Ren Yifei sat leisurely on the garbage truck, swaying his head, while a group of athletes chased after him, panting heavily, contributing a month's worth of exercise. The auntie just sped along, ignoring everything else.
Many live streamers were watching the spectacle, laughing and joking together, until the garbage truck finally stopped at its destination.
Ren Yifei glanced at his watch and realized that ten minutes had passed.
He jumped off the garbage truck: "Auntie, I'm so grateful, I'll go rescue the person right now."
The aunt knew he was talking nonsense, but to play along, she smiled and nodded: "Go quickly and give him some advice. There's no hurdle in life that can't be overcome."
"Okay." Ren Yifei said goodbye to his aunt and rushed into the building.
There were no suicidal friends in the building, but there was a police officer named Zhang whose expression was unreadable. He and several other officers were guarding the entrance, which was decorated with ribbons and barricades, preventing ordinary people from entering.
As soon as Ren Yifei approached, he introduced himself: "Officer Zhang, I am He Zhaoming, the new detective assistant."
Officer Zhang looked at him and nodded: "Put on shoe covers, a mask, and gloves. Don't scream or disturb me if you see anything."
Ren Yifei naturally nodded and agreed.
So they both dressed neatly and went into the dwelling.
"Huh?" As soon as he entered, Ren Yifei's eyes widened. "This place..."
The layout of this room is quite interesting. Everything is shorter than normal, and there are no height barriers between the rooms, making it an accessible passageway for people in wheelchairs.
"Is this designer... physically disabled?" Ren Yifei asked.
"Um."
This is a large room, about 200 square meters, with one room per floor, where only Designer Tian lives. Officer Zhang casually mentioned this to Ren Yifei, which is probably part of his duties as an NPC.
Ren Yifei observed him carefully and noticed that Officer Zhang looked very serious. Like the cleaning lady who had brought him there before, he seemed unaware of the other contestants' situations and was simply carrying out his own task.
Having made this judgment, Ren Yifei turned his attention back to the case itself.
In the apartment's kitchen, the wheelchair was to one side, and the deceased lay on the floor. Although it was a silicone dummy, the shape was extremely realistic, and the details were exactly the same as a real person, so I still subconsciously gasped when I saw it.
How painful it must have been to drown in boiling water.
"Hmm?" Ren Yifei suddenly felt something was strange. He took out the photo again to compare it, and he found that the silicone corpse on the ground was so realistic that it could be mistaken for a real corpse, while the person in the photo was a real dead person.
Could such a tragedy have really happened in the world?
Suppressing his doubts, Ren Yifei went over to examine the 'corpse'. There was already a person in a white coat next to the 'corpse', who was carefully taking a thermometer out of an unspeakable place: "Drowning. The body temperature dropped by eight degrees. Combined with other changes in the body, it can be determined that the person has been dead for about eight hours."
It turns out that this method uses body temperature to determine the exact time of death.
If we go back eight hours, wouldn't that be around midnight?
"Sister, did this person drown? And what happened to the burns on their face?" Ren Yifei leaned closer.
The forensic doctor glanced at him and pointed to a stainless steel basin in the sink. There was still a lot of spilled water near the basin, which had also wet a disposable kitchen cloth. "The murderer pushed the victim into this boiling water, causing him to suffocate. As for the injuries on his face, they were caused by contact with hot water."
This kitchen is also custom-made, making it very convenient for people in wheelchairs to move around freely. The sink is also lower than a regular sink, with a recessed area underneath, making it easy for people in wheelchairs to wash dishes and vegetables.
He imagined the deceased arriving in a wheelchair, seeing the scalding water, but trusting him and being unsuspecting. The next second, he was pushed into the boiling water; he struggled violently, his body even leaving the wheelchair, but he still died.
Ren Yifei nodded and asked, "Sister, with a death like that, the victim must have struggled violently. Were there any other marks left under his fingernails or on his body?"
The forensic doctor knew what he was going to ask: "The little fingernail broke during the struggle, but there was no skin tissue or woven material residue in the nail fold."
"Are these marks left by the murderer?" Ren Yifei pointed to the bluish-purple bruises on both sides of the back of the victim's neck, which looked like strangulation marks and had faint fingerprints.
Upon closer inspection, he noticed that the bruises were scattered, indicating that the perpetrator had worn heat-resistant gloves.
What kind of person pours boiling hot water into the sink and wears heat-resistant gloves without arousing suspicion from the homeowner?
Ren Yifei looked at the pajamas and slippers on the deceased's body. The murderer must have been someone close to the deceased. The deceased could feel very comfortable and let down his guard in front of that person.
Ren Yifei carefully observed the kitchen and was surprised to find that, apart from the dead body on the floor and the messy sink, everything else had been wiped clean, and even the outside of the range hood was polished to a shine.
He also opened the trash can, which contained some kitchen waste.
Are there any hairs with follicles left in the room?
"Nothing has been found yet," the forensic doctor said.
Ren Yifei then looked at the refrigerator, which was crammed full of food, many of which still had their packaging intact. Judging from the dates on the packaging, these items had all been brought in just yesterday.
It is known that the deceased had difficulty walking...
"His assistant comes over once a day to bring him some things and take away the trash," Officer Zhang answered Ren Yifei's question.
"Was it just the assistant who came yesterday?" Ren Yifei asked.
"Besides the assistant, there was the hourly worker, the deceased's boyfriend, and the deceased's gambler father. The hourly worker came to clean; she arrived at 1 PM and left at 3 PM, only leaving after cleaning the entire house. As for the deceased's boyfriend..."
Officer Zhang took out his notebook: "According to the deceased's boyfriend, she wanted to break up with him, and that's why he came here. He arrived around nine o'clock in the morning, and the two parted on bad terms ten minutes later, but there was no conflict."
"The deceased's father came because he owed gambling debts, but he didn't get the money and left around 3 p.m.
The victim's boyfriend and father both had motives for the murder, but what about the assistant?
Before Ren Yifei could ask, Officer Zhang added, "The assistant is also a suspect because he had a family emergency and urgently needed money, but the deceased was planning to fire him and replace him with a new assistant. He came over around 1 p.m., stayed for about ten minutes, and then left. The elevator surveillance footage confirms that the three of them came in and left, and they all stayed for no more than fifteen minutes."
Well, three suspects.
"No surveillance footage?"
"The outside surveillance cameras have been broken for a while, but the cameras inside the elevator are still working, and we haven't found anything unusual," Officer Zhang dutifully provided the clue.
Ren Yifei decided to test the waters again: "May I see these three suspects?"
"No," Officer Zhang said, "but you can look at the photos."
Then he took out three photos. The first was of his assistant, a friendly-looking young man with a round face, making a "V" sign at the camera. The second was of his boyfriend, a handsome and charming man. The third was of the deceased's father, with cloudy eyes and a serious expression.
None of these three men were small or thin; each of them possessed the strength to push the deceased into hot water.
"Did the deceased leave a will? Or did he have any insurance? Who is the beneficiary?" Most murders are either for love or for profit, so Ren Yifei decided to start from this angle.
"He didn't have insurance, but he did have a will. However, the will stated that apart from leaving his father a minimum standard of living, all his belongings would be donated after his death, with no beneficiaries."
Touching his chin, Ren Yifei began to think about which of the three people was most likely to kill for 'love'. From his perspective, none of them should have done it.
Being an assistant is a job, but jobs are often changed, and as the saying goes, if you want a high salary, you should switch jobs as early as possible.
My boyfriend did it for love, but love is a bastard. If one is gone, you can just find another. Killing someone for this is pointless, absolutely pointless.
The deceased's father would be even less likely to do so. With his son dead, he would only have the bare minimum security. Only when his son was alive could he occasionally take advantage of others. Killing the goose that lays the golden eggs is truly unwise.
Ren Yifei let out a breath, but unfortunately most people in the world cannot think as openly as he does.
Ren Yifei then checked the cabinets and other areas but found no further clues. At this point, he saw the master bedroom; the door was open, revealing the entire interior.
Upon entering, it was discovered that this was a large room formed by combining two bedrooms. The deceased had set up a corner of the room as a workshop, where one could see a sewing machine, a cutting table, dolls, and other items.
On one wall of the room hung photos of his awards over the years and some of his major runway shows. One of the photos was the original of the oil painting he had seen in the villa's corridor.
In addition, there were many personal photos inside, many of which were pictures of the deceased traveling with different handsome men. The handsome men looked at the deceased with extremely tender eyes, making no attempt to hide their admiration.
Ren Yifei also saw a photo of the deceased and her current boyfriend, seemingly taken backstage at a fashion show. Her boyfriend was a model, dressed in a classic dark gothic style outfit that perfectly complemented his handsome features.
The deceased's previous boyfriends all appeared to be models.
"Wow, you have quite a romantic history."
"Huh?" Ren Yifei looked at them one by one, and when he saw one of the photos of people playing in the water, he paused for a moment. Behind the dead man and the handsome man, there was a tall artificial iceberg slide that looked a bit like an ice city.
His fingers touched the photograph, and a voice floated out: "Found the Relic of the Desolate Corner—Ice City. Claim it?"
"..." From the urgency in that voice, he seemed to sense that the desolate corner wanted to throw him out as soon as possible.
"Collect," Ren Yifei silently told himself.
In the blink of an eye, the photo was still the same, but the iceberg slide behind the deceased had turned into a castle-shaped slide, and a voice reminded him that he had obtained a token.
Recalling the immense difficulties other players faced in obtaining the tokens, Ren Yifei paused for a moment: Am I that hard to get along with? Are you so eager to kick me out?
After looking at the photo wall, he walked to the deceased's workbench, where many clothing design sketches were scattered haphazardly. They seemed to be a series, using many fresh and bright colors. Just by looking at the design sketches, one could guess that the theme of this time was beautiful and fairytale-like.
Then he saw a picture of a handsome man on the table with a phone number on the back.
"...The new one?"
Shaking his head, Ren Yifei continued exploring the room. He saw the en-suite bathroom, which was also specially designed for the deceased; even the sink was lower than normal.
Inside, the toilet seat flips up onto the lid, and next to it is a small remote control panel with buttons for opening, closing, heating, flushing, and other functions. It's a smart toilet, a model very convenient for people with disabilities.
Ren Yifei walked out of the house and went to look at another bathroom: "I think I know who it is."