Chapter 30 Welcome

The melodious chanting echoed across the spacious playground.

The trainees, some dazed and others nervous, stood in their designated spots, listening to the lecturer on the stage brainwash them.

Just as the phrase "Gentleness is a virtue" was displayed, thick smoke began billowing out of a window on the fifth floor of the teaching building.

The trainees remained standing with their heads down, not daring to look around, so when the fire first started, no one noticed the abnormality on the fifth floor.

It wasn't until the homeroom teacher and the instructors glanced up unintentionally under the shade of a tree that they noticed the anomaly on the fifth floor.

"Fire!!!" someone exclaimed, followed by a commotion among the crowd.

The chanting from the loudspeaker continued relentlessly, the melodious chanting mixed with shouts from the crowd and the chaotic commotion of people rushing towards the teaching building.

It's utterly ridiculous.

Upon seeing the fire in the teaching building, the lecturer on the podium stopped speaking and, along with his assistant, left the podium to stand in a safe place.

It appeared to be an electrical fire, or perhaps the fifth floor happened to be where the archives were stored, with many paper files and teaching materials piled up there, all of which were flammable, causing the fire to spread at an alarming rate.

But no one has reported the fire yet.

All the staff at the academy went to get fire extinguishers to help put out the fire, leaving only the students huddled on the playground.

No one knows what they went through, but even though the scene was in such chaos, no one dared to leave without permission.

At first, a dozen or so instructors and teaching assistants were able to be deployed to maintain and supervise the students' activities. However, as the fire became uncontrollable, even the few remaining instructors who were maintaining order were ordered to help.

Fortunately, the fire was eventually brought under control amidst everyone's frantic efforts.

"Is anyone on the fifth floor?" A middle-aged man in a neat suit asked seriously as he hurriedly drove over from outside the school.

“Vice Dean Zhang,” came a director from the administrative office from the crowd who had just finished putting out the fire and were coming downstairs covered in soot, “the surveillance footage shows that a teaching assistant and two instructors escorted a new female trainee into the reformatory.”

"The rest of the people went to a meeting; there's no one else here."

Vice President Zhang glanced at the fifth floor, which had been burned to ashes, and his expression turned solemn.

"Send me the information about the teaching assistants and instructors immediately, and that female student..." He glanced at the director, "What's her background?"

"Yes..." the director hesitated, "It should be the eldest daughter sent by the Xin family..."

Vice Dean Zhang fell silent.

The Xin family?

He's a prominent figure in the city, not someone to be easily fooled.

"Keep this a secret," he quickly decided. "Everyone's cell phone must be handed in for inspection. Not a word of this is allowed to leak out!"

"The investors are coming to our college soon. Contact the renovation team immediately. No matter the cost, this teaching building must be restored to its original state by tomorrow!"

After saying that, he hurriedly got into his car and left.

The director nodded hurriedly in agreement, wiping the sweat from his forehead.

“Director Wu,” a teaching assistant rushed over with a dusty cell phone, “we think we found Xiao Li’s cell phone while we were putting out the fire.”

“And…” The teaching assistant swallowed hard, a shiver running down his spine, “several corpses, all…all charred…and smashed to pieces by falling equipment…”

The director swayed, his head spinning from the shock of those words.

"Don't call the police," he forced himself to calm down and made a decision in the blink of an eye. "What's wrong with his phone?"

The teaching assistant's legs went weak just thinking about the horrific fire scene on the fifth floor. He handed his phone to the director, saying, "You...you can see for yourself...his phone can still be turned on..."

Seeing the teaching assistant's spineless, panicked state, completely lacking the authority he used to maintain order during class, the director was furious.

He snatched the already turned-on phone and quickly flipped through it.

The longer they flipped through the pages, the worse the director's expression became.

"Xiao Li... Xiao Li is a serial killer?" His face turned pale. "Those employees who were absent from work without reason these past two days, he killed them all?"

The director couldn't believe it, but the messages sent from his secondary WeChat account to the anonymous account left him no choice but to believe them.

"Quickly!" he grabbed the teaching assistant's arm. "Contact Dean Ning and Vice Dean Zhang immediately!!!"

"Director..." The teaching assistant was on the verge of tears. "If he really killed those four people who skipped work, plus the ones on the fifth floor today, that's seven lives!"

"Aren't we going to call the police?!"

The director glanced around and saw that everyone else was busy cleaning up the fire scene. He already had an idea in mind.

He dragged the teaching assistant to the corner, asking, "Has anyone else seen the information on this phone?"

"It's just me... I found something was wrong after I turned on the computer, so I came straight to you." The teaching assistant didn't understand why the director was asking this.

“The investors are coming to inspect soon,” the director said, relieved to hear that only he knew about the matter. He then earnestly advised him, “If the police are called, our college will be sealed off, and the investment will definitely fall through.”

The teaching assistant fell silent.

“This is a big deal. We’ll report it to the dean and vice dean. They’ll use their connections to investigate,” the director reassured him. “Then we’ll ask the dean to find a way to increase security to ensure the safety of our employees.”

"There have been so many meetings, big and small, these past few days. Even if you're stupid, you can tell how much the dean values ​​this inspection, right?"

"You yourself are paid a salary and bonus by the dean. What good will it do you to ruin the cooperation with the investors?"

“But, there’s a good chance Xiao Li isn’t dead,” the teaching assistant still felt uneasy. “He might be hiding somewhere in the academy, waiting for the next…”

The director was also feeling uneasy, but he still wouldn't budge, saying, "Don't worry, the dean has very strong connections. The security guards she can find are no ordinary people. Xiao Li won't get away!"

"Then, what about those corpses?" the teaching assistant asked, trembling.

“Just handle it as if the student committed suicide,” the director said, relieved that the teaching assistant was no longer insisting on calling the police. “You don’t need to worry about their families causing trouble. They’re just a bunch of thugs with criminal records, and their relationship with their families is just so-so.”

"As long as we pay some compensation, we can suppress it."

The teaching assistant, with a mournful face, said, "How can they be compared to those students who committed suicide... They were clearly..."

The director covered his mouth, then cautiously surveyed the surroundings before speaking threateningly, "What's the difference? Haven't you dealt with people jumping off buildings? Haven't you dealt with people electrocuted? Haven't you dealt with people who went insane?"

"So what if he died as a man instead of a woman? What's the difference?"

"If you want to cause trouble, go ahead," the director sneered. "We're all in this together. Do you think you can leave the police station clean?"

The teaching assistant fell completely silent, and finally nodded stiffly.