Not long after, the police arrived at the scene. When they saw the cordoned off scene and the crowd, the leading officer was also stunned.

"Who called the police?"

"It's me."

Fang Zheng walked out of the crowd and nodded to the police officer.

"After discovering the body, I immediately sealed off the entire scene. Currently, no one has entered the room. All relevant personnel are in the lounge. I have someone watching them. No one has left the lounge during this period of time."

"Who are you?"

An expert can tell whether there is any danger at a glance. Apart from anything else, Fang Zheng's ability to protect the scene and detain all the related personnel shows that he is not an ordinary passerby.

"My name is Fang Zheng. I'm the president of Umbrella Corporation and special advisor to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department."

Fang Zheng also took out his ID and handed it over.

"I am visiting the country for fun this time, not investigating a case. This is a coincidence."

Fang Zheng had to make it clear first. Although the police group was not as sensitive as the military, his current identity was after all a member of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. It would be troublesome if the other party suspected that they were investigating a case across borders.

"oh?"

After hearing Fang Zheng's answer, the police officer took the ID and looked at it carefully, then smiled at Fang Zheng.

"So you are the mind-reading detective of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department."

"Um?"

What the hell?

Hearing what the other party said, Fang Zheng was stunned. When did my reputation travel across the ocean and return to China?

"Hello, I'm Li Bo from the City Criminal Police Brigade."

At this moment, the police officer also enthusiastically reached out and shook Fang Zheng's hand.

"To be honest, a Japanese colleague came to our place for further studies before. At that time, we heard him say that there was an expert in micro-expressions in the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. It is said that he does not need the testimony of the criminal at all. He can get the answer just by observing his expression, as if he can read his mind. And he is Chinese... Hahaha, I didn't expect to meet him here. What a coincidence."

"It's indeed quite a coincidence, but it's not that great. After all, micro-expressions are not omnipotent, and the idea of ​​reading minds is completely false. I'm just better at observation than the average person."

As the saying goes, a sedan chair is carried by everyone. Since the other party has spoken, Fang Zheng will naturally directly flatter each other.

"Hahaha, no, no, in fact, we are also envious. It would be great if we had this ability. Those damn bastards are so stubborn that it is almost impossible to pry anything out of the criminals. By the way, Mr. Fang Zheng, I wonder if you have time to give a speech in our police station. Although we can't learn the micro-expression analysis technology right away, it would be good to let everyone see the development of international criminal investigation technology."

"That's no problem...but let's take a look at the scene first."

"Yes, Mr. Fang Zheng, please come along as well."

"good."

Soon, Fang Zheng followed Officer Li into the scene and began the investigation.

"The deceased is Yang Wang, the head of the acrobatic troupe. The cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head..."

The situation at the scene is clear, but there are still a few doubts.

"Mr. Fang Zheng, what do you think?"

After a simple autopsy, Officer Li looked at Fang Zheng, who nodded.

"This case is indeed a bit strange, you see..."

As he spoke, Fang Zheng pointed to the wall.

"You mean the word spring?"

"Yes, I want a forensic expert to come and determine when the blood on this word was from."

"Is there anything wrong with this bloody word?"

Officer Li was still trying hard to figure out why the prisoner wrote the word "Spring" on it, and was stunned when he heard Fang Zheng's words.

"Of course there is a problem. This character is written too completely."

"whole?"

"That's right."

Fang Zheng walked to the wall.

"We assume that if someone committed murder, then he must have written the blood immediately after killing the person. At that time, the dead body was still fresh and hot, and the blood had not yet coagulated. If the criminal wrote with the blood at that time, there must be a lot of blood stains flowing down on the wall."

“But this word is complete.”

Hearing this, Officer Li immediately understood what Fang Zheng meant. If the criminal had used "fresh blood", then the word "Spring" written on the wall would definitely not be so complete. But now the word "Spring" looked very complete, so it was very likely that someone wrote it with blood some time after the victim's death.

"Secondly, why was the victim covered in water?"

Fang Zheng looked at the corpse in front of him. At this moment, the head of the acrobatic troupe was sitting on a chair. He turned around and leaned forward with his head against the wall. There were water stains all over his body. Judging from the empty goldfish tank next to him, the water obviously came from the goldfish tank.

"Although judging from the scene, it's possible that the leader and the criminal accidentally touched the fish tank during the fight and got soaked, but..."

Fang Zheng turned his head and looked at the forensic doctor performing the autopsy at the scene, who shook his head.

"There were no signs of a struggle on the body, only a single gunshot wound to the head."

"So that's weird, isn't it?"

"Indeed."

Officer Li also frowned at this moment. From the initial scene, it looked like a fight between the two parties, and then the criminal shot and killed Captain Yang Wang. However, a careful inspection revealed that the situation was not the case at all. Not to mention the strange bloody words, the body was actually covered in water... All of this was quite weird.

"So what do you think, Mr. Fang Zheng?"

"My opinion? It's simple. I think this is a suicide."

“…Huh?”

Hearing this, everyone present was stunned, and Yang Xiaolong even jumped up excitedly.

"You said my father committed suicide? How is that possible?!"

"But Mr. Fang Zheng, we didn't find the murder weapon at the scene."

At this time, Officer Li also asked in confusion, if it was a suicide, then the murder weapon must be at the scene, but in fact they searched the scene and did not find the gun, so everyone immediately concluded that this should be a homicide.

"It's very simple. Since the murder weapon was not at the scene, it must have been picked up by someone, so..."

As he spoke, Fang Zheng raised his head and looked at the people standing at the door.

"Ms. Yang Liling, please hand over the murder weapon."

"What?!!!"

Hearing this, everyone present was stunned again. Even Kindaichi and Miyuki looked at the girl beside them in surprise, not knowing what to say.

“Don’t talk nonsense!!”

At this time, Yang Xiaolong stood up again, standing in front of Yang Liling, glaring at Fang Zheng fiercely.

"What evidence do you have that Li Ling took the gun?"

"I'm an expert in micro-expressions. In simple terms, I can read a person's thoughts through their facial expressions."

Fang Zheng chuckled and looked at Yang Liling.

"Ms. Yang Liling, to be honest, you did scream very hard, but it's a pity that you don't have the talent to be an actor. In fact, the moment I saw you, I knew you must be hiding something. That's why I asked no one to leave the scene or act on their own."

"Just this?"

"Of course it's not just this."

Fang Zheng shrugged and looked at Nishimura Shiho.

"Ms. Nishimura, I would like to ask, when did Miss Yang Liling go to the headmaster's office?"

"Well... right after we left the stage, she went straight to the leader's office without even taking off her makeup..."

"That's right."

Fang Zheng nodded and looked at Yang Liling again.

"We waited until everyone had left the show before we went backstage, which took about five minutes. You went to the director's office right after you got off the stage, and it takes less than a minute to walk from the director's office to the backstage. That is to say, according to the normal time it takes to discover a body, you should have screamed before we entered the backstage. So, Miss Yang Liling, can you tell us what you were doing in the remaining few minutes? Were you cultivating feelings?"

“…”

Hearing this, Yang Liling's face turned pale, while Fang Zheng shook his head and looked at Officer Li, who immediately gave an order.

"Someone, take her for a body search!"

"yes!"

Soon, the police found a pistol on Yang Liling, and in the face of factual evidence, Yang Liling admitted that she did it - just as Fang Zheng said, Captain Yang Wang committed suicide, and she saw the body after entering the room. But because Yang Liling liked the gun very much, she planned to take it away secretly, and in order to cover up, she wrote the word in blood to create a mystery and make the scene look like homicide...

After listening to Yang Liling's confession, Officer Li was speechless. The motive for the crime was really too bizarre. But no matter what, destroying the scene and stealing the murder weapon were also crimes. So Officer Li ordered people to take Yang Liling away. As for the case of Captain Yang Wang, it was naturally closed as suicide... Well, that's how it should have been.

But Fang Zheng secretly called Officer Li.

"Officer Li, do you want to solve a big case?"

"Big case? Mr. Fang, what do you mean?"

"Look at this gun."

As he spoke, Fang Zheng placed the gun in the evidence bag into Officer Li's hand. It was a very small pistol, not even as big as the palm of a hand. It could be said to be a very concealed and sophisticated firearm.

"This is...Derringer?"

"That's right, Officer Li. It's hard to buy this kind of pistol in China."

If it were Kindaichi and his companions, they probably wouldn't have been so concerned about this, but Fang Zheng was a native of this country and naturally understood the environment of the 1990s. It wouldn't be surprising if some people had the channels to buy a few Black Star pistols, after all, they often appeared in Hong Kong police and gangster films back then. But the Derringer was of authentic European and American descent, and this gun was once famous for being used to assassinate President Lincoln. It was simply impossible for ordinary Chinese to buy such a gun.

Especially in mainland China, even if ordinary people have guns, most of them are rifles or Type 54 rifles left over from the past. There is no way they can get a Derringer.

In China, all gun-related cases are major cases. Even if Captain Yang was not dead, he would be listed as a major suspect just because of the Derringer in his hand.

If he hadn't died, he would have been interrogated in the police station to find out where he got the gun from, where he bought it, and through what channels he got it...

"One more thing. I suggest you check the accounts of this circus."

"Accounts?"

"Yes, I remember that the people in this circus all live in an acrobatic village in the interior. This is very strange. Where did they get the money to buy a passenger ship?"

That’s right. Fang Zheng had this question when he first saw the passenger ship. In China in the 1990s, according to them, they started touring ten years ago, which means it was in the 1980s. In China in the 1980s, who had the money to buy a passenger ship?

Of course, this is not absolutely impossible, just like a boss in Macau who bought a Varyag and said he planned to transform it into a casino. He is just rich and willful.

However, all the members of this acrobatic troupe were from a relatively remote and poor village in the mainland, and no one had ever been heard of having overseas connections. More importantly, Fang Zheng seriously doubted whether the circus could make a profit just by relying on performances.

Just like buying a car, you don’t just spend money on it. After buying a car, you need to maintain it, refuel it, and repair it, which are all long-term expenses. The same is true for passenger ships. This is not something you can use after buying it in the game. Passenger ships also need maintenance, transportation of supplies, etc.

To put it bluntly, given the current consumption level, Fang Zheng doubted whether the circus's ticket sales alone would be enough to cover fuel costs.

These questions, coupled with the Western-origin pistol that now appeared in front of them, easily made people think of some shady business.

"I see."

Officer Li was no fool either. He immediately understood the reason and nodded vigorously.

"I will immediately block the cruise ship. From now on, no one will be allowed to enter or leave at will. All accounts will also be seized, and we will also conduct a search of the entire cruise ship."

“And their homes.”

"Yes, and their homes."

Officer Li was also very excited at this moment and nodded vigorously.

"Thank you, Mr. Fang. I will ask my boss for instructions right away. When the case is finished, I will treat you to a meal at the most authentic restaurant!"

"Then I'll wait for your good news."

Fang Zheng also chuckled, then lowered his voice.

"By the way, that girl named Yang Liling, lock her up for a few more days. I can tell from the looks of it that she made up that weird excuse. The reason she hid the gun must be more than just for fun."

"Understood. Leave it to me."

Officer Li is also an old policeman. After a glance between the two, he naturally knew what Fang Zheng meant, so he nodded and turned to leave.

It was not until this time that Kindaichi, who had been extremely anxious, finally rushed over.

"Mr. Fang Zheng, what were you talking about with that police officer?!"

At this moment Kindaichi was also scratching his head and looking anxious. He also had his own opinions on the case, but Fang Zheng and Officer Li were talking in Chinese, so he could only be anxious and couldn't get a word in. Now seeing Officer Li leaving excitedly, he could guess that the other party must have found some useful clues, so he hurried over to ask.

In response to his question, Fang Zheng just looked at him silently.

"Children should not interrupt when adults are talking."

I haven't settled the score with you for involving me in a murder case!