Lu WeiGuo decided to find out the killer and avenge his daughter.
However, he was neither an experienced retired detective nor had any criminal investigation knowledge. He was just a primary school graduate who could barely recognize a few words and worked as a janitor.
He wanted to find out about his daughter, but the new employees did not even know Lu Xue. The old employees would not mention someone who had left more than a year ago either.
There was no door to ask for help and nowhere to search.
"I asked around that for cases like my daughter missing for so long, even going to the police would be difficult. I don't believe them. I'd rather look for her myself," Lu WeiGuo told her, "Seeing her here, the one who killed my daughter might come out."
It sounded reasonable.
However, Jian Jing intuitively felt he was not telling the truth.
It was an extremely subtle intuition, as if a strand of spider silk stuck to the back of her neck, light as a feather without any weight, yet her skin could capture that unusualness.
"Do you have any suspects?" She pretended not to know and continued to ask.
Lu WeiGuo said, "Yes."
The person he suspected the most was the store manager. The reasons were easy to understand: "They all said my daughter had something going on with him, and he got married..." Speaking to this point, the look on the father's face became obscure, "Maybe it was because of me and her mom..."
Jian Jing couldn't help but frown.
She understood Lu WeiGuo's thoughts: Lu Xue was not well educated. Although she only graduated from high school, her promotion speed was unbelievable. Plus other people's gossip, it was unavoidable that the old man would be suspicious.
However, one should not forget where other people's discontent towards Lu Xue came from.
She took credit for things, loved to show off, and was overly enthusiastic... To some extent, these negative evaluations washed away the scandalous suspicions between the two.
"Who told you they had a relationship?" Jian Jing probed.
Lu WeiGuo looked up with confused eyes: "Everyone says so."
"Uncle, believing rumors is dangerous. It may not necessarily be true." Jian Jing cautiously said, "I still have to go elsewhere to investigate - do you have anything else you haven't told me?"
She quickly pulled back and stared at Lu WeiGuo.
The old man seemed to panic for a moment, then calmed down: "What do you want to know?"
Jian Jing stared at him for a long time, then said, "I'll ask you if there is anything."
"Oh, okay." Lu WeiGuo lowered his head and unconsciously scrubbed the floor tiles repeatedly with his mop.
*
Jian Jing went to the 3rd floor cafe and ordered a caramel macchiato and onion rings for herself.
The cashier asked while making coffee, "Teacher Jian, have you found any clues?"
"No clues. After all, it's been a long time." Jian Jing leaned against the counter casually and glanced around the empty cafe, "It doesn't seem too crowded."
"There will be more people during lunch time," the cashier said, "Our place is quite popular online too. Many people come to check-in on weekends."
Jian Jing smiled, "The coffee smells great. There must be employees who come to drink it often right? Any discounts?" She deliberately spoke more to obscure her intention, "Is there a discount for employees?"
"Employees get 20% off. But the only one who comes every day is Manager Sun." The cashier blinked.
Jian Jing touched her face and smiled at her.
"Here is your caramel macchiato and onion rings." The cashier handed over the tray and lowered her voice, "Actually, our coffee here isn't that good. The quality-to-price ratio is not as good as Starbucks."
"Thank you for telling me." Jian Jing thanked her sincerely.
This information was extremely valuable - a coffee shop with mediocre quality-to-price ratio, why did Manager Sun come here every day? Especially since her position was a manager in the purchasing department.
Tian Bookstore's purchasing department had one director at the headquarters to coordinate overall, and two managers in each branch. Lu Xue and Manager Sun were both colleagues and competitors.
Jian Jing found the store manager and asked again about the circumstances of Lu Xue's resignation.
"She left very suddenly without any signs." The store manager recalled, "On the morning of the 15th, I saw her resignation letter on my desk. She said she had something urgent at home and could not continue working. She gave up that month's salary."
"Is the resignation letter still there?" Jian Jing anxiously asked.
"Let me check," the store manager searched the drawer, and said, "These resignation letters are usually submitted to HR for filing. But at that time, I felt it was too sudden and also very regretful. I wanted to have a good chat with her, so I kept it and told HR to count it as leave. Later we couldn't get in touch, so the contract was terminated."
After rummaging for a long time, he finally found the long-lost resignation letter tucked in the crevice of the drawer.
"Luckily it got stuck in the slot, otherwise it might have been shredded as waste paper." The store manager breathed a sigh of relief and sincerely said, "Hope this can help you. Sigh, I really didn't expect something like this to happen to Little Lu... If only I had asked more questions at the time, it's been a year now..."
He shook his head and did not continue.
Jian Jing unfolded the resignation letter. The content was a common resignation letter template, in Song No. 5 font, not handwritten. Nothing worth noting except the signature at the end which was handwritten.
She then asked the store manager to find documents with the signatures of all the store's employees, to facilitate handwriting identification.
To be honest, in today's paperless office environment, few people handwrite anymore. They finally went to the finance office to get a book for collecting signatures for receiving wages and reimbursements.
Not only were the signatures of all employees on it, but also the date written in numbers.
Jian Jing compared Manager Sun's notes and the resignation letter's signature first in the spirit of saving time and effort.
Bingo.
At this time, there were 10 minutes left until the 10 o'clock signing event.
*
When Manager Sun walked into the manager's office, she knew she was done for.
The writer hosting the signing event today - supposedly a mystery novelist - sat on the sofa, looking at her coldly.
The other party was unexpectedly young. But Sun Bing absolutely did not dare to breathe a sigh of relief because of this. On the contrary, her eyes were as cold as her dyed hair color. The frost had already appeared on her face before she even got close.
"Manager Sun, I have to go to the signing event in 9 minutes, so I'll get straight to the point since time is limited." Jian Jing said, "I asked the store manager to call you here because I want to advise you to turn yourself in."
Manager Sun tried her best to conceal her panic: "I don't know what you're talking about. Turn myself in for what? It has nothing to do with me."
Jian Jing raised the resignation letter in her hand: "This is Lu Xue's resignation letter. It's easy to find out who really wrote it after a handwriting identification."
People had the instinct to pursue benefits and avoid harm. "You mean this? Yes, I wrote it," Manager Sun heard herself refute calmly, "Lu Xue's hand was inconvenient because of a fracture at the time, so I wrote it for her. What's the problem?"
"She broke her arm, not her fingers. Even if she couldn't hold a pen, she could've stamped her fingerprint." Jian Jing said, "It's unlikely for someone else to sign a document that requires signature, both emotionally and rationally."
Manager Sun shrugged, "It's just a resignation letter, not a contract. You can't say I'm the murderer based on this alone. Are you kidding?"
Jian Jing remained calm and composed, "The killer buried Lu Xue's corpse in the flower bed on the 3rd floor. It seems the accident happened in this building. Because she had no way to move the corpse out of the building. Although it's not difficult to turn off the indoor surveillance by cutting power, there were still surveillance at the main and back doors, as well as in other shops, that she couldn't completely avoid.
"So the safest approach was to hide the corpse in the building, right under their noses, where she could check the situation every day."
"Are you crazy? Why would I kill Lu Xue for no reason? Don't tell me it's because we were in the same department." Manager Sun defended.
"You could try, but I don't recommend doing so." Jian Jing stressed, "The police must have ways to expose your lies. The price you'll pay then would be far more than confessing now."
Her phone alarm went off, it was 10 o'clock.
"I have to go. Manager Sun can think slowly," she said. "Making mistakes is not scary. Admitting and correcting them in time, there are always second chances. But if you stubbornly try to cover up mistakes, you will only head towards destruction."
The blood drained from Manager Sun's face, but she still clung to false hopes and remained silent.
Jian Jing sighed lightly and said no more. The case had been deduced to this point, she had done all she could. If Manager Sun was not beyond salvation, she would surely make the right choice.
No one could escape the cost of crime.
Did she really not regret it every time she looked at the flower bed?
[Task completed, system settlement in progress]
*
Why do so many people want to be celebrities?
Perhaps because of moments like this.
When Jian Jing hurried into the reading room, she was startled by the scene.
In the not-so-spacious room, passionate readers were squeezed together. Their eyes were enthusiastic and adoring, with joyful and passionate smiles on their faces. Some held flowers, some brought cakes. The moment she arrived, they erupted into loud, delightful screams.
The enthusiasm of the fans was hotter than the summer heatwaves. The air conditioner was set to 23°C, yet the indoor temperature was at least twenty-seven or twenty-eight degrees.
Sweat beaded on her back, filled with the euphoria of being the center of attention, and the nervousness of being watched by the crowd.
Jian Jing took a deep breath and quickly activated her "composure" state to calm herself down.
She slowly walked to the center of the stage and bowed deeply: "Thank you everyone for coming to my signing event."
"Ahhh, Teacher Jian Jing!"
"Jing Jing teacher, love you so much!!"
"Hope Demon Doctor sells well!!"
The fans responded with passionate shouts.
According to the procedure, Jian Jing had a short speech before the signing event.
Kangmu City said they could share their creative experiences or thank editors and readers for their support, but they must never mention anything about suicide. If anyone asked, they had to say the incident back then was a misunderstanding, and not explain anything further.
Likewise, they had never heard of the novelist Wu's veiled allusions, they didn't know anything about that, just keep smiling.
"The more you say, the more mistakes you make. The less you say, the fewer mistakes," he cautioned them. "Don't underestimate the interpretive skills of journalists."
However, while they had anticipated some provocation, they hadn't expected the content.
Suicide was old news from months ago, how could that compare to freshly baked hot news?
"Teacher Jian," a reporter stood up, "I think there's something else that requires your explanation more than words of thanks."
She raised her eyebrows: "Please go ahead."
"According to insiders at the bookstore, two hours ago there was a corpse here." The reporter dropped a bombshell, smiling as he rapid-fired more questions. "Teacher Jian, is this true?"
Without waiting for Jian Jing to answer, he continued his machine-gun questioning: "If so, who was the deceased? Why did you conceal this news? What was your relationship with the deceased?"
Silence filled the venue.
