The open guest room was unoccupied, and the air seemed to be covered with a layer of dust, as if the light was veiled when it shone through.
Although Ren Yifei was just trying to scare the audience, he did suspect that there was a third person hiding in the house, but it was last night, and the other party had probably left by now.
The murderer was very careful not to touch anything, but Ren Yifei still found some clues.
Look here.
The live streamer focused on that spot and saw several very shallow scratch marks on the light gray wall, which were almost invisible unless you looked closely.
"I specifically looked for this wall," Ren Yifei said. "Guess why?"
Viewers in the live stream watched for a long time but couldn't see anything special about the wall.
"The master bedroom is on the other side of this wall. If we stand like this against the wall, we can hear what's happening in the master bedroom. Let me demonstrate for you."
So he leaned against the wall and pressed himself there: "Last night, the murderer might have been standing here, listening to the laughter and chatter on the other side of the wall, and his hand unconsciously left these scratch marks on the wall. If you look closely at these scratch marks, you can tell the direction. Because the murderer is about the same height as me, theoretically, his scratch marks and my fingers are at the same level."
After fixing his arm in place, he leaned down to look and, sure enough, it was at the same level as his hand.
"Sigh, the characteristics left by the murderer are too similar to those of the victim's boyfriend, so we still can't prove the boyfriend's innocence." Ren Yifei frowned deeply.
"Give up, you're the murderer." The viewers in the live stream cheered. They were terrified just now, and now, looking at that handsome face, they felt he deserved a beating.
The guest room wasn't large. Besides a built-in wardrobe, an empty double bed, and a matching bedside table, there was nothing else inside; you could see everything at a glance.
But he still examined it very carefully, almost as if he wanted to take out a magnifying glass.
Because the murderer was very cautious, he figured he would fail again this time. However, when he opened the bedside table drawer, he found a surprise—a huge green plant sealed in a crystal ball, which was the symbol of the city of wood.
"Well, it wasn't a complete waste of time," Ren Yifei thought to himself.
He casually rummaged through the drawer, which contained long-forgotten items: a crystal bracelet, earphones, a keychain with a heart pierced by an arrow and studded with crystal diamonds, and an old photograph.
He flipped open the old photo and found it was a group photo from the deceased's student days. The background was a medical school, and the deceased was standing next to a tall, short-haired girl. The deceased was wearing a light-colored skirt and red high heels, while the short-haired girl was wearing jeans and flat shoes.
The deceased was about 1.6 meters tall, with a margin of error of no more than 3 centimeters. The girl was half a head taller than her. Subtracting the height of her high heels, the girl should be between 1.75 and 1.8 meters tall.
Ren Yifei stroked his chin, his mind wandering to strange ideas. But he felt he shouldn't jump to conclusions too soon, so he stood up and opened the wardrobe.
The wardrobe was almost empty, except for a bulging travel bag at the bottom. Ren Yifei opened it and took out the clothes one by one.
The men's shirts, jeans, and casual pants are all in cool colors with low saturation. As for the sizing, they are suitable for people between 1.75 and 1.8 meters tall.
Of course, this still doesn't prove anything. What if they were the original owner's old clothes? But Ren Yifei quickly found new evidence to prove that these clothes belonged to a girl.
"A corset?" It wasn't the kind that was wrapped up too tightly; it had a slight curve, and you could tell it was a women's item.
"In other words, a girl who was between 1.7 and 1.8 meters tall used to live in this room. She often dressed as a man and had no romantic relationship with the deceased. They knew each other since college."
Ren Yifei whispered to the live streamer, clutching his chest, "I don't know why, but I'm a little nervous right now. I feel like I'm about to discover a new world."
Nothing more was found in the guest room, so Ren Yifei returned to the master bedroom. The corpse's eyes remained wide open, its death unresolved, and the audience once again felt the frustration brought on by the mosaic.
Ren Yifei covered the deceased's face with the pillowcase again, and then took the deceased's phone.
Presumably to make it easier for contestants to access the information, there is no password required; just click to open it.
He focused on checking the information on the deceased's social media accounts.
"This is a shopping discount group, this is a family group, this is a small group of hospital colleagues... It's all set up quite properly." He thought for a moment and then went directly to the classmates' group, but his classmates basically didn't use their faces as profile pictures.
"You can use your phone to ask for help and look for clues." This was the message Officer Liu left before he left. Ren Yifei read "use your phone to look for clues" aloud, and suddenly something occurred to him.
A little while later, he went to get the old photos, took pictures, and then sent them to a character he chatted with the most, someone who was like a best friend.
"Ding-dong." The other end replied instantly.
"Seriously, sis? You're getting married and you still can't forget her?"
Viewers in the live stream saw Ren Yifei, who had been yawning, instantly perk up, his eyes widening like a cat spotting a fish. He carefully sent a message while holding his phone with both hands: "Sigh..."
After that, without him saying much, the NPC began to diligently provide clues.
Through her best friend's complaints and advice, Ren Yifei roughly understood what had happened. The deceased had dated a wealthy and handsome junior from the next department during her university years; the two had been on and off for many years, arguing and breaking up.
After graduating, the deceased returned to his hometown and became a nurse at a private hospital. The handsome woman also came to live with him, and the two lived together for a period of time.
However, six months ago, whether due to family reasons or the deceased's own reasons, the two broke up.
It is said that the argument was extremely heated, and it even involved financial disputes, because over the years, that handsome woman had spent a lot of money on the deceased.
However, in the end, they broke up and never contacted each other again.
The deceased later found her current boyfriend, a doctor intern whom she met at the hospital, and they discussed marriage.
"Are relationships this risky these days?" Ren Yifei wiped away cold sweat. Even if the deceased had done something wrong, it wasn't a capital offense, and besides, they had broken up six months ago.
Something must have happened to cause the deceased's ex-girlfriend's negative emotions to erupt uncontrollably, leading to such a terrible incident.
What could it be?
He then looked for his ex-girlfriend in his contacts, only to find that the deceased had blocked her and deleted all previous conversations.
Ren Yifei brought his ex-girlfriend back, opened her WeChat Moments, and found that this girl had celebrated her birthday the day before yesterday with a small cake for one person and a single candle.
In the photo, she's holding a cake, her short, silver-gray hair, now with an inch of black roots, sticking up messily. She's not smiling. Perhaps because of the camera lens, her eyes also look a little red.
A mutual friend of theirs left a message below: Happy birthday, feel free to contact me if you need anything.
The deceased's ex-girlfriend responded: Thank you.
"That's strange. Why would someone say 'Call me if you need anything' when it's someone's birthday?" Ren Yifei found it odd, so he contacted their mutual friend.
What happened to XXX (ex-girlfriend's name)?
The other person didn't respond for two minutes, and their attitude wasn't very good: "You're asking me? How would I know?"
"I saw her on the road. Did something happen to her?" Ren Yifei added, "Don't misunderstand, I'm just asking casually."
This attempt to cover up the truth successfully misled their mutual friend, who asked, "Don't you know? Her family went bankrupt, her father passed away, and her mother is in the hospital waiting for treatment. If you have any conscience, return what she gave you before."
Ren Yifei pieced together all this information and finally figured out what had triggered the incident involving the deceased's ex-girlfriend.
He even learned the killer's methods.
There was no need for a locked room. The murderer had lived here, so finding a spare key would have been easy; she might even have had one herself.
After deciding to commit murder, the killer came here and broke into the house.
She might have put on shoe covers and gloves, then hidden in the guest room like a ghost in the house. Furthermore, the killer knew the victim's boyfriend drank milk before bed—presumably knowing this in advance, otherwise they wouldn't have prepared sleeping pills or tranquilizers beforehand.
She sprinkled the medicine into the milk, shook it well, and then hid back in her room.
Then, the deceased and her boyfriend went home. They ate and washed up as usual, until the boyfriend drank the milk laced with drugs. The murderer next door, listening to their laughter and merriment, was tormented by hatred.
The deceased's boyfriend didn't suspect much; he probably just felt sleepy and wanted to sleep, so they went to bed.
Around 2 or 3 a.m., when people are sound asleep, the murderer put on something like a disposable protective suit, perhaps with a hood, and then entered the master bedroom and killed the victim.
Her boyfriend, who was next to her, was oblivious because of the medication.
The murderer went to the bathroom, washed his face which was splattered with blood, and then packed up all the disposable items on his body, compressing them into a very small volume.
She will put on new shoe covers and gloves, and then leave.
Disposable utensils can be burned directly, and small blades can be thrown away; these are all easy to dispose of.
"We have the motive for the murder, we have the method of the murder, but what about the evidence?" Going back to the beginning, he knew who it was, but he had no evidence. In the police station and the court, it's all about evidence.
Ren Yifei went to the kitchen first. He looked at the refrigerator handle and found it was covered with a layer of frosted metal, which didn't leave fingerprints. Then he opened the refrigerator and found that the milk caps and milk cartons had a layer of fog on their surfaces, and fingerprints couldn't be removed.
"If the murderer had been more cautious, he might have worn gloves throughout the crime, making it even less likely that he would have left fingerprints. In most cases like this, the murderer is identified by the murder weapon. But I can't go out, so where am I supposed to find the murder weapon?"
It is unlikely that the murder weapon is still in the house.
Slitting a throat is something that can be done with a slightly sharp blade. A small, portable blade is easy to carry. Only a fool would leave behind such deadly evidence.
"Ugh, this is so hard, so incredibly hard, it's killing me!" Approaching noon, exhausted and hungry, Ren Yifei collapsed weakly onto the sofa.
He reached for a cushion, pressed it under his head, curled up on the sofa, and exuded an aura of 'pitifulness'.
"Hmm?" Suddenly, a medium-length hair on the pillow caught his attention.
This is a hair with its follicle intact, meaning it can be used for DNA testing. The hair is about thirteen centimeters long, with the top inch being black and the bottom bleached and dyed a smoky gray, and there is a trace of blood at the tip.
Ren Yifei immediately sat up abruptly, opened his phone, and found the deceased's ex-girlfriend's WeChat Moments. There were many selfies on it, and apart from recently, he had never seen her with such long hair.
"Wow!" He dialed Officer Liu's number. "I want roast duck, a whole one!"
Officer Liu: ...?
"I've found the evidence you wanted."