Jing Weiguang thought the two flight attendants were there to ask him for medical advice, but they said they wanted to see his junior colleague? He turned around in confusion and looked at Yan Ruru: "Junior colleague, you two know each other?"
Yan Ruru looked puzzled: "I don't know him."
Xiao Lou smiled at her in a friendly manner and said, "Ms. Yan, please come with us for a moment. We have some questions for you."
Yan Ruru frowned and said, "I don't know you. What do you want with me?"
The girl was very wary, so Yu Hanjiang had to lower his voice and say, " The train conductor asked us to verify passenger information, please cooperate."
Yan Ruru then said "Oh" and stood up to follow them.
Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang took her to the flight attendant's office, turned on their phones, and showed her photos of the scene of Zhou Quan's death.
When Yan Ruru saw the photos covered in blood, her face turned deathly pale. But she didn't scream or show any fear like Yue Xiaoquan and Yu Lin. Instead, she trembled all over, lowered her head, and clenched her fists tightly.
Xiao Lou thought she was about to cry and was about to comfort her, but before he could say anything, Yan Ruru suddenly burst into laughter: "Hahahaha! Karma! Zhou Quan died well, died beautifully!"
Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang: "..."
Yan Ruru's eyes were bloodshot as she gritted her teeth and said, "Scum like that should have died long ago! He died such a horrible death, he must have been terrified and in great pain before he died, right? Hahahaha, he deserved it!"
The girl couldn't stop laughing when she saw the photo of Zhou Quan's death, leaving Yu Hanjiang and Xiao Lou looking at each other in bewilderment.
Half a minute later, she stopped laughing and said coldly, "Why are you looking for me? I didn't kill him."
Yu Hanjiang asked, "You studied medicine? You graduated from the same university as Jing Weiguang?"
Yan Ruru coldly replied, "That's right. Senior Brother Jing is several years ahead of me. I never met him at school, but when I went to the hospital for my internship, Senior Brother Jing was our mentor."
Xiao Lou asked, "Have you graduated yet?"
Yan Ruru said, "I'm a graduate student and I won't graduate until next year."
It seems she is two years older than Zhou Quan.
Yu Hanjiang said, "You took this bullet train for the same reason as the other six girls: to teach Zhou Quan a lesson, that scumbag?"
Yan Ruru said expressionlessly, "Six girls? I don't know what you're talking about."
Xiao Lou said gently, "I have information on the seven of you girls here. Zhou Quan also has your photos. Someone has already told you the purpose of your group trip. I hope Ms. Yan will not hide anything and will cooperate with our investigation."
Yan Ruru's expression changed: "What photos?"
Xiao Lou opened her laptop and showed it to her. When she saw her own photo on the USB drive, she couldn't help but clench her fists and angrily said, " Zhou Quan is a madman! Calling me Consort Ru? Hah, he doesn't deserve it!"
Yu Hanjiang said, "Tell me in detail how you met Zhou Quan."
Yan Ruru was silent for a moment before lowering her head and saying, "He was an apprentice I picked up casually in the game. I often took him to run dungeons, and he always obediently called me master. Later, for the sake of the in-game couple event, he said he wanted to get the reward and marry me in the game. Because the reward was very generous, I didn't object. It was just a casual marriage in the game, and I didn't care at all whether the other person was a human or a dog."
Yan Ruru paused for a moment, then continued, "Once, to make things easier for a game mission, I video chatted with him. He probably thought I was pretty, so he started to fawn over me and pursue me. He's a few years younger than me, and I wasn't too keen at first, but Zhou Quan is a very good talker with a sweet tongue. Plus, he's quite handsome, and he's always been very attentive to me. After a while, I started to develop feelings for him, so we met in real life and started dating."
Xiao Lou was surprised to learn that Yan Ruru and Zhou Quan were actually master and apprentice in the game.
Winning over the "beautiful master" in the game must be a great achievement for Zhou Quan, right?
Yu Hanjiang then asked, "How did you find out he was cheating on you?"
Yan Ruru said, "Once when he went on a date with me, I accidentally saw a dating app on his phone that looked very familiar. Later, I looked it up online and found out it was a hookup app. I suspected he was up to something, so I downloaded the app, registered a fake account, added him as a friend, and asked him out. We only chatted for a week before he agreed to meet at a hotel… That's when I found out that Zhou Quan was a scumbag with a very messy private life."
Yan Ruru sneered, "I had already decided to confront him at the hotel and break up with him directly. But then, Liu Xiaoyan, Song Xiaoyu, Si Yun, Yu Lin … suddenly a whole bunch of girls came to me, saying they were also Zhou Quan's girlfriends. Turns out, Zhou Quan not only hooked up with women, but also cheated on her with multiple women at the same time. My jaw almost dropped. This guy is a real genius!"
Yan Ruru's eyes were full of contempt, clearly finding Zhou Quan an incredibly despicable man.
She said, "With that kind of intelligence, there are many things you could do. Why do you have to focus your energy on how to deceive women? You're really pathetic."
Xiao Lou agreed inwardly and asked, "Do you hate Zhou Quan?"
Yan Ruru shook her head: "I don't really hate him, I just find it ridiculous that so many girls fall for it, and Zhou Quan is quite good at charming girls."
Yu Hanjiang paused for a moment, then said, "When the seven of you gathered, did someone suggest threatening Zhou Quan with a knife, cutting him dozens of times, but not killing him, so that you wouldn't have to take responsibility?"
Yan Ruru was somewhat surprised, but she quickly realized that someone had confessed. She nodded and said, "It was Yue Xiaoquan who suggested it."
"Yes, I think this method is quite interesting and very scientific. Everyone agreed with her suggestion at the time, and I volunteered to prepare the scalpel. I was interning at a hospital, so I could try to get my hands on a sharp scalpel; it would hurt a lot, but the wound wouldn't be deep."
Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang exchanged a glance, and the latter asked in a low voice, "Where's the knife you prepared?"
Yan Ruru said, "It's in my bag."
Yu Hanjiang immediately stood up: "Come with us to go look for it."
Yan Ruru turned and returned to her seat, taking her backpack from the luggage rack. She had only brought a small backpack with her this time, which wasn't filled with much and could be easily taken down with one hand. She unzipped the backpack, found a box at the bottom, and handed it to Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang. Xiao Lou took it back to the office and opened it; sure enough, the box contained a neatly arranged row of scalpels, seven in total.
Xiao Lou pondered: "It seems that Yan Ruru prepared seven knives, probably intending to surround Zhou Quan with seven people, each taking a knife and slowly cutting him, causing Zhou Quan to experience terrifying physical and psychological torture."
Yu Hanjiang asked, " Professor Xiao, do you think the knife wounds on the deceased match the incisions made by the scalpel?"
Xiao Lou shook his head: "A scalpel is extremely sharp, and the incision would be very fine, but the incision on the deceased's body has outward marks, and the blade is much wider than a scalpel. The murder weapon should be a commonly used portable fruit knife."
Yan Ruru doesn't need to bring a bunch of scalpels and then prepare a separate fruit knife. She's a doctor; she'll definitely be more comfortable using a scalpel than a fruit knife.
Moreover, she didn't seem to have a deep relationship with Zhou Quan. She just thought Zhou Quan was ridiculous and deserved to die. She didn't have an extremely strong urge to kill, so it seems that her suspicion can be ruled out.
Xiao Lou said, "Let's ask Cheng Mu."
Yu Hanjiang nodded and called Cheng Mu over.
After Yan Ruru returned to her seat, she told Cheng Mu about Zhou Quan's death. Therefore, when Cheng Mu arrived at the flight attendant's office and saw the photo of Zhou Quan's death, he was not too surprised.
She said directly, "Ruru told me that Zhou Quan is dead. That scumbag deserved to die! But I didn't kill him. I had no feelings for him. We were just friends with benefits."
Yu Hanjiang looked at her calmly: "Please try your best to explain the details of being with Zhou Quan and how you and the other six girls teamed up to take revenge on Zhou Quan."
Cheng Mu's face was pale, and his voice trembled slightly: "I met Zhou Quan on a chat app, a well-known hookup app. Whenever Zhou Quan felt lonely, he would come to my house to see me. We only had sex, not emotional connection. Later, he said that he wanted to have a regular relationship with me. He was handsome and good in bed, so having a regular bed partner like him wouldn't be a loss for me, so I agreed."
She raised her hand as if making a vow, saying, "Whether he cheated or not, I don't really care. We were just bed partners. I came along this time because I thought Yue Xiaoquan's suggestion was very interesting. Seven people surrounding a scumbag and slowly cutting him apart with a knife would be too exciting. I'm just here for the fun."
Xiao Lou was both amused and exasperated.
Zhou Quan's tastes are quite peculiar; his girlfriend group really includes all sorts of girls.
Cheng Mu might be a girl who doesn't take relationships seriously, which is why she was indifferent to Zhou Quan's cheating. If they were really just friends with benefits, Zhou Quan didn't really betray her; she had no motive to kill Zhou Quan.
Yu Hanjiang didn't say much, but said, "You can go back now. Please ask Song Xiaoyu to come over."
Song Xiaoyu was trembling with fear, like a little white rabbit that had stumbled into a wolf's den. She started crying as soon as she saw Zhou Quan's photo, tears streaming down her face, making it impossible for her to answer questions properly. Xiao Lou could only patiently comfort her: "Don't cry, it's not worth shedding tears for someone like that."
She cried for a moment before choking out, "I'm not sad for him, I... I'm fainting... I'm fainting at the sight of blood."
Xiao Lou: "..."
Song Xiaoyu said, trembling, "This photo is terrifying, there's so much blood."
Yu Hanjiang took his phone back and refused to show it to her again, asking, "Do you know which girl harbors the deepest hatred for Zhou Quan?"
Song Xiaoyu shook her head like a rattle drum: "I don't know, I don't know them very well."
Xiao Lou asked in confusion, "Since you're afraid of blood, why did you agree to Yue Xiaoquan's suggestion? Won't Zhou Quan bleed if you cut him with a knife?"
Song Xiaoyu said with a pale face, "I didn't want to participate in this operation either. Just thinking about cutting him with a knife is terrifying! But Sister Xiaoyan encouraged me, saying that if I cut him once, just once, I would become braver and be able to completely get out of the shadow. I would never be afraid of being deceived by scumbags again. I thought that made sense, so I mustered up the courage to go with her."
Yu Hanjiang asked, "Are you deeply in love with him? I heard you were so angry after he cheated on you that you ended up in the hospital?"
Song Xiaoyu said somewhat sadly, "He was my first love. I was really serious and invested in this relationship. When I found out he cheated on me, I was so heartbroken that I couldn't take the shock and ended up having a heart attack and being hospitalized."
The delicate girl, with clear and innocent eyes, said earnestly, "After being discharged from the hospital, I heard that he was cheating on me with many other women at the same time. When I saw the evidence that Sister Xiaoyan gave me, showing that he had added several other girls, I finally realized the truth. I was just unlucky in love and could only blame myself for being blind for a moment. There's no need to be too sad. I was serious about this relationship, but he wasn't... I'm not wrong, he's the one who's wrong."
She gently clenched her fist and said, "Relationships are important, but my studies are more important to me. I just got into the literature department of a top university this year. Xiaoyan is right. Cutting that scumbag off with a knife is like cutting off the past completely. I will start a brand new life."
After Song Xiaoyu left, Yu Hanjiang turned to Xiao Lou and asked, "How credible do you think this girl's words are?"
Xiao Lou thought for a moment and said, "Her physical condition is worse than average, and her speech..."
Her voice was also very soft; she didn't have the means to engage in any kind of entanglement with Zhou Quan. Besides, a quick check of her hospital records would reveal whether she had heart disease; I don't think she had any reason to lie about this.
Yu Hanjiang nodded and continued interrogating Liu Xiaoyan.
Liu Xiaoyan also learned of Zhou Quan's death from Song Xiaoyu, so she was very calm when she arrived at the office.
She readily admitted, "I don't have a high level of education, and I used to be quite unrestrained when I worked as a receptionist at an internet cafe, but I've turned over a new leaf. My hair salon just opened, and my friends have helped me a lot. Business is pretty good now, and I'm enjoying being a boss. Why would I ruin myself for a scumbag? I wish Zhou Quan would die, but I definitely didn't lay a hand on him."
Yu Hanjiang asked, "You have a bold style? Have you ever played bondage games with Zhou Quan before?"
A hint of embarrassment flashed across Liu Xiaoyan's face as she said, "Well, I was quite naive when I was young, and I was indeed... rather uninhibited."
She paused, then quickly clarified, "But this time it really wasn't me."
Xiao Lou pulled out the blood-stained black clothes: "Aren't these your clothes?"
Liu Xiaoyan shook her head vigorously: "No, the five of us packed our luggage together when we left. I only brought two dresses, one red and one orange. My sisters can all vouch for me."
Yu Hanjiang said, "Your affair with Zhou Quan happened a long time ago. Are you showing up this time because of Song Xiaoyu?"
Liu Xiaoyan said with a dark face, "That's right, Xiao Yu is just like my own sister. She was completely fooled by this hypocrite Zhou Quan. I was so angry that I started investigating, but the truth I found out shocked me to death—this Zhou Quan is such a fucking scumbag! I curse his ass!"
Liu Xiaoyan cursed a few times, took a breath to calm herself down, and then continued, "I wanted to castrate him right away and make him childless! But Yue Xiaoquan's suggestion was more interesting. Everyone cut him a few times, and in the end, it could be judged as minor injury. We wouldn't go to jail for intentional assault... I can only say that knowledge is power. Xiaoquan's method is brilliant."
Yu Hanjiang asked, "Did everyone know that you and Zhou Quan did bondage?"
Liu Xiaoyan awkwardly touched her nose: "I know, I told them in the group that Zhou Quan went to a hotel with me after knowing me for only three days during his senior year summer vacation. I said to tease him, 'Let's do something exciting with your older sister,' and he excitedly agreed."
Yu Hanjiang: "..."
This woman's style is really fierce.
Judging from her testimony and attitude, she doesn't seem like someone who would kill. Her hair salon had just opened, and her business was just starting out; there was no need for her to ruin herself for a scumbag. It's more likely that she participated in this operation to help Song Xiaoyu find peace.
Si Yun, who was the last to be questioned, told the two about Zhou Quan's software. She said, " When Zhou Quan was interning at the company, he performed exceptionally well. He was serious, hardworking, and very ambitious. Ignoring his scumbag behavior in relationships, he was actually quite smart. He could learn many complex programs very quickly. Our boss liked him very much and even hoped that he would come to the company for an interview after graduation."
Si Yun paused, adjusted her glasses, and said calmly, "I know the little software he developed. It's an information categorization and organization software. I think he probably got the inspiration from his experience of juggling six relationships without capsizing. He probably uses that little software to record the personalities, preferences, anniversaries, and birthdays of us different girls to avoid making mistakes."
Xiao Lou: "..."
This guy is a genius! He categorized and organized information on six girlfriends; I can't believe he came up with that.
Yu Hanjiang asked, "Did you ever have any conflicts during the software development process?"
Si Yun shook her head: "No. I gave him some guidance on interface design. After his small software was sold, he treated me to a romantic candlelight dinner and gave me a limited edition bag as a souvenir. At the time, I didn't know he was cheating on me. That night, I felt like I had found true love. I was even thinking that we would get married when he graduated and joined our company. Ha."
She pushed up her glasses with a cold laugh and said, "I was researching wedding planning companies for the past few days when Liu Xiaoyan came to my door and talked about Zhou Quan. I was really shocked. Zhou Quan deserves to die, but I didn't lay a hand on him. I'm going to be promoted to department head next year, why should I waste my life on such scum?"
Yu Hanjiang told Si Yun to go back for the time being.
Each of these girls' testimonies seemed flawless. Xiao Lou sorted through the notes, feeling like her head was about to explode.
Yu Hanjiang frowned and pondered for a moment. He rewrote the names of the seven people on the paper and sorted out the information: " Yu Lin, Yue Xiaoquan, Song Xiaoyu, and Yan Ruru all have long black hair. The person who came into your office to get the key may be one of these four. But it is also possible that someone is wearing a wig."
He paused for a moment, then continued, " Si Yun let something slip earlier—she guided Zhou Quan's interface design during software development, which means she is proficient in Photoshop. Zhou Quan's mobile phone wallpaper, 'The Train to Hell,' was very likely designed and created by her."
Yu Hanjiang paused his pen on the name " Cheng Mu," saying, " Cheng Mu's answer has the most doubts. She said that she and Zhou Quan were just friends with benefits, had no feelings for each other, and were indifferent to Zhou Quan's cheating... But would someone who is indifferent participate in such a revenge action? Just to join in the fun? Does that reason make sense?"
Xiao Lou's eyes suddenly lit up.
If you don't have a deep relationship with the other person, your first reaction after they cheat on you should be to break up with them, not to join their girlfriends in tearing them apart with knives—wouldn't you be afraid of getting yourself covered in blood? Or what kind of accident might happen in the process?
Logically speaking, one would definitely avoid it at all costs.
Cheng Mu "joined in the fun"
The reasons are extremely insufficient.
Yu Hanjiang looked at the name with a deep gaze: "The less someone seems to care, the more they may actually care. I wonder if Professor Xiao has ever heard the saying that those who cry loudly, drown their sorrows in alcohol, get sick and hospitalized after a breakup, and use all sorts of methods to vent their emotions are actually more likely to recover. On the other hand, those who seem calm and indifferent are the most likely to have psychological problems."
Xiao Lou had also heard this theory. He turned to look at the other person: " Captain Yu means that Cheng Mu is the most suspicious? She seems the least concerned, but in fact, she is the most psychologically wounded and has the deepest hatred for the deceased?"
Yu Hanjiang nodded: "Based on the testimonies, her testimony is the least credible. Analyzing her past experiences, she often had casual sex with people. No woman is born so promiscuous. Perhaps she suffered some emotional trauma before, which led her to indulge herself. She was serious about Zhou Quan, and Zhou Quan's betrayal became the last straw that broke her back."
Xiao Lou added, "Moreover, the other girls all said that their relationships were unimportant compared to their future. Yu Lin is a top student, Yan Ruru is a graduate student who will graduate soon, Yue Xiaoquan is a medical student at a top university, Liu Xiaoyan just opened a hair salon, Song Xiaoyu just got into university, and Si Yun is about to be promoted to department head. Only Cheng Mu... she didn't say anything about herself."
The two exchanged a glance, then got up and went out in unison.
At the same time.
Cheng Mu returned to his seat and turned to look at the trees rushing past the window.
She gently placed her hand on her lower abdomen, a bitter smile appearing on her lips.
Not long after, the two young and handsome flight attendants reappeared in front of her.
Xiao Lou smiled and said, "Ms. Cheng, would you please come with us? There are some issues that require your cooperation in our investigation."
Cheng Mu's hands trembled slightly, and he stood up expressionlessly.
Yu Hanjiang said, "Please take your backpack with you."
Cheng Mu's face turned deathly pale. After a moment, a relieved smile appeared on her lips: "Well, what's meant to happen will happen."
She took her backpack off the overhead rack, went to the flight attendant's office, and asked Yu Hanjiang to open it for her.
At the bottom of the travel bag were several outpatient test reports stapled together, which read: 4 weeks pregnant.
There was also a test report. When Xiao Lou saw it, his pupils suddenly contracted.
He is HIV positive.