Live From the Murder Scene - Chapter 12

Chapter 12

    The two of them walked out of the conference room one after another, and He Jueyun looked back.

    Quiet corridors and heavy doors. This narrow road seemed to represent the arrogance of that group of adults, which widened the gap of equality between them and the students, making them forget their original mission and responsibility.

    He Jueyun turned around, regained his composure, and asked, "How can you be sure that those people would be so bold and dare to leave explicit evidence?"

    Qiong Cang said: "Didn't you say that you should make bold guesses and be careful to verify? Wang Dongyan's suicide progress is already 96%. How can we make a breakthrough without taking some special path?"

    "You are too bold." He Jueyun swung his coat behind him and hung it on his shoulders. He put his other hand on Qiong Cang and said with a wicked smile, "But good job!"

    Qiong Cang twitched her lips perfunctorily to respond to his praise: "Actually, I was just cheating. At the beginning, I didn't say what evidence it was. It might be evidence about Tian Yun's death, or a witness, or maybe it was just the surveillance video mentioned in the morning meeting. Only people with ulterior motives will associate and imagine other people's vague descriptions and give unusual reactions. They are facing my temptation and constant detailed descriptions. At this time, there was no obvious emotional change, which shows that their inner guard is basically the same as what I assumed."

    "You also have good insight and adaptability." He Jueyun asked, "I heard that the world you see is special. In your eyes, what do those people look like?"

    Qiong Cang directly ignored his last question and sighed tiredly: "It's just that there are enough people here today. Not everyone has such a strong psychological quality when faced with questioning after committing a crime. The first time they were tempted, it's always easy for loopholes to appear. What's more, their conspiracy has been going so smoothly all this time, so smoothly that they almost forgot about it. So today, when they faced a student they originally despised, and an ordinary low-leveled police officer, their natural arrogance made them relax their vigilance. Subconsciously, they even felt that even if they were discovered by us, it would be no big deal."

    He Jueyun sneered: "They will eventually be buried by their own arrogance."

    ·

    The audience in the live broadcast room had long gone crazy.

    The early stage of this instance could be said to be very boring, and the evidence collection stage was extremely monotonous, causing the number of online viewers to plummet.

    Just when the audience's patience was exhausted, another turning point appeared one after another, and the plot began to develop rapidly.

    Sanyao's forum area was now flooded with various analysis technology posts, and the audience who came here again could only shed two lines of tears at the screen.

    "It's like I was buying the bottom in the middle of the mountain and being shuffled out. I can never catch the hot opportunity. [Crying] I just left for a while, and I can't understand anything anymore."

    "Their own BGM is almost deafening my ears! [Criminally handsome]"

    "The top student did the questions VS me. [Humble] She has a 32x fast forward function, but I still have a 2G network. I want to report it."

    "I watched it with great interest. It turns out that this is the power of 92 points!"

    "What made me think that she was nothing more than that?"

    "This little sister is a person who does big things quietly! The rhythm of every step is at a point that I didn't expect at all."

    "Are you sure she's a little sister? Maybe she's a big boss, right? Her aura shows that she's not an ordinary person."

    "Thank you everyone for your affirmation of my wife. [Shy] We will always be happy."

    "But, how to verify next? There is neither direct evidence nor students willing to come forward. Even if we know what kind of people they are, we cannot conduct searches at will. Getting a glimpse of the behemoth is just the beginning."

    "Lie down and wait for the boss to take me through this level. [Shake your feet] The boss's suicide progress is the fastest I have ever seen among players, but she is also the player I have the most confidence in!"

    "Anyone who commits injustice will inevitably die. Most bad people really die from their own inflation and complacency."

    ·

    The two people on the screen were walking down the emergency staircase corridor and going down the steps.

    The empty stairwell echoed with their footsteps and made their conversation clearer.

    He Jueyun: "Currently, there is not enough evidence to apply for a search of them, and we still don't know whether the evidence they left behind is photos, videos, or items such as diaries."

    He felt a little chilly, threw off his coat and put on his clothes: "The next clue must be hidden in the known information."

    Qiong Cang asked: "What do you mean when you said that the surveillance on the day Tian Yun died was fraudulent?"

    When He Jueyun heard her mention this, his expression became serious, and he did not show off, and described to her in a suppressed voice: "First, the time is falsified. The surveillance video provided by No. 1 Middle School falsified the time. In their video, there were only about seven minutes between Tian Yun passing by in the intersection monitoring and her jumping off the building to commit suicide. The police conducted several experiments based on Tian Yun's walking speed during the surveillance and concluded that she went directly to the rooftop and jumped off the building after returning to the dormitory, without having time to contact the other students. This discovery became strong evidence that Tian Yun committed suicide."

    "Second… Second, according to their surveillance, Tian Yun returned to the dormitory alone. But in the surveillance at the canteen, she was recorded returning to the dormitory with another person that day."

    Qiong Cang had an unoptimistic premonition inexplicably, her eyelids twitched, and she asked: "Who?"

    He Jueyun spit out those three familiar words as expected: "Xiang Qingxi."

    Qiong Cang was filled with mixed emotions for a while.

    When the two of them said this, they had almost reached the door of the Ideological and Political Building.

    They came out of the empty staircase, turned a corner, and saw the girl who had just appeared in the conversation in the suddenly widened field of vision.

    Xiang Qingxi stood in the lobby on the first floor, looking up at a black and white inscription on the wall. The plaque reads, "The great sound is loud, but the elephant is invisible.*" She heard the voice and turned around. 

*Meaning: The greater the achievement, the more penetrating and far-reaching it is. The more generous someone is, the more inclusive they are of all things.

    Xiang Qingxi's tone was a little sad: "Did you really call the police? Do you know what the result will be?"

    "I know." Qiong Cang asked calmly, "Did you kill her?"

    Xiang Qingxi said loudly and urgently: "It's not me!"

    Qiong Cang looked at her, as if examining her. After looking at it for a long time, the disappointment in her eyes overflowed.

    Xiang Qingxi was hurt and said, "What kind of look are you looking at?"

    Qiong Cang said coldly: "So you know who did it."

    Xiang Qingxi was stunned.

    Qiong Cang lowered her gaze and said: "Because a normal person's reaction should be, 'Who?', or, 'Did she really not commit suicide?'. Unless, you have accepted the fact that she did not commit suicide from the beginning."

    The color on Xiang Qingxi's face faded, and her body seemed to have been drained of strength. It shook slightly, making her look extremely fragile.

    "I don't know what you are thinking, but I want to tell you that escaping is never a solution. It seems to be very useful, but once it explodes, it will cause greater damage. And..."

    Qiong Cang took a step closer and looked directly into her eyes, with a strong sense of oppression on her body, "You don't have that kind of psychological resistance to pressure, and you can't bear that kind of responsibility. If you continue to sit back and watch, you will definitely regret it."

    Xiang Qingxi's lips turned white, her muscles all over her body were stiff, and she couldn't say what she wanted to say.

    He Jueyun stood aside solemnly.

    He looked at the crumbling Xiang Qingxi, and then at the trembling from the depths of her body, and even felt a little sympathy for her. Just as he was about to speak, Qiong Cang averted her eyes first, leaving a simple "take care of yourself", passed her, and walked out of the door of the Ideological and Political Building.

    He Jueyun copied a mobile phone number to her and said, "Contact me if you have any questions. Please trust the police. Our goal is actually the same as yours."

    Xiang Qingxi took it without hesitation, not sure if she heard it or not.

    He Jueyun ran quickly to catch up with Qiong Cang.

    Qiong Cang walked very fast. After a while of delay, it was already more than ten meters away from him, with no intention of waiting for him.

    He Jueyun trotted over and asked, "Do you think she killed her?"

    "I don't know." Qiong Cang kicked the stone on the roadside with her foot, "She is very suspicious, isn't she?"

    He Jueyun said: "I don't think so. Her psychological quality is not good at all. Unless she is a drama queen."

    Qiong Cang stared at him silently.

    After a while, He Jueyun couldn't hold it any longer and surrendered: "...Believe me, the jokes you told before were much drier* than this one."

*originally “much colder” as in a cold joke, bad/dry humor jokes.

    Qiong Cang: "Oh..." It hurts too much. She felt it was a slander.

    Qiong Cang was blinded by the direct sunlight.

    He Jueyun glanced at the direction she was walking and found that she was neither going to the dormitory nor the classroom. He frowned and said, "What do you want to do next?"

    Qiong Cang: "Look for evidence."

    He Jueyun: "Where are you going to find evidence? Is there really evidence in Zhou Nansong's hand? Isn't that just you bluffing them?"

    Qiong Cang said: "I don't know, but I think it's very possible. Maybe Wang Dongyan has seen it, so she acted so lost during the period before Zhou Nansong committed suicide. Follow the clues and keep looking. So far, no conclusive evidence has been found.”

    Qiong Cang took out her phone, clicked on the interface, and said: "If there is really evidence, Zhou Nansong will not put it in the school, because after her death, the school will probably search her things. It shouldn't be left at home. Her mother obviously didn’t know about it. If she had left the thing at home, no one might find it, and the matter would be fruitless.”

    He Jueyun murmured in a low voice: "Where could that be..."

    Qiong Cang said: "A place that we can't expect, but we will definitely notice."

    He Jueyun felt that this description was too fantastical. They didn't know Zhou Nansong that well, so how could they know where she hid her things?

    He Jueyun pursed his lips, and suddenly there was a flash of lightning in his mind, and he said: "By the way, I remembered it. The owner of the canteen told me before that Zhou Nansong liked to buy all kinds of stationery from him. Notebooks, pens, tapes, something like that. If she was mentally unstable at the time and her best friend had passed away, do you think it would be possible for her to write down her thoughts in a small notebook? This is a good habit."

    Qiong Cang stopped, looked at him and said seriously: "There are no special notebooks on her desk. There are no piles of stationery either."

    He Jueyun pondered: "Did her mother bring her home? Or was she hidden somewhere to avoid outsiders' investigation?"

    "Her textbooks and homework are all in the school. Why did her mother take away her notebook alone?" Qiong Cang said, and she became confused, "Why did she buy so many tapes and notebooks?"

    He Jueyun explained: "It's not necessarily just a matter of preference. You may not know that there is a special circle called the notebook circle, where some enthusiasts will gather together to discuss how to decorate a notebook to make it look better and more distinctive. If more people pay attention, the economic effect will spawn related industries. Selling notebooks, selling tapes, selling creative collages..."

    As he spoke, his voice softened, and the two looked at each other, as if they had thought of some overlooked detail.

    Qiong Cang said: "I want to go home."

    He Jueyun immediately said: "I'll send you back."

    Qiong Cang found it incomprehensible: "Why are you so clingy to me? You can go ask Xiang Qingxi and the people around her, or you can go to Zhou Nansong's family members to apply. Can you check Zhou Nansong's social records before her death? Take advantage of your status and you can do a lot of things."

    "The most important thing I need to do right now is to make sure you don't commit suicide." He Jueyun had to remind her, "Your suicide progress is already 96%. I want to prioritize your personal safety."

    ·

    He Jueyun sent Qiong Cang home and left temporarily to deal with other matters. Before leaving, he repeatedly asked her to stay at home and call him in time if anything happened.

    He was a thick* man who suddenly turned into a nagging mother-in-law**, as if he was facing a terminally ill patient, leaving Qiong Cang very speechless.

*thicc. (seriously.) Original text is 三五大粗. In ancient times, the "five bigs" referred to "big hands, big feet, big ears, broad shoulders, and fat hips", while the "three thick" refers to "thick waist, thick legs, and thick neck". Describes someone who is tall and stout.
**a term that describes a person who is very nagging and long-winded, like an old woman who talks endlessly. It can also be used to describe a person who is ineffective in doing things, likes to be sloppy in doing things, and is not straightforward.

    Fortunately, the journey was not far. After Qiong Cang got out of the car, she walked into the house and said goodbye to him.

    Wang Dongyan's room, like her dormitory, was very neat. After Qiong Cang entered the bedroom, she walked directly to the desk and rummaged through the information on it.

    Qiong Cang originally thought that Zhou Nansong might give her account to Wang Dongyan and let her take it home. But Qiong Cang searched the whole house and found nothing similar.

    ...Also, Zhou Nansong probably doesn't trust Wang Dongyan to this extent yet.

    She was a little helpless and could only start searching honestly from the details.

    There was a row of cabinets on the left side of Wang Dongyan's desk, and there were several sketchbooks* in the cabinets.

*originally 画册, picture albums, but I assume it’s more of a book of drawing, so took some liberties to translate it as sketchbook

    It could also be seen from Wang Dongyan's drafts that she should be very interested in manhua. Qiong Cang intuitively felt that this would be a breakthrough, so she put the sketchbooks on the table and read them carefully page by page.

    Qiong Cang didn't know much about manhua, so she read them carefully to prevent Wang Dongyan from hiding information in the drafts.

    This was another period of stillness.

    Looking through drawings was even more time-consuming than looking through messy drafts, especially when you don’t know how the other party would convey the message.

    Fortunately, Wang Dongyan didn't have many sketchbooks. After about an hour, the cabinet was emptied smoothly.

    Qiong Cang sat quietly for a while, dazed, then put down the last book on her right hand side, her face as heavy as water, then pulled out the first book from the bottom and started to open it again.

    Netizens who saw this scene suddenly felt collapsed, and their excited hearts felt as if a bucket of dry ice had been poured on them.

    "Starting again? I just came here and entered the hang-up search mode again?"

    "It's better to look at the pictures than to read the final exam questions for the third year high school students. Stop complaining."

    "Don't tell me, this drawing is quite beautiful, much more exquisite than many internet celebrity artists."

    "The information in this instance is too scattered, the clues are hidden very deep, and the difficulty is too high."

    "...Even the boss didn't find anything. Doesn't that mean she's looking in the wrong direction?"

    "The simple way would be to start with Xiang Qingxi, but the boss's suicide progress is already 96%, and she may not be able to wait until Xiang Qingxi wakes up."

    ·

    The speed of searching through the sketchbooks was much faster the second time. Qiong Cang actually had them in mind, and just looked at them again to see if they would be clearer.

    In less than half an hour, the second check was completed.

    Qiong Cang put the thing down, pressed the back of her neck, and moved her bones.

    She rested her head on her hands, leaned back on the chair, and looked ahead without focus.

    She could vaguely feel the clues before her eyes, but she couldn't catch them. The feeling of not being able to scratch the itch made her extremely uncomfortable.

    Qiong Cang was bored and took out her mobile phone again to check various software.

    Qiong Cang had reviewed several social software on Wang Dongyan’s mobile phone before. In the commonly used login account, there would be a relatively hidden secondary account*.

*originally 小号; literally Trumpet, a Chinese slang, usually refers to the auxiliary account that players apply for in addition to playing on a main account. The 'trumpet' level is generally lower, costs the player less money and energy, and mainly plays a supporting role. Also known as sheep number, resource number, and farmer number. It also means a secondary account to social media, etc.

    Wang Dongyan had a bad relationship with Zhou Nansong before, so she used a secondary account to quietly follow Zhou Nansong's social updates. It's absolutely normal. Many people will pay attention to their "opponents", not necessarily what they want to do.

    On WeChat, the two of them were friends in class because they were classmates.

    On Weibo, Wang Dongyan's second account only paid attention to the marketing account and system account forced in by the software, and then a living account that was suspected to be Zhou Nansong's, and the update time of the other party's account did indeed stay on the eve of her death.

    There was only dy*, a short video software, where Wang Dongyan had only one login account, and had not posted any information or followed anyone.

*author wrote it out as ‘dy’. I’m assuming it’s Douyin, aka Chinese Tiktok

    At first Qiong Cang thought it was because Wang Dongyan didn't like playing with this software, but now that she thought about it, maybe Zhou Nansong logged out herself. After the account was canceled, the followers would not receive any prompts, and it was impossible to verify whether Wang Dongyan had followed her before.

    Then Zhou Nansong's move of deliberately canceling her account became very meaningful. Was she afraid that someone would find something by following the account number?

    Qiong Cang tapped the screen with her fingers. After a moment of reflection, she opened the sketchbooks again and rummaged through the date to find the latest drawing.

    The drawing was not finished, and even the draft was only half-done, making it impossible to tell what the finished product would look like. And above the drawing, there was a line of words written: "Meow Meow in the Attic."

    The font was very sloppy.

    Most of Wang Dongyan's drawings contained (human) figures, with few animals. This "Meow" seemed very different. Perhaps it was not the title of the drawing, but the information Wang Dongyan conveniently recorded on the latest page.

    "Meow Meow in the attic..." Qiong Cang murmured and searched on Douyin*.

*Confirmed, it’s 抖音 Douyin / Chinese TikTok

    After a short connection prompt, an account with the same ID actually appeared in the results column.

    Qiong Cang clicked on the other party's homepage and found that the account owner was also a handbook enthusiast.

    This Meow Meow person should be a person with relatively well-off financial conditions. She occasionally posted some unboxing videos, telling her fans where she purchased the materials and how she bought them, and what the quality was like, to make recommendations to everyone.

    Qiong Cang cheered up and started searching in the videos uploaded by the other party, and soon found a suspected unboxing video.

    She amplified the sound and clicked on the video to play it.

    A pair of hands and a huge box appeared in the camera, and the uploader*, with a voice changer turned on, was explaining in the background.

*original text: Up主, a term originated from Japan, meaning a person who uploads videos, audios or other resources on video websites, resource websites, etc

    "This is an email sent from City A. The other party said that she wanted to withdraw from the circle, so she sold everything to me at a half discount. I didn't expect the box to be so big. Let's take a look at it together now."

    She took out the items one by one.

    Qiong Cang didn’t recognize those pens, but from the uploader’s tone, she seemed very surprised.

    When she got to the back of the box, the uploader’s surprise was filled with fear and suspicion.

    "Isn't this sold too cheap? This is impossible. Did xiao jiejie* make a mistake?"

*internet slang that became popular due to anime, its early meaning was the way fans call cute girls. Now it’s just a cutesy way to call a young lady

    The hand in the video picked up another book and flipped it through. She could see that it was densely filled with words.

    She said: "This book has already been used. Why did you send it to me? I'm sure she packed it wrong. I'll contact her again then."

    She hesitated and then said: "Actually, I placed this order in March, but it just arrived two days ago. I thought she was a scammer before, because she suddenly couldn't be contacted later. Unexpectedly, I received another express delivery notice a few days ago. I will try it again. If anyone knows this xiao jiejie, please help and tell me. That’s it for today’s unpacking, bye~"

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