Chapter 100: The Psychologist – 7
Sitting in the last row of the classroom, listening to Tang Yingli share her knowledge of the brain, Lian Huizhu felt as if she had returned to her student days.
But without the pressure of homework and exams, she could fully enjoy the content of the class and Tang Yingli’s charm as a lecturer. After all, a young and beautiful lecturer was a rare sight.
The bell for the end of class rang, but many students, like a school of fish swarming toward food, surrounded Tang Yingli. Lian Huizhu drank her sage tea and patiently waited until all the students had finished their questions before she approached.
“Is it my imagination, or are the students in your class particularly eager to learn?”
“It’s mostly just clarification of technical terms. And after the incident at the university last semester, some students have also started to ask about criminal profiling.” She ran her hands through her hair, looking a little troubled.
“Do you answer them seriously?” Lian Huizhu laughed.
“Of course. Although it’s a bit off-topic, it’s still related to the mind and the brain. I also don’t want my students to be completely limited to what I say.” She packed up her syllabus. “But… some of the case details are still not easy to explain. Maybe I should set some limits.”
By the time the class was over, it was already past the second class of the afternoon, and it was only then that Tang Yingli realized that Lian Huizhu seemed to have been determined to follow her.
“Are you off today?”
Lian Huizhu shook her head. “I only see patients in the morning, and I stopped taking new patients very early, so I had time to come and listen to your lecture, senior.”
“Oh? But the content is very basic. It must have been a waste of an hour for you.”
“Not at all. I find your class very interesting, senior. No wonder so many people have enrolled.” Although she believed that some people had come with the intention of seeing a beautiful lecturer.
“This semester, I’ve moved to a bigger classroom that can accommodate a hundred people, and this time, it was really a scramble for spots.” Tang Yingli shook her head with a wry smile. “I’m going to the hospital now. Are you coming?”
“Of course I’m coming, but why are you going to the hospital, senior?”
“I’m going to visit a police officer who was injured in an accident a while ago and is still in the hospital. She’s my roommate, I guess.”
Lian Huizhu’s heart skipped a beat, only because Tang Yingli’s expression when she mentioned this police officer was unprecedentedly gentle.
“I didn’t know you were sharing a place with someone, senior.”
“Not really. It’s just because of our work, and some personal reasons, we’re just taking care of each other.”
She silently bit her lip, and couldn’t help but be curious about what this person who was on Tang Yingli’s mind looked like.
“Then I’ll go with you.” She reached out to stop Tang Yingli from hailing a taxi. “You can take my car, and we can also discuss your previous questions further.”
Tang Yingli stared at the hand that was holding her. “Yes, that’s a good idea.”
So they went back to the parking lot, which took a little more time. Although Lian Huizhu was small, she was driving a well-known European brand car.
“What are you laughing at?” she asked, seeing Tang Yingli’s smile when she opened the car door.
“Nothing. I was just thinking of that police officer. She’s the opposite of you. She’s about the same height as me, but she drives a small car.”
“This is my dad’s car,” Lian Huizhu explained. “I don’t know if you still remember, senior, but you took it back to your place once, just once.”
“Oh… I remember.” She crossed her arms. “The night you escaped from the kidnappers.”
Lian Huizhu smiled, and as soon as she started talking about her memories, it was as if a floodgate had opened, and she couldn’t stop.
She was particularly curious about Tang Yingli’s academic and professional background abroad. Although they had talked a lot at dinner last time, she still felt that there were a lot of exciting things she had missed.
Besides, to her, there was no such thing as knowing too much about Tang Yingli.
“You actually became an FBI agent.” No wonder she’s so familiar with criminal profiling. “Then why didn’t you just stay there and work?”
“Why do you ask the same question as everyone else?”
“Isn’t it? It was a rare opportunity.”
Tang Yingli pushed up her glasses. “I don’t know what kind of fantasy you have about being an FBI agent, but as far as I know, the identity of an FBI agent is not very popular with the local police in the States.”
“Why?”
“Because other local police officers always have the stereotype that the FBI is here to ‘steal credit.’ And in fact, that’s partly true. Also, my first assignment after I graduated was in Detroit.”
Lian Huizhu’s face turned pale. “How did you end up there?” Detroit, a northern industrial city, had a notoriously bad reputation for its safety.
“It was an assignment. Rookies don’t have a choice.”
“Is that the reason you decided to come back to Taiwan?”
“Partly. And partly… I still have something I have to do here.”
“Is it related to your family?”
“Yes.” Tang Yingli smiled and then looked out the window.
This subconscious avoidance, Lian Huizhu had seen it too many times in her patients.
“Are you on good terms with your family, senior?”
“Very good.”
“So, renting a place outside is for the convenience of work, to give yourself more space…”
“I’m used to living alone. Although I had roommates when I was studying, we all lived our own lives. At most, we would have a companion to drink red wine with on Valentine’s Day.”
“Is that so?” With her previous experience, Lian Huizhu was particularly cautious in deciding whether to press further.
After arriving at the hospital, their topic finally turned to the arson case they were currently investigating.
“The third victim had fourth-degree burns all over his body, and the front was particularly badly burned. We found that the color of his subdural hematoma was different from that of a normal person who had died of smoke inhalation in a fire… it was clearly an external injury he had received before he died.”
Lian Huizhu was completely unfamiliar with forensic identification, and only knew that the deceased was related to Tao Qianya. “So that’s why you asked me that question, senior…”
“Yes, about criminal profiling, the most important thing is to determine why the killer committed the crime. To determine why, and then to further deduce who the killer is. We deduce why the killer chose the victim based on the situation at the scene. Was it a grudge? Or a robbery? Or was it a random crime?”
Lian Huizhu felt that her answer had not been of any help to Tang Yingli. “Do you have any leads, senior?”
“Yes, the culprit pretended to be a robbery followed by arson to destroy the body, but the whole process of the crime revealed that he had planned it for a long time, and that he was to some extent familiar with the victim. The probability of a revenge killing due to some dispute is quite high.”
“Is that so?”
Tang Yingli skillfully turned into the hospital room and called out, “Officer Zhou.” Lian Huizhu hesitated for a moment and found the nameplate outside the hospital room.
Zhou Jinglin. This was Tang Yingli’s roommate.
“Officer Zhou… oh, she’s not here.”
“She probably went out for some fresh air.”
Tang Yingli reached out to feel the temperature of the bed, and when she didn’t find a phone near the head of the bed, she said, “Her hair tie is gone… she probably went to the common room.” She hadn’t changed into her outdoor shoes, which proved that Jinglin was still in the hospital, and she had specifically tied her hair when she had left the room, so the most likely place she had gone was the common room.
Lian Huizhu’s eyes widened. “You can tell her whereabouts just from the clue of a hair tie?”
“Yes.” Tang Yingli casually picked up a fallen hair from the pillow, and the corners of her mouth lifted. “Here, let’s see if my deduction is correct.”
Leaving the hospital room, Lian Huizhu vaguely noticed that Tang Yingli had quickened her pace.
As for the result of the deduction? The answer was, of course, correct. They saw a woman with a long ponytail laughing and talking with a child by her side from a distance.
“A new friend? I can’t stand it,” she muttered.
Lian Huizhu stared at the strange female detective and thus did not notice the almost helpless smile on Tang Yingli’s lips.
“Officer Zhou.”
“Teacher?” Jinglin pulled her jacket tighter. “How did you know I was here?” she asked, deliberately glancing at her phone.
“Ah,” she pushed up her glasses, “I see you’ve made a new friend here… you’re probably not in a hurry to be discharged, are you?”
She chuckled. “How could that be? You’re done with your class?”
“Yes.”
“Hello.” A flash of pale yellow caught her eye, and Jinglin followed the sound and saw a petite woman standing next to Tang Yingli.
“I’m Lian Huizhu. I came with my senior. Officer Zhou, a pleasure to meet you.”
**
Staring at the friendly hand extended to her, Jinglin felt an inexplicable sense of pressure.
“Oh… oh, hello.” She reluctantly shook it, and Lian Huizhu’s smile did not fade. “Aren’t you going to introduce us, Teacher?”
“Huizhu is my high school junior, a year younger than me. She’s a psychiatrist.”
“And a psychologist. But usually my patients say I’m a psychologist or just call me Dr. Lian.”
“Officer Zhou is a detective in the Criminal Investigation Division. She’s very decisive and outstanding.”
“Hey, your mouth… you were going to say I’m impulsive, weren’t you?”
“Oh, was I?” Tang Yingli deliberately covered her mouth. This drew a light laugh from Lian Huizhu.
“Big Sister…” the little girl who had been ignored tugged at Jinglin’s sleeve. She only then noticed that the little girl’s father was outside.
“Be good, Shuxin. Go find your dad.”
“The little girl is so cute. This is for you.” Lian Huizhu crouched down and, from somewhere, produced a milk candy.
“Thank you.” The little girl who had received the gift smiled, and the girl’s father kept waving at Jinglin. The father and daughter quickly left.
“Do you always carry candy with you… is it a professional habit?” Tang Yingli asked, her arms crossed.
“Yes, a lot of my patients are also middle and high school students, and I’ve even had elementary school students.” She smiled at the father and daughter and slowly stood up. “We often say that children these days are the happiest, but we always forget that besides their material life, the psychological pressure children face now is also greater than in the past. They have to compete with their classmates, their neighbors, and even their siblings.”
“This kind of thing isn’t new.” She looked at Jinglin and said, “Are you going back?”
The walk from the common room back to the hospital room was a rare one for the three of them, but it made Jinglin feel very uncomfortable.
Lian Huizhu had so naturally taken the spot next to Tang Yingli.
“I heard on the way that you were injured in an accident, Officer Zhou. Is it okay to talk about it?”
She hadn’t expected Lian Huizhu to take the initiative to talk to her. “Oh, it was just in the line of duty…” she briefly explained the reason for her injury.
“That’s amazing,” she exclaimed. “Your roommate was injured, senior. You must have been running to the hospital a lot lately.”
“After all, Officer Zhou’s hospital stay was extended, and I have to take some of the responsibility.”
Jinglin couldn’t help but pout. “If only someone had had that kind of responsibility when we ran into the attending physician.”
She tilted her head up and pushed up her glasses. “I’m completely helpless with angry men. They’re like preschool children, and I’ve classified them as incommunicable.”
“So you just left me to be scolded.”
Jinglin sullenly climbed onto the hospital bed. Tang Yingli took off her coat and at the same time casually adjusted her slippers, then crossed her legs and sat on the lounge chair.
“Watching Officer Zhou and my senior interact is really so interesting.” Lian Huizhu didn’t miss Tang Yingli’s thoughtful gesture. “You two must have a great rapport.”
“Not at all. This neuroscientist of ours… is always so unpredictable.”
“Speaking of which, I’ve experienced that before. My senior tore down a notice from the bulletin board, but the dean thought it was me, and I got a scolding for nothing.”
“So you were already good at that kind of thing before.”
“That was so long ago.” Tang Yingli was staring at her syllabus and didn’t look up. “Are you holding a grudge?”
“On the contrary. If you hadn’t torn down the notice, senior, I might not have had the chance to get to know you… and I wouldn’t have become interested in the brain and decided to become a psychiatrist.”
Lian Huizhu gazed at Tang Yingli for a moment, then said to Jinglin, “My senior had top grades before, but she was always a loner at school, and she was often called to the dean’s office. Earrings, hair gel, nail polish, and so on… but I thought that was so cool. Compared to me, who didn’t dare to easily show myself, my senior’s performance was very inspiring.”
“I thought you were going to say I was a bad influence on you.”
“How could you say that, Teacher? She’s clearly complimenting you.”
“Ah.”
“There you go again.”
“Then how do you want me to reply… I’m sorry.” The phone rang. Tang Yingli closed her notebook, and after a glance at the caller ID, her expression suddenly became a little tense. “Hello, Chief Fang?”
‘Teacher, there’s been another series of fires, and there have been casualties.’ Fang Zijun said urgently. ‘This time it’s in the Xindian district… and one of the victims is an employee of the branch where Tao Youchun worked.’
The same branch… it’s definitely not a coincidence. “I understand. I’ll be there right away.” Hanging up the phone, Tang Yingli immediately stood up.
“An emergency?” Jinglin was no stranger to this reaction.
“Yes, in Xindian. Someone has set a fire.”
“It must be very urgent.” Lian Huizhu immediately said, “Let’s go.”
“I’ll be back later.” Tang Yingli quickly left with Lian Huizhu. Jinglin didn’t have time to react and could only watch as she disappeared from the hospital room door.
