“Did any of you three leave the table during the meal?”
“No.”
“Or put another way: that night, did any of you three do anything unusual, or did any food that went into your mouths ever leave your sight for even a moment?”
The implication was too obvious.
【Wait, did I miss something? Up till today, didn’t Brother Fen think Assistant Joe was the killer, just like us?】
【He came to find Dr. Jiang—shouldn’t it be because Joe presented strong evidence in court, and now he’s countering to prove Joe did it? How’d the real killer change?】
【This show always makes me feel like my IQ isn’t up to par.】
【You’re not the only one.】
Jiang Kangsheng’s face paled. “No, it can’t be Professor Felimon. He was completely normal the whole night. The food never left our sight.”
“Did Claude eat anything special?”
“We all ate from everything… Actually, Professor Felimon loves pufferfish and had an extra serving. If it was pufferfish poisoning, we’d all have it too, impossible. If another kind—the dinner was from around 7 to 8, Claude’s symptoms hit after 10, and death right after I got home. Atropine kills in 5 minutes, pufferfish toxin in half an hour. No way it incubates that long. Could the dose and timing be calculated that precisely?”
“Possible you got home and he was already dead long before?”
“What do you mean?”
“When did Felimon first urge you to go home?”
Jiang Kangsheng thought for a few minutes. “Around 9:30, probably.”
“We’ve all been misled.” Xiao Fen said. “Corpse found at 10:44, backtrack half an hour to about 10:14—that’s when he’s definitely dead, but that’s the extreme limit based on livor mortis onset. I never said it couldn’t be earlier.
“You actually got home around 10:15. By then, Joe had already bagged Claude, dragged him around, and come back. Whether Claude was lively at 10 as Joe claims—he can’t prove that anyway. Point is, Claude was dead before you got home.”
【No, that assumption hinges on Joe being the one who bagged Claude, not Jiang. No evidence proves it was Joe, so the premise fails, and the conclusions after don’t hold.】
【Plus, Jiang says Professor Felimon urged him home— that’s just his word. Felimon never admitted it. Even if he did, it proves nothing without hard evidence.】
【Sly Xiao, almost got fooled again.】
“Do you have evidence?” Jiang Kangsheng asked doubtfully.
“No,” Xiao Fen said regretfully. “I’m deducing from Joe’s interview testimony.
“Around 10 when the crime happened, Claude was already sweating on his face, breathing rapidly, extremely irritable, dizzy and unwell—classic poisoning symptoms. He was close to death then. You weren’t there, so it couldn’t be you who poisoned him.
“If it was Joe who poisoned him, he wouldn’t have casually revealed the truth like that, so it could only be Felimon. That’s the key to this case. And just now, I got another new clue—he kept urging you to go home. Because he knew when Claude’s poison would take effect, and he also needed to make sure that when it did, you were at his house. That way, this case would have a perfect culprit.”
“How could you think that? Professor Felimon is a very upright and kind person.”
“If you weren’t at Claude’s house when the poison took effect and he died, then who administered the acute toxin in his body?” Xiao Fen shrugged. “If you weren’t staying at his house, are you saying we should blame it on his ten-year-old son?”
“He’s framing me?!” Jiang Kangsheng said in shock, unable to contain his grief and anger.
“I deduce that things probably went like this. Of course, just treat this like a variety show—I’m just playing a little deduction game here, and I don’t have any substantive evidence.”
“Once upon a time, a certain mentor drugged his student A during dinner. A was supposed to succumb to the poison in 2 to 2.5 hours. He’d calculated the precise dosage so that when the crime occurred, only you were at his house. If the autopsy didn’t detect the toxin—you know, P Country and all, anything’s possible—it would be a myocardial infarction triggered by an argument with him, a natural death. If the toxin was detected, there would definitely be a method for a fast-acting poison to be delayed by 2 hours due to some reason, giving him a solid alibi, and since you were with A at the time, it would naturally point to you as the poisoner.”
“Unfortunately, this flawless plan was foiled by another person—B. That night, B came over with some documents and knocked on A’s door around 10 p.m. There must have been some disagreement during that time, and the two ended up at the staircase on the second floor. B probably accidentally bumped into him, or maybe pushed him in a fit of anger, or perhaps A simply lost his footing—either way, A tumbled down the stairs, hit his head, and with the poison kicking in, he met his end.”
Xiao Fen continued, “Everything after that matches my previous deduction. B panicked in fear, stuffed the body into a bag, and planned to drag it out the back door, but then you came back. For some reason, he suddenly turned back, hastily shoved the body behind the kitchen cabinets— a blind spot in the line of sight, even from the kitchen doorway you couldn’t see it right away—and then calmly walked out the front door. After greeting him, you crashed on the living room couch, completely unaware that there was a fresh corpse in the house, and just like that, you became the prime suspect.”
Jiang Kangsheng listened as if he were hearing a twisted, fabricated tale.
【This deduction seems reasonable, but it needs solid evidence. First, if Claude really died within five minutes, that confirms Joe bagged and moved the body as described, meaning Jiang had no opportunity to commit the crime. Second, if there’s truly a toxin that delays acute onset by two hours, then both Jiang and Felimon could have administered it. There needs to be direct evidence proving Felimon did the poisoning; otherwise, Jiang remains a suspect.】
“I’m going to ask you one last question: If tetrodotoxin and aconitine are combined, could they cause an antagonistic reaction that delays the poison’s onset?”
“What if it’s not possible?” He’d never heard of such a thing before.
“Then I’ll just pivot my reasoning and look for other clues.” Xiao Fen said indifferently.
It was either Joe or Felimon anyway; he just wanted to figure out which one.
If he could interact face-to-face with the Live Stream Chat audience, he wouldn’t even need to go through all this.
Jiang Kangsheng pondered deeply before analyzing, “From what I know, tetrodotoxin binds to sodium ion channels on nerve cell membranes, blocking sodium influx and preventing nerve impulses from conducting, leading to systemic paralysis.
“Aconitine also disrupts sodium ion channel function in cells, causing abnormal excitation of nerves, muscles, and the heart. Myocardial infarction is one of the major symptoms of aconitine poisoning.”
As he spoke, he grew excited. “Theoretically, two toxins with the same mechanism, if taken together, could indeed produce an antagonistic effect, potentially delaying what should have been a rapid onset!”
“Perfect, that’s all I needed to hear. Little Fire Seeds, now you have your experimental direction. Verifying this key hypothesis is your task. With confirmation from a pharmacologist, I can finally relax.”
The Live Stream Chat exploded with excited agreement.
【Leave it to me—I’m a med student.】
【A pharmacological interaction I never imagined. Ordered the materials today; I’ll test it later.】
【Now I want to try it too, but I’m a liberal arts major.】
【Sounds really fun.】
【What if someone with bad intentions learns this method?】
【Anyone who really wants to kill has a rope right there. Can you make the whole world go ropeless?】
【Knowing this possibility actually eliminates any luck some people might feel, because forensic pathology and criminology will definitely incorporate this technique into detection systems.】
【This actually reduces opportunities for criminals—anyone using this method is just waiting to get caught.】
【If it’s real, then Professor Felimon does have opportunity, but the evidence is still flimsy.】
【Doesn’t this just confirm Dr. Jiang had time to commit the crime? What’s Brother Fen thinking?】
【I’m dizzy already.】
【Is there another trick up his sleeve?】
“I’ll have my lawyer apply to the court to thoroughly check Professor Felimon’s purchase records. Making the poison would require raw materials and tools, and something like aconitine for harming people is usually something you have to extract yourself—it’s pretty rare. Extracting it would need a lot of Aconitum flowers, and disposing of the residue would be an issue too. I suggest following that lead.” Xiao Fen said to the camera. “As for gathering the rest of the evidence, I’ll leave that to someone else.”
That someone should be arriving soon, now that he knew there was no chain on the door.
【What remaining matters? What are you holding back?】
【Feels like Brother Fen has the evidence but isn’t telling us.】
【Why tell us? What if the killer watching the stream destroys it?】
【Can Dr. Jiang’s defense lawyer gather the evidence? Does he get Brother Fen’s hints?】
【Dunno, but I know some people won’t sleep tonight after hearing Brother Fen’s deductions and final words.】
【If they slip up in the chaos…】
【I suspect Brother Fen said this on purpose. Professor Felimon, don’t listen to him. See? The chat says he has no evidence—it’s all assumptions.】
【Right, exactly. Do what you need to do. No one’s suspecting you. Don’t panic over purchase records—you don’t have any.】
【Compared to mixing two poisons for an antagonistic delay of a few hours, I believe Joe’s the killer more. He’s Claude’s assistant and has the expertise to extract the toxin.】
【Plus, he was on site before and after Claude’s death—makes him even more suspicious.】
【Professor Felimon, see? We’re all supporting you. Don’t fall for Brother Fen’s tricks.】
【You guys upstairs forgot the doge emoji.】
【What are you all saying? Doesn’t sound like you’re comforting Professor Felimon.】 Foreigners didn’t get it.
The Live Stream Chat erupted in laughter.
