withered color

"Professor Song Fu is a professor at Liangcheng University of the Arts. I just entered the second year of graduate school that year."

Wen Renyu said: "The professor doesn't like to lead many people. He only accepts two or three people in each class, and teaches oil painting appreciation. You can learn painting from him, or you can learn theory from him. He is a very knowledgeable person."

"I was going to hand in my thesis that day. Unlike others, I took the direction of art theory, and my homework was all research papers. It happened that Xia Shu had just come to report to the professor that day, and brought an oil painting to the professor. When I saw him , He was wearing a plaid shirt, a hat and glasses, and he was wearing a mask and carrying a drawing board on his back-it was very stuffy wearing a mask at that time, but he wore a mask."

"He was dressed very cleanly, but he was very inconspicuous. He didn't dare to meet my eyes when he saw me. He lowered his head after seeing me, like the social fear that is often said on the Internet."

After Wen Renyu finished speaking, he looked at Zhong Tang: "Then the professor introduced the two of us in the office, saying that he is my junior brother—that's how I met him, and I said the same on the phone, you should remember. "

Zhong Tang nodded, and then asked: "What happened next?"

"Later I went to help him move the dormitory." Wen Renyu said, "His luggage was sent over, and it was still at the courier station. The professor said he didn't know the way, and asked me to take care of it, so I helped him move it. Xia Shu seemed very uncomfortable, and kept saying that I was not needed, and drove me away. As for me, I was more enthusiastic, and told him that the professor asked me to do it, so I didn’t need to be polite to me, and I helped him move it all.”

"And then." Zhong Tang refused to let him go, "How is the relationship between the two of you, does he look down on you because you are born with color weakness?"

"..."

Hearing this question, Wen Renyu paused subtly, her Adam's apple moved slightly, her voice went blank for several seconds, and she didn't speak.

After a while, he reached out to pick up the hot tea in front of him and said, "No, we have a good relationship."

"Really. I heard from people in the hospital that you picked him up when he was discharged from the hospital half a year ago?"

"Yes, he told me that he was weak." Wen Renyu said, "He said that only I can understand him, so I went."

"I heard that you helped him move things out of the hospital," Xu Liangyun continued to ask, "Why did you agree that he was discharged from the hospital during the cancer treatment?"

"I didn't agree, and I kept persuading him. But he said that he needed to go home and take it easy, and he refused to continue treatment. I think he is not in a good state of mind, and he is in a daze. There is no way but to talk to the doctor We discussed going home to calm down first, and I came to persuade him to come back to the hospital for further treatment after he calmed down—I can understand. A painter is suddenly color weak, and may become color blind in the future. There is really no way to calm down."

"Then he committed suicide that night." Xu Liangyun said, "But according to the neighbor's testimony and surveillance, within a few hours after you sent him home, he suddenly became furious, scolded him loudly, slammed the door and left ?”

"Because he refuses to go back for treatment," Wen Renyu replied indifferently, "I'm not that patient when it comes to life and death matters. He was so stubborn that I was so angry that he started to scold him. I went back that day I thought about asking the professor to visit him the next day, after all, the professor has taught him for three years, and his words must be heavier than mine—but unexpectedly, he didn’t live until the next morning.”

Xu Liangyun didn't believe it: "Really?"

Wen Renyu smiled at him: "Of course."

These answers are flawless.

Xu Liangyun had nothing to say, so he turned to look at Zhong Tang.

Zhong Tang took out a pen from nowhere, and was leaning forward to play with the pen, with a serious expression on his face.

Wen Renyu's words were very logical from the beginning to the end, and they were exactly the same as what he said on the phone, and Zhong Tang couldn't find any faults.

But obviously, he and Xu Liangyun had the same feeling.

"Alright, Mr. Wenren, one last question."

Zhong Tang put away the hand that turned the pen, and asked slowly and heavily word by word: "He really, really, didn't he look down on you because of your natural color weakness?"

Wen Renyu looked at Zhong Tang calmly.

Zhong Tang stared at Wen Renyu sharply.

The two looked at each other for a long time like this, the eyes intersected with lightning, and the air was full of tasteless and invisible gunpowder smoke.

In the end, Wen Renyu laughed and said to him, "No."

"—We have a very good relationship."

-

Ten minutes later, Zhong Tang came out of a nearby convenience store carrying a bag of water.

He walked towards Xu Liangyun's white car, opened the door and sat on the rear driver's seat, let out a long breath of cold white air, handed a bottle of coffee to Xu Liangyun, and a bottle of water to Zhang Yan: "Here."

Chen Chen said thank you in annoyance, and reached out to take the water.

Xu Liangyun took the coffee from his hand, unscrewed it and took a sip.

Zhong Tang asked him: "What do you think?"

Xu Liangyun replied, "I didn't tell the truth."

"I think so too." Zhong Tang held the water bottle in his hand with one hand and said, "Looking at his reaction, Wu Xiashu must have looked down on his weakness. Maybe it was because of this that he hated Wu Xiashu and killed him."

"I don't think so." Xu Liangyun said, "I don't feel like him now."

"Ah?" Zhong Tang was a little puzzled, "Why?"

"He's wearing the same clothes as the one the nurses saw in the hospital that day, even the gold-rimmed glasses." Xu Liangyun said, "Do ordinary people make such a big show? Even if their brains are broken, they can't do such a stupid thing."

"What if," Zhong Tang said, "Didn't I tell you that this murderer must have an acting personality, and it's certainly not impossible for him to be so arrogant. I'm still more inclined to be him."

Xu Liangyun didn't say anything.

Chen Yan sat on the co-pilot, turned slightly sideways, and stared at Xu Liangyun for a long time.

Xu Liangyun seemed more annoyed, and his face became more gloomy, probably because another suspect was about to be ruled out.

"...Let me tell you." Chen Yan asked awkwardly, "Can't you show Wen Renyu's photo to the nurse?"

"Nine people in Wu Xiashu's social circle showed her." Zhong Tang was very helpless, "but at that time, the flower delivery man only showed a pair of eyes, and the nurse said that Wen Renyu looked like it. The others were either women. , or the appearance or height and body do not match....Wait, if you want to put it this way, it is also possible that this murderer deliberately wanted to blame Wen Renyu, so he dressed himself like that?"

Statement: "...It's possible."

"Then... If it wasn't him, who else could be. Except for him, there is basically no one who can support this appearance among the nine people. Is it the girl who sings the opera?... But her alibi proves that it is true. It's too perfect, and she doesn't know Yang Lu and Fang Yun, although she has a good relationship with Wu Xiashu... wait a minute, I remember her—"

Xu Liangyun didn't say anything.

After a moment of silence, he interrupted Zhong Tang and said, "I'm thinking about a question."

Zhong Tang: "Huh?"

"The case says that when Wu Xiashu committed suicide, the fire started in the bedroom, and he was in the living room, sitting quietly on the sofa waiting to die."

"Why is that?" Xu Liangyun asked, "He knew that he was weak and his emotions must have collapsed. How could he sit there quietly waiting to die? How could a collapsed person sit still?"

"That's not necessarily the case. People's breakdown patterns are different. He may just sit there quietly waiting to die. Of course, he may be killed by someone." Zhong Tang said, "We don't know where it is now. Is this the case—maybe Wu Xiashu committed suicide by himself, or the murderer detonated the house after killing him."

"If someone killed him, it would be even more wrong." Xu Liangyun asked again, "His purpose was to kill Wu Xiashu, and then pretend to be dead Wu Xiashu in today's case. Then, Wouldn’t it be better to disguise Wu Xiashu as an ordinary suicide, cutting his wrists or hanging himself, so that the police can clearly see that Wu Xiashu died in his own home?”

Zhong Tang choked.

Statement Yan was also taken aback by what he said.

"There is only one reason for doing this." Xu Liangyun said, "This person doesn't want people to see the dead Wu Xiashu's face."

The car fell silent.

After a while, Chen Yan asked in disbelief: "You are not thinking... Maybe Wu Xiashu is not dead?"

Xu Liangyun looked at the statement, and subconsciously relaxed his frown.

He didn't say anything, after a moment of silence, he took out his cell phone from his pocket and made a call.

——When Xu Liangyun called, the unshaven forensic doctor Cai Mian was sitting in his office, leaning on a chair, wearing a funny blindfold, sleeping with his mouth open, drooling, until he fell asleep Deep in love, he ground his teeth twice, and slept soundly with a humming sound.

When the phone rang, he was startled. He thought it was the leader who came to investigate, and fell off the chair in fright.

Cai Mian fell to the ground, screaming, aggrieved by the pain.

He wanted to cry, but picked up the phone, and saw Xu Liangyun's name hanging on it.

He rubbed his fragile lower back and picked it up: "Hello?"

The other party cut straight to the point: "Are you in the bureau?"

"Yes, otherwise where would I go."

"That's just right." Xu Liangyun said, "Look for a man named Wu Xiashu, who died at home half a year ago. Check to see if there is any human tissue left over from the test at that time, and test the DNA again. No teeth."

"...Brother." Cai Mian was a little speechless, "It was half a year ago... I remember him, didn't he commit suicide at that time?"

"Yes, but things are not quite right now, you should look through it first, and if you really don't have it, please send me a message, and let me know if you have anything."

Cai Mian was obviously speechless - DNA testing is a very troublesome task.

But work is work after all, he didn't say anything in the end, he just sighed and scratched the back of his head in response.

After hanging up the phone, Cai Mian resigned himself to getting up, yawned and rubbed his back, and walked out.

He walked out of the office and opened the door next door.

Next door is a laboratory, and there are a few scattered people in the laboratory fiddling with equipment.Seeing Cai Mian coming in, they all nodded to him, bent down, and greeted: "Teacher Cai."

Cai Mian waved his hand as an answer.

He walked to an iron cabinet, took out a key from his pocket, lowered his eyes, inserted the key into the hole, and opened the cabinet.

He reached out and pulled out a row of blood samples from inside.With the help of the unkind white light in the laboratory, he distinguished the small text on the blood sample bottle, and finally took out a small bottle with "Wu Xiashu" inside.

The blood inside was ridiculously black.

Cai Mian looked down at the vial and pouted.

In front of the gallery, Xu Liangyun was in the car.

Cai Mian quickly sent a message to Xu Liangyun, saying that he was lucky and still had a tube of blood on hand, and that he would let him know when the results came out when he went to do a DNA test.

Xu Liangyun replied hello.

In the car, Zhong Tang leaned forward, leaning on the driver's seat with one hand and the passenger seat with the other, holding a water bottle in his hand.

"Impossible." Zhong Tang said, "If Wu Xiashu is not dead as you think, then who is the charred corpse who died there? None of the people related to Wu Xiashu has been reported missing. What about the DNA on the teeth?"

"It is natural that there is no missing person report. If someone related to him disappeared on the day he committed suicide, wouldn't the police suspect the suicide of his body?" Xu Liangyun said, "He will definitely choose someone who has nothing to do with him Top hat. If the results of the examination after a while show that it is indeed not Wu Xiashu, we will go to screen the people who disappeared around that day... I don’t know much about the teeth, it’s just a suspicion stage, and we’ll talk about it when the results come out.”

"……Fine."

Xu Liangyun nodded, and changed the subject again: "Have you read "And There Were None"?"

"Ah?...read it." Zhong Tang said, "You want to talk about the judge in it, right? It's a way to choose to fake your own death in the middle."

"Yes, no one will doubt the dead." Xu Liangyun said, "Thinking about it, it has something to do with Fang Yun and Yang Lu, and would hate those people who gave up something for the sake of art. Wu Xiashu is all in line."

"...It's true when you put it that way. It is obvious that I have brain cancer and become color weak, so I may have to give up these things in the future, but these people who are clearly capable choose to give up..."

Hearing this, Chen Yan suddenly thought of something, and said, "But he's not an acting personality."

Xu Liangyun looked at him.

"Didn't you just say that the murderer has an acting personality?" Chen Yan said, "Wu Xiashu isn't, he's very autistic."

"After a major event, a person's personality tendencies are very likely to change." Zhong Tang said, "not to mention this kind of cancer plus the sudden blow of color weakness, it is normal for him to change his personality-but I still want to Said, this is too outrageous."

Xu Liangyun said coolly: "The reality is just outrageous."

Zhong Tang: "..."

"You don't have to worry about arguing with me, this is just a guess, wait for Cai Mian to send me the results before making a conclusion - I actually don't understand how to explain the DNA on the teeth if it is a fake death. "

"Okay," Zhong Tang said, "where shall we go now?"

Xu Liangyun: "..."

After being asked this question, Xu Liangyun realized that they had nothing to do and nowhere to go.

After a moment of silence, Xu Liangyun said, "Just wait."