The Novelist Forced to Become Famous

Chapter 77

How did Jian Jing deduce Jin Meixian's cause of death was related to the chairmanship?

It was hard to believe, but it was Wang Roommate who gave her the hint.

She pondered - Wang Roommate did not seem to know Jin Meixian's real cause of death throughout, perhaps she was not an accomplice, but guessed it when everyone was making statements.

A normal girl's hastily thought of "motive for murder" must be somewhat related to what she knew.

Yu Qiu's death originated from the sponsor scandal exposed by Jin Meixian.

Could the real motive for murder also stem from a secret she knew?

Thinking this way, she naturally thought of Yao Yue.

Yao Yue was diagnosed with mental illness and took two years off school. Coincidentally, the chairman of the student council's psychology department at the time was Fang President.

Let's review Fang President's resume, as described by Zhao Xuan. He was an ordinary student, but was promoted very quickly. He became chairman last year after graduating, and at the new election, he defeated Cheng Jia You to become the incumbent chairman.

Cheng Jia You's conditions were quite good in university.

Good looks, good family background, good grades, decent popularity, and most importantly his family had donated to the school. The ivory tower was not pure, how could the teachers pass over Cheng Jia You and elect Fang President?

Just because he was good at flattery?

To put it bluntly, if he did not become chairman, would he stop the flattery? He would have flattered even more fervently.

Therefore, Fang President must have had backing to become chairman.

Who?

Yao Yue's official second generation boyfriend.

Fang President helped him resolve a big problem, and the other returned the favor by assisting his rise to power.

This was the only explanation that made sense.

However, the official second generation was friends with Jin Meixian. Perhaps bragging, perhaps drunk, anyway they did not take these things seriously, and may have casually mentioned it.

Jin Meixian would have let it go after hearing it, who knew one day Wang Ruoke provoked her, and she stubbornly insisted that her boyfriend become chairman before she was satisfied.

Given her personality, she probably threatened Fang President early on - Liu Kai said earlier that Fang President spoke to Jin Meixian, it was probably about this matter, Fang President just went along with the story.

What kind of person was Fang President? He had no good family background, relying entirely on climbing to this position. Jin Meixian held something over him and wanted to threaten him to resign, of course he would not agree.

He must have harbored murderous thoughts then.

Jian Jing sorted out the cause and effect, and basically connected everything.

Only one thing was unclear - who was the murderer? She felt it was Fang President, but judging from the murder method, it seemed more likely that Wang Roommate killed for her boyfriend's future.

She just could not figure out this part.

Should I draw a card and try?

As soon as the thought came up, Jian Jing suppressed it.

The system was good, but she could not resort to it whenever there was trouble. She had to think of a solution herself as much as possible, otherwise there would be no improvement.

What exactly was wrong?

Jian Jing racked her brains over and over, unknowingly drinking too much water, and wanting to go to the bathroom.

Already in the bathroom, when washing her hands, she inevitably looked up at the mirror.

Alas, she did not sleep well last night thinking about the case, and had dark eye circles. She specifically concealed them with concealer this morning, but a few hours had passed, and the makeup was a little cakey.

After drinking water, her lipstick was a bit faded, with a touch of red smudged from the corner of her lips.

Jian Jing opened her bag, took out a tissue to wipe off the remaining lip color, sprayed a fine mist of toner on her face, let it dry slightly, then used a powder compact to reapply over the de-makeup areas.

Finally, she reapplied lipstick.

Pressing her lips together.

All done.

As she packed up her bag and threw away the trash, when her fingers picked up the tissue stained with lipstick, an indescribable thrill crawled through her. Just like Conan's fleeting blue flash, the lightning of inspiration broke through the chaotic cerebral cortex, like ice water poured over her head in summer, sending a shiver through her body and making her extremely clear-headed.

So...so that was it!

Just that simple, yet everyone had been misled.

Jian Jing was instantly excited and rushed back to the office.

She already knew the murder method, now she just lacked the decisive evidence.

Where was the potassium cyanide? Was it destroyed after a day?

Jian Jing used her superior observational skills to meticulously examine the office, but the "detective's observation" was not godly. The messy and complex information in the office concealed the key things.

"What are you doing?" Seeing her wandering around, Liu Kai couldn't help but speak up.

Jian Jing ignored him.

She was thinking, it would be easy for Fang President's roommates to discover if he prepared the murder weapons in the dormitory. He did not have a good relationship with them either. The student council office embodied his status and position, he had the most sense of control here.

Not everyone was in the office everyday, as chairman he could easily find an opportunity to be alone.

It should be near the desk.

Seeing her gaze fixed on his position, Fang President's heart skipped a beat. He blocked her with his body, "There are a lot of the school's documents here, you can't just look through them."

As he spoke, he pretended to tidy up the things on the desk.

"Why are you in such a hurry?" Jian Jing smiled instead, "Did I find the right place?"

Fang President shook his head, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"When criminals deny it, they usually say that. I'm tired of hearing it." Jian Jing was calm and breezy, "Move aside."

Fang President refused to let her, waving his arm to push her, "I said the student council stuff can't be shared externally. If you keep rummaging I won't be polite."

However, Jian Jing did not back down one bit facing the taller and bigger male student.

She was not only mentally strong, but also physically confident. Pure physical strength gave tremendous confidence.

Jian Jing grabbed his waving arm. She felt his huge shoving force in her tiger mouth, but her muscles tensed to block it.

She pushed back, shoving Fang President away, "Try that again?"

Fang President did not expect her to be so strong. He froze for a moment, wanted to stop her again, but did not dare really fight a girl in front of everyone, otherwise even idiots would know something was fishy.

Just this hesitation, and Jian Jing was already searching.

It was already exposed, so why be afraid, just search.

Wang Ruoke bit her lip, came over and pulled her, "What are you doing? It's not good to rummage through other people's things. The police didn't even search."

"Then call the police to come catch me." Jian Jing shook off her hand, not only sweeping all the documents aside, but flipping over the keyboard as well.

The others did not know what was wrong with her, wanting to stop her but not daring to, gathered around.

"What are you guys doing?" Ji Feng came in leading Zhao Xuan who had just been questioned, and saw the scene in the office but laughed, "Found something?"

Wang Ruoke said, "Jian Jing is randomly searching around for some reason."

Liu Kai maliciously added: "Maybe destroying evidence."

Ji Feng knew Jian Jing's character well, immediately guessed she had discovered something. He walked over and asked, "Looking for what?"

"Evidence." Jian Jing squatted down, her vision parallel to the desk surface.

A moment later, she tore off a strip of transparent tape, stuck it to the desk surface, and handed it to him, "Smell this?"

Ji Feng leaned in to sniff briefly, his eyebrows shot up.

Bitter almond smell.

The signature feature of potassium cyanide.

He gestured for an evidence bag, smiled amiably at Fang President, "This is potassium cyanide. Tell me, why is it on your desk?"

"Potassium cyanide? I don't know." Fang President looked shocked. "This isn't my stuff."

Ji Feng said, "On your desk, and you don't know?"

He shook his head, "Cyanide is a toxic substance right? Why would I put something like that on my own desk, I don't want to die either."

"Putting it on the desk is too obvious, who would be so stupid, someone must be framing him." Wang Ruoke looked around, "Those who share the office are most suspicious."

But Jian Jing laughed, "The two of you singing a duet, your cooperation is quite seamless. But if I guessed correctly, this stuff is the chairman's."

Fang President asked back, "Why would I leave this on my own desk? Don't I fear death?"

"You do fear it, so this is not something you deliberately left behind. The real evidence has already been destroyed by you, this was left unintentionally." Jian Jing paused, then continued, "Let me start from the beginning."

First, Jin Meixian died of potassium cyanide poisoning, but cyanide poison acts very quickly. If it was added directly to her food, it would be easy to catch the culprit on the spot, and it would not be convenient to destroy the evidence. The best way was to place the poison near her, so no matter when she was poisoned later, there would be enough proof that the perpetrator was not there, and ample time to destroy the body and evidence.

You and Jin Meixian were not very familiar with each other, she even disliked you a little. So you did not have many chances to get close to her or put poison in her personal belongings. If you had asked your girlfriend Wang Ruoke, she could have done it, but a schemer like you would never leave such evidence, not even to your lover.

For someone like you, the only way to poison her was to swap one of her belongings. As long as you found the right opportunity and moved quickly, it could be done without anyone knowing.

When he heard this, Ji Feng stroked his chin, feeling something was off.

How did Fang President know beforehand what powder Jin Meixian would be carrying? Did Wang Ruoke tip him off? But that still did not make sense, the used and new ones would definitely look different.

But Ji Feng did not interrupt.

Jian Jing seemed to know his doubts and glanced at him, explaining: “Girls only carry a few personal items - cell phone, lipstick, powder compact, tissues. The makeup may change daily, but the tissues are an ever-present necessity. You soaked the tissues in a potassium cyanide solution, dried them to restore their original state, and that would give you an invisible murder weapon.”

When looking through the autopsy report earlier, she had specifically checked the personal effects retrieved with the body.

In Jin Meixian's Chanel bag, there was a cell phone, charger, two lipsticks, a powder compact, and a pack of soaked tissues. The police had detected trace amounts of the poison in all the items, but it may not have been the powder.

"You probably noticed Jin Meixian always used tissues of a particular brand?" Jian Jing continued calmly. "She looked down on regular tissues and used an expensive foreign ladies' brand, extra soft with hyaluronic acid, strong fragrance to mask any smell, cottony texture like a towel, very easy to use. The only problem is this brand isn't currently sold in China, only available through personal shoppers."

She went on, "It wouldn't have been easy for you to get these tissues? You can't find them in supermarkets, no one you know uses them, so you had to find your own personal shopper. May we see your shopping records?"

Fang President's face was livid, but he still refused to admit it. "Even if I have them, what does that prove?"

"You chose to swap the tissues because you noticed Jin Meixian always used a certain brand," Jian Jing continued calmly. "The potassium cyanide crystals left on your desk after the solution evaporated, along with you having the same tissues as Jin Meixian. I thought these were rather obvious pieces of evidence."

"Why would I kill her?" he stubbornly insisted.

Jian Jing said, "Because Jin Meixian was threatening you over Yao Yue. You were afraid of it coming out and affecting your prospects. After all, civil service exams require political reviews, and you didn't want to lose your career, right?"

Fang President was shocked she had even looked into Yao Yue. His lips moved but he did not know how to refute her claims.

Wang Ruoke spoke up, "Actually, it was me who..."

But before she could finish, Ji Feng interrupted, "Where did you get the potassium cyanide? When did you come to the student council office? How did you get the key, and who else was with you?"

After the barrage of questions, Wang Ruoke wisely shut her mouth.

"Do you have anything else to say, Fang Tao?" Ji Feng asked.

Fang Tao said, "I want a lawyer."

"You watch too many American dramas. Get a lawyer when you get to court, the state will appoint you one," Ji Feng said with a smile. "For now, why don't you come down to the station with me?"

After escorting Fang Tao into the police car and closing the door, Ji Feng couldn't resist asking Jian Jing, "Teacher Jian, I have a question. Girls wear makeup, if they wipe with tissues won't it smear? What did she need to wipe her face for?"

Jian Jing's mouth curved up, she knew he wouldn't be able to hold back.

"That was just a coincidence. Fang Tao was probably thinking of wiping her mouth," she said lightly. "But Jin Meixian had acne, likely oily skin, prone to getting shiny. She would use tissues to blot her face before applying makeup. Then powder on top afterwards."

She glanced at him and deliberately added, "It's really your fault today, you kept talking about the powder case, otherwise I might have thought of it yesterday."

Ji Feng: "How would I know anything about that?"

"What's that got to do with me? You didn't do your job properly," Jian Jing tilted her chin up and walked off in her heels. "Anyway, I solved the case today~~"