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"Good morning. Now that you've all seen the three revived contestants, I won't go into too much detail. The competition process is the same as before. The envelopes in front of you contain today's test questions. Please hand in your answers at dinner. Now, enjoy your breakfast."
Just as the atmosphere was getting awkward, that voice appeared.
His voice carried a sharp, smug laugh, making Ren Yifei unsure of his stance.
"us..."
The resurrected one had just opened his mouth, as if to say something, when the winners started chatting: "I don't know what to eat today, I've forgotten what we ordered yesterday."
"I remember you ordered shumai, and I ordered sticky rice."
They chatted amongst themselves, and when the three new resurrected ones were no longer there, no one gave them a second glance.
The three resurrected individuals had arrived here full of confidence, waiting to give them a taste of their own medicine. However, Ren Yifei had beaten and subdued them, stripping them of their prestige and leaving them utterly defeated. Now, no one was willing to cooperate with them if they wanted to come back.
They finally realized that things were getting serious.
They had rehearsed countless times and made various plans and countermeasures, but they never expected that someone would be so perceptive as to guess 90% of their training program.
That's bad enough, but what's even more infuriating is that Ren Yifei reversed the positions of both sides. The winner is living the high life, but now he's wearing the hat of being 'manipulated by the script,' making him look quite pathetic. I wonder if this will affect their popularity.
"He Zhaoming, that troublemaker!" The resurrected one was furious.
Ren Yifei was completely unaffected. He ate the pumpkin egg tarts and purple sweet potato dumplings he had ordered yesterday, and drank millet porridge to soothe his stomach.
"Toot, toot—" The contestant opposite tapped the table lightly with the handle of his spoon, making a rhythmic tapping sound.
He listened for a while, munching on a purple sweet potato dumpling, then responded by tapping the table with his fingers. After him, another contestant joined the conversation, tapping on a white porcelain plate.
The resurrected one who had previously criticized Ren Yifei was dumbfounded: "Morse code?"
The eliminated contestants watched a silent live stream, with subtitles appearing only when someone spoke. Although some noticed the contestants occasionally tapping on the table or plates, no one expected them to be so bored as to be communicating with each other in Morse code at the long table.
Actually, the use of Morse code for chatting started after the official announcement of the 'revival round'.
However, of the three resurrected contestants, one was one of the fifty, and two were eliminated on the second day. The contestants who were eliminated after that never mentioned the Morse code chat, so none of them knew about it.
Of the three resurrected individuals, one of them understood Morse code. After listening, he shook his head: "It's just ordinary conversation."
However, this sends a bad signal—this group of people had anticipated that the video would be watched and had begun to be wary of them.
I don't know what they used this method to communicate before.
The resurrected ones lost their appetite for breakfast until they opened the envelopes, when they regained some confidence—though it was very unfair, they had indeed encountered a great many cases.
Inside the envelope was a new photograph: a woman slumped over a table, eyes wide open, pupils dilated, already dead. Judging from the background, the death likely occurred at home, though the house appeared to have recently been vandalized.
Turn it over, and there's a line of text on the back of the photo: Suicide or homicide?
This time, the mission wasn't to find the murderer, but to determine whether it was suicide or homicide? Ren Yifei's gaze swept over the faces of the three resurrected individuals, who all exhibited subtle exhalations.
"It seems to be a question type they've reviewed," Ren Yifei thought to himself.
He took out his phone, flipped through the photo album, which was full of photos of oil paintings.
"There's no matching face… Hmm?" Ren Yifei noticed the ring on the deceased's finger. He flipped through his phone's photo album again and found it.
On the finger of a young doctor was a similar ring, a plain ring with a matte finish.
In the oil painting, the young doctor is about to put on his protective suit to enter the operating room, and he is taking off the ring on his finger.
Ren Yifei didn't linger. He got up, left the villa, and dialed an NPC's number: "Old friend..."
Officer Zhang shuddered upon hearing the voice: "So, which case are you interested in this time?"
"Did a young doctor's girlfriend or fiancée die at home?" he asked as he walked, keeping an eye out for any available transportation nearby.
"You knew that too?" Officer Zhang didn't waste any words and directly gave an address. Coincidentally, it was in the same building where the young designer worked before.
"This place has been through a lot of disasters." He couldn't find the cleaning lady or his bicycle. "I could probably run there, but it would be tiring."
Ren Yifei ran off, and the other contestants watched his retreating figure, whispering, "He's taken the lead again."
No one followed. That scoundrel had led them astray before, and they weren't going to follow him again. Besides, given their abilities, being two minutes slower wouldn't significantly affect the outcome.
Ren Yifei jogged to his destination, where Officer Zhang was already waiting. As an old friend who had worked with him more than ten times, Officer Zhang was very familiar with Ren Yifei's style of doing things, so he didn't bother with formalities and went straight to explaining the case.
"The deceased, Zhang Qian, had a dog named 'Juanjuan' and a boyfriend with whom she was to be married. This morning, when her fiancé returned home, he found her dead in the house, surrounded by broken decorations, but there were no signs of struggle."
As he spoke, Officer Zhang walked into the room, which was already covered with yellow tape, and Ren Yifei, after putting on his protective gear, also went in.
The room was a mess, with debris scattered all over the floor. The deceased was no longer there, but there was a stack of photos on the dining table, which were the deceased's portraits, taken from all angles.
Ren Yifei walked over and noticed that one side of the dining table was against a dark-colored glass mirror. This design visually expands the overall space.
"She was sitting in a restaurant chair when she died, holding a knife in her hand. The knife was stabbed into her heart, which was the fatal wound. Because Zhang Qian had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, this case is believed to be a case of schizophrenia leading to hallucinations, followed by suicide."
Officer Zhang explained the details of the case.
"The deceased was diagnosed with schizophrenia? When did that happen?"
"One year ago."
"Besides Zhang Qian and her fiancé, were there any traces left by a third person in the room?" Ren Yifei picked up the photos and looked through them. There were some very detailed close-up photos, which gave a direct understanding of the deceased's condition even without seeing the body.
"No."
"Didn't you say there was another dog?" Ren Yifei looked around but didn't see any puppies.
"A month ago, Zhang Qian sent her to her younger brother's house for foster care without giving a reason," Officer Zhang added. "However, according to her brother, his sister has not been doing well lately."
"How so?" Ren Yifei asked curiously.
"He said his sister was being paranoid, saying she heard strange noises and that another person was hiding inside her body. The deceased's brother was worried that his sister's schizophrenia had relapsed, so he told the deceased's fiancé about it and asked him to pay more attention."
"So the deceased's fiancé installed a surveillance camera at home, which captured the moment of her death."
Ren Yifei looked up from the pile of photos: "Can I see the video?"
The surveillance video that Officer Zhang showed was quite long, about fifteen minutes. The video showed the deceased walking out with a look of terror on her face. She took a fruit knife from the table, held it in both hands, looked at the dark glass mirror, and shouted as if she was arguing with someone, but only her voice and movements could be heard in the video.
Ren Yifei listened carefully and heard the deceased say in the video, "Stop bothering Awen." Then she seemed to be provoked and started smashing things, throwing all the furniture in the house to the ground.
"Who is Awen?" Ren Yifei paused the video and asked Officer Zhang.
"The deceased's fiancé."
"Did he cheat on you, or have an affair with someone else?"
Officer Zhang shook his head: "Based on the current investigation, the deceased's fiancé is a virtuous man and has no other romantic interests."
Ren Yifei nodded and pressed play.
The deceased in the video was fighting an unseen enemy that she believed threatened her love life and was determined to take extreme measures.
The deceased stared into the dark glass mirror, and it's unclear what she saw, but her eyes turned crazed, and her expression remained the same.
If anyone saw her in this state, they would definitely call the police, but she was alone in the room, and no one could stop her.
Ren Yifei saw the deceased in the video raise a fruit knife high and plunge it into her chest. She laughed and fell onto the table, her body twitching twice.
Although he had already seen it once, Officer Zhang couldn't help but close his eyes, unable to bear watching, while Ren Yifei next to him opened his eyes wide and went back to watch it again.
"That's strange. The air conditioner is still running, so why is the deceased sweating so much?"
The deceased in the video was wearing a thin dress, and a small patch on her back was already soaked and stuck to her body.
"Due to excessive emotional excitement?" Officer Zhang said, offering an unfounded guess.
"Oh." Ren Yifei swiped his fingers across his phone, and while Officer Zhang wasn't looking, he sent a message to 'himself'.
"Hey, hey, this can't get out." Officer Zhang had anticipated this and immediately stopped him from sending the message. "Really, you're always trying to exploit loopholes."
Ren Yifei, who had a history of such behavior, touched his nose and said, "Okay, I'll watch it one more time, the last time."
"This is the last time."
Ren Yifei watched the video one last time, this time even more carefully. The deceased in the video was in an extremely unstable emotional state, occasionally making strange, ghost-like expressions on his face, and was very agitated, consistent with the state of schizophrenia or paranoia.
"Were any drugs detected in the deceased's body?"
"Nothing was found after routine drug testing."
"That's strange, the deceased's accent... I'll listen again." Ren Yifei frowned, closing his eyes to listen to the deceased's voice inside. "Did the deceased have a speech impediment?"
"No," Officer Zhang said.
"Listen to this." Ren Yifei specifically pointed out a passage and let Officer Zhang listen to it. Officer Zhang was somewhat surprised. The deceased's self-talk in the passage was very incoherent, like that of a child who had just learned to speak.
"Excessive sweating, making faces, speech difficulties, and... symptoms of schizophrenia with delusions. I think of a drug, but I'm not sure."
Ren Yifei put down the photo and prepared to go to the deceased's room to see if he could find one or two pieces of evidence that could corroborate his suspicions.
The room door was open, and Ren Yifei walked in and began rummaging through the drawers.
There were things like power banks in the drawer, as well as a strip of pills that he hadn't finished taking. He looked at it and found it was folic acid, which he often used to prepare for pregnancy.
"..." A certain guess appeared in Ren Yifei's mind. If he could, he hoped that he was wrong.
"Was the deceased pregnant?"
"Yes, it's been six weeks," Officer Zhang answered instinctively.
Ren Yifei closed his eyes. If the deceased was pregnant, her decision to send the puppy to her younger brother's house for foster care would be understandable.
Although puppies will not cause toxoplasmosis if they are properly cleaned, some people are concerned and will stop keeping pets.
Ren Yifei then checked the wardrobe, where a safe underneath had been opened. He found gold and silver jewelry, property deeds, insurance policies, and other items.
He took out the insurance policies and looked at them one by one. Suddenly, he stopped: "How long have the deceased and her fiancé been dating?"
"Two years," Officer Zhang said.
Ren Yifei immediately stood up: "Have the forensic doctor perform another autopsy, especially to check if there are any traces of a certain drug in the deceased's body. If so, you can arrest the deceased's fiancé; this is a murder-for-insurance-fraud case."