Master of Deduction Fatty

"How did you wake up this morning?"

Fatty answered without hesitation, "I was woken up by Sleepwear Woman's scream. She was shouting that someone was dead."

"Hmm, and what did you see when you ran out?"

"Everyone was gathered in front of a door, and there was a large pool of blood on the ground in front of it," he explained as he recalled.

"And Sleepwear Woman?"

"Her..." Fatty thought carefully, "She was slumped on the ground, like she was terrified, screaming non-stop. Only after Hat Man slapped her did she quiet down."

"Do you remember where she was?"

"Yes," Fatty paused, as if something didn't quite make sense, but he still answered honestly, "She was behind the crowd, opposite the door where the incident happened."

He described the scene at the time with great clarity.

"Is there something wrong with this?" he then asked.

"Of course, there's something wrong," Jiang Cheng said calmly, "Her position is incorrect."

"The room where the incident happened didn't have a room number, but if we checked them in order, it should be Room 414. That means the room where the incident happened is the closest to our Room 407, which is four rooms away."

"It was already light outside. Normally, Sleepwear Woman would have quickly seen the large pool of blood in front of Room 414 as soon as she stepped out, and then screamed uncontrollably. How could she have waited until she reached the door of Room 414 to start screaming and then collapse there?" Jiang Cheng looked at Fatty, "She's not blind."

Fatty's eyes widened, and he looked at Jiang Cheng in disbelief.

Admittedly, it was indeed contrary to common sense.

"This is just the first point," Jiang Cheng didn't give Fatty a chance to speak and continued on his own, "Second, as a newcomer, and with your only roommate from the previous night gone and her whereabouts unknown, who gave her the courage to be the first to push open the door and go out, without worrying that a ghost was standing right outside?"

Jiang Cheng continued, "If I were her, I would never do that, nor would I dare to."

"What's the third point?"

Jiang Cheng paused for a few seconds and slowly said, "Qipao Woman's body had been tampered with. Someone had been here before us."

Fatty thought for a moment, then looked up. Just as he opened his mouth, he heard Jiang Cheng say, "I know what you're going to say, you think a ghost might also do things to a corpse, right?"

Fatty nodded.

In the last mission, Sister Nuan's body was taken by a ghost and hung on a cross, while the clerk Xie Yu was scared to death by a ghost and then dragged away wrapped in a blanket, suffering desecration.

"But what's strange is that Qipao Woman only had one injury on her body, which was her broken jaw," Jiang Cheng mused for a moment before continuing, "But the position of the knotted buttons on her qipao collar had changed."

"Knotted buttons?" Fatty frowned, "The position?"

"Yes," Jiang Cheng nodded, "The qipao collar Qipao Woman was wearing had three knotted buttons. When I first saw her, she had only fastened the top two. Before going to sleep, after someone from Room 405 ran out, she was also alerted and came out. At that time, she still only had the top two fastened, with the last one below it undone."

"But on Qipao Woman's body, all three knotted buttons were neatly fastened."

"I don't think a ghost would have the mood to fasten her last button after killing someone," he glanced towards the dormitory, "So I think the most appropriate explanation is that someone meticulously examined her body after she died, but in the process of restoring it, they overlooked this inconspicuous button and fastened it in their haste."

"Doctor," Fatty said, "First of all, I agree with most of your reasoning, but just this one button." He paused, "Couldn't Qipao Woman have fastened it herself?"

"No," Jiang Cheng replied with certainty.

"Why?"

Jiang Cheng took a deep breath, placed his hands on his chest, and made a rather ungraceful gesture, "It's simple, because if she fastened that third button, she would be squeezed so tight she couldn't breathe."

Fatty's eyes lit up, and he instantly recalled Qipao Woman's astonishing proportions.

Her face was unremarkable, but when it came to her figure...

Later, Fatty nodded fiercely, "Doctor, you're right, I completely agree with you."

"If the above are just deductions based on common sense, then the last point is the irrefutable evidence against Sleepwear Woman." Fatty suddenly felt Jiang Cheng's image become even more imposing, as the latter said, "There was blood on the soles of her shoes. I happened to notice it when she was slumped on the ground."

"I understand this point," Fatty said excitedly, he finally felt he was on the same wavelength as Jiang Cheng, "Given her persona, she definitely wouldn't dare to step on a bloody spot. She hadn't entered the room before we arrived, so her persona is shattered. She's the one who tampered with the body before we arrived!"

"No," Jiang Cheng shook his head, "The blood on the soles of her shoes isn't the most important thing. It could also be explained as her accidentally stepping on it, or an unconscious action due to extreme shock. This is not irrefutable evidence."

Fatty's enthusiasm cooled down, "Then what is the irrefutable evidence?"

"There was blood on the soles of her shoes, but not on the edges of her shoes," Jiang Cheng slightly moved his stiff neck, realizing for the first time that dissecting the case for Fatty was more tiring than solving it himself, "The edges of her shoes were very clean. She had cleaned them."

Fatty sorted out his thoughts and after a few seconds, showed a look of sudden realization.

That's right, Jiang Cheng was right. Blood on the soles of the shoes wasn't a big deal. He himself, and Jiang Cheng, must have gotten blood on their soles.

Not just the soles, he looked down and noticed a layer of bright red color on the edges of his shoes.

Jiang Cheng too.

Everyone who entered the room would have gotten some on them, more or less. After all, Qipao Woman's blood had covered the ground, forming puddles in some places.

But intentionally cleaning the blood off the edges of the shoes was very telling.

She had something to hide.

Otherwise, why would she do that?

As the old questions were cleared up, new ones surfaced. Fatty bit his lip and looked up, "Why would Sleepwear Woman do this?"

The disadvantages of killing a teammate were obvious, especially since Qipao Woman was not a novice.

"Fatty," Jiang Cheng said faintly, "Don't you think Sleepwear Woman is very similar to someone we know?"

"Who?" As Fatty asked the question, a figure immediately appeared in his mind. He said tremblingly, "Are you talking about that woman from last time?!"

"Mm," Jiang Cheng glanced at him, "She said her name was Chen Xiaomeng, but I suspect it's a fake name."