Author: 长洱 / Chang’er
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 47
Lin Chen didn’t expect that what he said casually would become prophetic.
Before Captain Jiang came back from the director’s office, the person who came looking for him had already found the duty room first.
The round-faced little policeman with a flushed face opened the door and shouted, “Boss, Boss, not good. Wang Shishi’s mother has led a group of people to make trouble at the school. Campus security can’t hold them off anymore. We have to go quickly.”
Lin Chen was still sitting on the bed, studying the autopsy report with the forensic pathologist. Hearing this, the forensic pathologist looked at the door and said loudly, “Ma Han, can you not be so jumpy all the time? What’s the matter? Speak slowly!”
Lin Chen turned his head and looked at Xing Conglian in disbelief. “Ma Han, what’s his relationship with your Wang Chao*?”
*Clarity: Their names are homonyms for Wang Chao (王朝) and Ma Han (馬漢), two of the four constables who serve Justice Bao. They are often paired together and would perform investigations and arrest together. If you see one, the other is nearby, which is why Lin Chen says this.
“They’re both living treasures*.” Xing Conglian straightened the document on his lap and laughed.
*Term used to refer to a funny/quirky person (has both positive and negative connotations depending on how it’s used).
That was quite an apt summary…
Comrade Ma Han said, “Can’t slow down. Can’t slow down. People will die if I slow down. The reporters are coming. Where is our boss!”
“Laozi is here!”
Hearing this, Ma Han turned his head stiffly and saw Vice Captain Jiang holding a cigarette in one hand and resting on the doorframe with his other, giving him a look of “Why are you looking for me?”
Ma Han wisely clung to Jiang Chao and shouted, “Boss, something’s happening at Yongchuan University. The mother of the deceased has called reporters and said that it was a school teacher and classmate who killed her daughter. She wants the school to give an explanation. Her technique seems very professional. She seems to have a background dealing with medical malpractice. So scary!”
“Wang Shishi’s parents are both lawyers,” Lin Chen said.
“Fuck, isn’t that more terrifying than medical malpractice*?!” Jiang Shao understood. He broke away from the little policeman and said to Xing Conglian, “Lao Xing, let’s go!”
*Clarity: The term they’re using is Yi Nao, the organized disturbance of hospitals or medical staff, usually to obtain compensation for actual or perceived medical malpractice.
Xing Conglian nodded, put on his uniform, and stood up quickly. When he fastened the last buckle, Lin Chen had already gotten out of bed and finished tying his shoelaces.
“Do you think that our department is more normal?” Xing Conglian asked.
After thinking for a bit, Lin Chen replied, “Yes.”
——
Yongchuan University, main entrance.
Under the towering white marble plaque, two groups of people were facing off.
One of them was wearing navy blue uniforms, which were those of the school security guards, while the remaining group of people, all dressed in mourning attire, were holding banners and photos while scattering paper money all over the ground.
Their crying shook the sky.
Xu Guoqing, the vice principal of administration, stood in the sun as he felt a surging headache.
If, when he saw Lin Chen earlier was equivalent to a bit troublesome, then this woman now truly made him understand what difficulty was.
In fact, it wasn’t like he never encountered parents coming to make trouble. After all, with a school this big, there would always be accidents, and when something happened to their children, the parents would come and make trouble. Frankly, it wasn’t just about the money.
However, Wang Shishi’s mother was different. This woman, from the beginning, had never put money in her eyes. She wanted justice, and she wanted the school to give her justice.
The woman looked aggrieved as she knelt on the ground. Her hair was messy, and her eyes were flushed as she was holding a photo frame in her hands. She didn’t cry; she just sat there silently, which made people feel distressed.
Above her head was a white marble archway built when Yongchuan University was established, with the words “Peaceful and Calm” written on it. The woman was sitting under the word “Peaceful”. The weather was good, and the sun was shining brightly, but the shadow from the stone plaque shrouded her, which made the picture she was holding quite shocking.
After the two groups, the reporters’ cameras were aimed at the woman. Their shutter kept flashing. They were thinking about how to write a press release to make this even more sensational.
Xu Guoqing cleared his throat. “Wang Shishi’s mother, you’re causing trouble like this, which affects the normal order of school life. Don’t you know that this is illegal?”
Wang Shishi’s mother suddenly raised her head and snapped back, “Illegal? Let me tell you, I gave you a living daughter, and now she’s dead in this school, and you dare talk to me about the laws of Yongchuan University?”
As she spoke, her tone was sharp, as if she was in a courtroom. Xu Guoqing was left speechless as more pedestrians gathered around to watch.
Not only newspaper reporters but even TV reporters came. The videographer, who was carrying a camera on his shoulder, ran out of the car towards Wang Shishi’s mother to take a 360-degree shot.
Xu Guoqing’s tone could only soften. “Then what do you want? If you want justice, then you have to give the police time to investigate. What is the problem? Whether Wang Shishi committed suicide or it was a homicide, our school can only listen to the police…”
“My daughter committed suicide because of all the teachers and students in this school!” Wang Shishi’s mother stood up from the ground and held her daughter’s portrait with her left hand as she pointed to the words “Yongchuan University” above the school gate with her right hand. “It’s such a pity that this famous school that’s been around for hundreds of years is full of filthy things!”
Her back was straight, giving her a graceful appearance. When she accused the school, her posture was heroic and fearless, like a sculpture. The sound of shutters in the area incessantly started snapping again.
At this moment, the school gate, which had been closed this whole time, suddenly opened, and someone walked through.
It was an old man wearing reading glasses and an ordinary shirt. He walked up to Wang Shishi’s mother with his hands behind his back, raised his glasses, and asked, “What’s going on?”
His tone was gentle and soft, as if the old man were asking a young child why he was crying on the side of the road.
Wang Shishi’s mother took a breath but found that when facing the old man, she couldn’t raise her voice. She moved her eyes slightly and glanced at Xu Guoqing, only to see that Vice Principal Xu was also quite surprised by the old man’s appearance, so she asked, “Who are you?”
“I’m an old teacher of Yongchuan University.” The old man turned around, walked to the security guards, patted the captain of the security guards on the waist, and then said, “What are you doing here, blocking the entrance?”
Hearing this, the security captain bent down and said respectfully, “Principal, why are you here?”
“Well, I heard that there are a lot of people at the school’s entrance, so I came to take a look,” the old man said with a smile.
Hearing what the captain said, if this was neither Principal Zhang nor Principal Li, then the old man in front of her must be the president of Yongchuan University.
“Su Anzhi. You are Su Anzhi!” Wang Shishi’s mother thought for a moment before raising her voice and pointing her finger at the old man’s back. “You’re finally out.”
“Ah… It’s me, it’s me.” The old man turned around again and calmly faced the woman’s finger that was pointing straight at his face.
When Lin Chen arrived, he saw such a scene.
His teacher was standing in the middle of the crowd, being pointed at by a middle-aged woman, surrounded by flashing lights, with a cameraman filming the entire thing.
Jiang Chao stopped the car.
He opened the door and was about to get out when Xing Conglian held him back.
“In this situation, it’s not suitable for you to come forward,” Xing Conglian said.
Hearing this, Lin Chen glanced at the old man standing in front of the school, then turned his head and stared at the face of the mixed-race young man.
Lin Chen’s face was solemn, and there was even a little hint of nervousness. This was something that Xing Conglian had never seen before. He looked at the old man standing with his back to the door and knew in his heart. That old man was the “old man” who Lin Chen and Fu Hao always mention and was being pointed and yelled at by, unsurprisingly, Wang Shishi’s mother.
“Don’t worry. Leave it to me.” He patted Lin Chen on the shoulder and got out of the car.
The arrival of the police was like water droplets falling into a pan of hot oil or fire falling on dry wood—the entrance to the school exploded instantly.
Reporters had long heard that three corpses were dug up under a tree by the lake at Yongchuan University. The school had strict access control, so reporters were prohibited from entering the campus to investigate. The police spokesman was tight-lipped, so they were worried about finding more information on the story. Now, with a police car here, and seeing that the car’s license plate belonged to Captain Jiang of the Second Division, all the reporters quickly turned their cameras and pointed them at the two policemen who got out of the car.
“What’s going on? Why are so many people surrounding the entrance to a school, an important place for education? Everyone needs to show a little respect, yeah?” Jiang Chao was naturally a veteran at this. He didn’t ask for any reason but feigned ignorance and questioned why so many people were at the school’s entrance. He started raising his hand to drive people away.
“Captain Jiang, Captain Jiang, can you tell us about the case?”
“Has there been significant progress in the investigation?”
“May I ask if the three dead people found were murdered or committed suicide?”
“The mother of the deceased Wang Shishi just revealed to us that the murderer is in the school. Is the murderer one of the school’s teachers or a student?”
Jiang Chao glanced at the reporters surrounding him and hooked his hand mysteriously. “Come on, I’ll tell you.”
When the reporters heard this, they all surrounded Jiang Chao.
“You can quote me on this as this came from our police spokesman, ‘This case is currently being fully investigated and it’s inconvenient to disclose any relevant information.’”
After Jiang Chao finished speaking, regardless of the reaction from the reporters, his face sank, and he moved towards Wang Shishi’s mother. Xing Conglian didn’t say a word and followed him.
Wang Shishi’s mother, who was naturally capable and well-organized, didn’t confront Jiang Chao but shouted at the old man in front of her, “Why, you even called the police. All the teachers and students in your school forced my daughter to her death, and now you want to silence me?”
Jiang Chao stood behind Wang Shishi’s mother, but the other party didn’t look at him. He could handle things with ease in front of reporters, but he was a bit helpless in front of such a tough woman.
Xing Conglian glanced at Jiang Chao and took a step forward. “If you have any questions, you can come to the police station.”
Hearing this, Wang Shishi’s mother turned around and looked up and down at Xing Conglian.
Before she could speak, Xing Conglian said again, “If you have any key evidence in your hand, I hope you can show it without hesitation so the police can solve this case quickly.”
His tone was calm, and the area gradually quieted down. The reporters’ cameras were once again aimed at Wang Shishi’s mother.
Humans were prone to gossip, so even the eyes of the passersby were full of eagerness, as if they were saying, “Take out the evidence.”
Xing Conglian’s words floated lightly, pushing Wang Shishi’s mother to the front of the stage again.
With the gaze of passersby, it made the atmosphere uncomfortable.
The woman gritted her teeth, as if she had made up some determination, as her tone was decisive. “My daughter committed suicide because she was forced to by the school!”
“Oh, what evidence do you have?” Xing Conglian continued to ask.
“I…I…” The woman stopped talking. Her face was flushed. She finally wailed out, “Those monsters in the school leaked lewd pictures of my daughter, which is why she committed suicide from the unbearable humiliation!”
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