Chapter 576: Phoenix Man[1]

“Why do you say such a thing!? Argh!"

Chen Shi picked up and swung a bottle of mineral water, pretending to strike someone hard, then knelt down with his head in his hands and muttered to himself, "No! I killed her! I killed her!"

Turning his head, he found Lin Dongxue leaning on the door of the meeting room, watching with interest. Chen Shi immediately returned to normal. "I repeated the crime to see if there’s something that we missed. How long have you been here?"

"I've been here ever since you killed someone." Lin Dongxue patted the document in her hand. "Want to see this?"

The two sat down. Lin Dongxue saw a cigarette butt in the ashtray and moved closer to Chen Shi to have a sniff. She said, "You smoked? This case is so difficult that you had to smoke?"

"No, today is a special day."

"A special day... Ah, I remember now. It was a bit weird when you ran to my house at this time last year. You said it was the day that your friend died. Was it a very important friend? Can you tell me now?"

"A wild guess! I didn't say it was the day that a friend died!"

Lin Dongxue didn’t give up. "What secrets are hidden in your past? Can't you tell me now?"

"Mm…"

"Tell me a little!"

"Sorry!"

Lin Dongxue displayed an angry expression and Chen Shi coaxed her, "Are you angry? I’m not talking about it because it’s not the right time. I’m not purposefully hiding it from you.”

"I told you everything about me, but I don't know anything about your past. It's not fair!"

"I will tell you everything one day."

Lin Dongxue was really angry this time. This sentence didn’t work anymore, but fortunately, it was during work. Lin Dongxue didn’t quarrel with him. "Hurry and have a look!"

Flipping open the document and reading it, Chen Shi said unexpectedly, "Your efficiency is pretty good. You even dug this sort of stuff out.”

"I learned about it from the Education Bureau. Maybe it’ll help! Do you want to summon Yan Ke now?"

"It's still a bit early to be summoning him. Let’s go and pay him a visit!"

The two drove to school immediately. Chen Shi said on the way, "Don't be angry, okay?" Lin Dongxue looked out the window, "Just let me be angry for a while. Don't worry about me."

Chen Shi laughed bitterly. He was very helpless.

Arriving at the school, Teacher Yan happened to be not teaching a class. The three of them talked in a teacher's lounge. Chen Shi asked, "Have you always had a good relationship with Teacher Lin?"

"It’s always been very good." Teacher Yan observed the expression of the two, "Of course, it’s inevitable for a boyfriend and girlfriend to quarrel, but they were all small disagreements."

"It’s said that there's been conflict between you two recently."

"Who said that?!"

Lin Dongxue said, "We’re the ones asking you now."

Chen Shi replied uncharacteristically, "According to a staff member of the Education Bureau."

The prompt was clear enough. Teacher Yan's expression immediately changed. He took a sip of water and slowly said, "Yes, we were in conflict."

"What was the cause?"

"I was conducting a public class at that time and a female deputy director expressed appreciation for me and invited me out for a meal. The other party was a deputy director, so I didn’t refuse. Then she said that she wanted me to do something for her. She suspected that the principal of the Sixth Middle School had engaged in corruption. He had put the allowance that was originally meant for the teachers into his own pocket, but the Bureau had no evidence. She wanted me to write a letter reporting it anonymously, and I did as I was asked. After all, it involved my personal interest."

"Does personal interest refer to the allowance that belonged to you or your personal development?" Chen Shi asked.

Yan Ke was silent for a while.

Chen Shi also said, "Due to your report, the principal was expelled from the CPPCC and faced the punishment of being transferred. Don’t look at how calm it is at school right now. The Education Bureau has already exploded in chaos. The reason why the principal is still here is because someone is shielding him. That person is the father of Lin Xiaoxiao. The principal is an old classmate of his. The Director of the Education Bureau is about to retire, and the female deputy director as well as Deputy Director Lin are strong contenders. The incident may cause Deputy Director Lin to lose out on that position. As long as the female deputy bureau becomes the director, you would benefit a lot, right?"

Since he had already spoken of this, Yan Ke no longer concealed the truth, "Even without this matter, Deputy Director Lin wouldn’t have gotten the opportunity. He has a very poor network at the Bureau, which is why I transferred to the camp of the female deputy director instead. I don’t want to be a teacher my whole life. I want to go to the Education Bureau to be a leader, and failing that, I want to be a principal at least. Soldiers who don’t want to be generals are not good soldiers!"

"So, you pursued Lin Xiaoxiao for the purpose of..."

Yan Ke said indifferently, "Yes, it was because she is the daughter of the deputy director. However, after I courted her I realized that Deputy Director Lin couldn’t help me. You may think that this is very utilitarian, but I came from a poor family. My family didn’t give me any help. I’m where I am today because I took advantage of every opportunity I had ever since I was young. I once went to Starbucks with Lin Xiaoxiao to drink coffee. I told her that the price of that cup of coffee was 30 yuan for her, but for me, it was 20 years. It took me 20 years to sit there and drink coffee with the daughter of the deputy director of the Education Bureau... This was the root of our long-standing conflict. She thought I was anxious to gain quick success. It wasn’t until this incident happened that we had a big explosion."

Yan Ke was very calm when he talked about these things, which made Chen Shi even more convinced that a mastermind was advising him behind the scene. When it was necessary, he gave up his rook to save the general[2].

"To what extent was the explosion?" Chen Shi asked.

"Quarreling. We kept quarreling!”

"You didn’t get physical?"

"I didn’t. I never hit women. But she bit me when she got anxious while we were quarreling previously." Yan Ke rolled up his sleeve and showed them a bite on his arm.

"On the 30th, you stole Teacher Liu's Zhonghua cigarettes."

"No…"

"We found your fingerprints."

Yan Ke frowned slightly. "I admit that I took a pack. I was in a bad mood, and I only took one puff."

"Do you know where your ashes fell?"

Yan Ke looked alert, "Where?"

"Lin Xiaoxiao's blood stains!"

Yan Ke bit his finger and didn’t speak for a long time.

"Explain it, Teacher Yan."

"There’s nothing to explain. I don't know. I did smoke, but I didn't know where the ashes fell. Who would care about these things?"

"But Teacher Lin was, of course, in the office. She bled. Why did she bleed? Was it an accident? A fight? After which you smoked a cigarette and a piece of ash fell onto the blood stains that hadn't coagulated. What do you think this process looks like? Doesn’t it look like a violent situation had occurred?"

Yan Ke raised his voice, "Don't ask this kind of leading questions. We just quarreled that day. During the quarrel, she threw a few things. I was gloomily smoking alone in the office, and I don't know anything about blood stains!"

"What clothes did she wear that day?"

"Red dress with a denim jacket and a butterfly knot was tied[3]." Yan Ke replied as if he was reciting it. These happened to be Lin Xiaoxiao's clothes in the fake surveillance video. Sure enough, he had prepared ahead of time.

Hearing this, Chen Shi suddenly burst into loud laughter and kept laughing non-stop. Yan Ke looked at him with panicked eyes, desperately thinking about where he might have exposed himself...

1. Used to describe men who grew up in the countryside who gained a foothold in the city through hard work.

2. Chinese chess move.

3. The author didn’t say where the knot was tied on.