Astrology Hall with Flesh and Blood

Chapter 11

"Speaking of which, why is she taking a taxi back to school so early? What was she doing before?" Yan Wuyue asked without hesitation. "Didn't she go back to her dorm to sleep last night?"

Xie Fengze and Shui Yun exchanged a quick glance. Yan Wuyue was almost certain they knew something, but the truth, after a brief glimpse, quickly sank beneath their calm expressions. Shui Yun was once again trapped in her endless tears.

That evening, Shuiyun and her husband treated Yan Wuyue to a meal at a small restaurant near the school gate, a welcome-back dinner. Pineapple rice, sweet and sour Japanese tofu, and sweet and sour pork ribs were all delicious dishes, but given their current state, they had no appetite. Yan Wuyue had wanted Shuiyun to be their guide, showing them around the Jiangnan scenery, but seeing their gloomy faces, how could she bring herself to ask? She could only lament her bad luck.

Book One: The Seven Deadly Sins - Wrath: The Tragedy of Doremi (Part Two)

The small restaurant was crowded, mostly with students, all discussing the murder case on campus. A table to the left was filled with boys puffing on cigarettes; one of them suddenly sighed, "This world, is it even possible for a person to live like this?"

"How so?" someone asked.

"Sigh, one of the top four beauties in our school is dead. What a tragic fate for a beautiful woman... Meanwhile, some ugly girls are lucky to survive. Damn it!"

Everyone sighed, "I wonder how many brothers are unable to sleep tonight because they miss her!" At this moment, another boy slammed his hand on the table, "It's true what they say, beautiful women often die young! Last month, I heard that a girl from E University died of carbon monoxide poisoning in her rented apartment!"

"Is she pretty?" Boys seem to always care about girls' appearance.

"Probably? Dinosaurs are incredibly resilient; they wouldn't have died so easily! Haha..."

Since two of Shuiyun's roommates had gone home for vacation, Yan Wuyue borrowed their beds and stayed with Shuiyun. It was late at night, and Yan Wuyue climbed into bed first, after which Shuiyun locked the door.

"Huh, isn't there another girl?" she asked, puzzled.

“Oh,” Shuiyun said casually, “she won’t be back tonight.”

Yan Wuyue gazed at Shui Yun's slender figure. More than four years had passed since they parted ways after junior high to senior high. Although they had chatted via video, she hadn't expected the real person to have changed so much. In junior high, Yan Wuyue was a tomboy with short, neat hair (which she still has now), and she was the leader of the girls in her class. Shui Yun, on the other hand, was thin and small back then, prone to tears, and the boys loved to bully her. Whenever Shui Yun discovered longhorn beetles leisurely strolling in her pencil case or cicadas singing loudly in her schoolbag, she would always run to Yan Wuyue crying, and those mischievous boys would receive a beating from Yan Wuyue in return.

They are that kind of good friends.

Four years have passed in the blink of an eye. The tomboy has grown into a tomboy, while the tearful little girl has transformed into a beautiful young woman who attracts the attention of passersby.

Now, when she cries, she probably doesn't need to hold onto my sleeve anymore... because Xie Fengze is already by her side...

“I really envy you, Shuiyun,” Yan Wuyue said, lying on the bed staring at the white ceiling. “You have a graduate student boyfriend. By the way, how did you two meet?”

Shuiyun scoffed dismissively, "What's there to envy? A boyfriend is like an atomic bomb. You see someone else has one, so you want to get one too—but once you actually have one, it's nothing more than an empty shell, just something to scare people at home." Shuiyun, unusually, teased her, "I think you're itching to have one, aren't you?"

"Go to hell!" Yan Wuyue felt her face flush instantly. "I won't! What nonsense are you talking about?"

"Huh? Really?" Shuiyun sat up in surprise. "You don't have a boyfriend right now?"

Not just now, but from childhood to now, up to nineteen years old, I've never had any... I really lack feminine charm... I'm so depressed...

"I heard that your K University is a nationally renowned science and engineering university with a male-to-female ratio as high as 6:1, right? Girls should be very popular, shouldn't they?"

They're highly sought after, but nobody's interested in them... They severely lack feminine charm... Even more frustrating...

"Are all the guys at K University blind? They're ignoring someone like this, someone like this..." Shui Yun racked her brains, unable to think of a good way to describe it, which was really cute! "Someone like this, and you don't pursue any good girls? Back in junior high, at least several boys in your class had a crush on you!"

Don't even mention it, it makes me sick just thinking about it... those guys! My God! They weren't even human, they were like otaku from horror comics! Why is my fate so miserable, like flypaper that attracts flies!

Just then, a barrage of knocking came from outside the door, and a woman, breathless, shouted repeatedly, "Open the door! Open the door now!"

As soon as Shui Yun opened the door, a stunningly beautiful figure whirled into the dormitory like a whirlwind, instantly filling the room with a rich fragrance. The girl who had just entered lunged at her water glass, downing 600cc in one gulp before letting out a soft "whoosh" and relaxing.

“Meng Ying, my junior high school classmate is here for a trip these days,” Shui Yun said. “She’s staying here tonight, is that alright?”

"Oh, whatever," Meng Ying waved her hand dismissively, panting heavily as if she had just finished a long run and was exhausted. She plopped down in a chair, kicked off her sandals, and said, "Have a good time. There are plenty of scenic spots in our City C, enough to keep you entertained for several days."

As she looked up to speak, she came face to face with Yan Wuyue, who couldn't help but be secretly surprised. At K University, almost all the girls she saw were without makeup and dressed simply—earning them the nickname "dusty work clothes." At D University, Shui Yun, though dressed up nicely, still retained the pure innocence of a student. However, Meng Ying was clearly wearing heavy makeup, applying foundation, blush, eyeshadow, mascara, and lipstick all at once, even her toenails were painted with glittery nail polish. Her clothes were extravagant; it was already October, yet she was still wearing a low-cut, deep V-neck, shimmering satin mini-dress, her slender waist accentuating her ample bosom, and her long, beautiful legs were visible beneath the skirt. Wasn't she cold? Although Yan Wuyue wasn't very knowledgeable about fashion, she could tell that the necklaces and bracelets Meng Ying wore were sparkling and expensive. Meng Ying's family must be very wealthy, she thought.

"You came back to keep me company tonight?" Shuiyun teased her. "You couldn't bear to let me sleep alone?"

“Puke~~” Meng Ying exaggeratedly made a vomiting gesture, “Only a ghost would miss you! I hadn’t planned to come back, but,” her face darkened, “I just found out about Senior Tian Tian.”

The atmosphere in the dormitory instantly changed. Tian Tian's death plunged Shui Yun into an abyss of grief once again. Watching the tears silently streaming down her face, Yan Wuyue felt increasingly helpless. She whispered, "Were you all very close to that Tian Tian?"

“We’re not that close,” Meng Ying glanced uneasily at Shui Yun and replied, “Shui Yun and I are both members of the dance association. Senior Tian Tian is two years ahead of us and is a senior in the association. She even represented the school in a national group dance performance. She’s very sociable and capable; almost all the student leaders in the school’s clubs know her… Now that she’s gone, sigh…” She then fell silent.

In this somber atmosphere, Yan Wuyue ended her journey on October 1st and drifted off to sleep. How exactly was Tian Tian killed? Who poisoned her? And, she didn't seem to have slept in her dormitory last night… How come Shui Yun seemed to have known this all along…?

Book One: The Seven Deadly Sins - Wrath: The Tragedy of Doremi (Part Three)

October 2nd, sunny to partly cloudy.

Yan Wuyue didn't know what time she woke up. She only remembered that the phone rang for a long, long time, then the door hinges clicked, and someone was outside the door, whispering in a low voice. In her dazed state, she only heard snippets of words such as "...I had no choice," "Don't force me," and "I really can't do anything with you."

Who is actually on the phone?

When she woke up, the dormitory was empty. The blankets on the bed next to her were haphazardly pulled back, and she could still see steam rising from it. That was Shui Yun's bed. Meng Ying's unusually neat bedding, on the other hand, indicated that she had already left.

Just then, the phone rang. Yan Wuyue quickly climbed down the iron ladder between the beds, picked up the receiver, and asked, "Hello?"

"Is Shuiyun here?" a boy's voice asked.

"Huh? Wait a minute." Yan Wuyue stuck her head out of the dormitory and called Shui Yun's name loudly into the cylindrical corridor, but there was no response for a long time. "Sorry, she doesn't seem to be here."

"You are...?" The boy paused for a moment. "Your voice is strange. Could you be Yan Wuyue?"

Oh, it's Xie Fengze! "I thought Shuiyun went out with you," Yan Wuyue breathed a sigh of relief. "Do you need to see her? I'll pass on the message. What message do you want me to give her?"

Xie Fengze seemed to hesitate for a moment before readily replying, "Alright. I don't want to tell Shuiyun such bad news to her face. Then I'll trouble you to tell her 'tactfully'."

The case of Tian Tian, a bright and beautiful female college student from D University, who died in a taxi, has drawn great attention from the Public Security Bureau. Tian Tian's lips were bluish-purple, initially suggesting poisoning. However, when the forensic doctor performed an autopsy to determine the cause of death, they discovered something unexpected.

Three words were written on Tian Tian's chest. The words were written with an ordinary ballpoint pen, the handwriting crooked and irregular, likely written with her left hand. The large red characters were etched on her snow-white skin, a shocking sight, like blood.

Three very ordinary words. They are quite common when separated, but when put together, they have an indescribable, chilling quality that makes one's heart tremble.

Three words. Prostitute.

"A prostitute???" Yan Wuyue was extremely surprised. "What do you mean? Why would that senior student...?"

“I don’t know,” Xie Fengze replied. “Maybe it’s an insulting term. But one thing is certain: Senior Tian Tian did not return to the dormitory on the night of the 30th. She was with a man.”

The autopsy report indicated that her body bore traces of sexual intercourse, but no semen was found inside her… The man who poisoned her must have made thorough preparations to leave no trace. He tricked her into bed, and during their passionate encounter, he tricked her into drinking poison… The only person who could have written on her chest was that man with whom she had been intimate, wasn't he?

However, he simply couldn't bring himself to say these words to Yan Wuyue and Shui Yun. So Xie Fengze only briefly mentioned that the police had already focused all their attention on "that man." "As long as we find where Senior Tian Tian stayed the night before last, the problem will be solved," he said, trying to keep a light tone. "I think the place is nothing more than a hotel or a private rental house. Once we mobilize the entire city's police force, we can solve the case in less than ten days."

If only things could go so smoothly. In any case, only by maintaining a bit of optimism can one console the pessimistic Shui Yun. Yan Wuyue had no choice but to nod. Suddenly, she remembered something else and couldn't help but ask:

"So, what does 'Do' mean?"

Even the world's largest free encyclopedia doesn't have an entry for the word "哆" (duō). The only recent entry is "Doraemon," also known as the robot cat. This and that shouldn't be related, right?

"Anyway, tell Shuiyun about this and put her mind at ease. I'll call her again tonight." Xie Fengze seemed about to hang up.

"Huh? Aren't you spending any time with Shuiyun today?"

He laughed loudly, "You've come all this way, of course Shuiyun should treat you well. I won't be a third wheel, hahaha... Actually, the truth is the lab project isn't finished yet, so I'm just using this as an excuse to do something personal. Don't worry about me, you guys have fun in the city." With that, he hung up the phone.

When the door was pushed open, Yan Wuyue was lying on the bed, seemingly fast asleep. The newcomer tiptoed to the iron ladder, about to climb up—

"Shuiyun, you're finally back." Yan Wuyue suddenly opened her eyes.

Shui Yun trembled with fright. She never expected that Yan Wuyue was pretending to be asleep. She could only force a smile, "You're awake? Did I wake you up?"

"No, I just woke up too," Yan Wuyue yawned. "When I woke up, I didn't see anyone. It scared me to death."

"I'm so sorry," Shuiyun said with a gentle smile, "I went to the restroom just now."

Something's not right! Yan Wuyue stared at Shui Yun's nonchalant smile, her mind filled with doubt. The dormitory wasn't far from the toilet, and with Yan Wuyue's loud voice, there was no way Shui Yun in the toilet wouldn't have heard her, nor would she have failed to answer—why would she deliberately conceal her whereabouts?

“Oh right,” Yan Wuyue threw off the covers and jumped out of bed, “Xie Fengze called…” She repeated the contents of the call, then casually added, “He’s so amazing, he seems to know everything the police are doing.”

“His uncle is the deputy director of the Public Security Bureau, how could I not know him?” Shui Yun gathered her hair back. “Since Xie Fengze said so, it must be right. Let’s have a good time today. First, let’s go to Nanyuan.”

Reluctantly, they stepped out of the renowned South Garden gate and headed towards the nearby tourist bus stop. The bus stop was packed with people, mostly tourists with cameras slung around their necks—City C's tourism industry was indeed booming. Suddenly, as if summoned by some mysterious call, many people ran in one direction, their destination the dense crowd lining the roadside. From the depths of the sea of heads, the shadowy white body of a car could be vaguely seen.

The crowd was reluctantly pushed aside to make way. Yan Wuyue, with her sharp eyes, immediately spotted a yellowish object on the ground that looked like a stretcher. Then, several people in white coats carried the stretcher into the raised back door of the car.

Yan Wuyue couldn't resist joining in the fun, but Shui Yun held her arm tightly, her face looking very unpleasant.

"Don't go," she pleaded almost desperately, "It's terrifying..."

"Oh, what's there to be afraid of!" Yan Wuyue put her hands on her hips, looking completely unconcerned. "Just take a look!"

No matter how she tried to coax her, Shui Yun just kept shaking her head, so Yan Wuyue had no choice but to go over herself. The white van had already driven away, and several policemen stood in front of the low-lying houses, their faces serious. The onlookers were still unwilling to disperse, and Yan Wuyue pricked up her ears, wanting to hear more gossip.

"Another one died..." The tone of the voice was one of lamentation, and the thick C City accent suggested a local resident. Unfortunately, before Yan Wuyue could inquire further, Shui Yun shouted, "The car's here!" and pulled her away.

Book One: The Seven Deadly Sins - Wrath: The Tragedy of Doremi (Part Four)

Filled with questions, Yan Wuyue embarked on her trip to City C during the 11th month.

"Something's happened again!" They had just returned to school exhausted when they were met by Xie Fengze's panicked and anxious face. "A woman on Garden Street has been strangled to death!"

"Garden Street?" Shui Yun exclaimed in surprise. Isn't that the South Garden?

The Garden Street area is almost entirely composed of old-style bungalows left over from the 1980s. These buildings had been included in urban redevelopment and demolition plans multiple times, but for various reasons, the plans were never realized. Due to their convenient transportation and proximity to numerous tourist attractions, many homeowners in this area rent out their properties. The strangulation incident that occurred on the 2nd took place in one of these bungalows.

The deceased was found naked, with protruding eyeballs and obvious cyanosis and bruising on her face, indicating she had been strangled, causing mechanical asphyxiation. A student ID card from F University was found in a bag scattered around the bedside. With the assistance of F University in the investigation, the deceased's true identity was quickly revealed—she was a female student in the International Finance Department, class of 2002, her name omitted, referred to as A. She had been living at 102 Garden Street for over six months.

According to her classmates, A rented an apartment off-campus more than a year ago and has rarely returned to the dormitory to sleep since. Student management at F University has always been lax, and cohabitation among renters is a common occurrence, so her classmates didn't take the matter seriously. As for whether she had a boyfriend, or what kind of boyfriend he was, her classmates all shook their heads, saying they didn't know.

Just when F was failing to provide many useful clues, good news kept pouring in. In the room at the crime scene, the police found a small pink card with rather suggestive advertising copy:

"The 'Fairyland Business Center' lets you experience the gentle charm of contemporary college students, from cool girls to beautiful ladies, offering tender companionship. Business escorts, public relations guides, entertainment, and ways to relieve stress..." The card also included the business center's phone number, but that number is no longer in use.

The experienced police officers quickly grasped the connection. A had left her university dormitory and was living alone on the chaotic Garden Street, making it highly likely she was involved in the sleazy business of escort services. Logically, she should have accumulated considerable savings; however, the police discovered that all her money, passbooks, and bank cards were missing. Was it a robbery and murder? Yet, something else was found on her.

Three words. Written with black ink, using an ordinary ballpoint pen.

A prostitute arrives.

Both characters are distorted, yet a discerning eye can immediately see that the three characters, in terms of both penmanship and writing style, are completely different from the "prostitute Duo" on Tian Tian's body. The three characters "prostitute Duo" are crooked and distorted, with the creases likely indicating that they were written with the left hand. However, the "prostitute Lai" seems to be written with extreme hatred, as evidenced by the marks left by the pen tip breaking due to excessive force, and the black pen tip even piercing A's skin, drawing a slight blood.

After a hasty dinner, Shui Yun dragged Yan Wuyue back to the dormitory. Believing Xie Fengze's words had dealt her a considerable blow, and she collapsed onto the bed as soon as she got back to her room. Yan Wuyue could only do everything she could to sit on the edge of her bed and try her best to cheer her up.

The door creaked open. Yan Wuyue was still joking when Shui Yun, who had been lying down, suddenly sat up:

"Who?! Who's there?!"

No one answered. Shui Yun suddenly stepped forward, only to find Meng Ying sitting quietly in her chair, not uttering a sound.

"It's Meng Ying." Yan Wuyue breathed a sigh of relief; she had been quite frightened by Shui Yun just now.

Meng Ying remained silent. Yan Wuyue suddenly felt a chill run through her body. Shui Yun, who was beside her, was staring intently at Meng Ying, her hands gripping the bed railing tightly: her hands were icy cold. The two remained silent, as if in a contest.

"Meng Ying..." Finally, Shui Yun couldn't bear the silence any longer and murmured, "Why did you come back?"

"Of course I'm going to sleep," Yan Wuyue thought to herself. "What a silly girl!" However, Meng Ying looked completely exhausted, her eyes glazed over as she stared blankly at her toes, her bright yellow strappy high-heeled sandals glaringly bright.

Shui Yun suddenly raised her voice and shouted, "Go back!"

"Shui Yun!" Yan Wuyue hurriedly stopped her, not understanding why her emotions were fluctuating so much. But what was even more suspicious was that Meng Ying, one of the parties involved, was unmoved. She only slightly raised her head and her eyes rolled slightly.

"go back?"