Chapter 378 Case
The murder of the freshman history teacher at Carmel University occurred in the afternoon, when Mandy was playing chess with the international runner-up, in a forest near the artificial lake behind the north teaching building.
Carmel University's green vegetation is very rich, planted with fir trees, sycamores and maples. The incident occurred in an area where fir trees gather in groups.
It is still very cold in the small town of Carmel. The fir trees in this season are not yet covered in green, and they are bare and exposed to the bright sky. The woods are full of fallen dry branches, which make a very decompressing crunching sound when stepped on. Many trouble-making students often pick up branches in the woods to try to make bonfires. After several fires almost started, the school Students are prohibited from staying in the woods.
At 2:20 that afternoon, the class bell rang at Carmel University. The sophomore students who had a history class at 2:20 that afternoon did not wait for their teacher.
At 2:30, the sophomore department representative asked the relevant staff and learned that the history teacher had left the teacher's office 20 minutes ago claiming to have something to do.
At 2:40, after questioning, a witness who stayed in the fir forest half an hour ago claimed that he had seen a history teacher wearing a black windbreaker entering the fir forest in a short period of time, which began to attract the attention of many people.
Anyone who is familiar with that forest knows that in the fir forest, because branches fall off all year round, there are many hidden natural holes and ditches on the ground covered by fallen leaves and dead branches. There have been students in the woods before. There was an accident in which a leg was scratched, and many people were worried that the disappearing history teacher had also been killed, so several faculty members volunteered to go to the woods to look for someone.
At 2:50, three faculty members found the history teacher in a fir forest.
At 2:55, under the watch of students around the fir forest, the history teacher, whose abdomen was stabbed by a branch and whose windbreaker was stained with blood, was carried out by three faculty members. His eyes were tightly closed and his lips were pale and he did not know whether he was alive or dead.
At 3:10, the ambulance arrived and sent the history teacher away.
"Some people say this was a murder, not an accident. Signs of a struggle were found on the history teacher before he was sent away."
In front of the fir forest, a boy's voice suddenly sounded behind Mandy. She was slightly startled and took half a step forward. She turned around and found a black-haired boy walking beside her at some point.
"I heard that judging from the wound, the branch was inserted from the front and went straight through the left side of the abdomen. However, there were no traces of friction on the victim's hands. This means that he had not fallen before the injury. The only explanation is that he During a dispute with someone, he was stabbed in the abdomen with a sharp branch from the front. After the perpetrator realized what he had done, he panicked and ran away immediately without further stabbing him. If he was determined to kill, he would It's very easy to do last-minute hits in that situation." The black-haired boy said as he looked at the fir forest that was gradually getting darker in the evening.
"You are... ah... you are the one this morning." Mandy squinted at the black-haired boy next to her through the dim light and recognized the other person's identity, "Chu Zihang? I remember your name seemed to be this. "
"Chinese is good, are you self-taught? Or have you received systematic training before?" The transfer student boy named Chu Zihang turned to Mandy and asked, "If possible, can you introduce me to your foreign language training class? I want to Learn some English."
"Did our topic jump a little too much?" Mandy blinked. One moment they were recreating the events at the suspected murder scene, and the next moment the topic turned to foreign language training.
"If you don't mind, I can discuss two things at the same time." Chu Zihang said, "Now the police have opened a case. They initially believe that this is a case of intentional injury. If the victim in the hospital does not survive, the incident will escalate. If it becomes a case of manslaughter, the prisoner will definitely face jail time."
"You said there were traces of struggle on Mr. James's body? How did you know?" Mandy asked casually. She now only regarded this boy as another person to strike up a conversation with, but the way of striking up a conversation was very new. Others They all got close to each other on the pretext of celebrating her chess victory, but this guy immediately told her about the horrific case.
"I saw it with my own eyes. I happened to be at the scene of the crime at the time." Chu Zihang said, "Not many people know about this incident. The school has blocked the details of the incident, so the focus of the school this afternoon is still on you. , instead of focusing on this case.”
"The man named Caesar was also at the scene of the crime? He told me about this. Are you two friends?" Mandy said with a raised eyebrow.
"It doesn't count, it's just acquaintance." Chu Zihang said, "Compared to this, aren't you curious about who did it?"
"Curious." Mandy nodded, "But if I ask you do you know who the murderer is? Will you use this as a blackmail to let me go on a date with you?"
"No, you are overthinking." Chu Zihang glanced at Mandy and looked away, "I don't like you."
"." Mandy raised her eyebrows slightly. If she remembered correctly, this was the first time a boy said the word 'dislike' directly to her, and the other person's expression didn't seem to be playing hard-to-get. .
"Don't get me wrong, when I say dislike, I mean liking when a man falls in love with a woman." Chu Zihang explained after noticing that Mandy's expression was very subtle.
What a great love between a man and a woman.
Mandy wanted to scratch her hair. Are any of these transfer students really normal? The first one is a scumbag who thinks very highly of himself, and the second one is an incomprehensible murder case enthusiast? And why are both of them talking to me?
"You are one of the few people who chose to stop at the scene after knowing the inside story of this matter." Chu Zihang looked at Mandy and said, "So I am curious about whether you have a good relationship with the victim. ?”
"No, he is my teacher, that's all. I just suddenly learned that he was in the hospital and his condition seemed to be very serious. He felt complicated." Mandy shook her head and said, "He is a very good teacher, usually very serious but very responsible. Would you be willing to hurt him?"
"I heard that he received a letter before leaving the office." Chu Zihang said, "After receiving the letter, he chose to go to the fir forest alone and was killed."
"Letter?" Mandy frowned.
"I don't know the content, but many teachers in the office have the impression that the victim got up and left the office after receiving a letter. Many teachers thought he was just going to go to normal classes, but when they heard him again He had already been killed when the news arrived.”
"Threatening letter? Or did you get Mr. James's private information for blackmail? But the most important thing is the letter? The content inside may be the key to solving the case." Mandy couldn't help but say.
"No one has found the letter." Chu Zihang turned to look at Mandy, "Most people think that the letter has been recovered by the murderer."
"These are all what you heard, right?" Mandy couldn't help but say.
"Yes." Chu Zihang nodded honestly, "I heard about it from the people in the fraternity. Their sources of information seem to be very wide, and they are probably the people in the school who know the most about this matter. I don't think so. The matter is of great interest, so we are starting to investigate. You are the victim’s favorite student, so I think you should know more about him.”
"There's nothing to say." Mandy shook her head. "To be honest, I felt a little unbelievable after hearing that he was killed. After all, I always thought that Teacher James's fighting skills were top-notch. No one in the school could fight with his bare hands. We were able to subdue him, but he actually fell in a woods."
"Does the victim know fighting skills?" Chu Zihang gently pressed his temples, squinting his eyes as if he was trying to mobilize his brain power and had a headache, "Where did he learn it from? Do you know?"
"Hey, listen, if you want to know more information about this, go to the police. Maybe the police have found the suspect now. This matter should be just an accident, not so convoluted and deliberate." Mandy Seeing Chu Zihang's appearance, he couldn't help but sigh and turned around to leave.
"I have a hunch that this kind of thing will never end." Chu Zihang put down his hand and looked at Mandy's back.
"That's a good hunch, Holmes." Mandy waved her hand without looking back, "If you have time to play detective games to seduce girls, why not go to the fraternity party to try it out? Many girls went there, your transfer student friend I should have gone, and you should have gone too.”
She was a little tired of these inexplicable conversations. She just passed by this fir tree on her way to school and stopped for a while. She had never been interested in investigating the truth of the case.
"Mandy Gonzalez!" Behind Mandy, Chu Zihang suddenly called out Mandy's full name.
"Is there anything else?" Mandy stopped and looked a little impatient.
"If you are not interested in this kind of thing, then what's the point of going to this college?" Chu Zihang asked in a calm tone, "Winning the World Chess Championship? Or getting a perfect attendance scholarship?"
What kind of bullshit is this?
Mandy was completely confused about this transfer student's mind. Didn't the other party understand the taboo of making shallow and deep conversations? Why did he directly ask about his life ideals as soon as we started talking to him? And why did the other party think that he was interested in such an unexpected case?
She didn't even look back, she just waved her hand and said, "It's none of my business. If you want to continue playing your detective game, just keep playing. I'm not interested. Pass."
"Do you remember." Chu Zihang immediately opened his mouth and wanted to say something else, but the moment he opened his mouth, his expression fell into a trance.
But in the next moment, a trace of tension suddenly appeared on his face, and his distracted eyes suddenly woke up. He pressed his temples and turned his head to look around as if facing an enemy, but he only saw the dead fir trees. The woods and several student couples passing by in the distance.
He frowned silently, and when he looked ahead again, Mandy had already walked far away, and the street lights of Carmel University also turned on. The moons in the gutter continued one after another until they converged into one point at the end of the road. It cannot illuminate the figure traveling alone.