Bonus chapter 
Ke Shaobin’s speculation made everyone stunned—— If the murderer had special abilities and escaped from the building with ‘plate movement’ like Qin Lu, of course, that person could avoid the surveillance perfectly, just like them relied on Qin Lu’s skills to copy the data.
Everyone subconsciously turned their attention to Qin Lu.
Qin Lu hurriedly said, “Plate movement is a skill of the Geography Department. The maximum number of people on this exam is 12, and our Research Group occupies 11 places. So, we matched another Geography Department’s student as a murderer? It’s… unlikely, right?”
Jiang Pingce said calmly, “Impossible. The maximum number of people is 12, which obviously allows the level 3 Research Group of 12 people to directly take the test, the level 2 Research group of 8 people and 4 people in level 1 Research Group can be matched together to enter the examination room. At present, our team is not full, we didn’t find 1 more teammate and left one vacant seat, but most teams will enter the examination room in full quota.”
Zhuo Feng echoed. “That’s right. I head Qin Lang say that the team from Binjiang Normal University is also preparing to upgrade to level 3 and form a full group of 12 people, so if that team of theirs enters this examination hall, won’t there be no place for the murderer?”
Jiang Pingce looked at Yue Xingwen and said, “For the exam of the same course, will the library modify the plot line for our team of 11 people alone, and match a different murderer to come in?”
Yue Xingwen shook his head and said, “It shouldn’t be, right? That’s too unfair. The change in the examination room is only the change in the name of the character and the details of the plot, it won’t change so much that the examinee will be the murderer. The maximum number of examinees in the examination room is 12, which doesn’t mean that it must be a full 12 people. I think, there should be just 11 of us in this examination room, and the murderer will still have to be found among the others.”
Everyone nodded their heads. Jiang Pingce and Yue Xingwen’s analysis was also reasonable. There was a prompt in the <Death Code> course, that if there were not enough examinees, 4 people could also open the examination room, proving that the number of people in the examination room was not set and would be adjusted appropriately based on the match.
Everyone looked at Ke Shaobin. Ke Shaobin’s ears reddened and he whispered, “I just made a blind guess because it was so amazing that the murderer appeared and disappeared out of thin air. I thought he had a special ability, *cough cough*.”
Everyone: “……”
Xin Yan looked at him and said lightly, “Your head often comes up with strange ideas.”
Ke Shaobin adjusted his glasses, and argued softly with a red face, “I call it flexible thinking!”
Yue Xingwen patted his shoulder and smiled. “It’s okay, we brainstormed, and all of us can think of anything to analyze. Suppose, the speculation that ‘the murderer has a special ability’ that young Ke said is not true. So, how did the murderer avoid surveillance?”
Zhang Xiaonian suddenly asked, “There are only three entrances and exits on the ground level of this building, and the current surveillance coverage only captures the ground level entrances and exits, but what if—— he didn’t go to the ground level?”
Yue Xingwen’s eyes lit up. He immediately thought of another possibility. “Hasn’t the underground parking lot been built yet?”
Xinyue Plaza’s project was huge, and the underground parking lot was planned in a negative two-story structure to make parking easy for guests who came by car. The foundations for the entire project were very deep, and the site where it was currently located, directly underneath the cross-shaped pedestrian street that was hollowed out to build a large parking area.
If the murderer was hiding in the underground parking lot, there was really no need to enter the building through the entrance, nor did he need to walk out.
In the time between the murder of the deceased and the arrival of the police, the surveillance could not have captured the murderer at all. The murderer could have found a manhole cover leading to the ground and sneaked out again while no one was looking.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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Xinyue Plaza building had a topping out ceremony recently, and there was only a prototype of the underground parking lot. The entire underground parking lot was a ‘凸’ structure, the raised area was directly below the Xinyue Plaza building, and the remaining rectangular area was under the pedestrian street.
The parking lot had many square pillars that supported the weight of the building and a large number of drainage pipes distributed on the ceiling. This underground parking lot, not to mention the delineation of the parking spaces, and even the cement had not had time to be painted—— The construction progress of this underground parking lot was currently less than 30%.
The pedestrian street was also under construction, so Jiang Pingce pointed to the location of the pedestrian street on the map and said, “Enter the underground parking lot from here on the pedestrian street, go all the way to the -2nd floor directly below the Xinyue Plaza building, follow the stairs up, kill the person, and then go downstairs before escaping through the underground passageway, and you’ll be able to perfectly avoid all the surveillance.”
Yue Xingwen asked, “The pedestrian street side is farther away from the dormitory area. How long would it have taken the murderer to walk from the dormitory to the pedestrian street, walk through the underground passage to Xinyue Plaza building, and escape back after killing someone?”
Jiang Pingce carefully calculated and said, “It would take about half an hour for a round trip if you jogged all the way. In other words, the murderer was not in the dormitory for at least 30 minutes. Who had a suspicious alibi when the police questioned today?”
Yue Xingwen immediately took out the notes in his pocket. When the police were investigating just now, he had been recording information, which came in handy at this time. Yue Xingwen gave the analysis in order according to the recorded information. “Most of the workers said they were sleeping heavily and didn’t know if their roommates had left. There are only 3 special dormitories.”
“First, the workers in dormitory no 116 woke up at 4:30am in the morning to find no one in the bed next to him. The one who was not in the room, named Zhao Qiang, came from the same village as the deceased Zhao Dayong. His roommate said he didn’t come back until around 5:00am. His explanation to the police was that he was having diarrhea.”
“That means he was gone for over half an hour at the time of the crime? And his reason is diarrhea?” Jiang Pingce wrote down this key point and said lightly, “No one can confirm that he went to the toilet.”
“En, he’s really suspicious.” Yue Xingwen continued, “The second, is an electrician in dormitory no 207, named Long Rui, also left at 4:00am in the morning. He said that he was awakened by nightmares in the middle of the night, couldn’t sleep, and went outside to find a corner to smoke, where there was still ashes left by him.”
“The third, the woman who screamed at the crime scene today, named Zhao Xuemei, also from the same village as the deceased. Her roommate said that she woke up around 4:30am to find her gone, and it was 5:30am when she let out her scream, she had disappeared for an hour in the meantime.”
Yue Xingwen gave a slight pause and looked up at the group. “The other workers aren’t sure, most of them are asleep and don’t know about their roommates. However, the three people who have left at the time of the crime have a questionable alibi.”
Liu Zhaoqing touched the back of his head and complained, “Zhao Dayong, Zhao Liang, Zhao Qiang, Zhao Xuemei… All of them are surnamed Zhao, is their village called Zhao Village?”
Zhuo Feng said, “There is a Wang Village in my hometown, and 80% of the villagers are surnamed Wang. These people seem to be from the Zhao Village, and perhaps they have a grudge in private, so we have to pay close attention.”
Yue Xingwen wrote the names of the characters who currently appeared on the separate paper and analyzed them one by one. “The deceased Zhao Dayong, a 35-year-old cement worker. According to the evaluation of the other workers, he is usually introverted, quiet, and doesn’t have any disputes with anyone. It’s just on the surface; who he’s had a private feud with is unclear at this point.”
“Suspect no. 1, Zhao Liang, 18-year old, the deceased’s nephew. He was in the building at the time of the crime and was caught by Pingce. If he is the murderer, he pushed his uncle, ran straight down the stairs and was caught by Pingce…The time makes sense, and the fact that the surveillance didn’t catch him can be explained, but the motive is unclear.” Yue Xingwen looked at Jiang Pingce, “What do you think?”
“His parents died and he was raised by his uncle. What is his motive for killing him? Unless his parents left him a huge fortune and was swallowed up by his uncle. But the workers said his family was poor and his uncle was too poor to marry a wife, not like he was killing relatives for their property.” Jiang Pingce said calmly.
“Could it be that his uncle has been abusing him for a long time? For example, his uncle was actually a perverted pedophile who molested and bullied him from his childhood, and he endured it for a long time because he was too weak to fight back. Now that he’s grown up, he finally can’t bear it, so why not follow his uncle to the construction site and find an opportunity to push his uncle down to fall to his death?” Ke Shaobin gave a serious analysis.
“……” Yue Xingwen helplessly supported his forehead, “In this case, he does have a motive for the crime.”
“Reasonable than the ‘murderer has a special ability’s speculation’.” Jiang Pingce said with an expressionless face.
“*cough cough*, I’m talking nonsense.” Ke Shaobin made a ‘zipper’ motion to his mouth and hung his head in embarrassment. Next to her, Lin Manluo held back a laugh and said, “Xiao Ke, you have a rich imagination. It’s good to mention more conjectures, it helps everyone to open their minds, don’t be embarrassed.”
“A poor kid with no one to turn to when his parents die and he’s been abused by his uncle for years and finally can’t resist pushing him off the building? This speculation is valid, but we still have to investigate the relationship between Zhao Liang and his uncle, and this one is pending for now.” Yue Xingwen drew a circle on the name of the 18-year-old teenager, saying, “Analyze the next one.”
“Zhao Qiang, a 30-year-old cement worker, was in the same village as the deceased, about the same age, and left the dormitory for half an hour at the time of the crime, giving the excuse that he had gone to the toilet because of diarrhea; No one has confirmed whether his words were true or not.” Yue Xingwen said.
“Getting up at 4:30am to go to the toilet is not very credible.” Jiang Pingce replied.
“En, we need to keep investigating this person.” Yue Xingwen marked a pending next to his name and continued, “Suspect no. 3, Zhao Xuemei, the one who screamed. Id she is the murderer, she would have to complete running from the dormitory to the pedestrian street, lurking in the underground parking lot, climbing up the stairs and pushing an adult male down, running from the underground parking lot to the pedestrian street, lifting the manhole cover and climbing out, then running back to the scene where Zhao Dayong fell to his death and screamed… that’s too troublesome, right?”
Since the surveillance did not capture anyone entering or leaving the building, so if Zhao Xuemei wanted to commit the crime, she had to enter the underground passage from the pedestrian street, killing at around 5:00am, appearing at 5:30am to scream at the scene, she had to run at least three times back and forth.
Xu Yishen rubbed his forehead and said, “Even if I run with my split body, I’ll be very tired from running back and forth so many times.”
Yue Xingwen looked at Jiang Pingce, “When we arrived at the scene before, she didn’t show that she was very tired, right?”
Jiang Pingce nodded, “She only had pale lips and a frightened look. She didn’t show signs of panting after intense exercise. It’s not enough time for her to be the murderer.”
Climbing up and down the 7-story building, as well as going through the entire underground parking lot and running back to the crime scene to scream. The whole process added up to several kilometers, as Xu Yishen said that he would have been so tired that he would have gasped for breath.
There was no way a skinny woman could manage to run back and forth three times and still breathe steadily.
Yue Xingwen said, “Suspect no. 4, Long Rui, is not from the same village as the deceased, an electrician, and it’s strange that he said he went to smoke. Cigarette ash can’t be used as evidence, he could have put a bunch of it there ahead of time.”
Yue Xingwen stopped his pen and concluded, “For now, Zhao Xuemei’s suspicion is relatively low; Zhao Liang, Zhao Qiang, and Long Rui, these three people, let’s split up and question the other workers at the construction site and investigate carefully before we say anything.”
After Yue Xingwen assigned the tasks, everyone went out and looked for nearby workers to visit and investigate.
Due to the murder at the construction site, the work must be stopped today. The workers’ mood was obviously agitated, and a number of leaders appeared at the site to calm everyone down.
When Yue Xingwen took everyone out, he saw a leader wearing a white safety helmet holding a megaphone in his hand standing in the middle of the construction site, shouting, “Don’t panic, it was just an accident for Zhao Dayong to fall from the construction site! We are cooperating with the police to investigate! When the results of the investigation come out, we will definitely give certain compensation to his family in accordance with laws and regulations!”
Jiang Pingce leaned over to Yue Xingwen’s ear and whispered, “Director Zhang, who came yesterday.”
Zhang Zhiwei, the person in charge of the construction party of the Xinyue Plaza project. He had a dark skin, strong body, height around 178cm, with a distinctive black mole on his cheek. He looked smart and capable.
Director Zhang’s words were very official.
Suddenly, someone shouted loudly in the crowd. “Director Zhang, when will the wages owed to us be paid?!”
Zhang Zhiwei held the megaphone and smiled. “Everyone, rest assured. The developer has promised to settle the second phase of the project payment to us before the end of the year and we have been negotiating with the developer. We will definitely not let everyone’s hard work go wasted!”
Everyone immediately voiced their discontent, “Before the end of the year? There are still many months before the New Year, are we going to be cold and hungry for the second half of the year? This dragged on for half a year, my wife and children are still waiting for me to send money home to pay tuition!”
“That’s right. My parents’ illnesses need money too, if we don’t get paid again we’ll simply go on strike and quit!”
“Yeah, we will quit!”
“The safety of the construction site is not guaranteed. Today, Zhao Dayong fell down and fell to his death, tomorrow maybe it will be our turn!”
“I don’t get a penny of my hard-earned money, and I still have to put my life on the line, it’s not worth it!”
“Pay our wages, pay our wages.”
A group of workers shouted in unison and the whole construction site was in a mess.
Director Zhang wiped the sweat on his forehead and picked up the megaphone to try to soothe everyone’s emotions, but obviously, Zhao Dayong’s death aroused the anger that the workers had suppressed for a long time. Amidst the angry curses of the crowd, Director Zhang’s megaphone was knocked off and he ran away with a tail between his legs.
Yue Xingwen watched his back as he was escorted away, frowned slightly, and said, “The wages for the workers haven’t been paid yet, and it’s been going on for many months?”
The news that broke out made everyone look grave.
Xu Yishen suddenly said. “The government sells the ownership of the land to the developer, who does the planning of the project, and the construction unit bids for the construction. Usually, the government is no longer involved after the land is sold. The construction unit is paid by the developer, and disputes over interests and wage payment pending between the two often occur.”
Yue Xingwen looked back at him, “Senior brother Xu knows a lot about this?”
Zhuo Feng smiled. “His father is in the real estate business. He doesn’t want to inherit the family business. He was admitted to the Faculty of Biological Sciences to study genetic engineering. He wants to be a scientist.”
“*cough*, it’s not that great, I’m just interested in genetics.” Xu Yishen said modestly. “Moreover, I have no talent for business at all. I can have the company closed down in less than three years.”
“What does senior brother think?” Yue Xingwen returned the topic back.
“There are many reasons why developers are late to pay the wages. First, there are developers who are developing projects on multiple sites at the same time, and the mortgaged properties cannot repay the bank loans, resulting in a broken capital chain and inability to get money for the construction unit; Second, the budget negotiated between the construction unit and the developer exceeded the standard, for example, the first phase of the project was originally 80 million, and the construction unit spent 90 million. The developer doesn’t approve the construction unit side’s material quotation, so they both have a tug of war at the court, and it was impossible to pay the wages during the lawsuit.”
Yue Xingwen pondered for a moment, and said, “Whatever the reason, the workers have not received their wages for half a year, and the wages payment pending is the nail in the coffin. So, will Zhao Dayong’s death also be related to this matter?”
He looked at Jiang Pingce beside him. “Someone wants to affect the construction progress in this way?”
thanks for the double update! and once again, Happy Birthday! <3
I’m pretty sure I’m the Ke Shaobin in whatever friend group I’m in. Let me tell you, no one respects us and our outside box thinking. 😮💨
It’s so sad reading about low paid jod…
Thank you for your translation 💙💙💙💙
thanks for the double chapter ❤️ and Happy Birthday 🎉🎉🎉
Their reasoning is a bit off. Why Xiaomei need to pass in the underground passageway if the murder happened in the building where she has seen? If she pushed someone off then she can just directly go to the ground floor and scream, right? Why did they reason out that she needs to pass the underground passage and comeback to scream? When the murderer pushed the victim, did the victim fly over 10 meters to the other side of the city for the murderer to need to use underground passage to go by the corpse side and scream? Did I misunderstand the context or this is author’s misdirection?
Oh sorry. The corpse might be on the ground at the outside of the building near the entrance/exit and there’s a cctv in both areas. I am thinking that as it is a 7-storey building with unfinished construction, so theres a space in the middle of the building (like in the mall) where the victim was pushed by the murderer. Thus it made me think that the corpse is inside the building