Chapter 4
Chapter 4
In the university president’s office, everyone stood gathered around a desk. The phone on it showed that the call could not be connected.
“What’s going on? We got through just now. Why can’t we reach him anymore?”
“Has he fled because he’s guilty?”
“Where on earth is Zhao Xiuming? He didn’t sound like he’d killed anyone.”
“You’re his roommate. Did he sound normal to you just now?”
The male roommate they had called in to contact Zhao Xiuming answered honestly. “Uh, we’re not close. He does keep to himself.”
“From what I’ve seen of him, he’s a decent guy. He doesn’t seem like someone who’d kill anybody.”
“But after what happened at the hot pot restaurant yesterday, I can’t be sure.”
His girlfriend had cheated on him with a rich kid, and the other man had set him up and smeared his name. They’d meant to grind Zhao Xiuming into the dirt.
Besides, Li Zhehan’s connections and resources were leagues beyond his. What did Zhao Xiuming have to fight back with, except his life?
The atmosphere in the office was oppressive. The university officials began offering reassurances to a man in a suit.
“It may not be that bad. Perhaps it’s all a misunderstanding.”
“I’m sure they’re fine. It’s a relationship dispute between young people. Surely it wouldn’t come to murder.”
“Let’s stop speculating. Didn’t Zhao Xiuming say he’d come straight back?”
The suited man was an assistant employed by Li Zhehan’s family. He looked displeased with the university officials, paying more attention to the police officers present.
A female officer was gently questioning the only eyewitness. “You said you saw Zhao Xiuming abduct Li Zhehan and Zhang Xueya. Could you tell us more about that?”
The supposed eyewitness was Zhang Xueya’s best friend, Zhou Qingyan. She appeared to have suffered a severe shock, her body trembling constantly.
Her face was pale and her lips bloodless. Crying, she explained, “Yaya lied to both me and Li Zhehan. She’d been lying all along.”
“After we left the restaurant yesterday, Li Zhehan and Yaya had a huge argument. He demanded that she get an abortion.”
Zhou Qingyan wasn’t very bright, but their argument had finally made her realize she’d been played.
Zhao Xiuming had been telling the truth. Zhang Xueya had been squeezing money out of her “boyfriend” while deliberately ruining his reputation.
She had also spent a night with Li Zhehan. She was the one who had cheated first.
It was precisely because Zhang Xueya had presented herself as someone who stayed devoted to her boyfriend despite his being a scumbag that Li Zhehan had thought their night together was merely an accident.
He’d thought she was a flower planted in manure, a girl who remained untainted by the muck around her.
Now that her lies had been exposed, their conflict erupted.
Unfortunately, Zhou Qingyan had a soft heart. She agreed to go to the hospital with them, partly because she wanted an explanation from Zhang Xueya.
Li Zhehan drove. The three of them sat in awkward silence.
Zhou Qingyan’s mind was in turmoil. She couldn’t believe her good friend had lied, and guilt and shame welled up in her at the thought of Zhao Xiuming.
When she came back to herself, she realized how dark it had become. Even with the headlights on, they couldn’t see the road ahead clearly.
The usually busy streets were deserted.
The hospital wasn’t in the city center, but it wasn’t in a remote area, either.
Now, though, the streetlights were off. Even the traffic lights had stopped working. Not a soul was visible on the broad, empty road.
The abnormal sight forced the three of them to break their silence. Li Zhehan swore first, then Zhou Qingyan asked quietly, “Since when has there been a curfew?”
They all knew a curfew was unlikely. Before they could dwell on the strangeness, several cars suddenly drove past.
Dim figures moved inside and outside the building ahead. They could just make out a jumble of sounds.
Preoccupied with their own troubles, the three relaxed when they saw other people. In the end, they went on to the hospital.
At this point in her account, Zhou Qingyan was shaking like a leaf. “The hospital was empty. We couldn’t get out.”
“The car was gone. We couldn’t find the gate. We couldn’t even climb over the wall.”
“There was no signal. We couldn’t send messages or make calls. Only Li Zhehan got through once, but nobody answered.”
“There was someone in a hoodie who kept appearing and disappearing. He… he could stand outside a fourth-floor window. He could stick his head through walls. He could crawl along the ceiling…”
“We were terrified. First he grabbed Li Zhehan’s head, then he pulled…”
“He lifted Li Zhehan by the head and carried him like that as he crawled up the outside wall. Then he went for Zhang Xueya. He dragged her into the dark. I was so scared. I kept running. He caught up with me! I saw his face!”
“Zhao Xiuming! It was Zhao Xiuming! It was him!”
Zhou Qingyan broke into sobs. The terror on her face was almost tangible, and horrifying to see.
She had never been particularly clever. She had no way to make sense of what she had seen. It was absurd and terrifying.
Last night’s events defied all reason. Yet after she fainted from fear, she had awakened standing at the university gates, under bright sunshine, with everything peaceful around her.
The disconnect made her doubt herself. Her injuries from falling, and her reason, told her it had been real, while the people and things around her denied it over and over.
Just like now, as she painfully recalled what had happened.
None of the other people in the office, including the university representatives and officials, would believe her.
“Ha, that can’t be real. It’s too far-fetched.”
“Miss Zhou, what you’re saying… Have you been under a lot of stress lately?”
“We’re taking this search very seriously. You can’t play games with us, Miss Zhou.”
“Your account is far too subjective. Perhaps you saw something frightening and your brain distorted it into false memories.”
“She must know something. Should we get a psychologist?”
Cold sweat broke out on the roommate’s forehead. He spoke up in agreement with her. “What if it’s true?”
“When that restaurant manager went mad this morning, didn’t he say… someone was pulling his head off?”
“And he kept shouting Zhao Xiuming’s name.”
The Li family’s assistant took out his phone. “Miss Zhou, is this the call you said got through?”
He handled business for the Li family and had a habit of recording his calls.
The police had already examined the recording. This was the first time Zhou Qingyan and the university officials had heard it.
On the recording, Li Zhehan sounded frantic, demanding to know why the assistant wasn’t speaking after answering the call.
In fact, the assistant could be heard responding throughout, but Li Zhehan seemed unable to hear him.
After Li Zhehan gave up trying to communicate, fragments of his and Zhou Qingyan’s voices came through.
Zhou Qingyan’s voice trembled with disbelief. “What’s that? Is that a person? We’re on the fourth floor!”
Li Zhehan swore and screamed. “Fuck! Run! Help! Help me…”
The shrill cries and crashing noises cut off abruptly. All that remained was the silence after the disconnection, and the assistant’s repeated questions: “What happened? Where are you?”
A sense of unreality came over everyone in the president’s office. Hearing only the recording or only Zhou Qingyan’s account wouldn’t have done that.
But put the two together, and a thought crept into their minds: Could it actually be true?
As they exchanged uneasy looks, the office door opened.
They turned instinctively. The police reacted first. “Don’t move! Hands up! Get down!”
Zhou Qingyan screamed and scrambled away, falling apart. “It’s him! It’s him!”
The office descended into chaos. The person standing in the doorway was none other than Zhao Xiuming.
The breeze from outside carried the smell of blood. His hair tied back, Zhao Xiuming raised his hands and dropped to one knee, his beautiful, fair face completely calm.
His upper body and trousers were covered in blood. Some of it was still wet, sticking thickly to him.
Perhaps it was because of the testimony and speculation they’d just heard, but everyone in the room was frightened, bracing as though for a formidable enemy.
Several officers rushed forward and restrained him.
“Where did that blood come from?”
“What did you do to Li Zhehan and Zhang Xueya?”
Among the questions rang his roommate’s voice, loud with disbelief. “Did you really kill someone yesterday? How did you climb the walls like that? Do you have superpowers?”