I See Murders Before They Happen

Chapter 85: Chapter 83: Meeting the Victim’s Family

After leaving the conference room, Zhuang Yanzheng followed Meng Shuyi to his office.

Su Miaoyi and Yan Cheng went to the cafeteria.

It was long past mealtime, and the cafeteria was nearly empty.

Su Miaoyi set down her tray and immediately took a couple of bites of rice.

Yan Cheng sat across from her and placed the bowl of soup he had filled by her hand.

”Thank you.” Su Miaoyi picked up the soup and took a couple of sips.

’If she didn’t eat something soon, she was going to faint right here in the Municipal Bureau.’

Her phone buzzed twice. She pulled it out and saw it was a message from Jiang Junrui.

The usual greeting.

And she, as usual, didn’t reply.

’She’d just have to wait and see what he was really up to.’

Putting her phone down, she looked at Yan Cheng.

Yan Cheng glanced up at her and said a single word: ”Speak.”

Su Miaoyi smiled. ”Under what kind of circumstances would a person suddenly lose a chunk of their memory?”

Yan Cheng looked at her. ”Did you forget something?”

Su Miaoyi nodded. ”A few days of my memory are just a blank slate. Can that happen?”

Yan Cheng was silent for a moment. ”It’s possible. With cranial trauma, like a concussion, there’s something we call retrograde amnesia, where you can’t recall the circumstances of the injury. For example, you wake up and have no memory of how you got hurt. It’s a loss of recent memory, but distant memories are still intact.”

He continued, ”Alternatively, if someone experiences severe trauma or harm, the brain might automatically block or seal away information related to that memory. It’s a self-preservation mechanism to lessen the damage to oneself. In that situation, however, you’d usually know that the memory is a bad one, even if you can’t recall the details. And it’s not a complete erasure; the trauma from that period can still influence your behavioral patterns.”

Su Miaoyi frowned, thinking hard. ”My memory loss is total. I have no idea what I was doing for those few days. It’s like... I went to Jiangcheng during that time, but I have absolutely no memory of the trip.”

Yan Cheng looked at her. ”Not a single memory?”

Su Miaoyi nodded, trying to describe the feeling. ”It’s like I left this world for those few days, as if I never experienced them at all.”

Hearing her description, Yan Cheng paused before saying, ”When you have time, you should go to the hospital for a check-up. See if there’s any cranial damage.”

Su Miaoyi nodded.

After they finished eating, the two returned to the office area.

They happened to run into Zhuang Yanzheng and... Kang Ting and Song Yucheng.

”Captain Kang?” Su Miaoyi called out.

Kang Ting nodded.

Song Yucheng glanced at her but didn’t say anything.

Su Miaoyi just greeted them and didn’t ask any questions.

’They could only be here for a case.’

’After all, she wasn’t an official member of the Municipal Bureau, so she couldn’t just ask about anything.’

Zhuang Yanzheng said, ”Wei Lan’s parents are here. Come with me to see them.”

Su Miaoyi nodded.

Yan Cheng went to the forensic center.

Kang Ting and Song Yucheng also went off to handle their business.

”Cao Hong is in Jinghai,” Zhuang Yanzheng said suddenly as they walked.

Su Miaoyi looked at him. ”Are Captain Kang and his team here to arrest Cao Hong?”

Zhuang Yanzheng nodded, then turned his head to meet her gaze.

Nothing more needed to be said.

They both knew what the other was thinking.

’If Cao Hong was in Jinghai, the probability that he was the one who had ransacked her place went up.’

”Let’s wait for the results of the arrest first,” Zhuang Yanzheng said.

Su Miaoyi nodded.

The two of them went to see Wei Lan’s parents.

They had just seen the bodies of Wei Lan and Wei Hong.

The couple was in a very bad state.

”We failed our child,” Wei Lan’s mother said. ”Because she was born with an intellectual disability, we left her with his parents to raise, and we rarely came back. To be honest, no matter how busy we were with work, we could have made time to come back. But I didn’t dare. I didn’t dare come back and face her. The moment I saw her, I’d just think, what am I going to do with my life? With her like this, what is she going to do with her life? I felt like my life was over.”

Su Miaoyi watched her without speaking.

”When she was little, I didn’t dare come back to face her. When she grew up, I got used to her not being around.” She spoke through her tears, making no excuses for her years of neglecting her child.

Wei Lan’s father added, ”Actually, we always wanted to bring my father and our daughter to live with us. After all, my father is getting old, has trouble getting around, and his hearing and eyesight aren’t good. But my father refused to come live with us no matter what. He said he’d lived in Jinghai his whole life and was afraid that if he left, he’d never be able to come back. The place is run-down, but he’s attached to it. He said he’d rather die in that house.”

”So, the two of us discussed it and decided to move back to Jinghai for work after the New Year. But...”

The man wiped the tears from his face.

Wei Lan’s mother also wiped her tears and said, ”Ever since my mother-in-law passed away, we’ve made a video call to my father-in-law every single night to check on him and the child. It’s been like that for two years.”

After they finished speaking, Zhuang Yanzheng asked, ”When you called home these past few days, did your father mention anything unusual?”

Wei Lan’s father said, ”No. Everything was normal. We just made small talk, talked about what they did each day, and asked what they ate.”

Su Miaoyi thought for a moment, then followed up on Zhuang Yanzheng’s question. ”Did your father mention anyone in particular, or any interactions with young people?”

’Since Captain Zhuang suspected this was a premeditated crime, the killer was likely someone they knew or had met before.’

’Based on the profile, the killer was around twenty-two or twenty-three years old.’

’He wouldn’t be part of the old man’s circle of friends.’

’So it was possible they had crossed paths with him somehow.’

”No.” Wei Lan’s father thought hard. ”But for the past two months or so... well, the weather’s gotten cold, and it’s the season for candied hawthorns. There’s a hawthorn tree in our complex that my father planted years ago. He and my daughter have been making candied hawthorns and selling them from a stall by the overpass. He might have had some interactions with young people there.”

”But my father never mentioned anyone specific.”

Su Miaoyi and Zhuang Yanzheng exchanged a look.

A police officer at the side took notes.

”Now that you mention it, I suddenly realize Wei Lan’s behavior has been a bit strange lately,” Wei Lan’s mother said abruptly.

Su Miaoyi and Zhuang Yanzheng both looked at her at the same time.

”Strange how?” Zhuang Yanzheng asked.

”Before, when we video-called, Wei Lan would just sit quietly beside my father-in-law and watch us. When we spoke to her, she’d smile at us,” Wei Lan’s mother said. ”But for the past month or so, her gaze has been vacant. When we talked to her, she wouldn’t respond, and she wouldn’t smile. Sometimes, she would just scream ’AHHHH’ at us.”

”We tried to have her learn sign language, but she couldn’t pick it up. Sometimes, even my father-in-law couldn’t understand what she was trying to express.”

Su Miaoyi and Zhuang Yanzheng exchanged another look.

As she spoke, Wei Lan’s mother started crying again. ”It’s all my fault. If I had just paid a little more attention, maybe this wouldn’t have happened.”

”When Wei Lan was little, she went through a period of being very emotionally unstable. One minute she’d be laughing, the next she’d be pulling her own hair and screaming ’AHHHH,’” Wei Lan’s father said. ”I just thought it was her emotional instability acting up again. But thinking back now, that hasn’t happened since she was ten. We really were careless.”

Su Miaoyi’s brow furrowed slightly.

Wei Lan had an intellectual disability. There were many things she probably didn’t know or understand, and she couldn’t express them or speak about them.

Zhuang Yanzheng’s phone suddenly rang.

Su Miaoyi glanced over.

It was a call from Yan Cheng.

Zhuang Yanzheng answered the phone.

Yan Cheng’s voice came through the phone: ”Captain Zhuang, I’ve found something new over here.”

...