The Genius Female Forensic Pathologist, The Psychological Anatomist

Chapter 68

Fang Rui and Zhang visited Liu Xiaonian's home again.

Upon learning the true reason for Liu Xiaonian's death, Liu Xiaonian's Mother wasn't surprised, as if she had guessed it all along.

Liu Xiaonian's Mother sighed, "Poor Xiaonian, he lived such a hard life! Ah, it's our fault. We were too concerned about saving face back then, always pushing him to study, never giving him a happy childhood. It's all our fault."

Liu's father, however, was shocked: "How could he commit suicide? He had such thick skin. No matter how much I scolded him, he never reacted. How could someone like him commit suicide?"

"Old man, are you still refusing to admit your mistakes? If we hadn't always used oppressive education methods, would Xiaonian have ended up like this? He suffered from depression, do you know that? He had no energy to go out and work, no ability to socialize. This isn't his fault, it's ours. We killed him!"

Liu's father was left speechless by this rebuke.

Fang Rui handed the letter to his parents, "This is what Liu Xiaonian asked us to give you."

"Is this Xiaonian's suicide note?"

"It should be."

Liu Xiaonian's Mother's eyes welled up with tears again as she tremblingly took the letter.

At first, Liu's father stubbornly refused to look at the letter, but when Liu Xiaonian's Mother took out the paper, he turned to look.

"Oh my, why are there no words?"

Just as Fang Rui was about to tell them how to make the words appear, Liu's father said, "These words were written with colorless phenolphthalein. When it dries, the words disappear. To make them reappear, you need to apply an alkaline solution. I taught this to Xiaonian when he was little. We used to do small experiments together back then."

Liu's father broke down in tears.

[Dear Dad,

By the time you see this letter, I will have been gone for many days. I don't know if you'll be sad for me. I both hope you will be and hope you won't be. See, I've always been such a contradictory person.

I wonder if you thought of my childhood when you saw this blank paper. You must have remembered, otherwise you might not have been able to see these words.

When I was little, you always did various small experiments with me, telling me all sorts of interesting facts. It was then that I fell in love with solving mysteries and exploring the unknown.

But as I grew up, your expectations for me became higher and higher. I had to work very, very hard to meet your demands. In others' eyes, I was both a top student and a dull, uninteresting study machine. I had no dreams of my own, no hobbies, and wasn't even allowed to have happiness.

I know you love me, but your love was too heavy. Dad, I'm not your appendage. I hope you can understand that my glory won't become your glory, and likewise, my shame won't be your shame. We are separate individuals.

Later, I finally found my own hobby. You might think I was wasting my life on trivial pursuits, but I was truly happy when playing escape rooms. It took me back to my childhood, when we used to explore various problems together. I loved that feeling of excitement when finding the answer.

Dad, I'm leaving this letter not to make you understand me, nor to make you feel guilty. I just want to tell you that the time you saw as a period of degradation was actually the happiest time of my life. During that time, I was truly alive.

Dad, please apologize to Mom for me. She really is the best mother in the world. If there's a next life, I hope I can still be her child. In the next life, I'll work hard to become her pride. There's no chance in this life anymore.

Dad, Mom, you don't need to miss me. Just forget about me. Please scatter my ashes in the sea. I hope the waves can take me to far, far away places. I want to see more unknown worlds.]

Tears kept falling onto the paper, slowly blurring it. But no matter how much they regretted, time couldn't be turned back, and the dead could never return.

"Edgar Allan Poe's Cabin" reopened after a few days, launching a brand new scenario. They invited some local internet celebrities for free experiences.

They even used the "someone hanged themselves here" incident as a selling point to upgrade the horror factor of the escape room. It quickly became popular again.

The young people who went there to play didn't care much whether someone had died there or not. They even felt it made the experience more thrilling.

After learning the truth about Liu Xiaonian's suicide, Wang Yang and Li Bin both cried their hearts out. Only they could understand why Liu Xiaonian would take his own life.

Wang Yang decided not to open an escape room business anymore. After paying off his debts, he used the remaining money for a down payment on a house and decided to join his brother-in-law in sales. He felt he should live a more practical life now.