Facing Xiao Xuan's puzzled gaze, I quickly diverted the topic, asking, "Did you check the surveillance footage and the logbook?"

Although the Forensics Office wasn't housed in the main police precinct building, it was a division of the Criminal Investigation Bureau, and since it held the victims' bodies, it maintained strict entry and exit protocols, complete with advanced rotating surveillance cameras. The last time Wang Dong faked his death, the Special Operations Office had reviewed the footage here, and the clarity was exceptional.

Xiao Xuan tilted her head slightly and replied with professional composure, "Of course. I've already reviewed the entry and exit logs; nothing unusual stood out. And the criminal certainly couldn't have just strolled in through the main door. Officer Li is currently retrieving the surveillance feeds; they'll be copied over shortly."

Xiao Xuan’s words were professional, yet a seed of doubt sprouted in me. I was quite familiar with the Forensics Office's layout; there was only one entrance, and the surrounding walls were sheer vertical structures, offering no handholds for climbing. Thus, entering the office was possible through that single door, right by the duty room. Unless the killer was invisible, no one should have been able to enter unimpeded.

After a moment's thought, I said, "Get me the logbook so I can take a look."

Xiao Xuan seemed to realize something simultaneously and quickly fetched the logbook from the duty room. I scanned it. Seven outside personnel had entered the Forensics Office today: three for injury assessments, two to collect finalized reports, and two who had written "Visitation" in the 'Reason for Visit' column.

"Visitation"—that word choice was evocative. While innocuous elsewhere, here, in the Forensics Office, surrounded by the dead as well as the living, it held dual meaning. I could interpret it as visiting the living, or visiting the dead. Yet, no visitor would likely write "Visiting the Dead" on an official log. I immediately instructed Xiao Xuan to summon the duty officer.

The officer on night shift was a young patrolman named Zhang; the day shift was handled by another officer, Zhao. I promptly called Zhao, who answered.

"Hello, this is Wang Lei from the Special Operations Office. Something has happened at the Forensics Office, and I need to ask you a few things."

"Certainly, please ask!"

"I just looked at the daytime log. There were two visitors who wrote 'Visitation' as their reason. One named Zhang Quanling, and the other, Wan Youshan. Do you remember them?"

"Oh..." There was a brief silence on the other end. "I don't recall the names clearly, but I remember one was looking for Officer Wang Songlin in the Forensics Section, and the other was identifying a body because a family member was missing. Right, the first one was looking for Officer Wang Songlin; the second was there to identify the deceased."

"Thank you very much. I'll contact you if anything else comes up."

After hanging up, I stared blankly at the names on the register. Each person had a plausible reason, but that didn't guarantee they were doing what they claimed after entering.

I turned to You Qiaolin and said, "You rest for a bit. I'm going to check outside." Then, Xiao Xuan and I left the office.

It was already around nine in the evening. The corridors of the Forensics Office were deserted, disturbed only by the sound of our footsteps. The stark white lights diffused through the air, scattering threads of suspicion so fine they were almost invisible, yet each thread was unsettling to the soul.

Xiao Xuan pressed close to me. I adopted a brave facade, though I admitted a flicker of fear myself. Still, in front of the woman I loved, this fear could absolutely not be shown.

"Where are we going? Can't this wait until tomorrow?"

"If the analysis on that dust-like substance had been expedited by a day, we wouldn't be in this situation," my voice carried weight, for I truly felt the pressure.

Xiao Xuan said no more, following me to the main entrance of the Forensics Office. I took two heavy-duty, miner's lamp-style flashlights from the duty room and led Xiao Xuan around the building's perimeter to search.

The Forensics Office was three stories high, and every window was fitted with stainless steel bars, making stealthy entry impossible—unless the perpetrator had pre-damaged one of the more secluded bars.

Two brilliant beams of light sliced through the dark silence of the night, illuminating every window. Xiao Xuan and I moved through the darkness along the cold stone walls, occasionally startling small nocturnal creatures that made her jump almost into my embrace.

As I held Xiao Xuan's waist, I looked up at the dark, gaping windows under the bright beams. They stood silently in the night, like eyes staring into an abyss—you never knew where they looked, nor what lurked within their pitch darkness.

Due to the large functional areas required inside the Forensics Office—such as the morgue and the various testing labs—the building occupied a considerable footprint, and the surrounding terrain was complex.

Ahead was a stretch of marshy ground. Xiao Xuan glanced down at her new leather boots and shook her head at me. Just as I was about to step forward alone, she shook her head again, more urgently. I finally understood her meaning. I crouched down, and Xiao Xuan immediately clambered onto my back.

Carrying her, I waded through the puddle. The ground ahead was dry, but Xiao Xuan clung to my back, unwilling to get down, so I kept walking while still carrying her.

Suddenly, the ambient temperature spiked, and I sensed something was wrong. I told the Xiao Xuan on my back to shine her light around. We saw several large vents spewing hot air outward. We had reached the rear of the morgue; these vents were the outlets expelling the heat generated by the refrigeration units.

My blood ran instantly cold, and my skin's sensitivity sharpened, making me acutely aware of every hair follicle trembling.

Xiao Xuan understood immediately. She whispered, "There's nothing interesting here; let's move somewhere else."

Her voice was so soft I almost mistook it for the wind, lightly brushing my ear, making my vision briefly swim and distort.

Then, I noticed the tall grass ahead looked distinctly trampled. I quickly asked Xiao Xuan to point her flashlight there. The grass lay bent at an angle; judging by the break patterns and area covered, it looked like a person had passed through.

Xiao Xuan forgot her fear and slid down from my back, stepping forward to examine the area closely.

Suddenly, a ghastly shriek erupted from the grass. Xiao Xuan gasped in terror and fell backward.

A white monster abruptly rose from the weeds. I nearly fainted on the spot, but Xiao Xuan was right there—I couldn't afford to collapse, not now.

I charged forward heedlessly, hurling the flashlight in my hand with all my might.

"Aiyeeiya-waa!" The white specter shrieked.

Due to the sudden action, the flashlight missed its mark, grazing past the white figure and landing in the grass behind it. The light dimmed considerably, and the white silhouette stood up again.

Then, a blinding light flashed from behind us, followed by a shout: "The ghost is coming!"

The white figure let out a strange cry, ducked low, and vanished into the undergrowth.

I turned to see the duty officer from the Forensics Office standing there.

Pulling Xiao Xuan up, I asked, my nerves still frayed, "What was that thing?"

The officer looked slightly embarrassed. "Sorry, I forgot to tell you. That person is a madman. He's been around for about a month; nobody knows who he is. He hides in the grass during the day, but comes out at night looking for food. The thing is, he's terrified of ghosts; yelling 'ghost is coming' scares him senseless."

Hearing his explanation, I felt a mix of exasperation and amusement. A lunatic who fears ghosts?

"A person with such mental instability is a public hazard; you should have notified the Civil Affairs department," I said, adopting a slightly official tone to mask my earlier panic.

"Tell me about it. We've called them over a dozen times, but nobody shows up. But he only scares people occasionally; he's never been aggressive."

I wanted to berate him severely, but then I realized doing so would expose my own fright from moments ago. So, I sighed instead. "Don't wait for things to happen before patching the holes. You need to take preemptive measures. Luckily, it was us today; if it had been someone else, they would have fainted from fear, and you call that 'not aggressive'?"

The officer nodded repeatedly, agreeing with everything, and swore he would ensure the Civil Affairs department arrived tomorrow.

Afterward, the officer accompanied us to check the rest of the premises. We circled back to the entrance, finding nothing amiss.

Seeing my dejection, Xiao Xuan said, "Maybe it's just the darkness. We can come back tomorrow."

With things standing as they were, that was the only option. Xiao Xuan and I returned to the surveillance room, where Officer Li had already copied nearly three days' worth of footage onto a portable hard drive. This wasn't something one could watch in an hour. Moreover, I had no intention of staying the night here. I took the drive, bid farewell to You Qiaolin, and left the Forensics Office.

On the drive back, Xiao Xuan seemed unaffected by the lunatic behind the morgue; instead, she found the experience exhilarating. After her excitement subsided, she launched into a furious verbal assault against the individual who dared attack someone within a police facility. Once her mood settled, she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, adopted a demure posture, and said, "That Dr. Chen really is amazing. I feel like I'm not as prone to anger and agitation as I used to be."

Thinking of her near-manic state earlier, I smiled secretly. In the past, she certainly would have remained indignant for days over such an incident. It seemed her treatment was effective. My mind drifted to the covert video I had taken earlier. I felt a secret thrill, but today wasn't the right time to reveal it; I was trapped in the car with no escape, lacking the romantic atmosphere for a full-scale victory. I decided to table it for now, intending to secure complete triumph later, giving her no quarter.

"Of course. Anyone who earns my respect must possess real ability," I replied with a touch of pride.

"Hmph. The ability isn't yours, so what's there to be proud of? But the hypnosis is truly incredible. I have no memory whatsoever of what happened during that time—that’s the only regret."

I was genuinely curious about what Xiao Xuan had seen or experienced under hypnosis. Hearing her say that, I pressed, "Try to remember hard. You can't possibly recall nothing."

"I really can't remember anything. Only when I woke up did I feel a deep sadness, as if I had lost something important."

"Perhaps it was painful memories. Memories are like a part of our body; whether joyful or agonizing, losing any part brings sorrow." My words were leaning toward Chen Yujia’s style. Perhaps I was influenced by him; Chen Yujia was indeed a charismatic man. Though he spoke little, he offered insights that resonated deep within the soul. Sometimes, I even suspected he was using hypnosis constantly, keeping everyone near him perpetually awake yet asleep.

Xiao Xuan was clearly susceptible to that type of discourse. She fell into deep contemplation, seemingly savoring the flavor of loss.

After a moment, she suddenly asked, "Was the person who attacked Forensic Doctor You tonight the murderer from Jia University?"

Xiao Xuan was a dedicated police officer, but also a beautiful woman, and women's thought processes are often erratic and non-linear; they can leap easily from one circle of thought to another, rapidly building imaginative constructs.

Gripping the steering wheel, my eyes fixed ahead, I responded smoothly, "That's not certain yet, but there is a direct connection between the two. Finding the person who attacked Forensic Doctor You will lead us to clues about the murderer."

As investigators, we must analyze every possibility to remain undefeated amidst ever-changing realities. The person who attacked You today could be the murderer, or merely someone acting on the murderer's orders. Therefore, both possibilities had to be considered to ensure the investigation remained on the correct path to the greatest extent.

"That brutal bastard, if he fell into my hands, I'd make him wish he were dead!" Xiao Xuan snapped suddenly, her tone fierce.

I sighed. This case was certainly the most heinous I had encountered; the killer's methods were excessively violent. Then, an idea struck me: a killer intent on maximizing torment would never use sedatives or similar agents, as those would allow the victim to die without suffering!

The moment this thought surfaced, it instantly overturned my previous deductions. I froze, only to be jolted by Xiao Xuan's scream: "Quick, brake!"

I slammed on the brakes at the last possible second. A small car zoomed past in a blur. At that speed, a collision would certainly mean I wouldn't see the sun tomorrow—and if I did, it wouldn't be this me seeing it!

"You scared me to death!" Xiao Xuan suddenly threw her arms around me from the side, hugging me so tightly I couldn't feel the seatbelt. It felt as if we had just survived a near-fatal parting, and perhaps, in a way, we had.

"Xiao Xuan, I swear I won't drive like that again," I said, feeling the lingering aftershock of fear.

I swiftly corrected the steering wheel, bringing the car back into its proper lane. Life's journey is like that; some people can recover from a wrong turn, while others only get one chance—a single impact ends the road permanently.

I decided then and there not to ponder the case while driving; disaster was inevitable. Xiao Xuan, being clever, stopped bringing up the murderer, settling down beside me, her arm lightly around my waist. A quiet serenity filled the car.

After dropping Xiao Xuan home, I drove on alone. It was past ten in the evening, the temperature gradually dropping as the clamor of the city began to settle. I deliberately chose a more secluded route where traffic was sparse. Ahead, there was an open patch of land with a few long benches. I parked the car there.

Sitting on the bench, absorbing the night's quietude and the air tinged with a faint metallic scent, my body and spirit felt expansively free. I greedily drank in the outside atmosphere.

I realized I was a man who loved the night, loved walking alone in the darkness, loved watching the distant stars above, loved listening to the unknown sounds that emerged only after sunset, and quietly appreciating things utterly inaccessible during the noisy day.

Perhaps everyone is like this: yearning for the bustle, yet harboring an inner loneliness as boundless as the night sky.

"I come from the night and will return to the night." This statement applies to the time before the start of life and after its end; everyone follows this path, with no exception.

Therefore, the night belongs to everyone, and it is also an inescapable destiny.

In the darkness, I slowly merged with my surroundings. Time and life seemed to halt at this moment, and I stood at the starting point, gazing into the unknown world.

A person who wishes to inflict pain upon another will try every means to amplify the perception of suffering. It's like a scenario seen in some dramas: the villain captures the hero and uses every method to extract a confession, leaving the hero covered in wounds yet steadfastly silent. When the villain's usual tactics fail, a sinister figure appears. He first places the captive in a comfortable, pampered environment. Once the hero grows accustomed to this ease, the torture begins. Many good people cannot withstand this psychological shift.

This isn't merely fiction; it happens in reality. From a medical perspective, pain is perceived when sensory organs—skin, muscle, etc.—register a stimulus, which the nervous system then transmits to the brain, creating the sensation of agony. A person already riddled with wounds has damaged skin and muscle, significantly lowering their sensory capacity. In such a state, a stimulus that would normally be moderate pain might feel like a slight tickle, or perhaps not be felt at all. The level of stimulus required to induce unconsciousness in a normal person might only feel like a light punch or a dull ache to them. Thus, while their body is damaged, their resistance to pain actually strengthens.

The sinister individual, however, restores the captive's body to a normal, or even better-than-normal, state, rendering their skin delicate and sensitive. Then, abnormal torments are inflicted—this amplifies the pain beyond endurance, causing many good people to break, which is merely a natural bodily response.

To make the victim feel the greatest pain, the killer in this case must harbor this exact mindset. He will do everything possible to make the victim suffer. Therefore, he would never use a substance to render the victim unconscious beforehand. On the contrary, he would very likely force the victim to remain conscious, watching as their flesh is systematically cut away piece by piece, exposing the stark white bone beneath...