Chapter 17 Chapter Seventeen

God didn't give me much time to immerse myself in Buddhist thinking. I was just a little forensic doctor in the ordinary world. The unpredictable fate put another corpse case in front of me. That man started committing crimes again.The same method of committing the crime, the same precise knife technique, he even put a piece of police tape used by the police to seal the scene in a black plastic bag.Emboldened by successive successes, he may be laughing at the incompetence of the police somewhere. The consecutive cases of corpse dismemberment made everyone lose the illusion that this is a case of running around and committing crimes. Everyone from top to bottom understands that this is a case that must be solved, and there should be no chances.If the case is not solved for a day, we may face the next victim at any time.Restoring their appearance, posting reward notices... everyone took action.Afterwards, we received meaningful leads that someone knew the victim.The victim's landlord came forward to report the incident.The information he provided was valuable: the murdered woman was a stray warbler.

Although he failed to identify any of the previous victims, the run-down tenement was scoured, including the "hair salon" where the women worked.Soon, another landlord recognized another victim, also a stray warbler.This not only greatly increases our confidence in our facial restoration technology, but also makes us believe that the murderer may be a sex worker. It is good to have a direction, at least it is better than groping aimlessly in the dark.We still don't know who the suspect is.There are no specific rules for the scope of sex workers' contacts, not to mention very complicated, and almost no useful clues are left.In previous years, the use of sex workers' mobile phone numbers to trace the facts in the crackdown on prostitution and whoring has been quite effective.We found the mobile phone in the victim's room this time. Although there were hundreds of numbers on the mobile phone, everyone was greatly encouraged, and there seemed to be a bright light in front of them.

The Municipal Bureau held another mobilization meeting. Everyone who came to the meeting was inspired by the hope of solving the case. The bureau also thought of many ways, and the military order and rewards made the scene very lively. An unprecedented large network is being opened vigorously, and all departments have been fully mobilized: all sub-bureaus and police stations will jointly hold a large-scale anti-pornography and anti-illegal operation. We hope that the suspect will get out of the way; the traffic police have also taken action. We believe that the suspect cannot run around with a lot of body parts. He should have his own means of transportation.As a result, all the traffic police detachments stepped up nighttime inspections, trying to ensure that all major intersections in the urban area and roads out of the city were manned 24 hours a day;We estimated the suspect's driving time and driving speed in the urban area, and drew countless circles with the place where the body parts were found as the center.The place where these circles intersect is the focus of the investigation.

Compared with other people's liveliness, I am a little lonely.It is not our job to take the initiative. All forensics can do is passively wait for the next victim.I think it's a little dark humor, but I know that this is my duty and my destiny.I was fiddling with my pen under the table, hoping to overcome my useless negativity, when my phone vibrated. The text message was sent by Xiao Rui. "I'm in so much pain that I can't stand it. The chief of the hematology department said that Fronos can't be prescribed casually. Can you bring me a bottle?" I froze for a moment.This doesn't feel like a text message to me.So why is this message sent to me?Was it because she was unconscious in pain and accidentally sent it to the wrong person, or did she need my support during the battle against the disease, so she sent it to the wrong person on purpose?

I have no idea.What I know is that Fronos is an alkaloid analgesic with serious side effects, and it is not used in general diseases. She must have a serious illness. The instinctive awareness of evidence made me send her own text message back first, lest she deny it.Then I sent another sentence I wrote: "How long are you going to lie to me? What disease do you have?" I waited a long time.Before the meeting ended, I received a text message from Xiao Rui.Only two letters - "mm". I felt the four sharp corners on the head of the two letters "mm" stuck in my heart.There was a ringing in my ears, "mm" here definitely does not mean a delicate girl.

I don't know how the meeting ended or how the meal started.I felt a burst of real and distinct pain in my chest, which made me unable to move. I just sat in my seat and even forgot to return a text message to Xiao Rui. I know too well what kind of disease "mm" is: its full name is multiple myeloma, and its cousin leukemia is even more famous. These two diseases also have a lot in common: they are both malignant tumors of the hematopoietic system , The final overall collapse of the hematopoietic system puts the patient at risk of hypoimmunity, anemia, skin purpura, and even internal bleeding.Multiple myeloma is largely scarier than its cousins, with patients living an average of six months to two years.The vicious tumor cells will continue to destroy the patient's bones. In addition to allowing the patient to truly understand what pain is to the bone marrow, it may cause pathological fractures at any time.Tumors develop on our cells that make immunoglobulins, and the bad immunoglobulins are not only completely incapable of immune function, they can clog the kidneys, and many patients eventually die of kidney failure.

I can't imagine.I can't connect that lively girl with "death", and I can't believe the medical conclusion of "6 months to two years". Every time I connect this period with Xiao Rui's name, I feel a sharp pain in my heart. . I quickly thought that Xiao Rui's first symptom was low back pain. If one day the tumor invaded the spinal cord—"paraplegia", these two terrible words made me shudder. Grief robs me of the ability to think and act.When I woke up, I found that I was still sitting in the conference room, and the sky was getting dark. I began to blame myself endlessly: I doubted my professional quality, Xiao Rui's illness was typical enough, and repeated low back pain was actually sufficient evidence of tumor cell invasion.The pneumonia last time was so severe that I didn't realize that her immunity had been completely destroyed.The white blood cell drop was so obvious, but I gave a self-righteous and ridiculous explanation.I thought I was ridiculous and stupid.

By the time I stood at the window and breathed smoke rings at the Wanjia lights downstairs, the clock had already pointed to one o'clock in the morning.I sent a text message: "I want to see you". This may be the only thing I can do. "Okay. Tomorrow at 8 o'clock. On msn." Xiao Rui replied quickly. All night I was thinking about how to comfort Xiao Rui.The thought made me toss and turn, and I couldn't sleep at night.It's hard to do that.Xiao Rui is obviously more aware of her condition than I am. What's more frightening is that she is a medical student. She must have known how the disease will develop and what the final outcome will be. I have no way to comfort her.

To find reasons to comfort her, I even looked up Israeli scientists Avram Hershko, Aaron Ciechanover, and University of California, Irvine professor Owen Ross (who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2004).Their discovery, dubbed the "kiss of death" by the Nobel Committee, was approved by the FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) for the treatment of patients with multiple myeloma the following year.This may be a hope, although humans are still far from a complete cure for malignant tumors. When I turned on msn at eight in the morning, the image must have been a bit scary.The continuous overtime work these days made my face a little pale, and the lack of sleep last night made my lower eyelids a little swollen.

Xiao Rui has been waiting on the Internet for a long time, obviously she has carefully dressed herself up.I have never seen her wear a bright red cheongsam before, it looks very classical and festive, and the cheongsam matches well with the red cheongsam on her hair that I have seen in a self-portrait.In order to cover up her pale complexion, she even put on a little red eyeshadow, but unfortunately it didn't work out, she looked even paler and thinner against the red background.It could be seen that she was too weak to support her own weight for a long time - she was leaning softly on the back of the chair.

"How much do you weigh now?" I asked bitterly. "35 kilograms. When I first came here, the nurses were envious of my figure, but now I don't." Xiao Rui's smile was a bit forced. The malignant growth of tumors was already eroding her body.They robbed her of the nutrients she needed for daily activities, leaving her body struggling to make ends meet.Cachexia, a term flashed in my mind.Patients with advanced cancer will be skinny, and my heart was pricked by a needle. "Your hometown is not a place with well-developed medical care. Why don't you go to Shanghai to see? If there is a suitable bone marrow transplant, the problem will be solved." The words I typed flickered on the screen. "I have been there. Shanghai Medical University is my alma mater, of course I have been there. The doctor said that I am allergic and not suitable for bone marrow transplantation." Xiao Rui said with a smile, a dimple appeared on her face. I froze for a moment.As a colleague for so long, I haven't noticed her dimples. "Your dimples are beautiful." I quickly added, "I'm serious, it doesn't have any earthly meaning." "I only have dimples on one side of my face." Xiao Rui smiled again, exuding a heart-shattering beauty. "Maybe you shouldn't go to work anymore. Resting your mind and recovering from illness is the most important thing for you now." I said seriously. Xiao Rui's face became serious.After waiting for a while, she slowly typed a few lines on the screen: "I will not choose to sit in a quiet corner and count the remaining time. I spent an afternoon doing three emergency operations in a row, watching the patients being brought to safety. After being sent to the observation room, what brought me was not fatigue, but joy and relaxation." There are not many words, but I read it several times.The flashing handwriting on the computer blurred before my eyes, and the corners of my eyes became moist. Before I could reply, a few lines of words appeared in front of my eyes again: "Nowadays, in those late nights, you still have to rack your brains in front of the computer to check the information for the report. In the early morning when you are sleeping soundly, you are suddenly woken up by the phone ringing. Gone are the days when my car broke down and I had to walk the full two kilometers to get to the scene with a survey box. I regret that I can no longer listen to the dead, but I am fortunate enough to be able to save the living.” I have to admit that I finally couldn't hold back my tears in front of a woman and a noble soul. A teardrop from the corner of my left eye slowly slid down my face, and I pretended to brush my temples and wiped it away secretly. When I spoke to my wife that night, I told her all about it.My wife, who has always been reasonable, was silent for a while and asked me, "What kind of feelings do you have for Xiao Rui?" "Of course it's colleagues who add sympathy." I was a little annoyed, "If I have any other thoughts about Xiao Rui, why should I tell you about these things?" "There are many ways to express sympathy." His wife was persistent. "Donating money to the Hope Project or throwing money into the beggar's job is a good way to express it." "But any kind of sympathy should not affect one's own life," said the wife after a short pause. "Your current situation is not." I was at a loss for words. I didn't speak, but my wife persuaded me softly: "I see that you've been very tired recently, how about this, you come to live with me for a while, take a rest, and think about these things clearly." My wife meant well, but I understood it as distrust of me, and said angrily, "I'm leaving? How should I leave? What about the case?" The wife also lost patience, and asked: "Are you unable to let go of work, or are you unable to let go of someone?" "I can't let go of work, and I can't let go of people!" I was also furious, and said harsh words. "Okay, then if you can't let go of her, please let go of me! Think it over yourself!" The wife left the line after finishing speaking. I was silent for a while and didn't know where to start.When I was tossing and turning in bed that night, I suddenly remembered a question that I had ignored intentionally or unintentionally for a long time: Why did Xiao Rui resign?She loves the forensic profession so much that she even broke up with her parents, so there must be a very important reason for her resignation, but I don't understand it. Do you just feel that you are sick and afraid of affecting your work?It doesn't seem to make sense.Not only has she not stopped working, but she is working even harder with her last life. Why did she deliberately hide her illness from me?If it weren't for the wrong text message, I probably never knew what kind of illness she was going through.Why did she send me a self-portrait?I casually hung it up in the space, why is she so unhappy?After connecting all these questions, an answer that I dare not admit slowly became clear in my heart. Maybe I was wrong starting with that self-portrait.Judging from the fact that I randomly sent it to QQ space and aroused her anger, it is not just a painting. Suddenly I found myself terribly stupid.It was not a random painting, it was her own.What's more, she has put so much thought into this and made so many preparations. She hopes to always be as beautiful as a self-portrait in my eyes. Some things are cursed when spoken out.She was the only one who was hurt in her heart, but when she said it, the injured became three. This conclusion shocked me, and the burnt cigarette butt burned my hand so badly.I sighed inwardly. How can I be so favored by her?Besides, I already have a caring wife. I felt like I was being split in half.I was unable to solve my emotional problems, so I had to muddle along.