Chapter 493: I Know What You’ve Done
“A person would struggle if they’re being suffocated to death, both legs will be kicking about,” Qi Youxuan explained. “Even if that person was unconscious before, that person would undoubtedly regain consciousness if the oxygen supply gets cut off, just like when a person passes out after being hit on the head. After throwing the person into any body of water, that person would be completely aware and conscious under these circumstances. If that person wasn’t dead before, being suspended like this, as he struggled by kicking both his legs, he’d be able to kick on that door. After all, he was almost attached to that door as he was being suspended mid-air. It’d be impossible for the students to not hear that loud banging sound in the dorm.”
Bai Mo was stunned for a second. After collecting herself, she nodded.
“You may continue.” Qi Youxuan stood up as he examined the corpse.
“Nothing too special about it, no clues were left behind with the corpse. It was exceptionally clean. We’ll be carrying out further detailed analysis in order to look for any clues when we return to the station,” said Bai Mo.
The entire floor was on lock-down as the corpse was carried away. Qi Youxuan noticed Wei Muran was not startled or scared by the horrifying state of the corpse. He was sad since he had missed the chance to comfort her.
Wei Muran was just speechless. Their entire department had zero cases before and suddenly they were swamped with a series of complicated cases.
As they made their way out of the dorm, they noticed a cop walking toward them with four other people.
“These were the people who had discovered the corpse in the room. Everyone’s here,” reported the cop.
Qi Youxuan noticed a male student who was standing on the side. He had an excruciatingly nauseous expression on his face. He could not even bring himself to stand up straight as he was completely hunched over, supported by his roommate. He looked sick and was as if he would be able to throw up at any given moment.
“Feng Haoli wasn’t your roommate, right?” Qi Youxuan questioned.
“How do you know?” a man answered with a surprised tone.
Qi Youxuan pouted and said, “Your rooms contained four bunks, one for each student, and if all four of you are here, the only logical explanation would mean Feng Haoli wasn’t your roommate.”
“…” The man was speechless as he felt that his question was incredibly stupid.
After some questions were asked, they knew the first person to have found the corpse was the student who had been extremely terrified by the discovery. He was the same nauseous student from before. His name was Chen Yuke, a local from B City.
The student that was helping him was Sun Lixue from R City. He was wearing shades. The shortest person among the group was Zhou Yubo from Nanshan. Standing beside him was the tallest person of the group; Zheng Jiaxu, also from B City.
“Which room belongs to Feng Haoli?” Qi Youxuan asked.
“The room opposite ours,” Sun Lixue answered.
“Was he close to anyone in your room?” Qi Youxuan asked.
“We’re in the same class, our friendship is pretty close I’d say. Since our rooms were awfully close, we’d see each other a lot. We hang out together, drink together and play cards together,” Zhou Yubo replied.
Zheng Jiaxu shook his head and said, “Nope, we had occasional squabbles and it’s all within our basketball game. Since when we play basketball, we don’t exactly like what the other person does sometimes, so occasional squabbles tend to occur. But to the extent of murder though, I don’t think it’s that serious.”
“Was he behaving strangely for the past couple of days?” Xing Jiadong questioned.
Qi Youxuan glanced over at him as he seemed like he was hiding a laugh. Since when was Xing Jiadong capable of learning?
As Zheng Jiaxu began to shake his head, Chen Yuke suddenly interrupted him and said, “Yeah! Two days ago, he seemed extremely on edge, he was behaving in a way as if someone was actually following him when he walked. That night when he was studying in the library, he came back with an inhumanly pale expression. He kept rambling about someone following him. He had even said that someone had been sending him text messages, claiming that they knew what he had done.”
“So he was on edge when he received the texts?” Qi Youxuan questioned.
After giving it some thought, Chen Yuke said, “Yeah, probably.”
“Don’t give me a ‘probably’. Yes is yes, no is no, alright?” reprimanded Xing Jiadong.
Thus, Chen Yuke anxiously recalled. This time, he nodded and said, “Yeah, since he was just suddenly on edge out of nowhere. He was never like this back then. Something felt off to me and I asked him about it. He told me he was fine, but that night after he returned from the library, he slept over in our room since his room was empty and was afraid of being alone. There were only the two of us in that room back then. However, after he had received an unexpected text message, he only took a quick glance before throwing his phone to the ground. It felt off since he had just bought this new phone and he absolutely loved it. He was still in the honeymoon phase of using that new phone and was absolutely in love with it. I noticed just how panicked he looked back then, so I asked him what’s wrong, but he remained silent. Since I wasn’t getting a response out of him, I picked up the phone to look at the text. It was only then, he told me, he’ll receive one every day.”
“Did he ever tell you what’s up with that text?” Xing Jiadong asked.
Chen Yuke shook his head and explained, “Nope, his lips were absolutely sealed. I’ve asked him about it several times already, but he grew agitated and annoyed. The sheer mention of that incident alone would trigger him to lash out like a madman, so I’ve never asked since. Besides, our friendship was never extremely close anyway. He has his secrets and I’ll respect his boundaries.”
“Now that’s strange. Since he wasn’t living in your room, why is he hanging by the door of your room?” Jiang Yuecheng questioned.
Chen Yuke chuckled. “Officer, Sir, when I found him this morning, his tongue was stretched all the way out and even eyes were about to pop out. That look alone scared the living cr*p outta me. Being able to answer your questions was already our limits, how could we possibly think about that in the first place?”
“Do you guys know Feng Haoli before all of this?” Qi Youxuan asked as he glanced at every single student then proceeded to glance back at Chen Yuke.
Every single person shook their head as Zheng Jiaxu said, “We grew close after our rooms were assigned.”
“I’ve no further questions left.” Qi Youxuan said.
Jiang Yuecheng proceeded to release them then gave them his contact information. If they recalled any information, they had a way to contact him and his team.
After that, they proceeded to meet up with Feng Haoli’s remaining roommates. In a four-man room were three laptops each placed on each respective desks. Only one desk was empty.
Qi Youxuan gently tapped his finger on the desk as he asked, “Is this Feng Haoli’s desk?”
“Yes, it is,” a roommate of his named Huang Chengfeng answered. He said, “We had never taken anything from his desk. Everything there was left untouched, since…we don’t dare to touch anything.”
Qi Youxuan ran his fingertips across the surface of the desk. It felt powdery but it was not dusty. There was not much on his desk, unlike the desks of a girl. A girl’s desk would have makeup, plushies and other decorations.
There was only a simple facial cleanser, a mirror, a model figurine, and a rather messy lunch box. It was greasy on the inside, and a pack of tissue. These items were placed close to the wall, and there was a large empty space on the desk.
The bookshelf next to the desk had a few magazines in it. Among the magazines was an adult magazine.
On the surface of these magazines was a thick layer of dust. It was as if it had been left untouched for quite some time.
“When exactly did Feng Haoli go missing?” Qi Youxuan questioned.
“I saw him yesterday morning,” Li Guozheng said nervously since death had occurred in this room. None of them had recovered, and even as they went out, they did not dare to even glance at the door. A corpse was hung there!
Huang Chengfeng nodded. He said, “I saw him yesterday morning when I went out to the cafeteria to buy some bread and some salted vegetables for him. He had class at around ten in the morning yesterday, and I haven’t seen him since he left for class. I wasn’t in the room back then, so I don’t exactly know. I went out with my girlfriend after class.”
Huang Chengfeng felt a little awkward but after Qi Youxuan nodded, he felt normal.
“I was in the room then,” Liu Xiangliang said. “Still, he never returned, but he did come back to sleep in his bed at night.”
“So that means he was still in his room last night?” Qi Youxuan asked skeptically.
The remaining three students nodded, but Meng Haoran suddenly raised his hand and said, “That…well, I saw him walking out of the room in the middle of the night. I’m not sure if he left the dorm or not.”
“What time in the middle of the night?” Jiang Yuecheng asked instantly, almost as if he was rushing for an answer.
“About eleven-thirty I think, since lights out is at eleven for our dorm. I was lying in bed, reading a WEBNOVEL with my phone. It was then when I heard some movements from my top bunk.” Meng Haoran then added, “Feng Haoli sleeps on the top bunk, I saw him climb down the bunk beds. He noticed me back then but didn’t say anything. I assumed he was going to use the washroom, so it didn’t exactly warden for a cause for any alarm.”
After he finished his statement, Meng Haoran began to violently tremble. He never expected the person he had seen in total darkness was murdered.
As he thought about the dark shadow that stood by his bed, Meng Haoran became extremely terrified as he felt the silhouette from last night was literally works of horror.
When Cheng Yuke found the body of Feng Haoli literally dangling at his door during the day, his screams alerted every single person.
Since everyone felt odd, the most natural response for anyone during that situation was to open the door to investigate what exactly was going on. However, plenty of people were greeted by a hanging corpse first thing in the morning.
Fortunately for him, he had only seen the back of the corpse, but this was terrifying enough since this was unlike anything from any horror movies. Everything depicted in the movies was fake while this, as a matter of fact, was all too real.