evildoer

Chapter 5

When I thought about the difference in their strength, I sighed inwardly. But putting myself in Zhou Hua's shoes, I felt sorry for him still protecting Su Quan so much (and I also felt that Xu Wenkai was indeed extremely impolite). So I said, "Okay, I'll go ask him. But you have to promise me that you won't be so impulsive again. If you cause any more trouble, you'll be in big trouble."

He gave a muffled "humph" as a reply.

I knew that it would be futile to try to persuade him at this point, so I didn't say anything more.

After a moment of silence, he said, "You came here to see me?"

Then I remembered that I originally wanted to talk to him about Su Quan, but after all that commotion, I couldn't think of anything to ask him. But after a moment of hesitation, I suddenly remembered something, so I said, "Oh, I heard today that Su Quan went through a period of time where he was a bit mentally unstable, so I wanted to ask you about it."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Hua seemed to think for a moment before asking, "Do you think this matter is related to her death?"

I didn't give him a clear answer: "It's hard to say, I just want to know more about her situation."

He nodded and said, "Okay. That was last semester." Then he paused for a while before saying somewhat embarrassedly, "Actually, before Su Quan and I got together, I was pretty close to another girl in her class."

Now that I knew the story, I interjected, "Han Ying, is that right?"

He looked at me with a hint of surprise: "You knew?"

I nodded: "I know a little bit."

He shrugged. "At first, I just thought Su Quan was nice to me, but because Han Ying was around, I didn't think about it that way. But later I didn't expect that her mental state would be affected by this..."

"How do you know that this incident caused her mild mental instability? Did she tell you?"

"Of course she didn't say it herself, but anyone can tell that."

I didn't argue with him about this issue. Instead, after thinking for a moment, I asked him, "Then why did you give up on Han Ying later?"

He seemed hesitant to discuss the matter. I knew, of course, that it wouldn't be a pleasant memory for him, but my insistence on knowing the answer wasn't just to satisfy my own curiosity, so I looked him straight in the eye.

He sighed, understood what I meant, and said, "It's not that I don't want to tell you, but it's just that it's a feeling that's really hard to explain."

He sighed again, but I didn't give up, so he continued, "During the month she was sick, I felt guilty and visited her almost every day. During that time, I felt that every time I was with her, my feelings for her deepened. It was a feeling that was hard to explain. I felt like I was becoming more and more inseparable from her. Maybe this is what you call fate?"

I couldn't help but smile wryly. His use of the word "fate" here really left me speechless. I've always believed that fate is a crucial bond connecting two people, and this feeling exists only between them. Therefore, now that he said it, I naturally couldn't ask any further questions.

I gave a helpless "Oh," and was about to ask him something else when he said first, "Do you believe what I said yesterday now?"

I was getting annoyed by his repeated questions, so I waved my hand and said, "I'm just curious about this right now, it doesn't mean anything else."

He seemed a little discouraged after hearing this, but quickly added, "At least you're starting to get interested. As long as you keep going, you'll definitely find the killer!"

I didn't know whether to find it infuriating or laughable that he was so persistent in holding onto this "murderer" idea. I gently shook my head and prepared to get up and leave.

He didn't seem to realize I was about to leave. Instead, he seemed to be thinking about something for a moment before saying to me very seriously, "Last time, you asked me if someone had a motive to kill Su Quan?"

I didn't understand what he was trying to say, so I looked at him and gestured for him to continue.

He thought about it again: "I think, I've thought of someone."

Upon hearing this, I sat up straight again and asked, "Who is it?"

"Han Ying".

"Who did you say it was?"

"Han Ying, she was with me before Su Quan..."

He stopped there, but his words puzzled me. I was eager to know why he said that, so I waved my hand to indicate that he could skip the parts he didn't want to talk about and only get to the key points.

He understood what I meant and continued, "Actually, it was your words that reminded me to think about who would want Su Quan dead?"

I didn't interrupt him; I just wanted him to get to the point as soon as possible.

He said, "I thought about it all night last night and finally realized that only she would have such thoughts."

I couldn't help but ask, "Why?"

"Because ever since I got together with Su Quan, our relationship has been very strained, so she has every reason to hate Su Quan."

I immediately thought of what Han Ying had said to Chu Yi and me at noon. In fact, Zhou Hua's analysis wasn't without merit. Han Ying had indeed hated Su Quan, but that alone didn't prove she had a motive to kill her. Besides, Han Ying simply didn't have the legal opportunity to commit the crime. So I shook my head and said, "She might hate Su Quan, but that doesn't mean she'd kill her. And based on what we know so far, she doesn't possess the qualities we usually describe..."

He interrupted me, seemingly a little anxious, saying, "How can you still not understand? She didn't kill Su Quan using the usual methods!"

Magpie Bridge Fairy

Reply [17]: I don't understand what he's saying: "What do you mean?"

Seeing that I didn't understand, he sighed anxiously and said, "What I mean is, what I mean is, it was her hatred that killed Su Quan!"

I yelled, "What?"

My reaction surprised him, and he looked at me with confusion: "What's wrong?"

I said, "What's wrong? You're asking me what's wrong? Tell me yourself, what kind of crazy speculation was that you just made?"

He still looked at me with a puzzled expression: "Is there something wrong with my analysis?"

I simply don't know what to say to him. He actually had such a ridiculous idea that "Han Ying's 'hatred' killed Su Quan," and he even asked me what was wrong with his analysis.

I was so angry at his words that I couldn't say anything, but he continued with a serious face: "Isn't this a very common thing for you? If a person's longing is strong enough, even you and Chu Yi a hundred years from now will be drawn into his dreams, so what's so impossible about causing Su Quan's death through hatred?"

I muttered "Damn it" under my breath and then said, "Listen, my experience with Chu Yi was the result of many inevitable and accidental factors, and it has absolutely nothing to do with this matter!"

He wanted to argue, "But..."

I interrupted him and said in a stern tone, "I know Su Quan's death has been a big blow to you, but that's no reason for you to suspect others recklessly. I think you've been too stressed these past few days. Here's what we'll do: tomorrow's the weekend, I'll give you Uncle Yuan's address, go there and take a look."

When he heard me say that, he jumped off the bed in a panic and said to me, "I, I'm perfectly normal now!"

I stood up too, patted him on the shoulder, and said, "Yes, I'm not saying you're abnormal. On the contrary, your current reaction is perfectly normal because you love Su Quan, right? What I mean is, you've been too stressed lately. Go see Uncle Shangyuan and relax."

Before he could say anything more, I prepared to leave. I opened the door, but before leaving, I turned back and said to Zhou Hua, "Remember, you're not allowed to think about 'hatred' anymore, understand?"

He turned his face away as if he were looking at me with disdain, and didn't answer my question at all.

I snorted and turned to leave his dorm room.

As I walked back to the dormitory, I kept thinking about Zhou Hua's conclusion from who-knows-where. The more I thought about it, the more I felt that his condition was approaching the symptoms of "paranoiac schizophrenia." If this situation continued to develop, it was hard to say whether what happened between him and Xu Wenkai today would worsen, or even happen to Han Ying. So I decided that I must take him to Uncle Yuan's place tomorrow if I have time.

When I got back to my dorm, my roommate told me that someone from the internet association had just notified me that there was a meeting at 6 p.m. tonight. I checked my watch and it was already 5:50 p.m., so I agreed and went to the meeting.

Actually, the so-called meeting was just a gathering of a few acquaintances, either to summarize the work from last time or to assign a new batch of tasks. This time, someone found us another job creating a webpage, and after we roughly divided the tasks, the meeting adjourned.

After the meeting, I noticed it was almost seven o'clock. Since it was the weekend, I decided not to go to study. So I wandered around the campus, intending to go back to my dorm to do the work that had been assigned to me.

I returned to my dorm and pushed open the door to find Chu Yi sitting on my bed reading a magazine. I said, "Hi, what brings you here?"

When Chu Yi saw me return, she put down the magazine she was holding and asked, "Are you free now?"

I guessed she had something to tell me, so I said, "Yes."

She didn't say anything, but simply stood up and said, "Let's go for a walk."

I nodded, stepped aside, and let her go out first, then followed her out.

After we left the buildings and arrived at the lake on the north side of the campus, Chu Yi asked me, "How's your investigation into Su Quan going?"

As soon as I heard her words, I knew that she must have learned about the new situation from some aspect, so I said, "There hasn't been much progress. Tell me about your side first."

Chu Yi thought for a moment and said, "I was with Han Ying just now and we ran into her boyfriend."

(Chu Yi is always very organized and vivid when she narrates an event, so I usually use the method of paraphrasing when recounting her experiences, which is also common in my stories.) After dinner, Chu Yi happened to run into Han Ying again. Out of concern, Chu Yi went up to greet her: "Hi, how are you?"

Han Ying smiled apologetically: "It's nothing, thank you so much for lunch."

Chu Yi remembered the strange things we talked about Su Quan at noon, and wanted to find out more about Su Quan from Han Ying, so she said, "Nothing. By the way, do you have anything planned for tonight?"

Han Ying asked, "It's nothing serious, what's wrong?"

Chu Yi considered for a moment and said, "I have a few questions for you regarding Su Quan."

Upon hearing this, Han Ying immediately tensed up: "What? Could it really be..."

Magpie Bridge Fairy

Reply [18]: Chu Yi quickly waved her hand and lied, saying, "It's nothing. It's just that our department journal wants me to write a report on this topic. I was just asking around."

Han Ying didn't think much of it and believed Chu Yi's words, saying, "Okay then. But I need to go find Wen Kai now, shall we talk as we walk?"

Chu Yi nodded, and as she followed Han Ying toward the boys' dormitory building, she asked, "Yesterday at noon, were all the students in your dorm except for Su Quan?"

"Yes. What, does someone suspect that Su Quan was murdered?"

"Of course not." Chu Yi also felt that this question was indeed too sensitive for her, so she quickly changed the subject, "Before noon yesterday, did any of you notice anything strange about Su Quan?"

Upon hearing this, Han Ying blurted out, "Strange? She's always been strange." But as soon as she finished speaking, she seemed to realize she had let something slip and quickly explained, "Oh, no, I meant, I meant..."

She was, after all, an honest girl. As she finished speaking, her face turned red, and she didn't say anything more for a long time.

Although Chu Yi really wanted to know what she meant, she was more understanding of others, so she didn't press the matter further.

The two remained silent for nearly a minute, having already reached the boys' dormitory. Han Ying said with a sigh of relief, "I'll go find Wen Kai first, can you wait for me?"

Chu Yi agreed and casually browsed the day's news in front of the newspaper stand.

Not long after Han Ying entered through the door, Chu Yi heard her and a boy arguing in the hallway.

Chu Yi didn't want to get involved in this kind of thing, but when she turned around, she found that Han Ying and her boyfriend had already come out.

As Xu Wenkai walked away, he said to Han Ying, "That kid tried to lay a hand on me. He's lucky I didn't send him to the hospital!"

Han Ying's voice also sounded angry: "Who told you to talk about Su Quan like that!"

Xu Wenkai showed no sign of backing down: "What was wrong with what I said? She's a monster!"

When Chu Yi heard him describe Su Quan like that, she felt a strange sensation, just like I did. At that moment, Han Ying and the others arrived in front of Chu Yi. Chu Yi looked at them, wondering what had happened.

Han Ying wanted to say something more to Xu Wenkai, but she stopped when she saw Chu Yi. She took a breath to calm herself down and said, "I'm sorry, something happened. This is Xu Wenkai."

Then she introduced Chu Yi to Xu Wenkai.

Chu Yi extended her hand first and said, "Hello." Although Xu Wenkai still seemed angry, he still shook hands with Chu Yi and said, "Hello."

Chu Yi smiled and asked, "What's wrong? What happened?"

Han Ying seemed to want to cover it up, saying, "It's nothing." But Xu Wenkai bluntly said, "There's a kid who deserves a beating."

Upon hearing him say that again, Han Ying was both angry and exasperated, and said, "Wen Kai!"