Thunder in the Silence

"Do you know Qian Ruoyun?"

As he looked at the constable seated across the table, Wu Wei felt dazed.

Li Long was actually dead.

Just like that...

This made no sense.

Even if he had AIDS, it shouldn't have taken effect so quickly, right?

"Student, please answer my question. Do you know Qian Ruoyun?"

"No. Who is Qian Ruoyun?"

Wu Wei's answer did not surprise Li Xiong.

The main reason was that Qian Ruoyun had already confessed to the murder, so questioning Wu Wei and the others was merely a formality.

"All right, you have nothing to do with this. Sign here, and you can go home. Of course, I hope you'll keep this matter confidential, for your classmate's reputation."

Wu Wei signed in a daze, feeling that this constable was truly irresponsible.

There were so many of his fingerprints in that room. Even Li Long had been tied up by him. Yet he had not even been suspected of being an accomplice?

What he did not know was that Qian Ruoyun had confessed to everything. The motive was clear, the murder weapon was known, and the perpetrator had turned herself in. The constable would have been an idiot not to close the case quickly.

After all, the case-solving rate affected their bonuses.

As for Wu Wei and the other three, they were top students at Imperial Capital University. Why would the constables make trouble for them for no reason?

The police and the people were one family. Helping others was helping oneself.

After leaving the Six Fan Gate and seeing daylight again, Wu Wei, Wang Zixuan, and Kuang Zhiguo exchanged looks and saw the shock in one another's eyes.

The dorm brother who had been eating and drinking with them just yesterday was now separated from them by life and death.

How fragile life was.

"Wu Wei, Zixuan, what exactly happened? Did the constable tell you?" Kuang Zhiguo took out a pack of cigarettes, pulled one out and lit it, then handed another to Wang Zixuan.

Wu Wei declined.

He neither smoked nor drank. In Wu Wei's eyes, cigarette smoke was choking and unpleasant, while alcohol smelled terrible too. He disliked both, so he never touched them.

Still, he had never seen Kuang Zhiguo smoke before.

Wu Wei gave Kuang Zhiguo a curious look but did not ask further.

"I asked the constable, but he only told me it was confidential. For Li Long's reputation, they wanted to limit knowledge of the case to as few people as possible. Still, they'll notify the university leadership."

Wang Zixuan hesitated before speaking. "I know a little."

Wu Wei and Kuang Zhiguo both looked at Wang Zixuan.

They had both tried probing the constable, only to be told that there was nothing to disclose.

Yet Wang Zixuan actually knew something.

"I have a cousin who works at the Six Fan Gate."

At those words, Wu Wei and Kuang Zhiguo understood.

"Brother Long was caught in the crossfire this time. It was a problem caused by his father."

Wang Zixuan explained the conflict between Qian Ruoyun and Li Jianguo. Wu Wei and Kuang Zhiguo understood instantly.

After all, they were students at the nation's top university. None of them were fools, and they quickly connected the dots.

"So that's what happened."

"That's way too surreal. I thought this kind of plot only happened in novels."

"Fiction comes from reality. Reality is always more melodramatic than we imagine. But speaking of which, Wu Wei, why did Brother Long have his accident in your room?" Wang Zixuan suddenly asked.

Kuang Zhiguo realized it too. "Yeah, Wu Wei, wasn't that your room? How did Brother Long end up sleeping there?"

Wu Wei spread his hands. "Would you believe me if I said I don't know either?"

They were already out of the Six Fan Gate, and Qian Ruoyun had confessed herself. He was not worried that the two of them could stir up any trouble, so he could not be bothered explaining.

Sure enough, Wang Zixuan and Kuang Zhiguo did not press him.

Though they were roommates, they were still university students. When faced with something like this, of course they would avoid it if they could.

While they were talking, Wu Wei received a call from their counselor.

After hanging up, Wu Wei shrugged at the two of them. "We may have turned misfortune into good fortune."

"What do you mean?"

"The university wants to hear our account. If nothing goes wrong, they may even give us some benefits in exchange for our silence."

Although Imperial Capital University was one of the best universities in the country, even the world, when something like this happened, its first thought was still to suppress it.

That was perfectly normal. It was hardly something honorable, especially since Li Long had once been featured in the news as a model student.

This put the university in a difficult position.

Wang Zixuan and Kuang Zhiguo thought of that as well.

"If I remember correctly, Brother Long had been writing novels since he was fifteen, right?" Wang Zixuan sounded uncertain.

Kuang Zhiguo nodded. "He really did start in his third year of middle school. Even so, he got into Imperial Capital University, so the school promoted him as a special talent back then. Brother Long was something of a celebrity at our university."

The two looked at each other, unsure whether to laugh or cry.

A minor celebrity like that had met with an accident while going out to find a prostitute, and that prostitute had gone to such extremes because of his father.

If news like that got out, it would definitely become the hottest trending topic of the day.

So the university would certainly want to bury it.

And they would probably benefit from the disaster.

Reality unfolded just as they expected.

When the three of them walked out of the counselor's office, every one of them was satisfied.

The university had indeed shown sincerity.

"Come on. Let's find somewhere to pay our respects to Brother Long."

"Let's go to the place where we ate yesterday."

Wu Wei glanced at Kuang Zhiguo and asked, "Did you get rich?"

"Not rich, but seeing those things will remind us of him."

"More like the scenery will stir your emotions." Wu Wei rolled his eyes. "Let's just grab something at the cafeteria. Exams are coming up. We should hurry back and study."

"We've already secured graduate-school recommendations. Exams are nothing but clouds in the sky." Wang Zixuan sounded utterly unconcerned.

"Young man, getting recommended to graduate school is only the beginning. Graduate degrees aren't worth much these days."

Wu Wei patted Wang Zixuan on the shoulder, then turned and headed toward the cafeteria.

Imperial Capital University's cafeteria was pretty good.

Wang Zixuan and Kuang Zhiguo exchanged a glance and hurried after him.

Though they did not agree with Wu Wei.

In present-day Great Qin, graduate degrees were indeed not worth much, but a graduate degree from Imperial Capital University was still highly valuable.

As long as one graduated successfully, earning four or five hundred thousand a year was easy enough.

But successfully completing graduate school at Imperial Capital University was not easy.

Imperial Capital University was famous for being hard to get into and hard to graduate from.

At those diploma-mill universities, one could coast through and graduate. But Imperial Capital University gathered academic prodigies and elites from around the world. If you failed to earn enough credits or failed to satisfy your advisor, it was easy to be eliminated for ranking near the bottom.

Although they had secured graduate-school recommendations, that merely made admission easier. Graduating successfully would still be very difficult.

So, it was not yet time for them to relax.

After lunch, they returned to the dorm. Kuang Zhiguo took out his password-protected notebook, wrote Li Long's name in it, and added a question mark.

"Li Long died in Wu Wei's room."

"His attitude toward Wu Wei had already been strange while he was drinking yesterday."

"And as far as I remember, he had never written a novel with over ten thousand subscriptions in his entire life."

"Could it be that he, like me—had been reborn?"

"What role did Wu Wei play in all this?"

At that thought, Kuang Zhiguo's brows knitted tightly together.

It was time to speed up the plan.