Episode Upper

  A young man sat in a corner of the coffee shop by the window. He looked like he was only twenty-five or six years old, wearing a pair of white-framed glasses, with neatly combed hair and calm eyes that exuded wisdom. In front of him was a plate of cake and a cup of coffee. The spoon in his hand stirred slowly, allowing the milk and sugar to fully blend with the coffee. Enjoying a freshly brewed cup of Blue Mountain coffee every afternoon was his habit. He wore earphones, as if listening to music, and lifted the coffee cup with his left hand, smelling the faint aroma of the coffee.

  "Ding!" He lightly tapped the metal bell on the table.

  After a short while, a male waiter came before him and bowed slightly, asking in a soft voice: "Sir, do you need any further service?"

  "In a little while, I have a friend coming here to meet me. At that time, please give me a glass of iced orange juice."

  "Alright, sir."

  The man gazed out the window at the flashing red and blue police lights, smiled softly to himself and muttered: "What a familiar scene! It feels great to be back. I wonder how 'that someone' is doing. Maybe I'll get to see them today... or maybe not..."

  A loud police siren pierced through the city, and all the police cars were heading towards a tall building, which was a five-star hotel in D City. The 15-story high-rise was not uncommon in this metropolis. But when a homicide occurred in such a place, it couldn't help but draw people's attention. Chinese people have a distinct characteristic - they like to gather around excitement. Even if they had urgent matters, once they saw a large crowd gathering, they couldn't resist taking a closer look. And today was Sunday, so the pedestrians on the street couldn't help but stop and watch when they saw so many police cars. By the time the last batch of detectives arrived, the hotel's entrance and exit were already packed to the point where it was hard to move.

  "How many floors?" asked Ou Yang Xuan, captain of the municipal police force, to Lin Xiao, a detective beside him.

  "13th floor, room 1321."

  "Can this still work?" Ouyang Xuan looked at the crowded crowd, and had no choice but to grit his teeth and squeeze in with Xiaolin.

  They pushed through the crowds of people and arrived at the police cordon outside the hotel, where they finally let out a deep breath. The two quickly got into the elevator and headed straight to the 13th floor. Ouyang Xuan hastily made his way to the scene of the crime - room 1321. Before he even entered the room, Ouyang Xuan heard a familiar voice.

  "So that's how it is! Your captain should thank me properly!"

  Ouyang Xuan turned a corner and saw this young man in his early twenties. A smiling face, small eyes that seemed to be there but not really, even when they were wide open, they looked like two small dots at most. His hair was combed to the left on one side and to the right on the other, looking like a messy mop from afar, but like a neat parting up close, with a sly brow and cunning eyes. This person's name was "Tian Sanqi", who claimed to be a "genius millionaire", but in reality, he was an unemployed vagrant who couldn't even afford rent, scraping by doing odd jobs here and there. By chance, he helped Ouyang Xuan solve some cases, and from then on, he called himself a "detective".

  "Haha, congratulations! Oh Yang 'Captain'! Good news from the delivery room - you've been promoted (given birth). Don't forget to treat me to a meal!"

  "You're really a jinx! Wherever something happens, your shadow is always there. This is a crime scene, you'd better get out of here."

  "This is what you said, don't regret it later!" Sanqi had an indifferent expression.

  "What do you mean by this?"

  "Hehe, I'm an important witness in this case, and I'm also the first person to discover it."

  "Did you see the murderer?"

  "This... I saw it, but didn't see it. Because what I saw was just the back of a person. Around 1:20 this afternoon, I saw someone come out of this room. The person should be about my height, around 174 cm, wearing a dark blue sports jacket, black casual pants and tourist shoes, with a hat on his head, slightly chubby, and left-handed..."

  "You know this too?" Ouyang Xuan asked him in surprise.

  "That person wears a watch on their right hand and presses the elevator button with their left hand. From this, it can be inferred that this person is left-handed."

  "Elevator?"

  "There are no fingerprints." Sanshi knew what he was going to say and answered ahead of time.

  "For a high-end hotel like this, shouldn't there be cameras in the elevator?"

  "There was indeed a person. However, the perpetrator was wearing a hat, so it's impossible to know what this person looked like. I saw the perpetrator take the elevator to the 2nd floor."

  "This hotel shouldn't have a back door, right?"

  "Ding Dong! You guessed it!" San Qi gave a thumbs up "This means that the possibility of the murderer sneaking out from the back door is not zero."

  "Another troublesome case." Ouyang Xuan furrowed his brow. "Let's take a look at the scene first."

  Ouyang Xuan arrived at the scene of the crime, which was a standard room in this hotel. In theory, it should be able to accommodate two people, but it seemed that only the deceased had stayed here. Upon entering, on the left side of the entrance hall was the bathroom, and on the right side was a wooden shoe cabinet. Passing through the small entrance hall, on the left-hand side was a white hidden closet, which when closed became a full-length mirror, marking the boundary of the bedroom. In front of the closet were two beds, each with a bedside table holding lamps and other items. The bed near the window showed signs of having been slept in. In front of the two bedside tables was a television set. By the window was a writing desk, on which there was a pen holder, a stack of paper, and a telephone. And it was under this writing desk that the deceased had died. Between the bathroom and the writing desk was a long trail of bloodstains, appearing to be where the deceased had been dragged after death.

  As soon as Ouyang Xiang entered the room, his first impression was "a mess". The wardrobe was wide open, with clothes inside rummaged through, the drawers of the bedside table were also opened, even the deceased's travel bag had been rummaged through, with ID cards, cameras, and personal medications all taken out and scattered on the floor, but the cash in the deceased's wallet had vanished.

  "Hao Fayi." Ouyang Xuan said to a middle-aged man: "Have you finished examining?"

  "Judging from the stiffness of the body, the time of death should be between 1:00 and 1:40 in the afternoon. The cause of death is excessive blood loss. There are two fatal injuries, one is a sharp object inserted into the right side of the back of the deceased, and the other is that the carotid artery of the deceased was cut off by the murderer. Of course, this is only a preliminary conclusion, and the final accurate result can only be obtained after autopsy."

  "Can we take a look?"

  "It's okay. The preliminary autopsy has been completed." This forensic doctor with the surname Hao indeed had a very gentle temperament, even his speech was unhurried and calm.

  Sanqi and Ouyang Xuan arrived at the side of the deceased's body. The man, named Jia Yanping, was a real estate businessman who not only had a reputation for being cunning but also allegedly operated an underground casino, ran an illegal bank, and issued high-interest loans. He was extremely cautious in his dealings, to the point where the police were never able to find evidence to arrest him. If news of his death got out, there would be far more people rejoicing than mourning. They examined the body, Jia Yanping was short and stout, with broad shoulders and a thick back, looking quite robust. On his back, there was a wound from a sharp object, the wound was horizontal, narrower on the left and wider on the right, resembling a knife inserted horizontally. Sanqi and Ouyang Xuan turned him over again, seeing that the deceased had a long slash on the left side of his neck, from top to bottom, which directly severed the artery.

  "It looks like a burglary murder case. But why did the murderer have to move the body under the table? If it wasn't the murderer who moved it, then it should be..." Ouyang Xuan muttered to himself in thought.

  "The dead man himself!" Sanqi and he exclaimed in unison.

  "What do you want to say?" San Qi asked Ouyang Xuan.

  "The more you try to hide it, the more it will be exposed." Ouyang Xuan slowly spat out four words.