Chapter Seventy-Two: The Tragedy on Campus and the Victims

Suspended in midair, Bu Zhaozhao’s brows drew together in a faint frown. She instinctively disliked these clueless children, yet after a moment, a strange emotion flickered within her.

“How did they learn about this?”

She glanced at Chen Qing and saw his brows were also tightly furrowed.

“No idea…” Chen Qing muttered, his expression equally puzzled. He turned to look at the students around them; it seemed everyone was whispering about something, casting a heavy gloom over the entire school.

Fortunately, nothing happened throughout the morning. Though the classrooms remained stifling and some students still slept at their desks, at least everything was uneventful.

Chen Qing had dozed through two classes and felt groggy, his head heavy. He shook himself awake during the break after the second period, eyes slightly swollen.

“Ugh… If I’d known, I wouldn’t have come. It’s so uncomfortable to sleep here,” he mumbled, turning to find Bu Zhaozhao floating in the air.

“You kids these days…” she said, watching him rub his eyes, her tone tinged with helplessness and a trace of disappointment. “Back in our day, being able to go to school was something to set off firecrackers and celebrate.”

“Times have changed.”

“But people haven’t,” Bu Zhaozhao replied with a smile, her thoughts drifting back to those days.

She remembered herself sitting by the window, her friend beside her nodding off in exhaustion.

She remembered the youths of the ’65 Movement marching past, chanting slogans. She looked up at the blackboard, though she could no longer recall what was written there.

All she remembered was that after that day, there were fewer and fewer people in class, until finally, one day, her mischievous friend stood straight before her and said, “I won’t be here tomorrow, either.”

Bu Zhaozhao looked at him with curiosity, as if she was only truly meeting him now.

“Tomorrow I’ll join the uprising as well…”

Looking at the people of this era, she wondered, were they really any different? They were just born into a different time.

Her thoughts were interrupted by voices nearby, pulling her back to the present.

She saw Chen Qing, and a few classmates had come over to him. Seeing he was awake, they handed him their homework and asked curiously, “You were taken away by the police yesterday? What did they want with you?”

“Nothing much.” Chen Qing was momentarily puzzled by the question. “Why are you asking me that?”

The group exchanged glances. The girl in front clearly didn’t believe him, shaking her head as she pressed further, “We heard lots of people died at the city police station yesterday. Did you go there?”

He hesitated. “Where did you all hear that?”

“You didn’t know?” Now it was the students’ turn to be surprised.

“I don’t. What happened?” Chen Qing’s confusion deepened.

“It’s all over the internet now. But every time someone posts, it gets deleted. Only some local forums still have bits and pieces,” one of them explained.

He pressed a hand to his forehead, feeling a dull ache between his brows. “So… someone posted that online?”

They nodded, eyes full of expectation. “Is it true?”

He nodded and sighed. “Sort of. There are things I can’t tell you.”

Hearing his admission, the students exchanged glances, their eyes suddenly filled with admiration.

“Is there anything else online?”

“Well…” the girl thought for a moment. “Oh! They’re saying that if you get a certain photo, something bad will happen! You have to pass it on to someone else right away!”

He frowned. “What kind of nonsense is that?”

Seeing Chen Qing’s disbelief, the other two seemed about to say more when suddenly a scream—a blend of anguish and terror—rang through the school.

The sound spread across several floors, drawing students from their classrooms to the corridor.

“What’s going on? What happened?”

“I don’t know! Hey, stop pushing! There’s no room up ahead!”

“I heard someone died at the front… Stop pushing! The teachers are here!”

The students crowded into the corridor, less than two meters wide, so many that even the air felt stifling.

Inside the classroom, Chen Qing’s frown deepened as the noise from the corridor grew louder.

He looked up; the students who had just been speaking to him had vanished.

Looking closely into the corridor, he could just make them out—stopped at the doorway of their own classroom, unable to get any closer.

“What’s going on?” Bu Zhaozhao, beside him, also frowned.

“Can you go check?” He pulled out his phone and dialed Jiang Wan’s number.

“Alright.”

As soon as she left, Jiang Wan’s voice came through on the phone, yawning. There was a bustle in the background, as though a meeting was underway at the police station.

“What’s wrong?” her tone was urgent.

“Something’s happened at our school.”

“Something happened?”

He gazed anxiously at the corridor. “Can you notify the school to keep people away? Oh!” He smacked his forehead, suddenly recalling precedent. “Let them know—I’ll handle this!”

“What’s going on there?”

“I’m not sure… The crowd’s too thick. I haven’t gotten through yet.”

There was a brief silence on the other end.

“Alright, I’ve informed your school administrators. Go ahead.”

“Thanks.”

Jiang Wan let out a laugh, sounding a bit relieved. “Don’t mess around, get to work.”

He hung up, a grave look settling over his features as Bu Zhaozhao drifted back, her face equally grim.

“There’s a body.”

“Was it… that thing?”

Bu Zhaozhao was silent for a moment.

“Yes.”

He drew a deep breath, massaged the ache in his brow, and pushed his way into the corridor.

“Move aside! All students, return to your classrooms! Did you hear me? Everyone back inside!”

He had barely stepped out when teachers began shouting above the din. As the students filed back inside, he moved against the current into the corridor.

“Hey! What are you doing out here? Get back to your classroom and study!”

The hallway was crowded with dozens of teachers from all the grades, each guarding a door, ensuring every classroom was locked down tight.

They shouted at Chen Qing as he emerged, but he couldn’t even tell who was yelling. He didn’t know who was in charge at this point either.

He could only shake his head and raise his voice to the people blocking his way. “The police have already contacted the school. I’m responsible for the scene investigation, and until the authorities arrive, I have full authority here.”

His words elicited mocking laughter from the teachers. Seeing his serious expression, their tone softened somewhat. “Don’t be ridiculous. How could a student be responsible for this? Go back inside.”

They continued to block him, worry beginning to cloud Chen Qing’s face.

He tried calling again, but the teachers showed no intention of answering any calls from his phone.

“Stop this nonsense! Who knows who you’re calling! Has the police department lost their minds—letting a student handle a case like this? What gives you the right?”

Behind him, his classmates’ voices rose in a chorus of mockery.

“See? I told you that guy’s not right in the head. Barely shows up for class all semester.”

“Yeah, maybe he’s just some wannabe hero.”

“But… look at him, he seems pretty serious about it.”

“Anyone can act, big deal! Get back inside and stop getting in the way!”

Just as they were berating Chen Qing, as his classmates jeered and heckled, the senior year coordinator came sprinting down the corridor, his face pale, lips bloodless, sweat streaming as he hurried to Chen Qing’s classroom.

“You… can you really handle this?” He looked at Chen Qing, quickly grasping why the teachers were blocking him.

He stared into Chen Qing’s eyes, grave. “Why did the police call on your behalf?”

But Chen Qing just shook his head dismissively.

“Not on my behalf. On yours.”

He spoke softly. At that moment, the class behind him fell silent, and the teachers in front of him stepped aside.

He walked straight to the end of the corridor, and behind him, a wave of astonished exclamations erupted in the classroom.

“Holy crap! He actually went!”

“What’s really going on? Why is this so special?”

“Pff, what can he do… Probably just some police contact, going to play at being a helper…”

“That’s not it… The call was made specifically for him to take charge.”

The chatter didn’t stop for a long time.

But for all their speculation, they never found out what was happening at the end of the corridor.

As he walked forward, voices from the classrooms reached his ears—stern warnings not to spread rumors, gentle reassurances that everything was fine.

Until, at last, in the final classroom, there was a dreadful silence.

“She’s dead… she’s dead!”

Someone in the classroom trembled, their legs twitching, feet tapping anxiously on the floor, muttering, “It was me… No! It wasn’t me who killed her…”

Some sat pale and silent, as lifeless as corpses.

They watched Chen Qing’s silhouette pass by the window, unable even to turn their heads. Only when he entered their line of sight did they follow his progress, eyes tracking him for a moment.

He reached the end of the corridor, and after passing that classroom, he saw the tragic scene by the water dispenser.