After a few people thought about it, Mao Xiang broke the silence: "No, I remember that knife was from the B&B. I think it was the one in the living room, right?"
"Yes, it's the orange fruit knife in the living room." As the first person to discover the crime scene, He Qixuan said with certainty.
Qi Mi raised his eyes and said, "Then can I understand that the knife is placed in a public area and anyone can get it?"
"Of course you can, but how are you going to explain the fingerprints on the fruit knife?" Li Hui asked.
Qi Mi smiled and said, "I didn't mean to explain. Since fingerprints were found, it means Liang Hui must have touched the knife."
"That's right. Liang Hui took the knife, and the knife was on the dead body. Don't tell me there is no connection between them? Could it be that the knife grew legs and flew into the body of the B&B owner?" Li Hui felt that he had caught Qi Mi's logical bug and kept pressing him.
Qi Mi didn't argue, but calmly opened his hands to Mao Xiang and said, "Pass me the cup on the table behind you."
Mao Xiang said "oh" and without thinking much, turned around and handed over the cup.
Qi Mi took it, his eyes fixed on the glass in his hand. "How many people's fingerprints do you think are on this glass now?"
Everyone suddenly realized that he was giving examples to prove his point.
Mao Xiang felt like a tool and said unhappily, "The cup I handed you must have my fingerprints on it."
"Not only that." Qi Mi turned the patterned side to face them. "This cup with the red balloon painted on it, I remember it belonged to He Qixuan."
He Qixuan nodded in confirmation: "Yes, it's mine."
Qi Mi put the cup aside. "See? This cup has passed through three people's hands. It's like a fruit knife left in the living room, the kind anyone could touch. But there are only Liang Hui's fingerprints on it. Don't you find it strange?"
"What's the big deal? What if the knife has been washed? Wouldn't there be no fingerprints?"
"Yes, it's possible that it was washed." Qi Mi agreed. "But if Liang Hui used this knife to kill someone, and he had already cleaned everyone's fingerprints off it, why would he deliberately leave his own fingerprints on it?"
Li Hui was speechless: "Then, what if he was just trying to reverse his thinking and deliberately left clues to clear himself of suspicion?"
"?"
As soon as he said this, he was met with speechless stares from everyone.
Even children of four or five years old know that they have to "destroy the body" after stealing food, let alone an adult man who wants to kill someone. Unless he is crazy, he will think of leaving fingerprints to clear himself of suspicion.
At this point, there is a big question mark behind all three testimonies.
Not long after, Qi Fan raised a new question: "I remember the case report said that [Liang coveted the beauty of Xie, the daughter of the B&B owner, and intended to commit a crime. After being discovered by the owner, he used the knife to kill the person], is that correct?"
After being bombarded with questions from Qi fans, most people's brains stopped working. Only Lin Fengsong and Cao Mingze, who were listening silently, nodded.
Mao Xiang widened his eyes, frowning: "No, you think this sentence is wrong too?"
Qi Mi was surprised at how slow these people were to react. He had no choice but to analyze the situation for them: "According to the report, Liang Hui should be considered to have committed a crime of passion. His intention was to molest the daughter of the B&B owner, but he was discovered by the owner and had no choice but to kill her with a knife, right?"
Everyone looked at him eagerly: "Yes, and then what?"
Qi Mi was about to explain when He Qixuan, who had just reacted, interrupted him: "Are you trying to say that if Liang Hui was caught by the boss and murdered someone in a fit of rage, why would he have a knife on him?"
"Bingo!" Qi Mi snapped his fingers. "That's what I mean. If his purpose was just to molest her, why would he have the knife in the living room on the first floor with him?"
"Then maybe Liang Hui brought her along just to threaten the boss's daughter with a knife? He originally just wanted to threaten her, but unexpectedly he was discovered by the B&B owner, so he had to go all out." Mao Xiang reasoned excitedly and made a gesture of wiping his neck.
"Okay, I'll admit that what you said is true for now, but all of you were at the B&B that day, especially He Qixuan and Li Hui, who lived directly below the crime scene. Did you hear any noises coming from upstairs? Besides the two sounds of heavy objects falling to the ground, did anyone hear any screams or shouts?"
Qi Mi spilled the beans, "Of course, maybe you want to refute me [the boss's daughter was threatened with the knife and didn't dare to make a sound], but what about the B&B owner? I don't believe a man in his forties could remain silent after seeing his daughter being bullied. But in your testimony that day, no one said they heard any noise upstairs. Don't you find it strange?!"
Maybe it was because Qi Mi moved too much, but a candle next to him suddenly went out.
!!!
Alarm bells immediately rang in the minds of several people.
There were only five candles left burning in the room.
There are only these five left, and the game is about to end.
Mao Xiang was so frightened that he hugged He Qixuan's arm tightly and suggested in a high voice, "Qi Mini, stop moving! Are you really going to kill us? Everyone, how about we light the other candles?!"
Mao Xiang's suggestion was not agreed by anyone. Everyone knew that there was no option to relight candles in the game of Hundred Story, and no one knew what would happen after doing so.
He Qixuan cleared his throat and continued the previous topic.
He stared at Qi Mi: "So you suspect that the murderer didn't intend to molest the boss's daughter at all, but rather that he had prepared the knife from the beginning to kill?"
Qi Mi nodded.
"That's possible," He Qixuan recalled. "Indeed, I didn't hear any sound from upstairs from beginning to end. Otherwise, I wouldn't have waited until the next morning to find out they were murdered on the third floor. Sigh, it was clearly a happy graduation trip, how could something like this happen..."
Driven by his emotion, everyone sighed deeply.
Qi Mi didn't say anything else, took his cup from the table and went to the kitchen.
There was freshly boiled water in the kitchen. The warmth from the water poured into the glass and into the palm of the hand finally added a bit of warmth to the cold atmosphere.
He leaned against the cabinet behind him, silently sipping the hot water in the cup.
"Give me some hot water too. I feel cold all over." He Qixuan followed with an empty cup.
Qi Mi stared at him for two seconds, then moved aside to make room for him to pour water.
Not long after, Mao Xiang and Cao Mingze came over with cups to ask Qi Mi for hot water. Everyone who had just been enjoying the coolness felt cold all over during this meticulous reasoning process.
Even Li Hui, who was always afraid of heat, left with a cup of hot water.
After an unknown amount of time, Qi Mi finished his water, put the cup down, and raised his voice, "How about we vote, the secret ballot kind? If all seven of us confirm that Liang Hui is not guilty, we can move on to analyzing the murderer. How about we finish this sooner so we can leave sooner?"
The living room became noisy again at this suggestion.
While they were talking, Qi Mi shouted again: "It's better to finish it sooner rather than later. You should discuss it as soon as possible!"
He waited for a few seconds, heard everyone discussing and agreeing, and then walked back to the living room.
In order to ensure the fairness of the anonymous test, everyone dispersed to different locations in the room, some went to the bedroom and some went to the kitchen. After finishing writing, they all rolled them into a ball and handed it to the class monitor He Qixuan.
After the seven paper balls were mixed up by everyone's hands, no one could tell which was which, so they started counting the votes.
"[Not guilty]...[Not guilty]...still [Not guilty]..."
He Qixuan opened the paper balls one by one, and when he drew the third from the last, a piece of paper with the word "Guilty" written on it suddenly appeared in front of everyone.
Everyone looked at each other and stuck their heads out to wait for the final two votes.
Both votes were [Not Guilty].
Six to one, only one out of seven people thought Liang Hui was guilty.
"This... it's not unanimously passed, what should we do?" He Qixuan looked at Qi Mi for help. He thought they could move on to the next topic, but he didn't expect such a thing to happen after the secret ballot.
Qi Mi didn't care, as if he had expected this result.
"I think it's now crystal clear that there's definitely a murderer among us... The reason I repeated 'end early, leave early' twice was simply to impress everyone. Anyone with a clear conscience would naturally want to move on to the next step and identify the murderer as quickly as possible, finishing the job quickly and leaving sooner. But it's clear now that someone doesn't want us to continue speculating. Who do you think it could be?"
As soon as the words fell, everyone seemed to be stepped on by their tails, and the few people who were originally crowded together suddenly moved far away from each other.
Everyone looks like a murderer.
Because their movements were so large, a small cool breeze was raised, and the firelight in the room dimmed a little more.
Only four candles were still burning.
It happened that at this moment a flash of lightning flashed, and Qi Mi, who was sitting alone with his back to the window, was facing the light. The ambiguous smile on his face gave off a terrifying aura.
The weather change was just perfect. After the thunder, everyone's thoughts were instantly brought back to that rainy night twelve years ago.
"Let me go over everyone's alibis for that day," Qi Mi read from the paper. "He Qixuan and Li Hui shared a room, so they both proved their absence. Mao Xiang and Cao Mingze slept in the same room, so they both proved their absence. Xu Wei slept alone, so there's no one to prove his absence. Lin Fengsong slept alone, so there's no one to prove his absence, right?"
Everyone nodded without objection.
Qi Mi slammed the paper to the ground, his smile deepening. "They say they can serve as mutual proof, but I don't think so."
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