Yuan Hang's hand holding the wine glass didn't waver in the slightest, as if he had long anticipated this question. After all, he was no longer the poor, skinny boy from years ago who would just grit his teeth and swallow his grievances. His many years as a police officer had hammered him from wood into iron, and polished his intuition to be as sharp as a blade.

"The surveillance camera caught Ye Tongsheng wearing a grayish-blue hooded jacket on the night he fell into the water. We still haven't found that jacket."

The clamor of voices perfectly concealed the whispers in the corner. "Is that jacket important?" Before he could answer, Shen Zhengning pondered for half a second and came to his own conclusion, "Because his phone was in the pocket."

Yuan Hang nodded. Shen Zhengning asked, "His contacts and chat history are all on his phone. It must be difficult without being able to recover the data—but you should be able to find out a lot through other channels, right? Hasn't it already been determined to be a suicide?"

Yuan Hang didn't answer immediately. Instead, he asked, "Do you know about Ye Tongsheng's family situation?"

Shen Zhengning thought for a moment. "He rarely talked about his personal affairs in front of outsiders. I only know he's from Xingcheng."

Yuan Hang said, "The medical examiner found many old, hypertrophic scars on Ye Tongsheng's body, concentrated on his back, buttocks, and legs." As if afraid Shen Zhengning couldn't feel the weight of it, he emphasized again, "A lot."

"On the 29th, Ye Tongsheng's parents rushed from their hometown to Sheng'an to identify the body. They cried so much they could barely walk, grabbing the administrative officer in charge of receiving them and wailing that Ye Tongsheng had been rebellious, disobedient, unfilial, and a good-for-nothing since childhood. He failed to make a name for himself in the big city, and at his age, he disregarded his parents and family and just casually killed himself, leaving them unable to face anyone in the future, with no one to rely on for the rest of their lives, unable to hold their heads up..."

Shen Zhengning repeated incredulously, "'Unable to face hold their heads up'?"

"Our administrative officer is young too; what they said almost gave him a heart attack. He complained to us privately that this family was just too suffocating." Yuan Hang said with lingering fear, "I asked them if they knew where those old scars on Ye Tongsheng's body came from. His father stammered and said that Ye Tongsheng was disobedient as a child, so he whipped him with a rattan cane."

"According to his father's description, Ye Tongsheng was a boarding student in high school and would often climb over the wall at night to hang out at internet cafes and play games. Their school was very strict. The teachers reported to his parents that Ye Tongsheng had an internet addiction, so they took him home for some corporal punishment. They broke many rattan canes on him but couldn't beat him into submission. Instead, Ye Tongsheng ran away from home in a fit of rage to his uncle's house in the neighboring Xing City. He only returned for the two days of the college entrance exam, and then cut off contact with his family after starting university."

The education system in Xingcheng was quite famous. When Shen Zhengning was in high school, his school even organized trips for teachers to go to Xingcheng for professional development, to learn from the advanced experience of the local prestigious schools. However, with changing perspectives in recent years, some criticism of Xingcheng has gradually emerged. Nowadays, when people mention Xingcheng, it no longer commands the same fervent admiration as it once did.

Shen Zhengning looked down at the bubbles swirling in his glass, feeling a bit upset. "Climbing walls to go play online in high school, then joining an internet company after graduation... Ye Tongsheng really stayed true to his original aspiration... He must have had a genuine love for computers."

This sentiment came a little too late. He was only truly getting to know someone after they had already left this world.

He would no longer have the chance to hear him speak of his past, nor would he ever hear him say with a smile during a casual chat, "It's great to work in a field you love. I only chose computers because it was a popular major with good job prospects. Actually, I wanted to be a famous detective when I was a kid."

"That's not even the most outrageous part." Yuan Hang said in a world-weary tone, "This June, Ye Tongsheng went back to his hometown in Xingcheng and happened to run into a relative. The person recognized him, told him that his parents had had a hard time over the years, and persuaded him to go home and see them."

"Ye Tongsheng probably had a change of heart. Plus, the relative told his parents they had seen him, so he went home to meet with them. His father didn't want him to leave his hometown again. That night, he hid his ID card, computer, and phone, locked him in his room, and absolutely forbade him from returning to Sheng'an. He ordered him to settle down, find someone in their hometown, get married, and have children."

Even though Yuan Hang's description was as concise as possible, Shen Zhengning still felt a chill run down his spine.

"What does his father do?"

"Before retiring, he was a section member at the County Water Resources Bureau. His mother, by the way, is a salesperson at a pharmacy. It's a very common, ordinary family setup. Not a lot of money, but they could live comfortably in their local area."

Shen Zhengning propped his chin on his hand. "Ye Tongsheng escaped. And then?"

Yuan Hang said, "We checked Ye Tongsheng's medical records. This July, right after he escaped from his hometown, he went to the Psychiatry Department of Shengda Affiliated Hospital and was evaluated. He was diagnosed with moderate anxiety and depression. The medical record clearly states that the patient reported having suicidal thoughts. The doctor prescribed him Mirtazapine and Lorazepam."

"Long-term use?"

"Yes, but he only got the prescription filled during that one visit. He never went back to the hospital for more."

Family conflicts, depression, previous suicidal thoughts, a final "I'm sorry"... The scattered facts connected into a line, clearly pointing to the final conclusion: psychological problems caused by his family, which worsened with each struggle and disappointment, ultimately leading to a collapse.

Such tragedies are not uncommon. Or rather, because one has seen so many, there's even a logical sense of "as expected."

"It's a shame," Shen Zhengning said.

Yuan Hang: "Can you tell me what you think?"

"Me?" Shen Zhengning let out a laugh. "I'm a layman. Back in high school, I was just being audacious. How could I dare to make a fool of myself in front of an expert now? Besides, I have some connection to the victim, wouldn't that affect your judgment?"

"No. The case is already closed. Unless new evidence is found, the current conclusion cannot be overturned." Yuan Hang shook his head firmly, but his words carried a hint of hesitation. "I just feel that this result... how should I put it... it seems to have been reached by following our conventional thinking... I'm very worried that I might have fallen into a formulaic trap."

His drifting thoughts made his explanation intermittent, but Shen Zhengning understood what he meant. "I can probably understand what you're thinking. To be honest, based on my few interactions with Ye Tongsheng, I never sensed that he had depressive feelings severe enough to be suicidal. On the contrary, I felt he was a very resilient person who was good at solving problems. Of course, it's also possible that he hid his emotions very well and didn't want outsiders to know about his pain."

"Besides that, there's one thing I can't figure out: Ye Tongsheng's final WeChat Moments post."

"You guys have separate phones for work and personal use, so you post on your personal WeChat Moments, and never post anything related to your private life on your work phone, right?"

Yuan Hang nodded.

"How many WeChat accounts did Ye Tongsheng have?"

"Only one."

"He didn't have separate work and personal phones. I was able to see his final Moments post, which means he didn't block me—but before that, he had never posted anything on his Moments, neither about his daily life nor work-related content. I guess compared to WeChat, where everyone is an acquaintance, he probably preferred to record his life on anonymous social networking sites."

"So why did he choose to post his most important, final farewell on WeChat Moments of all places?"

Yuan Hang frowned. "Isn't it because he wanted everyone to know? That's why he used Moments, which everyone can see... After all, it's a farewell. There should be a sense of ceremony, right?"

"A sense of ceremony?"

"Right."

"Then that's even more wrong," Shen Zhengning said. "Life and death are major events. The most basic ceremony for celebrating a birthday is to say 'Happy Birthday' right at midnight. If Ye Tongsheng cared so much about ceremony, that Moments post, if not posted at midnight, should have at least been on the hour, like 11:00 sharp."

"The post time was 10:43, not even 10:45. Unless that number had some special meaning for him, it's just too random."

Yuan Hang reached for his glass, tilted his head back, and finished the rest of his beer. He took a deep breath. "Is there more?"

Shen Zhengning said expressionlessly, "Don't be like that, it's a bit scary. It's late at night, you're making me afraid to walk home in the dark."

Yuan Hang's tense nerves instantly relaxed, and he chuckled. "You're the scary one. The feeling of being completely outclassed by a top student is truly something else."

"I thought you'd be used to it by now," Shen Zhengning said bluntly, "After all, you two have been dating since high school."

Yuan Hang: "...You're getting more and more out of line!"

Shen Zhengning pulled the cold atmosphere back a bit, then changed the subject back to the main topic. "Also, after hearing what you just said about his parents, there are even more awkward points. First, Ye Tongsheng dared to run away from home in high school and had no contact with his parents for ten years. Would a person with that kind of determination have a mental breakdown just from being locked up by his father? It's not like he didn't know what his parents were like."

"Second, after experiencing this second round of harm from his parents, Ye Tongsheng escaped from his hometown and returned to Sheng'an. Under these circumstances, would he still have his parents on WeChat? Who was that 'I'm sorry' Moments post meant for?"

"Third, a child harmed by his parents, completely disillusioned with familial love, finally chooses to end his own life. Giving up one's life is a typical act of revenge against the parents who gave him that life. If that's the case, why say 'I'm sorry'? Shouldn't it be something like 'We're even now' or 'I don't owe you anything anymore'?"

Yuan Hang massaged his temples. "That makes a lot of sense... but this seems to involve too much of Ye Tongsheng's psychological state. The relationship between parents and children can't be explained in just a few sentences, can it? Who knows what he was thinking at the time? Maybe he couldn't get over it precisely because he was so conflicted?"

"These are the anomalies in the formulaic deduction process," Shen Zhengning said. "You can see them as doubts about the case's conclusion, or you can see them as the unique aspects of this case that set it apart from the usual formula."

"What do you mean?"

Around them were bright lights, a clamor of voices, and the lively smell of cooking. In such an atmosphere, a person's courage and ambition would inflate like a balloon, rushing in a more intense direction. But Shen Zhengning went against this current; he was so calm he seemed almost out of place—

"In other words, these things that feel awkward to you might mean 'there's more to this case than meets the eye.' Of course, you could also just treat them as parts of a story that weren't elaborated upon."

He didn't say the second, slightly harsh, half of his thought. Yuan Hang was already meticulous and thorough enough. A person who exhausted all efforts to run around searching for the truth shouldn't have to endure such baseless, armchair criticism.

—After all, it was just another tragic story, much like any other.