Chapter 0001 – The Patient’s Identity is a Mystery (1 / 2)

[Suspect: Jiang Xia, charge: premeditated murder]

High-tech police station, bright lights for the night rendered a touch of haze.

Director Zhao sat alone outside the interrogation room, his brow furrowed, cigarette butts strewn around his feet.

Calls from his superiors urging him to do so over and over again made him anxious.

“Squeak-” Wang Xu, who was in charge of the interrogation, sidled out, clutching a thick dossier.

He is the chief of criminal investigation of the Hi-Tech District Branch and has been doing this job for more than twenty years.

Director Zhao was like seeing a savior, and the heavy clouds of worry between his brows dispersed a bit.

“Did she admit it?”

Wang Xu gently shook his head.

“The suspect continued with the same rhetoric, telling his own story and not answering our questions positively at all.”

As the chief of criminal investigation, he has seen many cases where criminals have been cleared of suspicion by the little trick of pretending to be crazy.

But this time is not quite like the past.

“Wait a little longer, she’s unstable right now, and her guilt can’t be capped yet.”

“Haven’t you understood what it means up there? The people from the Murin Group have already rushed to the door of the police station!” Director Zhao grabbed Wang Xu’s collar and snapped.

As the real estate giant of F City, the jurisdiction of the Murrin Group has long been infiltrated into every aspect of the city’s security, not to mention the fact that it was one of their people who was killed this time.

“Regardless of the confession of the culprit, whether it’s manslaughter or intentional murder, the only two people at the entire crime scene are her and the victim aren’t they? I don’t see the need to spend any more time with her…even if it’s just to find a scapegoat, we must give an explanation to the group’s side.”

“The Christmas Eve car accident case at the end of last year, Cheng Molin’s violent death case at the beginning of the year, plus his son’s suicide…these cases are linked together in a chain, and now jumping to conclusions is likely to let the real murderer get away with it…I’m responsible for all of these cases, and I’ve got to account for myself! “

Wang Xu replied righteously as he put down the dossier and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

This case is too important for him to allow himself to make another mistake.

“She’s been given thirty minutes to think about it, during which time Chang will accompany her in the interrogation room, and maybe the suspect can give any more clues.”

In a normal interrogation, it was a mentally draining deterrent method to get the suspect to think calmly and then give up the needless struggle. Only this time, it was to buy her time.

Wang Xu was not pitying or forgiving her, but just with his more than twenty years of experience in criminal investigation, he tasted a hint of something fishy from the intense reaction of his superiors and her complicated eyes.

Interrogation room.

Inside the glass wall.

Jiang Xia was disheveled, her face was haggard, and the nurse’s uniform that she hadn’t had time to change was wrinkled and crumpled, like a doll that had been casually discarded.

Thirty minutes to go.

An hourglass the size of her hand lay in front of her, the delicate sea sand falling down the narrow neck of the bottle like her passing life.

I don’t know how many times I’ve sat here, with the familiar glass walls, the familiar interrogators, the familiar hourglass.

“I will record everything you say as evidence in court.”

The young female officer accompanying her in the interrogation room was friendly and repeatedly advised her to calm down.

She told everything she knew, trying her best to prove her innocence.

“…I’m done.” Eyes that had been exhausted to the point of disorientation cast their last glimmer of light and landed on the young policewoman.

Yet in response to her, there was only a gentle shake of the head.

“I’m sorry, we appreciate your situation, but based on the information we have, your claim doesn’t hold water.”

“If you are still unable to provide a convincing statement, your conviction for the premeditated murder of a patient on the ward will be carried out.”

Is it not over yet? How long will this torture continue… Jiang Xia smiled bitterly.

As the last grain of sea sand fell within the hourglass, the air froze in an instant and time stopped at that moment.

She knew it was all going to start all over again.

Until she gives up the real killer and clears her name.

These falling grains of sand are her countdown to death.

F City Harmony Hospital

It was supposed to be the most normal day.

There’s a lonely, eccentric patient in Ward 310. He was thrown at the end of the third floor like he was forgotten.

After the continuous rain, F City welcomed a sunny day after a long time, and Jiang Xia, the newly hired nurse, pushed open the door of ward 310.

She had been on the job for less than a month, but had already learned the temperament of her 310 patients.

The curtains were tightly closed, not letting in a single ray of sunlight, and the choking smell of cigarette smoke hit my face.

Jiang Xia hurriedly pulled back the curtains and opened the window to ventilate.

“Smoking is prohibited for recovering patients, and you’ll be discharged next week, so you’ll have to put up with it for a while.”

The bright sunlight shone on the white curtains of the bed, reflecting the slender silhouette half-recumbent on the bed.

“Roll! Early in the morning…”

Accompanied by a slightly raspy voice, a wisp of smoke escaped through a crack in the bed curtain.

Jiang Xia grew accustomed to his rude “greetings”.

His name is Cheng Yu, 31 years old, and he’s a patient she’s taken on since her internship.

He was withdrawn, eccentric, out of touch, a man of few words, and always had an attitude of rejection.

Cheng Yu was tall, but appeared a bit stooped because of his slim figure.

His cheekbones were high and convex, his eye sockets were deep, and while he was clearly only in his early thirties, his face was etched with the marks of age.

Whenever Jiang Xia entered the room, he would reprimand impatiently, and if Jiang Xia pulled back the bed curtains, Cheng Yu would stare straight at her, seemingly targeting her extraordinarily.

I heard that even after getting out of bed, Cheng Yu seldom went out of the ward, and his personal hygiene was also a mess, with a kind of “beauty” isolated from civilized society.

Regarding Cheng Yu’s past, she still heard from the head nurse, Sister Qing.

Half a year ago there was a car accident that shocked the city of F. A van broke into the city at an unspecified time and rampaged through the center of town like a huge beast, causing a series of collision car accidents.

In the end, according to police statistics, the truck collided with a total of five private cars, and dozens of people were injured or killed as a result.

The perpetrator, to this day, is still at large and unaccounted for.

The long black brake mark on the intersection in front of Wanxiang Plaza was branded on the road like a scar.

In times of peace, such ghastly numbers are so shocking.

And this Mr. Cheng Yu is the only survivor from those five private cars.

This was despite four broken ribs, lungs poking out from broken bones, a severe concussion, a broken right leg, and dozens of other wounds, large and small, on his body.

He still survived.

Unfortunately, his wife and only daughter were killed in the accident.

Perhaps the blow of the accident was too deep, and Mr. Cheng Yu was in such a disheveled state of mind.

“The curtains are already open, what’s wrong with a couple of cigarettes for a dying man like me? If there’s nothing else, get the hell out of here.”

Cheng Yu never gave her a polite attitude and often spoke ill of her.

Jiang Xia also wanted to complain to the hospital more than once, but he was afraid of losing his internship, so he could only spit it out with Sister Qing in private.

Whenever Cheng Yu’s poor performance was mentioned, Sister Qing would always smile.

“He’s much more stable now, when he was first transferred from the IcU to the general ward, he was hitting the doctors, hitting the nurses, spitting in other patients’ meals, smearing his feces on the walls, and acting like a maniac.”

Jiang Xia had already heard about Cheng Yu’s past “honorable deeds”.

“Doesn’t he have any family?”

“All passed away.” Haru spread her hands to show her regret.