Many onlookers outside the crime scene at the KTV grew tired and gradually left.
However, personnel from the Qingcheng Newspaper remained, and even more journalists from other publications arrived, showing their press IDs to enter the KTV, staying just outside the police tape, craning their necks in hopes of capturing some sensational news.
Whenever detectives moved between the three private rooms, the journalists would swarm to the edge of the tape, bombarding them with questions. The uniformed officers had to physically block the reporters to prevent them from interfering with the work of the major crime team and the forensic department.
Since Nie Weiyan and his colleagues were among the first on the scene and had good relationships with some of the journalists, these reporters tried to curry favor with gifts like Marlboro cigarettes in hopes of gleaning some information.
One tabloid journalist even pulled out two pineapple buns from his coat, smiling at Nie Weiyan and Joe, “You’ve been here all day, you must be hungry, right? Try these, they’re still flaky~”
The Qingcheng Newspaper had always been a lower-tier player in the industry, and neither Joe nor Nie Weiyan were accustomed to such attention and special treatment, finding it somewhat overwhelming.
Soon enough, they were nibbling on pineapple buns and drinking milk tea, clutching unopened packs of Marlboros, their lips seemingly loosened:
“The police are in trouble this time!”
“What do you mean?” someone immediately chimed in, playing along.
“I’ve been covering local news for many years, and I’ve seen all sorts of cases. If a wife dies at home, it’s definitely the husband; if a creditor dies, it’s usually someone who owed money. But this case is something else, listen carefully. There are 16 suspects.”
Joe spread his hands, gesturing the number sixteen, before continuing with an impressed expression:
“Each one has a motive. Impressive, right? Some were fighting with the victim over a girlfriend; others over a promotion. Some even said they were drugged and raped by the victim; others were his subordinates, who talk of how he mistreated them every day, making it impossible for them to hold their heads up as men; and some were rumored by the victim to be spreading bad rumors about him, saying they felt so bad they wanted to kill someone when drinking with others. You see, this victim was something else, coming here to sing, wow, 16 enemies in one private room!”
Joe clapped his hands, shook his head with a sigh, and only continued under the earnest gazes and urging of the others:
“When we arrived, the detectives hadn’t even gotten there yet, but I sneaked a peek at the scene. The victim was there, the murder weapon still in him, wiped clean, not a fingerprint in sight. All 16 claimed they saw no one approach the victim, not knowing who killed him, all appearing innocent. The scene had everyone’s fingerprints and footprints, what are the police to do? Are they supposed to arrest all 16? No clues, no witnesses, how can this case be solved?”
“Really? You’re pulling our leg, right?” some listeners felt it was too bizarre to believe.
But Joe just looked indifferent, his raised eyebrows clearly conveying a ‘believe it or not’ attitude, leaving the others half-believing, unsure how to write their stories.
Yet, seeing the solemn faces of the detectives coming and going, some began to believe it might be true.
“How long do you think it will take to solve this case?” someone asked again.
“It’s unsolvable,” Joe said, shaking his head with conviction. “If you ask me, all 16 of them are murderers, covering for each other. You’ll never catch the one responsible. There’s safety in numbers, and even if the officer finds out, there’s no evidence. It’s tough.”
“This is an unbeatable murder case!” someone commented.
Joe mulled over the statement and thought: ‘Using “This is an Unbeatable Murder Case” as a headline could be a good choice.’
Nie Weiyen listened to Joe as he spun a web of lies mixed with a shred of truth, unable to help but shake his head.
Even if the case wasn’t as Joe described, it was certainly not going to be easy.
The forensic science team had already been collecting evidence for nearly an hour, and the body hadn’t yet been transported back to the police station. This only indicated that the crime scene was exceptionally complicated, and the police had not yet confirmed whether they had collected all necessary information from the scene. Otherwise, the body would have been moved by now.
It seemed this case was indeed tough to crack. It was uncertain how long they would have to wait before they could report the case as solved.
Or whether that day would ever come…
…
…
Although called the supreme VIP room, and indeed the largest one in this KTV, it was still not very spacious for 16 people.
The room was littered with traces of the raucous fun left by the 16 people, and the KTV owner couldn’t possibly have been thorough with the cleaning. Besides these 16 people, many traces from previous guests remained—because at the time of the incident, only the 16 individuals and the victim were in the room, meaning all other miscellaneous traces eventually had to be excluded.
The more Chen Guangyao investigated, the grimmer his expression became.
Xu Junhao had wanted to remove the body earlier, but as the forensic team continuously found new clues, they had to wait while completing all possible examinations on site as quickly as they could.
The atmosphere in the room was very oppressive; everyone preferred to remain silent, deeply engrossed in their work, weighed down by heavy hearts.
“What’s this?” Yi Jiayi suddenly pointed to the victim’s watch.
“You can’t recognize a watch?” Chen Guangyao approached, stretching his sore shoulders.
“No, it’s not that.” Yi Jiayi nodded at Chen Guangyao, urging him to take a closer look.
Fang Zhenyue, hearing the commotion, also came over to examine it.
Everyone leaned in closely and then noticed a golden-brown hair strand caught in the victim’s watch, which had initially gone unnoticed due to blending almost perfectly with the victim’s skin tone.
Chen Guangyao quickly gestured to a technician, who came over with an evidence bag, carefully removing the hair with tweezers and placing it into the bag.
After the installation, the technician finally spoke:
“We’ve found a hair follicle. We can conduct a test.”
“If no one else approached the victim after he collapsed here, then this hair is very likely the murderer’s,” Fang Zhenyue straightened up and continued, “If the victim’s watch caught this hair elsewhere, it would likely have fallen off during movement. But it’s caught in the watch quite ingeniously. We can assume that the murderer bent over to kill the victim, and this was the victim’s body’s last automatic movement. Perhaps he felt intense pain and wanted to struggle, but couldn’t control his body, so there was only a very slight movement. Look carefully at the wine stain on the table—”
Saying this, he pointed out a trace on the table to Chen Guangyao and Yi Jiayi.
“This trace was left by the victim’s sleeve while he was drinking before he passed out, so it’s from when his sleeve rubbed against the table, right?” Yi Jiayi immediately picked up the conversation.
“Yes, it’s very likely that as the murderer committed the act, the hair draped over the victim’s arm, a single hair strand fell into the watch band, and the victim’s last subtle movement trapped the hair,” pointed out Fang Zhenyue, indicating the tabletop. “The victim’s arm also had alcohol on it. We can assume the murderer has long, brown hair, and the tips near the left ear might still be wet with alcohol.”
“I’ll go collect the evidence now,” immediately stated a technician from the forensic department.
Chen Guangyao nodded, sending two people next door to check the hair of sixteen individuals.
Ten minutes later, the medical examiner finally took the body away.
The forensic team checked the hair tips of five women with long hair; three of them had liquid on their hair tips, which needed to be sent back to the lab for analysis to determine what the liquids were.
Fang Zhenyue led the team to a vacant private room for a brief meeting. The initial comparison of clues such as footprints going to and from the victim’s location, footprints next to the victim’s table, brown long hair, hair with liquid, and seating near the edge for easy access to the victim, all pointed towards a 27-year-old woman named Zheng Lishan.
“Zheng Lishan, 162 cm tall, about 100 kg, a copywriter at an advertising agency, subordinate to the victim. Her colleagues all speak well of her, saying she is cheerful and diligent, often has good ideas, and writes well.”
“She always showed respect for the victim, complied with requests from her boss such as working overtime or redoing tasks, and colleagues say they never heard her complain, a very passionate worker.”
“There was no conflict between her and the victim.
“However, some say that a month ago, when the victim was promoting a subordinate to a supervisor, he promoted another man instead of Zheng Lishan.”
“Many felt it was unfair to Zheng Lishan, saying her abilities were clearly stronger, but the victim just looked down on women, always holding Zheng Lishan back.”
While flipping through statements, Liu Jiaming added:
“It seems that the victim discussed her in her absence, saying things like ‘What’s the point of women working? Eventually, they just go home to have kids, promotions are useless, she doesn’t need to provide for the family.'”
“These words must have reached Zheng Lishan’s ears, but her colleagues say she just smiled and never got angry about it; she’s a very magnanimous and good-tempered woman.”
“She’s a smart woman, too bad she chose the wrong way to solve her problems,” Lin Wangjiu shook his head and hummed, clearly convinced that Zheng Lishan was the murderer.