"The school belle of Senior Two! Isn't her name Sheng... Sheng?" The skinny guy who looked like a monkey leaned over and stammered.
"That chick's name is Sheng Qingqiu!" The fat guy asserted.
"Yes yes yes yes yes! That's the name!" The skinny guy nodded vigorously, sounding a bit skeptical. "That chick was quite good-looking. Why did she die for no reason?"
"Yeah yeah, she didn't even get to meet me... How did she die? Tsk tsk tsk." Someone whispered in agreement.
There was a burst of jeers.
Chen Er listened silently, her gaze falling on the ground in the distance.
"You don't know this!" The fat guy said complacently. "My grandma saw it when she came back from buying groceries at the alley entrance. There was a huge crowd of policemen... Tsk tsk tsk, the scene... You guys can't even imagine it."
The skinny guy's eyes shone with light, and his eager expression was self-evident.
The fat guy cleared his throat and said vividly, "My grandma asked around and found out that a female high school student died in the alley. It was just the day before yesterday! Right, my childhood friend told me that the dead person was Sheng Qingqiu. You tell me, besides the one from Senior Two, can we find a second person named Sheng Qingqiu in our school?"
There was a commotion at the back. They were chatting merrily, all saying things that were unfit to be heard.
What they did not know was that at this moment, the person who knew the most about this incident was right in front of them, listening to them make up lies.
Chen Er let out a soft laugh and retracted her gaze.
The bell rang, ending the lunchtime self-study.
She pushed her chair away and walked out of the classroom.
"I haven't forgotten anything, but some things are only suitable for collection. They cannot be spoken of, cannot be thought of, but neither can they be forgotten." This is a line from Mr. Shi Tiesheng's work, "I and the Temple of Earth."
Teacher Xia's voice was hoarse yet resounding, like the cicadas outside the window. Each sound was dutiful.
The sweltering setting sun shone into the classroom, drawing a line between light and dark.
The students sat on the boundary between light and dark, quietly.
A shadow loomed over them, and the classroom fell silent.
There were two policemen standing at the classroom entrance.
"Teacher Xia." Qin An stood at the door, smiling amiably as he waved to the person on the podium. "Please come out for a moment."
Xia Qing's expression changed slightly. She looked at the students who were starting to make a ruckus, looking a little flustered.
The whole class gave her a salute as they sent her out. When they could no longer see her with their eyes, they used their ears to follow her. The hair in their ear holes stood up as they tried to hear something new.
After walking a few steps, Xia Qing turned back to look at the students in the room who were looking forward to something. She shouted, "Organize your own self-study!"
When she sat down in the office, the air-conditioning cold air seeped into her pores like bugs.
Xia Qing looked at the identity tag on Qin An's chest, looking worried. She was just a girl who had just graduated from university and taken up her position. She had never done anything wrong in her life, and this scene made her at a loss.
She asked nervously, "Officer Qin, do you... do you have something to ask me?"
"Hello, Teacher Xia. I'm Qin An. We need your cooperation for an investigation." Qin An reached out his hand amiably and shook Xia Qing's hand.
"… Okay, okay." Xia Qing's face was ashen.
Qin An said straightforwardly, "May I ask if Sheng Qingqiu is in your class?"
"Yes... She's in my class." Xia Qing replied.
"How is her studies usually? How is she when she's interacting with others?"
"Qingqiu's studies are still quite good... I quite like her... " Xia Qing said awkwardly with a smile. "However, her relationship with the girls... isn't too good."
"Can you elaborate?" Yang Heng interjected.
Xia Qing tightened her palm. She stammered, "There are boys from other classes who fought with others because of her..."
"Why?"
"Seems like it's because Sheng Qingqiu bullied her classmates... I'm not too sure about this. I didn't take over her class at that time. It was what the previous class teacher told me." Xia Qing said.
"Oh, so that's how it is." Qin An nodded and turned to Jiang Cong. "Professor Jiang, do you have any other questions?"
Xia Qing looked up and noticed this man who was sitting in a remote corner. She remembered that he had never spoken.
Xia Qing thought. He isn't wearing a police uniform. From what Officer Qin called him, he should have a special identity.
Jiang Cong opened his mouth slowly. He said, "Sheng Qingqiu is dead."
Xia Qing's body jolted. She stared with wide eyes, unable to say a word.
Qin An and Yang Heng were also very surprised. They did not know what Jiang Cong was going to do.
Jiang Cong stared coldly at Xia Qing.
He clearly saw that when she heard that Sheng Qingqiu was dead, her expression was unprecedentedly relaxed.
The three of them walked down the stairs of the teaching building. Qin An turned to Jiang Cong. "Professor Jiang, how did you tell that Xia Qing was hiding something?"
Jiang Cong walked in front of Qin An and the others, leaving only a cold back view. When he turned the corner of the corridor, his voice floated over.
"She didn't know what she was saying."
He used the least words to express the most.
Yang Heng was half-understood, but did not dare to ask Jiang Cong. He could only cast a pleading look at Qin An.
Qin An clearly understood what Jiang Cong meant. She lifted the corner of her mouth and said to Yang Heng, "Do you remember what Xia Qing said? … She said that Sheng Qingqiu did not have a good relationship with the girls. However, when we asked why the boys fought because of Sheng Qingqiu, she stammered that she did not know."
"… So I think that the previous class teacher must have been implicated because of this incident regarding Sheng Qingqiu." Qin An said.
"You mean that Xia Qing was afraid that her work would be affected, so she did not say anything about the cause of the incident?" Yang Heng scratched his head, as though he understood.
Qin An patted his shoulder and said happily, "You're not too stupid."
The sun was blazing. The wind that seemed to have been rubbed with chili water carried the heatwave and passed by in a hurry.
The green climbing plants climbed up the school wall like a curtain of pearls. The steam between the leaves was hazy, green and vivid.
The school was not considered big. Most of the equipment on the playground was extremely old. Jiang Cong did not say what he was going to do next, so Qin An and Yang Heng followed him.
They stopped under a patch of shade. Jiang Cong sat on the bench and looked at the students playing in the distance.
They were struggling to grab the ball from each other's hands. Their wheat-colored skin shone brightly under the sun. They did not care that their backs were soaked with sweat. The love for basketball seemed to be the nature of every boy.
Jiang Cong glanced at the other side of the playground.
A familiar figure.
Jiang Cong squinted his eyes. It was Chen Er.
She and a few boys who were covered in sweat were squatting in front of the bushes at the edge of the playground. Her slender build was especially prominent.
Chen Er stared blankly at the boys who were playing basketball. She was holding a cigarette in her hand, smoking intermittently. Her expression did not change.
"Hey! Isn't that Chen Er?!" Yang Heng said in surprise. Qin An also looked in the direction that he was pointing.
Yang Heng had always had a bad impression of Chen Er. He shook his head and said, "Sigh, girls these days are smoking more smoothly than a big man like me."
Qin An let out a soft laugh, as though she agreed.