"Are you finished?" Hu Jia's smile vanished, replaced by a stern expression.
Wang Xue broke into a sweat, sensing something was wrong.
"Since you're done, I'll have to call out a few people," Hu Jia said, not even glancing at Wang Xue. He pointed to a few trainees in the crowd. "You all come up and tell me who it was that informed you about the wild man in the forest?"
The moment Hu Jia finished speaking, Wang Xue's face turned even paler.
"Report, Captain Hu, it was her!" Everyone's fingers pointed at Wang Xue.
Hu Jia nodded and called another group of people. The result was the same: everyone identified Wang Xue.
"Wang Xue, these trainees only heard the name 'wild man' but never saw one. According to my investigation, all the information they received about a wild man appearing in the forest came from you."
"Cap-Captain Hu, I don't quite understand what you mean."
Wang Xue was starting to stammer.
Don't understand, huh?
Hu Jia took out the map he had marked that morning, showing the location and time. "This is a timeline of the wild man information dissemination. It started spreading from location 5.1..."
Hu Jia explained his analysis, leaving the people below exchanging bewildered glances.
Hu Jia's meaning was clear: Wang Xue was lying. She hadn't been hiding; instead, she had been intentionally searching near the murder scene, with the goal of clearing the area.
"I was too panicked, so I went the wrong way," Wang Xue retorted.
"Then tell me, if you were truly so terrified of the wild man, why didn't you evacuate with the others when you told them about the wild man? The first time, the second time, even dozens of times in similar situations. Does that look like an attempt to escape?"
"I... I..." Wang Xue had no answer.
Hu Jia's cold gaze swept across her face. "Now, I ask the three of you to take off your shoes."
A basin of water was brought over, and three pieces of white paper were spread on the ground.
Everyone was confused, not understanding what Hu Jia was doing.
"I extracted some footprints of the killer at the scene. I noticed the killer went into the river barefoot, and the toes of the left foot had a missing digit. Now, if these three women imprint their left footprints on these white papers, the truth will be revealed."
As Hu Jia spoke, he cast an intentional, casual glance at the three women below. Tan Zian and Yu Xiaohui looked somewhat puzzled, but Wang Xue's expression relaxed.
Heh.
Hu Jia let out a cold laugh.
Soon, the footprints were imprinted. But when the assistant instructor picked up the three papers, a commotion erupted from the audience.
No missing toes were found.
"What's going on? Captain Hu messed up this time," Feng Jiu and Xiao Juan exclaimed anxiously.
Lu Qingqing also frowned. She didn't believe Hu Jia would make a mistake in such a case, but given the current situation, she didn't know how to explain it.
"Hahaha! Captain Hu, it seems time was not enough for you to demonstrate your detective skills!" Tong Hua was almost jumping with joy. He wanted to leave early, but he also relished seeing Hu Jia embarrassed.
"Hu Jia!" Li Hongjiang also thought a mistake had been made.
Unexpectedly, Hu Jia smiled slightly. "My apologies everyone, I was just playing a little trick on you all."
Huh?
Hu Jia then produced a rubbing of a footprint, showing two overlapping prints. One was from the sole of a shoe, and the other was a bare footprint. "This is the killer's footprint, and it's from the right foot. However, it's clear that the toes are not missing."
"Then what about just now?"
Hu Jia calmly explained, "The scene was severely compromised, and there were too many rescue personnel, causing the footprints to be muddled."
Hu Jia said that since Yang Luo had been dragged ashore from the water, the killer must have entered the water. But everyone had said that the woman's shoes were not wet. This could only mean one thing: the woman had taken off her shoes before entering the water. And why would she take off her shoes? Perhaps to avoid suspicion if her shoes were wet?
Based on this discovery, Hu Jia immediately thought there should be bare footprints at the waterhole. But why weren't they found during the initial examination of the scene?
There was only one possibility: the footprints had been deliberately erased.
To investigate this possibility, Hu Jia visited the waterhole again and finally discovered two sets of overlapping footprints. Upon closer inspection, he found one impression was indeed from a bare foot.
Having said that, Hu Jia held up the rubbing from the crime scene. "Look at these footprints. If the entire sole is almost entirely visible, it's a flat foot. If about half of the arch area is visible, it's a normal arch. If only a small portion of the arch area is visible, or it's broken, it's a high arch."
The killer's footprint was exactly that of a flat foot.
At this point, everyone understood.
Hu Jia had first deceived the three women by fabricating a story about missing toes on the left foot, making them imprint their footprints. This would cause the killer to lower her guard. Firstly, the killer's left toes were intact, and secondly, she didn't know that Hu Jia's true intention was to verify the arch of the foot.
If the killer had known in advance that Hu Jia wanted to check the foot arch, she might have deliberately arched her instep and contracted her sole while imprinting her footprint, thus creating a false impression of a normal arch.
But when she was kept completely in the dark, believing that the other party was only examining her toes and that her toes were fine, she would relax and imprint her true foot arch.
"It's her! Wang Xue!" Zhou Fengjiu exclaimed first.
Because Wang Xue's entire sole was visible, it was clearly a flat foot!
Everyone stared at Wang Xue. With her inexplicable "wild man information dissemination behavior" and now the "footprint evidence," Wang Xue had nowhere to escape!
"What do you say? Still not going to tell the truth? If not, then I'll have to tell the story of this scarf," Hu Jia said, producing the scarf left at the crime scene.
Upon seeing the scarf, Wang Xue finally broke down.
"No, it wasn't me. I didn't do anything. Yang Luo fell into the water himself," Wang Xue cried out loudly. Amidst her sobs, everyone heard a story.
After discovering the "wild man," Wang Xue's first thought was to find Li Zhenmi, as they were lovers. People often think of the one they hold dear when they are most helpless and scared.
She arranged to meet Li Zhenmi at location 4.2 at 3 PM. Since it wasn't time yet, Wang Xue could only wander around nearby.
She then encountered Yang Luo.
"He's a scoundrel, only preying on female classmates," Wang Xue said. Because she was terrified by the "wild man," her abilities were slightly off, and Yang Luo snatched her armband.
This incident should have ended there, but Yang Luo's lecherous intentions surfaced. He told Wang Xue that he would return her armband if she let him kiss her.
"I didn't want to lose, so..." Wang Xue's voice lowered significantly at this point, her gaze involuntarily drifting towards Lu Qingqing.
Lu Qingqing felt incredibly exasperated. "I know you didn't want to lose to me, but why are you looking at me like that now? Are you going to blame me for this too?"
Although Wang Xue didn't explicitly state it, everyone understood her meaning: a kiss in exchange for the armband.
"But Yang Luo wasn't satisfied with just one kiss. He made even more outrageous demands," Wang Xue said. Angered, she slapped him directly.
Yang Luo became furious and moved to physically assault her.
Terrified, Wang Xue immediately ran towards location 4.2, hoping to get help from her boyfriend.
Hearing this, Hu Jia finally connected the remaining pieces of the puzzle. No wonder someone claimed to have seen Li Zhenmi at location 4.2 at 1:30 PM, and said he seemed very happy. He must have been eagerly anticipating meeting Wang Xue then.
And around 2 PM, someone saw Yang Luo, Li Zhenmi, and a mysterious person talking at location 4.2. That mysterious person must have been Wang Xue.
Later, Li Zhenmi appeared, and Yang Luo gave up on forcing himself on Wang Xue. However, to leave a good impression on Li Zhenmi, Wang Xue did not tell her boyfriend about the kiss she shared with Yang Luo.
"Since you didn't tell him, how did the conflict arise?" Li Hongjiang asked.
Wang Xue swallowed hard. "Because Yang Luo discovered we were cheating. He threatened us."
Cheating?