Chapter 87
Chapter 87
Xiao Ai actually had nothing to do with Gu Zhishu’s case?
That was somewhat beyond Nan Mu’s expectations.
If Xiao Ai truly had nothing to do with this case, then why had she drugged him? Why had she snuck into his hospital room to look through his phone?
What had she been trying to investigate through him? Wen Miao?
Nan Mu couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off.
“Or do you think it’s possible that Xu Lei is the owner of this mysterious account? He had motives against both Wen Miao and Gu Zhishu, so he spent money to hire these people?”
“Not likely.” Nan Mu was quite certain on that point. “He had no need to. Setting Gu Zhishu’s illness aside, he had Xiao Ai, so why would he still bribe Nurse Lin? And beyond that, the first time, he killed Wen Miao with his own hands, which shows he has no taboo about doing things himself. With this kind of matter, every additional person who knows means an additional layer of risk. I don’t think he’s the type to make a big production out of things.”
That reminded Qiu Ziyu of something. “Xiao Ai has always worked at the First Affiliated Hospital of A University of Science and Technology Medical School, but Nurse Lin hasn’t. She was transferred over around the time Gu Zhishu was hospitalized for surgery, and the transfer order came down in a huge rush… Thinking about it that way, it seems like she was deliberately transferred over to keep watch on Gu Zhishu. Since it was so urgent, that means the mysterious person didn’t have anyone available at the hospital at the time. From that angle, Xiao Ai’s side really does seem to have nothing to do with the mysterious person.”
But the relationships tangled up in all this were far too complicated. If Xiao Ai truly had nothing to do with Gu Zhishu’s case, then many of Nan Mu’s earlier deductions had to be overturned and rebuilt from scratch.
The two of them thought until their brains felt like balls of tangled yarn. In the end, Qiu Ziyu borrowed a whiteboard from the hospital, and they started sorting through the case again, point by point.
1. Doctor Liu, Doctor Jia, Doctor Zhang, Lin Zhengfeng, and Nurse Lin had all received transfers from the mysterious account. In other words, at least these five people were connected by the same thread, and none of them were the mastermind. They were acting on someone else’s instructions.
Looking at the amounts the account had transferred to each of them, they could roughly infer what roles they had played in Gu Zhishu’s murder. Doctor Liu was Gu Zhishu’s attending physician, while Doctor Jia and Doctor Zhang were assistant doctors. Gu Zhishu’s condition and symptoms couldn’t possibly have escaped their notice, so the money transferred to them was most likely hush money. Nurses didn’t understand medical theory, so there was no need to worry that they would discover Gu Zhishu’s illness and diagnosis didn’t match up. That was also why Nurse Xiao Ai hadn’t been bribed. Lin Zhengfeng was the person who killed Gu Zhishu, so the money he received should have been payment for the hit. As for Nurse Lin, when Gu Zhishu left that day, she was the one who slipped into the hospital room and deleted the text message in which Lin Zhengfeng had contacted Gu Zhishu.
But there was a problem here. The owner of the mysterious account had already started sending money to Nurse Lin in 2006. In other words, this person had been connected to Nurse Lin since at least that time.
Qiu Ziyu sighed. “In 2006, Nurse Lin should have only been sixteen. What kind of person would start transferring money to her every month when she was that young?”
Nan Mu looked thoughtfully at the date on the whiteboard. As if something had occurred to him, he immediately began flipping through the little booklet Qiu Ziyu had shown him earlier, the one recording the details of the case.
“What is it?”
Qiu Ziyu’s gaze followed Nan Mu’s hand as it moved up and down, until the hand flipping through the booklet stopped on a certain page.
After a long moment, Nan Mu raised his head with a frown. “The year 2006 was when Lin Zhengfeng’s rape case happened.”
Qiu Ziyu froze at that, a little unable to believe it. He first looked at the date of the rape case on the page Nan Mu had opened, then opened the photo album on his phone to check the date Nurse Lin had first received money.
“Holy shit! It’s true. Nurse Lin only started receiving fixed transfers from the mysterious account after the rape case happened…” But instead of helping him sort out the key connection between these events, it only left him even more confused. “This mysterious person is really strange… Why transfer money to Nurse Lin? Could Lin Zhengfeng getting caught up in that rape case have something to do with Nurse Lin?”
But before Nan Mu could answer, Qiu Ziyu immediately rejected his own idea. “No, no, that’s not right. This mysterious person was able to get Nurse Lin and Lin Zhengfeng to do things for them, so they couldn’t possibly be standing in opposition to Lin Zhengfeng… At the very least, they were able to reach some kind of cooperation. If Lin Zhengfeng really did commit a crime back then, maybe this mysterious person was the one who got him out. That would explain why Lin Zhengfeng helped them later… But… But I still don’t quite understand why the mysterious person transferred money to Nurse Lin… They went to all that trouble to get Lin Zhengfeng out, and before even making Lin Zhengfeng repay the favor, they gave Lin Zhengfeng’s niece a huge sum of money first. Isn’t that way too absurd?”
Nan Mu’s eyes turned colder and darker. “Nurse Lin and Lin Zhengfeng weren’t on good terms, yet the mysterious person was able to control both of them at the same time. That means they must have had deeper ties to both Lin Zhengfeng and Nurse Lin, and it’s very likely their paths had already crossed before 2006. As for what that relationship was, I’m afraid we’ll only truly unravel it once we find this mysterious person. At least for now, what we can confirm is that the mysterious person’s target is Gu Zhishu.”
Qiu Ziyu nodded and turned his gaze back to the whiteboard, continuing to sort through the second point of the case.
2. Xu Lei and Xiao Ai are connected. Xu Lei did Xiao Ai a favor. For some unknown reason, Xu Lei definitely wanted to kill Wen Miao, so Xiao Ai should have murderous intent toward Wen Miao as well.
When Qiu Ziyu wrote the words “murderous intent,” he thought for a moment, then added a question mark after them. He explained, “According to my reasoning, if Xiao Ai and Xu Lei were on the same side, then she must have wanted Wen Miao dead. But the problem is, last time, when you told me about the Rooftop Fall Case, you said Nurse Lin and Xiao Ai didn’t choose to deal with you and Wen Miao together. Instead, they fought each other… So do you still think Nurse Lin intended to kill you and Wen Miao?”
“I don’t think it. I’m certain of it.” Nan Mu looked at the words on the whiteboard, his tone firm. “Based on your reasoning, Nurse Lin is on a completely separate track from Xu Lei and Xiao Ai. In that case, Xu Lei would never have killed Wen Miao in front of Nurse Lin and then left the eyewitness, Nurse Lin, alive. So the person who pushed Wen Miao off the building couldn’t have been Xu Lei.”
Nan Mu didn’t say what came next, but Qiu Ziyu already understood.
Once every impossibility was eliminated, the remaining option-no matter how unbelievable-had to be the truth.
So at the time, the only person who could have pushed Wen Miao off the building was Nurse Lin.
Qiu Ziyu sighed. “So Nurse Lin wanted to kill both of you because you and Wen Miao were investigating Gu Zhishu?”
Nan Mu froze. So he had dragged Wen Miao into danger again? He raised a hand and pinched the bridge of his nose, then closed his dark eyes heavily and leaned back against the headboard.
The atmosphere in the room seemed to freeze, so quiet one could hear a pin drop.
Realizing he had said the wrong thing, Qiu Ziyu reached out and patted Nan Mu on the shoulder, trying to comfort him. “Actually, it wasn’t really your fault. Even without Nurse Lin, she still would have died under Xu Lei’s knife…”
Qiu Ziyu paused, feeling that didn’t sound very comforting either, and clumsily added, “What I mean is, when you’ve got enough lice, one more bite doesn’t matter…”
That didn’t seem quite right either…
Just as Qiu Ziyu was racking his brains for a better way to console him, Nan Mu suddenly sat upright on the bed.
“No.”
Qiu Ziyu looked at him blankly. “Wh-what is it?”
“No.” Nan Mu’s gaze was pitch-black and deep. “The first time Lin Zhengfeng made a move against Wen Miao, Wen Miao and I hadn’t even officially started investigating Gu Zhishu yet!”
If Lin Zhengfeng’s actions had been ordered by the mysterious person behind him…
Then Wen Miao hadn’t been killed because she got dragged into Gu Zhishu’s case at all. She had been on the other party’s hit list from the very beginning!