It’s Him – Ch10

The Encirclement Circle

The most frequent words that the students of Class 5 heard from Teacher Zhao were: “No matter what you do, always stay calm. When you grow up, you’ll understand—calmness is the only winning strategy.”

As a teacher, he indeed lived by this principle.

In the basement, every time the mother and daughter left and returned upstairs, he would press himself against the wall and listen to their conversation. He didn’t provoke them, maintaining calm and steady communication.

Today, Li Yugui had to go cook for someone, and Li Xun was heading to school. No one would be at home.

In front of people, he remained perfectly still, but once they were gone, he slowly began to move. On one hand, it was to stretch and let the blood circulate, and on the other, it was to loosen the ropes.

Li Yuguai had no experience with kidnappings. Even though she checked the ropes daily, she was unaware of some subtle changes that could occur.

For instance, when someone hardly ate or drank and remained tense, their body would thin out very quickly. When she checked the ropes, the person would also stiffen, making the ropes appear tighter than they actually were.

If Li Yuguai had experience, she would know that if the ropes stayed tight like that, the person’s muscles would already have begun to deteriorate.

Fortunately, Li Yuguai didn’t know any better, and Teacher Zhao managed to free himself from the ropes.

When he stood up, his whole body felt numb, but it was much better than before. Had he not consciously exercised over the past few days to keep his body active and blood flowing, most of his muscles might have already died by now.

Teacher Zhao, while recovering his bodily control, walked toward the basement exit.

Currently, in Pingcheng, everything was under tight regulation, unlike before, when it wasn’t so strict. Back then, many households had built underground spaces.

The basement was still pitch black. He felt his way up the steps, counting as he went.

By the seventh step, he extended his hand and felt the door above. As expected, it wouldn’t open.

This type of basement wasn’t originally designed for holding people, so it had security measures in place from the start, one of which allowed the door to be opened from the inside—though only a few people knew how to do it.

Teacher Zhao found a small hidden panel on the door. After pausing for a moment, he opened it and felt the metal bar inside. Slowly, he began to shift the metal bar. After about one or two minutes, the lock on the outside was released.

He pushed open the small door, and the mixed light from outside, along with the sound of heavy rain, rushed in.

There was no one else in the room.

Teacher Zhao sighed in relief and quickly braced himself at the basement entrance before crawling out.

The elderly neighbor was outside, feeding the cats that were seeking shelter from the rain.

At first, there was only one or two cats, but somehow, word had spread, and now a whole group of cats gathered every time it was mealtime.

The elderly woman didn’t mind the hassle, always saying that cats had a kind of spirit, knowing who was good and who wasn’t.

The stray cats fed by the old lady had become plump and were enjoying their meals.

Suddenly, one of the long-haired tabby cats raised its head, its fur standing on end as it looked toward the nearby house.

Soon, the other cats also started to puff up their fur, and none of them were eating anymore.

The old lady found this strange. What had happened at Li Yuguai’s house?

She leaned over to the window.

Suddenly, a face appeared from inside, startling her and causing her to step back.

After leaving the basement, Teacher Zhao realized the door was locked from the outside, and the window had been fitted with a security grille.

He couldn’t escape.

Just then, an elderly person appeared in front of him.

Teacher Zhao was overjoyed.

“Old lady! Old lady!”

The elderly woman jumped in surprise. Luckily, she didn’t turn away but instead came closer and squinted at him.

Teacher Zhao quickly said, “Old lady, hurry, call the police! Call the police!”

The area where they were was not really a neighborhood, just two buildings. Because it was near a middle school, the residents were mostly parents bringing their children.

During the day, the children went to school while the parents went to work.

The old lady squinted her eyes, nodded, and said, “Don’t worry, I’ll call the police right away.”

The old lady actually took out a phone.

Seeing her dial the number, Teacher Zhao felt relieved.

She spoke into the phone, “Hurry up and come, there’s a man at Yuguai’s house.”

She glanced at him, then added, “I suspect he’s a thief, please come quickly.”

Teacher Zhao couldn’t help but feel a bit speechless, but he also relaxed his guard and went to the kitchen. When people feel safe, they often think of satisfying their hunger first.

Soon, he heard the old lady calling out again outside.

“Daughter-in-law, come back! Don’t you have the key to their house? There’s a thief at Yuguai’s house, I’ve already called the police.”

Teacher Zhao quickly leaned over to see!

His heart tightened.

Teacher Zhao didn’t have many friends. Most of his time was spent at school, and for many years, he had lived in the teacher’s dormitory, without his own house. The school was his home.

So, he knew everyone at the school, including the janitors.

Before, the students had to clean the school as part of their duties. Each class was responsible for cleaning their area and a small public space, a task that had often been criticized as being too thrifty for a key middle school to burden students with.

Last year, a wealthy person donated a large sum to the school with the only condition being that the students focus on their studies and not do the cleaning. So, the school hired professional janitors.

And now, the middle-aged woman outside was responsible for cleaning their class’s area. The students all called her Aunt Zhang.

At this moment, her face was gentle, just like when she greeted him in the classroom.

“Teacher Zhao.”

Teacher Zhao felt a chill run down his back, straight to the top of his head. He felt like a fish that had just escaped from a net, only to realize that he was no longer in a pond, but in a fish tank.

His student’s parent was a family member of the victim. The janitor in charge of their class’s cleaning was living right next to the victim’s family.

Teacher Zhao’s alertness reached its peak. He grabbed a knife from the kitchen.

Just then, the door opened, and the old lady entered with her daughter-in-law. The old lady was still holding onto her daughter-in-law, saying, “Don’t go in. This is a thief, wait for the police to arrive.”

The two women entered the room and saw Teacher Zhao holding a knife.

“Teacher Zhao?” Aunt Zhang instantly recognized him. “What are you doing here? We’ve been looking all over for you.”

Teacher Zhao noticed that her expression didn’t seem fake, and he heard the old lady say, “Do you know this thief?”

“Teacher Zhao is not a thief. There must be some misunderstanding.” The honest middle-aged woman, with a puzzled look on her face, said, “Teacher Zhao, what are you doing with a knife?”

Teacher Zhao remained cautious. “You have the key to their house. Your relationship with them is definitely not simple.”

He wasn’t stupid. Who would give someone else a key when they were holding someone captive in the basement? They were clearly working together.

He stopped trying to reason with them, no longer insisting he wasn’t the killer, because they wouldn’t believe him.

“I have a knife in my hand, so you two throw your phones over here. I need to make sure you’ve already called the police.” He didn’t even believe what the old lady had said about already calling the police.

“We’ll talk when the police come.” Aunt Zhang reached into her pocket. “I don’t have my phone, Mom, give me yours.”

The old lady immediately shook her head. “What if he runs off with my phone? It cost over 5000 yuan.”

“The police will be here soon. He won’t escape.”

The old lady still refused.

Teacher Zhao moved closer with the knife.

Aunt Zhang immediately realized something was wrong, grabbed a nearby stool, and hit him with it.

The knife fell to the ground, and Teacher Zhao was struck.

Aunt Zhang quickly pulled out a stun baton from behind her and knocked him down.

Aunt Zhang was momentarily stunned, probably not expecting it to be so easy. She had prepared a lot of things, yet hadn’t used them.

People feared the label of a serial killer, thinking that they would have extraordinary strength, like the tough characters in TV dramas. In reality, Teacher Zhao was just someone who had been locked up for several days with hardly any food, his body still numb.

Forget about a janitor, even a middle school student could knock him down right now.

Just then, the old lady, who had been hiding behind, suddenly rushed out. She didn’t have anything else at hand, so she grabbed a pair of shoes nearby and started hitting him.

“Mom, stop hitting him!”

Before Teacher Zhao lost consciousness, he heard the old lady say, “Mom, stop. If you kill him, we won’t be able to find Beibei.”

The old lady stopped.

Beibei? He remembered the first victim in the serial murder case was named Beibei.

Teacher Zhao finally understood something important.

In a world full of cameras, how had he managed to get kidnapped?

Because of a school janitor accomplice.

Perhaps not just one accomplice! Perhaps there were even more! If there was one janitor accomplice, there could be a security guard accomplice too!

It was a long-term plan. He had always thought it was due to the sketch of the killer that looked just like him online, and he had assumed it was just a passionate act by a mother. He never thought they would actually kill him.

Now, he understood. It wasn’t just her. They were a group.

He felt his scalp tingle.

A year ago, a wealthy person had donated money for school cleaning. That was when this janitor had entered the school. Every night, the janitor would drag a large garbage bin and take the school’s waste to a different garbage site.

He had encountered this janitor several times at night, and they would greet each other.

Li Xun had come to their class a year ago.

The timeline added up.

From the start to the end, he had been trapped in their encirclement circle, but he hadn’t known it.