Although Tang Tang had gone to bed, her mind was still occupied by thoughts of her father.
Brother Zuo Mu had said that one should trust one's own judgment instead of simply echoing what others said.
Tang Tang suddenly recalled that once her father, for a patient who couldn't afford treatment, first waived the operation fee, then paid for the medical expenses out of his own pocket, and also collected donations from his colleagues. Thanks to the assistance from various sources, that little patient was finally out of danger.
She tossed and turned in the quilt, finding it hard to fall asleep.
Early the next day, not long after Zuo Mu woke up, he received a familiar message.
"How's the plan going?"
"It's already on the agenda. The current situation is complicated. You don't need to interfere. Just wait and see how it develops."
After sending the message calmly, Zuo Mu came to the living room and found that Tang Tang was already sitting there.
It was obvious that Tang Tang hadn't slept well last night. There were distinct dark circles under her eyes.
"What's going on?" Zuo Mu asked with concern. "Didn't I tell you to have a good rest?"
"I stayed up all night last night," Tang Tang admitted frankly. "I only dozed off for a while early this morning."
"Brother Zuo Mu," Tang Tang wore a solemn expression unlike her usual self.
Zuo Mu was curious, wondering what idea this little girl had this time.
"Can you take me to the police station later?"
"Police station? What do you want to do there?"
"Well..." Tang Tang hesitated, looking a bit embarrassed. "I'm just concerned about the progress of the case. Also, I must go and make it clear to them that they shouldn't spread the news anymore if there's no evidence of criminal suspicion."
She had stayed up all night last night following the news related to this case online.
The online remarks were half true and half false.
But when she saw that her father had been slandered and maligned at that time, even the patients her father had treated personally were labeled as paid posters when they came out to say a few words in his defense.
Was it because her father was now in a management position that people assumed the worst of him?
Tang Tang cried like a puffy-eyed walnut all night, constantly arguing with those trolls using her anonymous account. In the end, she was extremely angry.
So she vowed to clear her father's name.
Seeing Tang Tang's reaction, Zuo Mu could more or less guess what was on her mind even though she didn't say it explicitly.
"Okay," Zuo Mu readily agreed.
This time it was Tang Tang's turn to be surprised.
"I also believe that Uncle is being wrongly accused. Since that's the case, let's go and have a look."
Tears welled up in Tang Tang's eyes.
It was really hard to find an ally.
At the police station, Chief Wang looked at the two young people in front of him, feeling rather troubled.
"Chief Wang, what we're saying is that it's inappropriate for you to disclose Uncle Tang's information without evidence and without catching the culprit," Zuo Mu spoke first, presenting his case reasonably and convincingly.
Chief Wang was speechless. He knew who Zuo Mu was.
Chief Wang sighed, saying that at his age, just as he was about to retire, he had to deal with such a mysterious case.
He pushed his glasses up and explained smoothly, "It's not that we're not doing anything. It just takes time. I know this case has drawn a lot of attention, but we've been looking for evidence all along. I believe we'll soon give everyone a satisfactory answer."
Zuo Mu became interested and asked curiously, "What have you done?"
"What else can I do but send teams to collect evidence?" Chief Wang said, taking a deep puff of his cigarette.
At the crime scene, several policemen had been scratching their heads for days.
The case had become so complicated, with too many involvements and too many hidden details.
Chief Wang had specially assigned several elite officers there in order to get to the bottom of it as soon as possible.
Among them was the female police officer who had communicated with Zuo Mu.
More than thirty hours had passed since Wang Lin's body was found, and they basically hadn't left the scene. They had been so dedicated that they deserved a model worker award.
However, even though they were quite good at investigation, they still found the crime scene puzzling.
A flippant male voice said, "It seems the murderer came well-prepared."
"I think so too," the female voice behind him retorted.
They had been at the scene for so long that they could say the scene had been perfectly arranged.
There were simply no flaws to be found.
But the very fact that there were no flaws was the biggest flaw.
There was never a perfect crime scene.
A crime was a crime, and there would always be someone who could find the flaws.
Although the female police officer was exhausted, she still walked around carefully, examining every plant and tree in the vicinity.
She looked at the markings where Wang Lin's body had been found, looking left and right. Based on her past experience, she finally noticed something strange.
"Come and take a look quickly," she called out.
The others around her thought their leader had made a new discovery, so they quickly gathered around.
"Don't you think there's something strange here?"
"Is there? The place is so clean. The murderer didn't even leave a single hair," said the intern. As a newcomer who was rare to be out with the elites from different teams, he was very cautious.
"Take a closer look."
"I can't see anything even if I look ten times," the intern said with a bitter smile.
"Sometimes, isn't a too-perfect scene a flaw in itself?" someone else beside him also caught on.
"Yes!" the female police officer was excited. "That's exactly the feeling."
Except for the newbie intern, the others present were all well-trained and had sharp eyes.
"I don't know why, but I always feel that this case was committed by someone the victim knew," the female police officer concluded.
Because only someone familiar could call a girl to a sparsely populated place without arousing her suspicion.
"Let's go back. The autopsy results should be out by now," the police officer said excitedly after getting the result she expected.
The group returned to the police station and went straight to the point without any small talk.
The female police officer greeted the forensic doctor directly and went to the forensic department.
There, she saw the forensic doctor sipping tea leisurely.
"Why are you so relaxed?"
"I've finished all the examinations I needed to do. What else do you want me to do?"
The two had a good relationship, and it was common for them to bicker.
The forensic doctor handed over an autopsy report. Different from the initial one, this one was especially detailed.
The police officer was anxious and opened the file bag right in the forensic doctor's office.
If the previous clues only made them suspicious, then the information here definitely confirmed their thoughts.
The autopsy report clearly stated that "the victim had not shown any signs of resistance before her death."
This result coincided with their conclusion at the riverside.
"Everyone," the female police officer scanned the elites with confidence. "Now we can be sure that we're on the right track. Investigate! Find out all the information about the victim in the last few days before her death, the people she contacted, and the places she went!"
The police officer was efficient, and the subordinates quickly took their tasks. After the assignment, they each got to work.
Among them, Officer Chen focused on Wang Lin's itinerary on the last day of her life.
He ran back and forth between the school and the victim's home and finally found out that Wang Lin hadn't left from home on that day.
So it was from the school?
Chen rushed back to the school and asked the school for the surveillance video of that day.
In the monitoring room, Chen watched the school surveillance video over and over again, not wanting to miss a single shot.
He watched Wang Lin's last activities before her death. She ate in the school cafeteria and took a walk as usual.
But when she walked to the back gate of the school, she suddenly disappeared from the surveillance footage.