Jian Jing was exhausted after a busy morning, so she didn't continue to work on the script in the afternoon. She had planned to stroll around the hotel to breathe some fresh air, but seeing the gloomy, cloudy sky that looked like it was going to rain, she gave up on that idea.
Fortunately, there was still a cat she could play with.
It was just a pity that she wasn't the only one who had her eyes on the cat's owner. Xue Xiaosheng made every effort to chat with her.
"Teacher Jian, I don't know how to hold a cat. Can you teach me?"
"Teacher Jian, do you have a cat? Which kind of cat is more docile? I want to raise one too."
Jian Jing: "I don't have a cat."
No wonder they say Jiang BaiYan is so clever. He immediately cut in, "I have a cat. But I'm often away for filming, and can't take good care of Buding. Only my assistant goes to feed it. It's so pitiful for a cat to be home alone."
As he spoke, he pursed his lips, putting on an extremely lonely and pitiful expression.
Xue Xiaosheng: "I heard animals that don't get their owner's affection can get depression."
"Sigh, I don't want that either. But our Buding eats too much, no one wanted to adopt it. I was afraid it would get bullied by other stray cats, so I brought it home in a moment of soft-heartedness." When it comes to acting coquettish, men have nothing on women.
Jian Jing: "..." She was praised enthusiastically by two beautiful older sisters yesterday, and fawned on eagerly by two handsome younger brothers today. What was going on with the world?
The most hateful thing was that Director Huang, seeing this situation, took it for granted. He even said to her, "Enjoy it while you can. Showbiz is the most realistic place. When you're popular, everyone comes to flatter you. Once you fall, no one even remembers you exist. A red flower is not red for hundred days. You should enjoy it when you can, or else in the blink of an eye, it'll be gone."
Jian Jing: "You seem very experienced."
"You're only young once." Director Huang said, "It's just a matter of one sentence from you. What are you afraid of?"
"My words are not worth that much," Jian Jing shook her head, inevitably a little troubled.
As soon as she showed distress, Jiang BaiYan immediately understood the situation and asked considerately, "Teacher Jingjing, I'm going to make coffee. Do you still want your usual?"
Jian Jing nodded absentmindedly, and he left.
Of course Xue Xiaosheng didn't want to annoy her either. But he got the message that although Jian Jing's vote didn't count for much, if she objected to someone being cast, Fei Niao probably wouldn't want to upset her.
He was afraid that if she was determined to promote Jiang BaiYan, even if he had buttered up everyone else, he would still be cut in the end.
"Teacher Jian." Xue Xiaosheng smiled and said spiritedly, "Let's take a walk out back. There's a little garden, to get some fresh air."
Jian Jing thought about it and agreed.
Xue Xiaosheng put down the cat and accompanied her to the garden.
The garden really was small, just a few steps total. But the owner kept it well tended, still green in winter, and very charming.
"You don't need to try so hard with me." Once they were alone, Jian Jing got straight to the point. "Casting is mainly up to Director Huang."
Since she brought it up directly, Xue Xiaosheng dropped the act too: "I hope Teacher Jian can give me a chance. If I can handle the role, let me try."
Jian Jing wondered: "If you're suitable, I certainly have no objections."
Xue Xiaosheng was startled, and immediately realized she was still new to the industry and retained some naivete. He was extremely happy.
"Thank you, Teacher Jian. I will definitely work hard." He bowed, gazing at her ardently, revealing some sincere enthusiasm.
Jian Jing took a couple steps back, walking forward.
Xue Xiaosheng followed her and spoke in a much lighter tone: "I'm a fan of Teacher's works..."
This was the third person to give her a "reading feedback" so far.
Jian Jing listened absently. Suddenly she noticed someone standing ahead, vaguely behind a pot of camellia, unable to see clearly.
She hesitated whether to detour, when the sky rumbled loudly and rain poured down.
Alright, let's just go back directly.
Now that he had gotten a definite answer, Xue Xiaosheng didn't cling to her anymore either. He went to think of other ways to curry favor with Director Huang.
Jian Jing breathed a sigh of relief and returned to her room.
She couldn't sit still then, and took out her laptop, planning to work on a new draft.
The new story was called "Roses, Gold, and the Assassin". It was inspired by the robbery case at Lake Shore Park, about a girl who deduced the hiding place of the robbers' treasure from news reports, and dug up a million dollars in gold.
Later, she used this gold to hire an assassin, wanting to avenge her dead parents.
Jian Jing had told Kang Mucheng before that she would add some romantic elements to this story. So undoubtedly, the girl and the assassin developed feelings for each other.
It's just that the plan was great, but stuttered repeatedly when writing.
The reasoning part was familiar ground, and went very quickly. When it came to romance, she started going bald, as if she could never write well that strand of tender affection.
Today was the same.
After working hard all afternoon, still no results.
"Meow."
The window was open a crack for ventilation. The shorthair cat actually squeezed in and cried out to her.
Jian Jing smiled and went over to pick it up.
The cat's paws pressed on her hand, sticky. She pulled out a tissue to wipe it, but her motions abruptly halted.
What remained on the back of her hand, was faint, light red.
She raised her hand and sniffed. Her heart suddenly sank.
It was blood.
[System: Special mission released]
[Mission name: The Mystery of ******]
[Mission description: A popular male star died mysteriously, leaving behind **** at the scene. When will ***** return? What kind of ****** is behind it? Please uncover the truth.]
[Rewards and penalties: To be determined according to completion status]
Jian Jing was taken aback.
More censoring, and another special mission??
Which popular male star died? Could it be Jiang BaiYan? She was startled by her own guess, and hurried out to check.
"Teacher Jingjing, I made coffee..." Jiang BaiYan came over with the coffee, carefully holding the bottom of the cup, afraid to ruin the flower pattern he had finally managed to make on top.
Jian Jing breathed a secret sigh of relief, and randomly took it to put aside: "Come with me."
Jiang BaiYan uttered an "Oh", obediently following her without a peep, obviously aware her mind was not on casual chat.
Jian Jing held the cat, carefully tracing the bloodstains left on the floor.
The blood was nearly dried, darker in color, not hard to find.
She circled around, and finally stopped outside Shao Meng's room window.
The rain was heavy now, but the eaves extended out to block the rainwater, leaving an awning about the width of a palm along the wall. The cat was agile, and walked close to the wall, leaving faint blood prints.
Jian Jing turned to look for an umbrella. Over there, Jiang BaiYan had already jogged over: "Teacher Jingjing, umbrella."
"Thanks." She opened the umbrella, and with difficulty squeezed into the gap between the bushes and wall, to look outside Shao Meng's window. However, there was an empty space under the hotel. The window was high up, she was short, and even jumping she could only see a little bit.
But all the windows had security grilles installed. She grabbed onto one, considering whether to climb up.
Jiang BaiYan uttered an "Uh", and suggested: "Teacher Jingjing, let me carry you."
Jian Jing agreed. After all, climbing into a man's room window to peep felt a bit inappropriate. She was just concerned: "Can you lift me?"
"No problem." He put down the umbrella, pulled down his sleeves to wrap his hands, then lightly lifted her legs and boosted her up.
Jian Jing saw clearly.
There was a lot of bloodstains in Shao Meng's room, but no sign of him.
What was going on?
Jian Jing observed carefully for a while, her ears catching faint sounds of water.
In the bathroom?
She pondered briefly, then exerted force at the waist to slip out of Jiang BaiYan's hold, lightly floating back to the ground: "There's something off about Shao Meng's room. Let's ask the owner to open the door and take a look."
Jiang BaiYan was puzzled: "What happened to Brother Shao?"
Jian Jing shook her head.
She went to find the landlady, and asked her to help open the door.
The landlady was a little nervous, tightly clutching the key as she asked: "He didn't take any substances, did he?"
The biggest fear for hotel owners was their guests doing drugs. Yet celebrities often broke this rule repeatedly.
"No no, he might be physically uncomfortable." Jian Jing didn't make any definitive statements.
Only then did the landlady relax and breathe easy. She called out twice at the door, with no response from inside, before opening it.
The room was a chaotic mess, with luggage and furnishings scattered about, as if ransacked by burglars. Even more frightening were the numerous bloodstains on the floor, dried blood droplets especially vivid against the carpet, extremely terrifying.
Jian Jing quickly scanned the room, heading straight for the bathroom.
The next moment, she was stunned speechless.
Shao Meng's head was stuck in the toilet bowl, blood was oozing from his body, and the bloody fruit knife had fallen to the side with bloodstains on the blade.
Jian Jing took out her phone to take pictures, then handed the phone to the landlady and asked her to call the police. At the same time, she fished out shoe covers and gloves from her pocket in a familiar manner and put them on before entering the scene.
The first thing to do was of course to turn Shao Meng's corpse over and place it on the ground for convenience of autopsy. The person had just died not long ago, the corpse was still warm, and rigor mortis had just begun to set in a little. Judging roughly, the time of death was between fifteen to twenty minutes ago.
There was no foam at the nose and mouth, so he did not die from drowning. But this did not require professional knowledge to guess, because Shao Meng's expression was so obvious.
His facial features were twisted, his eyeballs bulged out, and his expression was extremely ferocious. It was clear at a glance that he had suffered tremendous shock.
In addition, there were no other wounds on the body.
This was very puzzling.
His head was stuck in the toilet bowl, but he died of fright?
What, did someone suddenly pop out of the toilet and drag him down??
Jian Jing was full of questions, oscillating back and forth between "does the special mission have ghosts" and "materialism does not believe in ghosts and gods".
She shook her head and decided to look at the scene first.
But this was the simplest death scene she had ever seen. Although there were traces of blood, the amount of bleeding was definitely not enough to cause death. As for the knife wounds, they were all cut by Shao Meng himself, some deep and some shallow.
The fruit knife was a small knife from the guest room. Its blade was thin and narrow, barely able to peel an apple, let alone kill someone.
The window was opened a crack, but there was a security window outside through which only a cat could get in and out - that was probably how the plum blossom-shaped bloodied footsteps got in.
The door was a sensor lock. Externally there was only the keyhole and the sensor area. When the door closed, it locked automatically and could only be opened with a key or key card.
"Did you have the key with you all the time?" she asked the landlady.
The landlady confirmed, "Yes, I kept the key with me all the time. No one took it."
It was a completely sealed room.
Jian Jing now also began to suspect that Shao Meng had taken some kind of drug.
But if he had died from an overdose, why did the system send her a mission?
For the first time, she felt a strong sense of bewilderment.
"What happened?" Director Huang's voice came from outside. "What's wrong with Little Shao?"
Jian Jing: "He's dead."
Screenwriter Xu: "What?!"
She went outside and saw people peering out from the rooms on both sides of the corridor, looking surprised and shocked.
Director Huang's face was ugly: "What's the situation?"
Jian Jing shook her head hesitantly.
There was silence all around.
The phone rang, and the landlady hurriedly picked it up: "Hello, yes, I was the one who called the police, no..." She answered in a low voice for a few sentences, looking surprised, and handed the phone to Jian Jing.
Jian Jing took the phone: "Hello."
"Excuse me, are you Jian Jing, the owner of this phone?"
"Yes."
"Hello Ms. Jian. Please turn on the video so we can verify your identity."
Jian Jing looked puzzled but did as asked.
A policewoman in uniform appeared on the video and verified her identity, then said, "Ms. Jian, let me explain the situation to you now. Twenty minutes ago, due to a landslide caused by heavy rain, the road leading to the scene was blocked and the police will not be able to arrive until tomorrow morning at the earliest."
Jian Jing: "..." The late blizzard had arrived.
"You have good credit and have assisted the police in solving cases many times. Now I grant you some authority to help the police record information at the scene and maintain order."
Jian Jing: "Understood."
"Please log in to the public security website XXX and upload photos of the scene, and record information about the deceased and involved persons."
"Please turn on the online law enforcement recorder when necessary to ensure your rights and those of others."
"The police will arrive at the first opportunity once the road reopens."
