Jian Jing asked: "What's wrong with Ailina?"
"Take our honeymoon for example. We went to France. She is Eurasian and doesn't speak French." Si Yingjie recalled, "One day I went out drinking with friends. When I came back to the hotel late at night, I could hear her chatting with someone in French through the door."
Kang Mu Cheng asked: "What did she say?"
Si Yingjie sighed: "You know my French is poor. I only understood 'I see' and 'don't worry', but is that the point? It's normal to know French. Why did she lie to me that she didn't?"
"Maybe an ex-boyfriend taught her, so she didn't want to tell you about it." Jian Jing tried to liven up the atmosphere, "Anything else?"
"When we were in the US, one day while shopping, there was a sudden sound. She immediately pulled me into a nearby store. Guess what happened?" Si Yingjie didn't wait for them to answer and revealed it himself, "A shooting! The people around didn't even react yet, but she recognized the sound right away."
Kang Mu Cheng said: "People living abroad are more sensitive to gunshots. This is normal."
"Alright, even if these two things have reasonable explanations, the third one is definitely bizarre."
Jian Jing was intrigued: "What is it?"
Si Yingjie said solemnly: "From when we met until divorce, we never had a single fight."
Jian Jing: "???"
"You wouldn't understand it, little girl. Mu Cheng, you tell me, is this scientific?" Si Yingjie asked, "You know me. Isn't it a bit strange?"
Jian Jing was puzzled: "What's so strange about not fighting?"
But Kang Mu Cheng shook his head in agreement: "Yingjie has a bad temper and can be careless. We've fought a few times. He and Yang Xiao would have petty fights every three days and huge fights every half month."
"Bingo. Let big brother Yingjie teach you something about life, Jingjing – there's no such thing as soulmates in this world. No matter how much you like someone, there'll still be times you can't get along and want to fight." Si Yingjie looked utterly serious. "A woman who never fights with her lover, there's only one explanation."
Jian Jing: "Huh?"
"She didn't love me," Si Yingjie sighed. "Don't think I'm being rash. Intuition is hard to explain clearly. Ailina was very mysterious. I couldn't figure her out yet was hopelessly fascinated by her. If I didn't end it early, who knows what she might have done to me."
Kang Mu Cheng frowned: "What was Ailina's reaction when you asked for a divorce?"
Si Yingjie said: "She looked at me for a while, then said 'It seems love comes quickly but fades just as fast', and signed the divorce papers."
Jian Jing also found it odd. Marriage wasn't child's play. Not trying to save it or plead at all? But on second thought, Ailina did seem to have a nonchalant personality. Maybe she didn't take marriage seriously.
Besides, "If she didn't love you, she wouldn't have motive to kill Yang Xiao," she said. "Killing for love doesn't make sense. For money, she wouldn't have readily agreed to the divorce."
Si Yingjie considered this and conceded she had a point. Dejected, he said: "Then who could it be?"
Jian Jing asked: "You said A Xu used to like Yang Xiao?"
"That was a long time ago. Now he and Xiao Xiao get along very well." Si Yingjie was surprised. "You can't suspect him, right?"
Jian Jing said calmly: "Right now I suspect everyone and no one. What about Yao Yao? Has she dated anyone?"
"Yao Yao used to have a boyfriend from an ordinary family. We don't know him. They broke up later and we didn't ask about it." Si Yingjie said, "It couldn't be them. We're all old friends."
Jian Jing neither agreed nor disagreed. "What about Zong Xunmei and Coach Yin?"
Si Yingjie shook his head: "Don't know them."
Kang Mu Cheng was even more clueless, but was very concerned about something else: "That Miss Zong earlier..." He stopped abruptly mid-sentence.
Jian Jing's face tightened, her expression as cold as midwinter: "What is it?"
"Ahem." Si Yingjie abruptly cleared his throat.
Kang Mu Cheng changed his words: "It's nothing."
Jian Jing switched into emotionless case-cracking mode: "Do you have Yang Xiao's fiancé's social media account?"
Si Yingjie said: "You can ask Yao Yao about that. She should know."
"Alright." Jian Jing went to find her next.
Yao Yao was in the kitchen. Tomato sauce was splattered all over the floor. She was mopping it up and looked embarrassed when she saw Jian Jing: "I wanted to make a sandwich but got distracted and knocked it over."
"I'll come back later then." Jian Jing said.
"It's fine." Yao Yao tidied up a bit and brought her to the living room. She served a glass of mint lemonade and asked, "Did you need something?"
Jian Jing asked her to repeat the details of discovering the body. Only then did she inquire about Yang Xiao and her fiancé.
"You mean Li Ge? He had a Twitter account with quite a few fans." Yao Yao provided the account name, and couldn't help looking worried again. "It's barely been any time at all. Li Ge passed away and now Xiao Xiao too. Sigh."
Jian Jing's mind stirred: "How did Mr. Li die?"
Yao Yao smiled bitterly: "Car accident."
She knew the details very well and immediately recounted it. Turned out, Yang Xiao's fiancé used to love extreme sports and was also a good racer. Although he later washed his hands of it, he still had a lot of guts.
That day it rained heavily. When he heard Yang Xiao was in the hospital after a mugging, he got anxious and drove really fast.
With poor visibility and high speed, although his driving skill was superb, he couldn't handle other people's poor reactions and braking errors. He slammed right into them.
Yang Xiao's fiancé was severely injured and died after failed resuscitation.
This meant that if any admirers of his were present, they were highly likely to think Yang Xiao caused his death and want revenge.
Jian Jing started looking through his social media accounts, and also asked: "You chatted with Ailina for a long time yesterday. Did you know each other before coming to the island?"
"No, I didn't know she was Yingjie's ex-wife before coming here. They had a flash wedding without any ceremony." Yao Yao hesitated briefly, then sighed: "I always felt Yingjie and Ailina got married to get back at Xiao Xiao."
Jian Jing was interested to ask: "So do you think Ailina liked Yingjie?"
Yao Yao stuck out her tongue: "I don't know. She seems like someone who acts on a whim. Gets married on impulse, divorces when unhappy, doesn't have deep feelings."
This aligned with Si Yingjie's account. Jian Jing thought for a while before asking: "Do you know if Yang Xiao had any admirers?"
"Xiao Xiao? Her romantic history is simple - just Yingjie, Li Ge, oh, and A Xu used to chase her." Yao Yao was puzzled. "Why do you ask? Suspecting someone?"
Jian Jing said: "Just asking randomly. I feel your relationships are quite complicated."
That concluded her talk with Yao Yao. Next, she visited A Xu and Coach Yin.
Coincidentally, they were also busy.
A Xu was wincing in pain while Coach Yin applied medicine to his knee: "Bear with it, just disinfecting."
Jian Jing asked concernedly: "A Xu, how did you get hurt?"
"I fell while we were up the mountain spraying pesticide." A Xu said awkwardly. "I have poor balance and am always falling down."
"Is it serious?" Jian Jing glanced sideways at the first-aid kit.
Coach Yin said: "A rock scraped his skin, but it's not deep. Just needs a simple dressing." She explained while treating him, movements skilled.
Jian Jing asked: "You're very experienced. Do you know first aid?"
"Diving coaches need first aid certification." Coach Yin smiled. "Of course I do."
Jian Jing nodded thoughtfully and got straight to the point: "I'd like to ask you both a few questions."
The first was naturally about A Xu and Yang Xiao's past.
A Xu frankly admitted: "I met her first, but you can't predict feelings. No fate, no fate. We later became friends and Yingjie knows about it too."
Instead, he asked: "You can't think I'd kill someone now that I have a girlfriend just because of something that happened 7-8 years ago, right?"
"Your relationships are a bit complex, please don't take offense." Jian Jing gave a faint smile.
She couldn't remember when she started realizing that when engrossed in solving cases, it was as if she put on a mask and became more sociable and tactful, like a killer concealed in the jungle patiently searching for flaws in its prey.
She turned to Coach Yin, expression inscrutable: "What do you think, Coach Yin?"
Coach Yin bit her lip, then suddenly said: "Are you trying to ask about my relationship with Li Xiu?"
A Xu was stunned for a moment: "Li Xiu? Xiao Xiao's fiancé? You two..."
He looked surprised, but there wasn't much intense emotional fluctuation. It seemed he thought it was very normal for adults of the opposite sex to have some past, and there was no need to make a big fuss.
"I'm one of the top scuba diving coaches in this area," Coach Yin explained. "When Li Xiu wanted to find a female coach, he naturally came to me. But we never formally dated, and didn't see each other again after that."
Jian Jing nodded lightly.
She had gone through Li Xiu's social media account earlier, and found Coach Yin in a photo from three years ago. But in that one month's photos, he already had his arm around another woman's waist.
Even so, the current relationships were messy enough.
Si Yingjie and Ai Lina.
Si Yingjie and Yang Xiao.
Yang Xiao and A Xu.
A Xu and Coach Yin.
Coach Yin and Li Xiu.
Li Xiu and Yang Xiao.
Such an exciting drama was still not sensational enough — it ought to be called an ancient battlefield.
Jian Jing drew diagrams in her notebook for a long time before determining her next target: Zong Xunmei.
After going in a circle, she finally found him lounging in a poolside chair drinking beer, his manner relaxed: "My turn now?"
"Were you looking forward to me coming, or afraid that I would?" Her words were sharp, her gaze like daggers, staring straight at his face.
However, Zong Xunmei's attitude was unexpectedly sincere: "Of course I was looking forward to you coming." He paused briefly, then said in an extremely casual yet certain tone: "Yang Xiao's death has nothing to do with me, I didn't kill her."
Jian Jing wouldn't believe him so easily. She didn't expose him, just went along and asked: "Oh? You don't think it was an accident."
"I know you don't believe me, so just listen to what I think," he said leisurely, still elegantly reclining against the chairback, just as charming as the previous night.
But Jian Jing was very observant, and noticed he had now hidden the look between his brows, giving people the feeling that he was handsome but not seductively alluring like before.
He really had deliberately flirted yesterday.
Zong Xunmei said, "I often travel to and from tropical islands. Silver-ringed snakes are rarely seen in this area. Also, the wound on Yang Xiao's arm was very special, it wasn't caused by fangs, but by a poisoned needle."
Jian Jing gave no visible reaction: "Anything else?"
"The window in the room was open. The murderer must have been familiar with her daily routine and known that she liked sleeping with the window open. After all, silver-ringed snake venom isn't easy to obtain casually." Zong Xunmei said, "The key lies in who had the opportunity to commit the murder, and what method they used."
Jian Jing was a little disappointed: "Saying that is like not saying anything."
He shrugged and smiled: "I did my best, deduction isn't my strong suit."
"Then how did you know about me?" she retorted.
"It's a secret," Zong Xunmei smiled. "But from my observations of Yang Xiao, she was a kind and peaceful person, without the arrogance of a rich man's daughter, and unlikely to offend others. Basically everyone here today was her friend, so the possibility of a vengeance killing is very small. The probability of a crime of passion is higher."
Jian Jing simply sat down on the lounge chair under the sunshade as well: "A crime of passion? Are you implying Ai Lina?"
"No, Ai Lina teased and seduced Si Yingjie more than she was infatuated with him, she wouldn't kill for that. But Si Yingjie and Yang Xiao were making eyes at each other, reluctant to completely break up, like some TV drama couple. It's very possible he turned love into hatred."
This touched on Jian Jing's hidden worries.
It was obvious to everyone that Si Yingjie and Yang Xiao still had feelings for each other. And love could make people act irrationally. If there was some misunderstanding, and he killed her by accident, it wouldn't be unimaginable.
She really didn't want to suspect Si Yingjie, but still had some reservations about him.
