Muddle-headed, I have no idea how the night passed. The next day, we got up very early. We heard the breakfast broadcast and followed the sound to the dining hall. Many chefs and waiters were arranging abundant breakfasts, and people were queuing up to get their meals. Liu Yuning and I also got ours. I was truly hungry, and everyone else was eating. Zhou Zijuan beckoned us over.
As we were eating, the female artist surprisingly brought her artwork and said, "You all must sign it for me!"
"What? You want us to sign for you?" He Xin was a bit confused.
"Yes, I like to collect everyone's autographs!"
"Oh? I thought you wanted to give me your autograph, great artist!" Xie Chuchu teased, a rare occurrence.
The female artist smiled and handed us some small art albums, all her own work. I opened one and found the paintings quite good. Most were portraits of people, young and old, and some were landscapes. I casually wrote my name on it, but to avoid revealing I was He Sheng, I deliberately changed my signature to He Dasheng.
Upon seeing my name, the female artist almost laughed. "Officer He, why is your name different from the one on your police ID?"
"Oh? Is it? This is my real name," I lied deliberately.
"I see." The female artist collected our signatures one by one and then seemed to happily admire them while eating her own breakfast: a bowl of preserved egg and lean meat congee, a fried dough stick, and a cup of soy milk.
Our breakfasts were similar, but as we ate, the old woman suddenly said, "That's not right. Haven't you seen Miss Watanabe? Why hasn't she woken up yet?"
If the old woman hadn't mentioned her, we would have been busy with other things. At this moment, I realized everyone else was present except Watanabe.
Could it be?
I suddenly became nervous. We had all finished eating and stood up to look for her. We first went to Watanabe's room, but she wasn't there. The room looked very neat, but, cough, a bra was thrown on the floor, a cartoonish one at that. The room was tidy, giving no impression of being disturbed. It was clear no one had broken into Watanabe Youmi's room, meaning she had left on her own.
I didn't know where she had gone. We searched the room thoroughly, even the bathroom, but couldn't find her. Had she met the same fate as the retired soldier?
We all had a bad premonition. Although I didn't have any forensic tools with me, I had brought some yellow wine. I sprinkled it on the floor, and soon, some traces that were not noticeable before became apparent. Footprints appeared on the floor. Because the traces were faint, it looked like someone had walked barefoot. If we had just observed directly, we wouldn't have seen them, but after the yellow wine, the footprints clearly led towards the room's balcony.
We followed the footprints. Although we were on the first floor, not seeing Watanabe Youmi all day left us with doubts and worries. From the balcony, we could see the grass below. Since it was the second floor, jumping down wouldn't cause any serious harm, at most a sprained ankle. We looked down but didn't see anyone. We then turned to leave the room. Zhou Zijuan led us through a corridor in the room, which led to the grass we had looked down upon earlier. I sprinkled some more yellow wine. When I discovered footprints there too, I realized Watanabe Youmi had indeed jumped down from above.
Continuing along the footprints, we crossed the grass. Ahead was the edge of the hotel, and not far away was another hot spring. At that moment, I had a premonition that she might no longer be alive.
As we stepped into the hot spring, a strong smell of blood emanated from the center of the public bath. A woman's head emerged from the water, her eyes closed, her body submerged. Steam filled the air around her. The mist had originally enveloped her, but as we approached, the mist slowly dissipated, revealing Watanabe Youmi in the mist. Although it looked like she was bathing, my experience as a forensic investigator told me she was dead.
Because a living person would not be this still, everyone in the Punishment Group, except for Zhou Zijuan and the female artist, realized the problem. We gradually moved closer to the body. To verify, I got into the water and took out a lens, which Zhang Keying had given me. Although she wasn't present this time, I still had her equipment.
I should mention here, so everyone understands, Keying has been going through some personal issues and returned to her hometown. She hasn't appeared for a while, and I don't know when she'll be back. I can only handle matters with everyone for now. Finding that the lens showed no reaction, I knew my suspicion was correct. Watanabe Youmi was indeed dead. But her death was strangely peculiar; she hadn't lost buoyancy and sunk into the water.
You must understand that if a person dies in water, they will sink. However, after a period of time, the body will float to the surface. There was once a doctor who murdered someone and tied stones to the body to sink it to the bottom of a lake. The body truly did not float up. However, after some time, the ropes binding the body were bitten off by fish, rendering the stones useless, and the body floated to the surface, thus leading to the discovery and the doctor's arrest.
Without anything to anchor the body, and being dead, she managed to maintain this pose. I couldn't understand it at first. It was only when I put on rubber gloves and touched the body that I discovered Watanabe Youmi was completely naked. I asked Xie Chuchu to help me pull the body out of the water. However, the body, combined with the water pressure, seemed to have become much heavier after death. Later, several members of the Punishment Group came down, and together we managed to drag the body out and place it at the edge of the hot spring.
Fortunately, the murderer did not dismember Watanabe Youmi, but merely threw her into the hot spring. Because the body had been submerged in water, many traces were theoretically removed. However, based on rigor mortis and lividity, I could roughly estimate that the time of death was not long ago, at most an hour.