On a Stormy Night, the Campus Belle Knocked on My Door Seeking Shelter
Chapter 8: The Murder Weapon Is Found

Chapter 8: Chapter 8: The Murder Weapon Is Found

SPLASH!

The moment he stepped into the downpour, Chen Mo heard the ribs of his umbrella groan in the gale, as if in their death throes. His knuckles had turned white from gripping the handle so tightly. Rain streamed from the umbrella’s edge, forming an impenetrable silver curtain. Each step felt like plunging into a deep pool, and the muffled squelch of his rain boots squeezing out water stood in stark contrast to the burning anxiety in his chest.

’Now I finally see why Su Yuqing’s umbrella was found so far away. In a wind this strong, with her strength, she wouldn’t have been able to walk while holding it at all.’

The neon lights smeared into blurry splotches of color through the rain, and the halo from the convenience store fell away behind him, like the last glimmer of starlight sinking into the depths of the sea.

At the mouth of the alley ahead, a security camera drooped, its rusted pivot letting out a CREAK in the wind. This was the "start of the blind spot" repeatedly mentioned in the old forensics report.

Chen Mo’s rain boots crunched over the shards of a broken beer bottle. The dull grind of rubber against glass made his temples throb.

The ground was littered with takeout containers and rotting vegetable leaves. The sour stench of decay, mixed with the metallic reek of rust from a tin-sheet awning, rushed into his nostrils.

Puddle water lapped over the tops of his boots before receding. The boots’ waterproofing kept the mud out, but it couldn’t block the jarring tremor of crushed glass beneath his soles.

[22:17] The fluorescent dial of his waterproof watch glowed faintly under the umbrella. The ticking of the second hand seemed to gradually fall in sync with his heartbeat.

The wind and rain were so strong that the umbrella was practically useless. ’Should have just bought a raincoat,’ he thought.

However, he had a personal aversion to raincoats, finding them far too constricting.

Ignoring the umbrella’s flimsy shield, the gale whipped sheets of rain directly into Chen Mo’s face. The only benefit to having it at all was that it managed to keep the very top of his head somewhat dry.

Spitting out the briny taste of rain, Chen Mo pushed against the wind and quickened his pace.

At the end of the alley, an illegal structure twisted into a menacing silhouette in the storm. WHOOSH! A sudden, sinister gust of wind ripped through, flipping the umbrella inside out and letting the icy rain hammer down on him.

Chen Mo simply abandoned the umbrella. As rainwater streamed over his brow and into his eyes, the stinging sensation was strikingly similar to the burn of formalin vapor from the anatomy lab in his past life.

His phone vibrated three times in its waterproof pouch—the custom alert for the security feed.

Chen Mo found shelter under an eave, leaning his back against a damp brick wall as he pulled up the video feed. Bathed in a warm, yellow glow, Su Yuqing was curled up in a corner of the sofa. The hem of her hoodie shifted with the subtle movements of her legs. The camera angle perfectly captured her bare ankles, and she was restlessly rubbing her feet together. Her eyes kept darting toward the front door.

Her gaze held both anticipation and worry.

She looked just like a girl in love, waiting for her boyfriend to hurry home.

She was eager for Chen Mo to return, but also worried. He had only gone out to buy something, so why had he been gone for twenty minutes?

"Just wait a little longer. Don’t be anxious." Chen Mo’s thumb brushed over the girl’s reddened eyes on the screen, and he tucked the phone back into his chest pocket.

Chen Mo wiped the sheet of water from his face. He clenched his jaw, the veins in his neck standing out in sharp relief.

His waterproof watch read [22:20]. This was dangerously close to the estimated time of the incident. The culprit was either already nearby or would be arriving any moment.

He hunched down and moved stealthily along the base of the wall, concealing himself within the curtain of rain. Muddy water from the wall ran from the tips of his hair down his collar. The rain-soaked fabric of his shirt clung to his back like a sheet of ice.

Three meters away, a trash can was overturned by the fierce wind, sending a mess of rotting vegetables and a used condom spilling onto the stone pavers.

When Chen Mo’s boot stepped on it, he felt a sticky squish under his sole.

He had finally reached the scene of the crime.

Now, he just had to watch for anyone passing through. The downpour was so heavy that observation was anything but easy. Chen Mo quickly pulled his T-shirt up over his head to shield his eyes from the rain, squinting as he scanned the area.

Around him, there was no sound but the storming rain and howling wind.

Chen Mo stayed hunched under the tin-sheet awning of the illegal structure. The ghostly blue light of his waterproof watch pierced the rain—[22:29].

A sudden clang of metal echoed from the end of the alley. Chen Mo’s head snapped in that direction. He saw a figure in a black hoodie who had just accidentally knocked over a metal rack while stepping backward.

Chen Mo walked closer, surprised to find it was someone he knew.

"Zhou Hao?" His throat tightened.

The notorious school bully of Linjiang Second Middle School was peeling an apple with a paring knife, the blade precisely tracing a perfect spiral of skin from the flesh.

"Well if it isn’t Old Mo. What’re you doing out here in the middle of the night, in this kind of storm, without an umbrella?" Zhou Hao asked, looking at Chen Mo with surprise.

Ordinarily, a school’s top student and its top bully were two parallel lines, destined never to cross.

But at Linjiang Second Middle School, Chen Mo was the unique exception who connected them.

He could hang out with the brainiacs and still get along just fine with the bullies.

The more time he spent with Zhou Hao, the more Chen Mo understood why he’d become a bully. The persona was just a defense mechanism.

His family was poor, and his mother had uremia. He didn’t want people to look down on him for his background, nor did he want to become a target for bullies. So, from somewhere, he’d learned the lesson that to avoid being bullied, you had to bully others first. He fought his way to a reputation, even befriending some of the local thugs, and became the reigning bully of Linjiang Second Middle School.

"I was out running an errand, but the wind was so strong it destroyed my umbrella," Chen Mo said with a small smile. "What are you doing out here so late?"

The scorpion tattoo behind Zhou Hao’s ear seemed to squirm as he swallowed a bite of apple. He used the tip of the knife to spear another wrinkled apple from a plastic bag. "Brought my mom some fruit, and what do I get? Kicked out!"

Zhou Hao’s mother suffered from uremia and required dialysis three times a week.

And the pale yellow powder clinging to the edge of his rain boot was, in fact, the same anti-slip plaster commonly used in hospital corridors.

Zhou Hao clearly wasn’t lying.

As Zhou Hao moved, however, Chen Mo’s pupils contracted. The paring knife in his hand looked just like the murder weapon described in Su Yuqing’s case file.

Seeing Chen Mo standing frozen in the downpour as if he’d been put under a spell, Zhou Hao shouted from under the awning, "What are you doing standing out in the rain? Get over here! My place is right nearby. I can lend you an umbrella."

Chen Mo did as he was told, stepping under the awning with Zhou Hao. As soon as he drew near, he was hit by the heavy smell of disinfectant mixed with the scent of thrombin—the exact combination of smells that clung to people who spent time with patients in the ICU.

Suddenly, Zhou Hao’s phone rang. A voice blared from the speaker, "Family of the patient in bed 304! Your mom’s blood oxygen is dropping again!"

The color drained from Zhou Hao’s face. The paring knife fell from his grasp, landing with a SPLASH in a puddle. Its upward-facing blade reflected his back as he sprinted away.

He didn’t even have time to explain anything to Chen Mo.

When Chen Mo bent down and picked up the knife, he was absolutely certain. This knife was a perfect match for the one the forensics team had identified as the murder weapon!

A paring knife, identical to the presumed murder weapon, appearing in this exact place at this exact time... Chen Mo was almost certain of it: this was the very weapon used in Su Yuqing’s murder!