A Man with an Evil Face!
Fang Yuan recalled her first day in girls' dormitory 441. While Xu Zhaodi was cleaning the balcony glass, she saw the misty, witchy shadow of a woman, while Xu Zhaodi claimed to see a man with an evil face in the reflection.
Was it a coincidence, or a kind of inevitability?
Why did Xu Zhaodi see a man, and she a woman? This question still puzzled her.
The air at Moon Lake was refreshing and pleasant. Although the sun was shining brightly outside the Mushroom Pavilion, it couldn't mask the cool breeze from the lake. The sky was bright and the clouds were shimmering. Fang Yuan saw her own reflection in the lake, rippling with the waves, a tangled mess.
Fang Yuan stared at her reflection for a moment, then sorted out Xu Yan's account and found the key: "Did Cheng Li have a boyfriend at the time?"
Xu Yan shook her head, then nodded.
Fang Yuan was puzzled. "Is there one or not?"
Xu Yan seemed unsure, too. "Cheng Li does have a close friend of the opposite sex, but I don't know how things are going between them, whether they're boyfriend and girlfriend."
"Who is it?"
"Li Rong, Class 2, Department of Clinical Medicine, Class of 2002."
"Li Rong?"
Fang Yuan repeated the name several times in her mind, memorizing it.
"What does he look like?"
"He wears glasses and looks quite honest. He's a nerdy type, with excellent grades and is always top-ranked in the grade."
Fang Yuan felt a little disappointed. It would have been nice if Li Rong were a handsome, cheerful guy. Xu Yan's words clearly denied that he was that handsome, sinister man.
"Besides Li Rong, does Cheng Li have any close friends of the opposite sex?"
"Let me think. Tang Tianyu from the social dorm, Zhang Ming, a student leader from the same class, and Wan Hai, Li Rong's good friend—those are the three people I know she's close to."
Tang Tianyu was among them! And his dorm was actually the social dorm of the former girls' dormitory 441! Was he deliberately approaching her because he really had feelings for her and wanted to pursue her, or was there something else?
Fang Yuan was stunned. Honestly, although she had no regard for Tang Tianyu and didn't like him at all, she was still happy to know that such a boy liked her. That's just a girl's vanity, and she was no exception. Now, even this vanity had become so unreliable, like a bucket of cold water poured down on her from her slumber, suddenly waking her up.
Before she knew it, it was already noon. On the stone bridge over Moon Lake, more and more students were heading to the cafeteria for lunch. Xu Yan didn't want anyone to know she was with the girls from Dormitory 441, lest her identity be revealed. She politely and amicably said goodbye to Fang Yuan.
Fang Yuan pondered for a while alone in the Mushroom Pavilion, still unable to comprehend her thoughts. It seemed that only by finding Li Rong, or the other three boys who were friends with Cheng Li, could she shed more light on Cheng Li's suicide.
After lunch, she returned to Dormitory 441. The injured black cat was still curled up on her bed, quite well-behaved. Perhaps it knew it wasn't popular with the other girls. Seeing Fang Yuan enter, it was delighted, meowing non-stop and wagging its tail.
Tao Bing'er, standing nearby, joked, "Fang Yuan, this black cat is quite snobbish. It knows you bring it food, so it tries to please you. But it ignores us."
Fang Yuan smiled, carried the black cat from the bed to the table in the hall, and poured the leftovers from the cafeteria into the cat's bowl. It didn't seem to mind, its blood-red mouth opening and closing as it devoured the food with relish.
After a nap, Fang Yuan went to the boys' dormitory of Class 2, Clinical Medicine, Class of 2002, looking for Li Rong, but she couldn't find him. Li Rong's roommates were playing cards together, and they had no idea where he was. Fang Yuan was somewhat disappointed, but not entirely without success. She found Wan Hai. Xu Yan had said that Wan Hai was a good friend of Li Rong's and had a close relationship with Cheng Li. Wan Hai seemed quite interested in Fang Yuan and kept trying to get close to her. He told Fang Yuan that Li Rong had been acting mysterious and silent lately, always looking preoccupied and distracted, and no one knew why. One night, he had a nightmare. In the middle of the night, he suddenly screamed frantically, his cries so terrifying and heartbreaking that they startled everyone in the dormitory awake.
In the afternoon, the freshmen of Class 1, Clinical Medicine, Class of 2004, gathered in the classroom to receive their new books, arrange their seats, and get to know each other. Their homeroom teacher, Qin Yue, assigned class leaders and dormitory leaders. Fang Yuan was appointed dormitory leader for Girls' Dormitory 441.
At nine o'clock in the evening, after evening study, she went to the library to help organize the books, as agreed with Xiao Jing.
Librarian work was simple: sorting and storing the various books returned by students and quickly locating books students wanted to borrow. Since Fang Yuan was new to the job, she was still unfamiliar with the book classifications and storage locations, and she frequently consulted Xiao Jing. Fortunately, the library wasn't crowded at that hour, so a slow turn-up wasn't a problem.
Nanjiang Medical College's lights-out time was 10:30. By 9:50, there were few students left in the library. Xiao Jing, wrapped in her military coat, sat in a reclining chair, watching Fang Yuan recite the book classification with great interest.
He was in a good mood today and offered some guidance: "Fang Yuan, you don't have to memorize things by rote. Practice makes perfect. Just look around and read more, and you'll be able to get the hang of it soon."
Fang Yuan continued to circle the bookshelves. "Teacher Xiao, I want to get familiar with it as quickly as possible."
"Please sit down and chat with me for a while, okay?"
"Okay."
Fang Yuan found a chair and sat down across from Xiao Jing. She felt that Xiao Jing looked rather pitiful. She seemed to have some strange, incurable illness, hiding away in the library, friendless and alone. She must be extremely lonely.
Strangely, after Fang Yuan sat down, Xiao Jing didn't speak immediately. Instead, he stared at her, looking left and right, as if he were seeing some kind of monster.
Fang Yuan feared his deep blue eyes, which seemed to reveal a depth that seemed to pierce her inner world.
"Teacher Xiao, what's wrong with you?" Fang Yuan consciously reminded Xiao Jing.
Xiao Jing seemed oblivious to the fact that her gaze was causing him discomfort. Instead, she became even more absorbed in the conversation. Her brows furrowed, and she uttered a faint "Huh!" as if she had discovered something strange.
"Teacher Xiao! Did you hear me?" Fang Yuan avoided Xiao Jing's gaze.
Xiao Jing coughed a few times and asked, "Do you know about four-dimensional space?"
Fang Yuan had heard of four-dimensional space: a plane is two-dimensional, a cube is three-dimensional, and time is the fourth. But she had only heard about it, and her knowledge was very limited. She didn't know why Xiao Jing suddenly asked about it.
"I know, but I'm not very clear."
Xiao Jing's face lit up with approval. "The concept of four-dimensional space hasn't been fully unified yet, but the most common view is the four-dimensional space in Einstein's theory of relativity, with time being the fourth dimension."
"Yes, that's what I know."
"Have you ever thought about this? We can see three-dimensional space, so why can't we see the fourth dimension?"
Fang Yuan couldn't answer. The question was too profound for her.
"Actually, some humans in the fourth dimension can also see. They can see what happens after the passage of time."
"You mean, prophecy?" Fang Yuan finally understood.
Xiao Jing nodded. "Yes, that's what I'm talking about. The development of any civilization is inseparable from the presence of prophets."
"Is fortune-telling a form of prophecy? If you could truly predict someone's fate, could you change that fate?"
Xiao Jing shook her head and smiled bitterly. "If you see a train moving forward, and there's a cliff in front of it, and you see it and know what's going to happen next, can you change it?"
Fang Yuan was stunned. Xiao Jing meant that even if you knew your fate, you couldn't change it?
She was about to ask more when a student outside the library called out, "Is anyone else here? I need to borrow a book."
Fang Yuan stood up, opened the window, and received a library card.
"I'm borrowing Freud's 'The Interpretation of Dreams.'"
Another book? Fang Yuan glanced at the library card. It clearly read: Li Rong, Class 2, Department of Clinical Medicine, Class of 2002.
She looked out the window and saw a handsome boy borrowing books. He nodded and smiled at her.
"Are you Li Rong?"
"Yes, what's wrong?"
Fang Yuan carefully examined the library card he handed her. The photo on it was clearly that of the boy. But Xu Yan had clearly said that Li Rong was an honest man wearing glasses. Why had she lied to her?
Fang Yuan's head felt dizzy again. She felt like she was in the eye of a storm. On the surface, she appeared calm and peaceful, but in reality, she was caught in a huge vortex.