Chapter 17

Although Lin Xian was not clear about the details of the autopsy, he remembered the weekly Chinese test paper in Liu Yaoyao's schoolbag that barely passed the test.

He didn't step forward to help pick up the notebook, but stood aside with his hands in his coat pockets and asked, "Teacher Luo, how are Liu Yaoyao's Chinese grades?"

"Of course, she used to be the Chinese class representative, but later she said that the study pressure was too great, so she took the initiative to resign." Luo Hua answered without hesitation.

"Oh? So her Chinese grades have declined recently?"

"Indeed," Luo Hua found a white weekly notebook with "Liu Yaoyao" written on it from the scattered notebooks and handed it to Lin Xian who reached out to take it. "She has been emotionally unstable recently and often absent-minded in Chinese class."

"But her grades in other subjects are still very good. Even though she almost failed in Chinese, her overall score in the weekly exams was still in the middle of the class. It's understandable that her math scores fluctuated greatly, but it seems rare for her Chinese scores to be like this. You are her Chinese teacher, and I heard that you are a special teacher. What do you think about this?" Lin Xian lowered his head to read Liu Yaoyao's weekly diary, and suddenly looked up at Luo Hua.

The look behind his glasses was still gentle, and his tone was neither hurried nor slow, but the moment Luo Hua's eyes met his, he felt as if he had been seen through, and he quickly avoided that gaze.

Lu Chengtian picked up the last notebook and neatly arranged them on the table. He suddenly looked at Luo Hua and said, "Teacher Luo, can I ask what's going on with the scar on the back of your neck?"

Luo Hua was almost sweating when he was suddenly attacked by these two people, one soft and one hard.

There was a knock on the door, and a tall, thin young man in a "beggar-style" sweatshirt and jeans stood before them against the light. "I'm Qi Huan. Are you looking for me?"

"Yes. Liu Yaoyao is dead, did you know that?" Lu Chengtian temporarily let Luo Hua go and looked at the dark-skinned boy in front of him.

The boy's eyes were red, and his hands were clenched into fists at his sides. He looked at Luo Hua and said through gritted teeth, "It was this beast in human clothing who forced Yaoyao to death."

"It's best not to slander others without evidence." Luo Hua looked at the dirty boy in front of him with a frown.

"It's you! If it weren't for you, Yaoyao, such a strong person, would never have committed suicide!" Qi Huan rushed forward with red eyes, grabbed Luo Hua's collar, pressed him to the ground, and was about to punch him in the face when a white and slender hand grabbed his wrist.

Qi Huan struggled hard to break free, but the hand still held him tightly. Although it looked weak, its strength should not be underestimated.

He looked at Lin Xian deflatedly, his bloodshot eyes filled with anger and questioning. Lin Xian said gently, "If you have anything to say, go to the Public Security Bureau. You must believe that the law will give Liu Yaoyao justice."

If anyone else had said this, Qi Huan's rage would have only intensified. But Lin Xian's gaze was calm and unfathomable, and his tone was filled with soothing power. The young man's thorns subsided meekly, and he let go of Luo Hua, looking at him coldly: "You scum, you can't get away."

Lu Chengtian stepped forward, pulled Lin Xian's hand away from Qi Huan, and said, "Then I'll trouble you two to go to the Municipal Bureau."

Qi Huan and Luo Hua walked out of the office one after another. Before Lu Chengtian left, he lowered his voice and said coldly to Lin Xian: "Be merciful everywhere, are you the central air conditioner?"

"What?" The bell for the end of class just drowned out Lu Chengtian's voice, so Lin Xian didn't hear clearly. But from Lu Chengtian's actions and expression just now, he could probably guess what happened.

He smiled slightly, took Lu Chengtian in his arms, leaned close to his ear and whispered, "Xiao Lu, being too possessive is not a good thing."

Lin Xian's lips felt cool, and they brushed against Lu Chengtian's ear. A jolt of electricity coursed through his body, and he felt every hair on his body stand on end. His heart pounded in his chest, and his ears burned like they were on fire.

Lin Xian glanced at him through the lenses, let go of him, reached out and touched the tip of his red ear, and pinched the ear that was red enough to bleed with his thumb and index finger lightly.

Tun Qin's last words were like a spell, ringing in Lu Chengtian's ears again: "Officer, you know, these drug dealers all like this, it's so exciting——"

Lu Chengtian grabbed his wrist and said in a hoarse voice: "Lin Xian, don't go too far, I——"

Before he could finish, the students swarmed out of the classroom and into the corridor. He quickly let go of Lin Xian and walked forward angrily.

Lin Xian looked at the furious figure from behind and smiled lightly, feeling a sense of accomplishment as if he had dealt with the little brat.

·

The lights in the interrogation room were on, cold and bleak.

Qi Huan sat behind the interrogation table, head bowed, eyes dark. After a long pause, he said, "Can I have a cigarette?"

Lu Chengtian never smoked, but Lin Xian pulled out a pack of soft Zhonghua cigarettes from his coat pocket, which someone had given him. He spread his hand in front of Lu Chengtian and said, "Can you give me back my lighter?"

"Let me do it. Editor-in-Chief Lin doesn't need to do it himself." Lu Chengtian took the soft Zhonghua cigarette from his hand, took out a one, and walked forward to light it for Qi Huan.

Qi Huan took a deep drag on his cigarette, his scarred fingers trembling. After a moment, he looked up at Lu Chengtian and said, "You know, some people look so glamorous and beautiful, you'd think they'd be carefree angels, but they're actually living in hell because the bastards around them aren't even human."

"What does it mean that there are no people around her?"

Although Qi Huan's face was under the light, it always felt like it was hidden in the shadows. The cigarette butt at his fingertips flickered, and the gradually burning ashes fell as his fingers shook.

A tear slid down his dark face: "If I were more capable, I would never let them bully her like that."

When Liu Yaoyao was in her first year of high school, she met Qi Huan, who was attending a local vocational high school.

Qi Huan's parents were both deceased. His grandfather, who rode a tricycle used for repairing cars and making keys, sometimes collected scrap to support him with his meager income. The two lived together in a tin shack of just over a dozen square meters. Later, while collecting scrap, his grandfather suffered a heart attack, leaving the still-teen Qi Huan a complete orphan. Even stray dogs on the street could bully him. The unattended teenager became a biting, biting dog, and even spent time in a juvenile detention center for fighting.

One night, he had just finished a fight when he heard a faint cry for help in the alley. He went to watch, his hands in his pockets, and saw several men and women tying Liu Yaoyao's hands and feet and taping her mouth shut. The girl in charge untied her school uniform and burned her with cigarette butts, while people nearby filmed her on their phones.

Qi Huan didn't like to meddle in other people's business, but under the dim light of the alley, the petite girl looked so miserable, so he stepped forward and kicked the boy who was filming the video, deleted the video from his phone, and threw it back at him.

Compared with Qi Huan, a tough guy who often fights with others, these "academic masters" from No. 15 Middle School who are strong on the outside but weak on the inside can hardly even be called bad boys. They quickly scattered in the face of his desperate attitude.

The collision between the bad boy and the beautiful, strong and tragic girl should have led to a shocking and heartbreaking love story, and Qi Huan really fell in love with Liu Yaoyao.

She was a quiet person and didn't smile much, but Qi Huan had heard from his gang buddies that she was the school beauty and the school hunk's crush, which made Qi Huan feel inferior. He never revealed his feelings to Liu Yaoyao, but just quietly followed her after school every day and walked her home.

One day after school, he waited and waited, but Liu Yaoyao didn't show up. The lights in the classrooms went out one by one. He sneaked in and found that, in addition to a few offices, the lights in the health room were also on, but the door was locked from the inside. He heard a girl's faint voice say, "Let me go." It was Liu Yaoyao.

He knocked hard on the door, trying to open the lock, but the security door was too strong. Then there was no more sound from inside, and the lights went out.

Qi Huan frantically went to the security room to call the guard, saying that someone was locked in the health room. The security guard looked at this person with "I am a delinquent" written all over his body and went to open the door with doubt, but he only saw Liu Yaoyao sleeping on the bed in the health room. There was still a strange fragrance in the room, like sandalwood, but more sweet and rich.

He waited until the stars rose over the hills behind the school before Liu Yaoyao woke up. He asked her what happened, and the girl, who had never cried even when she was bullied, burst into tears like beads that had fallen off a string.

Under Qi Huan's urgent questioning, Liu Yaoyao finally revealed the truth: her Chinese teacher, Luo Hua, had kept her after school, saying her reading comprehension was weak and he wanted to help her with a problem. He then feigned a stomachache and asked her to accompany him to the infirmary to get medicine. Luo Hua lit a blue incense stick, and she felt as if she were sinking into a cloud, losing the strength to resist. She didn't say anything else, and Qi Huan knew what happened next.

He originally planned to kill Luo Hua, but Liu Yaoyao said that she had fallen in love with Luo Hua, and if he killed Luo Hua, she would also commit suicide.

From then on, Liu Yaoyao distanced herself from her and no longer allowed him to take her home. She also threatened him, saying that a wild dog like him was not worthy of her at all, and if he followed her again, she would call the police.

Qi Huan's intuition told him that this was not the case. However, he felt too inferior in front of Liu Yaoyao, and her words undoubtedly trampled his self-esteem into the dust. He finally stopped following her and made up his mind to stay away from her.

Until one day, he came to the gate of No. 15 Middle School in a daze, saw Liu Yaoyao after school, and couldn't help but follow her quietly again.

After school, she didn't go home, but went to a high-end KTV called Yulong. She wasn't until late at night, when she was hugged by a strange man and left the house. She looked drunk. She wasn't wearing her usual school uniform, but something that was too mature and revealing for her.

When she passed Qi Huan, she seemed not to recognize him and even hugged the man beside her and kissed him. That was the last time he saw her.

When we met again, it was the earth-shattering news of the fall from the building.

Lin Xian stood up and made a cup of hot coffee for the trembling boy.

Qi Huan felt like he had been caught in a heavy rain on a cold night. He took a shaky sip of coffee and finally calmed down a little: "It was them who forced her to death together."

Lu Chengtian circled a few key words in his notes: Luo Hua, Galanxiang, and Yulong KTV - they just happened to match the whereabouts of Liu Yaoyao that Zhao Yiqing and the others had found from the surveillance footage. They even found clues about Lan Yan and Galanxiang there.

He asked, "Forty minutes before the fall, Liu Yaoyao had a voice call with you. What did she say?"

Qi Huan raised her head, her Adam's apple rolling, and took several deep breaths. She said, "I'm sorry, you're a good boy. Don't look for me again, don't fight with others, and live a good life."

"She hadn't contacted me for a long time, and when she suddenly called me like this, I was so happy that I almost went crazy. But before I could finish my words, she hung up. If I had known that was her last call before she died, I would have tried every possible way to stop her."

The boy's chest heaved violently, and Lu Chengtian silently waited for him to calm down. Then, he placed photos of Du Han and five other students on the table in front of Qi Huan. "Do you recognize these people?"

Qi Huan took a look, his eyes cold: "It was these bastards who bullied Yaoyao in the alley."

After saying this, the boy took a few deep breaths, but ultimately couldn't hold back his tears, sobbing. "If I hadn't been so self-deprecating and hadn't believed her, this wouldn't have happened. It's my fault..."

A warm hand gently touched his head, and Qi Huan heard a sigh: "Anyone will feel inferior in front of the person they like. This is not your fault, just think of it as living well for her."

The young man looked up and met Lu Chengtian's dark and calm gaze.

Lin Xian pulled out his phone and filmed the scene. In the image, the tall, long-legged Lu Zhituan leaned over slightly, stroking the boy's head, as if caressing the boy from the past across the torrent of time.