Teacher Chen, the head teacher of Class 5 Senior Year 3, was the group leader of the mathematics group. She was a 35-year-old married woman.
She knew Ji Feng and was aware that he was a relative of Ji Yunyun. She had a deep impression of him. After all, it was not every parent-teacher conference where someone was late and left early, and came with blood on them once.
"You are here to find Yunyun, aren't you?" she asked kindly.
To her surprise, Ji Feng said, "Sorry, Teacher Chen, I'd like to ask about Miao Tong."
Teacher Chen was shocked instantly, "Isn't Miao Tong..."
"I'd like to check again," he said ambiguously, "Let's talk about this child."
Teacher Chen was worldly-wise. She fell silent for a moment and said, "She was a good kid, studious, with relatively stable grades. But when she came back from the winter vacation this year, her grades started to slip. We were worried that it was because her parents put too much pressure on her. We even talked to her parents about this. Her parents said it was the child who pushed herself too hard and they were also very anxious."
"What was her personality like?"
"A very quiet girl who was willing to help others and was quite popular in class," Teacher Chen said. "Her classmates were all very sad about what happened to her."
Ji Feng nodded and asked again, "As far as you know, did Miao Tong show any signs of dating?"
Teacher Chen hesitated and said, "It was possible. Generally when a student's grades suddenly dropped, it was either something happened at home or it was her own problem."
"With whom?"
"I'm not very clear. Children have cell phones now and it's usually hard to tell," Teacher Chen replied.
Ji Feng asked, "Did she have any conflicts with anyone?"
Teacher Chen cautiously answered, "Almost none."
She didn't lie, but seemed to conceal something. Was it to protect the students? Ji Feng asked impassively, "I'd like to chat with some students. Would that be convenient?"
Teacher Chen said awkwardly, "Everyone thought this matter was over. There's less than a month left until Gaokao (college entrance examination)..."
"You are right," Ji Feng didn't force her. Then he changed the subject, "Then let me ask something personal. How are Yunyun's grades? Has she dated anyone at school?"
"If Yunyun performs up to her normal level, she should have no problem getting into a college, but she'll need to work harder if she wants to get into a key university," As she finally managed to catch a parent of Ji Yunyun, Teacher Chen nagged at great lengths, "I know your family situation is special, but this examination determines how a child's whole life would be. No matter how busy you are, pay more attention to your sister in this last month. Take good care of her daily life..."
Ji Feng was lectured into a deflated shape. He had no choice but to agree repeatedly, "Yes, yes. I must pay attention."
Teacher Chen said, "Don't put too much pressure on the child either. It's not like Yunyun doesn't work hard. Just take it easy and it's most important that she performs normally."
Ji Feng: "You are right."
After the long speech, Teacher Chen's caution towards the police had turned into authoritative guidance towards the parent. She spoke a bit more loosely, "It was a pity for Miao Tong. Her grades were so good before. Although they slipped a little this year, she should have had no problem getting into a first-tier college. I even thought she had a good chance for recommendation..."
He took the chance to ask, "How does the school decide who to recommend?"
"The final exam results from Grade 10 and 11, achievement test scores, and the mock exam results from Grade 12 Senior Year 1 and 2. Of course, teacher recommendations are needed as well," Teacher Chen said. "Among over a dozen spots, three to four students would be selected." However, our school doesn't have spots in top universities like Peking University and Tsinghua University. The best we have is a spot in Huaping University."
Ji Feng smiled and asked, "How many students from this class are on the list?"
Teacher Chen was rather proud, "Three from our class!"
He put on a shocked expression, "I thought Class 1 to Class 4 were the good classes?"
"..." Teacher Chen felt speechless towards this kind of parent, "Class 1 to Class 4 are liberal arts classes. Our Class 5 is the best science class."
"Then," Ji Feng, the irresponsible parent, lamented, "isn't our Yunyun's grade quite good?"
Teacher Chen: "She ranked 78th in the grade in the second mock exam."
Ji Feng: "..."
Was that good or bad?
"Who were the three students?" He asked casually.
Every parent was curious about the top students in the class. Teacher Chen only hesitated briefly before answering, "Wu Jingcheng, Miao Tong, and Tong Molli. But Miao Tong and Tong Molli originally didn't stand much chance. Wu Jingcheng won competition awards. It's almost fixed that it would be him."
Ji Feng nodded and asked a few more questions about Ji Yunyun's daily life. After dissolving Teacher Chen's concerns, he ended the conversation.
By this time, the lecture in the auditorium had also ended. Students streamed out of the lecture hall noisily like a flock of ducks being let out, chattering loudly.
He went to the chemistry office of the Grade 10 and asked the chemistry teacher who was in the laboratory building at that time.
She was a girl just graduated who had just signed a contract with the school. On the day of the incident, it was her first time to lead students in experiments.
To ensure the experiments went smoothly, she went to the laboratory one session in advance to check the equipment and did the experiment herself first.
Regarding what happened that day, she said, "I didn't notice anything. I was focused on doing my own thing the whole time. Although it was just a small experiment, chemistry experiments can be quite dangerous. Students might run into all kinds of problems. I kept going through it in advance in my mind. I didn't hear anyone shouting 'someone's dead' until someone actually shouted it."
Ji Feng asked, "Did you see the deceased?"
The chemistry teacher shook her head.
Ji Feng asked, "What time did you go to the laboratory building?"
She estimated the time, "Our first afternoon class started at 1:30. I went when the class bell hadn't rung yet, around 2 o'clock."
Miao Tong jumped off the building at 2:45 pm, which was exactly during the second class session.
"Who else was in the laboratory building then?"
"I only knew no one was on the first and second floors. I didn't hear any sound," the chemistry teacher said apologetically. "The chemistry lab is on the second floor. I didn't go upstairs so I don't know if anyone was up there."
Ji Feng thanked her and went to find the cleaning lady.
She said she started cleaning the laboratory building at around 1 pm according to her daily routine, from the washrooms and corridors on the fourth floor all the way down.
Therefore, she could tell the police very certainly that when the second class session started, there were only six people in the entire building.
The chemistry teacher arrived first. Then as soon as the second class session started, four Grade 11 students came to do experiments. She was cleaning the second floor and about to go downstairs at that time.
Shortly after, she cleaned the first floor corridor and was cleaning the washroom when she heard footsteps. Someone went upstairs.
But she was mopping the floor in the washroom then and didn't come out to see who it was.
"Are you sure it was one person?"
"Definitely." The cleaning lady was quite old but still loud-voiced, "My ears work great. I said it was one person then it was one person. There wasn't a second person!"
Her statements were consistent with her previous account.
Next up were the badminton students and the student reciting words.
Around lunch break, Ji Feng went to Class 5 Senior Year 3 and blocked his sister who was going to the cafeteria for lunch. "I'm taking you out for lunch. Are your friends around? Ask them to join."
He openly took the two girls out of the school gate to a nearby restaurant.
"I have a thing to ask you two," Ji Feng spread out the floor plan drawing and asked, "Where exactly were you at the badminton court at that time?"
Ji Yunyun pointed at a spot.
"Which side did Miao Tong pass by from?"
She drew a line.
..badminton court.....basketball court....
.。..x...................
.。。。。。laboratory building..........
(Note: x is where Ji Yunyun was, .... is Miao Tong's path)
"There's some distance between the badminton court and the laboratory building, and there's vegetation in between. How can you be certain that was Miao Tong?" Ji Feng asked his sister quite sharply.
But his business-like attitude instead provoked Ji Yunyun's pride. She said extremely seriously, "Miao Tong and I know each other very well. Although I didn't see her face clearly, but the hairstyle, clothes, and the way she walked were all hers. I won't mistake her."
"Wasn't she wearing school uniform?" Ji Feng questioned. "Girls have similar hairstyles and most wear ponytails."
Ji Yunyun & Xiao Xiao: "......"
"Miao Tong learned ballet before, her walking posture was especially graceful. Ordinary people can't imitate that," Xiao Xiao said. "We all said she looked very much like a white swan."
"And her hair is different too. Although the school requires that students do not dye or perm their hair, Miao Tong has naturally curly hair. She and another girl in our class are the only ones with this particularly curly type of curly hair, and that other girl's hair is not as long as Miao Tong's," Ji Yunyun added.
Ji Feng asked, "You mean you are absolutely sure you did not mistaken her?"
"Yes! And I even called out to her, and she turned around and waved at us." Ji Yunyun looked at him defiantly, raring for a fight.
Ji Feng would not indulge her. He asked impassively, "What was her state on the day of the incident? Did she behave differently from usual in any way?"
The police had asked this question before, but Ji Yunyun still answered earnestly, "She was a little different, but I didn't feel like she was about to commit suicide."
"Tell me the specifics, not your feelings," Ji Feng prompted. "What did she say, what actions did she take?"
The two girls racked their brains.
After a long while, Xiao Xiao said, "I feel... uh, I don't know how to put it..."
"It's alright, go ahead and say it," Ji Feng encouraged her. Unlike with his sister, he had to be patient with someone else's child. "What do you feel?"
Xiao Xiao ventured, "Miao Tong and I share a dorm room. That morning, she seemed to have something on her mind. I thought she was worried about the mock exam, so I comforted her a bit. But then she said she had been too nervous before, and after talking to her parents and teachers recently, she felt that as long as she did her best, there would be no issues. She had come to terms with it."
"Her attitude was very positive?" he asked carefully.
Xiao Xiao nodded emphatically. "Yes, she didn't seem at all like she was going to commit suicide. We even talked about going out to play after the exam."
Ji Feng fell silent in contemplation.
"So what's the conclusion?" Ji Yunyun was impatient. "You've been investigating for so long, do you have a result?"
Ji Feng clicked his tongue and said, "The suicide note has handwriting that is verified to be hers. How do you explain that?"
Xiao Xiao boldly speculated, "Imitation?"
"Or copied from her homework or test papers," Ji Yunyun added, thinking out of the box.
Ji Feng explained with unprecedented patience, "Handwriting analysis is a specialized technique. Simply put, while a person can deliberately imitate another's handwriting, the act of writing is automated. Unless you strictly control every stroke, your habits will inevitably leak through.
"Secondly, even if you can perfectly imitate her original handwriting, writing under different conditions will definitely show some differences. Like whether the words on your test papers are smaller, while words in a diary would be bigger. If pieced together, the size and layout would be discordant.
"Also, everyone has different vocabulary and language habits. Of course, you are all high schoolers, so it might not seem too different. But there are also stroke orders - under a microscope, characters that look similar could have different stroke orders."
He concluded, "Handwriting analysis is generally accurate. The suicide note was written by Miao Tong herself."
"Ah..." Ji Yunyun had a lost expression as she murmured, "Then, did she really commit suicide?"
"No conclusion can be drawn yet," Ji Feng said. Then his questioning turned on them, "You're off the hook, go eat your meal then go back to class. I asked your homeroom teacher, she said your grades make it difficult for you to test into a top university. Can you try harder, follow my example?"
Ji Yunyun: QAQ
Her brother was a nasty show-off. He had ended up at a top university as the first ranked student in his year. It was infuriating.
