After Luo Fan got out of the car, he pinned his police badge to his coat and quickly walked into the villa, heading directly upstairs, taking the gloves passed by the forensic department staff, while lifting the police tape and bending down to pass under it.
A girlish style bedroom, near the bathroom door, was a complete mess, with bloodstained water visible in the door gap.
In the bathroom, Xu Mi was squatting next to the bathtub collecting blood.
Wearing shoe covers, a mask, and rubber gloves, she placed two tubes filled with blood into the investigative box.
"How is it?" Luo Fan asked upon entering.
Xu Mi shook her head: "It’s definitely human blood, but whether this is the primary crime scene is hard to say since no bodies were found here."
As she spoke, she turned to Luo Fan: "Have you asked this family?"
"Old Qin and the others are questioning them."
Luo Fan surveyed the somewhat terrifying bathroom: "The babysitter first discovered something amiss in the bathroom and then the male head of the household called the police. This room belongs to his second daughter, who is seventeen years old. He said he saw his child last night, but today, it turned out ."
"Could it be that she just left a pool of blood and then vanished into thin air?"
Xu Mi chuckled lightly, always skeptical of supernatural explanations: "The security here is good. If no thief broke in, it must have been someone in the family. From what we currently know, it’s likely that the person is—"
She didn’t finish her sentence.
Having been a detective for many years, Luo Fan naturally understood what Xu Mi meant.
With so much blood, if the person were alive, they should have sought medical attention. Once they did, the family should have known. Considering the current situation, the person is most likely dead.
As for where the body was hidden, that had become a significant problem.
Luo Fan came out and walked around the bedroom, even opening the closet to check.
From the arrangement of the room, this daughter was evidently the favored one; her closet hung with various branded clothing and her dressing table displayed expensive skincare products. Aside from the smell of blood, the air also carried a faint scent, and he turned his gaze toward the aromatics on the bedside table.
At this moment, the scene shifted again.
An opera house, packed to capacity, was just concluding with curtains closing as thunderous applause echoed and the girl in a pure black ballet performance outfit stood at the center of the stage as tonight’s lead, receiving a large bouquet of roses. The corner of her left eye was painted with a rose pattern in silver, inadvertently drawing the TV viewers’ attention to her.
Upon descending the stage, the girl showed no joy of a successful performance. She casually threw the roses into a trash can before taking her regular clothes to the changing room.
After coming out, her cellphone screen flickered again inside her bag.
Ying Xuaner declined the call, skipped the dance troupe’s dinner that evening, slung her small bag over her shoulder, and left the opera house still in makeup.
Throughout, she had not exchanged a word with the other dancers.
Her aloof and proud demeanor was fully displayed as she grabbed her coat and exited the door, prompting frowns and discontent from others.
At the end of episode seven, Ying Xuaner returned home, standing at the entrance of the living room, where Mr. Ying sternly chastised her as a cold-hearted animal only focused on her performance while her sister was in trouble, Mrs. Ying, distressed for her child in peril, rose shakily from the sofa and grabbed Ying Xuaner’s arm to confront her: "Did you hide your sister, did you?"
"You’ve always resented us, so now, you want to kill your sister to vent your anger!" Mrs. Ying said, collapsing in tears at Ying Xuaner’s feet: "I beg you, let Xuxu go, she’s still young, if you want to kill or butcher anyone, take it out on me!"
Before she could finish speaking, the landline phone rang.
Mr Ying wiped his face and went to answer the call: "Hello, this is Ying Guohui."
On the other line was Luo Fan’s voice: "Mr. Ying, we have found the missing girl near the refuse site adjacent to the Trans-Oceanic Bridge."