"You found another murder?" Captain Li's tone on the other end of the phone was a bit strange, and he'd naturally emphasized the word "another."
"A girl named
"Wait a moment, let me pull up the case file. If the family requested an autopsy, we should have records on it." Captain Li didn't hang up. He turned on the lights and ran into the records room. After five minutes of searching, he seemed to find something. "Xicheng Private Academy — no wonder that name sounds familiar. Xiao Chen, get out of that school right now!"
"I'm already heading out. What's wrong?"
"That school is bizarre. I can't explain it in just a few words, so I'll give you one number — in just two weeks, six people committed suicide there, and all of them died in extremely strange ways." The sound of papers rustling came through the phone as Captain Li scanned through the file.
"Right! That number basically matches what I was thinking." Chen Ge had already spotted the school gate and would be out soon.
"Matches what you were thinking? What's the situation over there?"
"Never mind the situation — just check whether the first girl who died was named Zhang Ya!" Chen Ge was desperate to confirm his theory.
Captain Li glanced at the documents on his desk, double-checked, and then replied: "That's right, her name was Zhang Ya. But she did die from a fall. The medical examiner found no other injuries on her body. On the day the body was discovered, officers from the local precinct went to the scene. The girl had jumped from the dance studio on the fourth floor. The window sill was completely intact, and the soundproofing material on the surrounding walls showed no damage or signs of being cleaned. It's certain that Zhang Ya jumped on her own, without any external force pushing her."
"No external force? Captain Li, have you considered that someone might have been forcing her? What if she jumped because she'd be harmed if she didn't!" Chen Ge recounted the scene he'd witnessed in the mirror.
"We considered that possibility too. The file includes statements from Zhang Ya's roommates — all five girls claimed they knew nothing. Zhang Ya jumped after they'd finished class and left; at the time, the dance studio was completely empty except for her. According to them, Zhang Ya had always been mentally unstable — withdrawn, unable to fit in, with personality issues. To verify their claims, the responding officers also randomly questioned other girls in the same class, and every single one said the same thing."
"Zhang Ya was nothing like what they described! Those girls colluded to give false testimony!" Chen Ge hadn't expected the other girls in her class to slander Zhang Ya like this. She hadn't done anything wrong.
"Whether Zhang Ya was really like that or not — neither you nor I gets to decide. Only the witnesses do." Captain Li couldn't understand what had gotten into Chen Ge. "Stop lingering in that school. Get out immediately. Our people are on their way to pick you up."
"They're lying! Check Zhang Ya's exact time of death — it should have been before the five girls left school! They lied about the time of death. Those five girls were all accomplices!" Chen Ge's voice grew steadily louder.
"You're actually wrong about that. Zhang Ya's estimated time of death was between six and eight in the evening. The five girls had left school at five-thirty, just like any other day." Captain Li had no idea what Chen Ge had experienced inside Xicheng Private Academy — he was judging the situation from an outsider's perspective.
"That's impossible!"
"Nothing's impossible. The medical examiner conducted a detailed assessment based on lividity, rigor mortis, and corneal clouding, among other factors. Zhang Ya died between six and eight o'clock. The cause of death was a fractured spine. She also had a damaged skull, and hairline fractures in her ankle and hip — all injuries consistent with the fall."
Captain Li's words left Chen Ge momentarily unable to argue. He stopped in his tracks. "Perhaps there's another possibility. Zhang Ya jumped before the five girls left, but she didn't die immediately after falling from the fourth floor — she clung to a sliver of life. With multiple fractures and a broken spine, she couldn't move. All she could do was lie face-down in a pool of blood and wait to die, struggling in agony for a long time before she finally died between six and eight."
"Your theory has some plausibility, but you're overlooking one thing — if the girl had fallen and was writhing in a pool of blood, would the other five girls standing right there really have shown no reaction at all? Even if the five girls didn't help her for whatever reason, someone else in the school should have noticed her."
"It was a holiday. Only those six had come to the school specifically to train for a provincial dance competition. Their instructor had already left early, and even if there were security guards or something on campus, what if someone with an agenda deliberately kept them away?" Chen Ge offered a different perspective.
"I'm not going to argue about this with you. Discussing whether Zhang Ya committed suicide is pointless right now. You think those five girls drove Zhang Ya to her death and committed perjury, amounts to indirect murder — but in the two weeks that followed, those five girls also died one after another. The perpetrators you believe existed are no longer among the living. How can this case possibly go forward?" What worried Captain Li now was Chen Ge's safety.
"Captain Li, I never said those five girls were the murderers. They were only accomplices! The real killer who forced Zhang Ya to her death is a fat man, roughly one meter eighty, slightly hunched!"
"You're quite detailed about it. Then tell me — how did you arrive at this conclusion? Four years ago, Xicheng Private Academy's surveillance system wasn't even fully installed. Every eyewitness is dead. And now you're telling me there's a different killer — how do you expect me to believe you?" Captain Li had already been working overtime on the Peaceful Apartment case for several days, still at the station past two in the morning. A deep weariness had crept into his voice.
Chen Ge could hear the skepticism in Captain Li's words. "We can investigate everyone connected to Xicheng Private Academy four years ago. We'll definitely find this person! He was at the scene that day!"
"Chen Ge, police work isn't a game. Do you have any idea how difficult it would be to investigate every person connected to a school four years ago? Even if you could convince me, the higher-ups would never authorize a case based on this. What you need is evidence, not suspicions and speculation."
"Everything I've said is a fact."
"Only what can withstand scrutiny counts as fact." Captain Li began organizing the files, preparing to put them back in the cabinet. "Can you tell me why you're so fixated on a case that was closed four years ago? From what I know, you're not exactly the type of hot-blooded young man overflowing with righteous indignation."
Why was he so fixated?
Chen Ge was momentarily stunned by the question. Images flashed through his mind — Zhang Ya's warning in the cabin at the Peaceful Apartment, and just moments ago in the dance studio, Zhang Ya pressing against his back, radiating coldness and loneliness.
"There's no particular reason, really. In a situation like this, I'm the only one left who can speak up for her and stand beside her," Chen Ge said into the phone.
"I still don't quite understand what you mean." Captain Li was silent for a long time before speaking again. "But strict impartiality is a police officer's core principle. Since you've raised doubts, once the Peaceful Apartment case is wrapped up, I'll personally help you investigate."
"Thank you, Uncle Sanbao!" Chen Ge let out a long sigh of relief. "Finding the real killer would at least give Zhang Ya some closure. As for this terrible place, I never want to come back."
He hung up the phone and turned around for one last look at Xicheng Private Academy.
But when he turned, the Red-coated Ghost — Zhang Ya — was standing right behind him!
Only two or three meters separated them. Blood flowed across her school uniform. Zhang Ya tilted her head, studying Chen Ge. This time she didn't come closer, and her expression was somewhat peculiar.