Jiayi turned to ask Tu Guisheng:
“After you and Qin Hongliang returned to your house, did you give her time alone in the room?”
“I was taking a shower then,” Tu Guisheng thought and said, “Ah, she insisted that I take a shower.”
Initially, when the detectives first arrived, Tu Guisheng didn’t seem to care much.
Now that Diane had discovered blood traces in the bedroom, and he hadn’t been injured while showering, the blood must have been brought by Qin Hongliang.
Just the thought that it might be the blood of the deceased made him start to feel uncomfortable all over.
At this moment, there’s no need for the detectives to ask; he desperately needs the officers to thoroughly investigate for him. Please locate all the places related to the deceased and take away anything that might have been left behind.
In a few days… no, make that tomorrow! He plans to hire an expert for a thorough cleaning, and then bring in a feng shui master to really clear the bad energy.
“The clock has no fingerprints…” Diane frowned as she stood by the bed, “However, there’s a long black hair behind the spring mechanism… Unfortunately, there’s no hair follicle.”
After securing the hair, Diane examined her posture as she leaned against the wall and suddenly had a realization. She quickly withdrew her hand and began collecting samples from the nearby wall.
She then smiled and said, “I collected several fingerprints from the wall. Although they’re not as clear as those imprinted on a smooth surface, they’re still sufficient for comparison.”
“The clock shows signs of having been wiped recently, whereas the wall hanging nearby is covered in dust, but not the clock. Mr. Tu, have you had anyone clean here recently?” Diane asked, looking down at Tu Guisheng from atop the bed.
“No, I usually eat out, and since I’m a bachelor who doesn’t cook at home, I only have a Filipino maid clean once a week. It’s been four days since she last cleaned. And…” Tu Guisheng thought for a moment and seriously added, “Unless I ask, the maid wouldn’t wipe the clocks or chandeliers. Last time the maid worked, I didn’t mention it, so the clock should have been untouched for months.”
“It must have been cleaned by Qin Hongliang.” Jiayi said, looking up.
“Although the key on the back of the clock was wiped, it seems the item was too dirty. The oil and dust stuck to it weren’t completely cleaned off. I collected about a quarter of a fingerprint. Maybe it can still be used for comparison.” Diane discovered new clues while doing a secondary evidence collection on the clock.
“Thanks, Sister Diane.” Jiayi’s eyes shone brighter, her gaze filled with amazement as she looked at Diane.
Diane chuckled and turned her head back to continue collecting evidence more vigorously. A few minutes later, she was confident she had found all the clues possible on the clock, and then she stepped down from the bed.
Jiayi gave her a thumbs up, holding her thumb high above her head, indicating praise higher than a “big thumbs up.” Diane couldn’t help but laugh.
Jiayi retracted her thumb, turned her head, and saw Fang Zhenyue nodding in satisfaction.
He stretched out his hand with all five fingers extended. Jiayi walked over and high-fived him. The two shared a knowing smile and turned their heads to continue observing the room, searching for new clues.
Fang Zhenyue closed his eyes for a moment, thinking about what unnecessary actions Qin Hongliang might have taken that night.
He needed to leave secretly without letting Tu Guisheng know, easy to leave but requiring keys to return.
He immediately opened his eyes, turned his head to stare at Tu Guisheng, but saw that Jiayi had already approached Tu Guisheng. Sure enough, the next second, she asked Ah Jie to help collect any fingerprints or other traces that might have been left on Tu Guisheng’s keys.
Fang Zhenyue tilted his head and smiled helplessly. Maybe in the future, he could just cross his arms and daydream, or even sneak in some tea during investigations?
Just leave the work to Jiayi; he doesn’t need to worry about anything else.
How should a master live in retirement after training his apprentice?
Liu Jiaming stood behind, looking at Brother Yue, who appeared relaxed, then at Yi Jiayi, who was frowning and looking around, and finally at the clock, bathtub, and keys. Does this mean that Qin Hongliang had adjusted the time, so the 5:40 AM Tu Guisheng saw was actually a fake time set by Qin Hongliang?
In fact, Tu Guisheng is not persistent at all; he finishes very quickly. When they were done, was it actually around 5:00 AM?
Afterwards, did Qin Hongliang sneak out to kill someone, then come back to wash up in the bathtub, and continue sleeping, pretending she had never left?
But would Tu Guisheng sleep so deeply after that?
Qin Hongliang was gone for about an hour and he didn’t notice?
As Liu Jiming pondered this, Jiayi approached Tu Guisheng and said:
“You’d better come back to the station with us later.”
“What do you mean, madam? I’m innocent! This has nothing to do with me!” Tu Guisheng was nearly in tears.
He was even in the mood to show off his furniture to the detectives earlier, but now he felt utterly spiritless.
He was so miserable.
“You might have been drugged; it would be better for you to come with us to the station and have our doctor take a blood sample for testing,” Jiayi said earnestly, trying to soften her expression to not frighten him.
“Okay, okay, when are we going? Can we go now?” Tu Guisheng was anxious.
“If you are willing to leave your house for us to inspect, that would also be fine,” Jiayi said, raising an eyebrow.
“Okay, okay.” Tu Guisheng couldn’t care less about his home at this point, wishing he could burn it down. As a businessman who values Feng Shui, how could he have encountered such trouble?
“Then Jiaming, please take Mr. Tu back to the station. Ask Sir Xu to help arrange a urine test and blood test,” Fang Zhenyue instructed.
“Alright, Brother Yue,” Liu Jiaming said as he left with Tu Guisheng.
“Jiaming,” Fang Zhenyue called out to him again.
“Brother Yue, what is it?”
“I’m going to ask our colleagues in the forensic department to compare Qin Hongliang’s fingerprints immediately. The evidence includes her fingerprints found on a clock, bloodstains of the deceased Zhao Meini on the bathtub, and the deductions made on the eleventh. Based on these, we will pinpoint Qin Hongliang as a suspect.”
“Have Sanfu bring Qin Hongliang back to the police station for an interrogation of the suspect.”
“Understood, Brother Yue.” Liu Jiaming nodded and hurriedly pushed the door, taking the impatient Tu Guisheng out of the room.
Diane went to the kitchen sink to swab the insides of a few cups with a cotton swab, hoping to test them for drug residues when she got back.
Jiayi wasn’t hopeful; if Qin Hongliang had drugged the water, she would have certainly washed the glasses. Moreover, they couldn’t yet determine what drug Qin had used, making it difficult to identify the method of drugging based on the properties of the drug.
But she still appreciated Diane’s diligence.
Sister Diane really is an extremely professional and meticulous lab technician. Reliable! Reassuring.
Jiayi stretched her arms, confirming Qin Hongliang’s alibi and timeline, which advanced the investigation of the case significantly.
The gloom from not finding useful clues near the victim Zhao Meini’s home was swept away, and her spirits brightened.
Walking through Tu Guisheng’s house, she even began to appreciate the nouveau riche’s taste and envied his spacious living environment.
When she reached the kitchen, Jiayi suddenly remembered the lipstick Qin Hongliang had applied from Clara, and hastily asked two lab technicians to look for tissues with lipstick stains in the trash and elsewhere.
Jiayi ran to the kitchen sink and found a few unwashed glasses—fortunately, Tu Guisheng was a sloppy bachelor, and fortunately, it wasn’t yet the day for his maid to clean.
The lab technicians didn’t find any tissues with Qin Hongliang’s lipstick in the trash, guessing that Qin must have washed off the lipstick during a shower.
So they tried swabbing the drain, but only after the samples were analyzed at the forensic department would they know if lipstick residues were collected.
Surprisingly, Diane managed to swab a very small amount of lipstick residue from a cup in the kitchen sink, visibly a pink shade.
“However, whether it’s definitely the lipstick mark the murderer left on a cup in Zhao Meini’s home, we’ll know only after a detailed lab analysis,” Diane stated meticulously.
“Understood,” Jiayi nodded.
The lipstick from that era was very stubborn makeup. Qin Hongliang must have tried hard to wash it off, but without proper cleaning tools at Tu Guisheng’s house, there might still be a bit of residue left. Probably Qin Hongliang drank water after the shower, reminiscing about everything, and carelessly left some residue.
Every action leaves a trace in this world, and Qin Hongliang, in an effort to cover her tracks and frame Clara, multiplied her actions and thus left even more traces.
These were her slip-ups—how smart did she think she could be?
…
After the crime scene investigation at Tu Guisheng’s house concluded, a team returned to the police station with significant findings.
By then, Tu Guisheng had completed his medical tests and was sent home to wait for the results. If he still had concerns about his health, he could undergo another professional medical examination at the hospital.
Tu Guisheng sighed as he left, and Liu Jiaming then reported to Fang Zhenyue, “Qin Hongliang has arrived and is currently in interrogation room 3, being interrogated by Sanfu.”
The trio then headed towards the interrogation room, skipping the afternoon tea already laid out in Team B’s office.
The delicious aroma of the pineapple buns’ flaky crust slowly softened, and the warm butter inside gradually solidified. Those who were meant to enjoy it were now rushing off to a grand endeavor.
As he passed by Team B’s office, You Zhaohua peeked inside, saw no one around, swaggered in, grabbed a pineapple bun with butter, and munched on it as he walked back to Team A.
The nutritious and brain-boosting food that Brother Yi had carefully prepared for his sister (Jiayi) was thus enjoyed by someone else.