Frightened, Jennie broke out in a cold sweat. Her voice trembled when she asked, “Who… Who was murdered?”
Huai looked at Jennie and lowered his voice significantly, “Eldest Young Master Taecyeon, the son of the Manoban Family’s second son!”
Chaeyoung saw Jennie's expression change rapidly. She seemed indifferent toward the victim. Jennie sighed in relief, but she was still confused.
“Was it an accident?” she asked.
“We don’t know. We’ll only find out once we’re there!”
Huai left with his team members after he spoke. Jennie and Eunwoo brought their equipment before they followed him.
*
Manoban Family Mansion…
Jennie noticed that the periphery of the mansion was already sealed. Huai spoke to the guards at the entrance before he drove inside.
“There are several reporters inside already! Why did you bring more?” The police officers who kept guard questioned Huai while they glanced at Jennie and Eunwoo.
“What? There are reporters inside?”
Huai was puzzled. “Wasn’t the information about this supposed to be blocked off? These reporters were specially sent by the news office. How did the other reporters gain access?”
“Oh, those reporters came to interview Taecyeon. They were filming a program here before the murder suddenly happened. You’ll understand once you’re inside. It’s strange…”
Jennie grew more and more confused after hearing this. Her heart was racing.
All of the servants were gathered for an interrogation. Xue Meiwei was sent to the east wing to rest. She had fainted from too much crying.
Jae-wook was away on a business trip. He knew that this incident had occurred in his home, but he could not rush back in time.
Lisa had not returned home either. On the other hand, Yan Jun was handling some business nearby, but he was instructed to go to the mansion first.
“Mistress, don’t go inside!” Yan Jun had surveyed the scene. He was worried that it would scare Jennie.
Lisa had sent him here to hold Jennie off.
From the entrance to the hall, Jennie saw that the servants were huddled together. Their faces were pale as they were terribly frightened.
“Where’s Tzuyu?” Jennie worried about her the most.
There were two servants who usually worked for Taecyeon over here in Peace Mansion. One of them had returned to her hometown several days ago. Little Cui was the only one left. When she heard Jennie's question, Little Cui replied softly, “Mistress isn’t at home today. She left early in the morning because she had work to handle in the office!”
“Does she know about this?” asked Huai.
“I’ve called her. She’ll be back immediately!”
Little Cui was too afraid to look at the scene in the hall. Her head was lowered and her voice quivered terribly. “Are they going to arrest us too? But we don’t know anything…”
Huai glared at Little Cui and said, “We want you here because we need to understand what had happened here. We’ll take you and the others to the station to record your statements soon. We’re not going to just arrest people and declare that they’re guilty!”
“Yan Jun, I want to go inside too!” Jennie wanted to walk inside. When she noticed that Yan Jun was intentionally obstructing her, she quietly said, “Lisa can’t stop me either!”
Yan Jun finally relented when he saw the determined look in Jennie's eyes. He realized that she could not be dissuaded. He trailed behind her and followed her inside.
Jennie saw Taecyeon lying beside the sofa in the hall of the west wing in Peace Mansion. The man who usually possessed an impressive aura was currently reduced to a lifeless blob of twisted flesh.
Huai and the investigator from the forensic department were standing at the crime scene.
The forensic expert was a young woman whom Huai called Chen Hua.
“Preliminary investigations have shown that there are no obvious wounds on his body. He was probably poisoned orally. The victim suffered abdominal pains when the poison was administered. This caused his muscles to spasm, his heart rate to greatly increase, and his pupils to dilate. His immediate cause of death is suffocation resulted from breathing difficulties.”
Chen Hua removed her gloves and mask as she told her Wu Huai her observations.
“I’ll have to return and do an autopsy to determine the specific details.”
Poisoned?
Huai noticed that the other two reporters were still at the crime scene. The situation was more complicated than he had expected. Those two reporters had seen Taecyeon dying with their own eyes.
Nie Chao’s case had painted Taecyeon in a bad light. Jae-wook had arranged an interview to improve Taecyeon's public image. This program’s attraction was that they would document a politician’s personal and working life for one whole day.
The previous scenes were shot while Taecyeon was working. Those scenes were already filmed several days ago, and the reporters had arrived to document his daily life at home today.
They had never expected to witness an entire murder case during this documentation process.
Huai briefly read up about the two individuals who came to interview Taecyeon and did not have anything to comment. Then, he went to the crime scene to survey the area personally.
There was a tea set on the tea table in the hall. As there were three cups there, he could tell that Taecyeon, the reporter, and the videographer were drinking tea and chatting at that time.
“Tell me the sequence of events!” Huai’s deep voice echoed once he had had a look around.
The reporter and videographer who came to interview Taecyeon were terribly afraid. Both of them spoke without coherence when Wu Huai interrogated him.
Annoyed, Huai waved a dismissive hand. “It’s the duty of the public to cooperate with police investigations. Both of you are elites in the field of journalism. Why are you so afraid?”
The reporter’s name was Ma Liping. She gathered her composure after hearing Huai’s words and said, “Captain Huai, it happened like this. Mr. Manoban agreed to be interviewed at 9:00 a.m. We filmed in the garden and in the living room. We left the garden and went inside because the weather was rather hot today. Mr. Manoban said that he wanted to make us some coffee after that.”
“Did he make the drinks on his own?” Huai interrupted her and asked.
“Yes! He wanted to improve the public’s perception of himself. The servants never appeared throughout the entire process. We had even filmed him making the coffee.”
Ma Liping glanced at the videographer, Zhou Nan. He turned the camera on so that Huai could watch the recorded footage.
Taecyeon was dressed in a casual white tracksuit. His sleeves were rolled up and his wrists were exposed. Both Lisa and Taecyeon had high standards set for the quality of lives. Instead of using a coffee machine, he grounded the coffee beans skillfully on his own.
The grounded coffee beans were placed in a little crystal pot that was specifically used to make coffee.
That little coffee pot was still on the table now. Jennie noticed that the little crystal container was still half filled with unfinished coffee.
“He poured it in three cups, one for each of us, once the coffee was done.”
Ma Liping shot a fearful glance at Zhou Nan.
“Are you saying that all three of you drank it?” asked Huai.
Ma Liping nodded. “Yes, we all drank it!”
Huai looked at the three coffee cups on the table and said, “Bring the cups here. Did Taecyeon give them out randomly?”
“Yes, Mr. Manoban had even washed the cups in the sink first. He took one randomly after pouring the coffee.”
Shivers ran down Ma Liping’s spine. Although they drank from the same pot of coffee, she realized that Yuan Zhe was the only one who was poisoned. The coffee was randomly poured into three cups, but the other two parties were unharmed.
“Captain Wu, could we have been poisoned too?”
Zhou Nan could not stop himself any longer and sneaked a glance at the corpse on the ground. His face turned pale from fright.
Huai could not waste another second. He turned to Little Jiang, the police officer, and ordered, “Take these pieces of evidence back to be examined and bring these two people with you to have their statements recorded. Everyone else should follow him as well!”
Jennie and Eunwoo trailed behind the photographer from the forensic department. They took a few photos and recorded the details of the case.
Jennie's heart felt hollow for some reason.
This was the second murder case that had involved the Manoban Family!
It was unlike the previous case with “Somi” because her position and identity were different now…
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*DO NOT VOTE PLEASE*