Chapter 119: The Murder on the Stage

Ever since we met Professor Li, Dali became seriously lovestruck and had completely forgotten the heartbreak he suffered after learning that Xia Mengmeng had started to date another guy. He would spend whole days in the library reading a bunch of psychology books.

“I wonder if you’d start learning how to cook if you fall in love with a girl who works in the cafeteria,” I teased.

“You mock me,” he answered, “but it’s true that two people bond with each other much more easily when there is a common language. Just like how you and Xiaotao-jiejie bond over murder cases!”

But Xiaotao and I aren’t exactly together, I lamented. I then warned him, “I don’t think you have a chance with Professor Li, though. Why don’t you just give up?”

“No way!” he shouted, shaking his fist in the air. “What’s the point of living if one can’t dream?”

A few days later, Dali read Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams and became very annoying indeed. Every morning, he would wake us up and jump on our beds insisting on interpreting our dreams.

“Come on, dude! Tell me what you dreamt of last night!”

“I dreamt that I was Superman,” I said.

“Superman? Hmm… Superman wears a red cape… The color red is a symbol of desire… That means you were having a sexual dream!”

“I also dreamt that the dorm warden came to check our room,” I added.

“The dorm warden symbolizes your mother, which shows that you have an Oedipus complex.”

“Fuck off!” I kicked him off my bed. He then went on to harass our two roommates, interpreting any kind of dream they had into a sexual dream. We were all sick of him, but there was no way to get rid of Dali.

Apart from pestering us, he would also send emails to Professor Li to ask her questions regarding psychology. This was the one thing about Dali that I was most impressed with. No matter how slim a chance he had, he was never afraid of approaching the person he liked and trying his luck.

Before, we’d be dragging our feet to get to the drama club, wishing we could be anywhere else. But now, Dali would get dressed hours before and we’d arrive there half an hour before anyone else. I asked Dali, wouldn’t it be better if you just lived in the club room?

Dali did all that so he could catch a glimpse of the beautiful professor as many times as possible. But to be honest, I’d been feeling really awkward and uncomfortable in the drama club due to the attention I got after that incident with Professor Li. The club members started to treat me as if I was a rare genius and they’d pester me to show them my deduction skills all day long.

I regretted not being strong enough to endure people’s scorn. I secretly vowed that this would be the last time I showed my skills in front of other people without a good reason ever again.

Soon after, it was already the end of October, and the drama festival was upon us. Professor Li personally came to watch our performance to support us. She told us that it didn’t matter if we won the prize, as long as we gave it our best.

It would be our turn to take the stage soon. The emcee announced, “Ladies and gentlemen, please enjoy the next performance from the drama club—Romeo and Juliet!”

“Just relax,” Professor Li encouraged us. “Pretend that it’s just another day of rehearsing.”

“Okay, everyone! Get ready!” shouted Zhang Yan. Everyone then went on stage, leaving only me, Dali and Professor Li backstage.

To help Dali, I decided to leave him alone with Professor Li. I excused myself and went to the restroom, then wandered about in the corridors. Halfway through the performance, there was a sound of hurried footsteps of someone wearing high heels. I turned around and saw that it was Professor Li.

“Why are you here all alone?” she asked me.

“Is there something wrong, Professor?” I asked her. Being so close to a beautiful woman like her made me feel very nervous.

“Our Romeo forgot the prop knife that he was supposed to carry with him,” she answered. “Would it be too much to ask you to give it to him? It’s not easy for me to rush out there since I’m in high heels.”

“Leave it to me, Professor.” I took the knife from her, and felt like I’d seen it somewhere before. It turned out to be the bladeless knife that Ye Shiwen had dropped at the haunted mansion weeks ago.

Her fingers lingered on the back of my hand when I took the knife from her. I was sure that it was intentional. I looked at her, and saw that she was blushing. She smiled and asked me, “I didn’t tell you how my right eye got blind, did I?”

“Um…” I stuttered. “I should hurry and get this knife to Ye Shiwen now.”

She slowly lifted the hair that was covering her right eye, only to reveal that the eye beneath was bright green! It was crystal clear like a turquoise gem. My first hunch was that it somehow didn’t look human at all…

The moment I fixed my gaze on this eye, I suddenly felt as if everything around me was receding away. The walls grew further and further apart, the sound and voices around me started to fade away. There was only one thing that my mind was fixed on—Professor Li’s wonderful eye and her gentle voice.

“Song Yang,” she murmured, “you feel very light now. You are as light as a feather, and you’re floating in a pool of water…”

My mind was suddenly empty, and I really felt as if I was floating in the warm blue sea, and the sky above me was clear and blue, with a huge green eye above staring straight at me.

Suddenly, the hallucination disappeared and I came crashing back to reality. What pulled me back was the sound of a group of students loudly chatting with each other and laughing. I stared at Professor Li and asked her, “What have you just done to me?”

“I didn’t do anything,” she answered coolly. “Hurry up and take the knife to Ye Shiwen!”

I ran towards the stage, but a thought was nagging at me. Did Professor Li try to hypnotize me?

I went up through the backstage and stood just behind the curtain. I saw Ye Shiwen waiting there anxiously. I gave him the knife and patted his shoulder to comfort him.

“Don’t worry,” I said. “I believe you’ll do great out there!”

“Thanks. Once this is all over, let’s all have a party!” He then slipped through the curtain.

The more I thought about what had just happened with Professor Li, the more suspicious I got. Just as I was lost in thoughts, I heard a piercing scream from the stage and smelled a pungent stench of blood. I rushed outside and saw Ye Shiwen sitting on Zhang Yan’s body, holding a bloody knife in his hand. Zhang Yan looked like she’d been stabbed multiple times on her chest. Her eyes were open, but they were already lifeless. Her body lay limply on the stage in a pool of blood.

The whole audience had erupted into chaos. Many students screamed in terror and had fled the auditorium. This scene was supposed to be the scene when Romeo heard of the news of Juliet’s death and rushed to see his lover. Who would’ve thought that Ye Shiwen would suddenly snap and stab Zhang Yan to death? Besides, wasn’t the knife supposed to be bladeless?

Zhang Yan was just talking to me a few minutes ago, yet now all that was left was a cold, unbreathing corpse covered in blood. I could hardly believe what was going on.

“No!”

It was Ye Shiwen’s scream. The knife fell out of his hand. “What have I done? What have I done?”

“Song Yang, tell me it isn’t true! I didn’t kill her, did I?”

“Calm down,” I told him. “We’ll wait until the police arrive.”

“What? Did you call the police? No, but I don’t want to go to prison! I don’t want to go to prison!”

He quickly jumped off the stage and attempted to flee, but I followed him and grabbed him grabbed his arm before he could run.

“Call the police!” I yelled at the security guards who were approaching us. “There was a murder!” I then gave them Xiaotao’s mobile phone number.

Ye Shiwen just realized that he’d killed his girlfriend with his own hands. Understandably, he broke down and screamed and wailed and cried. The security guards had to take over and pin him to ground to prevent him from escaping. It was a heart-wrenching sight to behold.

He then stared at me pleadingly. “Song Yang, you must help me! You must help me!”

I didn’t know what to say. No matter what, he’d just killed Zhang Yan in front of hundreds of people. What could I do to help him? Nevertheless, I told him, “I’ll do my best in discovering the truth of what just happened. But you must cooperate with the police in their investigation!”

He nodded with great difficulty because the security guard was pressing his head to the floor.

“You know I could never kill her! I love her!” he shouted.

“I know,” I sighed.