After having lunch with two little kids, Ji Feng kindly sent them back to school.
On the way, he received a call from "Public Security Bureau-Miss Wang".
"Didn't you say you would treat me to a meal?" Miss Wang yelled in despair, "You stood me up even for the school cafeteria?"
"Oh," Ji Feng just remembered, "I'm so sorry, something came up and kept me preoccupied. Have you eaten?"
Wang: "No."
"Then how about this - I'll order some takeout to your office, so you can eat as soon as you get back," he said. "It's tiring work, thanks a lot."
Wang: "..." The call had already hung up.
She furiously sent a WeChat message: [I won't eat anymore!]
Ji Feng: [Alright, next time I'll treat you to milk tea]
Wang: [If you have the guts, treat me right now]
It was a screenshot of a takeout order, with her office address filled in.
Wang stopped responding altogether, fuming as she got in the car and slammed her foot on the gas pedal. As she drove out of the gate, she saw him emerging from the school store with a bottle of chilled Coke in hand.
She made a drifting turn and splashed him full of dust: "Oops, didn't see you there."
"Drive safely," Ji Feng shook his head. Nowadays girls drive so recklessly, "Pay attention to your image in the public vehicle."
"Humph." Wang rolled up her window and drove away angrily.
Half a minute later, Jian Jing walked out of the corridor connecting the teaching buildings, curiously asking: "What did you do?"
Ji Feng brushed the dust off his shoulders: "What could I have done?" He handed her the Coke, bribing her, "Any updates?"
Jian Jing went into the school store, spent a long time picking in front of the fridge before choosing an ice cream cone: "Yeah, quite a few."
Ji Feng: "There were two kids memorizing vocabulary..."
"Oh, that couple?" She bit into the chocolate-coated waffle cone ice cream, unconcerned. "I asked them already, their testimonies are highly credible."
Ji Feng flipped through the written records: "A couple?"
It said they were memorizing on their own, marked at spots some distance apart.
"They took initiative telling me." Jian Jing blinked, unable to hide her smugness.
She had just drawn a very nice card - [Limited Card: Trust].
[Name: Limited Card - Reputation +30%]
[Description: Your social credibility rises sharply, earning more people's trust; they believe you and are willing to help you]
[Note: No trust, no standing]
Trust is invisible and intangible, yet constantly influencing life.
Just think, when a case occurs, would the testimony of a loitering, unemployed vagrant or that of an officer from a government agency be more credible?
And when people go to inquire about something, are those sneaking around more likely to obtain the truth, or polite, dignified people with good demeanor? This is credit, trust, reliance.
Jian Jing herself was already a rather famous author, with decent name recognition in society. Adding her graceful looks and youthful charm, it was extremely easy to garner others’ favor.
With a +30% boost in this area, the effect was immediate.
She contacted this affiliated middle school and asked if they would be interested in having her give a lecture - authors going to schools to give talks is commonplace, just the difference between a famous writer versus a no-name. It was up to the school’s own capabilities.
The school agreed without much consideration.
After the lecture finished, she took the opportunity to chat with the female student, one of the vocabulary memorizers, for a bit. The other party took initiative mentioning she was an eyewitness of the joint suicide case.
Jian Jing followed up with two sentences, and the girl told her everything she knew.
She said: “I felt stuffy after sitting in the classroom for so long and wanted to take a walk. I wandered to the area near the lab building. The wisteria there was blooming beautifully, it was quiet with no one else around, so I thought I’d review some vocabulary. After some time I heard someone shouting ‘someone’s dead!’ I hurried over to take a look, and it turned out to be someone from our class...”
“At that time, you were the only one there?” Jian Jing asked.
“Later a boy came too.” The girl said.
Jian Jing blinked: “Let me guess, boyfriend and girlfriend?”
The girl denied it at first: “No.”
“It’s the second to last boy in the fourth row counting from behind.” But Jian Jing glanced into the classroom and directly guessed it out. “Your shoes are the same style in different colors, and the way the laces are tied is also very special.”
The girl’s eyes went wide.
“Sherlock Holmes’ deductive reasoning.” Jian Jing bluffed with a straight face. Her observation skills card wasn’t that miraculous, she just knew the other person’s identity beforehand and worked backwards, “Don’t worry, I’ll keep it confidential for you.”
The girl nodded vigorously, rather agitated: “Teacher Jian, you’re so awesome!”
“Just decent.” Jian Jing smiled. “How did you two secretly sneak out during class?”
The girl said: “At the time several boys were playing basketball. He went over first and stayed a while before coming to find me, so it wasn’t as obvious.”
“Then you two must’ve paid close attention to whether anyone was around.” Jian Jing pondered, “You arrived first, did you see anyone going in or out of the lab building?”
Jumping topics wasn’t a huge leap by any means, but under the overlay of various conditions, the girl didn’t feel it was off at all as she recalled: “I only saw a janitor, didn’t see anyone else.”
“No one going up or coming down either?”
She shook her head.
“See Miao Tong?”
Another head shake, regretfully saying: “If only I saw her then I could’ve called out and stopped her...”
“You and Miao Tong knew each other well?”
“She was nice. She knew I was dating someone but didn’t tell anyone. So I didn’t tell others about her relationship either.” After the girl finished speaking she realized she let something slip, an awkward expression on her face.
Jian Jing gently squeezed her shoulder: “Don’t blame yourself too much, it’s unrelated to you.”
The girl relaxed, as if a weight had been lifted.
The above details Jian Jing’s questioning of the witness.
Ji Feng praised her: “As expected of Teacher Jian. The couple must’ve paid extra attention to their surroundings, unlikely they overlooked anything.”
“What about you?” Jian Jing finished the ice cream cone and took his no-longer-cold Coke, getting the boss to exchange it for one frozen into a slushie, “Did you bring the suicide note?”
Ji Feng handed her his phone: “Can’t disseminate this, take a direct look.”
Jian Jing had just taken it when a new message popped up.
Wang sent: [Thanks for the milk tea]
She rolled her eyes, waiting for the pop-up to disappear before opening the note.
The content was brief, just a few lines:
I still can’t accept this after thinking it over
I’ve already decided to give up
I’m sorry, please forgive my selfishness
“The handwriting’s been verified?”
“It’s her own.” Ji Feng affirmed. “Regular scrap paper, the ink is the same as what was in her pen.”
Jian Jing pondered: “Doesn’t seem suspicious, but this suicide note...lacks formality.”
Formally doesn’t mean tidy formatting with letterhead and sign off necessarily. Just that as the final voice from the deceased in this human world, there is usually more genuine emotion poured in.
Be it love or hatred, it tends to vent out at this point.
This note was too vague and abstract, as if lacking a bit of authentic sentiment.
“Let’s try finding an opportunity to ask those two ‘suspects’ this afternoon.” She said. “One each?”
“Can’t do that.” He sighed. “Now we need to prioritize the students’ mental health. It’s not appropriate for me to handle this.”
With the most important exam in life less than a month away, randomly calling students to talk could negatively impact their mentality and sabotage the university entrance exam. No one could bear that responsibility.
Jian Jing shot him a mocking look, as if saying when did you become so sensible.
“See you in a bit,” he waved his hand. “I’ll treat you to dinner.”
That afternoon,
per the high school students’ requests Jian Jing promised that during break times they could come to her office for signatures.
With teachers watching, the students didn’t dare fool around either, obediently lining up. Some weren’t interested in signatures and just observed from outside the window.
The moment class bells rang they would be shooed away collectively.
When it was Class 5’s self-study period, Jian Jing asked Teacher Chen to help bring the two suspects over.
“Jing Cheng, help me check some test papers.” It was common for Teacher Chen to find good students to help out with odd jobs, nothing out of the ordinary that would rouse suspicion. “Just do the multiple choice section.”
“Alright.” Wu the class monitor sat down to work.
Jian Jing pretended to rest while actually observing his every move.
The boy was tall and slender, with refined features. He couldn't be described as handsome per se, but with good academics and family background adding to his image, the good student aura was prominent.
Teacher Chen cared about the students: "Which round of review are you at? If you have any questions, feel free to come and ask at any time. The teachers are all here, make good use of the final time."
Wu Class Monitor nodded.
"How are things going in the class?" she asked caring about the others as well.
Wu Class Monitor hesitated for a moment, then said: "A bit oppressive. I heard things are not so good on the girls' side, someone was crying at midnight."
Teacher Chen was surprised and immediately became worried: "Who?"
"I'm not too clear," Wu Class Monitor shook his head, "just heard about it, maybe someone was not feeling well. Also..."
"Also what?" Teacher Chen was extremely nervous, attracting the attention of other teachers.
"Uh..." Wu Class Monitor wasn't too sure as he ratted people out, "someone has been going on about how Miao Tong didn't commit suicide but was murdered, making many classmates rather strange."
After saying that, the rest of the words were not difficult to say. His speech became fluent: "Recently during self-study classes, many people chat, and some spread rumors."
Teacher Chen frowned: "What rumors?"
"It is said that Tong Molli and Miao Tong had an argument, and someone was saying that she drove her to death," said Wu Class Monitor. "Anyway, the atmosphere is very bad. Some classmates asked me to help ask if we could ask for leave to review at home, the classroom atmosphere is too poor."
This was not a trivial matter. Teacher Chen became serious about it and said to him: "Who started spreading it first?"
Telling on people was one thing, but Wu Class Monitor refused to snitch and spoke vaguely: "Everyone's talking about it, I don't know who started it first either."
Teacher Chen did not make it difficult for him: "Go get Tong Molli. Also, don't talk about this with anyone else."
He nodded, his expression unchanged as he returned to the classroom, knocked on Tong Molli's desk: "Teacher Chen wants you."
"What does she want me for?" Tong Molli asked, puzzled.
"Your dorm got deducted points." He casually came up with a reason. After all, every dorm gets deducted points. Teachers occasionally ask about it but no one pays much attention.
Sure enough, upon hearing this, the others who had turned their heads to eavesdrop settled down.
Tong Molli put down her pen and went to the head teacher's office.
Teacher Chen kindly asked her to sit down, gave her a chocolate bar, and asked if she was uncomfortable or if she looked unwell, saying that she could ask for sick leave anytime if she felt bad.
"The college entrance exam is still early, if you feel unwell anywhere, don't force yourself," Teacher Chen gently comforted her.
Tong Molli said, "Thank you teacher, I'm fine."
Only then did Teacher Chen slowly get to the point. She said the students were very concerned about her, they had heard her emotions were not very good lately, worried that she had something on her mind, and encouraged her to speak out.
"If you have any problems, the teacher will solve them with you," said Teacher Chen. "Is it pressure from home, exam scores? I see your mock exam scores are pretty good still. Just do your best for the college entrance exam."
Tong Molli's face turned pale, but still shook her head: "Really nothing, maybe I just haven't rested well lately."
When a child does not want to talk about something, the more you force them, the less they will say. Teacher Chen did not dare ask any further either, gave her some vague comforting words before letting her leave.
She had just left when Jian Jing followed right after her.
"Student," she called Tong Molli and smiled as she asked, "Could you show me where your library is?"
Tong Molli pointed her in a direction: "Right underneath the auditorium."
Jian Jing asked: "Could you take me there?"
Tong Molli hesitated for a moment, but under the effect of the trust points, did not doubt her intention and quickly agreed.
During class time, the campus was very quiet.
The two strolled under the shade of the trees in the light breeze. Jian Jing asked in a friendly manner, "You seem to have something on your mind, ran into some trouble? Feel free to tell me if you don't mind."
