After inspecting the stage, Li Wei could all but confirm that this was a case!
Besides examining the footprints, Li Wei had also found the fallen plank and discovered signs that the rope suspending it had been cut.
That made the sequence of the crime easy enough to reconstruct. Someone had secretly cut the rope backstage, trying to injure or even kill Mobius with the plank above his head. Mobius had clearly sensed the danger beforehand. Qiong had also said that he had previously preferred practicing alone rather than with everyone else.
Today, however, he had broken with his usual habits and come to the busiest venue, the Third Stage. Clearly, Mobius must have known someone was threatening him, and he was afraid. When people were afraid, they instinctively gravitated toward crowds, where they felt safer.
The trouble was that, from an investigative standpoint, more people made identifying the culprit much harder. If Mobius had continued practicing on quieter stages as before, they would only have needed to find suspicious people who had visited that stage at the time and investigate them. Less crowded places also meant fewer footprints and fingerprints, making everything easier to check.
Instead, all sorts of people had been coming and going here. According to Qiong, audience members sometimes even came in to watch the actors rehearse. As long as it did not involve spoilers, they were welcome, since it also served as encouragement for newcomers.
As a result, the place was full of traces left by both spectators and actors. Finding the real culprit among them... felt a little like searching for a needle in a haystack.
If someone had died, the case would have to be solved. But hadn't this guy survived?
Besides, judging by what Qiong and the old troupe leader had told