Chapter 141: Did Rose Immigrate to the U.S.? A Familiar Method of Erasing Clues!

At this moment—

The deduction in Su Ming’s mind had basically fully taken shape.

And it further confirmed…

That Rose’s true identity was, in all likelihood, the victim’s college classmate—Lan Yujun.

Because in his previous deduction—

There had always been one crucial detail he couldn’t find or fill in, which made Su Ming hesitant to jump to a conclusion.

That was…

How exactly did Rose obtain facial data of the victim’s boyfriend through some special means, and then use it to create a human-skin mask?

Because—

To craft a hyper-realistic human-skin mask, precise facial data is absolutely essential.

And now, thanks to this call from the victim’s boyfriend—

That particular detail had finally been dug up.

Three months before the murder—

The victim had held a wedding, and Rose had attended as a bridesmaid.

Most importantly, Rose had used the excuse of saving money to help the couple with their makeup, thereby obtaining the critical facial data.

As an experienced mortician—or rather, a master of crafting human-skin masks—just the physical contact during makeup would’ve been enough for her to gather what she needed.

And what could be captured from that was…

Most likely, from the very beginning, Rose had never told her college classmates—or any other friends, peers, or confidantes—

That she worked in the very specific job of a mortician. Instead, she covered it up by claiming to be a photo studio makeup artist.

Because—

No matter how close the relationship was, if someone heard that Rose was a mortician who did makeup for the dead, then regardless of how much money they could save—

The victim would never have allowed Rose to do her makeup.

Which indicated—

That Rose probably felt deeply ashamed and contemptuous of her own mortician profession and did not want her former classmates to know.

To maintain a difficult livelihood, she chose to work with the dead.

…

Standing in front of the whiteboard, Gao Chao held his phone in hand, his expression unreadably stern and sharp as he continued.

“Mr. Wen.”

“I looked into you thoroughly before—didn’t find much wrong, and I believe you genuinely want to find the person who murdered your partner.”

“So now, I’ll be straight with you.”

“These past few days, our criminal investigation team has made some significant discoveries about the case. At present, we suspect that your partner’s former roommate—Lan Yujun—”

“There’s a very high probability she’s the one who murdered your partner.”

“And there’s something else I need to tell you.”

“Lan Yujun is not a photo studio makeup artist, like you believed—she’s a mortician working at Dayong City Funeral Home. That’s why I said she’s a highly likely suspect.”

As he finished speaking—

On the other end of the call, the sound of a cup falling to the floor rang out sharply—whether from anger or some other emotion, it was unclear.

Moments later—

The boyfriend’s trembling, hoarse voice came through.

“A… mortician?”

“That can’t be true… That can’t be real.”

“All this time, Yujun and Xiaorui always said she worked as a makeup artist at a photo studio. So how could she suddenly be a mortician?”

“And Xiaorui and Yujun didn’t have a bad relationship—they kept in touch now and then. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have invited her to be a bridesmaid.”

“There was absolutely no reason to kill Xiaorui. Rationally, she shouldn’t have done something like that.”

“And… Director Gao, are you absolutely sure?”

“Lan Yujun left for the U.S. on a student visa just a month after Xiaorui and I got married. She’s been living there ever since!”

“She still updates her friend circle every six months or so.”

“There’s no way… it couldn’t possibly be her, right?”

As he got to the end—

The boyfriend’s emotions were fully caught between disbelief and reluctant acceptance. Even the way he referred to Rose became increasingly stiff and gritted with anger.

On one hand—

He believed Lan Yujun had a good relationship with his wife. She wouldn’t do something like that. Plus, she was in the U.S.—she wouldn’t have had the opportunity.

On the other hand—

Upon learning of Lan Yujun’s true profession from Gao Chao—that of a mortician—the boyfriend’s mind couldn’t help but recall…

His wife’s mutilated face, the skin peeled clean off… How skilled someone would have to be to do that.

Moreover—

Did Lan Yujun really have no motive to kill his wife?

In that moment—

The boyfriend clenched his fists tightly. Memories of his wife’s horrific death flashed through his mind. Before Gao Chao could ask anything else, he began speaking on his own.

“Director Gao, there’s a few more things I want to say.”

“It’s about Lan Yujun. I don’t know if any of it’s useful, but maybe it could help your investigation.”

“Back in college, when I was pursuing Xiaorui, Lan Yujun actually showed signs of secretly liking me too.”

“But from the start, I only had eyes for Xiaorui, so I rejected her outright. After that, it just sort of faded away.”

“And during college—”

“I remember Xiaorui once told me that Lan Yujun had secretly used her makeup. Xiaorui found out by accident, but chose not to call her out, acting like she didn’t know.”

“Then, on Lan Yujun’s birthday, Xiaorui gifted her a matching set of the same makeup.”

“But instead of being grateful, for some reason, Lan Yujun broke down emotionally and lashed out—accusing Xiaorui of flaunting her privileged family background and pretending to be kind just to insult her with a birthday gift.”

“That situation caused a major rift at the time, but ended with Lan Yujun apologizing. Since they were bunkmates, their relationship gradually mended afterward.”

“And then, after we graduated—”

“Director Gao, you probably know this too. Xiaorui cut ties with her family for me. She brought her household registration book and came to me.”

“At the time, we had nothing. We were living through the hardest days of our lives. But we never complained, because we had each other—and that was enough.”

“Then, somehow, Lan Yujun found out about our situation.”

“She suddenly brought over a huge sum of money, saying that after all these years, she finally had a chance to help Xiaorui.”

“But Xiaorui didn’t take the money. She said we wanted to build something on our own and prove ourselves to our parents. She asked Lan Yujun to keep the money for herself.”

“That refusal made Lan Yujun inexplicably furious again.”

“She said things like… ‘Do you think taking my money is shameful? Do you think my money’s dirty? Do you think I’m not worthy?’”

“That argument ended with Xiaorui apologizing again.”

“At the time, we didn’t think too much of it. From the situation itself, it seemed like Lan Yujun really meant well.”

“But now, it’s giving me chills.”

“Where exactly did she get that much money just after graduating?”

“That was a signing bonus. A mortician’s signing bonus,” said Lan Jing, who had been sitting silently beside them. She finally couldn’t suppress her thoughts any longer, adjusting her glasses as she spoke.

“Because the job is so specialized, and morticians are hard to recruit…”

“Some funeral homes will sign a contract requiring employees to work several years before they’re allowed to quit. In return, they offer a signing bonus of tens of thousands.”

“Therefore, that large sum of money was very likely the relocation compensation Lan Yujun received for becoming a mortician.”

“And then…”

“I want to ask something very important…”

“Mr. Wen, back then, the reason you didn’t choose Lan Yujun—was it largely because her looks weren’t particularly outstanding?”

“In other words, your late partner had a very attractive appearance and figure, while Lan Yujun was rather ordinary?”

It was obvious.

The core of Lan Jing’s question at this moment was directly pointing to the act of skinning the face.

After a brief silence of a few seconds,

The deceased’s boyfriend’s hoarse voice came through once again.

“No, that’s not it.”

“Lan Yujun was actually quite good-looking. In another department, she might’ve even been considered the campus beauty. She definitely wasn’t what you’d call plain.”

“But compared to Xiaorui… no, they weren’t even comparable.”

“Because when the two of them walked down the street together,”

“The vast majority of people would only notice the radiant, smiling Xiaorui—not the one standing beside her… Lan Yujun.”