novelaction Chapter 1287 Yun Rui's sincerity: the perfect secret
Chapter 1287 Yun Rui's sincerity: the perfect secret
There is only one video file in the folder.
After clicking it, Lin Xu's face appeared on the screen, with the Cambridge library as the background. His hair was longer than he remembered, and there was a faint dark blue under his eyes.
"Teacher, if you see this video, it means that I might..." He paused, his Adam's apple rolling, "If I don't say something now, I'm afraid I won't have the chance anymore."
Gu Yunxi's heartbeat suddenly accelerated, and the hand holding the mouse began to tremble.
“I know you’ve always treated me as your student,” Lin Xu said with a smile, but his eyes were red, “but I…” The video suddenly froze, and the picture turned into distorted blocks of color, with only his intermittent voice left, “…I’m so glad to have met you…like…like the one I saw when I was lost…”
The last words were drowned out by the sound of electricity.
Gu Yunxi dragged the progress bar repeatedly, but the picture always remained in that chaotic color.
The sky outside the window gradually turned white. She stared at the dancing snowflakes on the screen. Suddenly, she couldn't tell whether this video was real or a hallucination caused by drugs.
Just like she couldn't tell whether the worries that came to her dreams late at night were a natural extension of the friendship between teachers and students, or some repressed emotions at work.
When Qi Ruixiang knocked on the door, this was the scene he saw: Gu Yunxi was sitting in front of the computer, her eyes were bloodshot, and she was tightly clutching the ginkgo leaf necklace in her hand. The sunlight shone on her through the window, but failed to dispel the confusion around her.
"It's time for breakfast." Qi Ruixiang's voice was very soft, as if he was afraid of disturbing something.
Gu Yunxi raised his head, with a dazed look in his eyes: "Qi Ruixiang, you say... could dreams be another reality?"
Qi Ruixiang walked over to her and turned off the flashing video window: "Whether it's a dream or reality, you should have a good rest." His eyes fell on the pendant around her neck and paused for a moment, "Lin Xu would definitely not be at ease if he saw you like this."
This sentence was like a key that suddenly opened Gu Yunxi's tense nerves. She took a deep breath, pulled out the USB drive and put it away: "You are right."
Perhaps there really is no need for a clear definition between her and Lin Xu.
Those moments that go beyond the relationship between teacher and student but fall short of love, those fragments of mutual support in academics and life, are themselves a precious existence.
No matter where he is, no matter how entangled her dreams are, all she has to do is to find him, give him a result, and give herself an explanation.
This determination is not ambiguous at all, but it is more firm than any emotion.
Gu Yunxi stood up and opened the curtains. The sunlight poured in, dispelling all the shadows in the room...
Yang Xiaotang sat behind the counter of the pet hospital, her fingertips unconsciously sliding across the keyboard, and the appointment records on the screen became blurred.
A whole week has passed since I asked Uncle Zhang to find out Lin Xu's whereabouts.
During these seven days, she always felt that there was an indescribable anxiety in the air. Even Snowball seemed to feel it, and often squatted by the window, meowing at the street downstairs.
She was combing the hair of a golden retriever when her phone vibrated.
The dog-hair-stained finger swiped across the screen for a long time before he saw clearly that it was a message from Uncle Zhang: "There's a result, come to my side."
She asked for leave almost immediately, grabbed her coat and ran out. The late autumn wind blew the fallen leaves against her face, bringing a biting chill, but she didn't feel it at all.
It felt like there was a drum beating in her heart, pounding loudly, making it difficult for her to breathe.
Uncle Zhang’s detective agency is hidden in an old alley. There is a faded sign hanging at the door with the words “Lost and Found Notice” written on it.
When she opened the door, the smell of tobacco and old newspapers hit her face. Uncle Zhang was sitting behind a desk piled with files, frowning. When he saw her come in, he just pointed to the chair opposite.
"How's the investigation going?" Yang Xiaotang sat down, clenched his hands nervously, and his knuckles turned white.
Uncle Zhang sighed, took out a stack of documents from the drawer and pushed them in front of her. "Lin Xu, male, 26 years old, PhD in Biology from Cambridge University.
On the evening of December 12, he drowned in the Thames. His body was found on December 17 and his identity was confirmed by DNA matching.
Yang Xiaotang's hands shook violently, and the documents scattered all over the floor. She squatted down to pick them up, but the moment her fingertips touched the paper, she pulled back as if she had been burned. "Drowned?" Her voice trembled with disbelief, "How could it be..."
"This is what the local police report said." Uncle Zhang lit a cigarette. In the smoke, his eyes looked a little complicated. "It said that he was walking by the river at night and fell into the water. There were no signs of a fight at the scene, and no suicide note was found. The preliminary judgment is that it was an accident."
Yang Xiaotang picked up the DNA comparison report. Every word on it was like a small hammer, hitting her heart hard.
She thought of Qi Ruixiang's voice on the phone, Gu Yunxi's red eyes, and the locked case file in her father's study. Was all this really just an accident?
"That's all?" She asked unwillingly, "Are there no other clues? Like witnesses, or..."
"No more." Uncle Zhang interrupted her, "The British police have closed the case and said the evidence is irrefutable. I asked someone to investigate for a long time, but they didn't find anything suspicious."
He paused, looked at Yang Xiaotang's pale face, and couldn't help but persuade her, "Xiaotang, some things should probably end like this. You're just a little girl, don't get involved in this."
Yang Xiaotang didn't say anything, but just held the report tightly, causing pain in his fingertips.
She thought of Lin Xu, the young man she had only seen on video, with clear eyes and brows, full of longing for the future.
He died quietly in a foreign country, like a fallen leaf falling into the Thames without causing even a ripple.
When she walked out of the detective agency, it was already dark. The street lights in the alley flickered, stretching her shadow very long.
Yang Xiaotang took out his cell phone, his finger hovered over Qi Ruixiang's number for a long time, and finally pressed the dial button.
"Hello?" Qi Ruixiang's voice was still low, and there seemed to be vague music in the background.
"Qi Ruixiang," Yang Xiaotang took a deep breath and tried to make his voice sound calmer, "I found out about Lin Xu."
There was silence on the other end of the phone for a moment, and then Qi Ruixiang's voice came with a hint of nervousness: "How is it?"
"The police said that he died by accidental drowning, and the body has been confirmed." Yang Xiaotang's voice still trembled, "I have tried my best, can you believe me?"
Qi Ruixiang didn't answer immediately. Yang Xiaotang could hear him sighing softly. "I understand." There was an indescribable fatigue in his voice. "Thank you, Xiaotang."
"You're welcome." Yang Xiaotang said, and then hung up the phone. She stood there, watching the phone screen go dark, feeling empty inside.
It turned out that it was really like this. Lin Xu died in such an ordinary way. All those conspiracies she guessed and those entanglements she imagined seemed to disappear with this conclusion.
But for some reason, she always felt that something was wrong in her heart, like a piece of a puzzle was missing and could not be completed.
She remembered what her father often said: "The more seemingly perfect the accident, the more likely it is that there is a secret hidden behind it."
Yang Xiaotang clenched the documents in his hand, turned around and walked towards home.
The evening breeze lifted the corners of her clothes, bringing a hint of chill. She knew that this conclusion might temporarily reassure Qi Ruixiang and Gu Yunxi, but for her, the matter seemed not over yet.