Clown Game
Chapter 254 - 241: Simple, Yet Perfect Murder Case (Thirteen)

Chapter 254: Chapter 241: Simple, Yet Perfect Murder Case (Thirteen)

This part of the speech, Chen Xiao still spoke very quickly. He leaned casually against the chair, but his peripheral vision constantly targeted the woman beside him, and his hand never left the car door even for a second...

During this period, he noticed that this woman, radiating an intellectual beauty, though her expressions turned contemplative, saddened, surprised, puzzled as he spoke, all her emotions seemed incredibly natural, flowing logically, perhaps... she had never panicked, or rather, she had anticipated everything.

The car steadily stopped in front of a traffic light. After the night’s wait, her sorrow had slightly faded, replaced more by fatigue. Rubbing her dry eyes, she said faintly, "Continue, I’m listening..."

Chen Xiao unconsciously licked his lips, "Heh, you’re an interesting person... So, where were we? Oh, right, you informed your husband about something non-existent in such a traceless way, no props needed, no one to help, just a glance, a gesture, utterly simple yet incredibly difficult... Anyway, no one could ever trace that, even what I’m talking about now is just baseless supposition."

Chen Xiao muttered, as if narrating a story and also talking to himself, but no matter what it was, his words couldn’t hide the admiration.

"So now, let me continue the hypothesis from before. First, your husband suspects you of cheating, which is a good starting point, because now we have a keyhole that appeared out of nowhere. Next would be the key, but sorry, I haven’t found that key..." At this, Chen Xiao even showed a hint of apology, as if he were a teacher who had laid out a problem on the board and, being a good student, hadn’t worked out the answer: "So I can only presume... the night before your business trip, or maybe that morning, you went to the balcony..."

"I went to the balcony?" The woman asked doubtfully, just as the green light came on and the car continued forward.

"Yes, you went to the balcony, and right after that, maybe you made a motion of stretching your arms..." As he said this, Chen Xiao also performed a stretching motion, raising his head.

"Right under that lamp—because, after all, apart from the lamp, there’s nothing else on the balcony. Of course, you didn’t touch the lampshade, or maybe you didn’t do anything at all. Your actions were just for your husband to see."

"Hah... so you’re saying, I let my husband think I was cheating, then I created the illusion of hiding something in the balcony’s lampshade, and after that, we both went out... And these days, my husband has been restless, so he might come home early and then go to the balcony to see what I ’hid’ there?"

The woman said as much, a slight disappointment flickering in her eyes...

But Chen Xiao just nodded, affirming that, indeed, this was what he meant.

The woman asked faintly, "Okay... even if what you said is true, I let him think I was cheating and lured him to the balcony. Those still sound manageable... But what next? I can’t guarantee he’ll definitely check the lampshade, nor could I have known the railing would break, and I certainly couldn’t ensure he’d fall off. These are uncontrollable factors... Your entire story seems like wishful thinking, even ridiculous."

The woman spoke like this, and Chen Xiao’s reaction... was surprisingly a nod.

"Mm... indeed, the chance of success was too low. I thought so too. So, I did a lot of checking. First, I tried the showerhead... After all, creating a scenario where a water heater causes an electrification death would have a much higher success rate, but with the help of a bumbling kid, I discovered you hadn’t tampered with the water heater. Next, I targeted the gas... Though a gas pipe explosion would be massively damaging—as how I know, don’t ask—but such a method would definitely be secure... Yet, after I dismantled all the valves and pipes again, I found nothing unusual..."

"So... what exactly are you trying to say..." the woman asked emotionlessly.

"Sorry, I digressed a bit, but I have to mention this. What I want to say now is, you might have already known that the railing was broken, holding on by just a rotten section, but you didn’t mention it..."

"Oh? So that’s the solution you came up with? Fine, it indeed leaves no trace. But if that were the case, he would have fallen long ago, or he should have discovered it!" the woman responded.

Chen Xiao once again nodded, "Yes, that’s the most puzzling part of this case... So I started to think back in time. Could it be that years ago, since you noticed the railing’s signs of aging, you never let the deceased pay attention to it, not even letting him go to the balcony?"

"...? What do you mean..."

"Yes, what I mean is, maybe half a year ago, maybe a year ago, maybe three years or even longer ago, you were just waiting... Every day you saw your husband off to work, waited for him to come home, made a full table of meals, were still tender and caring to him, slept together at night, playing the role of a perfect wife. But when he couldn’t see you, you were different... That you observed the railing every day with an expression no one has ever seen, even deliberately watering it to rust faster, just waiting for him to die!"

The car turned a corner and drove into Shell Street. The sun had started to show its face, dispersing the accumulated chill of the night, yet it still left a chill down one’s spine...

And the woman in the car, it seemed, had nothing she wanted to say, just silent.

Chen Xiao continued speaking... "I know this speculation has no basis, but you might just be like that, watching your husband every day, trying to keep him off the balcony, and even when he went, you’d go with him, chat and laugh there, watch him, embrace him, kiss him... He felt loved by you, but little did he know, all this was not as he imagined. Your gaze never left him, not out of affection, but surveillance."

...

In the end, you felt the time was right, the railing had become fragile enough. Then, you started to create illusions, like occasionally leaning on the railing, or using it for support, just to make the deceased think that the railing was sturdy. And then, as I’ve said, just a suspected chance of infidelity was enough."