Completely different from Jack’s usual methods? Jiang Qinglan’s lips curled into a slight smile. Seeing this, Xue Yunxin asked: “What’s the smile for?”
Jiang Qinglan shook her head and answered: “Nothing. But now that you mention it, could there be another killer? And they just used Jack’s infamy to escape accusation?”
She slanted her body to look at Xue Yunxin, her gaze as gentle as a clear lake. Xue Yunxin really liked these two eyes, as well as their owners. They’d once had a sort of “tacit agreement”.
Xue Yunxin composed herself. She couldn’t think about that right now.
“Then, could the killer be an acquaintance?” Jiang Qinglan’s brow wrinkled as she feigned deep reflection. At this moment, in Xue Yunxin’s eyes, she was unceasingly pondering the issue, and her bearing made Xue Yunxin fall even further.
Xue Yunxin had to admit, Jiang Qinglan was beautiful. No matter what other people thought, at that moment, she was the most beautiful person in the world. Those soul-snatching eyes would always reveal a feeling of love when they gazed at her.
The first time she saw Jiang Qinglan…
She was so skinny, not an ounce of meat on her bones. Her bangs obstructed that pair of eyes, and her classmates would always throw her ill-intentioned, cold glances…
The Jiang Qinglan of today was tall, over a meter seventy, well-proportioned, but she still looked so skinny.
“Yunxin? Yunxin!”
“Ah?”
“What are you thinking about? You were so out-of-it, I called out to you so many times, but you didn’t even react!”
Xue Yunxin rubbed her head embarrassedly: “Sorry, I was lost in thought. What were you saying?”
“I was saying, could the killer be one of the students?” After hearing this question, Xue Yunxin’s hands unconsciously gripped the steering wheel: “One of the…students? Qinglan, we can’t make statements like that rashly without any evidence!”
Alright, her mighty police officer was truly awe-inspiring.
“Are university students today really so tough?” Damn it, the university students of today have it so easy. When she went to university back then, every day she had to somehow get through training designed to torture the dead. What school romance?! No one dared to commit a single bit of trickery!
Jiang Qinglan stretched, leaning back against the seat. As if giving her a hint, she said: “For something like murder, age isn’t a barrier. All they need is a motive, and they could kill someone any time. Right, Yunxin?”
These words made Xue Yunxin uncomfortable, but she managed to squeeze out a smile: “Ha…you’re teasing me again…”
Jiang Qinglan ignored her: “This girl’s normal behavior was enough to make enemies of her classmates, so it’s not impossible that one of them killed her. How about you look into the relationships she had with her peers?”
“Hmmm…that makes sense. You were her professor, so you’d also know some things about her?”
“The relationships between students and professors are not as close as they are in lower grades. Moreover, I don’t have favorable inclinations toward failing students, so I naturally don’t have much of a connection with her.”
Xue Yunxin, her hands on the steering wheel, turned a corner and parked next to the entrance of the university.
“Teachers are supposed to treat all of their students equally. Oh, Li Ai’s also your student, right? How are her…circumstances?”
Li Ai? Jiang Qinglan tried to recall what she knew about this person.
“Xiao Nuan investigated and found that this student didn’t have any friends. And with the current situation, it might be difficult for her. Could you help me keep an eye on her?”
Jiang Qinglan lowered her eyes to avoid Xue Yunxin’s gaze, an indiscernible feeling rising up inside of her. She quickly concealed the emotion with a warm smile: “Sure, I’ve got it.” Then, Jiang Qinglan exited the vehicle and entered the school.
The bloody events of the previous night seemed to have affected the students; all of the students on their way to morning classes walked listlessly to and fro. With the two successive murder cases, who wouldn’t be afraid?
However, these events didn’t seem to impact Jiang Qinglan, who continued to write on the blackboard, paying not the slightest attention to the person standing at the door.
“I’m sorry, professor…I-I’m late!”
Jiang Qinglan threw the student a glance ⸺ it was Li Ai. She was gasping for air, having just sprinted to class. “Come in.”
With her professor’s permission, she made her way to the back row to find a seat, but she was called to a stop just as she was going to put her backpack down.
“Sit in the front.”
She raised her head and saw that it was Jiang Qinglan.
“The blackboard is hard to see in the back.”
Li Ai unwillingly sat in the seat furthest to the front, seeing Jiang Qinglan put on a smile just as she sat down. Out of bashfulness, she lowered her head. For the entire class, the two of them made eye contact several times. This made Li Ai, who usually felt like she had no presence, overwhelmed by unexpected favor. After all, Jiang Qinglan was the famous beauty of the school, and many vied for the opportunity to take her classes…
Li Ai decided then to not suffer from wishful thinking. How could something good happen to her? After class, the students gathered their school materials and left. The police had not been clear if they would come back to talk with her, so rather than think about these trivialities, she should be figuring out how to deal with the police.
Just as she was getting ready to leave, Jiang Qinglan placed a hand on her shoulder and asked softly: “Are you alright?”
Li Ai was startled. She’s talking to me? Her hand…is touching my shoulder! So, she must be talking to me, right…
“I-I’m okay…”
“Do you have another class after this?”
“No…”
“That’s good. Let’s go somewhere else where we can talk.”
Jiang Qinglan led Li Ai to a place without any people and asked her gently: “Are you scared?”
Li Ai lowered her head: “Mhm.”
“What you did was correct.” Jiang Qinglan’s voice lowered. She pressed close to Li Ai, placing her index finger on her lips, signaling her to remain silent: “And no one will know, either.”
Li Ai was dumbfounded: “Pro-Professor? What…” What are you saying?
“You and I, we are the same kind of person,” Jiang Qinglan caressed her cheek: “Those who insult me shall die, those who deceive me shall perish.” With these words, Li Ai suddenly remembered that scene ⸺ After class one day, she had been eating lunch, as she always did. Because she didn’t want to return to the dormitory, she dawdled in the library, but she unwillingly went back when the time came. It was like she was invisible; even the dormitory caretaker paid her no attention. Whenever Xin Zhiying and Hu Wenning locked her out of the room, she was forced to find a caretaker, who would always scold her and reluctantly open the door for her.
When she came back to the room, she happened to catch Xin Zhiying and her boyfriend in the act.
Xin Zhiying seized her by the hair and threw her on the ground, beating her over and over again. She didn’t even have the courage to fight back. Perhaps because he’d lost interest, her boyfriend slipped away, which made Xin Zhiying even more furious. She slapped her in the mouth repeatedly.
“Enough! Why do you treat me this way?!” Li Ai pushed her off while her opponent kept cursing her. She pulled out a fruit knife: “You think I won’t kill you?!”
“Yo, you’ve gotten bold, haven’t you! Come kill me, if you’ve got the guts!” Xin Zhiying lunged forward and grabbed her wrist, hoping to snatch the fruit knife…
By the time she came back to her senses, Xin Zhiying was already lying in a pool of her own blood.
She really didn’t mean to!!!
Li Ai kept clutching at Jiang Qinglan’s clothing: ‘Professor! I didn’t mean to do it! I really didn’t! I was wrong! Why…Why…Why did they treat me that way!”
“Why are you scared? What you did was a service to society. People like that should die.”
Jiang Qinglan grabbed her by the chin, forcing Li Ai to look directly into her eyes.
“She shouldn’t have lived. You must have confidence in yourself, otherwise, with this kind of performance, aren’t you afraid the police will find out?”
“If they do, the end result would be ⸺” Jiang Qinglan pointed her finger at Li Ai’s forehead, mimicking the actions of a gun: “Pah”. Li Ai collapsed to the ground out of fright. She didn’t want to die…she especially didn’t want to be shot to death!
Jiang Qinglan pulled her to her feet gently: “You have an alibi, so what are you scared of? I won’t sell you out, either.” She revealed a warm, soft smile.
“The facial recognition⸺”
“I’ll help you.”
…..
Inside the interrogation room, Hu Wenning was kicking up a fuss, the racket making Song Nuan and Xue Yunxin’s heads throb.
“Quiet down! Where do you think you are right now? With all the trouble you’re giving us, you really believe I won’t send you straight to Hell?!” Song Qinglan couldn’t stand it any longer, and her shout drowned out Hu Wenning’s blustering.
Song Nuan was the eldest daughter of the Song group. She’d been born with a silver spoon in her mouth, and when her temper flared up, even Chen Kun couldn’t stop her.
Hu Wenning looked at Song Nuan and quieted down a little. She was genuinely afraid that this woman would pull out a gun and shoot her. Xue Yunxin pulled Song Nuan back to her seat: “Okay, okay, Xiao Nuan. Calm down, don’t fight with a child.”
“I’ve already said it a million times! What more do you guys want?! Didn’t Li Ai say Jack was the murder?! Why don’t you go out and catch him instead of wasting my time!”
Song Nuan ignored her.
“Where were you when the crime took place?”
“I’ve told you, I was out drinking at a bar! How many times do I have to say it?!”
“Can anyone corroborate?”
“My drinking friends. After the murder, I told my parents that I was scared and wanted to leave school. It was boring at home, so I went out for a drink. I hadn’t even woken up yet when you guys kidnapped me!”
Song Nuan smacked the table: “Watch your words! Like you would know what being kidnapped is like!”
Hu Wenning shook her head, unwilling to talk to the person in front of her.
“What relationship did you have with the deceased?”
“Roommates, classmates.”
“Did the deceased offend anyone recently?”
Hu Wenning huffed out a laugh: “Fuck, she’s pissed off too many people! In her social life, at school, too many.”
Xue Yunxin and Song Nuan exchanged a helpless glance.
“Was there anything unusual that happened before the muder? Did anyone come looking for her?”
Hu Wenning contemplated for a moment, then finally shook her head: “That day, when I saw her, she was still flaunting her new boyfriend to me.”
Xue Yunxin and Song Nuan exited the interrogation room, and from their body language as they left, it was clear that there wasn’t any new, useful information.
“The kids these days…give them conditions this good, and this is how they repay us.” Song Nuan immediately snatched Li Yang’s instant noodles, helping herself to a bite. After an interrogation this long, she was so hungry it felt like her stomach had shriveled up completely.1
“Hey, where did Xue Yunxin run off to? She’s not going to eat?”
Xue Yunxin, holding two hamburgers and cokes, flashed Song Nuan a smile: “Nah, I’m meeting up with someone. Tell Chief Chen for me, okay?”
The first person Song Nuan thought of was Jiang Qinglan.
However, she was wrong this time. The person that Xue Yunxin was meeting up with was Li Ai.
By the time Xue Yunxin had rushed to the meeting spot, it was already noon. Li Ai sat on a bench in the park, deep in thought, her head lowered.
“Hey, what’re you thinking about?” Xue Yunxin patted her from behind, giving her a start.
“I’m sorry, I must’ve scared you…” Xue Yunxin sat next to her, passing her a hamburger and coke: “You haven’t had lunch yet. If you don’t mind, could I eat with you?”
Li Ai saw Xue Yunxin’s grin as she took the food. In that instant, Li Ai wanted to tell her everything. Maybe Officer Xue…would understand.
She subconsciously tightened her grip on the coke bottle: “Officer Xue…I have something to tell you.”
1 胸贴后背: lit. chest stuck to back, i.e. your stomach is completely empty, your belly has shrunk so much that is stuck to your back. I translated it this way so it’s more immediately understandable.
Also, Hu Wenning was called Hu Ningwen for most of this chapter. I’m pretty sure it’s a typo, but I might edit it later depending on how the later chapters call her.