The Brain Science Case 59

Chapter 59: The Lonely Killer – 8

“What’s your impression of Ou Anpo?”

“Her? She’s a very serious and dedicated student, probably one of the most talented I’ve ever met…” Speaking of her beloved student, Wu Yingfan’s tone was filled with admiration. “Mrs. Ou said she’s very sensible. For her to suddenly disappear like this… it’s really worrying.”

“You used to go to her house for lessons?”

“Yes. Later, I got a few more students and couldn’t make a special trip for her, so she started coming here.”

“How did she usually get here?”

“The same as for school. Mrs. Ou drove her.”

So she had no chance to meet other people. “What kind of people were in her class?”

One was a white-collar worker who was learning for fun, and the other was a middle school girl. Their levels were far from Ou Anpo’s.

“Mrs. Ou was very, very deliberate in preventing Anpo from having contact with boys, and she was also reluctant to let her chat with other students.” Wu Yingfan had a troubled expression on her face. “Actually, I don’t like that. Her technique is very strong, but her musical interpretation and sensitivity are a bit lacking. You’ve been around music since you were little, so you should understand what I mean.”

Yingli nodded without hesitation, and Zhou Jinglin and Cai Yuwei looked at each other, feeling a sense of being excluded.

“Simply put, she lacks life experience, right?” This sentence was more like an explanation for the two of them. “Is she not good at socializing?”

“No, she’s not,” Wu Yingfan said without hesitation. “She’s very polite, but she doesn’t know how to start a conversation with others. It’s a bit like she’s living in her own world. But she’s very focused on whatever she does, and she’s a very good learner. I’ve seen her notes. They’re so special that only she can understand them.”

“Did she ever say anything about her parents? Did she ever complain?”

“Complain… I’ve almost never heard her talk about her parents.” She frowned in thought, and suddenly, she let out a small “Ah.” “Oh, before, when she came for a lesson, I heard her say, ‘This kind of clothes again,’ and then she threw down her pen in anger.”

“Clothes?”

“Yes. I didn’t understand at first, but later, when she came to simulate a music competition, I realized she might have been complaining about her performance costume.”

“What did it look like?”

“An evening gown, off-the-shoulder, black and purple, with wide, flowing pants. I thought it was very beautiful. I remember I took a picture…” Wu Yingfan searched her phone. “Ah, found it.”

The three of them leaned in to look. “Teacher,” Zhou Jinglin called out in a low voice.

Yingli nodded slightly. “It’s the new one.”

Ou Anpo, in her performance costume, was holding her bow and violin, her face radiating with light and confidence.

“She doesn’t look dissatisfied.”

“So I wasn’t sure what she was angry about either,” Wu Yingfan shrugged.

“Can we see the teaching location?”

“Of course. But it hasn’t changed much from back then.”

The villa had a basement in addition to the first and second floors. The lessons were all held in the basement.

The timeline of important Western musicians hanging on the wall, the exploded view of a violin, and so on were all consistent with Yingli’s memory. The only change was probably a few new violins she hadn’t seen before.

Yingli looked at the piano—the place where Ou Anpo had taken the photo.

She stared at the piano in the photo and zoomed in to examine it. “What kind of rosin do you usually use, Teacher?”

“Rosin… mainly this one.”

ANDREA, the same brand as the one they had seen at Ou Anpo’s house.

“Does this one have glitter in it?”

Yingli turned in surprise, because the person who had asked this question was Zhou Jinglin.

“No, this one doesn’t have gold powder. Another one does. Wait a minute.”

While Wu Yingfan was looking for it, Zhou Jinglin approached her. “I noticed you were staring at Ou Anpo’s violin yesterday, but I only just realized you were looking at the rosin.”

Yingli couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow in admiration. “People who haven’t played the violin usually don’t notice.”

“That’s true, but there was glitter on the violin. It was very obvious under the light.”

“Found it. It’s this one.”

It was a piece of amber rosin, with flecks of gold powder in the translucent block.

“Can I try it?” Wu Yingfan readily agreed. “Let me borrow a bow.”

Yingli rubbed it on the bow hair twice, then rubbed it between her fingers.

“It’s not this one,” she frowned.

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“This isn’t the rosin on Ou Anpo’s violin.” The stickiness was wrong. “Are there any others?”

“I only have these two.”

Zhou Jinglin remembered what Mrs. Ou had said. “Teacher Wu, I heard that if a student’s violin is damaged, you’re the one who handles it.”

“Yes, I know a violin repairman. If there’s any problem with a violin, whether it’s a student’s or mine, I give it to him.” Wu Yingfan pointed to a violin case on the side. “Like this one, it just came back last week.”

“Let me see.” Yingli took the violin case, and before she could even open it, her eyes suddenly focused on a certain spot on the case. “Teacher, how can I contact this repairman?”

“I have his number in my phone. I remember I also got a business card from him…”

“Where’s the business card?”

Wu Yingfan was taken aback by her. “I’ll look for it.”

After getting the business card, the three of them quickly said goodbye to Wu Yingfan. “Is that repairman the key?”

“At least it means that Ou Anpo had actual contact with him before the competition.” Yingli had a note between her two fingers at some point.

“This handwriting is exactly the same as the English poem.”

“Exactly the same?” Zhou Jinglin immediately leaned in. “The poem? Let me see.” The handwriting was just as faint, and the way the letters were written was the same as the love poem.

“The label wouldn’t be in Ou Anpo’s handwriting, which means this person wrote the poem. But the class notes couldn’t have been written by him…” But why were the two so similar?

Yingli rested her chin on her hand, and in that instant, she had a flash of inspiration. “That’s right… that’s the only possibility.”

“What possibility?” Cai Yuwei was confused.

After quickly entering the address on the business card into the GPS, Zhou Jinglin ran to the driver’s seat and held out her hand to him.

“No,” his eyes widened, “no, no, no…”

“We’re in a hurry. Give me the keys.”

“You have to remember, drive slowly, slowly…” he held the keys, and she snatched them.

“If you’re afraid of danger, you can take a taxi.” Jumping into the driver’s seat, she tested the pedals, and Yingli, who was next to her, had already buckled her seatbelt.

They looked at each other and smiled.

Starting the engine, Zhou Jinglin gripped the steering wheel. “Hold on tight.”

**

With the roar of the engine and Cai Yuwei’s wails as he was thrown around, they quickly arrived at the workshop.

The task of reporting the progress of the investigation fell to Yingli. “…Yes, this person may have a close relationship with Ou Anpo.”

‘Could they be a couple?’ Fang Zijun asked on the other end.

“It’s hard to say.” Yingli stared at the love poem in her hand. “But Ou Anpo deliberately imitated his handwriting.”

Afterward, the precinct police had asked Ou Anpo’s classmates in the reading club and had found that she had been using the club time to practice her English writing, not for her homework, but to try to imitate someone’s handwriting.

The fact that she was willing to spend time imitating his handwriting spoke volumes about her special feelings for this person.

And Ou Anpo must have also been special in this person’s eyes. Tread on my dreams—Yeats had written this poem for his girlfriend, expressing that he was giving her the most precious thing he had.

For a violin repairman, the only thing that could be called a “dream” was a violin.

‘Imitated his handwriting?’ Fang Zijun was so shocked on the other end that his mouth hung open.

“I mentioned before that Ou Anpo has a unique and isolated aura.”

“Just like you,” Zhou Jinglin added in a low voice.

Yingli smiled and continued, “She’s not good at socializing and doesn’t have any close friends, or perhaps more accurately, no one she feels is worth getting close to. She is a lonely and misunderstood genius…” She unfolded the love poem. The lines of the handwriting on the paper were a little hesitant, but very beautiful. “Until she met this person.”

“But the repairman’s age… he should be much, much older than her, right?” Cai Yuwei, who was struggling to hold on, finally managed to interject.

“Yes, so I can’t judge what kind of relationship they have yet, but at least from the gift of the poem and the imitation of the handwriting, they are both rare and unique special people to each other.”

If you compared a person to a kite, then their social state was the string that connected the kite. To establish deep and close social connections with many people was like many strings pulling on the same kite. Even if one of them broke, there were still other strings to hold on.

But for Ou Anpo, this kite, there might have only been one string. Once it broke, she would be left to disappear in the wind, with no one to rely on.

“Are you sure they’re not a couple? They…”

“Let me put it this way.” Her index finger on her glasses, she sighed softly. “If they are… then things might be easier.”

Under the high-speed driving, they arrived at the workshop in less than thirty minutes. To avoid alerting him, they had not called beforehand and had chosen to trust the business hours on the business card.

They had bet right.

Yingli was the first to get out of the car on her high heels. “The teacher and I will go in. You stay in the car.” Turning on the hazard lights, Zhou Jinglin quickly came to Yingli’s side.

Looking at each other, Yingli tilted her chin up, and a crisp wind chime rang as Zhou Jinglin pushed open the door.