It was raining heavily, and the rain had soaked Jian Jing's pants, but she did not notice at all as she crouched under an umbrella to examine the corpse.
To tell the truth, it was no wonder so many people felt like vomiting; this was the most disgusting crime scene she had ever seen.
Punk Head's head presented the most punk scene in history - his skull was caved in, brains splattered, red and white intertwined, extremely miserable, causing intense discomfort.
And his time of death was 1-3 hours ago.
Now it was 4 pm, in other words, the time of death was between 1-3 pm.
There were no visible wounds on the limbs of the corpse. There were some minor cuts on the palms, but they were bandaged, unlike wounds left from a fight.
The soles of his shoes had been washed by the rain, leaving almost no trace behind, so it was impossible to identify where he had been. His clothes were completely soaked, and there was a room key in his pants pocket.
For now, Jian Jing did not flip through these items. She took out her phone and carefully took a large number of photos of the scene.
Under the downpour, evidence disappeared quickly. If one was not careful, it could easily be washed away without a trace.
After swiftly taking the photos, she used tape to mark the position of the corpse and thoroughly wrapped up the corpse, preparing to move it indoors later.
Next was examining the scene.
This scene was particularly bad. There was not much blood left on the concrete floor, as it had already been washed away by the heavy rain. Similarly, it was impossible to collect relevant footprints.
It was so clean that there was hardly any evidence.
What made Jian Jing even more concerned was that two things were missing from the scene.
One was naturally the murder weapon, which could be dealt with later. The other was an umbrella.
There was no umbrella at the scene.
It was very strange.
First of all, the structure of the first floor of this shady motel was as follows:
Warehouse
(Open Air) x
Small Door
Kitchen Yard
Room
Stairs Wall Back Door
Dining Counter Bathroom Boss's
Hall Living Area
After entering through the front door, the dining hall was on the left, and the boss's living area was on the right. The dining hall connects to the kitchen, and behind the kitchen, an annex was added as a warehouse.
x indicates the location of the incident.
Note that the kitchen and warehouse were not connected. The area in between was open air.
Whether going left from the front door around to x, or going through the courtyard directly to x from the back door, one would have to pass through the open yard.
With such heavy rain, why was there no umbrella near the body of the deceased?
Also, the location was remote. Why did the deceased come here? Did he take the initiative to make an appointment with someone, or was he asked to come? Was the lack of an umbrella because the two shared an umbrella?
Many mysteries.
What was also puzzling was the method of murder.
Punk Head was 1.8 meters tall and had a strong physique. To be able to hit his head and instantly incapacitate him would have a very high threshold.
Take Jian Jing herself for example. She was strong enough, but not tall enough. To knock someone out with a stick from flat ground, she would have to take a running start and jump.
Even so, it was not guaranteed that the victim would not fight back.
A sneak attack was certainly a better choice.
However, as Jian Jing looked around, there was some distance here from both the kitchen and warehouse, with no obstacles to hide behind. A sneak attack would have to be extremely fast, fast enough for the victim to be unable to react.
Great strength, large stature, incredible speed...wait, could it be?
Jian Jing carefully propped up the umbrella, opened the snakeskin bag, and gently brushed aside the hair of the deceased.
Sure enough, among the thick hair on his crown, there were two strange feathers mixed in.
Chicken feathers.
The case was solved. The murderer was a "zombie".
"The murderer must be a zombie!" Before Huangmao could even sit down on the chair in the dining room, he categorically concluded.
Chai Reporter had the keen sense every reporter possessed and immediately followed up: "Why do you say that?"
Huangmao's face was as if he was about to vomit. "Didn't you see his head? Could a human do that?"
With a deathly pale face, Bun Girl asked, "Brother Xu, d-don't scare me. Is it really a zombie? Why would a zombie want to kill him?"
Huangmao jumped up like a spring: "Can't you think of why?"
Bun Girl was stunned for a moment, her expression frightened. "Could it be because... because he bumped into the zombie? And got revenge taken on him? Then what about us..." She waved her hands repeatedly, her lips trembling, "We have nothing to do with this!"
"Sorry, but could you explain in detail what you mean by 'bumping into a zombie'?" Jifeng interjected. "Could you tell me more about it?"
Huangmao hemmed and hawed, "Nothing much to say, it was dark at night, and the car got hit a little, but when we stopped to check, there was nothing there. The front of the car was dented, and there were scratch marks on the tires, very creepy."
Jifeng asked in great detail: "When did this happen?"
"The evening before yesterday," Huangmao hesitated. "Also somewhat far from here, maybe... um..."
He swallowed, "That claw print actually looked more like an animal, didn't it?"
Jifeng smiled and reassured him, "Just casually asking. Alright, let's get to the point. Tell me what each of you did from 10 am this morning until now, and who can prove it."
He pointed to the waitress first: "You go first."
The waitress said, "You all haven't checked out yet, and I figured no guests would come on a rainy day like this, so after you all left, I went to the kitchen to wash rice and cook. After starting the rice cooker, with nothing else to do, I went back to my room around 11:30 and came upstairs to ask if you wanted to eat."
Jifeng remembered this.
The service at the inn wasn't great, but the price was alright. If you wanted to eat, it was an extra 20 yuan per meal per person. But you couldn't order dishes; you just ate whatever was made according to the number of people. Aside from that, you could order noodles, rice, or dumplings separately, and that was it.
The waitress had a good memory and counted off on her fingers, "You (pointing to Jifeng) ordered scallion pancakes, that woman (pointing to Jian Jing) had egg fried rice, she (pointing to Bun Girl) and her friend also had fried rice, he (pointing to Huangmao) said the three guys would share, he (pointing to the man with the cast) wanted dumplings, and she (pointing to Chai Reporter) would share with them too."
Jifeng nodded, quickly jotting down notes.
"After I finished taking your orders, I started cooking. Around 12:20, I called for you to come down and eat, brought up what you ordered, and was probably busy until 1:30 washing the bowls and things. Then I went back to my room to rest."
"Did you see the victim at mealtime?"
"He came, and was even throwing a tantrum, complaining my cooking was no good," the waitress said indignantly. "If you don't want to eat it, then don't eat it. Am I forcing him to eat it?"
Jifeng then asked the others, "Did the victim have anything in particular about him at the time?"
Chai Reporter shrugged. "Nothing much, he was in pretty good spirits, slamming his chopsticks around loudly."
Huangmao said, "He took a couple bites, didn't think it suited his taste, and barely touched it."
"What about you? Didn't you say you were going to fix the car?" Jifeng asked. "And your friend, where did he go?"
Huangmao quickly explained, "There was some issue with the engine that didn't get fixed. We came back around 11:30, planning to finish after eating. Around 12:40 we went back again. Oh right, at 2:20 I was starving, so I said to go ahead and bring the stuff over first so we didn't have to spend the night without supplies. Fei Xuan - that's my friend - said he'd tinker with it a bit longer. He probably hasn't come back yet now."
Right on cue, the crew cut man walked in, looking totally confused, dripping wet and covered in mud: "What are you all doing here? Is there any food? I'm starving to death."
He then scolded Huangmao: "Old Xu what are you doing? Didn't I tell you to bring me something to eat? Making me drive hungry, it was awful."
Huangmao licked his lips and said with difficulty, "Don't say nonsense, Jia Yue is dead!"
The crew cut man didn't react: "Huh?"
Bun Girl said, "It's true, we all saw it. Jia Yue is dead." She shuddered again and added in frightened shock, "Died a terrible death, really!"
The color on Crew Cut's face suddenly faded: "No way? Are you guys kidding me?"
"No, a murder did happen here," Jifeng said concisely, "Since you've come, please sit down and tell me your name and what you've been doing these past few hours."
Crew Cut: "Who are you?"
His two companions had to explain to him before he said, "My name is Fei Xuan. Today after eating lunch, I've been fixing my car this whole time. It wasn't until 10 minutes ago that I finally got the car fixed. I don't know anything."
Jifeng asked, "About how far away is the place where your car broke down from here?"
Huangmao said, "It's a 15-20 minute walk, very difficult to get to. Driving is slow too, probably 10 minutes."
Crew Cut nodded to confirm his words.
"I see," Jifeng returned to the main topic and continued asking Huangmao, "After you parted with him at 2:20, why didn't you go back right away?"
Huangmao awkwardly said, "I had diarrhea, as soon as I got back I hurriedly went number two. After I finished I felt hungry, so I wanted to cook some instant noodles... They're still in my room, I had just finished eating them when I heard screaming downstairs."
"How much time did you spend on each thing?"
"Let me think, let me think." He flipped through his phone, "I started having diarrhea at 2:45, and didn't finish until 3:20. At 3:30 I started cooking the instant noodles, and finished at 3:35."
"Were you in your room the whole time?" Jifeng asked in detail.
Huangmao said, "No, I cooked in the kitchen."
"Did you see anyone?"
Huangmao hesitated and pointed at Chai Reporter, "She seems to have come by."
"What time?"
"When I was cooking the instant noodles."
So Jifeng asked, "Chai Reporter, what were you trying to do at that time?"
Chai Reporter helplessly said, "I originally wanted to find something to eat. I saw him eating instant noodles in the kitchen, so I knew there was nothing I could eat. I had to just go back to my room."
Jifeng was slightly surprised, "You were hungry too?"
"Didn't eat much at lunch," Chai Reporter glanced at the female server and honestly said, "The food wasn't very good."
The female server's face flushed red as she shouted, "What do you mean? If you don't like the food then don't eat it!"
However, Jifeng had an understanding expression on his face - this explanation was very convincing.
The noodles he ordered at lunch were hot, but so bad tasting it was hard to pinpoint what exactly was wrong - it could have been the seasoning, cooking method, or noodle handling. Fortunately Jian Jing had a good stockpile and the two of them ate self-heating hot pot to fill themselves up.
"Ahem," he moved past the topic, "Did you go out anywhere else at other times?"
Chai Reporter pursed her lips, "I basically stayed in my room the whole time."
"Okay," Jifeng swiftly jotted down some notes and looked towards the most mysterious guest so far, "It's your turn now. First tell me your name and occupation, as well as the reason you're here."
The man with the fractured leg was silent for a moment, then hoarsely said, "My name is Zhu Yong, I'm a teacher. I came here to attend a relative's wedding."
