Chapter Five: The Fifteen-Year-Old Mystery (3/3)

At night, still past 9 o'clock, Zheng Huiwen arrived at Qunying Teaching Building, the oldest teaching building in the school. Only the first and second floors were still used for daily classes; the third to fifth floors had all been abandoned. The fifth floor was the top floor, piled full of old broken desks and chairs, lecterns, and various teaching supplies. Even in daytime, few people set foot in this teaching building, let alone on a night when it was said to be haunted. Zheng Huiwen walked at an unhurried pace, her footsteps—not originally heavy—now echoing through the entire building. Step by step she walked, and soon reached the top floor. At that moment, a dark shadowy figure appeared quietly before her eyes, motionless, as if it weren't a person at all. Yet Zheng Huiwen remained perfectly calm. She continued walking forward and greeted it: "Good evening, Teacher Yang."

"Good evening, Huiwen." The dark figure before her actually spoke, in a perfectly normal tone. Clearly, she was not a ghost, but a person—if one looked closely at her face, one would find that she was a current teacher at the school, Yang Yue.

"Why have you dressed up like this again?"

"Since the school is supposedly haunted, they should be shown a ghost."

"You keep doing this—aren't you afraid someone will notice something's off?"

"No need to worry. I've always done this without leaving a trace, and besides, soon I won't need to do it anymore."

"Why not?"

"Huiwen, you saw this filthy thing today—were you scared?"

"A little, but I'm much better now. Teacher Yang, what did you want to see me about?"

"I want to ask you to help me with something. I thought of many people, but I feel that only you can help me. If Dong Lixin's daughter hadn't suddenly died, I probably wouldn't have found the chance."

"Please, just tell me directly. What is it?"

"You're a smart girl, and I believe you can help me accomplish this. Fifteen years ago, Ren Jiahua, the president of Jiangzhu University, and his wife were murdered one after another. The nature of the case was extremely vile, but the police at the time closed the case hastily, ruling that President Ren had committed suicide and that his wife had died in an accident. And the real murderer has been at large for fifteen years."

"There's such a thing? Then you're saying... you know who the murderer is?"

"Of course I know. I won't forget it even in death."

"Who is it?"

"This person is the father of the corpse discovered on the mountain behind the school today. He's still lording it over someone else's domain, throwing his weight around—it's been a full fifteen years now."

"Someone else's domain?" Zheng Huiwen pondered for a few seconds, then asked tentatively, "You mean... the current president, Dong Lixin, seized power through usurpation?"

"That's right." Yang Yue nodded.

Zheng Huiwen was startled for a moment, but quickly accepted it, nodding and murmuring to herself, "So that's how it is." Then she asked again, "I remember Ren Jiahua was in his thirties when he died—he should have had children by then. What happened to his children? Are they still alive?"

"Don't worry about that, they're still alive. I'm just not sure where they are, which is for the best, because there's no way Dong Lixin would let them go."

"Cutting the grass and pulling out the roots—that's quite normal," Zheng Huiwen added, her expression darkening, "and quite despicable, too."

"But fortunately, he didn't succeed. Someone so vicious—how could everything go his way?"

"That's true. Although I'm an atheist, I do believe in the saying that Heaven has eyes."

"Frankly speaking, I want to use the pretext of Dong Lixin's daughter's death to uncover the crime he committed fifteen years ago and bring the truth to light." Yang Yue stepped forward, looking at Zheng Huiwen with earnest, sincere eyes, and said, "Huiwen, I beg you, you must help me accomplish this."

Zheng Huiwen pondered for a moment as well, hesitating slightly, and said, "But Teacher Yang, can I really manage something like this?"

"Of course you can. If you manage it, it will be equivalent to accomplishing a great deed—the whole of Jiangzhu University will remember you. Besides, you're not the only one working on this. There are quite a few people busy at it in places you can't see, and some of them are even more anxious than you are."

"More anxious than me? Who could that be?"

"Naturally, those people at the police station. As far as I know, Dong Lixin gives the mayor plenty of money and pleasures every month, and has been drinking buddies with the mayor for several years now. Now that his daughter has died, he's bound to ask the mayor to help him find the murderer as quickly as possible."

"If that's the case, then the pressure will definitely fall on the police in charge of this case."

"Exactly."

The two women's guess was indeed correct. At that very moment, in the Zhuji City Public Security Bureau, He Shaobin, the officer primarily responsible for this case, was in the bureau chief's office, bearing the pressure the chief had brought back from the mayor.

The bureau chief, in his fifties, sat as steady as a mountain in his chair, his eyes lazy as he looked at the young officer before him, not yet thirty, and said, "Shaobin, it's been a whole afternoon—any progress on this case?"

"Reporting, Chief," He Shaobin said, head lowered but his voice clear and audible, "No new findings for the time being."

"Do you think this case is difficult? Do we need to assign more manpower?"

"I can't say for certain right now. Please give me two days, Chief, and I'll report back."

"I got a call from the mayor this afternoon," the chief said, slowly straightening up in his seat, fiddling with the lid of the teacup before him, looking at the yellowed tea inside. "Dong Lixin, the president of Jiangzhu University, has some friendship with our mayor, so the moment the case was filed, Dong Lixin immediately went to the mayor, begging him to make sure the murderer is found as quickly as possible. Actually, the mayor doesn't care so much about this friendship—it's that once two people's friendship lasts a long time, they come to know each other's secrets, and he doesn't want this kind of trivial matter to blow up into a big mess. Shaobin, you're a top student from the police academy, surely you understand what the mayor means?"

"I understand, Chief."

"Good that you understand. So find it out as quickly as possible. Dong Lixin isn't like an ordinary person who's easy to fob off—he can't afford to drag this out, and he has no patience for delay either. The mayor doesn't want trouble, and I don't want it either. Whatever the result turns out to be, we at least need to give the mayor an explanation. This matter is difficult for you, I know, but if we don't give you the chance, how is a young, inexperienced officer like you ever going to advance?"

"I understand, Chief." He Shaobin lowered his head even further, his brow furrowing.

"All right, arrange your own schedule, just be careful not to overwork yourself. I have other matters to attend to, so I'll head back now."

"Thank you for your concern, Chief."

"Lock the door for me on your way out."

The chief then stood up and walked away unhurriedly. He Shaobin stood motionless where he was, and only after the chief had left did he raise his head, letting out a long breath. Only after the chief's footsteps had faded completely away did he stomp his foot in frustration, yank the cap off his head, and fling it with a "swoosh" onto the chief's seat, muttering under his breath, "Is he out of his mind? Dumping such a thorny mess on me."

He knew—what he understood most clearly of all—was that a black pot bigger than the entire public security bureau had been placed squarely, without the slightest deviation, on his head. Right now, he was the unluckiest person in the whole bureau.