The young police inspector said, “Qiao Guang had come back around the same time. I figured he wasn’t in any danger, so I sat down on the flower bed to eat. About half an hour later, a woman came along. She was carrying a cloth bundle packed with quite a few things. The reason I noticed her was that the bundle smelled wonderful. I glanced over at it a few times and saw two wine bottles sticking out from inside. I thought to myself, whoever lives here eats well — meat and wine both.”

“Did you get a clear look at her face?”

“She was dressed all in black and wearing a fairly large wide-brimmed hat with black netting hanging from it, covering the lower half of her face.” The inspector looked a little embarrassed. “I apologize, Director. My attention was entirely on the food.”

“When did she leave?”

“She came back down not long after going up — less than two minutes.”

“When she came back down, did she still have her things with her?”

The inspector shook his head without hesitation. “She didn’t.”

“And after that — did you see that woman again?”

The inspector was less certain. “Hard to say. There were quite a few residents coming and going. If she’d changed her clothes, I probably wouldn’t have recognized her.”

The inspector’s account confirmed Shi Ting’s reconstruction of the killer’s actions. She had first bought fine wine and good food, then come to Qiao Guang’s home and left the items outside — knocked on the door, then quickly left.

Qiao Guang had opened the door, delighted to find a pile of food and drink waiting for him, and had poured for himself until he was thoroughly drunk.

The killer had calculated her timing, then returned, entered using the key she had prepared in advance, dragged Qiao Guang from the dining area to the bedroom, slit his artery with the knife, staged it to look like a suicide, and left at her leisure.

“Miss Yan, there is one thing I’d like to ask you.” Shi Ting said suddenly. “After the victim’s wrist was cut, why didn’t he struggle or cry out for help?”

Yan Qing glanced at Qiao Guang, now without any sign of life, and sighed inwardly. “Qiao Guang was a long-term heavy drinker. Alcohol had already damaged certain organs. On top of that, a person in a deep drunken stupor has almost no ability to react or move. He likely couldn’t feel much pain at all, and even if he did, his body’s physical capabilities couldn’t support any struggle for survival — much like the drunks who freeze to death on winter streets.”

“Do you also believe the killer is a woman?”

“Compared to men, women lack the advantage of physical strength. When they commit crimes, they tend to choose methods that require no direct physical confrontation but still carry a high chance of success — such as poison. Three people died from air injections, and that method also fits the profile of a female perpetrator rather well. That said, this is a probability, not a certainty. But after hearing Director Shi’s reasoning, I believe the likelihood of the killer being a woman is very high.”

Having received Yan Qing’s confirmation, Shi Ting was in good spirits — but then he noticed her ashen complexion, and concern crept in.

“You haven’t recovered yet. I’ll take you back first. The autopsy can be left to Liang Ping alone — that’s sufficient.”

Yan Qing had no desire to push herself. She genuinely felt she was running low, and investigative work was not her area. Staying longer wouldn’t accomplish anything.

Even so, though that was true in her mind, she could not stop the worry that pulled at her heart. An occupational hazard, she supposed.

Shi Ting said, “The inspector assigned to watch Qiao Guang’s workplace has sent back word that Qiao Guang withdrew twenty bottles of stomach medicine from the warehouse after work yesterday, intending to deliver them to the Red Cross Hospital this morning. I just searched the apartment thoroughly — the medicine is not here.”

“Are you saying the killer killed Qiao Guang and also took the stomach medicine?”

The two of them locked eyes. It seemed they each had an idea of what the other was thinking, and both sank into silence.

—