Officer Chen Laughs to Tears

Around 8 a. m., Xiang Kun called his mother. After chatting for a few minutes, his mother brought up a dream she had on Wednesday night, in which the old man from next door in Tongshi Town came to their house to play chess with Dad Xiang.

They reminisced about their time living in Tongshi Town and mentioned the old man who taught Xiang Kun to write calligraphy. Mom Xiang also felt that Xiang Kun must have written a lot of calligraphy when he came back before, which is why she suddenly thought of the old man who had passed away and sighed about the impermanence of life.

After hanging up the phone, Xiang Kun had some basic deductions:

1. Mom only mentioned the dream she had on Wednesday night, and Wednesday the 30th was two days ago. On the two nights since then, he hasn't sensed the three "Emotional Injection" items again. This means it's very likely that, as he previously suspected, the items only affect the sleeping people around him when he senses them, triggering their emotions and causing them to dream.

2. Items that are "Emotional Injection" may not be able to influence the emotions of others on their own. Rather, they can only function after Xiang Kun senses them and establishes some kind of "connection." The root of this is likely Xiang Kun's ability to "Emotional Assimilation."

In that case, there's no need for Dad to send that calligraphy over. As long as we don't try to sense it, our parents won't be affected.

Then Xiang Kun sensed the calligraphy that Xia Libing had again, and it was still like a stagnant pool. He decided to sense it every night for the next few days, and he refused to believe that he wouldn't be able to sense it even once.

Unless Lao Xia throws his calligraphy away, or stuffs it into some remote corner or far away place.

Lao Xia probably wouldn't do that, right?

Just as Lao Xia on WeChat, Officer Chen's WeChat picture suddenly popped up, startling Xiang Kun.

Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a video posted by Officer Chen.

Officer Chen rarely chatted with him casually; whenever he contacted him, it was usually because he had something to discuss. So Xiang Kun opened the video call with a rather serious expression.

Then, he saw himself...

That was a clip from a ten-minute video of him making bamboo rat meat in the kitchen of "Youlong Restaurant" in a pretentious style. The video showed him quickly removing the stems and seeds from green peppers with a knife, and then slowly introducing the characteristics of the food video in a slow and deliberate tone.

However, the original audio was removed, the video speed was adjusted, and Wang Baoqiang's lines from "Kung Fu Jungle" were added.

"The junior Feng Yuxiu has come specifically to learn from us. Today, we will not only determine who is superior, but also decide our fate."

Although the lip-syncing wasn't perfect, the dialogue, combined with Xiang Kun's knife skills and his deliberate "masterful demeanor," created a strange sense of harmony.

Xiang Kun exited the video and was about to reply, he discovered that Officer Chen had sent another video. This video was very short, only a few seconds long, and it was still a clip from Xiang Kun's cooking video.

That was a clip of him putting bamboo rat meat into boiling water to cook, with the background sound changing to a line from Titanic: "YOU JUMP, I JUMP."

Then the scene cuts to a shot of bamboo rat meat being fried in oil, with the background sound still, "YOU JUMP, I JUMP."

Finally, the scene cuts to the bamboo rat meat being served, and it still says, "YOU JUMP, I JUMP."

Xiang Kun's lips twitched slightly. He was about to leave the video and send something when Officer Chen sent another video, followed by a laughing-crying emoji.

This video is no exception; it's still a cut from Xiang Kun's video of making bamboo rat meat, specifically his final summary before taking the bamboo rat meat out of the pot. The background audio has also been replaced.

"I would never force a friend to do something they don't want to do. I have my own principles. I don't want to be trampled on my whole life. You think I'm a beggar? I've waited three years for this opportunity. I want to prove myself, not to show off, but to tell people that I will get back what I've lost!"

Little Ma's tone of voice was completely inconsistent with Xiang Kun's calm and concluding expression, yet there was a strange sense of harmony between them.

"Inspector Chen! Are you bored?!" Xiang Kun sent an angry emoji.

He hadn't seen Tang Baona sharing those videos mocking his bamboo rat cooking process in the group chat recently, and he had assumed that the videos had been forgotten by the silly netizens.

Surprisingly, even Officer Chen, who clearly doesn't have much time to go online, saw this!

Why haven't these silly netizens found a new target yet? What's so interesting about a cooking video that's only ten minutes long? What's the point of sticking to one thing and exploiting it?

Officer Chen then sent three more laughing-crying emojis, "When I got home last night, I saw my wife watching a video and laughing so hard she had tears in her eyes, so I went over to take a look. I immediately recognized the bald guy with glasses in the video, and upon closer inspection, it was indeed you! Wow, Xiang Kun, you've become an internet celebrity?"

"Internet celebrity my foot! What they're doing is illegal! This is insult, infringement, defamation, and violation of my portrait rights! Brother Chen, you have to stand up for me!"

Officer Chen continued sending laughing-crying emojis, "This isn't under our criminal investigation team's jurisdiction. You can consult a lawyer, or I can introduce you to one of our cyber police colleagues."

Xiang Kun sent a child's sneer emoji, "So, Brother Chen, you're texting me during work hours just to mock me?"

Officer Chen: "Oh, by the way, I have another question for you. Are you sure you didn't investigate that 'consulting firm' case privately?"

Xiang Kun's heart skipped a beat, and he quickly replied on WeChat: "Of course not! I just felt something was off after hearing about that from a friend, so I asked you right away. Why do you say that?"

Officer Chen: "All the main suspects in this case have been apprehended. The chain of evidence is very complete, and the interrogation process was easier than we expected. The main reason is that one of the ringleaders voluntarily surrendered, and the reason he did so was that he was frightened by a nightmare."

"So they traced me back to the Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Wooden Carving?" Xiang Kun frowned slightly and asked on WeChat, "What kind of nightmare could scare him into turning himself in? And besides, this has nothing to do with me, right?"

Officer Chen: "When I heard about this, I immediately thought of that kid who threatened you with someone, and you scared him so much that he called the police. And since you happened to ask about this case, of course I thought of you. As for what nightmare he had, he was talking nonsense, saying things like 'karma has come,' 'death is not the end,' and 'Eight-Armed Yama.' We suspect he might have developed a mental problem from lying about these things for so long. Fortunately, he provided a lot of evidence, which we've all found. The other suspects also confessed when they realized it was too late. Otherwise, if he hadn't passed the mental evaluation, it would have been a real problem."

After chatting with Officer Chen for a while, Xiang Kun confirmed that the person in charge of the consulting company, the over-seventy-year-old swindler, hadn't told the police what he saw in his dream or why he saw it. Perhaps in the old swindler's mind, the image of the Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Wooden Carving was truly like a god or demon, inspiring awe and making him afraid to mention it?

Finally, Officer Chen remarked, "Xiang Kun, it seems like you have a knack for connecting with all sorts of cases. If you were the lead in a TV series, it would definitely be a suspenseful crime-solving drama..."

Thank you to the master "Do Not Ask About Past Sorrows," and thank you to the book friends Sugar Rabbit Sister, Qidian Reading iOS, Book Friends 20170518150501748, CatTiaoWW, Book Friends 20181109223512073, Breathing Freely, Book Friends 20181215104807571, david2015, Qidian Reading iOS, and I am Oreki for the donations.