You're in cahoots!

Fatty simply thought about it and knew Jiang Cheng was right. "You say that, but none of us had seen a ghost back then, nor did we know their habits or characteristics. How could she be sure she was targeted by a ghost?"

Jiang Cheng chuckled. "Remember those two from Room 405?"

Fatty frowned. "The Suit Man and the Hat Man?"

"Yes," Jiang Cheng nodded. "Why couldn't they sleep last night?"

"Isn't it because you're a scoundrel, using coins to scratch the wall and make noise to scare them?" After saying this, Fatty suddenly paused, his pupils rapidly constricting as if he'd suddenly realized something. He quickly said, "Doctor, you mean someone deliberately planted the idea in her head, suggesting that there was a ghost around her, already watching her!" He grew agitated. "If she doesn't leave, she'll die!"

"Mm," Jiang Cheng replied, then added, "That's not my intention, it's just the most logical explanation based on the progression of events."

"But..." Fatty pondered for a moment. "The Qipao Woman doesn't seem like someone easily fooled. You know, she came out late at night, while the Suit Man and the other only came out after we had just lain down. The risks and psychological pressure they faced are vastly different."

"Sometimes, you don't need to spell things out. You just need to plant a seed of doubt, and the rest will be filled in by their own imagination."

"The smarter and more cautious a person is, the easier they are to mislead."

"Especially in the Dream Realm, a place that defies common sense, any tiny doubt will be magnified infinitely. Caution is good, but endless caution and excessive suspicion can be counterproductive."

Jiang Cheng's words took Fatty a long time to digest. Most people had left the cafeteria when Fatty finally let out a deep sigh. "Doctor, if, and I mean if, all your assumptions are correct, then who would be the one to drive the Qipao Woman into the corridor and kill her?"

Jiang Cheng seemed surprised by Fatty's use of the word "drive," but he liked it and found it fitting.

"What do you think?"

"Purely based on location, the Pajama Woman in the same room is the most suspicious, but as you saw, she's just a startled newcomer." Fatty's expression turned grim. "The remaining suspects are the Suit Man and the Hat Man, and the ponytail woman from Room 406."

Mentioning the ponytail woman, Fatty's eyes deepened. He licked his slightly chapped lips, then looked up and said, "I think this woman is not simple. For some reason, I feel uneasy around her, like a cold air surrounds me. It only gets better when I leave."

"It's killing intent." Hearing the ponytail woman mentioned, an unusual expression appeared on Jiang Cheng's face. "You feel uneasy because of her aura."

"If you observe closely, you'll notice her eyes are sharp, like a cold, gleaming blade that will dissect you piece by piece." Jiang Cheng leaned back against the plastic chair, his gaze steady. "When I shook hands with her, I noticed her wrists were deeper than a normal woman's, and there were still fading calluses on her fingertips and the base of her thumb. When she moved her arms, her elbows dropped, which would both protect her soft spots like ribs and allow for sudden exertion. She's clearly trained, and not just a little bit."

"She's likely handled a gun, and may have even shed blood. When suddenly faced with the Qipao Woman's headless corpse, she was the calmest. She even crouched down to observe the detail that her tongue was missing." Jiang Cheng took a breath. "This is unimaginable for an ordinary person."

Fatty looked at Jiang Cheng and nodded emphatically, as if confirming something. "So, if you ask me, it must have been her! She lives right next door to the Qipao Woman, so the distance is quite suitable."

Jiang Cheng turned his head and looked at Fatty for a few seconds. He didn't give any affirmative or negative answer to Fatty's question, so he didn't understand why, after merely analyzing the current phenomena, some people were so eager to jump to conclusions after seeing only the surface.

Fatty was like that, and so was Fan Li in the previous instance.

"What's wrong?" Fatty asked, confused. "Did I say something wrong?"

"Could it really be the Suit Man and the Hat Man?" Fatty's eyes widened. "That shouldn't be right. You should have scared them into being jumpy and nervous. How could they possibly have the mood to scheme against others?"

Just then, a crisp ringing sound suddenly echoed.

Fatty jumped.

It was the bell for morning class, short but intense. Hearing such a sound while discussing a critical case made Fatty irritable.

"Let's go," Jiang Cheng stood up. "We'll look around somewhere else."

"Oh, okay."

The two walked across the campus, which seemed much larger than its actual area. Since the students were in class, there were few people around, only one or two scattered staff members.

What Fatty couldn't understand was that the staff members they encountered looked at them with strange eyes, as if they were looking at rare exotic beasts.

"Doctor," after encountering this for the third time, Fatty finally couldn't help himself. "Have you noticed that the way they're looking at us isn't quite right?"

"Mm," Jiang Cheng replied. "It's indeed abnormal. I noticed it in the cafeteria earlier, but they were more secretive then. Now it's becoming more obvious."

Fatty seemed to have thought of something, and his throat bobbed. He said nervously, "Could they all be ghosts who've transformed, and as time goes by, they're gradually revealing their true forms, and in the end, they'll kill us all?"

The more he spoke, the more scared he became, and the quieter his voice got. Before he could finish, he was already terrified, his two hot-dog-like legs going weak.

"Probably not," Jiang Cheng shook his head.

At this moment, Fatty desperately needed a shot of courage from Jiang Cheng. He instantly perked up and asked, "Why, Doctor?"

"Because the law doesn't allow it," Jiang Cheng replied righteously. "Especially this kind of mass transformation into ghosts, it's a blatant violation. If caught, they'll be dragged to the dark room."

Fatty: "???"

Ever since meeting Jiang Cheng, Fatty had some issues with his facial expressions. He often didn't know whether to laugh or cry, like at this moment, his face started twitching uncontrollably.

"Doctor," Fatty twitched violently, then struggled to suppress it, stammering, "If I didn't know who you were, I'd suspect you were in league with the nightmares, really."

At this moment, Jiang Cheng's footsteps suddenly stopped.

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