Case Files Chapter 51: Campus Suspicions (13)

Translated by Vivian of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Addis

 

“Well done.” Wen JingHan praised Guan Jin over the phone. “You’re becoming more and more of a force to be reckoned with.”

“Before, was I only a benchwarmer?”

“…Even our benchwarmers are the most elite.”

“Hmph… I’ve asked around at that toy store, and they indeed sold a few realistic plastic cockroaches, but they don’t remember what the buyers looked like at all. However, one of them was indeed sold in June this year, which is very close to when Wang TianPeng died,” continued Guan Jin.

“Mn, Gu Xiang verified that these types of biological models haven’t been used in the laboratories, so someone must’ve put it there purposely. Now, we can pretty much be sure that Wang TianPeng’s death was not an accident.”

*****

After eating lunch, Guan Jin hurried out. That teacher was so annoying, she had said something about how his pronunciation was very good and made him organize an after-school oral practice for everyone. He didn’t have that free time, but at the time, Guan Jin didn’t want to put the teacher on the spot, so he had decided to come change her mind in private. These people were all so ignorant, how come they all had their eye on him!

Besides a large classroom in Area A, it seemed to consist entirely of teacher offices. Guan Jin looked in through the glass window on the door, but unfortunately, he could only see a small area in the office. Thus, he opened the door and poked his head in.

The office was empty, and so was the next… This was the last room, so she should be in here, right? Guan Jin pulled open the door, looked up abruptly, and saw Qin Xiao standing there.

“Why are you here?” Qin Xiao grinned.

Guan Jin looked over his shoulder and saw that the office was empty. “I should be asking you the same thing.”

“I came to find Ms. Wang, but she’s not here.” Qin Xiao shrugged regretfully.

“Since she’s not here, why’d you go in? You don’t need to go look for her under the tables, right?” Guan Jin’s gaze swept past Qin Xiao’s knees and cuffs, which had some dust on them.

A trace of surprise flashed on Qin Xiao’s face, but he quickly went back to normal. “You’re really keen-eyed. Just now, I accidentally knocked a pencil off the table and onto the ground, so I had to get it out from under a desk.”

“I’ll get going now, see you around.” Qin Xiao brushed past Guan Jin and slowly walked downstairs by himself.

Guan Jin narrowed his eyes and walked into the office, looking around. There wasn’t any out of the ordinary on the desk, only a computer and teaching materials. Offices were only a temporary resting spot for university teachers, so they wouldn’t leave any personal belongings in them.

What the hell was that kid doing?

Guan Jin didn’t find who he had come looking for, so he gave up on it. He wandered around the campus for a while before unconsciously arriving at the Xuezhi Building. Wasn’t this where Lu YunYang had given his lecture last time? …Bah, why am I thinking about him again?

Guan Jin turned around, about to leave, but a scene suddenly emerged in his mind. A group of girls were surrounding Lu YunYang, wanting to ask various questions, and one of them was a girl wearing a purple dress who had been standing near the edge of the circle, and she seemed to have wanted to say something but held back. Right, wasn’t that Tang ZiYou?!

Although seeing him would be a little irritating, this man wouldn’t mix his private life with his work, right? When Guan Jin thought about this, he decided to go.

*****

“Hey, I see him again, he’s walking towards here. Do you think he’s coming to see you? Teacher, your taste sure is special.” Qin Xiao was crossing his arms and leaning against the window on the fourth floor, watching Guan Jin walk towards the building.

“Oh? He took the initiative to come see me?” Lu YunYang rested his chin on his hand and frowned. “Could he have come to negotiate more? How persistent.”

“Who made you like such an unyielding person?”

“Hmph, since you’re a student, just study properly and stop getting yourself involved with these things.” Lu YunYang fixed his gaze on Qin Xiao.

Qin Xiao raised his arms in surrender. “‘Yessir. However, I was just coming to say hello to my relative, so why do you have to treat me like an outsider? I’m very hurt.”

“We’re not close.”

“But,” Qin Xiao’s eyes crinkled, “do you want to know if he has feelings for you?”

Lu YunYang raised an eyebrow.

*****

Guan Jin walked up the stairs to the fourth floor and walked towards the end of the hallway. Suddenly, the door to Lu YunYang’s office was opened, and Qin Xiao walked out with his head lowered.

Why was it him again? The corner of Guan Jin’s eyes twitched.

Qin Xiao looked up and saw Guan Jin, and he seemed to be shocked. A flustered expression appeared briefly on his face, though it quickly faded away.

“What a coincidence.” Qin Xiao smiled.

Guan Jin’s gaze impassively shifted from his overly red lips to the collar of his shirt, of which the buttons were mismatched. He humphed coldly. “I’m afraid it’s a very inappropriate coincidence.”

Qin Xiao pretended not to understand, and he waved at him. “I’ll get going.”

Guan Jin didn’t look back as he walked straight to Lu YunYang’s door and opened it.

Lu YunYang was cleaning up his desk. A gust of wind seemed to have blown across it, as papers were strewn everywhere. That brat, how could he dare to do such a low-level trick, he would really have to go back and tell his younger brother to discipline him.

“Oh, did I catch you at a bad time?” Guan Jin stood in the doorway, his hands in his pockets.

“Little Jin? Why are you here? Sit down, let me just clean this up really quick.” Lu YunYang’s attitude was very natural.

“Enough, you don’t have to clean up. We’re both men, I understand. But seriously, your game is strong, is he even of age yet?” ridiculed Guan Jin.

Something flashed in Lu YunYang’s eyes. “I don’t understand.”

“Stop pretending. Look at yourself, you even pledged yourself to me last night, saying something about how I’m the first and also the last, and today, you’re getting intimate with your own student. Ah, you don’t need to explain,” Guan Jin shrugged nonchalantly. “Men only think with their dick, I understand.” Then, he pointed at him fiercely. “So in the future, don’t try any more boring tricks like confessing your love, or else I’ll really get mad at you!”

He had actually felt troubled and worried about Lu YunYang’s so-called feelings and had even gone to bed thinking about how to make him give up on it. Tch, how could there be feelings between two men? He must’ve really been out of his mind. Guan Jin fiercely chided himself, yet he felt very stifled in his heart.

Lu YunYang hadn’t said anything and was only looking at him with a tilted head. After a while, he suddenly said happily, “Little Jin, you actually do care about me, right?”

Huh? Guan Jin hadn’t expected such an absurd reaction.

“Rest assured, although I’m not much of a gentleman, I still keep my promises. I never take back what I say, and I always fulfill them.” Lu YunYang’s eyes were as deep as a whirlpool, and his gaze had a hint of a dangerous allure.

Guan Jin was taken aback, and his head hurt. “You—— Never mind, I didn’t come to discuss these things with you, and we’re not going to discuss them ever again. You can do whatever you like, just don’t even try to intervene in my life. I have important business matters I need to tell you.”

Lu YunYang immediately put on a professional, solemn expression. “Go ahead.”

“I suddenly recalled that the first time I came here to see you, the day of your lecture, you were surrounded by a lot of girls after you went outside.”

“From the moment I saw you, my interest in girls had already dissipated, you know.”

“…Listen to me, for fuck’s sake!” Guan Jin already couldn’t help but raise his voice.

Lu YunYang immediately shut up and sat down obediently.

“Where was I? …Right, among that group of girls, one of them looked a little pale, and she seemed to want to ask you something but didn’t want to say it in front of everyone, so she was only standing there and waiting at the edge. I just realized that that was Tang ZiYou.”

“So you think that she wanted to ask me something related to the case?” Lu YunYang was a little surprised.

“Not necessarily, but during Ding Ding’s investigations, she felt that this was what bothered her the most, right?”

“But she already confessed everything to the police, what else can I do?”

“At the time, she wanted to talk to you, which means that she trusts your professionalism. I suggest you think of a way to create an opportunity to chat with her one on one, I keep getting the feeling that she’s not being completely honest.”

Lu YunYang raised an eyebrow. “This was your suggestion, so if I’m alone in a room with her, you can’t falsely accuse me of being unfaithful again.”

“…Don’t push it!”

*****

After a short class in the evening, when Guan Jin thought about going back to face that stubborn and brazen-faced Lu YunYang, he could feel himself getting a headache. Thus, he decided to buy a pack of instant noodles and go back to his dormitory to stay the night.

After he sprinkled the seasoning and poured in the hot water, an aroma arose from the noodles. Only then did Guan Jin discover a sad reality: this damned pack of instant noodles didn’t have a fork… He walked around his dormitory but couldn’t find a pair of chopsticks, so Guan Jin could only steel himself and knock on the door of the dormitory across the hallway.

Guan Jin tried very hard to put on a friendly smile, but when the door was opened, it became very stiff and forced.

“You again? Are you looking for me?” Qin Xiao grinned.

“I’m looking for chopsticks.” Guan Jin was impassive.

“Are you talking about the two sticks that are used to eat food?”

“What else would be called chopsticks?”

“Ha, I thought that one of my roommates might have gotten a new nickname. Come in, I remember there’s some in the drawer, I’ll find a pair for you.” Qin Xiao turned around and rummaged through some drawers.

Guan Jin slowly walked in and swept a gaze over his bed and desk. There were a lot of photos that had been pasted to the wall under the bed. One of them was of a girl wearing a pink coat, standing in front of a piano, and she seemed to be talking to Qin Xiao.

“Who’s this girl? Your girlfriend?” Guan Jin pretended to gossip.

Qin Xiao looked at him from where he was still searching through the drawer. “No, I only did a performance with her for the show at the orientation party. She was in the art department.” He paused for a few seconds and continued, “Unfortunately, she had an accident, so she’s no longer with us.”

“Unfortunate indeed.” Guan Jin looked at the photos as he asked, “Are these all people you know? There’s quite a lot. Look, there’s this one holding some flyers, these are moving the props, and these are the actors backstage…”

“I don’t know most of them, those were just taken randomly by my classmate at the party.” Qin Xiao walked over and handed him a pair of disposable chopsticks. “They’re all either from the art department, drama club, advertisement team and such, or helpers that they found. Anyway, it’s always a mess backstage, but it looked quite interesting, so I put these pictures up as a memento.”

“Thanks.” Guan Jin took the chopsticks and opened the door.

“If you need to, you can come find me at any time, we’re classmates.”

Before Guan Jin closed the door, he turned around and couldn’t help but ask, “You know Lu YunYang?”

“I like Teacher Lu’s teacher style, so I enrolled in his elective class this semester. However, I indeed worship Teacher Lu, who’s such a young and promising scholar.” Qin Xiao’s smile instantly exuded excitement.

“Blind worship will lead to the brain getting muddled.”

Guan Jin closed the door, leaving Qin Xiao’s gleeful smirk behind him.

Just then, there had been Gao Yun, Wang TianPeng, Chen Jing, and Li Qiang in those photos… Did Qin Xiao really not know them before they were all at the police station? This kid wouldn’t be that simple to deal with.

*****

“What? Qin Xiao? Perhaps that’s just a coincidence. He has nothing to do with the case, I’m very sure of this,” said Lu YunYang on the other end of the phone after he listened to Guan Jin’s analysis.

Before he could finish, Guan Jin hung up, not wanting to communicate any further with this irrational man.