Chapter 7: The Cause of Death

"The first case occurred 16 days ago, between 8:40 and 9 p.m., a senior college girl surnamed Li accidentally slipped and fell into the lake in the park on her way home from leaving the internship unit. It had rained the day before, and the weather was hot and humid on the night of the incident, and the road surface around the lake was damp with silt. There were originally three street lamps on the shore of the lake, but two of them were broken and only one was left to illuminate, and the surrounding environment was very dim, exactly like the one depicted in your comics, and even the wetness of the surrounding soil after the rain. Jiang Dong lit another cigarette and took a deep breath, he didn't rest all night because of the case that happened yesterday morning.

"......" Li Yifan looked at the criminal policeman opposite, he didn't know what to say, so he could only lower his head helplessly, trying to recall the environment around the drowning girl over and over again in his mind.

"It's just that we wonder why the student is at the lake, she should be closer to the other road in the park when she gets home from work, but if she walks from the lake, it's a long detour. Moreover, there are guardrails and vegetation around the lake, so why she had to walk along the lake, which is full of grass and shrubs, is the only doubt in the case. Jiang Dong stopped, he was waiting for Li Yifan's answer.

When I did the first survey by the lake, it was determined that the girl had fallen into the water. Jiang Dong once suspected that it was not suicide after inspecting the scene by himself, but when the family came to claim the body, the performance of the girl's family, as well as what happened around the girl during this time, made Jiang Dong feel that the girl had a motive to commit suicide again. It wasn't until he saw the comic that he began to wonder if there was something unexpected about it.

"That'...... Didn't you find any traces of the man at the scene? Before Li Yifan came, he planned to ask any question and only answer it because of coincidence, but the sense of justice in his bones, as well as the inexplicable fit between his delusion and reality, wanted to further verify it.

Jiang Dong shook his head, looked at the submissive student in front of him, and remembered the two data maps that his subordinates had taken for him when they investigated Li Yifan before. It was the results of a psychological analysis of an eleven-year-old boy and a testimony from a case nine years ago. After seeing the names on the psychological evaluation materials, Jiang Dong was stunned.

"How is it possible, I see him...... No, I've seen it...... No......" Li Yifan was a little excited, he really didn't know what words to use to describe it, he really saw the man standing by the lake, just under the street lamp, that black face, and that smile.

"I'm sure he's standing by the fence under that streetlight." Li Yifan knew that no one would believe him even if he said it, so he lowered his voice, as if he was talking to himself.

"During the day, there happened to be gardeners who went there to trim the bushes, and they didn't leave until late in the evening, and there were mud marks everywhere on the ground." Jiang Dong said this, Li Yifan should be able to understand, it's not that he didn't find that someone has been there, but there is no way to extract evidence.

Li Yifan helplessly put his hands in front of the table and lowered his head to lean on his hands. How similar it was nine years ago, he bravely stood up, but in exchange for a murderer who was released due to insufficient evidence and a childhood of being spit on and insulted.

"Can you describe that man's face?" Jiang Dong looked at Li Yifan like this, he didn't believe that anyone could see the process of the crime through random delusions, but Jiang Dong has always believed in evidence, and at first he also doubted whether Li Yifan was a murderer, Li Yifan's cartoons recorded the surroundings from the perspective of the deceased, and there was an alibi. So Jiang Dong had to wonder if Li Yifan knew the murderer, if it weren't for those iron-clad alibi, he absolutely suspected that Li Yifan was at the scene at the time.

"......" Li Yifan shook his head, he also hoped that he could see the murderer's face, and he didn't want the girl to die innocently like this, he felt incompetent and useless again, and his psychology was full of self-blame, even if he didn't know the girl.

"Then let's talk about the second case. Committed suicide by cutting his wrists, and the suicide note on the deceased's mobile phone was typed the day before his death. There were no suspicious points at the scene, the only suspicion was that the deceased's blood alcohol exceeded the standard, but no alcohol was extracted from the scene of the crime and the deceased's mouth. According to the call records on her phone, the deceased had been missing for three days. It was only through the background check of the deceased that it was found that she had no motive to commit suicide, and all of her actions did not look like a person who was preparing to commit suicide. Jiang Dong said as he took out four photos from his pocket, put them on the table, and pushed them in front of Li Yifan for him to see.

"Have you seen these two people?"

Li Yifan raised his head and straightened the two photos in front of him, which were photos of the lives of two girls and the scene of the crime. He zoomed in on one of the photos and took a closer look. recognized the fair-skinned girl in the photo, isn't this the student that Lao Tan found to help with coloring! Li Yifan picked up the photo in surprise, he recognized it carefully, and he didn't believe his eyes. "I've seen this...... She...... He's dead? Li Yifan's mind was full of questions, recalling which delusion had appeared in this face.

"Boom......" Jiang Dong lit another cigarette, he squinted his eyes and looked at the photo in Li Yifan's hand through a thin layer of smoke. She was the one who committed suicide in the bathtub. ”

"Her name is Liu ......," Li Yifan couldn't remember the girl's full name.

Liu Xiaofei, she did not have any motive to commit suicide, and she still had frequent social activities three days before her death. According to the investigation at the scene, there was no evidence of the presence of others, homicide was ruled out, no drugs such as psychedelics were taken, and no other external injuries were found except for the cut on the wrist, and the only suspicious point of the girl's death was the motive for suicide.

"......" In addition to being silent, Li Yifan didn't know what he should say.

"Don't you want to tell me the story from your comics, or your ...... Delusion? Jiang Dong spat out a puff of cigarette and squinted at Li Yifan opposite. He didn't believe in any delusions, in Jiang Dong's opinion, Li Yifan must have some connection with the murderer, or the murderer told him about the murder process. If it weren't for the fact that no equipment such as a camera was found at the scene, he would suspect that Li Yifan installed a camera in the deceased's home and watched the deceased slowly die at the time of the crime. The more he thought about it, the more he looked at the young man in front of him unpleasantly.

"It was just my dream, and in my dream, they didn't commit suicide." Li Yifan looked at Jiang Dong with firm eyes, and Jiang Dong raised his eyes and motioned for him to continue. "I can feel their fear, and ...... And that desire to survive, that desire to survive...... That fear of watching himself die...... "Li Yifan's head hurt violently again, he subconsciously touched the medicine in his pocket of his clothes, quickly took it out, fed the noon medicine to his mouth, picked up the mineral water on the table, and drank it in one go. The water was bought by Jiang Dong's subordinates when he came in.

"What do you see?" Jiang Dong stared at Li Yifan and asked with a contemptuous expression.

"I witnessed the whole process of their death, or rather, I felt the whole process of their death!" Li Yifan wiped the water from his mouth and looked at Jiang Dong firmly.

"Oh?" Jiang Dong sneered, spit out another puff of cigarette, and waited for Li Yifan to continue to speak.

Li Yifan held his head, which was still a little painful, rubbed his temples vigorously, he closed his eyes, and while recalling the whole process of drowning that day, he told Jiang Dong all the details he saw, for fear that he had missed something.

"According to you, someone pushed her down at the time?" After Jiang Dong listened to Li Yifan's narration, after making sure that Li Yifan really "saw" the whole process of the case, he asked his subordinates next to him to take out the notebook he carried with him and began to record all the key points and details that Li Yifan said.

"Well, yes, I can clearly feel the force, there is a great force that pushes her off the lake." Li Yifan recalled. "She must have been drugged!" Li Yifan remembered the dazed feeling in the water when he just fell into the lake, and he must have been drugged.

"However, I haven't seen her, and if Bai Ran said, I should have seen her before she was killed." Li Yifan couldn't remember where he had seen this girl.

Jiang Dong knocked on the lighter on the table, and was stunned for a moment when he heard Bai Ran's name. His expression was solemn, thinking thoughtfully, and suddenly, he put down the lighter in his hand and said to Li Yifan seriously: "No! You've seen her, and there! ”