8:50 a.m., you enter the women's restroom, put the Bluetooth speaker in place, make a plug with tissue paper, and call the emergency phone on the wall to ask the waiter to bring sanitary pads. Then lock the door from outside, and go into the men's restroom yourself - Hou Rui must be too drunk to accurately put the latch on the men's restroom door, or maybe didn't lock the door at all. Even if he did, it could be opened with a card.
You tricked Hou Rui in some way to squat down with his back to you, or maybe tripped him, or perhaps he was already vomiting over the toilet bowl. Anyway, you used the tissue paper garrote from behind to strangle his neck, using the collar of his shirt as a pad to avoid leaving marks on his skin.
Admittedly, it’s not easy for a woman to strangle an adult man to death. At first, I didn't suspect you, especially since his posture was very suggestive, but on second thought, maybe I fell into a cognitive trap.
Hou Rui was a typical androgynous idol, keeping a slim figure for the camera, lighter in weight, weaker in strength, and drunk. He had little ability to resist. On the other hand, Miss Yao, you are 1.7 meters tall, well-proportioned, and if you sat on his back from behind, using your weight for leverage, it wouldn't have been difficult to hold him down and strangle him.
Plus, by twisting your hairpin into the knot, it took less effort, and could also avoid leaving marks on your palms, avoiding suspicion. After the assistant left, you locked the men's restroom door and opened the women's restroom chamber, pretending to come out from inside, completing your own alibi.
Jian Jing said, "That's probably what happened. I'm done."
The female agent's expression was cold: "A brilliant scheme, should I applaud you?"
"No need." Jian Jing's gaze locked on her face. "Because it wasn't that brilliant."
"What?"
"I said, this wasn't a brilliant scheme at all." She continued calmly, "Using tissue paper as a murder weapon and creating a reverse locked room certainly had some novelty, but as a means of murder, it was full of flaws."
The female agent took a deep breath, pretending to be calm: "Oh? What's the problem? At least you didn't find the murder weapon, right?"
"Yes, even if I fished the tissue paper out of the sewer, it wouldn't prove anything." Jian Jing admitted, "After all, it's a toilet, nothing unusual about that."
The female agent shrugged.
"But fibers from the tissue paper could be found on the victim's clothes, and there would also be tissue fragments left in the puncture holes," she said. "Once you've done it, it's impossible not to leave a trace."
"That just proves your reasoning process, it doesn't prove I'm the killer," the female agent asked. "Can you really extract my fingerprints from it?"
Jian Jing said, "There will be connection records in the Bluetooth speaker."
The female agent stubbornly denied it: "I did have a Bluetooth speaker with me, you can check it if you want, there’s definitely nothing on it."
"You deleted the records." She pressed on relentlessly.
Female agent: "Do you have any evidence?"
Jian Jing was silent for a moment, sighed and said gently: "You seem so confident, you must have spent a lot of thought on this. The tissue paper you took from this store little by little, the mechanisms on the door locks, you must have tried many times, maybe you even made test calls on the emergency phone in the women's restroom to verify they would really send something over."
"All of this is very..." She paused briefly, choosing her words, "Meticulous."
To conceal the type of murder weapon, she remembered to stand up the shirt collar, and as an agent, it was probably she who hinted Hou Rui to wear a shirt.
In order to avoid exposure, she took away a little tissue paper each time, slowly weaving the murder weapon, prudent and meticulous.
In order not to leave traces on the door latch, she directly made a disposable substitute, avoiding obvious scratches that would arouse suspicion, extremely careful to the utmost.
Such an arrangement was extremely like a hunting spider, extremely patient, even frightening.
"But it was no use at all." Jian Jing said gently, "The more you do, the more flaws there are. Yao Fei, it couldn't be anyone else, it could only be you."
Yao Fei repeated: "Evidence."
Jian Jing thought for a moment and said, "You were so well prepared, let me make another guess - Hou Rui's drink was spiked with sleeping pills. Checking the stomach contents can confirm it. May I look in your bag?"
It took Yao Fei a long time to say: "The sleeping pills were Hou Rui's, I just had them in my bag. I'm his agent, what's so strange about that?"
She was still stubbornly in denial.
"What the victim left behind wasn't limited to this." She pointed at the photo on her phone and said slowly, "In the struggle, his blood also got on the murderer. Since you didn't get close to him, you shouldn't have any on you, right?"
Yao Fei's face suddenly turned pale, her gaze involuntarily scanning her body.
"This is the legendary luminol spray." Jian Jing shook the small spray bottle in her hand. "Want to gamble on it? Let's see if there's any reaction on you - just to be clear, even a tiny trace of blood can be detected whose it is, don't tell me it's your own blood."
Yao Fei bit her lower lip.
Jian Jing smiled slightly, her tone suddenly gentle: "Since you're so confident in your methods, why not gamble with me? I'm very curious too, where did the blood get on you? The cuffs, the hem, ah, it might also be the uppers of these nice suede high heels. Why not start there?"
As she spoke, she was about to spray the heels.
Yao Fei instinctively pulled her feet back, hiding them firmly.
The atmosphere instantly became tense.
Jian Jing looked at her face and said, "Hiding it is useless too. Apart from the bloodstains, there is more important evidence. The records in the Bluetooth speaker and mobile phone, even if already deleted, can be recovered by technicians."
Yao Fei tightly clenched her fingers resting on the table, clearly not without inner turmoil.
But for some reason, she stubbornly refused to make a sound, stubbornly keeping silent.
Jian Jing: "Still not admitting it?"
She was very puzzled, but didn't expect this to touch the other's sore spot. Before her voice fell, Yao Fei erupted: "What do you understand?!"
"You must be very proud, thinking you're so amazing huh?" The previously calm and capable agent changed her face, like an angry beast, roaring, "Do you feel very smug, thinking you've cracked an amazing case? You must be dying to show off to others right."
Jian Jing's face darkened as she said coldly: "I said, this was not some ingenious scheme at all, you overestimate yourself too much."
"You just got lucky, I accidentally got some of his blood on me." Yao Fei sneered, unwilling to admit defeat. "The speaker was me being careless, if I had known, I would have used something else to replace it."
Jian Jing couldn't stand it anymore.
"I keep telling you, the more you do, the more flaws there are. True brilliance in crime never does anything extra..." She suddenly stopped abruptly, paused slightly awkwardly, then said, "There is no perfect crime, no matter what you do, the result is the same. If you don't want to be found out, then don't do it."
Yao Fei asked sharply, "Do nothing, just watch as that ungrateful bastard kicks me aside with one foot? I did so much for him, he got famous because of me, I contributed more than half! Why should he casually dismiss me with a few words? Without me, could he be where he is today?
"People kept advising me to admit defeat, why should I? Why should that bastard Hou Rui get to earn his money fair and square, while I have to start over from scratch? Is his fame only due to his own efforts? Bullshit, he can't do anything, apart from a face he's got nothing, every time he offended people it was me who wiped his ass, the business was all from me lowering myself to beg till I was vomiting blood, all he could say was 'I can't do it', 'I'm so tired' - everything today is thanks to me!"
All the resentment she had pent up erupted now, machine gun-like spewing hatred: "How many artists does an agent have to handle before making one hit? Tell me to start over? Easy to say, let him start over and be reborn, and learn to be a decent human being!"
"He has to understand." The agent hugged her arms, cursing coldly and resentfully, "I made him famous, and I can ruin him! If he has to die, we die together; he wants to live alone? No way."
Jian Jing never imagined she would say this, and was immediately stunned.
Jian Jing thought to herself: "In the past, I would get special contribution points for solving cases before the police arrived. "
[System: Host's proficiency in solving cases has increased, normal cases no longer reward contribution points.]
Ordinary cases... As expected, even the system's evaluation is ordinary.
Jian Jing shook her head silently and left.
Outside, the police officers who were going to take over the criminal cases had arrived.
Although there was a little subplot, dinner still ended before midnight today.
Jiang BaiYan called his assistant to come over and drive, to send the two of them home. In principle, Jian Jing should be sent first, but since it was her car, he said to send his own artist first.
Jian Jing didn't mind.
On the way, Jiang BaiYan showed Jian Jing a newly published public account article: "Shocking! The popular young starlet secretly meets her rich second generation boyfriend, embroiled in her ex-boyfriend's death."
Jian Jing was stunned: "That was fast?"
He made a grimace, and didn't say that the paparazzi squatting was arranged by his own agent. He had only wanted to expose the relationship a little, and poke Hou Rui while he was at it. He didn't expect to coincide with the murder case.
With the police already here, it was impossible not to report it.
The paparazzi acted swiftly, snapping pictures and uploading the written manuscript, expecting it to top the hot search ranking within a few hours.
That's what you get for not giving Teacher Jingjing face!
It would give Jiang Ou a headache, which made him happy too.
Hou Rui was gone, although there was some (humanitarian) sadness, but the resources now belonged to him, even happier.
He was lucky today, otherwise...
The car gradually approached the residential district. Jiang BaiYan suddenly spoke up and asked, "Do you want to go see Pudding? Teacher Jingjing hasn't seen Pudding in a long time."
"Now?" Jian Jing glanced at her watch, it was 11:10.
Jiang BaiYan nodded vigorously: "Just for a bit, I'll have Little Li send you back later."
Jian Jing pondered for a moment, and unexpectedly agreed: "Alright then."
The security in this residential district was strict. The car could enter the parking lot and go straight to the floor of his unit with the license plate, unable to stop on other floors, to ensure residents' privacy as much as possible.
"Don't worry Teacher Jingjing, so far, this residential district has never been paparazzied." As Jiang BaiYan spoke, he entered multiple passwords to open the door and invited her in, "Please come in."
Jian Jing changed into slippers and walked into his home.
Her first impression was that it was tidy and bright.
The lighting was soft, the furniture was stylish and spacious, the space was open and comfortable, very cozy. What was most surprising was the greenery covering the entire balcony, layer upon layer, setting up a forest corner in the city.
"Make yourself at home, Teacher Jingjing." He took fresh fruits from the refrigerator, sliced them and threw them into the teapot, added rose and chamomile, poured in hot water to brew, then added two spoonfuls of honey, and heated it on a small stove, brewing a pot of floral fruit tea, "Please try it."
Jian Jing hugged Pudding who came over to rub against her legs, and laughed: "A man of many talents, I see."
She was sincere with her praise, but he was not happy. On the contrary, he said dejectedly: "You clearly haven't seen my other variety shows. I don't just make tea, I can also cook and bake desserts, and I can paint a little watercolor too. Oh, I just learned wood carving recently, let me get them to show you."
He was oddly enthusiastic and energetic. As he spoke, he rushed into the study and brought out a tray of wood carvings. About seven or eight in total, no bigger than half a palm, all carved cats.
Objectively speaking, the carving skills were not superb. However, although the lines of the little cats were clumsy, their temperament was captured just right, revealing a quaint and cute beauty.
This was unexpected. Jian Jing couldn't help but pick one up and examine it carefully: "Is it so difficult being a celebrity these days?"
In private, he no longer maintained his glib persona, and complained: "Just look at Hou Rui."
She smiled: "So, is it your interest?"
He shook his head.
"Something you learned for acting?" She continued guessing.
"No." He sat down on the floor, looking up into her eyes. A certain hidden emotion flashed across his eyebrows, "I just... want people to like me."
Jian Jing was stunned for a moment.
