Chapter 744 Dream Exchange Murders

“And then?” Chen Shi said, “Chen Fengde killed someone in reality to ‘wake up’?”

Gu You, with a worried expression, said heavily, “The case he did was the murder case at Ji Ci Hospital ten years ago.”

Upon mentioning this case, Chen Shi immediately recalled it, but still pretended to search on his phone and said, “Oh, it was the sensational case back then. Six patients in the hospital’s intensive care unit were killed, along with a nurse. Online, it said there were a bunch of suspects at the time, and after a six-month investigation, they finally found Chen Fengde, who had no connection to the victims. The motive for the murder remains a mystery.”

“From interrogation to conviction, Chen Fengde has always claimed he’s innocent. How ridiculous, all the police think it’s nonsense. He said he swapped bodies with someone in his dream, and that person used his body to kill. He had no grudge against those vegetative patients, why would he kill them… Only I, who volunteered at the prison as his psychological counselor back then, was willing to listen to such talk. By the way, I was still an intern at the time.”

“What does he mean by ‘dream’ in reality?” Lin Dongxue asked.

“I don’t know what he means. When I met him, his consciousness was confused, his cognition was incomplete, and he was incoherent. He often bizarrely laughed during conversations, saying the dream was long enough, but he would definitely wake up. According to prison staff, he covered the walls with strange symbols, talked to himself all day, and other inmates treated him as a lunatic and often bullied him.”

“So who did Chen Fengde exchange bodies with?” Chen Shi asked, adding, “According to his claim.”

“A young man named Liu Tao. Liu Tao’s wife was one of the vegetative patients murdered. His wife couldn’t wake up and needed a lot of medical expenses. Liu Tao’s days were very difficult, so to relieve the pressure, he had an affair outside. Under such circumstances, it’s almost inevitable for a man to have an affair. After his wife’s death, he received a large insurance payout and quickly married his lover. It can be said he had a clear motive for murder. I haven’t met Liu Tao, but someone else has—Chen Fengde’s daughter. When I visited her, she mentioned something. One day, a stranger claimed to be her father and picked her up from school. His way of speaking and habitual actions were exactly like her father’s, and that stranger was Liu Tao! It happened to be the day of the crime! Psychology research has taken too long, and there are too many patients, which will always make people doubt the truth of the world. This has been haunting me, and I still haven’t found an answer.”

“I think there must be something wrong here. I just don’t believe in body swapping. There’s only one concept of the soul; there’s no soul inside a human body.” Chen Shi asserted.

“Mr. Chen, I’m not refuting you, I’m just curious. How do you view cases where children suddenly claim to be someone in their past life and can speak foreign languages fluently without prior exposure?”

“Does such a thing happen?” Lin Dongxue was shocked.

“It does!” Chen Shi said, “Indeed, such cases of reincarnation occur all over the world. Some of them are so real that they are undeniable. But I believe there’s a reason behind it, perhaps a reason that science hasn’t fully explored yet, but it must be scientific, not crude explanations like souls and reincarnation.”

“To find a reasonable explanation for Chen Fengde’s case, I also consulted some books. Materialism believes the brain is the organ of thought, but some people believe the brain is just a signal receiver, and all human thoughts come from a common source. Using Carl Jung’s words, human consciousness is like an isolated reef on the sea surface, and beneath it, the raging waves are the collective unconscious of humanity. With the declassification of KGB secret archives last century, it was discovered that the Soviet Union had conducted telepathy experiments, isolating identical twins A and B in shielded rooms with no signals. A repeatedly memorized a sequence of fifty digits and then slept. Days later, B wrote down fifty digits by intuition, and in over a hundred trials, six of them matched exactly with what A had seen.”

“This… This is too mystical, isn’t it?” Lin Dongxue’s mouth fell open in astonishment.

Chen Shi said, “Most psychological viewpoints are theories or hypotheses. I don’t deny these viewpoints, but the problem is that these theories have surpassed the realm of real law. Even if they are correct, the law still regards Chen Fengde as the criminal subject, and this fact cannot be changed.”

“I’m searching for answers not to defend Chen Fengde but to be able to say to him with a clear conscience the next time we meet, ‘I know you’re innocent,'” Gu You’s eyes conveyed a hint of sadness.

Chen Shi vaguely caught something and asked, “Miss Gu, do you have any other relationship with Chen Fengde? Like him being your teacher?”

“No, because he was my first patient, and because I couldn’t help him, I’ve been feeling guilty. It’s just a little obsession of mine, please forgive me for embarrassing you.” Gu You smiled, but Chen Shi felt there was something hidden beneath her smile.

Lin Dongxue pondered and said, “There’s one thing I’m very curious about. What exactly is X that made him mentally unstable?”

Gu You shook her head, “I don’t know either. When he talked to me, he used the codename X. Perhaps he didn’t want me to know.”

“Miss Gu, I can inform Captain Lin about this matter. It shouldn’t be difficult to meet Chen Fengde.”

“Thank you so much.”

Chen Shi was still thinking about this matter when suddenly he smelled something burning. He rushed to the kitchen and exclaimed, “I’ve been talking and forgot about the soup!”

“That’s perfect. Let me treat you to dinner!” Gu You suggested.

“No need, it’s just a small favor, really nothing,” Lin Dongxue declined.

“I didn’t mean that. I just wanted to invite you to dinner. There’s a new grilled fish restaurant nearby that uses Qingjiang fish, which only has one bone in its whole body. I heard the meat is very delicious. I’d feel too lonely going alone.”

Lin Dongxue’s mouth watered, and Chen Shi saw it and chuckled, “It’s hard to refuse your hospitality. Let’s go.”

Lin Dongxue curiously asked, “Miss Gu, don’t you usually meet Captain Peng?”

“We meet in a very utilitarian way.”

“Utilitarian?”

“Just book a hotel, and then…”

“Oh, I get it! You don’t communicate?”

“We usually chat on social media. I quite like this relationship of maintaining a subtle distance. It’s exactly what I’ve always wanted.” Gu You smiled faintly.

“I still prefer dating and playing together,” Lin Dongxue smiled and glanced at Chen Shi.