Chapter 159 Nickname: Mingming Who Doesn't Like to Talk

After some time.

Time flew by in a flash.

However, the results regarding whether the deceased Yan Lili had a boyfriend still hadn't come back.

Chen Mo didn't waste this time either.

Instead, he used the materials previously provided by Ji Feng to find a piece of information.

That was, the person who invited Yan Lili to the hotel was the same person who invited the missing Wen Guodong.

Both of their online profile pictures were identical.

The possibility of it being a coincidental profile picture match could basically be ruled out.

This once again proved his previous speculation.

The murderer had already begun a meticulous layout before Wen Guodong checked into the hotel.

First, they drove Yan Lili to her death, then utilized Wen Guodong's sexual orientation to lure him out.

“Is this person really her boyfriend?”

Chen Mo's gaze fell on a screen name called 'Bu Ai Shuo Hua De Mingming'.

There was actually nothing special about this screen name.

But the last two characters of the screen name should be the account owner's nickname.

To a certain extent, this increased their chips in identifying the killer.

“Mingming is likely the killer's nickname.”

“Now we just have to see if the deceased actually had a boyfriend!”

As soon as Chen Mo finished speaking, everyone nodded.

At this moment, they could only wait for the results from Captain Ji's side.

Twenty minutes later.

Hurried footsteps echoed from the corridor.

Ji Feng, with a smile on his face and documents in hand, pushed the door open and walked in.

Although he hadn't said anything yet, based on the expression on his face,

one could guess that the results were likely out.

“Thank you for your hard work, Captain Ji.”

Long Hao handed the disposable water cup in front of him to the other man.

Little Wu had poured this for him earlier, but he hadn't been in the mood to drink it.

The sound of gulping soon rang out.

Following that, Ji Feng wiped his mouth with his arm.

“Good news, the results are out, and it's just as you speculated.”

“The deceased's roommate had a poor relationship with her, so she wasn't sure if the deceased had a boyfriend.”

“After investigating the deceased's friends and relatives, we got the answer from her best friend.”

“The deceased did indeed have a boyfriend.”

“This is her boyfriend's information!”

As he spoke, he laid the document flat on the table.

At the same time, he acted as an announcer, starting to explain the information clearly and concisely.

“The deceased's boyfriend is named Zhou Ming, the same age as the deceased. He dropped out of high school. Hospital records show that this Zhou Ming suffers from depression.”

“He is currently receiving treatment in the hospital.”

After Ji Feng explained the situation, he looked at everyone.

His task was complete.

The rest was up to the experts present.

“Why is he in the hospital?”

Xu Qingqing looked puzzled, scratching her forehead with her slender index finger.

“I heard it's because of self-harm—slashing his arms. He was sent to the hospital due to excessive blood loss.”

“He was hospitalized about five days ago and has been there ever since.”

Ji Feng replied immediately upon hearing the question.

The atmosphere in the room instantly became quiet.

Xu Qingqing turned her gaze toward Chen Mo.

“Don't you think this is too much of a coincidence?”

The reason she said it was too much of a coincidence

was because the current suspect could be tentatively identified as the deceased's boyfriend, Zhou Ming.

And this person just happened to have been hospitalized five days ago.

In the eyes of these professionals,

it seemed as if an alibi had been arranged in advance.

There was likely a problem here.

Of all the times to be hospitalized, he was hospitalized during the very days his girlfriend died.

No one would believe that.

Moreover!

From the fact that the killer invited Wen Guodong, a homosexual, to the hotel three days in advance, one could see

that the entire action plan was actually premeditated.

It wasn't a spur-of-the-moment impulse!

“The more one does, the more mistakes they make!”

Chen Mo spoke these words indifferently.

It was the same saying: if Zhou Ming really was the killer,

then the most correct course of action should have been to do nothing.

At the very least, he shouldn't have tried to take these actions to clear himself of suspicion.

For example.

Several suspects are brought to the interrogation room at the same time for questioning.

Originally, everyone's suspicion level was at fifty.

Then, one person's suspicion suddenly vanished.

In the common perception of the public, if there's no suspicion, the person can naturally be released.

But!

In actual case handling,

when a person who clearly has suspicion suddenly proves they aren't suspicious in certain matters,

or if their suspicion drops significantly out of thin air,

an experienced police officer

will absolutely not release them immediately, but will instead focus heavily on them.

Everyone is suspicious, yet you alone can explain every single problem clearly.

That makes you even more suspicious.

The correct operation is not to lower one's own suspicion, but to reasonably increase the suspicion of others, shifting the police's focus away from oneself.

Clearly, Zhou Ming's sudden hospitalization five days ago to create an alibi for himself was a very poor move.

Moreover!

The screen name mentioned earlier.

Bu Ai Shuo Hua De Mingming!

Is this person Zhou Ming!?

“He fits. This Zhou Ming looks too much like the killer!”

Long Hao summarized the current situation and gave his conclusion.

“First, he was hospitalized five days in advance. After creating his alibi, he invited Wen Guodong to the hotel online, then drove Yan Lili to her death and framed Wen Guodong.”

“I suspect that when we see him later, he'll likely have one of two attitudes: either he can clearly explain where he was last night with witnesses, or he won't be able to explain it at all.”

Clearly, Long Hao's analysis was sound.

And Chen Mo was more inclined to believe the other party had prepared an alibi in advance.

This also completely fit the premeditated criminal method of the killer in this case.

The more Zhou Ming could prove he had no suspicion of committing the crime,

the more suspicious he became in Chen Mo's heart.

It wasn't that he was using a presumption of guilt to think about the problem,

but rather that Zhou Ming's actions were highly problematic.

Even if he were just an idle youth,

it wouldn't make everyone feel he was so suspicious.

On the contrary, having absolutely no suspicion at all is what makes people doubt!

“How do we pry his mouth open?”

Sun Yi raised her hand to ask a question at this point.

If the current analysis was correct,

then after seeing Zhou Ming at the hospital later,

there would definitely be no progress at all.

So by thinking of a method in advance, they could handle it with ease when they got there and get the desired result.

“This is actually very difficult. If Zhou Ming really is the killer and has made so many preparations,”

“unless we get some conclusive evidence, he won't open his mouth.”

“Otherwise, why would he do all this? Isn't it just because he doesn't want to be caught?”

Xu Qingqing's calm voice sounded.

She didn't have any good solutions for this either.

You can't expect a suspect who clearly knows the police have no evidence to confess.

It was too difficult.

Especially when the person faced the death penalty once caught.

“We'll deal with it as it comes.”

Chen Mo stood up from his chair.

No matter how much they thought about it here, it wasn't as good as meeting this Zhou Ming in person.

Perhaps things were different from what they thought?

Who could say for sure.

After all, these analyses were all speculations.

...

—Vroom.

The two teams drove three police cars separately toward Xining Central Hospital.

The scenery outside the window constantly receded.

Chen Mo sat in the passenger seat, his index finger constantly tapping on his thigh.

The wind pouring in through the car window blew his hair up from time to time.

He was currently pondering a question.

Was Zhou Ming really the killer?

If he really were the killer, why would the case rating be C+?

The difficulty was a bit too low.

It felt to him like he was handling a D-rank case.

Although there was the act of exploiting a bug with the system's rating,

this didn't count as cheating.

Because the final resolution of the case still relied on him.

Another thing.

The reason he was considering this question

was that he always felt this method had a sense of déjà vu.

What that feeling was exactly, he couldn't clear his head for a moment.

It just felt familiar.

He had encountered it before.

His eyes closed slightly.

At the same time, the Clear Mind in his brain began to help him organize the details of the case.

Soon, he found what that sense of familiarity was!

Framing!

That's right, the method he felt was familiar just now

was these two simple words: framing.

The initial suspect, Uncle Wang, was framed.

The later suspect, Wen Guodong, was also framed.

Then, regarding the various things the deceased's boyfriend did that made them feel he was suspicious,

could there also be the possibility of him being framed?

In short, Chen Mo remained rational about this.

While he was lost in thought,

the three cars drove to Xining Central Hospital.

There was a continuous stream of people at the hospital.

At other times, it's hard to realize that there are actually so many sick people in this world.

In his past life, Chen Mo was free from illness and disaster, and his parents and friends were all healthy, so he basically had no contact with places like hospitals.

But when he went to a hospital for the first time, he suddenly felt that there were so many sick people.

Thump, thump, thump.

The sound of car doors closing rang out.

“Zhou Ming is still in the ward. I'll take you there directly.”

Ji Feng reached out and made a gesture of invitation.

After all, it was a local hospital, so he was naturally more familiar with it than Chen Mo and the others.

“What kind of illness is depression exactly?”

“I hadn't heard of it before, but in the last few years, I've heard of it frequently.”

Xu Qingqing looked at Chen Mo and asked.

In the later generations with the developed internet, many people's first reaction when mentioning depression was that the person was too melodramatic or fussy.

From this, one could see that people's level of understanding in this era would only be lower.

“I know about this.”

Wu Tian's voice came from the crowd.

As a forensic doctor, he actually had some understanding of these things.

“Depression is actually a psychological illness. One often feels depressed, has slow thinking, fading memory, and some even commit acts of self-harm...”

“In recent years, there have been more and more young patients.”

He gave a brief explanation.

Xu Qingqing nodded in understanding.

Everyone stopped talking.

They headed straight for the ward where Zhou Ming was currently located.

The door wasn't closed. Chen Mo, Long Hao, Xu Qingqing, and Ji Feng—the four of them—walked straight in.

The others stayed outside.

Having a whole group of people come in would be meaningless except for creating a mess.

The ward was a double room.

A curtain in the middle separated the hospital beds.

One bed was empty; the occupant had likely been discharged.

On the bed near the window sat a young boy.

He was holding a book in his hand.

But his gaze wasn't on the book.

Instead, he was looking out the window.

To be precise, he was looking at the chirping birds outside the window.

“Zhou Ming.”

“We are from the Xining Municipal Bureau.”

“There is a case we need to understand the situation for. We hope you can cooperate with us seriously.”

Ji Feng pulled his identification out of his pocket.