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nTranslator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

nChen Chen walked out of Zheng Jian’s office.

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nHe behaved as usual. No one would be able to tell that he had just locked horns with an associate professor half a minute ago.

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nHe went down the stairs to the ground floor, exited the lobby, and walked out of the office block.

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nOnly then did Chen Chen take out his phone and looked at the time.

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nCurrently, it was ten o’clock on the dot.

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n“Time’s… Up.”

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nChen Chen muttered to himself, then walked down the path toward his dormitory.

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nWhen he was about a dozen meters away, there was a sudden, loud “thud” behind him.

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nIt was as if something soft but heavy had plummeted from a higher floor.

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nThere was a brief instant of silence among the passersby but this was soon punctured by successive bursts of shrieking.

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nThe campus was thrown into discord…

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nChen Chen did not look back. He simply left right away.

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nBefore this, Chen Chen was not certain whether Zheng Jian had killed his previous wife.

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nNonetheless, in some cases, certainty was not required. A seed of suspicion was enough.

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nWhy would Chen Chen start suspecting Zheng Jian?

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nIt was simple.

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nFirst of all, medulloblastoma was not a common affliction for those at the age of Zheng Jian’s wife. Rather, it was a malignant glioma of the posterior fossa that often occurred in children while being rare in adults.

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nOf course, this alone was not enough to arouse Chen Chen’s suspicions but there was also Zheng Jian’s identity.

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nZheng Jian had a double Ph.D. in biochemistry and pharmacy and was a lecturer in the Institute of Biological Science.

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nIn simple terms, he possessed the necessary technology and conditions to obtain his wife’s somatic cells anytime he liked, induce the formation of cancer cells in the laboratory, and finally inject them back into his wife’s body.

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nThis was why Chen Chen would ask the question “Did you set up an IV drip for your wife at home?”.

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nOf course, both of these points did not mean much by themselves. Zheng Jian would still need a motive to kill his wife.

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nIn that case – his second wife, the daughter of the high-ranking official. Naturally, that was the motive.

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nTo put it simply, this was like a crappy storyline of a scumbag who got rid of his poor, loyal wife after he became successful and chose to marry another, more promising woman.

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nSince a motive existed, Chen Chen only had to apply inductive reasoning. Naturally, he would reach the conclusion that Zheng Jian had killed his previous wife.

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nEven so, this was just a guess. What solidified Chen Chen’s conviction was the framed photo placed in the office.

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nAccording to criminal psychology, this was a form of compensation.

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nFirst off, by placing the photo of his previous wife on the desk, Zheng Jian could reduce his feeling of guilt.

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nSecondly, others around him would think that he cherished his past wife very much, thus lessening any suspicion of a crime.

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nHowever, humans were not cold-blooded animals, after all. Throughout the years, ethics and morality had haunted every single person. Not everyone could easily overcome this obstacle.

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nAs a result, although Zheng Jian had succeeded in killing his wife, he still felt uneasy.

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nThe fear of being exposed, his guilt toward his wife, and the weight of his conscience kept on tormenting him. He dared not even visit a psychologist.

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nThis had resulted in a state of constant distress over the years.

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nAs a result, this distress had made Zheng Jian afraid of his dead wife, which explained the scene earlier.

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nEven though the photo of his previous wife was set out on his desk, it was faced away from him…

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nBy this point, Chen Chen’s conjecture had a sixty percent possibility of being true.

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nOne should not underestimate this sixty percent. In this world, other than incontrovertible truths such as “the sun rises in the east”, “water flows to the lowest point” or “objects will fall, not rise”, most events were simply random with a certain degree of probability.

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nSixty percent possibility was enough for Chen Chen to bet on.

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nTherefore, when Chen Chen entered the office, he first displayed an acquiescent attitude to lower Zheng Jian’s guard.

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nFollowing that, he worked with what he had, fiddling with the clock to plant a “seed” in Zheng Jian’s heart.

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nThis was a common method of hypnosis.

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nHuman consciousness could be divided into the conscious and the subconscious. In general, when one was awake, the conscious mind was dominant.

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nThrough guidance and suggestion, hypnosis allowed patients to enter a light sleep state. At this point, the subconscious would be released and the hypnotist could bypass the conscious mind and communicate with the patient’s subconscious directly.

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nThis was the reason why Chen Chen had immediately sent the data over. He wanted Zheng Jian to be fully at ease.

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nStill, even then, Chen Chen was unable to hypnotize his target.

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nAlthough the concept of hypnosis was mysterious, it all came down to one thing. For a psychologist to hypnotize someone, the person must be actively cooperating. Otherwise, it would be a futile effort.

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nChen Chen also knew that no matter how submissive he appeared, Zheng Jian would not completely let down his guard.

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nNevertheless, all these were just the first step.

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nThe second step was when the clock struck the hour.

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nWhen this happened, Chen Chen brought up the question “Who is the woman in the photo?”. This would link the clock’s chime and the previous wife in Zheng Jian’s subconscious.

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nHowever, because Chen Chen had set the clock forward by five minutes, it was only 9:55 then. After that, Chen Chen corrected the clock once again, thus planting the “seed” deeper in Zheng Jian’s heart.

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nThen, it was the third step.

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nChen Chen had abruptly turned confrontational, interrogating Zheng Jian about the cause of his wife’s death. This extreme turnaround in approach would usually take the other person by surprise.

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nFurthermore, the pointed questions would cause Zheng Jian to become discombobulated.

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nThis was why Zheng Jian was so furious.

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nSometimes, an expression of anger was a way to mask one’s guilt when one was caught off guard.

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nAt the same time, Chen Chen laid his cards on the table by telling Zheng Jian that he was going to be hypnotized.

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nAlthough this would make Zheng Jian highly vigilant, it was also a form of suggestion to Zheng Jian.

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nIt was this suggestion that truly buried the seed of “I might be hypnotized” into Zheng Jian’s heart.

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nAfter that, it was the last step.

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nChen Chen had deliberately acted out an attempt at hypnosis, which drove Zheng Jian into a panic. However, Chen Chen suddenly slipped up and the frame fell to the floor.

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nAt this point, Zheng Jian’s immediate assumption would be – Chen Chen’s attempt at hypnotizing him had failed.

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nFinally, Chen Chen left.

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nSeeing that his interrogator had left, Zheng Jian’s tightly wounded mind would relax instantly. His mind, in a few short minutes, had switched violently between relaxation, tension, extreme tension, then relaxation again.

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nHaving gone through such a rollercoaster, Zheng Jian’s mental state sunk into exhaustion.

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nIt was at this point that Chen Chen’s final attack landed!

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n“Bong!”

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nThe clock struck once like the trigger of a pistol being pulled.

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nIn this instant, the seed buried in Zheng Jian’s heart exploded, igniting the terror and guilt he had suppressed for many years!

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nIt was like a torrent rushing down a mountain. In the state of hypnosis induced by Chen Chen, Zheng Jian leaped down from the fifth floor and ended his sinful life…

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nIt was just that simple.

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n‘Still, I’m truly being decisive. That was a living person but I killed him just like that.’

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nChen Chen pondered silently.

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nWas all these a side effect of NZT-48 or the liberation of his own dark side upon abruptly gaining power?

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