There was a commotion outside, it seemed the other group of competitors had arrived. However, as the second group, they needed to wait outside for a while.
Ren Yifei walked straight towards Officer Zhang: "Officer Zhang, is the kitchen faucet broken?"
Officer Zhang was taken aback and said, "No."
Ren Yifei wasn't entirely convinced. He walked over, turned the faucet to the hot water side, and turned it on. Water came out, but the red light for hot water didn't illuminate, clearly indicating a malfunction in the heating function.
Officer Zhang asked, somewhat puzzled, "How did you know the faucet's heating function was malfunctioning?"
"Of course it's because of this," Ren Yifei said, pointing to the sink.
Before arriving, Ren Yifei had been pondering a question: Why boil so much hot water? Was it for slaughtering a pig? Drowning could be done with ordinary water, so why use hot water? Was it to torture the deceased?
Later, he came to the house and saw the basin in the sink. He didn't see the dishwasher, so he guessed that the deceased might not like the dishwasher, thinking that it didn't clean well or something, so he used this basin to wash everything.
The murderer took advantage of this to create a small 'pond' large enough to drown a person.
An ordinary person might have a chance to struggle and escape. Even a frog can jump out of hot water, let alone a human. The strength of such a struggle would be immense, and an ordinary person would not be able to hold it down.
However, the deceased was a disabled person with difficulty walking, and his legs were unable to function properly, which provided an opportunity for the murderer.
But then a new problem arises: is it really necessary to use such scalding hot water to wash dishes? The hot side of the faucet has enough water at 60 degrees Celsius.
Therefore, he guessed that the faucet's heating function was malfunctioning, and he could only boil water to wash the dishes.
Then, during this process, what did the deceased say or do that completely enraged the murderer, who decided to make the deceased suffer to death?
The victim died around midnight, a time at which, theoretically, everyone should have already left the victim's home. However, the murderer appeared.
The only explanation is that the murderer chose to climb the twelve-story staircase at night. This way, they could avoid being caught on the elevator security cameras and still appear in the victim's home.
This action also suggests that it was a premeditated murder.
He came to the deceased's house at this time, and the deceased even let him in. In the middle of the night, he even boiled water for the deceased and washed dishes. There are only two people who could do this: the assistant and the ex-boyfriend.
The part-time worker doesn't wash dishes, and she wouldn't be here at midnight. It's even less likely that the deceased's father was there; he was just there to take advantage of the situation, not to actually clean the dishes.
So, who is more suspicious, the assistant or the ex-boyfriend?
Ren Yifei previously thought his assistant was more suspicious because he had a stronger motive. He had experienced family troubles and a financial crisis, but was dismissed, which could have led to anger.
As for the ex-boyfriend, judging from the deceased's romantic history, he always changed boyfriends very quickly. This boyfriend should have been mentally prepared for this, and he couldn't possibly still be thinking about something impossible like 'I will be the last one'.
However, he didn't realize that the deceased and her boyfriend's relationship was not only that of lovers, but also that of business partners. The deceased, as a very talented young designer, could have boosted his lover's career.
After breaking up with her ex-boyfriend, she suffered setbacks in both love and career.
In this situation, the ex-boyfriend also had ample reason to be angry.
Judging from their motives, the two are evenly matched, so the only question is who the available clues point to. Ren Yifei already has a lead; he just needs to confirm it.
"Officer Zhang, were there any people at the scene collecting fingerprints or other clues?"
Officer Zhang was puzzled, but he still called someone in.
"Can you do me a favor?" Ren Yifei asked him.
The young police officer nodded, looking quite professional as he held his tools.
He led the young officer to the master bedroom's bathroom: "Could you collect the fingerprints on this toilet remote control?"
This remote control is touch-sensitive, has a mirror finish, and you can vaguely see a fingerprint on it.
"Okay." The young police officer immediately took out the fingerprint collection tools and used them to make a fingerprint imprint. As a result, he collected a fingerprint.
Sure enough... Ren Yifei narrowed his eyes, already about 80% certain.
"Officer Zhang, could you please bring all three suspects here?"
"Didn't I already say? This matter..." Officer Zhang frowned, about to refuse.
Ren Yifei raised his hand: "What if I said I already know who did it? Doesn't Officer Zhang want to solve the case quickly?"
Officer Zhang: "..." Young man, you're not following the rules.
If this weren't a game, but real, Officer Zhang would naturally want to solve the case quickly. But isn't this just a game?
"If you can't decide, perhaps you can ask someone? I'll take responsibility if anything goes wrong."
Ren Yifei was just testing the waters; as long as the organizers didn't kill him, he would gradually find out the limits of the event. Therefore, he didn't have high hopes for success. However, Officer Zhang left for a few minutes and then returned, saying, "It's okay."
"Huh?" Ren Yifei was extremely surprised.
Before long, the three suspects arrived one by one. They stood in the living room, the door to the room was open, and the contestants outside craned their necks to look inside.
"Please step back and go to the stairs on the next floor." The officer shooed the other contestants away and closed the door.
Finding the criminal at the scene is possible, but sharing the results? No.
"Everyone's here, so get to it," Officer Zhang said impatiently.
"Ahem," Ren Yifei put down the elevator surveillance video in his hand, "Let's first go over what happened."
He glanced at the three people with different expressions, then stared at the ex-boyfriend: "According to the elevator surveillance footage, you, as the deceased's boyfriend, arrived at 9:23 yesterday morning and left at 9:40, right?"
The ex-boyfriend nodded, his expression somber: "If I had known this was goodbye forever, I wouldn't have argued with him back then."
Ren Yifei then looked at his assistant: "At 1:37 PM, you appeared in the elevator carrying a lot of things. Those were the food and daily necessities you brought for the deceased. At 1:52 PM, you came out of the elevator and took away the deceased's garbage as well."
The assistant's eyes were a little red: "I come here at about the same time every day, and this time is no different from usual."
"Was the part-time worker already there by then?"
"Yes, she's cleaning," the assistant said.
As for the deceased's father, Ren Yifei turned his gaze to him, and the middle-aged man began to wail: "You absolutely must catch the murderer! Make him pay compensation!"
"You arrived at 2:50 and left at 3:07. The hourly worker was two minutes later than you."
"Yes, yes." The deceased's father nodded hurriedly.
"They all have proof of leaving," Officer Zhang said.
"To be precise, they all have proof of leaving during the day. But who has proof that they left at night?" Ren Yifei pulled out a blackboard from somewhere and banged it. "The deceased's time of death was around midnight last night. Does anyone have an alibi? Tell me."
The three suspects remained silent, demonstrating through their actions that they had no alibi.
"The murderer must have climbed to the twelfth floor through the emergency exit. The emergency exit had been unused for a long time and was covered in a layer of dust. Perhaps there were clear shoe prints left there."
Ren Yifei looked at the three people's expressions, but they were all relatively calm. It seemed that the murderer had not come unprepared. He might have disguised himself, as he was not dressed in his usual attire from head to toe.
"Before midnight yesterday, the murderer came to the victim's door via the stairs, and the victim opened the door for him. It was already very late, and the victim had changed into his pajamas, but he was not asleep yet; instead, he was drawing up design drafts for the next show."
"The murderer said something to comfort the victim, and then he helped wash the dishes in the sink. However, the hot water function of the faucet was malfunctioning, so he had to boil water to wash the dishes."
"But," Ren Yifei tapped the blackboard, "the murderer didn't come here to wash the dishes for the deceased; he came with the intention of killing from the start. Otherwise, who would willingly climb twelve floors for no reason?"
The expressions of the three suspects changed slightly.
"While washing the dishes, perhaps the murderer was still testing the victim, trying to get an answer. But the victim angered the murderer, so the murderer prepared scalding hot water for the victim, enough to melt her skin. The victim's boyfriend, you," Ren Yifei suddenly pointed to someone, "what did the victim say?"
Following his gaze, everyone saw the deceased's ex-boyfriend on the sofa, his face pale.
The ex-boyfriend broke out in a cold sweat: "W-what are you saying?"
"Was the deceased referring to a show he prepared for his new lover? Or was it something like a peaceful breakup?" Ren Yifei pressed.
"I don't understand what you're talking about." The ex-boyfriend's body trembled slightly; his acting was superb.
Ren Yifei smiled slightly: "Perhaps you don't know, today is the day the hourly cleaner comes. That's right, you came in the morning, you probably didn't expect that. The hourly cleaner is responsible for cleaning the whole house, including the toilet."
Her ex-boyfriend's face turned pale.
"The conscientious hourly worker even wiped the toilet and toilet remote control clean. She wiped away all the fingerprints you left behind, as well as other people's fingerprints. She also kindly sprinkled some disinfectant in the toilet and then put the toilet seat down."
Ren Yifei changed his tone: "When you were in the toilet, you probably didn't notice that there was a faint smell of cleaning agent in the toilet bowl, and you didn't notice that there wasn't a single fingerprint on the clean remote control until you left your fingerprint."
The ex-boyfriend was breathing rapidly; he lowered his head, not daring to look Ren Yifei in the eye.
"You were here this morning and left fingerprints in many places in this room. So you didn't care about leaving more fingerprints and didn't notice such a small detail." Ren Yifei narrowed his eyes. "Of the three suspects, it seems that you are the only one who was completely unaware that today was the day the hourly worker came."
"In addition, there are two toilets in this room, one outside, which is close by from the kitchen, and the other inside the master bedroom. If the murderer was the assistant, he wouldn't have needed to use the toilet in the master bedroom. Of course, my judgment is not based solely on this."
Ren Yifei looked towards the master bedroom: "The photos of the deceased's newly hired model were placed on top of a pile of design drafts, crookedly tossed there, seemingly crumpled. But what grudge did the assistant have against this model?"
Ren Yifei put away the small blackboard, hung it back on the wall, and asked with a victorious smile, "Ex-boyfriend, you said you weren't the murderer. So, how did you leave your fingerprints on the remote control that the hourly worker cleaned, since you left this morning?"
"I'm very curious."
The ex-boyfriend lowered his head and remained silent.
Just when everyone thought he wouldn't say anything more, he suddenly laughed: "What boyfriend? He just treats me like a dog! A dog that comes when summoned and goes when dismissed!"
Her ex-boyfriend suddenly looked up, tears welling in his eyes: "I was serious, but he was just playing around!"
"If this chandelier were to cascade down, perhaps I would no longer exist, even if you do not love me..."
A melancholic song suddenly broke the silence of the room, catching the ex-boyfriend, who was about to tear his heart out, completely off guard. He was stunned, his emotional processing interrupted, and he almost forgot his lines.
Everyone looked in the direction of the sudden singing and saw Ren Yifei with an "I understand" expression and the phone in his hand playing the song aloud.
"Ahem, I'll add some background music, a breakup anthem, it'll really fit the mood." Ren Yifei snapped out of his reverie, noticing everyone staring at him, and innocently turned the background music off. "You don't like it? Shall we change it?"
Her ex-boyfriend's blank face was filled with accusations of 'Are you even human?'
Everyone else: "..."
You're still the most seductive one.