"Lichen is amazing." Xiaomi said to Chen Nian.
Chen Nian lowered his head to clean up the desk, the countdown to the college entrance examination entered single digits, and many books had to be moved home gradually.
"Fungi and moss together, one absorbs nutrients, the other photosynthesizes, and grows into lichens. But if you separate them, they can't survive independently and both die."
Zeng Hao, who was collecting the schoolbag in front, turned his head and said, "Xiaomi, you are so emotional, it's a waste to have no early love. Do you want to catch the last train in the last few days?"
Xiaomi kicked her chair and said, "There are better ones in college."
"Not necessarily." Zeng Hao said, his eyes turned to the side unconsciously.
Xiaomi saw it and smiled: "It's already good."
Zeng Hao didn't hide it: "When the exam is over, I'll go after Li Xiang."
"Hey! Then you want to fill in the school in Beijing." Near the end of the term, the atmosphere of separation is getting heavier and stronger, and everyone wants to have more classmates in the same city as themselves.
"Okay. I don't want to stay in this province, I hate the people here." Zeng Hao said. Whether it was the former Hu Xiaodie, she, or Chen Nian who was bullied, everyone's ignorance and ignorance are vividly in my mind.
Zeng Hao: "After I go to college, I will dress up, learn makeup, learn how to dress, join more clubs, and meet many good friends."
Xiaomi also yearned for it, and turned to look at Chen Nian who was packing his books: "Nian, when you go to university, you will definitely be a department flower."
Chen Nian raised his eyelids lazily: "Because of the Department of Mathematics, or the Department of Physics, am I the only girl?"
Zeng Hao laughed and twisted Chen Nian's face: "Natural stay!"
Chen Nian turned his face away gently.
Xiaomi laughed: "It's not the school flower, the school flower, the school flower! - Nian, if you go to the engineering school, there must be a lot of people chasing after you. Have you ever thought about what kind of boys you like?"
Chen Nian put the Oxford dictionary into his schoolbag, zipped it up, and said softly, "I killed someone, and he set me on fire."
Zeng Hao: "… "
Millet:"… "
Chen Nian: "But I won't kill anyone, and I don't want him to set fire."
Zeng Hao pushed her hand: "the joke is so cold. What you mean is that you love you to the point of dying for you, but now there is no such person. "
Xiaomi said, "You have learned how to be a ghost.—Hey, seriously."
"Take me as a little... friend. Wherever I go, he follows...wherever I go. If he can't see me, he will feel at ease; if he can't see him, I... feel at ease." Chen Nian said.
"Nian, are you clownfish and sea anemone?" Xiaomi smiled, "or lichen?"
"NO! NO! NO!" Zeng Hao shook his head, "Chen Nian, this concept of yours will not last long. The emphasis is on equality between lovers, not father and daughter, nor brother and sister; there should be space and freedom. It's too sticky. You have to change your mind."
"Oh." Chen Nian said.
The three packed up and walked out of the classroom. Zeng Hao suggested, "Tomorrow is a day off. Let's call Li Xiang and go to Wenquxing Temple to worship."
Xiaomi: "Even you want to worship the Bodhisattva?"
"It's mainly to climb the mountain to relax, and then go to the snack street for a stroll."
"Don't. The weather is so hot, be careful to eat a bad stomach, the exam is important. After the exam, eat a lot."
"Then go to the head office of the amusement park after climbing the mountain."
"Okay. I want to whack the gopher. - Nian, you can go too."
Chen Nian saw the figure opposite the school gate from a distance, and she shook her head: "I won't go."
"Why don't you go, let's go together." Zeng Hao said.
Chen Nian buzzed his nose: "I seem to have a... cold. I want to take some medicine and rest tomorrow."
"Ah, then stay well, be sure to drink the granules, otherwise, when a cold strikes, it will be a week's rhythm, and don't think about reviewing in the last few days."
"Hmm." She nodded.
Chen Nian bid them farewell at the campus gate.
She walked all the way to the wasteland outside the street, then stopped and turned to look.
The boy Kitano came up.
She leaned sideways, slightly arched, carrying a heavy schoolbag like a snail's shell. The fabric of the clothes at the shoulder straps was soaked with sweat and wrinkled and clinging to the skin.
Kitano stepped forward and pulled the schoolbag off her shoulders.
She straightened a little and followed him.
"No class tomorrow," she said.
Kitano: "One day?"
"Um."
"Do you want to review, or do you want to go out and play?" he asked.
"Go out and play."
"it is good."
Everyone goes their separate ways, everything is fine.
After a long journey, Kitano asked, "That person at noon is the policeman you know?"
"Yes."
"What is he doing with you?"
"He said to be vigilant with boys of the same age. He also said—"
Kitano asked, "What else?"
Chen Nian replied: "Don't go home with boys. Don't go, it's a place with few people."
Kitano did not speak. After a while, maybe she noticed that she was still waiting for him to answer, so she asked, "then you still come with me."
Chen Nian lowered his head and pursed the corner of his mouth lightly: "Follow me, so what?"
Kitano smiled faintly.
Chen Nian: "Everyone said that Wei Lai was first killed by... , and then killed. There have been several cases of that before. It may be a person. Young, our peers."
Kitano didn't answer for a while, and after a while he asked, "Aren't you afraid that I'm the prisoner?"
Chen Nian shook his head: "I'm not afraid."
Kitano turned to look at her with dark eyes: "If it was really me, wouldn't you be afraid?"
Chen Nian fixedly looked at him and shook his head again: "I'm not afraid."
Kitano was speechless, and after a while he said, "Fool."
Chen Nian pulled a dog's tail grass and twisted it in his hand, and walked slowly behind him.
Thinking about it, waving the thin straw stalk to scratch at the palm of his hand, he touched it suddenly, withdrew his hand and looked back at her, snorted disdainfully like an adult viewing a child's ghost tricks, and continued to walk.
Chen Nian chased after him and scratched him.
He asked, "Do what?"
"Tomorrow, where are you taking me to play?"
"You'll know then."
"Oh," Chen Nian followed beside him, the furry dog's tail grass was still scratching in his palm. He was used to it, indifferent, and let her play with it.
"Was it fun to go there?" she asked.
"What do you say?" he asked back.
"Fun," she replied.
"How do you know it's fun?" he asked again.
"I know." She replied again.
"Oh, are you a fairy?"
"Not a fairy, but I know."
Even after many years, Chen Nian can clearly remember every conversation with Kitano.
She doesn't talk much, and he doesn't talk much. Most of the time, they walked along quietly and silently, like two ignoring strangers.
Those occasional conversations, recalled many years later, are boring and stupid; yet strangely,
Even after many years, Chen Nian can clearly remember the mood of each conversation with Kitano.
Floating like a clear lake.
…
Zheng Yi came back from work outside and just walked into the office lobby when his colleagues greeted him: "Hurry up, Team Pan is calling for a meeting."
Zheng Yi didn't have time to drink water and rushed to the conference room.
Lao Yang was in charge of investigating the two rape cases last month, and was making a report: "... It was the rainy season, and both victims were attacked while walking alone at night. Due to the loud rain, I couldn't hear the footsteps of the people behind them. With an umbrella, my vision is also disturbed."
Forensic doctor Xiao Zhu added: "The suspect was wearing a raincoat and covered his face. When the victim struggled, only a bit of rubber on the raincoat was caught in his fingernails."
Lao Yang said: "It's a very common raincoat, and we didn't find any favorable clues. - The two victims reported that the other threatened them with a knife, but during the process of sexual behavior, he made them feel very young, tall, and thin. Our analysis believes that the suspects are between 17 and 19 years old. They are likely to be their peers. But because the victims reported to the police too late, we did not find many valid clues from these two cases.”
Someone said: "After those two cases, there are no new alarms."
Lao Yang said: "The victims were young, and some of them should have chosen to remain silent."
Captain Pan asked, "What do you think of the body found this time?"
Zheng Yi tiptoed to the side, gently pulled out the chair and sat down.
Lao Yang said: "We think it is very likely the same person."
He glanced at the forensic doctor Xiao Zhu, who said:
"The autopsy showed that the deceased's wrists, shoulder blades, and legs had scars and bruises caused by struggling, perineum injuries, new lacerations to the vagina, no semen remaining in the body, and condoms should be used. These fit well with the first two known rape victims.
However, due to the weather, high temperature and high humidity, and being buried in the mud by the river after death, it is difficult to predict the exact time of death. It is about the middle of this month, between May 10th and May 16th. The deceased disappeared on May 12, so it was from the 12th to the 16th. "
"Zheng Yi, how about you?"
Zheng Yi said: "The parents of the deceased were at work and didn't care about their children. They had no idea when and where she went out on the 12th. She only called her friend Xu Miao that day."
Lao Yang: "Xu Miao? Did you bully your classmates and make trouble with her last time?"
"Yes. I asked Xu Miao, and the deceased called her that day to ask her to go out to play. But Xu Miao was in class at school and refused, and told her not to contact her again." Zheng Yi said, "The two used to be the best. Her friends, scolded and fought together. But after the last incident, her parents took her very seriously, watching her in and out of school, and from time to time she went to school to see if she had skipped class. It was almost equal to her and The dead man broke up."
When Zheng Yi said this, he remembered what Xu Miao said inadvertently at the time: "Fortunately, I listened to my parents and didn't mess up again, otherwise I would be unlucky."
Zheng Yi wondered: "What do you mean by that?"
"Oh, nothing interesting, just a boring delusion."
"What illusion?"
"It feels like she was killed because someone hated her."
Zheng Yi didn't speak at the time, and Xu Miao said, "However, I heard that she was raped, so I said it was an illusion."
Zheng Yi glanced at the table full of colleagues and said cautiously: "I don't think we should prematurely bind these cases together. There's one thing I've always cared about."
"Which point?" Officer Yang asked.
"Where did the clothes and shoes of the deceased go?" Zheng Yi asked, "Why did you separate the clothes and shoes from the body? - The deceased was a local, and he had relatives, so there is no saying that stripping the clothes could hinder the police's identification."
Everyone was silent for a while, and Lao Yang said, "From a psychological point of view, stripping clothes has further humiliating implications."
Zheng Yi seized the loophole: "So you have a personal grudge?"
Old Yang paused and shook his head again: "Not necessarily. It may also be that the suspect himself has hatred for women, which is very common in many serial rape cases."
"Then—" Before Zheng Yi finished speaking, the forensic doctor Xiao Zhu made a gesture to him,
"One thing we said before you came, you may not have heard it." Forensic doctor Xiao Zhu said,
"This time the deceased, namely Wei Lai, also found fragments of the raincoat in her fingernails. We compared the material with those of the two previous victims, and it was the same raincoat."