Genius Detective

"At that time, I had already backed out. I couldn’t stand the game anymore. I contacted him from time to time, but he stopped talking to me. I was really worried that one day he would suddenly commit suicide. The stuff that follows was what I heard after meeting him for the second time. It took him a whole year and countless trial and error, countless crashes, until he finally came up with a perfect virtual engine. He happily showed it to the president, that is-"

"Du Xuemei."

"Yes, he took his own blood, sweat and tears to show Du Xuemei. This woman, who didn’t understand programming at all, listened to him explain everything for half a day, and only said, 'Too complicated. It doesn’t meet Party A's requirements!' Zhou Tiannan was furious and demanded a meeting with Party A. Du Xuemei rejected him saying, ‘Who do you think you are? Go back and change it for me!’ Zhou Tiannan slammed the table and said, "This engine is the most perfect engine possible. It’s almost the same as the physical laws of the real world. It can’t be more perfect than that. I can prove it to you!’ Du Xuemei said to him, 'Prove it then!’ Zhou Tiannan was about to explode. He opened the window and said, ‘I’ll show you how real it is!’ Then he jumped out. It was the sixth floor! Guess what happened?"

"He died?" kk guessed.

"He got hurt?" Chen Shi asked.

"He fell, but he was only slightly injured. Unbelievable, right?!" Sun Zhen said.

"How was that possible? It was the sixth floor!"

"That's the truth. Zhou Tiannan didn’t die. When he was in the hospital, he began to reflect on some things. He may have thought that the world was an illusion. His not dying was proof of that for him. He thinks that he came to this world with a mission. That was the starting point of his craziness. Putting things together with the truth uncovered by Brother Chen, the first person he killed after recovering must have been Du Xuemei. Then he joined 'Black Honey' to plan the tragedy at Villa Luolin."

Chen Shi said, "He should have met Wang Sunxu at that time. The two had a common hatred towards Du Xuemei, so they planned the murder and fire."

"I think this is bullshit!" kk said, "Jumping down from the sixth floor and only sustaining minor injuries? Who would believe that?"

Gu You said, "I just thought of a news story. A farmer in California was swept away by a tornado. He was carried a few kilometers away and thrown onto the ground without serious injuries. Later, the doctor found out that he had bumped his head when he was swept away by the tornado. He had bumped his head on a wooden board and went into a coma. Which meant that he was completely relaxed, and his bones and flesh somehow perfectly absorbed the impact when he landed."

"That’s a bit ridiculous. Isn't that a superpower?" kk asked.

"The potential of the human body is huge. In a critical situation, a person can lift up to three times their weight and can fall from a high place without being injured."

Sun Zhen said, "If you have to analyze further, that’s probably a potential reason. He hit his head when he fell. In addition, I went to Shida Company once. There’s a row of awnings over the sidewalk along the street below that company. Maybe it cushioned the fall when he fell down."

Chen Shi said, "No matter what, a person jumped from the sixth floor without dying. Strange thoughts occurring are understandable. If this person had prior faith, he may feel that it was a blessing from God or whomever they worship. Unfortunately, Zhou Tiannan only held crazed thoughts in his head. He took the incident as evidence… Little Worm, what happened after that?”

"I met him at 'Black Honey' later. The mission that he arranged for me was a hacking mission. He asked me to write a program to open an elevator door as well as overwrite the target program. I thought that it was just a simulation because the elevator program was closed off, and impossible to enter from the outside. I didn’t know that he had connected the elevator computer board of an apartment building to the Internet beforehand. When I finished, a scene appeared on the screen. An old man opened the elevator door and walked in. He fell directly down the elevator shaft... I only realized then that I had killed someone!"

Sun Zhen looked at his hands in horror and swallowed hard.

"But I didn't know who had assigned the mission at the time. I thought that it was random. Then I received an invitation to go to Villa Luolin. When I got there, I discovered that the atmosphere wasn’t normal. I wanted to run but was stopped by him. He told me that the elevator murder was designed by him. He liked my talent. If we worked together, we’d be invincible. He gave me a knife and told me to kill another person who was kneeling down. I cried and said that I couldn't do it, so he injected me with some kind of drug, and I fell unconscious. After waking up, I was tied up in a secret room...” Sun Zhen covered his head, “Sorry, I don't want to remember that experience!”

That experience was probably the brainwashing process. Zhou Tiannan reconstructed his nerve reflexes and made Sun Zhen forget all the memories related to him forever.

Gu You asked, "Zhou Tiannan is only good at hacking and programming skills. He can’t complete such a deep brainwashing procedure alone. Who brainwashed you?"

"A woman. Her name is Ling Shuang."

"Ling Shuang!?"

"What? Do you know her?" Chen Shi asked.

Gu You replied, "She is a well-known psychologist who specializes in behavioral therapy. It turns out that even a person like that is on Zhou Tiannan’s side."

Chen Shi patted Sun Zhen on the shoulder and said, "It seems that Zhou Tiannan didn’t kill you because he treated you as a friend."

Sun Zhen smiled bitterly with a bowed head, "He probably thinks that I'm a worthless person that can only code. I can’t make any waves, so there’s no need to kill me."

Gu You suggested, "Or, you were just a mouse that was used for an experiment. Someone timid and obedient like you would be perfect for that."

Sun Zhen looked at her in shock.

Chen Shi paced around looking at the photo in his mobile phone. Zhou Tiannan had a face that couldn’t be more ordinary. This face did not belong to the one who screamed frenziedly at him that night three years ago.

That "Zhou Xiao" should have been just one of the people from Zhou Tiannan's gang!

Chen Shi said, "During the serial killings three years ago, they left the name ‘Zhou Xiao’ behind and used the same killing methods. I think that those who died should have been people that the gang’s members respectively hated. No... they exchanged murder victims with one another. That’s why the police couldn’t figure it out."

"Are you going to take those cases apart and solve them one by one?" Gu You asked.

Chen Shi shook his head. "I don't plan to do that for the time being. I want to investigate Zhou Tiannan first. I will check on the police side of things. kk and Sun Zhen, you two should also help to investigate... Although finding the evidence would be a bit difficult, let's find him first!"

Chen Shi glanced at Gu You and said, "Even if you know who he is now, you should never do anything overly aggressive and use violent revenge methods. One day, you’d become someone like him."

Gu You sighed, "I know."