Chapter 137

Chapter 137

February 25, 2014.

Jian Fan ran through the timeline in his head.

This should have been not long after New Year’s, when the new semester had just begun.

This entry was placed right at the front. The form was marked as the first half of 2014, and the recorded information cut off abruptly in early March. In other words, whatever happened to Zhao Yingguo had very likely happened in March.

After that came several blank pages, followed by records from 2013-but only the second half of the year. They were probably Zhao Yingguo’s leave requests during the first semester of her junior year.

Qin Nan thought it over for a moment before saying, “Personal leave. From the second semester of 2013 to the start of the new semester in 2014, over half a year, she was applying for personal leave almost every so often. That’s not normal. And this is only part of the information. It’s very possible she had been taking leave before this too.”

Jian Fan gave a faint “Mm,” then added, “The dorm room we were just in was 6103.”

Qin Nan’s gaze instinctively dropped to the papers in Jian Fan’s hands.

Zhao Yingguo. 6103.

That was almost enough to confirm it.

“One student dying wouldn’t be enough to make the dorm supervisor stop registering information altogether. There has to be some other serious reason behind it. My guess is Zhao Yingguo died directly in 6103. The bloodstains in the bathroom might prove that?” But Qin Nan found that strange too. How had blood gotten onto the bathroom lampshade?

And 6103 had already been cleared of luggage. That meant after Zhao Yingguo’s accident, her roommates must have moved out. That much made sense. But the dorm supervisor’s own luggage was still here, which meant that after the incident, the supervisor’s work had still continued as normal. So why did these records cut off so abruptly in March?

Even if this dorm building had been abandoned, the dorm supervisor’s luggage should have been moved out too, right? Why was it still left here?

Qin Nan couldn’t quite figure it out.

Jian Fan did not answer him.

In his mind, he went back over the dates he had seen earlier.

In the first half of 2014, Zhao Yingguo had been a junior. In other words, she should have enrolled in September 2011. And among the six newspapers he had found in the cabinet, the earliest date was September 21, 2011.

At that time, Zhao Yingguo should have already enrolled, and the new semester would only just have started.

The dates on the newspapers matched the time Zhao Yingguo entered school. In other words, these newspapers had not been old newspapers back then. So why had these six particular pages been left behind on their own?

What was special about those six dates?

And the date on the mirror-2021.10.21-what was special about that day?

Zhao Yingguo should have met with trouble in February or March of 2014. Seven years later, on October 21-what was special about that date?

There were far too many questions here.

“Take a look and see if there’s anything related to a password.”

Just as Jian Fan was thinking, Liu Ji’s voice suddenly sounded beside him.

He was crouched in front of the bed, a suitcase next to his hand.

He had pulled it out from under the bed. It was locked. He had tried a few simple combinations, but none of them had worked, so he had no choice but to seek the power of the group.

Jian Fan quickly withdrew his gaze.

He set down the folder in his hand, then started searching through the other things.

There were a lot of items on the desk.

However, after Jian Fan went through them, he found nothing new. Then he pulled open the drawers of the desk.

There were two drawers in the desk.

One of them also held things related to the dormitory, which could be considered part of the dorm supervisor’s work. The other drawer contained the dorm supervisor’s personal belongings.
Jian Fan rummaged around. Inside was a diary. The dorm manager had a habit of keeping a diary. Jian Fan took out the diary.
The first page of the diary was dated August 21, 2013. It was still summer vacation then. Jian Fan glanced at it; the content was just daily trivia, recording everyday life. As he flipped to September 11th, the entries began to relate to the school.
On September 11th, the dorm manager returned to school to prepare for the start of term.
On September 12th, local students began arriving, and the dormitory building started to liven up.
On September 13th, all students had arrived.
On September 14th, classes began.
Entries continued every day until October 11th.
After the entry for October 11th, the content jumped straight to October 14th. Three days’ worth of entries were missing. It wasn’t that the dorm manager hadn’t written them – they had been torn out.
Jian Fan looked at the obvious tear marks in the diary and fell into thought.
What had been written in the diary? Why were the pages torn out? Was it related to Zhao Yingguo’s death? Had the incident that occurred around March 2014 shown signs as early as October 2013?
Jian Fan flipped a few more pages.
Further in, there were also signs of tearing. The diary’s content went up to February 20th, about five days into the new semester, and then there were more torn pages. After that, it was completely blank.
In other words, any content in the diary related to the background story had been torn out. To find out the truth, they would first need to locate the torn-out pages.
Jian Fan couldn’t help but roll his eyes upward.
Still, the diary wasn’t entirely useless.
Jian Fan flipped to the very end. On the last page, there was personal information belonging to the dorm manager.
It was some passwords: bank card PINs, various account passwords, and – the suitcase combination.
“529.” Jian Fan turned around and said to Liu Ji.
Liu Ji was still examining the suitcase and didn’t immediately realize Jian Fan was talking to him.
Seeing Liu Ji’s lack of response, Jian Fan frowned. Qin Nan, who had been nearby, quickly added, “The suitcase combination is 529.”
Liu Ji looked up, paused for a moment, then caught on. He quickly nodded and lowered his head to set the combination lock to “529.”
The suitcase opened successfully.
“It’s open,” Liu Ji said, somewhat pleased.
But when he opened the suitcase and saw what was inside, Liu Ji’s smile faded.
Inside were some simple clothes, but that wasn’t the main concern. The main concern was that there was also a metal box with an electronic lock.
Liu Ji felt his head starting to ache.
First, a break to find a key, and now it’s time to find a password?
Liu Ji lifted out the metal box, placed it on the bed, and sighed helplessly, “We still need to find the password.”
The people who had been searching for clues separately all stopped and looked over when they heard the suitcase was open. Now, seeing the metal box in Liu Ji’s hands, they each had their own thoughts.
Anyway, none of them were in a good mood.
Qin Nan rubbed his forehead.
He felt a bit mentally exhausted.
“Is it in the diary?” Qin Nan asked. Although he thought it unlikely, he still held a sliver of hope and voiced the question.
Jian Fan shook his head.
His gaze fell on the metal box.
The missing pages from the diary were probably inside this metal box.