As soon as I said this, everyone's eyes turned to me. Officer Yang also asked in surprise: "Ji Wen, are you sure?"
"Of course I'm sure. When have I ever joked with you like this?"
I guess Officer Yang originally intended for me to find some clues, but he didn't expect that I would find the murderer so quickly. Although there was still a hint of disbelief in his eyes, he still coughed lightly a few times and said, "Then tell me, who is the real murderer?"
I nodded and said, "Let's not talk about who the murderer is first. Let's talk about how the deceased was poisoned and died in front of me."
Before, I always thought that the poison was either put directly in the bowl of noodles, or the deceased was secretly poisoned in the bathroom. When I carefully recalled everything that happened from the time I entered the noodle shop to the death of the deceased, I realized that there was actually an important detail that I had not paid attention to.
That was when I walked into the door and was about to sit down to eat at the table on the right, I accidentally dropped the dead person's chopsticks on the ground.
I have said before that only a very small dose of potassium cyanide poison is needed to kill a person quickly. After the deceased's chopsticks fell to the ground, he had to pick up another pair. More importantly, there was only one pair of chopsticks left in the chopstick holder at that time, so I think the poison must have been smeared on that only pair of chopsticks.
I pointed at the chopstick holders on other tables and said to Officer Yang, "Look, of the four tables here, the chopstick holders on three are almost full, and there is only one chopstick left on this table. You should know that the location of this table is not very good, and it can be blown by the cold wind outside. There should be few people who like to eat here, right? In this case, then I have reason to suspect that the chopsticks on this table have been tampered with."
At this time, the noodle shop owner stepped forward and said, "Yes, I add chopsticks to the table once every noon. When you asked me for chopsticks, I was also surprised that they were used up so quickly. But I was very busy at the time, so I didn't pay much attention to it."
Officer Yang frowned and said, "Xiao Zhang, go check if there is any potassium cyanide residue on the chopsticks."
It seems that the forensic-looking police officer following Officer Yang is called Xiao Zhang. Xiao Zhang nodded, took out some strange things from his tool box, put on gloves and began to test the pair of chopsticks that the deceased had last used.
Soon, Xiao Zhang said excitedly: "He is right. The potassium cyanide content on the chopsticks is even higher than that in the bowl of noodles. The chopsticks are indeed the source of the poison!"
After receiving the forensic conclusion, everyone present finally understood that my speculation was completely correct, and the way they looked at me changed from suspicion and disdain to affirmation.
"Then tell me, who is the murderer? Didn't you just say that you already knew who the murderer was?" The diners present seemed to be unable to hold back and asked me hurriedly.
I smiled and said, "Of course, although everything is just my guess, there will still be evidence to prove everything. Just listen to me and I will explain it slowly."
Just now I said that the deceased was poisoned to death by using the pair of chopsticks that were poisoned, but the murderer's doing this is a bit risky.
Because the randomness of this incident is so great, first of all, the deceased must use the poisoned chopsticks, and secondly, no one else can use this pair of chopsticks. Before, in my opinion, the murderer seemed to be killing indiscriminately and had no target to kill. He just wanted to poison the person who used the pair of chopsticks. But when I accidentally touched the table again, I finally understood that it is actually very simple to do this.
As I said at the beginning, the distance between the four tables of this noodle restaurant and the long benches fixed to the ground is so narrow that even slightly fat people cannot sit in them. However, if they want to sit in them, they will definitely hit the tables. The murderer took advantage of this and took advantage of the victim going to the toilet to find the right opportunity to replace the chopsticks in the chopstick holder. Then, he deliberately placed the chopsticks previously used by the victim on the edge of the bowl. As long as someone sits in this position, the chopsticks will definitely hit the ground directly. At that time, the victim will have to use new chopsticks, which is the only pair of poisonous chopsticks in the chopstick holder.
There is another point, although there is no evidence, but it can be regarded as a guess, that is, why did the deceased go to the bathroom so coincidentally, giving the murderer time to replace the poisoned chopsticks
Before I came here, I saw that the floor and the place where I am sitting now were covered with used napkins, and these napkins did not look like they were left after wiping the mouth, so I guessed that the murderer might have taken advantage of the deceased's meal, pretended to pass by and deliberately bumped into the deceased's table, and then splashed the soup in the bowl on the deceased's clothes, so the deceased had to use so many napkins to wipe his clothes, and finally had no choice but to go to the bathroom to wash them. This also confirms why the deceased was so unhappy when he came back to eat again.
Some people may think that there is no need to use such a complicated procedure, and it would be more efficient to directly poison the noodles while the murderer is away. However, this is where the murderer is smart. If the noodles are poisoned directly, the police will investigate and will definitely take away and interrogate all the people who were in the noodle shop at the time and who might have poisoned the noodles. If things go wrong, they will be found out. That's why he used such a complicated method, making the people who randomly appeared eating opposite the deceased become witnesses who cleared his name and became suspects in killing the deceased.
In any case, the police will eventually be able to find out that the chopsticks were the source of the poison. At that time, the person who randomly sat opposite the deceased will be able to prove the origin of the chopsticks, and the suspicion will be directly locked on the noodle shop owner and the diners sitting opposite the deceased. The real murderer will therefore be completely cleared of suspicion and leave calmly.
After all I said, Officer Yang understood everything, but the people eating noodles around me were still confused and couldn't help asking, "After all I've said, who poisoned me?"
I turned around and looked at everyone, then said, "Actually, it's not easy to find out who poisoned me, but we can think about this problem in a different way. Instead of looking for who poisoned me, why don't we find out why I ended up sitting in this position?"
When I first entered this noodle restaurant, I found that there were two places for Zhang Qishan and I to sit down and eat, namely the tables on the left and right sides of the entrance. We originally planned to choose the relatively warmer table on the left to eat, but who knew that the person eating at the table on the left suddenly made a series of disgusting movements, which made Zhang Qishan and I feel disgusted, so we chose the table on the right, which resulted in knocking over the dead man's chopsticks and triggering a murder that inexplicably befell me.
"So, now everything is clear. The murderer who poisoned this time should be him!" I pointed at the middle-aged man sitting on the left seat with a shocked look on his face. I clearly remember that before I came in, this man looked relatively dignified when eating. It was only when he saw that Zhang Qishan and I were going to sit opposite him that he did some disgusting things. So in my opinion, the possibility that this man poisoned is as high as 70% or even 80%!
Facing everyone's questioning gazes, the murderer said with an innocent expression: "Young man, you can't call me a murderer just because of such a trivial matter? My eating habits are just like this. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean others don't like it. I think you are just talking nonsense. I don't even know this person, why would I kill him?"
"I don't know why I killed him, but since I said you are the murderer, I am sure of it. Officer Yang, please take the poisoned chopsticks used by the deceased back for fingerprint identification. I believe that in addition to the fingerprints of the deceased and the noodle shop owner, there should be this person's fingerprints. If there are, how do you explain it? Besides, there are so many chopsticks missing from the chopstick holder in an instant, and this noodle shop is not big, there must be no place to hide them. I see that the black briefcase next to you should have other chopsticks hidden, right?"
When I mentioned the black briefcase, the murderer's face turned pale and he instinctively reached out to hide the briefcase, but Officer Yang immediately stepped forward and snatched the briefcase. When he opened it, he saw many disposable chopsticks inside!
Now that the evidence was irrefutable, the murderer finally bowed his head, admitted his crime, and explained why he killed the victim.
The murderer was 40 years old and was an employee of a small company. His life was going well, but who would have thought that because of his momentary confusion, he missed a great opportunity to become rich.
His mother lived in the countryside and there had always been a blue and white porcelain vase in the house. Although the murderer did not know what era the vase was from at the time, he knew from watching TV that it should be worth some money, so he specifically asked his mother to keep it well.
But who knew that my mother was old and her memory was not very good. One day, a dealer who collected antiques came to the village and took a fancy to the vase at first sight. Finally, after much persuasion, he bought the vase for 1,000 yuan. My mother was very happy to sell the vase for 1,000 yuan. She told the murderer the news quickly. The murderer didn't think it was a big deal at the time. It was worth it to sell it for 1,000 yuan.
But one day later, the murderer went to an antique shop to discuss business and suddenly found that the vase was placed in the most conspicuous place in the antique shop. He also saw the nameplate on it: Yuan Blue and White Porcelain!
After returning home, the murderer immediately searched for Yuan blue and white porcelain on the Internet and was stunned! He saw that any one of these humble vases was worth tens of millions!
The murderer was completely unwilling to do so and immediately went to the deceased to argue, demanding that the Yuan Dynasty blue and white porcelain vase be returned to him. However, the deceased smiled contemptuously and said, "I found this with my own ability, why should I return it to you? Trading is based on mutual consent. Now our transaction is completely legal. It will be useless even if you sue me. You can only blame yourself for being stupid. You don't even know how to use the treasure."
After that, the murderer went to negotiate with the deceased several times, but the deceased refused to refund the money. The last time, he even asked someone to drive the murderer out of the antique shop in public. The murderer gradually lost his mind and wanted to kill the deceased. He secretly followed the deceased and finally found that the deceased often ate noodles in this noodle shop, so he designed such a murder plan. He thought that he could easily get rid of the deceased and vent his anger, but he didn't expect that the person he chose as a scapegoat was me.
After the murderer finished explaining the whole incident, Officer Yang said coldly, "Wouldn't you hand this matter over to the police to help you defend your rights?"
"I don't care about so much. He stole the Yuan blue and white porcelain from my family, so I will make sure that he can't enjoy the money in his life! Only in this way can I feel balanced! What I can't get, no one else can get!" The murderer said hoarsely, without any remorse at all. Officer Yang was also furious. He ordered his men to handcuff the murderer and take him away, then dismissed everyone. Finally, he said to me: "Luckily you ran into this. If you weren't here, I'm afraid the murderer would have left in the chaos. There are no cameras here, so it would be difficult to catch him then."
I was just about to say a few polite words to Officer Yang and take Zhang Qishan to the Internet cafe to play, when I suddenly heard a terrified scream from the diners at the first table behind me! The sound was extremely hysterical, as if something terrible had happened!
“Ah! What is this! What is this!!”
After hearing what happened, Officer Yang and I immediately went forward to inquire what had happened, and saw a young diner with a distorted face, pointing at something on the table with trembling hands, unable to speak. I hurriedly looked at the table, and saw something that looked like half a human finger next to his bowl of beef noodles!