Chapter 1490: A Little Sugar for the Forensic Doctor 03

After finishing the soy milk, his empty stomach felt much better, and Wu Lin's furrowed brows relaxed as he added, "There is also toxin residue on the victim's skin."

According to the autopsy, the victim's lungs showed signs of having been in water before death, and the toxin may have accompanied respiratory paralysis and organ failure symptoms.

But nowadays many drugs, when overdosed after being compounded, easily cause such symptoms, so they cannot serve as a diagnostic standard; specifics still await the test results.

Jin Chen had just finished reviewing Zhou Ming's file and asked Wei Yan, "Have Zhou Ming's relatives been contacted?"

Wei Yan slowly hung up the phone and shook his head: "According to the records, Zhou Ming's father has been dead for a long time; his mother had an accident and can only sit in a wheelchair, so we can't reach her for now—her phone is off."

However, his three roommates have been reached and said they are willing to cooperate with the investigation.

Yu Jue poked his head out and said, "Jin Team, Zhou Ming's roommates are in the interrogation room; shall we go listen?"

"Let's go." Jin Chen slung his half-bent arm over Wu Lin's shoulder, his carefree tone tinged with pleasure, "Doctor Wu, do you want to come along?"

Wu Lin's gaze lingered on his arm for a few seconds, then he said, "Hmm, let go of my hand."

Jin Chen curled the corner of his mouth: "It's fine, bro doesn't despise you, no flavor!"

He is very sensitive to the smell of corpses! His wife must have cleaned it very thoroughly.

Wu Lin: "……"

Who exactly is looking down on whom.

Most likely he couldn't stand playing the rascal; Wu Lin left first, moving without any warning, leaving Jin Chen's arm unsupported and almost causing him to stumble.

"Pfft..." Yu Jue burst out laughing; Jin Chen gave him a light glance, and he instantly made a zipping-the-lips gesture, "Not funny at all."

Wei Yan, half a beat slow, only laughed after a few seconds.

Jin Chen: "……"

This protagonist, being sturdy and simple-minded like a sloth, how did he get entangled with the seemingly shrewd protagonist attacker from the original storyline?

——

Outside the one-way glass of the interrogation room, members of the Major Case Team were listening and observing Zhou Ming's roommates' statements.

Roommate C said: "He had been acting strangely for a while; not long after school started, he had already engaged in self-harm. When we returned to the dorm after military training, we saw blood all over the floor… we were so frightened that we didn't dare sleep that night."

Roommate C seemed to have a big grudge against Zhou Ming, speaking the most, but most of it was just complaints.

"Later we found out he suffered from severe depression, but I always feel… he's not like ordinary depression patients; there's a gloomy, unspeakable aura about him…"

Roommate A appeared the most tense, constantly maintaining a pressured neck-rubbing posture, half-bent over, sitting defensively opposite the police.

"This classmate, you look very nervous." The interrogating officer also noticed, saying, "Based on the statement just now from the classmate next to you, you and Zhou Ming are bunkmates, and you usually get along well as friends, right?"

"Yes…… I…"

Roommate A then suddenly started scratching his head, finally let out a deep sigh, bent over with his arms propped on his knees, raised his hand to wipe his face, and said, "I'm not nervous; I… I just don't know what to say."

"The day Zhou Ming was persuaded to withdraw, he said some old-fashioned, weird things to me."

"What did he say." The officer asked immediately, and the recorder also looked over.

The air conditioning in the interrogation room was on full blast; Roommate A took several deep breaths, barely calmed down, and said, "He said… everything is gone, and then he uttered a very strange sentence."

"I am but dust, and shall still return to dust."

Roommate B sat up straight in surprise, "His notebook has this very sentence on it."

"A notebook?" The officer instantly became alert, "Have you looked at his notebook?"

"No, no, no, I haven't looked at it; he never lets anyone touch that notebook, and that sentence is written on the cover—I've only seen it once."

Roommate B, fearing the police might think there was some bullying, added, "If it were something else, it would be fine, but that sentence is extremely strange; I remembered it after seeing it once."

Outside the one-way glass, Wu Lin rubbed his wrist in thought, his voice cold: "This sentence comes from the Bible."

Yu Jue hurriedly asked, "Does it carry any meaning? Taken literally, it sounds like a desire to commit suicide."

Wu Lin: "It can be understood literally; in the Bible, it is God's warning to Adam for stealing the forbidden fruit, and even now, many clergy say the same thing during funerals for believers."

Jin Chen raised his eyebrows, "Do you think Zhou Ming might be a believer?"

"Not necessarily." Wu Lin's tone remained calm, "I'm more inclined to see it as a severely depressed person's self-forgiveness and consolation regarding his own life."

Yu Jue wrote this sentence in his little notebook, "It might also be a clue."

The interrogation officer then asked the three roommates, "Does Zhou Ming usually have any special hobbies? Besides you, does he have any other friends at school?"

Roommate C exclaimed excitedly, "Drawing! He's always sketching weird pictures in the dorm; they turn out pretty good. I even asked him why he didn't major in art, and he reacted strongly that time! After that, we never dared to bring up drawing or anything like that again."

"As for friends, I'm not sure; he always keeps to himself."

Jin Chen: "Indeed, among the residues found at the scene, there are fabric fragments stained with pigment."

Wu Lin's rubbing of his left wrist became a bit stronger; the faint pain helped his thinking, "Pigment…?"

Respiratory paralysis, pulmonary edema leading to failure.

"Could the poisonous substance be pigment?"

While Wu Lin thought, his voice was low; Jin Chen heard it and merely glanced at him, seeing that Wu Lin hadn't confirmed it, he didn't press further.

"Jin Team!" Duan Xiao Bai walked over, "Zhou Ming's relatives have been contacted; his mother is very agitated and inconvenienced, so she might not be able to come to the police station."

Jin Chen raised his wrist to check the time, "Let's go over, and meanwhile we'll check Zhou Ming's residence."

"Xiao Bai, Yi Tian, you follow me; Yu Jue, take two more people to the scene to examine details, while Ke Xiu and Wei Yan continue tracking Zhou Ming's movements during this period."

"Yes."

Jin Chen made a sound, seeing Wu Lin unmoved, "Come with us for a trip."

Wu Lin frowned, "I'm a forensic doctor."

"Don't you want to know whether Zhou Ming really died from pigment poisoning?" Jin Chen persisted, "Besides, we're short-staffed; Doctor Wu, show some goodwill."

Wu Lin looked at Jin Chen, whose eyes practically spelled out 'please' in bright letters, making it hard to muster any refusal.

He let out a barely perceptible sigh, "Let's go."