After saying that, Jiang Chengyi left.

Back in her room, Lu Yan first went to the bathroom to freshen up, then changed into outdoor clothes. After getting everything ready, she sat at her desk to research.

Soon after, she heard the doorbell. Just as she stood up, her phone on the desk also rang. Checking it, she saw it was Officer Zhou’s number that Jiang Chengyi had asked her to save yesterday.

She answered, and Little Zhou said, “Dr. Lu, I’m Little Zhou from Captain Jiang’s team. I’m downstairs now.”

She replied, “Alright, please wait a moment.” She quickly walked to the entrance and checked the display screen – sure enough, it was Officer Zhou.

After Little Zhou came up, she was about to pour him some water when Tang Jie called. She checked the time – only eight-thirty, an hour earlier than she’d expected.

“Lu Yan, that mansion of your Jiang Chengyi is too fancy, with too many rules. I don’t want to waste time arguing with security. My car’s at the front gate, come down quickly.”

Lu Yan hurriedly said, “Coming right away.” She went back to her room to get her bag, then took the elevator down with Little Zhou.

Little Zhou hadn’t driven, so when they reached the front gate, they both got into Tang Jie’s car.

After settling in, Lu Yan made introductions: “This is Officer Zhou, and this is my friend Tang Jie.”

Tang Jie was naturally enthusiastic, turning back to flash a smile at Little Zhou: “Hello, Officer Zhou. Say, does your bureau hire based on looks? How come all of Jiang Chengyi’s colleagues are so handsome?”

The comment made Little Zhou laugh.

On the way, Lu Yan asked Tang Jie, “You mentioned the other day about going to City B with your uncle to discuss equipment business. When are you planning to go?”

Tang Jie seemed to have some regular business partners in City B, having traveled there several times over the past two years to discuss business.

“What’s the point of going now?” Tang Jie sighed. “With what happened to Ding Jing and Liu Yujie, I don’t dare travel around. Lu Yan, these victims were all our classmates. The more I think about it these past few days, the more I feel like this psycho might be from our school.”

Lu Yan showed a thoughtful expression.

Deng Man’s home was in another district in the city center. With traffic, it took over an hour to get there.

After parking downstairs, Lu Yan and Tang Jie bought some snacks at the corner store and then went upstairs with Little Zhou.

Although the Deng family’s apartment was old, it was kept very clean and had a spacious layout. If one ignored the messy environment around the complex, it was a very comfortable three-bedroom apartment.

Unfortunately, due to the residents’ melancholy state, the house had a perpetually gloomy atmosphere.

Eight years ago, after Deng Man’s incident, her uncle and aunt were devastated, and the house was shrouded in sorrow. Especially Deng Man’s mother, who almost couldn’t continue working until three years later when she became pregnant again, which finally helped improve the situation.

Little Sister Deng was now four years old, exceptionally clever and adorable, making people laugh whenever she spoke.

Hearing the knock, she was the first to run to the door.

When the door opened, Lu Yan’s eyes met Little Sister Deng’s bright, dark eyes, and her heart instantly melted. She crouched down to give the little one a big kiss and offered her snacks.

Tang Jie watched enviously from the side, and after Lu Yan had finished doting on the child, she snatched up Little Sister Deng and carried her inside.

Deng Man’s parents were both rather quiet people, with her mother being particularly serious. Even when Deng Man was alive, she had been very strict with her, and now she seemed even more reticent.

Only when her gaze fell on her younger daughter did Mrs. Deng’s expression become exceptionally soft and warm.

While Lu Yan and Tang Jie took turns playing with Little Sister Deng, Mrs. Deng went to the kitchen to pour water for the three of them, then sat nearby watching with a smile.

After a while, she went to the inner room and brought out two items, caressing them several times before handing them to Lu Yan: “These things were stored in the storage room. Man Man seemed to have intentionally hidden these notebooks in a corner, as if she couldn’t bear to throw them away but didn’t want others to find them either. If we weren’t planning to move, her father and I probably would never have discovered these notebooks. By rights, these are Man Man’s belongings, and we shouldn’t give them away, but I saw they’re full of photos of you three together, so… well, I hope you don’t think Auntie is being too forward.”

“Not at all,” Lu Yan accepted the albums solemnly. “Please don’t say that, Auntie.”

Hearing this, Tang Jie also lost interest in playing with Little Sister Deng and fell silent beside them.

After being lost in thought for a moment, Mrs. Deng sighed and said, “In the end, I failed as a mother. Back then, I only focused on Man Man’s academic performance and didn’t pay attention to her emotions at all. Now I realize, in such a long life, failing the college entrance exam was such a trivial matter. If I had given her more comfort and encouragement then, Man Man might not have done something so foolish.”

All three remained quiet, as a melancholic atmosphere silently spread through the room. Tang Jie couldn’t stand it anymore and walked to the window, suddenly pulling open the curtains to let the sunlight pour in abundantly.

Lu Yan asked Mrs. Deng, “Auntie, you still can’t remember who Deng Man went out with back then?”

Mrs. Deng shook her head: “A police officer came to ask about this last year too, but Man Man was such an introverted child, she kept everything so tightly locked away. Apart from you two, I don’t know who else she associated with. As for puppy love, there wasn’t a trace of evidence. She only went out a few times in her senior year, but she always said she was with you two. It wasn’t often, and she always came back on time, so I didn’t think much of it.”

“A police officer came to ask about Deng Man last year?” Lu Yan ignored the latter part of the conversation, looking at Mrs. Deng with surprise. “Was it from the Anshan District Police Station?”

Mrs. Deng gently rubbed her temples: “I think his surname was Jiang, quite young. I always felt like I’d seen him at Man Man’s school before. When I asked if he was Man Man’s classmate, he didn’t deny it.”

“An officer surnamed Jiang?” Tang Jie was startled. “Don’t tell me it was Jiang Chengyi. Wasn’t he not yet transferred back to S City last year?”

Leaving Deng Man’s house, Lu Yan’s thoughts were complicated. After staying quiet for a while, she began to look through the photo album.

Tang Jie’s brows were tightly knitted, unable to make sense of it all: “Why are you all so focused on Deng Man’s case? Was it not suicide back then?”

“And also,” she continued, growing increasingly uneasy, “Didn’t you report it to the police immediately after identifying the body with Auntie? I heard Auntie went to check the surveillance footage later. If there was anything wrong, shouldn’t it have been noticed then?”

At the mention of “identifying the body,” Lu Yan’s face turned slightly pale. She opened the window to let in fresh air.

“And that diary of Deng Man’s, just those few vague sentences – who could understand them? I don’t even know if she was really in love or if she just copied some notes from a book somewhere. It’s strange too, how precious that diary was to her, she even specifically took it with her when she jumped into the lake. By the time they retrieved it, the paper was all soaked and ruined. Otherwise, if we could flip through it now, we might find some clues.”

Lu Yan’s eyes inexplicably stung.

Shortly after the college entrance exam, she and her classmates welcomed the most brilliant summer vacation of their lives. Every time she went out to play, she no longer had to rack her brains thinking of excuses to tell her mother.

One day, when Jiang Chengyi had arranged to play basketball with his teammates, she noticed that Deng Man’s mood was very off, so she invited Tang Jie and Deng Man to go to the school library to borrow books, planning to go watch a movie together afterward.

At school, passing by the basketball court, knowing Jiang Chengyi was inside, she couldn’t resist going in.

Surprisingly, Deng Man was already there.

While Jiang Chengyi and his friends were playing basketball, Deng Man was on the side organizing their carelessly thrown clothes. When she picked up one particular piece, she stared at it in a daze.

Lu Yan recognized it as Jiang Chengyi’s spare T-shirt, one she had bought for him with her saved allowance. It was white, ordinary in style, nothing special except for a row of letters that included her English name. She had seen it while shopping and, seeing it wasn’t too expensive, bought it as a gift for him.

He had immediately understood her intentions and often wore it.

While Deng Man was still staring at the T-shirt absently, Lu Yan watched her back, hiding her growing suspicions, and approached: “Deng Man.”

Hearing her voice, Deng Man seemed extremely flustered for a moment before her expression quickly returned to normal.

Thinking back to Deng Man’s various strange behaviors recently, Lu Yan had her suspicions. After they sat down in the stands, she quietly observed Deng Man, noticing how her gaze constantly followed Jiang Chengyi. She knew Deng Man was good at hiding her emotions, yet lately, she’d been losing composure in front of her frequently, which was very strange and seemed somewhat deliberate.

She thought for a moment, trying to keep her voice calm: “Deng Man, we’re good friends, you know that. I treasure our friendship.”

After a moment, Deng Man turned to look at her, her face suddenly seeming as if it had been dusted with ash, instantly becoming dim and lusterless.

She looked steadily at Deng Man: “Jiang Chengyi and I have already agreed to apply to the same university. I like him, really, really like him.”

Every word she spoke was tightly controlled, her gaze carefully searching Deng Man’s face. Given Deng Man’s sensitivity, she would completely understand her implied meaning. A voice in her heart kept crying out: Deny it quickly, tell me it’s not what I think it is.

But Deng Man only gave a tragic smile and ultimately said nothing, turning to leave the gymnasium.

Lu Yan watched her thin retreating figure, a sense of foreboding swept through her heart, and rushed after her.

She ran to the library, but Deng Man wasn’t there. She ran back to the teaching building, searching floor by floor until she reached Class 6’s classroom. Looking inside, she found Deng Man standing by the window, forcefully throwing something out.

She quietly watched Deng Man’s back from the doorway for what seemed like ages, then walked in and gently tugged at Deng Man’s clothes, saying, “Deng Man—”

Deng Man whirled around, her eyes brimming with tears that fell in large drops.

She had never seen such a painful expression on anyone’s face before. She was completely stunned, her mouth opening and closing, not knowing what to say. After a moment, she frantically pulled tissues from her pocket, wanting to help Deng Man wipe her tears.

“I’m fine,” Deng Man pushed her away, trying to appear nonchalant despite her choked voice. “I’m going home first, you go to the library with Tang Jie.”

After Deng Man left, Lu Yan’s mind was in chaos.

A few days ago, she had just turned eighteen, and graduated from high school, with university beckoning. Her life was about to turn a new page, but she hadn’t matured enough to have sufficient life experience. She wasn’t mature enough to solve all the problems she encountered. Faced with such a thorny situation, she felt unprecedented depression and confusion.

She stared blankly out the window, lost in thought for a long time until Tang Jie called her, and she numbly left the classroom.

The library was behind the teaching building. Passing below, she remembered Deng Man throwing the paper ball, hesitated for a moment, and then walked to the rose bushes under the classroom to search carefully.

After searching for a while, she finally found a paper ball in a clump of grass.

Her heart pounding, she crouched down to open the paper ball.

She saw one sentence written on it: “I hate her! I hate her! Even as a ghost, I won’t let her go!”

Every character was written with extreme force, pressing through to the back of the paper.

She felt as if she had been stabbed a thousand times, her heart instantly turning ice-cold.

Later, Tang Jie noticed something was wrong with her and insisted on taking her home.

After staying home for a while, thinking about what had happened, she still felt waves of cold through her body. She tried to calm herself down and decided to call Deng Man again, at least to meet and talk things through properly, but when she called, Deng Man wouldn’t answer, directly hanging up on her.

She stayed cooped up at home for two whole days.

Jiang Chengyi wasn’t in the city, having been dragged by his mother to their suburban villa for his grandfather’s birthday celebration. Noticing something was wrong with her, he called her countless times, promising to return the next day and take her out to clear her mind. Although she had been feeling low-spirited, she wanted to see him so badly that she agreed to meet him. After that call, her mood improved somewhat.

After preparing things for going out the next day, she hesitated between calling Deng Man again or going directly to her house. After some thought, she decided on the latter.

But just then, she received a call from Tang Jie informing her: that Deng Man had committed suicide.

After hanging up, she felt as if she had fallen into an ice hole, and her memory of the next few hours was completely blank.

Everything happened too suddenly. Deng Man’s father was at a conference out of town, still on the plane rushing back. When Deng Man’s mother received the news, she completely refused to accept the reality, fainting several times, being revived, her emotions completely shattered.

She was the first to arrive and was dragged by the distraught Mrs. Deng to identify the body. While handling the procedures, she remembered the words on the note, and amidst her grief, she felt threads of fear.

When the body was pulled out from the freezer, she immediately saw Deng Man’s swollen face still bearing intense hatred. She felt as if her spine had been violently struck, the pain approaching numbness. In her ears, it was as if a huge glass wall had crashed down, making a deafening noise. As the fragments hit the ground, she felt dizzy and swayed, using all her strength just to keep from falling.

In her past eighteen years, she had lived openly and happily. Facing death for the first time, she never imagined it would be in such a cruel way.

In just a few short minutes, she felt as if an invisible knife had violently churned her inside out, shattering even her soul. Returning home, she stood in the empty living room, finding herself still covered in cold sweat, her wet clothes clinging to her body like plastic wrap, making it exceptionally difficult to breathe.

She fell ill, and every time she closed her eyes, she could see Deng Man’s hate-filled eyes. The curse-like words from her friend on that note constantly echoed in her ears like maggots eating away at her willpower.

Tears streaming down her face, she burned with a fever of 39 degrees Celsius, feeling as if she had been thrown into a fire pit. Her consciousness was nearly fuzzy, and her mother, sick with worry, rushed her to the hospital in the middle of the night. After admission, she was diagnosed with acute glomerulonephritis and stayed for half a month.

Though Tang Jie’s voice was right beside her ear, it seemed to come through a thick membrane, carrying a distant, empty quality.

She was immersed in her world, lost in thought, until someone shook her forcefully several times, making her suddenly look up.

“What are you thinking about?” Seeing Lu Yan finally respond, Tang Jie rolled her eyes. “We’re home.”

She casually replied, “Oh.”

The moment she spoke, she noticed her voice was thick with congestion.

Afraid Tang Jie would notice, she quickly lowered her head to unbuckle her seatbelt.

“Da Zhong is coming to pick me up,” Tang Jie watched as she and Little Zhou got out of the car. “I won’t come up.”

Having regained her composure, she instructed Tang Jie: “Be careful on the road, call me when you get home.”

Back home, she invited Little Zhou to sit on the sofa, composed herself, and began to look through the photo album.

Just as Mrs. Deng had said, the album was full of photos of the three of them together. In almost every photo, they were all smiling, their smiles as bright as a May sunny day, without a trace of gloom.

She carefully went through each photo, paying attention to every detail, studying Deng Man’s expression in each one, not missing even a small black spot on her eyebrows.

She stopped at one page.

The corners of this page were somewhat worn, clearly having been frequently touched by its owner.

Her gaze slowly moved upward to look at the people in the photo, and her heart suddenly began to race without warning.

It was still the three of them, smiling and gathering in front of the school’s flower bed for a photo. At first glance, there was nothing special.

But in the upper right corner of the photo, that is, behind the three of them, at some distance, stood two people talking in the sunlight, neither looking this way, clearly caught in the photo by accident.

In this photo, Deng Man’s smile seemed particularly radiant.

Lu Yan’s mind buzzed as she stared at the faces of those two people again and again. After a long while, her gaze gradually turned cold.

Dr. Yu did indeed return to S City in the afternoon, but on his way to the Anshan District Police Station, he was suddenly called to S University to handle some urgent paperwork. For this, he specifically called Jiang Chengyi to apologize repeatedly.

Jiang Chengyi arranged another time with Dr. Yu over the phone and then gathered his team to discuss several cases together.

Just as they were discussing Ding Jing’s case, a colleague came in from outside and handed several pages of phone numbers to Jiang Chengyi: “Ding Jing received some harassing calls in the past few days. Though they were all harassment calls, strangely, these calls came from different IP sources. I checked, and the first and second pages are from the same source. The rest are scattered, so I didn’t pursue them further.”

Jiang Chengyi flipped through page by page, his gaze passing over each source. When he reached the third page, he stared at one set of IP addresses with a trace of surprise.

However, he quickly returned the documents to his colleague: “Just investigate the first two pages. The third page is probably just random users, no need to investigate.”

The colleague gave an “OK” gesture and turned to leave.

Jiang Chengyi stood by the desk for a moment, then suddenly looked up at the middle-aged officer next to Old Qin and said, “Old Zheng, didn’t you mention that a few years ago, when a girl committed suicide by jumping into the river, someone wrote anonymous letters to the police station for seven consecutive years, requesting the police to reinvestigate the case—”

“Ah, yes,” the officer nodded, puzzled. “What about it, Captain Jiang?”

“Where are the files? Can you help me find them?”

It wasn’t until six o’clock that Jiang Chengyi returned.

Little Zhou sat on the sofa watching TV, occasionally checking the time on his phone.

Lu Yan was cooking in the kitchen, and occasionally came out to chat with Little Zhou, worried he might be bored.

As soon as Jiang Chengyi returned, Little Zhou immediately stood up and asked excitedly, “Captain Jiang, what did Dr. Yu say?”

Jiang Chengyi first looked toward the dining room, saw Lu Yan busy inside, then withdrew his gaze and sat down on the sofa: “Dr. Yu will come tomorrow. Let’s eat first, I’ll take you home later.”

Little Zhou was an easily satisfied person; although Lu Yan’s cooking skills were average, he ate with great enjoyment.

After Jiang Chengyi returned from sending him home, he stood at the entrance, looking toward Lu Yan who was still busy in the kitchen.

When Lu Yan finished cleaning up and came out, she met Jiang Chengyi’s complex gaze. With a kind of premonition, she looked at him and said frankly, “When we went to Deng Man’s house today, her mother told me you investigated Deng Man’s case last year.”

Jiang Chengyi didn’t answer this question, but instead picked up the stack of letter-like papers he had previously placed at the entrance. He walked over directly, pulled out a chair, sat down across from Lu Yan, and threw the stack on the table: “We checked Ding Jing’s phone records from the past few months and found she had received many harassing calls. In other words, someone was already investigating her before I transferred back to S City.”

Lu Yan blinked, tucking her hair behind her ear: “Oh, is that so?”

“Can you explain why your IP address from Nan Shan Lane is among these numbers?”

She looked away: “I don’t understand what you’re saying.”

Jiang Chengyi’s emotions were still unreadable, but his gaze could see through people’s hearts: “Oh, then why did you appear in the surveillance footage we pulled from near Ding Jing’s house last month?”

Lu Yan’s face reddened slightly as she looked up at him.

“You were following her,” he concluded. “You suspected her early on, didn’t you?”

“I’m a bit tired,” she suddenly stood up. “I’m going back to my room to rest.”

She had only taken a few steps when Jiang Chengyi grabbed her, and immediately something cold and heavy was locked onto her wrist. Looking down, she saw Jiang Chengyi had handcuffed them together.

“What are you doing?” She was alarmed and argued, “I haven’t done anything illegal!”

He pushed her against the wall, pinning her there, holding up the letters and questioning her in a low voice: “Then can you tell me why you wrote these anonymous letters year after year?”

She heard the suppressed undercurrent in his voice and anticipated what he was about to do. Her heart raced wildly at first, then slowly calmed down. Being so close, their hot breaths had become entangled, impossible to distinguish from each other.

Seeing her silence, he gripped her chin, coaxing patiently: “You know very well why you broke up with me back then. Seven years ago, you already discovered you had done something wrong, so year after year you collected evidence and wrote these anonymous letters. Now I just want to hear the truth – besides investigating the real cause of Deng Man’s death, did you have any other thoughts when you were so eager to know the truth?”

These words were like a sharp sword, striking through and shattering her strong exterior. Tears unconsciously streamed down her face: “You already know the answer.”

He stared at her tear-filled eyes and said with slight bitterness: “I want to hear you say it yourself.”