Criminal Psychology

“I thought Shen Lian wouldn’t commit suicide. I was somewhat confident… It was me who didn’t fully understand the problem here and acted rashly…”

Lin Chen chattered on, and no emotional abnormality could be detected in his voice, but Xing Conglian knew very well that Lin Chen was totally confused now.

“I pushed her to the limit, hoping she would fight back, and the only thing she could attack us with was the information she had.”

“She would surely give us a little sweetener, such as writing down the key points of two drugs, so she could finally kill us.”

“Isn’t negotiation just like this? You advance, and I retreat. Xiao Zhan said they needed new ideas, which could also help them shorten the research time…”

Lin Chen’s voice slowly drilled into Xing Conglian’s brain.

This was the process Lin Chen had explained to him before entering the interrogation room.

What they wanted wasn’t full cooperation from Shen Lian, but the small concessions Shen Lian made in the negotiation process to make bigger demands, like some formulas or chemical equations. These ideas could greatly speed up the research process.

Almost everything was within Lin Chen’s full calculation; in a sense, Lin Chen had achieved it, except for the sudden suicide of Shen Lian.

“I thought she would want to see Duan Wanshan or make other demands on us, such as asking me to jump off the building like Meijing to save more people. Why did she just commit suicide?”

“She guessed that Duan Wanshan was dead. She’s so smart, so how could she not guess it.”

“But suicide, it’s too absolute. She was very confident in her organization. She knew they would definitely seek revenge for her in a brutal way. There must be a backup plan; there must be something I have overlooked.”

“The problem is Duan Wanshan. What is the problem with Duan Wanshan…”

“I knew she would commit suicide, but I killed her step by step. If I had left that room, she wouldn’t have committed suicide so violently.”

“It was me who thought that it didn’t matter if she died, so I did it… I could have been gentler.”

“It was me who killed her.”

“So much blood… Xing Conglian…”

Xing Conglian stared at the pitch-dark road ahead.

Those calm and incoherent murmurs made him touch Lin Chen’s helpless and fragile heart again.

He found that ever since he fell in love with Lin Chen, it seemed that every day was like this.

He stood behind Lin Chen, watching Lin Chen do what he wanted to do, and then watched Lin Chen get hurt all over by those things. He found that he couldn’t even comfort Lin Chen because, after each such incident, it was Lin Chen who got up and brushed off the dust on his body, saying “I’m fine” to him.

How could he be fine?

“How so?”

“It was me who killed her.”

“So much blood…”

“What the hell did I overlook?”

Lin Chen kept repeating what he had just said, apologizing to many people, and his voice was getting lower and lower.

Listening to those words, Xing Conglian trembled all over.

Of course, a person with a normal psychological defense mechanism wouldn’t blame so many things on themselves. Lin Chen was never a coward with a weak heart, but…

Too many times.

Too many lives were decisively left in front of Lin Chen. He could only passively accept and never prevent anything from happening.

Xing Conglian knew very well how much Lin Chen wanted to save every person, even Meijing and Shen Lian. He hoped they would accept fair judgment instead of dying horribly.

But the more he wanted to, the more fate seemed to let Lin Chen always seem to be doing useless work, and the more he had to carry.

He wanted to take responsibility, and he had to take responsibility.

Once he thought that Lin Chen always charged to the front countless times, disregarding his own life and death, but until Huang Weiwei, he understood that because Lin Chen knew that the choice was too difficult, he would rather do it himself since he sincerely didn’t want other people to experience what he had experienced. It was that simple.

Xing Conglian clutched the steering wheel. He kept his eyes open despite them turning red.

He told himself now wasn’t the time to sink with Lin Chen. He had to be sober. Lin Chen still needed him.

“Baby,” he said.

Lin Chen ignored him. There was no whisper at the other end of the phone now.

“Baby,” he tried to call Lin Chen again.

“Consultant Lin?”

Still no response.

Xing Conglian took a deep breath, staring at the road ahead, gathering his courage, and said, “Husband*.”

*Clarity: Before, Xing Conglian was calling him [baobei] (宝贝). Now he’s using [lao gong] (老公).

The person on the other end of the phone obviously took a deep, cold breath.

Taking advantage of the gap, Xing Conglian rubbed his face, pretended to be happy, and said, “Husband, you can’t collapse. What will I do if you collapse?”

Lin Chen didn’t respond, and only the sound of calm breathing came through.

“It was hard to win me over.”

“You promised to ‘teach me’ every day.”

“If I don’t attend classes, I’ll start thinking about other women every day.”

“Xing Conglian…” Lin Chen seemed to be unable to bear it any longer and finally spoke.

“Are you still reasonable?”

“How many hours have you been with me since you came back from Dana, and how many hours have you been with Shen Lian?”

“I…” Lin Chen muttered.

The unfinished building stood straight ahead. Xing Conglian stepped on the brake. When the car stopped, he quickly got out of the car, still holding on to the phone.

He continuously kept saying to Lin Chen, “Do you love me?”

“I love you.”

“You answer so quickly, it sounds like you’re perfunctory.” Xing Conglian gritted his teeth, quickly rushed into the unfinished building, scanned his palm print, and went upstairs.

The elevator rose quickly, but the signal didn’t break.

“Where did you learn the bad habits of stinky men?”

“I didn’t… I…”

Lin Chen was obviously a mess that he couldn’t even organize and complete an explanation, but he also stopped his babbling.

In the enclosed elevator space, the floor number jumped and rose on the display. When the door opened, the chaotic geek den of Wang Chao appeared in front of him.

“I love you,” Xing Conglian said seriously.

Among the various monitors and servers, Wang Chao slowly raised his head, showing a solemn look in his eyes that he had never seen before.

Xing Conglian walked through the complex machines and various lines to Wang Chao’s side.

“Lin Chen, persevere. I’ve got everything.”

Looking at the content on the monitor, Xing Conglian’s breath paused, and he forcibly hung up the phone.

……

The sounds of the keyboard and electronic devices abruptly fell silent, with the sound of wind cutting through the night filling the surroundings.

Taking advantage of the lull when his boss arrived, Wang Chao had already figured out what was happening inside the prison. He watched as his boss forcibly hung up the phone with A’Chen Gege, feeling a sadness he couldn’t express.

But now, no one had time to dwell on personal emotions.

On the screen was a piece of encrypted information transmitted through the server.

It showed a non-transcribing virus that could alter the human genome.

The virus* originated in the small German town of Borna in 1885, causing a large number of horses to die. It was a neurotropic virus that could integrate its viral DNA into the host’s chromosomes, pass it on to the next generation. More importantly, it could potentially be related to certain human mental disorders.

*Referring to Borna disease, also known as sad horse disease. It’s an infectious neurological syndrome of warm-blooded animals. Borna disease is a severe neurological illness that predominantly affects horses and sheep, but it has been observed in a wide range of mammals. The disease is characterized by ataxia and abnormal depressive behavior, frequently culminating in death. There have been rare cases of human fatalities associated with encephalitis caused by Borna disease virus infection. Additionally, correlative evidence exists linking BoDV-1/2 infection with neuropsychiatric disorders such as bipolar disorder in humans.

Wang Chao remembered how his hands were shaking after reading the information.

His first reaction was that this was truly something out of a novel, where drugs acting on the nervous system were already ambitious enough, yet here was a virus—a virus that could alter DNA and was related to mental disorders.

The information showed that specific antibodies to this virus were found in the blood serum of various mental disorder patients. In simple terms, infection with this virus could lead to mental disorders because the virus alters DNA, meaning that the offspring of the infected could also potentially become mentally ill.

Wang Chao thought this was absolutely insane. The boss behind Shen Lian truly wanted to stage a real-life version of a biochemical crisis to wipe out all humans.

Being a villain to this extent couldn’t be described as just mentally ill anymore. They sincerely believed that humanity was divided into two factions, and they had to fight for the future of their own faction, the “selfish ones”, and lay the groundwork for restoring balance on the tightrope in the future.

Throughout the time Xing Conglian was looking at the material, Wang Chao kept his eyes on him.

What surprised him was that there was no shock on his boss’s face. His mouse-dragging was very steady, and he read very quickly, making it hard to guess what he was thinking.

Finally, his boss put down the mouse, drew back his hand, lit a cigarette, and stared at the screen, lost in thought.

“Boss…” Wang Chao ventured.

“This is the backup plan,” Xing Conglian simply responded.

“What backup plan?”

“Lin Chen thinks that Shen Lian dares to commit suicide because she trusts that her organization can avenge her. She doesn’t need to do it herself.”

“A’Chen Gege…”

“Yes, he’s a mental mess right now, but still so sharp,” Xing Conglian said.

“What should we do, Boss?”

“A virus… that’s nothing.”

Xing Conglian said the word ‘virus’ very loudly, not caring that this was top secret!

“Keep your voice down!” Wang Chao wished he could rush up to cover his mouth.

Xing Conglian glanced at him. “Can you understand this?” He pointed at the screen and asked.

Wang Chao was stunned. “English, I can manage.”

“Grab a piece of TERN’s research material—can you understand?” Xing Conglian asked.

Wang Chao shook his head vigorously.

“That settles it then,” Xing Conglian exhaled a puff of smoke, unprecedentedly calm. “This piece of material itself is written in layman’s terms.”

“What do you mean by that, Boss?”

“This is a piece of material that anyone can understand. Its purpose lies in ‘popular science’ and ‘propaganda’. It’s not to tell you what kind of virus they actually have.”

Wang Chao suddenly understood. “This material is not research material, but a public opinion storm the organization wants to create for its next move.”

“Yes.”

“The problems caused by the heterogenous body and mental disorders are very similar. They want to use similar virus information to confuse the public and cause mass panic and unrest!”

“Yes.”

“This is too vicious!” the teenager shouted.

“Keep your voice down,” Xing Conglian said.

Wang Chao looked up. People from all sides were looking at him in fear.

“Don’t you have work to do?” Wang Chao shouted at everyone.

“It might not necessarily be to confuse the public.” Xing Conglian took a deep drag of his cigarette, narrowing his eyes, looking sharp. “Did Lin Chen mention that the Song Shengsheng case involves an insurance company and Lao Duan’s Doctors Without Borders?”

“Did he?” Wang Chao was completely lost.

Xing Conglian seemed too lazy to argue with him and simply said, “Which team is in charge of the follow-up of the Song Shengsheng case? Get me the team leader’s number.”