Forbidden Land – CH 002

Twenty minutes later, ambulances and police cars arrived, sirens blaring. Police tape cordoned off the area outside the School of Medicine’s Teaching Building. Leaders, the homeroom teacher, doctors, police officers, and some students gathered.

The homeroom teacher, a 30-year-old man who had returned from overseas, quickly pulled Zhang Chao aside upon hearing he was a witness and asked, “What happened?”

Zhang Chao, slowly recovering from the shock, stammered, “Weihao and I were studying together today. He kept saying he heard someone singing. As soon as study ended, he ran upstairs. I waited for him downstairs, calling him many times, but he didn’t answer. Then…then…this happened.” He couldn’t continue.

Teacher Liu patted his back, comforting him. “It’s alright, it’s alright. Anyway, it’s already happened; don’t think too much about it. I heard you were just discharged from the hospital last week, and you aren’t feeling well. Do not—” He suddenly stopped, unable to finish his sentence.

Student Leader Wu Yu ran over, looked at Zhang Chao’s face, and asked, “Zhang Chao, are you… alright?”

Zhang Chao sighed softly and shook his head.

At this moment, a policeman, following a teacher’s directions, approached and said, “Are you Zhang Chao? You’re the only one who witnessed this. Could you come back with us to assist with the investigation?”

Zhang Chao nodded and said, “Okay.”

Teacher Liu said, “Officer, I’m their homeroom teacher. I’ll go with him.”

The policeman said, “Alright, we’ll just take your statements. We’ll bring you back in an hour or two. Don’t be nervous.” The policeman then asked the school’s security captain, “According to regulations, there should be CCTV footage in the corridors of this school building, right?”

The security captain said, “Yes, it’s all on the computer in the security office.”

The policeman nodded and said, “We’ll send someone to pick it up from you later.” He then turned to Zhang Chao and said, “Student, teacher, let’s get in the car first.”

After getting in the car, Zhang Chao and Teacher Liu sat together. They vaguely heard students outside the window saying, “Why is it this again? This is really weird.”

Teacher Liu quickly said to Zhang Chao, “Don’t listen to these people’s nonsense.”

Zhang Chao asked, “What, teacher, were there people here before…?”

Teacher Liu looked at Zhang Chao with a surprised expression, then laughed and said, “No, no.” Turning to look out the window, she called over Student Leader Wu Yu: “Tell these students not to talk nonsense. Also, when you get back, hold a meeting with the class to inform them that we need to wait for the investigation results and that everyone should refrain from talking nonsense. I’ll hold another meeting for you tomorrow.”

Wu Yu readily agreed, while on the other end of the line, he heard the voice of a college leader on the phone: “Yes, find the administrator. They need to work hard these next few days to make sure this isn’t posted on the school website; delete all the posts. Okay, okay…”

Zhang Chao seemed to remember something for a moment, his brow furrowing slightly, but he couldn’t quite place it. A few minutes later, a policeman got into the car and drove them to the police station.