Under Clear Skies Chapter 82: Cross

Chapter 82: Cross

Translated by Fefe of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

 

When Li Yuechi woke up, it was still raining in Wuhan. The sky was dark and he couldn’t determine the time. He pressed on his phone—no reaction. Only then did he remember that his phone had died last night and he hadn’t charged it.

Li Yuechi sat up slowly and massaged his temples. He knew he’d slept for a long time, but he didn’t feel refreshed at all after waking. Instead, his felt heavy, just like the sky outside the window.

He charged his phone and waited for a few minutes. Then he turned it on.

This old phone of Tang Heng’s was the newest Nokia model from last year. It usually turned on smoothly. But for some reason, after the phone’s splash screen appeared, the screen turned black for two seconds. There was a boom of thunder outside; Li Yuechi’s heart trembled without warning too.

The phone screen lit up. Li Yuechi widened his eyes as unanswered calls, texts, and messages flooded into his homepage. His phone vibrated every time a notification popped up. Right now, it was shaking like an alarm was going off.

Li Yuechi set down his phone dumbly and looked at the screen.

Tian Xiaoqin, Professor Tang, his roommate, An Yun, Jiang Ya, his counselor, his mom… and Tang Heng.

Li Yuechi grabbed his phone and called Tang Heng.

It was off.

Unanswered calls and unread messages continued to pop up. Li Yuechi knew in his gut that something had happened. Without reading in detail, he dialed An Yun’s number.

An Yun seemed to be guarding her phone. She picked up the instant the call went through. “Li Yuechi?!”

“Yes,” Li Yuechi said. “You’re looking for me?”

“…Where are you?” Her voice was so hoarse.

“I’m in the Donghu Village apartment. My phone died last night.”

“Oh, you don’t know yet.”

Li Yuechi felt his chest squeeze. “What?”

“Tian Xiaoqin,” An Yun said as if she still hadn’t processed it. “She jumped off a building this morning.”

 

At 2:07 in the afternoon, Li Yuechi saw the police tape outside the dorm building. The yellow tape looked abnormally bright under the cloudy sky. They sectioned off the place where Tian Xiaoqin had fallen, but the ground was empty. No matter what traces had been left there, it had all been washed away by the rain.

Someone had left a lily beside the police tape. Many girls stood a few meters away and Li Yuechi could hear them talk.

“This is so scary. I need to rent an apartment. I won’t live here anymore…”

“Yeah, I won’t dare to use the bathroom in the middle of the night now.”

“Why’d she do this? She’s only a first-year and hasn’t even started writing her thesis yet.”

“Think about her roommates. Such bad luck. They must be traumatized now.”

“We’re unlucky to live in the same building as her!”

“Okay, let’s stop looking. It’s bad luck.”

“Ah, what was so serious that she had to jump?”

Li Yuechi stood silently amongst them. The girls left and other spectators came over. There was a slight drizzle and the crowd would gather and separate emotionlessly, like clusters of ants.

After a long while, hurried footsteps sounded behind him.

“Yuechi!” His roommate grabbed him. “Here you are… Let’s go, the counselor is looking for you.”

“Looking for me?” Li Yuechi echoed.   

“Yeah…” The roommate sounded troubled. “Just, asking about Tian Xiaoqin… You’ll see when you get there.”

Li Yuechi nodded. He took one last glance at the empty space surrounded by police tape and turned to leave. The police car was parked in the near distance. His roommate patted his shoulder. “Don’t be scared,” he said, seemingly trying to comfort him. “The school has to call the cops for stuff like this.”

Li Yuechi got into the police car and arrived at the counselor’s office.

“Li Yuechi, Xiao Li, right?” A police officer in his 40s sat across from him with a friendly attitude. “Don’t worry, we’re just here to understand the situation because we heard that you and the dea… Tian Xiaoqin had a good relationship?”

“Please just ask,” Li Yuechi said expressionlessly.

“Yes. Tian Xiaoqin’s roommate said that she left the dorm around five yesterday afternoon and came back before curfew. After that, she was asleep. The three roommates left the dorm in the morning, then Tian Xiaoqin jumped off the building around 9:40.” The officer paused. “We don’t know where Tian Xiaoqin went last night, but we heard that you didn’t return to the dorm last night?”

“I went to see my xuedi. He lives on campus. My roommate took me there because he had an umbrella.”

“Oh. Did you see Tian Xiaoqin last night?”

“No.”

“Did you contact her?”

“No, my phone died.”

“Can I see your phone?”

Li Yuechi paused for two seconds. “I’m not comfortable.”

“Why? What’s wrong?” the counselor sitting on the side couldn’t help but speak up. “You’re just a student. What scandalous things could you have in your phone?”

“Hey, Cao-laoshi, don’t get worked up,” the officer said. “Young people might have some texts and things that they don’t want us to see.”

“Li Yuechi, you have to cooperate with the investigation! Now’s not the time to be shy. Tian Xiaoqin was such a good girl and now she’s gone…”

“Laoshi,” Li Yuechi said in a low voice. “I really can’t.”

“It’s okay if you can’t.” The officer smiled. “Where did you go after looking for your xuedi?”

“Donghu Village. I rent an apartment there.”

“Oh—” The officer dragged out the sound. “You live with your girlfriend?”

“No.”

“By yourself?”

“Yes.”

“Don’t you have financial difficulties?” The counselor frowned. “Where do you get the money to rent?”

Li Yuechi answered bluntly, “I’m gay. I don’t like living in the dorm.”

With that, both the counselor and officer widened their eyes in shock. It took a few seconds before the officer cleared his throat. “I see,” he said a bit awkwardly.

“I saw Teacher Tang on campus last night,” Li Yuechi said, voice low.

“And then?”

“He drove a gray Volkswagen. I think he came back from outside. It was ten—”

Knocks on the door interrupted Li Yuechi. The counselor opened the door and said nervously, “You’re back… Officer Wang, this is the dean of the sociology department.”

“I have a meeting in Changsha.” The dean wiped the sweat from his forehead. “I hurried back as soon as I got the call, but I’m still late… Officer Wang, I want to understand the situation. Please come to my office.”

They got up to leave for the dean’s office. The counselor went up to Li Yuechi and said, “Keep your phone on these days. Don’t stress out.”

“Can I come with?” Li Yuechi asked.

The counselor patted his arm. “Go back first,” he said softly.

 

The dean’s office was on the top floor. After they left, the entire floor fell silent. Every door was shut tightly and the air was heavy. Practically all sound was blocked off. Li Yuechi walked slowly from one end of the hallway to the other. Then he heard an argument behind one closed door.

He knocked on it and Professor An’s voice came from inside. “Who is it?”

“Li Yuechi.”

“…”

A moment later, An Yun opened the door.

She looked miserable. Her hair was messy, her eyes were red, and her chin was swollen—she might’ve tripped and fallen. An Yun looked at Li Yuechi and rasped out, “Didn’t you promise to take care of Xiaoqin?”

“You already knew at that time,” Li Yuechi said.

“I didn’t!” An Yun yelled, breaking down. “If I’d known, wouldn’t I have helped her?! I was only suspecting it because Tang Guomu had rumors with female students long ago. I only suspected that Tang Guomu—”

“An Yun!” Professor An cut her off with a livid expression. “Stop it!”

“Tang Guomu has had rumors with female students long ago, PhD students, master’s students, all of them.” An Yun ignored her dad. “Xiaoqin asked me before, she wanted to change teachers, she asked if she could switch to my dad, my dad agreed but on conditions that I quit the band and focus on school.”

An Yun turned and glared at her dad with resentment. “She could’ve switched in April, but he said he has to get the Yangtze River Scholar title and needs Tang Guomu’s help. He said the switch has to wait until after the evaluation.”

“Am I the one who killed her?” Professor An yelled, veins bulging. “The reason for Tian Xiaoqin’s suicide is still under investigation! It might not be Tang Guomu!”

“Who else could it be? That company—Saint Corps—you know that it’s his own company!”

“Saint Corps,” Li Yuechi mumbled, “is Tang Guomu’s company?”

“It was a small company. It went bankrupt and was restructured at the beginning of the year. Fu-ayi invested in it.” An Yun closed her eyes. “Tang Heng told you before, right? Fu-ayi has a company called Tianheng. Saint Corps is Tianheng’s subsidiary now, but she’s not the legal representative.”

“An Yun!” Professor An roared.

“I know you’re in the same group as him, right?” An Yun looked coldly at her dad. “I just… I just found out too late.”   

“Even if Tang Guomu did it, your evidence counts as nothing!”

“I bet the police can find out—”

“I have evidence.”

An Yun and Professor An turned to Li Yuechi at the same time.

Li Yuechi pulled out his phone. His fingertips trembled when he pressed the power button. Tian Xiaoqin called him five times between 11:03 last night to 2:30 this morning, but his phone had been off, so he’d missed them all. After that, Tian Xiaoqin must have given up and resorted to texting him.

 

The last three texts that Tian Xiaoqin would ever send to him said:

Yuechi, don’t worry. The issue with the equipment has been solved. I don’t want to lie to you. Teacher Tang asked me to ‘accompany him’ tonight, so I went. I had an idea what would happen. I did it voluntarily.

I think I got tricked by Teacher Tang, because he promised that everything would be cleared after this time and he’d switch my teacher, but he took pictures of me. He said he’d contact me in a few days… Yuechi, I hope you’ll be fine. Take these pictures and don’t be scared if he threatens you in the future.

I learned that you’re dating Tang Heng. I see now. Wish you two the best.

After the three texts, there were four image attachments.

Tian Xiaoqin’s skin was covered in dark red rope marks, from her slender neck, to her petite chest, to her thin thighs. Li Yuechi couldn’t imagine how she’d felt when she was tied up by Tang Guomu. He couldn’t imagine it at all. But he’d seen villagers butcher a pig once, back in his hometown. It had been a muscular male pig, tied up with crude rope, and it had become immobile. But Tian Xiaoqin was Tian Xiaoqin, a male pig was a male pig. Why would a human be treated the same way as a pig?

Professor An only took one glance. He stumbled back and fell into his chair. After An Yun looked at the four pictures, she continued staring as if her soul had been sucked away. A few seconds later, she shuddered and rushed out. “I’m going to kill him!”

Li Yuechi grabbed her. “Don’t go.”

“I—I’ll never forgive him, Li Yuechi, let go, let go—”

“You can’t go.”

An Yun looked up at Li Yuechi. Her face was streaked with tears. “Why not?”

Li Yuechi met her furious eyes and said calmly, “I won’t give these pictures to the police.” The next sentence—the next sentence was stuck in his throat, burning a hole through his throat like a red-hot piece of iron. He knew that he would become a criminal after he said this, a criminal not much less innocent than Tang Guomu, but what could he do? If he had to choose, he would choose this sin. He was willing to shoulder the sinful cross for love.

That name he was most familiar with was like a curse now. He hoped that this would be the last time that he’d be forced to connect this name with a sin, as if he was dirtying that name.

 

“Tang Heng,” Li Yuechi whispered. “What will Tang Heng do?”