Police station.
"How much do you still remember about the situation at the scene back then?"
Xiao He sat on the chair, carefully recalling: "There was heavy smoke at the time, then lots of bloodstains on the ground, and plenty of black ash... Cheng Hongwen was lying on the floor. I hardly saw anything else. After gesturing with the brother who was rescuing people together, I carried him out."
Although the hotel room scene was extinguished in time, the fire and sprayed water had destroyed many traces, even messing up the scene completely. So almost only Xiao He and Cheng Bei, who had rushed in, knew the condition of the first crime scene after the homicide.
It was just that with the swirling smoke and high temperatures back then, if not wrapped in a fire blanket, Xiao He couldn't guarantee his skin wouldn't get scorched and curled up.
And with the scene in complete chaos, let alone noticing anything...
Wait, that's not right.
Perhaps he had noticed, but it was buried in his subconscious, and he couldn't recall it himself now.
Xiao He thought of something.
—The Memory Recall Capsule!
[Memory Recall Capsule details: The deeply impressive first crime scene remains vividly memorable no matter how much time passes—it can even help you recall criminal details from that time, allowing you to construct lies and testimony more perfectly.]
Xiao He had drawn several of these before, but they hadn't been useful, so he had forgotten about them.
He had analyzed earlier that this thing essentially enhances memory, allowing a person to recall certain details that might have been overlooked in their memory within a short time.
But this thing was basically useless, and using one meant having one less. Xiao He couldn't bear to use points to draw such useless items now, so his hoarder instincts exploded, and he simply saved them all.
This time, it could actually come in handy.
However, the capsule's original intention was for Xiao He to revisit his own crime scene to escape legal sanctions, but now Xiao He wanted to use it to revisit someone else's crime scene and try to find important clues to catch that murderer.
Ahem, although the usage seemed to have shifted a tiny bit... if it works, it works!
Xiao He decisively used one Memory Recall Capsule, then closed his eyes.
At that moment, it was as if he had returned to the fire scene.
The bloody footprints on the ground, the black ash on the walls, the person lying on the floor, the burning flames on the sofa...
Xiao He lifted his head, his gaze falling on the curtains opposite.
Behind the curtains, the window glass was slightly open a crack, and a not very obvious bloody footprint remained in that position, but it was quickly covered by the burning flames of the curtains, with the black charred remains quietly concealing any trace of its existence.
Xiao He squatted down again, his line of sight falling on the fiercely burning sofa, examining it carefully.
Although the thick smoke in the fire scene blocked most of his vision, the smoke in his memory couldn't irritate his eyes, so by observing carefully at this moment, Xiao He discovered that the main thing burning on the sofa at that time was a laptop computer.
—But unfortunately, what he saw now was basically things the police could investigate.
Like the footprint on the window.
At that time, the hotel room door had been sealed with a wet towel, indicating the murderer didn't leave through the main door. So the only place to leave in the entire hotel was the window—of course, not jumping directly from the window, but climbing along the window edge to the adjacent room.
The scene was chaotic then; people from several surrounding rooms came out to check the situation and quickly left their rooms. The murderer only needed to wait until the person in the next room left, change clothes, or simply put on a bathrobe to create the illusion of being a hotel guest, then could openly walk out of the room and leave the scene.
The police only needed to compare surveillance and hotel check-in information one by one to definitely identify the target murderer.
And the ignition source was even easier to investigate; they didn't even need the police to investigate—the fire department could provide a responsibility certificate with relevant circumstances, clearly reporting the ignition source, cause of fire... everything.
Then what help could he still provide?
Xiao He turned around several times, checking every corner, but gained no new discoveries.
Xiao He felt somewhat disappointed.
It seemed he really hadn't seen any useful clues at the time.
Xiao He prepared to exit his memory palace, but suddenly his gaze fixed, landing on Cheng Hongwen on the ground.
—More accurately, on Cheng Hongwen's hand.
Cheng Hongwen's right hand had been slashed with varying sizes of knife wounds during the struggle with the murderer, looking bloody and miserable, but between his fingers, something seemed to be glittering.
Xiao He confirmed he wasn't seeing things!
He squatted down, carefully examining Cheng Hongwen's hand, and discovered it was a ring.
Xiao He immediately began recalling the entire process of taking Cheng Hongwen out of the fire scene, placing him on the ground for first aid, and sending him to the ambulance...
At that time, there really was a blood-stained ring on Cheng Hongwen's hand!
It was just that the situation was too chaotic, and no one would have noticed.
This ring looked very familiar... where had he seen it before?
Xiao He carefully recalled.
He and Cheng Hongwen had met only three times at most.
The first time was their car rear-end collision, when Cheng Hongwen helped Ran Yunrui clean up the mess.
And the last two times were both related to Xu Youyou.
Then later, there was this time.
Xiao He recalled those meetings but hadn't seen any decorations like rings on the other's hand.
Then where did this familiar ring come from?
When had he seen it before?
Xiao He continued searching through his memory palace and finally remembered who its owner was—
This was the ring Chen Cong wore on his hand!
Back when Xu Youyou and Chen Cong's relationship scandal was exposed, he had seen this ring!
More accurately, Xiao He had seen it twice!
Once before New Year's, he saw Xu Youyou getting into Chen Cong's car; another time was paparazzi exposure, in photos of Chen Cong.
...No matter what, this ring shouldn't be on Cheng Hongwen's hand!
Perhaps this was the reason Xu Youyou attracted a fatal disaster.
Then at the time of the incident, did she desperately put it on Cheng Hongwen's finger?
This thing must be extremely important!
The memory world began to collapse, all memories turning into bubbles and dissipating. Xiao He finally opened his eyes.
"I remembered something."
"Go ahead."
"I saw a ring on Cheng Hongwen's hand at that time..."
Xiao He directly explained the situation of this ring roughly.
Hearing this, the Police Officer's expression changed slightly, and he immediately stood up: "I'll have someone go to the hospital to ask about the situation right away!"
Such an unusual ring appearing on Cheng Hongwen's hand must be significant!
Perhaps it contained the ledger they had been looking for all along...
The police officer grasped Xiao He's hand, thanked him solemnly, then hurried out the door, preparing to head straight to the hospital.
And Xiao He continued sitting for a while, then sent a text message to his former dormmate, He Junhao.