Chapter 1

My roommate, the campus beauty, went on a midnight date with my boyfriend—and never came back.

The police searched for three months without finding a trace of her.

It was only when spring arrived and the biggest snow sculpture on campus melted that her disappearance was finally reclassified as a murder case.

1

My roommate was from Northeast China, yet she was terrified of snow.

She said that when everything was covered in white, your footprints showed wherever you went, and the thought frightened her.

So on snowy days, she never went outside unless something truly important came up.

That night was Christmas Day. The snow was coming down hard.

And yet she still went out.

On the third day after Yu Yue disappeared, the police came to see me.

The female officer had a gentle-looking face and a steady gaze, but there was a professional scrutiny in her eyes.

“So there were only two of you in the dorm that night?”

I nodded. “Yaoyao and Fang Qi both live off campus. They go home every day.”

“Did Yu Yue act strangely before she left? Did she say anything to you?”

“She didn’t say anything. We hardly spoke.”

Her gaze lingered, its scrutiny sharpening.

“You weren’t on good terms?”

I smiled. “Would saying that put me at a disadvantage?”

“Being honest is what’s best for you.”

“Then honestly, that night she was probably going to meet my boyfriend.”

Her pen began moving faster.

“What was her relationship with your boyfriend? How do you know she was going to meet him?”

I gave a bitter laugh. “We were supposed to spend Christmas together, but my boyfriend suddenly stood me up. Meanwhile, my roommate was heading out with condoms. What do you think she went to do?”

“So you suspect she was involved with your boyfriend, and that’s why the two of you didn’t get along?”

I shook my head. “I don’t suspect it. I’m sure of it.”

2

Because of my statement, my boyfriend became a key figure in Yu Yue’s disappearance.

But after investigating in every direction, the police came up empty-handed.

In the end, they came back to me.

“Why did you lie?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“On Christmas Day, Lin Muhai was at a karaoke bar all night. The security footage proves it. He never met Yu Yue.”

“And another thing!”

“Student Li Yunyue, Lin Muhai isn’t your boyfriend at all.”

“In fact, you’ve only met him once.”

The female officer leaned closer and closer. She made no effort to hide her dislike.

She was young, but the pressure she brought to bear was no less than that of the seasoned detectives on television.

It was as if she might pull out a gun and shoot me if I didn’t tell the truth.

She really did scare me. I took a deep breath.

“If you don’t believe me, there’s nothing I can do.”

Then I looked straight into her frightening eyes and asked seriously,

“Why don’t you arrest me?”

She was so angry she couldn’t speak for a long while.

If another officer hadn’t pulled her back, she might have laid hands on me.

“Li Yunyue! Lying to the police and obstructing an investigation are crimes. You know that, don’t you?”

I nodded honestly.

That day, we parted on bad terms once again.

By then, she looked at me the way she would look at a suspect.

Only she still had no way to bring me to justice.

On the night Yu Yue disappeared, I had happened to be taking part in an online Christmas Werewolf game tournament.

From the preliminary rounds to the final, I had played from ten at night until four in the morning. The entire tournament had been livestreamed and recorded.

My alibi was more complete than Lin Muhai’s.

3

Ten days after Yu Yue went missing.

The case seemed to have become a cold case—one the police could investigate or leave alone.

No family members were pressing them to find her, and the university was cooperating with the police only as required.

The tension of final exams had diluted everyone’s interest and curiosity about the case.

Where Yu Yue had gone no longer seemed to matter.

Only that infuriating female officer kept coming to see me from time to time.

She would use the excuse of buying me something to eat, then ask about this or that.

“Officer Shen, are you trying to become the chief of police? Or are you related to Yu Yue?”

She handed me the milk tea she’d just bought, leaned close to my ear, and joked half-seriously,

“I am. Give me a hand—let something slip for me.”

I looked into her eyes and said once again,

“Investigate Lin Muhai.”

She sighed, stopped looking at me, and changed the subject.

“When does your winter break start?”

“Next week.”

“Good. I’ll come find you for dinner after work tomorrow.”

“Don’t bother. I’ll be busy with finals all week.”

She pouted, unconvinced.

Back then, I thought she would definitely come the next day.

But she didn’t.

After that day, I never saw her again.

4

Sixty-six days after Yu Yue went missing.

Winter break was over.

The school’s heating was turned up high for the opening ceremony, and my palms were slick with sweat.

Onstage, Mr. Lin Shuanglong spoke about the history of his business and his noble ideals of “giving back to society and supporting education.”

Beside him, his son Lin Muhai wore a faint smile, looking pleased with himself.

When it came time to award the “Shuanglong Scholarship,” he read out my name.

I calmly walked onto the stage and accepted the eight thousand yuan scholarship he handed me.

“Congratulations, Li Yunyue. Keep up the good work.”

According to the program, I wasn’t supposed to say anything at this point.

But I took the microphone from his hand and looked out at the audience.

“I’ve always believed that good people are rewarded, and evil people get what they deserve.”

The entire hall fell silent. Then scattered, polite applause began.

The teachers seemed to think my words were a little too blunt, but in the circumstances, they also fit the mood.

I turned my gaze back to the stage and smiled at the father and son of the Lin family.

“You and your son are both exceptionally good people.”

He nodded with a smile. I tightened my grip on the microphone and made the rest of my meaning clear:

“It’s not that retribution doesn’t come. It just hasn’t arrived yet.”

The sparse, awkward applause quickly died away.

The university leaders’ expressions stiffened.

Lin Shuanglong’s smile only faded a little, turning into the indulgent look of an elder tolerating a young person’s impetuous remarks.

Lin Muhai was less composed than his father. He furrowed his brows and stared at me.

I turned and walked offstage, my back straight.

5

Sixty-nine days after Yu Yue went missing.

Her name appeared now and then in whispers around hidden corners.

“Sugar baby.” “Mistress.” “Some rich man’s kept woman, hidden away somewhere.”

Maybe it was because she was beautiful, or because she had often ridden in luxury cars.

Or maybe such speculation satisfied some voyeuristic urge buried in people’s hearts.

The days passed like a river beneath ice, seemingly calm.

Until the seventieth day after Yu Yue disappeared.

Spring had arrived, and the sunlight was beginning to feel warm.

In the central plaza of the university, the city-funded “Snow Goddess” sculpture—the biggest snow sculpture on campus, built at enormous expense—finally began to melt.

Its snow-white body grew murky and dull.

The first to notice was a professor. He pointed at an oddly colored spot on the goddess’s leg and cried out in alarm.

A groundskeeper approached in confusion. The long-handled broom in his hand clanged to the ground.

Then came the security guards, the shrill sound of police sirens, and the flashing red and blue lights.

I stood at the edge of the crowd and saw them using heat guns to melt the ice.

Half an hour later, the outer layer broke away.

A body curled into a strange position, pale with patches of purplish blue, completely exposed, appeared before everyone’s eyes.

I heard screams, and the sharp gasps of people horrified by what they saw.

Yu Yue had been found.

She had appeared before everyone in the most tragic, most uncanny, most shocking way imaginable.

The celebrated campus beauty’s disappearance had now become a murder case that shook the whole city.

6

When the police took me away, I didn’t resist.

The police car drove through campus, past the frightened faces of the students. I left calmly.

The interrogation room was smaller than I’d expected, and the white lights were painfully bright.

The person sitting across from me was no longer Officer Shen. It was a stern-looking policeman in his forties.

“Where’s Shen Qing?”

I asked instinctively.

The male officer raised his eyelids slightly, his manner perfunctory.

“She’s been transferred. I’m Officer Zhou, in charge of your case.”

Transferred? My hand clenched involuntarily.

Officer Zhou’s questions were direct and cold, like a knife cutting into me.

“Li Yunyue, Yu Yue went missing on the evening of December 25. You didn’t report it until the afternoon of the 28th. During those nearly three days, you claim you were at school. What exactly were you doing, and who can confirm it?”

“On the day she disappeared, I livestreamed a game of Werewolf online. The next day I slept in to make up for it, then went out for something to eat in the evening.

“After that, I slept, watched movies, and occasionally went to the cafeteria. No one can confirm it. I was alone in the dorm.”

I answered smoothly. I’d told Shen Qing all of this long ago.

He opened a file and slid a printed screenshot of a surveillance video toward me.

The image was blurry, but I could make out the campus at night.

West of the library, at the intersection of Aixue Road and Desheng Road.

A figure in a thick coat, hat, and mask was struggling to drag a large, dark-colored suitcase that looked quite heavy.

“December 26, 11:47 p.m. The person in this picture is you, isn’t it?”

I stared at the photograph without answering.

“What’s inside the suitcase?”