Chapter 140

Chapter 140

Life is always full of surprises.

For example, you may wake up to find a murder case, not knowing who died, or you may wake up to find not only a murder case but also a man sleeping by your pillow.

Although your body feels normal and your clothes only have the usual wrinkles without any other traces, this is shocking enough.

Jian Jing reviewed the system prompt again and glanced at Zong Xunmei, who was leaning his head lazily. She highly suspected that the murderer was this guy.

If that was the case, she would twist his head off.

But at that time, she left the bed calmly without even looking at him. Only the loud sound of the door slamming revealed her anger.

"What a heartless girl," Zong Xunmei sighed slowly and sat up. His gaze suddenly fell on the slippers.

Tiny bright lights flashed by.

He kicked the slippers under the bed casually.

"That was close."

Jian Jing went back to her room, took a shower, changed her clothes, and was drying her hair when she heard panicked shouts coming from Yang Xiao's villa.Rêạd new chapters at novelhall.com

Yang Xiao was dead.

She had to crack this case.

--

Let's go back to the present now.

Jian Jing roughly outlined the timeline based on her memory, then asked others to supplement with more details.

Kang Mu Cheng has a good memory and strong sense of time. He quickly went over his movements - they largely overlapped with Si Yingjie's.

At 7:40 p.m., they went to Si Yingjie’s room to drink until 1:30 a.m. Except for going to the bathroom, they barely left each other's sight.

If he had to pick a time, it was 10:13 p.m. when Kang Mu Cheng took a phone call that lasted 18 minutes - the call records clearly showed this.

At 1:30 a.m., Kang Mu Cheng and Si Yingjie fell asleep.

Sometime around 3 a.m., Kang Mu Cheng woke up, put a blanket on his friend, and went back to his room to sleep until he was woken up after 6 a.m.

Next were Ai Lina and Yao Yao.

After playing cards, they went to drink and stargaze on the balcony, only separating once.

That was at 10:40 p.m. when they finished the bottle of wine they brought out. Yao Yao went back to the bar and got some beer before returning.

Yao Yao said, "At 10:30 p.m., my phone alarm went off - that's my usual bedtime. I said then that it was getting late and asked if we should go to bed. Ai Lina said it was rare to admire the starry sky and wanted to drink a little more. So we finished the remaining wine, and I went to get more beer from the bar. But when I came back around 10:45 p.m., Ai Lina had already passed out drunk."

Ai Lina smiled and said, "I woke up when she came back. It should have been around 10:45 p.m."

"Why do you remember so clearly?"

"The beer spilled on my phone and I saw the time when I was wiping it."

Yao Yao added, "We probably drank until around 12:10 a.m. I took Ai Lina back to her room. Oh, I remember seeing A Xu smoking on the balcony then and said hi to him."

A Xu nodded, "Yes, I remember that."

Then they started going over his and Yin Coach's account.

The two of them left the dining room at 8 p.m. and were together the whole time without separating. At 10:50 p.m., A Xu called the bar counter, but the bartender had been pulled away by Zong Xunmei. So he had to go get the drinks himself.

It was probably around 11 p.m. when he went to the bar and came back to the room at... Yin Coach picked up his phone and looked: "After he came back with the drinks, I sent a photo - hmm, 10:21 p.m. So he probably came back around 10:15 p.m."

Jian Jing asked, "Your room wasn't far from the bar, why did it take so long?"

"I was smoking," A Xu explained. "Tongtong doesn't like the smell of smoke."

However, looking at the height, Jian Jing felt it wouldn't be too difficult to climb up here.

Since the first floor had an open concept without doors and was surrounded by low half walls and shrubs, it allowed good ventilation.

Climbing onto the short wall would bring you very close to the decorative line on the second floor. You could carefully walk across that part of the exterior, go around half the house, and reach the window outside the master bedroom.

Jian Jing tested this successfully using her own room.

Though for women, those shorter like Yao Yao and Yin Coach possibly couldn't reach.

Ai Lina could probably do it.

Jian Jing pondered and thought of another question - trespassing like this takes quite some time. Among everyone, who would have the opportunity to commit murder?

Kang Mu Cheng and Si Yingjie were separated from 10:13 p.m. to 10:31 p.m.; Yao Yao and Ai Lina were separated from 10:38 p.m. (deducting 2 minutes for the walking distance) to 10:45 p.m.; A Xu and Yin Coach were separated from 11 p.m. to 11:15 p.m.

Also, her memory was missing from 11 p.m. to 12:45 a.m. Zong Xunmei may not have stayed at the bar the whole time.

Zong Xunmei was the most suspicious.

With his physical abilities, trespassing and murder should be no problem.

The question was - what was his motive?

The system prompt mentioned a love triangle.

It was known that Si Yingjie and Yang Xiao were once boyfriend and girlfriend, and Ai Lina was his ex-wife. A Xu and Coach Yin were boyfriend and girlfriend. Yang Xiao was once engaged, but her fiancé died.

Where did the complicated relationships come from? They were all exes!

Could there be some unknown side stories?

Jian Jing decided to find someone to investigate.

The first choice was naturally Si Yingjie.

When he talked about Yang Xiao, he went on and on, as if he could talk for three days and three nights.

"Xiaoxiao and I started dating in college. She was independent, not pretentious at all, and very capable. At that time, our club had a lot going on, and she arranged everything clearly. I really admired girls like her back then, so I decided to pursue her right away.

"The first two years were really good. She didn't care about trivial things or who I was with. I was faithful to her too, never fooled around with anyone else. It wasn't until later when we graduated that things changed. She joined her family's company, but I wasn't happy doing that kind of work. I wanted to pursue my own interests.

"Because of this, we were often apart, and slowly began to argue. She wanted me to be more mature and have my own career, even if I didn't want to work for the family business. The arguments got worse and worse, until neither of us wanted to fight anymore. We decided we weren't right for each other and broke up.

"Her family arranged matchmaking dates, and after a year she got engaged to the eldest son of the Li family. That guy was a bit like Mu Cheng, ambitious and ready to take over the family business, so I guess they got along well. But he died so young, such a pity."

Jian Jing finally heard the key information and quickly asked, "Were you very close with her fiancé?"

Si Yingjie said, "I knew him, but we weren't very close. Mu Cheng probably had more contact with him?"

"He was two years older than us. I heard when he was young he was quite wild, doing extreme sports. He almost died once and was hospitalized for half a year. After he got out, he calmed down." Kang Mu Cheng knew more details, as expected.

Jian Jing hesitated before asking again, "So Yang Xiao only had two romantic relationships, with you and her fiancé?"

Si Yingjie frowned. "Why are you asking this?"

"Murder usually has two motives, passion or revenge," Jian Jing said openly. "I want to know who Yang Xiao had a grudge against, and if she had any other romantic disputes."

Hesitation flashed across Si Yingjie's face, as if recalling something.

Jian Jing keenly guessed, "Was it A Xu, Yao Yao, or maybe Ai Lina?"

The only friends who could make Si Yingjie hesitate were probably these two and his ex-wife.

"A Xu pursued Xiao Xiao in college, but that was a long time ago." He said slowly. "Actually, I suspect Ai Lina."

Jian Jing: "Oh?"

It was rare to see Si Yingjie show hesitation as he half-revealed, "To be honest, I've always felt something was off about Ai Lina."