Thriller Zone: From the Mental Hospital to the Ghostly World

Chapter 183 Rohan

The old teaching building, inside the archives room.

No one has been here for years; the door locks are rusty.

Chen Ji took out his card and tried turning the door lock.

"Now that you've found the truth, what are you going to do?" Xu Sandao asked from the side.

Chen focused intently on fiddling with the hair clip:

"I'm not sure yet."

"But no matter what, I have to spread the truth and let everyone know what happened back then."

Xu San said, "It's difficult, isn't it?"

"If it really was Zeng Guichuan who did it, putting aside his identity as one of the six Yangs, you can't even contend with his power alone."

Chen Ji said, "We have to give it a try."

He knew that Zeng Guichuan represented capital, and many posts discussing the Chuncheng serial murder case were silenced.

But Chen Ji already had a preliminary idea, only lacking evidence.

"lets change a topic."

Chen Ji thought for a moment and asked, "How much do you know about Zeng Guichuan?"

“Not many,” Xu Sandao said directly. “I’ve hardly ever seen him.”

“He and I don’t belong to the same faction. Besides, these directors are always elusive, and even when they come to the company, they’re always surrounded by a large group of people.”

"My current position is nominally considered mid-level, but in reality, I'm just a beast of burden that can be easily replaced."

Chen Ji thought about Tang Qin's death and began to understand it somewhat.

“We are all pawns,” Xu Sandao said. “If we make a single mistake or touch their interests, we can just abandon them.”

Chen Ji seemed to be deep in thought.

He then asked, "Is there anyone above the board of directors?"

Chen Ji recalled the bubbles from before, and Xu Sandao's claim that the twelve directors did not leave the company that day.

Xu Sandao shook his head: "I don't know, maybe there is."

Chen Ji thought of something else: "What exactly is Wan Xiaoshuang's identity?"

Even Xu Sandao, an employee within the company, didn't know much about Zeng Guichuan, but Wan Xiaoshuang actually knew about Zeng Guichuan's time in southern Yunnan in his early years.

"I don't know about that." Xu Sandao's tone was quite sincere this time: "I only know that she is very rich, and it seems that she owns an art gallery."

This aligns with Chen Ji's speculation about Wan Xiaoshuang.

The art gallery... I wonder if she knows Ding Xiang.

Chen Ji suddenly thought of his classmate from the high school where he was repeating his senior year, a female painter who had a cool personality but a warm heart.

Click.

The lock is unlocked.

Pulling himself out of his thoughts, Chen Ji pushed open the door.

The archive room was pitch black; light swept across the floor, and countless dust particles floated in the air.

The two stopped chatting and began searching the filing cabinet. Soon, they found all the documents from 09 to 13.

Chen Ji first looked at the data from 2010.

"That year, as expected, Fifth Middle School won the city's football championship." Chen Ji spread out a newspaper: "The captain was..."

"Luo Han from Class 4, Grade 8!"

Even Chen Ji didn't expect to find his target so quickly.

Rohan.

That is, the owner of that football.

"Is he still alive?" Chen Ji muttered to himself, then looked at Xu San and said, "Give me his 2009 enrollment record."

Xu Sandao was quick and immediately found the file, including Luo Han's file.

"This boy..."

Chen Ji was stunned for a moment.

Rohan's entrance photo was not quite what he had imagined. He wore glasses, had messy black hair, and a shy smile on his face.

He doesn't look like someone who plays soccer; he looks more like a top student.

The file only recorded that he enrolled in September 2009, and that his homeroom teacher's surname was Zhou, but did not mention his graduation date.

Chen Ji's heart sank.

He randomly picked a few other files to look at, but whether they were from earlier or later years, the information was all complete.

The graduation year and destination were recorded clearly.

“Rohan should be dead,” Chen Ji whispered.

In fact, Duan Cong's text message had already left a hint.

After discovering Luo Lin's son's identity in early November, Duan Cong sent a text message shortly afterward saying: "[It's all sorted out]."

It might be a threat, or it might be a warning...

It's highly likely that Rohan didn't live to see his graduation, in the summer of 2012.

Chen Ji took a deep breath, took a picture of Luo Han's file, and carefully put it back.

"The beverage shop near the school gate said that No. 5 Middle School has been letting students leave early for over a decade." Chen Ji thought for a moment: "Could this be related to Luo Han?"

He couldn't help but suspect a connection, and the timing seemed to match up.

"Yes."

Xu Sandao said with certainty.

Chen Ji was taken aback and noticed that Xu Sandao was reading a magazine.

“There’s a clue inside,” Xu Sandao said. “This is the school magazine from October to December 2011.”

Chen Ji's heart skipped a beat, and he immediately moved closer:

In Memoriam of Luo Han

[—Teacher Zhou's Notes for Class 204]

Chen Ji paused for a moment, then brushed his hand over the photo beside him: "Is it her?"

A blurry photograph is printed on the yellowed paper.

The female teacher who previously drove Xu Sandao away at the school gate had a younger face.

"So she's Teacher Zhou... I should have asked her."

Chen Ji murmured to himself and continued reading.

Dear students, teachers, and parents:

My surname is Zhou, and I am the homeroom teacher of Luo Han, the victim of the Kunming 11.20 murder case.

Many newspapers have reported on Rohan's death.

I'm not writing this to emphasize the importance of campus safety; school leaders have already instructed that school will end earlier from now on.

I just want to simply talk about my experience with Luo.

He is the captain of the school's soccer team and a good friend to many classmates...

Someone once said that when he grows up, his future achievements will be limitless.

But to me, he was just a child.

A quiet, yet somewhat playful child.

I had hoped he would bring honor to the school and to our Class 204 in the future, but now...

I just hope he's alive.

I remember him running on the green field, and I remember him complaining to me about why all his teammates had grown taller while he hadn't changed much.

I remember comforting him, saying it's okay, boys grow tall like bamboo shoots, maybe one summer, one rain, and he'll have reached puberty.

Luo didn't live to see summer.

Luo died on a rainy winter night.

[I was the first to discover it.]

To this day, the investigation into his death has not yielded any results.

On behalf of myself and every student in Class 204, I hereby request the residents of Donghe District:

If you were in the Donghe District Sports Park on the evening of November 20th, or saw any suspicious persons, please contact the police as soon as possible to provide any information!

We desperately need to know the truth!

"..."

This article was published in 2011.

Thirteen years have passed, and the real culprit has still not been found; the truth remains buried in the passage of time.

Chen Ji sighed.

A photo of Rohan enrolled in college, a eulogy...

Taken together, it tells the story of a living, breathing boy who was murdered by Zeng Guichuan in the prime of his youth.

"Donghe District Sports Park".

Xu Sandao broke the somber atmosphere, seemingly unmoved by Teacher Zhou's heart-wrenching eulogy: "This is where Luo Han died."