Chapter 131: A New Direction for the Investigation

But Su Yuqing’s adoptive father and her mentally ill mother had never brought it up themselves.

Normally, Su Yuqing didn’t seem like the type to go out and exercise, so this aspect had been mostly ignored during the investigation.

Now, hearing the teacher say this, a possibility suddenly flashed through Chen Mo’s mind.

That Su Yuqing had already been targeted during one of her night runs.

If the perpetrator had followed her all the way back to her house, they would know where she lived and could watch for when she went out.

Last Friday night, she had fled her home after almost being hurt by her mother during a psychotic break.

’Could she have been targeted by someone with malicious intent?’

’And then followed?’

’Followed to her father’s house, then to my house, and finally to the crime scene?’

’If that’s the case, the scope of this investigation is going to be massive.’

This would require looking back at who was around during Su Yuqing’s weekend night runs and whether anyone was deliberately watching her.

However, with Su Yuqing’s looks, just because someone stared at her during a night run didn’t mean they were a suspect.

It’s human nature to appreciate beauty; anyone would can’t help but take a few extra glances at something attractive.

So, even if surveillance footage caught someone staring at Su Yuqing, it wouldn’t prove they had done anything wrong.

At most, they could only be listed as a person of interest.

But if they listed persons of interest based on that criterion, the list would be far too long.

Regardless, Chen Mo decided that when he got back, he would compile information on Su Yuqing’s weekend night run habits and routes. Then he would find a way to get his hands on the surveillance footage from along those paths and investigate it carefully.

If such a person really existed, Chen Mo believed they must have been near his house last Friday night.

After all, they would have needed to tail Su Yuqing continuously to find the right opportunity to act at the crime scene.

Of course, there were plenty of surveillance cameras installed near Chen Mo’s house. If the person had a strong sense of counter-surveillance, they might have deliberately avoided them.

So they wouldn’t have appeared on camera.

Just like in the previous timeline, while searching for Su Yuqing on monitored roads, the police had also paid close attention to other people caught on camera around the same time.

But they basically saw no one who looked particularly suspicious.

So even with this new piece of information, finding the real culprit likely wouldn’t be that simple.

Of course, speaking of places cameras couldn’t see...

Chen Mo immediately thought of the person who was secretly protecting him.

This person also seemed to have a habit of staying in camera blind spots to protect him.

’If it was him, maybe he saw something nearby last Friday night.’

Thinking of this, Chen Mo decided to go back and ask this person if they had noticed anything unusual last Friday night.

He already had the person’s contact information, so he could communicate with them directly without going through his parents.

After all, Chen Mo’s parents had him followed secretly only because they were afraid Chen Mo would resent the feeling of being monitored by them, so they had deliberately hidden it.

Now that things were out in the open...

they could naturally communicate directly.

The teacher’s casual concern had unexpectedly given Chen Mo a new line of thinking.

After all, not even Chen Mo had known about Su Yuqing’s habit of going for night runs every weekend.

Even Zhao Yuanyuan didn’t know about this habit.

Su Yuqing had originally started running to relieve her stress and gloomy mood. Her naturally introverted personality, compounded by her depression, made her dislike social interaction, so she wasn’t used to going with other people.

Running alone, feeling the evening breeze, brought her a great sense of mental and physical relaxation.

But things were different now, of course.

Before, she had only been doing it as she struggled to find a moment of peace in the darkness.

Now, her world was filled with light. As long as she could be with the light of her heart, it didn’t matter where they went or what they did; for her, it was relaxing and spiritually joyful.

In response to the teacher’s concern, Su Yuqing nodded earnestly.

Sensing the topic had strayed a bit, Tian Jing put on a smile again and said, "Still, it’s really something. Your parents are so understanding to have agreed to let you two live together.

Having open-minded parents is truly the greatest blessing a child can have."

"It’d be even better if they could spend more time with their child," Chen Mo said with a smile.

Hearing this, Su Yuqing suddenly looked at Chen Mo, her heart aching for him.

She was used to seeing the sunny, handsome, cheerful, and optimistic Chen Mo, but she rarely touched upon his true inner feelings.

’Does he have his own sorrows or troubles, too?’

Now, watching him say it with a smile as if it were a joke, she couldn’t help but feel a pang of sympathy hearing the words.

’While I was envying how open-minded his parents were, I overlooked the fact that they spent so little time with him.’

’He must long to spend more time with his parents, too.’

’Everyone has their own struggles, more or less.’

She had originally thought of Chen Mo as a special existence, completely enveloped in happiness. But now, she realized everyone was the same.

No one gets to have everything go their way in life.

When Chen Mo was younger, he had indeed been very unhappy about his parents’ frequent absence.

But as he grew older, a child’s dependence on their parents naturally lessened.

Especially during the rebellious phase of puberty, the fact that his parents weren’t around actually reduced unnecessary conflict and arguments in Chen Mo’s family life.

During this period, children dislike being disciplined by their parents the most.

And Chen Mo’s parents didn’t discipline him at all.

This gave Chen Mo an immense degree of freedom during his formative years, allowing his psyche to relax.

But this approach had its downsides, namely, a child’s self-control.

This is the time when it’s hardest for a child to control their own actions.

It’s also the easiest time to fall into bad habits.

Chen Mo’s parents rarely managed him, and they let him spend money however he pleased.

Yet, this kind of freedom makes it even easier for a child to become lost and degenerate during this period.

Was Chen Mo born a perfect person? Not at all.

The immense freedom his parents gave him in high school also caused him to gradually lose some control.

It was just that his self-control was decent enough, and he didn’t have any bad influences around him. Even though Zhou Hao was a school bully on the surface, he was actually a very good, positive friend.

He wouldn’t teach Chen Mo to fall into bad ways; what he taught Chen Mo was always how *not* to become bad like him.

This provided Chen Mo with a great deal of positive guidance.

Coupled with the later incident involving Su Yuqing, it caused Chen Mo to completely skip the chaotic phase of adolescence.

He had matured beyond his years, practically overnight!