The office was brightly lit, with several chairs casually dragged together for convenience. Each person held
a pen and a notebook on their lap, waiting for Brother Huang to start. They sat in various lazy postures,
appearing too exhausted to maintain proper form.
Brother Huang sipped his coffee while writing on the whiteboard in a flamboyant script.
Xu Yu briefly introduced the information they had gathered about Tao Xianyun.
Listening, Shao Zhixin finally recognized where the familiarity came from.
It wasn’t from the article; the article didn't mention real names. It was because Tao Xianyun, a successful
local entrepreneur, had once donated to their school and established a scholarship in his name.
No wonder he found it familiar.
Shao Zhixin typed the keywords into the search engine and found, to his surprise, that Tao Xianyun had
publicly mentioned his daughter's past on multiple occasions.
He felt a mix of indescribable emotions and speculated whether they were simply facing their reality.
Before he could finish reading, the forensic doctor arrived. Brother Huang turned and asked, "Old Zhang, can you
determine the time of death?"
The forensic doctor, having quickly showered but still carrying a faint odor, stood at a distance, partly
due to the unpleasant mix of smells in the office.
"Not yet, because I'm not sure what the killer did to the body."
The forensic doctor gestured to the technician at the computer to display the scene photos.
"The deceased’s clothing is strange. Look at the wrinkles on his shirt and pants; it looks like he was bound
with something. I suspect that after Tao Xianyun died, someone wrapped his body with a sheet-like material."
Everyone leaned forward, scrutinizing the enlarged photos on the screen, their expressions vacant and eyes
unblinking.
As the detailed and eerie photos flashed by, Shao Zhixin felt increasingly uncomfortable. The coffee he had
just drunk churned violently in his stomach.
He turned away, trying to control his fear.
Shao Zhixin stammered, "I... I have intermittent photophobia."
Brother Huang sympathetically said, "That's tough. Get well soon. Go get some fresh air; we don’t need everyone
getting uneasy."
Shao Zhixin quickly moved to the window, taking a few deep breaths.
The forensic doctor calmly continued, "Right, the decomposition speed of the body’s feet and head is
slightly different."
Xu Yu asked, "What does that indicate?"
The forensic doctor spread his hands, "That's your question to solve."
Shao Zhixin habitually searched the crowd for He Chuan Zhou. The latter casually crossed his legs and took
over the conversation naturally, "There’s a new mom living below Tao Xianyun's apartment, with a baby just
over a month old. She's very sensitive and has irregular sleep. About a week ago, though she couldn’t
remember the exact day, she heard water sounds from the pipes while resting in the bathroom. It lasted a
long time."
She spoke calmly but with a commanding presence.
"Around eleven o’clock, we did an experiment in the bathroom. The new mom indeed heard similar water
sounds." He Chuan Zhou raised his gaze to the whiteboard, "Because the bathtub was leaking."
Brother Huang jotted down notes on the whiteboard, saying, "So, after killing him, the killer wrapped the body in
a waterproof material and placed it in the bathtub to prevent the skin from soaking."
He Chuan Zhou added, "Although Tao Xianyun’s house isn’t frequently occupied, it’s fully furnished with
appliances. There’s a refrigerator and a separate freezer. The cleaning staff said the power is usually off
when no one’s home, but I found a small amount of water in the freezer."
"The bathtub is 1.7 meters long, and Tao Xianyun was 1.81 meters tall. With the wrapping, his feet would
stick up when laid flat in the tub."
"The killer placed pre-frozen ice blocks in the bathtub, which melted and leaked downstairs, hence the water
sound, and the feet decomposed faster than other parts."
Brother Huang continued writing on the whiteboard, "So the killer had a key and could freely enter the
apartment."
He Chuan Zhou closed his eyes in thought, hesitating before giving a contradictory assessment, "I think the
killer wasn’t clear on controlling the time of death. He’s not professional; he just wanted to mislead us.
The scene is both meticulous and sloppy, thorough yet careless. The more he did, the more clues he left.
Seems like a newbie, not a psychopath."
Shao Zhixin reacted strongly to the term "newbie."
He pondered, realizing that the opposite of a newbie is a psychopath.
Returning to his seat, Shao Zhixin raised his right hand and cautiously said, "If the killer needed a key,
doesn't that make the cleaning staff and security suspects?"
Brother Huang replied, "Let's not jump to conclusions. Let’s consolidate the clues first."
He moved to another blank space on the board, wrote "window," and tapped it, saying, "There are rain marks
by the living room window, but it’s closed."
Everyone nodded.
He Chuan Zhou said, "It rarely rains in A City during March and April. If I’m not mistaken, besides today, the
last rain was from March 21st to 23rd, and before that, March 1st."
Xu Yu quickly checked her phone, "We went to the hospital to find the cleaning staff later. Here’s a
recording of our conversation. Let me find the key questions He team wanted me to confirm."
She found the audio file and played it at maximum volume.
The beginning was unrelated, then came Xu Yu's familiar gentle voice.
"What was the cleaning schedule at Tao Xianyun’s house this month?"
The cleaner’s accent was heavy, making her words unclear, "I don’t remember, I have to check the records."
After half a minute of silence filled with heavy breathing, she said loudly, "Mr. Tao called me on the 14th,
saying he might stay for a few days and asked me to clean. I went on the 15th and confirmed with him."
"Usually, Mr. Tao calls again after his stay to ask me to wash and change the sheets. He used to leave after
two days, but this time he didn't contact me for a long time. I called him, but he didn’t answer. On the
25th, I went to clean as usual and was shocked when I entered!"
Xu Yu reassured her and asked, "What kind of person is Tao Xianyun?"
The cleaner sighed and said, "I don’t know. I rarely see him; I clean when he’s not there. But he’s a good
person, pays on time, doesn’t trouble me. I like working at his place."
Xu Yu asked, "Did you clean the living room floor on the 15th?"
"Of course!" The cleaner’s voice rose, "He pays me four thousand a month for a few cleanings. I wouldn’t
feel right if I didn’t clean thoroughly. If he noticed, I’d lose my job! Four thousand! I clean very
seriously!"
"Alright then." Xu Yu quickly moved on to the next question, "Why didn't you choose to call the police
first, but instead contacted the security guard at the entrance?"
"Ah..." The cleaner awkwardly stammered before giving a perfunctory reply, "I don't know."
Xu Yu smiled, "You don't know?"
"No, it’s mainly because Mr. Tao was very familiar with him and trusted him. He specifically instructed me
several times to find him first if anything happened. He also told me not to let anyone else into the house
or touch anything in his cabinets. When I saw Mr. Tao was killed, I was so shocked that I could only think
of calling him."
Xu Yu chuckled, "That security guard thought it was an accident, and you thought it was a murder. That's an
interesting contrast."
The cleaner seemed frightened and repeatedly said, "I don't know," and "I was just guessing."
Xu Yu paused the recording. The abrupt silence made the room's quietness even more pronounced.
She said, "There’s nothing else important. She stopped talking after that."
The group adjusted their postures, the sound of jackets rustling filling the room.
He Chuan Zhou organized her thoughts and continued the discussion, "So the rain marks should have been left
between March 15th and 23rd."
The forensic doctor, Zhang, said, "Although I can't be certain of the exact time, the time of death is
definitely within that range."
"So, the killer returned to the scene after the murder, adjusted the body's position to stage an accident,
and specifically closed the window?" Shao Zhixin found this baff
ling and scratched his head, sincerely asking, "Why?"
He Chuan Zhou replied, "The person who closed the window might not necessarily be the killer. It could have
been someone else."
Shao Zhixin was puzzled, "Huh?"
He Chuan Zhou stood up, took the pen from Brother Huang, and drew a rough floor plan of the room on a blank space
of the board.
"I don't know about you, but when I’m home, I don't like keeping all the doors open, especially the bedroom
and study doors.
"I tend to think that after Tao Xianyun's death, before the body was moved, a second person appeared. This
person might have closed the window because it was damp after the rain or because it was windy."
He Chuan Zhou drew several routes on the floor plan.
"They called out Tao Xianyun’s name, but there was no response. So, they checked the study first, then the
bedroom, the bathroom near the bedroom, and finally the bathroom near the front door, where they found the
body and left in a panic."
Xu Yu rubbed her chin, puzzled, "If this person isn’t the killer, why didn’t they call the police?"
"Maybe they didn’t want people to know about their relationship with Tao Xianyun." He Chuan Zhou handed back
the pen, "But this is just my guess."
Brother Huang said, "I agree with your guess. This logic makes more sense; otherwise, there’s no reason for the
killer to randomly close the window. Besides, the technicians found multiple complete fingerprints on the
window handle. Considering how well-prepared the killer was, it’s unlikely they wouldn’t have worn gloves."
A colleague raised his hand and said, "There's another point. The security guard, the cleaner, and Tao
Xianyun are all from the same hometown."
Shao Zhixin asked, "Is it important if they're from the same hometown?"
Brother Huang smiled, "Yes, it’s significant. Many criminal gangs consist of people from the same hometown.
Historically, those who started uprisings often did so with people from their hometown. When your relatives
and friends are few, hometown fellows are practically your people."
Shao Zhixin, like a lost lamb, humbly asked, "So should we focus our investigation on the security guard and
the cleaner?"
He Chuan Zhou walked back to her desk, "I don’t think so. They might be sneaky and suspicious, but they aren't
necessarily the killers. The logic doesn't fit."
"The security guard seemed to be searching for something at the scene. According to the cleaner’s testimony,
he was more afraid of someone moving something in Tao Xianyun’s house. After the security guard finished,
they called the police. But the real killer had a key and wouldn’t have needed to rush to handle things at
the last moment. That’s inconsistent." He Chuan Zhou took a sip of the remaining water on his desk, "But you
can still investigate the security guard’s movements to confirm."
Everyone nodded thoughtfully, finding her reasoning quite compelling.
Shao Zhixin instinctively asked, "So who is the killer?"
"How would I know?" He Chuan Zhou half-sat on her desk, supporting herself with one hand, "I'm not a prophet."
Shao Zhixin thought, wow, you really don’t consider yourself a prophet?
Aren’t you the one with the 'God's eye view' among humans?