Chapter 1505: And with the Forensic Doctor, a Sprinkle of Candy 18

Yi Tian and Wei Yan finally made it back to the meeting. The two injured officers, in uniform with casts, were looked over by all the old men and women who had come to file reports as they passed the municipal bureau's front hall; by the time they entered the meeting room, they were already red-faced like sweet potatoes.

Jin Chen lounged in his chair, glancing at Wei Yan a few times, and asked, "Did that Doctor Gu say anything to you?"

Wei Yan took the new milk candy Duan Xiao Bai handed over, slowly peeled it open, and said, "No, he just gave me some medicine, didn't say anything."

Seeing that Wei Yan showed no sign of hiding anything, Jin Chen finally relaxed, but still reminded him, "If he contacts you, you must refuse."

"Okay, Jin Team."

Just who is Doctor Gu, that the Jin Team would inquire about him so earnestly?

This question was passed back and forth between the Major Case Team and the Criminal Investigation Team via glances, yet no one could give the correct answer.

Even the parties involved, Yi Tian and Wei Yan, were unclear.

The newly arrived Chief Forensic Doctor Wu Lin didn't miss their eye‑exchange, took no part, merely lowered his gaze in silence, and only focused when Duan Xiao Bai began to speak about the case information concerning Cui Jiu.

Before speaking, Duan Xiao Bai drank a large glass of water, then said, "We investigated Cui Jiu's family and background; his remaining connections are few, yet everyone can recount something about his past."

"Cui Jiu, male, 40 years old, his suicide‑mutual‑aid website account was 'Alcoholic', and he is the killer of Zhou Ming."

Duan Xiao Bai wrote three sets of numbers on the whiteboard: 18, 27, and 35.

"He is homosexual, and at these three stages he had three relationships. The boyfriend he dated at 18 was just after novelty; Cui Jiu came out to his family over him, but the boyfriend instead hit it off with Cui Jiu's cousin, married, and emigrated overseas."

"At 27, Cui Jiu, as the owner of several independently run bars, was considered successful in his career; this boyfriend was after his money, tricked Cui Jiu into liquidating almost all his assets, then fled, and has not been heard from since."

"At 35, this boyfriend was relatively cautious, but he loved Cui Jiu and not only him; after Cui Jiu caught him in bed with another, the cheating young man assaulted Cui Jiu's leg."

Everyone in the meeting room: "……"

"What a guy, he's experienced heartbreak, financial loss, and injury all at once." Ke Xiu rubbed his face, then propped his chin and kept listening.

Duan Xiao Bai: "Those three failed relationships devastated Cui Jiu, leaving him with a borderline mental disorder and severe depression; after being diagnosed at the Qinghuan Mental Treatment Hospital, he entered a five‑year self‑recovery period."

"His friends all thought he had healed himself, and his outward demeanor was even calmer than a normal person's."

Jin Chen frowned: "Zhou Ming loved painting but could not attain it, and he was deeply obsessed with the freedom of escaping confinement; his cause of death was drawing on his body and then burning it. From this, Cui Jiu's cause of death was also his own request."

If outsiders are unaware of the website administrators' darkness, perhaps they could still sense a few strands of warmth from the suicide‑mutual‑aid site.

Duan Xiao Bai added, "By the way, Jin Team, this suicide‑mutual‑aid group seems to also require … offering some conditions to the person who killed oneself."

"How so?"

Duan Xiao Bai handed out some printed materials and said, "Through analysis of Cui Jiu and Zhou Ming's social‑media contact during that period, the reason Zhou Ming was caught by the counselor before his death and talked about love was that he had agreed to be Cui Jiu's non‑sexual half‑month boyfriend; in that half month, Zhou Ming had to play the perfect partner in Cui Jiu's eyes."

Jin Chen spun the pen in his hand once, made two strokes on the document, and remarked, "Their suicide‑mutual‑aid thing actually has a decent beginning and end."

"From killing Zhou Ming to completing the suicide ritual, less than a week passed—could he have already fulfilled the condition for the Nightmare?" Ke Xiu asked, "And we've been investigating throughout this period."

Jin Chen: "They aren't afraid of making their secrets public; indeed they deliberately put the evidence out in the open, just as they don't fear death."

The only thing they want to secure is enough time to prepare the suicide ritual.

Jin Chen then threw the question to the silent Wu Lin, "Chief Forensic Doctor Wu Lin, what do you think the condition Cui Jiu promised the Nightmare is?"

"Dream reversion." Wu Lin returned to his usual indifferent demeanor toward everyone, looking ordinary except a bit more deeply cold.

"The Nightmare needs someone to cooperate with him in mental control, which is different from ordinary memory recall…… the Nightmare likes to watch people trapped in painful memories."

And this is exactly what happened on the night Cui Jiu died.

Cui Jiu had drunk alcohol, and under hypnotic control recalled several failed loves he had been forced to forget; the intense mental anguish and the bodily sensation of being constricted to the point of suffocation—this borderline pleasure—combined to produce the final fragment before his death.

But even with this analysis, they still haven't caught a trace of the behind‑the‑scenes administrator, yet could it really be that someone pulling the strings in the dark leaves no trace at all in the open?

Jin Chen: "Yu Jue, later let's go and capture the Nightmare together."

"Jin Team, the Nightmare knows we're after him—can we still catch him smoothly?"

Yu Jue glanced at the two injured teammates and felt it was a bit risky.

"Yes." Jin Chen was very certain.

But before that, Jin Chen needed to figure out another matter—the connection between the Ghost Butterfly and Wu Lin.