Chapter 172 Controlling the Future

Seeing that everyone understood his meaning, Chen Mo waved his hand to signal them to get to work.

Soon, the sound of departing footsteps rang out.

Before long, only Chen Mo and Long Hao were left at the scene.

Xu Qingqing took the initiative to lead a team to investigate this spot.

"Do you feel like the case isn't moving forward?"

"In past cases, any doubts could be cleared up immediately. This case is full of scattered clues; it's giving everyone a massive headache."

Long Hao scratched his head, feeling a sense of unfamiliarity.

To him, this case seemed like just an ordinary murder case.

It was just one person dead, after all.

When he first took on the case.

He thought this case was a race against time.

After all, in murder cases, there's usually a very specific reason why the victim was killed.

Solving them isn't difficult; he had handled quite a few similar cases in the past.

Furthermore, in this case, although the victim's state of death was quite tragic.

The main reason was simply that the person had fallen from the seventh floor.

It wasn't that the killer was a pervert who had smashed the victim to pieces.

So, he never once thought that the difficulty of this investigation would be so great or so high.

No matter how high!

Could it be higher than Cui Shengli's?

The difficulty of solving Cui Shengli's case ranked in the top three of all the cases he had encountered in his many years as a police officer.

And wasn't that solved quickly too?

Although the process was a bit convoluted, Chen Mo was powerful!

And for this case, just like usual, he felt it would be very simple.

He didn't expect reality to deliver a heavy blow.

Telling him that he should never let his guard down, let alone underestimate any case.

Perhaps a case you think is very easy to solve.

Will prove to be incredibly difficult once the investigation begins!

"The harder this case is to crack, the more it proves how formidable Xiao Nuannuan is."

Chen Mo looked at Long Hao; in fact, he felt the same way.

In past cases, he wouldn't say he solved them effortlessly.

But at least they didn't require too much mental effort.

Or rather, he only needed to think a little to drag the killer out from the shadows.

But Cui Shengli's case, and now Xiao Nuannuan's case.

Both were telling him that he was starting to feel a bit overwhelmed!

He had actually anticipated this long ago.

As the case ratings got higher and higher.

It would be difficult for him to arrest a killer as easily as blowing away dust like before.

If he wanted to return to that state.

He needed to improve, and improve again!

And it had to be an all-around improvement.

This meant his demand for melon points was growing larger and larger.

And the main sources of melon points were cases and system rewards.

Looking out the window, he realized he had a long way to go.

"Do you also think the leverage Xiao Nuannuan used to force Yan Lili to jump was related to her being raped?"

Long Hao stood with his hands on his hips, looking seriously at Chen Mo.

He felt it didn't make logical sense, so he wanted to hear Chen Mo's answer.

"I don't know."

Chen Mo hadn't actually been focusing on that matter.

So, faced with Long Hao's sudden question, he could only choose to answer that he didn't know.

"I think it doesn't quite make sense logically."

Long Hao didn't react much to Chen Mo's answer.

Instead, he calmly stated his own view.

"You and I both know what kind of work Yan Lili did."

"Being raped is indeed very insulting, shameful, and painful."

"But that's for ordinary people."

"For someone like Yan Lili who traded her body for money, her sense of humiliation should, theoretically, be much lighter."

"What do you think?"

Hearing this, Chen Mo nodded silently.

He understood Long Hao's point; it was simply about who the victim was.

For an ordinary person, it would be an extremely painful experience.

But for a prostitute, it was nothing more than a matter of money.

So, theoretically speaking.

Being raped shouldn't have been enough to force Yan Lili to jump.

Of course, it was certainly a factor.

But definitely not the main one.

To give a simple example.

1-10.

1 is the start, 10 is jumping off a building.

And being raped, for Yan Lili.

At the very most, it would be a 5.

So there's still a 5 missing.

Meaning, what other method did Xiao Nuannuan use to threaten Yan Lili?

To make up that remaining 5.

This was the point of doubt that Long Hao currently felt.

"From the perspective of a threat, the thing or event that could threaten Yan Lili would be the fact that she was raped."

"But just saying it verbally wouldn't maximize the threat."

"To make up that final 5, I actually know of one possibility."

As Long Hao spoke, his gaze involuntarily drifted toward the ward where Zhou Ming was currently located.

The fact that Zhou Ming didn't choose to break up with his girlfriend even after knowing she sold her body for vanity shows that their relationship was actually very good.

No!

"Very good" isn't enough.

It must have been exceptionally good!

There was definitely a deep emotional bond between them.

Zhou Ming had depression, but he was still a man.

No man can tolerate his girlfriend doing that kind of part-time job.

Yet he endured it in silence.

From initial anger to later understanding.

To some extent, this showed just how deep their feelings for each other were.

"I suspect that Xiao Nuannuan likely has a video recording of Yan Lili being raped, and she used that video to force Yan Lili to commit suicide."

Long Hao took a deep breath and offered a bold guess.

Everything he was saying now was without any evidence.

Calling it "bold" was perfectly accurate.

"Following your logic, if she has a video."

"Wouldn't that mean the person who raped Yan Lili was arranged by her?"

Chen Mo followed Long Hao's logic and analyzed further.

If that's truly the case, then Xiao Nuannuan is simply a demon.

Because she liked Zhou Ming, she arranged for someone to rape Zhou Ming's girlfriend.

Then she filmed it and forced the girl to jump.

Is this something a human being would do?

"It seems unbelievable, but it's also the closest fit to the current situation, wouldn't you say?"

"Actually, if it's really like this, the points I was confused about before are all cleared up."

"That is, although Yan Lili was vain, becoming a prostitute is actually a process."

"It's not like someone suddenly lacks money today to buy a bag and immediately dives into the trade to make quick cash."

"Rather, it's about breaking one's bottom line step by step through small things until finally reaching that point."

Long Hao spoke about the information he had gathered from the prostitutes he had arrested before.

Normally, any prostitute you see has gone through a process before that.

Either their upbringing at home wasn't very good and the expectations for them weren't strict.

Or they were led astray by friends while their mindset was still immature.

The most common saying is that you become the kind of person you hang out with.

This saying is a bit absolute.

But it applies to most people.

It's like a sheet of white paper entering a black dye vat.

When it's pulled out, it's hard for it to still be white paper.

The main purpose of saying all this was to emphasize one thing.

And that is Yan Lili becoming a prostitute!

It was likely still related to Xiao Nuannuan.

"You mean...?"

A look of realization dawned on Chen Mo's face; he roughly understood what Long Hao was getting at.

But he still chose to let him elaborate.

"I mean, the fact that she was raped but didn't report it was likely part of Xiao Nuannuan's calculation, and she probably got the recording right then to use as a threat."

"The result was that Yan Lili chose not to call the police, and after that, Xiao Nuannuan continued her schemes."

"I don't know what happened in between, but looking at the result, Yan Lili becoming a prostitute must have been exactly what Xiao Nuannuan wanted to see."

"That way, she had Yan Lili completely under her thumb!"

Having analyzed to this point, a question surfaced in both Long Hao's and Chen Mo's minds.

Xiao Nuannuan did all this.

Just because she simply liked Zhou Ming and wanted to be with him?

If that were really the case, was it necessary to make things so complicated?

Murder!

In the public's perception, that's a choice made only out of the utmost desperation, helplessness, or rage.

Just because she liked Zhou Ming and wanted him to break up with Yan Lili.

She set up a scheme to kill.

To both of them, it felt like a massive overreaction.

Because looking at this series of plans.

With Xiao Nuannuan's intellect.

Pursuing Zhou Ming wouldn't have been an impossible task.

At least, it wasn't something entirely without hope.

"There must be another reason."

Chen Mo spoke these words with certainty.

Any matter with suspicious points won't be as simple as imagined.

While thinking about this problem, a face unconsciously surfaced in his mind.

This face belonged to none other than Ge Xin!

Ge Xin, Yan Lili, Wen Guodong...

The situations of these three people were actually quite similar.

"Future!"

"Controlling the future of others!"

A flash of insight crossed Chen Mo's eyes.

Ge Xin spending the rest of his life in prison was Xiao Nuannuan's handiwork.

Yan Lili's death was also Xiao Nuannuan's handiwork.

Even Wen Guodong, who still hadn't been found.

All three had no future.

Reasoning backward, Wen Guodong is likely already dead!

"Future? You mean Xiao Nuannuan likes the feeling of controlling others' futures?"

"Similar to being able to decide someone's life or death at any time?"

Although it sounded a bit far-fetched, there were commonalities between the three.

If the premise was correct, then Chen Mo's conclusion wouldn't be wrong either.

"Exactly. From the perspective of Criminal Psychology, her actions aren't actually targeted at Yan Lili herself, but rather she enjoys seizing people's leverage and controlling their fates."

"Wen Guodong likely also has leverage in Xiao Nuannuan's hands, though what exactly it is remains unknown."

"None of that is the focus for now."

"Once she's arrested, all the doubts will be revealed."

Chen Mo's tone was firm.

Just as he finished speaking, the sound of footsteps echoed from afar.

Looking over, it was Xu Qingqing.

"Good news, we've found several suspicious points regarding Xiao Nuannuan's movements yesterday."

"Yesterday morning, she was supposed to be conducting patient assessments for her assigned patients, but she appeared in the medical warehouse instead..."

"And according to a nurse, she did indeed see Xiao Nuannuan in the warehouse at that time."

"..."