After a while, a middle - aged man walked out. His face was weather - beaten, and he wore a pair of glasses. There were still tears in the corners of his eyes.
The three people standing at the door looked a bit confused.
"May I ask what you need?" The man wiped his tears and asked nervously.
This man bore a resemblance to the deceased around the eyes. It was obvious that they were related.
"Sir, are you Xiaodan's father? We'd like to have a chat with you." Shen Yu quickly reached out his hand and said with a smile.
The man was clearly stunned. Looking at the three people in front of him, he was skeptical.
"Sir, don't worry. We're from the police station." Qi Mingyang stepped forward, showed his ID, and smiled.
So the four of them went to a coffee shop. As soon as the man mentioned Xiaodan, tears welled up in his eyes and blurred his glasses.
The man said that his wife suffered from mania, and it had been like this for a long time. Sometimes, she couldn't control her thoughts and was always in a state of panic.
"Sometimes her attacks would last a long time. She'd beat and kick me and Xiaodan. We couldn't stop her. And sometimes, she'd lose her mind for no reason and didn't remember what she'd done at all. Sadness, happiness, and depression would come out of the blue!" The man said choking with sobs.
"Wasn't she on medication?" Qi Mingyang asked, looking puzzled.
"Yes, but it didn't work at all. It could only relieve the symptoms for a while, and no one knew when the next attack would come. There was a private doctor at home, but most of the attacks happened at night, and the doctor couldn't be there all the time." There was determination on the man's face. His pale face was glowing white, and anger mixed with sadness showed on it.
"Why didn't you file for divorce or send her to a specialized hospital for treatment?" Shen Yu parted his thin lips slightly, looking rather cold.
"I couldn't bear to do that. We'd been to the hospital, but she really wasn't used to it. She kept begging me to take her home!" The man's tears kept flowing like an unstoppable flood. "It's all my fault that I've killed my daughter!"
The three of them felt sad for him but didn't know how to comfort him.
"So you mean Xiaodan had some conflicts with her mother?" Shen Yu asked directly, with a touch of emotion in his eyes.
Yi Pin stared blankly at Shen Yu. Sometimes, she really admired him. Although they'd all experienced the same things, he always knew what he wanted and never let his emotions get the better of him. He always remained calm.
"Yes. At first, I thought my wife's condition wouldn't affect Xiaodan. But it turned out that she'd been secretly paying attention. When her mother had an attack, she'd rush out to protect me. But the more she did so, the bigger the knot in her heart became. Later... later, that incident happened. She wanted to sue those scumbags, but her mother didn't let her. She said it would affect a girl's purity and that it would be hard for her to get married in the future..." The man said with anger and unwillingness on his face, full of remorse.
"After that, she suffered from depression. There were two patients at home. I... was so busy. Those days were a complete mess. Maybe she felt sorry for me. Later, she went to the hospital by herself for a while. She came back to continue her studies after she got better. One day, she looked extremely sad. When she came back, she had an argument with her mother. Her mother scolded her for being promiscuous and said that she must have done something shameful, which was why those people targeted her. Then she slammed the door and left. She never came back!" As the man spoke, his lips twitched. He covered his chest, feeling out of breath.
Shen Yu quickly poured a glass of water and handed it to the man.
Suddenly, he felt guilty. He thought he shouldn't have dug so deep, as it had touched the man's sore spot. The dead were gone, but they'd kept bringing up these things, making the man lose control of his emotions.
"I'm sorry. Maybe your daughter in heaven would hope that you suffer less and live a peaceful and happy life." Yi Pin said nervously.
Thinking carefully, there was more than one culprit. There were those cold - hearted classmates, the dysfunctional family, the mother's verbal abuse, and the immoral acts of those playboys.
This was a fickle society. People followed the crowd blindly. They all just went along with the nonsense of the majority and convinced themselves that they were on the side of justice.
"Sir, we've already found the evidence. As long as we're determined, things will change. We can get justice for Xiaodan!" Qi Mingyang said, looking sad.
"What's the use? What is justice? My daughter's life can never be brought back!" The man said excitedly, looking annoyed.
So Shen Yu told the man about the incident where Xiaodan was molested again by those hooligans.
The man was full of anger. "If they hadn't always been kept from me, I'd have chopped them up with my own hands. It wouldn't be too much to turn them into mincemeat!"
"How could you let them get away with it? Xiaodan died in such a mysterious way." Yi Pin frowned. Just thinking about those two second - generation officials made her angry.
They relied on their fathers and did evil. They didn't take the law or human lives seriously at all. It seemed that they could solve anything with money.
Finally, the man agreed to re - sue those two main culprits.
The three of them were waiting for the court session. On their way home, they were in a daze, feeling annoyed and not knowing how to relieve their stress.
"Shall we go for a drink?" Qi Mingyang said with a mischievous smile on his face.
"As long as it's not the bar you went to last time, we can consider it." Yi Pin pouted. Actually, she'd been on high alert because of the case these days, so she'd been quite depressed. It would be good to find a chance to relax.
Shen Yu frowned. He hated going to such fickle places the most.
Looking at those people living a life of debauchery, he always found it hard to understand.
The last time he went to a bar was with an old friend. He didn't realize it was a gay bar until he got there. He didn't know how to get away after being confessed to tearfully.
"What about you, Shen Yu? Do you want to go?" Qi Mingyang asked with a mischievous smile, looking at Shen Yu with a glint of malice in his eyes.
"Sure. Why not?" Shen Yu swallowed hard and replied nervously, forcing a smile.
If I don't go, am I going to leave you alone with Yi Pin?
Yi Pin smiled. She always felt that Shen Yu had been acting strange these days, but she couldn't put her finger on it.
So the three of them went straight to a bar. Shen Yu thought it would be nice to have a quiet drink among the three of them.
But Qi Mingyang invited a bunch of people over. They didn't look like good people. They must have been regulars at the bar and were just a bunch of Qi Mingyang's cronies.