Chapter 432: The Metropolis Mystery (Part 13)

Ben Jie Ming stood silently in the center of the reception room. He thought for a long time before finally opening his mouth: "I don't know if you understand the accident of the mayoral election two years ago..."

"The Mayor of Metropolis is a very important position. The state legislature is often very cautious when selecting candidates. Generally speaking, there will be no more than 4 candidates, and like all mayoral elections, one or two of them are just there to make up the numbers, while the rest have competitiveness."

"But that session of the Metropolis mayoral election was very fierce. There were 12 candidates in total, all representing different parties and forces."

Yin Wensi frowned and looked at Ben Jie Ming, asking: "How could there be so many people? How could the state legislature pass it?"

Ben Jie Ming also looked at Yin Wensi. He stared into Yin Wensi's eyes and said: "The reason why this election was held was because the Mayor before White was assassinated. This was an emergency election."

"The state legislature was worried that the number of candidates would not be enough, and it might be manipulated by people with ulterior motives, so they relaxed the review standards,"

"The state legislature originally thought that among these 12 candidates, at least 10 were just to add a bit of glory to their resumes and were not sincerely competing for this position. But who knew, they were actually competing for this position with all their might."

Ben Jie Ming's tone became lower and lower, saying: "Perhaps from this time on, there was already a sign."

"At the beginning, it was just normal election competition, including speeches, fighting for votes, attacking opponents..."

"However, the situation afterward became worse and worse. Bribery, rumors, harassment, revealing secrets, and even two candidates inexplicably encountered car accidents and had to be hospitalized."

"Seeing that the situation could not be controlled, the Governor wanted to let everyone sit down and talk, and not make this matter too ugly."

"And the method was the same as the tradition for many years: hold a gala, let the middleman find the right person to talk at the right time, and eliminate the storm."

Ben Jie Ming turned his head to look at this reception room and said: "In order to let this group of people calm down, and also to convince the public, the state legislature also invited many famous figures, including Metropolis, that famous entrepreneur, well-known scholars and professors, artists, and media figures."

"The gala location they chose was here—the Metropolis Mayor's mansion."

"And then?" Yin Wensi asked.

"Afterward, everything went out of control."

Ben Jie Ming turned his head to look at the snow outside that was getting bigger and bigger. The snowflakes danced in the storm, like white birds going against the current in a tornado. At the end of the skyline, they turned into rising and rolling white mist.

Accompanied by Ben Jie Ming's narration, Yin Wensi also turned his head to look outside the window. His gaze passed through the vast heavy snow, as if he saw another identical Mayor's mansion appearing on this day two years ago.

Faint warm-colored lights swayed in the storm, and the Mayor's manor was bustling with noise and excitement.

Dance steps moved, cups touched, the light of the candles on the silver candle holders swayed, the tassels of the gorgeous tablecloth fell, people wearing evening gowns held wine glasses and chatted, their faces full of elegant and decent smiles.

The host of the gala smiled and nodded to a small group of people who were chatting. They moved aside, the host stood in the center of the banquet hall, the host cleared his throat lightly, and everyone stopped their movements and turned to look at him.

"Ladies and gentlemen! Thank you for gathering together on such a night! Although the wind and snow outside are very big, our hearts are connected!"

"First of all, I want to invite the host of this gala, Deputy Speaker of the Delaware State Legislature, famous social activist, philanthropist, and author—Nelson Perez!"

With a loud "bang," a corpse fell from the sky.

Precise, humorous, and full of drama.

Time shuttled between the dancing snowflakes, passed through the hazy white mist, and stopped in the warm light coming from a window. Looking in from the glass condensed with ice flowers, it met Yin Wensi's gaze.

Yin Wensi paused, turned his head back, and heard Ben Jie Ming say: "... just like a humorous cold joke, when the host read the name of that Deputy Speaker, his corpse fell from the sky."

Just at this time, Bruce turned his head to look at Yin Wensi. Yin Wensi moved his eyes slightly. At the moment of contact with Bruce's gaze, he lowered his head and buried his head in studying the patterns on the handle of his umbrella.

"But this was just the beginning..." Ben Jie Ming's tone was as cold as the weather outside.

"After the Deputy Speaker died, the police arrived. They sealed the scene. In order not to let the murderer run away, everyone was driven to the guest rooms. Soon, the second victim, the third victim..."

"One after another, the death methods were all different..."

"Finally, of the 12 candidates, only 4 were left. 8 of them suffered poison hands."

"This matter shocked the entire East Coast. The Lianbangdiaocha Bureau sent agents to investigate, but the conclusion given in the end was that spies from various countries mixed into the people who came to participate in the gala. In order to shake the political situation on the East Coast, they took action to kill."

Ben Jie Ming raised his head, but lowered his eyelids, his eyeballs moved downward, looking at Luo De's corpse, and said: "Involved in spies, I was transferred to Metropolis to investigate this matter. And when this work fell on me, I discovered that things were not so simple."

"The murderer who killed the 8 candidates was not one person. Their goals were different, but there is no doubt that they were all top killers, the kind of high-IQ criminals that are most troublesome..."

Ben Jie Ming's tone trembled at the end. Obviously, his mood was not calm. Even two years later, recalling the situation at that time still made him feel great pressure.

"In the subsequent investigation, I discovered that the Mayor's manor at that time seemed to have become a hunting ground for that group of perverted serial murder case criminals."

"They used their most skilled methods to manufacture a series of murder cases, which intertwined together, constituting a mystery that any investigation could not solve..."

Yin Wensi's fingertips holding the umbrella handle paused. He looked at Ben Jie Ming and asked: "So, did you find anything?"

Ben Jie Ming was silent for a while. He shook his head and said: "We can only speculate that there were four murderers in total, and each of them killed two targets."

"Did you find out who it was?"

Ben Jie Ming shook his head. He lowered his head, looked at Luo De's corpse, and said: "At that time, Luo De was also at the scene. I think Luo De killing Mayor White and old Pa Ke was just to imitate the murderer who killed the Deputy Speaker."

"He imitated it too clumsily." Yin Wensi opened his mouth to say.

"Indeed." Ben Jie Ming confirmed this point and said: "Even if he didn't admit it in the bathroom, I had already locked onto him long ago. The method he used was actually very simple."

As he spoke, Ben Jie Ming raised his head and looked at the ceiling of the reception room, saying: "The roof of this ancient manor is very high. Between the ceiling and the roof, there is still a space."

"He bought the building next to the Mayor's mansion, sneaked in in advance, set up a mechanism in the attic, and then brought the target up after knocking him unconscious in advance."

"The noise of people and music in the banquet hall covered the sound of the silencer pistol firing. The mechanism had a delay, so when shooting and killing, Luo De could appear in any place with onlookers, providing an alibi for himself."

"I would like to call this method classic, but actually it should be said to be old-fashioned." Yin Wensi summarized. He looked at Ben Jie Ming and asked: "The agents should have already found his murder weapon in that space above the ceiling, right?"

"In fact, it was earlier than you thought."

Now that it has come to this, Ben Jie Ming didn't intend to pretend anymore. He said directly: "We are not that group of idiots from the Lianbangdiaocha Bureau. We won't wait until everything is over before talking at length there."

"Then why didn't you arrest him the first time?" Pan Ni frowned and asked. In her view, if Ben Jie Ming had taken action earlier, perhaps they wouldn't be trapped in this manor.

Ben Jie Ming snorted coldly and said: "I told you so much just to explain this matter."

"I didn't arrest Luo De immediately, just to see what he was going to do."

"I am not a witness to that incident two years ago, but in the subsequent investigation, I discovered that the four murderers who killed people seemed to be looking for something."

"Luo De had participated in the gala two years ago. He seemed to have obtained some clues from it. I don't know if he mentioned to any of you that he was looking for a kind of treasure..."

"This is exactly the clue he obtained during that gala back then, in the gaps between those murder cases."

"Treasure? What is that?" Yin Wensi asked very straight to the point.

Ben Jie Ming looked at him meaningfully and also said straight to the point: "There is no exact answer, but I suspect it is the Philby List."

"You wanted to let Luo De find that so-called treasure, and then arrest him after he found it, so you could kill two birds with one stone." Yin Wensi said, and then. His gaze turned to Luo De, and he continued:

"However, it seems that your plan failed."

Ben Jie Ming also set his gaze on Luo De's corpse and said: "That's because he is really an idiot."

"I met him in the reception room. He was cursing everything frantically, as if he had lost his mind, and then wanted to attack me, so I knocked him unconscious."

"However..." Ben Jie Ming changed the subject and turned his head to stare at Yin Wensi, and then said: "In the conversation with Luo De, he told me a truth. Do you know what that is?"

"What?" Yin Wensi also looked at him and asked.

"You are the murderer who killed the Deputy Speaker, and you killed two people and dismembered one of them. He saw it with his own eyes."

Instantly, the atmosphere in the reception room solidified. Everyone had different expressions. A storm spread between Yin Wensi and Ben Jie Ming's line of sight, and the two's aura began to collide.

Suddenly, between the howling wind, the cold snow fell like knives.

Time retreated again, returning to when Pan Ni knocked Luo De to the ground.

After Pan Ni finished all this, she left without looking back. Then, after returning to her room, she pretended to be intimate with Bruce and drove Ben Jie Ming out.

Regardless of how Bruce and Pan Ni executed the plan to deploy monitoring, Ben Jie Ming, who left the room, wanted to find Luo De for the first time.

He called the agent who was deploying defense in the corridor. The agent told him that Luo De went to the reception room and hadn't come out until now. So, Ben Jie Ming went to the reception room. He wanted to talk to Luo De.

When Ben Jie Ming walked into the reception room, Luo De had already barely climbed up from the ground.

Pan Ni used a vase to hit his face. Although it looked like a big movement, the lethality was actually not great. Except for the fragments of the wine bottle cutting the skin on his face, and the heavy blow making his nasal cartilage injured, it didn't hurt his skull and brain. Luo De lay on the ground and eased for a while, then climbed up and began to look for things to stop the bleeding.

When Ben Jie Ming walked in and saw this scene, he was stunned for a moment, and then immediately walked up to ask Luo De: "What's going on? Someone attacked you??"

Luo De, who was wiping blood with a paper towel, turned his head and glanced at Ben Jie Ming. Ben Jie Ming saw infinite anger and malice from his eyes.

"Get out, you annoying fly!" Luo De had completely lost the disguise of being honest and kind. The kind of irritability and greed in his nature were revealed.

Before Ben Jie Ming could continue to say anything, Luo De cursed loudly: "You group of agents and police are all the same! I paid so much tax every year, but only raised you group of waste, unable to provide me with any help, only buzzing like flies!"

"And that dog shit and White! He forgot who spent a lot of money to push him to the top after the scandal of the candidate being assassinated!"

"I just asked him to cooperate with me to kill a few people, he actually dared to open his mouth wide and asked me to help him enter the state legislature?!"