I See Murders Before They Happen

Chapter 49: Chapter 47: Suicide by Falling

Half a month passed.

At three in the morning, Su Miaoyi finished the novel she was writing.

She checked for typos and submitted it as complete.

Su Miaoyi ambled to her bed, phone in hand, and fell asleep the moment she collapsed onto it.

Just before dawn, she felt a little cold, so she wrapped the blanket tighter around herself and went back to sleep.

She slept until almost noon, when a phone call woke her up.

She reached out, fumbled for her phone, and opened one eye to check the caller ID.

The moment she saw it was Zhuang Yanzheng, she shot up reflexively and headed for her closet, answering the call as she walked. "Captain Zhuang."

"Just woke up?" Zhuang Yanzheng asked, hearing the sleep in her voice.

"It’s fine. Go ahead," Su Miaoyi said as she found an outfit and started changing while still on the phone.

The process was so swift she didn’t even realize it herself.

"A case was transferred to the Municipal Bureau. We’re passing by Xinyuan, so we’ll pick you up," Zhuang Yanzheng said.

"Okay." Su Miaoyi had finished changing.

Zhuang Yanzheng added, "No rush, we’re still ten minutes out."

"Mm."

Su Miaoyi quickly washed up, grabbed a couple of pieces of candy, and headed out.

She was worried about her blood sugar dropping and causing trouble if she didn’t eat something.

After waiting at the entrance to her residential complex for a little while, she got into Zhuang Yanzheng’s car.

Qi Feng and Chu Xingrou were both sitting in the back.

Su Miaoyi sat in the front passenger seat and buckled her seatbelt.

Zhuang Yanzheng tossed her a scallion pancake. "Eat while I brief you."

"Mm." Su Miaoyi unwrapped it and took a bite.

Zhuang Yanzheng said, "The deceased is Xia Yan, female, twenty-seven years old, a popular actress."

Hearing those words, Su Miaoyi suddenly choked. "Who?! Xia Yan?!"

Zhuang Yanzheng glanced at her. "You know her?"

Su Miaoyi looked up and happened to see the large screen on a nearby building. Pointing at the person on the screen, she asked, "That Xia Yan?"

Zhuang Yanzheng looked over too. "That’s her."

Su Miaoyi composed herself. "When did it happen?"

"Last night..." Zhuang Yanzheng started, then corrected himself. "Early this morning. She fell to her death from the No. 7 Clubhouse."

"A suicide?" The moment Su Miaoyi heard "fell," she thought of suicide.

"The preliminary assessment is suicide. A final message was found on her computer. According to her friends, she’d been emotionally unstable recently, but nothing is confirmed yet," Zhuang Yanzheng said. "The police were called last night, and the local precinct handled the initial response."

"Why was it transferred to the Municipal Bureau?" Su Miaoyi asked.

"Someone was live-streaming this morning and let it slip, leaking the news," Zhuang Yanzheng said. "The public pressure became too great, so it was transferred to us."

Su Miaoyi took out her phone to have a look.

Having slept until now, she had no idea what had happened online.

The incident was all over the hot topics list now.

The trending topics went from initial disbelief, to her studio releasing an official statement, and now to expressions of sorrow.

Her fans, especially, were heartbroken and couldn’t accept it.

Xia Yan had a pretty large fanbase.

Aside from all the conspiracy theories about the cause of death, people were speaking out for Xia Yan, demanding justice.

The buzz just kept growing.

"The body wasn’t transported to the Municipal Bureau. Yan Cheng went straight to the autopsy center at the funeral home," Zhuang Yanzheng said. "We’ll go to the scene first, then meet up with Yan Cheng."

"Okay."

...

The No. 7 Clubhouse was a private establishment.

It had five floors in total.

According to those present last night, Xia Yan had jumped from the fifth floor.

The main entrance of the No. 7 Clubhouse was covered in flowers left by fans.

They went in through the back entrance.

They headed up to the fifth floor first to survey the scene.

There had been a private party here last night, with many people in attendance.

They collected a lot of fingerprints, footprints, and hair samples.

Long and short, red and green.

Su Miaoyi and Zhuang Yanzheng stood by the window, looking at the fingerprints revealed by dusting powder.

And the footprints on the windowsill.

Su Miaoyi, wearing shoe covers, lifted her leg and tried to step onto the windowsill.

She couldn’t make it.

The windowsill was too high.

Zhuang Yanzheng looked around again; there were no chairs or stools nearby.

"Has anyone disturbed the scene?" Zhuang Yanzheng asked the manager.

"It’s hard to say. Last night, when everyone realized someone had jumped, they all rushed over in a panic. The first thing they did was look down from this window. There were a lot of people, so it’s hard to tell what might have been moved."

Su Miaoyi looked around.

Even if something had been bumped or kicked, there should still be a stool or something similar nearby.

But there was nothing here.

Su Miaoyi grabbed a stool and used it to climb onto the windowsill.

The window was large, and at her height, she could stand up straight.

According to her file, Xia Yan was a bit shorter than her.

Zhuang Yanzheng grabbed her by the calf, worried she might fall out the window.

Su Miaoyi glanced down at him, then reached out to compare her hand position to the fingerprints on the window frame.

Zhuang Yanzheng looked up, a thought already forming in his mind. "Get down."

Su Miaoyi looked through the window at the security cameras outside. There was one in the courtyard that should have a clear view of this window. She jumped down. "I see a lot of cameras out there. That one should be able to see this window, right?"

The clubhouse manager suddenly started hemming and hawing.

Zhuang Yanzheng said, "The surveillance system was turned off after midnight last night."

"Huh?" Su Miaoyi didn’t understand.

The manager explained, "Everyone was here to have a good time. These are all prominent people. Once the official business was done, the real party started. Private lives... it’s not convenient to film that."

Understanding dawned on Su Miaoyi, and she made no effort to hide the disdain on her face.

’So-called prominent people... do they just throw all decency out the window when they "play"?’

Su Miaoyi said nothing.

Zhuang Yanzheng asked, "The guest list for yesterday’s party."

The manager went to get the list.

Zhuang Yanzheng glanced over it. He recognized more than half of the names.

And one familiar name in particular.

Shen Yanzhou.

When they saw the name, Zhuang Yanzheng and Su Miaoyi exchanged a look.

"Shen Yanzhou was here yesterday too?" Zhuang Yanzheng asked.

"Mr. Shen left a little after ten o’clock," the manager said. "He didn’t stay for the later part of the party."

Zhuang Yanzheng didn’t say anything further.

After finishing upstairs, they went downstairs.

Su Miaoyi asked, "We’ll have to question everyone on that list, won’t we?"

Zhuang Yanzheng nodded.

Downstairs.

The ground was covered in a large spatter of blood. The body had been moved, but its position was marked out.

Su Miaoyi looked at the distance between where the body had landed and the wall of the building.

Zhuang Yanzheng said, "It’s a little close."

Su Miaoyi nodded and said in a low voice, "Usually, when people commit suicide by jumping, they push off, giving them some outward momentum. The body should have landed farther away than this. Of course, that requires precise calculations. A visual estimate is just a guess."

Zhuang Yanzheng looked at her.

Su Miaoyi looked around again but didn’t find anything else.

"This clubhouse has so many surveillance cameras. Are they all turned off?" Su Miaoyi asked.

"Yes," Zhuang Yanzheng said. "They’re all on the same system. Turn one off, and they all go off. Our only hope is the surveillance cameras outside the clubhouse. But whether they captured anything useful is anyone’s guess."

...

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