fei Qiang was firm. "The poisoning was specifically aimed at Xiao Jin. Because we know that Xiao Jin's husband's former company was illegally manufacturing banned club drugs. That is not a coincidence."

Hui Nan shook her head wearily. "If you're this sure, why don't you just arrest all of us and interrogate us until the case breaks?"

Fei Qiang paused. "The rest of the station doesn't agree with me. Chief Wu isn't interested in my theory."

Hui Nan gave a cold laugh.

Fei Qiang moved quickly to explain. "Not because he thinks I'm wrong — there's pressure from above to protect the school's reputation. Until there's definitive evidence, they can't arrest that many teachers at once."

"Pressure from above to protect the school's reputation? Our principal has that kind of pull?"

"Could anyone without connections become a principal? Look at how many murders have happened at your school — has a single media outlet reported it?"

"So is your department still going to keep investigating?"

"Of course. This is a murder case. We've locked onto a suspect and are moving toward apprehension." He then added: "On the matter of Xiao Jin being drugged — I'll keep looking into it myself. Don't tell anyone. Just stay alert."

"All right. And you be careful with your own investigation." Hui Nan left him with this lukewarm parting word and got up to go.

Hui Nan was genuinely grateful to Fei Qiang for taking the risk of sharing internal information to put her on guard. But she didn't share his theory. The next morning she went to school as normal and continued to work alongside the people he believed were killers. She knew these teachers hadn't killed Xiao Jin. They were victims.

The four remaining teachers of Class 4, Grade 4 still at the school were: Zhang Yao, Zhai Jia, Zhu Hua, and Hui Nan. Every face looked terrible. Jia Shi's death had pushed them all past the point of hope — if escaping to a foreign country wasn't enough, where was left to run? Besides waiting to die, what could they do?

Waiting to die, it turned out, was one of the most agonizing things possible. Events had long since exceeded the mental endurance of these teachers. Zhang Yao was visibly gaunt; Zhai Jia was starting to come apart at the seams; Zhu Hua seemed to have aged years overnight; Hui Nan herself was not much better than any of them. At this rate, even if the killer didn't strike, the psychological pressure alone might do the job. But the killer would strike.

After the first bell, a piercing shriek tore through the campus. Hui Nan rushed out to find a crowd gathering at the boiler room entrance. The other three teachers were already in it. Everyone was surrounding a worker sitting on the steps outside the boiler room — his face ash-gray, the corner of his mouth twitching. He sat there a long time before he could manage the words: "Water — the tank — there's a — dead person — in it."

The stomach of everyone present lurched. The killings were still going on — but Hui Nan, Zhang Yao, Zhai Jia, and Zhu Hua were all standing right there. So who was inside? Police arrived quickly and pulled out the contents of the tank — a body, cooked beyond recognition, impossible to identify.

Everyone's first guess was Suo Xin. Wang Qin's missing body was another possibility.

The body was severely damaged and no time of death could be established. DNA testing was required to identify the deceased. The result surprised everyone. The body was neither Suo Xin nor Wang Qin — it was the murder suspect the police had been trying to apprehend: Tang Sui. The mother of Fang Chuchua, the girl who had disappeared fifteen years ago. The "old woman boiling medicine" had died inside her own brew.

The four "waiting to die" teachers, hearing this result, felt something like the sensation of surviving a near-death experience. The assumption that Tang Sui was the killer had no evidence behind it — but when people are in despair, they tend to believe whatever offers a way out.

Ma Dahua, Huang Lu, Xiao Jin, Wang Qin, Jia Shi — Tang Sui was the sixth death. Including the female student Gu Qing from half a year ago, seven deaths had occurred. Hui Nan suddenly remembered what Su Meng had told her: the legend said the girl who had died on the campus fifteen years ago, Fang Chuchua, had come back to claim lives — she needed to kill seven people in order to be reincarnated.

Seven were now dead. What would happen next?