The people in the observation room were shocked, and Fang Rui immediately rushed into the treatment room.
Teacher Jiang was lying on the floor covered in blood.
Yuanyuan looked at his blood-stained hands, slowly extending his fingers to smear the blood over the painting, covering all the images on it.
It was a folding knife with a short but sharp blade. Teacher Jiang's wound wasn't deep, but she had lost a lot of blood, and her condition was serious. Fang Rui asked Zhang to call an ambulance to take Teacher Jiang to the hospital for emergency treatment.
"Yuanyuan, what's wrong? Why did you stab Teacher Jiang?" Li Min hugged Yuanyuan and asked softly.
Yuanyuan didn't respond, reverting to his autistic state where he only blinked without any other reaction.
They couldn't hear any sound from the observation room, only see their movements. They didn't know what Teacher Jiang had said to provoke Yuanyuan into attacking her.
"Yuanyuan... he can speak..." Teacher Jiang mumbled.
Everyone looked at Yuanyuan in shock.
He still appeared quiet and well-behaved.
"Yuanyuan, tell us, why did you stab Teacher Jiang?"
Yuanyuan didn't respond to her.
Fang Rui turned to Li Min, "Why did Yuanyuan have a folding knife?"
Li Min panicked, "I don't know. We don't have such dangerous items in our welfare institute. When he came, we changed Yuanyuan's clothes. He couldn't have had something like that on him."
Teacher Jiang was sent to the hospital. The doctor said her injuries were severe, but currently not life-threatening. However, further observation was needed, and they couldn't rule out the risk of her condition worsening to endanger her life.
It was already afternoon when they returned to the bureau.
Mu Mian analyzed, "When Yuanyuan stabbed Teacher Jiang, his lips moved slightly. Reading his lips, he seemed to be saying: 'Magic wand... Do you want to see my magic wand?'"
"Teacher Jiang's lip movements also seemed to be asking about a magic wand."
Fang Rui suddenly had an absurd guess, "Could the 'magic wand' Yuanyuan mentioned be referring to the knife?"
Zhang was about to say it was impossible, but then realized this guess made sense. The magic wand Yuanyuan drew was silver-gray and relatively short, very likely his fairytale version of the knife.
"So, could Yuanyuan be the one who killed the victim?" Zhang analyzed, "No wonder Yuanyuan was covered in blood at the time. But how could an autistic child suddenly use a knife to kill someone?"
Fang Rui said, "So, it's very likely that an adult was manipulating him to kill."
"The mushroom in that painting was red," Mu Mian suddenly said, "We previously thought the mushroom represented the killer, but a red mushroom could also be that balloon. Yuanyuan saw Director Zhang inhaling laughing gas from the balloon. This time she might have overdosed and collapsed on the ground. Yuanyuan might have thought Director Zhang was poisoned by a toxic mushroom, so he picked up the fruit knife, wanting to save her. Someone might have told Yuanyuan that stabbing people with a fruit knife was magic, so Yuanyuan wanted to use this method to rescue her..."
The blood spatter at the crime scene indicated that the person who stabbed Director Zhang was very short. They had suspected Yuanyuan before, but everyone still found it hard to believe that a quiet, well-behaved autistic child would kill someone.
Zhang said, "Who could be the one who told Yuanyuan that stabbing people with a knife was casting magic? Could it be Chen Xinran? She seemed to have a good relationship with Yuanyuan, and she also had a motive for murder."
Fang Rui and Zhang interrogated Chen Xinran again.
"Officers, I've already confessed everything I should. I've admitted my guilt honestly. Why are you questioning me again?" Chen Xinran looked exasperated. She just wanted to face her legal judgment quickly and serve her sentence quietly.
"What's your relationship with Yuanyuan like?"
"How is Yuanyuan now? He's such a timid child. Encountering something like this must have scared him terribly. Officers, please ask Li Min and the others to take good care of him. That child is so pitiful." Chen Xinran said anxiously.
"Did you tell Yuanyuan that the knife was a magic wand that could be used to save people?"
"What knife? What magic wand?" Chen Xinran looked confused, "Why would I tell Yuanyuan such things? Yuanyuan can't understand fairy tales, so I basically never tell him fairy tales."
Chen Xinran's expression didn't seem like she was lying, but this woman was full of lies, and Fang Rui didn't quite believe her.
"But his painting style is very fairytale-like."
"Then I don't know about that. Yuanyuan was often taken out by Director Zhang to see therapists. His painting wasn't taught by us, but by outside therapists."
Fang Rui asked, "Do you know the names of those therapists?"
"I don't know. But they're all from Teacher Jiang's institution. You can ask Teacher Jiang."
Teacher Jiang was currently lying unconscious in the hospital.
After finishing the interrogation of Chen Xinran, Fang Rui went to Mu Mian's office to find her.
"Mu Mian, do you think Teacher Jiang might also have been a target of the killer?" Fang Rui quickly denied his own speculation, "No, that's not right. How could the killer be sure that the one hypnotizing Yuanyuan would definitely be Teacher Jiang? If it was another therapist, wouldn't the killer have targeted the wrong person?"
"The killer might have set up a trigger word after knowing that Teacher Jiang would hypnotize Yuanyuan. Once Teacher Jiang triggered the keyword, Yuanyuan would stab her with the knife," Mu Mian speculated, "But I don't understand why the killer would want to kill Teacher Jiang. She's a good person. That day when she invited me and my sister for dinner, I ordered a double portion of seafood rice, and she didn't say anything."
Fang Rui looked at Mu Mian helplessly.
"Fang Rui, why do I feel like you're mocking me?" Mu Mian said, displeased.
"It seems that every person you've certified as good turns out not to be so good."
Mu Mian felt Fang Rui's criticism was reasonable. She indeed couldn't distinguish between good and bad people very well. But it wasn't her fault; those bad people were all quite nice to her.
"So, what bad things could Teacher Jiang have done?" Mu Mian wondered.
Fang Rui felt that the key word connecting everything was autism. Director Zhang was taking care of several autistic patients, Teacher Jiang was an autism therapist, and the killer was the autistic child Yuanyuan. But what could be the motive for the killer to use Yuanyuan to harm them?
Late at night, it started raining heavily again in Jiangzhou City.
Mu Mian had a nightmare. She dreamed that she had turned into a little red mushroom with long mushroom tentacles holding a magic wand, lying in a dark coffin.
Mu Mian hated this suffocating feeling. She struggled desperately, kicking open the coffin lid with her feet. She crawled out of the coffin and took a deep breath, but looking down, she realized the coffin was placed on a cliff, with a pitch-black abyss below.
In the abyss, as dark as a black hole, there were many faces - her father and mother, Jiang Yun, and her sister. They were all waving at her, wanting her to jump down and join them.
Mu Mian wanted to be with them, but the cliff was so high. Her fear of heights made her think that growing old alone might not be so bad after all.
At that moment, a hand reached out from the abyss, grabbing her ankle and pulling her down forcefully.
Mu Mian fell from the coffin. The sensation of falling was so real that Mu Mian could even feel the wind whistling past her ears.
"Fang Rui, help! I'm so scared. Can you catch me?"
Mu Mian suddenly woke up, finding herself drenched in cold sweat.
It was raining outside, a soft pitter-patter. Perhaps it was the lingering fear from the dream, or perhaps the sound of rain irritated her, but Mu Mian felt inexplicably uneasy.
It seemed as if something big was about to happen.
Mu Mian couldn't sleep, feeling restless. So she took out her phone and sent messages to all her friends.
"Are you asleep? Come out and chat for five cents." This was what Zhang always said when he wanted to gossip. Mu Mian found it amusing and saved it. Today she finally got to use it.
Maybe everyone was asleep, as no one replied except Fang Rui.
"Mu Mian, are you having insomnia again?" Fang Rui was also having trouble sleeping. In the evening, Zhang's takeout discount coupon was about to expire, so he insisted on treating everyone to milk tea, but ended up giving Fang Rui a cup of black coffee. After drinking the coffee Zhang gave him, he couldn't sleep.
"No, I woke up from a nightmare. It was so scary."
"What nightmare?"
Mu Mian briefly described the dream she just had. She said, "Hey, it's all because of what Yuanyuan said. It made me have nightmares."
"Mu Mian, since neither of us can sleep, do you want to come out... and watch the rain?" Fang Rui's voice was a bit nervous.
Watch the rain? What a strange activity, Mu Mian silently thought to herself. But she desperately needed to do something to distract herself, anything would do, so she said, "Sure."
Mu Mian changed her clothes and went out. Fang Rui was already waiting for her in the hallway. They walked downstairs together, but the rain was pouring heavily, so they could only stand at the entrance of the building.
It was pitch black outside, and they could only see the dense raindrops through the dim yellow streetlights. Fang Rui suddenly felt that watching the rain was a silly idea.
There were so many more romantic things to do, like watching a movie, strolling in a park, going on a trip, or even just taking a walk on a nice day would be more romantic than watching the rain.
The cold wind blowing on Mu Mian's face made her feel of unease subside a little.
At that moment, Fang Rui's phone rang. It was the operator calling.
"Detective Fang, there's been a murder in the villa district downtown. The victim was stabbed multiple times. I've sent you the address. Please get there as soon as possible."
"Alright." Fang Rui glanced at the address, his brow furrowing slightly. This address seemed to be Lin Qianjie's villa.
"Fang Rui, let's go quickly. We should leave right away."
Zhang also called: "Boss, you got the call, right? Whatever you do, don't bring Mu Mian to the crime scene! Keep it from her!"
