Author: 长洱 / Chang’er
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 58
It was just an inference.
In this school, or rather, in this city, there were people who had lost themselves. Whether it was morality or law, those things could no longer restrain them, but this inference was certainly alarming.
The key question was, what was it that could make people lose themselves?
The music indicating the start of lunch had finally ended.
In the classroom of the psychology department on the third floor, Fu Hao was packing up his belongings. He glanced at the text message sent by Lin Chen earlier asking him to meet on the rooftop. He had just put down his phone and began to put the cable into his laptop bag when a student quietly walked up to him and mysteriously shouted, “Teacher Fu.”
The voice was extremely low and was so close to his ear that it caused Fu Hao to shrink back in fright. He cleared his throat and asked, “What’s wrong? It’s useless to ask to make up for your failing grade. For the CET-4 and CET-6 a passing grade is 60. Any lower and…”
“No, no.” The boy got closer and asked, “Who was that that just came to our class to listen to your lecture? Are you familiar with him?”
“Does this matter have anything to do with you?”
“I just saw a post on the school forum…”
“You’re on your phone during class! I’m deducting the usual points!” Fu Hao said smoothly. At the end, he suddenly came to a realization and asked, “What post?”
“If you don’t deduct the usual points, I’ll show you,” the boy said with a sly smile.
“Hurry up and show it to me!”
Fu Hao spread out his hand. The boy made a huff and stuffed the phone into it. “There.”
On the screen of the phone was Yongchuan University campus BBS. A post was pinned to the top by the moderator with only one word: “He”.
The person who made the post was probably well versed in the art of ambiguity. The more chaotic and unclear the content, the more interest it would garner.
Fu Hao glanced at the posting time. It was about 20 minutes ago, but the number of replies had already reached 200 and the number of clicks had exceeded 4,000.
Sure enough, there were little bastards playing on their phones while in class. Fu Hao sneered as he clicked on the post.
The conspiracy came quickly and caught him off guard.
There were only three photos in the main post, which happened to capture the scene before and after Xu Haozhen jumped off the building. However, the real protagonist of the photos wasn’t his dead shimei but his shixiong—Lin Chen.
Fu Hao stabilized his breathing and began to carefully observe the three photos.
In the first photo, his shixiong was standing on the rooftop, and his shimei, Xu Haozhen, was sitting on the edge of the rooftop. The girl looked back and seemed to be talking to his shixiong, but the composition of the photo was extremely clever. The shadow made his shixiong’s face look cold, as if he were indifferent to the girl’s words.
In the second photo, his shixiong’s position moved forward a bit, and Xu Haozhen had just jumped off the roof. His shixiong still maintained the posture of putting one hand in his pocket. This made it seem as if his shixiong had forced Xu Haozhen to jump off the building.
In the third photo, his shixiong was squatting over the edge of the flower bed in the square. The ground was covered with blood and messy flyers. A girl stood in front of him, terrified by the suicide and sobbing uncontrollably. The atmosphere was gloomy, and the picture showed his shixiong stretching out a finger to the girl as if he were doing something to her.
There was a strong suggestiveness in these photos, as if to say that someone happened to be at the scene of the crime when the suicide occurred, but that person not only didn’t prevent the tragedy from happening but was also indifferent to their death.
After the tragedy, the man went down to the square and did something strange to the witnesses.
Fu Hao felt that his palms had already begun to sweat heavily. These photos were so suggestive that even he almost ran wild with his imagination.
He sniffled and slowly scrolled down the post.
Sure enough, because of the suggestive hints, the replies underneath had made all kinds of speculations.
—-
3L: [Holy shit. Who is this? Why was he there at the crime scene?]
10L: [What’s wrong with him? LZ, don’t just post half-assed!]
17L: [In the third photo, what is that person doing? What is he doing with his fingers,? Is he hypnotizing her?]
19L: [Brother 17, you’re making me shiver.]
20L: [Yesterday, three corpses were found under the old banyan tree by the lake. It was terrible.……]
21L: [Like 17L said, it’s really like hypnosis…]
22L: [It makes sense! If it’s not hypnosis, then… If it’s not hypnosis… would they really be willing to jump?]
44L: [What, this isn’t suicide, and he’s a suspect?]
49L: [Who is the owner that could have taken these photos?]
—-
After Fu Hao read the reply on the first page, he only felt that his face was cold, as if the air seemed to be full of broken ice.
He hurriedly gave the boy back his phone, grabbed his laptop bag, and hurriedly rushed out of the classroom, even forgetting to take his own phone.
In the conference room of Yongchuan University, a few blocks away from the teaching building, there was another group looking at the same post.
“Excuse me, Captain Jiang, why did the police ignore such an obvious clue?” Xu Guoqing, the executive vice-president of Yongchuan University, half rose from his chair and tapped the table as he spoke in an aggressive tone.
Jiang Chao remained sitting and crossed his legs while he smoked a cigarette. “The investigation takes time…”
“It’s no wonder there has been no progress in the investigation. The Yongchuan Police are incompetent. We just had another suicide incident at school. Captain Jiang, you are to blame for this!”
Hearing this, Jiang Chao glanced at Xu Guoqing as if to say, “The management of your school isn’t good. There are always students committing suicide here and making such a mess for laozi. Laozi hasn’t asked you to settle accounts yet you’re here picking a fight now?”
Although internally there was a raging drama that had been heavily bombarding him for nearly half an hour and he was on the cusp of losing his patience, Jiang Chao still held back!
“The police will speed up their investigation,” he said.
“So, are you still using Lin Chen to help?”
Hearing someone interrupting him again, Jiang Chao looked impatiently in the direction of the noise.
At this time, he discovered that the door of the conference room had been opened at some point, and a middle-aged man in black stood at the doorway. Jiang Chao narrowed his eyes and felt that this man seemed a little familiar.
“Shouldn’t Vice Captain Jiang detain Lin Chen as a suspect until he finds out the full story?”
The man specifically added the vice when addressing him. Jiang Chao suddenly remembered this windbag. Who could it be except for the butler who had nothing to do except go out and look for trouble?
“Hey, why are you always haunting people*?” Jiang Chao couldn’t help but say what was in his heart.
*(阴魂不散) Idiom when jokingly used, refers to people following closely and chasing after others.
“This is a representative of the Board of Directors of Yongchuan University, so he had the right to speak on behalf of them,” Xu Guoqing added doggedly.
Jiang Chao smooshed the cigarette butt and said coldly, “Oh, the Board of Directors of Yongchuan University, just because there are a few photos, you’re telling me I should arrest people?” He thought this was ridiculous. “This post is obviously a trap set up for Consultant Lin. Did you even think about it? Who could possibly be in such a coincidental position that allowed them to take the photo of the scene of the crime and capture it from such an ulterior angle?”
“But this is indeed a clue. It’s possible that the photo was taken accidentally by a student who loves photography. Perhaps they are afraid of being suspected of having posted it anonymously on the forum. Moreover, take a step back. Why didn’t this person take photos of other people instead of just Lin Chen?”
“Shit…” Lin Chen was about to be conquered by such unreasonable logic, just like saying that being raped was because one was being too coquettish, and he had to find a reason for it.
Jiang Chao was left speechless for a while, so he continued to be conquered.
“Besides, isn’t the reply from the student below a theory? Hypnosis… If it was hypnosis, it’s indeed possible to get students to commit suicide willingly. Lin Chen is a disciple of our Principal Su, and his psychological knowledge is quite deep,” Xu Guoqing sneered.
Although Jiang Chao trusted Lin Chen, hypnosis was a possibility, and he had to pursue it. He touched his chin, took out his phone, and began to look for Xing Conglian’s number.
—-
Xing Conglian and Lin Chen walked down from the rooftop.
Wang Chao sat cross-legged at the top of the stairs, fiddling with his laptop.
Hearing the sounds of footsteps, he hurriedly turned his head and could see the faces of the other two, which frightened him. “What’s the matter, Captain? Why are you making such an ugly face?”
“Is there any clue about the entrance to the live broadcast website?” Xing Conglian asked.
“No, that person didn’t get back to me. I added 50 bitcoins and wanted to ask for the entrance to the next live broadcast, but there was still no response. Maybe they’re in a different time zone?”
“It’s also possible the other party is aware of your motivation,” Lin Chen said. “After all, it’s an illegal act. Although there’s anonymity protection, their vigilance should be very high.”
“A’Chen don’t scare me!” Wang Chao quickly took out his cap from his backpack and put it on. He pressed down the brim of the hat, as if he were afraid of being discovered.
“50 bitcoins is nearly 120,000 yuan. If you spend too much, the other party may indeed get suspicious.” Xing Conglian thought for a while and then said, “But this is the dark web where money is king. Add a reward again. Don’t be afraid. If the other party doesn’t respond, just continue posting it. Someone will take the bait.”
“Won’t there be too much fanfare?” Lin Chen asked.
“The more people who appear to have persistent perverted desire, the more aligned it will make us appear, so we won’t be easily suspected,” Xing Conglian stated confidently. He looked at Lin Chen, paused, and said, “After all, we don’t have much time.”
Looking at Xing Conglian’s appearance, it frightened Wang Chao, so he asked in a small voice, “Did something happen again?”
“Not yet.” Xing Conglian stretched out his hand and pulled the boy up from the ground. “But, just make the call.”
Wang Chao quickly understood. He pulled up his pants and asked, “Why did you suddenly change your mind? Is it really serious?”
“Just in case, we need to be prepared.”
Lin Chen could hear the two’s brief conversation because the stairwell was quiet.
Although Xing Conglian and Wang Chao didn’t deliberately try to avoid him when they spoke, the content of their conversation was vague. Looking at Xing Conglian’s appearance, it didn’t seem that he would explain things to him, so Lin Chen should’ve felt a sense of irritability for being excluded.
However, it was possible that Xing Conglian’s tone was too calm, or that the content of his speech was so preparatory that Lin Chen felt a strange sense of calm—even peace of mind.
He looked at Xing Conglian and wanted to speak when suddenly, at that moment, the sound of rapid footsteps came from downstairs.
He lowered his head and saw Fu Hao’s figure appear in the corner.
Fu Hao seemed extremely restless. Through the interval between the handrails of the stairs, Fu Hao saw him. He rushed up within a few steps, grabbed his hand, and said, “Shi… Shixiong, something happened!”
As if to respond to such a rapid and slightly frightened tone, the ringtone of Xing Conglian’s phone suddenly rang.
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