Chapter 162 Nurse Xiao Nuan

Time passed minute by minute.

About ten minutes later.

Zhou Ming's sobbing finally slowed to a stop.

In fact, ten minutes ago, when Zhou Ming's first sob was heard...

He had tried to comfort him for a moment.

But he didn't know what was going on.

The more he comforted him, the harder the man cried.

So he simply stopped trying to comfort him and stood by the bed, quietly waiting for him to finish crying before speaking again.

"Done crying?"

"If you're done crying, then tell me about your situation."

Chen Mo's tone was flat as he watched Zhou Ming, who was curled up on the hospital bed.

The situation was just as he had previously thought.

Perhaps he was too heartbroken, as the man was like a mute right now.

He didn't say a word, just staring blankly.

"If you don't cooperate..."

"Then we can only assume you are the murderer of Yan Lili."

Chen Mo's words carried no hint of a threat.

He was merely stating a fact.

Zhou Ming's lack of cooperation did, to a certain extent, strengthen the suspicion against him.

Of course, that was in the eyes of other police officers.

In his own eyes, it wasn't quite like that.

"Why do you say I'm the killer?"

Zhou Ming curled up on the hospital bed with a dull expression, staring blankly at the floor.

"Based on the information we've gathered, you are a suspect."

"First, you killed Yan Lili because you felt betrayed; as a boyfriend, it's usually unbearable for a girlfriend to do that kind of part-time job."

"Second, there are no defensive wounds on her body, but there were footprints of another person besides Yan Lili in the room. This means there is a high probability she was forced into jumping off the building."

"Based on these two points, we believe it was you who, unable to accept your girlfriend's loose behavior, forced her to jump to her death as an apology."

After Chen Mo finished speaking, he saw Zhou Ming sit up from the bed.

He looked as if he had a stomach full of things to say.

"Speak up."

"I know what Lili was doing, but didn't I say it before?"

"I was angry at first, but later I wasn't that angry anymore. I only blame myself for having no money, for not being a second-generation rich kid, and for not being able to give her the life she wanted."

"I support her being able to rely on her own abilities to live the life she wants. No matter how angry I got, I wouldn't go and kill her!"

Zhou Ming's face was filled with an expression of being wronged.

Of course, there was also sadness over his girlfriend's death.

"I know all that."

"But can your thoughts be used as evidence?"

Chen Mo spoke in a flat voice.

"I must remind you that when your girlfriend took on clients, the screen name that contacted her was exactly the same as yours: 'Bu Ai Shuo Hua De Mingming'."

"If I remember correctly, you just said you used to play with it but don't anymore, right?"

"Then who is this person? How is it that they happen to have the exact same screen name as yours?"

Chen Mo laid out all the suspicious points regarding him.

Of course, there was one more he hadn't mentioned.

That was the fact that Zhou Ming's depression and the lack of injuries on Yan Lili's body actually shared a certain connection.

As mentioned before, whenever Yan Lili did something wrong or something that made Zhou Ming sad...

Zhou Ming would use a blade to cut himself.

The wounds were on his body, but the pain was in Yan Lili's heart.

And it just so happened that Zhou Ming was hospitalized.

It was entirely possible that the matter of her part-time job had hurt him too deeply.

"Impossible!"

"That wasn't me, it really wasn't me."

A flash of panic crossed Zhou Ming's eyes.

At the same time, he was thinking about what was going on.

The police officer in front of him had no reason to lie to him.

Therefore, such a thing must have happened.

A frame-up!

Someone must be framing him.

This was actually the first reaction of a normal person.

When one clearly hasn't done something, yet all the evidence points toward them...

The only possibility is a frame-up.

"Officer, I've been framed! I've been set up!"

"Damn it, who would do such a thing?"

As Lili's boyfriend, he was actually being framed for killing his own girlfriend.

To him, this was something truly unacceptable.

They could have framed anyone, so why did they have to frame him?

"The reason I'm being frank with you about everything is that I also believe you've been intentionally framed."

"What you need to do now is cooperate with our work and tell us everyone who might have had a reason to kill Yan Lili."

The deceased Yan Lili's grandmother, the one who had raised her since childhood, had already passed away.

Her parents worked in the south all year round; although they were currently rushing back to Xining, he really didn't hold out much hope for them.

The only others who might understand Yan Lili's situation were her friends.

But what they knew was also limited.

Therefore, if they wanted to move the case forward, Zhou Ming had to cooperate.

"I'll cooperate. I will definitely cooperate with you to catch the killer!"

When Zhou Ming said this, a flash of hatred appeared in his eyes.

This was the bloodiness a man should have.

"According to our deduction, the killer likely held something over Yan Lili and used it to force her to jump."

"This is also why we believe there were no wounds on her body."

"Additionally, the examination of the residues in her body found no traces of knock-out drugs or similar substances, which indicates that Yan Lili was conscious before she jumped."

The last sentence was a clarification Chen Mo added to the previous two.

He didn't want to discuss other possibilities with a layman like Zhou Ming.

Even if there were others, they weren't something a non-professional like Zhou Ming could come up with.

"Let me think, let me think..."

Zhou Ming kept repeating these words.

His face was also lost in thought.

Seeing him like this, Chen Mo felt relieved.

He stood aside to help him think.

"Who did she have a grudge with? Who did she have conflicts with? Who disliked her?"

"..."

Time passed minute by minute, but Zhou Ming didn't say a single name.

Or rather, he said a few names, but as soon as they reached Chen Mo's ears, he dismissed them himself.

"Lili just liked wearing name brands and carrying nice bags. Her personality was actually quite good. We were together for three years, and I never heard of her having a grudge or conflict with anyone."

"Even if she did, it wouldn't be enough to take her life, right?"

"What do you think?"

Zhou Ming thought for a long time but couldn't come up with anything, and his expression became somewhat frantic and frustrated.

He threw up his hands at Chen Mo, indicating he really couldn't think of anything.

"Murder is nothing more than for money, for lust, for revenge, for hire, and so on..."

"The killer wouldn't have killed Yan Lili for no reason."

"So they must have had their own purpose."

For example, every suspect has a clear motive when committing a crime.

Revenge is the most common one in daily life.

And the killer's goal is retribution!

Even if a mentally ill person kills someone, they always have a reason.

Even if it's just walking down the street and seeing that you don't look pleasing to them, so they kill you.

Finding you annoying also counts as a reason.

In a society ruled by law, the cost of crime is gradually increasing.

Killing someone requires a reason.

Because the price is too high!

"I'll give you some time. Think about other possibilities."

As Chen Mo spoke, he walked out of the hospital room.

Xu Qingqing, who hadn't spoken the entire time, spoke up now.

"We can investigate the case from two directions next."

"First, what kind of leverage did the killer have to force Yan Lili to jump?"

"Was it Yan Lili's part-time job? If not, what else could it be?"

"Second, what was the killer's motive?"

Chen Mo nodded in agreement.

"You mean to investigate separately for now?"

"Yeah. I'll find a way to check what other secrets the deceased had, and you check the killer's motive."

After some discussion, Xu Qingqing left with her team.

Just as he watched her leave...

Long Hao's footsteps sounded from behind him.

"Nothing."

He said, shaking his head.

After coming out of the room earlier, he had talked to Nurse Xiao Nuan about the relationship between the two.

He found that they did indeed know each other, and Zhou Ming's words about having seen her yesterday afternoon were not a lie.

"I've made some progress on my end."

Chen Mo shared the contents of his previous conversation with Zhou Ming in the hospital room with Long Hao.

"I'm done with my part. Tell me more about that Nurse Xiao Nuan."

"What exactly is the relationship between the two?"

Upon hearing this, Long Hao revealed the entire content of his previous conversation.

"That nurse was junior high and high school classmates with Zhou Ming."

"Xiao Nuan has always liked Zhou Ming, so she acts a bit closer to him than to other patients."

Chen Mo looked at Zhou Ming, who was staring blankly inside the room.

He had that sort of melancholic boy vibe, which indeed looked quite handsome to girls.

It was reasonable for her to like him.

"The current situation is that we can't find the killer's motive for hounding Yan Lili to death, let alone what leverage they held."

"But you just said Xiao Nuan likes Zhou Ming."

"Could this count as a motive for driving Yan Lili to her death?"

Chen Mo looked thoughtful.

It wasn't that he thought everyone he saw was a suspect or a criminal.

It was that the fact that this nurse, Xiao Nuan, liked Zhou Ming naturally created a motive for killing Yan Lili.

A crime of passion!

There were quite a few similar cases.

It wasn't unusual.

"This..."

"If you put it that way, that girl Xiao Nuan really is a bit suspicious."

Long Hao blinked.

If there's suspicion, it has to be investigated. Whether she's the killer or not, we won't know until the end of the investigation!