"Go?"Lin Wu looked in the direction that Pei Jianing was pointing toward. The road there seemed to be headed for Xinyu Road. He had the vague feeling that Pei Jianing might be trying to tell him something. He couldn"t help but ask, "You want to drive in that direction?"
Pei Jianing nodded.
"Alright."
Lin Wu turned the steering wheel and stepped on the gas pedal, turning toward that road and driving toward Xinyu Road.
20 minutes later.
Lin Wu carefully drove along Xinyu Road. Pei Jianing then tugged at him again, pointing in another direction.
"More driving?" Lin Wu looked at the direction and couldn"t help but feel puzzled. "Can"t you tell me where you want me to go?"
In a daze, Pei Jianing thought about it for a while before saying a location with great difficulty. "...Dongcheng Suburbs..."
"Dongcheng Suburbs?"
Lin Wu was stunned. He hadn"t expected that she wanted him to head to the Dongcheng Suburbs. They were currently at the Pingsu District, and it was very far away from the Dongcheng Suburbs.
Even if he were to take a cab there, it"d take at least an hour if not longer. Given his driving speed, he was only slightly faster than if he was taking a bicycle. One or two hours might not necessarily be enough.
"Forget, I"ll just take it slow,"
Lin Wu hesitated for a moment but still decided to go. He"d just take this as an opportunity to practice his driving skills.
He switched on the music and turned up the volume to the loudest—
"Drive, drive toward the borders of the city.
Roll down all the car windows.
Trade speed for a bit of pleasure.
Loneliness, chased out by the lively night.
But the grief you left behind for me can"t be confessed to you.
Oh, love, made me into a pessimist.
Oh, love, made me hurt myself.
You made me drunk, you made me cry..." [1]
...
...
One and a half hours later.
The sky had turned completely dark. The pitch-black nightfall encompa.s.sed this city.
Right now, Lin Wu was also able to make a faint guess of why the culprit of Pei Jianing"s car accident couldn"t be found.
On this road that was headed to the Dongcheng Suburbs, there were very few people and cars. There were also not many surveillance cameras. Therefore, many new drivers would often come here to practice their driving. It wouldn"t be an issue even if they were to flout traffic regulations.
It could be that Pei Jianing had gotten into an accident here, but there had been no surveillance records. That was why the culprit hadn"t been found.
"We haven"t arrived yet?"
Lin Wu looked at the pitch-black night sky outside the car window.
At the next second, Pei Jianing, covered in blood, appeared at the front pa.s.senger seat. She spoke, "... Soon..."
Lin Wu could only continue to drive out of the city.
On the way, he had asked Pei Jianing many questions about the car accident. But it was a pity that Pei Jianing"s mind had been shrouded by resentment aura, making it either hard for her to say, or being able to say only a few incomprehensible words. After all the questioning, he still wasn"t able to find out any useful leads.
"Love is like the blue sky and white clouds, with a heavy thunderstorm suddenly appearing in the clear sky..." [2]
At this moment, Lin Wu"s phone that was placed on the dashboard suddenly rang. He picked it up and saw that it was a call from Li Luyao.
"h.e.l.lo, Luyao."
"Lin Wu, have you reached home?" Li Luyao"s pleasant voice rang out.
"Not yet, I"m outside. Have you found out anything about Pei Jianing"s case?" Lin Wu asked.
"En, I got my uncle to check the records just now."
The sound of pages flipping rang out, and Li Luyao said, "Pei Jianing, 17 years old. Her home was at Dongcheng District"s Baihu road, Minan District. She was still in high school when she was alive, and was in the second year of high school at Su City"s Twelfth Middle School."
"Su City"s Twelfth Middle School?" Lin Wu couldn"t help but feel surprised. "My father is a teacher at Twelfth Middle School, and he is also teaching second-year students. Which cla.s.s was Pei Jianing from?"
"The second cla.s.s."
"To think that she happened to be a student my father taught." Lin Wu couldn"t help but feel a little surprised.
Was this a coincidence?
Or was it because she was his father"s student that she had gotten to know the future him?
"She"s Uncle Lin"s student?"
Li Luyao also felt that this was too much of a coincidence. She continued to say, "About one month ago, on 10 June, Pei Jianing got into a car accident at the Dongcheng Suburbs. When she was found, she had been dead for very long. As the roads there were too secluded, there weren"t any surveillance records. Moreover, there had been a heavy rain that night, and there hadn"t been many leads found. Therefore, it wasn"t clear what had happened then."
"But there should have been some conclusion from the autopsy, right?" Lin Wu frowned slightly and asked.
"They concluded that it was an accidental death in a car accident." Li Luyao said, "But I heard from my uncle that there seem to be some questionable points in the report."
"The first thing was that Pei Jianing"s legs were suspected to have been struck by a dull weapon, causing a comminuted fracture to her s.h.i.+n bones."
Li Luyao hesitated for a moment before continuing, "Although the report says that it could have been caused by the collision against the car"s front b.u.mpers, but my uncle said that it"s impossible for such injuries to form when knocked by a car"s front b.u.mpers. Those injuries seemed more like they had been caused by someone with a rod. "
"A rod?"
Lin Wu couldn"t help but turn to look at Pei Jianing. He lowered his head.
Her leg was bent and deformed, clearly fractured. Blood was still seeping out slowly, as if they would never stop.
However, Pei Jianing was expressionless, as if she didn"t feel anything at all.
Lin Wu frowned. Could it be that Pei Jianing"s car accident wasn"t just a simple accident?
Li Luyao continued to say, "The second thing was that there were many light wounds on Pei Jianing"s body, including on her upper thigh, kneecaps, and arms. It was suspected that these wounds had been left behind when she had tried to put up a struggle to live and crawled on the rough road after she had been knocked over by the car and inflicted with serious injuries."
Lin Wu silently looked at Pei Jianing and asked, "And?"
"The third point was that the scooter that Pei Jianing had used while she was alive was 300 meters away from where she had died. It was completely damaged, but that place wasn"t the point of the accident. Therefore, the preliminary a.s.sessment was that her scooter might have been discarded 300 meters away," Li Luyao said.
Lin Wu grabbed onto the steering wheel and took in a deep breath, asking, "Are there anything else?"
"That"s all." Li Luyao shook her head and said.
"What about her relations.h.i.+p with others? Were statements taken from her cla.s.smates, friends, or family members?" Lin Wu asked in a deep voice.
Li Luyao said, "As it was determined that the cause of her death was the car accident, there had only been simple inquiries made to her family and the people close to her. Nothing that had much value was found."
"I"ve got it."
Lin Wu nodded and couldn"t help but frown and say, "This case isn"t that simple. If it was just a simple car accident, Pei Jianing wouldn"t have become a malicious ghost. Moreover, her leg had been broken from a beating. There"s clearly a problem."
"You suspect that someone had planned to murder her?" Li Luyao asked, feeling puzzled. "But there"s no link between my cousin"s circle of friends and Pei Jianing"s circle of friends, right?"
"There are a lot of suspicious points, so we"ll still need to investigate this slowly. Thankfully, we"ve gotten quite a lot of leads." Lin Wu took in a deep breath.
"Lin Wu, isn"t Uncle Lin Pei Jianing"s teacher? You can ask your dad for help and get him to ask around in school." Li Luyao suggested.
"En, tomorrow is Monday. It"s just nice that I have to stand-in for my dad"s cla.s.s. I"ll ask about it personally." Lin Wu nodded and said.
"Then I"ll go with you tomorrow?" Li Luyao asked.
Lin Wu shook his head and said, "No need. I"ll just be asking around. If I find out anything, I"ll let you know and get your help to check things out."
"Alright." Li Luyao nodded. "Then have an early rest today. Good night."
After hanging up the call and putting down the phone, Lin Wu silently looked at Pei Jianing, who was next to him. He suddenly felt that this female ghost was too pitiful.
He had no idea what she had been through while she was alive. To think that she had ended up in such a terrible plight, and the murderer was still on the loose.
It was a pity that Pei Jianing had turned into a malicious ghost and even her mind was now in a state of chaos. It took a lot of effort for her to even say the name of a location, let alone telling him about the entire story clearly.
However, what did Pei Jianing mean when she said "kill… ice…"?
Lin Wu thought about this while continuing to drive on the road.
Suddenly, Pei Jianing"s hand that was dyed in blood reached over and grabbed his wrist. She then pointed to a place in front that wasn"t far off.
"Have we arrived?"
Lin Wu immediately slowed down the car and looked in front.
What did Pei Jianing want to show him to get him to drive such a far distance here?
[1] Lyrics to a Chinese song "You Intoxicated Me" by David Huang.
[2] Lyrics to a Chinese song "Answer" by Yang Kun and Amber Kuo.