The City's center hotel was surrounded with people but the place where the body should be, had few people around it, which were cops.
She scanned the area to check where her body was, to no avail she approached a cop
"Where is yanli?" She asked with a touch of anxiety on her face, the officer looked at her with no intention of recognition
"The ambulance took her away"
Overwhelmed, her eyes itchy as she comfort herself with the possibility of seeing herself one last time. Another cop drew near them as he advised
"Miss, please " he said while extending his hand towards the hotel.
Jiang li stepped towards the hotel, her thoughts focused solely on her own deceased self, one last time, just for once she wanted to see her body again. Oblivious to her surroundings she entered the hotel, the sudden dull atmosphere took her attention, she saw them, all the people she know.
Not anymore, they didn't knew her, the one they knew was Qin yanli.
Stepped close to the hall where all of them were, some were sitting others standing. All of them had this depressed expression on their face, but some of these expression were pretenses, she knew yet still fell for them. Fell for the pretenses.
Everyone there cared for her, but some cares were pretenses. She went close to the sofa where her sister-like-friend was sitting, lifted her hand to console her but how could she?
Who she even was to console her, she was no longer the Qin yanli they knew. Fighting the reasoning in her brain, she still rubbed her hand on her back.
The girl looked back, her face swollen from crying. She was still wearing this dress that yanli gifted her, they both had decided to wear matching clothes on the special day for yanli.
The day yanli received the award for the 4th time, the dress was ruffled, Jiang li kept rubbing her back as she was also controlling herself from shedding a tear.
Who would she cry for ?
The one that died, it's her. She was just emotional after seeing her close confidants crying for her, she gazed around to see how the one who planned all this was acting, and to no surprise they had downhearted, glum expression on their faces.
Walking back and forth as they wipe their never existing tears boiled the blood of Jiang li, the one that killed her, plotted everything, destroyed everything of hers was mourning for her death.
Her fists clenched, her mind filled with the thought of vengeance overtook her rationality as she barged in their direction, they were walking in the reception back and forth, she stood infront of the man and then regained her composure, her rationality drived back in at the right time
"Who are you?" She questioned him right infront of everyone present, the question itself being weird drawed a lot of attention.
The man, young and well looking taken aback by this question looked around confirming the question was for him, people were confused the man was a famous personality, how could someone not know him. Jiang li stared as the man didn't say anything,
"I am wang haotian"
"Who are you to yanli" Her direct doubt of the relationship of him with yanli was weird to the outsiders, the hotel staff peeked at the girl to see who was she to not know their relationship, everyone knew how close wang haotian and Qin yanli was.
Wang haotian was puzzled, who was this girl asking for the relationship between him and yanli.
"I am her friend, who are you ?"
Jiang li stared at him and then gazed around, that's what she wanted, all the attention on her as she carefully choosed her words
"Friend? Are you the one who was with her last time?" She drawed the epic strike on him, putting him in the spotlight of her own murder and then observed his body language, ignoring the question asked to her.
He went stiff for a second
"What are you talking about?" His act of dumbness was comical, no one would even go through his act.
She walked away, not caring about his question and the attention on her. The cops came in and started enquiring, beginning with the hotel reception
"What time did she," He paused, correcting his words, yanli held a deep position in the hearts of the locals here, her name taken so lightly could spark debate.
"What time did miss yanli checked in?"
The reception already prepared with the answer,
"At 7 in the night"
The cops stepped in the middle of hall and started his investigation
"Who was with her after that?"
Her friend, shu meiting got up from lounge, her face still puffy
"Me"
"What were you doing?"
"I came here to celebrate but was sent back because she was tired"
This reminded Jiang li how she made her go away with the cheeky excuse of being tired, she wanted to rest but was not necessarily worn out.she regretted it, not believing her instinct.
"Someone else who met her after this" the policeman queried to connect some pieces,
But no one said anything, everyone looked at eachother, and then
"I talked to her" Jiang li stepped forward
"About what" the policeman eager to find some clues turned towards her
"I got a call around 10, she was happy, we chatted a lot about the award, celebration that we would do she even said that she had a surprise for shu meiting but then ..." She explained the whole scenario made in her mind, totally fictional, and then paused
"Then what" the policeman anticipated by the pause asked relentlessly
"Then she said that her friend had came over and she hanged up" This sentence alone was enough to reason her previous behaviour with wang haotian.
Wang haotian, who was unfamiliar with the incident Jiang li narrated was puzzled, this didn't happen at all, he was there with yanli since 9, when the call was made how wouldn't be knew?
The policeman noted down details from the investigation and left the area, Jiang li took shu meiting's hand in her own, patted it
"Shu meiting, she.." she was cut off by meiting
Shu meiting took her hand back, she didn't believed that her best friend would have a friend that she didn't knew, Jiang li had no interaction with Qin yanli and shu meiting was aware of this.
Meanwhile, others standing there found the girl unknown, the buisness personalites indeed knew her as the Jiang family's daughter, but others didn't.
One of the buisness personalites, a man with refined features, dashing looks, wearing a normal burgundy shirt was precisely the centre of the crowd, everyone knew him and his relationship with Qin yanli.