At the entrance of the autopsy room.
"I won't let you touch my brother's body. No one can touch it!" Ye Zeling clung tightly to the body bag, her eyes darting around warily. She threatened to scratch anyone who dared come close. "Get away! All of you, get away! Don't you dare disturb me and my brother."
Mu Mian looked at the scratch marks on the back of her hand, feeling like she had just earned a new badge in her professional career. She might well be the first forensic pathologist in the Jiangzhou City Police Department to be scratched by a victim's family member.
"Miss Ye, if you keep holding onto the body like this, how can we help you catch your brother's killer?" a female police officer approached cautiously, trying to soothe her. "Why don't you let go of your brother's body first and come with me to the rest area? Okay?"
"No! Don't think I don't know. An autopsy means you'll cut my brother open. I won't let you get away with it."
"But your brother's body has already been blown apart and burned by the fire," Mu Mian carefully reminded her. "Cutting it open won't make much difference now, since the body is already damaged."
"Ah! I don't want to hear you talk! Go away! Go away!"
The female police officer was Li Lanlan, the department's psychological counselor. She glared at Mu Mian, signaling with her eyes for Mu Mian to step back and stop agitating the deceased's family member.
Mu Mian quietly retreated to the back, but her eyes remained fixed on the body bag Ye Zeling was holding. She desperately wanted to autopsy this body. She was curious to know what exactly the body had endured to result in such shattered wounds.
"Miss Ye, please try to calm down. Your brother would want to rest now. If you keep crying and making a fuss, I'm sure it would make him sad," Li Lanlan gently patted Ye Zeling's shoulder. "Can you let us move your brother's body inside first?"
Ye Zeling seemed to be listening. Her grip on the body bag slowly loosened. But when she looked up and saw Mu Mian staring intently at her brother's body, she immediately tightened her hold again.
"No! You're lying! You just want to autopsy my brother's body!"
Mu Mian sighed inwardly. If this dragged on any longer, it would be dark soon. Once night fell, the timid Chen Xue wouldn't want to work overtime with her, and she'd have to autopsy the body alone.
"Mian, what's going on here?"
Mu Mian turned around to find her sister, Shen Xiyin, speaking.
"Sister Xiyin, why are you here?"
"Professor Jiang invited us to dinner today. I'm here to pick you up. Professor Jiang is a top expert in autism in the country, and she's also a good friend of Dad's. She's been wanting to meet you."
Mu Mian didn't really want to go. Those useless experts always repeated the same boring, tedious procedures. But she didn't want to make things difficult for her sister.
Shen Xiyin changed the subject, "What's happening here? What's wrong with that girl?"
"She's in shock. She needs immediate psychological crisis intervention," Mu Mian quietly explained the situation, adding at the end, "I really want to autopsy that body right now!"
Shen Xiyin walked over to Ye Zeling, crouching down to meet her eyes:
"Miss Ye, I know the news of your brother's death is very upsetting for you. I also know that you don't really want to stop the police from autopsying the body. You just don't want to believe that your brother is really gone, isn't that right?"
Tears rolled down Ye Zeling's cheeks in big drops.
"Your brother loved you so much. He would want to see you being brave and strong. You want to put your brother's mind at ease too, don't you?"
"If my brother loved me, why did he leave me?" Ye Zeling burst into tears. "Without my brother, how am I supposed to live on my own?"
"You love your brother very much too. For your brother's sake, you can become braver and stronger."
"I..."
Ye Zeling hugged Shen Xiyin. "My brother said he would take care of me for life. How could he lie to me!"
Shen Xiyin patted her shoulder gently. "Your brother didn't lie to you. He loved you very much. Nothing can change the fact that he loved you. He will always live on in your memories."
Ye Zeling cried for a long time. When she was finally exhausted from crying, her emotions stabilized.
Li Lanlan looked at Shen Xiyin with admiration. Li Lanlan felt that what she had said wasn't much different from Shen Xiyin's words, so why was the effect so different?
Shen Xiyin explained: "People go through four stages when accepting death: denial and shock, anger and resistance, pain and grief, acceptance and adjustment. Miss Ye's situation is a bit special. She witnessed her brother's death with her own eyes, so she can't deny the fact. That's why her resistance is stronger."
Li Lanlan asked, "Are you a professional psychological counselor?"
"Not exactly. I'm a psychiatrist. Most of the cases I handle are neurotic patients with psychological abnormalities."
"No wonder you're so good at this. Neurotic patients are much harder to deal with."
Shen Xiyin advised, "Miss Ye's condition requires immediate psychological crisis intervention. Someone needs to watch her 24 hours a day. Her emotional state is very fragile right now."
Li Lanlan nodded, "Mm, I understand."
Mu Mian quickly had someone help move the body into the autopsy room. Just as she was about to go change her clothes, Shen Xiyin called out to her, "Mian, it's already after work hours. We need to go meet Professor Jiang first."
Mu Mian's gaze reluctantly left the body bag as she replied in a disappointed tone, "Alright. Let's go quickly then. I need to work overtime tonight!"
As they were about to reach the exit, Mu Mian saw Fang Rui and Lin Sen returning from outside. She greeted them, "Good evening, Captain Fang, Consultant Lin!"
Shen Xiyin looked at Fang Rui. This name left a deep impression on her, as it appeared most frequently in Mu Mian's self-observation diary. She knew that Fang Rui held a special place in Mu Mian's heart.
When she saw Lin Sen, her brows furrowed slightly before quickly returning to a polite smile.
"Captain Fang, hello. I'm Mian's sister. Thank you so much for taking care of her."
"Hello." For some reason, Fang Rui felt that Mu Mian was acting very strangely today, constantly making eye contact with him as if pleading for help.
But Shen Xiyin was her sister, so why would Mu Mian need to ask for help?
Shen Xiyin then turned to Lin Sen, a smile on her face: "Lin Sen, long time no see. How have you been?"
The air suddenly froze.
Lin Sen stared at Shen Xiyin for a full five seconds before coldly averting his gaze and walking away without a word.
Fang Rui was surprised. Although Lin Sen was known for being arrogant and sharp-tongued, he usually maintained basic politeness. Why would he completely ignore Shen Xiyin today? And it seemed they knew each other. Had something happened between them?
Mu Mian's eyes were blinking frantically, trying to get Fang Rui to notice her distress signal and rescue her from her sister using the overtime work excuse. But to no avail.
"Sister, let's go! We need to hurry to dinner! Quick!"
"Alright." Shen Xiyin said to Fang Rui, "Captain Fang, I'll take my sister to dinner now. Let's chat more another day when we have time."
After Mu Mian and her sister left, Fang Rui went upstairs and found Lin Sen standing on the second floor, watching Shen Xiyin leave.
"What happened between you and Mu Mian's sister? She greeted you, but you completely ignored her. Don't tell me she's your ex-girlfriend?"
Lin Sen turned his head, looking coldly at Fang Rui.
"Even if she is an ex, you shouldn't treat her so coldly," Fang Rui advised. "You're not getting any younger. If you keep being so cold to everyone, you'll never find someone."
Fang Rui and Lin Sen were childhood friends who grew up together. Lin Sen had always been cold and aloof, not very fond of socializing, but he still had many friends and many girls pursuing him. However, Lin Sen never seemed to take an interest in anyone.
Fang Rui always thought it was because Lin Sen was too picky and couldn't find anyone good enough.
"You don't have a partner either!" Lin Sen retorted.
"That's because I've dedicated myself to the noble cause of fighting crime. I'm so busy every day, where would I find time for romance!"
Lin Sen remained silent. Just as Fang Rui was starting to wonder if Lin Sen had caught autism from Mu Mian, he finally spoke:
"She was the one who broke up with me first. She said she never wanted to see me again. But just now she appeared in front of me, called my name, and asked how I've been, as if nothing ever happened."
Fang Rui couldn't help but pry, "Why did you two break up?"
Fang Rui guessed that Lin Sen must have met Shen Xiyin while studying abroad.
"I don't know. She said she doesn't love me. But I can't accept that reason."
"..."
Fang Rui hadn't expected Lin Sen to be such a hopeless romantic!
"Fang Rui, do you think she broke up with me because of Mu Mian? Maybe she gave up our love to take care of her autistic sister."
Fang Rui couldn't help but remind him, "First, you need to be sure if there was any love between you two."
"Let's assume there was."
How pathetic... Too pathetic! He even needed to assume whether the other person had loved him or not. Fang Rui started to feel a bit sorry for Lin Sen.
"I don't think it's because of Mu Mian."
"Why not?"
"If she had asked you to help her take care of her autistic sister, you would have agreed without a second thought, right?"
"Of course!"
"Then she probably really doesn't love you," Fang Rui patted his shoulder. "Hey, you can't force love, you know!"
