Everyone had left, leaving only Mu Mian and Yuanyuan in the cabinet in the treatment room.
Mu Mian tiptoed carefully to the cabinet and gently knocked on its door.
There was no response from inside.
Mu Mian patiently knocked again.
Still no response.
Mu Mian knocked for a long time until her hand grew tired. She thought that perhaps she and Yuanyuan were just not on the same wavelength.
With a creak, the cabinet door opened.
"Hello, may I come in and visit your home?" Mu Mian asked, tilting her head.
Yuanyuan looked at Mu Mian for a long time before finally nodding.
Mu Mian crawled into the cabinet and closed the door behind her.
The two of them were squeezed into the cramped space.
It was pitch black inside the cabinet, but for some people, a narrow, dark space is a source of security.
Next to the treatment room was an observation room with a one-way mirror that allowed a view into the treatment room. Fang Rui watched as Mu Mian crawled into the cabinet, feeling a bit worried. He wasn't sure if Yuanyuan was potentially aggressive, and if he were to harm Mu Mian, Fang Rui wouldn't be able to rescue her in time. He also wasn't certain if Mu Mian had claustrophobia.
"No need to worry too much. I understand Yuanyuan's condition; he has a very good temperament and isn't aggressive," Teacher Jiang smiled at Fang Rui. "Are you Mu Mian's boyfriend?"
"Not yet, I'm just her colleague at the moment."
"She relies on you a lot."
Fang Rui asked, "Teacher Jiang, were you once Mu Mian's therapist?"
"Not exactly, although I did provide her with short-term treatment when she was very young. She had just been diagnosed with autism then, and she was like Yuanyuan is now – unable to speak and rarely responding to external stimuli. But she was very fortunate; her condition improved significantly." Teacher Jiang took out his phone, searched for a while, and found a photo. "I have a picture of Mu Mian when she was little. Would you like to see it?"
Fang Rui looked at the photo for a while. The young Mu Mian was a miniature version of her current self, but little Mu Mian's eyes were very vacant. She was quietly staring at the patterns on the floor, like a lifeless puppet.
"Teacher Jiang, do you know Ms. Mischel?"
"Yes, she was also one of Mu Mian's therapists."
"Why did she tell Mu Mian that people with autism can't get married?"
"Did she say that? That's impossible. People with autism can definitely get married. I have a patient who did. However, relatively speaking, fewer of them do get married."
About ten minutes later, the cabinet door slowly opened, and Mu Mian came out holding Yuanyuan's hand.
Although Yuanyuan's gaze was still blank and there were traces of tears at the corners of his eyes, he was no longer as resistant to people and things outside the cabinet.
"Yuanyuan." Li Min ran over and hugged him.
Yuanyuan reached out and hugged Li Min back. He rested his head on her shoulder and soon fell asleep. He had been in a highly tense state for the past two days, and now that he had relaxed, he felt very tired.
"Mu Mian, thank you for your help," said Teacher Jiang.
The other staff members also expressed their gratitude to Mu Mian.
"Fang Rui, Yuanyuan told me through his drawings that the deceased was killed by a big red mushroom," Mu Mian walked up to Fang Rui and held up her palm, saying, "Yuanyuan wanted to use magic to save her, but his magic failed. He was very sad and afraid that others would blame him, so he hid in the cabinet out of fear."
Fang Rui held Mu Mian's hand and looked carefully, but there was nothing on it.
"Fang Rui, you're so silly! The drawing is in my brain, not on my palm," Mu Mian tilted her head and looked at him. "Do you want to see it? I can draw it out for you."
"..."
Mu Mian found some paper and a pen, and quickly drew a picture. There were many lines representing raindrops on the glass window, a woman lying on the floor, a huge mushroom above her head, and a little boy standing nearby holding a magic wand with a helpless expression.
"I asked Yuanyuan what the mushroom was, but he didn't know. He might have forgotten, or maybe he just doesn't want to remember," Mu Mian sighed.
Teacher Jiang looked at the drawing Mu Mian had made and furrowed his brow. "Yuanyuan must have witnessed the crime scene. The intense shock caused his memory to distort, and he reconstructed the scene in a fairy tale-like manner. It seems that only through hypnosis can we uncover the memory he has disguised."
Yuanyuan's emotions were still unstable, so they decided to wait until he recovered a bit before attempting hypnosis.
Fang Rui took the mud-covered shoes and went to question Old Liu, the security guard, again.
"Uncle Liu, you picked these shoes out of the trash can, didn't you?" Fang Rui questioned. "You deliberately placed them in a conspicuous spot for us to find, right?"
Old Liu didn't try to hide it and frankly admitted, "Yes, I intentionally let you find them. This morning, I saw Chen Xinran go to pull the circuit breaker, and I felt something was wrong. I quickly checked around and found Director Zhang dead in her office. Director Zhang must have been killed by Chen Xinran! She has always coveted the director's position and had been spreading rumors before, saying that Director Zhang was embezzling funds. How could Director Zhang, such a good person, embezzle money? Later, I found my shoes in the trash can, which further confirmed my belief that Chen Xinran killed the director and was trying to frame me!"
"Why didn't you tell us directly at the time?"
"Who would believe the words of an old man like me? Chen Xinran is the acting director. If she found out I was tattling, she'd fire me immediately."
Old Liu became more agitated as he spoke, spilling everything about Chen Xinran, "The reason Chen Xinran stayed here instead of leaving was to wait for Director Zhang to retire so she could take over this welfare institution and use it to make money. Chen Xinran even found a drunk boyfriend, and she had been borrowing money from everywhere to spend on that man. She must have killed Director Zhang to become the director." Old Liu's tone was very certain.
"What was the relationship between Director Zhang and Chen Xinran like?"
"Pretty good."
Fang Rui asked, "Didn't Director Zhang know about Chen Xinran's ambition to take over? Didn't you tell her about Chen Xinran spreading rumors?"
"I told Director Zhang, but she didn't believe me! She thought I was stirring up trouble. I don't know why, but Director Zhang trusted Chen Xinran completely. Even when I gave her recordings of Chen Xinran badmouthing her, she still refused to believe Chen Xinran was a bad person."
Fang Rui suspected that the person who had been controlling Director Zhang with that gas was likely Chen Xinran. She hadn't told the truth during the interrogation.
"What's Chen Xinran's boyfriend's name?"
"Zhang Damin. He runs a mahjong parlor in the nearby town." Fang Rui noted down the information about this person.
On the way back, Fang Rui curiously asked, "Mu Mian, what did you say to Yuanyuan in the cabinet?"
"Nothing much. I thought he might feel lonely hiding in the cabinet alone, and if someone was willing to go in and keep him company, he might feel better." Mu Mian looked at the blue sky outside the car window, her voice very soft. "The day my parents died, I also hid in a cabinet. The narrow space made me feel safe. I hid in the dark cabinet for four hours and seven minutes, but no one found me. My sister and the others were busy with other things. I came out on my own because I was too hungry..."
Fang Rui was stunned. Everyone had wanted to pull Yuanyuan out of the cabinet, but no one had thought of going into the cabinet to keep him company.
Mu Mian continued, "Fang Rui, Yuanyuan has several needle marks on his arm. Those shouldn't be from vaccine injections. I suspect someone has been abusing Yuanyuan. Yuanyuan also told me through his drawings that someone often pokes the children here with needles."
