Chapter 28

Time passed swiftly, and as evening fell, the weather became stifling again. The air was thick, and although a thunderstorm loomed, it never materialized. At half-past six in the afternoon, Song Wen gathered all relevant personnel for another meeting, including Lin Xiuran, who had just returned from the hospital.

The atmosphere in the meeting room turned solemn. No one anticipated that just as the case was about to be clarified, it hit a snag. No key witnesses, no crucial physical evidence; all they could establish was Lin Wanwan’s knowledge of Guo Hua hiding poison.

What transpired that night?

They had gone through the related case files multiple times, and everyone was exhausted. Song Wen listed all the relevant information and deduction processes on the whiteboard.

On the left side of the whiteboard was the deduction process and motive assuming Guo Hua was the main culprit. On the right side was the deduction process assuming Lin Wanwan was the main culprit. At the bottom of the whiteboard was a section for other possibilities.

The left side was clear and coherent, but the right side was sparse. Song Wen drew a question mark and circled Lin Wanwan’s name, saying, “We haven’t clarified Lin Wanwan’s situation yet. Let’s assume if the situation is different from what Lin Wanwan said, and Guo Hua is an accomplice or unaware, and Lin Wanwan is the main culprit, then how did she kill her classmates using Guo Hua’s chocolate and poison?”

Posing this question, everyone fell silent. Fu Linjiang lowered his head, Zhu Xiao leaned against the side, Lao Jia looked somewhat dispirited, and Lu Siyu remained silent. Their current knowledge didn’t lead to any conclusions.

Earlier, Zhu Xiao quickly organized the testimonies of surrounding witnesses, and some details were unexpected for Song Wen. He thought Lin Wanwan frequently changed jobs due to time constraints or being dismissed by employers. However, in their inquiries, they found that Lin Wanwan had quit almost all of her jobs herself and rejected the bosses’ attempts to raise her salary.

This girl seemed to be gaining social experience in those shops as her mood dictated.

During their phone inquiries, everyone reported that Lin Wanwan was gentle, humble, and unassuming. Apart from telling them a lie, she seemed innocent without any blemish.

“Let’s go through all the physical evidence again.” With the case at a standstill, Song Wen could only start organizing the relevant evidence.

Xu Yao said, “Xiao Cheng, bring all the photos. Let’s go through them again.”

Shortly after, Xiao Cheng copied all the materials. On the projector, they started reviewing the crime scene evidence photos. If anyone noticed anything suspicious, they would ask questions. When the photos reached the one where Ma Aijing had been hugging the quilt, Lin Xiuran frowned and pointed to a particular spot, asking, “What’s that?”

Xiao Cheng zoomed in on the crime scene photo, revealing two oval-shaped brown marks at the head of the bed. The two oval points were almost parallel, about ten centimeters apart.

“Perhaps it’s the imprint of smeared chocolate.” Xiao Cheng zoomed in further, making the details much clearer.

“No, it’s not a smear.” Lin Xiuran said as he took a few steps forward, retrieved the photo of Ma Aijing’s death, and pointed out that the position was more apparent when the quilt covered the lower half of her face.

Lin Xiuran demonstrated, “These are chocolate stains on the suspect’s right hand fingers left while pressing the quilt tightly.”

As he said this, everyone was shocked. Before confirming the cause of death, they had focused on finding things related to poison. However, they overlooked traces left near the victim who died from suffocation.

Xiao Cheng hurried to the evidence room, bringing back the quilt. Following the fold marks on the quilt, those two marks were exactly where the suspect tightly gripped the quilt downwards.

“Could someone be trying to lift the quilt and leave behind these marks?” Fu Linjiang looked at the traces.

“No.” Xu Yao picked up the quilt and examined it carefully. As a trace expert, she immediately concluded, “This trace requires gripping the quilt very tightly and exerting a lot of force to press it down. There are corresponding wrinkles in the adjacent position, indicating that the assailant used both hands to grip the quilt tightly and pressed it down. The chocolate should have covered the quilt when it was wet, permeating the fabric’s texture. In any case, this mark must have been left by the assailant who killed Ma Aijing.”

Song Wen asked Xu Yao, “Does this mark have any value for extraction?”

Xiao Cheng quickly moved to the side, and Xu Yao lowered her head, carefully examining the two marks. After a moment of contemplation, she said, “There’s enough chocolate to extract, but the fibers on the quilt aren’t enough to extract fingerprints. Even if we find these two marks, we can’t prove whether they were left by Guo Hua or Lin Wanwan.”

This sentence once again plunged everyone into silence. The glimmer of hope they had just found was extinguished.

Lu Siyu stared at the evidence photos printed on the table, his lips lightly pursed. They had previously reasoned about the scene, deducing some relationships, but now he doubted his own reasoning. Suddenly, he felt that what he saw was what others wanted him to see—clean, deliberate. These things were like mist, concealing the motive behind the crime.

Thinking about this, Lu Siyu blinked and spoke, “I feel like we’ve entered a misconception. We are all fixated on what happened that night, but I think we should dig into what happened in these four years, what happened in this dormitory, what kind of people they were.”

Four years, a dorm room, living together day and night— a sentence, a gesture, could lead to conflicts or escalation. Today, you could be friends, and tomorrow, you might have a fight. The dynamics were something that the girls from a few random dorms couldn’t fully comprehend. But now, with the direct parties deceased, they could only investigate, explore, and speculate from the surrounding environment.

Lao Jia said, “No, isn’t it clear enough? Guo Hua hiding poison, Guo Hua buying chocolate, Guo Hua having a grudge against them, wanting them dead. I just don’t understand why you all insist on suspecting Lin Wanwan. What has she done? What are we assuming?”

Song Wen thought for a moment and said, “There are still some doubts in the case. Let’s investigate more carefully. Zhu Xiao, tonight we’ll work overtime and do another round of home visits. Make sure to thoroughly understand each family.”

Zhu Xiao nodded, “Yes.”

Song Wen put the cap back on his pen, “Let’s review it again later. Think about what breakthrough points we might have.”

Breakthrough points… new breakthrough points that could reveal the truth. For a while, everyone furrowed their brows in thought.

Song Wen turned to look at Lu Siyu. He lowered his head, his brows slightly furrowed, and his handsome face grew paler. It seemed like he was deep in thought. When he noticed Song Wen’s gaze, he raised his head slightly and spoke, “I think we can try probing her.”

“With what?” Song Wen looked at him.

“With Guo Hua,” Lu Siyu stared directly at him, his eyes sharp. Currently, only the police knew Guo Hua’s condition. If Lin Wanwan lied in her description of that night, she might be the person least willing for Guo Hua to wake up.

Fu Linjiang immediately agreed, “I think this plan is feasible, and we don’t have any better alternatives right now. It’s just that we probably need cooperation from Forensic Doctor Lin to make the act more convincing.”

Song Wen nodded, agreeing with this plan, “Let’s go over the process.”

After a simple arrangement, Song Wen set various time points, considering and saying, “I’ll go first. After I leave, Lao Jia, you come in, and Lu Siyu, you interrogate her.”

Lu Siyu was somewhat surprised by this arrangement, “Why Lao Jia?” He asked without much consideration, feeling that it wasn’t appropriate after saying it. In the days since he joined, he hadn’t communicated much with Lao Jia. This veteran detective clearly wasn’t a good partner, and he persisted in believing Lin Wanwan was innocent, making it difficult for them to collaborate. But after asking this, he felt a bit of disdain, as if he was retaliating against Lao Jia for his previous rebuttal. Lao Jia looked at him without saying anything.

Song Wen explained, “Just now, we each went in to question her. She spoke the most with Lao Jia, and her demeanor was the most relaxed. I want to try to put her in a comfortable environment for the probing.”

Lu Siyu nodded, agreeing with Song Wen’s arrangement.

With the arrangements made, Lu Siyu and Song Wen entered the interrogation room. Lin Wanwan had just had a short break. When she saw the two of them come in, she sat up straight and greeted, “Good evening.” There were no clocks or windows in the interrogation room, and all ventilation relied on a small exhaust fan. She judged the time based on her routine and biological clock. It was already evening, and she had been questioned all day in this cramped interrogation room.

Song Wen didn’t answer her; he sat across from her, adjusted the lamp on the table, while Lu Siyu sat beside, opening a notebook.

“Do you want to see the tragic scene after your classmates died?” This time, Song Wen didn’t ask a question but spread out several photos in front of her. The girls in the pictures looked horrifyingly dead.

Lin Wanwan’s eyes lowered, not showing fear but also not flipping open the photos. After a two-second hesitation, she spoke, “No need, I almost became one of them.”

Song Wen asked the second question, “At that time, you were the only sober person. Why didn’t you call the police immediately? Don’t use fear as an explanation; the attending doctor said you were extremely calm.”

Lin Wanwan licked her lips, “At first, I thought everyone was just suffering from ordinary food poisoning. I opened the drawer to get some medicine for gastrointestinal issues. Then I thought maybe everyone’s reaction was because of the poison Guo Hua had obtained before. I was very scared, and I hesitated, so I didn’t call the police immediately. Later, when the poison started acting faster than I imagined, when I wanted to call the police, the poison was already in my body, making me unable to react quickly. I only managed to make an emergency call.”

Song Wen’s eyes narrowed slightly, “These sound like excuses and justifications.”

Lin Wanwan gently shook her head, “I have nothing to justify. Everything I said is the truth.”

Song Wen stared at her, “Maybe this is just your way of absolving yourself.”

Lu Siyu, quiet on the side, listened. Song Wen was trying to bring Lin Wanwan’s emotions back to the scene, constantly putting pressure on her.

A knock on the door, then the lock turned. Lin Xiuran leaned in, “Captain Song, can you come out for a moment?”

Song Wen stood up. Lin Wanwan had seen Lin Xiuran at the hospital; she knew he was a forensic doctor. Her gaze followed him as he left the interrogation room. Lin Xiuran and Song Wen spoke outside; the voices weren’t loud, but they could be heard inside.

“Hospital…phone…Guo Hua…yes, she woke up. You guys…as soon as possible…statement…maybe…new evidence…”

Intermittent sounds reached inside. Lu Siyu, who had kept his eyes lowered, lifted them slightly, looking at Lin Wanwan, trying to capture her expression.

She must have heard those conversations. Weariness and fatigue swept away from the girl’s face, replaced by a faint… Lu Siyu found it difficult to describe; it was a somewhat strange expression.

In that instance, he realized that he might have oversimplified the case.

TN:
Why are psychopaths always the most “ordinary” people?