Ji Feng's gaze lingered on the man's fractured arm for an instant, long enough to be noticeable but not rude: "Your body doesn't seem to allow you to drive. Did you take the bus here?"
Zhu Guzhe said, "Yeah, I took the bus to town, but I got the times wrong and missed it. Luckily Miss Chai and I were going to a place nearby, so I asked her for a ride."
Chai Reporter nodded in agreement: "That's right, we met at the hotel in town."
Ji Feng nodded: "Did you go out today?"
Zhu Guzhe said, "Other than going to the bathroom, I basically didn't leave my room." He lifted his arm with a wry smile, "I can't really do much like this, can I?"
"Your turn." Ji Feng pointed at Bun Girl, "What's your name?"
Bun Girl said, "I'm called Gan Min. We're classmates and members of the outdoor club." She had a sweet and timid look about her. Without waiting for Ji Feng to ask, she volunteered: "After Xiaowen and I came back, we stayed in our room the whole time except for going to the bathroom once."
Ji Feng was especially friendly with the cooperative suspects: "What were you doing?"
Bun Girl glanced awkwardly at the waitress and said in a small voice, "The food wasn't very good, so I went downstairs to heat up some snacks in the microwave."
"What time was that?"
"1 pm...?" She wasn't too sure, "I went into the kitchen while she was washing dishes."
She was referring to the waitress.
The waitress rolled her eyes but still corroborated Bun Girl's testimony: "Yeah, we chatted for a couple sentences."
Bun Girl said, "I don't remember how long exactly, but 5 minutes max before I went back upstairs."
"You didn't go downstairs again after that?"
She shook her head.
Ji Feng pondered for a moment before saying, "Alright, your friend is injured. I'll ask you more later. For now, I hope you all stay here and don't go anywhere." He pointed at the waitress, "Could we borrow your storeroom for a bit? We can't just leave the body outside."
The waitress was reluctant, but the storeroom was still better than any of the other rooms or the kitchen and dining area.
"Fine, fine," she said, "But it's so unlucky."
Ji Feng smiled.
Good looks were a universal pass, and the young lady conceded with a bow, leading him to the storeroom.
Ji Feng and Jian Jing worked together to move the body into the storeroom.
Jian Jing asked, "How were the testimonies?"
"I could only get a preliminary understanding of the situation. Nothing substantial." He asked, "What about you?"
Jian Jing blinked and said matter-of-factly: "Without a doubt, killed by a zombie. There are still chicken feathers on his head."
Ji Feng raised a brow: "Now that's interesting. Their accident happened two nights ago."
"So," she asked very certainly, "Was it a car accident?"
"What else could it be?" Ji Feng shook his head.
This wasn't difficult to guess. Firstly, zombies didn't exist. Considering their strange attitude, they probably didn't intentionally create evidence to grab attention either. So the answer was obvious - they had hit something, but for some unknown reason, were determined to hide it.
But with a car leaving damage that big, anyone could see it. So they came up with the zombie excuse to try and fool people.
Ji Feng concluded: "They're too clever for their own good. Hopefully they didn't actually hit a person."
"People all have a bit of wishful thinking in them." Jian Jing put on gloves and started undressing the body. "Otherwise there wouldn't be so many Rube Goldberg machines."
Ji Feng sighed in agreement, then abruptly changed the subject: "Professor Jian, isn't your technique for undressing the corpse a bit too skilled?"
Jian Jing paused and slowly stopped moving: "Then you do it."
"You're too kind, I can handle it myself." He made a welcoming gesture. "Please, continue with him."
"Are you always this sarcastic at work?" Jian Jing was rather displeased.
Ji Feng helped her lift the stiff corpse, smiling as he said: "Excessively so. Can't joke about the dead, so I have to poke fun at colleagues instead. Otherwise talking about murder and death all day, you'd go crazy."
Poor as he was, his movements weren't sluggish at all. He carefully examined the body's surface: "He doesn't have any other wounds on his body."
Jian Jing asked: "If it were you, could you do it bare-handed?"
"Definitely not." Ji Feng wasn't a forensic examiner and had limited interest in corpses. After determining cause of death, he started rummaging through other things. "Any clues about the murder weapon?"
Actually, Jian Jing really wanted a chance to dissect a corpse someday. But considering her basic level card and the awful environment, she had to give up the thought and dutifully examine the wounds.
"First rule out fatal injuries from falls. He has no fractures, abrasions, contusions, or hematomas. The wounds don't have punctate abrasions, linear lacerations, or triangular flap lacerations. There's no residual gravel or brick powder in his hair either, so blunt force trauma from bricks or stones can be temporarily ruled out for now."
Jian Jing took photos from multiple angles with her phone, analyzing: "I can't see the skull now. I can only feel around - it doesn't seem to be a triangular or rectangular fracture."
Ji Feng stroked his chin: "So axe wounds can be ruled out too?"
"Right, also hammers, round or irregularly-shaped clubs." She nodded. "These are the two most likely murder weapons."
"Very common, but not easy to find either." He said.
Jian Jing: "There's luminol in the makeup kit."
Only then did Ji Feng notice the nearby suitcase, a retro leather trunk that made people think it was full of perfume and lipstick. But when he lifted the lid, inside was luminol spray and some brushes.
He was amazed: "No way."
"It's a disguise." She emphasized.
Ji Feng considered it and felt she had a point. If an ordinary girl put a forensic kit in her trunk, it would easily draw unnecessary attention.
"Let's hope we get a bit lucky." He shook the spray bottle.
But the heavens didn't hear his prayers.
Ji Feng spent dozens of minutes in the public areas, finding several suitable objects: a rolling pin, spade, sledgehammer... But none reacted to the luminol.
There was still no trace of the murder weapon.
He could only move on to the next step of the plan - asking the suspects back to his room, and taking the chance to check their luggage.
This was where having legal status proved advantageous. Jian Jing could plead until her lips cracked and still might not be able to search them. But Ji Feng had no issues at all. Though reluctant, no one outright refused.
The first were naturally Bun Girl and Gao MaWei in Room 202.
Ji Feng asked Bun Girl and the waitress to accompany him, leaving the door slightly ajar as he questioned Gao MaWei alone.
Unlike previous interrogations, he didn't jump straight into it, first asking about the girl's injuries: "How are you feeling? Do you need to go to the hospital?"
"Much better, it doesn't hurt as long as I stay off it." Gao MaWei's face was pale, but she was spirited. "Min told me you're a cop? And Jia Yue is dead?"
Ji Feng said, "Yes, so I'll need to routinely ask where you were and what you did this afternoon."
Gao MaWei answered swiftly: "I stayed in my room the whole time, only letting Min take me to the bathroom once."
Ji Feng smiled amiably: "Miss Gao, you're currently the least suspicious person, so I have some sensitive topics I'd like to ask you about."
Gao MaWei's gaze flickered warily: "What questions?"
"Earlier you mentioned someone, I think his name was Zhou Chang? Could we chat about him?" He put on a pensive look. "Anything you can tell me about him would be good."
Gao MaWei rejected outright: "Nothing to talk about. What does he have to do with today? I don't want to answer irrelevant stuff."
"Miss Gao, you've got it wrong. I think this is very important." Ji Feng's expression became serious. "The five of you went on this trip together and one person suddenly died. He didn't seem to have conflicts with the other travelers, but did with his companions - you can't think that would escape notice, right?"
Gao MaWei raised her voice: "Are you suspecting us?"
"Everyone is equally suspicious." Ji Feng said. "Please answer my question directly."
But Gao MaWei stubbornly responded: "I've got nothing to say."
Ji Feng shook his head, tone even: "As soon as the signal returns, I can look up this information anytime. But you, Miss Gao, this attitude does you no good."
"So what if it doesn't?" Gao MaWei said coldly, "Could I have killed someone while limping around like this?"
"This is certainly not easy," Ji Feng smiled slightly, thinking that suspects these days are so easy to fool. She thinks she is the least suspicious so she can rest assured? He can overturn that at any time: "But what if the murderer has an accomplice?"
The girl with a high ponytail's face froze instantly.
He said, "Cooperating with the investigation will only benefit you and your companions, not harm you."
The girl bit her lip, was silent for a moment, and casually replied, "Zhou Chang was originally also a member of our club. He died accidentally last year, it's that simple."
"May I ask if he and you were just classmates?" Ji Feng looked at her.
The girl with the high ponytail was very sure: "Yes. Brother Chang was very nice to us and took good care of everyone. We all liked him very much, that's all."
"How did he die?"
"A climbing accident." She said.
Ji Feng nodded and did not continue to ask. Instead, he asked her to open her suitcase and take pictures of their personal belongings.
The two girls brought some climbing equipment. The only thing that could serve as a weapon was the aluminum alloy hiking poles. Although Ji Feng did not think they could maintain their original shape after experiencing a beating, he still "borrowed" them.
He did not pay much attention to other things - girls' stuff was too complicated, it was still best to leave it to professionals to discern.
It was the same process in other rooms. He took pictures one by one and said goodbye under the unhappy eyes of the owners.
Finally, he met up with Jian Jing in room 204.
This was the victim's room, also a standard room, with only him living alone.
"Teacher Jian," Ji Feng closed the door, full of expectation, "Give me some good news."
Jian Jing asked, "Do you want to hear the conclusion or the doubts?"
"Awesome, I want to hear both. Take your time." The case was a bit complicated, but Ji Feng was in a good mood. Colleagues were right about one thing, compared to other cases, solving a case with a beautiful girl was undoubtedly more pleasing.
Jian Jing gave the first conclusion: "This guy is not a good person."
Ji Feng was extremely perceptive in his investigation and accurately distinguished the meaning in her words: "It sounds like a guy who likes to play with emotions?"
"He kept intimate photos of different girls." She opened the victim's tablet, flipped through the photos, "Let me count, there are five or six - what are you looking at?"
Ji Feng was confused: "I'm looking at the evidence, is that not okay?"
"You'd better not." Jian Jing locked the screen and hid the tablet behind her back, and said solemnly, "They are all girls."
"Teacher Jian, don't think of me as..." He prepared for a moment and said tactfully, "unprofessional. Show it to me, hey, I'll just take a look, do I need to raise my hand to prove my innocence?"
She hesitated for a moment, but in the end she did not have the courage to withhold the evidence and reluctantly handed it to him.
Ji Feng opened the photos, studied them carefully for a while, and finally, under her watchful eyes, laughed out loud.
"What's so funny?" She spoke unpleasantly.
Ji Feng asked back instead of answering: "Are you considering the possibility of a crime of passion? Two girls?"
Jian Jing: "A little."
"Then you got it wrong." He returned the tablet to her amiably, "The photos are a set, the angles look like candid shots, but most likely the girls took them themselves to sell for money."
"!?" She couldn't believe it, "Do you have any evidence?"
"I've seen similar cases before, the photos are largely the same, it should be correct." Ji Feng said, "If you don't believe me, search for it when the signal is restored. In recent years, this kind of thing has been quite common, I don't know what these young girls are thinking nowadays."
He shook his head, then became serious again, "What about the doubts?"
"All the water in the room has been drunk up." Jian Jing mentioned a very subtle little thing, "I calculated the amount of water, two cans of Coke, two bottles of mineral water, already more than 1 liter."