The boys were all startled. They were right by the lake, next to a few willow trees with crooked trunks. Beneath the trees were flowers and some memorial offerings. Willow branches drooped over the lake's surface, and as the wind blew, an eerie chill instantly filled the air.
Xing Conglian immediately agreed, "I've always thought so too, especially in your department."
"There's nothing we can do about it. I mentioned it to the teacher before—the feng shui in our psychology department is definitely problematic. We need to hire a professional feng shui master to take a look."
"Uh... alright," Xing Conglian replied.
Lin Chen stood still by the lake, looking up and gazing deeply at an old building not far away. Then he turned to them and said, "Actually, Lin Wanxing's departure has something to do with us."
Wang Fa and the students were momentarily unable to process this.
"But the connection isn't strong—we're not taking the blame," Xing Conglian emphasized.
"Yongchuan University previously experienced a series of campus suicides, so the local police reopened the files related to the earlier case to see if there was any connection. On the day Lin Wanxing left, as someone involved in Professor Shu Yong's suicide case, she was re-investigated. This was likely the most direct reason for her departure."
"Are the two cases really related?"
"No connection was found during the investigation."
"Then why did our teacher leave?"
Qin Ao couldn't understand it at all. He trusted Lin Wanxing completely, so he couldn't comprehend why she would leave just because she was investigated.
"Did the police investigation trigger her traumatic memories?" Wang Fa asked.
"That was likely one of the reasons she left."
"What exactly happened with Professor Shu Yong's suicide case?"
Hearing this, Lin Chen looked at them deeply.
Leading them away from the lake, Lin Chen brought them to an old building with a Republican-era architectural style.
It was an old brick building, with a lush purple bougainvillea in the flowerbed by the entrance, partially obscuring a bronze plaque that read "Yongchuan University · Psychology Department."
Lin Chen glanced at the two boys, not avoiding their presence, and led them upstairs on the creaky wooden staircase.
The fifth-floor corridor was fitted with old-style stained-glass windows, making it exceptionally dim.
The floor was terrazzo, and the doors were made of dark red wood.
Wang Fa stared at the brass handle on the wooden door and quickly understood. "This is..."
"Shu Yong's suicide office," Lin Chen said, checking the time as if waiting for someone. "Before he died, he met Lin Wanxing here. After Lin Wanxing left, Shu Yong locked the office from the inside and sent her a message. Because of this, Lin Wanxing was the first to discover Shu Yong's body."
"What was the message?"
"Farewell, my love."
Wang Fa abruptly turned to look at Lin Chen.
Lin Chen pushed open the office door. A damp, fishy breeze from the lake rushed in, sending scattered papers flying across the floor. The entire space seemed frozen in the moment of Shu Yong's death.
There was a window in the office. Lin Chen gazed at the path outside and said, "There's only one road leading to this office building. That night, it was snowing. When Shu Yong killed himself, he was facing the window. If Lin Wanxing had received the message and rushed back, she would have seen him at first glance."
The office was eerily quiet, as if the sound of footsteps crunching in the snow could be heard. A girl looked up—in the dimly lit room, the teacher was hanging from the beam.
At first, she was in disbelief. Then she frantically ran upstairs, screaming in despair for help, desperately trying to break down the door...
Clearly, this was not a desperate suicide but a long-premeditated death spectacle.During the time Shu Yong was suffocating, he might have still been savoring Lin Wanxing's wails.
Until the security office arrived belatedly.
What she saw was the cold corpse hanging from the beam, and all the collapsed literature and works.
Shu Yong's suicide note was placed in the most prominent position on the office desk.
Snowflakes blew in through the window.
But from that moment on, Lin Wanxing's world turned completely dark.
"Yes, Shu Yong confessed his feelings to Lin Wanxing before his death. He knew she would reject him. But it didn't matter—he would nail Lin Wanxing forever in his specimen box, enjoying everything after death," Lin Chen said.
The surroundings were as cold as death.
But sometimes, living is colder than dying.
Wang Fa felt the world peeling away like fragments, rustling as they fell.
He had seen the contents of that email. He thought it was simply someone spreading rumors about Lin Wanxing and didn't believe any of it.
He never imagined there could be another, more terrifying possibility.
Part of the letter's content was true.
"That dead old man loved our teacher?" Wen Chengye asked in an icy tone.
"I definitely wouldn't define this kind of emotion as 'love.' At that time, Lin Wanxing had received a full scholarship and would study abroad after graduation. Shu Yong knew he could no longer keep her, so he used this extremely distorted and perverted method to try to lock her soul in place," Lin Chen said.
"Does our teacher know about this?" Qin Ao suddenly spoke up.
"Whether she knows or not is unimportant, because from the moment Shu Yong fell in love with her, in everyone's eyes, she was guilty."
Lin Chen's voice was very soft, but to Wang Fa, it sounded deafening.
Those hidden, immoral emotions and burning desires—Shu Yong had never intended to conceal them from the start.
What was even more terrifying was that Shu Yong didn't just want Lin Wanxing to know about his love; he wanted everyone to know.
"Who sent that mass email?" Wang Fa asked.
Lin Chen gave him an appreciative glance, then checked the time.
Footsteps echoed in the corridor. At the office door, someone stared at them in shock.
"How did you get in?" he asked.
The newcomer was a male student, simply dressed but tall and burly. His exposed forearms were well-built, and his gaze was full of strength.
"There was a murder case here before—it's been sealed off for a long time. What are you doing breaking in?" The young man walked straight in to shoo them away.
"We were waiting for you, Xiang Zi," Lin Chen turned to face him and greeted him.
The surname "Xiang" wasn't common. Wang Fa quickly recalled that when he had heard this name by Dongming Lake in Yongchuan, Lin Wanxing's condition had become very unusual.
Wang Fa immediately realized something. He clenched his fists, but Lin Chen glanced at him calmly and shook his head.
"I had Fu Hao call you over. Let's go, we'll grab something to drink together," Lin Chen said to Xiang Zi.
Just like that, the original five-person travel group gained a new member.
Lin Chen led the group to the school café, found a corner, and sat down.
"Need dopamine again?" Xing Conglian clicked his tongue and asked.
"Not really. I just thought talking in a public place would make everyone a bit more level-headed," Lin Chen said.
Xiang Zi was tense all over.
Wang Fa's face was ashen.
The students were confused, hesitating to speak."Let me introduce everyone separately." As the coffee arrived, Lin Chen began, "This is Xiang Zi, a Ph.D. candidate in psychology at our university." He paused and glanced at Xiang Zi, "These three are Lin Wanxing's friends and students. They're very concerned about some things that happened during the final six months of her master's program."
Xiang Zi had sharp, masculine features and looked as if he had already guessed something. His gaze swept coldly around the table, filled with contempt: "All I know is that Lin Wanxing seduced Professor Shu Yong, destroyed his family, tormented him mentally, and ultimately drove him to suicide."
Qin Ao slammed his fist on the table.
Lin Chen shot Qin Ao a look, and the young man immediately fell silent.
"Is that so? But Fu Hao said that after Professor Shu Yong's death, you repeatedly reported Lin Wanxing to the university administration for various reasons. Later, you wrote a detailed investigative report and anonymously sent it to many alumni. I believe you're the person who knows the most about what really happened," Lin Chen said.
Wang Fa had already anticipated this. He stared intently at Xiang Zi, growing calmer the angrier he became.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"No need to deny it."
Xiang Zi glanced at Xing Conglian and asked, "What's the police doing here? Interrogating me?"
"Don't be nervous. We just came back to our alma mater for coffee," Lin Chen stood up and switched tables with Xing Conglian, giving them enough space to talk.
The students looked somewhat confused.
Wang Fa knew that Lin Chen wanted him to get to the bottom of this himself.
The booth suddenly fell silent.
Xiang Zi spoke first: "Why are you suddenly so interested in Lin Wanxing? Are there new 'victims'?"
Both Qin Ao and Wen Chengye clenched their fists tightly but refrained from acting impulsively.
Wang Fa looked at the man across from him. Though furious inside, he calmly said, "She left without saying goodbye. We're all quite worried."
"Don't worry. A woman like Lin Wanxing can get by anywhere."
Wang Fa took a deep breath and asked calmly, "Dr. Xiang, I read the email you wrote. In it, you claimed that Lin Wanxing deliberately lured Professor Shu Yong into making a 'grave mistake' from the very beginning, with the aim of having him assist her in her academic career?"
"Under the same advisor, do you know how many SCI papers Lin Wanxing published? For her two top-journal publications, the professor found experts in related research fields to serve as corresponding authors. Do you understand what that means? We have other classmates who barely managed to get a second-author paper before facing graduation delays."
Wang Fa wasn't familiar with the rules of academia, but he could fully imagine how Lin Wanxing's excellence would provoke jealousy.
And Shu Yong understood these students all too well. He had set a massive trap for Lin Wanxing very early on. With just a little push, all of Lin Wanxing's achievements would be called into question.
Shu Yong had likely used Xiang Zi.
Suppressing his disgust, Wang Fa continued, "But that should have been very discreet, right? I mean, the relationship between Lin Wanxing and Professor Shu Yong—how did you come to know about it in such detail?"
"Are you doubting me?"
Wang Fa thought about the content of the email, then directly took out his phone, opened an article, placed the screen on the table, and pushed it toward Xiang Zi. "In your email, you mentioned Lin Wanxing's published paper, which contains key evidence between Professor Shu Yong and Lin Wanxing. The first letters of the variables presented are: LWXLOVESY. But I don't quite understand this paper."Xiang Zi glanced at her phone and said, "This is a study about the influence of moral priming effects on prosocial behavior. It generally refers to using rapidly presented words or positive moral stories to determine whether such positive materials can promote people's prosocial behavior. A simple example would be whether students who read stories about 'leaving no possession unclaimed on the road' or 'sacrificing oneself for others' would donate more money."
"The initials are extremely obscure, even far-fetched. You claim this is Lin Wanxing's method of seducing Professor Shu Yong, but how did you uncover this information?"
Xiang Zi's expression shifted uncertainly.
"I want to know, could Professor Shu Yong's suicide possibly be because you discovered his feelings for Lin Wanxing?" Wang Fa asked.
Hearing this, Xiang Zi slammed the table violently, raised her voice, and stood up in fury: "The professor had been suffering all along! You people know nothing at all!"
"I truly know nothing." Wang Fa's words came out through chilled teeth, yet his mind grew increasingly calm and clear.
His knuckles lightly tapped the glass countertop of the café—once, then again...
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