We soon reached the entrance to Wuhan University. 

It used to be an imposing place, but now it looked deserted and lonely. I guessed Li Xiaoling’s suicide and the lip-sewing incidents had cast a shadow over the place. The people who were coming in and out the gate wore a gloomy face. They walked quickly, and none of them looked like they wanted to linger around. 

I followed Shiso and slowly entered the gate. 

“Show me your student ID cards!” shouted the security guard at the entrance gate as he held his hand up. 

Shiso took out a student ID card from his pocket and showed it to the security guard. The guard’s eyes then turned to me. 

I had to fabricate a story. “Uncle, someone stole my wallet while I was in the coffee shop with my friends. My student ID card was stolen, too.” 

The security guard scanned my face. 

I hurried to pull Shiso. “I’m his roommate, and we went out together. You can ask him!” 

Shiso was pulled into the mess with me. He bit the bullet and said, “It’s true. You can call our professor to confirm it.” 

Perhaps the security guard thought it was too much work. Since I had a student testify for me, he took out a notebook. “Leave your credentials here! You should go and make a new student ID card as soon as possible. Young people like you aren’t too careful these days.” 

After hearing that he had addressed me as a young man, I had to admire Shiso for his prediction. 

If it were Li Mazi, he would have been busted on the spot. 

Shiso helped me register. Then, we walked together toward the school. 

He pointed at a window on the third floor of a building. “That’s Li Xiaoling’s dorm room. After her suicide and the lip-sewing incidents, no girls have dared to stay on the third floor. They’ve all moved to the fourth or the fifth floors. I don’t know where Zhuang Ning has moved to. You should go and ask her yourself.”

“Okay.” 

As soon as I said that, Shiso waved his hand at me. “You should hurry. I’m leaving now. If you find anything, please let me know.” 

He was afraid that people would see him with me, so he ran away really fast. 

Sigh, are you even a man? How can you be such a coward?

I stood in front of the girl dormitory for a while. Because of the horrible series of incidents that had taken place here, the atmosphere in the dormitory was really gloomy. 

I had stood there for around fifteen minutes before I saw two girls holding thermos bottles. They were running quickly toward the dormitory as though they were competing in a one-hundred-meter sprint. 

I couldn’t afford to lose this chance and screamed, “Schoolmates!” 

The two girls were frightened like scared bunnies. They shrieked and shivered.  

“What… What do you want?”  

They were so scared. Their voices were shivering. 

Am I that scary...? 

“Good day, friends. I have something I want to say to Zhuang Ning. Could you please help me find her?” I tried to sound calm and friendly.

I guessed my smile worked. The two girls exhaled. However, one of them still sounded vigilant. “Who are you? Why do you need to see her?” 

“Oh, about that...” My brain spun as I tried to fabricate an excuse. “I’m her distant relative from her hometown. I’m on a business trip to Wuhan, so I thought I would visit her.” 

The two girls exchanged looks then said, “Okay, just wait here. We’re going to call her for you, but we’re not sure if she’s here.” 

After they said that, they entered the building without turning their heads to see me. The dormitory’s entrance looked dark and gloomy. The door was like a massive, bloody mouth that swallowed the two girls whole. 

Half an hour later, a pale-looking girl wearing a puffer jacket came out of the building.  

The weather was relatively warm today, but the girl looked as if she was sick. Although she was wearing a puffer jacket, I noticed her shoulders were shivering. 

She stood at the entrance of the building and looked at me. In an anxious voice, she asked, “Are… Are you looking for me?” 

“Yes, I am.” I politely greeted her with a nod and tried to make myself look righteous. I didn’t want to scare her and make her scream. 

“I don’t know you. Who are you?” Zhuang Ning looked anxious. 

I lowered my voice and fabricated a story. “I don’t want to conceal anything from you. I’m a private detective hired by Li Xiaoling’s parents. They can’t accept the fact that their beloved daughter killed herself. They thought that there was something strange here. That’s why they’ve hired me for an investigation.” 

Zhuang Ning nodded. Her voice was stiff as she said, “Although we were roommates, we weren’t really friends. I’m afraid I can’t help you.”

She seemed very conflicted. I could see that. 

I contemplated, then added, “Miss Zhuang Ning, a young life was lost. Do you really not want to help us? Just replying to a few simple questions can help comfort the deceased’s parents.” 

My dramatic speech surprised me a lot.

Perhaps I should become a writer

, I thought to myself. 

Zhuang Ning thought for a moment and looked at me. She hesitated for quite a long time, but she didn’t dare to leave the dormitory. 

I knew she was hesitating, so I just waited for her. I didn’t show that I was in a hurry or that I was anxious. I didn’t dare to urge her, either. 

In the end, Zhuang Ning sighed and walked toward me. “Mister, my body’s not in good shape. I can’t stand for a long time. If you have something you want to know, please seize the time.” 

She looked as if she could fall at any moment. It seemed she was afraid of the sunlight.

“There’s a bench over there. Is it okay if we walk over there and sit down?” I pointed at a bench by a tree next to the basketball yard. 

Zhuang Ning nodded. “Yes.” 

After we sat down, I went straight to the topic. “What was your relationship with Li Xiaoling?”

“Nothing much,” answered Zhuang Ning calmly. “She was an introverted girl who didn’t like to socialize with others. I had moved to her dorm room from a different one, so I was like an outsider to them. It wasn’t easy for me to blend into this unfamiliar group. That was why the two of us belonged to the ‘group of the unwelcomed’ in that dorm room… Anyway, you shouldn’t think that we were friends. I’d been living in that dorm room for one and a half years, but she only talked to me twice.” 

“Okay. On the seventh day of the previous month, which is also the day of Li Xiaoling’s incident, did you attend your roommate’s birthday celebration?” 

Zhuang Ning shook her head. “I wasn’t really their friend, so why would they want to invite me? It was Wang Nan’s birthday. She only invited Sun Dongyu and Ge Xiaofei, her besties. Tang Shuangshuang was thick-skinned enough to tag with them.”

Zhuang Ning’s voice was feeble. If it wasn’t for the close distance, I wouldn’t be able to hear her. She adjusted her breath and tried to continue. “I also went out that night. I stayed with my boyfriend and returned to the dorms the next day.” 

She then added, “If you don’t believe me, you can ask my boyfriend. We were with each other the whole night.” 

She had totally believed that I was a private detective.

“So, when did you return to the dorms the following day?” I asked. 

Zhuang Ning didn’t hesitate to answer. “I returned at the same time as Wang Nan and the others. I bumped into them at the university entrance. It seemed Wang Nan had drunk a lot and was very happy. It was around noon, but she was still drunk. Ge Xiaofei and Tang Shuangshuang had to support her. When they saw me, they called me to help carry their bags. When we opened the door to our room…” 

Zhuang Ning’s voice halted as though she had just recalled some terrifying images. Her body shivered, and her teeth clattered. The sounds she made were faint, but they tingled my scalp. 

“What happened next?” Although I knew it was inhuman to ask more questions, I hadn’t found a clue yet.

“Li Xiaoling had committed suicide. She used two black stockings to hang herself from the ceiling fan. She wore a beautiful, bright red dress. Her left wrist was cut open, and the blood had dried at the cut. The entire bedsheet was soaked with her blood.” Zhuang Ning’s eyes reddened. She took in a few deep breaths as she tried to calm down. 

She continued, “Right. At that time, Li Xiaoling wore a bracelet around her wrist. It was black and had a beautifully carved goldfish on it. She bought that goldfish bracelet last month at a flea market. She liked it a lot and didn’t want to lose it. In the end, she wore it even when she killed herself.”