The previous text described that Castle Winterfell was located on a cliff, facing the endless ocean on one side, and connected to a private road on the other side.
This road was the only way down the mountain from the castle, but unfortunately it had been blocked for several days due to heavy snow.
But this afternoon, it seemed that heaven knew the case was about to be closed, and hid the wind and snow to let out the long-absent sun.
The warm sunshine shone on the snow, melting the hard ice layer. Qiao Zhi drove a small yellow snowplow, barely clearing a passable road.
Lei Ao changed the car tires to snow tires, and helped Melanie into the car.
"Let's go to the hospital in town first to see, if we're lucky, getting some medicine will allow us to come back," Lei Ao apologized to the guests, "If hospitalization is required, I will contact Mary."
He told Mary, "I leave it all to you."
Mary knew his true meaning—he left Margaret to her—and solemnly agreed, "I will do my best."
Lei Ao's eyes expressed gratitude, but he did not speak, only steadied Melanie. Her body was still very weak, and the low temperature from the melting snow made her shiver.
"Get in the car quickly," Lei Ao opened the passenger door.
Melanie got in weakly, her slender eyebrows twisted together.
"You'll feel better when we get to the hospital," Lei Ao reassured her and started the car.
The road surface was a little slippery, and he had to slow down. The roadsides were snowy beds like cotton, crystal clear and thick, and the sunshine shone on them, reflecting a stretch of white light.
"Oh, Lei Ao, stop for a second," Melanie pleaded.
Lei Ao didn't understand, and slowly stepped on the brakes.
She said, "I have to go back and take motion sickness medicine, wait for me."
"I'll reverse the car," Lei Ao said immediately.
"Don't be silly, the road is so slippery," Melanie got out of the car, wrapped her scarf tightly, "I'll be right back."
"I'll go with you," Lei Ao pulled up the parking brake and carefully stopped the car.
But at that moment, he felt the car shake, and then his vision spun as his body flipped over with the car, falling into the snow.
The pungent smell of smoke came into the carriage, and the temperature rose rapidly.
What happened? He shook his head, even more dizzy.
"Lei Ao," a snow-white arm suddenly stretched out from the back seat, lowering the passenger seat. Jian nimbly climbed to the front of the car, swung the emergency hammer in her hand, and completely smashed the window in three hits.
She roughly swept the edges, crawled out, and then grabbed his arm, "Get out!"
Lei Ao only felt a huge force coming, the seat belt had been cut, and his body was involuntarily pulled out of the precarious car.
"Run!" Her order was simple and effective.
Lei Ao staggered and ran a few steps, then his back was heavily pushed, the blast sent him several meters away, and he fell headfirst into the snow.
The thick snow cushioned the impact, sparing him a bloody nose.
"Lei Ao," not far away, Melanie crawled up from the ground, stumbled over, "Oh my God, Lei Ao, are you okay?"
"I'm fine, are you okay?" Lei Ao, still in shock, hugged his wife tightly.
The guests had all run down, anxiously asking, "Are you guys okay? Are you hurt?"
"Lei Ao, you're bleeding," Mary said.
Lei Ao looked at his arm, his hand was cut, but that was trivial, "Where's Jian?"
"I'm here," Jian brushed the snow off herself, unscathed.
"I owe it to you," Lei Ao babbled his gratitude, "If not for you, I would definitely be dead, but why were you in the car?"
She smiled, "It's simple, because I predicted this murder attempt."
"Oh no..." The onlookers uttered terrified cries.
Jian's expression became serious as she looked around at everyone, "Yes, this is the third murder attempt. But I already know who the murderer is. If it's convenient, let's go back to the castle now, and I'll explain it to everyone slowly."
No one objected.
Everyone went back to the lounge, Qiao Zhi brought hot chocolate for everyone to drink, "You need sugar, a lot, a lot, a lot of sugar."
Jian thanked him and took a sip.
The chocolate taste was very rich, and very sweet.
Too sweet.
She quickly put down the cup and cleared her throat, "I guess everyone doesn't want me to keep you in suspense, so let's get right to the point—if I say anything wrong, or offend someone's dignity, I apologize in advance."
After spending a few days with foreigners, she unknowingly began to imitate their way of speaking.
"First of all, I need everyone to be clear about one thing. So far, there have been four cases: 1. Si-De-Ning poisoning, 2. Corpse scare, 3. Cyanide poisoning, 4. The car accident fifteen minutes ago. Among them, the second case has been proven to be a terrible prank, no need to mention it for now. What we really need to figure out are the three heinous murders."
The audience nodded in agreement, without a doubt this was the detective's most brilliant moment.
Jian's thoughts flowed more smoothly than ever before.
She said, "Three cases may have three killers, three motives, or only one. Too many combinations, I don't want to use the dumbest method unless absolutely necessary. So let's start with Kimberley, after all there is a microscopic possibility—from beginning to end, the only person to kill was Kimberley."
Carl objected, "I don't understand, who would want to kill her? She didn't even know anyone else."
"Two and a half suspects," Jian explained, "You, Melanie, and Holen, who had an argument with her before she died, but it's meaningless to talk about this. The real motive is only known to the murderer, we have to start from the cases themselves."
She said, "Now let's go back to that night, everyone split up, according to everyone's account: Melanie and Kimberley were in the lounge on the second floor, Mary and Qiao Zhi were in a room on the first floor, Lei Ao and Kang Mu Cheng were changing clothes, Holen wanted to smoke a cigar, Carl was in his room, and dear brother Ying Jie was going to scare me with Freddy."
Ying Jie's mouth twitched, Holen crossed his fingers, and Carl moved slightly.
"But someone lied,"
She looked at their faces and said slowly, "Mary was in the kitchen, Holen and Melanie, unfortunately, they were together at the time..."
Lei Ao looked surprised, while Holen unpleasantly said, "That's not the case, Jian, your wording is clearly not accurate enough."
"Oh, really? Not 'together'?" She said innocently, "Sorry, my English is not very good."
Kang Mu Cheng coughed, "So what happened next?"
Jian said, "Mr. Holen had to avoid Lei Ao and talk to Melanie alone, it must have been about Lei Ao, or about Melanie herself, and it wasn't a good thing. Someone told me that Mr. Holen is a loyal friend, I'll take their word for it that he wasn't badmouthing Lei Ao, so the answer is the latter.
"What he had to say was not very good, extremely likely to affect their marriage. This is very strange, if Melanie herself had a problem, as a 'loyal friend', why didn't he explain beforehand? So the answer is already very obvious, it's related to Kimberley and Carl."
Carl didn't look very happy, his eyes darting back and forth between Holen.
Melanie clasped her hands, slightly ashamed to say, "Oh, this matter really... I'm grateful that Augustus kept it secret for me, it really is very, very hard to talk about."
Mary was impatient, "What is the matter?"
"Coincidentally, the answer is related to Mr. Carl's actions that day. You said you were in your room and went down after hearing the noise. " She turned to face Carl, calling him out by name, "However, my room is behind yours, and I went downstairs a little later, yet you arrived after me. "
Carl argued, "I was delayed for a while."
"Yes, of course for a while, because you needed to put back the damaged item."
Lei Ao was puzzled, "Jian, please explain more clearly, I don't understand."
"At the time, Carl was in the collection room, probably wanting to—sorry, I can't find a suitable word, I'll just say it straight—steal something." Jian announced the answer.
The others looked at him together.
Carl said coldly, "Don't smear me, what evidence do you have?"
"You had your eyes on that antique sword by the corner, right? There's a gemstone on the hilt," Jian said with a blink. "Also, when the power went out, you got scared doing your thieving and bumped into something. Am I right?"
Carl tried his best to pretend like nothing had happened, but his shocked and concealed fearful expression completely gave him away.
She held up her hand and shook the transparent evidence bag. "Take a look at what this is - Einstein's white wig. After trying on the wig, you left this strand of synthetic hair on your back. Then it got caught on the antique dress displayed perpendicular to the sword. That lady hung many eccentric decorations on her dress, and it got hooked onto one."
The evidence was irrefutable. Carl unconsciously avoided everyone's gaze. After a moment, his brain reacted and he made up an excuse to smooth things over: "I was just admiring it. I accidentally damaged it and was afraid you'd make me pay for it, so I didn't dare say anything."
Holen sneered coldly: "Oh really? So did I just imagine hearing you say to that woman, 'It's just a gemstone, they won't find out'?"
Carl shut his mouth.
Melanie regretfully said, "I'm so sorry, Lei Ao. Please forgive me for not daring to tell you. I really had no way of believing Kimberley could do something like this."
"It's nothing," Lei Ao reassured his wife magnanimously, "Go on, Jian."
Jian said, "Alright, so we can eliminate Holen since he knew Melanie wasn't wearing the necklace, and likewise eliminate Carl since he was upstairs the whole time. But the rest don't seem suspicious either."
"Wait, I want to ask who startled Kimberley and me that time," Ying Jie cut in.
"I'll get to that in a bit," Jian concealed Margaret's existence and continued on her own train of thought. "If we carefully analyze these three cases, we can sketch an image of the murderer in our minds - she hates Melanie deeply and tried to kill her three times to silence her. At the same time, she's very familiar with the terrain, able to sneak past Qiao Zhi to poison him, and accurately attack in the dark."
"Unfortunately, there is indeed someone who exists like that."
Many glanced at Mary, but Mary remained expressionless.
Jian said, "I can't help but ask myself, is it her? Does she have the ability to do this? Yes, of course. But there's one place that leaves me utterly confused - the first time Melanie was poisoned."
"Let's think back to when we had dinner. We sat randomly, and the wine glasses were set out early. The murderer wiped on poison ahead of time, so ten minutes after dinner started the poison should have taken effect. But the champagne was brought by Mary, poured by Lei Ao, and no one got close to Melanie's glass the whole time, except for Kimberley sitting next to her. So who poisoned it?"
Holen said, "Indeed, it's very strange. Considering the seating then, Kimberley would be the most suspicious."
"Melanie was seated with Lei Ao on her right and Kimberley on her left. Who would be more likely to harm her?" Jian retorted.
After thinking for a while, Ying Jie said, "Kimberley. She was jealous of Melanie."
"Melanie, what do you think?" Jian asked.
Melanie sadly said, "I don't know."
"You know she was certainly jealous of you. I remember Kimberley kept saying what a lucky girl you are."
"Was it really her?" Melanie asked.
Jian smiled, "Of course not. She's short on cash, why not just ask you for money? Why would she kill you, could she even replace you marrying Lei Ao? No, it wasn't her, nor Lei Ao, it was you, Melanie. You're the true mastermind behind these three cases."
Dead silence in the room.
