The old man continued after shaking his head with a sigh. "At that time, our quarrel was so severe that it escalated to the point of estrangement. I left the hospital to run an errand, and by the time I returned, they were gone. I reckoned that they just upped and left because they no longer had hope about our family. Truthfully, I really… didn't expect this to happen! If I had known, I would've called the police then!"
The policeman nodded and, after further cross-examinations with him, he proceeded to question Yun Shishi.
After the interview, he took their thumbprints before allowing the father-daughter pair to leave the station.
Mu Yazhe was on the phone with his younger son as he waited by the entrance.
He hung up the call just as his wife came out of the building.
"How is it?" he asked.
The woman shook her head with a solemn expression.
"That's definitely her."
She felt nothing toward her stepmother. Even after seeing her body, she was calm to the point of heartlessness. Still, she was dazed by the sudden news.
It was hard to describe the shock she felt as the woman she once knew turned up dead before her.
It was shocking to her in this manner, but it was not so to her father.
After all, the old man was married to her for decades. Seeing her dead body had brought a deep sense of pain to him.
He was so badly shaken that his daughter had to help him to a wooden bench.
He was sitting on the bench, looking lost and confused, when the police chief walked over to update his son-in-law on the latest development on the case. After that, he advised them to return home and would just tell them once he had an update.
Yun Yecheng: "Can we take the body back? I'd like to give her a proper burial."
The police chief shook his head. "I'm afraid not. As we suspect that this may be a case of homicide, we can't release the body to family members until we receive the full autopsy report. Plus, we need to conduct further investigation surrounding her death."
Mu Yazhe replied with utter indifference, "Alright, then. We'll wait for your update!"
…
After Yun Tianyou heard the news from his father that his grandmother's body had been retrieved from the sea, he put down the phone with furrowed brows.
She's dead? How did that happen?
Sitting on the sofa, he mulled over this shocking news in disbelief. He had totally forgotten that he had played a role in her demise.
There was no falsehood in his lack of recollection, though.
He was close to having a mental breakdown when he passed that death order on her. The boy wanting the elderly woman dead was not his usually kind self; that was his ruthless self talking and clearly bent on destruction.
The lad did not know that he had dissociative personality disorder.
His complex upbringing had led him to have such a twisted personality disorder.
When he was much smaller, he had been in a hateful family environment. The situation was made worse by his poor constitution.
On one hand, he had received his mother's meticulous care and concern; on another hand, his step-grandmother and step-aunt had tormented him without mercy.
To protect his mother, the kind boy bore his pain in silence without any complaints.
It had gradually led the poor child developing another personality, which was sick and twisted.