Chapter Five Fellow Traveler

  Zhou Hao repeatedly asked Wu Hui to stay for dinner, but was rejected every time. He felt that Zhou Hao no longer trusted him as he used to, and could even see a hint of suspicion in the way Zhou Hao looked at him.

  Maybe Zhou Hao has been sitting in this position for too long and some changes are inevitable.

  Wu Hui declined Zhou Hao's offer to see him off and walked out of the Provincial Public Security Bureau alone. As he reached the entrance, he felt uncomfortable in his heart. Why did he feel a sense of oppression when he was with Zhou Hao? Was it because they had changed or because he himself had remained stuck in the past?

  Four years is a long time, but it's also short. Some people and things will change.

  It seems that this trip to the provincial capital is a waste of time. Some things still need to be investigated in person. He doesn't believe that someone as psychologically isolated as him would remain dormant forever. Since he wants to see Wu Hui's reaction, then Wu Hui will let him take a look.

  "Wu Hui, how are you here?" Guo Yining came out of the Public Security Bureau and saw a person standing at the gate. From a distance, he looked very much like Wu Hui's shadow. But wasn't Wu Hui in Lincheng? What was he doing here?

  When Wu Hui heard someone calling his name, he turned around and found it was Guo Yining. He felt a bit strange, "Captain Guo, what are you doing here?"

  When Wu Hui asked the question, Guo Yining had a slight hesitation. He came to inquire about Wu Hui's affairs and didn't expect to meet Wu Hui here. He didn't want Wu Hui to know that he was investigating him. "Official business, just happened to come see an old classmate from before, didn't think I'd run into you here."

  "So that's it, Captain Guo is going back?" Wu Hui could tell that Guo Yining was hiding something, perhaps some secret matters that he didn't want this outsider to know.

  "Yes, I was just about to head back after finishing up. How did you get here?" Guo Yining saw that Wu Hui didn't continue asking and couldn't help but feel that what she had done wasn't right.

  "I'm driving, how about you?" Wu Hui pointed to the car behind him.

  "I took the train, I've been up all night for two days organizing cases, didn't dare to drive." Due to the late-night meetings over the past two days, Guo Yining still has a hint of dark circles under her eyes.

  "Well, in that case, let's head back together. My business is also done anyway." Wu Hui suggested they travel together since he noticed Guo Yining looked a bit tired.

  "That's great." Guo Yining was a straightforward person. Since they had met Wu Hui here, of course, they would go back together.

  Because Guo Yining's head wasn't feeling very good, Wu Hui suggested he drive and let Guo Yining rest in the car for a bit.

  However, Guo Yining did not sleep all night yesterday, but he was already used to this kind of life and didn't feel very tired.

  It just occurred to him that when he saw Wu Hui's back earlier, for some reason, it made him feel very pitiful. Was he also in the provincial capital because of that case?

  "Captain Guo, you're here to investigate me, aren't you?" Wu Hui drove the car, feeling that Guo Yining occasionally looked at him with a gaze, and he knew why Guo had been evasive when they met at the door.

  "This, Wu Hui, I really want to treat you as a brother. Don't blame me, I just feel that you have something on your mind and I also want to help you." Guo Yining saw that Wu Hui had seen through him, so he didn't want to hide it anymore. He felt that since he treated Wu Hui as a brother, then there shouldn't be any secrets between brothers.

  "Thank you for your candor. Actually, I don't have anything that can't be shared with you. You're here at the provincial bureau this time to investigate the '1225 Christmas Murder Case', right? That case was one I helped crack, and my fiancée went missing during it, with no news till now. So, I'm here for her sake." Once Wu Hui had made up his mind, he didn't think some things were private matters that needed to be hidden.

  "Well, I heard that there's a mastermind behind this case who hasn't been caught yet, and your fiancée is in his hands?"

  "That's right, all these years I've felt like someone has been watching me, I think it must be him, I'm sure of it, my fiancée is in his hands." Over the years, Wu Hui had developed a keen sense of awareness that was beyond ordinary people. If someone was watching him, he would definitely feel it.

  "What did you find out?"

  "For the time being, there isn't. The feeling of being observed only occasionally appears, I think he should be around me somewhere." Wu Hui speculated that the person should have felt that Wu Hui had discovered his existence, so he didn't appear as frequently as before, especially in the past two years, it was just an occasional appearance.

  "Don't worry, I'll definitely help you, and I'll definitely help rescue your brother and sister." Guo Yining patted his chest to assure Wu Hui.

  "If there's anything I need, I'll definitely look for you." Wu Hui was also not polite to Guo Yining. It was because he had been too cautious all these years that he had achieved nothing.

  On the way back, the two of them kept discussing the case from that year. Guo Yining helped Wu Hui analyze the situation from an outsider's perspective. In Guo Yining's opinion, Wu Hui's analysis made a lot of sense. It seemed that there was indeed someone hiding behind this case, and they still hadn't caught him yet.

  After analyzing the "Christmas massacre on December 25", they naturally turned to the murder cases that occurred in the past two days.

  "Last night at the meeting, Fang You mentioned to me that you said at the scene of the crime that this case was not the first case committed by the murderer. Why did you have this idea?"

  "From the scene where the body was abandoned, it can be seen that the murderer handled the body very calmly, and there were no valuable clues around the body. From the age group he chose, it can be seen that his psychological trauma should have been caused by a young woman. I deduced that he is a man in his 40s, which means he must have been influenced by his mother, and something that affected him for life must have happened. " Wu Hui told Guo Yining about the thoughts he inferred at the scene at the time.

  "Why was it his mother, rather than his lover?" If the murderer is a man in his forties who has received good education as Wu Hui wrote, then this type of man is most likely to be unfaithful. If he killed because of his lover, that would also make sense.

  "What you said is possible, I've thought about it too. A man in his 40s with a very mature mind, having an enviable family and superior living conditions, if he didn't suffer from psychological trauma when he was young, generally wouldn't commit murder." Wu Hui wasn't unaware of this possibility, but from a human nature perspective, the likelihood is too small.

  "If it was a psychological trauma from childhood, why did he commit the crime now? This doesn't make sense!"

  "So that's why I said this isn't his first time committing a crime, and the fact that he committed another crime after such a long time suggests that something has changed in his family, such as his wife, daughter or sister."

  "So that's how it is." Guo Yining supported her cheek with her right hand, her elbow resting on the car door, carefully savoring Wu Hui's words, which seemed to make a lot of sense.

  The car drove into the highway entrance, and Wu Hui drove onto the highway. He found that Guo Yining was still thinking about what he had just said, so Wu Hui continued: "Early life experiences have a great influence on the formation of criminal psychology, and there are three factors that lead them to become serial killers."

  "In three aspects?"

  "Not bad, one is that in childhood, there was sexual or psychological abuse, parents or guardians who drank excessively, and unwillingly moved from one family to another, these backgrounds caused brain function disorders;"

  Guo Yining nodded in agreement, "That's right, this is indeed extremely unfavorable for a child's growth."

  "The second factor is that a higher proportion of serial killers have had brain injuries; the third factor is that most offenders have congenital paranoid personality."

  Although it can be inferred that the perpetrator must have been different from other children when he was a child, in our country, it is absolutely not easy to investigate what happened to a child during his childhood. "If something happened to him when he was a teenager, it's probably hard to find out now. You know that in our country, even if a child suffers domestic violence, they won't report it, and the police records shouldn't be able to find anything."

  Guo Yining was right, even if Wu Hui had more correct theories, they still couldn't be implemented in practice. "No mistake, this point is indeed very headache-inducing, let's do our best, if this approach doesn't work, then we'll take another route, starting with Liu Xilei, and see which aspect of her was targeted by the murderer, from which we can infer what kind of person the murderer is."

  Guo Yining found that Wu Hui was different from the previous time, previously he could say that he was not active at all in solving the case, this time he was extremely concerned about the case, had he felt wrong?

  "What's wrong? Is there something wrong?" Feeling Guo Yining's gaze, Wu Hui felt a bit strange, was it himself who had reasoned incorrectly somewhere?

  "Not really, I just think you're very concerned about this case."

  "You'd be willing to help me find Jingran, and if I don't do my best to crack the case for you, that would be unfair. In the future, I'll still need to ask for your help." Wu Hui said one of the reasons, and another reason was that he always felt that the person behind his back wanted to see him fall to what extent, and he absolutely wouldn't let him look down on him.

  "Don't say that, whether you help me crack the case or not, I, Guo Yining, always keep my promises. As long as I'm needed, just open your mouth and I'll take care of it. Although my brain may not be as good as yours, when it comes to running errands and doing physical work, I'm absolutely more capable than you." Guo Yining patted his chest heavily, as if afraid Wu Hui wouldn't believe him.

  "I was just joking, don't take it seriously. I haven't touched any criminal cases for so many years because of what happened back then, and now I'm helping you crack the case also because of what happened back then. It's just that I realized too late and wasted too much time." Guo Yining's temper was quite to Wu Hui's liking, hoping that with Guo Yining's help, he could find Jingran.

  "You're kidding, I'm not kidding, I mean what I say." After finishing speaking, Guo Yining burst out laughing. This feeling of being able to chat freely with Wu Hui was really comfortable.

  Wu Hui glanced at Guo Yining and smiled.

  Watching the scenery flying away on both sides, Wu Hui prayed in his heart, Jing Ran must wait for me to come and rescue you. Although it has been nearly 5 years, I still believe that you are alive. I will definitely fulfill my promise to you back then and rescue you out.