It was a deliberate poisoning, and the poisoner was very planned and purposeful. The incident was carried out quietly, without anyone noticing, and Xi Shengnan was successfully made the only victim.
"If the poisoner's target was Xi Shengnan, then this poisoning case was perfectly executed." Shao Ling frowned. "I really can't figure out how the poisoner knew each of our tastes."
"Yeah," Luo Cheng chimed in, "I didn't even know your tastes. I used to think Dong Ge was a spice addict."
Wei Dong gave Luo Cheng a sharp look: You're going to offend the hairlines of every graphic designer in the world with that…
Shao Ling nodded slightly: "Even though we all went through the previous painting together, I don't know the tastes of all the old members."
Cao Youning added, "We in these photography groups do know each other well because we often go out on field trips together, but we don't know you old members at all! This doesn't make sense no matter how you look at it. No one can guarantee that Sister Xi will eat that bottle of poisoned chili sauce alone."
Du Lingyu said, "I don't think we internal members would kill each other, but outsiders know even less about our tastes, so how could they have accurately killed Sister Xi?"
"Unless it's a conditional killing, this time the victim was someone who loves spicy food, like that murderer from many years ago who only killed women wearing red dresses," Cao Youning said.
"No, no, this matter is far more complex than you make it out to be," Qin Ci put away his poison-testing needle and then used a cloth to seal the bottle of poisoned chili sauce. "The supervisor's investigation has uncovered another case. Xia Yu died the previous night, but the murder weapon was something we brought in from the outside world. This is very absurd."
"Time is very chaotic in this world. I suspect that Xi Shengnan's poisoning is also related to this time distortion," Shao Ling said.
At this moment, the door suddenly opened, and the brigade commander walked in with several men: "Do any of you relatives have anything to say? If not, we will prepare to move the body into the coffin."
Many things remain unresolved, but Xi Shengnan must be laid to rest, even if it is to be buried in frozen ground.
No one raised any objections.
Qin Ci handed the bottle of poisoned chili sauce to the brigade commander: "...This is all we can offer. Just as we don't understand why someone would poison Xi Shengnan, we also don't believe Xi Shengnan would... We really can't think of a motive."
The brigade commander maintained a subtle detachment: "No one can say for sure what happened after the lights went out. I've already asked our brigade's shaman, and he speculates that a man poisoned Xi Shengnan, and that man will also face retribution."
This statement was packed with information, enough to take a long time to process.
"Didn't you want to see your companion off? Then come along." With that, the brigade commander stepped out of the room.
Several men carried Xi Shengnan's body out of the room, and a crystal coffin was placed in the corridor. The body was slowly placed inside.
The group followed behind Xi Shengnan's coffin and slowly walked forward.
Qin Ci walked beside Mu Yiran and asked in a low voice, "Little Mu, you've been rather quiet today. Is something on your mind?"
Mu Yiran composed herself and looked at Qin Ci standing beside her. "Right now, Xi Shengnan died a violent death, and it was always us, her companions, who stayed by her side. No outsiders came to watch. But yesterday, Xia Yu's death, also a violent one, caused a certain amount of panic."
"Is it because the Chu family's influence is quite large?" Qin Ci speculated.
"I hope that's not the reason. I don't want the Chu family to cause us trouble," Mu Yiran coughed lightly. "The comparison between the two murder cases just now only leads to one conclusion: the crime scenes are different—Xi Shengnan died in the room, while Xia Yu died in the square on the second floor."
"You mean the place where people were watching was the crime scene? The crime scene where Xia Yu was murdered?" Qin Ci was even more confused. "If that's the case, then the murderer had even less opportunity to kill Xia Yu in public."
"That confirms what that official said earlier: no one can say for sure what happens after the lights are turned off," Mu Yiran said slowly.
Ke Xun couldn't help but say, "And that Lord Wu, he only made his speculation after seeing Xia Yu's body, but this time Lord Wu didn't show up. How did he know that the murderer was a man?"
"Lord Wu is a very mysterious existence in this world. If I'm not mistaken, they might be able to see through time," Mu Yiran said, offering his speculation.
Fang Fei, who was walking beside him, slowed her pace upon hearing this, lost in thought.
The group followed the crystal coffin up the steps, eventually reaching the top floor of the inn. Passersby often stopped to glance at the strange funeral procession, but only glanced; after all, the lives and deaths of others were none of their concern.
The top floor was a large wooden dome with a ring of greyish-white glass windows along its side. The innkeeper ordered one window to be opened, and a biting wind instantly rushed in, as if it could freeze everything inside into ice sculptures at any moment.
"Hang the coffin. Once it's frozen solid, everything will be peaceful," the innkeeper solemnly carried out the funeral ceremony.
Several funeral attendants secured the crystal coffin with strong ropes and then carefully prepared to lift it out of the window.
Lu Heng suddenly became somewhat out of control. He had been dazed and confused like a lost soul, but now he suddenly lunged at the crystal coffin: "I don't believe Sheng Nan is dead! I don't believe it! She was so young, not even 30!"
The brigade commander's gaze sharpened: "You'd better shut your mouth. If you utter any more of these taboo words, I'll order you to be frozen to the ground along with her."
Cao Yongning and Mai Peng quickly pulled Lu Heng aside.
"Lu Heng, we didn't want to see this happen either," Du Lingyu comforted him. "The most important thing now is to live well and find out the cause of Xi Jie's death."
Hearing this, Lu Heng lessened his struggles, but his eyes remained empty and lifeless.
Because of the open window, the top floor of the brigade was unusually cold. Du Lingyu put on the cotton hat behind her cotton robe, wrapping herself up tightly, and, mustering her courage, walked towards the window where the coffin had been placed.
The crystal coffin was lowered steadily, and Xi Shengnan's bluish-black face was gradually shrouded by the rapidly gathering ice crystals on the coffin's surface, going from hazy and indistinct to completely obscured.
The rope slowly descended, its steady pace like the operation of some precision instrument, giving one the assurance that the coffin would not fall due to imbalance.
Du Lingyu felt a bone-chilling cold on her face and realized that snow was still falling outside. She didn't dare lean too far out the window to look, so she huddled between Ke Xun and Wei Dong, standing on tiptoe to watch the slowly sinking crystal coffin.
Her headache and tinnitus returned, and Du Lingyu even felt her vision blurring. If it weren't for the constant stimulation of the biting cold wind, she might have fainted there.
"Xiao Du, are you alright?" Ke Xun noticed Du Lingyu's abnormality, and Wei Dong promptly supported Du Lingyu's dazed body.
"I don't know what happened, it felt like I was hallucinating just now," Du Lingyu said, looking at Ke Xun and Wei Dong, whose eyebrows and bangs had been blown white by the wind. She felt as if the two of them had suddenly turned into white-haired old people in just a few minutes.
Du Lingyu was sweating profusely, and she could feel her teeth chattering. Ke Xun and Wei Dong helped her to a spot away from the window.
"It's too cold outside, at least minus twenty or thirty degrees Celsius." Wei Dong wiped his frosty eyebrows. "You're probably going to freeze to death."
Ke Xun looked at Du Lingyu seriously: "What was your hallucination just now?"
Du Lingyu paused, the hallucination still vivid in her mind. She stared blankly, muttering, "I saw, right below Sister Xi's crystal coffin, there were more than a dozen coffins hanging, lined up in a neat row… so many coffins, they looked like a train… It was terrifying, so terrifying…"
Wei Dong and Ke Xun exchanged a glance, and could only gently pat Du Lingyu's shoulder: "Don't be afraid, it's all white outside, it's easy to hallucinate."
Ke Xun knew that the following questions might be a bit cruel, but he still wanted to take advantage of Du Lingyu's clear memory to ask what he wanted to know: "About how many coffins were there?"
Du Lingyu trembled as she recalled: "Fifteen… no, maybe less than fifteen, I didn't count, it was probably…"
"Thirteen?" Wei Dong heard himself ask this terrifying question.
Du Lingyu glanced at Wei Dong blankly: "Probably, about twelve or thirteen."
"Were all those coffins exactly the same?"
"Exactly the same, but because they were so far away, I couldn't see inside..." Du Lingyu was surprised that she had been trying to observe things in this terrifying hallucination. "It wasn't over yet. Then, I heard the snip of scissors next to my ear, and then the bottom coffin fell down."
This hallucination was so terrifying that even Wei Dong felt a chill run down his spine.
Ke Xun held Du Lingyu's hand tightly, trying to calm her down: "And then what happened?"
"Then there was another snip, the sound was very clear and very loud, and then the second to last coffin also fell down... into the abyss below, a gray abyss where you couldn't see anything..." Du Lingyu instinctively covered her ears.
Wei Dong didn't know what to do now, so he opened his arms and hugged Du Lingyu like a comrade, trying to give her some warmth and strength.
Ke Xun had already approached the officer: "May I ask, sir, what is the burial ceremony like? This is my first time attending a relative's funeral."
The officer calmly glanced at Ke Xun: "Cut the rope with golden scissors, and the crystal coffin will fall into the frozen ground on its own. That is true burial."
Ke Xun's heart trembled; he hadn't expected the reality to so closely match Du Lingyu's hallucination.
"But... but she's still so young," Ke Xun said regretfully, his eyes fixed on the officer.
"Reincarnation is fair to everyone; death is true fulfillment." The officer gave a faint smile. "By the way, the magnifying glass has been prepared for you. To prevent any unforeseen tragedies, it's best to understand that medical book as soon as possible."