Chapter 15

High on the door was a piece of glass inlaid with an exquisitely carved relief pattern. The light that refracted through the glass onto the space below was already much dimmer. Bo Xiting lowered his eyes slightly, gazing at Jiang Xiao’s brows, eyes, the bridge of his nose, and his somewhat reddened lips, as if they had been licked, kissed, and bitten by someone not long ago.

After just a few seconds, he looked away. “Trying to bribe me?”

“You owe me this.” Jiang Xiao prompted.

“I took the drink.”

Bo Xiting’s meaning was clear: he didn’t owe Jiang Xiao anything.

But he didn’t push the person away.

“So what?” Jiang Xiao said. “Senior, you lost to me on purpose, didn’t you? When I asked, you didn’t tell the truth. That counts as a foul.”

Jiang Xiao tilted his head slightly. The distance between his lips and Bo Xiting’s was almost nonexistent. Just a fraction closer and they would kiss. Their breaths intermingled. But at that moment, Bo Xiting made an unexpected move.

Bo Xiting turned his head, avoiding Jiang Xiao’s next advance. Then, he pressed down on Jiang Xiao’s shoulder and pushed him away.

The distance between them rapidly grew. Bo Xiting said coldly, “Jiang Xiao, that trick doesn’t work on me.”

His voice even carried a hint of anger, as if saying, “Are you crazy?” But Jiang Xiao didn’t understand where this unprovoked anger was coming from.

He simply shrugged and leaned against the opposite wall, folding his arms. A trace of confusion in his voice: “Senior, does breaking up with me really upset you this much?”

“On the day of the car accident, you didn’t plan to meet me either. So why did you come to my birthday party?”

Just now, on Bo Xiting, there had been a very pure scent of peach wine. The smell of alcohol usually lingers for a while. If the person had switched drinks, it would still be detectable.

Jiang Xiao hadn’t smelled anything else.

In truth, Jiang Xiao had intended to confirm whether Bo Xiting had any wounds on his lips. Who knew Bo Xiting would react even more strongly than a straight man like him?

“Are you afraid I’ll tell them about your murder?” Bo Xiting countered. “Inviting us to this kind of place has a reason behind it. But your method is just too clumsy. Using techniques picked up from third-rate mystery novels? Aren’t you worried there aren’t enough holes in your plot?”

For a moment, Jiang Xiao was completely stunned by this lengthy speech.

Bo Xiting… could actually say so many words at once?

“Are you serious? You think I killed Qin Guan?” Jiang Xiao would never have imagined that he, a novice detective player with absolutely no motive or means, would be labeled the murderer by an NPC! This was too absurd!

“You planned everything perfectly. Almost flawlessly. But you overlooked one thing: you forgot to wipe the blood off the carpet.”

“Of course, unless you replaced the carpet or painstakingly cleaned it yourself. But you thought no one would notice, didn’t you?” Bo Xiting continued speaking words that Jiang Xiao couldn’t understand. “To play up your ‘character setting,’ you pretended to accidentally cut your finger, then wiped the blood with your clothes to create a sense of realism. Afterwards, you slipped the knife into someone else’s luggage for a successful frame-up. That was your plan.”

“You also planned well in advance to kill him during the blackout. Qin Guan had no guard against you. And the three minutes of blackout were enough for you to walk from the living room to the storage room. Maybe you asked him to meet you there, but now no one can testify.”

Jiang Xiao was completely dumbfounded.

Not that he couldn’t understand, just that he didn’t comprehend it at all.

That knife… he had deliberately planted it to frame Ying Weizhu?!

Why didn’t he know that!

By the end, he was almost numb. He nodded. “According to you, if I really could overcome my ‘blindness’ to perform the series of actions you described, then tell me, why would I kill Qin Guan?”

Judging by Qin Guan’s attitude towards him, there was absolutely no major conflict between them. At most, their principles didn’t align. Why would he have to kill someone?

Jiang Xiao was very curious to hear what other nonsense Bo Xiting could come up with.

Bo Xiting seemed to have Jiang Xiao’s “criminal psychology” and behavioral trajectory thoroughly mapped out and had anticipated Jiang Xiao’s “quibbling.” However, his voice remained deep:

“Because Qin Guan orchestrated the car accident. You wanted revenge.”

Jiang Xiao: “?”

Bo Xiting’s sentence was like opening another window in Jiang Xiao’s already drafty house.

“How can you prove Qin Guan was behind the car accident?” Jiang Xiao asked suspiciously.

Originally, he’d thought Bo Xiting was just barking up the wrong tree. But now, it seemed Bo Xiting’s real purpose was to pin the car accident on Qin Guan?

Ying Weizhu had earlier accused Bo Xiting of orchestrating the car accident. Jiang Xiao hadn’t paid much attention to it initially. But hearing Bo Xiting’s explanation now, he couldn’t help but doubt Bo Xiting’s motives.

“You should know this matter better than I do,” Bo Xiting replied coldly.

“Then I must ask, how exactly does a blind person smoothly execute this entire sequence of actions?” Jiang Xiao asked with heartfelt sincerity. “Can you demonstrate it for me? If you manage to do it, go ahead and call the police to arrest me right now.”

If this were a comic book, Jiang Xiao would definitely be in a state of [spitting blood].

How on earth could Bo Xiting say all this with such seriousness and solemnity!

It was utterly unreliable!

Had he not known Bo Xiting wasn’t the comedic type, Jiang Xiao might even suspect he was doing some kind of absurdist performance.

Bo Xiting stared fixedly into Jiang Xiao’s eyes and spoke, each word distinct:

“You’re not really—”

A knock sounded at the door.

Bo Xiting’s words stopped abruptly.

Come on, dude, finish your sentence! ‘Not really’ what?!

The knock seemed to interrupt Bo Xiting’s desire to continue. Frowning, he went to open the door.

Wait, wait, don’t go!

Jiang Xiao was utterly exasperated. Why did everyone seem to have a buffering problem? They always paused at the most critical moment. Did he need a premium membership to hear the next part?

But Jiang Xiao hadn’t come away completely empty-handed.

He was almost certain the person he was looking for wasn’t Bo Xiting.

Otherwise, Bo Xiting wouldn’t have spoken such nonsense.

However, Bo Xiting wasn’t cleared yet either. He was currently a major suspect in orchestrating the car accident, and now he was pushing everything onto the already-deceased Qin Guan. Qin Guan certainly couldn’t suddenly come back to life and debate with Bo Xiting about who the real mastermind was.

You’re not really…

Not really what?

Jiang Xiao was mulling over Bo Xiting’s unfinished sentence when Bo Xiting opened the door. Wen Xu walked in, his expression solemn.

“When we questioned that attendant, he said that when he was pushing the cake cart over, he saw a guest standing right outside our door, not knocking, as if waiting for something.”

Jiang Xiao’s first reaction was that the person was Jiang Mu.

“He remembered the man was a guest from the upstairs floor. Meaning, the person had no reason to be on our side at all, unless he had a specific purpose.”

The group returned to the living room. Ying Weizhu was interrogating the attendant, who was stammering under Ying Weizhu’s ruthlessly cold and piercingly sharp gaze: “The man wore… wore a suit, was very tall. He didn’t talk to me. I’m not sure if he followed me in or not. The room was too dark, couldn’t see anything. At the time, I was… I was also lighting the candles…”

“In other words, that man could easily have used that window of time to sneak in and commit the murder, right?” Ying Weizhu narrowed his eyes slightly. The smile on his lips was gentle, but his golden eyes were frozen with coldness.

“Th-that, I’m not sure either…”

“Who told you to cut the power?” Wen Xu asked again. “That wasn’t in my arrangements.”

For most people, a blackout might be a surprise or a scare. But for Jiang Xiao, a blackout made no difference. Naturally, there was no need to arrange one.

The attendant looked completely baffled: “I have no idea. I thought it was something you did yourselves.”

“Where’s the electrical panel?” Bo Xiting asked.

“In the storage room,” the attendant said. “Our building doesn’t just suddenly lose power. If it did, it would affect all the rooms. But that didn’t happen just now. It might have been a tripped breaker.”

The situation became increasingly bewildering.

“Go find that person right now,” Ying Weizhu’s tone carried an inherent command. The attendant looked miserable, “I can’t do that. The guest will complain.”

“So you’re not afraid I’ll complain about you then?” Ying Weizhu sneered. “You can try me.”

“I might… know who that person is.” Jiang Xiao suddenly spoke up. “I need to make a phone call.”

At these words, everyone’s gazes turned to Jiang Xiao.

Jiang Xiao was essentially expanding his own suspicion again, but he didn’t care.

There was only one murderer. Everyone else were just villagers, clueless and suspicious of each other. Used properly, there wouldn’t be a problem.

Jiang Xiao didn’t plan to use his own cellphone for the call.

He pondered for a moment. Wen Xu definitely had Jiang Mu’s number; that was certain. But he didn’t want to take the safe route.

This person, Jiang Mu, wasn’t simple at all. Even though he’d yet to appear in the storyline.

After some thought, he said: “Senior, can I borrow your phone?”

A flicker of surprise passed through Bo Xiting’s eyes, but he didn’t refuse. He handed his phone to Jiang Xiao, then observed Jiang Xiao’s expression.

Holding the phone, Jiang Xiao didn’t even glance at it. With a turn of his wrist, he directly handed it to the attendant. After the two had moved a bit further away, Jiang Xiao said: “Help me dial a number.”

He recited a string of phone digits.

The attendant didn’t understand why Jiang Xiao was making things so complicated, but he did as told. Before dialing, Jiang Xiao asked one more thing: “Is there a contact name displayed?”

The attendant honestly said: “Yes. It says ‘Jiang Mu’.”

For a moment, Jiang Xiao was stunned.

Random combinations really do occasionally bring surprises.

Bo Xiting and Jiang Mu… also had a hidden connection.

Things were getting interesting.

The call connected after a few rings.

Jiang Xiao didn’t speak at first, waiting patiently. After a few more seconds, a voice came from the other end. The voice was steady and deep, with a hint of surprise; clearly, the person hadn’t expected to receive this call:

“Calling me in the middle of the night? Is something up? Did Dad put you up to this?”

After a few more seconds of silence, Jiang Xiao spoke.

“Jiang Mu, it’s me.”

“Xiaoxiao? How are you using Bo Xiting’s phone…”

“Tell me, where are you right now?” Jiang Xiao said calmly, deliberately stressing the last few words. “Don’t lie to me again, Big Brother.”