The campus networks in this world were not renamed. They were in between the openness of Weibo and the exclusiveness of BBS. Each university had its own section that only allowed students from that school to read, and all were required to use their real names.
Jin Meixian's campus network didn't have much, but she did have a long list of friends.
Cheng Jiayou's account had many notices from the student council. He was very diligent. Whenever there was an announcement, he would repost it on his own account.
Liu Kai was more active, with many original articles, but most of them mentioned Cheng Jiayou in some way, clearly trying to ride his coattails. Some girls would comment under his posts, and he would flirt with them.
Zhao Xuan's account was the most mundane, with check-ins at restaurants near campus, requests for beauty advice, and questions about spaying and neutering stray cats. It was ordinary and everyday.
What surprised Jian Jing the most was that Fang the student council president didn't have an account.
"The president doesn't use the campus network?" Jian Jing asked.
Fang, who was sitting at his desk, looked up and said, "Oh, no, I have the student council account."
The student council account was an admin account with the power to delete posts and ban users on the public forums.
Jian Jing wrinkled her nose. She searched for "Jin Meixian", unsurprisingly finding no posts. She searched for "student council" and found only official notices like recruitment ads, without any negative news.
She had no choice but to go back to Cheng Jiayou's account and flip through all his posts.
After going through ten or so pages, she discovered a girl named Yao Yue who had insulted him: "The student council are all trash, corrupt dogs who abuse their power and will meet a terrible end!"
Jian Jing was quite curious, so she clicked on Yao Yue's account and found that she frequently visited several other accounts. Most were student council members, but Jian Jing couldn't find Yao Yue's visit history on their accounts, clearly having been blocked.
However, the account Yao Yue visited most frequently, dozens of times every month, belonged to a rich playboy.
He was from a neighboring school. Handsome but arrogant in his profile pic. He had also blocked Yao Yue.
And Jian Jing had seen this playboy's profile pic among Jin Meixian's friends.
She opened the account and asked Cheng Jiayou, "Do you know this person?"
He took a look. "A friend, what's up?"
"Nothing."
Jian Jing walked away and privately messaged Zuo Xin: [Does our student council have any dirt?]
Zuo Xin: [Too much, which one do you want?]
Jian Jing sent over Yao Yue's profile: [Do you know this girl?]
Zuo Xin: [Don't know her. What are you trying to do?]
Jian Jing: [Can you help investigate? Urgent need.]
Zuo Xin immediately perked up: [No problem, leave it to me, but you have to let me in on the case.]
She wasn't stupid. Jin Meixian had an accident yesterday, and now Jian Jing was suddenly asking about this. It didn't take a genius to see the connection. She didn't expect to actually help crack the case, just hearing about it afterwards would satisfy her.
Jian Jing: [OK]
Zuo Xin: [Watch me work, I'm the best at this.]
The police investigated online information using technology and IP addresses. Girls uncovered gossip using profile pics, usernames, speech habits, and reading between the lines. It was like psychological profiling.
Jian Jing put away her phone and pondered for a bit before asking Zhao Xuan, "Can you take me to the bathroom?"
Zhao Xuan didn't want to interrupt her work, but figured Jian Jing might have something to say, so she nodded: "Sure, I'll take you there."
The two girls entered the women's restroom together.
Jian Jing pushed open the stall door and made sure no one else was inside before asking: "Do you know Yao Yue?"
Zhao Xuan was puzzled. "Who's that?"
"She often insults the student council online." Jian Jing gave a hint.
Zhao Xuan understood. She dismissively said, "That happens a lot. The student council manages students, just like class officers. Which one doesn't get cursed at?"
Jian Jing wasn't very familiar with her, so she didn't dare reveal too much. She just nodded subtly: "I see, so that's how it is. By the way, who is the student council president Fang's girlfriend? Didn't Liu Kai say he was chasing Jin Meixian?"
By now Zhao Xuan had broken ties with them and didn't mind saying more: "Who knows? I've never seen her, but she's probably also a rich man's daughter like Jin Meixian, no, he'd go for an official's daughter."
Jian Jing mused, "Fang seems to come from an ordinary family."
"Very ordinary," Zhao Xuan knew a lot of inside information. "You can't hide family circumstances from others in the student council. Cheng Jiayou became vice president because his family donated a batch of lab equipment. Of course he's capable and it looks good on his resume to be in student council. But Fang clawed his way up."
Fang was often criticized for lording his power, but his story was also genuinely inspirational.
When he entered this university, he wasn't a top student, and his family didn't donate money, but in his freshman year he squeezed into the student council starting from the bottom rung, currying favor with numerous school leaders. Last year he emerged victorious, edging out Cheng Jiayou to become president.
"He doesn't care about money, just wants to take the civil service exam." Zhao Xuan knew many secrets. "When leaders came to inspect our school before, he waited on them hand and foot. Several leaders praised him for being 'sensible'."
Jian Jing was awestruck, feeling like they didn't attend the same university.
The two girls chatted in the bathroom until they heard noise outside before leaving.
Detective Ji had finished questioning Zhang, the close friend, and called for Jian Jing.
Jian Jing asked, "Well?"
"She confessed, she put the tranquilizer in." Detective Ji briefly recounted what had happened. "I sent someone to verify with the clinic. If nothing unexpected comes up, she wasn't the poisoner."
Jian Jing rested her cheek in her hand. "No wonder she didn't badmouth Jin Meixian yesterday. Turns out she feels guilty thinking she killed someone by accident."
"Then what about Wang Ruoke?" she asked, puzzled. "She's very strange."
Detective Ji agreed. "You're right, Wang Ruoke's hatred for Jin Meixian is irrational. Deliberately bringing up Yu Qiu also seems intended to mislead us. But her motive for murder isn't clear. If it was over the exam spot, she should've waited for the results to come out. Besides, she seems pretty confident she won't fail."
"So?"
"Teacher Jian, you have talent, just lack some experience." He smiled. "Just because she lacks a motive for murder doesn't mean she lacks one for misleading. To me, it seems she's trying to protect someone."
Jian Jing was struck by realization and suddenly understood: "That makes sense. She's protecting the murderer, or rather, her hatred isn't just on her own behalf, it's mostly for that person."
Following this line of thought, she quickly grasped the key point: "It must be a male student."
After a brief pause, she zeroed in on one person: "Fang the president."
"Why?"
"Liu Kai isn't worth it, and she looks down on Cheng Jiayou." Jian Jing wasn't speaking groundlessly. She had seen Wang Ruoke coldly laugh and roll her eyes at Liu and Cheng several times. "As for Fang the president, no direct evidence, but indirect proof."
Detective Ji was baffled. "How did I not notice that?"
Jian Jing smiled slightly and held up her fingers: "First, I looked through Wang Ruoke's campus network, she never posted photos of a boyfriend, but in several posts of eating out, a male figure could be made out in the glass reflection, so she does have a boyfriend.
"Second, she posted photos of trying on clothes, and a pair of men's sneakers could be seen in the mirror, the same style as the sneakers under Fang's desk.
"Third, Wang Ruoke's laptop is the same model as Fang the president's, just a different color."
She hadn't idled around the office earlier. She had already compared it to the scene she saw in the female dorm yesterday. She wouldn't have noticed if not asked directly, but after eliminating the two wrong choices, the details were all too obvious.
Detective Ji: "..."
After thinking it over, he said, "But I have a question I can't figure out."
"What is it?"
"When was the poison added?" He pondered. "From my observation, you girls rarely let your bags out of sight, at most when going to the bathroom you'll ask someone to hold it for you, oh, not counting when giving it to a boyfriend. The powder case had to be taken out of the bag right? It had to be taken out before poison could be slipped in? Would a male student have that chance?"
Jian Jing knitted her brows.
What he said made sense.
Detective Ji went on. "I still think putting poison in a powder case is something a woman would do."
Although he couldn't represent all men, both experience and instinct told him male students generally wouldn't think of this method. Only female students would do this.
"Didn't you take photos yesterday? The victim had a lot of makeup." He analyzed. "Is it possible the timeline is off and the poison was added much earlier? It just happened to be used that day by the victim."
Jian Jing considered it. "Possible. Jin Meixian didn't stay in the dorm often, and had many powder compacts. Randomly choosing one would make it hard to pin down the exact timing."
Detective Ji asked, "Do you girls use it on a set schedule?"
"If I must say, the recent cold and dry weather calls for more moisturizing products," Jian Jing recalled Jin Meixian's desk, "But it also depends on the specific skin condition."
Jifeng was frustrated: "That makes it difficult. Evidence is hard to find after so much time. Without evidence, all reasoning is nonsense."
Just then, Zuo Xin sent a message saying that through her roommate's boyfriend's good friend, she had asked about Yao Yue's information.
The story was very melodramatic.
Yao Yue was a foreign language student who coincidentally started dating an official's son, and got pregnant. The boyfriend was just fooling around to begin with, and afraid that she would latch onto him, asked to break up.
The girl refused to let go, pestering him relentlessly until many people knew about it. The official's son was extremely annoyed, and went into hiding. Not long after, the girl was abruptly forced to take a leave of absence from school, with the reason being some mental health issues.
Some people believed it, some didn't, but Yao Yue's words and actions were rather extreme, so everyone else didn't ask much more.
This year, when the official's son graduated, Yao Yue finally re-enrolled. However, she could no longer find the scumbag who had abandoned her, so she took it out on the student council members, calling them lapdogs and more.
Seeing her engrossed in the story, Jifeng couldn't help glancing over: "New clues?"
"Can't say for sure, I haven't sorted it out yet," Jian Jing said. "Who do you suspect?"
Jifeng said, "Jumping to conclusions won't help."
Jian Jing rephrased: "Who has the strongest motive?"
"Wang," he replied. "Regardless of why she hated the victim, she did have animosity towards her, and at the same time, her means were most sufficient."
Jian Jing: "I feel it's Fang the president."
"What's the evidence?"
She stood up: "I'll go find some now."
What Jifeng said was reasonable, but Jian Jing felt her own reasoning made more logical sense, if only she could connect the dots.
Better go confirm the motive with Cheng Jiayou first.
Jian Jing called him out alone and went straight to the point: "In my opinion, Jin Meixian was a very vain person who liked to show off, right?"
Cheng Jiayou hesitated, then nodded.
"Did she ever say that she hoped you would become president?" she probed.
Cheng Jiayou looked very surprised. "How did you know?"
Jian Jing couldn't help revealing a trace of a smile. "She did say that?"
He sighed. "Zhao Xuan overheard me arguing with her about this. She felt that as vice president, I should aim to become president. But we're both seniors now, and the next one would be the next batch."
To Cheng Jiayou, the student council was just a place to hone his abilities, and he didn't care much about being vice or president. Especially since the president had to drink and socialize with teachers and leaders, which he wasn't keen on lowering his head to do.
"For some reason, Meixian suddenly became fixated on this and argued with me," Cheng Jiayou said, his tone becoming downcast. "If I had known, I wouldn't have argued with her."
Though it was just a two month romance, he was still a little sad after all.
But Jian Jing paid no attention to his somberness, thinking to herself that Jin Meixian's sudden whim most likely had to do with Wang Ruoke.
She was secretly dating Fang the president, so her words and actions inevitably carried some implication. And she held a grudge against Jin Meixian, so it was highly probable that during their arguments, she provoked Jin Meixian's concerns.
And this was most likely Fang the president's motive for murder.
