It was late at night, and the other guests in the rooms had gone to sleep.
Jian Jing leaned on her arm, drowsy but unable to fall asleep. In her mind, the various clues were dancing nonstop, like they were in a nightclub.
What was the murder weapon?
Why did it disappear?
Did the fact that Chai Reporter took the drink to the kitchen freezer mean that she had originally chosen it as the weapon? But the waitress's actions foiled her plan, forcing her to consider other options.
In a rush, what could she have found?
There was also one thing that bothered her. Why did Chai Reporter go into the kitchen at 3:30pm? At that time, she was going to return the key, but she deliberately peeked into the kitchen. What was she after?
Could she find an excuse to go downstairs? No, this was not a meticulous plan.
Jian Jing searched her heart and asked herself, if she were to play the role of the accomplice, she would choose to be the one who discovered the body. That way she could return the key and control the timing of the exposure, leaving more room to maneuver.
From their brief interactions, she felt that Chai Reporter was shrewd and bold, more so than Fracture Man who did the actual deed. Would she not think of this idea?
There must be a reason.
So, she might as well boldly hypothesize: what if she had originally planned to "discover the body"? She just had to stop by the kitchen first, but then saw Huangmao and had to shelve her plan.
The kitchen...why did she need to go to the kitchen?
There was only one possibility, to dispose of the murder weapon.
What was the murder weapon? It wasn't ice, so what else could be disposed of?
The kitchen, what's in the kitchen, fruits, vegetables, meat...it couldn't have been frozen meat right? Using a pig's leg to hit someone and then putting it back would fool Lu Minuo's reaction, but the waitress said there was hardly any food left!
Can't think straight, need to go down and take a look!
Jian Jing couldn't sleep anymore, and abruptly sat up.
She didn't want to disturb her companion, so she tiptoed into her slippers, grabbed her phone and got ready to head out.
But she had barely taken two steps when Ji Feng woke up, "Teacher Jian, whatcha doing?"
"Going to the kitchen." She said.
Ji Feng looked at his phone, surprised, "Going to the kitchen at half past one? Hungry?"
"I want to go look for the murder weapon." She answered, "Go back to sleep, don't mind me."
"Fine..." He sighed helplessly, getting up to get dressed, "I'll go with you."
"No need." She said, "Even if the murderer comes for me, it'll be his bad luck."
"Boring to go alone." Ji Feng said as he squeezed ahead to open the door, "Let's go, quiet."
The dark corridor was extremely quiet, as if everyone was fast asleep, and also as if no one was asleep, so there wasn't a hint of sleep-talking or snoring.
The two unconsciously lightened their steps, and quietly walked down the stairs.
The wind and rain had yet to let up. Through the walls, they could still hear the sound of rain, pitter patter, pitter patter. The wind blew through the lush mountains, making eerie howling sounds.
Jian Jing couldn't help but let out a quiet laugh.
"Middle of the night," Ji Feng yawned lazily, "Don't go all Liaozhai on me."
"Don't you feel the atmosphere?" She lightened her footsteps, moving lithely like a cat, "The desolate moors of the English countryside, the ancient dilapidated temple, the mountainside inn on a rainy night... Murders in the city always lack something, only in a place like this can it feel truly interesting."
Ji Feng glanced at her, conflicted.
To be honest, investigating clues and catching criminals in the middle of the night were things he had done many times. His usual mental state was "so tiring", hurry up and get it over with so I can get off work.
Interesting? That was purely the imagination of outsiders.
The people involved just wanted to sleep.
But now, as he walked in the dark hotel, with the wind and rain raging outside, tired as he was, there was still a kind of indescribable feeling quietly emerging in his heart, making him feel as if he had returned to his childhood days, hiding under the covers reading detective story collections.
Perhaps, every lover of mysteries has similar blood running through their veins.
No matter how bitter, how tiring, how sleepy, it's hard to dispel the "interesting" at their core.
"What are your thoughts on the murder weapon?" He asked.
Jian Jing lifted the corners of her lips. In the dim light, her skin was as white as snow, her eyes were bright, very much like the phantom that would flash in and out of detective stories.
"My intuition tells me," she said with certainty, "the murder weapon is in the kitchen."
"The kitchen..." He contemplated, "Rice and flour when packaged can work, that degree of impact would seep into them to some extent."
Jian Jing turned on the light, illuminating the kitchen.
She first checked the fridge.
As the waitress had said, there were limited supplies inside. The refrigerated section only contained some pork ribs, vegetables, two boxes of eggs and a small amount of canned drinks. Even less in the freezer, mostly frozen dumplings, wontons, soup packets, and some ice cream.
They were all covered by a thin layer of even white frost, the result of having been frozen for a long time. If someone had used it, it would likely not be so intact.
Next was the grains.
"I remember the waitress said a lot of the flour was used up." Jian Jing headed straight for the sink, "Could it have been poured into the drain and flushed away after use?"
Ji Feng objectively evaluated, "Flour is very fine, force is dispersed, may not be able to cause that kind of wound. Well, anything in the sink?"
She carefully and meticulously observed from multiple angles for a long time, sighing regretfully in the end, "Nothing, no flour particles on the edges or insides of the sink. If poured urgently to flush away, some powder would have spilled out."
"Rice?"
Jian Jing shook her head, "Doesn't seem like it from the wound."
Ji Feng checked the bottles and containers, none had issues. That left bags and the like. However, rice grains were larger. Under gravity, the surface would show a grainy texture, but the wound seemed to be from a smooth weapon.
Just in case though, she still used Lu Minuo to check the rice bags.
No reaction.
Dead end, time to change perspectives. Jian Jing said, "Show me Chai Reporter's photos again."
Ji Feng handed her his phone.
She scrolled through each photo, scrutinizing every detail.
Chai Reporter had a lot of luggage, clothes separated into storage bags, makeup kits full of bottles and containers, a camera, a laptop, two power banks.
"I guess the person that the victim bumped into was a girl." Jian Jing suddenly came up with this sentence.
Ji Feng swallowed his yawn, "Why?"
"She brought a hair straightener, but had just curled her wool curls." Jian Jing said, "Someone else must have used it."
Ji Feng sighed, "Looks like it really was a hit-and-run."
Jian Jing nodded, sounding even more certain, "This shows that the weapon was prepared on the spot."
When Chai Reporter came to borrow something from her at 2:10pm, not only was she providing an alibi for Fracture Man, she was likely also setting up contingency moves.
She asked to borrow sanitary pads from Jian Jing, saying she had her period.
So what if blood was found on the stockings? After washing, it would be difficult to collect blood samples to verify DNA. Claiming it was her own blood, what could be the issue?
To convict her, they must find the weapon hidden in the stockings.
The large amount of missing flour could not be a coincidence.
Jian Jing squatted in the corner and untied all the bags. The inn had decent stock, with separate bags for flour, rice, starch, and corn flour.
Only a fifth of the flour remained, half the rice, two-thirds the starch, the corn flour was almost full.
She impatiently felt each one thoroughly.
A subtle anomaly was felt by her fingertips, before her brain could analyze it clearly, her intuition had been triggered.
"Ji Feng!" She called out, "Come over here."
Ji Feng hurried over and squatted down, "What is it?"
"There's something...off about this bag." Words couldn't describe the trembling of her intuition, she could only vaguely say, "Doesn't feel right."
Ji Feng turned on his flashlight and scooped up some starch.
The texture was off, the color also seemed slightly different.
He looked up, meeting Jian Jing's eyes, and they realized at the same time.
"The flour is here!"
"It's the starch!"
Joy bubbled up like the fizz in a cold Coke. Jian Jing smiled and shook her head again: "Awesome, reporters really do know a lot."
Ji Feng also said: "Coming up with a weapon like that from a detective novel, that was clever of her."
Jian Jing wholeheartedly agreed.
She had been fooled by the flour, thinking there was less flour when really she should have thought one step further - the flour was less because someone had moved some into another bag, to cover up the lack of something else.
What was missing was starch.
The starch was the murder weapon.
Not everyone may have heard the science behind it, but everyone has encountered non-Newtonian fluids before. No need to get into the physics, simply put, non-Newtonian fluids have a characteristic where they are very soft when moved slowly, but extremely hard when hit forcefully.
You can use this stuff to float on water, there was a plotline like that in Detective Conan before.
Of course, that required a lot of starch.
You wouldn't need nearly as much just to make a weapon, one clump would do.
After solving the most difficult puzzle, Jian Jing didn't feel tired at all: "Shall we go over the case?"
Ji Feng pulled up a chair and sat down, happy to oblige: "Please, leader, go ahead."
"You're saying the leader gave the case briefing?" she said suspiciously.
Ji Feng kept a straight face: "Yes, why not?"
No way she believed him.
But Jian Jing didn't push it, and went on by herself: "Two nights ago in the evening, the victim and his companions were driving and hit and killed a girl, then drove off in a hit-and-run. Her two companions decided to avenge her, tracked them down to this hotel.
"The victim didn't admit to hitting anyone, and made up a zombie story, angering them. So they decided to use the same excuse to kill him. Last night they pretended to see a zombie, and also killed a chicken at night to sow doubt. The car issues could also have been sabotage by them.
"The plan officially started at noon today. Chai Reporter kept close watch on the victim, confirming he went back to his room while the others were away. Then she found an excuse to ask the victim to meet her at the warehouse.
"13:40-13:50, besides taking photos, the reporter must have also prepared the murder weapon and hidden it near the warehouse. 14:05, Fracture Man slipped away under pretense of using the bathroom, and probably circled around through the emergency exit and back door since the reporter had said the female server was in her living room.
"There, he murdered the victim. But because the victim didn't have the note with the meeting info, he had to take the room key.
At this point, Jian Jing paused for a moment, pondering: "How did they pass the key?"
"Just kicked it along the ground," Ji Feng said. "These are just small details."
Jian Jing gestured for him to continue.
So he went on: "Chai Reporter got the key, entered the room, destroyed the note. Right then, Huangmao came back looking for something from the victim. She thought fast, using the instant noodles to make it seem like the victim was still alive, and also realized it was suspicious that the rain had stopped and Huangmao had returned at the same time. So she decided to frame him and take away the umbrella as evidence.
"Why wait a whole hour before going back down?" Jian Jing asked.
"It takes time to find the note, and she probably wanted to see how strong Huangmao's suspicions were," Ji Feng mused. "But you're right, it was too long. She could have put the key back when pretending to discover the body. Leaving the murder weapon unhandled was too risky."
Jian Jing considered this and said: "Putting the key back was accidental; her original plan should have been to discover the body herself, so by then the weapon would have already been handled and she just needed to retrieve it."
"That makes sense, she left the weapon out in the rain to dilute the starch," Ji Feng agreed with her reasoning. "She just had to hide it; too long would have brought suspicion."
"Exactly." Jian Jing nodded. "The rain wasn't heavy in the afternoon, and stopped for a bit, so the weapon wasn't washed completely clean. That's why she had to quickly rinse it in the kitchen, but ran into Huangmao by accident. So she had to change plans, return the key, take the umbrella, and go straight back to her room."
Ji Feng: "One last question, where's the umbrella?"
"Thrown somewhere far away, I assume."
Because of the weather, Ji Feng's search had been limited to the indoors and backyard, he hadn't gotten to the area around the hotel yet, so it was normal he hadn't found the umbrella.
Jian Jing let out a breath: "Let's go, forget the umbrella, finish up this last thing then go to sleep."
The umbrella was an utter red herring, misleading the timeline, framing the murder weapon, and distracting attention, but unfortunately, it wasn't important at all.
At least when accusing the murderer, nobody cared that it was missing.
