Chapter 618: Awakening in an Unfamiliar Place

Extracting fingerprints from the deceased’s clothes wasn’t easy and took some time. Taking advantage of the moment, Chen Shi went to the interrogation room to see Zhou Xiao. Impatiently, Zhou Xiao said, “How many times are you going to ask? You finish with one person, then switch to another!”

“I won’t ask those questions again. Let’s talk about something else.” Chen Shi took out the picture given to him by Xu Xiaodong. “Does this ‘Tyrant’ look like the killer?”

Zhou Xiao paused, then nodded. “It does resemble him. Why do you ask?”

“Have you been playing ‘Resident Evil’ recently?”

“Yeah… I played the remake of Resident Evil 2.”

“I suspect your memory is contaminated. The killer definitely doesn’t look like this. Zhou Xiao, was your memory always this bad?”

“No, when I was young, my memory was excellent. I could memorize books very quickly. But later, I developed depression, and my memory got worse and worse…”

“Depression doesn’t lead to being admitted to a psychiatric hospital.”

“What? You investigated me?”

“Your parents mentioned it.”

At the mention of “parents,” Zhou Xiao’s expression turned bitter, revealing strained family relations. He spoke loudly, “My parents never loved me. Ever since my younger brother was born, they focused all their attention on him. I got whatever was left over or what they didn’t like. Have you ever heard of something so fucking unfair? When I was in college, I had my first girlfriend. It didn’t go well. She always blamed me for being careless, having a bad temper, and lacking security. But what could I do? Coming from such a family, this is the ugly person I turned into. I hate myself. After we broke up, I got depression, and my parents threw me into a mental hospital… That place is scarier than prison. They fed me pills every day. The more I took, the worse my head became. Every day, my fellow patients were like this…” Zhou Xiao made a blank smile. “Just like this, because of overdosing on medication, people become stupid. I hated them every day!”

“It’s a helpless situation. You can’t choose your parents.”

“Parents are nothing but trouble!” Zhou Xiao gritted his teeth.

Chen Shi suddenly thought of everyone who had sat in that interrogation chair with “Unhappy Family” written on their forehead. Small evils in families breed big antisocial evils, making people sigh with regret.

Chen Shi pulled the chair closer to Zhou Xiao and said in a conversational tone, “No matter what happened in the past, you are who you are now. Accept yourself! Leaving your family is more effective than any panacea.”

“You’re right. I’m alone in Long’an now. Although I don’t make much money, I’m free and happy… If only I could find a girlfriend.” Zhou Xiao chuckled.

“Find one! Being together is indeed helpful for physical and mental health. Just like children need to learn to speak before their minds can develop, it’s the same for adults. In fact, I’ve met many deviants, and they all have one thing in common—loneliness, not being understood!”

“People fall in love not in silence, but in silence they become deviant? This actually makes sense?”

“It makes a lot of sense. Loneliness can lead to crime.” Chen Shi said emotionally, remembering the three years he spent alone, each day like torture.

“Mr. Chen, do you have a girlfriend?”

“Yes, Officer Lin is.”

Zhou Xiao’s mouth turned into an ‘O’ shape, taking a long time to recover. He smiled, “You won’t need to buy a lottery ticket for the rest of your life.”

“Why?” Chen Shi smiled and asked.

“Because your luck is all used up.”

It was clear that Zhou Xiao was a funny person. Funny people are lonely inside. Humor is their shield to prevent others from seeing through them. In this respect, Chen Shi felt a bit of sympathy.

“Did you really suffer from depression back then?” Chen Shi asked.

“Yes… I did suffer from depression.” Obviously, he was lying.

“Does your memory loss happen frequently?”

“What memory loss? I remember everything!”

“Have you ever suspected yourself of having a split personality?”

Zhou Xiao widened his eyes, then shook his head desperately. “No, no! Mr. Chen, you’re so bad. You suddenly changed the topic again.”

Someone knocked on the glass outside. Chen Shi went out, and Lin Dongxue said the identification results were out—the killer wasn’t Zhou Xiao.

“You guessed wrong, didn’t you?” Lin Dongxue said proudly.

“But I still suspect he has a split personality.”

“You’re overthinking!”

“Are his fingerprints on the doorknob?”

“Yes!”

Chen Shi made a face of “What did I say,” and Lin Dongxue said, “But you’re going overboard with that!”

“Would a killer who was about to silence someone give up so easily?” Chen Shi wondered. “Under what circumstances would a killer who was ready to kill someone at the door give up? Facing a perceived non-threat?”

“How would he think the other person wasn’t a threat? He has a mouth and eyes… Let me probe him again!”

Taking the identification report, Chen Shi returned to the interrogation room and sternly said to Zhou Xiao, “Guess whose fingerprints were found at the murder scene?”

Zhou Xiao looked puzzled, “I don’t have a single friend in Long’an. Why are you asking me to guess?”

“The fingerprints are yours!”

Zhou Xiao was stunned for a few seconds, then reacted strongly, “Are you crazy? I was working on an image in the house. How could I be in two places at once, seeing myself from upstairs?”

“I lied to you. The fingerprints belong to someone else.”

Just as Zhou Xiao breathed a sigh of relief, Chen Shi continued, “However…”

“However what? Can you just say everything in one go?”

Chen Shi showed him the report. Zhou Xiao couldn’t understand the professional document. Chen Shi said, “Only your fingerprints were found on the doorknob. Do you remember finding a pair of bloody footprints at home? The killer came in, and you personally opened the door. This is the only reliable explanation based on the evidence. Do you remember the family next door being killed? You imagined that memory to fill in the gap in your memory at the time. The actual situation is that you opened the door and let the killer in. You stood face to face with him as if you knew each other, maybe even said something that made him give up on killing you!”

Zhou Xiao was shocked, then vehemently denied everything. “This is impossible!”

“The paper says ‘maybe.’ Anyway, you don’t remember that part. Let me change the question. Do you remember where you woke up? On the floor, on the bed?”

Biting his finger, Zhou Xiao tried hard to remember and hesitantly said, “Is this unrelated to the case?”

“Of course, it’s related.”

“In the corridor!”

“The corridor?”

“I woke up in the corridor! And not in my unit but in the adjacent unit three. Mr. Chen, if you could help me figure this out, that would be great. I’ve woken up there more than once. I suspect I have sleepwalking, or… it’s the split personality you mentioned!” Zhou Xiao reluctantly admitted.