Chapter 26
Two o’clock in the morning at SuZhou City University’s graduate dormitory.
Boom boom boom!
The crisp knocking sound on the door echoed through the narrow corridor.
Su Jiao stood at the door of dormitory No. 303. While knocking on the door, he called softly: “Liu Hao, are you there? I’m Su Jiao from next door.” His tone was relaxed as if he were just an ordinary classmate coming over for a visit. However, it was past midnight in the middle of the night and Su Jiao had his hand behind his back and was holding a hammer tightly.
There was no movement inside the room.
In fact, this is also normal. Most students were asleep in the middle of the night. The occupancy rate in the graduate dormitory buildings was not high. Of the dozen dormitories on the first floor, only four or five were occupied. Many boys notoriously slept like dead pigs, unable to be moved. But Su Jiao didn’t give up and he kept knocking over and over again.
At the same time, in the dark bedroom of No 303, the curtains were drawn so that all light was blocked in the room.
A sturdy, flat-headed young man stood in front of the door, sweating profusely and trembling all over. He looked at the door upon where someone was knocking with with eyes wide.
His chest undulated violently and his teeth and joints seemed to be able to hear the rattle caused by the shivering bones.
Su Jiao would never imagine that Liu Hao was standing just inside, facing him silently across the thin door!
Should he open the door?
Or pretend nobody was home?
Should he open the door or pretend nobody was home?!
Or…
Liu Hao slowly raised his head and looked at the knocking door with a fierce light in his eyes.
Should he….
Should he kill him too?
Su Jiao: “Liu Hao, Liu Hao? Are you there?”
The curtain on the balcony of the dormitory was pulled open. Liu Hao was wearing a tank top and shorts and sweat was sticking the thin shirt to his body. He opened the balcony door and quickly grabbed the railing to climb down. Suddenly, in the dark, a cold voice sounded from the balcony of room No. 304 next to him.
“Liu Hao.”
Liu Hao said in horror: “Who’s there!”
His heart thumped in his chest and was about to jump out of his throat. Liu Hao went weak and he slumped directly onto the balcony floor. He looked up in the direction of 304. When he saw a strange black-haired young man clearly, he was relieved somehow.
…It wasn’t Xie Ze.
In the moonlight, Lian Xi silently looked at the scared young man with a pale face. He sighed, “You’ve already done it so what’s the point of running away?”
There was a short silence.
A huge bead of sweat slipped from his forehead and with a splash, it fell into Liu Hao’s open pupils.
Liu Hao opened his mouth and looked at the young man opposite him. For a long time he looked and then suddenly he cried bitterly.
Yes, I have done it already so what’s the point of running away?
***
Su Jiao went to the corridor to knock on the door, and Lian Xi and Lie Chen went to the balcony to cut off the escape path.
This is the countermeasure they discussed from the beginning.
The dormitory building of SuZhou City University was simple in construction. If you want to get out of the dormitory, there are only two ways, the door and the balcony windows. If Liu Hao was really in the room, then he only has these two options.
It’s just that Lian Xi didn’t expect that Liu Hao would choose the dumbest and most meaningless path: escaping from the balcony.
He could pretend to be dead, pretend that he didn’t hear Su Jiao knocking on the door, or pretend there wasn’t anyone in the room.
But he chose to escape and actually chose the stupidest way.
As long as he tried to climb out the balcony, the road outside was full of surveillance cameras. A cold pair of electronic eyes would watch him everywhere and there was no room for escape.
This high-achieving student, who should have had a promising future, was really pushed into a desperate situation.
They pushed Liu Hao back into the dormitory and the three of them went in after him, locking all the doors and windows.
After entering the dormitory, Lian Xi looked around quietly for a while.
-There were no ghosts in here.
Since there are no ghosts, then the culprit is the person in front of him.
Su Jiao’s expression was complicated: “Liu Hao, why did you kill Xie Ze?”
Liu Hao’s body twitched when he heard the words “Xie Ze”. He sat in a chair with his head lowered and said nothing.
Su Jiao: “Isn’t your relationship with Xie Ze good? I often see you guys go out to play basketball together, and you also go to the cafeteria to eat together. Aren’t you good brothers?!”
Liu Hao remained silent.
Su Jiao really couldn’t figure it out at all. Thinking of his roommate who died tragically, he felt very uncomfortable: “Why did you kill him? Did he do something wrong to you? There must be a reason.”
Just when everyone thought Liu Hao would continue being silent, he suddenly spoke. His head was lowered and a dull voice sounded from below: “Have you called the police?”
Su Jiao was stunned.
Lian Xi narrowed his eyes, his voice calm: “Already called the police.”
Liu Hao said softly, “It was an accidental killing.”
Lian Xi: “Accidental?”
Liu Hao raised his head. His eyes were red and moist. His lips and face twitched slightly because of fear but there was a firm light in his eyes. He said: “Yes, accidental. Did you look at his body carefully? I quarreled with him and I pushed him, he hit the shelf and died just like that.”
Su Jiao: “How can that be possible?!”
Liu Hao shot back: “How is it impossible, haven’t you looked at his wound?”
Su Jiao wanted to speak again but was stopped by Lian Xi.
Lian Xi: “What’s the reason for your quarrel?”
Liu Hao: “Why should I tell you? I’ll wait for the police to come and then I will tell them.”
He looked at him and Lian Xi smiled. “Will you tell the police the truth?”
Liu Hao paused: “Of course, it was a mistake.”
Lian Xi said, “Will you also tell the police about Sun Yan?”
Liu Hao’s body jerked. When he heard the words “Sun Yan”, he clenched his teeth and stared at the young man in front of him and then at Su Jiao, who was standing behind him with righteous indignation. Lastly he looked at the man in black who had nothing to do with anything. Liu Hao gritted his teeth and said: “I’ll say it again, Sun Yan’s disappearance has nothing to do with me!”
A low male voice sounded and Lie Chen smiled: “Oh, so you killed her then.”
Liu Hao turned his head to look at the man in black, “I didn’t!”
Lian Xi: “Then why did you kill Xie Ze if not because he had some insider knowledge and you wanted to kill him to shut his mouth?”
“Kill him to shut his mouth?” As if he heard something incredibly ridiculous, Liu Hao’s eyes widened, his nerves were already tensed into a string and he looked at Lian Xi with incredulity. “Xie Ze has some insider knowledge? What inside story does he know? Did I sleep with Sun Yan or did I have a romance with Sun Yan behind Xiao Jia’s back? Oh right, he knows. He knows everything.”
Tears gurgled down from his eye sockets. Liu Hao panted heavily, with tears running down his cheeks. He looked at Su Jiao angrily, “Do you really think your roommate is a good person?”
Su Jiao was asked this suddenly and felt somewhat dazed: “I…”
Liu Ze: “Did you know that Xie Ze slept with Sun Yan? When he still had a girlfriend last semester, he hooked up with Sun Yan! When they broke up later, Sun Yan also broke it off with him. Did he think Sun Yan really liked him? Haha, what an idiot. Sun Yan’s a slut, she just likes to snatch other people’s boyfriends and other people’s things. He broke up so Sun Yan didn’t want him anymore. That slut is missing huh? Then why doesn’t she go die! She should die ah!”
Facing a mental breakdown, he was already at the precipice of losing his reason. Liu Ze covered his cheek, tears streaming from between his fingers.
“You want to know why right?”
“You guys think Xie Ze is a good person, right?
“Okay, let me tell you, that bastard, after he found out last month that I was with Sun Yan, he tried to blackmail me and ask me to write his paper for him! He also asked me for money!
“Fuck him! Didn’t he sleep with Sun Yan himself? Doesn’t he also sleep around with junior sisters from the school? He actually wants to threaten me!”
“Yes I got together with Sun Yan, I got together with her…” The voice stopped abruptly, as if suddenly remembering something. Liu Hao suddenly raised his head and looked at Su Jiao.
“It’s you!” His eyes blazed with hatred. Liu Hao roared and suddenly got up and ran towards Su Jiao.
Su Jiao cried out in shock. Lian Xi frowned and was about to reach out to stop him, only to hear a cold snort from Lord Black Reaper. The next second, an invisible wall of air suddenly appeared in front of Liu Hao.
Liu Hao rushed forward and crashed into the wall unexpectedly. He screamed, his nose was bruised and his face was swollen. His head was broken and bleeding but at that moment, being crazed, he didn’t notice that he was hitting a wall of air. He sat down in defeat. From the ground, he glared at Su Jiao, roaring and crying: “It’s because of you, it’s all because of you! If it wasn’t because you suddenly moved back, Sun Yan would not have held a welcome party for you. Then I would not have gone with her into the woods that night. I drank too much, I really just drank too much…wuwuwuwu…”
Su Jiao was speechless and after a moment, he pointed at himself blankly: “It’s because of… me?”
…
Twenty minutes later, the harsh sirens broke through the night and awakened the entire SuZhou City University.
Liu Hao was handcuffed and sent directly to the Public Security Bureau. The awakened graduate students stood on their balconies curiously, watching the police take out a corpse covered in white cloth, as well as Liu Hao who had a black hood on.
“Fuck, I heard that it was Xie Ze. Xie Ze died?!”
“Xie Ze was killed by Liu Hao, what the heck.”
“Is it because of Yan Zi? Yan Zi had disappeared before, maybe Liu Hao did that too. I saw Yan Zi coming out of Liu Hao’s dormitory last week. They are in that kind of relationship, right?” {Yan Zi is Sun Yan’s nickname.}
“Hey, doesn’t Liu Hao have a girlfriend?”
Lian Xi and the other two people went downstairs and saw the school grounds were filled with people at three in the morning. From the other building, undergraduates had also rushed over, wanting to watch the excitement.
Police cars parked downstairs at the dormitory and the police went upstairs to collect evidence.
Soon Deputy Wu, dressed in casual clothes, got out of a car and walked over to Lian Xi’s trio. His sharp eyes swept across the faces of Lian Xi, Su Jiao and Lie Chen. When looking at Lie Chen, the old detective paused for a long time and the two looked at each other silently.
After some time, Deputy Wu was the first to give up. He looked at Su Jiao and laughed: “Student Su, this time it’s related to you again.”
Su Jiao: “……”
“I’m being wronged! Go and ask, you’ve already caught the perpetrator! This matter is really unrelated to me.”
Deputy Wu laughed: “I’m just kidding. I heard that the three not only discovered the crime scene, but also discovered the murderer too?”
Lian Xi: “Yes, Su Jiao and I are roommates. Didn’t that female student disappear recently? Since something like that happened, he didn’t want to live in the dormitory any longer and wanted to move back in with me. So we came to help him move.”
Deputy Wu said with a smile, “Moving at two o’clock in the morning?”
Lian Xi didn’t change his face: “I am a live streaming anchor, and I work until the early hours of the morning. That’s the only time I can help him move.”
Deputy Wu: “Oh, is that how it is? Okay, I won’t chat to you guys anymore, I have to go see the crime scene. Young friends, can you help me by going to the bureau to make an official statement about what happened?”
Lian Xi gave a bright and upright smile: “Of course, it is the responsibility of us young people to punish evil and promote good.”
Deputy Wu smiled and patted the shoulders of Lian Xi and Su Jiao. He was about to pat the shoulder of Lie Chen when his eyes swept over. For some reason, the old policeman was keenly aware of a feeling of danger. He smiled, put his hand away and went straight to the dormitory building without saying more.
As soon as Deputy Wu left, the smile on Lian Xi’s face instantly collapsed.
Lian Xi’s tone was heavy: “He doesn’t have an ID card.”
Su Jiao: “Huh?”
Lian Xi was anxious: “He doesn’t have an ID card, how can he make a statement!”
Su Jiao also thought of this question: “Fuck, it seems like making a statement requires registration. What should we do about his ID card?”
Lian Xi and Su Jiao turned their heads to look at Lie Chen.
However, he saw President Lie with one hand in his pocket and the other hand holding the reaper record, turning his head halfway and looking at the distant back of Deputy Wu walking away.
Lian Xi’s heart shuddered: “Is something wrong with that old policeman?”
After a while, he didn’t get a response. Lian Xi felt it was a little strange and asked, “Lord Black Reaper?”
Lie Chen looked back at him: “What did he call me just now?”
Lian Xi: “????”
Lie Chen: “Little friend?”
Lian Xi: “…”
Lie Chen raised his eyebrows in disdain and smiled contemptuously: “Little friend… huh?”
Lian Xi and Su Jiao: ” ……”
Is this the problem right now?
Does your black heart not have some kind of lower limit!
***
Chapter 26
Two o’clock in the morning at SuZhou City University’s graduate dormitory.
Boom boom boom!
The crisp knocking sound on the door echoed through the narrow corridor.
Su Jiao stood at the door of dormitory No. 303. While knocking on the door, he called softly: “Liu Hao, are you there? I’m Su Jiao from next door.” His tone was relaxed as if he were just an ordinary classmate coming over for a visit. However, it was past midnight in the middle of the night and Su Jiao had his hand behind his back and was holding a hammer tightly.
There was no movement inside the room.
In fact, this is also normal. Most students were asleep in the middle of the night. The occupancy rate in the graduate dormitory buildings was not high. Of the dozen dormitories on the first floor, only four or five were occupied. Many boys notoriously slept like dead pigs, unable to be moved. But Su Jiao didn’t give up and he kept knocking over and over again.
At the same time, in the dark bedroom of No 303, the curtains were drawn so that all light was blocked in the room.
A sturdy, flat-headed young man stood in front of the door, sweating profusely and trembling all over. He looked at the door upon where someone was knocking with with eyes wide.
His chest undulated violently and his teeth and joints seemed to be able to hear the rattle caused by the shivering bones.
Su Jiao would never imagine that Liu Hao was standing just inside, facing him silently across the thin door!
Should he open the door?
Or pretend nobody was home?
Should he open the door or pretend nobody was home?!
Or…
Liu Hao slowly raised his head and looked at the knocking door with a fierce light in his eyes.
Should he….
Should he kill him too?
Su Jiao: “Liu Hao, Liu Hao? Are you there?”
The curtain on the balcony of the dormitory was pulled open. Liu Hao was wearing a tank top and shorts and sweat was sticking the thin shirt to his body. He opened the balcony door and quickly grabbed the railing to climb down. Suddenly, in the dark, a cold voice sounded from the balcony of room No. 304 next to him.
“Liu Hao.”
Liu Hao said in horror: “Who’s there!”
His heart thumped in his chest and was about to jump out of his throat. Liu Hao went weak and he slumped directly onto the balcony floor. He looked up in the direction of 304. When he saw a strange black-haired young man clearly, he was relieved somehow.
…It wasn’t Xie Ze.
In the moonlight, Lian Xi silently looked at the scared young man with a pale face. He sighed, “You’ve already done it so what’s the point of running away?”
There was a short silence.
A huge bead of sweat slipped from his forehead and with a splash, it fell into Liu Hao’s open pupils.
Liu Hao opened his mouth and looked at the young man opposite him. For a long time he looked and then suddenly he cried bitterly.
Yes, I have done it already so what’s the point of running away?
***
Su Jiao went to the corridor to knock on the door, and Lian Xi and Lie Chen went to the balcony to cut off the escape path.
This is the countermeasure they discussed from the beginning.
The dormitory building of SuZhou City University was simple in construction. If you want to get out of the dormitory, there are only two ways, the door and the balcony windows. If Liu Hao was really in the room, then he only has these two options.
It’s just that Lian Xi didn’t expect that Liu Hao would choose the dumbest and most meaningless path: escaping from the balcony.
He could pretend to be dead, pretend that he didn’t hear Su Jiao knocking on the door, or pretend there wasn’t anyone in the room.
But he chose to escape and actually chose the stupidest way.
As long as he tried to climb out the balcony, the road outside was full of surveillance cameras. A cold pair of electronic eyes would watch him everywhere and there was no room for escape.
This high-achieving student, who should have had a promising future, was really pushed into a desperate situation.
They pushed Liu Hao back into the dormitory and the three of them went in after him, locking all the doors and windows.
After entering the dormitory, Lian Xi looked around quietly for a while.
-There were no ghosts in here.
Since there are no ghosts, then the culprit is the person in front of him.
Su Jiao’s expression was complicated: “Liu Hao, why did you kill Xie Ze?”
Liu Hao’s body twitched when he heard the words “Xie Ze”. He sat in a chair with his head lowered and said nothing.
Su Jiao: “Isn’t your relationship with Xie Ze good? I often see you guys go out to play basketball together, and you also go to the cafeteria to eat together. Aren’t you good brothers?!”
Liu Hao remained silent.
Su Jiao really couldn’t figure it out at all. Thinking of his roommate who died tragically, he felt very uncomfortable: “Why did you kill him? Did he do something wrong to you? There must be a reason.”
Just when everyone thought Liu Hao would continue being silent, he suddenly spoke. His head was lowered and a dull voice sounded from below: “Have you called the police?”
Su Jiao was stunned.
Lian Xi narrowed his eyes, his voice calm: “Already called the police.”
Liu Hao said softly, “It was an accidental killing.”
Lian Xi: “Accidental?”
Liu Hao raised his head. His eyes were red and moist. His lips and face twitched slightly because of fear but there was a firm light in his eyes. He said: “Yes, accidental. Did you look at his body carefully? I quarreled with him and I pushed him, he hit the shelf and died just like that.”
Su Jiao: “How can that be possible?!”
Liu Hao shot back: “How is it impossible, haven’t you looked at his wound?”
Su Jiao wanted to speak again but was stopped by Lian Xi.
Lian Xi: “What’s the reason for your quarrel?”
Liu Hao: “Why should I tell you? I’ll wait for the police to come and then I will tell them.”
He looked at him and Lian Xi smiled. “Will you tell the police the truth?”
Liu Hao paused: “Of course, it was a mistake.”
Lian Xi said, “Will you also tell the police about Sun Yan?”
Liu Hao’s body jerked. When he heard the words “Sun Yan”, he clenched his teeth and stared at the young man in front of him and then at Su Jiao, who was standing behind him with righteous indignation. Lastly he looked at the man in black who had nothing to do with anything. Liu Hao gritted his teeth and said: “I’ll say it again, Sun Yan’s disappearance has nothing to do with me!”
A low male voice sounded and Lie Chen smiled: “Oh, so you killed her then.”
Liu Hao turned his head to look at the man in black, “I didn’t!”
Lian Xi: “Then why did you kill Xie Ze if not because he had some insider knowledge and you wanted to kill him to shut his mouth?”
“Kill him to shut his mouth?” As if he heard something incredibly ridiculous, Liu Hao’s eyes widened, his nerves were already tensed into a string and he looked at Lian Xi with incredulity. “Xie Ze has some insider knowledge? What inside story does he know? Did I sleep with Sun Yan or did I have a romance with Sun Yan behind Xiao Jia’s back? Oh right, he knows. He knows everything.”
Tears gurgled down from his eye sockets. Liu Hao panted heavily, with tears running down his cheeks. He looked at Su Jiao angrily, “Do you really think your roommate is a good person?”
Su Jiao was asked this suddenly and felt somewhat dazed: “I…”
Liu Ze: “Did you know that Xie Ze slept with Sun Yan? When he still had a girlfriend last semester, he hooked up with Sun Yan! When they broke up later, Sun Yan also broke it off with him. Did he think Sun Yan really liked him? Haha, what an idiot. Sun Yan’s a slut, she just likes to snatch other people’s boyfriends and other people’s things. He broke up so Sun Yan didn’t want him anymore. That slut is missing huh? Then why doesn’t she go die! She should die ah!”
Facing a mental breakdown, he was already at the precipice of losing his reason. Liu Ze covered his cheek, tears streaming from between his fingers.
“You want to know why right?”
“You guys think Xie Ze is a good person, right?
“Okay, let me tell you, that bastard, after he found out last month that I was with Sun Yan, he tried to blackmail me and ask me to write his paper for him! He also asked me for money!
“Fuck him! Didn’t he sleep with Sun Yan himself? Doesn’t he also sleep around with junior sisters from the school? He actually wants to threaten me!”
“Yes I got together with Sun Yan, I got together with her…” The voice stopped abruptly, as if suddenly remembering something. Liu Hao suddenly raised his head and looked at Su Jiao.
“It’s you!” His eyes blazed with hatred. Liu Hao roared and suddenly got up and ran towards Su Jiao.
Su Jiao cried out in shock. Lian Xi frowned and was about to reach out to stop him, only to hear a cold snort from Lord Black Reaper. The next second, an invisible wall of air suddenly appeared in front of Liu Hao.
Liu Hao rushed forward and crashed into the wall unexpectedly. He screamed, his nose was bruised and his face was swollen. His head was broken and bleeding but at that moment, being crazed, he didn’t notice that he was hitting a wall of air. He sat down in defeat. From the ground, he glared at Su Jiao, roaring and crying: “It’s because of you, it’s all because of you! If it wasn’t because you suddenly moved back, Sun Yan would not have held a welcome party for you. Then I would not have gone with her into the woods that night. I drank too much, I really just drank too much…wuwuwuwu…”
Su Jiao was speechless and after a moment, he pointed at himself blankly: “It’s because of… me?”
…
Twenty minutes later, the harsh sirens broke through the night and awakened the entire SuZhou City University.
Liu Hao was handcuffed and sent directly to the Public Security Bureau. The awakened graduate students stood on their balconies curiously, watching the police take out a corpse covered in white cloth, as well as Liu Hao who had a black hood on.
“Fuck, I heard that it was Xie Ze. Xie Ze died?!”
“Xie Ze was killed by Liu Hao, what the heck.”
“Is it because of Yan Zi? Yan Zi had disappeared before, maybe Liu Hao did that too. I saw Yan Zi coming out of Liu Hao’s dormitory last week. They are in that kind of relationship, right?” {Yan Zi is Sun Yan’s nickname.}
“Hey, doesn’t Liu Hao have a girlfriend?”
Lian Xi and the other two people went downstairs and saw the school grounds were filled with people at three in the morning. From the other building, undergraduates had also rushed over, wanting to watch the excitement.
Police cars parked downstairs at the dormitory and the police went upstairs to collect evidence.
Soon Deputy Wu, dressed in casual clothes, got out of a car and walked over to Lian Xi’s trio. His sharp eyes swept across the faces of Lian Xi, Su Jiao and Lie Chen. When looking at Lie Chen, the old detective paused for a long time and the two looked at each other silently.
After some time, Deputy Wu was the first to give up. He looked at Su Jiao and laughed: “Student Su, this time it’s related to you again.”
Su Jiao: “……”
“I’m being wronged! Go and ask, you’ve already caught the perpetrator! This matter is really unrelated to me.”
Deputy Wu laughed: “I’m just kidding. I heard that the three not only discovered the crime scene, but also discovered the murderer too?”
Lian Xi: “Yes, Su Jiao and I are roommates. Didn’t that female student disappear recently? Since something like that happened, he didn’t want to live in the dormitory any longer and wanted to move back in with me. So we came to help him move.”
Deputy Wu said with a smile, “Moving at two o’clock in the morning?”
Lian Xi didn’t change his face: “I am a live streaming anchor, and I work until the early hours of the morning. That’s the only time I can help him move.”
Deputy Wu: “Oh, is that how it is? Okay, I won’t chat to you guys anymore, I have to go see the crime scene. Young friends, can you help me by going to the bureau to make an official statement about what happened?”
Lian Xi gave a bright and upright smile: “Of course, it is the responsibility of us young people to punish evil and promote good.”
Deputy Wu smiled and patted the shoulders of Lian Xi and Su Jiao. He was about to pat the shoulder of Lie Chen when his eyes swept over. For some reason, the old policeman was keenly aware of a feeling of danger. He smiled, put his hand away and went straight to the dormitory building without saying more.
As soon as Deputy Wu left, the smile on Lian Xi’s face instantly collapsed.
Lian Xi’s tone was heavy: “He doesn’t have an ID card.”
Su Jiao: “Huh?”
Lian Xi was anxious: “He doesn’t have an ID card, how can he make a statement!”
Su Jiao also thought of this question: “Fuck, it seems like making a statement requires registration. What should we do about his ID card?”
Lian Xi and Su Jiao turned their heads to look at Lie Chen.
However, he saw President Lie with one hand in his pocket and the other hand holding the reaper record, turning his head halfway and looking at the distant back of Deputy Wu walking away.
Lian Xi’s heart shuddered: “Is something wrong with that old policeman?”
After a while, he didn’t get a response. Lian Xi felt it was a little strange and asked, “Lord Black Reaper?”
Lie Chen looked back at him: “What did he call me just now?”
Lian Xi: “????”
Lie Chen: “Little friend?”
Lian Xi: “…”
Lie Chen raised his eyebrows in disdain and smiled contemptuously: “Little friend… huh?”
Lian Xi and Su Jiao: ” ……”
Is this the problem right now?
Does your black heart not have some kind of lower limit!
***
