Chapter 5: The Doctor Who Was Stabbed to Death

This doctor’s name was Li Liang, deputy director of the neurology department, and he was on duty for the night shift that day. The estimated time of death was around 4 a.m., and the crime scene was the doctors’ duty room. The victim had been found slumped over the desk, with a cup placed beside him. Tests revealed traces of sleeping pills in the cup, but according to interviews and investigation, Li Liang had no habit of taking such medication. The preliminary conclusion was that someone had drugged him; after he lost consciousness, his major artery was punctured, and he died from blood loss and shock due to the lack of timely discovery.

Even more bizarre, on the desk where the deceased lay, the morning glory motif appeared again, this time drawn with a pen on white paper.

“What does this symbol mean? Is the killer trying to tell us something?”

Su Tianmu was just as perplexed.

Although last time Xia Wuyou had glimpsed the victim's memories, so far nothing relevant to the case had been uncovered.

The shadowy figure in the surveillance footage, and the beautiful woman mentioned by the village simpleton—these were their only suspicious clues so far. But what was the motive? Was it truly the same killer? Were the victims linked? And what did the symbol left behind signify?

A succession of questions, and not a single lead for investigation.

“Captain Su, should we ask Sister Xia to come by again? Sometimes her unusual perspective might help open up our thinking!”

Little Wang looked at Su Tianmu, reminding him.

Yes, Xia Wuyou’s visions of the victims’ memories were important.

“You’re right. Call Xia over again and see what memories we can access from this doctor.”

Su Tianmu suddenly realized the importance of this aspect.

Three victims, with no apparent connection between them. None had enemies while alive—could this be indiscriminate killing?

When Xia Wuyou arrived once more at the police station, she was already familiar with the mortuary’s atmosphere and wasted no time before entering her trance.

However, due to massive blood loss before death, the victim’s face was even paler than before.

Looking at Dr. Li, Xia Wuyou could easily tell he had been a gentle, refined physician in life. What had drawn him into this murder, costing him his life? A sigh could hardly express such grief.

As before, she placed her hand upon his, closed her eyes, and quietly immersed herself...

“Stop it, that’s so annoying!”

During a school break, children were boisterously playing, occasional shrieks from girls blending into the noise, barely attracting attention.

One frail boy sat quietly at his desk, doing homework rather than joining the others.

But a boy behind him seemed bored, spinning around at his seat with nothing to do.

Suddenly, a cry—“Ah!”—the boy in front sprang up as if stabbed, clutching his neck and yelling at the boy behind, “Enough already! Aren’t you done?”

It turned out the boy behind had been poking the tip of his fountain pen into his neck for fun.

Despite his anger, the victim merely shouted at his tormentor.

...

Xia Wuyou opened her eyes, inexplicably shedding a tear.

“What’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell again?” Su Tianmu asked anxiously.

“No, it just hurts somewhere inside,”

Xia Wuyou gently wiped her tears. After calming herself, she looked up.

“Thinking back, each of the three victims’ memories seemed to feature the same child. Though I couldn’t see him clearly, I felt his helplessness.”

She looked at Su Tianmu and continued.

“That was a child bullied at school, often mocked and abused by classmates. Sometimes his head would be slapped for no reason, sometimes he’d be forced to hold his breath in a basin, even stabbed in the neck with a pen…”

“Wait, say that again?”

Su Tianmu interrupted, startled by her account.

“Which part?”

“The details about the bullying.”

“Oh! ...”

After Xia Wuyou repeated herself, Su Tianmu hurried back to the office, grabbed a pen, and started writing on the blackboard.

“Head slapping—fatal injury to the back of the head!”

“Holding in basin—fatal drowning in a water tank!”

“Pen stabbing—artery punctured by a syringe!”

Line after line of white text appeared on the board.

Could it be?

A picture formed in Su Tianmu’s mind.

...

Xia Wuyou, arriving soon after, looked at the written words in confusion, unsure what they meant.

“I understand!” Su Tianmu said excitedly to Xia Wuyou.

“The killer is connected to the bullied child, or maybe is that child himself! The three victims were the ones who abused him, and their deaths matched the ways they had harmed him. The killer used their own methods against them!”

Seeing Xia Wuyou’s bewilderment, Su Tianmu sat down and explained his reasoning carefully.

“If I’m right, the three victims attended the same school as the killer.”

He looked at Xia Wuyou seriously.

“Try to recall, what age group were the children you saw? Elementary school?”

Xia Wuyou thought for a moment.

“They looked like middle school students, not too young.”

“Middle school?”

Su Tianmu repeated her words.

“Alright. Wang, check the school records of these three victims. Find out whether they attended the same school, and which one.”

“Understood, Captain Su. I’ll get right on it.”

Little Wang took the assignment and left the office.

If Su Tianmu’s theory proved true, then the killer was once a victim himself, orchestrating this series of murders for revenge.

Though the case had made a breakthrough, Su Tianmu’s heart was heavy.

He hoped to solve the case soon, but didn’t want the former victim to suffer again.

Perhaps society’s order still needed improvement, so there would be no more victims left powerless, forced to seek justice by such extreme means.

Or maybe, after enduring childhood bullying, the killer’s mind and spirit had already been twisted, leaving him bitter towards the world.