Chapter 234: The Murderer Is?
Everyone stood up and looked toward Kim Won-hoon.
"Who died?"
"A... a woman..." Kim Won-hoon gasped. "She was killed like that!"
Hearing this, Qi Xia's face changed color. He knocked over his desk and chair and immediately ran out the door.
Officer Li also seemed to realize something and followed closely behind.
The remaining people from "Heaven's Gate" straggled along after them.
With a panicked expression, Qi Xia arrived at the classroom where he and the others were staying. The moment he pushed open the door, a pungent smell of rust hit him, mingling with the fresh stench of decay from the playground, making his mind reel.
Yu Nian'an lay in a pool of blood, a sharp knife standing upright in her chest.
"Nian!"
Just as Qi Xia was about to rush over, Officer Li grabbed him.
"What are you doing...?" Qi Xia asked.
"This time... we really need to 'preserve the scene.'" Officer Li slowly walked along the edge of the classroom, examining the footprints on the ground. "Don't you want to find the murderer?"
Reminded by Officer Li, Qi Xia gradually calmed down.
This time, Yu Nian'an's death was different from Han Yimo's previous situation. It was clearly murder.
People gradually gathered at the doorway, and Qi Xia's teammates also came running.
Lin Qin looked at Yu Nian'an lying in the blood, then turned to look at Qi Xia, feeling a bit strange.
Qi Xia... isn't he getting a headache?
Officer Li walked forward with Dr. Zhao and checked Yu Nian'an's pulse. She had no vital signs, but her body was still warm—clearly, she hadn't been dead long.
Officer Li crouched down to look at the ground. The footprints here were hard to use as clues, since ten people lived in the room.
But what was certain was that the blood was only near Yu Nian'an's body. There were no bloody footprints.
This indicated that the murderer had acted very quickly, leaving the scene before the blood could spread.
But there was another possibility...
"The murderer might have escaped through the window," Su Shan suddenly said.
Officer Li nodded and glanced at the girl.
The two of them went to the window at the same time to check. The school's windows could only be locked from the inside, and now all of them were locked.
Officer Li and Su Shan each picked up Yu Nian'an's left and right hands, examined her fingernails and palms, and finally checked the fatal wound.
After a moment, both wore troubled expressions.
They stood up, both seeming to have something to say.
Officer Li looked at Su Shan and asked, "Are you a police officer?"
Su Shan nodded. "Yes. You too?"
Officer Li saluted her. "Li Shangwu, Captain of the First Criminal Investigation Detachment of Bairin Left Banner, Inner Mongolia."
Su Shan became serious as well and returned the salute respectfully. "Su Shan, Technical Officer of the Technical Division of the Changsha Criminal Investigation Detachment, Hunan."
The two nodded in mutual understanding, which also made the others feel more at ease.
But the next second, Officer Li said gravely, "On the surface, it seems more likely that the victim committed suicide."
"What did you say...?" Qi Xia's expression froze.
"Captain Li is right." Su Shan nodded. "The victim shows no signs of struggle. The front of the heart and lungs were fatally injured. It's hard for a normal person not to struggle."
Su Shan looked down again at the knife in Yu Nian'an's chest.
"This is a fruit knife, sharpened only on one side. But the sharp edge is facing upward..." Su Shan mimicked the motion of holding the knife. "When a normal person holds a fruit knife, the blade should be facing downward. That makes it easier to stab into someone's body."
Everyone realized that the situation was indeed as Su Shan described.
"For the blade to face upward and stab into the heart and lungs..."
Su Shan clenched her hands, simulating the scene.
She knelt on the ground, pretending to hold the knife, then turned her hands over and stabbed it into her own heart.
"Only like this... would the blade face upward," she said, turning back.
Officer Li nodded and continued, "There are no bloody footprints in the room, and the windows show no signs of being opened. So what Su Shan said..."
"Nonsense," Qi Xia snapped coldly.
"What?"
"I said you two are talking nonsense." Qi Xia completely disbelieved what they said. With a grim expression, he sat down next to Yu Nian'an. "Where is Kim Won-hoon? Call him over."
From behind the crowd, a young man slowly stepped forward. It was Kim Won-hoon.
"Brother, I'm here..."
"Everyone was at the gathering. Why did you discover the body?" Qi Xia asked sternly.
"Brother Chu asked me to patrol," Kim Won-hoon replied. "Even though you were all at the gathering, I didn't go."
"Patrol...?" Qi Xia still looked unconvinced.
"Brother, are you suspecting me?" Kim Won-hoon's tone turned serious. "What are you saying? Are you saying I killed someone?"
Officer Li and Su Shan naturally understood Qi Xia's thinking. In most murder cases, the first person to discover the body often has a significant motive.
"Yu Nian'an was only wearing a white dress," Qi Xia said. "Kim Won-hoon, tell me—if she committed suicide, where did this fruit knife come from?"
Hearing this, Lin Qin's heart jolted. For some reason, a sentence Qi Xia had said during the gathering echoed in her mind: "I just went to give my wife something."
"Damn it... how should I know?" Kim Won-hoon felt furious. "I don't even know who this person is, huh? Why would I kill her?"
At that moment, Chu Tianqiu slowly walked over from behind the crowd. He scanned the scene in the room and immediately furrowed his brow.
"What happened?" Chu Tianqiu asked Kim Won-hoon.
"Ah, brother, I don't know. I found the body, but he's suspecting me," Kim Won-hoon said anxiously.
Chu Tianqiu didn't speak. Instead, he walked around the room.
He scanned the floor, the window, and Yu Nian'an's body, then said calmly, "Looks like suicide..."
As soon as he said that, he felt himself suddenly tackled to the ground.
The person who tackled him was neither Qi Xia nor Qiao Jiajin, but the pale-faced young man.
The next second, the pale-faced young man stepped forward and grabbed Chu Tianqiu by the throat. In his hand, he held a bloodstained dagger—clearly pulled from the corpse.
Qi Xia was now standing beside the pale-faced young man. Clearly, the two had planned this. Chu Tianqiu felt he had fallen for a trap.
"Where is Xu Liunian?" Qi Xia asked from the side.
"What?" Chu Tianqiu frowned. "Xu Liunian...?"
He instantly understood.
"The murderer is Xu Liunian. Call her here, or we'll kill you," Qi Xia said.
Murmurs immediately arose from the crowd.
The murderer is Xu Liunian?
Chu Tianqiu showed an uneasy expression. He turned to the crowd and shouted, "Don't—"
Before he could finish, Xu Liunian quickly stepped out and said, "Qi Xia, don't kill him! I'm here! I couldn't possibly be the murderer..."
Chu Tianqiu's face instantly darkened. He knew Xu Liunian was still too naive.
Facing someone like Qi Xia, how could she simply believe his words?
Qi Xia showed a faint smile upon hearing this. "Excellent."
He nodded to Chen Junnan. Chen Junnan suddenly raised his hand and fiercely stabbed the dagger toward Chu Tianqiu.
Qi Xia didn't care where Xu Liunian was at all. He only wanted to confirm whether the person in front of him was really Chu Tianqiu himself.
But what he hadn't expected was that, at the critical moment, Kim Won-hoon suddenly reached out and grabbed Chen Junnan's wrist.
"What are you doing?" Kim Won-hoon asked Qi Xia in a low voice.
"Can't you see?" Qi Xia said. "Revenge."
"You don't even know who really killed her. Revenge for what?" Kim Won-hoon shouted.
Qi Xia looked up at the young man in front of him.
During the last "Ground Tiger" game, when Xu Liunian was selecting teammates, she had once said, "It's a pity Kim Won-hoon isn't here," and had settled for Li Xiangling instead.
Thinking about it... was this young man's combat ability even higher than Li Xiangling's?
Chu Tianqiu, lying on the ground, thought for a moment and said, "Kim Won-hoon, take the knife away."
Kim Won-hoon nodded. He gripped Chen Junnan's arm with both hands and was about to twist it off when someone suddenly wrapped an arm around his shoulder.
"Young man, listen to me first..."