Chapter 572: Lu Dou's Source of Power

Qiu Ce Yuan infirmary.

Chu Che sat by the window, his Doctor's Lab Coat draped over the chair back, his shirt sleeves rolled to his wrists, revealing his long, pale hands.

A pot of hot tea sat on the table.

The tea leaves were sent by his father a few days earlier. Chu Jianguo said, even if one lives a busy life, one should set aside time for tea. Chu Che accepted it then, responding gently.

He indeed did.

But while others use that time to rest, for him it often decides many people's lives.

A personal computer sat before him.

The screen was divided into sixteen sections.

Outside the New Order Square's shadowed perimeter, Jiang Yuan's playing cards hovered at the edge of his palm, Su Ming had once crouched in the cable well, Qin Zhixia's containment box lay at her feet, and in the underground Data Center, a notebook with a permit card pressed under L filled the screen.

Even the raised lip line of the security guard in the back row was enlarged to the lower‑right corner.

Chu Che lifted his teacup and took a sip.

The temperature was just right.

He raised a hand to push his gold‑rimmed glasses, his gaze fixed on the face that was gradually distorting.

"Handled very seriously."

At the infirmary doorway, Sai Men leaned against the door frame, his pale jaw visible beneath the Gray Mask. He had changed into a dark‑red shirt, his black suit fastened neatly, the Eyeball Staff standing beside his foot, its eyeball fixed on the Square in the screen.

"Surrounded by three layers of shadow, electronic devices sealed, physical lines cut, and a three‑minute buffer prepared."

Sai Men raised his hand and gave a perfunctory two‑clap.

"Such a spectacle, Professor Lu ought to be moved to tears."

Chu Che did not respond.

In the Square, Lao Zhou's mask was lifted by a colleague.

That grin was already stretched wide.

It was not the manic expression of the Laughing Demon; it was more orderly, the corners of his mouth raised almost equally, even the number of teeth shown having been calculated.

Sai Men stared for two seconds and let out a short laugh.

"His aesthetic has improved considerably."

"What he wants is not loss of control." Chu Che said. "He wants unity."

"How boring unity is."

Sai Men tapped the ground with his staff.

"Once everyone lives by the same procedure, there's nothing to watch—no betrayal, no last‑minute defection, no dogs fighting dogs, no one brandishing a justice banner to do dirty work. What kind of show would that be?"

Chu Che scrolled the screen and called up an encrypted file.

The file title consisted of only four characters.

"Sinful Crown."

Sai Men's smile halted for a beat.

"You're giving me a makeup lesson today?"

"Your evaluation of Lu Dou is too shallow."

Chu Che set his teacup back on the table.

"He didn't gain his power from the Laughing Demon. What he obtained predates it."

The screen switched.

The timestamp reverted to after the Zhou Ping incident.

Underground laboratory.

At that time, the Investigation Bureau's personnel were still celebrating the birth of the Suppress Spook Bullet.

He Chuan led his team, placing the black‑red fragment stripped from Zhou Ping's remains into a vacuum chamber. That fragment was non‑contaminating, did not attack humans, and only devoured and suppressed the Strange Rule.

Wei Gong classified it as top secret.

The arsenal produced day and night.

The new law took effect.

Spook Controller privileges were revoked.

Everyone's attention fell on the fragment capable of suppressing the Spook.

No one noticed that, when the Sinful Crown shattered, another part remained unfound.

Chu Che's fingertip traced the touchpad.

The laboratory monitoring was magnified.

A worker in gray maintenance overalls pushed a cleaning cart past the third security checkpoint, head low, cap brim pressed down, the cart holding disinfectant, mop, and discarded gloves.

Quite ordinary.

So ordinary that the monitoring system gave no alert.

Sai Men bent down and took a close look.

"Lu Dou?"

"No."

Chu Che said: "At that time he wasn't qualified to enter here."

The image continued.

The maintenance worker entered the waste passage.

The cleaning cart stopped at the corner.

A black garbage bag was lifted open.

The bag contained no medical waste.

Only half a piece of dark red metal fragment.

It did not have the form of a complete crown, its edge was damaged, yet inside it retained seven closed eye patterns.

The maintenance worker reached out.

Before his fingers touched the fragment, his skin began to crack, and several fine black lines appeared on his palm.

He gritted his teeth and shoved the fragment into a sealed box.

The image stopped here.

Sai Men lifted his head.

"Your people?"

"A volunteer persuaded by Lu Dou."

"Oh?"

Sai Men became interested.

Chu Che pulled up the second file.

Before Lu Dou disappeared, he was a professor of cognitive studies.

His research was not merely simple mass hypnosis.

Even before his sister's death, he had been tracking a question.

Can humans and the weird cooperate?

Not symbiosis.

Not domination.

Nor using one's life to suppress the thing inside the body.

Rather, let humans actively accept the weird's rules, and let the weird's rules accept human ideas.

Sai Men fell silent for a few seconds.

"Sounds disgusting."

"But also effective."

Chu Che opened Lu Dou's research notes.

Inside were no complex formulas, only a large number of interview records.

Domestic violence victims, bereaved parents, post-war trauma sufferers, ordinary people oppressed by the weird-controllers, survivors evacuated from Dongdao's polluted zone.

Lu Dou asked them all the same question.

If pain cannot disappear, do humans still deserve the right to choose pain?

Some cursed him.

Some stayed silent.

Some answered, not worth it.

Lu Dou categorized these answers, recorded them, and dissected them.

He did not rush to seek powerful weird.

He first looked for loopholes in the rules.

Then he inserted his own thoughts into them.

The Laughing Demon needs fear, despair, and spread.

Lu Dou gave it happiness, obedience, and unity.

He did not forcibly seize control.

He merely let that weird accept an explanation more in line with its own instincts.

Humans collapse from pain.

Then eliminate pain.

Humans fight over differences.

Then eliminate differences.

Humans commit crimes from freedom.

Then eliminate freedom.

Sai Men's Eyeball Staff slowly turned a full circle.

"Professor Lu turned the Murder Rule into a sociology paper."

"He made himself a translator of the rules."

Chu Che answered quickly.

"And the missing part of the Sinister Crown exactly gave him the ability he needed most."

On the screen, the scan of the dark red fragment unfolded layer by layer.

The fragments obtained by the Investigation Bureau represent suppression, devouring, and severance.

Therefore it can produce Suppress Spook Bullets.

The half taken by Lu Dou represents domination and plunder.

It does not handle killing.

It makes the strong bow, lets the rules yield, and lets the weird enter a higher-level master-servant structure.

Sai Men narrowed his eyes.

"So Lu Dou does not need to merge with the Laughing Demon."

"Yes."

He also doesn't need to bear the backlash.

Yes.

He only needs to let Weixiao accept his claim, then let the crown complete domination for him.

Chu Che nodded.

That's why he is more troublesome than Zhou Ping.

Even after obtaining the complete crown, Zhou Ping remains someone pushed forward by power.

His anger is very clear.

His soft spot is also very clear.

Zhou Ning is his bottom line.

And Lu Dou has no such soft spot.

His sister's death has already been made part of his theory.

He no longer wants to save anyone.

He wants to remake everyone into a form that doesn't need saving.

Sai Men approached the table, the eye holes of his mask facing Chu Che.

Then why didn't you collect the fragments earlier?

Chu Che raised his hand and pushed his glasses.

Because I want to watch.

Sai Men laughed.

Watch what?

Watch how humans choose when faced with another path.

Chu Che reopened the real-time image of the square.

Lao Zhou's colleagues already held him down.

The security Captain raised his gun, the chamber loaded with Suppress Spook Bullets.

Jiang Yuan's shadow crept along the ground.

L's fuse permit remains in a pending trigger state.

Tang Guo'an stood on the stage, holding the podium, not retreating.

Everyone was maintaining order in their own way.

This is good.

But order has never been just words on paper.

It needs fear to be maintained, needs enemies to prove it, needs someone constantly reminding the flock what lies beyond the fence.

Lu Dou is just right to bear this role.

Sai Men understood, couldn't help laughing out loud.

I see. You don't intend to save them.

I have been saving them.

Chu Che looked at him.

Just the treatment process won't be comfortable.

Sai Men raised his hand to press the edge of his mask, his tone gaining a touch of teasing.

Lu Dou would also say he is saving them.

So he is quite interesting.

Chu Che lifted his teacup.

He denies freedom, seeks a painless unified society.

I preserve freedom, letting humanity learn self-discipline through fear and rules.

On the surface, we are all talking about order.

Actually, they are not the same.

Sai Men asked: Where do they differ?

Chu Che paused for a moment.

He wants to turn the sheep into a single sheep.

And I want the flock to survive long under the shepherd's planning.

Sai Men laughed even harder.

Your words would be more than enough for an academic defense.

Chu Che paid no attention.

He called up another segment of hidden data.

After Lu Dou obtained the crown fragments, what he had been in contact with was not only the Weixiao contamination source.

Within Dongdao's isolation zone, at least four high-risk weird reactions have been re-tagged.

Sai Men's laughter stopped.

He already has an assistant.

Not already.

Chu Che watched the square on the screen.

It has existed since long ago.

Outside the infirmary, the corridor lights were on.

The nurse pushed the medicine cart past, and it was no different from usual.

Chu Che picked up a medical record and turned to the last page.

It wrote down the follow-up record of a certain Qiu Ce Yuan student.

The handwriting was neat.

But he didn't look at the content.

Lu Dou Hui will make the Investigation Bureau suffer.

Only after the Investigation Bureau has suffered a loss will it rely more on order, more on Suppress Spook Bullets, and more on the concentrated power in Duke Wei's hands.

This fits the Shepherd Framework.

As for whether Lu Dou Hui will lose control.

Chu Che is not worried.

Only a variable that truly loses control is worth eliminating.

He has enough means.

He also has enough pieces.

Sai Men stared at the screen and suddenly asked: 'What if Lu Dou wins?'

Chu Che raised his gaze.

The gold-rimmed glasses reflected that smiling face in the square.

"That shows that humanity still has some time before facing the endgame I prepared."

"I will intervene personally."

Sai Men laughed softly, leaning on his cane as he retreated to the door.

"Doctor, your patient karma is truly bad."

Chu Che did not deny.

He only tapped the table lightly with his fingertip, and a gentle yet chilling smile appeared on his lips.

"Then let me see how you will face this plague lurking in the heart."