"The person hiding in the sixth stall was
When Chen Ge had been speculating about the killer before, he'd been missing one critical piece — the motive. Now, the appearance of these notes had pointed him in the right direction.
"There are three notes in total, each written in a different hand. That means at least three people knew about the disgusting things Teacher Fan had done. This probably wasn't some frame-up or malicious intimidation."
Chen Ge didn't touch the notes tucked inside the book. Too much time had passed, and the paper was extremely fragile — he was terrified of destroying this crucial evidence.
"The handwriting on the paper is clear and deliberate, with no attempt to disguise it. Teacher Fan must have kept these three notes in order to compare the handwriting and catch the students who wrote them. After all, Muyang Middle School wasn't that large, and with the advantage of his position, three days would have been more than enough to check every student's handwriting."
Chen Ge committed the contents of the notes to memory. He was genuinely curious about one thing, though: how had these three students discovered the secret in the sixth stall? "Could they all be victims? But the tone between the lines doesn't suggest that — especially the last sentence: 'If you won't leave willingly, then stay forever.' That's not something a victim would say."
The messages conveyed by the three notes were incredibly aggressive, but the demands they made struck Chen Ge as almost childishly naive. For someone like Fan Yu's father, the correct course of action would have been to call the police and let the law take its course. Not some meaningless public apology — once certain things were exposed publicly, they would only inflict a second round of pain on the victims, dragging their suffering into the open for all to see.
"The content does read like it was written by students. Could they be the ones who threw Teacher Fan into the well?" Now the motive existed, but the method and timeline didn't line up. That night, two adults had vanished. Silently disposing of two grown men, covering up the scene, leaving no traces behind — that didn't sound like something a handful of students could pull off.
"I must be overlooking something." Chen Ge tried to think from Fan Yu's father's perspective.
A public apology was out of the question for Fan Yu's father. If this ever came to light, his reputation would be destroyed and he'd face legal consequences. He'd already committed one offense before coming to Muyang Middle School — another incident would make him a repeat offender, subject to harsher penalties.
Fan Yu's father certainly knew all this, which was exactly why he'd kept the notes, hoping to identify the students threatening him through handwriting analysis. But judging by the outcome, he'd searched for three days and found nothing.
"To summarize what I know: three notes written by three different people. Teacher Fan checked the handwriting of every person in the school and matched none of them. These three individuals also discovered the secret of the sixth stall. Strangely, rather than calling the police or reporting it to the school, they chose the most ineffective, most self-incriminating method — directly threatening Teacher Fan. And lastly, the content of those notes actually came true."
These three points were what struck Chen Ge as illogical. Strung together, they painted a picture: three people who couldn't be found anywhere in the school had discovered Teacher Fan's peeping secret, and after their warning went unheeded, they made him disappear.
"People who satisfy all three conditions basically don't exist." Chen Ge already had his suspicions about the killer, but he couldn't confirm them yet.
"One of the notes mentioned a girl — they wanted Fan Yu's father to apologize to her. If I can find her, many of these puzzles will fall into place." After recording everything with his live-stream camera, Chen Ge closed the book and placed it back where he'd found it.
"If I hadn't specifically searched those drawers, I would have missed these notes entirely. To understand the full story, you really do have to pay attention to the details." Chen Ge left the math department office and methodically searched the remaining rooms on the second floor, but found nothing else of note.
"It's ten thirty. If I keep this up, the last two side quests will be nearly impossible to finish." Chen Ge left the office building with his flashlight, braving the torrential rain as he searched the school grounds for a well. He spent a full hour looking without finding it.
"The well? The black phone couldn't have made an error!" He'd run all across the campus without spotting a single well opening. His shoes and trousers were soaked through, and he looked quite the sorry sight.
"Only half an hour until midnight. I'll set the deep well quest aside for now." Chen Ge gripped the hood of his raincoat and ducked his head as he headed for the teaching building. Before midnight struck, he wanted to check out the last classroom. If that classroom quest turned out to be equally difficult, he was prepared to make a run for it.
Water had gotten into his shoes, making every step feel heavy, each footfall leaving a wet print on the ground.
Once inside the teaching building, Chen Ge headed straight for the last classroom. He was here — not going in to look around wasn't his style.
Peering through the window from outside, he saw that only the desk in the very center of the classroom held textbooks and paper, which made the whole scene feel jarringly out of place.
"It does look pretty eerie."
The site where Muyang Middle School had been built was formerly a crematorium. Chen Ge had read about it in online forums — some people claimed the last classroom corresponded to the crematorium's morgue, an area heavy with yin energy, which was why the old principal had locked it up.
Others said that when a class from Muyang Middle School had gone on a field trip, their bus had been involved in an accident, and several people had died. The students of that class kept coming back to attend class, so the school had no choice but to set this classroom aside for them.
The third theory was more inspirational in tone. Before Muyang Middle School was shut down, it had been the weakest school among all middle schools in Jiujiang — its average student scores were indisputably dead last. To remedy this, the teachers suggested dividing classes by performance, placing the lowest-scoring classes at the very back. But the old principal vetoed the proposal and locked the final classroom instead, using it to encourage the students: no one is born in last place, and labeling people as good or bad is the wrong approach.
There were many more legends about the last classroom of Muyang Middle School, but Chen Ge could only remember the three that were most widely discussed.
He checked the time again — eleven thirty-six — then pried open the door to the last classroom and stepped inside.
Chen Ge moved quickly. His goal was simple: get a close look at whatever was on that desk in the middle.
The moment he entered, he didn't notice any difference from the outside — it was only slightly quieter.
When he reached the desk in the center, Chen Ge flipped through the textbook and the blank sheets of paper, all of which were completely empty. Then, as he lifted the textbook, he suddenly noticed that the surface of the wooden desk was carved with a great many words.