Inside the room on a rainy day, the temperature was probably ten degrees. With this kind of weather, no matter what, it was very difficult to imagine that anyone would need to drink so much water in a few hours.
"When they checked out, the service staff came to clean up." Jian Jing pointed to the water bottles in the room. "These are all mineral water from the hotel, newly opened, plus two cans of Coke in the trash can, 15 liters in total."
Ji Feng said, "It's really strange."
She said, "There's some...well, disgusting stuff in the trash can, he must have thrown up."
"Vomiting, dehydration," Ji Feng said. "I see what you mean."
Normally, it is not easy to restrain an adult male. But if he was vomiting and having diarrhea, extremely weak, then the standard would have to be greatly relaxed.
Or more extremely, if the person is already unconscious or even dead, it would be even simpler.
If that was the case, the range of suspects would be greatly reduced.
No one would eat something from a stranger for no reason.
He looked around the room and found some suspicious food: unfinished cookies, chocolate (with torn open packaging on the TV stand), mineral water.
"Tsk, it would be great if we could send them for testing." Just by eye, Ji Feng really couldn't discern where the problem was.
Jian Jing glanced at him.
"Oh, that look of yours... Want to turn the tables?" Ji Feng interpreted her expression. "I'm all ears."
She didn't beat around the bush and said slowly, "There's a smell of red bean cake, do you smell it?"
"Red bean cake?" Ji Feng raised his eyebrows. "Are you sure?"
Jian Jing affirmed, "At least I'm sure about the red sugar, I'm very familiar with this smell. Does it remind you of anything?"
He said, "There’s an unfinished red bean cake in Room 202."
The two looked at each other and immediately went out to the right and knocked on the door next door.
The bun-haired girl opened the door in confusion: "Anything else?"
"Let's talk inside." Ji Feng left no room for refusal and strode into the room. Sure enough, there were still two unfinished pieces of red bean cake on the bedside table. Although cold, traces of fragrance could still be vaguely smelled.
Jian Jing casually followed along, pretending to check on Gao MaWei: "Is the cold compress still working? Should I change it for you?"
Gao MaWei glanced at both of them and answered stiffly, "No need, what's up?"
"Earlier, you said you heated up something downstairs, was it this cake?" Ji Feng looked at the bun-haired girl. The girl panicked a little and nodded, "Yes, yes."
He softened his tone, "What did you do after heating it up? Did anyone eat it?"
The bun-haired girl swallowed and stammered, "I brought it up..."
She stumbled over her words, seemingly wracking her brain to make up a lie. However, under Ji Feng's gaze, she really didn't have the courage to lie, so she told the truth: "I thought everyone might not have eaten enough, so I asked Jia Yue if he wanted to eat it. He took a piece..."
Seeing her friend so embarrassed, Gao MaWei interrupted angrily, "What do you mean? Suspecting Xiao Min of poisoning?"
Ji Feng glanced at her, giving her a look that silenced her - this expression was extremely deterrent, making Gao MaWei tense up and shut her mouth. He continued to ask, "Could you repeat the scene at that time?"
The bun-haired girl nodded with difficulty.
She took a few steps, lifted her hand to knock on the door, and said haltingly, "I heated up the cakes, do you want to eat?"
"He took a piece and went in," the bun-haired girl pretended to hold a bag and explained, "Then I took the rest back to my room."
Gao MaWei said, "After Xiao Min brought it back, I ate a piece, nothing wrong with it. I'll eat it in front of you to show you." She picked up the remaining cake on the bedside table and took a bite directly, "Don't believe me? I'll eat it and show you."
"That's good." Jian Jing held her wrist to stop her from continuing to eat. "We're just asking, don't get excited."
"It's you who are interrogating us." Gao MaWei shook her off angrily. "Suspecting us is better than suspecting the woman across. Xiao Min and I haven't gone out at all today, it couldn't have been us."
Room 202 was across from Room 201 where Chai Reporter was staying.
Ji Feng was very interested, "Why do you say that?"
Gao MaWei tipped her chin, indicating them to look out the window: "Around 1 or 2 o'clock, I saw that woman walking over there downstairs."
The rooms on the second floor faced the area to the right of the first floor dining room. The occupancy was like this:
Warehouse
(First floor)
Kitchen
Gao MaWei Punk Girl
Second Floor Bun Girl Man with fracture Safety
246 Exit
Corridor Restroom
135
Chai Reporter Xu Huangmao Jian Jing
Fei crew cut head Ji Feng
So Gao MaWei, who was staying in 202, could indeed see the scene behind the inn through the window.
Ji Feng stood still, peered into the distance and asked, "Are you sure it was Chai Reporter?"
"Yes, I saw very clearly." Gao MaWei was very certain.
"What time was it then?"
Gao MaWei hesitated and said, "1:40 pm."
"Are you sure?"
She said, "It shouldn't be wrong, I was reading a novel on my phone at the time, my eyes were a little tired, so I looked outside, and just happened to see her. It was raining heavily, it was very strange that she went out, I remember very clearly."
Jian Jing chimed in, "Did you see when she came back?"
Gao MaWei shook her head.
"Her room is right across from you guys, did you hear any movement?" she asked.
Gao MaWei: "I was absorbed in my novel, I didn't notice at all."
The bun-haired girl: "I was watching a movie."
Jian Jing looked thoughtful and looked to Ji Feng inquiringly.
He picked up the red bean cake very casually and asked, "What do you think the victim was like?"
The two girls looked at each other and chose their words carefully.
"Jia Yue was impatient, a bit arrogant, his family was well off." The bun-haired girl replied.
Gao MaWei said, "Not very likable, not very annoying either, we weren't very familiar with him, just a clubmate."
Ji Feng nodded lightly, very naturally taking away the red bean cake.
Only after leaving Room 202 did he ask, "What do you think?"
"They seem to have a close relationship," Jian Jing mused. "If one did it, the other might cover for her. It's hard to say if Man Guanmin left this room or not."
Ji Feng deeply agreed. Gao MaWei concealed Chai Reporter's affair, the bun-haired girl concealed the cake delivery, the two girls were not frank enough.
"Let's do the next one, she's more suspicious." He put his hands in his pockets and knocked on Room 201.
Chai Reporter opened the door and looked at them strangely, "Anything else?"
Ji Feng said, "You went out more than once this afternoon."
Chai Reporter was stunned, then let them in. She leaned against the window with a lit cigarette and took a puff, "Who said that?"
"Someone saw you," his tone sank slightly. "Please give an honest account of where you were."
Chai Reporter exhaled smoke rings and said helplessly, "I just didn't want to cause trouble for myself. Who knew he would die there."
"Please tell us specifically about the situation at that time."
"In the afternoon I was in the room writing an article. I came all this way, planning to write a zombie story. You can look at my laptop." She opened the laptop on the bed to show them the draft in the document. "When I got to the part about the environment, I wanted some pictures, so I went to take two photos. I came back immediately after taking them."
Ji Feng asked, "Where are the photos?"
Chai Reporter opened her phone gallery and let them verify in a forthright manner: "The capture time is in the detailed information, you can check for yourselves."
She didn't lie.
There were a total of five photos taken between 1:43-1:47 pm. The scenes were near the kitchen, the chicken coop got several shots. The corner where the incident happened was also captured, and there was no one there.
It's worth noting that there was a sixth photo.
It was shot from her room looking outside, focusing on the scorch marks under the tree last night.
The time was 1:51 pm.
"Yes, I took another one when I came back," Chai Reporter glanced at the photo and said casually, "Unfortunately the rain was too heavy, it's not very clear."
Jian Jing pondered, "Room 202 is the furthest out. Did you see anyone go downstairs today?"
Chai Reporter said, "My door was closed, who would pay attention to that? But..." She frowned to recall, "That Xu Huangmao did make a lot of noise coming up. You heard it too, right?"
Jian Jing nodded.
In the afternoon, although she and Ji Feng had kept the door wide open, Xu Huangmao came upstairs noisily around 2:35 pm.
At that time, he had knocked on the room of the deceased in 204, asking if there was anything to eat.
"To be honest, he was a bit noisy," Chai Reporter shrugged irresponsibly and guessed, "Also, I noticed something strange - there was no umbrella near the corpse."
Jian Jing & Ji Feng: "Oh?"
Chai Reporter laughed: "What? No insight, still want to be a reporter?" As she spoke, her fingers flew across the phone screen, "Let me see, yes, around 2:30 pm, the rain stopped for a while."
She opened a video, the camera shook slightly, filming the scenery outside, and a voiceover: "The rain finally stopped, the scenery in the mountains is so beautiful."
In the video, you could clearly see the rain had stopped, the view became clear, and the lush mountains showed emerald green, very beautiful.
And the recording time was 14:31.
Chai Reporter said, "The dead guy didn't bring an umbrella, maybe he went out during this time period. Who could have asked him to such a remote place? It couldn't have been a stranger like me, right?"
Jian Jing and Ji Feng didn't respond, the implication was too overt.
But they also had to admit her guess made sense.
"I won't bother you anymore."
They were going to bother Xu Huangmao.
Xu Huangmao and Fei crew cut head both lived in 203, right next to 205 where Jian Jing and the others lived.
The two boys were surprised to see them, but also couldn't hide their nervousness.
Ji Feng had to say some superficial words to calm their emotions.
Only then did he ask Xu Huangmao: "You made quite some noise when you came back this afternoon, what exactly did you do, could you repeat it carefully for us?"
Xu Huangmao reluctantly said, "I said I was hungry, the first thing I did when I came back was look for food. My luggage was in Jia Yue's room, he had a room to himself, very spacious, so I knocked on his door and asked him to bring me something to eat."
Ji Feng immediately asked, "Did he answer you?"
"No - I didn't wait for him," he was incoherent, "My stomach hurt too much, so I said, let him bring the food over, then rushed to the bathroom."
Jian Jing silently acknowledged his story could be true. This guy made too much noise, the door knocking, shouting was very loud, what she heard matched his words.
The only difference was whether he went into the bathroom after running past 205, or slipped out through the emergency exit and went out to kill someone, there was no way to know.
Ji Feng was concerned about something else: "Did you get it?"
Huangmao said: "When I came out from the toilet, instant noodles were on my bed."
"The door wasn't locked?"
"I went in to get toilet paper, and didn't lock when I came out."
"So you didn't actually see the victim, right?"
Huangmao nodded reluctantly: "If it wasn't him, who else could it be?"
Good question, but Ji Feng didn't answer. Instead he asked the crew cut head: "You were outside most of today, does anyone have an alibi for you?"
"No one, with such heavy rain, who would be out?" Crew cut head was inevitably glum and worried.
This was also expected, Ji Feng smiled and asked the real question: "Then tell me about Zhou Chang."
