Chapter 127: One suspect.

One girl raised her hand. “The drug was not illegal in the eyes of the law. We did not commit a crime. Professor Ce is old. He…was old I mean. He was stuck in his ways and he considered the drug a cheat code or something. He called us lazy.

We were not too happy about the deducted points but he promised to give us a test that would make up for them. Why would any of us kill him over that?”

Liwu noted this down. “I will need samples of that coffee drug. Anyone here that has it should hand it in for proper testing. I am as disappointed as your professor. You kids should know better.”

“It’s just coffee.” One of the kids said.

“Hand it in.” She toughened her voice.

Majesty’s whiskers twitched. “I can smell it. Don’t make come and take it from you with my claws.”

To Liwu’s shock, all of the kids had it! It was in a bottle, with a mark of a coffee candy. It was being presented as a brain booster.

“This explains why they never sleep.” He Xiao Yi whispered.

An officer from the SOB put it all in an evidence bag and set it aside before moving back to guard the detectives and watch the doors.

“Let’s continue.” Liwu said softly, “What else was bothering the professor?”

Silence.

He Xiao Yi snorted. “I checked his computer. He had comparisons of your grades against those of the students in the last ten years. Half of you here were not exactly Professor Ce genius standard. That had to be bothering him a lot. I knew the man personally so I know he said this to you directly. He could be candidly blunt. An asshole.”

One girl whispered, “He was too strict. He raised the grading system. An A+ was 98 and above, everything else was practically an F to him.”

“Why do you think we don’t sleep anymore?” A boy shouted. “He was always going on and on about grades being sacred.”

Another boy added, “Chen Wei got a 97 on math last semester. Professor Ce gave him a C!! Chen Wei knelt down and begged him to change it to an A+ like it should have been. But he refused. Even when Chen Wei threw himself out of the window, the old goat would not budge.”

He Xiao Yi’s eyes sharpened. He watched the boy everyone had turned to, the one called Chen Wei, seated at the age of the group. The boy’s hands trembled, his gaze darted. Xiao Yi’s system lit up with guilt indicators from the boy’s body language.

Majesty leaped onto the desk before Chen Wei. “You reek of ink and fear.”

Chen Wei flinched, “Get that cat away from me!”

Liwu raised an eyebrow. “Chen Wei, you seem nervous.”

Chen stammered, “I—I just don’t like cats.”

“Now that alone is a reason to declare you guilty.” Majesty purred. He leaped away, back onto Liwu’s shoulders.

Chen Wei sniffed. “I am on anti depressants and suicide watch. Professor Ce however extended my scholarship instead of expelling me for the silly decision I made. He gave me an introduction letter for an internship at the Ministry of foreign affairs. I am number ten in the special twenty. I had no reason to kill him in fact, his death is a stumbling block in my plans. My parents are torn with grief, they worshiped the man because he changed our lives. Look elsewhere for your suspects.”

She looked at the students. “Let’s being with alibis. Apart from those I interviewed yesterday, the rest of you need to tell me where you were between midnight and 6:00 AM. Your alibi needs to be solid, with proof.”

One by one, they provided their alibis. None of them had been sleeping. With such stiff competition to excel, they had all been lost in books or projects.

“Now, I need to verify your systems and match them to the information we have.” She declared.

This part, the seventeen students with systems were excited to share.

“I have an echo memory. I can recall any sound or voice.”

“I have a chrono recall system. It rewinds my personal time by five minutes.”

“I have an iron will system. That is why I can withstand mental pressure and I am number one among the special students.”

“I have a cipher mind system. It decodes any written or spoken language immediately.”

“I have a biological editing system.”

“I have a bloodline awakening system”

By the time they were finished, Liwu was impressed. These kids were not called geniuses without a reason. Each of them was special. No wonder an A+ was at 98 in this academy. If a student had a system that allowed them to recall everything they heard or saw, or rewind the time five minutes back when they got the answer wrong, then the professor was right to expect only the best from them.

This brought her to the three students that were ordinary geniuses but somehow, could keep up with the system made geniuses. Truthfully, she found them to be the true special ones in the group.

How they were keeping up with the others was a mystery.

Her watch beeped, a red laser arrow pointed to Chen Wei.

Liwu raised her eyebrows. “Kid, the bureau can track all systems within a walking distance of this watch. You are unregistered and new. What are you?”

Fidgeting nervously with the arms of his shirt, Chen Wei grimaced. “I am sorry, I didn’t want to say because it is nothing special like what they have. It activated today morning. Something called a shadow ledger system. It reveals hidden debts, secrets and promises people owe. As you can see, it doesn’t improve grades, just makes me a rat.”

The other students laughed.

Liwu called the boy forward and she registered him and his details.

“How many of you here had been dropped from the twenty?” He Xiao Yi asked while this was happening.

Nine students raised their hands.

Liwu and He Xiao Yi sent the students away. Then, they went outside to meet the rest of the team and share what they had learned.

“It’s him.” He Xiao Yi declared, “Chen Wei.”

“Why?” Liwu asked.

“My system says so.” He replied. “Besides, he tried to kill himself because of the professor. He probably hates the man. Then the professor overcompensated by getting Chen Wei an internship and extending his scholarship. Professor Ce was not a kind man like that.

That system of Chen Wei’s was probably activated when he tried to kill himself. Maybe he learned a secret on the professor which earned him those things or maybe…..”

“His system gives him an ability to walk around unseen in order to find new secrets. so, it is possible that he killed the professor elsewhere and transported him to the office unseen.” Liwu finished with an idea that had formulated in her mind as she was registering the boy.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep