Murder!

For a moment, everyone at the scene fell silent, Qin Fei included.

All kinds of doubtful, even suspicious gazes swept across everyone present.

The focus landed on Xiao Shengyuan, Xia Zi, and He Muling.

“It wasn’t me, it wasn’t me…” He Muling once again couldn’t hold back and burst into tears. “It really wasn’t me, Qiqi and I only came this morning, and we found the professor… the professor… wuu wuu wuu…”

“We found the professor’s body and then came here, wuu… it wasn’t me, wuu wuu wuu…”

The gazes shifted again, landing on Ren Qiqi.

Ren Qiqi was in much better shape than He Muling — at least she could still calm herself down.

“Last night I was with He Muling the whole time. We slept in the same tent, everyone knows that.”

“Yes, yes, wuu… Qiqi and I were together all night, wuu wuu wuu…”

Her crying made everyone feel a little uneasy.

Now that someone had died — and been murdered, no less — the atmosphere had sunk to its lowest point.

Extremely oppressive.

Lu Beicheng looked at Xia Zi.

Xia Zi clearly sensed all the gazes falling on her; a chill ran down her spine, and her voice came out trembling and hoarse:

“Last night I… I went to sleep quite early, I… I don’t know anything, I don’t know anything at all, I was alone…”

Last night, she had slept alone.

But everyone also knew that besides being the professor’s assistant, she was also in charge of his daily meals and living arrangements.

She was the one who had the most frequent and closest contact with the professor.

“So the professor wasn’t in his tent last night — you don’t know anything about that either?” Zhen Jiu’er asked.

Xia Zi shook her head, then nodded: “The professor went out last night.”

“With whom?”

“He…” Xia Zi’s gaze swept across everyone present, finally landing on Xiao Shengyuan. “I’m not… not sure, but it seemed like he went to… to find Xiao Shengyuan…”

“Yes, we all saw it!” Ren Qiqi suddenly remembered, her eyes widening, growing somewhat agitated. “It was Xiao Shengyuan — it was… it was He Muling who saw it. She said the atmosphere between Xiao Shengyuan and the professor had seemed off these past few days. We originally wanted to go play in the little grove, but when we saw Xiao Shengyuan and the professor walking in together, we didn’t go over.”

She looked at He Muling, gently nudging her: “You said you saw it with your own eyes, didn’t you?”

He Muling looked at Xiao Shengyuan, her feelings indescribably complicated.

She didn’t really want to say it, yet she had no choice but to.

“I… saw Senior Brother and the professor walk into the little grove together, but… but it was still quite early then, maybe around seven or eight o’clock.”

“Not even eight.” He Muling — Qiqi — added again.

“Right, not even eight, and at that time Ninth Master was in the tent watching over Jiu’er — apparently Jiu’er had fainted.”

He Muling wiped away her tears.

She needed to give her statement properly now — she couldn’t keep crying.

Though she still wanted to.

“It was barely even eight, still so early, it’s — it’s just not possible.”

He Muling looked at Xiao Shengyuan; deep down, she simply didn’t believe Xiao Shengyuan had killed anyone.

“Didn’t Jiu’er say it happened between one and three in the morning? I saw Senior Brother come back to the tent later, too.”

“I saw that too — Xiao Shengyuan came back to the tent a little before nine, though…”

Qin Fei thought it over, but decided to speak honestly: “When he came back, he’d clearly had some kind of falling-out with someone — his mood was obviously bad.”

Qin Fei’s words instantly raised everyone’s suspicion to a new level.

A bad mood — did that mean he’d argued with the professor? Then he’d have quite the motive for murder!