Crimson Instinct

*Xin Lei*

Zhang Ning seemed as if the earth had shattered beneath her feet.

Bai Li said, "Why is there so much silence? Are you shocked about my feelings for Xin Lei? Or about knowing that I helped Zhang Xiulan kill your father?"

I chuckled and typed. "I think she is shocked to learn both of them."

Zhang Xiulan said, "Bai Li. You are so cruel. You should have broken it down to her one by one, but you just blasted everything at once like a fully automatic gun."

Bai Li sighed. "It's not my problem. I just wanted to get it over with soon."

He looked in her direction and smiled. "By the way, do you want to know how he died? I think you deserve to know."

Zhang Ning said nothing.

"Just like Zhang Qiuyue died the second time. Crashed by a car, his body crushed under its weight, and then boom! On fire!"

She trembled.

"This cannot be...true...you cannot...kill him...why would you kill him...It was Zhang Xiulan…"

I didn't know whether to call her persistent or stupid. Even when everything was out, she was still feigning ignorance.

He said, "It was always you. I realized the true culprit when we visited the Zhang mansion even before you kidnapped Xin Lei. Sure, I did misunderstand Zhang Xiulan in the beginning, but when Liao Huifang got her drawing book, and she explained the pictures she drew, it became as clear as day."

I knitted my brows.

From the drawing book? How?

"I... don't understand…"

"The drawing of Zhang Qiuyue's murder."

She seemed to freeze. She glanced at Zhang Xiulan and then back at Bai Li.

Zhang Xiulan smiled. "Don't worry. I didn't draw you because I didn't see you actually killing her."

"Then, how!? See? Xiulan didn't see me killing her! She is falsely accusing me! Bai Li. I am not the killer!"

Bai Li asked, "Do you remember that I asked you at the Zhang mansion if Zhang Xiulan was a lefty?"

I sensed that she became a bit cautious. "Yes. What does it have to do with the murder?"

"Everything. It's how I came to know the true culprit. In the drawing, as Liao Huifang explained to me, the cut on her neck was deeper towards the right side of her neck where it started, and it turned shallow as it ended on the left side."

"So?"

"Humans are so strange, aren't they? Even though people are lefty or righty, they tend to do things in the opposite way. For example, a righty usually wears a watch on his left wrist, and a lefty would wear it on his right wrist. They usually don't like things to be on the same side as their dominant hand. That preference to use the opposite side also reflects in other manners."

"Like choosing which side of the bed you want to sleep on. Lefty people generally prefer the right side and the righty prefer the left side. The direction of that cut was from right to left, so for argument's sake, let's say the culprit is X. If X slashed Zhang Qiuyue from right to left, that means she was sleeping on the left side of the bed. And righty people prefer to choose the left side."

Ah, now I understood…It made sense. What Bai Li said was right. I, too, found some things more comfortable when they were on my left side even though I was a righty. I usually held even my phone in my left hand because that made me comfortable to type from my right hand.

Zhang Ning burst out. "That's rubbish! That cannot be the basis of accusing me of murder! That's just a theory! Even Xiulan could have slept on the left side to frame me!"

Bai Li smiled. "That just triggered my mind into thinking that it was you. But there is another thing that made me sure that the X was you. The way Zhang Qiuyue's throat was slashed. Didn't I say that it was deeper at the right end where it started and shallow as it ended on the left?" Then he paused.

Zhang Ning said nothing. She seemed to wait for him to speak.

"The cut was deeper at the right side because only a righty can put that much pressure when he or she inflicts the wound. When you use your dominant hand, you comfortably do things as long as they are in the range of your dominant hand. Then the pressure and power start to decrease, and it becomes shallow as it reaches the opposite side."

"If Zhang Xiulan had slept on her left side and used her left hand to strike Zhang Qiuyue, the direction of the cut would have still been the same, from right to left. Neither of you could have struck from left to right because it was too uncomfortable sleeping on the left side and then striking from the same side as well. As I said, we prefer to do things from the opposite end."

"But in her case, the cut would have been shallow at the right side and more pronounced and deeper towards the left. She could have all planned to sleep on the left side to frame you, but she couldn't have faked the strike method. The amount of power your dominant hand uses simply happens unconsciously and naturally.

And even if, for argument sake, she had faked that as well, the cut would have been sloppy and a little zigzagged, not a clean cut. It's because you are challenging your natural disposition. But the cut was straight, deeper at the right, and shallow at the left. So, the X is you. You killed Zhang Qiuyue."

Zhang Ning could not refute and just stayed silent.

Zhang Xiulan clapped her hands. "Wow! I never knew you could deduce all that from my silly drawing."

"It wasn't silly. Liao Huifang was quite praising your drawing skills. You drew at that level of detail that you even captured the depth of the cut; it means that you are amazing."

"Mom taught me. She used to like drawing and painting."

I typed. "She did a fine job."

Zhang Xiulan faintly smiled. "I know...she was the best."

Bai Li said, "Now then, Miss Zhang Ning. Do you need me to prove to you anything else?"