*WARNING*: MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD. If you DO NOT want to be spoiled, please DO NOT read. You have been warned.
A group of friends partying in the woods, which turned for the worst since one of them was found dead the next day. Actually, there wasn’t just one death, but all the others had turned up dead not far away from the site of the first body. There were no external injuries found thus far, so it could be poisoning from food or water or other sources. The rest will have to be up to the autopsy to determine the cause of death.
While they were running around, trying to get the autopsy done and other tests processed, there were also more humorous scenes between the team members. Yang Qian caught Lei Gong talking to a plant and made fun of him yet she ended up doing the same when he got up and left the area. He caught her when he turned back. Then there was also Lei Gong trying to bond with Xiao Gao while he was telling Xiao Gao to make a delivery for him.
Which led to this scene. They were all gathering at Lei Gong’s place. Lei Gong wanted to bond with the team, considering how Yang Qian had chided him earlier for not being nice enough to others. Lei Gong insisted that they didn’t talk about work that day since it was a personal time between the members. Of course, the others took full advantage of the situation, eating and chatting away. Although Lei Gong said no work-related talk yet the others couldn’t dispose of their professions as easily, which they ended up talking about poison and other elements relating to the latest case and other possible causes. What got them all riled up was how Xiao Gao had found the label for the tea tag that was at the crime scene, and how they discovered it was the same label on the tea some of them were drinking. Tou Mu was yelling out about someone not telling the others ahead of time. Lei Gong stepped in at that time and told them not to panic as Yang Qian spoke up to ask about the tea. Jing Ling was the one who bought it, and it was from some shop. When Yang Qian and Jing Ling went to question the shop-owner, he denied any sort of sabotage, vouching for the vendor that he’d purchased from. Jing Ling discovered that he wasn’t lying through some more basic questions. It was up to Xiao Xin now to find out what was inside those teabags.
While they were waiting for the result, Xiao Gao was seen in panic and mumbling randomly about his ‘ending.’ Yet Jing Ling scolded at him, saying if there was anything wrong with the tea, she would die first since she drank the most. Tou Mu was finally back with the result, telling them all regarding the three types of flavoring inside the teabags. He then got to the main point, pausing on purpose to draw attention. When he finally blurted out that the tea from Jing Ling was harmless, the others scolded him for being senseless. So they didn’t have to worry about it anymore. Xiao Gao was no longer panicking either. But back to the case, it seemed like it wasn’t just some random accident with poisoning. It had turned into a possible murder.
So Yang Qian and Xiao Xiang went out to collect more information regarding all the victims. They had to approach the usual list of people, like friends, classmates, teachers, etc. It seemed like there were various opinions regarding the victims–as it typically would be. A new development finally surfaced when Xiao Xiang discovered a box of tea from an individual, Li Da Xiong (李大雄), who claimed to be on good terms with one of the deceased. He seemed to be avoiding eye contact for the majority of the time but had covered it up as because he was cleaning up the place. It seemed like the target was actually Liang Guan Yu (梁冠宇), but the other three had died because they were at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Because of the poison found inside the tea at the crime scene, Lei Gong sought out his old teacher for help. Interestingly, she was one of the teachers that Yang Qian and Xiao Xiang questioned previously. She seemed strangely suspicious. Not to mention how Lei Gong discovered a certain bottle on her table. And then back at the lab, they were able to narrow down from the autopsy what type of poison was placed in the tea. Now, the problem was to narrow down the list of suspects. Yang Qian and Jing Ling approached Li Da Xiong again. They noticed that Li Da Xiong and his fiancee weren’t too close like the two wanted them to believe. After tracking down the messages that Li Da Xiong sent to the deceased girl, they got him in for more questioning. Although he finally agreed to cooperate with them, Xiao Xiang informed them of a more serious matter. He found out the name of another person who had bought that particular tea from the shop. It was the other teacher, Lei Gong’s old teacher. Her explanation? She said the ingredients in the tea helped her high blood pressure problem, and that Liang Guan Yu had recommended the shop to her. She already disposed of the teabags after preparing the tea.
And they were back at questioning the teacher. They managed to extract a pen name from this one publisher regarding one of the authors, which pointed to the teacher. She finally spoke up when Yang Qian disclosed that they already knew of the information and outlined the importance of the case. After that, Yang Qian asked to inspect her garden, which she obliged. While Lei Gong and the others were working on the samples in the lab, Tou Mu was sitting nearby, commenting about how Lei Gong was like Bao Qing Tian (包青天), trying to arrest his teacher, not caring for some personal link yet only focused on the justice side. Jing Ling didn’t say anything but just watched.
The result indeed proved that the teacher did it. She was not only insecure about her job being threatened, i.e. Liang Guan Yu replacing her. But it was also because she discovered that he had stolen her works and tried to print it off as his own. However, the twist of the event was that he had managed to get the article published in a special magazine, using her name. He wanted to surprise her during that one meeting by showing her the printed product. Yet it was too late since she had misunderstood him and killed him off, along with the other three innocent people. Lei Gong was devastated after the official arrest, so Yang Qian tried to console him. That didn’t last long, but it showed he would be all right after all.
*All images were captured by DTLCT