Fei Na was stunned for a moment, and her face changed drastically: "You mean...my father? How is this possible!"
"Nothing is impossible," Jian Jing said calmly. "Why is the case so complicated? Because we got the premise all wrong. Everything that happened that night was not a coincidence, but was arranged by the professor."
She looked around at everyone and emphasized word by word: "It was a murder night planned by the professor."
The air suddenly became silent. Everyone was speechless and did not know what to say.
Jian Jing said, "Because of the previous accident, the GPS system was upgraded again to prevent outsiders from invading, but this was not difficult for the professor. He could easily fake the records of Subject 21, right?"
Chen thought for a moment and nodded silently.
Fei Na could not accept it: "Why would my dad do that?"
"He needed an alibi," Jian Jing said slowly. "That night, he was going to kill someone."
Fei Na's heart was hanging high: "Who?"
Jian Jing did not answer this question, but went on to say, "Murder is not an easy thing to do. The professor is good with guns, but if he acts rashly, it is very likely to be traced back to him. He needs a suitable scapegoat, an alibi. It just so happened that day, Chen discovered abnormalities in wildlife, and Li Journalist provided a piece of news - neighboring countries exchanged fire, and some illegal elements may have fled into this forest."
Li Journalist gasped. "Yes, I did say that."
"This was a perfect opportunity," Jian Jing said. "The professor faked Subject 21's records so that everyone would think he was not at the observation point. This way, as long as he found a chance to separate from the others, he could come back here secretly and carry out his own plan."
Speaking of this, Mrs. Lao seemed to have understood something, and was hesitant to speak.
"But the assembly time was 1 hour. To return from the separation point to here, and then go to Point 3, it would take at least 80 minutes. The professor obviously could not make it back in time. So he needed an excuse to delay himself for 20 minutes.
"He decided to take advantage of Polly. Injecting Polly with anesthetics would create the illusion that it was hit by an anesthetic bullet. This would not only fabricate a non-existent offender, but also explain why he was delayed - and this plan also proved that the person he wanted to kill was neither Mrs. Lao, Fei Na or Chen, otherwise there would be no need to take action against Polly.
"The plan was very clear up to this point, but it seemed that something was still missing, right?"
Her tone suddenly became cheerful, revealing her master's happy mood: "A gun. It was gunshots. He discovered the enemy. How could he not open fire? So at least, the professor needed to prepare one more bullet."
"The first one was used to kill, the second one was used to fabricate the illusion of discovering the enemy." Jian Jing explained very carefully, "So he had to have 11 bullets. More or less would not work."
Fei Na bit her lip: "But that is still one bullet missing."
"Be patient," Jian Jing smiled. "Let us continue to analyze along the line of thought just now. The professor should have returned to the hotel to kill the person he wanted to get rid of... But why did he appear at Point 3 so much earlier?"
Mrs. Lao asked: "Why?"
"There are two possibilities. First, his plan was discovered by someone, which could only be one of you three. However, as I said before, you would not be able to prepare to kill the professor in advance. So, the professor would have no need to fire that shot either.
"So only the second one remains—he took the initiative to change his mind. Although the professor was an extremely jealous man, he was also a wildlife conservationist. I think the only thing that could make him give up his personal interests and change his mind should be his career."
Jian Jing looked around at everyone and said slowly, "He discovered someone."
Chen's eyes fell on Cha Li and Li Journalist.
But Kang President firmly said, "It was not the doctor."
Jian Jing nodded: "If it was the doctor, the professor would feel that he had failed to live up to Heaven's gift of opportunity by not opening fire. He prepared one more bullet. As long as he returned to Point 3 on time and swapped the two Type 56 rifles, the murder weapon would become the rifle that anyone could get—yes, this should also be the reason why the professor arranged to meet at Point 3. He needed to swap the two rifles."
"But unfortunately, that person was not the doctor," she sighed lightly and looked at Li Journalist. "It was you."
Li Journalist was startled: "Me? How is that possible? I was long asleep that day."
"There was an accident with the wildlife. As someone who had written exclusive reports, how could you not be the least bit curious about the results and went straight back to your room to sleep soundly? Is that scientific?"
He said, "I was too tired that day. You can't suspect me just because I went to bed early, can you?"
"I used a process of elimination. The doctor said he could not provide his own alibi and asked me to ask if you saw him. If he was not at the hotel at that time, it would be easy to see through what he said. Moreover, I remember your room light was on all the time."
"What kind of evidence is this? Is it wrong that I forgot to turn off the light?" Li Journalist retorted: "As for the doctor, perhaps he used a dummy, thinking I would give him an alibi. In my opinion, maybe the doctor knew the professor wanted to kill him and made an appointment with him somewhere to talk, taking the opportunity to kill him."
To his surprise, Jian Jing actually said, "I also considered this possibility, but I'm afraid not. I have a tiny bit of forensic knowledge."
She made a tiny gesture with her hand: "Through the wounds caused by bullets, using trigonometric functions, the angle of the shot can be calculated."
Li Journalist's eyebrows moved slightly.
"I won't repeat the specific calculation process. To put it simply, according to the calculation results, I found that the killer's angle of incidence was 60° downward from the horizontal. Then, the complementary angle of emission would be 30°."
Jian Jing made a gesture of raising the gun barrel and said, "The professor's wound was in the chest. The 30° angle means the position of the gun was lower than his chest, but Dr. Cha Li was taller than the professor. "
Mrs. Lao suddenly realized.
"If it was Dr. Cha Li, his gun should have pointed downward rather than upward," she said. "The murderer was a little shorter than my husband, but..."
Mrs. Lao looked at everyone present and smiled wryly: "The only ones shorter than him are me and Fei Na."
"Height is not the conclusion," Jian Jing overturned their ideas for the nth time and analyzed: "If it was a sudden attack by an acquaintance, would the professor have a chance to fire back?"
Everyone thought about it and shook their heads.
It would be normal for Chen, Fei Na and Mrs. Lao to hold guns. Professor Lao was unlikely to be suspicious, so if they suddenly opened fire, the professor would most likely die instantly without a chance to fire back.
However, if he encountered Dr. Cha Li or Li Journalist and found them holding a gun, especially the former, the professor would not possibly be unwary.
If the two sides exchanged fire, they would definitely seek cover immediately.
Under such circumstances, it would be normal for the professor to be shot in the arm, but how could he be shot in the chest unguarded?
Also, considering the professor's violent shooting habits, why did he only fire one bullet during the exchange of fire?
Chen said, "Ambush."
"That’s what I thought too. The professor secretly followed the suspect and was led by him all the way to near Point 3. Then the murderer found favorable terrain and launched a sneak attack on him."
Speaking of this, Jian Jing paused briefly before saying, "Of course, this cannot determine whether it was the doctor or the reporter, but don't forget one thing, everyone—the professor only brought one extra bullet."
Fei Na asked in puzzlement: "What do you mean?"
"Why did he only need to bring one extra bullet?" Jian Jing repeatedly emphasized, "It's simple. Although bringing more bullets and fabricating someone else firing shots is not difficult, as long as the shells are investigated, it can be distinguished which gun they came from."
Don’t think they are all Type 56 rifles and the spent shells would be no different after firing. In fact, the differences are huge.
There are four types of marks on the bullets:
1. Nicking marks: Marks formed by the collision between the bullet tip and the internal structure of the gun when the bullet enters the chamber. Different gun structures result in different nicking marks.
2. Stripping marks: Marks left when the bullet is stripped out of the cartridge mouth under the thrust of the propellant gas.
3. Rifling marks: Scratch marks on the bullet from the bore showing the characteristics of the barrel surface.
4. Bore scratches: After the bullet is pushed forward in the barrel, it rotates and moves forward, forming a series of scratches. These include what are called positive bore scratches, negative bore scratches, main edge scratches, secondary edge scratches, and so on.
When the shell is ejected, the bullet will also be deformed under force, resulting in new marks.
Based on this information, it can also be determined whether it was a Type 56 rifle that caused it, and specifically which Type 56 rifle, without any confusion.
Since Professor Lao knew to switch the two rifles, he naturally wouldn't forget this point.
"If he had used his own gun to mimic the other's gunshot, if the shell was picked up, things would get complicated. So the best approach is to claim the other side had a gun."
Jian Jing said, "Since the other side had a gun, then when he was murdering someone, he would naturally also need to use this thing."
Fei Na finally understood: "Dad brought a gun? Then the gunshot..."
"That's right, the gunshot you heard wasn't Professor Lao's, it was the murderer's."
"We only heard one shot..." Mrs. Lao said in surprise, "But weren't there two wounds?"
"Three, but it really was just one shot. The bullet passed through his arm and entered his heart," Jian Jing said. "This can also explain why no bullets were missing from the other guns. The one used was the one Professor Lao had brought, the bullet prepared for murder."
She had examined the professor's corpse carefully earlier. Although the posture was hard to judge, after careful comparison, it wasn't difficult to discover the three wounds were in a straight line.
There was the soft sound of sharp inhales in the room, whether of lament or grief it was unclear.
Chen said, "With one shot, his marksmanship is very good."
"Not only was his marksmanship good. Although there was moonlight that night, the forest was dense with trees, so the light coming through must have been extremely limited. To take a lethal shot in this kind of environment with one bullet, auxiliary equipment is needed."
Jian Jing looked at Li Journalist and smiled, "Like a camera, and like the infrared sight on the camera."
Cameras equipped with infrared devices were no longer anything novel, especially for outdoor bird photography. Infrared sights could help a lot with resolving the issues of excessive focal length.
It was perfectly normal for Li Journalist, who claimed he was photographing wildlife, to have this kind of infrared device. She had seen earlier that one of his cameras had a built-in infrared sight when they were on the boat taking photos.
"I think this can also explain when Professor Lao fired that shot," she said. "He saw the infrared laser and immediately fired back, but at the same time, the bullet entered his chest."
"Oh my God," Fei Na cried out softly, painfully covering her face.
"Perhaps the murderer also didn't expect his work to be so perfect. He examined the professor's corpse, discovered the gun and extra bullet, and then had the inspiration to load his own gun and take the professor's gun, creating the illusion that he had been shot twice, which also conveniently hid his own involvement."
Jian Jing said, "As for the murder weapon, I think it was that one at observation point 3. Only this would better fit the story of the intruder accidentally killing the professor—right? Li Journalist, this was the news you told everyone originally."