I told Huang Xiaotao that the case was mostly solved now.

The murderer was Deng Chao, and the headless body was Ma Baobao’s. Deng Chao probably intended to kill Ma Baobao a long time ago, but his first attempt was unsuccessful. So, he took his time after that to come up with a murder plan that was failproof and watertight.

“The sequence of events probably went like this,” I said, then cleared my throat before continuing. “Firstly, Deng Chao killed Ma Baobao and preserved the body with dry ice. Then he used the excuse of being drunk to suggest going to the old building on a dare, just so that he could stage a play for the two girls to see. In reality, the two girls were his instruments that played into his plan. When the girls ran off in fear, he quickly substituted his body with Ma Baobao’s, but because he couldn’t kill him with such an outlandish method like decapitation by piano wires, he used a knife and saw blade instead.”

“Lastly, he used the probiotic tablets to decompose Ma Baobao’s severed head so that it became completely unidentifiable. This way, not only would he be able to fool the police into thinking that he was the deceased, but they would also not be able to find Ma Baobao’s body and conclude that he was a missing person instead of a dead one. I have to admit, this guy did truly come up with a brilliant plan—he’s no doubt a dangerous high IQ criminal!”

“Your praise for him is more of a praise for yourself,” said Huang Xiaotao, “Because no matter how brilliant he was, he still didn’t manage to fool you. That means that you’re even smarter than him!”

“You’re too kind!” I said, trying to brush off the glowing praise.

“So how did Zhang Kai die, then?”

“Deng Chao killed him off after he became useless to him!” I said. “I’m pretty sure that Zhang Kai was Deng Chao’s accomplice in staging that haunted piano scene. Think about it. When the piano wires were flying around in the room, Zhang Kai ran inside to rescue Deng Chao and got wounded instead. This scene made it all the more convincing to the two girls that the ghost was real, so Zhang Kai did play an important role in Deng Chao’s plans.”

“But Deng Chao must’ve known that if Zhang Kai was still alive, the police would interrogate him, and Zhang Kai wouldn’t be able to withstand the pressure. So, his best buddy became a liability. He might cough everything up to the police. Therefore, to protect himself, he had to kill his own friend!”

“All that just for a scholarship grant?” asked Huang Xiaotao. She shook her head slowly and let out a long sigh.

“To us, it’s obviously not worth it,” I said. “But it’s different for these students. A man who hasn’t had food for weeks might not hesitate to kill for a single bun. To Deng Chao, this scholarship grant was his future, his lifeline.”

“But it has a lot to do with Deng Chao’s psyche too,” I added. “All his life, he’s always been regarded as a genius. Because of his high IQ, he’s probably never suffered any real setbacks in life before. When Ma Baobao exposed his plagiarism, that must’ve been a huge blow to his fragile ego, something that he probably couldn’t endure. Therefore, he gradually turned to the dark side and gave in to the vengeful thoughts he had against Ma Baobao. He had to do everything he could to destroy this person, even if it meant sacrificing his own best friend!”

It was only when I was done analyzing Deng Chao’s psychology that I noticed how Huang Xiaotao had been staring fixedly at me. I felt uncomfortable under her stares. Did she start to have feelings for me?

“Song Yang,” she said, “I really don’t think you are a normal college student. Judging by your actions today, it’s really hard to believe that this is your first case!”

“I really don’t know how to prove it to you,” I said with a shrug, “but this really is my first case. You can ask around if you don’t believe me.”

“Okay, okay, I believe you,” said Huang Xiaotao with a snicker. “So, should we find a way to arrest Deng Chao now, Mr. Detective?”

“It’s not the time yet,” I said. “There is still one thing we need to verify.”

“What is it?” asked Huang Xiaotao. “Should we go to Ma Baobao’s dorm?”

“No, absolutely not!”

“Why not?”

“We must pretend that we don’t know the real identity of the corpse is Ma Baobao.”

Huang Xiaotao contemplated for a while and said, “Oh, I get it! You’re playing cat and mouse with Deng Chao.”

“Very clever!” I said, nodding. “Think about it. Deng Chao has gone to great lengths to stage the murders in a certain way. Now that there is a whole army of police officers on campus, there’s no way he isn’t secretly observing everything somewhere right now. Therefore, the best thing for us to do is to pretend to be taking his bait. That way, he might let down his guard.”

“Then what should we do now?” Huang Xiaotao asked.

I handed the plastic surgery brochure to her, to which she reacted with surprise.

“Hey, what’s the big idea?” she said. “Why are you giving me this? Do you think I’m not pretty enough and should have something fixed?”

I laughed at the preposterous notion. Huang Xiaotao had rosy lips and perfect rows of white teeth; she was cool and elegant and all her features were almost flawless, so the thought that I would think that she needed cosmetic surgery was simply laughable.

“You’re too imaginative,” I said. “I didn’t mean anything like that at all. I just want you to check with this plastic surgery clinic whether Deng Chao has ever been there, because I have one question that I need to verify.”

Huang Xiaotao took that piece of paper and pouted.

“You could have said a pretty woman like me doesn’t need plastic surgery or something like that, you know.”

I scratched my head, completely unable to understand why women liked to hear themselves being praised so much.

“I was just teasing you, dummy!” said Huang Xiaotao. She then looked at her watch and said, “It’s 10 a.m. right now. I’ll head out with my car and come back by noon to take you and Dali to lunch, okay?”

“Okay!”

I had nothing else to do then, so I went back to my dorm. I noticed that Dali was not back yet. Why was he taking so long? Wouldn’t unlocking a phone be the simplest of tasks to Lao Yao? I picked up my phone and realized that he’d sent me multiple messages telling me to go to Lao Yao’s room as soon as possible. The thought of seeing that sly face of Lao Yao’s made me shiver in horror, but I guessed there was no choice. I couldn’t just ignore my friend’s plea for help, so I gritted my teeth and headed to Lao Yao’s dorm room.

The minute I stepped into the dreaded room, my nostrils were assaulted by a stench. The room was filled with empty cans and bottles and dirty takeout boxes. There was a rope hanging across the room over the bed, where Lao Yao had hung his underpants to dry. All of Lao Yao roommates had moved out because they couldn’t endure living with him—two of them had moved out last year, and one of them moved back to his parents’ house this year. This meant that the room was all Lao Yao’s now. It was his own territory—no, more like his own damp cave.

I was met with the sight of Lao Yao, squatting on the chair at his desk like a monkey. He was as skinny as a stickman that children would draw. He wore a loose sweater, and I wasn’t sure how long it had been since he last cleaned his feet, because the soles were black and filthy.

His messy hair sat atop his head like a bird’s nest, and he had a cigarette between his lips while his whole concentration was focused on the game of Leagues of Legends that he was playing.

The despondent Dali was standing right beside him, looking as if he was desperately pleading Lao Yao.

“Lao Yao, dude!” said Dali, “can you please hurry up? You told me you were gonna get to it after one match, but you’ve played three matches now and you still haven’t done anything!”

“Stop pestering me!” said Lao Yao impatiently. “Do you expect me to just abandon my teammates? I’ll get to it once this match is over, just wait a second!”

Then he saw me, and his eyes lit up immediately and his lips curved into a smile.

“Little Song!” he said with a saccharine tone, “it’s been such a long time! You’ve grown even more handsome!”

The minute I heard that cloying voice of his, my hair stood on end. Lao Yao stretched his hairy legs, then slipped into an old pair of flip-flops that he fished out from a pile of mess and rushed over to me.

“Did you miss me at all?” he asked. “Come on, give me a hug!”

“Stop fooling around,” I said coldly, stretching my arms out to keep him away from me. “We’re all civilized adults. We can just talk, there’s no need to touch.”

“Aww, look at you, acting all cool,” he said. “I heard from Dali how you’ve been playing detective the whole day, helping the police to solve a serial murder case! Is it true?”

Then Lao Yao shamelessly and casually slapped my butt. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that I wished I were dead at that moment.