Chapter 185

"September 20th, Mom wasn't home, Dad and I went out to look for Mom."

"October 15th, Mom still hadn't come back."

The diary ended there, and Chen Fan didn't continue reading further. He silently lit a cigarette and said, "Teacher, we've been going down the wrong path."

"Can you really find her?"

Chen Fan said, "Yes, but the result might be very disappointing for you. This woman—I estimate she had cervical cancer."

Old Liu stared at Chen Fan's analysis, completely dumbfounded.

The audience was dumbfounded too—how on earth did he figure that out?

Meanwhile, in the observation room, Qin Ming was also baffled. He said, "That's impossible. No one could possibly do something like this."

Teacher He said, "It can't really be like this, can it?"

"This doesn't follow logic. There's no reason Chen Fan could deduce it like that."

The audience's faces were full of question marks.

Chen Fan opened the file and said, "This is this woman's DNA, right? Everyone's done the lab analysis, right?"

Old Liu nodded.

Chen Fan continued, "I looked at the recipes and menus. This family was quite poor at first, so this woman rarely ate anything good, right?"

"Yes."

"Then after giving birth to Song Zuer, even the eggs she ate were eaten with the shell on, which shows eggs were scarce. People who don't eat well get sick easily. This woman had already fallen ill."

Fallen ill?

Old Liu suddenly thought of something and said, "Li Tian knows."

"Right. I trust Li Tian's ability. From the very start he deduced it, he just didn't say it. If Old Song found out, that man would have collapsed."

"But you just said it now."

"Old Song's daughter is already grown, Old Song won't collapse. But back then, if he'd said it, Old Song would have definitely broken down."

At that moment, the door was pushed open. Old Song looked at Chen Fan, and Chen Fan said, "Don't look at me—you were the one who asked me to find her."

"Where is she?"

Chen Fan said, "You should be the one asking—where she might have gone to end her own life. You should ask yourself where she would choose."

Old Song tried hard to recall and said, "I know."

The three of them then drove to a mountain, climbed Dengshan, and went up to the mountaintop.

"This should be the place she wanted to come. Back then, this was where I first confessed to her."

Chen Fan said, "You're quite the romantic."

"Nonsense. I told you, I was very handsome when I was young. That's not the point. Where is she—even if she's dead, I need to know where she is."

Chen Fan said, "Mm, we can only search at the foot of the mountain."

Old Song nodded.

Then they contacted relatives, family, and friends.

They didn't contact the police, because that resource couldn't be diverted.

Everyone began searching.

In the end, when someone walked out carrying a bone, Old Song cried like a broken fool.

With lifeless eyes he stared at the bone and said, "This shouldn't be hers. This absolutely cannot be hers."

Chen Fan didn't answer, and Old Liu didn't answer either.

After bringing the bone back, they did a comparison, and when the results came out, the answer was affirmative—it was this woman.

Old Song hugged the bone and wept, and Song Zuer also came—more accurately, when she went looking for her mother, Song Zuer had already come.

She didn't speak, doing her best to comfort her father.

This went on for a whole day. Although these newcomers were studying Forensic experience and had tried dissecting corpses, the audience was all concerned.

How they hoped it wasn't her.

How they hoped this result was false.

Old Song silently lit a cigarette and said, "Mm, sorry for giving you a laugh. I'll go prepare other things."

Chen Fan held Old Song back and said, "Don't rush."

?????

Chen Fan's action startled Old Song.

Old Liu said, "Let's do the bone assessment first."

Bone assessment.

Just how much can be seen from it?

Old Song shifted from grief to hatred and said, "Mm, alright. I'll wait for your results on my end."

Chen Fan and Old Liu carried out a bone simulation experiment—something forensic examiners often do.

The young Zheng Xiao before had done the same—running strike simulations to determine how the injuries were caused. To find the blade that made the wound, they even stabbed a lot of pork.

All just to determine the force of the final blow.

Chen Fan looked at the leg bone and the rib and said, "It's a fall injury, but this spot here—something's off."

Old Liu looked at the pelvis and said, "Mm, when a person falls, a lot of uncertain things can happen. There's no way to determine it."

"You saw the scene too. That area has a lot of trees—in theory, there's a chance of impact."

Old Liu slammed the table and said, "Chen Fan, what exactly are you thinking? I told you, a forensic examiner needs to be rational, but you can't be so cold-blooded as to have no feeling at all. Do you know what your words represent?"

"It means this woman didn't die from the fall. The cause of death might not be blood loss—she might have starved to death, died of pain, or even been seen by someone, then assaulted and killed."

All of these are possible, but every single outcome tugs at the heart.

Outside the door, Old Song listened to the two of them speak in silence.

Chen Fan continued examining the pelvis, conducting an impact experiment.

"Mm, the sexual assault can be ruled out—this spot here was caused by a fall."

Suddenly, for a brief moment, everyone felt a weight lift from their shoulders.

It seemed, somehow, their hearts felt a little easier. Thank goodness the worst-case scenario hadn't appeared.

"If someone discovered it, they might have hidden it away."

Chen Fan said, "Human nature—you can never explain it. We're forensic doctors. We don't study human whims, only corpses. Corpses have no human nature."

Old Liu pointed at the hand bones and said, "See the displacement? Tell me, how was it caused?"

"Damage from prolonged labor, accumulated over months and years."

"Good, let me ask you again—what can you see here on the skull?"

Chen Fan said, "The skull is a bit lighter than a normal person's, which indicates this woman suffered from prolonged migraines. Blood was flowing through the brain, stimulating it."

"Let me ask you again—how exactly was the pelvis shattered?"

"A long-standing ailment, combined with the fall, produced this result."

Old Liu said, "Then in all of this, is there any human nature, any of the seven emotions and six desires?"

"No."

Chen Fan, cold as a machine at this moment, answered the question. Old Liu stared silently at Chen Fan without speaking.

After writing up the report, Chen Fan handed the document to Old Song and said, "Here you go."

Old Song looked at Chen Fan and said, "When you have time, let's go to the boxing gym. Out in the open, let's have a proper fight. Right now I really want to strangle you."

"Sorry, I'm a forensic doctor. This is my job."

"This is the first time in my life I've hated a forensic doctor."

In the observation room, Qin Ming could only sigh helplessly.

Teacher He wiped the corner of his eye and said, "I've already pictured a scene in my mind—the woman had made up her mind to die, didn't want to be a burden on her family, but in the end she didn't die from the fall, and had to endure the final torment."

Qin Ming said, "Perhaps she fainted, and then passed away. Would putting it that way make it any easier?"

Over here, Zhang Xinyu shook her head and said, "But if she was conscious, how painful must that have been."

Painful?

The lawyer beside them said, "The pain of cervical cancer was already that severe. Do you think this woman would care about this kind of pain? Let me put it another way—she was a great mother."

Zhang Xinyu said, "Oh right, who is today's guest? Everyone said the guest had arrived, but I haven't seen them."

Hu Ge said, "It's Song Zuer. She only just found out that Chen Fan's side was investigating the case about her mother, so she's been following along, quietly watching."

Qin Ming silently opened his notebook and wrote down a passage.