The voice was soft yet firm, almost drowned out by the howling wind, but it reached Chen Hui's ears clearly.
Chen Hui's body froze.
"No, my mother doesn't love me! She can't possibly love me!"
Chen Hui's attention was immediately drawn to Lin Sen. His expression was angry, his eyes bloodshot, as he shouted hysterically:
"If I didn't exist, she would be happier. She hates me, I ruined her life!"
"Chen Hui, your mother does love you, she just doesn't know how to express it."
Lin Sen approached Chen Hui step by step.
"Did she ever hold your hand and take you to the amusement park?"
Chen Hui instinctively wanted to deny it, but he couldn't control the image that floated into his mind—his mother taking him on a merry-go-round, a warm scene he had imagined countless times but knew could never have happened.
"Did she ever hold an umbrella for you on rainy days?"
"Did she always like to tell you bedtime stories?"
Tears fell unconsciously as countless images flashed through Chen Hui's mind, the painful reality intertwining with the beautiful scenes he had imagined.
"Mom... Mom..." Chen Hui held his head, trying to collect more memories of his mother in his mind.
Did his mother love him?
Fang Rui cautiously approached Chen Hui. Just as he was about to reach out and pull Mu Mian away, Chen Hui suddenly regained his composure and pressed the knife against Mu Mian's neck again. "Step back, all of you!"
He looked at Lin Sen and said coldly, "Are you a hypnotist? Don't waste your effort, hypnosis doesn't work on me."
Lin Sen was slightly stunned. He rarely failed.
"Because I've hypnotized myself countless times, but I still can't find any trace of my mother's love in my memories," Chen Hui's expression was tragic, "No one loves me..."
"I can't find any trace of my mother's love either," Mu Mian suddenly started crying too, "My mother doesn't love me either, she abandoned me!"
Chen Hui was startled by this. He steadied his emotions and realized it was Mu Mian speaking.
"My sister says it's not our fault. Some mothers just don't love their children." But Mu Mian cried even harder.
"It's not... our fault?" Chen Hui muttered.
No one had ever said this to him in all these years. Everyone around him, his grandparents, his uncle, including his mother, had repeatedly blamed him, accused him, as if his very existence was the biggest mistake.
He tried hard to study, tried hard to meet their demands, but still no one would love him.
"Of course not. We were so young then, what could we have done wrong?" Mu Mian's tone was firm, as if trying to convince Chen Hui, and also herself.
Chen Hui's gaze searched around for something, a bit urgently, "It's my fault, I wasn't good, that's why my mother doesn't like me..."
At this moment, the bell for the end of evening self-study rang from the nearby school.
"Mu Mian, I'm luckier than you, I know how to make my mother love me!"
Chen Hui suddenly showed a strange smile. He let go of Mu Mian and leaped down from the building.
Mu Mian almost fell with him, but fortunately, Fang Rui grabbed her hand in time and pulled her into his arms. Chen Hui, however, fell straight down.
At the moment of impact, Chen Hui showed a relieved smile.
If I become a cute little cat, would Mom like me a bit more?
This thought had been rooted in Chen Hui's mind for a long time.
His mother hated him, beating him every time she saw him, or using him to extort money from his biological father.
His mother had said many times that if he didn't exist in this world, she would be very happy.
However, his mother was very good to the pet cat at home. She would groom its fur, feed it the best cat food, hug it while sleeping, and talk to it affectionately.
Chen Hui had always wished in his heart that it would be so good if he could become a cat.
As he grew up, by chance, he became an obstetrician and was assigned to perform abortions for pregnant women. Every day, he had to send away many children. They were so small, some hadn't even had the chance to grow eyes to see this world before their lives were taken away.
Those children were unfortunate because they were unwanted children who lost their lives; but they were also lucky because they didn't have to face a world full of malice in their long lives ahead.
They wouldn't have to repeat his miserable life like he did.
No one in this world loved him.
Including his mother.
In the next life, he'd be a little kitten. Whether raised in a warm home or wandering the streets, even if he was ugly, missing an ear, or had a broken leg, there would still be passersby who would feed him ham sausages, people who would call him cute.
No one would dislike a little kitten.
With a loud thud, Chen Hui fell heavily to the ground. His backpack also burst open, dropping out a transparent glass jar.
Blood flowed from his mouth and nose, staining his smile red.
"Isn't that little Chen? Why did he jump off the building? Quick, call an ambulance!" The crowd of onlookers immediately gathered around.
Old Chen, the security guard, also squeezed into the crowd, muttering, "Isn't that little Chen the criminal who killed using cats? Impossible, how could such a kind young man be a criminal?"
"That's right, did the police make a mistake? Little Chen is such a kind-hearted boy."
"You never really know a person, who would have thought that the honest and simple little Chen was this kind of person."
"Aiya, from now on we shouldn't let couriers come to our doors anymore, who knows what they might do!"
"That's right, now that the economy is bad, people easily become perverted, everyone should be careful!"
Bai Jing squeezed through the crowd. When she saw Chen Hui's body on the ground, she rushed over: "Chen Hui, what happened to you? Didn't you tell me you would live on bravely? How could you leave first..."
She turned to the surrounding crowd, "Please, someone call an ambulance quickly!"
The police on the rooftop also had a sense of unreality.
"Chen Hui died just like that, he got off too easy!"
Fang Rui didn't even bother to look at Chen Hui who had fallen. He was holding Mu Mian, who had turned pale, seemingly shocked into a daze.
He gently patted Mu Mian's face, "Forensic Mu, are you alright?"
Mu Mian came to her senses and suddenly started crying again, "Wuwu..."
"Even if your mother doesn't love you, you don't need to cry like this. Stop the tears!"
Fang Rui was at a loss, he hadn't expected Mu Mian to cry uncontrollably. She didn't seem like an emotionally expressive person.
"Just now... I was so scared. It's so high, I almost fell down too."
"So you're crying because you were scared?"
"Yes, I'm afraid of heights. I don't know if my mother loves me or not, I was lying to him earlier!"
"Not bad, you've mastered the skill of lying."
"It was a white lie," Mu Mian corrected.
Mu Mian's limbs were limp, her whole body dizzy. She remembered there was something important and gestured to Fang Rui: "Six... six..."
"Has she been shocked into confusion?" Fang Rui looked at Lin Sen, "Do people talk nonsense after being stimulated?"
However, Mu Mian had already fainted. Fang Rui quickly had someone take Mu Mian to the hospital.
Lin Sen stood on the rooftop, looking down at Chen Hui lying in a pool of blood, and the broken glass jar.
The glass shards reflected a dazzling light.
Chen Hui didn't jump off the building immediately, but negotiated with them for a while before resolutely committing suicide. Was he waiting for some opportunity?
Zhang sighed, "My goodness, this case is finally over! Let's wrap it up! I need to rest for a few days!"
Others also chimed in. They had been working day and night for the past few days and were exhausted.
"Wait a minute," Lin Sen poured cold water on the crowd preparing to celebrate, "It might not be over yet."
"No way, isn't Chen Hui the killer? Did we catch the wrong person?"
"There might be another victim."
"That can't be, there haven't been any pregnant women reported missing recently!"
"That's right, the killer is dead, where would a victim come from?"
"He didn't want those children to be reborn as cats. He longed to become a cat and be reborn himself," Lin Sen spoke softly, "He didn't jump to commit suicide, but to... be reborn."
At this moment, Fang Rui's phone rang.
"Fang Rui, we've received a report that a pregnant woman named Zhang Xueling has gone missing. She's been out of contact for two days now," the voice on the phone sounded panicked. "Do you remember Professor Bai, the one who insulted the killer before? It seems this pregnant woman might be his lover!"
