Chapter 756: Late Night Intruder

Watching Chen Fengde vanish into thin air, Chen Shi’s rational mind told him it was impossible. He said, “This can’t be real. No one can escape like that!”

Suddenly, the scene shifted like a stage backdrop, and he found himself in the prison factory where the escape had already happened. A group of guards was investigating the scene, and behind a barrel filled with liquid, they found a hole in the wall.

“It’s over, he’s gone!” Guard A said.

“Why weren’t you watching him?” Guard B retorted.

“I… I had to go to the bathroom, I was constipated!”

“He’s a death row inmate. If he escapes, we’ll all lose our jobs and might even go to jail… Let’s just say we don’t know how he got away.”

“And this hole…”

“Seal it with cement before the police find it!”

Chen Shi listened, and everything seemed plausible, but he quickly dismissed it. There was more than one guard present during the work detail. Even if a guard went to the bathroom, no one could dig a hole to escape in that time. Besides, other inmates were around. Reporting an escape would earn them credit. Would so many inmates just watch Chen Fengde dig a hole and escape?

This was just an abandoned hypothesis in his mind, offering no fresh clues.

The scene suddenly froze. The guards stood motionless, a cigarette suspended in the air. A little girl in a white dress slowly walked through the frozen scene and approached Chen Shi. She was the girl he had seen that day.

“The Dream Master?” Chen Shi asked.

“You already know my identity? Dreams are my kingdom. Here, I can create anything, even influence reality.”

“Through your followers?”

“Followers? Hmph, you are sharp. Indeed, some believe in me, and I grant them my blessings.”

“What you offer is just illusions.”

“Humans chase after fleeting things all their lives. In dreams, you can have another life, rule a kingdom, break free from moral constraints, and do whatever you desire. And this isn’t just a fleeting dream—it’s always there. Just close your eyes, and you can escape reality and enter the dream kingdom! Song Lang, your heart is full of conflict and anxiety. You are running from your past. Haven’t you wished for another life where that incident never happened, where you and Han Luoxi are together, guarding the law as the ‘Legend of the Police’? Or perhaps you want to unleash your true nature and fight evil with evil!” The little girl extended her hand. “Whatever you wish for, I can give it to you.”

“Prove it to me!” Chen Shi said darkly. “Prove you have that power.”

“Why should I prove it? Proving is a form of weakness. You only need to believe in me to open the door to the dream.”

“Hmph!” Chen Shi scoffed. “These… these are just fragments of my mind, things I’ve seen and heard. Even you, the Dream Abyss and the Dream Master, don’t exist. No one can enter someone else’s consciousness!”

The little girl laughed. “The door to madness and reality is before you, locked by rationality. The key has always been in your hand. It’s up to you whether you open it and see for yourself!”

With that, the little girl dissipated like mist. Chen Shi sat up in bed, drenched in sweat. He pinched his arm to confirm he was awake.

He got up to get some water and stepped on something soft.

His cat, Maomao, liked to sleep everywhere and often got stepped on. Chen Shi reflexively withdrew his foot.

Maomao meowed softly. Chen Shi petted her and said, “Why aren’t you in Yueyue’s room? Why come to me?”

He noticed Maomao trembling. In the silence of midnight, he heard a faint creak. Chen Shi rushed out of his bedroom and saw a shadow sprinting down the stairs.

“Stop!”

He chased the shadow in his slippers, but it vanished. Out of breath, he returned to find the wind had closed the door. He didn’t have his keys and had to ring the doorbell.

Tao Yueyue opened the door. “What are you doing out there in the middle of the night?”

“Shh, someone broke in… Get the gloves!”

Chen Shi put on gloves and inspected the lock, finding clear signs of tampering. He asked Tao Yueyue, “You haven’t been picking locks recently, have you?”

“I went downstairs for chips two days ago and forgot my key…”

“Damn!”

Now he couldn’t tell if the recent tampering was from the intruder or from Tao Yueyue.

Back inside, with the alarm lifted, Maomao jumped into Tao Yueyue’s arms, purring. Chen Shi noticed a previously overturned cup was now upright with some water inside. He wondered if the “thief” had drunk from it.

The next morning, Chen Shi took the cup to Peng Sijue for analysis, confirming the lip print didn’t match his or Tao Yueyue’s. But lip prints aren’t in any database, so they would need to find the person for comparison.

Someone had indeed entered his home. Nothing valuable was missing (not that there was much to steal), but it was unclear if it was a common thief or a criminal with bad intentions.

Could he have been hypnotized?

The brain’s defenses are weak during sleep. A few whispered suggestions could induce hypnosis. The strange dreams for two nights—were they related to this mysterious person?

Unable to make sense of it, Chen Shi decided to focus on the case.

Xu Xiaodong had made an important discovery. He found that the hospital kept good records, and he located the files on the patients from ten years ago. The three victims were from the same area, a small town near Long’an called Yinxiang. They had been classmates and were in a car accident that left them brain-dead for about five minutes before becoming vegetative.

“Another clue: ten years ago, before the incident, Liu Tao moved his wife to the same ward as the three vegetative patients,” Xu Xiaodong said.

“Great work! This is very helpful,” Chen Shi praised.

“Hehe, Chen Ge, how about a reward?”

“I’ll treat you to lunch!”

Chen Shi treated Xu Xiaodong to teppanyaki for lunch. Over the meal, he said, “Lu Ming and the three vegetative patients all came from Yinxiang High School, just as I suspected. I think the killer is from there too.”

“Isn’t the killer Chen Fengde?” Lin Dongxue asked. “Do you mean the mastermind?”

“Yes, this mastermind manipulates people. Chen Fengde and Liu Tao are just pawns. The murders may not be for any practical purpose, but out of personal vendetta… I have a theory. I think they are part of a secret cult!”