Chapter 18-2 - Case 2-The deadly chocolate

Thank you Beverly for your constant support. Dedicating this chapter to you ♡〜٩(^▿^)۶〜♡

<<Bullying trigger warning>>

Chapter 18-2:

Bai Xiaoxiao rationalized her thoughts and said: “As far as I know…There are a few things, the first one happened in the freshman year. We need to go outside to dry the clothes in the dormitory building. Each dormitory is allocated one drying line… But there are many people drying out there, it is often messy, and it is common to lose clothes or whatever.”

“Once I saw Dong Fang quarreling with Guo Hua outside the dormitory, saying that she had lost a very expensive dress and decided that Guo Hua had stolen it. Ma Aijing also helped Dong Fang by calling Guo Hua a thief and cursed her out. Although Guo Hua’s family was poor, she was tough. She asked them to check her belongings and they did not find the dress Dong Fang was talking about. Dong Fang changed her words and said that she was mistaken. This time Guo Hua asked them to apologize, which was a reasonable request, but Dong Fang probably could not lose face, so she insisted that she put the dress in the bathroom. There are often facial cleansers and skin care products missing, so the dress must have been stolen by Guo Hua.”

“There is still some proof to say clothes are stolen, but to say cosmetics are missing, how can there be evidence? It was unprovoked. The two sides quarreled until it was too late to repair the relationship, and there was no clear outcome. However, the problem was solved. Later, the cosmetics in their dormitory were changed to put them in the bedroom. Anyone who wanted to use them would bring them to the bathroom and Gua Hua didn’t talk to them much anymore.”

Song Wen nodded and let Bai Xiao Xiao continue.

“The second thing was in the third year. In their dormitory only Dong Fang had a laptop. You should also know, when living in the dormitory, people will sometimes put their things in other places. That day, Dong Fang was carrying a laptop when the next door students suddenly called out to her regarding something. She was in a hurry to go out, so she casually placed the laptop on Guo Hua’s desk; because Dong Fang’s desks and chairs were always messy, and Guo Hua’s table was closest to the door.”

“Unexpectedly, when Dong Fang came back, she found that there was water on Guo Hua’s desk and that her laptop was wet. Later, she took the laptop to the service center and found that the motherboard was burnt. It had cost her more than 3,000 yuan to repair it.”

“It was Dong Fang’s own fault , She shouldn’t have put things in random places, but she insisted that the table was dry when she placed her laptop down, it was Guo Hua who deliberately poured water on her laptop for revenge. Guo Hua said that the table belongs to her, and she found a laptop on her table. But she did not touch the laptop nor did she deliberately splashed water to destroy Dong Fang’s laptop.”

“The matter was a big deal. The two sides insisted on their arguments. They quarreled with the class teacher and even alarmed the Dean of their branch. In the end, because Dong Fang’s attitude was quite tough, even her family came to put pressure on the teacher. In the end, the teacher let Guo Hua give out five hundred yuan as a gesture of goodwill and asked Dong Fang to promise to take good care of her valuables.” (T/N: I feel so bad of GH, especially considering her family status)

Song Wen slightly frowned when he heard this, there were no cameras in the bedroom. Who was telling the truth? Who was telling the lies, it cannot be judged. In the end, the way it was handled, it looked like they were both partially blamed. Guo Hua felt wronged, and Dong Fang couldn’t swallow this defeat. They beat Guo Hua for the first time afterwards, and that should be the first time Guo Hua went to the school hospital for medical treatment.

“Since then, they have been bullying Guo Hua, and sometimes quite excessively. Guo Hua often had to help them wash their clothes, wash their shoes, and fetch water for the dormitory. Once, I saw Guo Hua helping them wash their lace underwear. She was crying as she washed them.” Xiao Xiao whispered in a small voice.

Song Wen frowned. It was indeed too much for a girl to be bullied like this.

“There is another thing that happened recently…” Bai Xiaoxiao lowered her head.

“One day Guo Hua came to me to get dinner together, and I saw a scar on her arm. It looked quite serious, she said that she got it by accident. After I asked for a long time, she cried and said that she was kicked by Dong Fang…”

“We are close to graduation, and many students have started looking for work opportunities. That day Guo Hua had been waiting for a very important interview call. If the phone interview goes well, you can get an face-face interview opportunity at the Planning Institute. At some point in the middle, Guo Hua went to get some water and put the mobile phone on the bedroom table. Then the phone rang and Dong Fang was sleeping, so she cursed to shut it. With one sentence, Ma Aijing went to press the phone, and then mute Guo Hua’s phone. When Guo Hua found out that she had missed the call, it was already two hours later. The other party told her that the telephone interview was over, but they also had found a suitable candidate. Guo Hua was so angry that she started arguing with them, but was cursed and beaten by Dong Fang…”

A lost dress, a damaged laptop, and a missed phone call. After uncovering them, each of these things seem not big, but it was enough to make people feel depressed. These single instances built on each other and finally made the few girls as incompatible as fire and water.

“Do the teachers in Guo Hua’s class and other classmates know about the things they did to Guo Hua?” Lu Siyu asked softly. Hearing his sudden interjection, Song Wen turned his head to look at him. Under the light, Lu Siyu’s skin was so white, almost transparent, and his expression was extremely focused. His brows were slightly pinched, waiting for the answer intently.

Bai Xiaoxiao blinked: “Naturally I don’t know. This matter is a bit embarrassing. We are all college students and not children anymore. How could we still report to the teacher? Even if there is a bit of a dormitory conflict, the teacher would, at most, try to smooth things over. At first, Guo Hua didn’t even want to tell me, just because she was afraid of implicating me. When I walked closer to Guo Hua, they would bully me, even if we were in different classes. Once as I was eating in the cafeteria, they deliberately threw soup on me……”

Song Wen asked, “Then, why did you say that you already knew that something was going to happen in their dormitory? Was there some kind of omen long ago?”

When it came to this topic, Bai Xiaoxiao’s face changed slightly. A hint of hesitation flashed in her eyes, and she seemed to have gone through a mental battle before she opened her mouth: “Just after the phone interview incident, Guo Hua did not go back to the dormitory that day. She went to my place and spent the night with me. At noon the next day, she… …She told me that she didn’t want to live… At that time, I thought she was a little depressed. I even… I even persuaded her that it was not her who deserved to die, it’s those wretched ones who bullied her… But I was talking nonsense at that time to enlighten her ah… …I also did not expect… Things to develop into this…”

Obviously, in Bai Xiaoxiao’s heart, it seemed that she had already determined that the poisoning incident was Guo Hua’s retaliation against Dong Fang and Ma Aijing. Speaking of this, Bai Xiao Xiao’s eyes were filled with tears. As a fellow countryside resident, she grew up listening to the name of Guo Hua and her achievements. She had always looked up to this girl. Later, they made it to the university and became dormitory neighbours. They would occasionally go home together during the holidays, and can be regarded as good friends. Now that things have developed to this point, something so big has happened, with Guo Hua also having been poisoned, she was a little anxious but more afraid.

Seeing that she was crying, Song Wen kindly handed over a paper towel, and Bai Xiaoxiao thanked him, took it and wiped her tears. Then she took the wet paper in her hand and twisted it, “Actually…Guo Hua had a chance to leave that dormitory. When she was a junior, a girl in our dormitory dropped out due to illness and we had an empty bed. I once asked Guo Hua if she wanted to move in. Guo Hua was quite happy at the time and said she will think about it, and request it with her class teacher. But half a month later, when I saw her again, she said she would not move. She was so cheerful at that so I thought it was all right. But shortly after that, I saw her again being bullied. The other day too, I asked her if she wanted to move in, and she was obviously hesitating, but then she refused me again.”

“Why doesn’t she move out?” Song Wen asked. Looking at the situation today, Guo Hua was still living in 108. He also wondered if the ending would have been different if Guo Hua had moved over then, or had Guo Hua, at that time, already made up her mind to stay in the dormitory to implement her plan?

“I’m not sure, but this time, she took a few days off on May 1st, and then she suddenly said that she would not move out.” Bai Xiaoxiao’s voice became smaller and smaller, “I asked her how it was in her dormitory, were they still bullying her, she said it was fine, and asked me not to worry about it. I was also busy with my graduation thesis, I did not expect……”

Bai Xiaohua paused for a moment and asked, “Police Officer, are they okay?”

Lu Siyu’s recording pen paused, he raised his head and took a quick glance at her. Because of the frightening crime scene, the matter was of great importance. As a tip-off reporter, they only saw Guo Hua, but did not see Dong Fang and other bodies. The school faculty and the Criminal Police Officers who came before, only told them that there was collective poisoning in the dormitory next door, but did not tell them the exact details. Now it seems that Bai Xiaoxiao does not know that Dong Fang and Ma Aijing have passed away.

Song Wen coughed lightly and said to her: “The school will probably make an announcement about the follow-up situation.”

“What about Lin Wanwan?” Lu Siyu reminded her that there were four people in the dormitory next door. Song Wen didn’t say anything from the side, as if his heart was in the right place, he was also about to ask about Lin Wanwan’s state of affairs.

Bai Xiaoxiao recalled, “Lin Wanwan, that person, had very good grades and was a nice person. Well, she looked like a little squirrel, with round eyes, not tall, and was petite. She is usually silent, but she is very kind, and never had a red-face* with anyone. But she does not have much presence, and she often goes out to work or something. At times, she was not even in the dormitory.”

(T/N: red-face: trouble/ fight)

“Can you tell us something specific?”

“I don’t know much about her, but I know that Guo Hua treats her very well and considers her as a friend. Once, Lin Wanwan was trapped at the bus stop when she came back from the holidays and was caught in the heavy rain. The rain was too heavy, and everyone was too lazy to move. Guo Hua silently took the umbrella to pick her up, and when the two came back, they were almost soaked. Usually Guo Hua also helps Lin Wanwan to get food from the cafeteria and such.”

So, it sounds like Lin Wanwan was a very kind girl. She did not participate in Dong Fang and Ma Aijing’s ostracism and violence against Guo Hua, who treated her very well.

“Where does Lin Wanwan work?Do you know anything about it?”

“At first it was a coffee shop around the school, then it changed to a Western restaurant, then I don’t know where she went, only that she went out a few times a week.”

“Do you know why she changed her part-time job?”

“It seemed that it’s a bit awkward to be too close to the school and she always ran into acquaintances.”

“Have they got boyfriends?” Lu Si Yu asked another question.

Bai Xiaoxiao hesitated and said: “I… I don’t go to class with them, and I don’t know much about other people. I just heard Guo Hua and other classmates say something. Ma Aijing has had several boyfriends, It has been three months since she dumped her last boyfriend. Someone said that she seems to have a new boyfriend, but no one knows who this mysterious boyfriend is. Maybe he doesn’t exist at all. Guo Hua has always been single. I haven’t heard that Lin Wanwan has a boyfriend, maybe, I don’t know. Now that graduation is approaching, everyone’s mind is on the thesis.”

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I really hate situations like these. It’s more common than we want to admit and some just can’t escape certain situations and are forced to endure the bullying.