Case Files Chapter 43: Campus Suspicions (5)

Translated by Vivian of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Addis

 

“I looked into it. The day of Dong Ping’s incident, Little Pang was indeed with Chen Jing, and they were self-studying together. They were in the library the entire time, and at noon, they went to eat lunch together. In the afternoon, Dong Ping left earlier than him, at around six.” Guan Jin was calling Wen JingHan as he sat on a bench. “I couldn’t ask further.”

“That’s enough. QiaoYu went to check the library access system, and Dong Ping swiped his card at nine in the morning to enter the library, left for an hour at noon, and then stayed there the entire afternoon before swiping his card to leave at seven past six.” Wen JingHan said, “Nevertheless, before we’re sure of the reason for Dong Ping’s death, we still need to pay close attention to him.”

Guan Jin hung up and stood up, about to go to the laboratory building to take a look.

“Guan Jin.” Qin Xiao walked towards him. “Are you going to the library? Let’s go together.”

“I’m not going.”

“Then where are you going?”

“The laboratory building.”

Qin Xiao was surprised. “There aren’t any study rooms in the laboratory building, but there is an old archaeological showroom. Are you interested in those things?”

“Hm? You seem very familiar with that place.” Guan Jin looked at him.

“I like to thoroughly understand every corner of the school. And, there seem to be a lot of rumors about that historical laboratory building.”

“Tell me about them…”

*****

“This school is a lot bigger than my school, I’ve been here for a week and I still don’t know my way around. Ah, let’s go take a look at the front.” Ding Ding pulled Lu MinMin with her as she excitedly ran forwards.

“There’s nothing there.”

“Is that so? I see that that building seems to be European architecture, is it an important building here? I love historical relics~” Ding Ding said with finality as she dragged Lu MinMin with her.

Ding Ding was a lot stronger than her, and Lu MinMin couldn’t escape from her grasp, so she could only follow unwillingly.

“What’s this building for, it’s so dim inside…” Ding Ding looked inside curiously.

“Stop looking, there’s only laboratories for the science and engineering majors, and it’s very old and dilapidated,” said Lu MinMin as she backed away.

“Old buildings are the best, and…” Ding Ding looked around, “there might even be some ghosts drifting around in here!” She suddenly raised both of her arms and made a ferocious expression.

“Ahh!!!” Lu MinMin cradled her head and screamed in fright before staggering backwards and running off.

Ding Ding was startled by her reaction. Even if she had heard that someone had died in this building, was it really this scary?

*****

In the chemistry laboratory on the second floor, Lin Bai’s chemistry roommate almost knocked over the alcohol lamp. “Fuck, who just screamed over there, they nearly scared me to death.”

Lin Bai hadn’t noticed any sounds, since he was curiously looking around and touching things.

“Hey, don’t mess with anything, a lot of these chemicals are dangerous,” warned the chemistry student.

“Relax. Your major is really dangerous, if you mess up, isn’t it fatal?”

“I’ll definitely be affected in the long run, but student experiments don’t use large amounts of these chemicals, and we don’t do experiments that are very dangerous.”

“Didn’t you say that someone made a mistake in their experiment and died?” Lin Bai looked around cautiously.

“Yeah, they died right next to where you’re standing.”

“Ah!” Lin Bai hopped to the side like a rabbit. He recalled that the report had mentioned that Cheng JiaoJiao had been at the corner next to the sink and had fallen in the direction of the door.

This spot was enclosed by the wall and the side of a cabinet, and it was inconvenient to use the sink from here, so why would Cheng JiaoJiao have been over here at the time?

*****

“This is the Campus Case Undercover Team’s first secret meeting.” Ding Ding clapped gleefully.

Guan Jin rested his chin on his hand. “If there’s any progress, say it quickly, I still have class.”

“Don’t get too in character.” Lin Bai had brought his MacBook and rubbed his hands eagerly, ready to take meeting notes.

“You suspect that the two girls in your dormitory have something to do with the person who died in the laboratory building?” said Guan Jin after he listened to Ding Ding’s analysis.

“Right. They’re very sensitive to the laboratory building, and when they suddenly started acting strange, it was around the same time as Wang TianPeng’s death. Perhaps they know something or participated in something?”

“Wait, just now, you also said that when they just got admitted, they also had a period of similar behavior? Then how do you explain that?” Guan Jin raised his doubts.

Ding Ding scratched her head. “I also wonder. But I can’t really get anything out of them by asking indirectly, and they don’t seem to want to talk about what happened at that time.”

Lin Bai made a quick sketch on his computer and showed it to them. “Look, this spot next to the sink is very inconvenient, so why was Cheng JiaoJiao standing there at the time? Ah!” He suddenly had an idea. “Could it be that she was too chubby, so she accidentally got stuck there and couldn’t get out even after she got poisoned, and when she finally escaped, it was already too late?!”

“Are you sure you’re not talking about an elephant?” Guan Jin glanced at him.

“…Haha.”

“There’s nothing useful about that spot. But, it’s a good hiding place,” Guan Jin said offhandedly. This was a habit he had developed because of his profession; he would first observe which places were good for hiding and shooting.

“Hiding?” Ding Ding suddenly leaned in to look closer at the computer. “Say, do you think Cheng JiaoJiao was crouching here at the time? She wasn’t standing, she was crouching and hiding here!”

“Why would she be hiding?”

“Perhaps she was secretly using the laboratory and didn’t want to be discovered. It just so happened that when someone came, she could only hide.”

“She hid there for that long, all the way until she got poisoned and died? Why didn’t the other person there also die?” Guan Jin couldn’t make sense of it.

“I know! It was because she was crouching there, and then she got stuck and couldn’t get back out!” Lin Bai slapped his forehead.

“Then how could she have crouched down?”

“…It’s like how you can put on a ring, but then you often can’t take it back off.”

“This corner has four sides. Three are covered by either a wall or a cabinet, and one is unobstructed. It’s the same size on the top and bottom, so you’re saying that after she crouched down, she suddenly swelled up?”

“…Never mind, we don’t have enough clues yet, so let’s gather some more first.” Ding Ding rubbed her temples.

Suddenly, Ding Ding’s phone rang. It was Gu Xiang.

“The three victims all came from different places, and before they died, their files didn’t have anything in common. At the university, they were also in different grades and had different majors. They also didn’t participate in any of the same clubs or extracurriculars and they’re not in the student committee. All in all, from what we have currently, they’re not related to one another in any way. I’ve also looked into the two girls you told me about before, and they also were unrelated before they were admitted to the school. After they started attending the university, they also didn’t have anything in common with the three victims.”

Ding Ding was very frustrated. “No way, did I really overthink it?”

“Right, Zheng Fei found something. Last year, in November, another accident occurred in the laboratory building of Nanhua University. A freshman girl who majored in art, Gao Yun, accidentally fell down the stairs inside the laboratory building. The fall turned her into a vegetative state, and she passed away at the beginning of this year.”

When the three of them heard this, their eyes lit up. “November of last year?”

Wasn’t that the first time Lu MinMin and Tang ZiYou started acting strangely?

*****

Guan Jin returned to Lu YunYang’s small apartment and collapsed on the sofa. He had to be a student, a police officer, and think of a way to deal with his old partner that was bent on pestering him and asking him questions. He really wasn’t good at dealing with these complicated issues.

With a click, the door was unlocked, and Lu YunYang appeared in the doorway, lugging a suitcase behind him. “I’m back.”

Guan Jin looked at him warily. “Are you going on a business trip?”

“No, I went home to get some clothes, I have too little outfits here.” Lu YunYang entered and put his suitcase in front of the bedroom.

“You’re going to live here?!”

“I was always living here.”

“Didn’t you lend it to me?”

“Yeah.”

Guan Jin felt that something was off somewhere, why did he feel the powerlessness as if he was talking to another species?

“Isn’t it very tight for us both to live here?”

“It’s okay, I think that I slept very well last night, so it’s evident how important a big bed is.” Lu YunYang was very pleased.

“It’s not——”

“Did you eat dinner yet? I bought some groceries, how about I go and cook up some simple dishes?” Lu YunYang took off his jacket, rolled up his sleeves, and walked towards the kitchen.

“You can cook? Tch, is it edible?” Guan Jin walked over doubtfully to see him washing the vegetables in a practiced manner.

“You won’t get food poisoning, and I’m actually not bad. Can you bring in the garlic sprouts for me? They’re on the shelf next to the door.”

“Oh.” Guan Jin walked to the shelf and fumbled around for a while before pulling down a bag and giving it to him.

Lu YunYang looked at it and smiled. “These are scallions, not garlic sprouts.”

“Don’t scallions grow from garlic?”

“…Then why are they called scallions?”

“Who knows.” Guan Jin definitely wouldn’t admit that he didn’t have this general knowledge.

“Scallions are hollow, and they’re baby onions. Garlic sprouts are flat and they’re the ones that grow from garlic,” Lu YunYang explained patiently.

“Tch, who knows if you just made that up to lie to me.”

Thus, the conversation topic turned in the weird direction of vegetable planting, and the problem of living together wasn’t mentioned again…

“How does it taste?” Lu YunYang watched as Guan Jin cautiously tried his dishes.

“Hmm, they’re just so-so.”

Guan Jin scarfed down more than half of these so-so dishes.

“The corner of your mouth.”

“Hm?” Guan Jin looked up in confusion.

“There’s,” Lu YunYang suddenly reached out and lightly tapped the corner of his mouth, “a grain of rice here.” Then, he naturally placed the grain of rice that was on his finger into his mouth and even licked his fingertip.

Guan Jin froze… Just now, just now, that was, was I being teased… Fuck!

“How come you’re not eating any more? It’s not good to waste food.” Lu YunYang continued to help him add more food to his plate, so naturally that Guan Jin suspected whether or not he had just imagined the scene just then.

 

What should he do? Overturn the table? Go crazy? Question him? But Lu YunYang hadn’t reacted at all, so how should he even begin?! Guan Jin felt that ever since he had encountered Lu YunYang, he had become a broken fuse. After he was lit, he discovered he couldn’t find a powder keg, so he could only burn until he was nothing but a pile of ash, with just a small, pitiful curl of smoke rising from him, and then, he was blown away by the wind so that there wasn’t even a speck left…