The first witness was a student from the Music Conservatory. She was riding her bicycle with her backpack on her back, heading to the library, when she discovered the body floating in the school lake. Because a singing competition was being held in the nearby stadium, the music inside was deafening, and screams from the audience were constant, so the girl's screams did not attract anyone's attention.
Xiao Lou and Liu Qiao had just stepped out of the venue when they noticed the unusual situation in the lake.
Upon hearing Xiao Lou say "call the police," the pale-faced girl hurriedly took out her phone, her fingers trembling as she dialed 110. Her voice stammered, "Hello, this...this is Liu...Liuguang Lake at Jiangzhou Music Conservatory. A body has been found in the lake..."
At this moment, only the three of them were by the lake.
Xiao Lou winked at Liu Qiao, and Liu Qiao, taking advantage of the girl's inattention, immediately jumped into the lake.
The night was dimly lit, and no one noticed Liu Qiao conjure a fishtail with her card. She dived into the depths of the lake and quickly swam to the floating corpse. Liu Qiao activated the Luminous Pearl to carefully observe the surrounding environment. After a moment, she swam back to the lakeshore and whispered to Xiao Lou, "I didn't find any rocks, vegetation, or anything like that under the body, and there's no blood in the lake. The specific cause of death will need to be determined by Professor Xiao. Should I pull the body up?"
Xiao Lou shook his head: "Don't disturb the scene yet. Let's wait for Hanjiang to arrive. Protecting the crime scene is very important. The police might come to a different conclusion. I will conduct an autopsy, but not in private now."
Liu Qiao frowned: "But, since this Captain Yu isn't the one we know, can we trust him?"
Xiao Lou gently rubbed his temples and said uncertainly, "If he is the Yu Hanjiang of the past, then he can definitely be relied on. Hanjiang is an excellent Criminal Police Officer who can solve even the most difficult cases. But what I'm worried about is that the world we live in is a space created by the Guardian based on our memories. Whether it's Yu Hanjiang or Ye Qi, they are now like NPCs and may not cooperate with us."
If they could simply bring the past Yu Hanjiang into this world, solving the case would become incredibly easy. But the Guardian wouldn't be that kind. Liu Qiao's bigger concern is that Yu Hanjiang and Ye Qi might be Hunters, and instead of helping them solve the case, they might even want to kill them?
A night breeze blew by, and the girl who had just called the police shivered. Her face turned pale and she looked like she was about to cry. She picked up her bicycle, which had fallen over, and said in a trembling voice, "The police have already sent people over. Should we...should we wait here?"
"Of course. You are the first witness, and the police will definitely have a lot of questions for you when they come over." Xiao Lou stepped forward and said gently, "Don't be nervous. As long as you are not related to the deceased, the police will not make things difficult for you during their routine questioning."
"Hmm..." The girl forced herself to wrap her coat tighter around herself.
A moment later, two police cars came into Xiao Lou's view. To avoid attracting too much attention from students, the police cars did not sound their sirens as they entered the campus. The cars quickly stopped on the side of the road, the doors opened from the inside, and a man in plain clothes got out.
—It turned out to be Yu Hanjiang.
He frowned slightly, his expression stern, and strode over to the three people by the lake. At the same time, he waved decisively to his colleagues behind him, and two Criminal Police Officers immediately set up a cordon around the area.
Yu Hanjiang shone his flashlight on the lake and, sure enough, found a body in the middle of the lake. He turned to look at the girl by the lake, his gaze sharp: "Who called the police?"
The girl stepped forward timidly: "Officer, it's me."
Yu Hanjiang took out a notebook and a pen from his pocket and said coldly, "Name, age, occupation."
The girl said, "My name is Xu Mingyue, I am 19 years old, and I am a sophomore at the Music Conservatory."
While quickly taking notes, Yu Hanjiang asked, "When was the body discovered?"
"Just now, around nine o'clock."
Why did you happen to pass by here?
"Final exams are coming up soon, and I was planning to go to the library to study tonight. When I passed by here, my bicycle tire suddenly blew out. I stopped to check it, and then I saw something floating in the middle of the lake. I went over to take a closer look and saw a human face. I was so scared..." The girl has calmed down now and her description is fairly clear.
"Are these two also witnesses?" He turned and walked up to Xiao Lou and Liu Qiao, who were standing behind the tree. The moment he met Xiao Lou's eyes, he suddenly paused. " Professor Xiao, what are you doing here?"
"Hmm…" Xiao Lou coughed and quickly changed his form of address: " Captain Yu, my student and I came to the Music Conservatory to watch the singing competition. When we came out of the stadium just now, we heard a scream from the lake. When we came over, we found a body in the lake. It was I who suggested that this student, Xu, call the police."
"I see." Yu Hanjiang nodded in understanding, and then waved to the young Criminal Police Officer behind him, saying, "You and Xiao Wu first pull the body out and go check the lake for anything unusual."
"Yes, Captain Yu." Two young Criminal Police Officers quickly took off their coats and went into the water. Immediately afterward, another car drove up and parked next to the police car. A capable female Forensic Doctor in a white coat put on gloves and came to Yu Hanjiang, asking, " Captain Yu, where is the body?"
"The salvage operation is underway." Yu Hanjiang glanced around. "Let me take a look at the scene first."
"Hmm." The Forensic Doctor was tidying up his toolbox, while Yu Hanjiang walked around the area with a flashlight. Xiao Lou followed him closely, hoping to find some clues through him.
Soon, Yu Hanjiang squatted down under a nearby tree. He frowned, turned over the soil, and found a few nails. He used sterile...
He put the nails into the bag and then carefully observed the surrounding trees.
On one of the trees, the words " Zhang Hengyu and Ning Xue will be together forever" were carved in small characters, but the writing was a bit blurry. Yu Hanjiang took a picture as evidence, and then went to the lakeside to look for clues.
Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang had worked together several times in Secret Room World, so Xiao Lou naturally knew that he was looking for footprints.
If it was a homicide, whether the victim was pushed into the lake or killed and then moved into the lake, there should be footprints of the murderer on the lakeshore. Yu Hanjiang is an expert in trace evidence analysis, so of course he would have thought of this.
Xiao Lou followed his gaze and indeed found a series of footprints by the lake. The person who left the footprints was probably wearing flat shoes, and the footprints were very small, suggesting it was a woman.
At this time, the body in the lake was also retrieved. The two police officers who went into the water reported the results of their investigation—consistent with Liu Qiao's preliminary underwater investigation: no bloodstains were found in the lake, nor were there any weeds, stones, or other tools used to sink the body.
The female forensic doctor began the preliminary autopsy. Xiao Lou was an outsider at this point and had no right to interfere in the Police Station's investigation process, but he was standing nearby and could roughly see the characteristics of the body, including changes in the skin, muscles, and lividity.
The female forensic doctor said softly, "The deceased was a woman, around 20 years old. No fatal wounds were found on the body, nor were there any signs of struggle or fighting. It can be said that she died peacefully. Judging from the appearance of the mouth and nose, the preliminary judgment is that the cause of death was asphyxiation due to drowning. We will need to take her back for a detailed autopsy."
The young police officer next to him glanced at the footprints on the ground and enthusiastically analyzed, " Captain Yu, these footprints are the same size as the deceased's feet, and the pattern of the footprints is the same as the pattern on the soles of her sneakers. Only the deceased's footprints were found by the lake. Doesn't that prove that this girl committed suicide by drowning?"
Yu Hanjiang said calmly, "Don't jump to conclusions."
The young policeman blushed, scratched his head, and coughed lightly: "I was just guessing..."
Yu Hanjiang turned to look at him: "Call the security guards on duty tonight, as well as the school leader in charge of student affairs, over here. We need to confirm this student's identity first. Before the cause of death is determined, we need to thoroughly investigate the girl's social relationships."
His gaze was fixed on the tree in front of him, staring thoughtfully at the two names.
Just then, the girl who called the police suddenly looked like she'd seen a ghost, her eyes widening in horror: "Xiao-Xiaoxue?!"
Yu Hanjiang suddenly turned around: "You know her?"
Xu Mingyue pointed stiffly at the corpse on the ground and said, "Her face is so swollen that you can't tell who she is, but her clothes and shoes are exactly the same as my roommate Ning Xue's clothes. We went shopping with her the day before yesterday for her birthday!"
Xiao Lou and Liu Qiao exchanged a glance—this was quite convenient; Xu Mingyue, who discovered the deceased, happened to know him. But was Xu Mingyue's appearance by the lake truly a "coincidence"?
Yu Hanjiang walked up to Xu Mingyue and asked casually, "Are you sure this outfit belongs to your roommate?"
Xu Mingyue nodded vigorously: "That's right, I even helped her pick out these clothes."
Yu Hanjiang raised his chin: "Call Ning Xue right now."
Xu Mingyue pulled out her contacts and dialed her roommate's number, but the call went unanswered. Her face grew even paler, and she stared in shock at the corpse on the ground: "Could it really be Xiaoxue?"
Yu Hanjiang: "Do you know where Ning Xue went tonight?"
Xu Mingyue said, "It seems she went on a date with her boyfriend. Tonight is December 31st, and tomorrow is New Year's Day. She said in her dorm that she was going to spend New Year's Eve with her boyfriend and watch the fireworks in the square..."
Yu Hanjiang's gaze swept over the names on the tree: "Is her boyfriend's name Zhang Hengyu?"
Xu Mingyue nodded: "That's right, her boyfriend is very handsome. I think he's a senior from the Forensic Medicine Department at the medical university next door."
Yu Hanjiang wrote down all this information, then walked up to Xiao Lou and asked in a low voice, "I'm sorry to trouble Professor Xiao again. Do you know if there is a student named Zhang Hengyu in the Forensic Medicine Department?"
Xiao Lou remained calm: "I know. He is the class monitor of our Forensic Medicine Department in his third year. This afternoon, he even came to the classroom for my major class and sat next to Liu Qiao."
Liu Qiao paused, recalling the afternoon class. There was indeed a boy sitting next to her. She remembered that the boy was handsome, with long, slender, and fair fingers. He listened attentively throughout the class, and when Xiao Lou explained key points, he buried himself in his notebook taking notes.
He had beautiful handwriting, so neat it looked like printed text. The name on the notebook was indeed Zhang Hengyu.
Liu Qiao nodded in agreement: " Professor Xiao is right. Zhang Hengyu sat next to me during class this afternoon. He listened very attentively and his expression didn't seem unusual."
Yu Hanjiang frowned slightly, his gaze sweeping over the line of words carved on the tree once more.
Zhang Hengyu and Ning Xue will be together forever.
The word "forever" was inexplicably painted red with ink.
Xiao Lou had obviously noticed this as well. He frowned slightly and looked at Yu Hanjiang, saying, "Could it be... a love triangle that led to a murder?"
Yu Hanjiang said, "It's not that simple."
He glanced at the three people present and said calmly, "I would like to trouble you three to come with me to the Police Station to give a statement."
Xiao Lou keenly sensed that Yu Hanjiang had discovered some clues, but Yu Hanjiang refused to tell him a single word—which was understandable, given that Yu Hanjiang was now the captain of the Criminal Police Officers team, while Xiao Lou was just a passerby who happened to be at the crime scene.
When police are investigating a case, they certainly cannot leak confidential information to passersby.
How do I pry it open?
Why is Yu Hanjiang being questioned? What exactly does he feel is wrong?