Volume 1: All in the Name of Love (Typing with Hands) Chapter 7: Past Love Affair

  The university is located in the southern part of the city and borders the suburbs, covering a large area. It backs onto W City's national natural reserve, with elegant surroundings. Xu Nuo's BMW sports car caused quite a stir on campus, but she didn't mind at all, parking directly in front of the office building of the School of Humanities.

  After inquiring at the entrance, the two came to the door of Liu Yun's office on the third floor. Li Kexin gently knocked on the door.

  "Come in," said a man with a hoarse voice.

  Pushing open the door, all that could be seen was a small room packed with three office desks. A man who was smoking and blowing out smoke saw two beautiful women and his eyes lit up. He quickly put down his raised legs, extinguished the cigarette butt, and straightened his collar: "May I ask who you are looking for?"

  Xu Nuo looked around the room and saw that he was alone, so he asked: "Let's go find Liu Yun, Liu teacher. Is she not here?"

  "Oh, she's gone to the data room to photocopy some materials, she'll be right back." The man stood up and extended his hand to Xu Nuo: "I'm her colleague, my name is Hu Ming."

  "Oh, okay, let's go wait by the door for her." Xu Nu politely shook hands with him and couldn't bear the smoke-filled air in the room, so he hastily closed the door and waited in the corridor.

  The two of them stood silently in the corridor for a moment, without saying a word.

  Before long, the sound of high heels came from the stairs. Li Kexin looked up at the sound and saw a petite woman walking towards him with a stack of documents in her arms. She had an oval face, slender willow-leaf eyebrows, a pair of bright big eyes, small red lips pursed slightly, wearing a pale green cheongsam with a white pearl knit scarf, her long hair casually coiled behind her head, looking like a figure from a classical painting.

  "My goodness, it's like two different people compared to the photo." Li Kexin muttered softly.

  Xu Nuo couldn't help but secretly admire her in his heart, thinking that such a woman was indeed suitable for classical literature. He then stepped forward: "Excuse me, are you Teacher Liu Yun?"

  Liu Yun nodded and asked somewhat strangely: "May I ask who you are?"

  Xu Nu took out his police badge and said, "I'm Xu Nu from the Fourth Detective Team of the Municipal Bureau. This is Li Kexin. We have a case we'd like to ask you about."

  "Criminal Investigation Team 4? But there's been an incident with a student?" Liu Yun was somewhat surprised, but quickly calmed down and said: "Two officers, please wait for a moment, I'll put away the materials. Let's go to my dormitory to talk instead. Our office..." She hesitated at this point.

  Xu Nuo nodded understandingly: "En, I understand." That office was indeed not a good place for conversation.

  Liu Yun also smiled self-deprecatingly, smiling very elegantly but without any pretentious feeling.

  Before long, the two followed Liu Yun to her dormitory. It was a simple and classic one-bedroom apartment. On the right-hand wall near the entrance hung a plum blossom painting. Below it stood a wide red-wood desk with writing brushes, paper, inkstone, and a half-written poem on the top sheet of rice paper. Opposite the desk was a row of bookshelves, behind which was a single bed. Facing the bed was a double-door closet.

  Liu Yun said: "I just started working, so the dormitory is relatively small, it's just this one room, which serves as both a study and a bedroom. The weather is great today, why don't we go to the balcony and chat?"

  Xu Nuo nodded in agreement, walked through the room, and came to a small balcony, which was also decorated by Liu Yun with great comfort. There was a small tea table, two rattan chairs, and a pot of lush green plants that she couldn't name in the corner of the wall.

  Xu Nuo and Li Kexin sat down, then Liu Yun first brought out the tea, smiling shyly: "I only have tea here, sorry for the inconvenience."

  Then he moved out a small stool and sat opposite Xunuo, smoothing his hair with his hand and asked: "Officer Xu, what situation are you looking for me to understand?"

  "Do you know Wang Ming and Zhang Wei?" Xu Nu stared at Liu Yun's facial expression.

  Liu Yun suddenly became flustered, and the teacup in her hand fell to the ground with a "crash", shattering into pieces.

  "King Ming? What happened to him?"

  "It's not Wang Ming who had an accident, but his wife Zhang Wei, who was found murdered at home this morning."

  "Ah!" Liu Yun's heart had just calmed down and she cried out again, "Zhang Wei was killed? How is that possible, she wasn't someone who would make enemies with others!"

  "So you're quite familiar with those two?"

  Liu Yun stabilized her emotions and said, "I was high school classmates with both of them." After speaking, she walked into the room, took down a yearbook from the bookshelf, opened it to the first page, and showed it to Xu Nuo.

  "The one in the middle is Wang Ming, and the girl in front of him is Zhang Wei. The chubby girl in the first row is me." Liu Yun hesitated for a moment before asking: "But Zhang Wei was killed, why would they come to me to understand the situation? I'm not very close to Zhang Wei, we haven't seen each other for over a year."

  "Was it at their wedding?" Xu Nu asked tentatively.

  Liu Yun couldn't help but smile wryly, just as she was about to speak, her phone suddenly rang: "Officer Xu, sorry, I'll take this call."

  "Hello? What's this? The fourth detective team?" Liu Yun looked at Xu Nu with a puzzled expression, then said: "The officers Xu and Li from your team are here with me."

  Xu Nuo gestured for Liu Yun to hand over the phone, and as soon as she took it, she heard Lü Cong's voice: "When did they leave?"

  "Lü team, we just came out of Wang Ming's house and went straight to Liu Yun's place. We are now inquiring about the situation with her, so you don't need to come over again." He hung up the phone without waiting for Lü Cong to speak.

  Xu Nuo returned the phone to Liu Yun and said, "Let's continue."

  "Oh, okay. So you're looking for me because of the wedding thing, actually it's not a big deal, Zhang Wei just poured me a cup of white wine, could I kill someone over this one cup of white wine?" Liu Yun said calmly.

  "A glass of white wine won't kill anyone, but what if it's for a deeply loved man?" Xu Nu pressed on step by step.

  "Officer Xu, you don't need to urge me, I admit that I love Wang Ming, it started from high school. This thing is known by all my high school classmates, but Wang Ming doesn't love me. In high school, I was an ugly duckling, my grades were average except for Chinese, and my appearance was also average. My fondness for classical literature made me lack common language with my classmates. Wang Ming was good at sports, smart, and a bit mischievous, he was the popular figure in our grade. I started liking him from the first year of high school, and I never concealed this feeling, but he said he only treated me as his sister." Liu Yun's eyes showed a hint of shyness when mentioning Wang Ming, then turned gloomy.

  "So you're giving up?" Xu Nuoming asked knowingly.

  Liu Yun shook her head: "I worked hard to get into W University and lose weight to match up with him. At the end of freshman year, at a summer gathering with classmates, everyone was amazed by my transformation, but he still smiled carelessly, ruffled my hair and said: 'Girls change a lot after 18, little girl has become a beauty!' I unwillingly confessed to him again, but he said: 'Sorry, the one in my heart is not you!' Not long after sophomore year started, I heard that he was with Zhang Wei, and I gradually let go of this feeling."

  "Then who do you think would kill Zhang Wei?" Xu Nu asked.

  "I really can't think of anything, in my impression, Zhang Wei is a very good girl to get along with, she has a good relationship with her classmates, and they never had any conflicts or grudges. After she got together with Wang Ming, I deliberately distanced myself from them, all the classmates know about this past event, so naturally they won't come to tell me their news."

  "One last question, what did you do between 5:00 and 7:00 this morning?"

  "I get up at 6 o'clock every day, go to the playground for morning exercise. This morning at 6:10, I met Teacher Hu Ming from our office at the entrance of the playground. After exercising in the playground until 7 o'clock, I returned to my dormitory to take a shower. At 7:20, I went to the cafeteria for breakfast. My first two classes this morning were Appreciation of Classical Chinese Poetry, which is a course for freshmen." Liu Yun recalled seriously.

  "Alright, thank you for your cooperation. If necessary, we may come to disturb you again. Also, if you remember any clues, please contact us in time."

  Xu Nuo and Li Kexin stood up and bid farewell.