Seeing the crime scene flashbacks made me the darling of the police station.

Chapter 83 Meeting the Victim's Family

After leaving the conference room, Zhuang Yanzheng followed Meng Shuyi to the office.

Su Miaoyi and Yan Cheng went to the cafeteria.

It was well past lunchtime, and the cafeteria was almost empty.

Su Miaoyi put down her plate and ate two mouthfuls of rice first.

Yan Cheng sat opposite her and placed the soup he had served next to her.

"Thank you." Su Miaoyi picked up the soup and took two sips.

She felt that if she didn't eat something soon, she would faint in a second right there at the city bureau.

Her phone rang twice. She took it out and saw it was a message from Jiang Junrui.

Routine greetings.

She doesn't usually reply.

She wanted to see what he was really up to.

She put down her phone and looked at Yan Cheng.

Yan Cheng looked up at her, then said one word: "Speak."

Su Miaoyi smiled and asked, "Under what circumstances would a person suddenly lose a piece of memory?"

Yan Cheng looked at her: "Have you forgotten something?"

Su Miaoyi nodded: "Is it possible for there to be a few days of blank memory?"

Yan Cheng paused for a moment and said, "That's possible. In cases of traumatic brain injury, such as concussion, we call it retrograde amnesia, which means you can't remember the circumstances of the injury. For example, after waking up, you forget how you got injured. You forget recent memories, but you still have distant memories."

He continued, "Or, if you have experienced severe trauma or injury, your brain will automatically block or seal away some information related to that memory. It's a self-protective mechanism to reduce the harm to yourself. But in this case, you usually know that the memory is bad, but you can't recall the details. And it's not a complete forgetting; the damage you suffered during that time will still affect your behavioral patterns."

Su Miaoyi frowned and thought carefully: "I have completely forgotten. I have no idea what I was doing those days. I did go to Jiangcheng those days, but I don't remember going to Jiangcheng at all."

Yan Cheng looked at her: "You have absolutely no memory of this?"

Su Miaoyi nodded and described the feeling: "It was as if I had left this world for those few days and hadn't experienced anything at all."

After listening to her description, Yan Cheng paused and said, "If you have time, you can go to the hospital for a check-up to see if there is any damage to your brain."

Su Miaoyi nodded.

After finishing their meal, the two returned to the office area.

They happened to run into Zhuang Yanzheng, Kang Ting, and Song Yucheng.

"Captain Kang?" Su Miaoyi called out.

Kang Ting nodded.

Song Yucheng glanced at her but didn't say anything.

Su Miaoyi simply greeted them and didn't ask any further questions.

The only thing I can do here is handle case-solving work.

She wasn't an employee of the municipal bureau, so she couldn't ask just anything.

Zhuang Yanzheng said, "Wei Lan's parents are here. Come with me to meet them."

Su Miaoyi nodded.

Yan Cheng went to the forensic center.

Kang Ting and Song Yucheng also went to get busy.

“Cao Hong is in Jinghai,” Zhuang Yanzheng suddenly said as he walked.

Su Miaoyi looked at him: "Captain Kang and the others are here to arrest Cao Hong?"

Zhuang Yanzheng nodded, then turned his head and looked at her.

Needless to say.

Both of them understood what the other was thinking. If Cao Hong was in Jinghai, the probability that he was the one who searched Su Miaoyi's residence would increase.

"Let's wait for the results of the arrest," Zhuang Yanzheng said.

Su Miaoyi nodded.

The two went to meet Wei Lan's parents.

They had just seen the bodies of Wei Lan and Wei Hong.

Both of them were in very bad shape.

“We’ve wronged our child. Because of her congenital intellectual disability, we left her with our parents and rarely come back,” Wei Lan’s mother said. “Actually, no matter how busy I am with work, I can always find time to come back, but I don’t dare to come back. I don’t dare to face my child. When I see her, I feel like I’m going to die. With my child like this, what am I going to do? I feel like my life is over.”

Su Miaoyi looked at her without saying a word.

“She was too young, I didn’t dare come back to face her. Now that she’s grown up, I’ve gotten used to her not being around.” She said, crying, without making any excuses for her neglect of her child over the years.

Wei Lan's father continued, "Actually, we've always wanted to bring you and the children to live with us. After all, my father is getting old, his legs aren't strong, and his hearing and eyesight aren't good either. But my father refuses to live with us no matter what. He says he's lived in Jinghai his whole life and is worried that if he leaves, he won't be able to come back. That place is dilapidated, but he has feelings for it. He says he wants to die in that house."

"So my husband and I discussed it and decided that after the New Year, we would go back to work in Jinghai. But..."

The man wiped away the tears on his face.

Wei Lan's mother wiped away her tears and said, "Ever since my mother-in-law passed away, we have made a video call to my father-in-law every night to ask about him and the children. We have been doing this for the past two years."

After they finished speaking, Zhuang Yanzheng asked, "Did the elderly mention anything when you called home these past few days?"

Wei Lan's father said, "No. Everything is normal. We just chat about everyday things, talk about what we did each day, and ask what we ate."

Su Miaoyi thought for a moment, and then asked Zhuang Yanzheng's question, "Did the old man mention anyone or any interaction with young people?"

Since Zhuang Yanzheng suspects it was a premeditated crime, the murderer might be someone he knows or has met before.

According to the sketch of the murderer, he was about twenty-two or twenty-three years old.

They are not people in the elderly's social circle.

That means they might have had some kind of interaction.

“No.” Wei Lan’s father thought carefully. “It’s been just over two months. It’s getting cold, and it’s the season for candied hawthorns. There’s a hawthorn tree downstairs in my neighborhood that my father planted. He used to take my daughter to make candied hawthorns and sell them at a stall near the overpass. That’s how we might interact with young people.”

"But my father didn't mention anyone."

Su Miaoyi and Zhuang Yanzheng exchanged a glance.

The police officer standing nearby was taking notes.

"Now that you've asked, I suddenly feel that Wei Lan's behavior has been a bit off lately," Wei Lan's mother suddenly said.

Su Miaoyi and Zhuang Yanzheng both looked at her at the same time.

"Something's not right?" Zhuang Yanzheng asked.

“Before, when we video-called home, Wei Lan would sit quietly next to my father-in-law and watch us. She would smile when we talked to her,” Wei Lan’s mother said. “But for the past month or so, her eyes have become somewhat vacant. When we talk to her, she ignores us and stops smiling. Occasionally, she will shout ‘ah ah ah’ at us.”

“She was taught sign language, but she couldn’t learn it. Sometimes, even my father-in-law can’t understand what she’s trying to say.”

Su Miaoyi and Zhuang Yanzheng exchanged a glance.

Wei Lan's mother started crying again as she spoke: "It's all my fault. If I had been more careful, this might not have happened."

“When Wei Lan was little, there was a period when she was very emotionally unstable. One minute she would be laughing, and the next she would be grabbing her hair and screaming,” Wei Lan’s father said. “I thought it was because of her emotional instability. But now that I think about it, she hasn’t done this since she was ten years old. It’s really our fault for being careless.”

Su Miaoyi frowned slightly.

Wei Lan has intellectual disabilities. There are many things she may not know or understand, and she cannot express or speak them.

Zhuang Yanzheng's phone suddenly rang.

Su Miaoyi looked over.

It was Yan Cheng who called.

Zhuang Yanzheng answered the phone.

Yan Cheng said on the phone, "Captain Zhuang, I have a new discovery."