Chapter 57
Chang Ting took the elevator to the 17th floor and saw a man standing at the door of room 1714, operating the combination lock.
Chang Ting hurriedly stopped him. "Stop!"
The man shuddered with fear and withdrew his hand. "Police... Police, are you? I'm the owner of Yunju B&B. The person you mentioned booked room 1714, which is this room. I'd like to open the door for you to check..."
The man was in his forties, a little bald, with sweat on his forehead from nervousness. He rubbed his hands together as he spoke.
"Don't move!" Chang Ting said, and called Cheng Peng, who was in charge of trace examination, to extract the fingerprints on the combination lock.
Looking back, the boss was standing there at a loss.
Chang Ting realized that his bad attitude had frightened the other person. He tried to calm down his expression and said, "I'm sorry, I have a quick temper."
The boss bowed quickly: "It's okay, I understand, I understand."
"What's your name?"
"My last name is Xiao, Xiao Qiang." He answered while rubbing his hands.
"Boss Xiao, don't be nervous. Tell me about the guest who booked this room."
"Oh, she booked the room online. Look, this is her order. She hasn't checked out yet."
Boss Xiao handed over his phone with both hands. Chang Ting took a look and saw that it was indeed an order from Yu Aiai, and the order was placed just before she instructed her roommate to pretend to be her and go out.
Boss Xiao said, "The guest checked in at the front desk shortly after placing her order. Oh, our front desk is at 1701." He pointed to the other end of the corridor. "The rooms are all locked with a combination. After she checked in, she got the combination and checked in directly."
"She came here to register alone?"
"Yes, a person. I remember it was a young girl, carrying a small bag."
Judging from Boss Xiao's reaction, he hasn't yet connected the girl who fell from the building with the residents.
Chang Ting glanced at him and said, "She is also a resident of this building. Don't you know her?"
Boss Xiao shook his head. "I don't know him. This apartment building is so huge, there are hundreds of people living here. Most of them are young people, who live in different ways, sleeping by day and going out by night. Their living habits are different from those of people our age. I never run into them, let alone get to know them."
Chang Ting thought that this made sense. Even in residential buildings with only 10 or 20 households, it was common for neighbors to never interact with each other.
Chang Ting looked up and asked, "Is there any surveillance camera in the corridor that can capture this area?"
"No."
It was unsurprisingly disappointing. Chang Ting then asked, "Has anything unusual happened since she moved in? For example, has anyone else come in or out, or heard any unusual noises?"
Boss Xiao shook his head like a rattle. "I'm a homebody. I usually stay in the reception room and don't disturb the guests. The two rooms are very far apart, so even if there is any movement, I wouldn't be able to hear it." He asked curiously, "Officer, is there something wrong with this girl?"
Chang Ting didn't answer. He read out his cell phone number and said, "Contact me anytime if you remember anything."
"Okay, okay." Boss Xiao wrote down the number and agreed repeatedly.
At this time, Cheng Peng had collected the fingerprints on the door lock. The boss reported the password, and Cheng Peng opened the door lock with his gloved hand.
Chang Ting put on his shoe covers and went in, looking around. Boss Xiao also wanted to follow him in, but was stopped by the police at the door.
The room was a bit messy and filled with the smell of alcohol. On the canvas sofa lay a Chanel bag and a cell phone with a golden rutilated crystal pendant.
Chang Ting asked Cheng Peng for gloves and put them on. He picked up his phone and turned it on, only to discover it was powered off. He found a suitable charging cable and connected it to an outlet. After a moment, it powered on.
As the screen lit up, he thought to himself that if there was a power-on password, he could ask Yu Aiai's roommate if she knew it.
Surprisingly, there is no password.
He picked up his phone and checked it, only to find it was completely clean. There were no call logs, no photos, and not even any social media apps installed.
The phone has been formatted.
At this time, his own cell phone rang. It was Zhou Zhengzheng calling.
He picked up the phone: "Didn't I tell you to rest? Why are you..."
"Master, have you seen the video?" Zhou Zhengzheng's tired voice was a little hoarse.
"What video?"
"Yu Aiai's social media account posted a video of her suicide note, and it's gone viral. I'm forwarding it to you."
Zhou Zhengzheng sent him a link via WeChat. When he clicked on it, it turned out to be Yu Aiai's Douyin account, which had posted a video of more than five minutes.
Chang Ting clicked it and started playing.
"I was wrong. I shouldn't have lied." Yu Aiai's crying voice broke through the screen.
In the video, Yu Aiai was sitting on the canvas sofa in this homestay. Judging from the angle, she was recording the video with her phone held in one hand.
With red eyes, she said, "That night five years ago, it was Xu Candong who asked me to call Qiu Yue out."
Chang Ting was startled!
Yu Aiai on the screen continued, "That night, late at night, I was asleep when Xu Candong suddenly called me and said he wanted to ask Qiu Yue out. Qiu Yue ignored him, so he asked me to help call Qiu Yue downstairs..."
She seemed to be a little thirsty after talking, so she reached out and took a bottle of pink wine and took a sip.
Chang Ting glanced under the coffee table, where a wine bottle was leaning, empty.
In the video, Yu Aiai coughed twice after being choked by the wine, and her cheeks flushed with drunkenness:
"All of us classmates knew that Xu Candong had been pursuing Qiu Yue. Qiu Yue didn't like him, so he kept pestering her.
"I didn't want to get involved in their affairs, but Xu Candong was such a tyrant that I didn't dare refuse him. So I woke up Qiu Yue, who was on the upper bunk.
"I originally thought that if Qiu Yue didn't agree, I could report it to Xu Candong. Unexpectedly, Qiu Yue actually agreed, saying that she wanted to take this opportunity to talk it out with Xu Candong.
"Teacher Feng was guarding the dormitory door. If she went out on her own, Teacher Feng wouldn't let her go, so I had no choice but to accompany her downstairs.
"Xu Candong was waiting for her downstairs, and they left together. I wanted to go back to the dorm, but I was a little worried about Qiu Yue, so I followed her from a distance. Girls should care about each other.
"After leaving the base gate, they walked into a forest. I hid in the distance and saw Xu Candong pulling and tugging at Qiu Yue, but Qiu Yue kept refusing to push him away.
"And then I saw, I saw..."
She choked up and wiped her eyes vigorously: "I saw Xu Candong take out a paint scraper and stab it into Qiu Yue's chest!"
Yu Aiai sobbed and pointed at her left breast: "It's right here!"
Chang Ting's eyes widened and his breathing became rapid.
After Qiu Yue's body was found under the red spider lily, an autopsy revealed a scratch on the left chest rib. Forensic doctor Xie judged that Qiu Yue had been stabbed in the left chest with a sharp weapon but no blade, not very sharp.
They searched the area around the body but could not find the murder weapon. They had been wondering what the murder weapon was, but now they got the answer.
A paint scraper fits the bill perfectly: sharp, but not super sharp!
The characteristics of the injuries on Qiu Yue's body are strictly confidential. Apart from the police, only those involved in the case know about it!
Yu Aiai actually revealed what the murder weapon was, which shows that her claim that she was an eyewitness was not false.
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