Chapter 62
"Oh no! Teacher Zhang died in his own home. The police autopsy said he was drunk and set the sofa on fire."
"You actually believe police autopsies these days?"
"Whether you believe it or not is not important. Our colleague just died suddenly like that. Doesn't that send chills down your spine?"
"It's alright. Don't these kinds of things happen often in the New Territories? If you ask me, someone like Zhang Peng was bound to get into trouble sooner or later. He often goes to nightclubs after get off work, and if he likes someone, he'll bring them home. Who knows if he's really messed up this time? Maybe some rival will come knocking on his door and kill him."
"It's really a disgrace. How could such a scoundrel emerge from our education system?"
"That's right. Look at him in the office, he takes every opportunity to make lewd jokes, as if he's afraid people won't know what kind of filthy thing he is."
"Also, weren't there a few young female teachers before? I heard..."
Early in the morning, the office was buzzing with talk about Zhang Peng's bizarre death. His death had unearthed many of his unsavory past experiences. Whether he was dead or not didn't matter; the key was whether he had any scandals to tell, which was what people talked about over tea.
When people are alive, they try their best to maintain a peaceful facade for the sake of appearances. But once they are gone, they stop pretending and just want to shout that it was good that they died.
Chi Xia and Xin Ran entered the office one after the other and overheard a bit, but didn't pay much attention. They walked back to their workstations. Anna was drinking water while holding her fingerprint lock cup, listening to what was going on and on. When she saw Chi Xia, she immediately got up and pulled her out.
"Sister Nana?"
Anna stared at Chi Xia, her bright eyes filled with panic. "Last night, you went for coffee with Zhang Peng?"
Chi Xia nodded, "Yes, I'm going."
"Zhang Peng is dead. Did he bully you, and you had him killed?"
After hearing this, Chi Xia couldn't help but laugh out loud. Anna gave her a deflated shove, "I told you not to get involved with him. People like him are bad luck. Even if he dies, he'll still be infamous. I can't understand how I ended up working with someone like him."
Chi Xia listened quietly without interrupting. She had no direct experience of Zhang Peng's various deeds and was not interested in them. She just felt that the man deserved to die, so she would not be lenient with him.
"Hey, what are you two doing standing there? Class is about to start." Lin Keli arrived late, handed Chi Xia an egg pancake, and ate one herself.
Anna frowned. "What about mine?"
Lin Keli grabbed Chi Xia and headed towards the office, saying, "Next time, you can only buy two when you queue up."
"What a joke! What kind of breakfast shop has such a rule? If you're going to turn down money, why bother doing business? You might as well close down." Anna scoffed, swaying her alluring figure as she followed behind. Although everyone else was dressed in black suits, white shirts, and uniforms, Anna somehow managed to make it look like she was walking a high-fashion runway.
In contrast, Lin Keli's clothes were always buttoned up perfectly without a single wrinkle. As soon as she sat down, she would immerse herself in her work. When a colleague died suddenly in an accident, she had to post an obituary on the official website and intranet, and at the same time post a job advertisement to fill the vacancy with a subject teacher. Director Ma sent her a bunch of requirements before dawn.
For her, the disaster was the sudden increase in workload.
Chi Xia sat down, found a fruit knife, wiped it clean, and then neatly cut the egg pancake in half, handing one half to Anna.
Anna laughed and exclaimed, "As expected, Xia is the most caring and loving person ever! Wow, it's so delicious!"
Chi Xia returned to her seat and began preparing her lesson.
To Chi Xia's surprise, Cheng Yang and Anna had both heard about Zhang Peng inviting her for coffee yesterday, and she had gone with Zhang Peng under their watchful eyes. Now that things had developed this way, the two of them remained silent about what happened yesterday, and they even tacitly avoided discussing Zhang Peng's various deeds.
Is this treating her like one of their own, showing favoritism?
Or should we trust her "outstanding" character?
During lunch, while everyone else was enthusiastically discussing Zhang Peng, only their table was quiet, either eating their meals or talking about next week's physical fitness simulation, or Anna talking about her new relationship.
At a table with two long benches, Lin Keli squeezed between Xin Ran and Chi Xia, picking out a piece of food for Chi Xia whenever she ate something delicious. Listening to Anna talk about her sweet interactions with Lin Xiang, she became a dog food fan, saying, "Your speed in falling in love is almost as fast as my approval process. Please teach me the secrets of love, Master An."
Anna smiled and tossed her long, wavy hair. "There's no special technique involved, just exceptional talent."
Lin Keli laughed and flicked her forehead, "Get lost, get lost, don't be like Versailles. I'm devoted to Buddhism and want to obtain the true scriptures."
Anna dodged and bumped into Cheng Yang's shoulder, her long hair flowing and hitting Cheng Yang's rice grains, picking up a few in the process. Cheng Yang smiled helplessly, took out a tissue to wipe her off, and said, "What's there to ask? Look at her, she even sends her hair out to seduce people while she's eating. Someone like that deserves to dominate the dating market."
Lin Keli looked at the two people opposite her, who were already quite skilled and didn't seem to mind each other at all. "If you ask me, Cheng Yang, you should use all your savings to build a house made of pure gold and lock her up. That would be doing a good deed for the people, so she wouldn't have to go on blind dates every day to cheat people out of money and sex. I wonder how many innocent young men have fallen into her clutches."
Anna burst out laughing, "Hey, Ms. Claire, aren't you talking about an old-fashioned fairy?"
"Yes, she's exactly like a monstrous demon that sucks people's life essence."
The three chatted and laughed, while Chi Xia and Xin Ran smiled along, though neither of them were really paying attention.
Last night, Chi Xia told Xin Ran about the person who was in contact with Zhang Peng. Zhang Peng is dead, and his last communication before his death was to that person. That person needs to be found as soon as possible, otherwise Chi Xia will soon be exposed. Once her identity is exposed to Yuequ, she will face a terrifying manhunt.
After finishing their meal, while the other three were taking their lunch break in the office, the two went to the underground parking garage. There was definitely something wrong with that car from last time, and the two wanted to find it and see whose car it was.
While searching for the car, Xin Ran kept using his tablet to repair the previous video, which was the closest thing he could find to the year of that surveillance video equipment.
Chi Xia reached out her hand. "There."
The two walked over, and Chi Xia patted the trunk. This time, no sound came out. Xin Ran opened the driver's side door and cut off the power to the car the moment the alarm went off.
Chi Xia stood guard on the side, while Xin Ran searched the inside of the car and found two parking tickets, some change, and a few bottles of water. He took pictures of the tickets and then took out his tools to collect a few fingerprints from the steering wheel.
Remembering something, Chi Xia started the car, glanced at the playlist, and saw no songs by Bai Yu; it wasn't him. After doing this, the two casually restored the car to its original state, closed the doors, and headed towards the elevator.
"drop!"
The two exchanged a glance; it was the notification sound indicating that the video repair was complete.
The two stopped in their tracks, deciding against it, as there were too many uncertainties with that elevator. They turned around and got into Xinran's small hospital car, which was closest to the elevator entrance.
Xin Ran opened the video. It was still that morning break. The teachers' group chat ended with the bell. In an instant, only Chi Xia, Zhang Peng, and the teacher sitting at the door remained in the office. Soon, the teacher left. Zhang Peng made coffee and came over to talk to Chi Xia. After saying a few words, Zhang Peng returned to his seat. In the middle of the conversation, Zhang Peng went out for a while. Everything was normal and exactly the same as before.
But soon, a figure appeared in the video, and both of them immediately brightened up—
The truth finally came to light: that morning, someone else had indeed been in that office!
The man wore a pure black hat and a long black trench coat. He walked quickly and walked straight to Chi Xia. He almost deliberately bypassed Chi Xia's seat and reached out to take the cup of coffee from the windowsill!
Xin Ran pressed pause. "Someone actually took it. Didn't you hear anything at the time?"
Chi Xia shook her head. She was too tired and was sleeping soundly. More importantly, "that person didn't make a sound when he walked."
Xin Ran didn't ask any more questions. It's suspicious if someone else says such things, but since the person who said it was Chi Xia, it must be more real than gold. Even if a professional assassin is in a deep sleep, it's hard for them to completely ignore their surroundings, unless they are in poor health, like that time in the hospital when they lost too much blood and were on an empty stomach and fainted.
Xin Ran held up the tablet in one hand and stroked her chin with the other. "It's not hard to see that the other party's goal was clearly to take that cup of coffee. This means that the other party was also watching the surveillance footage at the time, saw Zhang Peng making coffee for you, and knew that there was something wrong with Zhang Peng and his coffee."
Chi Xia agreed, zooming in on the video. "Taking a cup of cold coffee from the windowsill isn't a big deal. He disguised himself and then disposed of the video afterwards. There's only one possibility for such a big effort to hide his identity: we know this person, and he's not an ordinary person."
Xin Ran: "You would never drink that coffee, I believe we both agree on that. This person taking that coffee doesn't necessarily mean he thinks you would drink it. Is it possible that he's afraid someone else might accidentally drink it?"
Chi Xia watched the replay of that short segment again, and considering Zhang Peng's subsequent behavior, Chi Xia said, "I tend to think that this person actually wanted Zhang Peng to mistakenly believe that I drank this cup of coffee, which led to Zhang Peng's subsequent invitation."
Xin Ran looked at Chi Xia, her eyes sparkling, "It's not hard to tell."
Immediately, Xin Ran clicked play. After that person left, the first to return was Zhang Peng. He didn't sit down immediately after returning, but stood at what he considered a safe distance and looked towards Chi Xia.
It's obvious what he's looking at; he's checking if the cup of coffee is still there, as if he's gotten the answer he wanted.
Xin Ran paused the video, zoomed in, and pointed, "He smiled. He thinks you've already drunk that cup of coffee."
Chi Xia: "Indeed, when he came in, that person had already left, and there was no one else in the office except me for the time being. That day, he even came to see me alone and verbally confirmed it again. I told him that I had already drunk the coffee. What surprised me was that that person was so careful that he even deleted this part."
The person did not appear in the previously processed videos, nor was there any confirmation of Zhang Peng's arrival.
Thinking of something, Xin Ran looked at Chi Xia and said, "I have a guess now. The person in the video set up a trap for both you and Zhang Peng. He took the coffee, probably not to throw it away directly, but to check its ingredients and indirectly find out that Zhang Peng was not a good person. After you went to the appointment, Zhang Peng died, so this person confirmed your identity."
After listening to Xin Ran's words, Chi Xia neither confirmed nor denied them directly. She clicked play, and the two watched the rest of the video. The man took the coffee cup, stuffed it into his arms, and headed straight for the door. He indeed did not dispose of the coffee as seen in the surveillance footage.
Chi Xia looked at Xin Ran and made a bold decision, "Zhang Peng said that he is only responsible for providing clues, and it is the other party's job to verify and arrest them."
Xin Ran was silent for two seconds, then said, "Chi Xia, it's dangerous for you to tell me this."
Chi Xia: "I don't think you still have any idea about my identity."
Xin Ran took a deep breath. "Last night, when I asked you if you needed me to leave, it was a final confirmation. It's obvious that they have an irreconcilable relationship with Dawn, and you, there's a 50% chance you've already been exposed."
Chi Xia turned off the video, and the carriage was so quiet that only their breathing could be heard. Neither of them was in a hurry or nervous; they were both very calm.
Chi Xia said, "I'm moving out of your house tonight."
Xin Ran looked at her, "I knew it was dangerous for people with nowhere to go, but I still let you stay here. Don't worry about this kind of problem. I've already helped you this much. Would I just watch you get caught by those people? Wouldn't that make me look useless?"
Chi Xia looked at Xin Ran, not particularly moved, and calmly said, "I will try my best not to involve you."
Xin Ran: "Like how your sisters treat you?"
Chi Xia fell silent. Mu Se died so tragically, without even a complete corpse left. He was chased by hunting dogs and bitten by mutated red-eyed mosquitoes until he was covered in blisters. He used all sorts of cruel tricks, but he still didn't confess.
Xin Ran raised her hand and patted Chi Xia's head. "Don't be discouraged. Maybe we can handle them first. We've already gotten rid of Teacher Zhang, and next up is Bai Yu's fake fans. Teacher Zhang has so many fun things on his bracelet, I'll be able to lock onto my target soon."
Chi Xia: "Are you sure you want to get involved?"
Xin Ran pointed at Chi Xia, then at herself, "Two kinds of people can't come out of the same car and the same house. We're tied so tightly together, anyone with eyes can see that I'm not innocent anymore."
Chi Xia: "Innocent...?"
Xin Ran laughed, "Teacher Xia, you have to take responsibility for me and protect this weak man."
Chi Xia smiled and didn't refute anything. "Okay. I'll protect you."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
