Eye of Sin

Chapter 3 Long-term memory

Theoretically speaking, it's not very likely," Dr. Zhang shook his head. "Generally speaking, those who can be scared to death usually have pre-existing cardiovascular issues. Healthy individuals, especially young ones, are not usually so fragile. So, we need to first rule out any congenital physical factors, and then conduct toxicity tests to eliminate other possibilities.

Jiajia nodded. "We'll contact the deceased's family as soon as possible to clarify her situation.

She carefully picked up the cellphone from the ground, wearing gloves, and scrolled through the call records to find the contact information for the deceased's family. However, the call records mostly consisted of numbers labeled as "delivery" or "suspected scam," with hardly any useful phone numbers.

This wasn't surprising, as nowadays smartphones have diluted their original purpose due to their powerful functions.

Fortunately, although there were no serious numbers in the call records, there were some in the contacts list. However, the names stored in the deceased girl's phone contacts were strange and hard to distinguish. Eventually, Jiajia decided to call the number listed as "aunt" in the contacts.

She saved the numbers of several suspected relatives of the deceased, including "aunt," in her own phone, intending to inform the family before retrieving the surveillance footage to see what exactly happened in the theater at that time.

The number for "aunt" remained busy, and Jiajia didn't intend to waste time. Dealing with the scene and transporting the body back would take some effort. She decided to first find the manager to retrieve the surveillance footage from the theater.

Jiajia, have Howard go with you to check it out," White chimed in enthusiastically.

Jiajia couldn't help but feel amused. She figured White might feel a bit pressured by Howard's constantly tense demeanor. So, she nodded in agreement, indicating for Howard to accompany her.

Howard didn't object and maintained his authoritative demeanor, following Jiajia without a word.

Although this private cinema was considered popular, it still aimed to be the best and made every effort to save unnecessary space. The control room was combined with the manager's office and located at the end of a narrow corridor with several twists and turns. The adjacent room was the supply room, quiet and quite difficult to find.

If it weren't for the manager guiding them, Jiajia doubted she could have found it herself.

The manager's office wasn't large. The original desks, chairs, and surveillance wall took up quite a bit of space. With three people entering, especially with Howard's tall stature, the space suddenly felt cramped. The manager, still flustered, attempted to offer them seats but soon realized it wasn't feasible and gave up.

The surveillance footage from the theater was quickly retrieved. Jiajia and Howard stared at the small screen intently. Since they knew where the deceased was seated, they quickly identified their target.

From the surveillance footage, they could see that the deceased entered the theater with a female friend who was slightly shorter. Due to the distant and poorly positioned cameras, they could only discern their attire, with their faces being difficult to make out clearly.

Especially since the two entered the theater quite late, the movie had already begun playing, and the theater was dimly lit. Despite the manager's claims about the night vision function, the footage appeared blue-gray and blurry, making it difficult to see clearly. They could only speculate based on the movements and postures of the two individuals.

The deceased seemed comfortable when entering the theater, with no apparent signs of discomfort. After the movie started, she fiddled with her phone a few times and occasionally leaned towards the other girl, presumably whispering to her.

About halfway through the movie, the girl she came with said something to her and then quickly got up and left, seeming somewhat rushed. After that, it was about twenty minutes before the deceased, who had stayed to watch the movie alone, seemed to have dropped something. She appeared somewhat frantic as she bent down, and then began to look uncomfortable.

She kept adjusting her sitting position in the corner, curling up at times and twisting to the side at others, as if in pain. However, she soon stopped moving and maintained a twisted posture similar to when they entered. Her face slightly lifted, turned towards the wall, completely motionless.

Seeing this, Jiajia asked the manager to copy this part of the surveillance video for her and noted down two time points in her pocket notebook.

The manager, curious, cautiously asked, "Do you remember what these are for?

These are the two time points from when the deceased showed signs of physical discomfort to when she stopped moving," Jiajia replied, tucking her notebook back into her coat pocket and gesturing to the manager. "Could you also retrieve the surveillance footage from your main entrance, specifically the period just before this movie started?

No problem! No problem!" The manager responded eagerly, multitasking as he helped Jiajia retrieve the surveillance footage. He couldn't help but marvel, "Your memory is really impressive! You were so focused on the surveillance footage just now, and you can remember these two times so clearly, down to the second!

Jiajia smiled but didn't say anything. She shifted her attention to the surveillance feed as the manager retrieved the footage from outside the theater's main entrance.

When they arrived earlier, they came through a secluded back door, which was quiet and had few people.

However, the area outside the cinema's main entrance was an entirely different story.

The mall was large, and this floor, in addition to the private cinema, housed many other shops and facilities. So, there were many customers on this floor, but not all of them were necessarily heading to the cinema.

The location of the private cinema was ideal, facing directly towards the direction of the escalator. However, due to the bustling crowd coming and going, Jiajia had to squint and carefully watch the entrance, hoping to catch a glimpse of the deceased as she came up the escalator. However, after watching for a while, she still hadn't spotted her.

"Here." Howard suddenly spoke up from beside her, pointing to a corner of the screen.

Jiajia looked to where he was pointing and indeed saw the silhouette of the deceased and her friend, just as Howard had noticed them on the edge of the surveillance camera's view.

In the footage, the two of them were chatting and laughing, carrying a few small shopping bags. It seemed they had come from a different direction and had been shopping before arriving at the cinema.

Being able to shop and stroll before the movie suggested they were in good spirits, further ruling out any physical discomfort before the screening.