Chapter 161 Changing Mindset

As soon as she walked in, she noticed Chen Mo and the others standing by the hospital bed.

A trace of surprise flashed across her face, which was normal.

Seeing police officers suddenly appear in a hospital ward out of the blue...

Without any prior expectation, it was indeed easy to be left feeling bewildered.

"Nurse Xiao Nuan, I have a question I'd like to ask you. Please answer it seriously, as it's very important to me."

Zhou Ming looked at her, forcing a warm smile onto his face.

"Okay, tell me what it is."

Xiao Nuan nodded upon hearing this, then took off her surgical mask as a sign of respect.

"Yesterday afternoon through the evening, my kettle ran out of water and you came to refill it for me. Do you remember?"

Zhou Ming spoke in a flat tone, helping her recall the event.

Hearing this question, Xiao Nuan fell into a brief moment of thought.

Refilling patients' kettles was one of the tasks for low-level nurses like them.

Most patients had family members accompanying them, so nurses didn't need to handle things like refilling water.

But for someone like Zhou Ming, who was hospitalized alone, it was necessary.

"I remember now. I did refill the water for Zhou Ming yesterday."

"I visited several wards yesterday, so I couldn't recall it for a moment."

Nurses were the busiest workers in the entire hospital.

They had to handle matters big and small.

"Officer, did you hear that?"

"Nurse Xiao Nuan can testify for me that I was in the hospital the entire time yesterday and never left."

Zhou Ming's gaze was calm, as if the current situation was exactly what had happened yesterday.

"Yes, thank you for your help."

Chen Mo expressed his gratitude to the nurse.

Then, he shifted his gaze back to Zhou Ming's face.

"Let's set that question aside for now."

"Do you usually use the Tieba forums?"

As he spoke, his eyes remained fixed on Zhou Ming's eyes as he sat on the bed.

There were actually many points of suspicion regarding this person.

And the Tieba forum username was one of them.

"I used to, but I don't anymore."

Zhou Ming fell into brief thought after hearing this, then gave his answer.

"You used to use it, but suddenly stopped?"

"How long ago, and when did you stop?"

This lead was actually quite important.

If it could be confirmed that the person who made the appointments with Wen Guodong and Yan Lili was Zhou Ming...

Then the murderer of this case would basically be found.

"I used it when it first came out, but I deleted my account later."

"I'll believe you for now, so do you still remember the screen name you used back then?"

"The screen name you used on the Tieba forums!"

Chen Mo emphasized his tone on the last sentence.

"I remember. I like to use the same name for all my social media accounts."

"It's called 'Bu Ai Shuo Hua De Mingming'."

As soon as he said those words, the scene instantly fell silent.

Confirmed!

Finally confirmed!

The screen name was correct; this way, it was eighty percent certain that he was the murderer!

But!

A sense of strangeness instantly swept through everyone's hearts.

Strange!

Too strange!

If the murderer really was Zhou Ming...

Logically speaking, he wouldn't admit to it.

If the murderer truly had any intention of submitting to the law, they wouldn't have framed Uncle Wang at the beginning, let alone Wen Guodong.

Clearly, every move the killer made was to prevent the police from finding them.

In that case, Zhou Ming's straightforward admission now seemed very bizarre.

"Let's step outside to talk."

Chen Mo gave Zhou Ming a quiet look, then signaled for the others to follow him out.

Not only did Long Hao and the others feel that sense of strangeness, but he did too.

At the same time, it further confirmed the suspicion he'd had earlier.

The suspicion surrounding Zhou Ming was very likely also the killer's handiwork.

It was the same old trick—framing!

"Could it be 'the darkness under the lamp'?"

Long Hao combined all the current circumstances and offered the suspicion in his mind.

The tactic of hiding in plain sight—the darkness under the lamp—had been used by many clever criminals.

And the success rate was quite high.

Given the current situation, if Zhou Ming really was hiding in plain sight...

Then it was feasible.

"Unlikely!"

Chen Mo thought for a moment and gave his answer.

Operating in plain sight was usually a move made only when one was pushed to the brink of desperation.

After all, the risk of such a method was too high.

To dance a waltz right under the police's noses—one slip-up and you'd be caught.

It was better to just frame a few more people to lower one's own risk.

"In this situation, we can't arrest him, yet we can't not arrest him either."

Long Hao rubbed his temples.

If you said he was the killer, it certainly fit.

After all, from Zhou Ming's perspective, his suspicions were basically impossible to explain away.

As for Nurse Xiao Nuan helping him confirm his alibi...

It was actually quite laughable.

Because this kind of alibi could be easily faked in many ways.

Who knows if Zhou Ming was in bed when the water was poured, but left right after?

It was even more possible that Nurse Xiao Nuan was in league with Zhou Ming.

In short, none of it held water.

Zhou Ming's suspicion remained as high as it was at the very beginning.

"Actually, I'm quite curious about the relationship between the nurse and Zhou Ming,"

Chen Mo said flatly, looking at the two inside through a pane of glass in the center of the ward door.

What he was currently more willing to believe was...

That Zhou Ming was likewise being framed by the killer.

Therefore, he couldn't deal with the other party under the assumption of guilt.

Instead, he had to stand in Zhou Ming's shoes and help him find evidence that he wasn't a suspect.

That would be the fastest way to move the case forward.

"The relationship between the two indeed seems unusual."

"It goes beyond the relationship between a patient and a nurse."

Long Hao looked thoughtful, giving an answer based on his thirty-plus years of experience.

"In that case, Xiao Nuan's previous testimony really is useless."

From a legal standpoint, testimony from friends and family is generally not accepted.

After all, there's a high probability of shielding one another.

This was just human nature.

And it was a key reason why it wasn't accepted.

"If we all think he might have been framed..."

"Then we must tell him about Yan Lili's matter."

"Only then can we help him clear his suspicion while speeding up our progress on this case."

Chen Mo quickly sorted out the key points of what to do next.

Seeing that everyone indicated they had no problem with it...

He then pushed open the ward door and walked back in.

"Officer, if there's nothing else, I'll go back to my work."

Xiao Nuan looked at Chen Mo and made a 'bye-bye' gesture with her right hand.

Long Hao suddenly spoke up: "I'll walk you out."

He originally had some questions he wanted to discuss with this nurse, Xiao Nuan.

Even though they were helping Zhou Ming clear his suspicion...

And felt that the current situation was very likely a frame-up...

Those were still unconfirmed matters.

It was impossible to immediately drop all suspicion of Zhou Ming.

If they did that and Zhou Ming really was hiding in plain sight...

Then they would become a joke.

"It's just a few steps, is there a need to walk me out?"

A smile appeared on Xiao Nuan's face, and she then walked toward the outside.

After watching the two leave and seeing the ward door close...

Chen Mo once again fixed his gaze on his face.

"Are you certain you were in the ward from yesterday afternoon through the evening?"

While asking, Chen Mo also activated his Micro-expressions ability.

This question could directly distinguish whether he was lying.

"Officer, didn't Nurse Xiao Nuan just say so?"

"I really was in the ward from yesterday afternoon through the evening. I'm not lying to you."

"On the contrary, it's you guys who have been lying to me."

An unhappy look appeared on Zhou Ming's face.

Earlier, the police officer in front of him had clearly promised him...

That after he answered the questions, he would tell him about Lili's matter.

In the end, they kept stalling and just wouldn't say what exactly had happened.

This made him very unhappy.

"It seems you're telling the truth."

Chen Mo looked at his face for a long time before finally confirming that the Zhou Ming in front of him was indeed not lying.

At least during the time period from yesterday afternoon to evening, he was in the ward.

Under normal circumstances, he hadn't committed the crime.

Remote control couldn't be ruled out.

Of course, that possibility was very small.

Because the phone in the victim Yan Lili's bag and the items that could prove her identity were all gone.

And in Room 705, there was a footprint that didn't belong to Yan Lili or Uncle Wang.

This indicated that there was indeed another person in the room at the time.

"Of course, I'm a law-abiding citizen."

"Can you tell me now?"

"I'm really about to run out of patience."

Zhou Ming's expression on the bed grew worse and worse, and his fists subconsciously clenched.

From the expression on his face, Chen Mo could interpret that this was the brewing before an emotional outburst.

From this point of view, he likely indeed didn't know about the death of his girlfriend, Yan Lili.

Double verification.

In Chen Mo's heart, he had already cleared his connection to the murderer.

"Your girlfriend... Yan Lili."

"Is dead."

"She died last night."

Chen Mo's words fell.

Sitting on the bed, Zhou Ming, whose emotions were about to explode, suddenly froze as the anger was about to surge onto his face.

It was as if an athlete sprinting toward the finish line had suddenly been hit by a freezing spell or had twisted their ankle mid-run.

"Dead... dead?"

Zhou Ming's expression was blank, then he looked up at Chen Mo.

"Dead!?"

This time, his voice was much louder than before, and the questioning tone was very strong.

"Dead. From the crime scene, it looks like she was forced to jump."

"We came to see you for two reasons: first, you're her boyfriend; second, that the murderer was you."

Zhou Ming blinked, his brain like an old computer, lagging heavily in this brief moment.

It was as if dozens or hundreds of web pages had been opened at once—constantly loading, but never opening.

"Lili is dead, she's my girlfriend."

"And then you guys even suspect I was the one who killed her."

"Officer, don't you think that's too ridiculous?"

Zhou Ming's voice was a bit sluggish, as if organizing his language was consuming a lot of his CPU.

The reason he didn't shed tears immediately was still that he didn't believe it was true.

A few days ago, when he was hospitalized, she had still come to visit him.

How could such a big, living person just be gone like that?

They must be lying to him.

Or they were filming some show to scare him.

If he cried, a bunch of people would laugh at him.

That's what he was thinking in his heart.

But a heart-wrenching pain suddenly surged out at this moment.

"Do you think I'm joking with you?"

Chen Mo actually quite disliked this kind of situation.

It was like communicating with the victim's family after a crime to understand the situation.

When a family member or loved one died, the immediate reaction was definitely extreme sadness and utter despair.

And as a police officer, you had to soothe their emotions as quickly as possible, then ask about the situation clearly.

One side wanted to cry, while your side wanted to keep them from crying.

In short, it was a huge waste of time.

Not to mention Zhou Ming himself had depression.

He was really afraid this guy would stop talking in a moment and hide under the covers being miserable.

This was also why he hadn't directly stated the reason for coming to see him at the beginning.

"Ah!"

A cry of pain escaped from Zhou Ming's mouth.