After asking the questions, it was time to eat. May was the season for eating crayfish. The latex gloves Jian Jing carried with her came in very handy, and her +1 dexterity attribute was shining bright, vigorously eliminating the invasive foreign species.
"This is the appraisal report," Ji Feng ordered some fried rice and finished it in three minutes. He immediately started analyzing the case. "Although there were no obvious footprints on the rooftop, the victim's fingerprints were extracted from the guardrails."
"Let me see," Jian Jing leaned over to take a look.
The guardrails on the rooftop came up to about waist height and could be climbed over. There was a 50 cm wide ledge around the outside with grooves, probably to solve drainage problems.
On the exterior of the guardrails, several complete fingerprints could be seen. Judging by the direction, they should have been left by the victim climbing over and holding onto the railing.
"If she was pushed, the fingerprints wouldn't be like this," Ji Feng said. "Also, judging by where she landed, this was the place she fell from."
Jian Jing stuffed a peeled crayfish into her mouth and asked, "So you think it was suicide?"
"I didn't say that," he murmured thoughtfully. "It's just that the people investigating the case at the time were not negligent in ruling out homicide."
At the time of the incident, the lab building was in lockdown with no suspicious individuals seen entering or exiting. The six people inside had no direct connections to the victim or apparent motives to kill her. No noteworthy physical evidence was found at the scene either. Although ambiguous, the suicide note made sense and was indeed written by the victim herself.
More evidence would be needed to overturn the conclusion of suicide.
Jian Jing understood the implication behind his words. She couldn't help but say, "You seem to trust Yunyun's judgment quite a bit."
In most cases, when people say someone couldn't possibly have committed suicide, it doesn't mean something is amiss. More commonly, people just can't accept it or didn't care enough in the first place.
Ji Feng was taking the investigation seriously purely based on what his younger sister said. This showed he considered Yunyun’s judgment to have some credibility.
"Kids like to exaggerate to get adults to pay attention to them," Ji Feng sighed complicatedly. "Yunyun doesn't do that. Something must have struck her as off."
Jian Jing couldn't help but laugh. "So you do think she has some talent, right?"
Ji Feng smiled too, but after a while, he suddenly said, "Professor Jian."
"Hm?"
He looked into her eyes and stated evenly, "I don't want Yunyun to become a cop too."
Jian Jing was dumbstruck for a moment. It's understandable for someone not to want their sister to have a dangerous job, but Ji Feng's tone concealed some more secret, unspoken emotions.
She asked, "What do you mean?"
"Exactly what I said," he replied. "Done eating? Two pounds of crayfish takes you that long?"
"We have plenty of time tonight anyway," Jian Jing said. "Can't a person eat in peace?"
"Of course you can. Let's go chat with Miao Tong's boyfriend after," Ji Feng hurried her along. "Come on, want another bowl of rice? Just crayfish won't fill you up."
"Don't rush me. The more you rush, the slower I'll go," she retorted.
He gave her a helpless look.
Jian Jing slowly finished her dinner and downed a can of ice-cold Coke to invigorate herself. Then they went to pay Miao Tong's boyfriend a visit.
He had fair skin and wore professional attire with glasses—the very image of a recent college grad trying his best to seem mature, but not completely in sync with his age and outfit yet.
"What's up?" he asked cautiously. "You say you're a cop? Let's see some ID."
Ji Feng handed over his genuine credentials. The boyfriend scrutinized them for a long time, even looking him up online to verify authenticity before letting them in.
"She's not a cop though, right?" He glanced at Jian Jing. "Jian Jing? Aren't you an author?"
Ji Feng pleasantly asked, "Want me to follow official procedures instead? We can just go down to the station if you prefer."
The boyfriend promptly shut up.
"Do you know Miao Tong?" Ji Feng brought up her photo. "What's your relationship with her?"
His first reaction was denial. "Don't know her. Who's this?"
"Then take a look at this one." Ji Feng swiped to the candid photo taken by Tong Moli. "She came out of your place, right?"
The boyfriend caved. "What's the issue? She was over eighteen."
Ji Feng: "Were you aware she died?"
The boyfriend was shocked. "She died? When? It's got nothing to do with me!"
Jian Jing pressed her fingers to her temples. Whenever this happened, she reminded herself to keep a sharp eye out for red flags when finding a man in the future, lest she fall for an idiot by mistake.
"You didn't know? When was the last time you contacted each other?" Ji Feng was completely unfazed, having seen far too many jerks already.
"Two weeks ago," the boyfriend scrambled to absolve himself. "She was in high school living on campus. We didn't meet up often. Sometimes I worked overtime, sometimes she had exams—going a while without contacting each other was normal."
Jian Jing cut him off with an icy laugh. "I've never seen a boyfriend be totally fine not contacting his girlfriend for half a month, unless he had more than that one girlfriend."
"Uh, we weren't really boyfriend-girlfriend," the boyfriend backtracked. "We met online, you know what I mean?"
Ji Feng immediately played along, switching to a friendly tone. "Oh, just online friends?"
"Yeah, she was just a young girl who found it hard to share some things with her parents, so she talked it out with strangers instead." Realizing the women were hassling him for no reason while the man could understand, the boyfriend only spoke to Ji Feng now. "Girls her age rely quite a bit on adult men, but obviously I couldn't date a high schooler. We didn't have much of a relationship."
Ji Feng asked, "What was bothering her?"
"Little kids don't have huge issues. Bad practice exam scores, fights with classmates, afraid of parents finding out her secrets." The boyfriend answered.
Jian Jing scoffed. "Right, none of those count as big deals that could make her commit suicide. I bet it was actually romantic troubles."
Ji Feng immediately followed her lead, expression turning serious as he stared hard at the boyfriend.
The boyfriend panicked and desperately racked his brains for ways to clear himself of suspicion. "She did tell me she lacked confidence in the exams and wanted to fight for a probational admission spot. Her grades in 10th and 11th grade were pretty decent, so she could give it a shot. Thing is, their class president had connections that made it hard to compete against him."
"How did she plan to solve this probational admission issue?" Jian Jing pressed relentlessly.
Uneasily wondering if this woman might be one of Miao Tong's relatives—she definitely hadn't mentioned any celebrity kin to him—the boyfriend honestly answered, "She said she had a way, that the boy had some weakness."
Jian Jing's eyebrows shot up.
Ji Feng made an obvious gesture for her to stop, then gently asked, "What exactly did Miao Tong tell you?"
"Her parents were really strict and controlled her a lot. But as you know, the stricter the family, the more the kid rebels in the end." Everyone had their teenage years of growth; the boyfriend's tone grew earnest as he seemed to feel men could understand boys-will-be-boys while women pestered illogically. So he only addressed Ji Feng now. "Xiao Tong had been learning ballet and piano since she was little, constantly entering competitions and public speaking events because her parents were fixated on sending her abroad to an Ivy League school. So she was scared to let them down. Everyone tried their hardest in 12th grade, but she didn't improve. Her parents got anxious, which made her anxious, which made studying even harder for her."
In his eyes, the seemingly perfect Miao Tong had an unseen side.
"Around last year, she stopped going to cram school. She started following pop stars, gaming, going out to play on weekends while lying to her parents she was at the library." The boyfriend said, "It wasn't until she bombed the mock exams this year that she panicked. Said she might as well aim for probational admission since her 10th and 11th grade marks were alright—she could give it a shot. Thing is, her class president had connections that made him hard to beat."
"About a month ago, hmm, I remember we played a mystery game that day, she suddenly told me she thought of a way to solve the probational admission problem."
"What was her solution?"
"I'm not clear. She didn't explain the details to me, but from what she said, it sounded like she obtained some leverage over him." The boyfriend responded. "At the time I didn't take it seriously. Women come up with ideas like that. I'm used to it. I truly don't know why she would've committed suicide!"
Ji Feng took out his memo pad and pen. "Since you met online, come on, write down Miao Tong's social media handles."
The boyfriend awkwardly said, "Personal privacy..."
"Miao Tong's parents probably don't know you were dating their underage daughter." Jian Jing fully embraced her role as the villain today. "Shall I notify them for you?"
The boyfriend reluctantly jotted down the accounts, privately resolving to delete anything incriminating from his own social media later.
It was past 10 PM when they left.
Jian Jing: "I'm hungry again."
"I told you crayfish alone wouldn't fill you up." Ji Feng sighed. "Late night snacks?"
She thought for a bit then shook her head. "I'll just go home."
Ji Feng was surprised. Teacher Jian worked hard on the case, as if she was going to work overnight. Now that there were clear clues, she actually wanted to go back and rest?
"I'm not feeling well."
She glared at him.
"You should have said so earlier," Ji Feng shook his head. "Let's get in the car, I'll take you home."
Jian Jing reluctantly went home, feeling down.
Knight: "Whine~~"
Her: "..." Too tired to walk further.
"Let me take him out for you," Ji Feng rarely sent her home, and seeing the situation, he extended his hand. "Give me the leash."
Jian Jing was surprised: "You're so free today, no overtime work to go back to?"
"Teacher Jian, there is something called taking leave." He held down the jumping dog and put on its lead. "Alright, I'll bring him back later."
Jian Jing looked him up and down.
Something was not right with him, did he take the wrong medicine?
"See you later."
The man and dog left.
With one less task at hand, Jian Jing quickly took a hot shower. After increasing her Physique stat points, the negative effects of menstruation were not too bad, she rarely had painful cramps or sore back.
However, hormonal changes were not something that enhancing physiological functions could change. She still inevitably felt tired, mood swings, and various strange discomforts.
She must have worked too long today and her body was starting to protest.
Sigh.
She'll make herself a hot cocoa.
And browse Miao Tong’s account while at it.
The hobbies and interests of the high school girl were quite diverse - tracking stars and analyzing data, watching dramas and shipping couples, participating in rescue groups for stray cats, helping to make posters and images. From the accounts she frequently reposted, it was not difficult to find her boyfriend's account. Although the other party cleverly canceled their following of each other, but social media posts cannot all be deleted immediately. Tracing the threads bit by bit, it was not hard to uncover his identity.
However, that person was not the priority.
Miao Tong only thought of a way to defeat Class Monitor Wu a month ago. Since that was highly unlikely to be a problem in real life - high school seniors practically spend every day in school, what handle could someone possibly have over her? The probability of it being on the internet was greater.
Jian Jing’s main task was to screen the accounts that interacted the most with Miao Tong over the past few months.
A huge project.
Fortunately, help arrived soon.
"Woof!" Knight, back from his happy outing, made a beeline for Jian Jing, ready to act cute.
Jian Jing held down the dog's head to stop the dirty dog from getting on the sofa, and pulled its ear: "Come with me to wash your paws." At the same time, she called out to her guest, "Make yourself at home, drinks are in the fridge, help yourself. This is an iPad with all the accounts I found, check them one by one slowly."
Having known each other for a few years, Ji Feng did not stand on ceremony either. He changed his shoes and entered the house, taking the chance to survey its environment.
She lived alone, the security system was not bad, cleaner came at scheduled times (though they tended to cut corners a little), the dog was well-trained and she normally did not cook for herself, but used small appliances frequently.
Opening the fridge to grab a bottle of chilled mineral water, he found many Chinese and Western snacks and pastries.
At least two people regularly gave them to her.
"So, noticed anything?" Jian Jing silently appeared behind him and abruptly asked.
"Eclectic palate." Ji Feng complimented her, "Eating so many high-calorie foods yet I don't see you putting on weight, your activity level must be high."
She rolled her eyes, but did not pursue her questioning further. Instead, she urged him to start working: "Miao Tong is very active online, so we have lots to search through."
"It won't make a difference searching through the night," he said. "Go rest early if you're not feeling well, don't force yourself."
Jian Jing nestled into the sofa full of cushions: "I'm not tired, let's take a look."
"Alright." Ji Feng let her be, Teacher Jian working overtime was voluntary after all, unlike him who had to work to feed his family. If she was tired, she would know to turn in on her own.
He started working, at a much faster speed than Jian Jing.
She wondered aloud: "How are you reading so quickly?"
"It's simple, just very familiar." The true overtime work dog shared words of wisdom from life experience.
