Hope, only with the company of diligence, can be like a tiger with wings

I believe that death is foretold.

Two weeks before being murdered, death pounced on Newton like a ripe red apple, one after the other ......

On Monday, June 5, 1995, at six o'clock in the morning, I was awakened by the sound of screaming outside my window.

Thinking it was a nightmare sound that hadn't come back for years, I struggled to get up, but couldn't do anything about it, as if someone was pressing down on me - many people have had similar experiences, and it's said to be a "ghostly pressure on the bed".

There he was again. I saw a face, a blurred face in the darkness, resting on the torso of a strong man. I tried to scream, as I did as a child, but I couldn't make a sound, as if I was being choked.

Outside the window came a second, third, nth scream, from a harsh female voice to a rough male voice ......

These heart-rending screams saved my life.

The morning light is bright, the mass of faces in the nightmare disappears, leaving only the poster taped to the bed, Maradona is holding the Hercules Cup, he is my only idol in my teenage years.

This is the boarding Nanming Senior High School, from the fourth floor window looking out, the school library on the roof, lying a girl in white.

Although a hundred meters away, I recognized her at once - Liuman, her body twisted beyond recognition, motionless and rigid on the roof, her long black hair spread like a waterfall among the red corrugated, and I remembered the "Red and Black" I had seen countless times.

She was dead.

Liu Man was a student in senior class (2), and I was her language teacher and homeroom teacher.

My name is Affirmation - Shen of Affirmation, Ming of Affirmation.

Three years ago, I had just graduated from my undergraduate degree in Chinese and was assigned to be a teacher at Nanming Senior High School, the school I knew best.

I only put on a pair of pants, put on a shirt and rushed out of the dormitory. The whole building resounded with the clamor of boys, mostly seeing their classmates die for the first time. I rolled and fell around the corner of the stairs and got up again frantically, not feeling my forehead bleed.

The large school playground was quite wide, with a standard soccer field in the middle, a track and field circle outside, and a large grove of brightly colored flowers in the back, so there was plenty of open space in the middle of nowhere anyway.

Ten years ago, on this very track, I won the men's 100-meter championship in the school games.

I was bare chested, spreading my legs and sprinting with all my might, and time stood still for a moment, as if there was a deep, bottomless river between me and the library. Behind me was the girls' dormitory, screaming and crying, the young girls were all lying at the window, but the focus had shifted from the female corpse on the roof to my back speeding across the playground.

1 minute and 20 seconds, from the dormitory to the library.

Nanming High School's school building is relatively new, with the exception of the library's small two-story building - I don't know how many years ago it was here, and the traditional Chinese hipped roof, with a small attic opening on the roof ridge, no one has ever been up there. This mysterious attic window, which occasionally lights up faintly in the middle of the night, has become one of the school's major paranormal legendary destinations.

Coming to the second floor, which is full of paper and ink, the entire library is empty, except for the dead man on the roof.

Climbing one more flight of stairs, the wooden door of the small attic was locked from the outside with a latch. I pulled the pin and pushed the door open, and was greeted by a dark room with narrow windows, blindingly bright light, piles of old books, dusty coughs, and a strange smell.

The windows were open.

The wind blew the hair, I did not hesitate to flip out of the window - the library roof, tiles and a few tufts of grass at the foot, lying across the white and black-haired girl.

I stumbled and touched the past, my feet slipped and almost fell, I heard a shout from far away from the girls' dormitory, and a tile fell in response to the sound and was pulverized downstairs.

I saw the face of Liu Man, the most beautiful girl in Nanming Senior High School, but also the girl with the most gossip, the most unpleasant gossip - related to me.

From her stiff and twisted expression can be seen, she died in great pain, eyes wide open to face the sky, the final moment to look at the moon or a shooting star?

Or the killer's face?

Why do I think this is a murder?

However, she died in a beautiful manner.

Like a plucked rose that is wilting in a unique way.

Fearing death, but not the dead, I carefully leaned down and touched Yanuman's neck. The screams from the girls' dormitory became more and more frightened and miserable, and I wonder if my image in their minds became more manly or more frightening?

Touched - only the skin of a dead person can be so cold, and a characteristic stiffness.

Despite ample mental preparation, I slipped on the tiles, stirred my feet and moved back a few inches on my back, my fingertips were electrocuted, as if they were going to rot in a few moments.

I have replaced the doctor issued a death notice for Liuman.

Suddenly, two tears slipped from the corners of my eyes, which is the most reasonable tears as a high school teacher, especially the dead girl's homeroom teacher.

I was lying side by side with Liuman on the roof of the library, like two corpses. I couldn't see the stars or the moon, only the gloomy morning sky, which seemed to be floating with the souls of the dead. Through the muddy and miserable air of the big playground, some window of the girls' dormitory, she was hiding between the gaps of a bunch of girls, looking at me with unusual calmness.

"It was a murder."

The man who spoke was in his early thirties, wearing a dark police uniform, with a dark, cold face, no expression since the beginning, and an unusually dull voice.

"Are there ...... any clues to the killer?"

Damn! How to stammer all of a sudden? Fingers subconsciously rubbing the corner of the coat, the second floor of the teacher's office only two of us. Outside the corridor from time to time there are students passing by, huddled in front of the window to see the hustle and bustle, all blown away by the head teacher.

Six hours ago, on the roof of the school library, I confirmed the death of Liu Man, a girl in senior class (2), of whom I was the homeroom teacher and language teacher.

"My name is Huang Hai and I am the officer in charge of this case."

"I didn't expect this to happen to the graduating class I lead, the college entrance exams are in a month, this is really ...... me and the principal just received Liu Man's father, and although I kept apologizing, I still got slapped, but I won't hold a grudge."

I touched my reddened cheek and tried to pull my gaze to the ground, but Officer Huang Hai's eyes were like magnets, giving no place to hide.

"Teacher Shen, it was reported - yesterday, after the evening study, you and Liu Man, two people, were alone in the classroom chatting, is that true?"

His speech was slow and strong, like a pile driver weighing hundreds of tons, crushing me to pieces.

"Yes."

"Why didn't you say so earlier?"

"I-"

Sure enough, I became a murder suspect.

"Don't be nervous, just explain the situation."

"Last night, I happened to pass by that classroom, and it was Liu Man who dragged me to talk. She asked me about difficult questions in the language mock exam paper, such as the allusion to the origin of the two lines of Cao Cao's 'Short Song Line' 'Green dickey, long time in my heart'."

Is this a police interrogation? I made a fool of myself to the extreme, my legs clenched and I actually had the urge to urinate.

"Oh, is that all?"

"It's all in literary terms. She asked Liu Yong "Yu Lin Ling" 'all the door tent drink without a thread, stay in love with the place, the orchid boat rush hair' the orchid boat and Li Qingzhao's 'lightly untie the robe, alone on the orchid boat' is the same kind of boat? "

"Is there more?"

Officer Huang Hai calmly waiting to add, this terrible patience, reminds me of Liu Man's death gesture: "There is also Bai Juyi's 'Pipa Xing', 'Tin-headed cloud grate strikes the section broken, bloody robe skirt turned wine stain' in the line 'Tin-headed cloud grate What is the specific explanation? It seems like just these three questions, I answered and left."

In fact, what came to my mind was "the blood-colored skirt turned to wine".

"Mr. Shen, what is your impression of Liuman?"

"This student has a strange personality, likes to ask around about things, there is almost no secret she does not know in school, so some students also hate her. A girl as beautiful as her can naturally attract the interest of boys, but so far there is no sign of early love. She has more guts than many boys, and I'm afraid she's the only one who dares to run to the library's small attic alone in the middle of the night."

"How do you know that she went there alone in the middle of the night?"

"Oh? And the murderer!" Although I did not kill anyone, but in the police officer's ears, there is a break in every word I said, "You mean - in addition to the murderer and the victim, there may be a third person at the scene?"

Officer Huang Hai calmly shook his head: "Sorry, I'm not here to reason with you about the case."

"Liu Man looks cheerful and lively, but in reality is a lonely child at heart. Probably a single-parent family, following her father growing up, the lack of motherly love. Her grades are not good, reading easily distracted, outside social relations complex. Our Nanming High School is a key boarding school in the city, sending top students to many famous universities, but whether Liuman can get into college is a question mark, I as her homeroom teacher is very headache, often in the evening to help her make up for it."

"I'm very sorry, what I wanted to ask was-"

"I know what you're going to ask," I slammed my fist down hard on the glass tabletop, "Damn it! For the last two weeks, shameless rumors have been circulating in the school, going so far as to say that there is some kind of ambiguous relationship between Liu Man and I. This is the greatest insult to my character and teacher ethics, a bloodbath made out of nothing!"

"Teacher Shen, about this matter, I have talked with the principal as well as several teachers, this rumor has no evidence and is only circulating among the students, I believe you are innocent." Officer Huang Hai couldn't help but light up a cigarette and take two puffs, "By the way, I heard that you graduated from this school?"

"Yes, I spent my three years of high school here, I am too familiar with every grass and tree here, I never thought that after graduating from the Chinese Department of Peking University, I was assigned back to my alma mater to teach and become a glorious people's teacher, I feel very lucky."

When it comes to this kind of disgusting official cliché, I am a good speaker, no need to think through the brain.

"A grass and a tree?" Huang Hai frowned.

I couldn't figure it out: "What's wrong?"

"No, Mr. Shen, you are only twenty-five years old, and your awareness is so high, it's really admirable." His face was full of blue smoke, making it hard to see his eyes, "I heard that you will be leaving Nanming High School soon?"

"I'm really sad to leave! I've only been a high school teacher for three years, this is the first and last graduating class I'll lead, and when the college entrance exams are over in July, I'll be transferred up to the city's Education Department's Mission Committee."

"Then congratulations."

"I still like being a teacher, probably hard to adapt to the work in the office of the agency."

He nodded expressionlessly and quickly extinguished his half-smoked cigarette: "I'll leave now! You won't be going away for the next few days, right?"

"Yes, I have been living in the school dormitory, next month will be the college entrance examination, how can I leave the students?"

"Keep in touch anytime, bye!"

Officer Huang Hai walked out of the room like the wind, I saw the face of the head teacher in the corridor outside the window, but he avoided my gaze and left after the police officer.

I lied to the police.

Although Liu Man likes hazy poetry, but knows very little about classical poetry, how can ask "tin head clouds grate broken knots"?

Last night, she said to me in the study hall, "Mr. Shen, I already know her secret."

Could it be related to the Dead Poets Society?

My heart was beating wildly and I wanted to get out of here before someone saw me and added to my troubles.

Five minutes later, she told me what most dead people know, and I don't think the word "witch" is too strong a word to describe it.

"What's that got to do with you?"

The fluorescent tubes overhead kept shaking, casting two figures on the floor, even though there was no breeze in the classroom.

She leaned against the blackboard and said, "Right here in this school, I know everyone's secrets."

That was the real conversation last night.

But, I didn't kill anyone.

June 5, 1995, 12:00 noon. Everyone went to the cafeteria, but I sat alone in my office, having just touched a corpse in the morning, how could I have the appetite to eat?

In the afternoon, I had a language class, correcting the test papers I had collected a few days before. There was an empty seat in the middle of the classroom, and I don't know who had placed an oleander flower on the desk. From time to time, the students stared up at me and exchanged pleasantries. My tone was weak, and I never dared to mention Liuman, as if the girl who died today had never been in our class.

In the last class, I hurriedly walked out of the classroom with my head down, and the hallway was filled with onlookers, as if I had the word "murderer" plastered on my face.

The class was talking to a few boys at the bottom of the multipurpose building, and when they saw me they immediately dispersed. Only Li Li stayed behind, he was the best student in the class and my favorite student.

"You guys are talking about Liuman?"

"Teacher Shen, don't you know?"

Ma Li was slender and looked like Wu Qi Long, but had Guo Fu Cheng's haircut and a melancholy look all day.

"What?"

"Liuman was poisoned to death!"

"I guess so. When I checked her body this morning, I didn't find any external injuries."

"It's all over the school. The police investigated the scene in the morning and determined that Liu Man was through the attic window of the library before climbing up to the roof. The attic room door was locked from the outside, and the victim could not open it from inside and could not escape after being poisoned. Some liquid residue was found on the floor, and after the police collected the evidence and left, our chemistry teacher went in privately and did the lab tests, and you know he's a loudmouth."

"Tell me the lab results."

"A large amount of oleuropein was found in the water traces."

"Oleander glucoside?"

Actually, I understood it all, but pretended to be confused in front of Malik.

"The chemistry teacher said in class that oleander glucoside can be extracted from oleander, and that 0.5 mg of pure oleander glucoside in an organism is enough to kill! Therefore, he told us not to go near those oleander."

The school playground is full of oleanders on both sides, and every year for final exams, they bloom bright red and brilliantly, and the red oleanders are the most toxic kind.

"Do not just spread these words, the police autopsy report out before, no one knows what the real cause of death of Liu Man!" I patted Malik's shoulder and said against his ear, "People's words are fearful! You know what I mean."

"Teacher, I don't think Liuman would go to the haunted library loft for no reason, someone must have asked her to go there, and who do you think the person who asked her to go there was?"

He stared with eyes so clear that they were palpitating, I took two steps back: "Even you don't believe me anymore?"

"I'm sorry, but the students are talking about ......"

"Shut up!"

I darted away from the horsepower, looking at the lush oleander, the countless fiery red flowers between the green branches and leaves, giving a sense of inexplicable nausea.

Suddenly, I understood why Officer Huang Hai had to repeat what I said "a grass and a tree".