Chapter 18-1 - Case 2-The deadly chocolate

Announcement: Criminal Investigation Notes is now Criminal Investigation Files .

Thank you for sticking up with me. After almost 2 years, I finally managed to get a real job ヽ(^◇^*)/ . I’m currently in an odd timing with so many trainee assignments to complete (@ [email protected] ) . I promise to get back to my original schedule once i get out of my trainee period.

: Chapters starting from now get more descriptive and lengthy, so I will be diving them into two parts going forward.

Thank you Beverly for your constant support. You have no idea how happy I get when I see a message of your cheers. Dedicating this chapter to you ♡〜٩(^▿^)۶〜♡

Chapter 18-1:

Lu Siyu sighed.

Since last night’s meal, Song Wen began to keep an even closer eye on him. He knew he couldn’t get away with playing dumb, so he organized his thoughts again and analyzed the background of these people.

“The Department of Civil Engineering has been booming for a decade. Nowadays, there are less girls choosing this major, since this profession requires them to be site often.They not only need to do a lot of dirty work, but also need to deal with the contract migrant workers. The reasons for these girls choosing this profession are not quite the same. According to my inference, Dong Fang’s family may have a background related to real estate. The family hoped that she would study a civil engineering profession, and go back to inherit their family legacy. Ma Aijing comes from an intellectual family and her parents may have related majors. Guo Hua and Lin Wanwan’s family background is not very good. The South City University Civil Engineering Department has set up a large scholarship, which may be the reason for them to choose this major.”

Fu Linjiang was attentively listening on the sidelines. Song Wen nodded and waved his finger, signaling him to continue.

Lu Siyu continued: “Of the four, Dong Fang and Ma Aijing have a better relationship. Dong Fang felt that she was being kind and giving towards Ma Aijing, but Ma Aijing did not seem to appreciate it. She was a little envious and a little jealous of Dong Fang’s wealth.”

These words made Fu Linjiang dumbfounded, “How were you able to find this out?” If he hadn’t known that Lu Siyu had just arrived at the scene, he would have thought that this kid had investigated the victims behind his back.

Lu Siyu did not answer. Instead, Song Wen opened his mouth to explain.

He spoke while his eyes were staring at Lu Siyu, seemingly dissecting his line of reasoning, “The reason is quite simple. They have many things in the same style. Paper towels, slippers, and even sanitary napkins of the same type. Obviously, they were bought by best friends who went shopping at the supermarket together.”

After saying these, Song Wen pointed to the cosmetics of the two girls: “Dong Fang likes to use high-end cosmetics. All the cosmetics she bought usually have small samples sent as a gift, but those small samples are mixed in Ma Aijing’s cosmetics. Apparently Dong Fang gave them to her. The brand of lipstick used by Dong Fang is very famous. She has four of the same brand here, Ma Aijing’s table also has one on it. I checked Taobao just now. This brand has come out with this five-piece set. The color of Ma Aijing’s lipstick is a very bright pink. So that lipstick should have also been bought by Dong Fang and after seeing that the color is not suitable on her, she gave it to Ma Aijing.”

Fu Linjiang showed his straight man character. He walked over and looked at the tubes of lipsticks: “I can’t tell at all… What is the difference between the colors of these lipsticks?”

“That lipstick is basically useless. Probably, even the most beautiful person can not manage the Deadly Barbie pink*.”

(T/N: 死亡芭比粉 : Deadly Barbie pink is a network buzzword, referring to the classic rose red lips of the Barbie doll. This color performs well on Caucasian pink-toned skin, but is difficult to match with yellow-toned Asian skin tones because of its lighter base color. Which when used, can easily set a person’s skin tone off as dark, yellow and look earthy. It is also because of its poor performance on Asian skin tones that it has the title of “death” in it.)

(T/N: I love Zhao Liying . Y’all should watch her drama “the story of Minglan” and “the princess agent”)

Song Wen explained and opened Ma Aijing’s computer. The QQ on it was set to automatically log in. “Ma Aijing has some chat records in the game, mentioning that she has a rich roommate who does whatever she wants, and is not as pretty as her. In short, she admires Dong Fang and acts as her best friend; but on the other hand, she is jealous of her and uses her.”

After listening to Song’s analysis, Fu Linjiang was enlightened, and Lu Siyu also nodded on the side, acquiescing to the inference process.

Song asked, “What about the others?”

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“In the dormitory, Guo Hua was being isolated.” Lu Siyu continued.

Fu Linjiang continued to be amazed: “I can see that Guo Hua has a gap with other girls in grades and family, but not to the extent of being isolated, right? And how did you see this?”

Song Wen raised the handful of information sheets and said: “It is probably because of this report card that I also noticed. In freshman year, their elective courses are still considered normal and few overlapped with each other.However, in the junior and senior years, Guo Hua’s elective courses no longer match the courses taken by the other three. In fact, she chose the most difficult and rare courses. Generally, there are only a few optional courses to choose from. Majority of the students in the same dormitory will select the same courses as their fellow dorm mates; not only to help each other with assignments and studying, but also to confide in each other. Guo Hua’s choice of courses and the others are completely different. Presumably, she does not want to have any other interactions with the students in the dormitory.”

When Fu Linjiang heard this, he took the information sheet and looked at it. Now that Song Wen had pointed it out, he realized that such a list of elective courses was indeed too abnormal.

“Also, on Guo Hua’s file, there are records of her having visited the school infirmary two different times. The first time was eight months ago and the second was half a month ago. The reports mentioned multiple bruises on the body and some superficial bleeding. She said it was caused by a fall, however, I suspect it was because she was beaten by someone.”

Song Wen pointed to Guo Hua’s medical records while speaking, “The school doctor had prescribed some medication for bruises and injuries. They might have not necessarily failed to see the truth, but it was just that they didn’t care much.”

These inferences sounded complicated, but once they were explained, the reason was very simple, and Fu Linjiang quickly understood.

“Are there any other findings?” Song Wen asked again.

This time Lu Siyu shook his head and his handsome face returned to an icy cold expression. One has to wonder if he really has nothing to say, or just doesn’t want to say anymore.

These relationships were too superficial. If he can see it, Song Wen can also see it. But when there are four students in one dormitory, their relationships can be far more complicated than what they saw.

——–

Lu Siyu’s gaze landed on Lin Wanwan’s clean bed, which was clean. Way too clean to be normal, and it’s not like there was a person who was carried away in an ambulance after sleeping halfway through a sudden poisoning attack. Among these four people, Lin Wanwan was the one who was poisoned the least.

He was waiting for news that she had woken up, and there will always be a chance to ask her directly.

Song Wen and Lu Siyu were both smart people and they had a tacit understanding during the investigation. Like now, when one made a statement and the other explained the reasoning; working together seamlessly, as if they could see through each other’s thoughts.

After listening to their analysis, Fu Linjiang sorted out the descriptions of several girls in his brain. He felt his lack of sleep, his brain was not working enough and he sighed with emotion: “For four girls like this, we would need to pull up at least a dozen WeChat group conversations.”

Lu Siyu corrected him expressionlessly: “Vice Captain, three or more people can build a group, so at most, you will have five groups.”

At 3:30 in the morning, after the initial investigation, came the questioning. In order to save time, the criminal police officers present were divided into two groups. Song Wen and Lu Siyu questioned the people who reported the incident, Fu Linjiang and the criminal police officer on duty, who had arrived first, went to talk to their class teacher.

The so-called inquiry room was a temporary accommodation in the dormitory building. There was a lot of dust in the room, and the corners were full of miscellaneous items, some disinfectant and discarded chairs.

Song Wen chose the thinner girl of the two, to ask questions first. The girl was called Bai Xiaoxiao and she was small like her name. She was not tall, had a small nose, small eyes, and a small face, with a pair of small glasses. The girl had no time to change her clothes, she wore a white nightdress and a robe on the outside to hide her figure.

The girl had a sense of cleanliness, in that she had never walked out of campus and had no knowledge of the world. She sat in front of the two police officers, carefully picking at the dusty table with her fingernails.

This girl and Deng Jia lived in the same dormitory, both studied communications engineering, and had different majors from the girls in Room 108.

Song Wen cleared his throat and started off with the routine questions. After asking her name and age, he got down to business. Bai Xiao Xiao didn’t see much of the scene inside, and after she and Deng Jia realized that the girl outside the door was a classmate from next door, they hurriedly called for the administrator.

After briefly describing what happened, Bai Xiao Xiao whispered: “I knew it. Sooner or later, their dormitory will get in trouble.”

Song Wen’s heart moved and asked her, “Why do you say that? Do they not get along in the dormitory?”

“Ah, to put it bluntly, they were bullying Guo Hua and isolating her.” Bai Xiao Xiao muttered in a small voice, looked up at the two handsome young officers in front of her, then plucked up the courage to speak and continued “Guo Hua and I are from the same hometown near the Dong’an village. She studied particularly well in our place and ranked third in our town’s general examination. Because of a problem in filling out the registration form, she ended up in this dormitory different from others.”

“How different?” Seeing Bai Xiao Xiao hesitating to say, Song Wen asked again. Then he added, “This information is very helpful to us in finding the killer.”

Bai Xiao Xiao was still a little hesitant: “That…… the things that I am telling you guys, it won’t be told to other people, right?”

Song Wen nodded: “That’s for certain, our conversations here are confidential.”

Bai Xiaoxiao poked at the table again before continuing, “I heard, Dong Fang’s grades were not good enough for our school. She came here after spending her family’s money, but I don’t have any proof for this. You can check for yourself. Ma Aijing, she is nicknamed as a ‘flatterer’ and will always follow Dong Fang to play games every day. She receives gifts from boys, and has a lot of secret drama. These two people are always at the bottom of each exam in their class.”

The basic relationship was sorted out, and the situation was similar to what they inferred at the scene. Song Wen continued to ask her: “Can you tell me something specific? Just for example, how they bullied Guo Hua, what conflicts they had with each other and how the relationship got to this point step by step.”

Three feet of ice doesn’t happen in a day*. For a few girls, what kind of deep hatred must be there to want to kill each other?

(T/N: 冰冻三尺绝非一日之寒 : Three feet of ice doesn’t happen in a day*: It is a metaphor for the formation of a situation that has accumulated and brewed over a long period of time. Anything that happens is because of potential long-term factors, and cannot happen suddenly.)

I’ve been travelling to work for 3-4 daily and now I’m addicted to the drama Nirvana in Fire. Hu Ge and Wang Kai are such darlings. ❤⃛ヾ(๑❛ ▿ ◠๑ )