Life is always full of surprises.
For example, you may wake up to find a murder case, not knowing who died, or you may wake up to find not only a murder case but also a man sleeping by your pillow.
Although your body feels normal and your clothes only have the usual wrinkles without any other traces, this is shocking enough.
Jian Jing reviewed the system prompt again and glanced at Zong Xunmei, who was leaning his head lazily. She highly suspected that the murderer was this guy.
If that was the case, she would twist his head off.
But at that time, she left the bed calmly without even looking at him. Only the loud sound of the door slamming revealed her anger.
"What a heartless girl," Zong Xunmei sighed slowly and sat up. His gaze suddenly fell on the slippers.
Tiny bright lights flashed by.
He kicked the slippers under the bed casually.
"That was close."
Jian Jing went back to her room, took a shower, changed her clothes, and was drying her hair when she heard panicked shouts coming from Yang Xiao's villa.
Yang Xiao was dead.
She had to crack this case.
--
Let's go back to the present now.
Jian Jing roughly outlined the timeline based on her memory, then asked others to supplement with more details.
Kang Mu Cheng has a good memory and strong sense of time. He quickly went over his movements - they largely overlapped with Si Yingjie's.
At 7:40 p.m., they went to Si Yingjie’s room to drink until 1:30 a.m. Except for going to the bathroom, they barely left each other's sight.
If he had to pick a time, it was 10:13 p.m. when Kang Mu Cheng took a phone call that lasted 18 minutes - the call records clearly showed this.
At 1:30 a.m., Kang Mu Cheng and Si Yingjie fell asleep.
Sometime around 3 a.m., Kang Mu Cheng woke up, put a blanket on his friend, and went back to his room to sleep until he was woken up after 6 a.m.
Next were Ai Lina and Yao Yao.
After playing cards, they went to drink and stargaze on the balcony, only separating once.
That was at 10:40 p.m. when they finished the bottle of wine they brought out. Yao Yao went back to the bar and got some beer before returning.
Yao Yao said, "At 10:30 p.m., my phone alarm went off - that's my usual bedtime. I said then that it was getting late and asked if we should go to bed. Ai Lina said it was rare to admire the starry sky and wanted to drink a little more. So we finished the remaining wine, and I went to get more beer from the bar. But when I came back around 10:45 p.m., Ai Lina had already passed out drunk."
Ai Lina smiled and said, "I woke up when she came back. It should have been around 10:45 p.m."
"Why do you remember so clearly?"
"The beer spilled on my phone and I saw the time when I was wiping it."
Yao Yao added, "We probably drank until around 12:10 a.m. I took Ai Lina back to her room. Oh, I remember seeing A Xu smoking on the balcony then and said hi to him."
A Xu nodded, "Yes, I remember that."
Then they started going over his and Yin Coach's account.
The two of them left the dining room at 8 p.m. and were together the whole time without separating. At 10:50 p.m., A Xu called the bar counter, but the bartender had been pulled away by Zong Xunmei. So he had to go get the drinks himself.
It was probably around 11 p.m. when he went to the bar and came back to the room at... Yin Coach picked up his phone and looked: "After he came back with the drinks, I sent a photo - hmm, 10:21 p.m. So he probably came back around 10:15 p.m."
Jian Jing asked, "Your room wasn't far from the bar, why did it take so long?"
"I was smoking," A Xu explained. "Tongtong doesn't like the smell of smoke."
Yin Coach nodded to confirm his words.
Jian Jing fell silent in thought.
She realized that last night, the eight of them were paired up and could basically vouch for each other, but each person also had a period of time that could not be accounted for - the difference was just in duration.
Yes, even Zong Xunmei had one.
After she got drunk at around 11 p.m., her sense of time got blurry. When she lost consciousness, he also had the chance to commit murder.
To find out who was most suspicious, she still had to return to the crime scene and investigate Yang Xiao's real cause of death.
This was the nth time Jian Jing examined the crime scene. She moved around easily and familiarly.
She found gloves in the kitchen, took apart shower caps in the bathroom, put on disposable shoe covers, grabbed a stack of sealable bags, labels and a soft tape measure - her tools were all set.
The layout of waterfront villas was mostly the same - the first floor had an open-concept living room and dining room, the second floor was a large suite with separate bedrooms, study, walk-in closet and bathroom.
Jian Jing first studied the door lock.
Since this was a private island, the network signal was impacted a lot by weather, so the villa still used mechanical locks opened by keys.
There were two keys total - one with the butler and one on the bedside table in the master bedroom.
The suite door had a security chain. This morning when the butler and others opened the door, they were blocked by the chain and had to cut it with a saw before entering.
The bedroom door was not locked and opened with a push.
Yang Xiao was wearing silk pajamas and her hair still had a faint fragrance - there was a bottle of hair oil labeled for use on damp hair on the bedside table. These all indicated she went to bed very calmly without anything out of the ordinary.
There was also a glass of water, a bottle of melatonin and a phone on the table. The call records on the phone showed A Xu's call as the last one, consistent with what was said.
The window beside the bed was left ajar with hot air blowing in.
Jian Jing found this odd. The central air conditioning was on in the room, so why was the window open? She climbed to the window and examined it closely but did not find signs of forced entry.
Lowering her head, she saw A Xu, Yao Yao and two staff walking around in the bushes below.
"What are you doing there?" she asked.
A Xu said, "The window was open so we thought maybe a snake crawled in through the window. We asked them to check."
Yao Yao also said, "My room was right next door. I'm terrified of snakes."
"Did you see any snakes?" Jian Jing asked.
The staff shook their heads. "No, we rarely have snakes around here."
Jian Jing thought silently. While red-banded snakes also live in hot regions, they are mild-tempered with potent venom but not very aggressive.
Even if a snake did crawl into the room where Yang Xiao was sleeping soundly in bed, it may not necessarily bite her.
But if someone used the guise of a venomous snake to commit murder, how did they do it?
"Sister Yao Yao," she called from the window, "was the window already open when you came this morning?"
Yao Yao was taken aback then nodded, "Yes, last night Xiao Xiao said the room felt stuffy so she opened the window for some air."
Jian Jing asked, "Wasn't the air conditioner on in the room?"
Yao Yao was puzzled, "It feels stuffier with the air conditioner on."
Jian Jing, "I see..."
Now she understood - rich people didn't care at all about the electricity bill.
It seemed the suite door was locked, other windows shut, so if it was a homicide, the killer must have climbed in through this window.
But there were no footprints on the windowsill - did they wear shoe covers?
She went downstairs again and checked the wall below the window. Unfortunately, the staff searching for snakes left many interfering footprints.
However, looking at the height, Jian Jing felt it wouldn't be too difficult to climb up here.
Since the first floor had an open concept without doors and was surrounded by low half walls and shrubs, it allowed good ventilation.
Climbing onto the short wall would bring you very close to the decorative line on the second floor. You could carefully walk across that part of the exterior, go around half the house, and reach the window outside the master bedroom.
Jian Jing tested this successfully using her own room.
Though for women, those shorter like Yao Yao and Yin Coach possibly couldn't reach.
Ai Lina could probably do it.
Jian Jing pondered and thought of another question - trespassing like this takes quite some time. Among everyone, who would have the opportunity to commit murder?
Kang Mu Cheng and Si Yingjie were separated from 10:13 p.m. to 10:31 p.m.; Yao Yao and Ai Lina were separated from 10:38 p.m. (deducting 2 minutes for the walking distance) to 10:45 p.m.; A Xu and Yin Coach were separated from 11 p.m. to 11:15 p.m.
Also, her memory was missing from 11 p.m. to 12:45 a.m. Zong Xunmei may not have stayed at the bar the whole time.
Zong Xunmei was the most suspicious.
With his physical abilities, trespassing and murder should be no problem.
The question was - what was his motive?
The system prompt mentioned a love triangle.
It was known that Si Yingjie and Yang Xiao were once boyfriend and girlfriend, and Ai Lina was his ex-wife. A Xu and Coach Yin were boyfriend and girlfriend. Yang Xiao was once engaged, but her fiancé died.
Where did the complicated relationships come from? They were all exes!
Could there be some unknown side stories?
Jian Jing decided to find someone to investigate.
The first choice was naturally Si Yingjie.
When he talked about Yang Xiao, he went on and on, as if he could talk for three days and three nights.
"Xiaoxiao and I started dating in college. She was independent, not pretentious at all, and very capable. At that time, our club had a lot going on, and she arranged everything clearly. I really admired girls like her back then, so I decided to pursue her right away.
"The first two years were really good. She didn't care about trivial things or who I was with. I was faithful to her too, never fooled around with anyone else. It wasn't until later when we graduated that things changed. She joined her family's company, but I wasn't happy doing that kind of work. I wanted to pursue my own interests.
"Because of this, we were often apart, and slowly began to argue. She wanted me to be more mature and have my own career, even if I didn't want to work for the family business. The arguments got worse and worse, until neither of us wanted to fight anymore. We decided we weren't right for each other and broke up.
"Her family arranged matchmaking dates, and after a year she got engaged to the eldest son of the Li family. That guy was a bit like Mu Cheng, ambitious and ready to take over the family business, so I guess they got along well. But he died so young, such a pity."
Jian Jing finally heard the key information and quickly asked, "Were you very close with her fiancé?"
Si Yingjie said, "I knew him, but we weren't very close. Mu Cheng probably had more contact with him?"
"He was two years older than us. I heard when he was young he was quite wild, doing extreme sports. He almost died once and was hospitalized for half a year. After he got out, he calmed down." Kang Mu Cheng knew more details, as expected.
Jian Jing hesitated before asking again, "So Yang Xiao only had two romantic relationships, with you and her fiancé?"
Si Yingjie frowned. "Why are you asking this?"
"Murder usually has two motives, passion or revenge," Jian Jing said openly. "I want to know who Yang Xiao had a grudge against, and if she had any other romantic disputes."
Hesitation flashed across Si Yingjie's face, as if recalling something.
Jian Jing keenly guessed, "Was it A Xu, Yao Yao, or maybe Ai Lina?"
The only friends who could make Si Yingjie hesitate were probably these two and his ex-wife.
"A Xu pursued Xiao Xiao in college, but that was a long time ago." He said slowly. "Actually, I suspect Ai Lina."
Jian Jing: "Oh?"
It was rare to see Si Yingjie show hesitation as he half-revealed, "To be honest, I've always felt something was off about Ai Lina."
