It’s Him – Ch02

The Homeroom Teacher is Missing

Pingcheng High School.

Li Xun is the broadcaster of this “past and present” news.

To be blunt, if it weren’t for her, students at Pingcheng High School, under the school’s strict management system, might not have gotten to hear about this “past and present” worldview until the winter break.

Pingcheng’s college entrance exam is extremely competitive. From the first year of high school, except for a few students who are commuting, everyone else lives on campus. There’s only one break on Saturday afternoon, and rest of the time was spent attending classes or mock exams.

Parents and teachers kept a close watch. Forget about class hours or lunchtime; parents even dreamed of their kids being chased down in their sleep by Chinese, Math, and English.

Entertainment? Forget Entertainment. Parents insist that it’s better to endure hardship now than suffer a lifetime later.

Adults have their considerations, but students aren’t machines—they need a breather.

Under such heavy pressure, some students played with prayer beads, while others picked up stones from the school flowerbeds to keep themselves occupied.

Then there was a group of students who, instead of succumbing to the pressure, became obsessed with gory and violent horror stories as a form of release.

Such soul-destroying plots actually help them release their pressure.

However, novels are also banned in school.

In such times, Li Xun made her choice between silence and insanity: she chose to make money.

As one of the few commuting students in her grade, she first used the excuse of printing answers and study materials to convince her mom to let her use her New Year’s money to buy a printer. Every night, under the pretense of printing study materials, she began her operations.

Her mom, a middle-aged woman with little education, had no idea what was going on and simply let her print whatever she wanted.

Entertainment gossip, terrifying cases, funny jokes, and school news—these four sections, printed on four A4 sheets, were carefully selected and brought to school to sell.

Four yuan per copy.

Originally, Li Xun didn’t intend to make money; it was just a small business to recoup some costs.

But unexpectedly, her ability to collect content was too strong. Combined with the immense pressure on her classmates, they truly needed a little space to relax.

Her business spread across her class, the neighboring class, and even a few floors above and below.

By the end of the month, she could earn more than a thousand yuan, considering the printer only cost four hundred yuan.

For high school students, this is financial freedom!

Li Xun took this seriously, treating it as a business. Her classmates praised her, and their admiration kept coming—almost calling her the “chief editor.”

The “past and present” stories that had caused a stir online were very eye-catching. With the image of the murderer who looked just like their homeroom teacher, it sparked a lot of conversations and naturally became the top news of the day.

This self-produced newspaper brought a great deal of joy to Class 5 in the senior year.

“Is this our old homeroom teacher?”

“Look, our old teacher turned into a deranged murderer.” The girl who got the paper first laughed when she opened it.

A crowd of students rushed over.

“It really looks like him!”

“Even the mole is exactly the same.”

“This is drawn after our teacher, right?”

“Wow, our teacher has really become a deranged murderer behind our backs.”

“If the teacher is a pervert, haha, who will die first in our class?”

The homeroom teacher of Class 5 in the senior year was a Chinese language teacher named Zhao. He was about fifty years old, an ordinary middle-aged man, but without the greasy arrogance typical of middle-aged men. On the contrary, he was a relaxed man.

The school was extremely competitive. In the morning, there were five classes, and the last one ended at 12:20 PM. The senior teaching building was far from the cafeteria, and as soon as the bell rang, it was like a zombie horde rushing to the cafeteria.

So, Teacher Zhao requested the fifth period be shortened by ten minutes, allowing students to go to lunch earlier.

His classic saying was: “Only when the children are full can they have the energy to study. Only after resting well can they have the strength to study.”

If any student made a mistake, as long as it wasn’t a big one—such as climbing over the wall to buy skewers or skipping class—he never called the parents. He would just say the school management was flawed, and the authorities forced the students into rebellion.

Li Xun wasn’t originally in this class. She was a top student in the elite class but was kicked out after her grades dropped due to a relationship. Other homeroom teachers didn’t want her, but Teacher Zhao stepped in and accepted her.

Because of this, the students in Class 5 were very close to him.

And that’s why they found it amusing. No one really thought the person in the photo was their homeroom teacher, just that the person looked similar.

There are many people in the world who look alike, and some even look identical without any blood relation.

The first morning class was Chinese, and one student secretly took a photo of the teacher and uploaded it online with a joke of a title:

— “Our Homeroom Teacher Who Looks Like a Deranged Murderer”

Everyone laughed and didn’t take the matter too seriously.

The fifth period was Chinese class, and some students were reading Li Xun’s self-made newspaper.

It was usually hard to get caught.

But today was different.

Who could possibly read the Chinese textbook with a chill running down their spine?

Can the Chinese textbook really be that terrifying?

Teacher Zhao noticed the class was drowsy and saw a student reading extracurricular books. He called out to them.

He often used such methods to liven up the class atmosphere.

“What’s that you’re reading? Why are you so scared? Read it aloud for everyone.”

The girl wasn’t afraid of this teacher, as it wasn’t the first time she had been caught.

She stood up and began to read:

“I lie in the darkness, the sharp, harsh sound constantly in my ears. I want to cover my ears, but no matter how hard I try, I can’t block it out. That person is coming again soon.”

Teacher Zhao chuckled, “Are you all reading horror novels again?”

“He kept asking if it was still noisy,I wanted to say I wouldn’t make noise anymore, that I would be obedient, but he cut my tongue…”

“That person started pouring something very smelly into my mouth…”

At this point, not many students were feeling sleepy anymore.

“Stop reading,” the person on the podium suddenly slammed the desk.

The sound was so loud that even the usually giggling students felt a chill and looked up at the person at the front.

This was the first time the students had seen this expression on their teacher’s face—dark and grim, the lines on his middle-aged face, which usually appeared soft, now seemed sharp, like the edges of a knife.

The student, still oblivious to the change, continued, because Teacher Zhao was usually easygoing. She said, “Teacher, this is about that famous ‘Red Balloon Serial Killer’ case online.”

The sharpness slowly faded from Teacher Zhao’s face as he said, “Sit down.”

He walked over, took the papers, and said, “Continue with the morning reading.”

Li Xun turned her head and noticed that the teacher’s hand, holding the thin papers, was slightly trembling.

This was just an ordinary little incident.

Li Xun went home and told her mother about it.

Her mother, now a burly middle-aged woman named Li Yugui, had separated from her husband and children many years ago. She had originally run a baozi shop back in their hometown, making money and communicating with Li Xun via phone. They only saw each other during holidays.

This year, Li Xun had been accepted into this school through special admission. At first, she was in an top class because of her good grades, but after falling into early romance, her grades plummeted, and she was kicked out of the top class. The other class teachers didn’t want her, so Teacher Zhao took her in.

Her mother had traveled here from their hometown to take care of her while continuing to sell baozi. Every day, she would wake up at around 2 a.m., make baozi, and then push them in a tricycle to sell at the school.

The two sat across from each other at the dinner table, not particularly close, almost like strangers.

Li Xun hadn’t seen her mother since she was six.

Half a year ago, her mother came to take her in. The two of them, strangers forced to live together, had to play the roles of a loving mother and obedient daughter. It was awkward at first, but slowly, they both got used to it.

Li Xun would tell her mother everything that happened at school over dinner.

“When our class teacher heard the content, his expression was awful.” Li Xun didn’t go into specifics but continued, “When he took the paper, his hands were trembling.”

Her mother seemed to fall into deep thought, remaining silent for a long time.

The next day, it was just another ordinary day in the third year of high school. The only big thing was that Li Xun’s deskmate, who had the paper taken away, had brought back a stone as large as an ostrich egg from the flowerbed to rub.

“The pressure is getting worse, so I’m rubbing a bigger stone,” her deskmate declared confidently. “In the third year, who isn’t a little crazy?”

Everyone was getting increasingly absurd with their ways of relieving stress.

Li Xun also rubbed the stone but didn’t feel any relief.

Her deskmate, seeing that Li Xun didn’t understand, explained, “This rough surface, imagine if we smooth it out like an ostrich egg—how satisfying would that be? It’s way easier than the college entrance exams.”

This simple, mechanical, brainless activity was really very stress-relieving.

“Where did you find it?”

“In the flowerbed.”

“I’ll go get one too,” Li Xun said. Lately, the pressure on her was also huge.

“Wait, the school is cracking down on students stealing pebbles from the flowerbeds. We need a plan.”

So, two classmates went to talk to the security guards, one of them distracting the guard while Li Xun was tasked with stealing the pebbles.

She only needed a pebble the size of an egg.

So, Li Xun ran, with the security guard chasing behind her, while her classmates cheered from the second-floor corridor. It was ridiculous and funny, but the adrenaline was exhilarating.

Indeed, it was stress-relieving.

That day, Teacher Zhao returned to his usual gentle self. Seeing the bizarre antics of the students, he laughed at them, “Just don’t fall.”

Everyone else in the school also found out about the class teacher resembling a serial killer, and several people joked with him.

“Teacher Zhao, you’re a little scary in private, huh?”

“Since you said that, come to my office. Let’s have a private chat?”

Thus, Teacher Zhao being a serial killer became a humorous running joke. It was all fun and games, and no one really thought such a kind person could be a killer.

On the third day, when Li Xun arrived at school, before she even took out the paper for that day, her classmates pulled her over.

“The class teacher is missing!”

———

—Baozi are Chinese steamed buns made from soft, fluffy dough filled with savory or sweet ingredients like pork, vegetables, red bean paste, or custard. They are a popular snack or meal across Asia.

—”rubbing a stone” in Chinese culture may refer to using worry stones (often called 解忧石 or 抚心石). These are smooth, small stones that people rub with their fingers as a form of stress relief or meditation.

The repetitive motion of rubbing the stone is thought to have a calming effect, helping to ease anxiety, reduce stress, and promote focus. This practice is rooted in both physical relaxation techniques and traditional beliefs about channeling energy through touch.