Case Files Chapter 50: Campus Suspicions (12)

Translated by Vivian of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Addis

 

“Lu YunYang, you dare to fucking play me like this?!” Guan Jin wiped his mouth furiously and stood up, and a violent, murderous look flashed in his eyes.

Lu YunYang was clearly displeased with his reaction, and he shook his head helplessly. “Little Jin, you’re really breaking my heart. I’ve never been this earnest before.”

“Earnest?!”

“I don’t know how it happened, but I’ll happily accept the consequences. Although I never thought that I would be trapped in a siege ¹ this early, if the other person is you, then I’d be most willing.”

This was the first time Guan Jin had felt that Mandarin was this hard to understand, and he was even more irritated. “Stop beating around the bush, for fuck’s sake!”

“I like you, and right now, I’m very earnestly and sincerely asking you to please accept my feelings for you.”

Huh?!!! The murderous atmosphere suddenly became overflowing with tenderness, and Guan Jin didn’t know how to respond.

Lu YunYang put away the amusement in his tone and said seriously, “Guan Jin, you’ve never noticed my feelings for you?”

Guan Jin blinked, “I haven’t.”

“You’re closer to me than anyone else, you like to eat my food, you talk with me, and we’ve even——slept in the same bed.”

“You must be out of your mind today!” Guan Jin suddenly couldn’t listen to any more, and he quickly ran into the bedroom, slamming the door behind him.

Damn, Guan Jin had had a momentary oversight, and had been tricked by that scum that only appeared refined on the outside. Now, as he thought about the various things that had occurred before, he realized that they must’ve been organized and premeditated! …But exactly what part of him could attract a man and make him have such indecent thoughts? 

Guan Jin rushed into the bathroom and looked at himself in the mirror for a while, but he could still only feel that he looked very unremarkable and couldn’t compete with other people at all in terms of appearances. What made him stand out among all the people that Lu YunYang knew?

After pacing around restlessly for a while, Guan Jin felt a little smug. Hmph, it looks like I still have a lot of charisma, and even that Lu YunYang, who’s always up to no good, has fallen for it. Just thinking about it made him feel a lot better. Unfortunately, Lu YunYang wasn’t the type of person he liked; it would be very uncomfortable to top such a tall person… Wait! Can it be that he wants to top me… The original crisis became even worse.

After spending a long time to calm himself down and when he was sure he wouldn’t get the impulse to murder someone, Guan Jin decided to go back out and calmly discuss things with him.

“Ahem.” Guan Jin opened the door and stood next to it, crossing his arms.

Lu YunYang, who had been sitting on the sofa the entire time, looked up. “Are you thirsty? You didn’t drink much water just now. I just poured it, so it’s still warm.”

Guan Jin walked to him uneasily and sat down, taking a sip of the water. “Say, what do you like about me?”

“Hm…” Lu YunYang thought about it carefully for a moment. “You’re smart, calm, pure, awkward, cute…”

“Stop! You’re not talking about me at all. I’m vicious, irritable, insidious, complicated, and none of those things that you said. Um, except for smart.” Guan Jin felt that Lu YunYang was just saying random adjectives.

“Actually, liking is just liking. You like beige and not red, so can you explain why that is? Is it because red is too bright, and beige is more comforting? Then why do you not like brightness and why do you like comfort? There’s no need to get to the bottom of it, you just have to trust your own instinct and feelings.”

“How do you know I like beige and not red? …Never mind, I just want to make it clear that we’re not compatible. I like to be free and do as I please, and I don’t like to be restrained. I won’t maintain a household, and I won’t accommodate others. Also, I have a bad temper and am prone to fits of violence.” Guan Jin didn’t hesitate to discredit himself.

“I won’t restrain you, you can do anything you want, and I also don’t need you to accommodate me, since I’ll accommodate you. In fact, I like every part of you, including your shortcomings.”

So mushy… “I’ve never thought of——having that kind of relationship with you, and anyway, aren’t things already very good as they are now? We can be partners or even friends, it’s not that complicated.” Guan Jin felt that he had never been so earnest to try to persuade someone before in his life; if Tony heard this, his jaw would drop.

“I think that becoming lovers would be even more perfect.”

Sure enough, he wasn’t suitable to be a confidant. Guan Jin still lost his patience. “Dammit, did you really have to force me to say this? Lu YunYang, you’re not to my taste, and I never eat things that don’t suit my appetite.”

“That’s okay, it’s enough that you’re to my taste, since I would be the one eating you.”

…In the end, the negotiations failed, and they resulted in Lu YunYang being left to sleep on the sofa in the living room.

*****

“Guan Jin, did you not sleep last night? You keep yawning,” said Lin Bai as he fixed Guan Jin’s computer for him.

“Don’t bring up yesterday.” That had been the worst nightmare of his life.

“Okay, done.” Lin Bai closed the laptop.

“Why’d you come here?” Guan Jin wondered as he looked at a group of people chattering on the nearby stage.

“Yesterday, a student in the room across from mine asked me to help him fix his computer. He’s part of the drama club, and he said that there were problems with the projector they used during their rehearsals, so I came to take a look.”

“The drama club?” Guan Jin’s mind raced. “Didn’t Wang TianPeng participate in the drama club before his death?”

“Yes, he was a stage manager, so I wanted to take this opportunity to ask around.”

Suddenly, a girl onstage screamed, and the people next to her laughed. “Please, this is a fake s snake, it’s just a prop!”

A prop… Guan Jin tugged Lin Bai’s sleeve. “Which one is the student who asked you to come?”

Lin Bai pointed at a boy who was walking towards them. The boy waved at Lin Bai. “Little Lin, thanks.”

“No problem.”

“Excuse me, do you have any costumes here?” asked Guan Jin.

The boy was blank. “Yeah, we have a lot.”

“Then do you have those types of cloaks and masks that are used during Halloween?”

“Um… I think so. But they bought them last year for some event, and they were dealt with after.”

After the boy left, Lin Bai asked, “You suspect that Wang TianPeng was the one who got the props for the prank?”

“Mn, although Tang ZiYou didn’t participate in the specifics of the plan and didn’t know about them, since Wang TianPeng went together with Cheng JiaoJiao, it’s very likely that he used his position to provide the props.” Guan Jin nodded.

“The first person who died was Cheng JiaoJiao, she was the direct initiator, and the second was Wang TianPeng, who provided the props. They were both the main people involved in the prank.”

“The murderer is relatively aware of the details, so were they there there at the time, or did someone else tell them?”

“Right, do you have the phone number of one of your roommates that used to live with Wang TianPeng?” asked Guan Jin.

“I do, what do you need it for?”

Guan Jin dialed the number. “Hello, I’m a police officer from the Special Cases Unit. I have a question about the accident involving Wang TianPeng, who used to be your roommate.”

The person on the other end seemed to be frightened, and he didn’t know what to say.

“I just have one question. Do you know if Wang TianPeng was particularly afraid of anything?”

Guan Jin hung up and called the Forensic Science Unit. “What, nothing’s moved? Okay, thanks.”

In the end, Lin Bai, who was very confused, followed Guan Jin to the laboratory building. It was morning right now, and there weren’t any classes, so there was no one in the building. 

Guan Jin looked around before using the key Wen JingHan had given him to open the warehouse.

“Say, what are you looking for?” Lin Bai looked around cautiously.

“Cockroaches.”

“Ah,” Lin Bai jumped backwards. “Where, where?!”

“I said that I’m looking for cockroaches.”

“Why do you want to find one?” Lin Bai stood near the door, petrified.

Guan Jin moved a box on the ground and leaned down to pick something up using a paper towel. He turned around, raised it up, and shook it.

“Bleh, why would you use your hand to hold that disgusting thing… Hey, don’t come here, if you do, I’m going to die! Ahhh!” shouted Lin Bai, clinging to the door.

“This is fake.”

“What?”

“This cockroach is fake, it’s just a toy.”

Lin Bai glanced at it warily. “Well, it’s still very scary! Keep it far away from me! But, who would be this wicked and put something like that here. Right, it must belong to the biology students!”

“This isn’t a biological specimen, it’s a plastic toy.”

“Oh, I remember! There’s a small toy store outside the east gate of the school, and they sell things like this there. The other day, they were even talking about going there to buy a fake rat to scare some girls,” said Lin Bai.

“I asked them just then, and Wang TianPeng was like you, extremely scared of cockroaches. Every time he saw one he would be in hysterics, and his reaction was very strong.”

“…So you’re saying——”

“That’s right, it’s an ingenious arrangement that requires quite a bit of luck.” Guan Jin climbed up the ladder again and opened the cupboard at the top. “The killer put the fake cockroach into a container at the left corner here, and Wang TianPeng might’ve been using a flashlight and was searching for something inside. When he took out the object from the container and looked at it using his flashlight, it was actually a large cockroach…”

Lin Bai shuddered.

“At the time, he was extremely frightened, so he yelped and flung away the cockroach, subconsciously leaned towards the right, slipped, and fell down the ladder, landing on the fence.” Guan Jin got down from the ladder.

“The probability of this would’ve been very hard to control, right?”

“Perhaps the killer only wanted to try their luck and injure him, and it turned out that their luck really was pretty good.”

“Are there fingerprints on the cockroach?” Lin Bai’s eyes lit up.

“There’s not much hope, such a smart murderer wouldn’t make such a fundamental mistake.”

“Ah, how I wish they would slip up just once.”