Li Meng took a big bite of the fried dough stick and washed it down with soy milk, swallowing it in a muddle: “The autopsy report said the accident happened an hour after the child ate. The laoban niang said the child had dinner at 7:30 PM. The girl had just come back from school and fed the child. The feeding was done around 8 PM, so the time of death should be around 9 PM.”

Wang Yue, the criminal police officer checking the surveillance, kept yawning at the screen: “The last time the child appeared on the surveillance was at 7:40 PM. Until the child’s body was found, only five people entered the kitchen: the laoban, laoban niang, the little girl, a customer looking for the restroom, and the customer who called the police. No one else came out during that time…”

Li Meng felt his head was about to explode: “We interrogated all night with no progress. The customer looking for the restroom had no chance to commit the crime. He was with friends eating skewers and drinking beer, already ruled out as a suspect. The customer who called the police couldn’t have done it either; the child was already dead when he went in. The most suspicious are the laoban and laoban niang, but they insist they were busy grilling and knew nothing. It’s strange. The murderer can’t be the daughter doing homework upstairs, right? She’s only 12. What would she know?”

“A 12-year-old can already distinguish right from wrong and can’t be ruled out as a suspect.”

Gu Yuan appeared behind them, wearing a black mid-length trench coat, hands in pockets, exuding an aura that kept people at a distance. His skin was glaringly pale, he looked energetic, and his lips were rosy, but the eyes under his curled lashes were excessively gloomy, making his whole demeanor icy.

“That’s true, but when I was 12, I was still playing with mecha toys. I didn’t have such evil thoughts… Even if you gave me a thousand guts, I wouldn’t dare commit a crime, let alone against my own brother…”

Gu Yuan suddenly sneered: “Hmph, that’s because you haven’t encountered it. Sometimes, a child’s heart can be more sinister than an adult’s. They are experts at exploiting adult sympathy…”

The two men in front shivered involuntarily. Li Meng put down his soy milk: “Doctor Gu, have you had breakfast? There’s some hot soy milk on that table.”

Gu Yuan glanced at the soy milk on the table: “No.” He said coldly, turning to walk to his office.

“Has Doctor Gu ever spoken to you voluntarily before?” Wang Yue asked quietly.

Li Meng thought for a moment and shook his head: “Now that you mention it, he seems to be like that with everyone.”

At this moment, Mo Lin walked into the police station carrying two large bags of beautifully presented desserts and started chatting with the female officer Meng Lan sitting at the entrance: “You look great today…”

Meng Lan shyly touched her left cheek, showing a bashful demeanor: “Really? Maybe it’s because I’ve been using good face masks lately!”

Mo Lin’s eyes slightly lifted, his gaze enough to make one daydream, and his smile was enough to captivate: “I brought some desserts for everyone. Please distribute them when you have time.”

When it comes to food, women can’t help but get excited: “Don’t worry, Teacher Mo, leave it to me!”

Mo Lin took out a piece of cake from his pocket, his lips slightly curved: “Thank you.”

Wang Yue across the way was dumbfounded. He nudged Li Meng’s shoulder: “Both are handsome guys, one with an ice-cold face, the other with a peach blossom face, one cold, one warm, covering all the single ladies’ tastes in the police station. What about us?”

Li Meng just focused on putting down his fried dough stick: “What nonsense, go pick some desserts…”

Wang Yue shook his head, sighed, and thought to himself that with Teacher Mo around, he couldn’t even ask Meng Lan out for dinner lately. She was always staring at Teacher Mo…

Mo Lin knocked on Gu Yuan’s office door, and the voice inside was as cold as ever: “Come in.”

Opening the door, he saw Gu Yuan furiously typing on his laptop without even looking up.

Mo Lin placed the delicately presented cake on his desk, then walked to the sofa opposite, picked up a book titled “The Violence of Emotions,” flipped through a couple of pages to get the gist, and put it back.

The book was about recognizing verbal violence.

At this point, Gu Yuan finally looked up at him: “Something you need?”

“Nothing major, just wanted to tell you personally that starting today, I’m the criminal psychology consultant here. We’re colleagues now, so please take care of me.”

Mo Lin’s eyes slightly curved, looking at him with warmth and a hint of unnecessary ambiguity.

Gu Yuan showed no special reaction, a simple “Hmm” already representing his attitude.

After a while, he closed his laptop: “I need to go to the scene, are you coming?”

For Gu Yuan, this was already an unprecedented “care.”

Mo Lin raised an eyebrow, finding it rare: “Then let’s go.”

The two entered the garage one after the other, Gu Yuan walking ahead. After the car door unlocked, he went straight to the passenger seat, opened the door, and sat down, starting to buckle his seatbelt.

Mo Lin focused on the person in the car, then handed him his coat: “Hold this.”

The person in the car looked disdainfully at the coat handed to him, frowned slightly, but eventually took it.

On the road, Mo Lin drove while watching the road ahead, placing two distinct knuckles on the lower right corner of the steering wheel, adjusting the wheel’s position when necessary.

He drove casually but steadily. The car had a new air freshener, a scent Gu Yuan liked, a faint pine fragrance.

“By the way, there’s something for you in the glove compartment in front of you, take it out.”

Gu Yuan opened the glove compartment, finding a dark blue box inside.

“What’s this?”

“Tea to help with sleep, recommended by an elder in the family. It’s said to be friendly to those with insomnia.”

“How did you know I have insomnia?”

“Just a guess.”

Gu Yuan thought: You’re really good at guessing.

He held the corner of the box, and after a long time, squeezed out two words: “Thank you.”

These two words felt extremely awkward to him, and saying them made him feel even more awkward.

“No need to be so polite. After all, we’re quite familiar now, aren’t we?”

Mo Lin turned to look at Gu Yuan sitting in the passenger seat, showing a subtle smile.

Gu Yuan’s palms tightened, feeling inexplicably nervous, his mind a bit foggy, unsure why.

Ahead was the food street, and because of last night’s incident, there were fewer diners. The car could drive straight in. Mo Lin found a place to park and noticed that the Zhou Ji Barbecue, where the incident occurred, shared a wall with the Qiu’s Duck Neck next door. This was quite normal, as commercial buildings are usually separated by a wall. However, the second floor of the commercial building was peculiar. It was obvious that the second floor used to be connected, with the same decor style and age, separated only by a wooden board.

Mo Lin: “Laoban, why is the second floor of the shop next door so close?”

The laoban, a warm-hearted person, replied: “Oh, these two shops were once rented by one laoban to open a hot pot restaurant. The second floor was for private rooms, and the walls were connected. Later, for some reason, the laoban stopped doing business and transferred the shop. The shop was then split into two and rented to others…”

Mo Lin observed the Qiu’s Duck Neck next door, its shutter down: “Why aren’t they open for business?”

“The laoban of Qiu’s Duck Neck is a single mom. She originally sold marinated food but wanted to open a barbecue shop seeing her neighbor’s business doing well. Running a barbecue is tiring, you can’t rest well at night, and she has to take care of a child. It’s not easy, so she sleeps during the day and opens at night.”

“I see, thank you, laoban.”

The two decided to check the second floor.

Passing through the shelf of miscellaneous items at the stairway, there was a low door at the end. Opening it revealed the stairs, probably temporarily installed to prevent kitchen fumes from reaching the second floor.

The stairs were made of wooden planks, surprisingly narrow, with many oil stains accumulated on them, shining black. Mo Lin, being tall, bent over while going up, reminding Gu Yuan: “Be careful, the floor is slippery.”

The second floor was quite spacious, vaguely showing the shadow of the hot pot restaurant’s private rooms. The space was divided into three small rooms by wooden structures. The outermost room facing the street was slightly larger than the other two, clearly the room of the laoban and laoban niang.

The middle room had a small bed, with two stuffed toys at the head, indicating it was the older daughter’s room. The room near the stairs was filled with miscellaneous items, with no one living there.

Mo Lin entered the couple’s room and knocked on the wall shared with the neighbor, producing a hollow drum sound.

The closet contained the couple’s belongings and some children’s clothes and toys.

Nothing special was found.

Gu Yuan turned on the light in the girl’s room, greeted by a poster of a celebrity. He had seen the person on TV, the popular young actress Yuan Tongtong.

The poster was stuck on the wooden wall shared with the neighbor. On the right, a table was against the wall, with a lamp and textbooks. The textbooks were open, still in the state from last night, with math problems half-written, the last symbol incomplete.

Above the table hung a palm-sized photo frame, showing a happy family portrait of four taken at a photo studio. The youngest child in the picture looked about a year old, indicating it was taken not long ago.

To the right of the table was a small bed against the corner, about 1.2 meters wide, with a clean green sheet and neatly folded quilt.

Gu Yuan carefully observed the floor. The cement floor was relatively clean. He used his phone’s flashlight to examine it closely and found a spot that had been wiped. The trash can was very clean, with no bag inside.

Mo Lin: “Is there a problem?”

Gu Yuan: “This girl might be problematic. Check if there’s any blood in this room.”

“Let’s have the trace inspection team take a closer look. We’ll head down first.”

The trace inspection team spent quite some time on the second floor but found no blood. Yan Ji from the team told them: “The wiped spot on the floor is quite new. We’ve extracted as much residue as possible, but since it’s been wiped clean, we probably won’t find much. However, it’s likely the child’s vomit. If only we could find the towel used to wipe the floor.”

“The trash from this girl’s room has disappeared, and she hasn’t left. Where could the trash have gone?”