Chapter 545: Chapter 545: A Novel
The case of Lu Yuanyuan has been confirmed by the police as "suicide", the suspected reason being "adolescent depression."
The classmates discussed it, but there weren’t many who believed in conspiracy theories.
One classmate even said, "Which school hasn’t had someone die? Even the best Fourth High School has had people who couldn’t bear it and committed suicide."
Sheng Tang remembered that when she was in high school, several classmates had fights. Someone used a knife, and a male student—not from her class—died; in college, a student passed away in a car accident, someone she was quite familiar with.
Life and death, although significant, are also common occurrences.
Because there was nothing suspicious about Lu Yuanyuan’s death, the topic’s popularity didn’t last as long as a certain celebrity’s scandal and it quickly faded in the campus.
Lu Yuanyuan was in Class One, and the classmates from Class One remembered it a bit longer, that’s all.
The only ones who couldn’t let go were Sheng Tang and Bao Chu.
Both of them remembered Lu Yuanyuan’s inexplicable and eerie kneeling before her death.
In private, Sheng Tang and Bao Chu would sit in the stands on the playground and talk about Lu Yuanyuan.
"Why on earth did she come to you?" Bao Chu pondered endlessly.
Sheng Tang didn’t know either.
"When she left, there was a notebook on the table," Sheng Tang said. "It had excerpts of sentences as examples, not sure if there’s any connection."
"Really?" Bao Chu’s spirits lifted. "Where is the notebook?"
"I gave it to Ting. Ting had someone look for the sources of those sentences," Sheng Tang said.
By Thursday, the impact of Lu Yuanyuan’s death on the campus had almost faded away.
Gu Shiting finally managed to find the sources of those sentences.
"From this book," he handed the notebook and a thick book over to Sheng Tang.
He explained, "This is a horror novel written by a writer from the United Kingdom. It’s not particularly famous and there’s no translation available domestically."
Sheng Tang’s face changed dramatically.
Gu Shiting noticed it.
"What’s the matter?"
Sheng Tang pointed to the cover of the book.
Gu Shiting followed her finger to the English title: "A Mother’s Forgiveness."
After reading it, he saw that Sheng Tang’s face looked unusually grim, "Is there something wrong?"
Sheng Tang: "The day before Lu Yuanyuan’s suicide, she kept telling me to forgive her..."
Gu Shiting: "..."
You are not her mother.
A Mother’s Forgiveness, the connection seems too far-fetched, doesn’t it?
Sheng Tang felt there was some connection, so she asked Gu Shiting, "What is the novel about? Why is it called ’A Mother’s Forgiveness’?"
Gu Shiting shook his head, "I haven’t read it yet."
That day, when she got home, Sheng Tang started reading the novel seriously.
The novel was from the last century; at that time, detective novels were particularly niche, unlike later when TV dramas turned them into a standalone genre.
The author was born in 1879 and this novel was written in 1902.
Sheng Tang found it somewhat obscure to read.
The novel was extremely good, employing various detective and suspense techniques.
Sheng Tang read it for three days straight, her eyes almost went blind.
She stayed at home over the weekend, working hard on the book, even looked up the dictionary for some archaic English, reading very slowly.
This is a horror detective novel.
It wasn’t until she read two-thirds of it that Sheng Tang found out the mother’s son had committed suicide; he was only fifteen years old, and he attended a church school.
The societal and religious environment at that time considered suicide as a sin.
He was already deceased, and his mother needed to forgive him for his soul to find peace.
And this mother appeared to be meek and submissive.
Unlike Lu Yuanyuan’s death, the boy in the story had a highly questionable cause of death.
Sheng Tang stayed up all night and finally finished the remaining third.
After finishing, she remained silent for a long time.
The next day, she bought two large cups of coffee and went to the classroom to tell Bao Chu about the book she had finished reading.
"I think I know the truth behind Lu Yuanyuan’s death," Sheng Tang said.
