Ji Feng had been on countless blind dates, but this was the first time he encountered such a difficult girl. He said with a headache, "Miss Jian, if you have any difficulties or hidden circumstances, you can tell me. Don't do anything foolish."
"Foolish? You mean stupid, right?" Miss Jian had quite a temper and sneered, "If you don't believe me, there's nothing I can do. Suit yourself."
Ji Feng: "Wait."
He sighed and said rather helplessly, "The apartment, right? I'll come pick you up later."
Jian Jing: "To check the car?"
"Yes," Ji Feng paused and asked, "Is that okay?"
She said, "Call me when you're free."
Then she hung up.
Ji Feng hesitated for a moment, unable to tell if she had agreed or not. He could only follow his usual experience and assume that if a lady doesn't explicitly refuse, it means reluctant agreement.
He went to the Traffic Management Office to check Wang Qi's car.
The office had already closed, but given the significance of the dismemberment case, he had called ahead, and they had specially arranged for someone to do the search.
"Any results yet?" Ji Feng asked straightforwardly.
"The 4th and 5th are done, still working on the 6th," the young lady rubbed her eyes and tossed him a stack of documents.
Ji Feng flipped through them.
Zhang Feng's birthday party was on May 4th, Thursday.
On May 5th, Friday, Jian Jing claimed to have seen the bloodstained car.
On May 6th, body parts were discovered.
According to the Traffic Management Office's surveillance, on the 4th, Wang Qi's car first appeared at 10:24, heading to the city center. Two hours later, the car left via another road and arrived at a high-end residential area, then didn't come out again.
On the 5th at 4 PM, the car drove out from that residential area, reached the villa district, and around 5 PM, circled near Nanhua Residential Area.
At 7 PM, the car entered the five-star hotel that Jian Jing had visited.
"Disposing of the body..." Ji Feng muttered, forming some vague guesses in his mind.
He took the documents and, fulfilling his promise, prepared to take Jian Jing to Zhang Feng's apartment.
But when he called, she said, "I'm already here."
Ji Feng: "How did you get in?"
The apartment where Zhang Feng lived had strict security and good privacy. Without prior registration of the license plate or notification from the owner, the security guard wouldn't let anyone in.
Jian Jing: "I met a friend."
Who was it? Jiang BaiYan.
Or rather, Jiang Xun.
At the time, she was stopped at the entrance, and the security guard politely explained that if she was a friend of a resident, she should ask the resident to notify them, otherwise they couldn't let her in.
Just then, a car arrived with a familiar license plate. She told the security guard, "I'm a friend of Jiang Xun."
Hearing this, the guard naturally had to ask.
The car window rolled down, revealing a face both familiar and strange.
Jiang Xun glanced at Jian Jing and nodded, "Yes, she's here to see me." Then he very generously opened the car door, "We'll go in from below."
Jian Jing got into his car.
The window closed, and they drove into the underground parking lot.
Jiang Xun asked curiously, "Who are you looking for?"
"No one in particular," Jian Jing observed the environment inside the complex, "A girl has died."
Jiang Xun: "Was she your friend?"
"No."
He tilted his head but didn't ask further, parking the car, "This is as far as I can help you."
"Thank you," she got out, also curious, "Why did you agree to help me?"
Jiang Xun curved his lips, "It's fun."
Jian Jing: "..."
Time was of the essence, so she had no time to dwell on these minor details. After wandering around the complex for a moment, she quickly understood the cause and effect.
Ji Feng's call came in.
Skipping the question of how she got in, she went straight to the point, "Any results on the car?"
Ji Feng sighed deeply. Rationally, he knew he shouldn't disclose information to outsiders, but he still spoke.
Wonder how many disciplinary actions I'll face... he thought, then asked, "From what we can see now, MaiMai went to find Wang Qi after leaving here."
"No, no," Jian Jing said, "MaiMai died between the night of the 4th and the morning of the 5th."
Ji Feng: "Although I also think the dashcam footage is too coincidental, there's no sign of editing or splicing in the video, and facial recognition confirms that the person who got out was indeed MaiMai."
"Have you noticed that the elevators in this apartment building are quite interesting?"
"You mean one internal elevator and one external elevator?"
"Exactly."
Jian Jing explained, "The apartment has one elevator per household, the internal elevator is right at the front door, activated by card, no surveillance, and goes directly to the home's entrance. You could say it's almost part of the house. The external elevator is the panoramic one outside, it can reach every floor, and its exit is on the external corridor."
After a brief pause, her tone lifted, "The design of this panoramic elevator is also very special, it's a curved semicircle, the lower half is frosted glass, only the upper half is fully transparent. That's why the dashcam could only capture MaiMai's head, isn't it?"
MaiMai's... head.
Ji Feng's scalp tingled: "Miss Jian, are you suggesting..."
"It's quite obvious now," Jian Jing said, "There are many reasons for dismemberment. Sometimes it's to facilitate the transportation of a body, sometimes it's to conceal the identity of the deceased, and sometimes... it's to hide a leaf in the forest."
Her tone was calm: "If they wanted to conceal identity, the body parts wouldn't be so intact. For transporting the body, it doesn't seem like there was an absolute necessity to do this. To cover up the murder weapon? There's no indication of that. I couldn't have confirmed their purpose so quickly, if only they weren't so greedy."
At this point, she even let out a light chuckle.
"MaiMai died by early morning at the latest, then was quickly dismembered. Her head was made up to conceal the state of death. Then someone took her head, positioned it just right to be visible in the transparent part of the glass, allowing the dashcam to capture it. This way, it appeared as if MaiMai had left the apartment around 8 AM, and then disappeared."
"Based on the timeline of the three men, only Wang Qi could have accomplished this. On the night of the 4th, Wang Qi came to the apartment with the other three men, but they concealed his presence. After pretending to be MaiMai leaving, he returned to the apartment and moved the remaining body parts to the car downstairs."
"Didn't Zhang Feng say he gave his other parking space to a friend? Check that car, it must have crossed paths with Wang Qi's car. The body parts were transferred in the villa district, placed in Wang Qi's car. He disposed of them on the evening of the 5th, then nonchalantly attended Zhou Zisheng's party."
"But unfortunately, I happened to see the blood-soaked trunk."
Jian Jing said, "However, this also proves that Wang Qi was just the one who disposed of the body, he's not the murderer."
Ji Feng was momentarily speechless. To be honest, he was a bit dazed, wondering why such a detective novel-like scenario was unfolding in the real world.
But remarkably, he managed to follow her logic: "So, the murderer is either Zhang Feng, Wang Tan, or Tian Mo, or all of them were involved."
"There must be a mastermind."
If all three had committed the crime together, the system should have announced the completion of the task, but Jian Jing hadn't received any notification. Clearly, she had to choose one out of the three.
Classic mode, just had to get used to it.
However, it was impossible to deduce who the murderer was without going to the scene. It was now 8 PM, with only 4 hours left in the three-day mission time.
Even if she convinced Ji Feng, could he convince his superiors, and could they get the prosecutor's office to apply for a search warrant?
It was a long shot, even with all the green lights.
"It's not that I want to risk my life," Jian Jing's mood was quite good, "It's that I'm out of time."
Ji Feng: "What?"
"Got any money? Add 100 yuan of credit to my phone." She laughed briefly, "Don't hang up, I'm entrusting my life to you."
After saying this, she lowered the volume of the speaker, turned off the screen, and slipped the phone into the pocket of her shirt dress.
As she turned around, a figure was standing there, seemingly looking at her in surprise: "Miss Jian?"
"You are..." Although she didn't have an acting card, the dim lighting meant Jian Jing didn't need to pay special attention to her expression, just conveying surprise in her tone was enough, "That guy from Zhou Zisheng's, um..."
She smiled apologetically, as if unable to remember his name.
Wang Qi said: "Cousin, my surname is Wang. What are you doing here?"
Jian Jing frowned, looking annoyed: "A friend invited me to dinner at their place, but got stuck in traffic. I've been waiting forever, even though they said they'd be here soon. What a joke~"
Wang Qi feigned enthusiasm: "I live here too. Which floor is your friend on?"
Jian Jing: "17th or 18th."
Wang Qi's eyes flickered. The 17th floor was Zhang Feng's apartment, and this building didn't have an 18th floor, it went straight to the 19th.
She was lying.
Why was she here?
"I see. Well, would you like to come to my place for a bit?" Wang Qi invited awkwardly, "I live here too."
Jian Jing shook her head, firmly refusing: "No need, I'll wait a bit longer."
"It's too late," he said. "It's not safe for you to stay here alone."
Jian Jing feigned surprise: "What's unsafe?"
"You don't know yet?" Wang Qi lowered his voice. "A girl has gone missing."
Jian Jing showed a hint of urgency: "What happened?"
Wang Qi spoke vaguely: "She just disappeared. It hasn't been reported in the news yet... but... well, I shouldn't be telling this to a girl." He clumsily changed the subject, "Are you looking for Brother Liu? I know him, I can give him a call."
"No, no need." Jian Jing hastily refused, "I'm about to leave."
Wang Qi hesitated: "Actually..."
She paused: "Hm?"
"Well, you're dating my cousin, right?" he said awkwardly. "I have something I want to show you. Uh, it's fine if you don't want to see it, it's just..."
He stammered, as if feeling guilty for not saying it, yet troubled to say it.
Jian Jing's curiosity was indeed piqued, and she urged: "What is it?"
Wang Qi bit his lip and said: "Come with me." He walked away hurriedly, urging her, "This way."
Jian Jing hesitated for a moment, then followed.
They took the panoramic elevator.
Her gaze flitted lightly over their reflections in the glass: Wang Qi wasn't tall, 5'7" at most. If he bent slightly, he could completely hide behind the frosted glass.
Then her gaze dropped to the floor.
It was carpeted, a creamy white herringbone pattern, very clean, as if it had just been replaced.
"Ding dong," the elevator arrived at the 17th floor.
She couldn't help but curl her lips into a smile.
Wang Qi opened the door as if he really lived here, took out disposable slippers and asked: "What would you like to drink?"
Jian Jing declined: "No need."
"Juice? Cola? Water?" Wang Qi took out canned drinks from the fridge, jokingly saying, "Don't worry, they're all unopened."
Jian Jing smiled sheepishly and casually took a cola.
She surveyed the luxurious apartment. Though called an apartment, it was at least 2000 square feet, with a spacious terrace. The furniture was French-inspired, with lots of patterns and decorations, and a lavish wool carpet on the floor.
Wang Qi took out his phone, smiling apologetically: "Sorry, a phone call. Make yourself at home." Then he answered and went to the terrace to talk.
Jian Jing of course wouldn't miss this opportunity and immediately got up to search.
The living room was normal. Judging from the shine of the tiles, the furniture hadn't been moved. This probably wasn't the crime scene or where the body was dismembered.
She glanced at Wang Qi, then slipped into the bathroom.
The guest bathroom was decorated lavishly, with shiny golden faucets shaped like angels, reminiscent of the Palace of Versailles. The floor tiles were incredibly clean, and a rich fragrance lingered in the air.
There were few items: just a bottle of aromatherapy oil and a bottle of hand soap.
The small porcelain bathtub was delicate, cool to the touch, making her back ache faintly.
Jian Jing ran her hand along the edge of the tub, thinking, This is where I died last time, isn't it?
No wonder my back hurts so much.
