Chapter 15: Dust Settles

"You really are a piece of trash! Seeing him pull a knife on me, instead of rushing to help stop him, you actually stood there in a daze. You're not even as good as the old hag next door; at least she knew how to scream..."

Di Ye arrived at the school hospital and found Shi Yucheng in the waiting area outside the emergency room. He discovered that Shi Yucheng's down jacket had been slashed with several large gashes, revealing the white fluff inside. Both of his hands were wrapped in hemostatic bandages, and he was sitting on a plastic chair, cursing Peng Guangzhou.

"Were those text messages you sent me just now?"

Shi Yucheng held up his hands, which looked like rice dumplings, and said irritably, "Look at me like this, can I still hold a Big Brother? I had Peng Guangzhou send them."

Di Ye looked him over and asked, "Peng Guangzhou said you were stabbed, so why is it just some superficial wounds? Who did it?"

Shi Yucheng jumped up from the chair, his face full of indignation as he said, "Who else could it be but Feng Shijie! I went to reason with him, and he actually pulled a utility knife on me. Luckily, I was wearing a lot of layers and the clothes were good quality, so I wasn't stabbed, but the knife broke instead. Then he started slashing wildly with the half-blade, and when I used my hands to block, I ended up getting several large gashes and bled a lot."

Di Ye observed his complexion, saw no signs of excessive blood loss, and asked, "Where is Feng Shijie now?"

"He was escorted to the school security office."

Di Ye breathed a sigh of relief, sat down on a nearby plastic chair, and asked, "What kind of reasoning were you going to him for?"

Shi Yucheng's lingering anger had not yet subsided; he stiffened his neck and said, "I spent the afternoon carefully thinking over what happened on New Year's Eve, and I realized that if I had put just a little more medicine in your milk at the time, you likely wouldn't have been able to wake up. Then he would have done whatever he wanted to Xia Fangfei in the small woods. If the police investigated afterward, I would have become a suspect and an accomplice, and I definitely would have gone to jail. So, of course, I had to go find him and clear things up!"

Di Ye watched his righteous indignation and inwardly sneered.

According to the original timeline, after Shi Yucheng made that phone call that night, he felt something was wrong and ran to the small woods to check. It was impossible to know exactly what happened in between, but judging by the result, this guy not only didn't save Xia Fangfei, but instead acted as an accomplice, handing the BB Pager he bought from Peng Guangzhou to Feng Shijie to forge evidence and frame Di Ye.

"That's why I said you have a pig's brain. I figured this out that very night, and you're only just now realizing it."

Di Ye felt that Shi Yucheng still had some utility, so after mocking him a couple of times, he said, "What's the use of going to Feng Shijie to clear things up? You should be clearing things up with the police."

"I don't have any evidence, how am I supposed to clear things up with the police!"

"If you don't have evidence, then go find it. The medicine he gave you must have been stolen from some laboratory at the school. Stealing public property and controlled substances is definitely going to land him in jail."

Shi Yucheng's expression flickered, but he quickly deflated and said, "I already threw away that medicinal powder. Now I don't even know what the specific ingredients are; there's no way to check where he stole it from."

Seeing that he held deep hatred for Feng Shijie, Di Ye incited him, "You threw the powder away, but he might not have stolen only that little bit. Let's go search his place and see if we can find more of it. If we find it, he won't get off without losing a layer of skin."

Peng Guangzhou was addicted to games and usually short on cash, so he had always acted as a lackey for Shi Yucheng. Having just been cursed at mercilessly, he was eager to save face and quickly volunteered, "That guy surnamed Feng is locked up in the security office and can't stop us. I'll go back to the dormitory to call a few people, and we'll go search right now."

Shi Yucheng thought this was a good idea and nodded, "Fine, go call people quickly."

Di Ye felt that both of these guys had low IQs and stopped them, "You group of students going to search a teacher's home—are you trying to get expelled?"

"Then what do you suggest we do?"

"There are many ways, but it costs money. How much money do you have on you right now?"

Shi Yucheng took his wallet out of his tattered down jacket pocket, looked at it, and said, "I only have a little over 100 in cash, but there's still over 3,000 yuan in my Bank Card."

Di Ye stood up and said, "Let's go, let's go withdraw the money."

"Withdraw how much?"

"That depends on how much you hate Feng Shijie. If you hate him a lot, withdraw 3,000; if you don't hate him that much, withdraw 1,000."

"I hate him so much I want him to die!"

There was an Industrial and Commercial Bank of China branch on the Yun University campus. Shi Yucheng withdrew all the money in his card, handed it directly to Di Ye, and asked, "What should we do next?"

"Just follow me and watch the show."

In 1995, the land around Yuncheng University had not yet been developed and was a typical urban-rural fringe area. Except for the street outside the Beimen, which was relatively prosperous, the streets outside the other three gates were not great. The most chaotic of these was the West Gate; the streets were narrow, the road surface was potholed, and it was dominated by entertainment businesses like pirated book stalls, video parlors, game halls, and pool halls, which students jokingly called Fallen Street.

Di Ye brought the two of them to the outside of the West Gate, first bought a bottle of Vitamin C tablets, and then found a pink shop with a sign for hair washing and massage. Shi Yucheng was relatively innocent and didn't dare to go in, warning, "This place isn't clean."

"It's precisely because it isn't clean. You two wait for me outside."

Di Ye pulled open the half-hidden frosted glass door, went inside for over ten minutes, and then came out with two heavily made-up women with permed wavy hair, saying, "Let's go, back to school."

Shi Yucheng looked at the two women, his curiosity piqued, and asked, "What exactly are you trying to do?"

Di Ye didn't answer, but instead asked, "Do you know where the school security office is?"

"Of course I do."

"Then you lead the way."

The Yun University security office was near the West Gate, directly across from the library; it was an L-shaped two-story building. Di Ye told the four of them not to get close yet, went over by himself, pretended to be asking for information, and wandered around. Finding no sign of Feng Shijie, he returned, brought the two women into a large office with a "Campus Security Division" nameplate, and said to them, "This is the place."

The two women had been very nervous on the way, not saying a word, but once they entered the room and saw that the people working inside were dressed in all sorts of ways and clearly weren't police, they immediately relaxed. They took out a small paper packet containing white powder and began telling their story, one after the other.

"There's a teacher in your school named Feng Shijie. After sleeping with us, he gave us a packet of this stuff, saying it's very comfortable to drink mixed with alcohol, like becoming an immortal. We felt there was something wrong with it..."

"He said he had a lot of this stuff at home and told us to try it first; if we thought it was good, we could go find him to buy more later..."

Shi Yucheng and Peng Guangzhou stood at the door, looking at each other, their faces full of astonishment.

The chief of the security division was a middle-aged man in his 40s. After hearing a few sentences, he acted as if facing a great enemy, slapped the table with a 'bang', and ordered, "Old Li, hurry and take some men to the Mechanical College to grab Feng Shijie; Little Liu, you go check which building Feng Shijie lives in..."

Di Ye appeared at the right moment, raised his hand, and said, "Teacher, I know Feng Shijie. He lives in Room 105, Building 21 of the Faculty Dormitory Area."

"Are you sure?"

"Sure. I live in the same building as him and see him every day."

"Good! Little Liu, you stay here and entertain these two ladies. Everyone else, come with me to Feng Shijie's home to take a look."

Chinese people have a deep hatred for drugs, and universities are even more vigilant and place high importance on this. The chief took two subordinates, rushed to Room 105, Building 21, kicked the wooden door open, walked in, and said, "Check everything suspicious."

Di Ye also wanted to go in, but was stopped by the chief, so he had to stand at the door, pressed his Electronic Watch, and summoned Di Ye to record and take screenshots.

Room 105 was the same size as Room 303, only a dozen square meters, and could be seen at a glance. Feng Shijie seemed to be a person who pursued simplicity; there wasn't much furniture in the room, and items were arranged very neatly. The chief and his subordinates carefully checked for over ten minutes but didn't find any suspicious items.

Just when Di Ye thought this matter was going to end without a result, Di Ye said in the Light Screen, "The world map on the wall opposite the bed is uneven; there might be something hidden behind it."

Di Ye focused his gaze and found that the map was indeed slightly bulging, so he reminded them, "That map seems to have a problem."

The chief turned his head to look at him, walked over, felt it with his palm, and then tore it down in one go.

The moment the map was torn down, everyone was stunned, because the wall was densely covered with dozens of photos.

Di Ye had excellent eyesight, 5.0 in both eyes. He looked at the photos on the wall and found they were all of girls, and they were clearly all candid shots. Only a few were of Xia Fangfei; he didn't recognize the others. Some had already yellowed, and the outfits were quite rustic, looking like they were taken many years ago.

"Chief, look, isn't this Lin Qiaoyan? The fresh graduate who went missing last year."

"That's right, it's her. I remember very clearly; when her parents came to the school to ask about the situation, they said she had a small red mole at the corner of her eye."

Once these words were spoken, not only did Di Ye gasp, but the chief also felt the situation was serious. He immediately reacted, waving his hand and saying, "Everyone get out, don't destroy the scene. Hurry and have someone go back to the office to call the police."

"I have a Big Brother."

Shi Yucheng also saw those photos at the doorway, shocked and afraid; he used his bandage-wrapped hands to pull the Big Brother out of the computer bag Peng Guangzhou was carrying and handed it to the section chief to call the police.

Police cars soon arrived with sirens wailing and cordoned off the scene; Di Ye stood in front of the flower bed outside the Tongzi Building, watched the commotion for a while, and seeing it was already past 4:00 PM, prepared to go to the main teaching building to pick up Xia Fangfei, align their stories, and fill in the details to handle the upcoming police questioning.

Seeing Di Ye was about to leave, Shi Yucheng hurriedly caught up to him and asked, "Those two women are still at the security office; what if they rat us out?"

"It was just powder ground from a pack of Vitamin C tablets, so what if they do? You were slashed by Feng Shijie, and I helped you deal with him; as a result, a major case was cracked, so the police won't give us a hard time."

Shi Yucheng thought about it and realized it was true; he admired Di Ye immensely and solemnly admitted, "You are indeed better than me; I am inferior to you in every aspect."

Di Ye gave a mocking laugh, waved his hand, and said, "You have more money than I do."

Hearing the word "money," Shi Yucheng couldn't suppress his curiosity and asked again, "Did you give all 3,000 yuan to those two women?"

"No, I gave them 300 each, and the remaining 2,400 is my service fee."

"Damn!"