How Many Lighters Have You Actually Taken

Based on the information provided by the police, the school quickly located the detailed academic records of the student.

"Officers, I just checked, and the student you're looking for, Zhang Hui, is indeed from our school. He's a sophomore in the Business and Economics Department... Should I notify his counselor to come over?"

"No need." Han Fei waved his hand. "Which dormitory building does he live in? We'll go find him directly."

Han Fei's reasoning was that if this person was indeed the perpetrator, they absolutely couldn't let him know that the police were looking for him. The best approach would be to catch him off guard.

"That works too. He lives in Building 8. You might not be familiar with our campus, so let me take you there."

"Good, thank you for your cooperation."

"It's my duty... By the way, may I ask why you're looking for this student? Has he done something wrong?" The school administrator casually probed.

Han Fei simply shook his head; regarding case details, he would absolutely not disclose anything.

"We can't reveal that information, sorry."

The school administrator awkwardly smiled at his failed attempt.

"Alright, alright, I was being nosy. Let me take you on the campus shuttle to find him."

...

Shortly after, the group arrived at Building 8 under the administrator's guidance.

"This is it. He lives on the fifth floor. I'll take you up."

Room 553.

"Knock knock knock." Han Fei rapped on the door.

"Who is it?" A voice came from inside. "The door's unlocked, just push it open."

Han Fei pushed open the door, and a cloud of cigarette smoke immediately billowed out.

The strong tobacco smell made even Han Fei, a veteran smoker, cough a couple of times.

"Close the door behind you, the AC's on. Don't waste electricity." The four people sitting inside didn't even turn their heads, all intensely focused on their video game, each with a cigarette between their left fingers.

"Cigarettes are on the table, help yourself."

In male dorms, it was common for students to come asking for cigarettes when they ran out, and everyone was used to such behavior. The four assumed Han Fei and his group were just fellow students coming to bum some smokes, and since they were in the middle of a game, they couldn't be bothered to even check who had entered.

The school administrator was stunned by the smoke-filled room.

After a few seconds of shock, he couldn't help but shout.

"Look at this room! How can anyone live here? It's so full of smoke, people might mistake it for some mystical realm! The school has repeatedly prohibited smoking in dorms, why won't you listen... Cigarette butts everywhere, aren't you afraid of starting a fire? Put those cigarettes out right now!"

At these words, the four finally realized something was wrong. The person who had knocked wasn't a fellow student after all. The voice and tone sounded like a school official. They turned around to look and found that it really was. Without another word, they immediately extinguished their cigarettes.

They couldn't even care about their game anymore, and all stood up at once.

Upon standing, they noticed that among the visitors were not only school officials but also several police officers in uniform.

The school administrator, knowing they were here to accompany the police on official business rather than enforce discipline, didn't lecture further. He simply pointed at the four students and said, "I'm going to have your counselor deduct one credit from each of you later!"

In university, the punishment for violating school rules was simple: credit deduction.

"Which one of you is Zhang Hui? Step forward." After scolding the four, the administrator asked.

The young man by the bed on the left side of the entrance stepped forward and timidly responded, "That's me."

The administrator glanced at Han Fei and stepped back slightly, as the matter was now out of his hands.

The next second, Han Fei stepped forward and pointed at the suitcase by the young man's desk: "You just got back from Wan Mall, right? What's in the suitcase?"

"Yes, I stopped by there to buy some things when I returned to school. In my suitcase, there are... clothes, what's wrong?"

"Just clothes?"

"Uh... also, also a laptop, but I've already taken it out." Zhang Hui pointed to the notebook computer on the table.

"Open the suitcase, we need to check it," Han Fei continued.

"Oh, okay, okay." Zhang Hui laid the suitcase down while speaking, opened it, and showed it to the officers.

Although he didn't understand why the officers wanted to check his suitcase, he still took out the few pieces of clothing one by one: "These are my pants, t-shirts, socks, underwear, that's all, just these things."

Since it was summer, his suitcase only contained summer clothes, and given that the suitcase wasn't very large, it was emptied in no time.

The school administrator thought the officers might be looking for small items, so he suggested from the side: "What about the pants pockets? Check the pockets too, see if there's anything in there that shouldn't be."

Hearing this, Zhang Hui very cooperatively began searching through the pants pockets, pulling out several lighters from the pockets of the various pairs of pants, totaling about seven or eight.

After emptying them, he even turned the pockets inside out: "Just these things in the pockets, nothing else."

At this point, his three roommates stared thoughtfully at the very familiar-looking lighters he had pulled out.

No wonder their lighters kept disappearing... this guy... how many lighters had he swiped from them?!

In reality, the officers were only checking if Zhang Hui's suitcase contained a male corpse; they hadn't actually intended to check what was in his pants pockets.

Seeing that the suitcase only contained clothes and there were no bloodstains inside, they dismissed their suspicions about him.

Han Fei breathed a sigh of relief. Zhang Hui was cleared of suspicion; his suitcase hadn't been used to transport a body, which meant the missing boy likely hadn't been harmed yet. This was good news.

"Do... do you need to check anywhere else?" Zhang Hui's Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed. This was his first time being visited by police officers in his life, and he was understandably nervous.

Han Fei waved his hand: "No need, we just wanted to check what was in your suitcase. Sorry for the disturbance."

"We have other matters to attend to, so we'll be leaving now."

With the case still unsolved, the officers had no time to waste. They said their goodbyes and prepared to leave to continue their investigation.

"Officers, let me show you out. The campus is quite large, and I wouldn't want you to get lost," the school administrator quickly caught up with them.

Almost as soon as they turned to leave Room 553, they could hear the "interrogation" begin inside.

"Third Brother, tell us, when did this habit of swiping people's lighters start?"

"I was wondering why my lighters kept disappearing as soon as I bought them. So you're the one who's been taking them all?!"

"..."