Card Room

Chapter 28 - Bloody Maple Leaf: New Discovery

3 of Hearts secret room, day 2.

Xiao Lou woke up and saw Yu Hanjiang standing by the corridor window. His deep eyes were staring into the distance and his brow was slightly furrowed like he was thinking about something.

Xiao Lou walked over and asked, “Group Leader Yu, are there any new discoveries?”

Yu Hanjiang pointed to the maple forest. “Last night, there was a storm and a few maple trees were blown down.

Xiao Lou followed his gaze and looked at the distant maple forest. A large number of maple leaves had fallen down in the rain and the ground seemed to be covered with a thick layer of maple red. At the end of the maple forest, several small saplings planted were blown to the ground by the wind. The flower beds under the teaching body were crooked and many flower pots were broken. The entire campus was messy, like a typhoon had crossed here.

At 6:30 in the morning, the rain had stopped.

At this time, the two people should head to the school gate since the new day would have more clues. However, last night they sneaked into the Shuxiang Building and alerted the security guards, causing the door of the Shuxiang Building to be locked.

Xiao Lou had a very uncomfortable sleep last night. He rubbed his temple to soothe his headache and asked, “Class is starting soon. How are we going to get out?”

Yu Hanjiang looked calm as he pointed to the air-conditioning pipe outside the window. “Climb out.”

Xiao Lou, “...”

In the Hearts secret room, Yu Hanjiang took out the attitude of the Spades survival secret room. He simply opened the window and jumped forward, grasping the air-conditioning duct with both hands and stepping on the window edge that was only 10cm wide with both feet, climbing down to the ground floor.

Xiao Lou’s heart was in his throat.

So high! If this person’s feet stepped on air then it would be over!

It turned out that Xiao Lou’s fears were superfluous. Yu Hanjiang seemed to often do this type of thing. He climbed, jumped and seemed familiar with the building as he chose the most convenient route and fell steadily to the ground. Then he looked up at Xiao Lou.

Xiao Lou looked down and didn’t dare step on the window of the fifth floor to climb down... he didn’t want to fall to the ground.

Yu Hanjiang made a ‘go downstairs and wait for me’ gesture and walked quickly to the door of the Shuxiang Building.

It was unknown where Group Leader Yu found a wire from but he took a moment to open the door lock. Xiao Lou was waiting at the door and after he saw Group Leader Yu open the door, he couldn’t help thinking, ‘It is fortunate that Yu Hanjiang is a policeman. If he is a thief then probably no one can stop him?’

Yu Hanjiang seemed to see Xiao Lou’s doubts and explained while restoring the door lock, “When I was in the police academy, a senior taught me unlocking skills. He likes to study these types of things.”

Xiao Lou nodded and didn’t ask much as he headed to the school gate with Yu Hanjiang.

At 7 o’clock, students came to the school one after another.

Xie Xinghe had come early today and his school uniform had a black gauze tied outside. The black gauze was meant to commemorate the dead and the person he was commemorating was apparently Ying Xiaoya, who died yesterday.

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Xiao Lou saw this and felt slightly confused. Judging from Xiao Lou’s confession yesterday, his relationship with Xie Xinghe was very ordinary. Yet he wore a black gauze today, indicating that he was very mindful of Ying Xiaoya’s death.

Before long, Yi Ru and Yu Hui also came with black around their arms.

The three people met at the school gates.

Yu Hui frowned as he glanced at Xie Xinghe’s arm. “Xie Xinghe, what are you wearing this for? My family’s Xiaoya doesn’t need you to pay homage to her!”

Xie Xinghe had a blank expression. “I know that your hostility towards me is hard to resolve but Xiaoya and I are classmates for three years. Her death&#k2026; I’m very sad too.”

Yu Hui wanted to say something but Yi Ru interrupted. “Don’t quarrel, do you want the people at the school gate to stand in a circle and watch?”

Yesterday, Yi Ru had an emotional collapse and cried in front of the police for a long time. After a night of adjustment, she had returned to normal but there were dark circles under her eyes and she looked tired.

Yu Hui walked forward coldly.

The three people entered the Chongwen Building in unison and the road was silent.

The other students should have nothing to do with the case and the contents of the discussion had no valuable information. Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang still couldn’t recognize the faces of thousands of students but they didn’t leave the school gate.

They were waiting for the chemistry teacher of Class 3 to appear.

At 7:25 with five minutes left until morning class, a tall female teacher walked through the school gate.

She had short neat hair and wore black pencil pants, a white shirt, a khaki long trench coat and high heels. She had an elegant posture when walking, like a professional dancer. Her slim and upright body made her seem classy.

The security guard greeted her. “Teacher Qin, you came to work?”

The female teacher smiled as she greeted the security guard before entering the Hangzhi Building.

Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang immediately became alert.

Teacher Qin, the security guard specifically greeted her and this seemed to be reminding the challengers that she was the chemistry teacher who was absent yesterday.

Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang glanced at each other before quickly catching up with her.

She went directly to the chemistry office on the third floor of the Hangzhi Building. Once she entered the office, a colleague told her, “Weiwei, you were really lucky. Yesterday, you took time off so you still don’t know? Class 3 had a student who jumped from the building and committed suicide!”

Qin Weiwei was stunned and immediately turned back. “What? Who jumped?”

Her colleague replied, “The person who was last in this person’s monthly exam, it should be Ying Xiaoya.”

Qin Weiwei’s face was full of shock. “How come? I remembered this girl studied very seriously. Her test result this time was just an accident. I wanted to encourage her. Is there a reason to commit suicide just because of a bad test?”

Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang pretended to be passing teachers and could clearly see the situation in the office.

The chemistry teacher Qin Weiwei either had a deep heart, first-class acting or were really innocent. In the end, they couldn’t conclude if she knew about Ying Xiaoya jumping off the building or not. Today, the police would definitely come to investigate here.

Class 3’s morning class was a language class and the teacher asked everyone to study a text for half an hour.

The first class at 8:10 happened to be the chemistry class. Qin Weiwei prepared her teaching materials and walked out of the office towards Class 2. Yu Hanjiang and Xiao Lou emerged from the bathroom opposite the office and looked at her back. Yu Hanjiang whispered, “You follow Qin Weiwei. I will go to the school gate and wait for the police. I’ll come see you later.”

Xiao Lou nodded and quietly followed Qin Weiwei.

During class time, there were many teachers coming and going in the air corridor. She didn’t notice Xiao Lou behind her.

Qin Weiwei walked into the classroom with the textbook. Xiao Lou didn’t know if it was because she didn’t experience Ying Xiaoya’s fall incident yesterday or because her psychological quality was too strong but she taught this class very seriously. Despite the students being absent-minded, she performed her job and finished this class.

Xiao Lou was also a teacher. From the perspective of a peer, this Teacher Qin belonged to the first-class level. Her writing in chalk was excellent, she never talked nonsense in class and her preparations were very good. The main and secondary points of the 45 minutes class were clear and the key knowledge clearly explained. It could be used directly for demonstration classes.

Xiao Lou couldn’t help touching his chin in doubt... was such a teacher really a cruel murderer?”

***

Meanwhile, Yu Hanjiang was standing behind a tree and staring in the direction of the school gate.

The police really came!

The four police officers who came today were the same as yesterday. Obviously, the forensic doctor had brought the body back yesterday and confirmed the cause of death with an autopsy. All the information was provided to the police and the police officers came with a lot of clues.

They first looked for the principal and took over an office in the Hangzhi Building. Then they called Class 3’s PE teacher and the security guard who was on duty yesterday.

The door of the office was about to close when Yu Hanjiang put on the invisibility cloak and went in to listen.

The police turned on the recorder and asked the PE teacher while recording, “During the PE class yesterday, who called you while the Ying Xiaoya incident happened?”

The PE teacher quickly replied, “It was Teacher Qin. Didn’t she change classes with me? She called to check on her students. I asked her where she was and she said she was going to take her father to the hospital for a check.”

“Do you know Teacher Qin well? Did you see her yesterday?’

“We are very familiar. We were assigned to this school five years ago and have been taking the same class. That’s why she changed classes with me when something happened.” The PE teacher paused for a moment. “She took leave yesterday and I never saw her.”

“What type of person do you think she is?”

“Very cautious, very careful. She is also very beautiful. Teacher Qin is really good.”

Then the police called the security guard over and asked some questions. “Did you see Teacher Qin yesterday?”

The security guard looked puzzled. “I didn’t see her. Didn’t she take a leave of absence? I saw her come to work this morning.”

“The keys to the roof of the Hangzhi Building are in your custody, right? Have you ever lent them to someone else?”

“No...” The security guard suddenly thought of something and straightened. “However, I accidentally dropped the entire bunch of keys when patrolling the school last month. They were returned to me after Teacher Qin picked them up.”

The two policemen glanced at each other. “Are you sure it is Teacher Qin?”

“Of course! After she returned them to me, I thanked her with a meal!”

The case-related people walked out the door and the two police officers began to whisper to each other.

The group leader said, “This Teacher Qin is too problematic. I brought the monitoring data back yesterday and found that she happened to be in school at the time of the incident. This proves that she is lying. She also returned the keys to the security guard and the deceased was poisoned with organic phosphorus. She bought some organic phosphorus last week.”

The policewoman added, “The poison was found in Yu Hui’s chocolates. Yu Hui is also very suspicious.”

“Yu Hui should have no problem. It is likely that he left them somewhere. I will call him to review it later.”

At this point, a policeman pushed open the door, opening the bottle of organic phosphorus and a signature book in his hand.

The young police officer stated, “Boss, I indeed found the poison in the chemistry laboratory.”

The group leader glanced at him. “The two of you go immediately to Class 3. Once the class is over, call the three suspects Qin Weiwei, Yu Hui and XIe Xinghe!”

The time for Yu Hanjiang’s invisibility cloak was ending and he had to leave the office and quickly return to Class 3.

Xiao Lou was eavesdropping at the back of the classroom and Yu Hanjiang walked over to whisper in his ears, “The police have come and the suspects will be called after class. You should prepare in advance and follow them to hear the interrogation. I will cover you outside.”

Xiao Lou nodded and returned to the Hangzhi Building with Group Leader Yu.

The two of them hid in the bathroom and Yu Hanjiang repeated what he just heard to Xiao Lou. Once the suspects were brought over, Xiao Lou immediately put on the invisibility cloak and followed the suspects into the interrogation room.

The first person to be questioned was Yu Hui.

Yu Hui frowned at the police officer. “Officer, didn’t you ask me questions yesterday? What else did you want to ask?”

“Your box of chocolates is filled with organophosphate poison. How do you explain this?”

Yu Hui was horrified. “What?!”

He was stunned for a long time before finally reacting, “Surely you don’t think that I poisoned Xiaoya? Fuck! I treat her as a sister. I must’ve lost these chocolates!”

“Since you are brother and sister, why not reveal the relationship instead of letting people misunderstand that you are in love?”

Yu Hui grabbed his hair with irritation. “I am the same age as her and I’m only three days older. This girl hasn’t called me brother since she was a child. We are in the same class and are embarrassed to let the students know we are brother and sister. Thus, at school we called each other by our names but didn’t expect to be misunderstood!”

The policeman asked, “She has lived in your home from an early age? How are your feelings?”

“Her parents divorced when she was seven years old. They work in the field and don’t care about her. They placed her in my home to care for her and both of us grew up together. The feeling is like siblings.”

He paused before continuing, “Therefore, Xiaoya’s suicide note definitely wasn’t written by her. She wouldn’t be sorry to her parents when committing suicide. The people she would be most sorry to are my parents!”

The policeman then asked, “Have your chocolates been exposed to other people?”

“I don’t know. I bought the box of chocolates at the supermarket last week and left them in my bag for a week.”

“Did you give any to Ying Xiaoya to eat?”

Yu Hui thought carefully, “I did give her a chocolate when I was running yesterday.”

“Why was she late yesterday?”

“Her mother suddenly came back to see her and bought her a mobile phone as a present for her 18th birthday. She was very happy and went to stay with her mother at night, not returning to my house. It used to be that Xiaoya woke up very early whenever we go to school today. I find it very strange that she was late!”

The police let Yu Hui leave. He had no motive for killing and didn’t have any contact with the poison. Therefore, the chocolates might’ve come from his hand but his suspicion was minimal.

The more suspicious ones were Xie Xinghe, who signed as the one who checked the poison, and the chemistry teacher who purchased the poison directly.