Chapter 359: School Bullying (1/2)

Wang Yuanchao reported the information and sure enough, they were from the same high school.

”Were they in the same class?” I asked.

”I’m not quite sure,” answered Wang Yuanchao. “I’m at the school right now but they can't find the files...”

”Tell me where you are and I'll be right there!” I exclaimed.

Xiaotao and I arrived at the archives department of the school where Wang Yuanchao was at the moment. A stack of files was piled up on the desk. It seemed like finding the particular files we wanted would take a considerable amount of time. I reported the names of the three victims and asked the archives staff, ”Aren’t they in the files?”

”Which year is this?”

After a moment’s contemplation, I ventured a guess. ”Around 1995 or ‘96.”

The person in charge looked through the files, mumbling to himself, ”That’s strange. Why are they missing?” A while later, he came up with nothing.

”Let’s speak to the principal!” suggested Xiaotao.

The archives manager called the principal and learned that a fire broke out in the school six months ago, causing the loss of some files, including the ones from the graduating class of ‘95 and ‘96.

No wonder Wang Yuanchao couldn’t locate them—the original files were no longer available.

”Don't you have them in storage?”

The principal looked rather embarrassed, ”We’re just a regular school and we don’t get a lot of students each year so we can't keep up with the funds. That’s why we don’t have the files in our storage!”

I thought to myself, Could the Imitator have caused the fire six months ago? If this was the case, then the serial murders were calculated.

Without the files, we could only speak to the teachers. When we brought up the names of the three victims, the teachers didn’t seem to have much of an impression. After all these years of teaching, they had too many students to specifically recall them.

However, one of the class teachers commented, ”I seem to remember they didn’t have very good grades and often hung out together. I think they lived in the same dormitory.”

”The same dormitory?” I mused. ”There are usually four to a dorm. What’s the other student’s name?”

My intuition told me the fourth person might be the next victim or the murderer.

The class teacher tapped his bald head, scrambling to remember her name. ”Was it Xiao Lan... Ji Xiaolan? No, no... Oh, I remember, Lin Xiaolan!”

”Are you sure?” I asked.

”Yes!” he nodded. “That’s because the girl won the Inspirational Essay Competition that year.”

The teacher next to him echoed an affirmative as well.

There were only so many clues that could be found here. After leaving the school, Xiaotao looked up some information online.

”The Inspirational Essay Competition was published in Future Magazine so we should be able to find it online,” Xiaotao explained.

”Oh, I hadn’t thought of that at all!”

“Didn't you pay attention in school?” Xiaotao sneered.