Chapter 85: The Backyard

"I'm talking to Mr. Qi, is it your turn to interrupt?" Qi Fei's tone was full of malice. This overbearing attitude was too much even for Wu Shanqiu, who whispered: "Brother Fei, don't be like this."

Qi Fei, contrary to his usual self, ignored Wu Shanqiu and stared at Lu Man with a coldness she had never seen before. No one knew what exactly had happened.

Qi Fei asked for a room, and everyone was questioned individually one by one.

However, Qi Dongjun and Huang Daqiu didn't need to be said—when they left, Hong Mei was confirmed to be alive.

Due to the villa's collective dormitory, the villa staff could testify for each other. Bao Chuchu was the last one to return to the dormitory to rest. Before that, everyone had returned.

Even for Bao Chuchu, fifteen minutes was simply not enough time to complete such a complex crime.

Because the call Hong Mei made to the front desk and Xiao Sun, who delivered the red wine, could both prove that Hong Mei was still alive that night.

Qi Fei looked at the list and crossed out those who had already been questioned one by one.

Finally, only a cleaning lady, Liu Ayi, remained.

As a result, after waiting for a long time, he didn't see anyone.

Qi Fei had no choice but to go out and find Bao Chuchu: "Where is the last person?"

"Liu Ayi has had a fever since last night and is in the dormitory, she can't come over," Bao Chuchu replied.

"Then we'll go to the dormitory to ask," Qi Fei said immediately.

"She went back to rest very early yesterday, it's impossible for her to have killed anyone."

"Are you the police or am I the police? Whether she killed anyone or not, we'll know after asking!" Qi Fei was clearly very dissatisfied with Bao Chuchu's attitude of always making decisions. Of course, this was also partly due to his anger toward Bao Chuchu because of Qi Dongjun.

Compared to the extremely luxurious Yun Shen Secret Realm villa, the staff dormitory was neat but truly simple.

"Because we mainly work at night, Boss Qi takes care of everyone and has arranged a shift system. Only those on duty that day will sleep here. There are a total of five bunk beds, which can sleep ten people. Yesterday, there were ten of us left on duty here," Bao Chuchu said while showing the dormitory.

That last interviewee, Liu Ayi, was lying on the lower bunk of one of the beds, her face sallow and Pan Ting. She looked like she was indeed sick.

Xiao Sun was guarding the side, feeding her porridge.

"How is Liu Ayi?" Bao Chuchu asked, her tone significantly softer than the sharp tone she used when talking to Qi Fei.

"I just took her temperature, it's still forty degrees," Xiao Sun said worriedly.

Liu Ayi opened her eyes, saw Qi Fei and Wu Shanqiu, and said weakly: "Are these two police officers?"

"How did you know we were police?" Qi Fei asked alertly.

"Xiao Sun said something happened at the villa and many police came, so I knew something would happen..." As soon as Liu Ayi said this, the expressions of the other four people were different, with different surprises, including Bao Chuchu, who was always calm, who hadn't expected Liu Ayi to say this.

Qi Fei's intuition told him that this was an important breakthrough, and he immediately asked: "Did you see anything last night?"

Being asked this by Qi Fei, Liu Ayi seemed to return to last night, suddenly grabbing Xiao Sun's hand next to her as if she were very scared, her breathing becoming more rapid: "I saw a female ghost, covered in blood, on her face, on her hands, all of it..."

"When?!"

"It was before 9:00. I remembered I forgot to sweep the backyard during the day, so I wanted to sweep it before finishing work. As a result, I saw that female ghost! With disheveled hair, covered in blood, ah, I was so scared I fainted at the time!" Liu Ayi said, as if she were seeing the situation at the time again.

It looked like this cleaning lady fainted suddenly because of excessive fright.

Bao Chuchu said to Qi Fei from the side with a provocative tone: "I said, you didn't need to come here specifically."

Wu Shanqiu muttered: "How come we're back in Zhong Kui's territory again?"

"Zhong Kui?" Bao Chuchu clearly didn't know what Wu Shanqiu meant.

Liu Ayi took it seriously and suggested to Bao Chuchu: "That's right, Manager, we work in the wilderness, why don't we invite a portrait of Zhong Kui?"

"..." Bao Chuchu showed a speechless expression.

Only Qi Fei was listening carefully to Liu Ayi's words: "Nine o'clock? Was that when Hong Mei just sent Huang Daqiu away?" Then he asked Bao Chuchu, "Where did you find Liu Ayi?"

Bao Chuchu seemed very helpless: "You believe this ghost story?"

"You just need to tell me where, whether it should be investigated is for us to judge," Qi Fei looked at Bao Chuchu, a flash of suspicion in his eyes.

Bao Chuchu had no choice but to take them to the backyard.

Yun Shen Secret Realm was built against the mountain. It looked like the first floor, but as the stairs wound around, they unknowingly went down several floors. The back was directly below the room where Hong Mei was. However, this place was two floors away from Hong Mei's room on the first floor. One side of the courtyard was the hotel room, and the other side was the villa's wall. Outside the wall was the endless forest and mountains.

This small courtyard was designed in a Chinese garden style, with a small fish pond and some rockeries, pines, and bamboos. It was clearly the work of a master and had a high-class aesthetic.

The bluestone floor was very clean. It seemed the snow had been swept away by the diligent Liu Ayi last night.

Bao Chuchu pointed to the stairs and said coldly: "Yesterday, when I and others heard the shouting, we came over and saw Liu Ayi lying in this place, unconscious. There was no one around."

Qi Fei observed the surroundings and pointed to the small paths on both sides of the courtyard, asking: "Where do these lead?"

"These lead to the front garden. The small paths in our entire villa are connected for the convenience of guests taking walks."

"So that means it's possible for the other party to go anywhere?"

"Heh, Officer Qi, you're not talking about a female ghost, are you?"

"Hmm, whether it's a person or a ghost is not certain yet."

Qi Fei looked up. He had seen this wall in Hong Mei's room, but looking out from there, it was just a normal height of less than one floor. At this time, looking from this sunken backyard, it was two floors high. It could be considered a clever design, which prevented outsiders from climbing over the wall.

Because of the snow, there was thick snow on the wall, and a long strip of pure white added extra height to the wall.

Qi Fei's gaze scanning the wall stopped at one place, and he couldn't help but say "Hmm?". He saw that a section of the snow on the wall directly facing Hong Mei's window was actually gone.

The advantage of snowing is that any trace is easier to leave than usual before it melts.

Wu Shanqiu saw him staring at that place for a long time and looked in the direction of his gaze. Soon, she also discovered the clue: "Brother Fei, it looks like there was something on it last night, right?"

"Hmph, it seems that ghosts can climb walls too!" Qi Fei glanced at Bao Chuchu, immediately took his people out of the villa, and followed the wall to the place where there was a gap. ===== CHAPTER 86 =====