The Bride Beneath the Roses Chapter 4

In my view, Lily's death was a mystery. Kevin's death was a mystery. And Susan Liu's death was also a mystery.

No matter how good the relationship between Lily's parents, Susan still had a daughter. Logically, she might grieve excessively, but wouldn't go so far as to jump from a building, would she?

After much thought, I interviewed Derek's neighbors.

Sure enough, two neighbors said Derek and Lily's relationship was troubled, they often heard them arguing, and frequently heard Lily crying inconsolably.

Imagine a young woman in her prime. She originally had a happy family, but her parents died in succession. She had dreams of becoming a dancer, but her legs suddenly became disabled. She couldn't move freely, and her boyfriend often argued with her. How helpless she must have been!

After returning, I investigated the accident involving Lily's leg disability. A year ago, Lily had indeed sued a renovation company. The company refused to admit using substandard materials, but fearing damage to their reputation, they settled out of court. The company paid all of Lily's medical expenses, plus an additional $200,000 in disability compensation, and agreed to properly repair the defective railing.

After checking all this, I still wasn't satisfied. I found Lily's parents' address and decided to interview their neighbors to see if I could learn anything.

Lily's parents' home was in a complex in the North District, not far from Kevin's workplace at the auto parts factory—both in the North District.

Lily's parents lived on the 15th floor. Their neighbor was a middle-aged woman in her forties, quite friendly. From her, I learned that after Lily's parents died, Lily sold the apartment because it brought back painful memories.

As for other matters, she didn't know, but told me Lily's aunt also lived in River City. For specifics, I could ask her, though she didn't have the aunt's contact information.

Back at the station, I went to Harris to look at deceased Lily's phone, wanting to find her aunt's contact in the phone book.

When I opened the phone, I suddenly felt somewhat ridiculous, because Lily's phone contacts only had Derek's number. Her WeChat was the same—Derek was her only friend.

I found it incredible. Did Lily have not only depression but also autism? Didn't want to contact anyone? But she wouldn't avoid even relatives, would she?

Since I couldn't find the contact through the phone, I had to think of other methods. Initially, I planned to ask Derek—I thought he should have met Lily's relatives. But on second thought, he was now a suspect. To avoid alerting him, I decided not to contact him.

After some effort, I retrieved Lily's mother Susan Liu's original family household registration from the police system and finally found Lily's aunt Sharon Liu's contact information.

This made me even more certain that the deaths of Lily's family of three were all connected to Derek.

After meeting with Lily's aunt Sharon Liu, I told her about Lily's death. Sharon cried heartbrokenly. I could only console her.

After a while, Sharon told me that Lily and Derek had met online and decided to meet in person. The family didn't approve, especially her brother-in-law Kevin, who was very dissatisfied with Derek.