A perfect crime? To me, it's full of flaws!

The next day, Qi Feng did not return to the provincial department to report for duty, but went directly to the branch office in charge of the "absolutely impossible murder case".

Not long after entering, Qi Feng spotted the most handsome guy in the crowd—his master, Liu Yuanshan.

The old man had sunken eyes, bloodshot eyes, and slightly disheveled hair, clearly indicating that he had worked overtime all night.

At that moment, he was slapping a thick stack of reports onto a young police officer's chest while cursing under his breath.

"Master." Qi Feng went over and steadily supported the old man, then gestured for the police officer who had been scolded to leave quickly.

Liu Yuanshan turned around, saw that it was Qi Feng, muttered something under his breath, but in the end he didn't say anything and let his precious apprentice help him back to his small office.

"Sigh..." Liu Yuanshan slumped into a chair and let out a long sigh. This night had really worn out his old bones.

"I haven't taken on enough disciples. While you were away, your eldest brother went off to be with his wife, and your second brother, he's like an idiot, all he does is eat! Eat! Eat! He ate himself into the hospital with acute gastroenteritis! He's going to work me to death!"

Qi Feng casually took a cup of hot tea and handed it over, a signature sly smile on his face.

"You're still going strong, you're far from seventy. Why don't you take on another ten or eight apprentices while you're still young? Anyway, you get bullied by your master's wife at home, so you might as well come out and mentor some apprentices and experience what it's like to be the boss. How prestigious that would be!"

"Get lost! You talk like you'll be the boss at home from now on! Alright, enough of this nonsense! You got the basic information about the case on the way here, right?"

Liu Yuanshan blew on the scalding hot tea and glared at him irritably.

"Understood. But Master, is it really necessary for you to personally handle this case?" Qi Feng asked, somewhat puzzled. He wondered when his master had become increasingly busy.

Before coming, Qi Feng had already gone through the files that Director Gong had given him.

The case is simple in some ways, and complex in others.

A female writer named Feng Qianqian, who used the pen name "The Madwoman Who Only Eats Half a Candy," was found dead at home.

Initially, the police officers from the local police station who conducted the on-site investigation thought it was a typical suicide case.

But things started to get strange when the city's criminal investigation department got involved.

First, the deceased, Feng Qianqian, behaved extremely abnormally in the days leading up to her death.

She hired a moving company to remove all the furniture, appliances, and miscellaneous items from the apartment, except for a bed in the bedroom.

The entire house was empty, except for a lonely bed in the very center of the apartment.

Three days ago, Feng Qianqian's best friend's boyfriend reported to the police that Feng Qianqian had been out of contact for more than 48 hours, not answering her phone or replying to her messages.

Police arrived at the scene, and firefighters forcibly broke down the apartment door in the presence of the person who reported the incident and the property management.

Then, they found Feng Qianqian's body on that bed.

Here comes the eerie place.

The apartment's security door was locked from the inside, and the peephole was intact.

All the windows inside the house were locked from the inside, with no signs of being pried open or damaged.

No one else was found at the scene besides the deceased.

Based on these conditions, the conclusion that Feng Qianqian committed suicide seems entirely reasonable.

However, the manner of her death completely overturned this conclusion.

According to the forensic examination, Feng Qianqian died from mechanical asphyxiation, which means she was strangled.

The nylon rope that took her life was still tightly wrapped around her neck.

Most importantly, her hands were tied behind her back, and her ankles were tightly bound with another rope.

How could someone with both hands and feet bound strangle themselves to death with a single rope?!

Therefore, another group of people believe that this was murder.

But if this was murder, how could the killer vanish without leaving any trace in a sealed room where all doors and windows were locked from the inside?

A classic, impossible locked-room crime.

Upon hearing Qi Feng's question, Liu Yuanshan reacted as if a cat had its tail stepped on, grabbing the newspaper from the table and throwing it at Qi Feng.

"You brat! You're not even reading the case files properly again! All you do is watch the show!"

Liu Yuanshan pointed at the newspaper, his anger rising.

"The deceased, Feng Qianqian, was a well-known suspense and mystery novelist in China! Right now, it's the release date of her fifth novel nationwide! A mystery writer died in a locked room just like the plot of one of her novels! Look at the media outside, they're saying all sorts of things! Some say it's a publicity stunt, some say the killer from the book escaped, and some conspiracy theories suggest it's a conspiracy by the publisher! The pressure! The pressure is all on us, the police! The city leaders have given a strict order to solve the case within a limited time!"

"Oh," Qi Feng replied with a grin, picking up the newspaper.

He hadn't really paid much attention to that.

His entire attention was drawn to that bizarre pen name, "The Madwoman Who Only Eats Half a Candy," how adorable!

"Oh what?! Did I send you here just to say 'oh'?! Give me your opinion!" Liu Yuanshan was so angry that he was blowing his beard and glaring. If he didn't still have to rely on this kid, he would have kicked this good-for-nothing apprentice out.

"Master, you personally examined it all night, what did you find out?"

Mentioning this, Liu Yuanshan's anger, which had just risen, was extinguished by a bucket of cold water.

There's nothing there.

"The rope used to strangle Feng Qianqian, the rope used to bind her hands and feet—all the fingerprints extracted from them belonged to her alone. The same went for the doorknobs and window locks. The house was spotless, and the luminol test was negative. In short, the scene was so clean it looked like it had just undergone a major cleaning; apart from the deceased herself, there was no trace of anyone else."

"Then I have to go and see for myself!"

"Get lost!"