The cleaning lady quickly searched through the entire trash can and said to Xiao Lou, "Teacher, your ID isn't here?"
Xiao Lou smiled and said, "Thank you for your help. I'll look for it carefully when I get back; maybe I didn't throw it away."
The kind aunt said, "Then look again. I'll keep an eye out for you too. If you find it in the trash can, I'll take it to the school's lost and found."
Xiao Lou nodded: "Okay, thank you, Auntie."
He winked at Yu Hanjiang, who understood and, along with Xiao Lou, turned and left with the shoes.
The aunt looked at their backs with a puzzled expression, probably wondering—why would this teacher take the shoes that she found in the trash can?
It was during class time, and there wasn't a soul in sight on the playground.
The two arrived at a corner of the playground, where Yu Hanjiang squatted down to examine the evidence carefully.
These are very common white canvas shoes, the same style as the shoes Ying Xiaoya wore when she died. The soles have crisscrossing diagonal lines that create distinctive footprints when stepped on, and the edges of the shoes have a very prominent logo.
Xiao Lou looked at the shoes thoughtfully: "I've seen many students wearing this brand of shoes at school; it must be a popular brand. These shoes are very new, yet they were thrown away. The murderer clearly wanted to destroy evidence... Captain Yu, who do you think might be the owner of these shoes?"
Yu Hanjiang carefully examined the shoes inside and out, and said, "If the murderer happens to have size 37 feet, it's not surprising that she would buy a pair of these common canvas shoes. She could have kept them; there's no need to throw them in the trash. There's only one reason why the murderer had to get rid of these shoes—her feet are different sizes from Ying Xiaoya's, and these shoes wouldn't fit. If someone finds out, it will easily arouse suspicion."
Xiao Lou nodded in agreement: "In other words, the murderer bought these shoes just to wear temporarily and fake the footprints on the rooftop, making people mistakenly believe that all the footprints on the rooftop belonged to Ying Xiaoya alone, so that they would believe that Ying Xiaoya committed suicide by jumping off the building. This murderer had been paying attention to Ying Xiaoya's shoes for a long time and planned to kill her on the rooftop - it seems that it was premeditated."
"Yes, that's why she had to dispose of the evidence." Yu Hanjiang frowned as he examined the shoes. After a moment, he said, "I think it's more likely that a woman was the perpetrator."
Xiao Lou looked at him in confusion: "Why not a man?"
Yu Hanjiang analyzed in detail: "This is a typical case of a crime committed by an acquaintance. Ying Xiaoya went from the classroom of Class 3 of Senior Three to Xingzhi Building through the sky corridor, and then climbed to the seventh floor from the blind spot of the surveillance camera. This journey is not short. If she was forcibly taken away, she would not have been able to do so quietly. If she screamed or resisted, the classes around her would have heard it."
Xiao Lou chimed in, "But Ying Xiaoya remained quiet throughout, and the fall happened without anyone noticing. Clearly, she voluntarily went to the rooftop with the murderer."
Yu Hanjiang turned to Xiao Lou and said, "If the murderer were male, wearing size 37 women's shoes would definitely arouse Ying Xiaoya's suspicion. Besides, the murderer wouldn't have had time to leave a pair of shoes on the rooftop to change into. Once the murderer bent down to change his shoes, Ying Xiaoya would have noticed something was wrong and would have run away or called for help. Therefore, the murderer must have gone to find Ying Xiaoya wearing these shoes directly."
Men's feet are usually size 40 or larger, so they simply can't fit into size 37 canvas shoes. Wearing them on tiptoe or as slippers would look very strange, and if they ran into someone along the way, it would be difficult to explain. Besides, if a man wearing the same size 37 canvas shoes came to see Ying Xiaoya, she would definitely notice something was wrong and wouldn't be foolish enough to go to the rooftop with him.
Unless it's a woman.
If the other person's feet are size 35 or 36, they can easily fit into size 37 shoes. Just stuff some tissues in the heel and tighten the shoelaces, and the shoes won't easily fall off. Or if they are size 38, they can squeeze in size 37 shoes, but their feet will be a little uncomfortable. However, this is negligible if they wear them for a short time.
Whether her feet are slightly small or slightly large, it's hard to tell that the shoes don't fit. Plus, these kinds of shoes are very common, and many people at school wear them. If female teachers and students wear this brand of shoes, Ying Xiaoya won't think too much about it at first.
Xiao Lou lowered his head and thought for a moment, then said, "If it's a female perpetrator... Yi Ru, I remember she's half a head shorter than Ying Xiaoya, and her feet should be about the same size. If she wore the same shoes as Ying Xiaoya, she wouldn't easily attract attention."
He paused, then continued his analysis: "Moreover, Yi Ru's testimony is very one-sided. She and Ying Xiaoya returned to the classroom together, and what happened is now impossible to verify. She said she went to the convenience store to buy potato chips, and the store owner did see her... But what if they went up to the rooftop first, she pushed Ying Xiaoya off the building, then ran to buy potato chips, and then came back pretending to have witnessed Ying Xiaoya fall?"
Upon hearing this, Yu Hanjiang looked up at the distant rooftop, then at the convenience store and the spot where Ying Xiaoya had fallen. He quickly concluded, shook his head, and said, "It wasn't Yi Ru; there wasn't enough time."
Xiao Lou's analysis was purely theoretical; Yu Hanjiang had more experience in calculating the actual time of the crime.
He followed Captain Yu's gaze and looked over—Xingzhi Building is seven stories high, and Ying Xiaoya fell from the top of the building. The convenience store is quite far from Xingzhi Building. If Yi Ru pushed Ying Xiaoya off the building first, then went to the convenience store to buy potato chips, and returned downstairs to pretend to witness her best friend's tragic fall, the time would indeed be very rushed.
Xiao Lou recalled the crime scene yesterday. When the police questioned Yi Ru, her answers were fragmented, but she did not exhibit any signs of being out of breath after strenuous exercise.
Elephant—her breathing was relatively steady.
The school doesn't have an elevator, so it would be difficult for Yi Ru to run up to the seventh floor, push her best friend downstairs, run down to the seventh floor to buy potato chips, and run back downstairs pretending to be passing by in such a short time, unless she has the speed of an Olympic long-distance running champion and can run several kilometers without getting out of breath.
Xiao Lou overturned his analysis, saying, "It seems Yi Ru can also be ruled out; there simply wasn't enough time to commit the crime. She bought potato chips, so the shop owner could provide an alibi for her."
Yu Hanjiang cautioned, "Let's focus on the female teacher."
Carrying a pair of shoes into the teaching building would be too conspicuous, so Yu Hanjiang thought for a moment and went to the convenience store to get a paper bag to put the shoes in. He then placed the notebook from which he had drawn the school map on top of the shoes, making it look like he was carrying a bag of notebooks.
The two returned to the teaching building.
The chemistry teacher of Class 3, Grade 12 was taken away by the police, and the students in Class 3 were in a state of panic. Everyone was restless and had no interest in class. However, since the second period was Chinese class, the homeroom teacher came to the classroom to maintain order and assigned a composition topic. The students did not dare to talk out of turn, and the classroom was unusually quiet.
The three students, Yu Hui, Xie Xinghe, and Yi Ru, showed no obvious abnormalities.
Xie Xinghe, head bowed, looked serious, his pen flying across the page, seemingly having opened his mind, filling the entire composition book with writing. Yu Hui, on the other hand, scratched his head frantically, seemingly at a loss for words. Yi Ru, with a pained expression, bit her pen, clearly unable to write anything either.
The essay topic assigned by the teacher was "Pursuit," which is indeed a headache.
Yu Hanjiang observed for a moment and, finding no movement in the classroom, said, "There shouldn't be any new clues in the classroom for the time being. Why don't we check if any other teachers were teaching when the incident happened yesterday?"
High school teachers typically teach more than one class. If they aren't homeroom teachers, most teachers have to teach two classes to avoid insufficient workload and potential deductions in end-of-term evaluations. Yesterday, Ying Xiaoya's incident occurred during the fourth period. If a teacher was teaching another class during that period, suspicion could be completely ruled out.
The class schedules posted in the classrooms only listed subjects like Chinese and Chemistry, without the teachers' names. The teachers' own schedules only listed the classes they taught and the times they taught.
Xiao Lou thought for a moment and said, "The teachers of English, Physics, Chemistry, and Biology are all women, and their height is between 1.6 and 1.7 meters, so they can wear size 37 shoes. Apart from the Chemistry teacher, did the other three have classes in the fourth period yesterday? We can go to their offices to check their schedules."
Yu Hanjiang said, "We also need to go to the Chinese language office. There's also a female teacher we need to keep an eye on."
Xiao Lou was taken aback for a moment, but quickly realized: "You mean the Chinese teacher who suddenly barged in when the homeroom teacher was talking to Ying Xiaoya? She's also a woman, so perhaps she could have committed the crime?"
Yu Hanjiang's expression was serious as he said in a low voice, "This teacher's arrival was too timely. At that time, Ying Xiaoya should have revealed the reason for her declining grades, a crucial reason that could very well have directly led to her death. Unfortunately, just as she was about to speak, an outsider came in and interrupted her."
Recalling the scene, Xiao Lou immediately agreed: "That's right, the timing of her entry was indeed very clever."
Just as Ying Xiaoya was about to say, "My grades have dropped recently because...", the young female teacher pushed the door open and walked in, and Ying Xiaoya immediately shut her mouth and stopped talking.
This teacher is likely connected to Ying Xiaoya's fall; she deliberately came in to interrupt.
But it's also possible that she was just a "plot device" arranged by the secret room—if she hadn't come in, and Ying Xiaoya had revealed the truth, none of this would have happened.
But it's always good to check.
They must not let any of the suspects go unpunished.
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