It’s Him – Ch05

Victim’s Family Members

The next day, the homeroom teacher still hadn’t returned.

They were third-year high school students, and even though the homeroom teacher was gone, the Chinese class still had to go on.

Their Chinese class was taught by another teacher. Not only that, but the teacher specifically said during the lesson: “Your teacher’s biggest concern is your grades. The college entrance exam is in just over two months, so don’t get distracted. The exam is something that will affect your entire life.”

Li Xun’s deskmate whispered to her, “Even though the homeroom teacher has disappeared, we can’t let it affect the college entrance exam.”

Li Xun didn’t respond.

The teacher was relatively young, and as she spoke, she started losing control of her emotions. Seeing that no one was coming in from outside the classroom, she started venting her feelings.

“You should stop looking at the things online. For instance, regarding this incident, some netizens don’t know anything. They don’t know your homeroom teacher and have no idea what kind of person he is. Yet they open their mouths and call him a murderer.”

Naturally, the students also believed that their homeroom teacher wasn’t a murderer. Although they didn’t fully understand the connection between the body and the concept of reincarnation, compared to strangers on the internet, they definitely trusted their teacher more.

Li Xun’s phone, hidden under her book, lit up.

There was a message.

It was from Zhao Jingzheng.

“Li Xun, I don’t know much about the school, but I might need your help.”

Li Xun, being enthusiastic, replied, “Tell me, I will help as much as I can.”

“I found some printed A4 papers with details about a serial killer case in my dad’s briefcase. I don’t know where they came from.”

The other party didn’t know, but Li Xun definitely knew. During the Chinese class earlier, a student had seen it and the teacher had taken it away.

The other party continued, “I suspect this incident might be related to my dad’s disappearance.”

Li Xun didn’t admit that she was involved, nor did she mention that she did it for fun, to relieve stress, and make some extra money. She could only reply, “I’ll ask around for you.”

“Okay, help me ask about it at school. My mom and I will look into the victim’s information.”

“Finding witnesses is impossible now. I think we need to focus on the case from back then.”

The other party had a clear analysis.

The other party explained, “My dad is such a good person, he never offended anyone. Over the years, I’ve never seen him argue with anyone. It’s definitely because of that killer portrait circulating online that caused this disaster.”

So far, no one had been able to explain how reincarnation and rebirth worked. Zhao Jingzheng didn’t understand why the person chose his dad. He just wanted to get to the bottom of it, ideally clearing things up quickly and posting it online. Maybe the person who kidnapped his dad would see it and return him.

Zhao Jingzheng was the pride of Teacher Zhao. Teacher Zhao had mentioned many times in class how smart his son was. All the students knew he was a single father, and he had raised his child well.

It seemed to be true. Li Xun gently tapped the desk with her pen, contemplating whether she should admit that the reincarnation and rebirth incident and the homeroom teacher’s killer portrait were things she had brought to school.

While she was conflicted, she touched the rough surface of a stone.

By the time the fifth class ended, Li Xun received another message from Zhao Jingzheng.

“I searched online for information all day, but there’s not much information about the victim’s family members. The three people I think are most suspicious are these.”

Li Xun replied, “Send them to me, I’ll take a look.”

There were more than three family members of the victims from back then, but several of the victims’ families couldn’t be found online anymore. They might have returned to reality, moved past the pain.

Li Xun saw that the first person listed was a haggard middle-aged man, followed by some news.

“A famous entrepreneur lost his child and then was diagnosed with terminal cancer.”

This person was the wealthiest among all the victim’s families. Li Xun had reviewed the whole case over the past couple of days, and this person had the highest public attention.

On the one hand, he became rich afterward and had been offering a reward. Li Xun knew that initially, he offered a reward of 500,000 yuan to find the killer. But starting from last year, he offered a reward of 2 million yuan for any information about the child’s whereabouts. In other words, even the killer could claim the money.

This change happened because he was diagnosed with terminal cancer in the past two years.

Countless people had tried, but no one had gotten the money. Many said that unless the killer came forward.

The case happened during a time when there weren’t as many cameras. Moreover, as a serial killing, many murder cases were solved through the victims’ social networks. But this random, indiscriminate killing left no trace in the victims’ lives. There was no surveillance, no leads, and the victim’s families had started to despair after all these years.

The homeroom teacher’s son sent another message: “If he sees my dad’s portrait online, and knowing he is suffering from cancer, he might lose control and kidnap my dad.”

Li Xun was reading intently when her elbow was nudged.

She didn’t raise her head, silently pulled the book from the side, and began reading.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the substitute teacher walking by. Li Xun breathed a huge sigh of relief. If her phone was confiscated, it would be trouble.

When class ended, she finally had a chance to reply to the message.

“So, what are you planning to do?”

“I can’t find the other party’s home address. I’m planning to wait outside their company.”

“I’ll go with you. It’s always easier with help.” Li Xun added, “You’re in a hurry now. If you go running in there, they’ll think you’re seeking revenge. I’ll go with you and help handle things, then we can communicate properly.”

The other person remembered Li Xun’s mention of the surveillance footage and agreed with her logic.

Li Xun went home and told her mother about it.

Li Yugui was upset. While cutting radishes, she said, “Why get involved with this? The college entrance exam is coming soon. Do you still want to go to college?”

Yes.

The college entrance exam was more important.

Both the school and parents thought this way.

Li Xun said, “I’m just going to take a look. It won’t delay my studies. I’ll bring my pratice notebook. I Can study while walking”

Seeing her mother’s disapproving expression, Li Xun swore, “I promise to go through the notebook twice and make the most of every minute.”

Li Yugui responded, “By then, your mind will be elsewhere. How can you study?”

Li Xun replied, “I read a study that said when a person is emotionally excited, their memory is sharper.”

Li Yugui froze for a moment, seemingly lost in some kind of memory.

In extreme conditions, people remember things more clearly.

Li Xun grabbed the practice notebook and two bananas, filled her stomach a little, and seeing that Li Yugui didn’t say anything, she went out.

—

Li Xun soon arrived at the two agreed-upon locations. The other party gave her a notebook with printed materials.

These were all the victim’s family member details they could find.

“Take a look too, see if you can find any new leads.” Even though Li Xun was a high school student, Zhao Jingzheng didn’t underestimate her. In his opinion, senior high school students might be the smartest group of people.

Li Xun didn’t take out her practice notebook but instead started flipping through the victim’s family member information.

Most of the victims back then were children. Due to the one-child policy at the time, the victims were all only children. Since the killer was never caught, the families of the victims struggled to get out of the shadow of this incident.

As Li Xun flipped through, she stopped.

“The last victim was a mother and daughter. The single mother was selling dumplings outside a factory with her daughter sleeping in a tricycle behind. The killer originally wanted to abduct the child, but the mother discovered it and chased after them with the tricycle. She was stabbed. She wasn’t found until the workers finished their shifts. It was said the stab wound almost disemboweled her.” The industrial area had few people, and it was late at night when it happened, the single mother had been waiting for the workers to finish their night shifts.

“But many reports say the mother didn’t die, but she never appeared in public. Not once.”

Li Xun didn’t say anything. Zhao Jingzheng didn’t notice her abnormality as he had a lot of emotions he needed to vent.

Zhao Jingzheng continued, “How could my dad be the killer? When these cases happened, I was still a child. Don’t look at me now as a normal person, but when I was younger, I was very troublesome. I couldn’t be left alone for even a minute. My mom didn’t care about me, and my dad was the one who took care of me.”

Li Xun didn’t respond. She only looked at the words in the materials: “Disemboweled,” “Intestines came out.”

This level of injury was fresh, she hadn’t seen it before.

But she had seen scars of this severity.

The high school student’s mind worked fast. She closed the victim’s information, changed the subject, and said, “Were you that troublesome as a child?”

“Let me put it this way, in our neighborhood, everyone upstairs and downstairs hated me. My mom wanted to strangle me several times, and it was because of me that they divorced. But my dad never hit me, never scolded me. How could someone like that be a murderer?”

Li Xun hummed in agreement without commenting. The scars were still in her mind.

—

At Li Xun’s home, in the dim bedroom, Li Yugui was changing clothes. She put on a black raincoat, which was waterproof. Underneath, she wore a sweater, and beneath the sweater, a long scar was clearly visible, from her heart to her navel.

She finished getting ready, then suddenly remembered something. She grabbed her phone and sent a message to her daughter: “Remember to review your practice notebook. Don’t forget about the college entrance exam while playing outside. For someone your age, the exam is the most important. The issues with your homeroom teacher are for the adults to handle. You don’t need to worry about it.”

Soon, Li Xun’s reply came.

“Mom, got it. I’m reviewing English sentence patterns while in a tense state.”

Li Yugui stared at the message. After a while, she snapped out of it and went back to the basement.