Would you take sleeping pills if you were waiting for a service to come to your door?
Of course not!
"Therefore, I concluded that Wang Bao had no intention of having Mika come to his door until he was preparing to take sleeping pills," Ping An said. "According to the case files, Mika received a call around 11 PM. It wasn't Wang Bao, who didn't speak a word of German, who made that call. Someone else booked it for him! So, who was this person? This is my third question."
Indeed, Wang Bao didn't know German. Even if he had the inclination, he lacked the ability. But if someone helped him, that would be different. Among the remaining three, only Hua Yu and Li Le knew German.
"Couldn't it be Li Le? Perhaps he wanted to bribe Wang Bao this way," Qiao Yidan offered a different opinion.
"That's a good point! If I hadn't discovered something else, it would have been impossible to determine that Hua Yu was the killer because of this very question," Ping An said. He then suddenly looked at Li Le and asked, "I recall you didn't arrive empty-handed when you went to see Wang Bao, did you?"
"Yes, I brought a box of cigars!" Li Le replied. "I still have the receipt!"
"This can't be expensed!" Ping An quipped with a smile, then turned to Hua Yu. "In your statement to the police and in your answers to me, you said you saw Wang Bao smoking, right?"
"Yes, um! Yes! I saw him smoking a cigarette! A cigarette! Not a cigar!" Hua Yu started, then quickly emphasized the latter part as if he had just realized something.
"Alright, no need to say more," Ping An said. "Qiao Er can attest that there were no cigarettes among Wang Bao's belongings, and the only thing in the hotel room's ashtray was the butt of a cigar. Hua Yu, you were the first to enter Wang Bao's room. How could you have seen him smoking a cigar?"
"I said I saw a cigarette!" Hua Yu seemed to be going mad, desperately insisting.
"Listen to me first. In reality, you were indeed the first person to enter Wang Bao's room, but you weren't the first person to leave!" Ping An stated. "In other words, you entered the room and never left. When Li Le knocked, you were instructed by Wang Bao to hide in the toilet!"
What? Hua Yu had been in Wang Bao's room the entire time without leaving?
Ping An's deduction caused gasps of surprise from everyone present.
"Only this way can the actual situation that night be clarified," Ping An said, looking at Hua Yu. "Don't look at me like that. I checked Wang Bao's room's call records at the hotel front desk. Around 9:40 PM that night, Wang Bao called your room from his. You then came to his room."
Why would Wang Bao let Hua Yu into his room? It was perfectly normal. Ping An had learned through inquiries that before that night, Wang Bao had obtained a detailed account of the operations of a European company, but it was written in a foreign language. Who else could he turn to but Hua Yu?
"You didn't go to Wang Bao's room proactively; rather, you were called to the room by Wang Bao to help him translate some documents," Ping An explained. "In the meantime, Li Le suddenly arrived. Since the material might not have been official, it wasn't suitable for Li Le to know, so you hid in the toilet at Wang Bao's instruction."
"Actually, before Li Le arrived, you had no intention of killing. You hadn't even prepared to kill Wang Bao!" Ping An continued. "I suspect it was Li Le's confession about the reason for the European company's problems that made you panic."
At this point, Ping An stood up and addressed Cui Sanye. "Do you know the reason why the company encountered problems? Of course, this involves commercial secrets. I don't need you to reveal the content, only to tell us if Hua Yu was the one who caused trouble."
"There's nothing to hide. It's actually a very simple issue. Hua Yu, that kid, was blinded by greed and manipulated the translated content, deliberately changing natural gas to town gas. While both are energy sources and can be used, and their prices are roughly similar, the operating costs, especially transportation costs, are completely different. This led to profits being siphoned off in an imperceptible way, leading to the company's losses." Cui Sanye said magnanimously. "When Wang Bao called me, he was about to reveal this discovery. However, both he and Li Le initially thought it was an internal mole in the European company deliberately causing trouble. No one expected it to be a man-made error in translation. The transporters were supposed to earn that money; the fault lay with themselves, with Hua Yu!"
"Thank you, Sanye, for airing your dirty laundry! The situation is very clear now," Ping An said. "After Li Le finished explaining the situation to Wang Bao, Wang Bao quickly replied to Cui Sanye. At the time, neither Wang Bao nor Li Le suspected the translation, but you, with a guilty conscience, became scared first. You knew that if they investigated thoroughly, it would eventually lead to you. So, you planned how to kill him in the toilet!"
According to Ping An's deduction, after Li Le left, Hua Yu emerged from the toilet and pretended to be delighted – because Wang Bao had discovered the source of the problem! Wang Bao was naturally pleased. In his elation, he casually opened the cigars Li Le had brought and began to smoke them comfortably.
The matter had taken a turn for the better, and Wang Bao's mood had significantly relaxed. During this time, perhaps to ensure a good night's sleep, he called Qiao Er and asked him to bring sleeping pills.
Following his plan, Hua Yu also began to chat with Wang Bao, eventually steering the conversation towards women, specifically European women. Wang Bao, who had never experienced the services of foreign women, became enticed by Hua Yu's provocations. Hua Yu assured him he could arrange it immediately.
Thus, Hua Yu left the room at this point. However, to create the impression that someone else had visited between Li Le's departure and his own arrival, he deliberately left the door ajar.
Shortly after Hua Yu left, Qiao Er arrived at Wang Bao's room with the sleeping pills.
At that moment, Cui Sanye, having finished playing mahjong, replied to Wang Bao, who then began to relay his findings. After Qiao Er placed the sleeping pills down, Wang Bao, likely temporarily forgetting about the planned rendezvous, swallowed the pills. Seeing that everything was fine, Qiao Er departed.
As he was leaving, he happened to encounter Mika, whom Hua Yu had arranged.
As Mika entered the room to provide his service, the sleeping pills took effect, and Wang Bao finally fell asleep.
Mika received the money but found Wang Bao asleep. With nothing to do, Hua Yu's second call to check on the situation came in. At this moment, Hua Yu must have desperately wanted to know if Wang Bao had enjoyed the service. If he had, then he could perfectly frame Mika.
"Yes, Mika was the scapegoat Hua Yu found," Ping An stated. "Unfortunately, Wang Bao had fallen asleep, and Hua Yu was deeply regretful. He decided to act quickly, so he pretended to introduce Mika to new business and lured him away. There might have been a car waiting below the hotel at the time. Mika, looking out from the bathroom, mistook it for a customer and closed the door, leaving."
"The hotel I stayed at this time was the same one Wang Bao had stayed in. I studied the rooms where the group had stayed, and I discovered that Hua Yu's room was actually directly below Wang Bao's room. I also learned from the police that nothing was missing after Wang Bao's death, except for two long bath towels," Ping An said. "I believe Hua Yu had already prepared himself while planning the murder in the toilet, for example, by tying two long towels from the bathroom into a rope and hanging it on the iron railing below the bathroom window."
That night, Hua Yu climbed out of his bathroom window, then descended the towel rope into Wang Bao's room. While Wang Bao was asleep, he stabbed him to death.
"After stabbing Wang Bao, you climbed back down through the bathroom window," Ping An continued. "Although Mika didn't get to serve Wang Bao, you still wanted to frame him. So, you waited until early morning, climbed back into Wang Bao's room, and, fully disguised, avoiding the bloodstains, used Wang Bao's room phone, disguised your voice into an androgynous tone, and called for help, completely shifting the blame onto Mika. Finally, you returned to your room, pulled down the towels, and staged the scene of Mika's passionate murder, panicked escape, and hasty flight."
"Afterward, the police questioned all four of you. Except for Li Le, who lied to the police due to commercial secrets, you, in your supposed cleverness, revealed as much as you could, such as claiming you saw Wang Bao smoking!" Ping An explained. "You thought Mika, who appeared later, would be the killer, and Li Le, as the local company representative, might be Mika's accomplice, and ideally, both would be arrested. However, due to insufficient evidence, the police arrested none of you."
"You're spouting nonsense! What evidence do you have?" Hua Yu seemed to regain his composure.
"Evidence!" Ping An declared. "I naturally have evidence!"
Saying this, Ping An produced a photograph. When everyone looked, it was blood handprints and footprints on the exterior wall of Wang Bao's bathroom.
"I am only responsible for the investigation, so when I discovered this evidence, I didn't hand it over to the German police," Ping An said. "This was for your own good, to die in your own country rather than spend a lifetime in a foreign prison."
"Impossible!" Hua Yu's defenses finally crumbled, and he shouted hysterically.
"Alright, actually, you were the first one I suspected," Ping An said. "Do you remember the stack of documents you left in Wang Bao's room? If Wang Bao called you over to translate, you would at least need a pen. I found your handwriting in the room but no pen. Combining this with Wang Bao's wounds, I deduced at the time that you used your precious high-end fountain pen as the murder weapon and killed Wang Bao – shall we verify if it's true?"
"It was those people from the transportation association who contacted me. I had lost a lot of money gambling when I accompanied President Cui to Germany. They said they could manipulate the translations, and I listened to them. In the end, I only received 30,000 euros, but I had to find a way to cover it up!" Hua Yu finally confessed.
"Sometimes, murder is a matter of a moment, understandable," Ping An sighed helplessly.