The Groomsman's Testimony

After interrogating Chu Yue, the remaining three groomsmen were Deng Zhong Ming, Ye Xin Hui, and Wu Zhi.

Among the three, Deng Zhong Ming had the most striking appearance. His tall stature, words, and gestures exuded authority, but not to the point of being off-putting. He liked to take charge and possessed a unique charisma, making it difficult for others to dislike him.

"This morning, we left Lu Kai's house around eight-twenty, then drove to the hotel. I didn't pay attention to the exact time, but it probably took about an hour, so it would have been between nine-twenty and nine-thirty."

Regarding the timing, what Deng Zhong Ming and Chu Yue said was almost identical.

Gu Jing Yang nodded at Deng Zhong Ming, signaling him to continue.

"When we left the house, Lu Kai wasn't in very good spirits. As soon as the car arrived at the hotel, he rushed back to his room to rest. Nothing particularly special happened in between," Deng Zhong Ming paused, seemingly recalling something. "Actually, something did happen, but it wasn't special – some time before the wedding, Lu Kai's mood was erratic, perhaps it's normal to feel nervous when you're about to get married."

"Among the four of you, Chu Yue seems to be the closest to Lu Kai?" Gu Jing Yang asked.

"That's right. I know Lu Kai through Chu Yue, and so do Xin Hui and Wu Zhi. Among the four of us, Chu Yue and Lu Kai are the closest; they've been friends since childhood."

Gu Jing Yang pondered for a moment, then asked, "After leaving the hotel, did you see Lu Kai again?"

"Never. The four of us saw Lu Kai enter his room to rest before we left. After that, we were basically together, so if I didn't see Lu Kai, the others probably didn't either."

Ending his conversation with Deng Zhong Ming, Gu Jing Yang suddenly recalled what the criminal investigation team had mentioned earlier: "The red carpet was rolled up, this is hard to say, perhaps it's..."

Bloodstains under the red carpet indicated that someone deliberately concealed them, most likely because there wasn't enough time to replace the carpet. If the bloodstains were proven to be Lu Kai's, then his disappearance could very well turn into a murder case.

He only feared that Lu Kai had not been able to hold on until the day life smiled upon him.

The end of his life had been cursorily decided at birth.

*

At the criminal investigation team.

"According to groomsman Ye Xin Hui, last night after Lu Kai and Chu Zi Wan said goodbye, the five of them were preparing for their last night of bachelorhood. At eight-forty PM, Ye Xin Hui received a call from Lu Kai, setting a time and place, but by nine-thirty, Lu Kai still hadn't appeared. Ye Xin Hui called him, and Lu Kai said he wasn't feeling well, so the bachelor party was canceled. After Lu Kai returned home, he called Ye Xin Hui, and at that time, the groomsmen were also with him, roughly around ten-thirty PM." The speaker was Yu Nan, who was in charge of interrogating Ye Xin Hui and Chu Yue.

The testimonies Yu Nan obtained from the two groomsmen had no contradictions or suspicious points.

"Team Leader Gu, Lu Kai's mother said that around nine PM last night, Lu Kai messaged her, saying he wanted to hang out with the groomsmen. Last night, she felt unwell and took cold medicine, so she went to bed by ten o'clock and slept very deeply, unaware of when Lu Kai returned home. This morning, she wanted to let Lu Kai sleep longer, so she didn't wake him up and went straight to the wedding hotel." This time, Liang Cheng was speaking. "This means that from nine PM last night until noon today, she still hadn't seen Lu Kai."

Liang Cheng and Yu Nan were only a few years apart in age, but their personalities were completely opposite. If Yu Nan was a handsome youth, Liang Cheng was the epitome of a rough man.

He was a man who spoke his mind.

"Oh, right," Liang Cheng said, scratching his head, his short buzz cut ruffled. "You guys don't know, but today Chu Yue even put on a show in front of everyone, kneeling before Lu Kai's mother. Thinking about it, it makes sense. Lu Kai's mother only has one son, and he's sickly. She must have trusted Chu Yue immensely to entrust all responsibility to him. Otherwise, how could no one have seen Lu Kai from last night until the wedding today? To put it plainly, she felt Chu Yue was trustworthy, and having Chu Yue and his friends take care of Lu Kai made her feel completely at ease, so she didn't pay much attention."

"But then again, Lu Kai's mother really has it tough. Her husband passed away early, and her son's health isn't good. She values her reputation greatly, and she single-handedly busied herself preparing for the wedding. How could she not care about her son..."

Gu Jing Yang raised a hand to cut off Liang Cheng's rambling.

"Lu Kai's mother, in the period from last night until noon today, never saw him?" Gu Jing Yang paused for a few seconds.

"Only the four groomsmen were the only ones who saw Lu Kai during this period. Besides them, there was also Chu Zi Wan, who met Lu Kai privately last night," Yu Nan reacted quickly, continuing, "For now, the testimonies of these five people are consistent, but apart from them, there is currently no surveillance camera that can prove where Lu Kai went. According to them, no one else has ever seen Lu Kai."

The moment Yu Nan's voice sounded, Gu Jing Yang had already walked towards the whiteboard.

His wrist moved slightly, leaving a series of times and keywords on the board, reorganizing the timeline of the night before the wedding.

Seven PM to nine PM, Chu Zi Wan + Lu Kai.

Nine PM to ten-thirty PM, groomsmen group + Lu Kai.

...

"I've discovered something important!" Liang Cheng slapped the table and stood up. "These five people are all suspicious. Think about it, besides these five, no one else can corroborate their statements, not even surveillance video. Their testimonies are all very similar, but the fewer loopholes there are, the more it proves there's a problem."

Yu Nan, who had been sitting silently beside him, suddenly turned to glance at Liang Cheng.

"Pfft! Cough, cough..." The moment he turned his head, his neck stiffened, and he suddenly felt half his face turn cold.

"Sorry, sorry." Ruan Xia, the culprit who had just choked on water, gasped and handed Yu Nan a tissue. Only then did she look up at Liang Cheng: "Do you really need to discover that... Are you a broken record?"

Liang Cheng's "important discovery" was clearly just repeating what Yu Nan had just said.

Ruan Xia was the only girl on the team. Although her surname "Ruan" sounded "soft," her personality was anything but. Spending all day with a bunch of men, she never lagged behind them, whether in a fight or in work ability.

"You're a girl, can't you be a little more polite? You sprayed water on someone's face just from drinking a little. Do you know Yu Nan and I rely on our faces to make a living?" Liang Cheng retorted Ruan Xia, dragging Yu Nan into it as well.

Ruan Xia smiled sweetly, raising her right hand, intending to give Liang Cheng the middle finger, but was glared at by Gu Jing Yang. She quickly lowered her hand, becoming obedient and gentle, like two different people before and after.

"The most important thing now is to find Lu Kai." Gu Jing Yang swept his gaze over everyone present, continuing the unspoken thought that everyone understood.

The most important thing was to find Lu Kai, or rather, Lu Kai's body.

In the hotel wedding hall, the red carpet had been flipped over by someone. If it were just a brawl causing injuries, they could have simply changed the carpet. The act of flipping the carpet was clearly meant to conceal something. Furthermore, if Lu Kai had simply been attacked, he wouldn't have disappeared just as the wedding was about to begin.

This mysteriously vanished groom, he was likely in more trouble than good...

"If it were me, I'd definitely think the bride did it. Most cases of missing or dead husbands are done by the wife. Promotion, advancement, and a dead husband are the three happiest things in a woman's life, and Lu Kai's family is very wealthy... Let me see..." Liang Cheng rested one hand on his chin, his expression serious, the other pointing at the whiteboard.

"Stop bringing your toxic straight-male theories into solving cases." Ruan Xia was displeased and immediately cut him off: "Moreover, if we now hypothesize that the groom is dead and the culprit is the bride Chu Zi Wan, then what? Do you know what 'presumption of innocence' is? Even if you know Chu Zi Wan and the groomsmen are lying, without evidence, you can't make them confess."

"What 'presumption of innocence,' you know so much," Liang Cheng pouted, disdainfully retorting, "How could I not know? Can't I make a hypothesis? What if we can't find evidence? Team Leader Gu, you tell me, who among us is more reasonable?"

Liang Cheng turned to look at Gu Jing Yang expectantly, confident that he was the winner.

"Yu Nan, you and Ruan Xia go to the hospital to see Chu Zi Wan."

Gu Jing Yang made a decisive call, completely sidelining Liang Cheng.