Faced with the sudden question, Mrs. Bao answered calmly, "I don't know. In fact, I don't think anyone wanted to kill him."
She asked back, "Didn't he have a heart attack or stroke?"
"No, I can clearly tell you he was murdered," Jian Jing said plainly, "In your opinion, did Mr. Che not have any enemies?"
Mrs. Bao shrugged gracefully, "I don't know what kind of enemies would want to kill him. Maybe none, maybe many."
"Let me ask another way, who would benefit from his death?"
Mrs. Bao smiled, "My husband and Meng Yu."
Dai An asked, "Why not Mrs. Che?"
"Hui Ying? I don't feel like she is the murdering type. She is very tolerant," said Mrs. Bao. As she spoke, she actually took two candies out of her loose dress and unwrapped them, popping them in her mouth like a little girl, squinting, "She is a good woman, faithful and loyal, always maintaining propriety..."
Jian Jing interjected, "Perhaps 'faithful' is not an accurate assessment."
"Oh, you mean her affair with my husband," Mrs. Bao smiled slightly, revealing an odd perceptiveness, "She wanted to get back at me, get back at her husband. To be honest, that surprises me a bit."
Dai An couldn't help asking, "Aren't you angry?"
"Of course, she was sleeping with my husband," said Mrs. Bao, sucking on the candy nonchalantly. "But that has nothing to do with murder. I would either kill my husband or kill her. I certainly wouldn't go back and kill her husband."
"I heard Mr. Che had a different attitude towards you than other men," Jian Jing delicately implied.
Mrs. Bao said, "That's what Hui Ying said, right? She really holds a grudge. But her husband isn't exactly a paragon of loyalty himself."
"Why is that?"
"He likes women who are easy to control, like Hui Ying. She's also quite clever, but he could deal with her through marriage. But when faced with someone he can't handle..." Mrs. Bao tossed her hair, a hint of pride appearing between her brows, clearly pleased with her own allure.
Yet her assessment of the man was quite caustic: "He gets scared, thinks not about conquering but retreating, pretending like nothing ever happened - oh, he is a gentleman who has never wavered one bit."
She looked at the two young girls and offered a life lesson: "Men are usually selfish and stupid. They only get interesting when they fall in love."
Jian Jing said, "But you like being surrounded by them in that state."
"Why not?" Mrs. Bao asked back. "Isn't it fun watching them make fools of themselves?"
"So you don't harbor any resentment towards Mr. Che?" Jian Jing returned to the main point.
Mrs. Bao said, "Sacrificing your whole life for one man is like giving up an entire forest for the sake of a single tree. Maybe I'm not smart enough, but I never do anything stupid."
Jian Jing smiled. "Thank you for cooperating. I'm finished with my questions."
The beautiful silhouette clip-clopped down the stairs, drifting away like a white crane.
Dai An couldn't wait to ask, "Teacher Jian, can we believe what she said?"
"Perhaps," Jian Jing was also uncertain.
Dai An hesitated, "She...she doesn't seem like the murdering type either."
"Mrs. Bao differs somewhat from what I imagined," said Jian Jing, propping up a pillow against the wall. Her slippers spun like circus acrobats on her toes. "I thought she was an impulsive woman who, once provoked, wouldn't care about law or morals, and would definitely want the other party to suffer. But judging by her tone, that doesn't seem to be the case."
"I thought she disliked Mrs. Che," Dai An scratched her head in confusion with a pen. "But she defended her. How strange. They should be love rivals, right?"
"Human nature is inherently complicated," said Jian Jing, not bothering to define anyone, only focusing on key points. "I haven't found any apparent motives from her for now - strange."
Dai An immediately asked, "What's strange?"
Jian Jing said, "There are two distinctive traits about this case. First, poison was used. Second, the murder was carried out in an airplane, a closed environment. Dai An, the criminal's methods are their most direct expression, and can reveal many clues."
Dai An pondered, "Does using poison mean the killer didn't have the strength to physically kill someone?"
"That's a very important factor, which is why women were my initial suspects," Jian Jing nodded, analyzing in detail. "Mrs. Che was extremely familiar with the physical condition of the deceased. Moreover, her husband had been cheating for quite a few years. If she wanted to kill her husband, she could have easily used a more covert method over time, like chronic poisoning. Unless there was some extremely urgent reason she had to kill him as quickly as possible, but so far we haven't discovered anything indicating that.
"Then there's Mrs. Bao. It's possible she wanted to kill the deceased for some reason. Would she choose poison? Very likely - love and poison are often spoken of together in literature at least. But was an airplane a suitable choice?"
She sighed, murmuring to herself, "What's most bothering me is this question - why here?"
Of course Dai An could not answer.
Fortunately Jian Jing did not need a "Watson" to reply. She said, "Alright, let's hear the gentlemen's perspectives."
She blinked mischievously, smiling, "I dare bet the story looks completely different through men's eyes."
And she was right.
The first man to appear was President Bao.
In his forties, he had a thin figure. His hair was shaved short, slightly greying at the temples, making him look older than his actual age, yet he seemed rather silent and reliable.
"Please sit," Jian Jing made an inviting gesture, suddenly sighing, "This is all so awful, isn't it?"
Dai An glanced over in surprise. The demeanor of the little princess was completely different from when she had questioned the two ladies earlier. No longer cool and sharp, she had become sentimental and gentle instead.
President Bao seemed to fall for this act. He gave a wry smile. "Who isn't saying that?" He paused, then asked, "The flight attendant was unclear. Did he die suddenly or was it..."
"So far, murder cannot be ruled out," said Jian Jing, gazing into his eyes. "Do you know if the deceased had any conflicts with anyone?"
President Bao hesitated. "Conflicts? Do you mean arguments or what?"
"Arguments, disputes, disagreements with family, relatives, friends, employees..." Jian Jing prompted.
President Bao said, "If I must say, he and Old Meng argued a few times recently, but that's normal. It involved the future development of our company, and they had different ideas - that can't be reason enough to kill someone."
"You say normal? Did they fight a lot?" Jian Jing deliberately asked.
President Bao waved his hand. "They clashed because they disagreed over the company's plans. Neither could convince the other. It's not that they were hostile towards each other. Of course, Mr. Che did have a stubborn temper. I've told him many times."
Jian Jing asked with interest, "Oh? What did you say?"
"Ah." President Bao rubbed his face and said, "Just that he refuses to take a loss. Actually, many things could be let go, don't scrutinize too much - everyone has it hard. But Mr. Che would never compromise. He had to cling to whatever was right, uncompromising."
Jian Jing expressed an appropriate amount of surprise. "What things? Could you give some specifics?"
President Bao hesitated, then vaguely said, "To put it this way, there was an employee who wasn't too professional, and had some connections with our competitors. In my opinion, we could have just dismissed him. Mr. Che refused - said this man must be driven out of the industry."
"What happened then?"
"That man came and kicked up a row at our company several times. We had no choice but to call the police. He was detained for several days."
Jian Jing pondered, then asked, "After arguing with Mr. Meng, how were things usually resolved with Mr. Che?"
"We talked it out," said President Bao. "After all, we went way back. Everyone backs down a step, and it gets settled."
Jian Jing asked, "So you don't think it could escalate to murder?"
"You're thinking too much," he replied.
She nodded, then suddenly switched topics. "I heard the deceased had improper personal conduct. Were there still emotional entanglements?"
"Er," President Bao said awkwardly. "Yes, he had a few...intimately connected women."
Jian Jing said, "Like the woman sitting behind you on the plane?"
President Bao grew even more uncomfortable. "Possibly."
"You've seen them together before, right?" Jian Jing's tone was mild. She did not aggressively push, but her attitude was firm, not allowing him any room to evade.
President Bao could only nod.
"Did they have disputes?"
"I'm not clear. I don't usually pay attention to things like that."
Dai An couldn't help cutting in, "Then what about his wife? What was his relationship with his wife like?"
President Bao weighed his words carefully: “Like most married couples, we had our differences as well as our support.”
“Do you think,” Jian Jing asked bluntly, “the deceased knew about your relationship with his wife?”
President Bao reacted as if he'd been hit over the head with a stick, looking flustered and panicked: “What?! Don’t talk nonsense!”
“Mrs. Che has already admitted it,” Jian Jing reined in her smile, being fair and concise. “Investigating a case is not a moral trial. I’ve seen many extramarital affairs. You just need to answer my questions—did the deceased know about your relationship with his wife?”
President Bao licked his lips, occasionally covering his face. After a while, he said: “I believe he did not know.”
“Why?”
“He trusted Hui Ying too much. He also paid too little attention to her. She always handled everything well. He felt she was a perfect wife, so he took her for granted and inevitably overlooked her.”
President Bao tried to defend himself: “Once Little Bao was hospitalized, Hui Ying stayed by his side alone at the hospital. She called Old Che to come over, but he said he had a very important meeting—‘Hui Ying will take good care of the child,’ he told me, then he went on a business trip. I was worried, so I went to the hospital and happened to see her crying.”
He was angry on her behalf and felt she was wronged: “Hui Ying is very capable. When a man marries her, he doesn’t need to worry about household matters at all. But being capable and bearing responsibilities alone are two different things. I really just...I only pitied her, I don't know how she became what she is now.”
From his last words, Dai An could hear a tinge of distress.
Old flames die hard.
"Does your wife know?" Jian Jing asked again.
"Li Ying..." President Bao was silent for a while, speaking with difficulty, "I don't know, she probably doesn't."
"Why?"
"She's a simple woman. Maybe she never imagined I would betray her," President Bao said bitterly. "She never overthinks. She thought I was just being nice and felt sorry for Hui Ying too."
Dai An: "???"
If I hadn't just asked your wife, I might have believed you.
Jian Jing asked, "Do you love your wife?"
"Of course, I was once infatuated with her," he seemed to have forgotten that the person in front of him was a young girl. His gaze fell to the ground, "But love and marriage are two different things. Li Ying is like an eternal child, acting on impulse. I thought having a child would make her grow up a lot, but she didn't change at all, not like a mother at all."
Hearing this, Dai An couldn’t help but glance over the passenger list again.
That’s right, the Bao family brought their own nanny, but the Che family did not.
"When the child cries, she doesn’t know how to coax him. When he has a fever, she also doesn’t worry. Just giving him some medicine is good enough for her. Other people's children have long begun looking for early education classes, but she hasn’t even thought about it..."
As President Bao spoke, he suddenly fell silent.
Dai An was full of skepticism in her belly, but held back from speaking. In contrast, Jian Jing was long accustomed to this and asked, "So you don't think the deceased's death is related to emotional disputes?"
This sentence brought President Bao back to reality.
He said, "I don't think so."
"Thank you for your cooperation."