Jian Jing asked each person one by one about when they saw the red cloth.
Janitor: "I was mopping the floor outside the whole time. After I finished mopping, I went to the bathroom and didn't go in there at all."
Event Manager: "I was the one who opened the door. Knowing that none of you had arrived yet, I ate breakfast in the office. When I heard people coming, I went there with them. I didn't pay attention. It seemed to have been there all along."
Planner: "I arrived very early, but the reading room had already been set up pretty much yesterday. I didn't look closely. The flower basket still hadn't been delivered. I was on the phone with them the whole time."
Copywriter: "As soon as I got here, I went to the reading room. It was around 7:10. It seemed like the red cloth was already covering it."
Operations: "I walked around in the hall. The cloth was already there, but I was busy coordinating with the media and didn't look closely."
Editor: "I was here at 7:30 and it was already here. At the time I wondered who had put it there, it's so ugly."
CEO's Assistant: "It was there when we arrived."
Store Manager: "I just took a look at the entrance. I didn't go in. I'm not very clear since I just got here."
Jian Jing sorted through their testimonies. If no one was lying, then the red cloth was already covering something there at 7:10, but whether there were books or bones underneath could not be determined.
Perhaps the initial red cloth was just a smoke screen, and someone took the chance to switch out the contents, or perhaps someone else snuck in after the door opened and hid the bones.
Kang Mu Cheng asked: "With your method, do you think someone was bribed?"
"Yes." Jian Jing nodded. "It was deliberately placed at my book signing. It really doesn't seem like a coincidence."
Kang Mu Cheng's expression was cold. He pondered and said: "I'll call everyone over and ask them one by one. I don't believe I can't get it out of them."
"Wait, I want to take another look at the bones." Jian Jing hesitated and said softly, "I suspect they are real."
If the bones were simulated fakes, then they could be determined to be a prank. No matter who did it, settling the score afterwards wouldn't be too late. But if they were real, then the nature would be very different.
Chun Feng had only mentioned it in passing that forensic doctors were busier than the police. To ask them to examine the bones, they would have to wait until the afternoon no matter what.
Relying on others was not as good as relying on oneself. It was time to draw some more cards.
"System, draw ordinary cards."
[Drawing cards...]
[Draw complete]
[Name: Skill Card - Basic Calligraphy]
[Description: Improve your calligraphy skills]
[Note: Having good handwriting leaves a good impression]
[Name: Skill Card - Basic Public Speaking]
[Description: Improve your public speaking skills to speak eloquently in front of many onlookers]
[Note: This skill, when used well, has unforeseeable consequences]
Drawing two skill cards in a row couldn't be considered bad luck, especially since she would need to sign and write a thank you speech soon. It could be considered timely rain, but it was of no help in solving the case.
She grimaced in pain. She silently chanted: I want to crack this case. Give me something practical.
[Name: Knowledge Card - Basic Forensics]
[Description: Gain shallow knowledge of forensic science]
[Note: Give voice to the deceased, plead for the wronged]
[Name: Item Card - Handwriting Identification x3]
[Description: Able to conduct three handwriting identifications, 100% accuracy]
[Note: One's handwriting can betray their inner thoughts]
Jian Jing weighed for a moment before deciding to use the forensics card, keeping the calligraphy and public speaking cards for now. She would see later if she could scrounge up some less important cards and synthesize an upgraded card.
Some forensic knowledge suddenly appeared in her mind.
She looked at the bones again, and the information she gleaned was earth-shattering.
These bones were very intact, so the first thing she noticed was the pelvis. The pelvis can determine a person's gender. For example, the closed circle in the middle is called the pelvic inlet. It looks like a heart in males, but an oval in females.
However, Jian Jing lacked experience. No matter how much she looked left and right, she couldn't determine if it was an oval or a heart for the moment. Fortunately, there was another way - looking at the pelvic outlet, which was not a closed shape but rather the symphysis pubis joint.
The female symphysis pubis joint was a U shape, while the male was a V shape.
After confirming both characteristics, she determined these were a woman's bones.
Similarly, the symphysis pubis also contained information about the age of the corpse.
According to nine features of the symphyseal face, the age could be calculated with the formula:
Y = M + X1 + X2 + X3 + X4 + X5 + X6 + X7 + X8 + X9
Y is the inferred age, M is a constant: 16.45 for males, 15.32 for females
X1 through X9 are the reference constants for the nine features: X1 is the dorsal margin, X2 is the ossific nodules, X3 is the ventral margin, X4 is the ventral rampart, X5 is the symphyseal rim, X6 is the dorsal plateau, X7 is the bony excrescences, X8 is the ventral beveling, and X9 is the symphyseal face.
Each feature had a reference table. To make it easier to understand, using the ventral rampart for example - no appearance is 0 points, partial formation is 3.53 points, and complete formation is 7.36 points. Lattice-like porousness is 8.61 points.
Before getting hands-on experience:
Jian Jing: I have the formula, just plug it in and it's good.
After getting hands-on experience:
Jian Jing: What's the use of formulas when I have an experienced eye!
Spending ability points can light up the skill tree, but cannot grant experience.
She had the knowledge points in her mind, remembering them clear as day, but her eyes told her they saw something, and her brain told her no way.
Someone without experience, even seeing something, wouldn't know which category it belonged to, or what points to assign.
She couldn't calculate the age, she could only roughly divide based on the state of the dorsal margin - a youth's dorsal margin was high and sharp, while a middle-aged person's would become flat. And by old age, osteoporosis would occur.
This bone, it wasn't especially sharp, nor was it very flat. It seemed to be somewhere in between.
She also looked at the auricular surface of the ilium. The fine granularity with clear transverse organization appeared wavy. Although her inexperience made it hard to finely distinguish, she roughly estimated the age to be between 20-30 years old.
That was the limit of her capabilities.
She looked for other characteristics.
After carefully turning over the bones with tissues wrapped around her index finger and thumb for ten minutes, Jian Jing discovered another healed fissure on the corpse's right arm, proving the deceased had fractured that arm once.
With this, the basic information of the deceased emerged.
A young woman in her 20s-30s, height around 163cm (total skeletal height + 5cm soft tissue thickness), with a history of one right arm bone fracture.
She asked everyone to the reading room, and got straight to the point: "Just now, I've already asked everyone about the bones. Everyone either said they didn't know or weren't sure. Perhaps you really know nothing, or perhaps someone lied - before I do a second round of confirmation, I must tell everyone one thing. This is not a prank. The bones are real."
Many people had looks of surprise on their faces.
"The deceased was a young woman, around 163cm tall, with a history of right arm fracture." As Jian Jing reported the information, she carefully observed everyone's expressions. "Also, she was likely murdered. If anyone thought this was a prank and moved the bones here, admitting it now is not too late. Otherwise when the police come, you'll be implicated in a murder case."
This was half true and half false.
The true part was that she observed the skull had depressed fractures, which should be fatal injuries. But she could not confirm it was murder or accident. She deliberately exaggerated the severity in order to bluff them.
"Murder? Is that real?"
"It's got nothing to do with us. It's all just bones now, must have died many years ago."
"Who moved this stuff here? The murderer?"
Their reactions were normal, ranging from shock to fright, with only the store manager and event manager exchanging a look with strange expressions.
Jian Jing's heart stirred. She asked: "Is there anyone who recognizes this person?"
Perhaps the bones appearing here were not meant for her, but rather for Tian Tian Bookstore.
Sure enough, although no one directly answered, after the conversation ended, the event manager took the initiative to find her and confessed: "I know who put the bones there, but I didn't know it would turn out like this."
Jian Jing calmly said: "Who did it?"
"Last night, I received a call from someone claiming to be your fan who wanted to give you a surprise." The manager said embarrassingly. "He paid 30,000 for me to go open the door early this morning."
She raised her brows: "And you believed it?"
"Uh, yes, I thought it was just a fan." The manager was slightly uncomfortable. "This kind of thing happens a lot."
Jian Jing sneered internally. They took her for a fool. She dared to bet the manager certainly thought it was someone from a rival company intentionally causing trouble, but seeing the money, he still pretended to believe it. If she hadn't claimed it involved a murder case, he wouldn't have admitted it so readily either.
"What did you mean by 'turn out like this'?" She held in her anger. "Do you recognize that person?"
"No no," the manager waved his hands. "The person who came I don't recognize. I'm saying...the woman you mentioned just now sounds a lot like a former colleague at our bookstore."
He wasn't stupid. If the corpse had nothing to do with the bookstore, readily admitting it would just be asking for trouble. But hearing the description, it really sounded like a certain familiar colleague. If the police happened to find any threads, his suspicion would suddenly rise.
Better to take a small fault than get implicated in a murder case.
The manager was very cooperative: "Her name was Lv Xue. She used to be our bookstore's librarian. One day when she was shelving books, someone pushed over the ladder and she fell and broke her arm. But it was a blessing in disguise since she got promoted to purchasing manager afterwards. One year ago, she suddenly resigned and we didn't know where she went."
"Did anyone have a grudge against her?" Jian Jing asked.
The manager revealed an ambiguous smile. "Lv Xue was very popular, you know how it is. There's always people who can't stand it."
Jian Jing fell deep into thought. If the deceased was a former employee of Tian Tian Bookstore, it was very meaningful for the bones to appear here.
She had two hypotheses: The person who left the bones was the murderer, and for some reason, deliberately exposed the victim; or conversely, the person who left the bones was not the murderer, and did this to lure out the real killer.
"Did you see that person?" Jian Jing repeatedly confirmed.
"No, he just asked me to open the door before 7 o'clock," the manager said. Although young, he was already a seasoned professional and knew that in some cases, not knowing was better than knowing. Seeing who had come, he realized telling the truth would not benefit him and could easily cause trouble. His previous testimony was genuine - after opening the front door, he went to the office to check his phone and eat breakfast until Jinwu's people arrived.
But this raised one issue: Did this person really exist? If so, why didn't the surveillance cameras capture him?
Jianjing carefully reviewed the angles of the surveillance cameras and found a slight possibility: there was a blind spot at the front door on the first floor where someone could hug the wall and avoid detection. Then, hidden behind the bookshelves, they could go up the stairs and vault over the railing to the second floor, avoiding the cameras monitoring the stairs.
Although it required considerable agility, it was not impossible.
To determine if such a person existed, the police would need to check footage from surrounding surveillance cameras, which would be difficult for an individual to access.
She had to change strategies and figure out the killer's identity.
