Judge of Souls-Chapter 17 - Confession

After Ma Shiluo finished the noodles, the entire takeout box had gone cold.

“You robbed me of a bowl of noodles,” Jiang Feng’s eyelids twitched. “The living and dead walk different paths. What’s the point in looking for me?”

Ma Shiluo asked, “Have you read my thesis?”

Jiang Feng said, “I don’t understand it.”

Ma Shiluo asked softly, “Which part don’t you understand?”

Jiang Feng: “I don’t understand any of it.”

“I can explain it to you,” Ma Shiluo smiled, “I’m almost finished.”

****

Officer Ye was directing people to clean up the scene when his phone rang.

He instinctively reached for his pocket, only to realize it was Wu Zhiwei’s phone. The caller was a name from the contact list he had just inquired about.

Officer Ye answered, “Hello?”

After two seconds of silence, an anxious female voice responded, “Could you come to the school? I want to report something.”

“You lent money to Wu Zhiwei, right?” Officer Ye scratched his ear and said, “That’s financial fraud, not my jurisdiction. I’ll have my colleagues contact you later, okay?”

“No, no!” The person on the other end quickly spoke up when she heard he was about to hang up. “I want to tell you about Wu Zhiwei and Ma Shiluo’s situation.”

She paused, then continued, “I have Ma Shiluo’s signed complaint letter.”

Officer Ye: “What did she report?”

The other party said, “Sexual harassment, Lu Quan.”

Officer Ye thought this sounded familiar, as he had just heard a completely opposite version yesterday. He glanced at Chu Xuanliang, asking as if seeking confirmation. “Wait, clarify this, who sexually harassed whom?”

“Her, Lu Quan sexually harassed her. She wanted to report it, but the school covered it up. They threatened that she wouldn’t be allowed to graduate,” the person said. “So last year… no, the previous time her third-year graduate report was rejected.”

Officer Ye couldn’t help reaching for the cigarettes in his pocket.

That came so quickly? They hadn’t even started threatening yet.

Officer Ye said, “I’ll come meet you now. Let’s meet at the café outside your school. Call my personal phone, I’ll give you my number…”

Fifteen minutes later, three people sat in the most corner spot of the café.

The store was nearly empty now, with a wall on one side and empty space on the other.

The person who wanted to report was the Dean of the Management Department whom they had met yesterday.

She hadn’t expected that the police officer handling Wu Zhiwei’s case would be Officer Ye.

“I knew it…” the Dean looked at Chu Xuanliang with a dry smile, her makeup was exquisite but she looked haggard. “Wu Zhiwei’s name wasn’t on the list you showed me yesterday. I thought, if Ma Shiluo wanted revenge, how could she possibly spare us.”

She paused and asked, “Is my name on it too?”

Chu Xuanliang remained silent.

The Dean slumped back as if drained of energy, as though her end was near.

Officer Ye knocked on the table and said, “Dean, there’s no point asking about this now. Did you dare to come forward to report because you’re afraid of becoming the next victim of revenge?”

The Dean’s throat moved. “We all have our unspeakable difficulties.”

People are always like this – justice and conscience get buried under selfishness, only barely surfacing under fear.

Such people are hard to sympathize with regardless of the outcome, but it must be said that they represent society’s normal state.

The Dean picked up her coffee with one hand, her fingers still trembling, and slowly began to tell the story.

Lu Quan was the vice dean of the Management Department and also one of Ma Shiluo’s course instructors. Besides this, like most vice deans at good universities, he had other social identities.

Ma Shiluo was a student without connections or many friends, always appearing somewhat odd and only dealing with data all day.

Lu Quan had some unsavory thoughts, and being in a high position, he was skilled at speaking and manipulation. Plus, university students are generally inexperienced and timid, and society has certain biases about such matters… in short, there were various reasons and methods to make people give up pursuing the matter.

Ma Shiluo wasn’t the first, nor would she be the last. However, she was the bravest one.

At that time, it became quite a big issue when Ma Shiluo submitted a signed letter to the principal reporting Lu Quan.

But she was too naive. Wherever there are people, there are unwritten rules. Society is just a big chain of interests.

Even if the school administration had conflicts with Lu Quan, they would absolutely not allow such news to spread. If a university had such a scandal, it would greatly affect funding, development, enrollment, and countless people would be punished.

They couldn’t publicize it, and they absolutely couldn’t acknowledge it. As long as they firmly denied it, it would just be mere slander.

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So the school administration suppressed the matter, citing lack of evidence.

But that wasn’t the end. Lu Quan was too vicious – he actually turned it around and falsely accused Ma Shiluo of trying to trade favors with him.

Lu Meng was studying at A University, and due to her privileged background, she had good relationships with others. She couldn’t accept her father being slandered like this, nor could she bear such consequences. She and her classmates spread false information on the school forum, class groups, dormitory groups, and college groups. Soon the whole university and graduate school knew about it. Ma Shiluo had no way to clarify things.

Lu Xun said, “I’ve always used the worst malice to judge C*****e people.”

People everywhere are the same, all kinds of people are the same.

They’re more willing to believe things that sound dirty, things that greatly satisfy their self-esteem and curiosity, even if they don’t sound reasonable.

“I said it was too much at the time, really too much,” the Dean said, “I also advised Ma Shiluo to give up, but she wouldn’t.”

“Huh.” Officer Ye was already showing great restraint in not jumping up to hit her.

He grabbed his hair, thinking how his temper had really improved over the years.

Damn it all!

Officer Ye said, “When something happens, you cover up for the perpetrator and instead advise the victim to swallow their anger? Is this the moral education at your university? Is this how you educate the next generation of our country?”

He laughed sarcastically, “No wonder people say society is too utilitarian nowadays, because a bunch of scum have climbed to the top of society.”

Chu Xuanliang sat quietly beside him, his cold gaze falling on the Dean. After hearing Officer Ye’s emotional speech, he suddenly asked, “Are police officers usually allowed to mock witnesses like this?”

Officer Ye: “…”

“Damn it, that’s enough!” Officer Ye said, “Do you have evidence? I didn’t say anything just now, okay?”

Chu Xuanliang ignored him. “What about Wu Zhiwei? What did he do?”

The Dean closed her eyes, feeling there was nothing left to hide.

During that period, wherever Ma Shiluo walked on campus, she was surrounded by slander. Everyone’s eyes carried contempt and disdain.

This didn’t end with one class graduating. Lu Meng was still at school, tirelessly spreading this story to her new juniors, constantly reminding everyone of her existence.

Ma Shiluo usually didn’t like socializing and didn’t care about others’ gazes, so during that time she didn’t seem particularly different.

Wu Zhiwei was Ma Shiluo’s advisor, but because of his dealings with Lu Quan, he turned a blind eye to everything, neither clarifying nor refuting, even tacitly approving by refusing to sign Ma Shiluo’s papers.

In such an environment, she still chose to stay and delay graduation.

At the time, no one knew what she was planning to do, but now perhaps we know a little – for revenge.

Officer Ye asked, “So what was Ma Shiluo’s real cause of death?”

She had just made Wu Zhiwei bankrupt, but her biggest enemy should have been Lu Quan. How could she stop her revenge halfway?

The Dean said, “I really don’t know about this. The school didn’t investigate.”

Officer Ye: “Did you clean up her dorm desk? Afraid the police would find out about all this?”

“…I don’t know,” the Dean said, “After all, she wasn’t my student. The Management Department didn’t handle her matters anymore. But I think Wu Zhiwei probably cleaned it up. Because all of Ma Shiluo’s thesis materials disappeared.”

Chu Xuanliang matched up the names – Lu Quan, Lu Meng, Tian Doudou, and several school leaders made sense, but what about the other names on the list?

The Dean explained, “At that time, when the school wouldn’t handle it, Ma Shiluo threatened to go to court. To make her give up this idea, Lu Quan had several of his students come forward as witnesses.”

Chu Xuanliang: “Witnesses to what?”

“Witnesses that…they had seen Ma Shiluo behaving inappropriately in front of Lu Quan,” the Dean said, “But these were all Lu Quan’s personal actions! He deserves to die, but what does it have to do with us?”

“F*ck!” Officer Ye said, “Listen to yourself, don’t you feel ashamed when you say this? Don’t you feel like there’s a dog gnawing at your conscience in your chest?”

Chu Xuanliang wiped his sweat. “With such a temper, how did you become a police officer? Haven’t you ever been reported?”

“Then why don’t you come be a police officer if you’re so calm? I’ve always said the people’s police welcomes you!” Officer Ye said, “Besides, being a people’s police officer requires a bright red heart above all, whether it has wings or a rocket booster or carries bombs, it’s all lovely, understand?”

Chu Xuanliang nodded repeatedly. “I understand, I understand.”

Officer Ye said, “The law indeed cannot give you the punishment you deserve, but that doesn’t mean you’re not murderers. How do you manage to face your students calmly after killing someone?”

The Dean pressed her lips together, saying nothing.

In essence, she felt this matter had nothing to do with her. At the time, she was just called in to sit in on the inquiry with Lu Quan. She never made any decisions.

Is indifference a crime? If so, wouldn’t everyone in the world be guilty?

Officer Ye was rubbing his face with his large hand, thinking about how to intervene and write the report. Suddenly, a male student darted over from the side.

From his expression, it was clear he had been eavesdropping the whole time.

The student rushed over and, quick as lightning, grabbed Officer Ye’s coffee and splashed it on the Dean’s head.

The three people froze in place, none of them moving.

The student quickly grabbed Chu Xuanliang’s coffee and splashed her again.

The Dean hiccupped in shock.

The student clearly wanted to splash her again, still not satisfied. But seeing that the Dean’s cup was almost empty from her drinking it, he just put the entire cup on her head.

After perfectly executing everything, he ran away, leaving everyone with a brilliant view of his back.