chapter 1

The posture in which Sheng Bianyan was found was bizarre.

He was facing away from the sink, his legs half-kneeling but not quite, his head drooping onto his chest, his hands limp and curled at his sides, his whole body folded in an extremely unnatural way.

The tie was his own.

One end hung from the chrome-plated faucet, the other end was looped around his neck, just once.

The restroom was at the end of the corridor of the lecture hall, with no windows. When he entered, no one else was inside, and there were no signs of struggle nearby.

In other words.

He hanged himself.

Because the circumstances of his death were so extraordinary, the police began investigating almost immediately. By reviewing the school’s surveillance footage, they reconstructed the events of Sheng Bianyan’s last day:

That morning, after finishing his 8 a.m. class, Sheng Bianyan returned to his office and met with several people. He seemed to be in good spirits.

At noon, he bought crabs at a market near the school, carefully placed them in a basin at home to purge sand, clearly preparing to eat them that evening.

At 2 p.m., Sheng Bianyan walked to the lecture hall. Many students greeted him at the scene; he smiled, appeared normal, and even scheduled a time with one student to revise a thesis the following week.

Once the lecture began, he listened attentively, spoke to no one, and did not answer his phone or check his mobile.

At 2:30, Sheng Bianyan suddenly stood up, exited through the side door of the lecture hall, and walked toward the restroom at the end of the corridor, leaving his phone on the table.

At 2:38, three students entered the restroom chatting, and immediately rushed out in terror, shouting for help as they ran.

A small medical seminar was being held in the adjacent conference room. Upon hearing the commotion, several young doctors rushed into the restroom.

They found Sheng Bianyan already dead.

From the moment he entered the restroom to the confirmation of his death, less than ten minutes had passed. This meant that almost as soon as he entered, he loosened his tie and completed the suicide.

Sheng Bianyan was 176 cm tall, neither fat nor thin.

The sink was one meter above the ground.

Even if he knelt, his head would be above the faucet, meaning that during the suicide, he could have stood up at any time, or used his hands to untie the tie that was only looped once.

But he didn’t.

He simply hanged himself there.

One can imagine his determination to die at that moment.

How resolute.

How absolute.

…

Yet in the eyes of all faculty and students at Dongjiang University,

Sheng Bianyan, professor at the School of Engineering, was someone who would never commit suicide.

Sheng Bianyan was 38 years old, unmarried and living alone, residing in a 120-square-meter faculty apartment on campus.

Though introverted, he was not reclusive; on the contrary, he was good-natured, habitually smiled at others, and maintained good relationships with colleagues and students.

In his career, he had just been promoted to full professor last year, and was considered a key young talent by the university; at the same time, he also served as a psychological counselor for undergraduates.

Last month, through an introduction, he went on a blind date with a female elementary school teacher. They had met twice, and reportedly both had a good impression of each other.

So-

Such a person, whose career and love life were both on the rise,

who had long-term plans and short-term arrangements,

how could he suddenly decide to end his life?

People were both curious and faintly unsettled.

Because it was simply too unreasonable.

Too illogical.

Too contrary to human nature!

How did this matter become connected to me?

Because I was one of the five people who met with him alone in his office that morning, on the day of the incident.