To my eyes, those were just five utterly ordinary fingers, yet Xiao Xuan stared at them with such absorption, as if they were the most wondrous things in existence.

Chen Yujia made a silent, "hush" gesture toward me; Xiao Xuan was already deeply under now, and any loud noise might startle her awake.

I sat quietly to the side, watching as Chen Yujia first bent his thumb among the five fingers, then bent the others one by one, until only the little finger remained upright.

"See the grain clearly; it is the spiral of time. You can find any point upon it, pause there, and return to the past."

The distant, empty voice drifted lifelessly from Chen Yujia’s lips. I began to understand a little. His voice must have been specially trained, much like the handwriting of a Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner—only he and the pharmacy staff could decipher it; others couldn't read it or learn it.

The moment this sound manifested, Xiao Xuan’s eyes grew distant, as if she had truly slipped into Chen Yujia’s finger, following those concentric lines, breaking free from the shackles of time, and receding into the past.

From that moment on, Chen Yujia stopped speaking, but I knew he must have another means of communication, just like when I was hypnotized that other day, invisibly guiding me through the darkness.

The room was so still one could hear the beating of hearts. Xiao Xuan’s eyes slowly closed, and a sudden sensation washed over me: Xiao Xuan was truly leaving me, ascending the long river of time against the current, leaving me standing alone in place.

A wave of fear surged in my heart, the terror of truly losing her. Yet, I knew this was only momentary; in the next instant, she would open her eyes and glare at me, blaming me for not going back to the past with her. The feeling was strange; I supposed it was because I valued Xiao Xuan so highly, not because of any mistrust toward Chen Yujia.

Just then, Xiao Xuan stirred slightly, and my heart instantly tensed as I stared fixedly at her. I saw her brow furrow, her delicate teeth tightly clenched, her face etched with pain.

In normal circumstances, I would have immediately gathered her into my arms for comfort, but she was under hypnosis now; everything she experienced was illusory, and I had absolutely no need to worry for her.

I told myself repeatedly to remain calm. Perhaps Chen Yujia had found some underlying hidden issue with Xiao Xuan and was now conducting a release of some sort.

Xiao Xuan’s complexion grew increasingly distressed, fine beads of sweat surfacing on her forehead, and even her hand twitched unconsciously. Chen Yujia, too, seemed to be exerting himself; a glint shone on the tip of his nose—the reflection of the lamp light on sweat. It seemed he had indeed found something.

At this point, a strange idea popped into my head, so I secretly pulled out my phone, opened the camera function, and recorded the entire scene before me. I thought I would replay it for Xiao Xuan later when things settled down. Seeing her state of embarrassment, she would surely chase me demanding I delete it, giving me an opening to ‘invade’ her further with that as leverage. The mere thought of that ** scene made my blood begin to rush everywhere, and my throat grew dry and hot.

I checked the time; it had been a little over fifteen minutes since Xiao Xuan entered the hypnotic state. I figured it was nearly over, so I put my phone away and sat quietly again, acting as if nothing had happened, though my heart was already blossoming with delight.

By this time, the look of pain on Xiao Xuan’s face had vanished, replaced by the previous calm and vacancy. After a moment, Chen Yujia extended his fingers again and spoke in that miraculous voice, "Time has no beginning, nor does it have an end. Gaze upon it, and you may come and go as you wish."

Xiao Xuan’s eyes slowly opened, filled with confusion. She looked at Chen Yujia’s fingers: one, two, three, four. When Chen Yujia’s five fingers were completely spread open, Xiao Xuan gave a shudder and woke up.

"Where am I?"

Xiao Xuan’s first words upon opening her eyes made me certain she had been to a place I had never been. I quickly said, "We are in Dr. Chen's clinic."

Xiao Xuan touched her forehead, disbelievingly asking, "What just happened? I don't remember anything at all?"

I found it a bit odd. I remembered everything that happened during my previous hypnosis session clearly; why couldn't Xiao Xuan recall hers?

Chen Yujia smiled slightly. "Your last session was deep hypnosis, so it naturally felt real, and your memory cells certainly stored it. Miss Lan, however, only received an extremely light trance; everything that occurred there was as vague as mist, which is why you forgot it all upon waking."

With his explanation, we both suddenly understood. Xiao Xuan tilted her head and asked, "Did you find anything?"

Chen Yujia replied, "Just as I predicted, your job is causing you a great deal of stress. Even if you don't feel it yourself usually, that might be because you love your work, thus masking the harm it inflicts on you."

His words held weight, because for a young woman, being a police officer was certainly no small challenge. Not only did it demand a physical intensity rarely found in other professions, but the psychological strain was equally immense. Only someone who has faced truly vicious criminals and witnessed countless gruesome scenes of victimization truly knows that feeling.

Xiao Xuan’s face instantly changed, looking four or five years older. Chen Yujia quickly added, "But it's not serious, far from being truly pathological. As long as you pay attention to adjustment in the future, there won't be any major problems. Furthermore, I’ve already administered some treatment just now, which will be greatly beneficial to your body and mind."

Hearing this, Xiao Xuan’s face immediately brightened, reverting to her former age, perhaps even looking four or five years younger. I truly couldn't tell if Chen Yujia’s treatment had worked or if it was pure psychosomatic effect. Then again, wasn't Chen Yujia a psychotherapist? Whatever method he used, as long as it made Xiao Xuan mentally healthy and balanced, it was his skill.

Thinking this, I said to Chen Yujia, "Thank you so much. You’ve finally made our precinct beauty healthy and beautiful again."

Xiao Xuan countered, "You mean I wasn't healthy or beautiful before?"

I quickly waved my hands. "Not at all, not at all! You were healthy and beautiful before, and now you are even healthier and more beautiful."

Xiao Xuan still looked ready to press the matter, but fortunately, my phone suddenly rang. Pulling out my phone, I saw it was the duty room at the precinct. I secretly sensed trouble.

"Officer Wang, please report immediately to the Forensics Office! Forensic Doctor You Qiaolin was just attacked!" The voice on the other end was fast and urgent.

A tension wire snapped tight in my brain. I said to Chen Yujia, "I am truly sorry, but there's an emergency at the bureau, we have to go immediately. We'll visit again some other day." Then I turned to Xiao Xuan, "Trouble’s here, let’s go quickly."

It was past eight in the evening; the night outside was vast and dark. We sped to the Forensics Office. The exterior was silent, and I couldn't see any other colleagues around, which finally eased my mind slightly. If it had been a major incident, the place would have already been sealed off. Seeing the current scene, it seemed You Qiaolin wasn't in critical condition—at least, his life was not in danger.

Xiao Xuan and I hurried into the Forensics Office. We were met by two colleagues, likely the on-duty staff. As soon as they saw me, they immediately said, "Officer Wang, Forensic Doctor You is in his office, waiting for you."

"Is he alright?"

"He’s stable. He took a heavy blow to the back of his head and was unconscious for about ten minutes. He’s been medicated now; there are no major issues."

You Qiaolin was a doctor himself, so I trusted he hadn't suffered major injury, but the nature of the incident was extremely malicious. Remember, the police station is the stronghold for fighting crime in this city; for a criminal to dare invade this place and assault a forensic doctor was an absolute slap in our faces.

I thought indignantly to myself, I must catch this bastard; when I do, without another word, I’ll give him a couple of good slaps first.

Entering You Qiaolin's office, I saw him lying on a temporary stretcher—the kind used in the morgue to move bodies, though this one was very clean, covered with a disposable sheet.

You Qiaolin had his head wrapped in white gauze, indicating an injury to the back of his skull. However, he was quite alert, suggesting the criminal had struck with restraint, likely unwilling to spend his life on the run after murdering a police officer. This also suggested the attacker didn't hold a personal grudge against You Qiaolin but had a specific objective. You Qiaolin remaining conscious would undoubtedly prevent the attacker from achieving that goal, hence the forced 'rest' for his brain.

When he saw me enter, You Qiaolin winked at me, signaling he saw me. Only then did I examine him closely. His face was pale, and his gold-rimmed glasses, which never left his nose, were missing, revealing two slightly swollen eyes underneath. Without the lenses, he looked less scholarly and more like an ordinary person, and the sharpness in his eyes was somewhat diminished due to the absence of the glass, though this might just be due to his current weakness.

This was the first time I had seen You Qiaolin without his glasses. Suddenly, I felt this was the real him—the man who had hidden behind the wire-rims finally appeared before me in his entirety.

I froze for a moment, then immediately remembered this was no time for staring blankly. Since he specifically asked for me after being attacked, something related to me must have occurred. I walked over and asked softly, "How do you feel?"

He let out a soft hum, then closed his eyes for a moment before opening them again. "The dust-like substance you recovered from Jia University is crucial evidence. The person who attacked me was after it."

My heart tightened. My first thought was to rush back to Jia University immediately and collect more samples from that air conditioner. But on second thought, if the criminal could reach here, they had certainly cleaned up every trace at Jia University; there wouldn't be another chance.

By this time, Xiao Xuan had gathered the basic facts from the colleagues who first arrived on the scene and was taking notes on everything. I sat by the bedside and asked You Qiaolin, "Did you see the attacker's face?"

You Qiaolin shook his head slightly. "I was examining those dust-like particles under the microscope when I was suddenly attacked from behind. When I woke up, the lab bench was a mess, and those dust particles were all gone. He was definitely after that substance. Ah, what a pity. If I had analyzed it sooner, perhaps we could have found new leads."

I also felt a deep sense of regret, but what was done was done. I couldn't very well blame a passionate forensic doctor who was working overtime to help me close the case quickly.

"What do you think those dust-like substances were?" I asked, clinging to a sliver of hope.

You Qiaolin said, "It should be a chemical substance, and a harmful one. Judging by the attacker's eagerness to retrieve it, I suspect it’s something quite rare, something few people can access or obtain."

I nodded. "Exactly. This substance must be something that could expose the killer’s identity, which is why he risked so much to forcibly take it from here."

I hadn't expected that the truly useful clue had been in our hands all along, while I had been focused solely on the retrieval of the bodies. The attacker's action, however, made me start to doubt whether my initial direction was wrong. Perhaps he wasn't using hundreds of corpses for target practice?

My previous idea was based on my deductive reconstruction of the entire case. But if my deduction was fundamentally flawed, then the deduction and the truth were two parallel lines that would never intersect. If I continued down my original path, I would forever miss the truth.

This was a fundamental issue, and I couldn't make a decision lightly. So, I calmed myself and then asked, "Forensic Doctor You, can you confirm the victim's wounds were definitely caused by a sharp cutting instrument?"

"Of course. It’s a typical incision mark, likely made by a scalpel—the technique was extremely proficient. We discussed this before; why bring it up again? Is there a problem?"

I looked somewhat confused. If the victim’s wounds were caused by a sharp instrument, then my deductive reconstruction should be correct. But if so, the dust on the air conditioner becomes superfluous. Since the killer already possessed all the necessary means to commit the murder, there was no need to add anything else, especially something dispersed inside an air conditioner, which would require enormous effort to accomplish.

Spending great effort on something unnecessary defies logic, and for an experienced murderer, such an action is even more incredible. Moreover, risking capture afterward to retrieve it makes the whole affair obviously strange, yet the reason remains elusive.

I fell into deep thought, my mind racing, replaying the entire incident, scrutinizing every detail, inching closer to the truth.

Could the substance in the air conditioner be a knockout agent?

A scene flashed in my mind:

A dark figure climbed from the back wall to the second floor of the girls' dormitory and arrived at Shi Yingjie’s room. No one was inside. The figure removed the exterior grille of the air conditioner and sprayed the knockout agent inside. When Shi Yingjie and Wang Jie, sleeping on the upper bunk, entered the room and turned on the AC, the substance was blown into the nasal cavities of both girls. They slept deeper and deeper until they lost consciousness completely. At that point, the dark figure reappeared without a sound. He carried Shi Yingjie into the bathroom and easily slashed her throat. The unconscious Shi Yingjie felt no pain as blood sprayed out from her carotid artery, flowing down the sloped floor into the drain, and a life vanished just like that. After Shi Yingjie bled out, the dark figure took out the scalpel he had prepared beforehand and, with exquisite skill, cut her into pieces, wrapped them in cloth, placed them back on the bed, and then, in a bizarre manner, vanished from our sight when we happened to arrive at the scene.

Following this line of reasoning would perfectly explain why Shi Yingjie didn't resist before death, and why the girl sleeping on the upper bunk was not awakened.

But was this truly the truth of the matter?

Was that dust-like substance indeed a knockout agent?

If so, it must be an extremely rare, controlled substance that an ordinary person could never access or obtain.

Thinking of this, I asked You Qiaolin, "If the dust-like substance is something that can induce deep coma, can you think of any medication that fits?"

You Qiaolin closed his eyes and opened them after a while, looking somewhat exhausted. It was clear that the recent attack had caused some degree of damage to his brain.

His voice was very weak: "There are many drugs that can cause a coma, but most are extremely volatile and couldn't possibly remain in a dust form after so long. Furthermore, these types of drugs are strictly controlled, and even hospitals have comprehensive measures in place to prevent them from leaking into society and causing adverse effects."

"So, if we can find a knockout drug that exists in a dust form, we'll be one step closer to the killer."

You Qiaolin shook his head. "As far as I know, there are none among legitimate pharmaceuticals. But many illegal apothecaries are involved with these types of drugs now, so it's highly likely it leaked from them. Tracing the source would be quite difficult."

I nodded. "Okay, you rest and recover. Our Special Investigation Office will handle this matter. We will certainly find the man who ambushed you." Then I leaned closer to his ear, "I can pretend not to know, and let you beat him up soundly."

You Qiaolin’s expression immediately became agitated. "Stop joking! That would be illegal!"

Xiao Xuan suddenly turned her head, furrowing her delicate eyebrows, and asked, "Senior Brother, what bad thing are you planning now?"