“Cute…”

Mo Lin’s free hand started to unconsciously reach towards Gu Yuan’s ear, but stopped just before touching it because the owner of the ear recoiled slightly, eyes flashing with a murderous intent: “What are you trying to do?!”

Mo Lin’s lips curled into an extremely suggestive smile: “What, are you flustered?”

Upon hearing this, the other person’s brows furrowed instantly: “I don’t understand what you’re saying?”

Mo Lin almost helplessly pressed his forehead, but his voice remained patient: “No rush, we can take it slow…”

At this moment, Gu Yuan’s mind was filled with the words ‘are you flustered’. After thinking for a few seconds, he said: “You’re talking about the stress response caused by dopamine and norepinephrine, right?”

Mo Lin was slightly taken aback, somewhat impressed by his understanding: “If you insist on understanding it that way… that works too…”

“I think you sprayed perfume containing pheromones,” Gu Yuan said, “causing me to receive incorrect chemical signals.”

After he finished speaking, he placed a piece of gauze on Mo Lin’s palm, then tore off some white tape to stick the gauze to Mo Lin’s hand, the entire process devoid of any emotion.

After taping it up, Gu Yuan efficiently threw the used cotton swabs into the trash can, resembling a moving iceberg.

Mo Lin thought to himself: So it can be understood this way too, seems like I’ve been ignorant…

When the two came out of the office, Meng Lan happened to walk over: “Teacher Mo, Zhou Jie won’t confess until you go in.”

At the same time, Mo Lin felt Gu Yuan’s gaze fall on him, and he coughed cautiously: “I didn’t spray that kind of thing, if you don’t believe me… you can monitor me 24/7… I have no objections.”

“Okay.” Gu Yuan took out his phone and glanced at the current time: “Then let’s start now!”

To figure out why he had a brief stress response, he felt it was necessary to monitor Mo Lin’s behavior 24/7 to rule out human interference factors.

Mo Lin’s lips curved into a smile: “Are you sure?”

Gu Yuan: “Of course!”

*

The footage from two interrogation rooms played simultaneously on the computer screen, and this tragic story finally became complete…

The last class yesterday afternoon was a self-study session. Qiu Yao sat by the window in the first class of the third grade, drawing. He held a pencil in his hand, quickly sketching the scenery outside the window in his sketchbook. From afar, he saw the first-grade students having a PE class on the football field.

He searched for a familiar figure and finally found Zhou Jie under a big tree by the wall, sitting there in a daze, not wearing her school uniform, looking isolated from the world.

In such cold weather, not wearing a school uniform would surely lead to a cold, right?

Just as he thought of this, Zhou Jie seemed to have a telepathic connection and glanced in his direction. Although they were far apart, the helplessness on her face was magnified infinitely in Qiu Yao’s eyes.

He put down his pencil and greeted the discipline committee member: “Going to the restroom.”

He squatted next to Zhou Jie: “Why aren’t you going to PE class?”

“Stomach doesn’t feel well.” Zhou Jie’s voice was small, and from her tone, it was clear she was indeed uncomfortable.

Qiu Yao thought of the girls in his class, who would always say they had stomach pains during their period, and the PE teacher would knowingly allow it.

Could she be on her period too?

“Where’s your jacket?” Qiu Yao asked.

Seeing Zhou Jie lower her head without speaking, he remembered the school uniform jacket he saw in the stinky ditch before and roughly guessed the situation.

Qiu Yao’s heart sank: “Are they bullying you again?”

“Used to it.”

She said this while hugging her shoulders, looking somewhat pitiful.

“Ask your dad for money to buy a new one.”

“He won’t give me money.”

“Are you even his biological child, treating you like this? Even hiring a nanny requires a salary, yet you work so hard every day taking care of his son, and this is the attitude you get?” Qiu Yao was furious.

After saying this, he took off his jacket and gave it to her: “Wear this for now, don’t catch a cold and pass it to me.”

She looked up at him, her eyes glistening with tears: “Thank you, I’ll return it to you when I get home.”

“No rush, I have clothes.”

As Qiu Yao finished speaking, the class bell rang.

“By the way, tonight as usual, see you in the attic.” Qiu Yao added.

At 7:30, Zhou Jie returned home and mentioned in front of Qiu Yao that she lost her school uniform jacket and needed to buy a new one. Zhou Rongguang’s face instantly fell: “Another school uniform? How many uniforms have you bought this semester?!”

“They threw my school uniform into the ditch, I can’t possibly pick it up and wear it, right?”

“Your bad relationship with classmates is your own problem. Why doesn’t anyone bully Qiu Yao? So many classmates are fine, why are you the only one being targeted?”

“Say less!” Zhu Wanting wiped her hands and walked over to her: “Just in time, feed your brother first.”

“But I have a lot of homework today! Why don’t you do it yourselves?”

“Aren’t your dad and I working to make money? Without money, what would you eat? We work hard all day, spending it all on you, and you can’t even feed him… I have it tough, last night while frying meat skewers, I got two big blisters on my hand, yet I still have to work hard… You’re so grown up, yet you don’t understand anything? Can’t you be considerate of adults? I’m truly heartbroken…”

“She’s just an ungrateful brat, always looking at me like an enemy when I say something. If she grows up, she’ll turn the world upside down. You still expect her to take care of you in old age… dream on!” Zhou Rongguang chimed in.

Zhou Jie panted heavily, her face flushed: “You’ll regret treating me like this!”

Zhou Rongguang put down his work and slapped her face: “Are you getting cheeky?!”

A customer nearby felt uncomfortable and tried to help the girl: “Boss, are the meat skewers ready?”

“Coming, coming, sorry, the kid’s being disobedient…”

Zhou Rongguang went out to grill the skewers, and Zhu Wanting wiped her tears and continued to smile at the customers.

Zhou Jie stood in the shop, everyone looking at her with either pity or disdain, their gazes turning into sharp blades, mercilessly stabbing into her.

She couldn’t stay there any longer, so she picked up her brother’s bowl and spoon, and carried her brother, who was playing with toys in the corner, upstairs.

This brother, who only knew how to eat and make noise, had become her shadow. Since he was born, all the good things in the family were given to him, and she couldn’t even buy a school uniform without enduring so much criticism.

Looking at her brother in her arms, the more she thought about it, the more she couldn’t understand.

Just a few days ago, she overheard Zhou Rongguang saying he was saving money to marry off this little troublemaker. As long as he was in this world, she wouldn’t have a good life.

After feeding her brother, she opened her workbook and started doing her homework. Her brother sat on the floor playing with toys, making noises that disturbed her studying. She yelled at him, but he started crying, so she had to put down her homework and comfort him first.

At 8:30, there was a rhythmic knocking sound from the wooden wall next door.

This was her and Qiu Yao’s signal.

She knocked back a few times in response, then removed the photo album hanging on the wall, peeled off the cartoon sticker, revealing a small hole in the wall.

Through the hole, Qiu Yao stood in front of it: “I heard everything just now, your parents scolded you again. If it were me, I would’ve run away from home long ago… My mom’s still better, at least she considers things from my perspective.”

Seeing no response from her, Qiu Yao continued: “Let’s talk upstairs.”

After a while, a piece of the ceiling in the hallway was removed, and a wooden ladder extended down. Zhou Jie put on her hat and gloves and climbed up the ladder.

The lamp above was on, casting beautiful murals on the walls. Qiu Yao liked to draw and aspired to become a painter in the future.

“Zhou Jie, what kind of person do you want to become in the future?” Qiu Yao suddenly asked.

Zhou Jie thought for a long time: “I want to be a normal person.”

“What’s not normal about you?”

Zhou Jie forced a smile but didn’t speak.

Suddenly, Zhou Hao, who was playing alone, realized his sister was gone and started crying uncontrollably. Zhou Jie helplessly said: “Maybe we should bring him up here, he can’t be left alone.”

So the two of them brought Zhou Hao up to the attic. Once there, Zhou Hao was engrossed in playing with toys, and Zhou Jie and Qiu Yao started chatting. After a while, Zhou Jie said she wanted Qiu Yao to draw a portrait of her, so Qiu Yao went downstairs to get paper and a pen.

Unbeknownst to them, Zhou Hao followed him to the edge of the attic and fell off, hitting his head on the wooden ladder.

Qiu Yao was terrified and immediately called out Zhou Jie’s name. By the time Zhou Jie came down from the attic, Zhou Hao had already passed out. Qiu Yao wanted to pick up the phone to call for help, but Zhou Jie stopped him.

The two of them carried Zhou Hao back to Zhou Ji Barbecue, where Zhou Hao started vomiting, his face turning red, and two minutes later, he stopped breathing.

Zhou Jie calmly cleaned up the vomit on the ground and handed the blood-stained clothes and vomit to Qiu Yao. After Qiu Yao left with the items, Zhou Jie stared blankly at the corpse on the ground.

“At that time, I wanted to throw him off the building… but the bloodstains on his head had been wiped, so it would be easy to see something was wrong. Just then, the electric oil tank was on, so I thought, might as well throw him in there…”

Zhou Jie took out her school uniform jacket from her backpack, put it on, went into the kitchen, and moved a cardboard box next to the oil tank. Zhou Hao could easily climb up from this height.

After doing all this, she meticulously washed her hands, then carried Zhou Hao downstairs.

After throwing Zhou Hao into the oil tank, she quickly returned to her room, took off her school uniform jacket, put it in a plastic bag, cut open the belly of a teddy bear along the seam, stuffed the plastic bag inside, then sewed it up and placed it by the bed…

After listening to Zhou Jie’s account, everyone present had their own suspicions. Perhaps this wasn’t an accident, but a premeditated murder.

But there was no evidence to prove it was murder rather than an accident.

There are two things in the world that cannot be directly looked at: one is the sun, the other is the human heart…

Author’s Note: I guess I’m not a verbose person~