Chapter 111: The Small Hotel Murder Case (4)

With one hand restrained by the handcuffs, the Old Man reached his left hand into his right trouser pocket. He pulled out a cigarette case, flipped it open, and plucked a cigarette out with his lips.

He lit the cigarette, took a deep drag, and pondered for a long moment before saying, "There is a very serious flaw in the deduction you just made."

"Such as?" The Little Girl cast a profound glance at the smoking Old Man.

"According to what you said, when the woman got out of the car in front of the muddy road, she saw two light-red cars. However, when the middle-aged police officer told the story, he claimed there was a white car. That means the woman knew the police officer was lying, and the police officer also knew the woman knew he was lying."

"The middle-aged police officer essentially placed his own life in the woman's hands. Do you think that is reasonable?"

The chubby nerd was getting a bit dizzy from their exchange, feeling as if he were listening to a foreign language. However, he vaguely understood that there seemed to be a problem with the Little Girl's deduction.

Facing the skepticism, the Little Girl remained entirely unruffled. She crossed her legs and said, "First, when the middle-aged police officer was telling the story, the woman had already taken a shower because her clothes were soaked from the rain. She was wearing pajamas and didn't have her pistol with her."

"So, even if he lied, the threat the woman posed to him was close to zero."

"Therefore, what he needed to do was control the woman first and pin the blame for the hit-and-run on her. That way, we wouldn't believe a word she said."

"By doing this, if the woman sneaked into the small hotel to kill the middle-aged police officer while we were asleep, she would be making a Judgment on the person lying in the bed in the pitch-black darkness. Since the person in the bed was actually the female police officer, the woman would fall right into his trap, causing her Judgment to fail."

"The middle-aged police officer hiding in the shadows could then seize the opportunity to execute a Judgment on the woman!"

As the Little Girl unhurriedly laid out the sequence of events, the incident gradually became clear.

The sequence of events unfolded like this:

The middle-aged police officer arrived at the small hotel. Upon seeing the freshly showered Chen Ran and Lin Jiabei, he deduced that these two were guests who had braved the heavy rain and had only recently checked in.

He also saw that neither of them was carrying a pistol.

Thus.

The middle-aged police officer began to lie.

He described the two light-red cars he had encountered on the road as one white and one red.

Why did he do this?

It was very simple. Looking at the facts, the middle-aged police officer lied, while Lin Jiabei did not.

However, in Chen Ran's deduction, the middle-aged police officer was telling the truth, and Lin Jiabei was the one lying.

Exactly!

The middle-aged police officer exploited this information gap to lock Lin Jiabei in handcuffs on the first floor...

He was laying bait!

And someone actually fell for it. In fact, two people did. One was the arrogant Chen Ran, and the identity of the other was still uncertain.

The unidentified person arrived first, only to discover that Lin Jiabei had already broken free of the handcuffs and escaped.

Therefore, they disguised themselves as Lin Jiabei chained to the handrail.

Immediately after, the second person to come down was the arrogant Chen Ran. Seeing the silhouette by the handrail in the darkness, he spoke the command:

"You lied."

Obviously, the arrogant Chen Ran was bound to fail his Judgment, causing his pistol to misfire.

Witnessing this scene, the person disguised as Lin Jiabei knew that the arrogant Chen Ran had fallen for the trap.

They followed up by speaking the command:

"You lied."

Chen Ran died by Judgment, and the person disguised as Lin Jiabei immediately fled the first floor to fabricate an alibi.

Hearing the gunshot, the middle-aged police officer opened his door to check the results.

To his astonishment, he found that Lin Jiabei had escaped.

This panicked him greatly, because Lin Jiabei knew very well that he had lied.

Consequently.

The middle-aged police officer began setting up his second trap. He moved the female police officer from Room 208 into his own Room 207, while he slept in Room 208.

As long as Lin Jiabei dared to sneak into Room 207 in the middle of the night to execute a Judgment on him, her Judgment would inevitably fail.

Meanwhile, he would hide at the staircase. The moment Lin Jiabei's Judgment failed, he would execute his Judgment on her.

At the same time, he could frame the Old Man on the first floor for the crime. As for why he wouldn't frame the Little Girl on the second floor?

Very simple. The Little Girl was too short. It would be entirely too easy to deduce from the angle of the fatal gunshot wound that she could not be the killer.

This trap was nothing short of venomous.

However, the middle-aged police officer severely underestimated the intelligence of the guests in the small hotel.

The muscular youth, through his own deduction, had concluded that the middle-aged police officer had lied when telling his story.

Therefore, the muscular youth stealthily pushed open the door to Room 207 in the middle of the night. After faintly making out the silhouette on the bed in the darkness, he spoke the command:

"You lied."

Hearing the command, the middle-aged police officer hiding by the staircase assumed Lin Jiabei had taken the bait. He immediately revealed himself and also spoke the command:

"You lied."

He shot the muscular youth dead and simultaneously pinned the blame on the Old Man. After all, the angle of the gunshot wound could rule out the Little Girl, but it couldn't rule out the man himself.

But, to repeat the point, the middle-aged police officer underestimated the intelligence of the small hotel's guests.

The Little Girl deduced that he was lying.

...

In this entire sequence of events, the only thing that remained uncertain was the identity of the unknown guest who had killed Chen Ran.

At present, all evidence pointed to the chubby nerd having killed Chen Ran.

But the possibility that the unconscious female police officer had framed the chubby nerd could not be completely ruled out either.

Consequently, no one dared to execute a Judgment on the chubby nerd.

...

As it stood right now, the Little Girl was the biggest winner. Aside from her, there were only seven people in the small hotel.

Three were dead, two were in handcuffs, one had escaped outside, and one was "unconscious."

However, the schemer who was the first to jump out into the open was often the first to die.

The Little Girl did not dare let her guard down. She sat on the sofa, pondering for a moment, before suddenly asking out of nowhere, "Do you guys still remember who you are and what your names are?"

The Old Man and the chubby nerd's pupils contracted sharply. Their gazes darted away, seemingly terrified of this question.

The Little Girl did not intend to press them on this bizarre question.

She tossed the Old Man the handcuff key she had found on the middle-aged police officer's body.

Since the muscular youth was killed by the police officer, the Old Man was naturally cleared of suspicion.

The Old Man unlocked his handcuffs and stuffed the key into his pocket, completely ignoring the chubby nerd who was watching him with pleading eyes.

Seeing that the two were about to return to their respective rooms, the chubby nerd grew anxious and pleaded, "Um, could you grab me a bottle of cola and some spicy sticks? If you leave, I'll be stuck down here all by myself. It's really creeping me out."

The Little Girl ignored him, walking straight up to the second floor. The Old Man, taking pity on him and finding his bizarre priorities somewhat amusing, grabbed the items from the counter and the vending machine and handed them over.

With both of them having retreated to their rooms, the only sounds left on the first floor were the noises of chewing and soda fizzing.

Time quietly slipped away.

About an hour later.

In Room 207, the supposedly unconscious female police officer suddenly opened her eyes.

She walked into the bathroom, first stripping off her police jacket and trousers, then wrapping a bath towel around her body and another towel around her hair.

Returning to the bedroom, she did not exit through the main door but instead approached the window.

She pushed the window open.

The rain poured heavily outside, accompanied by the crash of thunder. She raised her head and looked up at the sky.

The moment a streak of lightning flashed across the sky, the female police officer immediately leaped out the window.

The roar of thunder perfectly masked the sound of her landing.

She circled from the side of the small hotel to the front and carefully pushed open the main entrance.

On the first floor, the chubby nerd was snoring.

The female police officer crept closer, drew her pistol, and aimed it squarely at the chubby nerd's forehead...