Solving the case
Su Jibai smiled slightly, his eyes unreadable, "Okay."
Judging from the second male lead's expression, could it be that he also thinks that he poisoned the drug and that he's just putting on an act? Wen Yan gasped.
However, since he promised, he shouldn't go back on his word and tell others about it.
Wen Yan's gaze fell sadly on the empty table tray. The handkerchief that had wrapped the apple core was gone, clearly indicating that someone was trying to frame him.
Liu Xirou bought her breakfast at the cafeteria, and Long Chen also ate it, so there was no problem with her breakfast. When Wen Yan got water, he glanced at Liu Xirou's thermos; it was clean and empty. After returning to the classroom, the thermos never left his sight.
She drank water not only in the classroom but also in the office. Therefore, the person who poisoned Liu Xirou would only have had the opportunity in the office.
Only the math teacher was in the office; the other teachers were preparing for the afternoon's Chinese language opening exam. Each desk had a bouquet of flowers on it, and a box of mixed fruit underneath—presumably a back-to-school perk for the teachers. Wen Yan entered with the math exam paper. "Reporting."
When the math teacher saw Wen Yan walking straight towards him, he smiled and said, "Oh, it's Wen Yan. What's up?"
"Teacher, there are still a few questions I don't quite understand," Wenyan said, spreading out her test paper. "Could you explain them to me again?"
"Of course." The math teacher was a little surprised, but still said, "Wenyan, your math has improved a lot this time. Did you have any tutoring during the summer vacation?"
In everyone's eyes, Wen Yan was an uneducated and lazy person. He would chat and play on his phone during class, and chase after Long Chen after class. In short, his daily activities had nothing to do with studying. It was a miracle that his math score jumped from the thirties or forties to over a hundred.
"Yes, my family hired a tutor for me."
The table was bare except for lesson plans and a water glass; even the trash can under the table was clean and recently bagged. The fruit crate had just been opened, leaving a gap. Other teachers' fruit crates were only partially empty, and contained a full variety of fruits.
The math teacher's fruit box was empty except for the apples.
The math teacher's name is Jin Zhengting. He is a local, from a wealthy family, in his early thirties, with regular features. He often wears a well-fitting suit, is friendly, and is very popular with students.
Wen Yan bent down to listen to him explain the problem, and the faint fragrance of apples was almost imperceptible.
Seeing that Wen Yan was staring at him, Jin Zhengting asked in confusion, "Is there something you don't understand?"
Wen Yan suddenly grabbed his hand and put it on her face, saying in a tearful voice, "Teacher, hit me."
Jin Zhengting quickly pulled his hand back, and asked in surprise, "Wenyan, what's wrong with you?"
Wen Yan cried with tears streaming down her face. "Now my classmates all say that I'm the one who hurt Xi Rou. I'm really heartbroken."
"There must be some misunderstanding." Jin Zhengting comforted Wen Yan for a while, and then asked a passing classmate to call someone who knew Wen Yan to talk to him. Wen Yan took the opportunity to ask his homeroom teacher for half a day off and ran to the campus.
Mosa gently patted Wenyan's back, looking at his red and swollen eyes with concern, "Wenyan, are you alright?"
"It's nothing." Wen Yan was in control of her emotions and had returned to normal.
Kim Jung-ting's clothes smelled of apple juice. He had grabbed Kim Jung-ting's hand earlier to confirm the scent; the strong fragrance of hand sanitizer was mixed with a hint of apple.
The other teachers' apple boxes each contained about five or six apples. No matter how much Kim Jung-ting loves apples, it's impossible for him to eat that many in one day.
"Does Teacher Jin have a girlfriend?" Wenyan asked Mosha. The Cannon Fodder Team was the group with the most gossip in the whole school.
Mosa thought for a moment and shook her head. "No. Mr. Jin always goes alone. I've never seen him eat with any female teacher, nor has any woman gotten into his car. But Mr. Jin's family is quite wealthy. He even lives in the faculty dormitory and doesn't go home on weekends."
Most students at the elite academy are from wealthy and privileged backgrounds and have no need for accommodation. There is only one student dormitory building, adjacent to the faculty dormitory. Jin Zhengting, despite being a local, rarely goes home, clearly to spend time with Liu Xirou.
“Mosa,” Wenyan smiled, “would you like to come with me to rummage through the trash cans?”
"Huh?" Mosa was taken aback and asked blankly.
Wenyan messaged Sangnuo and Lin Pianyue, briefly explaining the situation, and asked them to check the trash cans in the teaching building area for crushed apple cores. Wenyan and Mosa went to the school's largest garbage station to see if they could find any trash that Jin Zhengting had thrown away.
The stench of decay was overwhelming, and rats occasionally scurried out of the garbage heap. Mosa covered her nose with a handkerchief and, seeing the people in the garbage truck, asked, "Uncle, have you taken out the garbage today?"
The uncle smiled and said, "Not yet, it was just shipped back."
Wenyan: "Our teacher Jin accidentally dropped something into the trash can, let's help him find it."
Uncle: "Teacher Jin? Is it Teacher Jin Zhengting? He came to take out the trash himself this morning." Few people bring their trash to the garbage station; most people just throw it in the trash can.
"It's right there, the black one with the red ribbon." The uncle pointed to the slope, where the bag of trash was stuck in a decaying tree branch. The uncle got off the vehicle with a pole. "I'll help you get it."
Sang Nuo and Lin Pianyue skipped class and searched all the trash cans in the entire teaching building but couldn't find anything related to apples. Passing classmates stared at them in surprise. Lin Pianyue, irritated by the stench, pulled out the plastic handle she used to rummage through the trash cans and pointed it at him, "What are you looking at!"
The male student immediately ran away.
Sanno leaned against the wall, hands on his hips, resting. "The only place we haven't searched is the teachers' office. Shall we go?"
"Let's go." Lin Pianyue threw down the pole and clapped her hands. "I'll distract him."
The office was quiet, except for Jin Zhengting grading papers. Lin Pianyue burst in, wailing, "Teacher Jin, Wenyan is surrounded by classmates on the playground! You have to go help him!"
"What?" Jin Zhengting stood up in surprise. Lin Pianyue tugged at his clothes and pulled him outside, "Teacher, hurry up, what should we do if Wenyan gets beaten up?"
The two figures disappeared down the stairs, and Sanno immediately went into the office to rummage through the trash cans. There were only papers and fruit peels; she found nothing else. She then searched Jin Zhengting's desk; one drawer was locked and wouldn't open.
Wen Yan put on the gloves her uncle had given her and carefully searched the garbage bag. Sure enough, the bag only contained apple peels and a lot of fruit pulp, but no apple cores. It seemed that Jin Zhengting had ground the apple cores into powder, dissolved it in water, and given it to Liu Xirou to drink.
But why would Jin Zhengting do this? If he liked Liu Xirou, why would he poison her?
Mosa covered her nose with a handkerchief, and when she saw the figure not far away, she straightened up. "Lin Pianyue is here."
"Wenyan, I teased Jin Zhengting just now, and he's angry." Lin Pianyue rushed over. "He's gone to the principal to complain."
This saves us the trouble of looking for him. Wen Yan took off her gloves and threw them, along with the garbage bag, into the landfill. "Let's go."
Inside the principal's office, the principal sat upright on a leather sofa, with Jin Zhengting standing beside him, and Long Chen and Su Jibai sitting opposite them. Upon entering, Long Chen's cold gaze shot towards Wen Yan, clearly regarding him as the culprit who poisoned Liu Xirou.
“Come and sit down since Wen Yan is here,” the principal said with a smile. “Teacher Jin, just say what you want to say.” He couldn’t offend the Wen family, nor could he be perfunctory with the Long family, so he simply passed the hot potato of interrogating Wen Yan to Jin Zhengting.
Jin Zhengting's face turned ashen, his eyes filled with malice. "Wen Yan, I originally thought you weren't a bad person at heart. I wanted to talk to you privately about how you poisoned Liu Xirou, hoping you could apologize to her and change your ways. I never expected you to team up with your classmates to make fun of me. You are truly incorrigible."
Wen Yan then noticed that his hair was messy, his clothes were wrinkled, and there were several stains on them, probably caused when Lin Pianyue had people surround him.
The principal feigned surprise, "Wasn't Liu Xirou hospitalized because of food poisoning? Poisoning? What happened!"
Jin Zhengting sneered, "A classmate reported to me that Wen Yan added a lot of apple cores to Liu Xirou's thermos. Liu Xirou drank a lot of water that had been soaked in apple cores, which is why she was poisoned." As he spoke, he took out a handkerchief, "This is Wen Yan's handkerchief. There are still apple cores left over from when he poisoned Liu Xirou inside."
He opened his phone, showed the principal a screenshot of his WeChat Moments, and said, "This is Wenyan's handkerchief."
The principal broke out in a cold sweat. If it really was Wen Yan who did it, he didn't know how to deal with him. The principal said seriously, "Why didn't that student report Wen Yan earlier? He only came forward now that Liu Xirou is in the hospital."
“The Wen family is very powerful, and that classmate was afraid of retaliation, so he didn’t dare to step forward to stop it.” Jin Zhengting said in a deep voice, “After Liu Xirou was poisoned, he couldn’t bear it, so he reported it to me.”
"I hope the principal will not investigate his identity, otherwise if something like this happens again, no student will dare to stand up."
The principal nodded and rubbed his hands together. "Wenyan, is there anything else you want to say?"
“I don’t admit to doing something I didn’t do.” Wen Yan raised an eyebrow slightly. “Xi Rou and I did have some conflicts before, but we’ve long since made up. Now Xi Rou and I have a very good relationship, so please stop spreading rumors about our relationship, Teacher Jin.”
Long Chen snorted coldly, and Wen Yan immediately turned her head away. "Ah Chen, I'll prove it to you right now, you have to believe me." Long Chen's eyelids twitched, and he rolled his eyes.
"Teacher Jin, since you say you have evidence that I poisoned him, why don't you open it and show it to everyone?"
Long Chen and Su Jibai waited patiently, while the principal craned his neck, staring intently at Jin Zhengting's movements.
Jin Zhengting gave Wen Yan a deep look. "You'd better not regret this." He unfolded his handkerchief, revealing dark-colored seeds inside—sunflower seeds?!
After entering the office, Sanno pried open the lock on Jin Zhengting's drawer and switched the apple core with sunflower seeds. When Sanno was short of money, she often broke into her brother's safe, so it was practically her "profession."
Long Chen frowned and whispered something to Su Jibai, whose expression remained unchanged. The principal, relieved, asked, "Teacher Jin, what happened?"
Jin Zhengting stood there, stunned, staring at the object in his hand in disbelief. After a long while, he clenched his fist. "Principal, they must have switched the items."
"Teacher Jin is really getting old and her eyesight is failing; she can mistake a melon seed for an apple core. She really should go see an ophthalmologist with that student." Wen Yan sneered, "Teacher Jin, don't be like the pot calling the kettle black."
"If every teacher slandered students like you, wouldn't the whole school be in chaos?"
"You poisoned Xirou yourself, yet you turn around and slander me." Wen Yan looked at him meaningfully. "Teacher Jin, it's truly terrifying to turn love into hatred."
Jin Zhengting's neck veins bulged, "Stop spouting nonsense."
"You still won't admit it?" Wen Yan opened the door. "I have witnesses."
Mosa used a stick to turn the apple peels and flesh out of the garbage bag, and the uncle at the garbage station confirmed that the garbage bag was indeed thrown away by Kim Jung-ting.
Sanno took out a disposable paper cup that Jin Zhengting hadn't had time to throw away yet, and waved it in front of Jin Zhengting. There were still some broken apple cores inside. "If we take it for testing, it should be able to detect ***, right?"
"Yes, so what if I poisoned her?" Jin Zhengting's face was ashen, his eyes fixed fiercely on Long Chen. "You two won't be happy. She only loves your money. Do you know that I take her for a walk in my sports car every week..."
"That's enough," Wen Yan interrupted him. The police officers outside had been waiting for a long time. "If you have something to say, go to the police station."
The principal breathed a sigh of relief. Losing a teacher and some of the school's reputation was much better than offending the Wen and Long families.
Jin Zhengting, his hands cuffed, was filled with resentment, his eyes fixed on Wen Yan and Long Chen. Long Chen's eyes were full of contempt, "As a teacher, you are scheming to get close to your student, unworthy of being a teacher. You offer to drive her to her part-time job every week and call it a walk together, wishful thinking, it's laughable."
As Wen Yan watched Jin Zhengting being led away, she thought of Liu Xirou, who was still lying in the hospital bed. The poor, innocent girl had actually been targeted by a twisted man who, unable to have her, wanted to kill her and then tried to smear her reputation.
This novel is far more complex than its title suggests. The person who conspired with Jin Zhengting to harm Liu Xirou could move freely throughout the class and steal his handkerchief without anyone noticing; that person must be someone in the class, perhaps even a minor boss. Faces flashed through Wen Yan's mind, but she couldn't make a judgment.
As the people in the principal's office gradually left, he walked down the corridor, a chill running down his spine. Wen Yan turned around, and Su Jibai's eyes, clear as glass, gazed at him quietly.
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