Chapter 26

Yun Shuang raised her brows slightly. Faced with Magistrate Ding’s skepticism, she simply smiled. “Magistrate Ding is absolutely right…”

So, it seemed this magistrate wasn’t entirely inept.

Seeing her modest and reasonable attitude, Magistrate Ding couldn’t help puffing out his chest a bit. “I’ve been an official for more than a decade. A minor case like this won’t trip me up…”

“But… who says there aren’t impulsive murderers in this world?”

Yun Shuang calmly interrupted him. Magistrate Ding’s eyes widened—part surprise, part annoyance. She continued: “There’s a kind of crime known as impulsive crime. The perpetrator commits it due to a sudden emotional outburst, without adequate preparation. If the killer wasn’t familiar with the victim, then it’s highly likely this was such a case. More than that—it’s even possible the killer was hiding in the room long before, waiting for an opportunity to strike.”

Just as Magistrate Ding felt anger beginning to rise, her cool analysis extinguished it. These two possibilities, while unorthodox, weren’t implausible. Yet, he wasn’t about to admit defeat at the hands of a young woman. His expression stiffened.

“What you said does have some truth, Miss Yun. But don’t you think it’s a bit far-fetched? For your first theory, the killer would need absurd luck to enter while the victim just happened to be facing the wall. As for the second, how long must the killer have hidden before finding the right moment to kill? More likely, someone would’ve discovered him first! All things considered, it seems far more likely the killer knew the victim.”

This knee-jerk attempt to assert dominance wasn’t unfamiliar to Yun Shuang—she’d seen it plenty during her time in the police department.
With a half-smile, she glanced at him and simply replied, “You’re right, Magistrate Ding. But I believe you shouldn’t ignore any possibility when investigating a case.”

Then she walked off to examine the surroundings.

Though it appeared he’d won the verbal spar, Magistrate Ding couldn’t shake an odd sense of defeat.

At that moment, Yun Shuang crouched beside the shattered vase, studying it carefully. She murmured, “What do you all think broke this vase?”

“Isn’t it obvious? The killer accidentally knocked it over while fleeing! If not the killer, who else—the victim?”

Trying to push aside his lingering discomfort, Magistrate Ding grumbled,
“The victim was in the bathtub the entire time. The only traces of water are near the tub. If she had stepped out, there would be wet footprints elsewhere.”

It was early autumn. In such cool weather, water stains on the ground wouldn’t dry quickly.

“Fleeing?” Yun Shuang chuckled softly. “This vase is near the window opposite the folding screen door. We’re on the third floor. Putting aside the risks of jumping from such a height without protection—even if the killer tried, how could people on the second and first floors not notice?
The inn’s lobby, located on the first floor, is surrounded by windows. How could the killer know someone wasn’t sitting right by a window?”

Yang Yuanyi chimed in instantly: “Of course, people were sitting there! With today’s crisp autumn breeze, who wouldn’t want a seat by the window? I asked the inn staff—though it wasn’t crowded when the murder happened, several tables were occupied near the windows. One table was directly beneath this room! If someone had jumped down, they couldn’t have missed it!”

Magistrate Ding faltered. “Didn’t you just say the killer might have acted on impulse? Isn’t it normal if he hadn’t thought through the escape plan?”

Yun Shuang cast him a sidelong glance.

Magistrate Ding seemed to catch her drift and hurriedly added, “F-familiar people can also commit impulsive crimes! I’ve handled cases for years—this sort of thing happens all the time!”

Yun Shuang raised her eyebrows slightly but said nothing. Suddenly, she stood up and surveyed the room.

“This room is quite spacious,” she remarked.

Magistrate Ding eyed her warily, worried she was about to challenge him again. “This is the most expensive suite in Yiyuan Inn—of course, it’s spacious.”

“And the area near the window is also rather roomy,” Yun Shuang continued. “The killer must have been extremely flustered to knock over such a small low table in a place this wide.”

The table holding the shattered vase was said to be beside the window, yet it was actually three or four steps away.

As she spoke, Yun Shuang returned to the bathtub and raised both hands to mimic the motion of strangling someone.

“Let’s suppose I’m the killer. I strangle Miss He here. It goes fairly smoothly. She struggles, but dies before she can make much noise.
Now I’m panicking and eager to escape. According to Magistrate Ding’s theory, I haven’t planned my getaway at all. So in a moment of utter foolishness, I decide to jump straight from the third floor.”

Magistrate Ding: “…”

Yun Shuang clearly appeared to be analyzing the case calmly, yet somehow her tone had a hint of sarcasm he couldn’t quite shake off.

As she spoke, she began walking from the bathtub toward the window.
“I’m panicking,” she said, “so I stagger clumsily in a flurry of confusion…”
She acted out a frantic escape. However erratically she moved, her path still fell short of the vase’s position.

She tried several times, and finally—by walking an exaggerated zigzag like a drunk—she managed to bump into the area where the vase had stood.

Everyone watching: “…” What kind of crime-solving method was this?

The most shocking thing wasn’t even her odd demonstration—it was that this calm and rational woman had gone to such lengths to act out the scene, completely tossing aside her own composed image.

Once the surprise wore off, the group finally snapped out of their daze.

Yang Yuanyi took a deep breath and said, “This isn’t panic—it looks like someone drunk doing drunken boxing!”

Her ‘panic’ was comically over-the-top. If that was the killer’s behavior, then he must’ve been a full-blown drama queen.

Two constables nearby couldn’t help blurting out, “But if the vase wasn’t broken during the killer’s panicked escape… could it have been smashed on purpose?!”

“Was he out of his mind? Smashing a vase deliberately—what, to draw a crowd for his murder show?”

Seeing that they had finally caught up with her line of reasoning, Yun Shuang’s lips curled into a faint smile. “Although the inner room isn’t as tidy as the outer one, I just examined it carefully. The only messy spots in the inner chamber are around the bathtub, where the vase was smashed, and at the dressing table directly facing the tub. But even though the dressing table looks slightly disordered, the jewelry box hasn’t been opened, and neither the bed nor the drawers show signs of being rifled through. This tells us that the killer wasn’t seeking valuables or anything belonging to the victim. So it’s unlikely that the vase was shattered during a search.”

“If it wasn’t broken in the panic of fleeing, and not accidentally damaged while searching for something, then it seems highly likely the vase was smashed intentionally.”

Once you eliminate all impossible explanations, whatever remains—no matter how unbelievable—must be the truth.

The two constables who had spoken earlier looked completely stunned. They’d just tossed out a wild guess and ended up hitting the mark?

So this killer really might be someone desperate for attention?