Chapter Twelve Suspicion

  "I'm not saying that a person's spirit is extremely complex, but rather that each person has an aspect that even they themselves can't understand. And I'm saying that she might have done this while sleepwalking. You know, people in a sleepwalking state can do many things and the person won't remember them after waking up. There are also foreign cases that show that people in a sleepwalking state aren't just mechanical behaviors as people imagine, but rather they have consciousness, organization, and even judgment, it's just that these are formed in the subconscious of the sleepwalker, and the normal self doesn't understand.

  I did some small investigation, Cheng Ling's family situation is simple, she currently doesn't have a boyfriend, her only relative - her father passed away after which she has been working at that company. The treatment at that company is very good, I guess this is why she didn't leave despite being ostracized. As for why she was targeted by her colleagues, I don't know, but she isn't someone who would endure humiliation and swallow her anger, so it's likely that she 'fights' while working.

  You think, a girl like her, experiencing family loneliness and the double blow of office politics, might form hatred and despair in her subconscious, leading to a subconscious violent behavior."

  "Are you saying that she, because of her difficult life, goes to kill people in a trance? Do you think she has the strength for it? Wang Lizi himself is over 1.8 meters tall and a big man, although the male corpse in the new case is thin, but after all, he's a man." Gu Long couldn't believe it no matter what.

  "How great is a person's potential, do you know? Don't underestimate the power of spirit. There was once a ten-year-old kid who held up an alligator's mouth with all his might and saved his younger brother. And there was also a sick girl who carried out something much heavier than herself from a fire scene. **The power is not absolute." Rong Yi retorted: "I'm just proposing a possibility, gathering ideas, didn't Holmes say? Exclude everything that is impossible, the remaining result no matter how impossible it is, is also possible."

  "Alright, let's assume what you said is correct." Yanzhong slowly said: "So Miss Cheng would have to arrive in Jing County ten days ago, kill two people, then misplace and reassemble the corpses, and also make everyone in that farmhouse fall into a half-dazed state, so she could bury the bodies. Then ten days later, she comes back here, discovers the bodies. A month later, she returns to City A again, kills another two people, still misplaces and reassembles them, and once more 'discovers' them herself, even scaring herself into a coma. Let's not mention whether all this happened while she was sleepwalking, is it possible or not, just from the time arrangement alone, it can't be done. Most importantly, she would also need to have surgical skills as precise as a surgeon. Moreover, you said her environment is simple, even if she hated this society, why kill people unrelated to her? Doctor Rong, I admire your medical achievements, but you really aren't suited for criminal investigation, your reasoning has too many loopholes."

  "This――even if I said there are some loopholes, it's not impossible. " Rong Yi was stubborn: "If she had nothing to do with the first case and only received psychological suggestions, unintentionally discovering the misplaced body, then it can't be ruled out that she imitated the crime the second time. This has precedent in criminology. As for the process of the crime and evidence, it's up to the police to verify slowly. Moreover, some people kill without reason, just a kind of venting. I've tried probing her, she's very susceptible to hypnosis, that is to say her spirit is fragile, easily controlled by the devil in her heart. I'm not targeting her, but don't you think it's too coincidental that she discovered both murder cases?"

  "Hey, it's just an academic discussion, don't argue." Gu Long saw Rong Yi getting more and more agitated, so he hastily interrupted.

  "I'm not arguing, I'm just stating the facts. I think Detective Yan has a good impression of Cheng Ling, and I'm worried that he's lost his objectivity. Before the case is solved, anything is possible, isn't it?"

  Swallows' words are knotted.

  He had a good impression of Linglong, so he didn't want her to be suspected. He was particularly bad at arguing with women, so he didn't know how to refute Rong Yi, and only said: "So, the witness protection you mentioned is just an excuse, you want to observe Cheng Linglong closely, to see if she has any suspicion."

  "Clever." Rongyi smiled, "Aren't you living with the witness now? I'll move over tonight and observe from close by." She said, looking at Gulong.

  The dragon hesitated for a moment, and finally agreed: "Okay, although I don't tend to agree with your point of view, the strange things that happened to Miss Cheng are indeed puzzling. You can help her too. What do you think, Old Yan?"

  Yan Feng shook his head, making it unclear whether he agreed or disagreed. A question kept repeating in his mind - if these four pieces of remains couldn't form two complete corpses, where were the other remains? What was the connection between Nai Qi, Wu La, Wang Lizi, the newly appeared woman's head and man's body?

  In the evening, Rong Yi followed Yan Feng and Gu Long back to the witness protection residence. It was called a witness protection facility, but since there was no actual violent harm and also because Jing County didn't have such facilities, it was just a rented small house from a local resident that was slightly more secluded. The house had its own gate and yard, located on the edge of the town, with a river not far behind it. There were five rooms in a row, with a shared hall in the middle, and two separate small rooms on either side.

  When they returned, Linglong had already prepared dinner. Because of the special protection situation, she was not prohibited from walking freely during the day. She didn't want to be idle and always took the initiative to clean up the room and cook. In this way, every time Yanfeng returned here, he would have a sense of home.

  "It smells so good." Rong Yi took a deep sniff: "I didn't know you had this skill." She praised Ling Long, without any strangeness, as if this were her own home.

  "You don't look like a woman at all! Apart from that mouth-watering figure!" Yanzhong added in his heart.

  Linglong didn't know someone was coming, so the food she made wasn't enough. Gulong used this as an excuse to go home. Actually, usually after dinner, he would leave, leaving only Yanfeng and Linglong in the house. However, after Yanfeng went home, he was busy with his case, and neither of them spoke much.

  After dinner, Rong Yu was originally arranged to stay in the room called "Gulong", which had been empty all along, but she insisted on staying with Linglong together. Linglong had no choice, although she was not used to sleeping with a stranger in the same bed, she agreed.

  Since living under the same roof as Yanfeng, Linglong had not had a nightmare again, but this night, she fell into a nightmare once more.

  She walked into an art gallery. The hall was magnificent and glittering with gold, but it was so large that it seemed like a maze, with corridors everywhere, the main hall was very narrow, making people feel like they were in a corridor too, and the walls on both sides were filled with paintings, all of which were portraits.

  For some reason, there was no one visiting in the middle of the day, not even a security guard. She was the only one walking inside, with the sound of her footsteps echoing behind her, resonating far away in the empty hall, making her feel inexplicably tense.

  She wanted to leave as soon as possible, so she quickened her pace, but no matter how long she walked, she couldn't get out. Instead, she couldn't even find the place where she was just now. She was anxious and turned around in the art gallery, almost knocking over a statue when she turned around.

  She hastily hugged the statue, looking around to see if anyone had seen her, thinking that this was something worth a whole city, and if she was discovered, she would not be able to afford it. Just as she was thinking this, she suddenly felt a pair of hands embracing her.

  "Help me!" a voice said, which was exactly the voice of the statue.

  Ling was so frightened that she pushed the statue with both hands, and it fell to the ground with a "crack". The head of the statue broke off. The statue quickly crawled over, picked up its head and held it in its arms, then handed it back to Ling.

  "Wrong, wrong, help me change it back!"

  "No, no, don't look for me, I don't know how to change!" Lingjiong retreated in terror, but felt like she had bumped into something solid.

  "One will be replaced by another, and it will come back sooner or later!" said another statue behind.

  "I won't! I won't!" Ling cried out, trying to shake off the entanglement of the two stone statues in front and back, but she found that the people in the paintings on the wall had all come down, each holding their own head, chasing after her, asking her to help them switch back!

  She struggled desperately, but the people around her were getting more and more crowded, making it impossible for her to even turn around. Moreover, there were countless cold hands groping all over her body! She was both anxious and frightened, and with a forceful kick, she kicked onto the foot of a statue, the pain suddenly waking her up!

  Although she woke up, the feeling in her dream still lingered. Not only was she covered in cold sweat, but she also felt suffocated. Upon closer inspection, she realized that Rong Yi's limbs were wrapped around her, giving her a breathless feeling.

  It made her feel a bit nauseous because somehow, she felt that Rong Yu's posture of holding her was somewhat erotic, as if invading her, and although they were both women, it made her scalp tingle.

  Rong Yi isn't gay, is he?!

  She doesn't discriminate against homosexuals, but she isn't one herself, so this level of same-sex intimacy makes her extremely uncomfortable. She hastily shakes off Rong Yu's entanglement while he's still asleep, puts on her coat and rushes to the living room!

  ……………

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