Many viewers in the Live Stream Chat knew he planned to make his move that night. Even though the time difference put it in the early morning hours, they all camped out waiting, and the viewer count only rose instead of falling.
A few night owl prisoners who hadn’t gone to sleep yet heard what sounded like footsteps in the corridor outside their door. They looked up toward the door but saw nothing.
“Let this damn place go to hell. Rats are everywhere, total shit.”
To avoid drawing attention, Xiao Fen had taken off his bright orange prison uniform and wore only a T-shirt and the ugly, ill-fitting brown cotton jacket they issued.
The early spring night still carried the sharp chill of winter.
He easily reached the cell block entrance, opened the lock, silently restored it to its original state, then crouched low and hurried along the cell block wall.
Eight watchtowers connected the walkways along the prison walls. Normally, a dozen or so Vice Squad Officers patrolled and stood guard from above, with even more during daytime exercise periods for the prisoners.
At that moment, he hid behind two oil drums next to the wall corner and observed for a while, spotting the pattern.
Of the watchtowers on his side, only two non-adjacent ones had lights on. Their spotlights swept alternately over the open ground ahead and the cell block entrance, leaving about thirty seconds of complete darkness in between. The other four were unlit, but he didn’t know if anyone was on duty there because of the show.
On the rocks near the port in the southwest corner stood a tall lighthouse, the island’s tallest structure. It too had lights that swept over this side about once every five minutes, much slower. If caught in its beam, his figure would easily be spotted by the Vice Squad Officers guarding the watchtowers.
For this show, the Vice Squad Officers were equipped with weakened blank cartridges. Getting hit would hurt, but it would also mean elimination.
Xiao Fen silently counted the time in his head. After the next watchtower sweep passed over the cell block entrance, he pushed off hard with both feet and sped across the entire long cell block structure.
【Aaaah, lights lights lights coming!】
In the instant before the beam hit him, he agilely leaped, rolled behind a rotten, collapsed wooden rack, grabbed two handfuls of dry grass, and draped it over his face for cover.
The lighthouse beam slowly swept past.
He pulled in his feet.
The light, still bright after traveling thousands of meters, illuminated his face through the gaps in the dry grass, then leisurely drifted away.
【That was close, close one. False alarm.】
But he didn’t rush to get up.
Five or six seconds later, the light from another watchtower arrived right on schedule.
Two seconds after that, the first watchtower swept back.
Once it passed, Xiao Fen leaped up and used the next long stretch of over twenty seconds of darkness to sprint at full speed, finally reaching the front of another small building.
This building looked like the Old Library, but it was abandoned, empty inside, with the door secured by an iron chain and a regular lock.
Xiao Fen pulled out the third key, inserted it into the lock, and froze stiff.
It wouldn’t turn.
His hand quickly twisted it left and right. It really wouldn’t turn?!
【What’s going on? Wrong key?】
【That shouldn’t be possible. This key wasn’t with the cell block room keys—it was separately hung on the Vice Squad Officer monitoring Dr. Jiang.】
【Dropping the ball at the critical moment. What now?】
【Watchtower lights are sweeping over. Brother Fen, hide first!】
【Where’s there a spot to hide here? Only back behind that wooden rack.】
【I calculated it. Not enough time this round—no twenty-plus seconds for him to run!】
【What to do? My palms are sweating. Is Brother Fen going to fail here and get eliminated?】
【Xiao’s undefeated legend is about to shatter.】
Xiao Fen pulled the key out and tried inserting and turning it several more times. Because the key was brand new, with rough edges, and made from a one-time impression using a disposable sheet, it wasn’t perfectly precise, which caused it to seem like it wouldn’t open.
His hands moved anxiously, sweat beading on his forehead. He bit his lip and shoved it in hard this time.
Brute force worked miracles!
Just as the light swept toward the door, the lock clicked open!
【Aaaah!】 The Live Stream Chat viewers cheered.
The chain slipped off the door handle. Xiao Fen caught it quickly, crouched low, cracked the door open, and slipped inside.
The large glass panels on the door let in five or six seconds of light before it went completely dark again.
Xiao Fen didn’t dare linger a moment. He hid the chain off to the side, hunched over, dodged the light from outside the door, and headed deeper inside.
The watchtowers were too far away for anyone up there to notice the missing chain on the outside door for now, but the sound of the chain sliding and clinking against the door handle would definitely reach any Vice Squad Officers on patrol duty inside the building.
Sure enough, he heard movement from the duty room nearby.
The on-duty Vice Squad Officer stepped out but never imagined anyone could sneak in. He shone his flashlight around, glanced at the room holding Jiang Kangsheng—person still there, door lock intact, everything fine—then turned to head back.
【Your prison staff’s security awareness is terrible.】 Many foreign viewers mocked.
P Country viewers defended: 【Normal people think inmates try to escape outward. Who thinks they’d burrow inward?】
Just as the officer started back toward the entrance to check, pain struck the back of his neck, and he collapsed unconscious.
【Is Xiao some fugitive criminal who’s been on the run for years? He moves so efficiently every time.】
【Don’t tell me. We get that illusion too. Doesn’t look acted at all.】
Xiao Fen took the keys from the officer, unlocked the room door, and strode right in. At the faint sound of movement, Jiang Kangsheng sat up from the bed.
“Who are you?” He spotted the prison uniform on Xiao Fen and felt some fear and wariness.
Xiao Fen signaled him to stay quiet and quickly explained who he was and why he was there.
“Anyway, I’m here to help clear your name. The prison gates are open now, but you can’t leave just yet. It’s all being live-streamed. If you bolt, the whole world watches, and even if we’re in the right, we can’t explain it away, right?”
【You’re still the reasonable one.】
Xiao Fen addressed the hovering camera: “Tonight, you all bear witness. Right now, in front of the lens, I bet the real killer, their lawyer, and the victim’s family are watching. This case is under global supervision. If any good Samaritans want to help gather evidence in the middle of the night, we’d be grateful.”
Jiang Kangsheng groped around in the dark for a long time before spotting the tiny black mosquito-like thing hovering in midair. He focused on it, and it vanished from sight.
“What do you want to ask?” He sighed. “Honestly, I think I killed him myself.”
“Last court session, who vouched for your timeline?” He reconfirmed, worried about media distortions.
Contacting Mr. Black Cat was harder than breaking out to see a fellow countryman. Otherwise, with all the public attention on this trial, it would’ve been live-streamed online, and he could’ve gotten more clues from the news.
“My mentor.” Jiang Kangsheng said dejectedly. “We were talking about the flaws in my latest research results. He seemed irritated that night, kept asking me the time, like he wanted to leave. I really can’t read the room—I was drunk and excited, rambling on and on. Finally, he cut me off, said it was already 10:15, and he had to go. That’s when I reluctantly let him leave.”
“Did he check the time on his phone?”
Jiang Kangsheng thought back. “No, his watch.”
“So he knew the time was off early on.”
“He admitted it in court. He knew his watch was fast but not by how much. He thought it was just a few minutes, nothing important, so he didn’t mention it earlier.”
“Didn’t you check your own phone time then?”
“I didn’t think to. He said the time, so I didn’t bother.”
“Then why did Joe say in his first public statement that he bumped into you at the door at 10:30?”
Jiang Kangsheng gave an awkward smile. “He asked me the time, my eyes were blurry from drink, I didn’t clearly see the phone screen, so I estimated based on when I got home and told him.”
“What about his phone?”
“Huh?”
The viewers were baffled too.
“Why ask you the time? Didn’t he have a phone?”
“I don’t know. He seemed tense and awkward back then, like he was making small talk.” As Jiang Kangsheng recalled more clearly, he slapped his thigh. “He acted off. I was drunk and slow on the uptake, didn’t notice anything wrong at the time. Looking back now, it was all full of holes.”
“That park chat—who suggested it, you or Felimon?” He confirmed again with the person involved.
“Me.” Jiang Kangsheng said. “He was leaving, but it was a rare trip to N City for me, and my research had results. I was thrilled, so I bought more booze and suggested drinking and chatting in the park.”
“That night of the crime, what did you three eat? What did Claude eat?”
“Huh?” Jiang Kangsheng blinked.
The Live Stream Chat viewers were full of confusion too.
【What kind of question is that?】
【Guessing time of death from stomach contents? But we already know Claude’s approximate death time. Stomach contents can’t pinpoint more precisely.】
【Maybe related to the food? Don’t forget the coroner detected toxins.】
“Pufferfish sashimi, some fish soup, tempura, horse sashimi, squid sashimi, a small piece of beef, honeydew bread…”
“Enough.” Xiao Fen wanted to hear it all patiently, but time was short. “Who suggested that dinner?”
“Professor Felimon.” Jiang Kangsheng said. “He proposed finding a place near Claude’s home, so we picked this Japanese restaurant.”
