Chapter 9: Lincheng Hospital

  It always feels like this winter is colder than previous years, even with the air conditioner on in the car, Wu Hui still felt a chill, perhaps it's not the weather that's cold, but rather a coldness within his heart that he can't seem to melt.

  The air conditioner in the car was warm, but Wu Hui felt a bit stuffy. His chest felt like it had a stone pressed against it, making him breathe hard. He moved his body and still felt some difficulty breathing. Helplessly, he opened the window. As soon as the window opened, the biting cold wind outside rushed into the car, and Wu Hui shivered with cold.

  "If it's cold, close the window." Since Wu Hui got on the car, Guo Yining felt that Wu Hui was not right, couldn't see the deep wisdom in his eyes, but a kind of escape.

  "A bit stuffy, let's take a walk and get some fresh air, it'll clear our heads." Wu Hui moved his neck to loosen himself up.

  Guo Yining knew that Wu Hui had something on his mind, but he didn't ask. Like Wu Hui, he rolled down the car window halfway, but the air conditioner in the car was still not turned off. He worried that Wu Hui would catch a cold. "Actually, I rarely turn on the air conditioner. I still like the feeling of winter, although it's very cold, my mind is clear."

  "Yes, the cold can make people sober, and pain will make people remember." Wu Hui looked out of the car window, thinking of some past events, some things he buried in his heart, unwilling to think about or touch.

  Guo Yining didn't respond to Wu Hui's words, he knew what he should say and what he shouldn't, so he just drove quietly. Before long, they arrived at Lincheng People's Hospital. It was extremely cold outside, but the hospital entrance was always crowded with people, no matter what time you came, there were always this many people. "Still so many people, parking is really a hassle."

  Wu Hui watched as an ambulance drove out of the hospital with its siren blaring. He really didn't want to come to this place, the smell of disinfectant made him feel dizzy and his heart was racing. "What hospitals don't lack is people."

  It took Guo Yining more than 20 minutes to park the car in the underground parking lot, and when they finally parked the car and walked out of the underground parking lot, there were still many cars stuck outside, looking for a parking space.

  Entering the hospital, it was crowded and noisy inside. Wu Hui looked at the ten elevators that were in operation, with people packed tightly in front of each elevator door, including those visiting patients and family members returning with food, all squeezed together to the point where it seemed impossible to squeeze in any further.

  " Forget it, waiting for the elevator is going to take forever, I'll just take the stairs." Guo Yining took a look at the hospital's directory and saw that the psychology department was on the 10th floor. Although the floor was quite high, if she waited for the elevator, who knows when she would finally get there.

  Wu Hui furrowed his brow, the 10th floor was indeed a bit high, but looking at the people in front of the elevator door, he finally nodded reluctantly and climbed the stairs with Guo Yining.

  By the time they reached the 6th floor, Wu Hui was already panting heavily, his throat feeling dry and itchy. Normally he didn't exercise much, so this amount of physical activity was a bit too much for him.

  "How about taking a break?" Guo Yining was a detective, and this many floors were nothing to him.

  Wu Hui looked up at the floor sign and saw that there were still 4 floors left. "Forget it, there are still 4 floors left, let's just climb up."

  "Alright, let's take a break on the 10th floor." Guo Yining slowed down her pace and walked shoulder to shoulder with Wu Hui.

  They arrived at the 10th floor, and Guo Yining told Wu Hui to rest for a while. Wu Hui leaned against the wall, panting heavily, and didn't refuse because he really didn't have the energy to speak anymore.

  Guo Yining glanced at the corridor, where three rooms on the east side were for psychological treatment. Taking advantage of Wu Hui's break time, he came to the nurse station and inquired with the nurses about which department Duan Qicai was in. The nurse told him that Duan Qicai wasn't seeing patients today and should be in the inpatient department. The young nurse, who looked like she was over 20 years old, knew Guo Yining was a criminal police officer and enthusiastically offered to lead the way. Seeing that Wu Hui's break was almost over, Guo Yining called out to him to follow the young nurse to the inpatient department.

  "Director Duan, someone is looking for you." Just then, they arrived at the inpatient department and ran into Director Duan Qicai who had just finished his rounds. The little nurse hastily stepped forward to say this.

  "Excuse me, who are you?" Duan Qicai looked at Guo Yining and the other person with some confusion, they didn't seem to be patients.

  "Excuse me, are you Dr. Duan Qicai?" Guo Yining walked up to Duan Qicai and looked him up and down, who appeared to be in his forties, unexpectedly already a department director.

  "It's me."

  "Hello, we are from the Major Crimes Unit. This is my ID and this is my colleague, Wu Hui!" Guo Yining took out her ID.

  "Please come in!" Duan Qicai checked the documents and confirmed Guo Yining's identity, then led them into his office.

  "Doctor Duan, it's like this. We have some things we want to ask you about. Do you still remember a patient of yours from five years ago named Wang Ting?" Guo Yining asked straightforwardly.

  "Are you talking about Wang Ting who committed suicide at home?"

  "That's right."

  "I remember, at that time I saw the news and the police also came to ask me about it. Actually, I didn't know much about her, she had only come to my clinic once." He remembered that five years ago, two policemen also came to ask him about Wang Ting's affairs, so he remembers Wang Ting.

  "I saw in Wang Ting's file that she had a diagnosis of depression signed by Dr. Duan, I want to know some information about her depression."

  "Not bad, at that time I indeed diagnosed her with depression, but her depression was in the early stages, if she took her medication on time, there shouldn't be any major issues."

  "Are you saying she couldn't have killed herself?"

  "This can't be 100% confirmed, although I diagnosed her with early-stage depression. If she receives a strong emotional stimulus, it's highly likely that her condition will worsen. If she were to commit suicide, it's not impossible."

  "Is it correct to understand that if Wang Ting hadn't received any stimulation and took her medication on time, she wouldn't have had suicidal tendencies?"

  "Based on my many years of clinical trials, I can say this."

  "What kind of stimulus can make her have suicidal tendencies?"

  "This is hard to say, for example, she didn't take her medicine on time, or someone gave her other medicine, or maybe she saw or heard something that she least wanted to see or hear, many possibilities."

  "Do you still remember who accompanied her for the consultation at that time?"

  An old woman heard Wang Ting calling her Wu Ma.

  "Mom Wu? How could it be her?" Wu Hui heard that the person who came to accompany Wang Ting to see a doctor was Mom Wu, which made him somewhat surprised. The relationship between Wang Ting and Mom Wu seemed not simple.

  "Wang Ting's death doesn't seem to be a simple suicide, but it's been so many years since the incident, I don't know if we can still find out something." The two of them left the hospital at noon, and Guo Yining casually found a small restaurant, where they ordered two bowls of noodles.

  Just out of the hospital, looking at the two bowls of noodles on the table with some greasiness, Wu Hui ate two mouthfuls and stopped moving. It was Guo Yining who ate very fragrantly. "The time is indeed a bit long, when Wang Ting's suicide case was handled, it was also very perfunctory, and some evidence was also vague."

  "So where should we start now?" Guo Yining said with a mouthful of food, speaking somewhat unclearly.

  "At the scene, where Wang Ting committed suicide that year, I looked at the case files. The place where Wang Ting committed suicide was not Liu Jianjun's current residence." Wu Hui rubbed his temples, his head aching slightly, and to distract himself, he lit a cigarette.

  "Well, that place is Liu Jianjun's villa in the suburbs. It's strange, this small city has a population of only a few hundred thousand, but he went to the suburbs and bought a villa. The environment there is good, but it's also very quiet, especially at night, it's as quiet as death." When mentioning Liu Jianjun's villa in the suburbs, Guo Yining paused for a moment, that place was rarely visited by people, if Liu Jianjun committed a crime there, even if someone nearby heard something, they wouldn't be able to hear anything.

  Wu Hui also thought of this point, looking through the smoke at Guo Yining, and saw the same idea in Guo Yining's eyes.

  Guo Yining didn't eat anymore, pulled Wu Hui and rushed to the bureau, he wanted to quickly apply for a search warrant, after so many days, it was unknown whether Liu Jianjun had already cleared everything in the villa.

  Guo Yining brought the people from the law and politics department to Liu Jianjun's villa in the suburbs. Although Liu Jianjun no longer lived there, all the furniture inside was still intact, as if the owner had just gone on a trip and would be back in a few days.

  The people from the law and politics department lifted all the covers off the furniture, thick dust flying around in the air. Wu Hui covered his mouth and nose with his hand to prevent the dust from entering. "It looks like no one has lived here for a long time."

  "Not bad, the security guard said that soon after Wang Ting's suicide, they all moved away and didn't take anything with them." Looking at the photo of Wang Ting on the shelf, a very gentle-looking woman with a faint smile on her face and a hint of sadness in her eyes.

  The man and woman in the photo should be Liu Hua and Wang Ting. Liu Hua is hugging Wang Ting, laughing extremely happily. There are very few photos of Liu Jianjun at home. The only one is a family portrait hanging in the living room. What's strange is that none of the three people in the family portrait are smiling, as if they were forced to take a photo.

  "Liu Hua and Wang Ting's relationship should be very good, you see all the photos of them two here, smiling so happily." Looking at the full house of photos, Guo Yining felt a bit surprised, "It's strange, Liu Hua and his mom's relationship is so good, after moving away why didn't they take the photos with them, but left them in this room? I remember last time when I went to Liu Jianjun's home, it seemed like there wasn't even one photo."

  "Yes, I also found this out. When a person dies, the photos are the only images left in this world. Looking at their mother-son relationship, it should be very good. These photos shouldn't be left here. Is Liu Jianjun not allowing them to be taken?" Wu Hui saw that there were people from the law and politics department collecting evidence on the first floor, so he came to the second floor, Wang Ting's bedroom.

  The bedroom was very simple, with a bed and a dresser. On the dresser were some skincare products that Wang Ting had left over five years ago. Wu Hui opened the closet, which was full of women's clothes, probably what Wang Ting used to wear back then.

  This gave Wu Hui a kind of illusion, as if someone was still living in this house, and at this moment she should be sitting in front of the dressing table making up her makeup, and soon preparing to have an afternoon tea. Maybe Liu Jianjun thought so too, leaving all of Wang Ting's things intact, wanting to lock her in this house.