Criminal Investigation Notes

At the front desk of the psychological clinic, Lu Junchi asked Jin Qiu about the situation, “Is there another elevator behind here?”

Jin Qiu nodded, “Yes, there is one at the back. It’s separate from the public elevator in the front.”

She thought for a moment and said, “Mr. Su had asked us about the elevator footage before. I specifically inquired about it. The elevator footage here is only retained for a certain period of time before it gets overwritten. Unfortunately, when he asked me, that particular period had already been overwritten.”

Lu Junchi said, “We came to investigate today because we received a tip-off that a suspect related to the police had entered that elevator…”

Due to Su Hui’s uncertainty about his own memories, he vaguely mentioned the source of the information.

Jin Qiu looked surprised, “That’s highly unlikely… This elevator was specially requested by the property. It doesn’t stop on many other floors.”

Lu Junchi furrowed his brow. There was something suspicious about this, “So, only the staff can use this elevator?”

Jin Qiu didn’t understand why he was asking that and replied, “Yes.”

Lu Junchi didn’t think that what Su Hui saw last time was an illusion. There must be something they didn’t understand here. “Are there any special circumstances where someone might come down from the upper floors?”

Jin Qiu shook her head, genuinely surprised, “Um, should I call Dr. Yang to ask?”

Lu Junchi said, “No need. Isn’t she supposed to be examining Mr. Su? Let’s go to the elevator first and see if the information in the report was inaccurate.”

As he spoke, he listened attentively through his earpiece, but there was still nothing. He could only hear the soothing music, indicating that Yang Yuqing hadn’t arrived yet.

Lu Junchi instructed a police auxiliary to stand guard outside the door and entered with Qiao Ze and Zheng Bai.

Jin Qiu led them through the clinic area. This floor was solely occupied by their psychological clinic.

Lu Junchi had been inside the consultation area before. There was a long corridor with men’s and women’s restrooms and a pantry on the side. There were about eight consultation rooms in total. Currently, several therapists were conducting sessions with patients, and a nurse carrying forms walked past them in the corridor.

Jin Qiu led him all the way to the elevator at the back and turned a corner, pointing to it. “Here it is.”

Lu Junchi looked outside and pressed the buttons for the top floor and a few floors below. As expected, the lights didn’t turn on. He could only press the button for the first floor.

Then, he tried one by one. When he pressed the button for the ninth floor, which was the floor above, the light turned on.

Lu Junchi asked, “What’s on the ninth floor?”

“Upstairs?” Jin Qiu reacted for a moment and then remembered. “Upstairs is the floor that Dr. Yang rented and renovated. It was never used. The access to this elevator is only set for these two floors. Maybe there are maintenance personnel or property staff going up there? But I have never seen anyone coming down from upstairs.”

As Jin Qiu was speaking, she tilted her head and thought for a moment. “One time when I was going upstairs, I pressed the wrong floor and ended up on the upper floor. I noticed that the area next to the elevator was sealed off with an iron door. There shouldn’t be anyone there… We always wondered why there would be an empty office floor in such a prime location.”

Lu Junchi asked, “Can we go up and take a look?”

Jin Qiu replied, “Of course, but we don’t have the key, so we probably won’t be able to see anything.”

She stepped into the elevator and pressed the button for the ninth floor.

The elevator quickly carried them upstairs, and with a “ding,” it stopped on the upper floor.

The elevator doors opened slowly, revealing a covered area. Even in broad daylight, the corridor was dark.

Lu Junchi took a look and indeed saw what Jin Qiu had described. About a meter in front of the elevator, there was a locked iron door blocking the corridor. Lu Junchi walked over, illuminated the door with the flashlight on his phone, and examined it. He wanted to understand more, so he tried to shine his light through the door, but the corridor turned a corner not far away, making it impossible to see what was inside.

Jin Qiu crossed her arms, feeling a bit chilly on the upper floor. “It’s pitch black here, a bit creepy.”

Lu Junchi asked, “Has the landlord or fire department ever come to inspect this place?”

Jin Qiu shook her head and said, “The owner rarely comes up here, and they don’t clean this floor either. So when you asked if anyone would come down from here, it puzzled me.”

Zheng Bai asked from the side, “Captain Lu, should we open it and take a look, or should we contact the property owner?”

Lu Junchi hesitated for a moment. He decided to trust Su Hui’s intuition. That man should be suspicious, and this place was definitely not a coincidence. “Let’s contact the property.”

Qiao Ze made a phone call and returned after a while, saying, “The landlord said they took over this floor from the previous company. This floor is registered as a psychological clinic, and the property and utility bills are regularly paid to their account. The property always assumed that this place belonged to the same clinic as Yang Yuqing’s. This door has been locked for a long time, and they have never seen anyone on this floor.”

It sounded even more mysterious. Lu Junchi’s brows furrowed deeper.

Qiao Ze studied the lock and pushed it, and the door suddenly opened.

It seemed like the owner had hurriedly left and forgot to lock the door.

As they looked at the dark corridor in front of them, the group exchanged glances.

“Qiao Ze, you and Jin Qiu stay here. Zheng Bai and I will go in and take a look,” Lu Junchi said, taking out his gun and holding it in his hand.

Zheng Bai also took out his weapon and followed behind him.

The signal upstairs was not very good, and the music playing on the phone became intermittent. Lu Junchi placed his left hand on his wireless earpiece.

As he listened through the earpiece, the music sounded strange. Could it be that Yang Yuqing hadn’t come here after such a long time?

Today’s events were too peculiar, and Lu Junchi couldn’t help but become more vigilant. He wanted to search this area quickly and leave with Su Hui as soon as possible.

The two of them turned a corner and used their flashlights to illuminate the area. They could see several rooms on the upper floor, and one room had its door half open, revealing darkness inside. Some computer equipment in the room seemed to be turned on, emitting a faint sound of fans.

“Police! Is anyone here?” Zheng Bai shouted.

The corridor was empty, with only an echo and their footsteps.

This place felt like an unattended chamber in the city.

Lu Junchi pushed the door, and in the corner of the room, there were several large sealed gas canisters. The canisters had hazardous labels indicating toxic gases, but the valves were open, and they were empty inside.

In the room, there was a large table with books and several monitors piled on top. The two approached the table.

Zheng Bai’s flashlight illuminated the books on the table. “They are psychology-related books!”

Then he reached out and touched a nearby water cup. “The cup is still warm.”

The warm cup indicated that someone had been here recently and left in a hurry.

Lu Junchi pressed the power button on one of the monitors, and it lit up.

It was a surveillance system, and the screen displayed the clinic downstairs. From the monitor, they could see the situation in each examination room. There were also two headphones placed next to it, seemingly for listening purposes.

Lu Junchi frowned, feeling a chill down his spine. This indicated that Yang Yuqing’s clinic had been under constant surveillance and monitoring…

This clinic was a collaboration between the police and a psychological clinic.

The psychological state, actions, and situations of the police officers could be leaked through psychological consultations. They were probably being monitored by the other party.

He regretted not investigating this lead earlier.

Did Yang Yuqing know about this or was she unaware?

Lu Junchi quickly found the room where Su Hui was located in the surveillance footage, and his expression changed.

In the footage, a disheveled and thin figure entered the room, like a ghost.

She approached the treatment bed, holding a knife in her hand…

A few minutes ago, Su Hui lay on the bed in the examination room. His eyes couldn’t open, but his nerves were excited and highly sensitive.

He suddenly remembered who the female doctor in the video was.

At that time, it seemed like he had just finished a session, and his gaze fell on the doctor’s desk, where he saw a photo. The woman in the photo had long hair, a gentle smile, fair skin, and a sweet appearance.

That woman was An Yucí’s sister…

Su Hui followed this line of thought.

Why was it An Yucí’s sister?

Why did she appear in the 372 Research Institute?

Su Hui recalled that An Yucí had mentioned that his sister died from a psychological illness, so he also decided to study psychology.

Was it possible that An Yucí’s sister also studied psychology, but as a healer, she couldn’t heal herself, so she followed the same path as her sister?

Su Hui still remembered that he had looked into the information about An Yucí’s sister. She chose to commit suicide by jumping off a bridge due to some emotional disputes.

Then he thought about the part of the file that mentioned the reason for the suicide, which came from testimonies of some other people…

But what if all the files he saw were modified?

Perhaps An Yucí’s sister’s death wasn’t that simple, and An Yucí had merely witnessed the scene of his sister’s suicide…

Could she have been hypnotized and silenced?

Because she used to be a part of the 372 Research Institute.

Suddenly, it seemed like everything was connecting, and Su Hui had some answers.

With his eyes still unable to open, his thoughts continued to reason.

Among all the killers, An Yucí was completely different; he was like a misplaced puzzle piece.

While others acted with evil intentions, An Yucí’s crimes were driven by good intentions.

The typical traits of a serial killer include low or even zero empathy; they cannot understand certain human behaviors and won’t experience remorse and regret. However, An Yucí was an individual with hyper empathy. Although he committed extreme acts, his psychological representation was the opposite of other murderers. He could sense everyone’s pain and amplify it within himself.

They were entirely different types…

When combined with the matter of his sister.

Perhaps there were people behind the scenes, lurking around him, influencing and molding him.

As if conducting a psychological experiment.

So, An Yucí approaching him wasn’t coincidental; it was all carefully arranged!

What was his goal and mission?

In an instant, Su Hui seemed to see An Yucí sitting by the bedside.

Su Hui felt like he could move again, but the sensation wasn’t genuine. Time and space were different from reality; he was like in a dream.

An Yucí, as always, wore a pristine white coat with gold-rimmed glasses. He raised his head, smiling, and woke him up, saying, “Teacher Su, wake up, it’s not time for sleep yet…”

Su Hui thought for a moment and asked him, “Was it your supervisor who influenced you?”

He had seen this person’s written records in the relevant information, and in the testimonies, he eliminated any abnormalities about An Yucí.

Now, recalling it, a psychological counselor having serious issues seemed unlikely that his supervisor wouldn’t have noticed, even if he was good at disguising himself.

And those psychological issues, the psychological causes of An Yucí, couldn’t have transformed overnight. It would have been a long process of change.

As a supervisor, he happened to meet these conditions.

“What did you discover?” An Yucí adjusted his glasses and smiled at him.

Su Hui carefully recalled, “Your death…”

Now Su Hui remembered some details from that time.

At that moment, only the two of them were in that pristine room.

In an instant, the scene changed, and he seemed to be back before An Yucí’s suicide.

As Su Hui replayed the events, he believed that overwhelming guilt drove An Yucí to commit suicide. But there were many things that didn’t make sense.

Why did An Yucí break down in his hypnosis?

His hypnosis and questioning only revealed his crimes.

The immense guilt might have caused An Yucí to break down, but it wouldn’t be enough to motivate him to commit suicide immediately.

Is there another possibility?

Su Hui recalled that during the hypnosis, An Yucí initially aimed the gun at him…

There was a pause of about five seconds in the middle, the length of a breath.

Just when he thought An Yucí would shoot and kill him, An Yucí suddenly turned the gun around, without even aiming, and hastily fired. He then shot himself in the chest.

Su Hui had seen the forensic report; the bullet pierced his heart.

Su Hui felt like he was manipulating the play button, repeatedly watching the moment when An Yucí fell to the ground and died, and then rewinding, searching for the truth.

Su Hui’s eyes twitched slightly. “Someone had given you a hypnotic suggestion to kill me at that time. During the process of entering hypnosis, the suggestion was automatically activated…”

In a hypnotic state, when the instructions from the other party and An Yucí’s self-doubt became distorted, the intent to kill arose.

An Yucí’s target was him!

An Yucí might have wanted to stop it all, but it was already too late.

His act of suicide might have been because he didn’t want to kill Su Hui.

Could this be the truth?

In the illusion, An Yucí sat across from Su Hui, not answering his question, his gaze still gentle. “Go back, this isn’t where you should be…”

“Su Hui!”

In a half-asleep, half-awake state, Su Hui suddenly heard someone calling his name.

The voice was familiar and urgent.

It was Lu Junchi!

In that moment, Su Hui abruptly opened his eyes, and he saw a cold gleam flash before him. He struggled fiercely, as if a butterfly had broken free from a spider’s web.

Blood splattered…