Divine Detective

Kowloon Police Station, Administration Department.

"Doctor Zhao, Doctor Zhao..."

With a loud bang, the door to the Psychological Counseling Department was shoved open, and Chen Guibin strode in, his face etched with agitation.

"Hey, which department are you from?"

Standing before the office, a young woman in a long skirt—who seemed to have just changed into civilian clothes, ready to head home—couldn't help but step forward to block him when she saw Chen Guibin storming in like a whirlwind.

"Serious Crimes Unit, Chen Guibin."

Chen Guibin pointed to the badge hanging on his chest, grabbed the young woman's arm, and asked urgently, "Where is Doctor Zhao? Has he clocked out yet?"

The young woman seemed deeply uncomfortable with Chen Guibin's rough handling; she pointed toward an inner room and said, "He just finished a psychological evaluation for a colleague from the Organized Crime and Triad Bureau. He should still be there."

Chen Guibin shoved the young woman's arm aside and marched toward the direction she had indicated.

"What a psycho. Can't even say thank you."

A voice suddenly rang out from behind him.

Chen Guibin glanced back and saw that the young woman had suddenly transformed into a mean-looking middle-aged woman, her arms crossed over her chest, eyeing him with a sneer.

"Doctor Zhao!"

Chen Guibin quickly averted his gaze, shouted, and pushed open the door to the counseling room.

"Oh, Chen, why are you here?"

Inside the room, a middle-aged man who had just finished changing out of his professional attire behind a screen looked up, startled to see Chen Guibin burst in.

"I—"

Chen Guibin leaned in close to the middle-aged psychologist surnamed Zhao and pointed at his own head. "I'm having hallucinations. I can see things on people... things that aren't quite right."

"Chen, don't get worked up. Sit down and tell me slowly." Doctor Zhao smiled, trying to soothe Chen Guibin, and gestured for him to take a seat in the chair nearby.

Just then, a burly man with a face full of jowls suddenly appeared behind Doctor Zhao. He stared at Chen Guibin with intense irritation, checked the watch on his wrist, and shouted, "Look at the time! This stubborn Stone, couldn't come earlier or later, had to show up right when I'm trying to leave. Are you doing this on purpose?!"

"Chen, tell me in detail—what kind of hallucinations are you having?" Doctor Zhao kept the smile on his face, sat down, and asked in a gentle tone.

But after Doctor Zhao spoke, Chen Guibin clearly saw the burly man behind him bare his teeth in a grin. "Come on, hurry up and tell me. Let me crack your skull open and see exactly how many shameful secrets you've got hidden in there."

"Ah—"

Chen Guibin jolted, springing up from the chair, his expression filled with terror as he stared at Doctor Zhao.

"Chen, calm down. Sit back down." Doctor Zhao stood up as well, his voice calm and soothing.

"Could it really be schizophrenia? It's rare to see cases caused by the stress of police work. I'll have something to write about for my next paper." The burly man squinted at Chen Guibin, his voice ringing out in tandem.

"Get out!"

Chen Guibin shoved Doctor Zhao aside and stumbled toward the door.

"Chen, what's wrong?" Doctor Zhao's voice echoed from behind.

At the same time, another voice interjected, "What a lunatic. Ruining my chance to get off work. I'll just write 'schizophrenia' in your evaluation."

Hoo—

Hoo—

After fleeing the Administration Department's psychological wing, Chen Guibin stood in front of the police station building, hands on his knees, gasping for air. Beads of sweat dripped incessantly from his forehead.

"Chen, what's wrong? Not feeling well?"

"Why is that charcoal-head here? He doesn't look so good. Let's go say hello."

"Chen, still here? Working overtime again tonight? I heard your unit has a big case."

"They've got their work cut out for them. I heard that case is making quite a stir."

"Chen, want to grab a bite? Everyone's been run ragged lately. We in the Narcotics Division have been working non-stop; several drug lords are dead, and they've been tearing each other apart."

"We've been pulling so much overtime, now the Serious Crimes Unit can't escape it either. Let's see how you handle the pressure."

People he knew and strangers alike appeared all around him. As Chen Guibin watched the figures coming and going, he felt increasingly dazed.

Those who passed by him, seeing no reaction, either walked away or left while muttering curses.

Chen Guibin lowered his head, his lips moving as he whispered to himself: "I don't have schizophrenia. I'm not mentally ill... Right, I don't have schizophrenia. I'm not mentally ill..."

With each whispered repetition, Chen Guibin's spirit seemed to rally.

"What I see isn't a hallucination. I'm seeing their inner selves, the ghosts hidden in the dark corners of their hearts. Yes, I'm seeing their inner selves, the ghosts within them... Then, then when I work on cases in the future..."

Chen Guibin's eyes gradually brightened, his resolve strengthening. He turned back to look at the brightly lit police station and suddenly stepped back inside.

"Chen, you're back."

As soon as he pushed open the door to the Serious Crimes Unit office, Chen Guibin saw a young boy, no more than eight or nine years old, stand up from a desk. The boy held a stack of files and walked toward him.

"You..."

Chen Guibin subconsciously took a step back, then took a serious look at the little boy who had walked up to him.

"Chen Sir, are you alright?"

He Jia'an, holding a stack of documents, asked with a hint of confusion as he observed Chen Guibin's strange expression.

"I'm fine. Give me the latest investigation report."

Chen Guibin waved his hand and strode into the Serious Crimes Unit office area.

The entire Serious Crimes Unit had yet to clock out; the whole team was busy working on the major case from last time, where six people had died at midnight.

However, after Chen Guibin walked into the office, his dark face involuntarily revealed an expression mixed with strangeness and surprise.

At various desks throughout the office, many people he didn't recognize had appeared out of nowhere. Some were whispering and arguing, while others stood up to greet him the moment they saw him approach.

"Chen Sir, you're back."

"Chen Sir, we've checked with colleagues in other units and discovered that several drug lords on Hong Kong Island have been murdered recently."

First, two people Chen Guibin didn't recognize at all walked up to him to report on the recent cases, and then Chen Guibin saw several men and women with dissatisfied expressions emerging behind them.

"What time is it? They won't even let us go home."

"Following this stubborn Stone is just bad luck; my date tonight is going to be ruined again."

"He goes out to eat by himself while we're stuck here eating bento boxes—it's too much!"

"You shouldn't be a cop anyway. With how sensitive you are to numbers, you should have learned to play the stock market."

Chaotic figures kept appearing before Chen Guibin, accompanied by a cacophony of voices.

"Mm, good work."

Chen Guibin took a deep breath, suppressing the turbulent emotions in his heart, nodded at the crowd, and walked to his desk, trying his best to act as if everything were normal.

"Chen Sir—"

He Jia'an followed him to his desk and handed over the documents he was holding.

"We discovered that the four victims from that night—Wu Xingsha, Dang Hongbo, Li Bang, and Shen Maode—had been working as extras on a film set at a pier before the incident. According to statements from several crew members, they arrived at the set as a group of five. In the middle of the shoot, after Black Skin Sha—that is, Wu Xingsha—started filming, three of them left. When the crew finished filming and prepared to pack up, two more arrived. These were the last ones to leave."

"So there were five people in their car at the time?"

Chen Guibin picked up the documents on the desk, flipped through them, and glanced at He Jia'an, who was standing beside him and seemed to have turned into a little boy again, asking in as normal a tone as he could manage.

"Yes."

He Jia'an, who looked like a primary school student in Chen Guibin's eyes, continued, "According to the follow-up investigation by the guys, someone saw a stranger with a ponytail 3 kilometers away from the crime scene, a detail later confirmed by the crew members. Through informants, we learned that this ponytail goes by the name Ma Weihao, a lackey under the drug dealer Dao You Cheng. However..."

"However what?"

Chen Guibin asked. His gaze still swept across his surroundings, but he began to learn to ignore the strange situations appearing before him, focusing his mind on the case.

"Just this morning, that Ma Weihao died. There were multiple wounds on his body; it looks like he was tortured before he died," the primary-school-aged He Jia'an said hurriedly.

"I recall your previous report stating that Wu Xingsha and the others were subordinates of another drug dealer, Tai, right?"

Chen Guibin lowered his head, flipped through the documents in his hand, and continued to ask.

He Jia'an nodded and quickly replied, "Yes. The Narcotics Division has seen a succession of drug dealers being murdered recently; it's said to have caused quite a bit of chaos."

"This case doesn't seem to be an isolated incident."

After mentally filtering out the hallucinations appearing before him, Chen Guibin's top-tier detective instincts quickly surfaced. He asked He Jia'an, "The documents I asked you to request from the Tuen Mun Police Station—have they been sent over?"

"They have."

He Jia'an quickly reached out, pulled a stack from beneath the documents Chen Guibin was reading, and explained, "We compared the cause of death of the one known as the 'Butcher Driver' Lin Guoyu with the foreigner we found. They are basically identical—both caused by a massive impact to the chest. The forensics colleagues also inferred that it's unlikely to be a coincidence for such injuries to appear on two different people; it's very likely the work of the same person."

"And what clues do they have regarding the 'hero' who eliminated the 'Butcher Driver' and saved the girl in danger?"

Chen Guibin looked at the autopsy report comparison in the documents and asked casually.

That furrowed-brow, contemplative air made He Jia'an feel as if his boss had finally shaken off the mental haze of the past few days and returned to his sharp, capable self.

"Hm?" Chen Guibin seemed to notice He Jia'an's distraction and tilted his head to look at him.

He Jia'an quickly pointed to the last few pages of the documents in Chen Guibin's hand. "There is a sketch on the back based on the testimony of the rescued schoolgirl."

"A sketch?!"

Chen Guibin tossed the autopsy report aside and looked at the sketch. His pupils constricted violently, and he stood up from his seat with a sudden swish.