Jian Jing had originally planned to get straight to the point and ask Buding directly. But since he had brought up his own affairs, she didn't interrupt him and listened patiently.
Jiang BaiYan opened a jar of homemade rice wine from the restaurant and poured her a cup, explaining: "My mother was one of the chairman's mistresses, but she passed away 10 years ago. After she died, the chairman had me brought back home, but after staying at the Jiang house for a few years, I ran away and never went back. They probably think I'm ungrateful and don't appreciate what I was given, so they must be pretty unhappy about it."
Jian Jing really admired how he told such a sad story so breezily.
"Do you call your father 'Chairman'?"
He made a face. "I call him 'Father' when it's just the two of us, but if I say it in front of Jiang Ou, he'll hit me - can't blame him really. Our birthdays are only a month apart. The chairman was cheating on his wife while she was heavily pregnant."
Jian Jing shook her head. "The sins of the parents always seem to be shouldered by the children."
"Lineage is original sin," Jiang BaiYan countered, reassuring her. "Look on the bright side - they're so rich they won't ask me for money. And the chairman is too proud to sue me for child support. The worst I'll get is a few harsh words. It's not like they'll take meat off my plate."
He smiled, assuring her decisively: "I don't care about them anymore."
He didn't care whether they liked him or not.
Didn't care if they accepted him or not.
Didn't care...hadn't cared for a long time.
Jian Jing was silent for a moment before asking gently, "When you mentioned running away, you meant going into movies?"
"That was when I was 16," Jiang BaiYan said. "I first ran away when I was 13."
"So young. No one would hire you as child labor," she said.
"It wasn't that bad. I went to my maternal grandfather's place. He was angry at my mother for disgracing the family and wouldn't let her come home, but he treated me pretty well - much better than the Jiangs."
He seemed totally unbothered by the past. He was eager to gossip: "I didn't expect Jiang Ou to want to reconcile either. Don't know if she's serious. She's pretty capable...do you know who her last boyfriend was?"
"Who?" No one could resist juicy gossip, and Jian Jing was no exception.
Jiang BaiYan scooted closer and whispered in her ear, "Hou Rui - that really popular Hou Rui you see in the news all the time."
The frequent face on her newsfeed was familiar even if she didn't know him. "Oh, really?"
"I've seen them kiss before," Jiang BaiYan said dramatically, as if sharing top-secret intel. "After Hou Rui got famous, he broke up with her."
"Tsk," Jian Jing clicked her tongue.
"There's more. Han Bo and Zheng Keyan got together." He was delighted to be gossiping. "It was the night before we returned - they slept together."
Jian Jing was shocked. "That was fast!"
"They're both single, so why not?" Jiang BaiYan was nonchalant. "Zheng Keyan does this kind of thing a lot, more than just once or twice."
The steamer pot chicken bubbled, sending up wisps of white steam.
Jian Jing refilled their wine cups and mused, "The lives of actresses are so colorful."
Jiang BaiYan tried hard to restrain himself from egging her on further. He lowered his head and drank, parched after gossiping so much. After a short break, he was ready for more. Just as he was about to dish some dirt on another colleague, a shriek came from outside the room.
Well, no more gossiping now.
Jiang BaiYan swallowed his shocking reveal and was unsurprised when Jian Jing got up, saying, "Let me go take a look."
"I'll come too," he offered, eager to participate.
The two of them walked out of the private dining room, looking in the direction the scream had come from - the bathroom.
Jian Jing jogged over. "What's going..." Her words died as she stepped into the men's restroom. No need to ask anymore.
There was a dead body.
The victim's face was bruised and swollen, a horrifying purplish color. The tip of his tongue protruded slightly, like an evil spirit's. There was a not very obvious ligature mark circling his neck horizontally. Even without forensic knowledge, just common sense indicated this person had been strangled.
[System: New mission released]
[Mission: Death Code in the Restaurant]
[Description: A murder has occurred in this delicious restaurant, and the victim is an up-and-coming male celebrity! Cryptic messages about the bizarre death, complicated relationships - who is the real killer?]
[Rewards and Penalties: 20 Courage for success, no penalty for failure]
"What's happened here?" The restaurant owner rushed over anxiously.
Jian Jing held out a hand to stop him. "Call the police. There's been a death."
Owner: "What?!" His voice seemed to pierce the ceiling.
No use crying over spilled milk - murder cases had to be reported.
Luckily the police arrived quickly, two auxiliary cops maintaining order at the scene.
Whether willing or not, everyone present had to provide identification and go through initial screening to check for suspicious individuals at the scene. Ji Feng had said this was a simple but effective tactic. More than once, he had caught fugitives at crime scenes, happily adding to the police force's cleared cases.
Ahem, back to the main story.
Unsurprisingly, after identifying herself, Jian Jing was once again shanghaied into service.
Under the gaze of the two young auxiliary cops, she swiftly and adeptly suited up in full forensic gear and entered the scene.
Auxiliary A: "Professor Jian, I've photographed everything already. Please be careful not to disturb the scene too much."
Jian Jing: "Don't worry, I'm experienced at this."
Auxiliary B: "You're so amazing. So the cases in 'Demon Doctor' are all based on real stories?"
Jian Jing: "More or less."
A & B: *starry eyes* "When is Demon 3 coming out? Will you consider writing about today's case?"
Jian Jing: "If I include this case, how about cameos for you two?"
A & B: "Yay!"
Two new fan teammates added!
With the carrot of appearing in the story dangled before them, the overtime didn't seem so odious anymore. Their attitude was positive. A stayed to assist Jian Jing in examining the scene, while B went to ask the owner for the restaurant's security footage.
Jian Jing first observed the restaurant's layout.
This was a private dining establishment, not open to walk-ins without reservations. They only accepted 8 tables per day - 4 for lunch, 4 for dinner. Hard to say if they made money, but the exclusivity was high.
With the fixed number of tables, there were only 4 rooms total, laid out as follows:
Patio Restroom
Room 1 Room 2
Room 3 Room 4
Kitchen
Staff Area
The staff used the restroom on the kitchen side, separate from the customer restrooms.
There was a camera in the corridor, able to capture people going in and out of the rooms. But due to the angle, it couldn't capture whether customers went to the patio or restroom after leaving the rooms.
The restroom was divided into three sections - the outer area with sinks and mirrors, female restroom, and male restroom. Both restrooms only had one smart toilet, no squatting toilets or urinals.
The restroom wasn't big, but was decorated to be comfortable and bright, very clean.
However, slumped on the smart toilet in the male restroom was today's victim.
Male, twenties, clothes were luxury brands, limited edition sneakers. He had a strong smell of alcohol and faint traces of smoke on him. Based on rigor mortis and condition of the cornea, estimated time of death was 30-60 minutes prior.
The current time was 9:40 PM.
In other words, time of death was between 8:40-9:10 PM.
The ligature mark on the victim's neck was thin, without a visible pattern, but his shirt collar had some unnatural wrinkles. She turned him over and scrutinized it with a magnifying glass - sure enough, the surface showed some abrasion.
This meant the killer had used the shirt collar as padding to avoid leaving ligature marks on the skin when strangling the victim.
There was a visible knot mark on the back left side of the neck, but the murder weapon still couldn't be determined.
The victim's left hand was smeared with blood, with wounds on the back and palm.
Jian Jing crouched down and inspected the surroundings, finally noticing the bottom edge of the stainless steel toilet paper holder was curled up, cutting his hand.
But the holder was installed for right-handed use on the right side, whereas the victim's left hand was injured.
Was he killed while facing away from the door, then propped up on the toilet after death?
The height didn't seem right.
She sized it up, concluding if the left hand was injured while struggling, the victim should have been sitting on the toilet or half-kneeling on the ground at the time.
Why was the position so awkward...eh, blood on the fingers too? Jian Jing shook away the discordant thoughts and lifted the victim's hand.
Blood was smeared on the left index finger, with signs it had been wiped.
Could this be...a dying message?
She crouched down again and under the control panel found the clue the victim had left.
An incomplete circle, looking like the letter C or G, or an unfinished letter O, number 0, or symbol ○.
What did it mean? Who was it pointing to?
She was utterly confused.
At this moment, the auxiliary policeman's probe notified: "The surveillance video has been retrieved, it's very tricky, I suggest asking for everyone's statement first." As she spoke, her gaze fell on the victim's face, and her eyes showed melancholy, "Oh, I didn't expect Hou Rui to die like this, what a pity, my friend really liked him."
Jian Jing turned her head and thought for two seconds, recalling this name and face.
Wasn't Hou Rui the trending celebrity they just gossiped about? Indeed, his name was too hard to remember, let's just call him the deceased.
"Which private room was the deceased in?"
"Number 2."
"Then let's ask his companions first."
The deceased celebrity had two companions, his female agent and male assistant.
The female agent was anxious and worried: "How could this happen? How could Hou Rui be killed? This is big trouble!"
Jian Jing said: "Calm down, let's find the murderer together."
"You are... Jian Jing? The writer who was on that horror house show? Why are you investigating this case?" The female agent recognized her identity and looked at her doubtfully.
Good question.
Jian Jing thought for three seconds and made up a calm lie: "Because I'm a consultant for the police."
The female agent was taken aback for a moment, then believed her: "Okay, whatever you say."
So easily fooled? Jian Jing was speechless for a moment, and immediately seized the opportunity: "Why did you come here today?"
"We came to have a meal after work. No particular reason." The female agent said.
Jian Jing asked: "Who suggested coming here?"
The female agent said: "Hou Rui himself wanted to. He liked the atmosphere of this restaurant."
Jian Jing nodded, her gaze unintentionally glancing at the agent's earrings. The female agent was wearing Gucci double G earrings, which no doubt matched the implication of the death notice.
"How have things been with the deceased recently? Has his career been going well?" She probed in detail, "Were there any unpleasant things in his life? Did he have any enemies?"
The female agent adamantly said: "Our Hou Rui was doing very well, no problems at all. His schedule was packed, with several TV dramas to shoot in the next half year."
Jian Jing said: "I'm not a fan or the media, I just want to find the murderer. Miss Agent, doing this will not help find the murderer at all."
The female agent paused, looking uncomfortable, and only after a long while did she say: "I didn't lie, Hou Rui's schedule was full, but today's photoshoot didn't go very smoothly - the magazine changed our layout at the last minute, causing quite an unpleasant scene. I don't usually stop him from drinking too much, so today I didn't stop him."
She explained: "Drinking here is better than him going wild at a bar later on."
Jian Jing asked: "How drunk did he get?"
"A bit drunk, but he could still recognize people." The male assistant answered.
Jian Jing glanced at the wine bottles on the table, one and a half bottles of red wine were empty, he did drink quite a lot.
After thinking for a bit, she said: "You came here at 6:50, right? Can you briefly walk through what happened during your dinner?"
