It was not until morning when Su Bai finally fell asleep. All kinds of ideas were coming and going in his mind. Only at this moment did Su Bai realize that his strong mentality, which he had been proud of, was in fact, so weak.
He had a few dreams. In those dreams, the white-collar lady was everywhere, sneering at him with the knife in her chest. And there was that deep leisurely voice of that "Dreadful Radio".
It was already noon when Su Bai woke up with a terrible headache. He pushed away his PC and opened his curtain. A man in a police uniform was sitting on the opposite lower bed.
Immediately, Su Bai’s arms trembled and his breath became difficult due to a sudden nervousness.
Then the cop raised his head to show his young smiling face.
"Sweetheart, I scared you, didn’t I?"
Chu Zhao put on an expression of "I didn’t mean to".
Su Bai took a deep breath to stop himself from beating Chu Zhao. He tidied his bed and then climbed down with his cellphone.
"Come on, have some food. I brought you some take-out."
Chu Zhao pointed to the bags on the desk.
Su Bai shook his head "I think I’ve lost my appetite."
Chu Zhao was a little surprised: "This is not your first kill so why do you look even worse than that day?"
Su Bai licked his lips. He was not sure whether he should tell Chu Zhao about the Dreadful Radio. Murders and dead people were nothing special to them or to their little club. But Dreadful Radio was obviously something beyond their knowledge. If he let it out, would the others in the club think he was losing his mind? Would they consider him crazy?
The club was less than a year old and had only four members. None of them had much experience; they even seemed very immature and yet, they were bold enough to set up an organization to do such dirty jobs.
Therefore, if any one of these four people had any problem, the other three would be influenced. If they considered him uncontrollable or a psychopath starting to have hallucinations, what would they do to him?
Sometimes, even Su Bai himself thought it was ridiculous: four young men had set up this club out of passion and even after more than ten people had died because of this club, it was still so simple and so inattentive.
"It was confirmed as an accident, so you don’t have to feel stressful. There was not even a relevant investigation or anything. Nobody would track you down, even if you had left piles of tracks outside the nightclub like an old dog."
"That’s not what I’m worried about."
Su Bai waved his hand and then took his towel and basin. "Wait another moment for me. I’ll go clean myself."
Chu Zhao nodded.
In the public washroom, after brushing his teeth, Su Bai dipped his face into a basin of cold water and then suddenly raised his head, splashing water everywhere. Then he dried his face with the towel, took his stuff and went out of the washroom. But just at that time, a short student ran into Su Bai.
Su Bai backed several steps, while the short guy fell down with all his clothes wet.
"Sorry! I’m sorry!"
The short guy immediately got up and apologized.
Su Bai nodded and went back to his room, ignoring the incident.
In the room, Chu Zhao was still enjoying reading a book on criminal psychology, which had been lying on Su Bai’s desk.
"You seem so leisurely, reading in my room. Are you taking today off?"
"I happen to be on a mission here."
"Interviewing students?"
"Exactly, interviewing students."
"So you’re just killing time in my room?"
"There is nothing to interview about. Three ‘Silent Mentors’ were missing in succession from the lab." Chu Zhao forced a smile. "I can’t just go ask a random student in the campus: ‘Hello, have you seen any dead bodies around?’, can I?"
Su Bai walked to the window while changing his clothes. Behind the old dormitory was a large playground. He saw two cops in uniform there, interviewing the students.
"Others do the job while you just hang out. It is such an evil society filled with competition of family backgrounds." Said Su Bai.
"Come on, bro. You are the last person to say so. You know I was forced by my father. Since I was a kid, every time I did something wrong, when he got home, he would waste no time taking off his uniform; just draw out his belt and beat the crap out of me. That planted fear and hatred in my nature. And when I grew up, he forced me into the Police Training School to become a cop myself! Humph! Do you know what this feels like?"
"Kind of like being forced to have sex with a woman who died in a car accident." Su Bai described.
"That’s disgusting. But yes, it’s apt." Chu Zhao closed the book. "Three silent mentors are missing. What do you think is the reason for that?"
"I’m just a student, not a cop." Su Bai shrugged his shoulder.
"I wouldn’t be here if you were just a normal student." Chu Zhao took out a cigarette, handed over another one to Su Bai and then leaned over the balcony with both arms supporting his body. "Aroma said she’s gonna quit. Her parents want her to work in the British Embassy. And, you know, Gu Fan only joined because he was after her. Now that Aroma is dropping out of the club, he seems unlikely to keep playing."
The Murder Club set up completely by young men looking for excitement was now facing a dissolution.
Su Bai took a long puff of smoke, but somehow choked and burst into coughing.
"Cough…"
Chu Zhao patted on his back to help him breathe.
Su Bai took out a piece of tissue and wiped his lips: "Maybe this is a good ending for us. Our club has taken more than ten lives; everything seems to be cleared now, but if we keep doing this, we might finally make a mistake someday."
"Tut-tut-tut! This doesn’t sound like you. Besides, those we killed, though they should not be sentenced to death according to the law, they were no good people. I won’t feel guilty for killing them. As for you, aren’t you already addicted to that in your bones? If the club’s gone, it’ll be difficult for you to satisfy your craving."
Chu Zhao then suddenly thought of something, proving himself to be a qualified cop: "Did you find something new that can excite you more?"
Su Bai smiled. "Maybe…"
Just when Su Bai was about to continue, Chu Zhao’s cellphone buzzed.
"Yeah, captain. I’m interviewing in the dormitory. Oh, okay, we’re leaving. I’m on my way."
Chu Zhao raised his cellphone towards Su Bai, "I’m leaving now, the club will be discussed later, when we choose a day and meet each other. If we disband, then let’s disband."
......
That night, Su Bai tried to study in a classroom. He was working on a thesis. He was not fond of the library; sometimes the classroom, with only a few people, was more likely to offer him a sense of solitude and calmness.
When he finished the thesis, he decided to buy a drink from the vending machine outside and smoke a cigarette there before coming back for another round of improvement to finalize the thesis as a first draft.
By that time, there were another two students in the classroom. One was male, and the other was female. They were sitting separately on the first desk on the right and the first desk on the left, respectively. Su Bai was sitting in the middle behind them.
Walking out of the classroom, Su Bai took out a cigarette, lighted it up, then took some cash out of his wallet and put it into the vending machine.
"Ding-dong."
Su Bai leaned over and took out a can of hot coffee from the lower part of the machine.
Just then, there came a scent of fragrance.
"Su, how about you buy me a drink? I forgot to bring any money."
Su Bai stood up: "The coins were just coming out; they’re still inside. Take them out and put them into the coin slot by yourself."
Then Su Bai walked back into the classroom with his coffee.
Being left there, the girl felt very awkward.
When Su Bai settled down in the classroom, ready to go through his thesis again, the girl also walked in this classroom. She seemed to be upset about Su Bai’s attitude, so she didn’t talk to Su Bai this time or choose a closer seat to Su Bai. Instead, she sat in a middle seat in the front.
She put down the bag, took out her earphones, took out snacks, took out a pocket mirror, picked up a book, picked up a pen… The constant noise made the other two students frown. Someone was making so much preparation before studying for just a while.
However, a harsh scream came out of the girl’s mouth at the next moment:
"Ah—!!!!!!!!!"
Su Bai stood up, only to find that the girl was holding a piece of human scalp in her hands!