Chapter 294. The Demon of Childhood

Chen Shi and Lin Dongxue exchanged glances. Chen Shi said into the phone, “What’s your name?”

“Cao Lijuan.”

“Cao Lijuan, can we come to see you now? We want to know some information.”

“Ah? It’s so late…”

Lin Dongxue beckoned, took the phone and said, “Little sister, we just want to ask you about some past events and it won’t take too long.”

“OK. There’s a coffee shop near my home. Let’s meet there!”

After noting the address, the two drove there. On the way, Lin Dongxue said, “Wang Sunxu killed Boss Xu and forced him to call and apologize. I think Teacher Xu might be a hypocrite.”

“Great minds think alike.” Chen Shi said.

When they arrived at the coffee shop, a little girl in white was standing at the door and waving. Cao Lijuan saw Lin Dongxue and exclaimed, “Wow, are you also a police officer? Sister, you’re so beautiful.”

Lin Dongxue smiled and said, “Let’s go sit inside.”

The three of them walked into the coffee shop and ordered three drinks. On the way, Chen Shi and Lin Dongxue had already discussed and decided to tell her about Teacher Xu’s death. So Lin Dongxue said, “The reason we’re looking for you is because Teacher Xu was killed this morning.”

“What!?” Cao Lijuan looked surprised.

After explaining the situation, Cao Lijuan said, “The one who killed him was Wang Sunxu, right?”

“How did you guess that.”

“After that incident happened back then, I guessed that one day it would end like this.” Cao Lijuan held the coffee cup, looking lonely.

“Tell us about what happened back then!”

“What do you think of Teacher Xu’s character?”

“Kind, upright, and caring about students… That was my first impression of him.”

“Yes, that’s how he appeared in front of people. The whole world was deceived by him. Teacher Xu would always pick the most unpopular students in the class to care for, like a caring big brother. He had a notebook, recording each student’s birthday, hobbies and family situation. Back then, because my family was poor, I was laughed at and bullied in the class. Teacher Xu appeared like an angel, but later I realized that he was actually a demon!

“He was very good at packaging himself with refinement and weakness. His words could always make people believe that even if he was wrong, you would think he must have his own difficulties. Several classmates in our class, including me, would often go to Teacher Xu’s place after school. He would help us with our homework, especially before exams, he would make us do mock exams. There were exam questions in these mock exams. Everyone knew it but didn’t say it. We thought this was his care for us. Sometimes Teacher Xu would call us to his dormitory to talk about the troubles at school. He liked to listen to music, all very artistic songs. Influenced by him, I once liked Pu Shu and Xu Wei, but later when I heard their songs, I felt sick.

“For a while, I noticed that he often called a girl to his dormitory and stayed very late. Out of curiosity, once I secretly listened outside the door to what they were talking about, but I heard that kind of sound, you know, the sound between a man and a woman…”

“I understand!” Lin Dongxue said.

“Do you think having sex with a student was his biggest secret? Compared to what he did to us, that was nothing. One day, Teacher Xu called me to his dormitory. I’ve forgotten what he said. His expression that day was a bit terrifying. I was scared and said I wanted to go home, but he pushed me onto the bed and started to undress me… After it happened, he repeatedly hinted to me that I mustn’t tell anyone about that day. If I did, he would use all his connections to make me drop out of school. I was already in the third year of junior high school. My family was poor. If I dropped out at this time, I might never be able to go to school again.

“I thought a lot. Why did he rape me? What did I do wrong? Or was there something that dissatisfied him? Or did he like me? Even then, I still thought he must have had a reason. But later, from Wang Sunxu, I learned the whole truth. You should know Wang Sunxu’s family situation, right? His elder brother was a murderer. All the teachers and classmates in the class kept away from him, but only Teacher Xu cared about him particularly. In fact, Teacher Xu was using him. He asked Wang Sunxu to do some things for him…”

Cao Lijuan’s eyes were already moist. She wiped them and continued, “There was a boy in the class whose family were all high-ranking officials. Teacher Xu wanted to curry favor with them and transfer to a better school through their connections, but was humiliated instead. Holding a grudge, Teacher Xu asked Wang Sunxu to deliberately tip over the sulfuric acid bottle in the chemistry experiment class and burn that boy. Because of this incident, Wang Sunxu almost dropped out of school. It was finally settled with the intervention of the police. Half a year later, Teacher Xu competed with several other teachers for the position of the teaching director. He thought of Wang Sunxu, this taciturn ‘loyal servant’ again. So he secretly directed Wang Sunxu to harm another teacher. That teacher almost died, but unexpectedly, it was still this teacher who became the teaching director.

“Teacher Xu was very angry and felt that Wang Sunxu didn’t handle things well. He said to him: ‘You disappoint the teacher. The teacher is going to give you a punishment so that you can really grow up!’ His punishment was me. Wang Sunxu had a crush on me, so Teacher Xu raped me and took pictures and showed them to Wang Sunxu…”

Lin Dongxue stared in disbelief with wide eyes.

Cao Lijuan tried her best to hold back her tears and continued, “Until Teacher Xu was reported for sexual assault and left the school, I was still investigating his affairs. He has been winning over these poor students and students with bad grades, using gentle words and hints to make them do all kinds of things, such as spying on the privacy of teachers, spreading rumors in the school, and harming some top students. These neglected students were willing to be pawns just to get his care. And he was like a spider sitting in a web, manipulating everything secretly. Later I learned that many incidents that happened in the school during Teacher Xu’s tenure were related to him, including a girl’s suicide by jumping off a building. He was simply a demon. Unfortunately, he could only die once. I really wish he had a hundred lives so that each student he harmed could kill him once!”

Lin Dongxue and Chen Shi finally understood why Teacher Xu was stabbed more than ninety times by Wang Sunxu. Closing their eyes, they could almost see Wang Sunxu’s expression when he had tears in his eyes, gritted his teeth, and brutally abused Teacher Xu’s body.

Cao Lijuan lowered her head and looked at her phone. There was silence at the table and Lin Dongxue didn’t know what to ask anymore.

Chen Shi said, “Little sister, how is your relationship with Wang Sunxu?”

“Just so-so. But later when I knew he liked me, I might pay a little more attention… But we didn’t date and lost contact after graduation.”

“Didn’t he come to see you today?”

Lin Dongxue was surprised and pulled his clothes under the table, hinting that he shouldn’t ask such a question.

Cao Lijuan looked up in surprise. Chen Shi looked at her sharply and said, “After killing Teacher Xu, the person he must want to contact the most is you, right? Have you received any strange messages, calls or emails.”

After a silence of half a minute, Cao Lijuan said, “He came to my home!”