Chapter 1491: A Little Sweetness with the Forensic Doctor 04

To avoid causing panic among residents, Jin Chen didn't drive the police bureau's car; he drove his own off‑road vehicle.

Even if you put it the way Duan Xiao Bai does, it didn't really lessen the attention much.

The atmosphere inside the car was unusually silent.

Usually talkative Duan Xiao Bai, sitting in the passenger seat, was a bit frozen by this atmosphere, and only after a while did he think of an ice‑breaker topic.

"Wu Lin was temporarily assigned here, right? Is your current place still convenient?"

"It's fine, not far from the bureau." Wu Lin had no intention of chatting further, and the topic ended there.

Jin Chen glanced at the rearview mirror, "Tonight I'll throw a welcome banquet for Forensic Doctor Wu."

"No need, thanks, Captain."

"Don't be so distant; a brother has only one heart—if it breaks, it's gone."

While Jin Chen spoke flippantly, his gaze in the rearview mirror meeting Wu Lin's held a smile, his sharp brows and eyes softening by a third.

Wu Lin avoided eye contact, the hand resting on his trouser leg rubbed a few times, and a dark hue flickered in the depths of his eyes.

"Sure." Wu Lin suddenly changed his answer, "Then I'll trouble the Jin Team."

"No problem even if it's a bit more trouble." Jin Chen answered offhand, turning the steering wheel toward the residential area's entrance.

Knowing their captain's nature, Duan Xiao Bai and Yi Tian exchanged a glance, secretly widening their eyes.

"The captain won't fall for an ice‑cold beauty, will he!"

——

The weather in X City in October was still very hot.

The black off‑road vehicle stopped at the temporary parking spot in the residential area, and Yi Tian showed his credentials to the security guard.

"Hey, okay, go in."

The security guard wiped his sweat and still curiously asked, "Officer, what are you investigating? Did something happen?"

Jin Chen didn't give specifics, "It's not convenient to disclose; has the residential area had any special entry/exit records lately?"

"Really, nothing at all—everything's normal." Seeing the question couldn't be answered, the security guard retreated to his booth and closed the window.

Upon reaching the building, Jin Chen first took them to the store to buy water, then asked the shop owner if she knew the Zhou Ming family.

In the afternoon the store was nearly empty; seeing the credentials, the shop owner piped up in a thin voice, "I know them—they've been old customers."

"His mother isn't inconvenient, she just orders water and milk from us every half month, and I have my husband deliver it on schedule. Zhou Ming, though, often comes here to buy snacks."

Jin Chen didn't pause while grabbing water from the fridge, handed a bottle to Wu Lin, and asked, "Has Zhou Ming been around lately?"

The shop owner exclaimed, "Come to think of it, it's strange—lately Zhou Ming has been coming less often, and each time he picks the cheapest, biggest packs of biscuits and bread, buying a heap; we've been wondering if his family's run out of money."

"No money? I think it's just that the young folks have something expensive to spend on." The old man sitting at the doorway reading a newspaper interjected, "My grandson's just like that—he'll neglect food and sleep for a game skin, pouring all his money into it."

Jin Chen and Wu Lin exchanged a glance, simultaneously thinking of the roommate's mention that Zhou Ming liked to draw.

"Could he be buying paint supplies?"

"Sir, do you know the Zhou Ming family?" Yi Tian asked.

"Eh, I wouldn't say I know them, just heard a bit—this family isn't harmonious." The old man shook his head, "If they were, why would a perfectly fine child be unhappy?"

Just then the elevator came down; Jin Chen paid and left the store.

The shop owner sighed again, "Goodness, it's likely something happened at home—here come the police."

The old man shook out his newspaper, folded it, slipped it into his pocket, and said, "Shop owner, give me a pack of cigarettes."

"Hey, what kind of cigarettes?" The shop owner brushed off the melon‑seed shells and got ready for business.

——

A woman in a wheelchair opened the door for them—it was Zhou Ming's mother.

At first sight of her, Duan Xiao Bai was a bit surprised.

According to the files, Zhou Ming's mother is under fifty, yet her complexion is withered, her hair all white, her dry, furrowed face only moistened by tears, and she cries hoarsely.

"He's only twenty… twenty!" Her cracked lips trembled with tears, the rough fingers that constantly gripped the wheelchair seized Duan Xiao Bai's hand, and her voice was squeezed out of her ravaged throat.

"Officer, you… you must find the murderer!"

"Don't worry, we'll do our best—can you cooperate and tell us something?" As the sole female in the team, Duan Xiao Bai was skilled at consoling victims' families; Zhou Ming's mother at least stopped crying, and Duan Xiao Bai pushed her into the living room to learn about Zhou Ming's situation.

Duan Xiao Bai sat beside Zhou Ming's mother, looked at Jin Chen and nodded, signalling that they could begin.

Yi Tian tacitly took out a notebook to record.

Jin Chen asked, "How long has Zhou Ming's depression been going on, and did you stay in touch before the incident?"

Upon hearing these two questions from Jin Chen, Zhou Ming's mother began to cry again, though without tears—apparently she'd cried them dry over the years.

"It's been almost five years; the medicine is nearly bankrupting us! I'm like this all for him—why won't he just study properly? What can you do if you don't study? He insists on learning that self‑harm nonsense from the internet!"

The more she spoke, the more agitated she became; her withered, coarse hair stood on end, her voice, already hoarse to the extreme, rose in pitch: "I told him not to dwell on unhappy things all day, to get into college and study properly—yet he wouldn't listen… Look, look, right after being expelled from college, something happened… My poor son…"

Jin Chen fell silent for a moment, unable to link his depression‑induced withdrawal with the victimization; they weren't causally related.

Because of Zhou Ming's mother's words, the living‑room atmosphere quickly grew oppressive.

Only then did Jin Chen notice that the lights throughout the house were very dim yellow, some flickering—perhaps the bulbs had failed and no one replaced them.

The fallen walls were plastered with awards, some faded, others stained red by leaks into streaks, filling the whole house with a suffocating, tense atmosphere.

Zhou Ming's mother cried for a good while before saying that on the day of the incident she hadn't contacted him—in fact, she hadn't been in touch for the past several months.

"The school's close to home, so I let him just stay here; the dormitory really has no vacancy for him to return, and home is much better."

"But once he started college, he grew rebellious—didn't obey like in high school, wanted to draw, and whenever he came back he wouldn't talk to me, just grabbed his stuff and ran to his room."

Duan Xiao Bai asked, "Are you not allowing him to draw?"

"How could we afford his art supplies!" Zhou Ming's mother flushed, forcing out her voice: "What future could drawing bring? Our situation is what it is, and the legacy his short‑lived father left only covers his steady college tuition."

"He ought to study hard, then find a good job and make something of himself—that's the proper path!"

Having heard that, Jin Chen stopped focusing on Zhou Ming's mother and turned his gaze to the several rooms beside the living room.

We need to go check Zhou Ming's room. Jin Chen said.

Continue investigating the situation.

Yi Tian: "Alright, Jin Team."