Chapter 3008: Mercury Record (V)

"There are some people in this world who lack vision. It's not that their vision is poor, but that they have none at all. They have no standard for judging anything, cannot tell the quality of most things, and especially cannot tell whether they like them or not. It is very difficult to hear a sincere compliment or rejection of anything from their mouths."

"Many people think this is just because they are more reserved and do not evaluate things easily, assuming they have thoughts in their hearts but are just unwilling to express them verbally."

"But in reality, that is not the case. Some people have lost the ability to judge their own preferences; this is a manifestation of the self being excessively interfered with."

"During every period of time when they were establishing their self or in the past, their choices were always questioned and despised. The positive feedback of making a choice and reaping the results was completely suppressed by the negative feedback of criticism and questioning, which led to making choices becoming a painful thing for them in itself."

"Positive feedback was gradually weakened, making them unable to feel the happiness of choosing something they like and gaining a sense of stability. Over time, 'liking' simply ceased to exist."

"Their preferences began to gradually depend on the judgments of others or the public. It might become that if someone says something is good, they feel they like it, or if most people say something is good, they feel that thing is indeed not bad."

"And if they get this thing, they will usually feel it is indeed not bad under the effect of psychological suggestion, and if it really causes them trouble, they will also first doubt themselves."

"Regaining one's own vision is a long process. A psychologist needs to guide the patient to constantly make decisions, unearth their subtle emotions regarding every decision, act as external positive feedback, and help them establish their own preferences."

"Then what if you unearth it wrong?" Gordon asked.

"There is no right or wrong," Wei En replied. "A psychologist only needs you to recover your health. Whether you like pink or blue has no impact on the psychologist or on you yourself."

"Perhaps you should have been more inclined to like pink, but under the psychologist's guidance, you feel you like blue more. But actually, this is not important; what is important is that you dare to like blue, which makes you healthier."

"Every time I hear you say these things, I feel it's a bit terrifying," Gordon said sincerely. "This seems to be able to easily change a person from the root."

"It's not that simple, but it is indeed doable. Therefore, psychologists have very strict evaluation procedures and must also undergo psychotherapy regularly. But what is more pessimistic is that if a psychologist just wants to do evil, then these evaluations cannot stop them either."

"Can we only rely on morality?"

"Yes, but the premise of what I said is that the other party is an extremely excellent psychologist. If they are not excellent enough, both good and bad are meaningless; they are just a piece of trash who cheats for money."

"Let us return to the main topic. I roughly understand what you said the oil drum represents, but what about the flames? You said flames represent rebirth; is this some kind of religious allegory?"

"Your level of psychoanalysis can be said to be only higher than Bruce's, Commissioner Gordon. There is no religious implication in this serial murder case."

"Alright, thank you for your compliment. Continue talking."

"It is also an execution in an oil drum. If he chose to use water, I would think his mental state has still not improved and he is still expressing his suffocating and painful emotions. Why, I probably don't need to say more."

"Yes, speaking of water always makes people think of suffocation."

"Then fire is the same, but the difference is that when a person is roasted to death, he undergoes a qualitative change. This is a physical issue, and I probably don't need to explain it much either."

"His act of trapping people in oil drums shows that he is using the victims to metaphorize himself, thereby inferring that he is saying he has undergone a qualitative change. And connecting it to the treatment methods I mentioned, it shows he wants to express that through treatment, he has undergone a qualitative change and gained rebirth."

"Alright, I understand a little," Gordon nodded and said. "Judging the mental state through the oil drum, and then inferring the meaning represented by the method of death through the mental state."

"Yes, this is the psychoanalytic method. We start from the mental state, feel the mental state of the other party when committing the crime from the details at the scene, and then infer various allegories from this."

"Then what about the behavioral analysis method?"

"It is completely the opposite. They will first pay attention to the method of death. For example, the person in this oil drum was roasted to death. From this, they guess: is the murderer venting anger? Is it to metaphorize his own past? Is it to express some kind of his own ideology?"

"Then they exclude them one by one through more details in the case, and finally get the correct answer."

"They won't pay attention to the oil drum?"

"They might, but they are more concerned about where this oil drum came from and whether they can find the criminal's movement trajectory through the location where the oil drum once existed. Regarding why the oil drum was chosen, they will only consider things like the thermal conductivity of the metal, the time required for the criminal to cause death, and whether there is reserved time for evacuation between the time the police can find the body."

"I understand," Gordon felt he really understood. He said, "As expected, behavioral analysis is more reliable."

Wei En was not angry either; he just said, "It is just more easily understood by ordinary people."

"Yes, I don't understand what mental emptiness or squeezing is, but I know that if we can find traces of this oil drum's existence, then perhaps we can really infer the murderer's movement trajectory."

"Alright, let's talk about the third case." Wei En picked up the photo on the side and was just about to speak when the door was knocked.

Killer Croc walked over to open the door. Outside the door was Bruce. Killer Croc immediately grinned and said, "You finally came. You don't know how hot Cat Getan is this summer. If you had come a few days earlier, you would probably have melted on the asphalt road."

"It's precisely because I knew that I specifically came back a few days late. Fortunately, it's not very hot recently. Here, your dried fish." Bruce handed the bag of things in his hand to Killer Croc.

Killer Croc happily took it, winked at him, and said, "Come in. Your good professor is studying some murder case again. You'd better not provoke him, be careful he throws you into an oil drum."

After finishing, Killer Croc sat on the bed and started eating his dried fish. Bruce first poked his head in. Wei En turned his head and saw his eight teeth bared, immediately feeling a headache.

"What are you doing standing outside the door?" Wei En said. "Don't disturb the nurse's work, come in."

After Bruce came in, he put the things on the windowsill next to him. Wei En looked up, but then focused his gaze on the photo again.

Bruce pulled a chair and sat opposite the table, poked his head to look at the things on the table, and found it wasn't his thesis, so he breathed a sigh of relief.

At this time, Wei En looked up at him again, looked him up and down, and said, "It seems you haven't had time to write your thesis recently."

The series of excuses Bruce had prepared were all choked back into his stomach. After coughing awkwardly twice, he said, "Indeed no time. In a busy situation, I can't write anything in my thesis..."

"You didn't write anything out even when you weren't busy. What did you bring?"

"Oh." Bruce stretched his arm, took the things from the windowsill, opened them, and said, "A thermos newly developed by Wayne Enterprises. There is dense ice in the interlayer. Whether it's hot water or cold water, the thermal insulation effect is very good. Without opening the lid, the temperature can be maintained for about two months."

Wei En took it and looked at it, but didn't see anything different from other thermoses. He stood up, went to the side, and poured some hot water into it.

Bruce looked up at the ultraviolet lamp above, and then saw a cup of water placed in front of him, with steaming hot air rising from it.

"Let me confirm first, Professor, you don't have venomous fangs now, right?"

Wei En rolled his eyes slightly and said, "If I wanted to poison you, would you still be alive now?"

Bruce smiled sheepishly, picked up the hot water, and took a sip. When Wei En sat down, he looked at him again, then drank water while saying, "You've lost quite a bit of weight. Did you give up your muscle-building plan?"

"No time for that. Of course, I think being thinner is also quite good; it can significantly distinguish me from other Batmen."

"I'm going to talk to Commissioner Gordon about the third case. Has he shown you the photos?"

Bruce shook his head, took out his laptop from his bag, and said, "I have another task. I'm going to decipher the password left at the crime scene."

"Then go to that table over there, don't touch my photos."

Bruce had no choice but to hold his computer and go to the table next to him. Killer Croc also moved a stool and sat next to him, watching him study that string of letters.

Wei En reconnected the line and said to Gordon, "Sorry, Bruce is here. He should be deciphering the password at the crime scene."

"No rush. Tell me your thoughts on the third case."

"He is saying goodbye to the past."

"Who?"

"The murderer. The murderer is saying goodbye to his past."

"The way of saying goodbye is to pierce people on a wooden pillar?"

"There are three aspects of meaning. Which aspect do you want to hear first?"

"Any is fine. You naturally have your order."

"This is the reason I respect you, Commissioner Gordon. You are so understanding, not like a Gothamite."

"No, Professor, you've just been poisoned by those students for too long."

"Thank you. The culprit is sitting right next to me."

The two did not discuss this topic for too long, but started talking about the third case. Wei En moved the photo in front of himself with his finger and looked at it, saying.

"This must be the last case, because this murderer adopted a structure of echoing the beginning and the end. This is exactly the first aspect I want to talk about."

"The first case was separated, scattered, irregular, and unfixed. The third case is aggregated, concentrated, individual, and firmly nailed. This is a method of contrast."

"But at the same time, these are all a kind of child's play. Messing up building blocks and nailing insects seem to be a child's means of exploring this world, but in reality, they reflect the human innate desire to break rules. Destroying order and destroying life all represent that the other party thinks children are innately chaotic and disordered. This is the theme inherited from the two cases."

"Both the same and different, naturally it can achieve a perfect echo."

"Excluding the structure, the second aspect reflects the change in the murderer's own mental state: from torn to complete, from chaos to unity, from overly exposed spreading to concentrated and confident uprightness. This is a complete growth process."

"He thinks he has been cured?"

"In fact, he has indeed been cured. From the last case, it can be seen that his current mental state is quite healthy. He has grown from a mental patient into an antisocial person."

"What kind of growth is this?"

"From a psychological perspective, it is indeed growth."

"Alright, is there another aspect?"

"It is what I said before: he wants to say goodbye to the past. The body in the last case is a totem."

"A totem?"

"Yes, something humans used for sacrifice and marking locations during the primitive society period. He wants to commemorate his growth, so he pierced people upright onto the wooden stake. Without a doubt, this is a totem."

"If you want me to summarize this serial murder case, then I would think it is private in nature. He does not want to express his views on this world, but is just telling the world about himself. He doesn't even want anyone to understand it; he is just making a memorial for himself."

"How do you think he did, Professor?"

"Just like I said before, a choice is just a choice; there is no success or failure. He has deeply understood this point, so he didn't want to do it very well, he just wanted to complete it."

"He prepared and acted according to his own pace. Regardless of the result, being able to take this step means he has found a brand new self. He has recovered."

"But he didn't expect you to be able to understand."

"Perhaps so, but he would even less expect me to be happy for him. Regardless, there is one less mental patient in this world."

"But one more antisocial person."

"No, Commissioner, he will not kill again. This will be his last work. He will go do some things he is more willing to do."

"What is that?"

Just as they were talking about this, Wei En heard someone knocking on the door again. This time he was closer to the door, so he walked up to open it.

Standing outside the door was Edward Nygma. ===== CHAPTER 3009 =====