Chapter 339: A Duel Of Intelligence (2/2)

Another classmate reminded, ”Song Yang, you have three minutes. Come on!”

”No. 6: You and Wang Dali visited Officer Huang in her home. When you arrived, Wang Dali jumped over three steps to ring the doorbell but received no reply. Then he looked through the window and shouted that Officer Huang was murdered. You walked up to the door, only to find that the paint on the steps was still wet. You immediately identified Wang Dali as the murderer. Why?”

The question was very simple so I said, ”The answer to No. 6 is Wang Dali knew that the paint was wet, which meant he had visited the scene earlier.”

”No. 8: You found a dead man’s body in the barren hills. The man died less than half an hour ago. Afterwards, you caught three suspects who were extras filming a martial arts scene nearby. They played a prostitute, a chivalrous hero and a beggar respectively. They all had bruises on their bodies which they claimed were left during filming, and all three changed out of their clothes during the half hour. You’ve identified one of them as the most probable suspect. Who is it and why?”

After contemplating for half a second, I remarked, ”The answer to No. 8 is the beggar. He’s the most likely suspect because beggars are supposed to be dirty. He didn’t have to change out of his clothes and had plenty of time to commit the crime.”

There was more than a minute left, sparking a burst of anxiety. My hands trembled uncontrollably as beads of cold sweat dripped down my face.

I took a few deep breaths, opened the next book, and read the question. ”No. 5: Shortly after a woman gave birth, the nurse visited the nursery that night itself and found the baby cold and without breath. The hospital decided to hide the matter and replace the child with a newly-born orphan. The mother hadn’t seen her own child after giving birth, so in theory the plan was foolproof. But when she saw the replacement, the mother suddenly cried, ‘This isn’t my child.’ Why?”

”Because the mother killed her baby,” I said, rubbing my temples.

There were still two books left. Picking up one of them, I read, ”No. 0: A corpse was found in an apartment with the computer and lights in the room still on. On the desk, a flashlight was still turned on. The apartment manager said that the power went out for about 30 minutes last night so the victim should have been murdered within that time period. After investigating the scene, you reached the opposite conclusion–the victim was killed after the power came back. The murderer intentionally turned on the flashlight to mislead the police into believing the crime was committed during the power failure. What’s the proof of your conclusion?”

”Song Yang, you have less than a minute. Hurry up!” urged the student next to me.

I nodded and quickly replied, ”The answer to No. 0 is the computer cannot start by itself.”

”No. 4: At about 10 o’clock one night, a cyclist on a national highway was killed and the perpetrator escaped. A passers-by saw the car but not the license plate and immediately called the police. When the police arrived, they drove for 15 kilometers along the direction the perpetrator escaped and found nothing. There was neither a fork nor a place to hide within the 15-kilometer stretch. Where did the car go?”

”The perpetrator fled in the opposite direction and drove past the police.”

After answering the last question, there were only ten seconds left on the countdown. I waited nervously as the seconds passed and nothing happened.