"The person who got my and Liu Qiao's hair is most likely Zhang Hengyu."
Xiao Lou's conclusion unexpectedly made Tang Ci frown. Although he was not very clear about the details of the case, he had roughly learned from Xiao Lou and Liu Qiao's descriptions that there were two victims in this murder case—the first was Ning Xue, a student at the Music Conservatory, who drowned; the other was Zhang Hengyu, a student at the Forensic Medicine Department, and the two were lovers.
But now, Xiao Lou actually suspects the deceased?
Tang Ci asked doubtfully, "You mean, the victim who died at the Medical School... Zhang Hengyu?"
Xiao Lou's expression was serious. He nodded and said earnestly, "First of all, the fact that my hair and Liu Qiao's hair were found in the autopsy room allows the police to identify us as suspects through genetic testing of the hair. Therefore, the person who framed us must have been able to get close to both of us, obtain our hair samples, and place them at the crime scene."
"Before yesterday, Liu Qiao and I were complete strangers in this world."
" Liu Qiao's Medical School and the Forensic Medicine Department are not in the same building; the girls' dormitory in the Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine is also far from the teachers' offices. The areas where Liu Qiao usually hangs out have almost no overlap with the places I frequent."
"Until yesterday afternoon, Liu Qiao came to the Forensic Medicine Department to listen to my lecture and sat in the classroom where I was teaching. That was also the first time Liu Qiao and I crossed paths in this world—if Hunter wanted to frame both of us at the same time, that was the best opportunity."
Listening to Xiao Lou's detailed analysis, Tang Ci gradually realized that Professor Xiao's statement made a lot of sense.
Suppose Hunter arrived in this world ahead of time, took someone else's identity, and planned to frame Xiao Lou and Liu Qiao so that they would be arrested. In that case, he would have to find a suitable opportunity to get close to Liu Qiao and Xiao Lou.
Guardian couldn't simply hand over Xiao Lou and Liu Qiao's hair to him; if he wanted this "evidence," he would have to retrieve it himself. As Xiao Lou said, yesterday afternoon, Liu Qiao's sudden appearance at Xiao Lou's class was the perfect opportunity.
Zhang Hengyu happened to be sitting next to Liu Qiao yesterday afternoon. What a coincidence!
Xiao Lou continued, " Liu Qiao has long hair, which is simply tied in a ponytail at the back of her head. It would be easy for someone sitting next to her to take a hair from her when she's not looking. And during breaks, Zhang Hengyu happens to ask me questions. It wouldn't be difficult for him to take my hair when he's on the podium. He's the only person who has ever been close to both me and Liu Qiao at the same time."
Tang Ci said, "Assuming your reasoning is correct, and Zhang Hengyu took the hair, but Zhang Hengyu was murdered in the lab building, and his body was even made into a specimen... He couldn't have framed you while dissecting himself. Is there someone else who's the killer? Did the Hunter team have internal strife, and Zhang Hengyu was killed by his comrades?"
It's impossible for a victim to also be a murderer.
Xiao Lou pondered for a moment, then suddenly said, "What if Zhang Hengyu is just an innocent passerby, acting under someone's orders?"
Tang Ci was taken aback: "So, Zhang Hengyu was used by Hunter?"
Xiao Lou carefully recalled the details since the incident and said, "Let's go through the timeline. I feel like something's not right."
Tang Ci took out paper and pen: "Okay, Professor Xiao, please speak."
Xiao Lou organized his thoughts and said one by one: "Yesterday afternoon at 2:30, Liu Qiao came to my classroom. We spent the next two hours in the classroom. After class, around 4:30, Liu Qiao came to my office to discuss going to the Music Conservatory to find Ye Qi. We went to the Music Conservatory together and found out that Ye Qi would be participating in the singer finals that night."
" Liu Qiao and I had a quick dinner, and at 7:30 we followed the audience into the final venue. Ye Qi went on stage to sing at 8:50. Around 9:50, Ye Qi finished her performance, and Liu Qiao and I left the audience to go backstage to find Ye Qi. We took a photo with Ye Qi at 9:55."
"However, at 9:00 AM, a phone number starting with 136 called Ning Xue, and the two talked for 5 minutes. Around 9:10 AM, Liu Qiao and I walked out of the stadium and heard screams from the lake. Then we discovered a body in the lake. I asked Xu Mingyue to call the police. The police arrived at the scene around 9:30 AM, retrieved the body, and confirmed that Ning Xue had been dead for less than an hour."
Xiao Lou stopped abruptly at this point... What exactly was wrong?
The timeline felt too tight, as if it were a pre-arranged script by the murderer, with him and Liu Qiao acting out scene by scene. But what if something went wrong in any part of the process? Wouldn't it all fall apart?
How did the murderer know that he and Liu Qiao would definitely come out of the stadium at 9 o'clock? What if they came out half an hour later or half an hour earlier? Wouldn't someone be able to provide them with an alibi?
Tang Ci also noticed the discrepancy in the timing.
He frowned as he looked at the key time points listed in the notebook. "Could it be that the murderer was monitoring your movements at all times, and the moment he saw you about to leave the stadium, he immediately called Ning Xue to meet him at the lake and pushed him into it? But what if Ning Xue had been a few minutes slower on his way there? Wouldn't the murderer's plan have gone awry?"
The time was too tight.
The phone call was made at 9:00 AM, the murder was planned, and Xiao Lou and Liu Qiao appeared at the lakeside at 9:10 AM. The killer only had 10 minutes to commit the crime—it was too risky. Even the slightest unexpected event—for example, Xiao Lou and Liu Qiao leaving early, or Ning Xue exchanging a few words with an acquaintance on her way to the lake… his meticulous planning…
Traps are easy to fall into.
Xiao Lou and Tang Ci exchanged a glance and fell into deep thought.
Suddenly, Tang Ci thought of a key point: " Professor Xiao, when people encounter important events, don't they generally have a habit of arriving at the scene in advance to prepare?"
When facing important matters such as long-distance travel, job interviews, or meetings with superiors, people usually allow ample time to arrive at the scene early. What if there's traffic congestion on the way? What if something unexpected happens upon arrival? Wouldn't that cause delays?
No one would time things so precisely, especially something as difficult as framing someone for murder.
A thought flashed through Xiao Lou's mind. He looked up and said, "You're right, the murderer must have arrived at the scene beforehand. Ning Xue's time of death wasn't 9 o'clock."
Tang Ci's gaze was calm, and she thought of the same thing as Xiao Lou: "Was there something wrong with that phone call at 9 pm last night?"
Xiao Lou nodded: "It was a fake call by the murderer. The call went through, but the person who answered wasn't Ning Xue at all."
A called B's number and talked for 5 minutes; the call log is on the phone. But can you be sure that A definitely made the call and B definitely answered?
Without video evidence, no one knows who has the phone.
Tang Ci said, "It seems that Ning Xue's phone was already in the hands of the murderer at 9 pm last night. He used Professor Xiao's number to make a call while using Ning Xue's number to answer the phone, and fabricated a five-minute call record between Professor Xiao and Ning Xue."
Xiao Lou said with a stern face, "At that time, Ning Xue was already dead, and her body had sunk into the lake. The murderer killed Ning Xue long before Liu Qiao and I went backstage to find Ye Qi."
Tang Ci mentally simulated the scene, saying, "The murderer should have been lurking in the shadows, pushing Ning Xue into the lake around 8:30, and then waiting for you and Liu Qiao to appear. He should have known very well that you came to the Music Conservatory to find Ye Qi, and he also knew the program schedule for the Music Conservatory singer finals. On the schedule, Ye Qi was supposed to perform on stage at 8:50. So, he roughly calculated the time, and when you went backstage to find Ye Qi and were about to leave the stadium, he took out the phone with your SIM card in it and called Ning Xue."
Tang Ci paused for a moment and then said, " Professor Xiao, think carefully. Did you see anyone special backstage at the time?"
Upon hearing Tang Ci's reminder, a scene suddenly flashed through Xiao Lou's mind—when he and Liu Qiao came out from backstage, they did encounter a person dressed in volunteer clothing, wearing a mask, squatting in a corner arranging balloons backstage. The person only showed them their back, and Xiao Lou assumed that he/she was a staff member of the event and did not pay any attention to it.
Looking back now, the balloons on the stage were already arranged in the correct shape, and the balloons backstage were extras that were not needed. The event was not over yet, so wasn't it too early for the staff to tidy up the balloons?
Xiao Lou took a deep breath and said, "Last night, when Liu Qiao and I came out of the backstage area, we saw a staff member wearing a volunteer uniform and a mask, squatting in a corner arranging balloons. I didn't see the person's face clearly, but it's very likely that he was the one who had been watching our movements and created the illusion that I was talking to the deceased after Liu Qiao and I came out."
In other words, when Xiao Lou and Liu Qiao walked out of the backstage dressing room and were looking for an exit in the maze-like stadium, the passerby "staff member" who was hiding in a corner and had a very low profile secretly took out his phone from his pocket and dialed Ning Xue's number using the number 136, creating the illusion that " Xiao Lou and Ning Xue talked for 5 minutes".
At this point, Ning Xue was already dead.
After Xiao Lou and Liu Qiao left the stadium, they heard screams from the lakeside. When they went over, they discovered a body, which led to a police investigation.
Then this person returned to the Medical School, and under some pretext, found Zhang Hengyu, obtained the hair samples that Zhang Hengyu had collected from Xiao Lou and Liu Qiao, took Zhang Hengyu to the autopsy room and killed him, and then placed Xiao Lou and Liu Qiao's hair at the crime scene.
Of course, it's possible that Hunter was involved in the crime with two or more people, and that someone else killed Zhang Hengyu.
Regardless, the staff member behind the scenes was quite suspicious. He was able to accurately track Xiao Lou and Liu Qiao's movements and timing, thus creating temporal evidence for the police.
Tang Ci said, " I will investigate the person Professor Xiao mentioned as soon as possible. He is very likely the murderer who killed Ning Xue. By the way, Xiao Liu has some suspicions about Xu Mingyue, feeling that Xu Mingyue's appearance was too coincidental. What does Professor Xiao think?"
Xu Mingyue appeared by the lake, and her scream caught the attention of Xiao Lou and Liu Qiao, which was indeed somewhat of a coincidence.
Xiao Lou thought about Xu Mingyue's behavior at the time and guessed, "She shouldn't be the murderer. She was trembling with fear, but she seemed normal. If she were the murderer, she wouldn't be stupid enough to call Ning Xue and leave evidence like a call record. Besides, she did ride her bicycle to the library with her backpack, but she stopped when her bicycle got a flat tire by the lake."
Tang Ci was taken aback: "A tire blowout?"
Xiao Lou said, "There are nails by the lake, which should have been left by the murderer. Xu Mingyue was probably deliberately lured here by the murderer to be a witness to the discovery of the body and to lure me and Liu Qiao out."
Tang Ci lowered his head and wrote down all the information, saying, "I understand. The key points to investigate next are the staff member who appeared in the Music Conservatory's backstage area and the dismemberment murderer who had a good relationship with Zhang Hengyu and led him to the laboratory building. As long as we find these two people, or the same person, we can clear you and Liu Qiao of suspicion."
Xiao Lou looked at Tang Ci and said softly, "I can't leave yet. If I break out of prison, the police can openly issue a warrant for my arrest or even shoot me."
Therefore, I'll have to trouble you and Liu Qiao to find out the truth as soon as possible.
Tang Ci nodded to him: "Don't worry, I'll go first. Be careful here too."
Liu Qiao's transformation card has a time limit; she can't stay in it for too long.
Xiao Lou stood up and watched him leave. Among Ninth Brother's former teammates, Tang Ci was the most logically rigorous. Xiao Lou believed that with Tang Ci's help, the truth would soon come to light.