Chapter Eleven: The Killer in the Academy (Part Three)

After returning to the police station, An Feng had been watching the surveillance footage for a long time. According to the other officers, he had left the room at some point, but there was no sign of fatigue on him. As soon as he saw the two people they’d brought in, he immediately began the interrogation, as if he had been waiting for them for quite a while.

This time, An Feng was conducting the interrogation personally, so Mo Lan decided to observe from the monitoring room to learn from the process.

“I’ll handle the questioning this time. It’s been a long time since I interrogated a suspect in this kind of case,” Xiao Qi said, her voice tinged with excitement, as if she were certain of success.

“Go ahead,” An Feng replied, and Xiao Qi entered, barely able to contain her enthusiasm. The other officers seemed accustomed to this arrangement; it looked like Xiao Qi often worked alongside An Feng in interrogations. Were the two of them in a relationship? Yet there was no sign of intimacy between them.

Mo Lan hadn’t expected Xiao Qi to accompany An Feng into the room. Xiao Qi was a woman about the same age as Mo Lan, but her absent-minded demeanor made one wonder how she had managed to stay by An Feng’s side for so many years.

During the interrogation, Xiao Qi’s approach seemed almost scatterbrained, but no one around seemed to notice or care. Did she hold some special status? Mo Lan also noticed that the math teacher, despite the circumstances, wasn’t nervous at all; after the initial tension, he answered the questions in a calm and orderly fashion.

“Why were you still at the academy?” When they turned to question the girl, she remained panicked.

“I don’t know, I don’t know anything, please stop asking me,” she pleaded.

Xiao Qi began to lose patience. Her eyes widened, as if she intended to intimidate the girl. No ordinary person could withstand such interrogation; most police officers wouldn’t tolerate it either, but An Feng seemed to make no exceptions.

The math teacher’s face, meanwhile, showed clear disdain for Xiao Qi. The two should have been questioned separately, but An Feng had deliberately arranged for them to be interrogated together. Mo Lan had never seen such a tactic before—perhaps it was something worth learning.

“Math teacher, you know who this person is, don’t you?” Xiao Qi glanced back at the math teacher, who had remained composed throughout.

“She’s always been timid. As for why she was there, I really don’t know. But she and the girl who died, Xiao Yu, were good friends. Her name is Ruo Qi.” The math teacher answered steadily, his eyes fixed on the camera, as if he knew someone was watching from the other side.

To others, that look was suspicious. He was the one who called the police, so why was he also the one who got kidnapped?

“If you’re the one who called, why were you kidnapped? Did you see what the culprit looked like?” Xiao Qi circled back, repeating her initial question.

The method was unorthodox, but it caught people off guard. An Feng didn’t say a word, leaving Xiao Qi to handle everything.

The girl kept her head down, oblivious even to the math teacher’s statements. Yet a careful observer would notice her trembling grew more severe whenever the math teacher spoke.

The math teacher had said clearly enough that he hadn’t seen the culprit. So why repeat the question? Did he answer incorrectly?

“I—I didn’t see the attacker. As for why I was kidnapped… I was doing my morning rounds when someone struck me from behind. I lost consciousness, and when I woke up, I was already there.” The math teacher finally managed to clarify, repeating his answer for the second time, a trace of anxiety betraying him.

“You’re lying. You’d better confess, or you’ll regret it,” Xiao Qi snapped, slamming her hand on the table, startling the girl into another fit of panic.

“It has nothing to do with me, I don’t know anything!” the girl suddenly collapsed to the floor, clutching her head, writhing as if in the throes of madness.

“Take her out.” Xiao Qi gestured at the girl, who was making too much of a scene. Left with no choice, she had her removed. Once the girl was gone, the math teacher grew genuinely anxious, clenching his fists and falling deep in thought.

Now, everyone’s attention was on the math teacher—the man who called the police, yet ended up a victim himself. He was quite suspicious indeed. The investigation had already revealed he wasn’t even on duty that day. Why had he stayed at the academy? That remained to be discovered.

“I have no reason to lie. Otherwise, why would I call the police?” The math teacher’s thoughts were in disarray; this unusual method of interrogation had thrown him off balance, and he struggled to find a retort in his own defense.

A cold draft from the window behind him brushed past, chilling his sweat-soaked back. He shivered involuntarily, glancing at the window.

“You killed her, didn’t you? The girl became frightened because she saw you. You called the police only after you found someone to take the fall. But in the eyes of the law, your little tricks are far too clumsy,” Xiao Qi declared, producing the evidence An Feng had found. Her face showed both satisfaction and the exhilaration of vanquishing evil.

Mo Lan, watching, felt speechless—so it had all been a performance between An Feng and Xiao Qi. But how had An Feng obtained the photographs so quickly? Was the evidence really so easy to find? And why, when it was clearly his achievement, had he handed the credit to Xiao Qi?

When the math teacher saw the photographs, he froze, stunned that they had found them. He hung his head in silence. Hadn’t those photos already been burned? How could identical ones still exist? Had that person kept the negatives?

He never imagined he would stumble here, that his life, once so bright, would suddenly plunge into shadow. He had never known what evil looked like.

“Can you tell me how you got those photos? Did that person betray me?” The math teacher’s voice shook with agitation as he rose from his seat.

“That’s right,” Xiao Qi sneered at him, as if she wished she could slap him across the face.

“Hah! You’re all damned! That girl deserved to die!” The math teacher suddenly erupted in hysteria, much like the girl before, screaming and thrashing as though on the verge of collapse.

Was it hereditary? Madness? Some psychological disorder? If he had killed because of mental illness, would the law show him leniency? Or was he merely feigning insanity to avoid punishment?

Watching all this, Mo Lan fell into deep thought. What was it about Xiao Qi? Was her unique interrogation style truly so effective, or was it simply because An Feng was there to support her?