Beneath the Dome, Sin within Sins

At this moment, I suddenly noticed a girl who had been sitting quietly to the side without saying a word. I couldn’t help but find it odd-she had been so silent the entire time, just sitting there without making a sound.

I gave Su Mo a look, and he immediately understood. Quickly, he explained, “That girl is Song Caiyin’s classmate. She’s a pretty quiet girl who came over today to hang out with Song Caiyin.”

Hearing this, I furrowed my brow slightly. If this girl was Song Caiyin’s classmate, didn’t that make her identity somewhat sensitive too?

Thinking this through, I turned to Tian Chuan and asked, “What’s the deal with this girl?”

“Her background is clean. Her parents died in a car accident, so she lives with her grandparents. She’s a bit withdrawn and only has Song Caiyin as her friend. Her name is Zhao Ying.”

“Clean? Didn’t you say Song Caiyin had a murky past? Then how could her friend be clean?”

Tian Chuan looked equally puzzled after hearing my question. He replied, “It’s not just you who finds it strange. Even the folks at the station think it’s odd. But no matter how we investigate, we can’t dig up anything on this Zhao Ying girl to suggest she’s done anything heinous.”

Meanwhile, the victim’s family was still arguing loudly in the background. Feeling a headache coming on, I turned to Su Mo and asked, “How many suspects are left?”

“They’re in another lounge.”

“Alright, I’ll check in over there. You two ‘comedians’-oh wait, I mean the ultimate dream team-can handle things here.”

After saying that, I patted Su Mo’s shoulder and headed to the next room. As soon as I walked in, I saw three men of slightly bulky builds. One had a buzz cut, another had curly hair, and the last one was completely bald. Judging by his appearance, he looked like he’d just gotten out of lockup.

“Officer, I swear I didn’t kill anyone! At the time, I was under the stage. Even if I wanted to do it, I’d have to be able to reach, right? With these scrawny arms and legs, how would that even be possible?”

The bald man immediately started pleading his case as soon as I walked in. I sighed and said with a hint of exasperation, “Relax. We’ll handle this fairly. If this has nothing to do with you, we absolutely won’t make things difficult for you. Deal?”

“Tch! No way it has nothing to do with him! Officer, let me tell you-this guy has a record!”

At this point, the curly-haired man finally spoke up.

“Don’t you dare talk crap about me!” shouted the bald man, instantly losing his temper after those words. He jumped up, ready to start a fight.

Sensing that things were about to spiral out of control, I quickly stepped in and shouted, “Everyone, stop! Don’t let me catch you landing yourselves in deeper trouble because of additional charges!”

After saying this, I turned to the bald man and said, “Alright, tell me what’s going on.”

The bald man, though clearly angry, took note of my serious tone and grudgingly began to explain. About a month ago, he had been arrested for a brawl involving weapons and was just released a few days ago. Out of fear of suspicion, he hadn’t mentioned this earlier.

I then glanced at the curly-haired man and said, “Your turn now. Tell me about your grievances with Song Sisi.”

“There’s no grievance between me and her,” he said nonchalantly. “I just happened to be standing close to the stage. In fact, we had a business deal lined up for next month. Well, so much for that. Guess I can kiss that goodbye.”

The regretful tone in his voice almost made it sound like he was about to lose billions.

At this moment, the buzz-cut man, who had been sitting off to the side, let out a sarcastic chuckle. “Yeah, right. It’s true you had a deal with her, but it was at rock-bottom prices. With Song Sisi gone, I’d say you’re probably the one celebrating the most.”

“What nonsense are you spouting? The partnership between Ms. Song and me is not something a money-grubbing lowlife like you can even begin to understand!” the curly-haired man snapped indignantly.

“Hah, lowlife? The world revolves around profits. Why are you trying to act high and mighty, pretending business comes with sentiment?”

The curly-haired man shot back, “You’re just trying to throw Ms. Song’s murder on me, aren’t you?!”

“Throw it on you?” The buzz-cut man sneered. “I’ve always been a straight shooter. Since the officer is here, I have nothing to hide. Let’s lay it all out then. I’m not afraid to admit-I’ve thought about killing that woman myself. At the start, she agreed to buy our factory’s dishware at double the production cost. But after we’d made 3,000 plates, she suddenly claimed they were defective and said she’d only take them at base cost! Do you know how much that loss crippled our factory? We’re drowning in debt from loan sharks because of her! We’ve barely been holding on since.”

“If that’s the case, why didn’t you sell the plates to someone else?” I asked curiously.

He scoffed. “Sell them to someone else? They’re already stamped with this hotel’s logo. Who else could I sell them to? Honestly, my original plan was to send this old woman to her grave during the birthday party. But someone beat me to it. Can’t say I feel bad about that-actually feels like justice served.”

After leaving the lounge, I reviewed Su Mo’s alibi records. Everyone had argued with the victim during their last interaction, except for Bai Yue, of course.

Finally, I turned to the surveillance camera footage to get a clearer picture of where everyone had been standing, and then I headed back to the crime scene. The corpse was still there but had already been covered with a white sheet.

I closely observed the position of the body and noted that the victim appeared to have fallen from somewhere.

When I looked up at the ceiling, I noticed something unusual. There seemed to be something up there.

“Lu-Ge, did you notice something?” Su Mo walked up beside me, puzzled.

I pointed upward and said, “Take a look. Do you see something up there?”

Su Mo followed my gaze, squinting to peer at the spot I had indicated. “Yeah, there’s definitely something up there,” he said.

That thin, reflective object-what could it be?

I pondered in silence for a moment before lowering my gaze back to the victim. Then, I started carefully inspecting the victim’s clothing. After a thorough check, I straightened up and said, “I think I know why the victim ended up here.”

Su Mo’s face filled with shock as he asked, “Why was the victim here?!”

“I believe the victim was here the whole time. But our attention was entirely focused on the lavish feast earlier.”

“What do you mean?” Su Mo asked, clearly confused.

I pointed toward the string above us and then gestured to the clothing on the victim. “Look closely-there’s a small string stuck to the victim’s clothes. This means the victim was likely suspended from the ceiling before death. When the spotlight went out, the murderer used some kind of mechanism to cut the body loose, causing it to fall.”

“But what about the blood? And the knife?” Su Mo asked.

“The knife was planted on Bai Yue. As for the blood-it came from that balloon. Covering the victim in blood like that feels like it was part of some ritual.”

“Ritual? What kind of ritual?” Su Mo looked at me, his face filled with confusion. It was clear he had no idea what I was talking about.

Truthfully, I didn’t fully understand it either. Even I struggled to make sense of it. After all, I’d never heard of any rituals involving pouring blood over a corpse.