Chapter 766: Trapped in a Dream

Old Zhang was smoking downstairs when a loud noise startled him. He saw a man fall and land on a car, a smile still on his face.

Before Zhang could recover, a woman jumped down, landing on the road and becoming unrecognizable, eliciting screams from the onlookers.

“Everyone to the sixteenth floor!” Lin Qiupu shouted into the walkie-talkie.

Zhang immediately threw away his cigarette and rushed to the sixteenth floor. The scene was utter chaos. People screamed and ran in all directions, some huddling in corners, trembling. A bloody corpse lay on the floor, and Chen Shi and Lin Dongxue were each restraining a struggling person.

A man was tearing at a woman’s clothes. Lin Qiupu pulled him up, yelling, “What are you doing!”

The man smiled foolishly and said, “Disappear from my dream.”

“Cuff him!”

The man, once handcuffed, suddenly broke free from the officers and shouted, “I’m done playing. I’m waking up!” He then sprinted towards the window.

If not for Chen Shi’s quick reflexes, tackling him, another life would have been lost.

After a struggle, the “madmen” were all subdued. Not everyone at the reunion was affected, only a portion of them. Three people died: one slashed their throat, and two jumped out of the window.

Chen Shi suddenly noticed “Han Meng” calmly sitting on the edge of the stage, eating a piece of cake as if nothing had happened. When Chen Shi saw her, she raised her hands as if saying, “Please arrest me.”

“Is she the suspect?” Lin Qiupu asked in disbelief.

“Yes, I suggest we take her for a physical exam to determine her actual age,” Chen Shi said, full of doubts about how she managed to do this.

These mad and suicidal people all shared one belief: they thought they were dreaming.

“Han Meng” was taken away, and Lin Qiupu asked the officers monitoring the exits and elevators, “Did anyone see her come up?”

Everyone shook their heads. Chen Shi said, “Dongxue and I were watching the entrance. We would have noticed a ‘child’ entering…” He looked at the large boxes of audio equipment near the stage, walked over, and opened them one by one, smelling them. One of the empty boxes had a sweaty odor. He said, “She hid here, pre-planned.”

“Take her back for questioning,” Lin Qiupu sighed, frustrated that such tight surveillance had still led to an incident.

Chen Shi, exhausted, followed the others into the elevator. As he walked in, he saw his reflection in the elevator wall and suddenly exclaimed, “Damn it, not this again!”

“What’s wrong, Chen?” Lin Dongxue asked.

“What did you call me?”

Everyone looked at Chen Shi in unison. He reached out and pressed the elevator button, getting off on the ninth floor. It happened so suddenly that Lin Dongxue thought he needed to use the restroom. She saw him running down the corridor towards the window.

“No way, he’s been affected too!” Lin Qiupu was shocked.

Lin Dongxue rushed out of the elevator and caught up with Chen Shi, tackling him to the ground. She cried, “Wake up, you’re not dreaming!”

Chen Shi gently said, “Alright, alright, I know. Now, get off me.”

Thinking Chen Shi had come to his senses, Lin Dongxue let him go. She was terrified, tears streaming down her face. Chen Shi wiped her tears, saying, “Even in a dream, I love you and hate to see you cry.”

“Hey!” Lin Dongxue was stunned. “This is reality!”

She pinched Chen Shi’s arm hard. He grimaced in pain and took out his phone, using the front camera to look at his face. After seeing his reflection, his expression became resolute.

Lin Qiupu caught up and said, “Another one’s lost it. Cuff him!”

“I’m awake, alright?” Chen Shi said.

“I can tell when someone is lying, even you,” Lin Qiupu said firmly.

“Haha, Little Lin, you’ve learned well!”

Lin Qiupu was taken aback; it had been a long time since anyone called him “Little Lin.”

Everyone was surprised, not knowing when Chen Shi had been affected. Lin Dongxue said she had been with him the past two days, but he had been having strange dreams and seemed mentally unstable.

They sought Gu You’s help.

Lin Qiupu brought Gu You in. Chen Shi was handcuffed to a chair in a meeting room. Gu You sat across from him and asked, “Why do you think you’re dreaming?”

“Show me a mirror!”

Gu You turned on the front camera of her phone and handed it to Chen Shi. In the reflection, he saw himself as Song Lang, which was impossible in reality, confirming his belief that this was a dream.

An incredibly vivid dream!

“Take a picture!” Chen Shi said. “Who do you see in the photo?”

Gu You took the picture and scrutinized it, saying, “It’s you.”

“Who am I?”

“Chen Shi.”

Chen Shi shook his head and whispered, “It’s Song Lang. This is my true self. Only in dreams am I this identity.”

Gu You stood up and said, “I’ll get you some water.”

Outside, she told the waiting officers, “He saw something that only appears in his dreams. I suspect someone conditioned him during sleep, embedding this ‘trigger’ into his consciousness.”

“Incredible. Even someone as smart as Chen Shi fell for this!” Lin Qiupu was shocked.

“The smarter the person, the more they trust their judgment. He firmly believes he’s dreaming, and no one can change that,” Gu You said. “Don’t pressure him. If you do, he’ll pretend to cooperate and lie. I’ll go along with his belief, tell him this is a dream, and then suggest things to him while he sleeps.”

“Last night, Xiaodong fell for the same trick, unable to distinguish between reality and dreams. Today’s deaths and the ‘mad’ people were likely affected the same way!” Lin Dongxue said, horrified.

“I’ll get Peng Sijue to run a urine test on him to see if he was drugged,” Lin Qiupu said.

“You go interrogate the suspect. I’ll take care of Chen,” Gu You said.

Everyone left, except for Lin Dongxue. She asked Gu You, “What did Chen see that made him think he’s dreaming? Does it have something to do with his face?”

“As a professional, I can’t reveal a patient’s secrets. But you can ask him yourself. Since he believes he’s dreaming, he might tell you.”

“This probably involves his secrets. I won’t take advantage of his vulnerability.”

“You respect him a lot,” Gu You said with a smile.