"Captain Wang, is this the beautiful writer you invited?" As Wang Shen led Xu Xiaolin into the police station's lobby, everyone looked up, first at Wang Shen, then at Xu Xiaolin. Once they saw Xu Xiaolin's face clearly, the curiosity in their eyes gradually turned to surprise. Wang Shen didn't explain much, simply greeting everyone. Xu Xiaolin, on the other hand, was much more outgoing, smiling and waving to everyone as they walked.

Wang Shen pushed open the door to his office, invited Xu Xiaolin to sit down, and placed a cup of tea in front of her. "Do you think there's a problem?" Wang Shen took a sip of tea and placed the notebook and photos from his pocket onto his desk.

“This is a huge problem.” Xu Xiaolin also opened her notebook, quickly glanced at her records, and frowned slightly.

"Tell me more about it."

Xu Xiaolin stared at her notebook and nodded. “Ask Manager Han if there was anything unusual about Han Mo's tone when she made that food order call. Manager Han's answer was ‘trembling.’ Under what circumstances would a person's voice tremble? If it were me, my voice would probably tremble when I was extremely cold or extremely afraid. Extreme cold can be ruled out in these two situations. Because of the climate in the south, even outdoors in winter, I don't think it would be enough to make someone ‘extremely cold,’ unless they were naked.” Xu Xiaolin chuckled. “Then there might be a second possibility: Han Mo was in a state of extreme fear when she made that call. If that's the case, we can speculate on the reason for Han Mo's extreme fear. I think it was because her life was threatened.”

"You mean the murderer might have been nearby when Han Mo made that phone call?"

"It's also possible that Han Mo knew danger was approaching," Xu Xiaolin speculated as she underlined lines in her notebook.

"Regardless of whether the murderer was with Han Mo at the time, why would Han Mo still make the food ordering call under those circumstances?"

"It's possible that the murderer forced Han Mo to make the call in order to create an alibi."

“That’s possible.” Wang Shen placed his teacup on the table, pursed his lips, and tapped his brow with his index finger. “But there’s another state that can make a person’s voice tremble: pain!”

"Pain?" Xu Xiaolin initially didn't quite understand Wang Shen's meaning, but after tapping her pen on the notebook a few times, she suddenly realized. "You mean, Han Mo was already stabbed? She made this call after being stabbed? But that doesn't make sense. Why would Han Mo make this call after being stabbed? To seek help? That doesn't make sense either, why didn't she just call the police or the hospital?" Xu Xiaolin rattled off a series of questions.

“Indeed, I still can’t explain these problems you’ve mentioned.” The trembling in his voice was unclear whether it stemmed from fear or pain. However, logically speaking, fear seemed more likely. “Since we can’t answer this question right now, let’s skip it for now and continue with what else you’ve discovered.”

"You remember this menu, right?" Xu Xiaolin flipped through a few pages of her notebook and placed the menu written by Manager Han in front of Wang Shen. "Sweet and sour pork ribs, spicy blood curd? Squirrel-shaped mandarin fish, boiled sliced ​​pork? Although humans are omnivores, and with the development of the times, human tastes have become more diverse, it's still rare for someone to order such drastically different dishes at the same restaurant. Perhaps some people crave something sweet for lunch and something spicy for dinner to change things up, which is understandable. But Han Mo is a regular at 'Spicy' Restaurant, and the changes in cuisine aren't just related to lunch and dinner. According to Manager Han, Han Mo always orders dine-in first, and takeout second. Why is that?"

"Take a look at this, maybe it will give you some inspiration." After saying that, Wang Shen walked to the filing cabinet, opened the cabinet door, pulled out a piece of paper from a pile of files, and handed it to Xu Xiaolin.

Xu Xiaolin picked up the paper and examined it carefully. "Han Mo, female, from Wuxi..." Han Mo's finger traced the paper as she silently recited Han Mo's file information. When she reached Han Mo's place of origin, Xu Xiaolin's finger paused. "Han Mo is from Wuxi?" Xu Xiaolin looked at Wang Shen in surprise. Wang Shen nodded. "So, the first menu item is Han Mo's preferred flavor, right?" Xu Xiaolin asked Wang Shen.

"As you said, people are very tolerant of different tastes these days. Han Mo is from Wuxi, so she naturally likes sweet dishes, but it's possible she also likes Sichuan cuisine. However, Han Mo always orders sweet dishes when dining in and rarely orders Sichuan dishes. From this, we can infer that Han Mo's taste is more sweet, or rather, she doesn't like spicy dishes that much. So why does she order mostly Sichuan dishes for takeout, and almost none of them are sweet dishes?"

"If we follow this line of reasoning, Han Mo orders food according to her own taste when dining in, but she accommodates others when ordering takeout," Xu Xiaolin tapped her pen on the notebook a few times, stating her judgment.

“That’s right. We can tell from the number of takeout orders that there’s always someone coming and going from Han Mo’s house. And this person must be someone Han Mo values. Otherwise, why would Han Mo be so accommodating to this person’s tastes? Also, this person that Han Mo is accommodating must really like Sichuan cuisine.”

"Then this person could be the murderer?" Xu Xiaolin wrote the word "murderer" in her notebook and circled it.

"Very likely."

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