How You Can Sue Me for My Crimes in Dreams

There’s a business adage that can be applied to this case.

And that is, ’Where there’s demand, there’s a market!’

What is demand?

Demand is a lack of something necessary, a vacuum created by one’s environment. All of a person’s work, all their efforts, are aimed at filling that void.

By that same logic, a killer who craves attention, who’s desperate to be in the spotlight, must be completely lacking that in his daily life!

”That’s right. The suspect’s environment is definitely one where he’s ignored.”

”At the same time, this so-called desire to be different from ordinary people is, subconsciously, a wish to become better, to surpass them. In other words, his living conditions can’t be very good either.”

Xu Huo said slowly.

The human heart and its environment are like a mirror, each reflecting the other.

The more intense your desires, the more miserable your reality.

Take civil servants. Why do people say they lose their drive?

Because their lives are too comfortable. A nine-to-five job with weekends off is far more relaxed than what most people have.

So, because of that comfort, the mirror doesn’t reflect any intense desires, and over time, they lose their ambition.

The killer’s desire is incredibly strong—so strong that he dares to kill for a sliver of attention. Thinking in reverse, we can see the other side of the mirror: a picture of a harsh living environment.

”Chen Li!”

Suddenly, as if a thought struck him, Li Jianye paused, his pupils contracting sharply.

”There’s a high probability the killer knows Chen Li!”

”Chen Li’s family was poor. She had a rural household registration, her mother was paralyzed, and her father earned money through back-breaking labor!”

”All the young people who could leave their hometown did, but even then, life is hard for those without any special skills.”

”And...”

Were the living conditions in the countryside good?

They weren’t.

Not the countryside of ’23, but the countryside of the 1970s and ’80s!

If we assume the killer knew Chen Li since childhood, then he must have at least experienced the countryside of the ’80s.

The most crucial part is...

”Chen Li’s hometown is in the countryside of one of the northernmost regions.”

Li Jianye said in a low voice. As his words fell, the surrounding police officers all went silent.

’The northernmost provinces.’

’Let’s see... if he’s the same age as Chen Li, he would have started thinking for himself seven or eight years ago, around ’95...’

’The northernmost region, in 1995...’

’An extremely harsh living environment...’

Li Jianye fell silent. It wasn’t that he sympathized with the killer—after all, any sympathy should be reserved for Chen Li and the other two victims.

He was pondering how to root him out!

”Use this as a lead. Search for males of the same age group from her hometown.”

Xu Huo exhaled. This lead would be hard to investigate, but it could serve as a line of reasoning to confirm the killer’s identity.

Just like a fingerprint.

If the killer’s fingerprints aren’t in the police database, then even if he leaves them at the scene, they aren’t very useful. They can often only be used to confirm the killer’s identity at the very end.

”The time...”

Xu Huo looked down at the time.

It was now October 1st, 1:27 in the morning.

”We’re running out of time...”

...

...

「Meanwhile, at Lanxiang Internet Cafe in Sishui County.」

Zhao Shui led his men, starting from the third crime scene and fanning out, searching one internet cafe after another. They didn’t even spare the unlicensed ones.

”BANG!”

The door was pushed open, and a foul stench billowed out from inside, enveloping the men like swamp gas.

The drowsy cafe manager, who had been picking at his feet, subconsciously glanced at the police, then did a double-take.

”Officers!?”

”Officers, I run a legitimate business here!”

The manager was also the owner. He jolted awake and instinctively stood up.

He stood to the side, meek and subservient, a fawning smile on his face.

Few internet cafes could withstand a real inspection. Forget about hygiene—the fire safety alone was non-compliant. Normally, the owner would get a heads-up before a police inspection, but who knew why they would show up to do a check in the middle of the night, at two in the morning...

As for underage customers, small counties didn’t bother checking for that these days. Only the big cities did.

”Cut the crap. We’re not here to inspect your cafe.”

Zhao Shui glanced at him and didn’t waste any time, quickly reassuring him.

”Have you seen anyone strange in the last couple of days?”

”Strange? How so?” The owner was a little confused.

”Someone who likes to browse forums and read the news, and gets excited—abnormally excited—whenever he does,” Zhao Shui added.

”No.”

The owner shook his head, then quickly added, ”Or rather, it’s not that there’s no one like that, but that there are too many.”

The popular online activities these days were either pay-to-win games or something like Red Alert. Most people would finish a game and then go spam the forums, either arguing with people or flaming them. Finding someone who gets worked up while browsing forums was all too easy.

He probably just had a meltdown from being flamed.

Zhao Shui’s brow furrowed. He was starting to feel how difficult this was.

The foot traffic in an internet cafe was too high. Anyone with money could get on a computer. How could anyone possibly notice one specific person?

Besides, even if the killer acted strangely, it wouldn’t matter... internet cafes were full of weirdos!

Zhao Shui had already lost count of how many internet cafes he’d searched.

Unfortunately, the results were still a dead end.

Unwilling to give up, Zhao Shui sent his men to question people inside the dimly lit cafe.

Until...

”Does someone reading the news count?”

After a long moment, a voice caught Zhao Shui’s attention. He stood up and turned to see a person who had stopped playing his game and was looking at the police.

”The news?”

Zhao Shui paused, then quickly got up and walked over to him.

”Yeah, the news. Came to an internet cafe late at night just to read the news. He was acting all shifty while he was reading, too.”

The person continued, ”He was sitting right next to me, hunched over. In the middle of the night, he had this perverted look on his face, and he was trembling. I don’t know what he was doing.”

”Did he look something like this!?”

Zhao Shui quickly flipped open his notebook. ”About five-foot-seven!”

”Yeah, and he was wearing a black shirt.” The netizen nodded, thought for a moment, and added, ”He was also wearing a pair of gold-rimmed glasses. Looked deceptively respectable.”

The news, the emotional state, the appearance...

’It matches!’

But...

”He was trembling? Was it from excitement, or something else?”

Zhao Shui asked with a frown.

”Who knows? Anyway, he was being super creepy. I got annoyed and went to the bathroom, and when I came back, he was gone,” the person said.

”Okay, thank you for your trouble. Please wait here for a moment. The police will contact you later. We will compensate you double for any gaming time you’ve lost.”

Zhao Shui suppressed his excitement.

He took a deep breath, walked to a corner, and pulled out his phone.

”Hey, Chief...”

”I’ve found a lead!”

...

On the first, at three in the morning, even the sound of keyboards clacking in the internet cafe had quieted down considerably.

Li Jianye and Xu Huo rushed to the scene upon hearing the news.

Based on the lead, there was a high probability that the person sitting next to the netizen at Lanxiang Internet Cafe was the killer himself.

Xu Huo walked over. He surveyed his surroundings and his nose twitched. A suffocating stench flooded his nostrils, overwhelming everything else, which made him frown.

’The smell in this internet cafe... it’s a chaotic mess. The Nose of Wang Die is useless here.’

”When did he leave?”

”Four hours ago, at eleven o’clock.”

Zhao Shui answered quickly. He had already dispatched men to conduct a grid search of the surrounding area with the internet cafe as the center, but there was no news yet.

Hearing this, Xu Huo’s heart sank.

He leaned over the computer and took a moment to search the internet for the ”Sishui County Midnight Radio Ghost” incident.

He discovered...

In the short five hours from ten o’clock until now, the online hype surrounding the case had grown exponentially!

’This is bad. The hype is still trending upwards, and it’s not slowing down...’

Xu Huo’s heart sank further.

People are controlled by their highs, dominated by their emotions!

Once you get a taste of pleasure, you just want to get to the next one faster, and the next.

According to their original prediction, the killer would most likely strike at 5 p.m., which was less than fifteen hours from now!

Li Jianye’s expression darkened. He and Xu Huo exchanged a look, both realizing the gravity of the situation.

If the killer was being ruled by his emotions, what if he moved the time of his next crime forward a little...

’One in the afternoon? Noon? Or maybe even six in the morning!?’

A new crime could happen at any moment!

The police’s time...

...was running out!

”There’s not enough time. Pull a large number of officers from the conventional search.”

”We need to commit to a more radical approach—a psychological gamble.”

”We’ll use his own psychology against him, show our hand, and manipulate his actions!”

Xu Huo took a deep breath. Now that they knew the killer’s motive and his mindset, then...

’The killer is just a puppet on a string!’

He wasn’t going to let this drag on.

’It was time to deploy the psychological gambit for his capture, the one he’d devised to exploit the time gap.’

When you have insight into a person’s psyche, then...

...you can control their actions!

And a murderer is no exception!!!

”Notify all police units in Sishui County to be ready...”

”...to coordinate an arrest!”