Jian Jing finally agreed to the Fang Dong's request. However, it was neither because she was afraid of him, nor because she was moved by his fatherly love for her. It was because the system had issued a new quest.
[New Quest Issued]
[Quest Name: The Secret of the Wedding]
[Quest Description: Cherry blossoms fill the air in spring's bloom, the white wedding is supposedly a joyous event, yet why must it be tainted with traces of crimson? Whose woeful song rings out in mourning? Please uncover the truth.]
[Quest Rewards: Success grants +30 Courage, Failure has no penalty]
The heavens and earth are grand, but gacha is greatest.
Jian Jing requested to examine the corpse first.
Fang Dong glanced left and right before nodding at Lu Groomsman, "Xiao Yu, you'll have to take one for the team today and accompany Miss Jian to take a look around, help keep things under wraps."
Lu Groomsman eyed her briefly before nodding, "Fine, leave it to me."
A satisfied expression crossed Fang Dong's face. See, this was the kind of response he wanted. Usually he would never use a rash young girl like Jian Jing.
But they had no choice, she was one of Jin Wu's people, he couldn't just silence her. All he could do was make full use of her abilities. It would be a pleasant surprise if she really was as clever as that brat Lu Yu claimed.
——No matter how the powers that be looked down on her from on high, Jian Jing did not care one whit.
The moment she stepped onto the scene, she switched into deduction mode.
Twisting up her hair, she took shoe covers and gloves from her bag and put them on, before donning a disposable mask as well. Only then did she cautiously approach the corpse to begin her examination.
The deceased was the groom.
He was lying horizontally on the sofa, one hand dangling, the other resting on his abdomen. His head lolled to the side, seemingly fast asleep. However, the presence of rigor mortis and lividity indicated that the time of death was approximately 1-3 hours prior.
Moreover, the lividity in this case was rather peculiar, its color was not the usual kind seen. Instead, it presented as a bluish-brownish purple.
Jian Jing checked his fingernails and oral mucosa, discovering they too were purplish-blue.
"Was this poisoning?" Lu Groomsman asked.
She nodded, "Extremely typical symptoms of nitrite poisoning."
Normally, ferrous iron in the human body binds with oxygen to form oxyhemoglobin. Oxygen binding with hemoglobin is loose, allowing it to transfer and release through the blood vessels. But nitrite ions in nitrites oxidize the ferrous iron in hemoglobin into ferric iron, forming methemoglobin. Methemoglobin cannot carry oxygen, impacting its release, leading to hypoxia and suffocation. (Note 1)
Due to the lack of oxygen, the blood takes on a dark brown color. Showing through the skin, it makes the lividity appear bluish-brownish purple, very easy to identify.
"But this is just a preliminary judgement. An autopsy would be needed to confirm." Jian Jing said, "Aren't you calling the police for an autopsy?"
Lu Groomsman flat out refused, "Not for now."
"Just looking with your eyes won't allow you to perform an autopsy. The cause of death won't even be clear. Don't think you can solve the case." Jian Jing rolled her eyes.
Lu Groomsman asked, "Don't you have any other methods?"
She thought for a moment before replying, "For nitrite poisoning, the usual tests are for residue in food, vomit, stomach contents, and blood. If you don't want an autopsy, then take the food here and blood for testing. That should work, right?"
Lu Groomsman said, "That's fine."
"Then get me a syringe, hurry." Jian Jing immediately followed up, "Nitrites and methemoglobin in the blood break down quickly. It'll be too late if you delay."
At this time, Lu Groomsman demonstrated his capable side. He swiftly called for the club's staff to deliver a medical kit.
Their medical supplies were abundant — who knows what they normally used it all for — disposable syringes were no issue. Jian Jing drew a tube of the corpse's blood, and had Lu Groomsman swiftly find someone to test it, along with samples of the drinks and foods left at the scene, and vomit she found in the bathroom.
After finishing all this, half an hour had passed.
Lu Groomsman gained new insight about Jian Jing. In this day and age, not many girls besides professionals knew how to examine corpses. He couldn't help asking, "What's next?"
Jian Jing did not directly respond. Instead, she said, "For nitrite poisoning, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and such symptoms first occur. Then blood pressure drops, dizziness, headaches. As the degree of hypoxia increases, breathing difficulties, coma, convulsions, collapse. "
She spoke very slowly, ensuring that Lu Groomsman could understand the meaning of each sentence.
Only then did she bring up the key point: "The groom did not seem to have any issues when you were eating just now."
Lu Groomsman looked at his watch and said, "After toasting with you all, he came back here to change. He was alone in the break room for a very long time."
No wonder the groom had changed his clothes. Jian Jing nodded for him to continue.
"He came back around 12, I think. We all went to eat, leaving him alone to rest." Lu Groomsman recalled the timeline, "Someone came back at 12:15, and knocked wanting to enter, but the door was locked. He said from inside that he wanted to nap, to come get him after an hour. So we didn't bother him, until 1:30 when knocking didn't get a response. I was afraid he had run off again, so I got someone to open the lock, and that's when we discovered what happened."
Jian Jing pondered briefly before frowning, "Nitrite poisoning symptoms usually occur within 10-15 minutes. But it's not definite, it mainly depends on the method of poisoning. But death usually takes 1-2 hours. You didn't notice anything abnormal?"
Lu Groomsman said, "I'll call that person over."
Perhaps Fang Dong had instructed him, the other party was very cooperative, immediately hurrying over.
Jian Jing recognized him as the previous groomsman left behind, directly labeling him Groomsman C, and said, "Describe the scene back then to me again."
Groomsman C said, "I came back to change because my clothes were dirty. But the break room door was locked, so I called out a couple times. Big bro Ying inside told me he was sleeping, to come back in an hour. I could only leave."
Jian Jing was exceptionally patient, "How did his voice sound?"
Groomsman C hesitated, "A bit impatient, really curt. I didn't say anything else and just left."
Lu Groomsman glared at him, just short of writing the words "No backbone" on his face.
Jian Jing continued asking, "Other than his voice, did you hear any other sounds?"
The body was discovered at 1:30. Lu Groomsman found her at 1:40. It was nearly 2:00 by the time she examined the corpse. The timeframe was too wide, making it difficult to determine the room's circumstances around 12:15.
Groomsman C thought back before shaking his head, "I didn't pay attention."
Jian Jing sighed. She could only ask, "Are you certain that the person speaking was the groom? You heard clearly?"
"I'm sure, how could I mistake Big Bro Ying's voice?" Groomsman C was unsatisfied.
Only then did Jian Jing say, "Alright then, that's all."
Groomsman C glanced at her, pretending to mutter under his breath but actually not lowering his voice at all, "Big Bro Yu, what was Uncle Fang thinking, getting a little girl to investigate. This is too unreasonable."
Lu Groomsman looked askance at him, coldly saying, "Then go tell him that yourself."
Groomsman C immediately looked awkward and beat a hasty retreat.
Jian Jing jotted down the few time points in her little notebook, and began searching the scene.
The scene...was a complete mess.
The furniture was skewed every which way. A fruit platter was overturned on the ground, sliced fruits scattered everywhere. Two honeydew melons were trampled, leaving smears of juice all over the carpet. There were multiple footprints.
"How many people came through here?" She was dumbfounded.
Lu Groomsman said, "Of course everyone came after it happened. The bride straight up fainted. It was chaotic, I don't remember clearly either."
Jian Jing rubbed her temples and directly moved on, "How did the groom get back here?"
"He came back himself." Lu Groomsman did not attempt to conceal anything. "He returned at 10:40. We asked where he had gone. He said he had some matters to deal with, and already resolved them. The wedding was about to start then, so we didn't ask for details."
Jian Jing probed very carefully, "I see his watch doesn't seem to fit well, what happened there?"
Lu Groomsman was shocked once more.
It was easy to speak of attending to details, but few could truly accomplish it. Of all the people he had met, only a handful had such skill. Thus, the sense of disdain the young master held towards ordinary girls gradually faded without him realizing.
He answered, "The groom said he gave the watch to someone. Miss Jian, that watch was probably worth over a hundred thousand. It should have been enough to send someone away."
Up to this point, Lu Groomsman still leaned towards the groom having gone to meet an ex-girlfriend.
He knew of many examples where girlfriends who were broken up with cried endlessly, threatening to crash the wedding. Yet without exception they were all silenced by money.
This time, Fang Yan was probably also like this, so he didn't ask much more, and didn't feel like he needed to ask more. On the contrary, out of cousinly love and tacit understanding between men, he took the initiative to help cover up the matter, and lent his coat to him.
However, Jian Jing instinctively felt that something was wrong.
Disappearing inexplicably, returning inexplicably, dying inexplicably.
There were many mysteries surrounding the groom.
Jian Jing thought it over and decided to re-examine the case from the beginning.
The first people she asked were the groomsmen, Lu Yu, A (a resolute bachelor), B (a bachelor focused on continuing the family line), C (a groomsman who stayed behind) - the group of four.
"What exactly happened before the groom disappeared today? Tell me everything in detail," she said.
They looked at each other, and A spoke as the representative in the end.
"Yesterday was the bachelor party. Aside from Brother Lu, we were at my house playing until around 3 AM when we went to sleep. Around 7 AM, Brother Lu came to my house, and we arrived here around 8 AM probably.
"After we arrived, we mainly helped Fang Yan greet some relatives and friends, and took some photos. Around 9 AM when most of the guests had arrived, we tricked Fang Yan back into the lounge. Around 9:20 when we went to find him, he was gone."
Jian Jing was puzzled: "Why did you have to trick him?"
"It was a request from the bridesmaids' side. They wanted to put on identical outfits and have Brother Fang guess which one was the real bride, and asked us to help out," explained Groomsman C.
Jian Jing understood: "So between 9 and 9:20, none of you were with him, and you don't know what happened?"
They nodded.
"Before that, did the groom receive anything?" asked Jian Jing.
Groomsman Lu said, "You mean gifts? They're all here."
He brought Jian Jing into the lounge and opened the closet, revealing a built-in safe inside. After opening it, the safe was half-filled with gift boxes.
The largest box was no bigger than a notebook, and the smallest was only the size of a ring box.
Groomsman Lu explained that many close relatives and friends had gifted wedding presents, which were generally small in size but high in value, so they were all put in the safe.
Jian Jing examined the gifts one by one.
There were fifteen gift boxes in total. The boxes were festive and high-end, packaged exquisitely, and had wedding congratulatory cards tucked under the ribbons, signed with the givers' names.
"Is there a registry?" she asked.
Groomsman Lu said, "What's there to register? These are for the newlywed couple."
Cash gifts were recorded to facilitate social relationships, but gifts were given by close friends and relatives, so others shouldn't and couldn't pay too much attention, as long as the identities were marked clearly on the congratulatory cards.
Jian Jing nodded. She picked up each box to inspect it, but none of the fifteen gifts showed signs of being opened.
However, at the bottom of the closet, there was an untied ribbon.
This proved that one of the gifts had been opened.
Jian Jing guessed that when the groom put the gifts into the safe, he noticed something strange about one of them, or some other reason, and directly opened it.
The ribbon fell into the closet without him noticing. He took the gift box and sat down on the sofa to open it.
It was this gift that made him decide to "disappear." When leaving, he took the gift box and gift with him without leaving any traces behind. In his flustered state, he didn't notice the red paper falling to the ground, becoming a loose end.
Just now when she checked the waiting room, the red paper under the coffee table was gone.
But when she checked the trash can, it was nowhere to be found.
Whether it was the groom or someone else who disposed of it, it proved that there was something in the gift box that could expose something.
