Mu Mian noticed that Fang Rui had been very busy lately, as she hadn't seen him for several days, and even Zhang was nowhere to be found.
The forensics department, however, was quite idle, so today she left work on time and then spent two hours trying to hail a cab that met her requirements.
When she arrived at the residential complex, Mu Mian saw a delivery van parked by the roadside. The courier, Chen Hui, was humming a cheerful tune while loading parcels into the delivery lockers.
"Excuse me, do I have any international packages today?"
"Miss Mu, I'm afraid not. There haven't been any packages for you recently."
"Are you sure there's nothing?"
"No, there isn't. I wouldn't lie to you. If there were any, I'd contact you right away."
"Alright then."
Mu Mian glanced at him, then quickly averted her gaze.
At that moment, the sound of an argument could be heard from nearby.
"Bai Jing, are you the one spreading those rumors online? Are you trying to ruin my reputation? If my name is tarnished, do you think you'll be better off as my daughter? Can't you think straight?"
A middle-aged man was gripping Bai Jing's arm, emotionally accusing her.
Mu Mian recognized the man; he was the internet-famous professor who had referred to the killer as a "cat fetus person."
So he knew Bai Jing.
"Bai Jing, I'm talking to you. What kind of attitude is this? My divorce from your mother is between her and me. Why are you getting involved? I'm warning you, you'd better behave yourself!"
"I've told you, I didn't do it! I have nothing to do with you now, so stop harassing me!"
Slap! Professor Bai struck Bai Jing hard across the face. "Is this how you talk to your father? Don't you have any manners?"
Bai Jing looked at him with cold eyes. "That's right. I don't have a family anymore, so where would I learn manners?"
Chen Hui dropped the package he was holding and ran over, forcefully pushing Professor Bai away and standing between him and Bai Jing.
"Chen Hui, this is none of your business. Stay out of it."
"Is this your boyfriend? Bai Jing, look at how low you've sunk. It's bad enough that you're working in this dump, but now you're dating this bottom-feeder. Don't ever tell anyone you're my daughter in the future. I'd be too ashamed!"
Chen Hui raised his fist, ready to punch Professor Bai, but Bai Jing held him back tightly. "Chen Hui, don't do anything rash. It's not worth it to fight with someone like him. Let's just ignore him!"
"Bai Jing, I'm warning you one last time. Delete those rumors you've been spreading online, or you can forget about getting a penny of my money!" Professor Bai cursed a few more times before driving away in his car.
The crowd of onlookers buzzed with discussion.
Bai Jing collapsed on the ground, covering her face and sobbing uncontrollably. "Why do I have to have a father like this..."
Chen Hui patted Bai Jing's back, comforting her silently.
Mu Mian was shocked. In her understanding, parents were supposed to love their children unconditionally. Just like her adoptive parents loved her sister.
She remembered her sister's words: "Mu Mian, have you ever considered that your mother might not want to be found?"
Mu Mian took out a tissue and handed it to Bai Jing.
Both Bai Jing and Chen Hui were surprised. They hesitated for a moment before Bai Jing accepted the tissue. "Mu Mian, thank you!"
Mu Mian didn't respond to them and turned to go home.
Fang Rui had pulled an all-nighter and only managed to doze off at his desk as dawn was breaking.
"Captain Fang, we've investigated Anqi Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital. Only a few doctors' situations are uncertain," Zhang reported. "Shen Yuanyuan and Zhang Linyang went to work at hospitals in the north and haven't been back to the city for nearly half a year. Chen Jian, Li Qiang, and Ye Wenwen are said to have gone abroad for further studies, but we haven't been able to contact them yet, so we're not sure if they've returned recently."
"Chen Jian? Is that his real name?" Fang Rui frowned as he flipped through Chen Jian's file.
"Boss, you also think this name is strange, right? I suspected it was a fake name at first, so I quickly checked his identity information. It turns out that's really his name. Man, his parents must have been heartless to give their child such a name."
Fang Rui looked at Chen Jian's photo, feeling oddly familiar with the person.
In Chen Jian's file, only his mother's information was filled in the parents' section, while the father's section was blank.
"Find out where he is now."
"Boss, do you suspect him?" Zhang suddenly had a revelation. "Chen Jian's parents must have really hated him to give him such an insulting name. Doesn't this match the profiler's description?"
The police quickly found out Chen Jian's whereabouts.
It turned out that Chen Jian hadn't gone abroad to study. Half a year ago, he had been treated at a psychiatric hospital in the city. After that, he never contacted his former friends or colleagues again. There were no records of transactions on his bank card, and his ID card hadn't been used either.
The house he lived in was rented, and the landlord reported that he had moved out half a year ago. The house now had new tenants.
Chen Jian had suddenly vanished without a trace.
Fang Rui had planned to work overtime again tonight, but when he saw Mu Mian standing by the roadside lost in thought, he decided to drive her home first.
"Why don't you rent a place nearby?" Fang Rui couldn't help but suggest.
"That's a good idea," Mu Mian thought Fang Rui's suggestion was excellent. This way, she wouldn't have to get up early or take unsafe taxis.
But she quickly became dejected: "But I don't have money to rent a place."
"Didn't you have plenty of money when you wanted to buy my corpse last time? Did you spend it all in less than two weeks?" Fang Rui was surprised; Mu Mian didn't seem like the type to splurge.
"I didn't spend it."
"Then where did the money go?"
Mu Mian wanted to change the subject, but she wasn't good at lying, so she had to be honest: "I was scammed!"
Fang Rui was shocked. He couldn't believe someone with Mu Mian's intelligence could be scammed, but then again, it wasn't impossible.
"I wanted to find my long-lost mother, so I posted online looking for her. Someone contacted me, saying she was my mother, but that she had been in a car accident and needed a large sum of money for treatment. So I transferred all my money to her."
Mu Mian's tone was a bit dejected, "After she received the money, she never contacted me again. Chen Xue told me I had been scammed."
After her parents' divorce, Mu Mian never saw her mother again. She had returned to China this time specifically to find her mother, even having a big fight with her sister over it.
"Why didn't you report it to the police?"
"Why should I report it?" Mu Mian looked confused. "Even though she's not my mother, she was in a car accident and really needed the money."
"Is it possible that she wasn't in a car accident at all?" Fang Rui looked at her incredulously. "That person might not even be a woman. Can you trust what a scammer says?"
Mu Mian was dumbfounded. Her social guide hadn't told her that lies could be nested within lies.
"How much money did you lose?" Fang Rui pulled over to the side of the road and took out his phone, intending to make a call. "I'll contact the anti-fraud department and see if they can help you recover it."
"Five hundred and thirty-one yuan and ninety cents."
"You were only scammed out of five hundred yuan?"
"Yes. I'm very poor now."
This was... too poor.
"Forget it, it's not even enough to file a case!" Fang Rui sighed in relief. "Don't trust people so easily. There are too many scammers these days. Be careful, or you might end up being sold without even realizing it."
"I've already learned my lesson."
After dropping Mu Mian off at the entrance of the residential complex, Fang Rui planned to canvas the neighborhood and ask residents if they had seen Chen Jian.
Old Chen, the security guard, looked at the photo and shook his head. "Never seen him. Not to brag, but I remember everyone I've ever seen. I haven't seen this young man before, so he probably hasn't been to our complex."
"Alright, thank you. If you remember anything, make sure to contact me."
Mu Mian glanced at the photo and felt strangely familiar with the person, but when she tried to recall, she couldn't place him.
"Do you know this person?"
"I'm not sure. My memory is very good, so if I had seen him before, I wouldn't forget. Maybe some feature of his was familiar to me, that's why he seems familiar."
Just then, Mu Mian's phone rang.
She received an email from her sister:
Little Mian, I noticed that your bank account balance was low, so I've transferred some money to you. I've also mailed you this month's new issues of NATNED and NEJM. Please keep an eye out for them.
Looking at the email, Mu Mian finally had a definitive answer to a question that had been troubling her.
"Fang, don't you think this person looks like Chen Hui?" she asked.
"Chen Hui? You mean the delivery guy?" Fang Rui tried to recall Chen Hui's appearance.
In the photo, Chen Jian was very thin. He wore a T-shirt, had a lanky build, and looked very much like a student, but with a depressed and gloomy demeanor.
Chen Hui, on the other hand, was much heavier, with a large body and round face. He looked like an ordinary delivery worker who had been in the job for years, and his personality seemed outgoing and gentle.
The two men had no similarities in appearance or demeanor. At first glance, they looked like completely different people.
"Fang, do you remember how you helped clear my name?" Mu Mian asked.
"Yes, I do," Fang Rui replied.
"Actually, what I was taking back then wasn't sleeping pills. It was a medication to reduce anxiety associated with autism. It contained sedatives, so it also had a good sleep-inducing effect."
"I had guessed as much."
"I only need to take this medication when I'm in a state of intense anxiety. For example, when entering a new environment or when a routine is disrupted. At that time, my sister suddenly stopped sending me the medical journals I wanted to read. I thought she was going to abandon me, and I fell into an anxious state. That's why I needed a large amount of medication to help me sleep."
"Are you saying the killer knew you were using this medication?" Fang Rui inquired.
"I just called my sister, and she said she had been sending me magazines every week, and my end shows they were signed for. Obviously, someone deliberately created conditions to make me take that medication."
"Because you're sensitive to noise, if the killer had committed the crime next door, you would have certainly noticed," Fang Rui analyzed. "Looking at it this way, Chen Hui does seem very suspicious."
"They both have a black mole on the left corner of their mouth," Mu Mian pointed at the photo. "The size and position are exactly the same."
Fang Rui took out his phone to contact Zhang and the others to come over.
"I won't go with you to catch the killer," Mu Mian said softly. "It's a very dangerous thing to do!"
