Netherworld Investigator

In the long and empty corridor, the sound of "knocking" footsteps made by high-heeled shoes came from far to near.

The sky began to change indistinctly, and the empty room seemed to be covered with a dark veil. Wen Baifan leaned against the window with his arms folded, staring at the mirror on the wall, his gaze suddenly met a woman with long and narrow eyes up.

Li Xiaohui raised her hand and knocked on the open door: "We meet again, officer."

"Ms. Li, at this time, shouldn't you be conducting the rehearsal at the Orchestra Club?" Wen Baifan smiled at her in the mirror, raised his wrist to check the time, 04:30.

"The children are practicing seriously. I will disappear for a while, and no one will notice." Li Xiaohui playfully stuck out her tongue at Wen Baifan in the mirror. "I recognized you immediately when I saw the back just now, come up to say hello."

Wen Baifan reached out and gestured on his chest, joking himself: "Because the shoulders are sloping, so it's easy to identify."

"Ah, you're right. Whether I smile or not, I seem to be impolite." Li Xiaohui still couldn't hold back, and smiled with the back of her hand on her lips for a while, "Standing on the podium in the activity room of the orchestra club, can you I happened to see the dressing mirror between the stairs here, you just looked in the mirror and straightened your hair for a while, I saw it all."

Wen Baifan also laughed, and shyly scratched the little curly hair around his ears, and said: "Although such an unfortunate thing happened, I don't think everyone was affected by it."

Hearing this, Li Xiaohui's eyes became soft, "Thanks to the presence of Vice Principal Zhang Feng, everything in the school is running normally."

Wen Baifan glanced at her inadvertently, and remembered an inconspicuous photo he saw at Zhang Feng's just now.

It was a tidbit of an interschool art competition.After the performance, the scene of the audience standing up and applauding was captured by photographers.The composition of the photo is not perfect, and many messy corners are in the mirror, but the atmosphere is full and the scene is full.In the picture, Zhang Feng looks admiringly at Teacher Bai Xue in the center of the stage, while Li Xiaohui, who is next to the piano, lightly presses her lower lip and looks at Zhang Feng eagerly and lonely.

Falling in love with someone's eyes is like a stretched lie, barely covering one place, and eventually revealing more flaws elsewhere.

Wen Baifan suddenly asked nervously: "By the way, where is Teacher Bai Xue? She is about to leave work at this time, right?"

Li Xiaohui smiled narrowly: "What? Police officer, you care about Teacher Bai very much."

Wen Baifan pretended not to hear the teasing meaning in her words, and said to himself: "I just talked about it after meeting with Principal Zhang, oh, what happened, Teacher Bai must be under a lot of mental pressure."

What he said can be understood as: Gao Kui had an accident, and the dance competition was imminent. Principal Zhang understood Bai Xue's plight as an instructor.However, listening to Li Xiaohui's ears, it can produce a completely different meaning, as if how ambiguous and sympathetic Zhang Feng is to Bai Xue.

Li Xiaohui twitched the corners of her mouth, her smile was a bit cold, "That's right, after all, it was Principal Xu who had the accident, and those of us who are not familiar with the principal feel embarrassed, let alone Teacher Bai."

Wen Baifan looked at her blankly: "Why, are Teacher Bai and Principal Xu familiar?"

"Familiar, why not." Li Xiaohui looked back at him meaningfully.

Coming out of the elementary school, Wen Baifan dialed Luo Fei's number: "Help me check the call records of another person, Zhang Feng, the vice principal of Chaoyang Primary School, the time is the afternoon of December 12th."

The deep tone flows out from the violin, and the children come out of the school gate one after another. The four copper characters of "Chaoyang Elementary School" shine brightly in the evening light, and the air is faintly filled with the rich smell of cattle stalls on the roadside. aroma.

Maybe it's because of Friday, there are many parents who come to pick up and drop off their children, and cars come and go.

Wen Baifan noticed that someone was watching him not far away, he was always very sensitive to other people's gaze.

That gaze came from a little boy in a school uniform.The child looks very good, with big and bright eyes, just looking at you like this can make people's hearts soften.A fluffy brown bear dangled from his belt, its butt dangling from the hem of his coat.

Wen Baifan walked up to him and knelt down, and asked softly, "Little friend, what's your name?"

The child tilted his head to look at him, and replied crisply: "Xinxin."

"Ah, your name is Xinxin." Wen Baifan couldn't help but reached out and stroked his hair, it was very short and soft, like a nest of fluffy chicks.

"Hmm." I don't know why, but it seems that this movement of touching the head made the child feel happy. His eyes narrowed slightly, like a kitten feeling comfortable.

Wen Baifan looked at him tenderly: "What were you doing looking at brother just now?"

Unexpectedly, the child gasped, "Uncle, you must be thinking too much. You are standing where my father usually waits for me after school."

The immature childish voice is bright and clear, but the words that come out are not pleasant, "I'm just waiting for you to go away."

Wen Baifan smiled stiffly, retracted his hands angrily, and stuffed the small chocolate pudding hidden in his sleeve back into his pocket.

I won't give you food.

not playing with you.

Not cute at all.

"Dad!" The child suddenly yelled loudly, and ran away with his legs loose.

Wen Baifan squatted and turned his head, subconsciously took a look, the bear's butt behind Xiao Budian was swinging back and forth, well, it's actually a bit cute.

A gray sports car slowly stopped not far away, the license plate number seemed familiar, Wen Baifan took another look subconsciously.

I saw a dark suede boot stepping out of the driver's seat, looking up, black windbreaker, dark green striped scarf, and then up...Wen Baifan was stunned and blinked vigorously.

"How long are you going to watch?"

Sure enough, that's right, it was this cold voice again.

"You..." Qiao Kejun lowered his head and looked at the people who were still squatting on the ground in a daze.

"?" Wen Baifan returned a look of confusion.

Silly, a bit like a puppy.

Perhaps because he felt sorry for his impolite association, Qiao Kejun looked away unnaturally, "Where do you live, I'll take you there. It's not easy to take a taxi at this point."

"Thank you - ouch!" The ending sound rose an octave.After squatting for a long time and getting up, the soles of his feet were like fireworks exploding all over the sky. Fortunately, Wen Baifan grabbed a street tree with quick eyesight and hands.

Qiao Kejun put the outstretched hand into the pocket of the windbreaker, and the words on his mouth were like gold: "Be careful."

Wen Baifan silently followed behind him, and the small theater in his heart had already begun to be staged with gongs and drums.

What was that kid called Qiao Kejun just now?

oh dad.

... Dad? !

"Dad, don't forget to take me to eat pizza." Qiao Xin nested in the safety seat in the back seat, reminding pitifully.

"I haven't forgotten." Qiao Kejun replied calmly.

Wen Baifan, who was sitting in the co-pilot, clearly saw that Qiao Kejun quickly straightened the steering wheel that was about to turn left, and drove forward calmly.

This father is so stubborn.

Qiao Xin was also silently slandering, if he didn't remind him, his father would take him for granted to eat the full-score set meal of five grains and six vegetables in Coarse Grain Square.He doesn't want it, it's Friday!Even if Dad is a **** devil on weekdays, today is Friday!

The turbulent traffic jams are like a huge vortex in the afterglow of dusk, devouring human energy and patience one by one.

A long red light escalated the silence in the car, Wen Baifan dryly talked about the daily life, "I didn't expect that, you look about my age, my son is already this old."

"I'm a few years older than you." Qiao Kejun replied lightly. He didn't seem to want to discuss his personal affairs, so he changed the subject, "Why did you come to school? Did you find anything new?"

Talking about business, Wen Baifan was much more relaxed: "Bai Xue, I asked Luo Fei to talk to Zhang Guian's old security guard, and I learned that shortly after Bai Xue joined the job half a year ago, Principal Xu asked them to stop patrolling the fifth floor. I ran into Mr. Bai and Principal Xu in disheveled clothes on the fifth floor, and I was fired three months ago with an excuse."

Wen Baifan glanced at the rearview mirror, and found that Qiao Xin was staring at him intently, obviously fascinated by what he heard.

"Hey, let me say, is it okay for us to discuss this kind of restricted topic in front of children? I think Mr. Ling seems to understand what we are talking about."

"Ah, it's okay." Qiao Kejun didn't care.

"Is it really okay?" Wen Baifan tried to change the words to make Qiao Kejun understand, "Will you talk to your wife about work like this after you go home? Your work partners are quite bloody, she doesn't feel disgusted?"

Qiao Kejun said calmly, "I don't have a wife."

Wen Baifan was taken aback, for some reason, he secretly heaved a sigh of relief while feeling apologetic.

"Of course I understand. You are investigating the case. I know a lot." Qiao Xin squeezed his head out from between the front and passenger seats.

Qiao Kejun frowned: "How many times have I said, don't move around while driving, go back and sit down."

Qiao Xin was upset by his stern face, and shrank back in the back seat angrily.

Looking at Qiao Xin's bulging face, Wen Baifan thought it was amused, and couldn't help coaxing him: "Come on, I'll give you a present..."

Qiao Xin took the chocolate pudding with a look of disgust, and whispered, "Childish."

Wen Baifan rolled down the car window, letting the noisy wind caress his handsome face.

"I went to Gao Kui's house at noon today..." As soon as Wen Baifan said that, he realized that he was looking for shoes, and he patted his head, "Ah, I even forgot to help her find her dancing shoes."

"Dancing shoes?"

"Well, her dancing shoes are missing, and I can't find them in the pile of evidence. Xiao Tang asked me to go to school to look for them."

"I didn't see the little girl's dancing shoes at the scene of the crime that day." Qiao Kejun said firmly.

Qiao Xin put the little pudding into his pocket, then sat on the passenger seat, carefully poked the back of Wen Baifan's head with his hand: "That, what's it called..."

"Who?"

"You." The child continued poking.

Wen Baifan reported his name, and Qiao Xin asked, "Which one is Bai?"

Wen Baifan was choked up, white is white, what is white.He searched his mind, and chose an elegant way of saying: "'Li Bai is about to sail in a boat'."

Qiao Xin asked sincerely: "Which Bai is Li Bai who is about to sail in a boat?"

Wen Baifan thought about it, maybe the children in the first grade are not very good at ancient poetry.He coughed lightly, and half-sang and half-recited a popular lyrics: "The black you speak of is not black, and the white you speak of is white...white."

Qiao Xin tilted her head: "Then what white are you talking about?"

"You did it on purpose!" Wen Baifan turned around and made a face at him, "Idiot Bai, ask suicide again!"

Qiao Kejun sighed: "Just say white is white."

In order to prevent the annoying child from asking which Fan, whether it is the annoying Fan, Wen Baifan added: "Everyone's Fan."

"You might as well stop explaining." Qiao Kejun couldn't listen anymore, and said to Qiao Xin, "It's an ordinary Fan, not a troublesome one."

Qiao Xin nodded: "Oh, that, Brother Wen Baifan..."

"Why did you become an older brother all of a sudden?" Wen Baifan was a little helpless, "Didn't you just return uncle?"

"Why do you hold grudges so carefully, be careful."

Wen Baifan was angered by the child and got internal injuries, but what Qiao Xin said next cheered him up, "I know Gao Kui, she was bullied by others, and her shoes were dirty, it happened at noon yesterday Son."

"other people?"

"Wang Yining in Class [-] of [-] years is of mixed race, I recognize her."

"Bully?"

"Yesterday at noon, I saw her buy a bottle of yogurt from the grocery store, find her dancing shoes from Gao Kui's locker, and pour the yogurt on them." Don't look at Qiao Xin's small size, Slumped in the safety seat of the back seat, she looks like a delicate kitten, but she speaks as clearly as an adult.

"Noon yesterday? You mean, Gao Kui's dancing shoes were soiled at noon yesterday?" Wen Baifan's eyes lit up. If it was true, this might be an important breakthrough.

The dismissal time of Chaoyang Elementary School is [-]:[-] p.m., and Gao Kui claimed that she went to the old classroom to practice after finishing her duty. The time when she was attacked was five o’clock when the clearing bell rang, but she didn’t even know that her dancing shoes were stolen. It was dirty, and Gao Kui was wearing normal shoes when he was rescued.That is to say, when she was attacked, Gao Kui probably hadn't even had time to change into her dancing shoes.

These pressing problems that pop up one after the other are exciting because they all represent the possibility of being solved.

"Then tell me, why did Wang Yining do this?"

"Girls' jealousy." Qiao Xin swayed her feet in the back seat, speaking in an old-fashioned tone, "Wang Yining was unwilling to be the second heroine, and thought that she was more suitable for the lead dancer than Gao Kui, so he took advantage of Gao Kui's inattention. , I want to make some small damage to vent my anger."

"Hey, you know a lot." Wen Baifan deliberately teased him, "Are you sure this information is reliable?"

"Reliable." Qiao Xin nodded seriously, his serious appearance made people laugh.

"But it's strange. Gao Kui and Wang Yining should be in higher grades than you. How do you know them?" Even though boys in elementary school develop earlier than girls and are generally shorter in height, Qiao Xin looks too young.Looking at Qiao Kejun's stature, he is a full head taller than Wen Baifan, who is 1 meters tall. The family's genes are not too short.

"He skipped a grade, and now he is in the fourth grade, but he is only six years old." Qiao Kejun added calmly.

Wen Baifan raised his eyebrows, and couldn't help teasing him after being surprised: "Mr. Qiao, you are so smart. But you don't even remember my name, so why are you so interested in other young ladies?"

"You didn't introduce yourself formally at all, okay? I don't even know your name, so how can I remember it?" Qiao Xin blinked and looked at Wen Baifan, "But, as long as it's someone I've met I'll keep it in my mind."

"Don't bother Principal Zhang. To save trouble, he has to come to school on Saturday." Wen Baifan patted the shoulder of Zhang Gui'an, who was on duty, and pressed his hand that was about to pick up the phone, "I know the way , you can go in by yourself.”

Zhang Gui'an had no choice but to put down the microphone obediently.

"Did you start patrolling the fifth floor yesterday?" Wen Baifan leaned against the door of the security room, casually chatting with him, "After all, such an accident happened, so we need to take more precautions."

Zhang Guian nodded again and again: "Of course."

"Speaking of which, since most people don't go to the fifth floor, how did that little girl find this classroom?" Wen Baifan scratched his head, as if talking to himself. "Well, there's nothing strange about it. Probably Teacher Bai mentioned that place to her specifically."

Zhang Gui'an gave a vague "hmm".

He turned his face away and looked out of the window. It was a winter afternoon, the sun was like a huge and warm blanket on the playground, and the small tiles on the outer wall of the teaching building danced with fine light. It was really a good day.

Wen Baifan spoke suddenly, and said something meaningful: "You said before that you didn't meet Principal Xu on the fifth floor, isn't it true?"

Zhang Gui'an was startled, paused for a moment, and then said: "I don't remember clearly."

"Ha, look at what I'm asking. It's not unusual to see the principal in school. It's not normal if you haven't." Wen Baifan smiled and made a thoughtful relief.

Zhang Gui'an opened his mouth, as if he wanted to say something, but he still didn't say it.

When he turned to leave, Wen Baifan couldn't help thinking of what Qiao Kejun said to Qiao Xin yesterday: "Jealousy is an innate emotion of human beings like you and me. Women should not bear all the blame. Gender differences cause people to express jealousy." The methods are different, but the essence is the same.”

At that moment, whether it was an illusion or not, Qiao Kejun's eyes seemed inexplicably cold and alienated, "Human beings are such creatures that are easily manipulated by emotions."