The more Zou Shuyang and Captain He thought about it, the more plausible it seemed. So Zou Shuyang quickly drove towards the police station. Halfway there, Xiao Tang called.
“Captain Zou, Guan Jie just called me. She remembered that Ding Jing had a boyfriend in high school.”
Zou Shuyang was surprised and asked, “Boyfriend?”
He exchanged a glance with Captain He, and both saw the disbelief in each other’s eyes.
It wasn’t that a high school girl having a boyfriend was unusual—it was just that…
The principal had just told them that Ding Jing rejected every suitor. They had just formed an image of Ding Jing as someone solely focused on her studies and restoring her family. But now, suddenly, they were being told that Ding Jing had a boyfriend?
Xiao Tang responded with a soft “mm” then added, “But Guan Jie wasn’t very close to Ding Jing, so she doesn’t know who her boyfriend was.”
Zou Shuyang nodded and hung up the phone. “What do you think?” he asked Captain He.
Captain He leaned back in his seat. “I have a theory.”
Although the two hadn’t worked together for long, they had developed a certain level of understanding.
“Maybe all these murders were committed by Ding Jing’s boyfriend, seeking revenge for her.”
Captain He nodded in agreement. “Yes, but we’re still missing evidence.”
Zou Shuyang seemed to have thought of something and took out his phone to call Xiao Tang again.
“Captain Zou?”
Zou Shuyang’s eyes gleamed with thought. “Xiao Tang, investigate where Ding Jing lived after her family went bankrupt.”
——
*May 30, 2022—Evening.*
Jian Mengyan had just seen off the doctor who came to treat her. She leaned back on the couch, staring at the ceiling in a daze, murmuring, “Ding Jing… Jingjing.”
She repeated the name to herself until she eventually drifted into an uneasy sleep.
Her dreams were restless. One moment, she was walking around school with Ding Jing, and the next, a faceless man was smiling maliciously at her.
Finally, she dreamed of someone chasing them, with Ding Jing pulling her along as they ran. They hid in the school’s storage room.
Jian Mengyan had never been good at sports.
By the time they stopped, she was already gasping for breath, but she still stayed close to Ding Jing, never taking her eyes off her.
In the dream, Ding Jing was as beautiful as ever—her skin pale and cool, her large eyes, her prominent nose. She looked fragile and innocent.
Noticing Jian Mengyan staring at her, Ding Jing smiled. “Mengmeng, why are you looking at me like that? Is there a flower on my face?”
The environment around them was dark, and they could faintly hear heavy, hurried footsteps outside.
Ding Jing continued to smile, as if she could calm any impending disaster just by being there.
“Mengmeng?”
Jian Mengyan reached out and touched Ding Jing’s face. Tears began to fall from her eyes. “Jingjing, who… who killed you?”
Despite Jian Mengyan’s words, Ding Jing kept smiling, though there was a hint of sadness in her smile.
The footsteps outside grew closer and closer, as if they would burst through the door at any moment.
“Jingjing, I…”
“Mengmeng, listen to me.” Ding Jing suddenly spoke, her almond-shaped eyes softening with sorrow as she looked at Jian Mengyan. “Forget about me. You deserve a better life.”
No.
It shouldn’t be like this.
Jian Mengyan wanted to say something more, but Ding Jing abruptly pushed her away.
The sudden sensation of falling jolted Jian Mengyan awake from her dream.
She found herself staring at the bright lights, white walls, and familiar furniture.
“It was just a dream.” Jian Mengyan murmured, feeling a strange sense of loss.
Suddenly, as if remembering something, Jian Mengyan grabbed her phone from the coffee table, bit her lip, and dialed Zou Shuyang’s number.
At that moment, Zou Shuyang had just finished his shower, deep in thought about several connections in the case. The sudden ringing of his phone startled him.
Snapping out of his thoughts, Zou Shuyang grabbed his phone. “Mengmeng?”
There was a pause before Jian Mengyan responded, “What are you doing?”
Zou Shuyang glanced at the screen, seeing “Mengmeng” displayed before bringing the phone back to his ear. “I just got out of the shower. Mengmeng, why does your voice sound so hoarse?”
Jian Mengyan forced a smile, but as she smiled, tears rolled down her cheeks. “I… I just had a dream.”
“A dream?”
She let out a soft “mm.” “I dreamed about Jingjing. A-yang, I… I remembered something about Jingjing… I remembered.”
Zou Shuyang immediately sat up. “What did you remember?”
As he spoke, he hurriedly grabbed the clothes draped over the sofa and threw them on. “I’m coming over now, okay?”
There was silence on the other end for a while, and a sense of unease crept into Zou Shuyang’s heart. “Mengmeng?”
Suddenly, he heard Jian Mengyan’s panicked voice on the other end. “Who… who are you?”
This was followed by the sound of something heavy falling to the ground.
Zou Shuyang clutched his phone, shouting, “Mengmeng? Mengmeng?”
But there was no response.
Something had happened to Jian Mengyan!
Zou Shuyang immediately drove to Jian Mengyan’s home, his heart racing with fear. He was terrified—terrified that she might become another victim, just like the others before her.
He drove at the fastest speed the city’s limits would allow, finally arriving at her apartment. The door wasn’t fully closed, left ajar with a slight gap. Zou Shuyang’s gaze darkened as he cautiously pushed the door open and stepped inside.
Jian Mengyan was lying on the floor near the balcony door, her face still frozen in an expression of shock.
Seeing her lying there, Zou Shuyang suddenly felt too afraid to approach her. Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he finally worked up the courage to move closer, reaching out to check her breathing. Feeling the faint rise and fall of her breath, Zou Shuyang finally exhaled in relief.
Exhausted, he collapsed onto the floor beside her. His earlier rush of adrenaline had left him drained, his limbs weak, unable to even lift his hands.
——
Sitting in the emergency room, Zou Shuyang still felt weak.
Nearby, a middle-aged man who had drunk himself into alcohol poisoning sat groaning, accompanied by a woman with graying hair and a weathered face. She sighed as she clutched her stomach, trying to care for the man.
Across the room, a family who had just experienced a tragic loss was crying and wailing, their grief filling the room.
Scenes like this were all too common in hospitals.
Most people are born in hospitals, and many die in them too.
Taking a deep breath, Zou Shuyang turned to look behind him. Jian Mengyan was still unconscious on the bed, her skin pale and almost bloodless under the harsh fluorescent lights.
A short nurse rushed over, holding Jian Mengyan’s chart. She glanced at Zou Shuyang and asked, “Are you the patient’s family member?”
Zou Shuyang nodded. “I’m her boyfriend.”
The nurse hesitated for a moment, then said, “The patient was injected with an unknown substance. So far, there don’t seem to be any side effects, but she’ll need to stay in the hospital for observation for two days. If there are no further issues, she can be discharged.”
Zou Shuyang nodded, but then, as if remembering something, he asked, “What was the unknown substance?”
The nurse replied, “We don’t know. Most of it has already been absorbed by the patient’s body.”
Seeing that Zou Shuyang had no further questions, the nurse rolled her eyes and muttered under her breath, “I already said it’s an unknown substance. If we knew what it was, it wouldn’t be unknown, would it?”
Just as she was about to leave, an older doctor, surrounded by a small crowd, approached.
“Director Zhong?” the nurse exclaimed in surprise.
This was the hospital’s deputy director, known for his humble beginnings and exceptional medical skills. Rumor had it that once the current director retired, Zhong would be the one to take over.
Director Zhong walked over to Jian Mengyan’s bed and studied her for a moment. Then, as if a realization struck him, he said, “Jian Mengyan?”
Zou Shuyang stepped forward. “Is something wrong with her? Is there some other issue?”
His voice was filled with urgency and concern, which caught Director Zhong off guard for a moment. But he quickly regained his composure and offered a reassuring smile. “It’s nothing. Don’t worry. I just remembered that Jian Mengyan was hospitalized ten years ago. She was diagnosed with retrograde amnesia back then. How is she now?”
*Retrograde amnesia?*
Zou Shuyang remembered that Jian Mengyan had once told him that her memories of high school were unclear. And then there was that phone call earlier…
“Excuse me, sir?”
Director Zhong called out twice before Zou Shuyang snapped out of his thoughts. Shaking his head in frustration, Director Zhong turned to the intern beside him. “Go ahead and handle her hospital admission. We should still have some single rooms available, right? Arrange one for her.”
The intern nodded quickly and hurried off to complete the task.
As Director Zhong turned to leave, he noticed that Zou Shuyang was still lost in thought and shook his head again. “Dr. Yin, let’s go.”
The bespectacled young doctor standing beside him responded with a quick “yes” before following Director Zhong out of the room. However, before leaving, Dr. Yin glanced back at Jian Mengyan a couple more times.
By the time Zou Shuyang came back to his senses, Director Zhong and his entourage were already gone. He sat down by the bedside, holding Jian Mengyan’s hand. In his dazed state, he felt as though the truth of the case was beginning to reveal itself, bit by bit.
“Mengmeng, what were you trying to tell me earlier?”
Zou Shuyang whispered softly, but Jian Mengyan remained silent, her eyes closed as she lay motionless on the bed.
A while later, Zou Shuyang’s phone rang. He answered it, and a weary female voice came through the line. “We’ve finished analyzing your girlfriend’s blood sample.”
“What did you find? What was it?”
Coroner Cui massaged her aching temples as she replied, “PHR769.”
Just as expected.
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