HH Chapter 27

In the early morning, Pei Qinghuai turned over, feeling a chill breeze brush against his neck. The curtains seemed to move slightly. The person lying in bed frowned, as if having a bad dream.

It was an unfinished building, with the ground floor exceptionally clean. In the center of the floor was a large red circle, and next to it lay a woman in a red dress, her skin deathly pale but serene, as if she had just fallen asleep. As he approached, suddenly, a swarm of butterflies emerged from her lower body. As they dispersed, her slightly bulging clothes deflated.

It was a corpse without organs.

Pei Qinghuai woke up in an instant, sitting up abruptly in bed. The bedside lamp was still on, and the curtains were twisted together by the wind. Rubbing his aching temples, he got up to close the window before returning to bed.

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The next day, Pei Qinghuai dozed off in the car. Cheng Ye asked, “Didn’t sleep well last night?”

Pei Qinghuai closed his eyes and hummed in response. Cheng Ye continued, “Did you see the news yesterday? It’s been a huge uproar, with all sorts of opinions.”

“I saw it,” Pei Qinghuai replied slowly. “We do live in a twisted world.”

Cheng Ye was taken aback and turned to look at Pei Qinghuai. “What do you mean?”

Pei Qinghuai adjusted his position to get more comfortable before speaking, “Didn’t you notice a common reaction? After this incident, their first thought was ‘how could this happen’ rather than ‘she was murdered.’ Isn’t that a form of secondary harm?”

He exhaled. “You must have seen the comments under the news.”

“Yes, I did,” Cheng Ye replied, and the atmosphere in the car became more somber.

Beneath the news were many dirty and insulting comments. They never took responsibility for what they said, perhaps believing they would forget those words by the afternoon.

But to the victim’s family, those dirty words remained in their minds, magnified infinitely. No matter how they tried to speak out and explain, those words would once again drown and crush them like a tide.

And the speakers would never be held accountable.

“We’re here,” Cheng Ye said, parking the car at the entrance.

Pei Qinghuai opened his eyes, still drowsy. Just as he was about to enter the school, a security guard stopped him. “No outsiders allowed.”

Cheng Ye, not wanting to make a fuss, smiled and said, “We’re parents and need to discuss something with a teacher.”

“Parents aren’t allowed either!” The guard rolled his eyes. “Don’t you know the school’s rules? No entry during the week, including parents!”

Cheng Ye felt a headache coming on. Realizing he needed to take a shortcut, he took out his police badge and showed it to the guard. “Police, here on official business.”

He expected it to go smoothly, but the guard rolled his eyes even more and angrily said, “First parents, now police. Do you think I’m easy to fool? Move along, move along.”

“Hey! You!” Cheng Ye was frustrated.

Seeing Cheng Ye’s disgruntled expression, Pei Qinghuai suppressed a laugh and patted him. “Let’s go. You don’t want to get arrested for disturbing public order.”

Cheng Ye looked back at the guard with every step as they left. Pei Qinghuai couldn’t hold back and burst out laughing. Cheng Ye, seeing this, retorted, “You can’t laugh.”

Looking at Cheng Ye, Pei Qinghuai quickly straightened his expression and looked away. “Let’s leave this to Zhang Yibao.”

Sure enough, within five minutes, the principal came to the gate to greet them personally, and the guard’s face was plastered with a smile.

Cheng Ye glanced at the guard and joked with the principal, “Your school’s management is quite strict.”

The principal, smiling warmly, said, “We have to be strict to keep the students from running off. Our school has the highest admission rate, after all.”

Pei Qinghuai sniffed and smiled slightly at the principal.

Cheng Ye got straight to the point. “Principal Zhang, you must be aware of the incident that happened at your school.”

Zhang Pingshun’s expression froze. He adjusted his glasses and nodded. “Yes, the school has tried to suppress the news. Students love spreading false information.”

“Hasn’t the third year finished their college entrance exams? What about Chen Yuxin?” Cheng Ye asked.

Zhang Pingshun replied, “She’s in the advanced class for second-year students, who get early exposure to third-year material. They’re practically third-year students already.”

Cheng Ye nodded in understanding and brought the topic back to Chen Yuxin. “Which class is she in? Can you take us there?”

“Sure, this way,” Zhang Pingshun said with a smile.

Leading the way, he occasionally looked back. “The students are still in class. Let’s meet the homeroom teacher first.”

“Okay,” Cheng Ye agreed.

Zhang Pingshun stood at the office door and called out, “Ms. Liu, could you step out for a moment?”

Liu Lili glanced outside, stood up, and walked out. Zhang Pingshun introduced, “These are two police officers here to ask you some questions.”

He then excused himself, saying he had other matters to attend to.

Cheng Ye nodded and then focused on Liu Lili. “How are Chen Yuxin’s interpersonal relationships? Does she have any friends?”

Liu Lili thought for a moment before speaking. “She rarely talks, always sitting in the back of the classroom, never raising her head in class. I’ve spoken to her many times, but she never listened, so I eventually gave up. She has a friend named Guo Rui, but they seem to have had a falling out recently and aren’t speaking.”

Pei Qinghuai and Cheng Ye exchanged a glance. Pei Qinghuai asked first, “What do you mean by ‘gave up’? What’s the definition of this advanced class?”

Liu Lili sighed. “It’s voluntary. Chen Yuxin’s grades were average, nothing special. She didn’t pay attention in class and couldn’t answer questions, so after a while, I stopped trying.”

“Has she had any conflicts with others?” Cheng Ye asked.

Liu Lili looked embarrassed and smiled. “I don’t really know. These are private matters among the students, beyond my control.”

Just then, the bell rang for the end of class. Cheng Ye looked at Liu Lili. “Could you call Guo Rui for us?”

“Sure, please wait a moment,” Liu Lili said, walking away in her high heels.

Guo Rui was also an unremarkable girl, with thick bangs covering most of her eyes, wearing large glasses and a loosely fitting school uniform that looked like it belonged to someone else.

“We’d like to learn about Chen Yuxin. Can we talk?” Cheng Ye asked.

Guo Rui spoke softly, “Is there something wrong?”

Cheng Ye asked, “Has she left the school in the past few days?”

Guo Rui replied, “I’m not in the same dormitory as her, so I don’t know.”

Cheng Ye asked, “Who is in the same dormitory as her?”

Guo Rui lifted her head slightly and glanced into the distance. “She moved to a dormitory by herself after having conflicts with her roommates a long time ago.”

“What happened to Yuxin?” Guo Rui asked, not daring to look directly at the two officers, her voice so quiet that Cheng Ye had to lean in to hear her.

Cheng Ye exchanged a glance with Pei Qinghuai and then said, “She’s dead.”

Guo Rui trembled, hastily pushing her glasses up. “I’m not close to her. You should ask someone else. I have to get ready for the next class.”

As Guo Rui tried to leave, Cheng Ye blocked her path. “What do you know?”

Guo Rui shook her head. “I don’t know anything. We haven’t been in touch for a long time.”

“Are you sure?” Cheng Ye pressed. “Lying to the police is a serious matter.”

Guo Rui swallowed and nodded repeatedly. “I’m sure, I’m sure.”

Guo Rui was clearly avoiding the police’s questions, but pressing her further wouldn’t yield any results. Cheng Ye let her go, and they asked several other students, all of whom said they weren’t close to Chen Yuxin and didn’t know much. Guo Rui’s reaction was the only one that stood out.

They returned to the station, heads down. Cheng Ye looked at Fang Yuan slumped in a chair and asked, “How are the victim’s family?”

“What do you think?” Fang Yuan replied, dejected. “After waking up in the middle of the night and seeing the news, they nearly collapsed. It took a lot to calm them down, and now Jiang Fei is still at the hospital, afraid something might happen.”

Cheng Ye had just sat down when Yan Ya came in, so he stood up again. “Meeting.”

Yan Ya’s face looked even paler than the night before. She began speaking slowly as images were projected on a screen. “The victim, Chen Yuxin, died between 3 and 4 AM. The cause of death was a sudden cardiac arrest due to extreme stress.”

She pointed to various parts of the images with a laser pointer. “There are many pre-mortem injuries, including some old ones. The newest injuries are here.” Yan Ya enlarged the images. “You can see long, thin marks and soft tissue bruises, likely from a whip. The victim’s lower body also shows blunt force trauma, indicating possible revenge.”

“What a beast,” Fang Yuan muttered angrily, clenching his teeth.

Yan Ya continued, “Additionally, there was little food left in her stomach, indicating she hadn’t eaten in days.”

Pei Qinghuai stared at the screen, lost in thought, before asking a chilling question, “Do you think the killer might have sexual dysfunction?”

Chen Xiaonuan and Cheng Ye both asked, almost in unison, “Why?”

Pei Qinghuai turned to them. “I once saw a case like this, with similar methods. The victim also had blunt force trauma to the lower body, and the killer was someone with sexual dysfunction.”