The moment Wang the cameraman saw the knife, he cast an incredulous look at Director Hu: “Old Hu, this is yours...”
Director Hu’s face was as black as the bottom of a pot. He didn’t say “yes” or “no”.
Zuo Xin was surprised and asked: “The director’s?”
“He bought a high imitation military knife and bragged about it being exactly the same to us before,” said Wang the cameraman. Unlike his previous cold and impatient attitude, he looked at his friend complicatedly, “I won’t mistake it. This is your stuff.”
Director Hu’s face flushed red: “It’s not me! I have no grudge against her, why would I kill her? Am I crazy?? It’s not me!!”
He waved his hands forcefully with restless gestures. The veins on his temples throbbed violently: “Someone must have taken my knife to frame me on purpose. Many people knew I had this. How could I possibly use something so obvious to commit murder?”
Deng Props asked: “You mean you didn’t put it there?”
“Of course not!” Director Hu retorted.
“No matter whose it is, it must be the murderer’s,” Zuo Xin said definitively. “This is the murder weapon. There must be fingerprints on it. We’ll know who it is after an investigation.”
Director Hu insisted on defending himself: “If I wanted to kill someone, would I use my own knife? Besides, I didn’t have a knife when I went downstairs. Unless I had planned to kill her beforehand, what’s my motive? Did you see anything wrong between me and Tang Yu Ran? I was still hoping to shoot this TV series well. With the female lead murdered, who could I find to continue shooting?”
What he said was reasonable. The knife alone was not enough to determine he was the murderer.
“I’ll take custody of the murder weapon first.” Jian Jing bagged the murder weapon in a plastic bag and took it in her hand directly. “You guys look around to see if anything else was left out. Luo Jun, please take me to where the butterfly clip was discovered and take a look.”
Luo Jun nodded: “No problem.”
The two walked downstairs with umbrellas and headed for the small garden in the dim rainy light.
Jian Jing let him walk in front and asked: “Do you think it’s the director?”
“Hard to say. What he said makes sense. Using his own stuff as a murder weapon is indeed a bit silly,” Luo Jun lit the way with his phone. “But if it wasn’t premeditated murder, and done in a spur of impulse, using his own stuff would be normal, right?”
Jian Jing lightly hmm-ed in agreement and echoed: “He had plenty of time. I suspect him the most too.”
Luo Jun smiled. He walked ahead with uneven steps, limping a little.
Soon, the two arrived at the small garden. The dense tree trunks blocked most of the view. The soil was drenched by the rainwater, shoes all muddled in mud.
“It was around here.” Luo Jun casually pointed to a spot. “When Deng and I came before, we didn’t find any footprints or the like. It should have been before it started raining. Wang is unlikely.”
Jian Jing asked: “Why?”
“Calling Hu downstairs was unnecessary for him. Also, I watched the surveillance video. His footage was taken sporadically across different locations and times,” Luo Jun analyzed. “Whereas Hu was away for too long.”
Jian Jing sighed lightly in agreement: “Hu is the most suspicious. I’ll tell the police later—what’s wrong with your foot?”
Luo Jun’s gait was somewhat bizarre, limping.
“It’s nothing. I sprained it on the way down just now when I didn’t watch my step clearly,” he quickly said. “It shouldn’t be serious. It’ll be fine after icing it when I get back.”
Jian Jing shone her phone left and right: “There’s a small path up ahead. We should be able to circle back that way. Let’s go from here. You should’ve told me earlier your foot was hurt. I would’ve asked someone else to come down with me.”
“Really, it’s nothing. I wanted to do something for Yu Ran too,” Luo Jun said sadly. “She was so young.”
“Yes, how could the murderer bear to do it.” Jian Jing sighed lightly again.
The flashlight shone through the drenched grass and trees onto the small path up ahead.
The stone path was deliberately paved in the garden, shaped like a Y. The entrance below led to two small paths on either side that circled around both sides of the classroom building.
They took the left path, circling half the garden, and arrived at the bicycle shed beside the old classroom building. Many decrepit old bikes covered in rust were parked here.
Turning past the bicycle shed, they were back under the classroom building. And the entrance here happened to be near the restroom.
Jian Jing took out her phone to check the time. It took 2 minutes to get from upstairs to the small garden, and 5 minutes to circle back to the classroom building from the small garden.
But now with the rain, if a man walked briskly, it could probably be shortened by 1-2 minutes.
She didn’t remember how long Luo Jun’s first restroom trip took, but it was vaguely very long, definitely over 10 minutes, possibly even 15 minutes.
“Woo woo—” the harsh police siren sounded from afar.
Her phone simultaneously lit up with an incoming call. Jian Jing gestured for Luo Jun to leave first while she herself went to a secluded spot to answer the call: “Hello, Officer Ji?”
Ji Feng cut to the chase: “Where are you?”
“The old classroom building,” Jian Jing leaned against the corridor edge and waved her phone at the approaching police car. “Can you see me?”
Ji Feng said: “I see you, wait there.”
Three minutes later, the police finally arrived.
Ji Feng asked the two new officers to inquire with the other crew members while he questioned Jian Jing alone: “What’s the situation?”
Jian Jing hesitated a little.
“Just say what you know,” Ji Feng rubbed his eyebrows and restrained his fatigue. “If the direction is right, we can crack the case quickly. If not, we’ll not only waste police effort but also risk losing evidence.”
Only then did Jian Jing speak: “I’m only saying my opinion. Don’t laugh.”
Ji Feng: “I absolutely won’t.”
“Alright.” Jian Jing prepared herself and said uncertainly: “I may have found the murderer.”
Ji Feng choked: “Cough cough cough, what?”
“The 4th floor female restroom wasn’t the first crime scene. A knife was found under the trash can in the 3rd floor male restroom. It belonged to Director Hu but may not necessarily be the murder weapon. There were bloodstains in the 2nd floor female restroom. Unsure if it was Tang Yu Ran’s. In the garden behind the classroom building, I found fragments of Tang’s butterfly hairclip.”
Without wasting words, Jian Jing directly outlined the evidence.
Upon hearing this, Ji Feng's attitude immediately changed: “You discovered all this? Go on.”
“I summarized everyone’s timeline and sent it to you,” Jian Jing copied and pasted her memo and texted Ji Feng. “Now let me share my deductions. Just casually listen, don’t laugh.”
After mulling for a bit, she analyzed: “Firstly, Tang Yu Ran and Deng planned and concealed from everyone a bloody scene on the 4th floor female restroom, aiming to create a special event and add a gimmick to our short film shoot. The bloodstains on site can prove my point. Many of the bloody handprints were Tang Yu Ran’s own.
“She left at 10:15 PM after setting up the scene, then went downstairs to chat with Wang for a while. Deng knew she went to the small garden. I think this timeline is credible since Wang wouldn’t risk being exposed lying.
“So around 10:30-10:40 PM, Tang Yu Ran was still alive. When I examined the corpse, her hair and clothes were not wet. It started raining at 11:02 PM. She died during this time frame.”
Ji Feng listened very attentively. He casually took out a cigarette to light and took two hard puffs, invigorated.
“Go on,” he urged.
Jian Jing continued: “Wang was filming the whole time sporadically across different spots. He didn’t have enough continuous time to kill and cover it up. I’ve also ruled out Zuo Xin since she’s female and couldn’t have moved the body alone. That leaves Deng, Hu, and Luo.
“Tang was alive at 10:30-40. Deng’s next departure was quite late already. We can’t confirm the exact time, but I feel it was close to 11 PM. He also voluntarily told me about the staged scene... I recorded that conversation, you can listen later. I don't think it was him.
“I was most suspicious of Hu and Luo, but eventually locked in on Luo Jun.”
Ji Feng asked: “Because the murder weapon belonged to Hu?”
“That’s one reason. The murderer staged the crime scene but left the murder weapon downstairs. It doesn’t add up. Also, if it was Hu, he was away for too long. But most importantly, I feel Luo Jun’s timeline matches up better.”
Jian Jing moved into the reasoning: “He and Tang were boyfriend and girlfriend. It was simpler for them to arrange a secret meetup compared to the others. Tang finished meeting Wang around 10:40-10:50 PM and met up with Luo, or vice versa, Luo left shortly after 10:40, met up with her, they quarrelled, and he killed her. To prevent Hu and Wang from discovering the body, he took the small path behind the garden, moved the corpse to the 2nd floor female restroom—the 4th floor might have visitors anytime—then returned to the classroom.
“Then in the classroom, he got Hu’s knife, left at 11:05 PM, wanting to stage the 2nd floor female restroom as the primary crime scene, but after stabbing the corpse, he realized there was very little blood flow. It was insufficient for his needs. So he thought of Tang Yu Ran’s staged plan and directly borrowed the ready-made fake scene on the 4th floor. Then he discarded the murder weapon in the 3rd floor male restroom.
“Of course, I don’t know if he was aware of the plan, but Tang Yu Ran’s plan couldn’t have been recent since they just broke up a few days ago. I have reason to suspect Luo knew about it.”
Ji Feng put out his cigarette: “Anything else?”
“A trash can in the 2nd floor female restroom was missing its trash bag,” Jian Jing recalled. “The janitor’s schedule on the door shows the trash bags were changed at 6 PM. But one stall was empty. I guess he tore open the trash bag to block the blood splatter, which is why he didn’t get any on himself. And that item is still on his person now.”
Ji Feng clapped and quite readily said: “Since you already have speculations, let’s have him cooperate first.”
Seeing his readiness, Jian Jing was hesitant instead: “What I said are all guesses. What if I’m wrong?”
“If it's wrong then it's wrong. Even us police make countless mistakes.” Ji Feng laughed. “Don’t fear making mistakes. I’ll cover for you if anything happens. Let’s go.”
As this was Jian Jing’s first deduction, she was naturally eager to validate the result. After a brief hesitation, she quickly followed along.
The room instantly quieted upon their entry as everyone looked to her, wondering what she told the police.
Ji Feng signaled her with his eyes to speak.
Jian Jing pursed her lips, her eyes sweeping over the curious Zuo Xin, the nervous President Hu, the frowning Wang Cameraman, the confused Deng Props, and finally settling on the calm-faced male lead Luo Jun.
"Luo Jun," she said, "could you please take off your left shoe for a moment?"
This request was bizarre, but it made Luo Jun's expression change in an instant.
He was quite handsome, and his smiles had fooled many girls before, but at this moment, he likely didn't even know how horrifying his own expression was.
The shock, tension and instinctive resistance were laid bare for all to see.
