“Every story’s creation requires the inspiration of personal experience.”
Jiang Qinglan’s lips curled upwards as she stared out the window: “The moon is beautiful tonight.”
Xue Yunxin looked at her, but she didn’t know what to say. Should she say something to her like “yeah, the breeze is nice too”? After turning it over in her mind for half the night, she finally replied: “I’ll take you upstairs.”
Jiang Qinglan lived in an old residential area in the city center, as it was both cheap and convenient. For one person, it was enough.
“We’re here. Fourth floor, first unit.”
“Ah, okay.”
“Won’t you come in and sit down?”
“No, I have to get back to work. It hasn’t been too safe recently, and you live here by yourself. Please be careful, and if anything happens, just give me a call. I…haven’t changed my number.”
Jiang Qinglan smiled at her: “Okay, I’ve got it.”
The atmosphere was quite awkward. Even though they’d already arrived at her apartment, Jiang Qinglan made no move to go inside, and she stood there looking at Xue Yunxin. Xue Yunxin didn’t know what came over herself either, but she likewise made no move to leave, and she stood there looking at Jiang Qinglan.
“You really don’t want to come in and sit down?”
“No, no need. I have to go back and keep an eye on the students.” Once she finished speaking, she went to leave. At the moment when she turned around, internally delighted, Jiang Qinglan called out to stop her.
“Yunxin. Come in for a bit. It’s really been too long, and I have a lot I want to say to you. You can rest assured, the things you’re worried about won’t happen tonight. I promise you this.”
Jiang Qinglan’s voice carried a pleading note. When Xue Yunxin didn’t respond, she continued to press her advantage: “Yunxin, are you afraid that I’ll do something to you? I swear to you, if you don’t permit it, I won’t do anything you don’t like.”
Jiang Qinglan took a step forward to grab Xue Yunxin’s wrist: “Yunxin, are you afraid of me? I beg you, please don’t be like this.”
“Tomorrow. Tomorrow, I’ll come and take you over to the school before work.” Leaving these words behind, Xue Yunxin pulled her wrist out of Jiang Qinglan’s grip and left. When she saw what time it was, she hurried back to the university. At this time of year, North City was quite cold, and Xue Yunxin didn’t know if Li Yang had frozen into an icicle yet.
“Thank God, you’re finally back! I’m freezing to death out here!” Li Yang stood outside the entrance of the university, nose red. When Xue Yunxin arrived with the car, he immediately jumped in.
“Ahhh it’s so warm…so, you took Teacher Jiang back to her house?”
“Yeah, of course?”
“Hey, don’t blame me for being meddlesome. This Teacher Jiang, she’s you and Xiao Nuan’s friend?”
“She’s my classmate. Xiao Nuan and her have never spoken. Jiang Qinglan’s home life wasn’t good, and she was bullied at school. I was probably her only friend, back then.”
Li Yang opened a bottle of hot coffee and gulped down a huge mouthful: “This is shit weather. That Jack so-and-so is really coming out here to kill people, instead of staying inside nice and cozy?”
“If you could actually understand someone like that, you’d probably be right by his side.”
While the two of them were joking around, Li Yang caught a glimpse of a female student running out of the university’s entranceway. The student looked frightened beyond belief, like she’d just seen a ghost.
The student saw the police car, and she immediately shot over to it. Li Yang rolled the window down: “It’s okay, it’s okay, please slow down. Is there something we can do for you?”
“Mur-murder…murder…” The female student kept repeating this word over and over.
Li Yang and Xue Yunxin made eye contact briefly, got out of the car, and reassured the girl: “Miss, please calm down first. What’s your name? Can you tell us what happened? What murder?”
The student kept clinging to Xue Yunxin’s uniform: “My name is Li Ai. Jack killed my roommate! The dorms! In the dorms!” At this moment, more people, students and teachers alike, ran out of the building.
“Thank God, you’re here!” A dormitory caretaker grabbed Li Yang and brought him inside. Xue Yunxin took Li Ai and followed closely behind them.
When they turned a corner on the ninth floor, Li Yang, who had a sensitive nose, smelled an unpleasant fishy odor. As a police officer, he was already familiar with this kind of stench ⸺ Blood.
As they walked toward the room’s door, the smell became increasingly potent. When they entered the room, they were astonished ⸺ in room 908, to the right, on the lower bunk, a girl reclined on the bed. More precisely, it was a girl’s corpse, a fruit knife plunged into her chest. Her blood dyed the entire bed crimson.
Li Yang placed a finger under the corpse’s nose to search for breathing, then shook his head: “Dead.” Li Ai squatted on the ground, repeating fearfully: “Jack, it’s Jack…”
“Miss, please calm down first.” Xue Yunxin supported the girl as she stood up, turning her head to Li Yang: “Get in contact with Chief Chen. I’ll take her and help her settle down.”
Xue Yunxin took the girl to an empty room, then gave her some hot water: “Don’t be scared. Please, tell me everything that you know.”
“Miss Officer, was that really…you know, that Jack who’s been killing so many people recently…”
Xue Yunxin rubbed her shoulders comfortingly: “Don’t think about it. Let’s just talk normally for a bit. How about you introduce yourself to me? You know, stuff like your name, what year you are…”
“I-I’m Li Ai, I study German…”
“Ah, you study German, too. One of my friends studies German, and she’s even become a German teacher! Jiang Qinglan, do you know her?”
Li Ai lifted her head: “Teacher Jiang? You’re her friend?!”
“Yup, we went to the same junior high school!” Xue Yunxin looked Li Ai over, from top to bottom. Medium height, neither skinny nor fat, the kind of person that’d blend in in a crowd. Her appearance was also a little timid.
“Now, please tell me about what happened.”
“Okay…our dorm room had four people all together, but because of the the murder at the school, two went to live somewhere else. When I came back from the library today, I forgot to bring my key, but because I saw a light on in the room when I came upstairs, I thought Zhiying had come back and she could open the door for me.”
“Zhiying is her name?”
“Yes, her surname is Xin.”
“Alright, please continue.”
“Even though I called her for a long time, she didn’t open the door. I went to find a dormitory caretaker. When the door opened, I-I saw that…” Li Ai lowered her head. She kept picking at the skin on one of her hands, making it bleed.
Xue Yunxin saw that she had stopped speaking and gave her a few words to comfort her. She left the room, intending to walk over to room 908 to investigate. However, just as she exited the room, she saw Chen Kun and Song Nuan bringing some people over.
“Oh! What were you asking?” Chen Kun stood in the corridor, a lollipop in his mouth. Feeling Xue Yunxin giving him a peculiar look, he hurried to add: “It’s the girls’ dormitory, I didn’t have a choice. It’s all for the special investigation.”
Xue Yunxin told him everything she knew about the situation.
“Damn, a murder behind a closed door…It’s the ninth floor, too. Could they have jumped off the building?”
Song Nuan looked at Chen Kun and Xue Yunxin and went to open the door: “Chief Chen, the dormitory caretaker has not said anything. Furthermore, the entrance of the dormitory has a facial recognition security system, so they couldn’t have gotten in without their face being recorded. People have already been sent to check the surveillance footage.”
“Aiya! I’ve told you all, I really didn’t see anyone suspicious trying to get in!” The dormitory caretaker was scared that she would be involved. “I’ve worked here for almost ten years now! Nothing like this has ever happened before! Now, we’re all going to die!”
“Madam, please calm yourself!”
“Eiyou, I’m telling you, officer! How am I supposed to calm down?! 908! Why is it always 908?!”
This exclamation drew everyone’s attention, and Chen Kun sent Song Nuan a meaningful look.
“Madam, please come with me!” Song Nuan took the caretaker to an empty room next door. Tonight was doomed to be an all-nighter.
“Chief Chen, we didn’t find a note left by Jack.” Li Yang walked over.
“There isn’t…that’s not right…” Chen Kun chewed on the lollipop, pondering carefully. That’s not right…Jack always leaves a note behind. This time he didn’t…could he have forgotten to leave one?
“Anything else?”
“Body shows signs of a struggle, and there are clear ligature marks on the neck.”
Chen Kun walked up close to the body, focusing his gaze on its neck. Sure enough, the neck had marks left from strangulation by some type of cord.
“Aside from the fruit knife found in the deceased’s chest, we also found a jump rope beneath the bed.”
“Jump rope?”
“Yes, this one, from below the deceased’s bed.” Li Yang placed the jump rope in an evidence collection bag. The rope was made of tightly woven natural fibers, which most people don’t use anymore and most stores wouldn’t offer. Upon closer inspection, the ligature marks on the victim’s neck certainly came from that jump rope.
When Xue Yunxin asked Li Ai about the origins of the jump rope, Li Ai said that the jump rope belonged to another roommate, Hu Wenning, who’d already left the school.
By the time everyone had finished managing the crime scene, it was six o’clock in the morning. When she checked the time, Xue Yunxin thought it was about time to go pick up Jiang Qinglan.
She arrived at her place around seven. She didn’t know whether it was a coincidence or not, but she managed to catch Jiang Qinglan just as she came downstairs to grab breakfast.
“Yunxin, why are you here so early?”
“Ah…let’s go.”
Jiang Qinglan got in the passenger’s seat carrying her things. When she looked at her, Jiang Qinglan saw the dark circles under Xue Yunxin’s eyes.
“It’s fine if you eat in the car.”
“Yunxin, did you stay up all night? Ah, why are you always like this, so stubborn. Here, try to sneak in some sleep now.” Jiang Qinglan pulled out a meatbun and brought it to Xue Yunxin’s lips: “Here’s one with beef filling. You got here so early, so you definitely didn’t eat any breakfast.”
“En…”
“You didn’t just keep watch all night, did you…”
“Qinglan, a student died last night. She was one of yours, a student studying German.”
“…” Jiang Qinglan put away her smile: “Who?”
“Xin Zhiying, first year. Do you have an impression of her?”
Jiang Qinglan pretended to ponder it over, thinking for a while before responding: “Yes, but she would always cut class. She wanted to drop the subject area.”
“Last night, her roommate reported to the police that she was killed in the dormitory by Jack.”
“Jack? Is there any evidence?”
“None. Not even Jack’s signature note.” Xue Yunxin sighed: “But, I suspect that it wasn’t Jack. This murder was completely different from Jack’s usual methods.”